Cockpit Aerobatics Video

Black Diamond Jet Team Teaser from Ryan F on Vimeo.

Cockpit view - Boeing 747-400F Landing Amsterdam Schiphol

Navigation App for buildings

The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS has come up with an app that will help you navigate around large buildings.The app uses WiFi  and will work anywhere it is available.

Source    Fraunhofer

New Worm Drill For Ear Surgery

A new robotic worm drill named NiLiBoRo has been designed. The drill can be used to preform operations on the inner ear where access is difficult, enabling surgeons to steer around tightly packed blood vessels and nerves. The surgery is performed through a 5mm hole instead of removing the mastoid bone.

Source Fraunhofer

3 Meter Wide 3D Printed Drone

The 3D drones  weighs in at  33lb (1KG) and an fly at 150 mph

Source More  3Ders.org      Alert 5

How To Build a Giant Aircraft Carrier

Timelapse video of the HMS Prince of Wales being built

Star Wars Scooter a Reality

The Star Ward scooter is powered by quad drones what next

Canadian Man Develops working Hover Board

 The hover board is now reality man can now hover using drones linked together 

Unmanned Ship to Cross the Atlantic

A unmanned ship is being developed to cross the Atlantic in 2020 by Shuttleworth Design and Plymouth University.   The  ship called Mayflower will be given a variety jobs to complete on the crossing
The project called MARS (MAYFLOWER AUTONOMOUS RESEARCH SHIP) will have an overall length of  32.5 m and will be powered by wind and a solar motor

for more info and specs Shuttleworth Desig

Smart Phones Detect Gases

The Finnish company VTT has developed an add on for smart phones that can detect gas levels using light passed through the gas. This has uses in industry and the heath sector.

For a chapter and verse see   VTT

Royal Navy Launches 3D Printed Drone

The Royal Navy has successfully tested a drone made by a 3d printer. The drone was tested off the Dorset coast and can reach speeds up to 60 mph.

More   NBC

Back Pack Personnel Transport

Back Pack size personal transport is on its way courtesy of Coco Motors  with a range of 12 km on on charge and a top speed of 10KPH and looks a bit like a skateboard.  The board is to launch on a crowed funding site shortly.

More at Reuters

Boost For HI Tech Eye Wear

Hi tech glass are getting a second chance thanks to industry, glasses from Google and other tech firms  or being looked at by companies who's workers require eyes on information. Workers who  have to consult monitors  when working with machinery could benefit from there use. Sorting offices could also benefit from this technolagy

Raspberry PI Down in Price

The reduction in price announced last week by Raspberry PI does not yet seem to have taken effect yet in the UK  although RS do have the new price.

Current Amazon price 

First Electric Car Ferry

The worlds first electric ferry is now operating in Norway with the capacity for 120 cars and 360 people. The ferry which operates in Sognefjord has a propulsion system installed by Siemens uses two electric motors and is made from aluminium. This makes it cheaper to run for owners Norled.

Source  World Maritime News

Change To Microlight Regulations by CAA

The CAA has issued an exemption for single seater Microlights to take off  and land with out needing a valid noise certificate.

Full  statement by the CAA Here

New CAA Document on Small Drone Flying Regulations.

The civil Aviation Authority has released the Following

 General exemption to allow First Person View flying of radio-controlled aircraft, providing that a competent observer is present.

PDF can be viewed here

NASA's Version of an Osprey V-22 A Drone

NASA has released footage of its Greased Lightning GL-10 a 10 rotor version of the  V-22 Osprey but no a full size aircraft but a Drone. The Drone which is made of carbon fiber weighing 62 pounds and battery powered with 4 engines in each wing and 2 in the tail. 

Another Medical Tricorder Moment

Yes it is another Star trek moment a smart phone bolt-on that can detect single strand DNA and analyse them for disease. Gizmag reports that the add on was invented at UCLA and can be used for cheap medical diagnoses 

Source: Gizmag 

One of The Quickest Small Drones Around

This is the fastest Drone I have every seen but it is believed not to be  the fastest around. This purpose built drone seems to teleport from the ground to high in the sky, Watch the Video and be amazed.

Battery Backup to Mains Electric Grid

Image from National Geographic

Around the United States battery backups are being installed at strategic points on the power network. These power packs are in testing the testing stage of a plan to provide back up power in case of  power shutdowns .

The packs will also be used to store over produced energy where the power companies are producing to much energy.and  will be use at peak demand instead of firing up coal powered station thus reducing the impact on the environment.

Read more  National Geograpfic    The Guardian

Car to be Fitted with Emergency Call Systems

From April 2018 all cars must have fitted a e-call device that automatically calls a control room when the cars are involved in an accident. The EU law encompassing all car and light commercial vehicles  was passed today (Tuesday April 2015) and could be extended to Busses and Lorries  in 3 years.

Full story Reuters

Another Star Trek Device Bought to Life

Another SI Fi piece of equipment looks like it could come into being, MIT have developed a system for monitoring heart beats remotely using wireless technology.
   The device uses the rebound from radio waves to measure the rise and fall of a humans chest and the heart beat is then extrapolated from there. The system has proved to be 99% accurate against current practices,

Source   MIT News
 

Russia Builds Mobile Nuclear Reactor to Power Artic City

Russia is in the process of building a mobile nuclear power plant on board a ship to power any artic 'City'
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that the ship will be built by 2016 and assembly has already begun. The unit is in fact a nuclear reactor that can be connected to the shore via power cables.

Source  TASS

Norway FM Broadcasts to Stop in 2017

Norway will make the switch to DAB radio only in 2017, all the country's FM transmitters will be switched of  leaving only DAB content. The move is expected to save the Norwegian government around  £17  Million  a year.
   It is hoped that enough work has been done to retain listeners on  DAM when it is switched off and not loose them to on-line services such as Spotify and Last FM.

A New Meaning to Toughened Glass

The Prince of Wales the new Queen Elizabeth class Aircraft carrier has 2 meter window in its tower. The glass made from the worlds toughest glass and will withstand the hit from a helicopters spinning rotor blade.
   The bridge will now make its way to Rosyth to be fitted to other segments of the ship.

Russia Pledge 15$ million to EXoMars Mission

         The Proton -M rocket that is set to launch the ExoMars Gas Orbiter.

Russia has been given the Exomars Gas Orbiter a boost with the promise  of $15 million to prepare for the mission.  The Exomars mission is a Joint venture between ESA and Roscosmos and is scheduled to map gasses on Mars in October 2016

Star Wars Droid is Real Not CGI

Yes BB-8 is real the new droid from the new Star Wars film The Force Awakes is not a CGI It is a remote controlled robot made by JJ Adams



Source  International  Business Times  You Tube  Techradar

Fabric 3D Printer By Disney

 The Fabric 3D printer that can embed conductive wire into the fabric to make soft electronics developed by  Disney Research, Carnegie Mellon

Dark Drones

                                          

      

     Drones have come to the for of late with them being used in every area of life. There are drones that have been used in disasvters, Arial photography,security and as a sport. There are also drones that deliver thing parcels etc. and there lies the dark side.

    Large drones used flown by countries as observational platforms have been modified to carry warheads and become  the poor nations cruise missile. The craft can be preprogrammed and taught to evade. Nations such as Iran have already these in there arsenal  

     December 2014 saw the first use of the Suicide Drone in a Iranian military exercise. and since then more have been produced.

Recent scares in the Home terrorist market have been the Drone landing in the White house grounds But that was only a toy?  The Gadget show recently added a BB Gun to a drone as a training tool for athletes that fired when  the presenter was not running fast enough. This was shown as being very accurate.

    With Drones being of  relative  small cost and increasingly being ably to carry more weight this has got to be a headache for the security services of all western Nations. Will it now become necessary to make a Drone no fly zone around are Capital buildings and install laser weapons  on there roofs.

Resources    Breaking Israel News

Digital Radio Sales Rise

Sales of Digital radios have risen due to the warm weather and potential digital switchover reports  the Telegraph .  YouGov also reports that the radio is still the main medium to find new music. The most popular website for discovering new Music is YouTube. 

Read More  Telegraph     YouGov

Sapphire Glass Tough or Not

Sapphire glass could be the replacement for the gorilla glass now used on mobile phones screens. The  glass is coated with an artificial sapphire coating made from aluminum oxide. As sapphires are the second toughest item in the world after diamonds  could be the worlds toughs screens. Watch the video to learn more  or just search Google fror sapphire glass

Autonomous drones on the way

One of the main problems with the latest battery operated drones is that  if they go flat they just fall and if they hit anything they go out of control, This means that they can not can not be fully autonomous.
  Step in Prof. Davide Scaramuzza, Director of the Robotics and Perception Group at the University of Zurich and co inventor of a new system that brings autonomous drone for commercial use (parcel delivery etc) a big step forward.
Using  a camera, acceleration sensors and a smartphone processor  a drone can recognize where and at what angle it is in and correct its orientation. Also if the power is failing the drone can find a safe area to land.


Source Science Daily

UAV \ UUV that Fly's and Swims (Flimmer)

The US Naval Research Laboratory is looking to produce a UAV  ( unmanned air vehicles) \ UUV that is a UAV that becomes a UUV(unmanned undersea vehicles ).

The latest version of this machine is called  Flying WANDA and can fly at  57 MPH and can get up to  11 Knots underwater.

Sources   discovermagazine.com   U.S. Naval Research Lab

Exoskeleton To Help People Walk

Walking with a passive-elastic ankle exoskeleton. An un-powered clutch engages a spring in parallel with the Achilles tendon when the foot is on the ground, offloading the calf muscles and making walking easier.Credit: Stephen Thrift, North Carolina State University

 Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and North Carolina State University have come up with away to help stroke victims and people having trouble walking. 
    A exoskeleton for the ankle that reduces the metabolic cost  of walking by about 7%, the equivalent of a 7-10 lb back pack.


Resource National Science Foundation   Gizmag

Night Vision Drops Developed

Image from Gizmag

Drops have been developed that temporary give you night vision, the drops are placed in the eye and absorbed into the retina.
The test subject was able to identify people up to 164 feet away  even in total darkness and had to wear sunglasses indoors due to the artificial light. Symbol recognition was also carried out and found to be consistent at a distance of 10 Meters

Sources Gizmag   http://scienceforthemasses.org/

Lockheed Martin to build Tidal Turbine.

Lockheed Martin the global defence contractor is to build manufacture a tidal turbine for use in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth
The plan by main contractor Atlantis is to have 269 turbines on the sea bed.

More BBC

China Parcel Delivery Service using 500 Drones.

SF Delivery Drone

While western companies are still trying to get licences to test their drone delivery services China is romping away.

The drones have been delivering packages in the city of Dongguang for two years now. According to Yibada  their are now 500 drones delivering around the pearl Delta and plans to double this in the near future

"At present there are 500 drones carrying out courier work in Shenzhen and Huizhou," said Peng Bing, XAircraft's founder.

Full Duplex on the same Frequency

Full duplex on the same frequency upto now has not been possible but a team at the University of Columbia has develpoed a chip to do just that. Dubbed CoSMIC – for Columbia high-Speed and Mm-wave IC this chip has fantastic possibilities

Read the full artical at Gizmag

Move over Rockets ION is Here

It is beginning to look like the space craft of the day our starting a new era. Instead of  rocket engines the new satellites will have ION engines, the space craft  Dawn has been in space 7 years travelling to the asteroid Vesta and is powered by an ION engine.

           Other space craft have also been powered by ION engines and Boeing our now leading the way build ION Powered Craft. With the cost to weight ratio being so high this will save launch cost or enable more payload for the cost.

More  Dawn JPL   Discovery

1 TBPS Via Wireless

University of Surrey's 5G Innovation Centre have announced that they managed to transmit at 1TB per second on a wireless 5G connection. 
this was carried out in the University's  ground over a distance of 100m. report do not give the conditions of the test i.e. weather,power of transmission and size of antenna used. This however is a leap in the right direction that should allow instant access to media content on mobile devices.

More info BBC   V3 Website

Lenovo Computer Hack

Superfish a bit of adware software installed on Lenovo Computers is causing some concerns in the US with the Government advising  that users remove it due to being vulnerable to SSL spoofing.
Lenovo has now released a Superfish removal tool 

Offcom Approve White Space Technolagy

Live Otter cam using white spaces

Offcom has given the green light for the use of white space technology. This is the free space in the radio spectrum between radio  bands that is not being used. test have already been carried out on such as internet access for ships and boats in the Orkney Islands.

the next thing that looks to be on the agenda is the sharing of TV white spaces.


Source Offcom

see also  Declamation

Crime solved with holodeck

A Swedish company has come up with a way to view crime scenes in 3D




Reconstuction of a crime scene is made using scans of the room, photographs, CCTV images and scans of people.

Scource
BBC    BBC CLICK

Xbox  1 and PS4  in one console Never!  well yes it can be done and has bee done. A tech by the name of Edward Zarick has manage to put both in one laptop \ portable unit. The work took a bout a month but there you have it.

Read more at his blog 

Thailand draw up drone law

Thailand  is looking to ban non authorised drones, hoping to pass the laws  by next year.  The proposals  would see all cameras banned except for commercial reasons. Flights would be restricted to 500 feet above the ground. Flying time would also be restricted to 60 minutes 
If people are then caught breaking the drone laws they could be fined 40,000 and 12 months in prison.


With the White house air space invaded by an amature drone how long before the us follows suite

Sources
BBC Thailand

BBC White House