Sulsa - World's First Plane Created Using 3D Printer

Making objects using 3D printers is not new today. Recently a group of researchers from the University of Southampton managed to come up with the world's first 3D printed aircraft.

The team also managed to make the plane is just one week. They also carried out the first test flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The trial took place at a site north of Stonehenge.

It would be interesting to note that the cost of the project was GBP5,000 and the name of the plane is Sulsa (short for Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft).

In order to make the plane more lightweight researchers decided to design it without undercarriage. They also equipped their aircraft with an electric-motor, making it eco-friendly. The wingspan of the UAV is 1.5 meters and it was printed out using hard nylon provided by 3T RPD, a company from Greenham Common, Berkshire.

According to the group of researchers led by Andy Keane and Jim Scanlan, 3D printing could bring a revolution in the field of aircraft design. They believe that in the future an unmanned plane might be printed out and built in just a few days.

Thanko Presents UDGZDC8M - Device that Combines Binoculars and Digital Camera

One of the most popular gadget developers in Japan, Thanko, recently unveiled a device called sophisticatedly UDGZDC8M, which combines binoculars and digital camera.

The gadget boasts a 4x digital zoom (8x zoom for binoculars). You can expand its memory using an SD/MMC card, with the device supporting up to 16GB.

In addition, its 8Mp digital camera can shoot photos at a resolution of 4,032×3,024. Among other features you can find a 1.5-inch TFT LCD and a USB 1.1 port.

You will also be able to shoot AVI videos in QVGA quality (320×240 at 30fps).

The device weights 450 grams and is available for $ 284.79.

World's First Self-Thinking Unmanned Stealth Aircraft

The world's largest defense contractor, BAE Systems, which also focuses on security and aerospace, has presented its semi-autonomous unmanned stealth aircraft called Taranis.

Using this new-gen aircraft it would be possible to bring cargo to the enemy's territory without notice and without any pilot. But the most interesting feature is that Taranis can think for itself.

The presentation of the aircraft took place in the U.K. where Taranis joined a number of other stealth unmanned aircrafts that are currently in the development stage.

It is worth mentioning that the unmanned stealth aircraft represents a part of the British initiative for the Ministry of Defense.

Some special equipment for the aircraft has not been developed yet and the first prototype will not carry weapons, but it will include two weapon bays.

"Should such systems enter into service, they will at all times be under the control of highly trained military crews on the ground," stated the British defense contractor.

Vibration-Powered Generating Battery

Brother Industries Ltd managed to come up with a vibration-powered generating battery that can be used to charge various portable devices.

The company's latest invention can be used to replace AA and AAA batteries and power gadgets that consume around 100 mW, such as flashlight or remote control.

Technically the device represents a small generator, which was developed in a way to fit in a battery-shaped case. Besides the generator, the case also features a capacitor that has a capacitance of around 500 mF.

Brother Industries Ltd thought about creating prototypes in which both the generator and the capacitor fit in a single case, and models in which the two have their own cases, with the case of the capacitor having a greater voltage.

In order to recharge the flashlight or other portable device, the user simply needs to shake it. The Techno-Frontier 2010 exhibition, in Tokyo, is where Brother Industries' latest invention was officially presented for the first time.

At the exhibition, the company's representatives carried out a demonstration that will include using the invention in an LED flashlight, a TV remote control, and a RC for lighting equipment.

Intel's Technology Allows Transmitting Thoughts to Computer Interface

In future it could be possible to send your thoughts to computer interfaces, without having any special chip implanted into your brain.

Researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University teamed up with those at the University of Pittsburgh to work on Intel's Human Brain project that involves the transmission of thought to the computer.

It would be interesting to note that the project makes use of EEG, fMRI, and magnetoencephalography in order to deduce what a person is thinking of based on their model of neural activity.

However, currently the process can only work with about 1,000 concrete nouns and is only able to state the difference between two nouns at a time. For example, if a person is thinking about the word "arm" the algorithm cannot tell on its on if the user is actually thinking about this word, but it is able to understand whether a person is thinking about "arm" or "shirt" or other nouns within the vocabulary.

According to Intel, the new algorithm is quite accurate, being able to figure out the person's thoughts in 9 out of 10 times.

The company hopes that in the future users will be able to wear a special headset that would allow them to control different computer devices. Currently the technology is far from being available commercially. Intel says that its new technology will be ready in about 10 year, but only if things go according to the plan.

Low-Cost Invisible Computer Mouse

A team from MIT's Media Lab needed only a few dollars to create their latest invention - an invisible computer mouse.

Researchers Pranav Mistry, Pattie Maes and Liyan Chang used an infrared laser beam and infrared tracking camera to develop a system that reads the movement of a user's hand and then translates it onto the display in form of a cursor.

It is worth mentioning that the laser beam's plane is aimed slightly above the surface of the user area and after the user's hand takes the form as if it is holding a computer mouse, the beam breaks at the points where each finger comes into contact with the surface.


Afterwards the infrared tracking camera registers the movements of the hand and interprets them accordingly. The camera can identify such actions as clicking and double-clicking.

Currently the team is working on improving the tracking and identification algorithms in their latest invention in order to obtain a large list of different commands, which could lead in the future to multi-touch gesturing.

The developers claim that their system has cost $20. Check out the video below to see how the system works.

Smart ATM can remember your face, fingerprints and voice

ATM machines aren’t that safe because anyone can access them if he has a PIN code and your credit card, and in order to improve the security of these devices Russian company is designing a new type of ATMs.

According to reports, Sberbank is currently testing several technologies such as vocal lie detection developed by Speech Technology Center. This software works like an average lie detector, and it measures emotional distress and nervousness. In addition, this software also analyzes the shape of your voice, and it can easily detect vibrations in your speech. Besides lie detector, this new type of ATM uses 3D facial mapping and recognition, as well as fingerprint scanning. Of course, this ATM still relies on customer’s credit card and history for identity verification.

Sberbank has decided to improve the security of its ATMs, and although this is a good thing, people are concerned about their privacy. However, Sberbank claims that they are not violating their clients’ privacy, so we can only wait and see how these ATMs work in action.

TouchPal Keyboard – the newest ultimate app for text input?

Entering text on a smartphone device can be a troublesome process especially if you’re not keen on mastering this skill. Luckily, there are all sorts of apps, such as Swype, that can make input process a lot simpler on touchscreen smartphones, now there’s yet another new app available called TouchPal Keyboard.

TouchPal Keyboard works in a similar way as Swype, so in order to enter a word, you just simply need to move your finger over the letters that you want to use. Thanks to the predictive text input similar to the one on SwiftKey app, you’ll get the list of the suggested words at the top of your keyboard so you can choose them quickly with a single touch. Of course, if you’re not a fan of sliding your finger all over the screen to enter a word, you can simply type the words and you’ll get the same suggestion box at the top of your keyboard so you’ll be able to enter words quickly.

TouchPal Keyboard is a great app that will be useful to many people, as for availability, TouchPal Keyboard will be available for both Android and iOS devices soon.

New computer technologies shown to expose personal information

Facial recognition software, social networking and cloud computing ... they're all technological advances that alone have thrown up questions regarding privacy. According to a recent Carnegie Mellon University study, however, the three technologies can be combined to learn peoples' identities and other personal information about them, starting with just a photograph of their face.

"A person's face is the veritable link between her offline and online identities," said Alessandro Acquisti, associate professor of information technology and public policy, and leader of the study. "When we share tagged photos of ourselves online, it becomes possible for others to link our face to our names in situations where we would normally expect anonymity."

Acquisti's team used "off-the-shelf" PittPatt face recognition software, cloud computing, and publicly-accessible information from social networking sites to identify individuals based both on photographs posted online, and on photos that the researchers took themselves in the real world.

In one experiment, they were able to accurately identify people whose pictures were posted on an online dating service, where the members only use pseudonyms to identify themselves. In a second experiment, they were able to identify students walking on the campus grounds, by taking photographs of them, then matching those up with their Facebook profile photos.

In a third experiment, they were able to predict personal interests and in some cases even the first five digits of the social security numbers of students, starting with nothing but a photograph. Apparently, knowing a student's date and place of birth was sufficient to guess their social security number "with great accuracy."

Overall, they were able to identify about one third of the people whose photos they analyzed.

The Carnegie Mellon team even created a one-off augmented reality smartphone app that displayed personal information about individuals in real time, as the phone's camera was trained on their face.

"The seamless merging of online and offline data that face recognition and social media make possible raises the issue of what privacy will mean in an augmented reality world," said Acquisti.

His team's findings will be presented this Thursday at the Black Hat Briefings security conference in Las Vegas.