Space soldering surprise
When astronaut Mike Fincke touched the tip of a soldering iron to a wire wrapped with rosin-core solder during a video transmission from the International Space Station – nobody quite expected the result. The heated solder became a molten blob with a droplet of rosin clinging to the outside. As the temperature increased, the rosin droplet began to spin round and round, faster and faster, like a miniature carnival ride. The experiment was designed to demonstrate how a soldering process behaves in a weightless environment. The ultimate objective is to enable astronauts to make repairs and adjustments to equipment that during a long trip such as a journey to Mars.
LED clothing display
Researchers at France Telecom have developed operational prototypes of flexible colour screens integrated into clothing that would allow users to display images—both static and animated—on the clothes they wear. The screen is connected to a mobile phone via a Bluetooth link, which means drawings and animations can also be sent by MMS to other users with the same equipment. Dedicated embedded software is said to allow the users to adjust the display’s functionalities and settings (such as brightness) remotely from the mobile. The electronics are soldered to a flexible circuit board and then packaged in a “fabric layered sandwich”. This is claimed to offer optimised and flexible display rendering and a comfortable textile feeling against the body.
Mobile guide phones
A voice-guided mobile phone and satellite positioning technology could complement the role of guide dogs for the blind. Developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the technology hinges around a voice interface that allows users to direct and be directed by a normal mobile. It is expected to be of particular relevance to the use of public transport as the guidance system can continually connect to real-time public travel databases and schedules. A memory function allows users to store proven travel routes for future reference. A system based on the technology is currently undergoing trials in Finland.
Genetically modified PCs
British researchers have won £1.75 million ($4.5 million) of funding to develop powerful computing systems based around the use of real (i.e. organic) biological neurons and networks of chemical reactions. Computer scientists, biologists and chemists at The University of the West of England say they will combine techniques from machine learning with those from cell culturing, neurobiology and experimental chemistry. “We are using cultures of neuron-like cells that are stimulated electrically to form growing networks,” explained project leader Dr Larry Bull. “The network’s responses to such stimuli are electrical signals that may be interpreted as a computation.” If successful, applications could include problems that existing silicon and software programming find challenging – particularly applications that involve interacting with the non-linear natural world such as artificial intelligence, biology and neuroscience.