Apple Glass...

Apple Patent A Reminder That It’s Working On Google Glass-Style Wearable Tech, Too

from TechCrunch by Darrell Etherington

An Apple patent published yesterday by the USPTO and unearthed by Patently Apple is a reminder that Apple was actually working on wearable tech in the form of content-delivery glasses, at least on paper, long before Google debuted Google Glass. Apple originally filed a patent for its own Glass Project back in 2006, and this latest patent sketches out the details for a device that could someday go head-to-head with similar offerings from both Google and Microsoft.

In the new patent, Apple describes a “portable presentation device” which could be any device that a user wears that also provides them with access to visual or audio media content. It’s a fairly broad description, and I think that’s the intent: Apple has always had a habit of patenting ideas first, and worrying about bringing them to market later. That’s why the company is in such a strong position with regards to smartphone patents, despite actually being a relatively late entrant to the market vs. other cell phone makers.

The patent goes on to note that a portable presentation device could take the form of “a set of goggles that fit over the user’s eyes with display and perhaps sound producing capability, a faceplate that covers the front of the user’s face with display and perhaps sound producing capability, or any other headwear that has display and perhaps sound producing capability.” They could also contain sensors to detect a user’s presence, and in one version of the system described, the device is able to tell from how it’s being worn whether the user wants it to be active or not – so that lifting glasses with the tech built-in, for instance, would pause media playback.

So far, it sounds like Apple is essentially describing what could be an iOS-powered version of the virtual big screen home video goggles already available on the market, but the patent also describes ways in which they could activate communicate features, like making a phone call or connecting to a video conference. It also describes potential integration of live media services, streamed from Internet sources, as well as cable or satellite, yet another indication Apple is actively looking into the future of television.

Apple’s vision is still more focused on wearable media delivery, versus the AR-type features that Google is making the central feature of its Project Glass device, which is also where Microsoft seems to be headed according to its own recent patent filing. But all of these massive tech companies are clearly trying to plant their flags for the next stage of mobile tech, which begins to look increasingly like it’ll take the form of something we wear, not something we carry.

Distributed Sensors... and Smartphones

Army Biologist Developing NextGen Tools for Soldiers

from Armed with Science by jtozer

U.S. Army scientists are developing new technologies, including smartphones that detect and identify chemical and biological agents, to empower soldiers.

Dr. Calvin Chue, a research biologist with the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, or RDECOM, is focused on the next generation of devices to protect soldiers and civilians against unknown chemical or biological threats.

“The biggest threat is always going to be the emerging pathogen, the things you hear about on the news where pools of disease pop up randomly,” Chue said.

“We have soldiers deployed around the world. Being able to develop tools and technologies to pick up those unknown hazards before [soldiers] are exposed to them is a large measure of what we do.”

“I’ve chosen to come to the government side because we’re able to make the most practical impact in developing tools that directly meet the needs of soldiers. The other nice thing about here at government labs is having direct interaction with warfighters. We can build tools that they tell us they need,” he said.

DETECTING HAZARDS WITH A SMARTPHONE

ECBC’s BioSciences Division is conducting research on sensors embedded with smartphones to identify unknown or suspicious samples, Chue said.

“We’re trying to develop new kinds of sensors that a soldier could use to amplify their knowledge in the field,” Chue said. “For example, a soldier might go to a new area and plant 30 or 40 different chemical and biological sensor devices.

“They would be tied back to a smartphone or tablet that is providing the user interface display. That is a new modality, and it expands the soldier’s senses.”

In addition to on-site diagnostics in the field, the smartphone could send results to a command post or a laboratory for further analysis. The work on chem-bio sensors at ECBC will be integrated with the communications and electronics research community within the Army, Chue said. He anticipates a practical application for soldier use within five to six years.

Chue said another benefit of the smartphone sensors will be to unburden soldiers by reducing the size and weight of detectors they already have access to.

“If [soldiers] have a weight limitation, they have to choose what they’re not carrying. By going with the small, distributed sensors, we’re hoping to give them the power without the limitations,” he said. “They will be able to deploy a chemical sensor at a distance or a biological detector that perhaps will be based on odorant detection or sampling the air for nucleic acids.

“All of that information comes back to a phone or platform that has been deployed with them. It gives them integration and power that they would not have otherwise.”

FUSING BIOLOGY, ENGINEERING

Another key initiative within the BioSciences Division is fusing the disciplines of biology and engineering. Chue described a partnership between ECBC, Specific Technologies of Mountain View, Calif., and the Defense Science Technology Laboratory in Great Britain to replace the sense of smell by using paper.

“A paper-based modality is where you get a color change in the presence of certain kinds of odorants. That’s a fusing of the biology with engineering and chemistry to create a simple, easy-to-use product that doesn’t require any special equipment,” he said.

ECBC is also developing processes to test grown human organs using new three-dimensional printer technology with the Wake Forest University for Regenerative Medicine, Harvard University Medical School, Morgan State University and The Johns Hopkins University, Chue said. Instead of printing ink, the printer places layer upon layer of cells to build on organ.

The artificial organs could help scientists understand how the body responds to chemical and biological agents.

“This may allow us to grow new kinds of sensors. We would like to grow an immune organ that could respond to chemical and biological insults,” he said. “It’s probably at least several decades before it has a practical application. It’s the kind of long-term science that we’re making an investment in because it will benefit the service member in the end.”

FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE MILITARY SCIENTISTS

Chue said many life-science researchers do not understand the contributions they could make to soldiers and the public while working in a military laboratory. He is trying to reverse those misconceptions.

“It was fortuitous to begin my career with the U.S. military and it has been a great place to work to be able to continue that,” he said. “It’s most important to be at the scientific forefront for our soldiers to know what risks they may be exposed to and protect them from that as best we can.

“We hope to inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers to choose a career working for a government or military laboratory. It’s rare that people in the life sciences think about working for the military. We’re doing a wide variety of things to not just benefit the soldier, but also the American public.”

By Mr. Dan Lafontaine (RDECOM) 
From www.army.mil

The Gravity of Light... Way too cool.. MidNight Picker

GravityLight is a revolutionary new approach to storing energy and creating illumination. It takes only 3 seconds to lift the weight which powers GravityLight, creating 30 minutes of light on its descent. For free.  

Very Very Cool (But they may need to change their product name?)

Following the initial inspiration of using gravity, and years of perspiration, we have refined the design and it is now ready for production. We need your help to fund the tooling, manufacture and distribution of at least 1000 gravity powered lights. We will gift them to villagers in both Africa and India to use regularly. The follow-up research will tell us how well the lights met their needs, and enable us to refine the design for a more efficient MK2 version. Once we have proved the design, we will be looking to link with NGOs and partners to distribute it as widely as possible. When mass produced the target cost for this light is less than $5.
Why GravityLight?

Did you know that there are currently over 1.5 billion people in the World who have no reliable access to mains electricity? These people rely, instead, on biomass fuels (mostly kerosene) for lighting once the sun goes down.


Lift the weight and let gravity do the rest.

The World Bank estimates that, as a result, 780 million women and children inhale smoke which is equivalent to smoking 2 packets of cigarettes every day. 60% of adult, female lung-cancer victims in developing nations are non-smokers. The fumes also cause eye infections and cataracts, but burning kerosene is also more immediately dangerous: 2.5 million people a year, in India alone, suffer severe burns from overturned kerosene lamps. Burning Kerosene also comes with a financial burden: kerosene for lighting ALONE can consume 10 to 20% of a household's income. This burden traps people in a permanent state of subsistence living, buying cupfuls of fuel for their daily needs, as and when they can.

The burning of Kerosene for lighting also produces 244 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide annually.


Our final prototype with ballast bag and bits.

GravityLight vs Solar powered lighting.

A commonly held view is that solar powered lighting is the answer to these problems in the developing world. However a number of conflicting factors combine to complicate matters. Solar panels produce electricity only when the sun shines, so the energy needs to be stored in a battery to produce the light when it becomes dark. The amount of energy stored is dependant on the size of the panel, the size of the battery, and how much (if any) sun has shone.

However batteries, panels and lights are expensive, and beyond the reach of people with no savings. Solar lighting projects continue to provide lighting for thousands of people in the developing world, but the spread is slow because the cost is too high for individuals, so they need to be bought and installed by communities instead.



LED bulbs do not attract mosquitos like conventional bulbs.

Lower cost self-contained lamps are becoming more widely available, but batteries are the weak link, because they are expensive and deteriorate through use and over time. Very often, when buying a low cost solar lamp with an inbuilt rechargeable battery, a full third of what you're paying for is the battery, and you will need to replace it every few years. Assuming you can get a new battery... The capacity is often reduced to save money which limits the use time, after which there is no light.

With GravityLight, however, it only takes a few seconds to lift the weight, which creates enough energy for half an an hour of light, whenever it is needed. It has no batteries to run out, replace or dispose of. It is completely clean and green.

Because there are no running costs after the initial low cost purchase, it has the potential to lift people out of poverty, allowing them to use the money they have saved to buy more powerful solar lighting systems in the future.

Where will you use yours?



Hang it in the shed or make it into a great porch light, you can clip on a hanging basket or anything weighing about 20lbs.



No batteries to drain or replace.

Credentials

We are Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves, London based designers who have spent 4 years developing GravityLight as an off-line project. We work for therefore.com, which has over 20 years of experience in designing and developing hand held computing and communication products for a host of pioneers including Psion, Toshiba, NEC, TomTom, Inmarsat, ICO, Sepura, Racal Acoustics, Voller Energy, FreePlay and SolarAid.

We’re using a tried and tested manufacturer who has the right expertise to make GravityLight. We have some links to partner organisations in Africa and need to do the same for India. If you're part of an organisation and would like to get involved then please contact us.

Smartphones Rule - Mary Meeker Speaks...

2012 KPCB Internet Trends Year-End Update from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Mary Meeker

Free Topo Maps - DEMs for Research

NSF Renews Funding for OpenTopography
December 04 2012:

NSF Renews Funding for National OpenTopography ProjectInternet-based High-Resolution Topographic Data Facility Led by SDSC and ASU

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has renewed funding for OpenTopography, an Internet-based project that provides open and free access to high-resolution topographic data collected by technologies such as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging).

OpenTopography is managed by the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, and Arizona State University’s (ASU) School of Earth and Space Exploration. The three-year renewal under the National Science Foundation’s Geoinformatics and Earth Sciences: Instrumentation and Facilities (EAR-IF) programfollows an initial three-year award from EAR-IF and the Office of Cyberinfrastructure, announced in late 2009.

OpenTopography was initially developed as a proof-of-concept cyberinfrastructure project for the earth sciences as part of the NSF Information and Technology Research (ITR) program-funded Geosciences Network (GEON) project, and continues to emphasize innovative cyberinfrastructure approaches to the online storage, access, and processing of large topographic datasets.

OpenTopography’s primary emphasis has been on earth science-related, high-resolution topography collected with LiDAR technology, providing datasets to a large and varied user community to further research in areas ranging from earthquake geology to ecology and hydrology.  OpenTopography has demonstrated success in efficiently managing, archiving, distributing, and processing terabytes of community geospatial data in a manner that democratizes access for researchers, educators, and commercial sector users.

“OpenTopography began as a project to host EarthScope LiDAR data for the San Andreas fault with the ability to generate custom digital elevation models from the data, and has since grown to host a variety of topographic datasets from a range of sources covering an expanse of more than 85,000 square kilometers,” said Chaitan Baru, an SDSC Distinguished Scientist, SDSC’s Associate Director for Data Initiatives, and principal investigator for the project. “In this next phase, called OpenTopography 2 or OT2, we will continue to accept new datasets as before, to be served to the community at large. In addition, however, OT2 will also develop a pluggable services infrastructure to enable scientsts to contribute state-of-the-art LiDAR processing tools and algorithms operating on OT data, for use by the larger community.”

The growth of OpenTopography has been spurred by the increasing demand for data collected with LiDAR technology.  As one of the most powerful tools available to study the earth’s surface, overlying vegetation and man-made structures, high-resolution LiDAR data sets are regarded as revolutionary for earth science, environmental, and engineering applications, as well as natural hazard studies.

“These data provide an unprecedented fine-scale view of earth surface features such as fault scarps, glacial moraines, lava flows, meteor craters, and numerous surface-sculpting processes,” said Ramon Arrowsmith, co-investigator for the project and an associate geology professor in ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration. “In addition, data from the bare earth surface and the vegetative canopy enable valuable earth science and ecological studies in heavily vegetated terrain.”

During the first three years of operations, the OpenTopography user community has grown to several thousand registered and guest users and a catalog of half a trillion LiDAR points.  OpenTopography has also developed successful data hosting relationships with NSF-funded projects such as the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), as well as other federal, state, and local agencies that are collecting LiDAR data.

“OpenTopography has been very successful during our first round of funding in building strong partnerships and collaborations with groups that want to make these data more easily accessible, but who lack the infrastructure and technology to do so themselves,” said Christopher Crosby, a co-investigator of OpenTopography who also heads the Geodetic Imaging (Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and Synthetic Aperture Rader (SAR) activities at UNAVCO based in Boulder, Colorado.  “The great power of OpenTopography is that it allows a wide spectrum of users to access the datasets, and thus dramatically increase the impact of those datasets.”

Other SDSC researchers contributing to OpenTopography include Viswanath Nandigam, a project co-investigator who has been the technical lead on the project since its inception; Minh Phan, a software developer/programmer analyst; Emily Kleber, a geospatial data specialist; and Choonhan Youn, a research programmer.

---

Related Links:
San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)
UC San Diego
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University
OpenTopography Facility
National Science Foundation

Smooth as Glass...

SmartPhone in War or ...?

The Cell Phone in War

The ALANTIC - DEC 4 2012, 4:09 PM ET 

A striking photo highlights a new facet of modern warfare.
These are five government troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo, three of whom, according to Reuters' caption, are recording video with their phones. They are in the town of Sake, near the town of Goma, which rebels captured last month.

I don't know what to say about this photograph aside from suggesting that an enterprising PhD student write a dissertation on "Cell Phones in War." How are fighting, killing, and controlling territory different when you can call your brother after battle, post a photo of your squadron on the march to Facebook, or play Angry Birds between skirmishes?

Philip Bump reminded me of this chilling CJ Chivers post from a few months ago in Syria. A soldier sits with a high-caliber machine gun, one hand on the trigger, the other on his phone. Chivers' description:

Machine gun in right hand. Cell phone in left. On duty on the gun-truck's machine gun, at 80 miles an hour into Aleppo, checking messages along the way. 

Even as the war in Syria rages, large areas of the countryside have cellular phone coverage, and the fighters are constantly checking their phones. When they stop, many of them immediately look for ways to recharge their phone batteries. And, often as they move and enter an area with a strong signal, they commence texting back and forth.

Update: here's one monograph that touches on some of the military strategy concerns of ubiquitous cell usage, "YOUTUBE WAR: FIGHTING IN A WORLD OF CAMERAS IN EVERY CELL PHONE AND PHOTOSHOP ON EVERY COMPUTER."