A New Car UI

How touch screen controls in cars should work

The problem: Several automotive companies have begun replacing traditional controls in their cars with touch screens. Unfortunately, their eagerness to set new trends in hardware, is not matched by their ambition to create innovative software experiences for these new input mechanisms. Instead of embracing new constraints and opportunities, they merely replicate old button layouts and shapes on these new, flat, glowing surfaces. So even controls for air condition and infotainment - which are commonly used while driving - now lack any tactile feedback and require the driver's dexterity and attention when operated. Considering that distracted driving is the number one cause for car accidents, this is not a step in the right direction. The solution: A new mode that can be invoked at any time: It clears the entire screen of those tiny, intangible control elements and makes way for big, forgiving gestures that can be performed anywhere. In place of the lost tactile feedback, the interface leverages the driver's muscle memory to ensure their ability to control crucial features without taking their eyes off the road. via Matthaeus Krenn

How Google's Self-Driving Car Works

This is part 2/3 of the keynote presentation by Sebastian Thrun and Chris Urmson on self-driving cars at IROS 2011.

Part 1/3 is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7ub5Doyapk
Part 3/3 is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOWhu_aa9kM

Read more: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intelligence/how-google-self-driving-car-works

Personal transport pods unveiled at Heathrow Airport

Heathrow Airport has begun to transport passengers in computer controlled, driverless, car-sized personal "pods".

Toyota Window to the world - multimedia system

Imagine when a journey from A to B is no longer routine as your car in the near-future encourages a sense of play, exploration and learning. This is the image engineers and designers from Toyota Motor Europe (TME) and the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) had of Toyota's "Window to the World" vehicle concept.

NB: The video used to promote this vehicle concept is a simulation filmed in static, controlled environments. All health and safety requirements were met for the described conditions. Toyota will never promote unsafe behaviors, and will always encourage passengers to fasten their seatbelts.

The Pentagon Has a Classified List of Cyber Weapons Approved for Cyber Warfare

The Pentagon has developed a list of cyber-weapons and -tools, including viruses that can sabotage an adversary’s critical networks, to streamline how the United States engages in computer warfare.

Placing cyber weapons in the arsenal right next to cruise missiles, airstrikes, and M-16s is “perhaps the most significant operational development in military cyber-doctrine in years.” Indeed, it brings clarity to an otherwise murky area of international military relations where the rules of engagement are somewhat opaque. And, perhaps most notably, it establishes the chain of command.
For instance, it specifies when a cyber attack requires presidential authorization and when it does not. For instance, if the military wishes to plant a virus in a foreign nation’s networks that can be activated later, it needs a presidential nod. But a variety of other activities, including spying on other nations’ cyber capabilities or leaving “beacons” behind to mark vulnerable sites in foreign systems, need no approval from the Commander in Chief.

via The Washington Post

Kinect-Hacked Shopping Cart Automatically Follows Wheelchair-Bound Shoppers Around

Luis de Matos has rigged hackers’ favorite device to make a shopping cart follow a wheelchair user around the store.
The wi-Go project, as it’s called, could significantly improve autonomy for disabled shoppers. The video below shows the difficulty of trying to simultaneously operate a cart and a wheelchair and then (beginning around 1:20) a much less stressful shopping trip, courtesy of the wi-Go.



via Kinect Hacks

Frida - humanoid robot worker

Frida is designed for the express purpose of working with people, either side-by-side or face-to-face, and as such it calmly obeys the first law of robotics and keeps people safe. It stops its weird hand-clasping motion if any human limbs happen to get in the way, for instance. Check it out in the video below.

It can operate in tight spaces and can even reach components below its base. The arms have seven joints and the controls are embedded in the torso, simplifying design for easy cleanup. It can be carried around with a handle where its head would be, and is easily mounted to a workbench or wall.



check out more factory worker bots over at The Engineer

Ultra-realistic bionic bird

A robot modelled on the herring gull sets a new standard for realistic flying machines.

via New Scientist

The Navy Wants a Swarm of Semi-Autonomous Breeding Robots With Built-In 3-D Printers

The Navy wants robots that can make, among other things, more robots. And it wants to give the robots the capability to do it quickly wherever they are operating, via rapid prototyping machines that can churn out parts assembly line style in a variety of materials, including “multi-functional materials, programmable materials, metamorphic materials, extreme materials, heterogeneous materials, synthetic materials, etc.”



Each micro-robot would perform a specific task, often a single rudimentary task, repeatedly. Collectively, these tasks would be choreographed in purposeful activities for manufacturing. A micro-robot swarm should be able to perform material synthesis and component assembly, concurrently. The micro-robots could be designed to perform basic operations such as pick and place, dispense liquids, print inks, remove material, join components, etc. These micro-robots should be able to move cooperatively within a workspace to achieve highly efficient synthesis and assembly.

via DOD

and DangerRoom

Bill Stone explores the world's deepest caves

Bill Stone, a maverick cave explorer who has plumbed Earth’s deepest abysses, discusses his efforts to mine lunar ice for space fuel and to build an autonomous robot for studying Jupiter’s moon Europa.

via TED

World Record For Fastest Electric Car

The Buckeye Bullet team -- a collaboration between the Ohio State University Center for Auto Research and a handful of sponsors -- has been racing electric cars for well more than a decade, but the VBB2.5, as it's known, is their first landspeed racer that runs purely on battery power. Last year their hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered VBB2 set a world record for fuel cell-propelled land vehicles by running a mile at an average speed of 302.877 miles per hour (the two-way average was a slightly lower 300.992 miles per hour).
This week the team took the Buckeye Bullet version 2.5, the team's battery powered, all-electric landspeed racer out to the Bonneville Salt Flats to break the electric car land speed world record, and they did exactly that, hitting a peak speed of 320 miles per hour.

BuckEyeBullet

Next-gen Automatic Headlight System to Debut in Japan

Ichikoh Industries Ltd will start selling a headlight system that allows to keep using high beams by continuously controlling light and avoiding bothering the drivers of other vehicles in Japan.

The system, "BeamAtic Premium," was developed by Valeo SA of France. It controls the light in accordance with the states of oncoming cars and leading cars. Ichikoh Industries will start selling it and providing technical supports for it in September 2010.

The BeamAtic Premium detects and tracks oncoming and leading cars by analyzing images taken by in-vehicle cameras with image processing software. Movable dousers are attached to the lamp units of a vehicle, and they block part of the light so that it does not bother the drivers of oncoming vehicles.

via TechOn

“Straddling” bus–a cheaper, greener and faster alternative to commute

A big concern on top of urban transportation planner’s mind is how to speed up the traffic: putting more buses on the road will jam the roads even worse and deteriorate the air; building more subway is costly and time consuming. Well, here is an cheaper, greener and fast alternative to lighten their mind up a bit: the straddling bus, first exhibited on the 13th Beijing International High-tech Expo in May this year. In the near future, the model is to be put into pilot use in Beijing’s Mentougou District.

via China Hush

15 Ultra-Efficient Vehicles Left in the Automotive X Prize Competition

The race to design and build a production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 Miles per gallon (or energy equivalent MPGe) is in full gear this summer as scores of ultra efficient vehicles compete in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize competition. After months of trials, races and multi-stage testing the knockout stage just ended, leaving 15 of the original 26 cars still standing.

via Inhabitat

Futuristic Pod Car Combines GM Vision, Segway Practicality

General Motors have teamed up with Segway to develop a series of decidedly uncool-looking Electric Networked Vehicles, EN-V, all based on the Segway's balanced platform with a carbon-fiber shell. They have a range of 25 miles and a top speed of 25 mph, They’ll use GPS, distance-sensing technology and vehicle-to-vehicle communications to ease congestion and reduce the risk of accidents. The EN-Vs are just concepts. The concept designed for Shanghai traffic, and the vehicles will be shown off at Shanghai's World Expo in May.

via wired