Category: Cool

Flexible Braille e-Paper

 

Researchers have come across a method for producing a flexible braille display that uses about the same power as a cell phone. The display can be refreshed in about one second and could be used to indicate the amount of money left on a prepaid card, household appliances, or even an e-book. It uses a plastic film with organic transistors and plastic actuators that expand when triggered. So far it will display 24 characters but researchers hope to take this up to 576 in a few years. Look for this to be on the market in five or six years.

[ via we-make-money-not-art]

Takao Someya Group–Organic Transistor Lab

WorkPartner Robot From Finland

This is a pretty incredible looking robot. It’s got the ability to roll on wheels or lock their rotation and use them as a kind of big bouncy feet and walk around. It has a front mount for manipulator arms and a mast for sensors that is about the same height as a humans head. This lets the robot get a more human picture of the world, NASA/JPL did this on the current Mars rover mission. To me the whole thing looks like a centaur. Should be useful around a warehouse or a farm if it can pull a trailer.

[via Ohgizmo]

Workpartner Robot 

FSM Immortalized in the Annals of Science

 

Brilliant choice of subject!   

A dense bed of light-sensitive bacteria has been developed as a unique kind of photographic film. Although it takes 4 hours to take a picture and only works in red light, it also delivers extremely high resolution. The "living camera" uses light to switch on genes in a genetically modified bacterium that then cause an image-recording chemical to darken. The bacteria are tiny, allowing the sensor to deliver a resolution of 100 megapixels per square inch.

New Scientist Breaking News – Living camera uses bacteria to capture image

Hayabusa Touch and Go

 

Looks like the problem plagued space probe Hayabusa did make it’s scheduled landing on asteroid Itokawa after all. During a communications glitch, it kind of bumped into the target a few times. Kind of like a drunk saleryman navigating through a crowded train. The probe didn’t fire the pellet that was supposed to kick up dust and secure the one gram to be returned to Earth. If the probe checks out, they might give it another more controlled try in the next few days.

Hayabusa touched asteroid Itokawa after all