Author: Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine

Electric transport is on the way, of that there is little doubt. While some of the big players in the automotive pond tentatively test the waters, smaller fish are looking to step in and clean up. One such company in the U.S. has announced plans to kick start the mass adoption of electric vehicles and get its sedan electric car into the eagerly waiting hands of Californian drivers by the end of this year. The CODA car benefits from a purpose-built automotive battery system, a range of between 90 and 120 miles between charges and a top speed of 80mph…
Continue Reading CODA electric sedan heading for California

Tags: Electric vehicle,
Lithium-ion

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The human body is an amazingly complex bit of kit. Replicating it with bionic technology presents challenges on many fronts, including the formidable task of mimicking our sense of touch. This goal could now be a little closer thanks to a breakthrough in carbon nanotube processing by scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Borrowing from conventional methods of making glass fiber, the researchers managed to cram 19,600 individual carbon nanotube-containing channels into fibers just four times thicker than a human hair, putting the artificial structure on a scale similar to the tiny neural bundles that make up our nerve pathways…
Continue Reading Carbon nanotube research could lead to bionic sense of touch

Tags: Bionic,
Nanotechnology,
Nanotubes

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Mazda’s innovative i-stop engine-idling-stop system has won yet another award, this time at the lchimura Industrial Awards. While idling stop systems are now becoming commonplace due to the approximate 10% fuel savings they offer, conventional engine stop systems rely on a motor to restart the engine, whereas Mazda’s i-stop restarts the engine through combustion: fuel is directly injected into a cylinder while the engine is stopped and ignited to generate downward piston force. Mazda’s use of principles unique to the direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engine restarts the engine in just 0.35 seconds, about half the time of most other competing systems, while minimizing noise and vibration and drain on the batteries…
Continue Reading Mazda i-stop engine-idling-stop system wins another major award

Tags: Automotive,
Awards,
Fuel efficiency,
Mazda,
Society of Automotive Engineers

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Here’s another USB gem from Japanese gadget giant Thanko. Its full-size USB keyboard is broken into four connected quarter segments, allowing it to be folded over into a pocket-size rectangular shape. With the growing popularity of portable notebooks and tablets with smaller, cramped keyboards, having a full-size keyboard like this to tote around in your pocket might be a nice complement…
Continue Reading Thanko’s full-size USB keyboard folds to fit your pocket

Tags: Keyboard,
Portable,
Thanko

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Even the most passionate of eco-warriors must find it hard to get by without a cell phone. Thankfully, with more eco-friendly models appearing on the market there are options for those who shop with a conscience. Building on the success of last year’s Reclaim model Samsung has managed to form its forthcoming Restore cell phone out of 84 percent recyclable materials. Launching in the summer this device will be available only from Sprint (priced from US$49.99).
..
Continue Reading Samsung to release the Restore recycled cell phone

Tags: Conservation,
Environmentally-friendly,
Mobile Phone,
Recycled,
Samsung,
Sprint

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Bottled water might seem like a very innocuous, ecologically-friendly beverage, but it does have its dark side – it has been estimated that 1.5 million barrels of oil are used annually for the production of one-use water bottles. About 38 million of those get tossed out each year. True, many of them go to recycling facilities, but those facilities aren’t exactly carbon footprint-free themselves. Then of course, there’s also the whole matter of wondering if you’re a sucker for paying to drink what is likely just filtered tap water. That’s where the bobble water bottle comes in. You just fill it from the faucet, and it filters the water as you drink…
Continue Reading Bobble bottles offer instant filtered water, on the go

Tags: Bottle,
Filter,
Water

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We have developed a fondness for delightfully eccentric companies here at Gizmag, and the Confederate Motor Company is about as avant-garde as it’s possible to be. The company is just about to release its fourth motorcycle, and indications suggest a landmark vibration-canceling technology is on the cards for its new big V-twin. No images have been released of the complete bike, but it is expected to be as visually challenging as its predecessors (pictured). The X132 Hellcat will use a new motor (also pictured) developed in collaboration with S&S Cycle and you can see quite clearly that there’s some considerable space been devoted to the “revolutionary” engine mounting system. ..
Continue Reading The coming of the Confederate X132 Hellcat

Tags: C3,
Confederate,
Hellcat,
S&S

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It’s no secret that paper production and deforestation go hand-in-hand. Long before we ever knew of the evils of styrofoam cups, drift-net fishing, or any of a thousand other ecological no-no’s, we knew that using paper meant killing trees. Recycled paper is a step in the right direction, but it still involves the harvesting of trees early in the process. Now, however, TreeZero paper products is offering up TreeFrog copier paper – it’s made with absolutely no wood fiber, just sugar cane and bamboo…
Continue Reading TreeFrog copier paper spares the trees

Tags: Bamboo,
Paper,
Recycled

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The era of the electric vehicle is drawing nearer (albeit excruciatingly slowly) and with Volkswagen set to get its first EV into showrooms in 2013, its latest EV concept indicates how the world’s third largest auto maker is reading the market. Dubbed the Milano Taxi, the concept is a long overdue shot at getting a purpose-built electric cab into major cities. The 115 PS vehicle can reach 74 mph, travel 186 miles between charges and be recharged to 80 percent of capacity in just over an hour…
Continue Reading VW shows Milano Taxi Electric Vehicle Concept

Tags: Concept,
Electric vehicle,
Taxi,
Volkswagen

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Although we do know some things about the Sun – it’s big and hot for example – in many ways it remains a great mystery to scientists. In a bid to shed some more light on our closest star, NASA launched its most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the Sun in February this year. The goal of the the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is to help us understand where the Sun’s energy comes from, explore its inner workings, and learn more about how energy is stored and released in the Sun’s atmosphere. A nice side benefit will also be the capture of stunning images – the first of which have just been released…
Continue Reading Stunning first images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

Tags: NASA,
Space,
Spacecraft,
Sun,
Telescope

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Making use of novel lensless imaging technology, a UCLA engineer has invented the world’s smallest, lightest telemedicine microscope. The self-contained device could radically transform global health care – particularly in Third World countries – with its ability to image blood samples or other fluids. It can even be used to test water quality in the field following a disaster like a hurricane or earthquake…
Continue Reading World’s smallest, lightest telemedicine microscope

Tags: Holographic,
Medical,
Microscope,
World’s Smallest

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This beautiful architectural proposal from Italian firm StudioDosi is as green as it looks. Submitted in a competition to design a new headquarters for the Province of Parma in Italy’s north, the public office space features a double glazed inner skin wrapped in an exoskeleton of “climbing vegetable stripes” which allows natural light to enter the building and boosts ventilation. ..
Continue Reading Green design gets a second skin

Tags: Architecture,
exoskeleton

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In an ideal world we would all access the Internet over fiber optic cables that reach right up to the front door to deliver blisteringly fast transmission speeds. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world and many of us are forced to rely on aging copper network infrastructure. Now, Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs has demonstrated technology that boosts the transmission speeds over two copper pairs to 100Mbps over a distance of 1km. This could see such infrastructure given a new lease of life, satisfying consumer’s need for speed for some time to come…
Continue Reading Transmission speeds of 100Mbps over 1km on existing copper networks

Tags: Broadband,
Internet,
Network,
Transmission

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With the internal combustion engine dictating vehicle design for over a century the move towards electric vehicles offers manufacturers the chance to completely rethink vehicle design. However, it also presents manufacturers with a whole new set of problems to be overcome. To facilitate the transition to electric cars, researchers at Franhofer-Gesellschaft are constructing an electrically operated demonstration vehicle, the “Frecc0,” which will serve as a scientific integration platform for automobile manufacturers and suppliers to test new electric vehicle components. ..
Continue Reading Fraunhofer developing electric vehicle test platform

Tags: Automotive,
Electric vehicle,
Fraunhofer,
Testing

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It wasn’t too long ago that choosing an Android phone came down to whether you wanted a physical keyboard (HTC G1/Dream) or not (HTC Magic). With increasing Android adoption from carriers and handset manufacturers, making the same decision in 2010 is a lot harder. We’ve put two of the latest Android phones, the HTC Desire and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, head to head in our latest versus review – read on for the details…
Continue Reading Review: HTC Desire vs Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Tags: AMOLED,
Android,
HTC,
HTC Desire,
Smartphone,
Snapdragon,
Sony Ericsson,
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

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At the Printable Electronics Exhibition in Tokyo, 3R Systems was showing off their newest model of pocket microscope, the A200. Unlike the previous Vitiny model, which shot at 300,000 pixels, the A200 has a 2 megapixel (2,000,000) CMOS sensor and kicks out images of about 1600 x 1200 pixels.
..
Continue Reading 3R’s A200 is a microscope in your pocket

Tags: Exhibition,
Japan,
Microscope,
Photography,
Sensor,
Viewfinder

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With gas prices climbing and environmental concerns mounting, electric bicycles are becoming more popular than ever. Cycling purists might see them as a bit of an abomination, but look at it this way: they’re really just less-expensive electric scooters, that give you the option of pedaling. Given that there are already a number of brands to choose from, what can a company do to separate their product from the pack? In the case of California-based Pedego, they make retro-funky beach cruisers in a rainbow of colors…
Continue Reading Pedego brings a blast from the past to modern e-bikes

Tags: Bicycle,
Electric Bicycle

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Barnacles might seem to be a traditional, almost quaint accoutrement of sea-going vessels, but they’re actually a serious problem. The buildup of marine organisms on a ship’s hull, known as biofouling, can reduce its speed by up to 10 percent. To compensate for the drag, the ship may have to use as much as 40 percent more fuel. Ships have to be lifted into drydock for the removal of barnacles, and sometimes toxic hull coatings are used to prevent them from colonizing. Hopefully, a new innovation may make both of those approaches unnecessary – it’s an autonomous hull-cleaning robot…
Continue Reading US Navy developing autonomous underwater hull-cleaning robot

Tags: Boats,
Robotics,
Underwater,
US Navy

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Driving is a sight-response game and as the line between robots and cars begins to blur, cars will develop ever more advanced vision systems. Subaru began fitting a stereoscopic “EyeSight” system to some Japanese market cars nearly two years ago and has just announced a major upgrade. It’s reportedly a major improvement, but it’s worth thinking about the issues associated with becoming reliant upon systems which take over the responsibility for driving your car…
Continue Reading Subaru develops advanced stereoscopic vision system for cars

Tags: Adaptive Cruise Control,
Automotive,
Fuji Heavy Industries,
New EyeSight System,
Stereoscopic,
Subaru

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No matter how big Nikon and Canon make their rear body LCDs, you can never quite beat the control you have when shooting tethered. SmallHD’s DP-SLR external monitor for DSLRs offers up a good solution for previewing 1280 x 800 resolution images on a hotshoe-mountable, hand-sized screen which boasts the title of the world’s smallest HD monitor. Priced at US$1199 for the model with all the bells and whistles, it will also be available without the 3G/HD/SDI inputs to keep the cost down to $899.
..
Continue Reading smallHD launches external HD monitor for DSLRs

Tags: Device,
DSLR,
HD,
LCD,
Monitor,
Photo,
Photographers,
Screen

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