Highway consultant firm Atkins´ came up with a new kind of speeding-sign. A sign that , on top of showing you your speed and asking you to slow down, if your speeding that is, also shows you your licence plate number.

We've all seen them alongside the road and we might even have accelerated a little bit just to increase the number a bit, knowing you won't get a ticket anyway, but this might give the speeders a different kind of experience. According to autoexpress.co.uk “almost half of drivers breaking the limit slowed”. They don’t give any figures as to how many drivers slow down seeing a normal speeding-sign but I imagine it to be a lot less. They do say that "Trials have shown that drivers get the 'back-off' message quicker when they see their own registration shown below the speed limit". So it seems to be working at least a bit, i'm looking forward to seeing some statistics from these trials.

Showing your license plate makes it a much more personal experience. It’s like somebody says: “hey you, with license plate Y317MPU, you’re speeding! Slow down!”. It causes  people to feel more involved and might give them a feeling of shame towards other drivers.

If they take it a bit further they could link it to the registrations database and state your name while you’re speeding past but I guess that would cause some protests.

Berlin, Germany – Building on its leading position in rollable displays and drawing on its considerable heritage in personal electronics, Philips Polymer Vision is revealing its Concept Readius at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) in Berlin, Germany, September 2-7. Philips Concept Readius is a prototype of a connected consumer device for business professionals unwilling to sacrifice readability, mobility, performance, or weight in a pocket-sized, e-reader concept.

Polymer Vision does not intend to commercialize this concept as a product in the market. Instead, it is demonstrating the fitness of its rollable displays for use in the mobile devices of tomorrow.

The Readius is the world’s first prototype of a functional electronic-document reader that can unroll its display to a scale larger than the device itself. With four gray levels, the monochrome, 5-inch QVGA (320 pixels x 240 pixels) display provides paper-like viewing comfort with a high contrast ratio for reading-intensive applications, including text, graphics, and electronic maps. Using a bi-stable electrophoretic display effect from E Ink Corp., the display consumes little power and is easy to read, even in bright daylight. Once the user has finished reading, the display can be rolled back into the pocket-size
(100 mm x 60 mm x 20 mm) device.

Based on Philips Polymer Vision’s PV-QML5 rollable display reference design, the Readius was created in order to demonstrate the viability of the rollable-display concept in mobile applications and to gain customer feedback at the IFA 2005.

“Making displays thinner and flexible will have advantages in power and weight. But the only way to add the key advantage of size—allowing larger displays in smaller, pocket-size mobile devices—is by actually making the displays rollable,” says Polymer Vision CEO Karl McGoldrick. “The Readius demonstrates this, as well as showing that we have taken this technology a major step further towards product and market.”

All superheroes and superheroines have to find a place to hone their fighting skills. Many times these places are high tech installations full of traps and tests to push the hero or heroine to the edge of their ability. A true superperson will be able to confront their fears and weaknesses and conquer them. Unfortunately, most offices aren't set up for superhero fight training. Until you break out the Mazu Kan, that is. 

Mazu Kan is a two-player, superhero(ine) training, virtual fighting simulation. Huh? By squeezing the palm button and punching the air, you will send an attack toward your opponent. If they do not block (by a simple hand movement), you score a hit and their chest unit vibrates. You can play in beginner or advanced mode, depending on your skills. Advanced mode opens up new attacks (like Double Power Punch) and new defenses (like Force Field). And because Mazu Kan uses virtual attacks, you can literally punch though walls to score a hit. That sort of power is very addicting - everyone who has tried it at ThinkGeek HQ has become a Mazu Kan Maniac. Begin your training now - super latex/spandex costume and cape not included.

What happens when you mix those sumo wrestling fat suits with arty digital media? The answer is Ho Fatso, a new interactive installation by artist Rania Ho. Made of rip-stop nylon, high powered leaf blowers, and motion detectors, Ho Fatso is comprised of inflatable fat suits corralled by an inflated wrestling ring. Participants gear up and get "fat," folds of air-pumped flesh jiggling whilst engaged in battle. As long as there is movement, the suits and ring stay puffed with air. However, without activity, everything deflates. Ho Fatso was most recently shown at ISEA 2006, but you never know, it may be coming soon to a venue near you.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — With the tap of a single finger, computer users soon may be drawn deeper into the virtual world using a new device developed in the University at Buffalo's Virtual Reality Lab.

UB researchers say their "Fingertip Digitizer," which users wear on the tip of the index finger, can transfer to the virtual world the meaning and intent of common hand gestures, such as pointing, wagging the finger, tapping in the air or other movements that can be used to direct the actions of an electronic device, much like a mouse directs the actions of a personal computer, but with greater precision.

What's more, the Fingertip Digitizer can transfer to personal computers very precise information about the physical characteristics of an object — and even can sense the shape and size of a human gland or tumor — when a user taps, scratches, squeezes, strokes or glides a finger over the surface of the object.

"The gesture-recognition function of this device, in particular, has great potential for a wide range of applications, from personal computing to medical diagnostics to computer games," says Young-Seok Kim, who received his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from UB in May. Kim created the Fingertip Digitizer with Thenkurussi Kesavadas, director of UB's Virtual Reality Lab and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

According to Kesavadas, the Fingertip Digitizer will help bridge the gap between what a person knows and what a computer knows.

"With this device a computer, cell phone or computer game could read human intention more naturally," he explains. "Eventually the Fingertip Digitizer may be used as a high-end substitute for a mouse, a keyboard or a joystick."

Kim and Kesavadas will demonstrate a prototype of the Fingertip Digitizer at the SIGGRAPH2006 technology conference July 30 through Aug. 3 in Boston. They expect the Fingertip Digitizer and related software to be market- ready within three years.

The creators of the year's best research innovations in computer graphics and interactive techniques are invited to SIGGRAPH2006, the largest conference of its type in the world. For information, go to http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?f=conference&p=etech&s=fingertip.

The Fingertip Digitizer is a major enhancement in haptic technology, an emerging field focused on bringing a sense of touch to technological devices, according to Kim and Kesavadas. Most haptic tools on the market are designed as probes and are gripped like a pen. They can be difficult to manipulate and therefore may not give a precise representation of the object the user is feeling.

The Fingertip Digitizer's design, the researchers explain, is modeled after the biomechanical properties of a finger, which means it can more accurately and intuitively sense the physical properties of an object. To sense touch and movement, the device uses a force sensor, an accelerometer and a motion tracker — all contained in thimble-sized device that fits comfortably on a user's finger.

A real-time, multi-rate data acquisition system used with the Fingertip Digitizer reads the force feedback exerted by an object as it is touched by the user. To read hand gestures, the system tracks the acceleration and location of the fingertip device as the finger moves and gestures.

A touch screen is not required. With the device attached to the fingertip, the user simply would gesture in the air as he looks at a computer screen where a software program or computer game may be running. In this way, the user can direct the opening or moving of an electronic file, for example. Using the device as a computer-game accessory, the user could imitate the squeezing of a trigger or the stroking of pool cue, for example, say Kim and Kesavadas.

A provisional patent application has been filed on the device.  

The researchers are developing Touch Painter and Touch Canvas software to accompany the Fingertip Digitizer. Using this software and the Fingertip Digitizer, the user will be able to apply digital paint to a computer-screen canvas with a few flicks or taps of the index finger.

For more information about the UB Virtual Reality Lab, go to http://www.vrlab.buffalo.edu.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University of New York.

By - Chris Davies

After Apple’s drearily uninteresting Bumnote, sorry, Keynote earlier this month, I’ve been waiting for my electronic twiddly bits to get perked up by some exciting tech news. I think today might be the day…

“The real meaning of this product is about opening up the channels between hand, eyes, and device, and giving people access to actions and information in a way not possible with conventional buttons” [Brian Conner, Pilotfish]

To call the Onyx touchscreen-based is to do it a disservice; in fact, it uses Synaptics innovative ClearPad technology, the first transparent touch-sensitive capacitive sensor. ClearPad is capable of recognizing not only points and taps but also shapes and complex movements, together with multi-point input. At 0.5mm thick, the sensor layer can recognize touch and gestures through up to 1.6mm of plastic, making it far more durable and optically clear than traditional multi-layer touchscreens. And above and beyond those touchscreens it can recognize one or two finger contact, a finger used on its side, or even different body parts; a phone call to Onyx can be answered by simply holding it to your cheek, messages sent by swiping them off the screen with the whole finger.

Digital Information Development (DID) has developed a highly portable virtual piano that is played with a keyboard consisting of projected laser beams.

The box-shaped device measures about 10 x 3 x 3 cm (4 x 1 x 1 in.) and weighs about 100 grams (3.5 oz.). Using a red semiconductor laser module and holographic optical element, the device projects a 25-key 2-octave keyboard onto the surface in front of it (black surfaces don’t work because they absorb the light). A CMOS camera module and infrared (invisible) red semiconductor laser module detect which keys are touched, and the corresponding notes are emitted from speakers built into the device. Chords can also be played, and DID claims it is technically possible to reproduce weighted notes (but presumably not with this version).

The keyboard has 3 other voices in addition to piano — organ, pipe organ and harpsichord. It is scheduled for release in Japan in November 2006 and is expected to cost around 15,000 yen (US$130).

DID says that a virtual 88-key grand piano can be created by increasing the size of the device.

More gentle than the jarring noise of traditional alarms, this clock uses a gradual increase in ambient light, stimulating aromas, and peaceful sounds from nature to awaken sleepers. Easy to use, simply set the desired wake up time, place some aromatherapy beads (included) into the aroma bowl, and choose a natural sound setting. Thirty minutes before wake-up, the clock's light begins to glow softly, subtly brightening over the next half hour. As the light increases, the warmth from the lamp releases faint aromatherapy scents into the air to stimulate the olfactory senses, speeding the waking process. Fifteen minutes before wake up time, the clock's speaker generates the sleeper's choice of soft, yet lively nature sounds, and at the set wake up time a buzzer sounds to finish the cycle. The alarm can also be used to awaken using only sound, or just the buzzer. Sound selection includes Nightfall, Thunder Storm, Zen Melody, Mountain Stream, Songbirds, and Ocean Surf. Four packets of aroma beads (Energy, Morning Caf, Stress Relief, Lavendar) are provided, as are 10 removable felt disks that can be placed in the aroma bowl which allow you to use your own aromatherapy oils. The clock can also be set to operate in reverse, gradually diminishing light, scent, and sound at night to usher sleepers into a relaxed slumber. The nature sounds can be heard at any time by simply pressing any of the sound buttons, and the light has a night light setting as well. The clock has standard time readout, snooze, headphone jack, and volume control. Plugs into a standard household outlet, and uses two AA batteries for backup power, ensuring that time and alarm buzzer functions remain operable in the event of power loss. UL listed. 7 1/2" H x 5 1/4" W x 6 1/4" D. (3 1/2 lbs.)

It looks almost like any other shopping cart, except sensors allow it to follow the shopper around the supermarket and slow down when needed so items can be placed in it, and it never crashes into anyone's heels.

Gregory Garcia dreamed up the robotic cart to solve a childhood peeve of being accidentally hit with shopping carts by his sister.

His cart, also known as B.O.S.S. for Battery Operated Smart Servant, was one of about 30 robots on display Wednesday by students at the University of Florida, who worked the past semester on the projects using their engineering backgrounds.

''The immediate thing that jumped to my mind was all those times as a kid when my sister would accidentally hit me with a cart,'' Garcia said. ''It seems like the public would really want this since everybody shops.

Jeremy Greene, 23, of Panama City, created a robot named Atlas, which balances a blue ping pong ball on a flat piece of wood as it moves across the room. He said he sees no real world application for his robot other than entertainment.

When the electric engines of Antoin Baker's robot Cypher roared to life, the device lifted about a foot off a table, tethered by rubber bands. Cypher, a flat wooden square topped four engines, could be made into a flying device to lift heavy objects in the same way a helicopter does, Baker said.

''If the rubber bands break, run very fast,'' said Eric Schwartz, one of the two professors in the robot course.

Rolando Desrets' small robot made of wheels, gears and sensors, picks up pingpong balls. It then aims and tosses into a basketball net. He said he will later use the robot to compete against other colleges.

Students were given free rein in deciding the type of robot to construct. Robots range from Carlo Pasco's poker robot that deals cards to poker players to Bryan Talenfeld's invention that tells color blind people the color of a traffic light.

''My friends and I play poker all the time, but there is one kid who we do not deal because he is notorious for dealing from the bottom of the deck,'' Pasco wrote in his introduction about his robot. ''An automated poker dealer would take the doubt out of human dealing, alleviating this problem once and for all.''

The student-built submarine called the SubjuGator 5 has won first place for two years in a row in competition with other universities.

The robot is a clear tube about two feet long. It has cameras and sensors it uses to follow a simulated pipeline, said student Carlos Francis, 24, of Gainesville.

Francis said similar robotic submarines could be used to check underwater pipelines and could send back pictures to people on land or in boats.

Topped with a wig of dredlocks and a colorful hat, one of the most popular robots is Koolio. The robot delivers cold drinks to faculty and students who order them over the Internet.

Adam Grieper has a similar robot called the Beertender, which senses people and offers them a beer.

''At this university, every piece of the robot puzzle has been solved,'' Schwartz said.

He said students have designed flying, walking and swimming robots.

About half of the students are registered for the summer 2005 semester of the Intelligent Machine Design Laboratory course. The other half are students in the Machine Intelligence Laboratory or students in the MIL's National Science Foundation sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduate program.

UF students have been building autonomous mobile robots since 1993 ranging from submarines to helicopters, from planes to snakes, and from hydrofoils to alligators. Most of the students showing robots Wednesday were seniors in engineering or graduate students.

(AP Photo/University of Florida, Kristen Bartlett) :: This photo provided by the University of Florida shows Gregory Garcia, a mechanical engineering graduate student, demonstrating his robot, the BOSS or the Battery Operated Smart Servant, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2006, during Robot Demo Day in Gainesville, Fla. The robot is programmed to recognize and follow a certain color. The event allows students to demonstrate their projects to the public while being graded for their work.

Inspired by Eero Aarnio's "Ball Chair" from 1963, the Comfort Sphere creates an intimate presentation space reduced to the essentials.

The design employs two archetypal shapes, the circle and the line. Featuring high-end hi-fi and multimedia equipment, it offers a broad range of uses for communication and presentation purposes.

An integrated audio system exclusively developed by Dynaudio gives the user a previously unknown audio experience.

The Comfort Sphere welcomes the visitor with its open side. After sitting down the visitor starts the presentation by rotating the sphere.