Pole Climbing Robotic Rescue Worker

Pole Climbing Robotic Rescue Worker

Author JoeDigital | 01.01.2009 | Category Robotics, world news

Critical Inspections are one of many recognized uses for the HyDRAS robotic Climber

The Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) of the College of Engineering from Virginia Tech won the grand prize at the 2008 International Capstone Design Fair, recently. Their entry was a robotic device intended to be used for rescue and other high risk missions that involve vertical climbing. Little more than a set of computerized wheels, the device is able to wrap itself around a pole or other vertical object, cling to it, and manuver upwards.

Inspecting high rise buildings, or the pilings under bridges are other potential uses for the HyDRAS, which is approximately 1 meter (3 feet) long, and employs computers and cameras both for navigation and for inspection on arrival at a work location when in use. These pole climbing rescue workers could be used for shuttling equipment and information, as well as other tasks that would endanger additional lives.

Another contender in the competition was the CIRCA, which was similar, but employed compressed air for movement and actuation, as opposed to the electrical methods used with HyDRAS. Both showed enormous potential, and may soon be saving lives and preventing human endangerment in hazardous locations worldwide.

Don’t “;-)” at Me!

Author JoeDigital | 18.12.2008 | Category World Wide Web, world news

A russian entrepreneur has announced that he has trademarked the “wink” emoticon, and claims to have been the first to put it into use. But if you like to wink a lot when you send texts or email, don’t fret. This generous genius of “net speak” allows that non-commercial use will still be allowed, free of charge or license. Well now, isn’t that just great!

Corporations who use this emoticon, which is perhaps one of the best known character “faces” used in internet dommunications, will have to pay a yearly licensing free of approximately $10,000. Well, it is pretty easy to see how he justifies calling himself an entrepreneur, but foresee a long and expensive battle to secure such a widely used symbol. This is especially true when you consider that one of the definitions of a trademark is a symbol, word, or phrase which is used to represent a company or idea.

Cool Earth Solar’s Party Plan

Author JoeDigital | 16.12.2008 | Category Science, Technology, world news

It look’s like a giant party balloon but like many things in life, looks can be deceiving. The big shiny balloons aren’t for a party though the company has reason to celebrate.

The huge balloons set to go up near the national library of Livermore are the main component in Cool Earth Solar’s efforts to economize solar power. The objects described by Rob Lamkin Chief exectutive at Cool Earth Solar as “an inflated solar concentrator that’s made of thin-film plastic.” The basic theory being that concentrated sunlight produces more power than conventional sunlight.

The device which measures 8 feet in diameter comprises of one reflective and one clear side focuses sunlight 500 times its usual intensity onto a solar cell placed inside the balloon. This along with a tracking and cooling system is the heart of the entire operation. These balloons are then attached onto poles or on a grid.

The balloons which are made from same packing material used in Lays and Powerbar. This frugal approach towards materials used is helping the company achieve power generation on a very economical scale. With each balloon producing 1 Killowatt of power the company aims to deliver power at 1$ per watt.

The Firm With The Golden Phone!

Author JoeDigital | 14.12.2008 | Category Consumer Electronics, world news

Image source: gsmarena.com

or those who thought that Vertu hand sets were a tad understated, worry no more. The Vertu Boucheron 150 is here to satisfy you completely.

Designed and crafted by French jewelry makers Boucheron, celebrating their 150^th anniversary, have crafted a single edition Vertu Boucheron 150, which pushes opulence to a new high. Boucheron has designed a phone for Vertu before, a signature line which was made with gold and precious stones.

This time though, the use of gold has been taken to a whole new level, the entire phone is sculpted from a piece of solid gold which took about 1000 hours to cut into shape another 500 to craft and then at least 700 to polish by hand.

The only question is that in this economy, who will be brave enough to make a call?

Stolen Identities for sale: $120

Author ColGlobe | 26.11.2008 | Category World Wide Web, world news

If you’re thinking that fraudulent online surfers spend lots and lots of money to find some other innocent person’s identity to use to his advantage, you might want to think again. Today, it’s easy to grab somebody’s identity online for as low as $120. This isn’t really much when you think that you will unlawfully be losing all your money, security and credibility the moment people will be making of your account for their own benefit.

What’s worse is that this “competitive” fraud price actually reaps more than thousands of dollars for the source, which means easy jobs for them – all at the very convenient expense of others.

This is a remember: be wary of your internet security, especially if you highly depend on it for matters such as banking and other transactions that risk being the target of online thieves. Always protect yourself from spyware as well as keep your accounts and passwords secure. When in doubt, increase security.

USB gets “super speed”

Author ColGlobe | 25.11.2008 | Category Technology, world news

USB 3.0 is finalized - finally

A new breed of USB is coming to town at the later part of this coming 2009, and it seems to have as much as 4.8 Gbs per second in data transfer power. Known as the “Super-speed”, the USB 3.0 is expected to function up to ten times much faster than its 2.0 predecessor which was known to be power efficient.

This new technology in portable and mobile drives was said to have the purpose of answering to the growing need of users to quickly transfer massive amounts of large files from computer to computer. So whether the user is a tech enthusiast or the average user who needs to transfer videos or music every now and then, the USB 3.0 will prove useful for the vast consuming public.

USB 3.0 is also said to still be compatible with 2.0 stuff as long as it deals with a Type A connector. But more importantly, the first thing that everyone should look out for is this gadgets promised speed.

Obama in for a stricter gizmo set

Author ColGlobe | 24.11.2008 | Category Gadgets, world news

The new President of the United States has to reduce his telecommunications

Now that the tech savvy Barack Obama is about to take his seat at the Oval Office, the public might not see him with his BlackBerry smartphone any more, making the first e-President to take a step back on some of his tech-related hobbies.

While security is a very obvious primary reason for regulating the communication mediums of the newly elected President, Barack Obama is also subject to, by law, the Presidential Records Act, which mandates the recording of his correspondence to be part of official records and subject to reviews by the public.

Alongside all that, Obama will also have to deal with regulated email and chat for the purpose of security. He probably won’t be allowed to have a computer, either. All his correspondence have to be laid down and delivered to a fro him via hard copy. As for his take on the matter, it is clear that Obama will surely dread having to give up his techie lifestyle.

Classmates.com sued for phony deliveries

Author ColGlobe | 23.11.2008 | Category World Wide Web, world news

Classmates is in trouble for possible malicious activity

Ever got an email coming from classmates.com carrying the message, “a former classmate of yours is looking for you”? Be careful not to open it because they are full of viruses, aside from the fact that these emails are not true to begin with. Imagine that the exact same thing happens to millions of surfers all over the World Wide Web – it took that much for the website to finally crash into a lawsuit.

There actually have been notably numerous cases where individuals were duped into subscribing and paying the $15 fee to sign up for classmates.com only to find out that there really are no people from their old high school or college days looking for them in the first place.

These ordeals have certainly let classmates.com collect its own share of complaints from users since it started out in 1995. Sooner or later it might actually share the same fate that reunion.com had a few years back.