The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has unveiled a completely new version of ETRO social robot from South Korea. The new robot responds to people nearby with simple phrases and changing facial expressions (through its RGB LED array). This version features more complex arms than its predecessor, as well as an omnidirectional mobile base, ultrasonic sensors, and PSD sensors. The robot has a single camera located on its chest. It contains embedded boards built specifically for image recognition, speech recognition, and speech synthesis, commissioned from a supplier called WithRobot. Watch the video after the jump. Read more
Toshiyuki Ueno, a Japanese researcher at Kanazawa University, has developed a small-size vibration-driven generator that measures approximately 2mm x 3mm x 12mm and can output a power of 1.56mW with a vibration of 357Hz. The energy density of this tiny generator is about 22mW/cm3, which is roughly 20 times higher than the energy density of a normal small vibration-driven generator. According to him, the energy density is high enough to replace a button battery. Toshiyuki Ueno is planning to apply the generator to tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMSes) for automobiles and mobile devices. [TechON]
by Johan on September 21, 2009
Sanyo Electric has proudly announced a new breakthrough in ultra-thin HIT solar cell with half the thickness of a conventional high-efficiency solar cell and has achieved the world record for highest-level conversion efficiency of 22.8%. The company will focus on advancing applications for mass-production products with technology that offers both high conversion efficiency and a thinner cell for the newly improved HIT solar cell. At the same time, the company will pursue R&D that aims for even better high conversion efficiency, lower costs, and resource-saving designs. [Press Release]
Korean manufacturer Kicom held a press conference to introduce “Greenfax”, its innovative FDMS(Fax Document Management System) service in Korea market. The Greenfax provides the fax document transmission feature over a telephone line just as normal facsimile system does. This service is now available in Korea for around $20 to $30 per month, which is similar to the money that most of offices spend to purchase toner, ink, and paper to print their fax document using the ordinary fax machines. [AVING]
American scientists have managed to develop a mosquito laser beam that can kill flying mosquitos with pinpoint accuracy. The scientists’ actual target was malaria, which is caused by a parasite transmitted when certain mosquitoes bite people. FYI, malaria remains a major global public-health threat, killing about 1 million people per year. However, they need to make sure the beam strong enough to zap mosquitoes while it would be weak enough not to harm humans. [Wall Street Journal]
Sony’s Mofiria is the latest finger vein authentication technology that uses a unique method where a CMOS sensor captures scattered light inside the finger veins. The vein pattern is extracted from the captured finger vein image, and data from the pattern is compressed to store in memory, which makes it possible for the data to be stored on a mobile device. It is said that the authentication accuracy is less than 0.1% for “False Rejection Rate”, and takes only about 0.25 sec when using a mobile phone CPU. [Akihabara]
The municipality of Rødovre of Copenhagen, Denmark, announced today the Sky Village as the winner of the Rødovre Skyscraper design competition. This 116 meter tall tower will accommodate apartments, a hotel, offices, and a public park and a plaza.
With 21,688m2 of real estate the new skyscraper will be located at Roskildevej, on the East side of Copenhagen. The design is based on a flexible grid, allowing possible modifications by re-arranging the units. Each ‘pixel unit’ is 60m2 square and are attached to the central core of the structure. This strategic design creates a stacked neighborhood, which they call a Sky Village. It will also integrate the most advanced technologies suit to satisfy the Danish environmental standards. [CONTEMPORIST] Read more
This is awesome! Some researchers in California have created an artificial muscle that can heal itself and generates enough electricity to charge your gadgets. This artificial muscle can expand more than 200 percent when applied with electricity, without structure damage. When under pressure, the carbon nanotubes will automatically shut down to prevent the spread of failure to other areas of the muscle so it can continue to work. [CNet/News]
