World's first 'printed' airplane takes to the skies

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Summary: Engineers at the University of Southampton have developed an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) whose entire structure has been printed, potentially changing the economics of aircraft design.

In a sign that the 3D printing industry is taking off, the world’s first ‘printed’ aircraft has soared the skies over UK’s Wiltshire Downs, north of Stonehenge.

Engineers at the University of Southampton have developed an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) whose entire structure has been printed, including wings, integral control surfaces and access hatches.

Credit: University of Southampton

The plane, called SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft), was printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, building up the item layer by layer.

Once all the components were printed, assembly took minutes, say the engineers. No fasteners were used and all equipment was attached using ’snap fit’ techniques so that the entire aircraft can be put together without tools.

The electric-powered UAV has a wingspan of about 6.5 ft, has a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour, and runs almost silent when in cruise mode. The team even equipped it with a miniature autopilot.

Traditional manufacturing methods are costlier and would have required months to develop a similar plane, whereas the design and fabrication process for SULSA took just a few weeks.

Because no tooling is required for manufacture, radical changes to the shape and scale of the aircraft can be made with no extra cost.

Professors Jim Scanlan from the University’s Computational Engineering and Design Research group credits laser sintering for the achievement:

The flexibility of the laser sintering process allows the design team to re-visit historical techniques and ideas that would have been prohibitively expensive using conventional manufacturing. One of these ideas involves the use of a Geodetic structure. This type of structure was initially developed by Barnes Wallis and famously used on the Vickers Wellington bomber which first flew in 1936. This form of structure is very stiff and lightweight, but very complex. If it was manufactured conventionally it would require a large number of individually tailored parts that would have to be bonded or fastened at great expense.

(Source: University of Southampton)

Related:

Video: Printable paper solar panels can power gadgets

Japanese mill carves perfect helmet from metal block (video)

Printable batteries

Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer.

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Massive timeline of future history

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Summary: Discover images and descriptions of future events, stretching from present day till the death of the universe, courtesy of FutureTimeline.net.

If you’re on Facebook, you can “tell your life story” with its new timeline feature, but what about a timeline that tells the bigger story of humanity and the universe?

Superhumans, dead worlds, and the fate of the universe in pictures on ZDNet

Enter FutureTimeline.net, a site with a speculative timeline of future history. The chronology spans a whopping time frame starting in the year 2000 until the universe is essentially dead, somewhere beyond a googol (1 with 100 zeros) years from now.

Jam-packed with ideas, links, videos and images, the resource includes predictions and facts that you can browse by century until 2300, at which point you head off into the far future where superhuman powers are available to common citizenry, computer science reaches its ultimate potential, and Mars gets terraformed.

In their words:

Part fact and part fiction, the timeline is based on detailed research that includes analysis of current trends, projected long-term environmental changes, advances in technology such as Moore’s Law, future medical breakthroughs, and the evolving geopolitical landscape. Where possible, references have been provided to support the predictions. FutureTimeline.net is intended to be an ongoing, collaborative project that is open for discussion - we welcome ideas from scientists, futurists, inventors, writers and anyone else interested in the future of our world.

While the predictions are intriguing, many of the facts listed are great trivia. For instance, who knew that the FIFA World Cup trophy will need to be replaced in 2038? It happens that there is only space for 17 countries to be engraved in its base, and that year, the final name will be filled in.

Trust me, this site captivates.

(via The long Now Foundation)

Related:
Gallery: Emerging Tech that could change your life
A roadmap for growing prosperity while saving the planet
DaVinci Institute unveils eight competitions for mankind

Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer.

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World's smallest electric car made of single molecule

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Summary: A team of European researchers have built a four-wheeled nano-sized “car” that can be propelled along a metal surface in a controlled manner.

Artist concept: The molecular "car" on a "road" of copper atoms

Small cars may eventually be all there’s room for on the streets of congested cities, but nothing quite compares to a new four-wheeled molecular-sized car developed by European researchers.

The BBC reports of a nano-sized molecule which has four branches that act as wheels. By applying a small current–less than a volt–with the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), researchers at University of Twente (the Netherlands) made the wheels rotate. With 10 electric bursts, the car traveled six billionths of a meter.

The microscope serves as the “batteries” of the tiny car by way of supplying electrons that jump off the atom-sized tip to the molecule. The “engine” of the approach lies with the car’s “wheels” or molecular rotors that undergo a change in shape when they absorb the electrons. The structural change creates rotary motion, which in turn, inches the car forward.

As the chemical groups in each "wheel" change shape, the car inches ahead

The approach, published in Nature, joins recent efforts to build molecular vehicles, but the researchers note that other designs differ in that they’ve used passive rollers.

Tibor Kudernac, a chemist at the University of Twente, the Netherlands, and lead author of the paper said that the research showcases how to build up from single, designed molecules, or “bottom-up” nanotechnology.

“A wide array of machines has been demonstrated in recent years, incorporating parts etched to minuscule sizes from chunks of metals or semiconductors - a small version of traditional, “top-down” manufacturing,” notes the BBC article.

While applications for molecular machines are still far off, the work can lead to sophisticated nano-scale systems with directionally controlled motion.

(Sources: BBC, Scientific American)

Related:

World’s smallest motor may have a big impact

World’s smallest ’snowman’ measures 1/5th the width of a human hair

Nano-sized radio plays Eric Clapton’s “Layla”

Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer.

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Kno: Software is eating education

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Summary: In this interview, Kno Co-founder and CEO Osman Rashid explains where his eTextbook software is today, where it is headed, and how technology and the private sector will reform education.

Kno, a Silicon Valley-based education software company, isn’t just liberating students from the burden of lugging costly textbooks around campuses. Through its app (available on the web, iPad, and Facebook), the start-up is rewriting the rules for how students learn and interact with teachers.

Co-founder and CEO Osman Rashid recently told a group of students at Play, a conference recently held at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business that, “education technology is now a custom fit problem for Silicon Valley.”

After the company scraped plans to build a dual-screen tablet earlier this year, it’s been steadily adding features to its software and broadening its focus to include tools for educators.

ZDNet asked Rashid about the progress of his company’s eTextbook software and where the future of education is headed.

You’ve recently announced Facebook integration with social learning features including “stickies”, “bookmarks”, and more to come like “Journal”. Can you provide a hint of what future updates will include down the line, perhaps social gaming?

This summer, we released our basic learning product available on Facebook but our in-depth social learning ideas are yet to be released.  We’ve been testing many things targeted at enhancing the student learning environment and that includes making the experience more social. We also recently announced that we’ll be adding features that further develop the interaction between students and educators.

Based on what you’ve learned from your user base, how differently do electronic books facilitate learning as compared to their textbook counterparts? Specifically, is there data that supports the belief that interactive multimodal experiences accelerate learning, as in skills acquisition, comprehension, productivity, etc.?  Is there a difference between K-12 versus older learners?

We are focused on getting the core textbook experience right first - and let students use them digitally, tomorrow. That focus has allowed us to deliver value right away and start learning and influencing which way is digital education is headed.

Since the beginning, Kno has had a very active user base. We now have students from more than 4,000 different universities across the U.S. It’s still early days for a mass study but we hear individually from students almost daily about how Kno has enhanced their learning experience. Some of the big themes we hear over and over again are how much time Kno saves them. For example, if a student has time in between business classes, they can do their biology reading without having to carry extra books.

Students also mention that they are using the textbooks more since they have them with them - so they are engaging with digital content in a more meaningful way. Additionally, features like “Quiz Me” allow for greater absorption of the material. At Kno, we focus on higher education at the moment so we don’t have data on K-12.

Electronic books and online distance learning are a few ways technology can help reduce education costs. Are there any others?

In the future, every student will learn in a personalized manner, which means that students will also be able to get through learning faster. Assessment and adaptive techniques will allow for content to be customized for the student, which will reduce costs as well. All of the above may lead to students graduating faster thus reducing overall costs.

In your talk at UC Berkeley last month, you mentioned that there’s big opportunity in what electronic books can enable, such as assessment tools for educators and self-paced study for students. What are the implications for the traditional student-teacher relationship?

We believe that there will be positive implications that will be motivational for both student and teachers. We believe that technology such as Kno will only enhance the student/teacher relationship. It’s not about replacing the one-to-one or one-to-many interaction. It’s about eliminating the friction between student and teacher to allow for more enhanced learning. Teachers will be more engaged with students since they will be able to see what actual efforts students are putting in and thus focus on areas of weakness - thus being more motivational.

South Korean education officials recently announced plans to digitize (in phases) all textbooks used in the classroom. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education appears too beleaguered with financial and political challenges to propose similar initiatives. How do you see educational reform playing out in the US over the next few years, if at all?

Education reform will be driven by the private sector as we go forward. The U.S. Constitution does not allow for one system to be ‘forced’ across all the states like we see in many countries. If the U.S. government does not involve the private sector in a meaningful way, we will be leapfrogged by many countries.  We have seen early indications of that already.

However, I have no doubt that this form will be driven by technology based companies and Silicon Valley will be leading the way.

How will education look like in the distant future, say around 2025?

By 2025, we can expect the world to be completely digital. Paper books will be a thing of the past.   Education will be delivered through analytics-based assessment tools and adaptive learning platforms.  Also, I think the possibilities for remote learning across geographies will be commonplace and provide access to worldwide subject experts for everyone.

Related:

The Kno is dead…long live Kno (thanks to $30 million from Intel, et al)
More kids read Facebook, e-mails than read books
Top 10 e-paper technologies in the next 20 years

Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer.

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Meet MABEL, world's fastest robot with two legs (w/ video)

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Summary: The world’s fastest bipedal robot with knees has a human-like gait and reaches speeds of up to 6.8 miles per hour.

A two-legged robot at the University of Michigan can run like a human and reach a peak speed of 6.8 miles per hour. MABEL, as the machine is called, is believed to be the world’s fastest bipedal robot with knees.

Built in 2008 with funding from the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, MABEL has been in “training” for the last few years.

Researchers have been progressively improving the feedback algorithms that keep the bipedal robot balanced while reacting to its environment in real time.

It’s weight is distributed like a person’s and it has a heavier torso and light, flexible legs with springs that act like tendons.  Whereas other speed-walking robots achieve a flight phase–when both feet are off the ground–for less than 10 percent of each step, MABEL is in the air for 40 percent of each stride, much like a human.

“We envision some extraordinary potential applications for legged robot research: exoskeletons that enable wheelchair-bound people to walk again or that give rescuers super-human abilities, and powered prosthetic limbs that behave like their biological counterparts,” said Jonathan Hurst, now an assistant professor at Oregon State University, who helped create the robot.

The advantage of two-legged robots with good running form would give them an edge over wheeled-bots in rough terrain and inside places built for humans. They could one-day serve as robotic soldiers or rescuers, the engineers say.

“The robotics community has been trying to come up with machines that can go places where humans can go, so a human morphology is important,” said Jessy Grizzle, a U-M professor.

In the video below, the bar that MABEL is attached to guides it in a circular path. Also, you’ll see it speed up and then abruptly slow down several times on purpose.

(Source)

Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer.

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'Mask-bot' gives robots a human face

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Summary: Robotics researchers in Munich have developed a new robot face that displays realistic 3D heads on a transparent plastic mask, opening a new frontier in human-machine communication.

Credit: Uli Benz / Technical University of Munich

A team of researchers at the Institute for Cognitive Systems (ICS) at TU München have collaborated with a group in Japan to develop Mask-bot, a 3D image of a human face projected onto the backside of a plastic mask, creating very realistic features that can be seen from various angles, including the side.

“Mask-bot will influence the way in which we humans communicate with robots in the future,” predicts Prof. Gordon Cheng, head of the ICS team.

One key distinction between comparable approaches to three-dimensional heads, note the researchers, is that rather than using a front projection, Mask-bot uses an on-board rear projection to ensure a seamless face-to-face interaction. The projector uses a high-compression fish-eye lens to spread the beam to a wide angle while a macro adapter shortens the focal distance to the transparent mask roughly 4.7 inches away.

Mask-bot can create facial expressions and simple dialog. For instance, when you say “rainbow”, Mask-bot flutters its eyelids and responds with: “When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and form a rainbow.” And when it talks, it also moves its head a little and raises its eyebrows to create a knowledgeable impression.

Is this the remote boss of the future? (Credit: Jeff Bots)

Mask-bot comes with additional bells and whistles. It is bright enough to function in daylight thanks to the strong projector and coating of luminous paint sprayed on the inside of the plastic mask. This aspect means that it can potentially be used in video conferencing.

“Usually, participants are shown on screen. With Mask-bot, however, you can create a realistic replica of a person that actually sits and speaks with you at the conference table. You can use a generic mask for male and female, or you can provide a custom-made mask for each person,” explains Takaaki Kuratate, creator of the Mask-bot.

Mask-bot doesn’t need a video image of the person speaking in order to work. A program converts a normal two-dimensional photograph into a correctly proportioned projection for a three-dimensional mask. Additional algorithms add in voice and facial expressions based on a motion capture system.

Finally, Mask-bot can realistically reproduce content typed via a keyboard–in English, Japanese and soon German–using a text-to-speech system. It can produce a female or male voice, which can then be set to quiet or loud, happy or sad, all at the touch of a button.

Compared to mechanical faces which require dozens of actuators and compressors to appear lifelike, Mask-bot will be able to combine expression and voice much faster. Mask-bot 2, the next generation of the prototype will see the mask, projector and computer control system all contained inside a mobile robot, say the Munich researchers. The cost for the new version will also drop from about EUR 3,000 ($4,123) to EUR 400 ($550).

Besides video conferencing, “These systems could soon be used as companions for older people who spend a lot of time on their own,” said Kuratate.

Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer.

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Successful test for electronic contact lens

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Summary: Researchers have created a single-pixel contact lens which was tested on a live rabbit and showed no adverse effect. Hands-free information updates streamed directly across your field of vision may not be far off.

Contact lenses may one day do more than just correct vision. Recognizing their ubiquity and proclivity for bionic adaptation, researchers have been integrating into them very small circuits and LEDs for years.

The goal to create a safe and comfortable contact lens that allows for superimposed data on a wearer’s field of vision just got one step closer.

Credit: Institute of Physics

Researchers at the University of Washington and Aalto University, Finland, have built a prototype electronic contact lens and demonstrated its safety by testing it on live rabbit eyes.

The researchers report no signs of adverse side effects in a study published today in IOP Publishing’s Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering,

“We have demonstrated the operation of a contact lens display powered by a remote radiofrequency transmitter in free space and on a live rabbit,” said lead researcher, Babak Parviz.

“This verifies that antennas, radio chips, control circuitry, and micrometer-scale light sources can be integrated into a contact lens and operated on live eyes.”

It may only be one pixel, but the bioengineers view the contact lens as a “proof-of-concept” for producing lenses with hundreds of pixels which could provide enough resolution to display short emails and text messages before your eyes. But even with one pixel, the contact lens could help people with impaired hearing or be incorporated as an indicator into computer games.

Other challenges include finding a good power source and enabling the device to work beyond a few centimeters of the wireless battery.

The in vivo rabbit tested lens contains a display which consists of a 5-millimetre-long antenna, a silicon power harvesting and radio integrated circuit, metal interconnects, insulation layers, and a 750 square micron (one-millionth of a meter) sized transparent sapphire chip containing a custom micro LED.

The team also used micro-Fresnel lenses, which are thinner and capture more light than conventional lenses, to eventually allow for an integrated multipixel display.

After testing the contact lens in free space, the researchers fitted it carefully onto the eye of a rabbit under guidelines that govern animal use in the laboratory.  In addition to demonstrating the safety of the lens, the experiment also revealed that significant improvements are needed to get to fully functional, remotely powered, high-resolution displays.

Parviz, said “We need to improve the antenna design and the associated matching network and optimize the transmission frequency to achieve an overall improvement in the range of wireless power transmission.”

“Our next goal, however, is to incorporate some predetermined text in the contact lens.”

Who would’ve guessed rabbits would get Terminator eyes before us?

Sources: IOP News, New Scientist, IEEE Spectrum

Related:

A better wearable brain-computer interface
Why the future of mobile is screenless, touchless
Researchers develop smart contact lens

Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer.

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