Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now

A full text RSS feed

'Sniff Detector' Lets Those Lacking Mobility Drive a Wheelchair With Their Noses

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:06:16 -0400

The "sniff controller," as it is known, is worn externally via a rubber tube not unlike the ones often used in hospitals for patients who need oxygen. The nasal device is not universal, as about a quarter of all people in a healthy control group were found to have insufficient volitional control over their soft palate, the part of your nasal passageway that lets you regulate the strength of your sniffs. But for those with sufficient soft palate control, the sniff controller gave test subjects a new degree of freedom.

The researchers started with a group of 36 healthy individuals on whom they tested the response time and precision with which humans can control their nasal pressure on a video game system that also measured their ability to with a mouse and a joystick. The team found that nasal control was just as reliable as mouse and joystick proficiency in those subject deemed to have good volitional control of their soft palates.

Encouraged, the team moved on to three patients suffering from "locked-in" syndrome, which allowed them to communicate using only their blinking eyes. Two of the three quickly learned to use a letter-choosing and word completion program that allowed them to initiate communication and expression (the third subject didn't take to the controller, though its unclear if the issue is soft palate-related or due to some other influence).

The team also created an interface for controlling an electric wheelchair using the sniff detector (two successive sniffs in = forward, two successive sniffs out = backward, etc.) and tested it on ten healthy patients. Again, they found that after a bit of practice the control group could easily navigate the wheelchair, so they put a man paralyzed from the neck down in the driver's seat. To their amazement, they found that after just 15 minutes a paraplegic can become quite skilled at navigating a wheelchair using the sniff detector.

Obviously these tests were conducted on a small group and further study and refinement is needed. But for those suffering from ailments that have denied them their mobility or their capacity to communicate, the sniff controller could provide a means for operating all kinds of devices that could improve quality of life.

[PNAS]

China Eyes Next-Gen Heavy-Lift Rocket Capable of 660 Tons of Thrust

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:07:16 -0400

While U.S. legislators continue to argue the fate of America's heavy-lift rocket ambitions, China is setting the bar high by looking into launch vehicle designs that could generate a thrust of more than 660 tons, increasing by orders of magnitude the nation's ability to launch heavy payloads into space.

China is already developing a heavy-lift rocket expected to make its preliminary test flights in 2014, the Long March-5. The LM-5 would boast 132 tons of thrust, plenty for delivering cargo to the space station or reaching geostationary transfer orbit where most communications satellites are launched.

But a 600-plus ton rocket engine would be suitable for missions beyond LEO, perhaps to the moon or beyond. China has already expressed an interest in sending an unmanned mission to the moon via the LM-5, but the new experimental rocket is more akin to the Saturn-V that carried U.S. astronauts moonward decades ago.

To develop the necessary thrust, the rocket's initial stage would rely on five engines likely with four expendable boosters arranged around a central stage. The LM-5 employs a similar design, though the new rocket would have to be far, far larger to reach its 660-ton thrust ambition.

As for the LM-5, it's on track for a full-sized prototype in 2012, test firings in 2013, and initial test launches a year later. When in service it will carry up to 27.5 ton payloads to the ISS and 15 ton payloads into higher satellite orbits.

[BBC]

The ISS's New Atomic Clock Will be the Most Accurate Clock in Space, Possibly the Universe

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:05:25 -0400

Cesium clocks, like the one the National Institute of Standards and Technology uses to keep the official time in the U.S., generally rely on the microwave signals that electrons emit when they change energy levels to keep highly precise, consistent measurements of time (it's estimated that the NIST's current clock won't gain or lose a second for more than 60 million years).

The cesium atoms are laser-cooled, then launched upward into a sensor cavity where instruments can tap into that microwave frequency that gives us our standard concept of the second, minute, hour, etc. A microgravity environment the atoms spend longer in the microwave chamber, and that should allow for better measurements of the microwaves emitted, making the Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES) 100 times more accurate as the clocks ticking away on satellites.

As a bonus, a single frame of reference in space could help atomic clocks back on the ground synchronize better, and it might even reveal if certain physical constants are as constant as physics says they are.

[New Scientist]

Last Shuttle Mission Will Test 3-D Video Docking System For Shuttle's Replacement

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:38:32 -0400

Last week, the STS-134 crew got a preview of the technology from Ball Aerospace, whose engineers designed the system with workers from Lockheed Martin, NASA's primary contractor on the Orion project. The new docking system involves an eye-safe flash Lidar Vision Navigation System and a high-definition docking camera. The system's resolution is 16 times that of the shuttle's, and it provides data from as far away as three miles, triple the shuttle's ability.

It's not often that engineers can test future spaceflight systems in space, notes Jeanette Domber, the project lead for the shuttle test, called "Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation" (STORMM).

"There's nothing like collecting data in this environment, compared to the testing we can do on the ground," she said.

On the 11th day of the last shuttle mission, astronauts will make a penultimate departure from the International Space Station and move about 3.5 miles away. As the shuttle slowly returns to the ISS, the Orion docking system will switch on. The shuttle will approach the station the way Orion would, and engineers at Ball, Lockheed and NASA will gather streams of data to improve their system's algorithms.

Astronauts will really be using the shuttle's existing docking system, but astronaut Andrew Feustel (currently co-starring in the Hubble IMAX movie) will take the new one for a test drive.

The tests will improve spacecraft docking capability regardless of what Congress and the White House decide to do with the Constellation program. It could be used by pilots or in unmanned craft, says Lisa Hardaway, Ball's chief engineer for the Orion project. If the Obama administration decides to send a vehicle to an asteroid, for instance, a system like this could simplify the rendezvous.

"The beauty of our instruments is that they can be used on any vehicle for any application. For any incarnation that Orion ends up in, our vehicle is still applicable," Hardaway says.

Befitting the space program's legacy, the system might also be useful for Earth applications -- its capability to determine shapes, intensity, and distance could improve terrain mapping, deforestation monitoring and hazard-avoidance systems in transportation.

The space shuttle uses different sensors as it approaches the ISS. At far distances, astronauts track their target with radar. As they approach the station, they use a trajectory control system and a laser.

The new system integrates everything, Domber says. The Lidar system sends out a laser pulse, which is reflected to a sensor and translated into computer data. The astronauts will know exactly where their spacecraft is relative to its docking target, and the high-def camera shows them a real-time view.

Lidar systems can be dangerous, especially for astronauts peering out the space station's cupola to catch a view of the action. Engineers had to build a small but powerful Lidar laser that wouldn't hurt astronauts' eyes, Domber says: "We have done eye-safe lasers that require much more power, and are larger, and we have done not-eye-safe lasers in a small package. We needed to combine the two to make it safe."

The laser fits in the palm of your hand, and the whole package is about the size of a bread box. It is the latest in a suite of new technologies meant to further NASA's goal -- if not Obama's -- to see Orion fly in 2013.

And the latest to help shepherd the shuttle into the annals of history.

Wireless, Implantable Glucose Sensor Could Revolutionize Diabetes Treatment

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:00:32 -0400

The round device is just a bit smaller than a Double-Stuf Oreo -- about 1.5 inches wide and half an inch thick -- and would be implanted in a person's torso. It's hermetically sealed, with an integrated antenna that wirelessly transmits data, a long-lived battery, and a pair of sensors. One sensor detects only oxygen, the other a reaction that involves both oxygen and glucose. No matter how dense the scar tissue surrounding the implant, the two-sensor combination compensates, allowing the device to correctly calculate glucose levels in the blood.

Most complications from diabetes, from blindness to heart attacks, can be mitigated with monitoring -- obsessive monitoring that involves blood-drawing finger pricks every 15 minutes, day and night. Most diabetics don't even test every hour.

The most advanced technology currently available for continuous monitoring uses a needle-sized sensor that pokes deep into the skin, connected via a wire or wireless transmitter to a pager-sized monitor. It provides blood-sugar levels in close-to-real time, but it's also a bit bulky and inconvenient: The needle-like sensors must be recalibrated daily and replaced every three to seven days, before the body encapsulates them with scar tissue and renders it useless.

Such rapid obsolescence doesn't apply to the implantable device, which was developed by researchers at the University of California at San Diego and biotech company GlySens. "The sensor we developed was designed from the beginning to be a long-term device, and designed to operate for very long periods," says David Gough, the UCSD bioengineer who led the research. In a paper published online today in Science Translational Medicine, Gough and his colleagues show that their sensor can function successfully for over 500 days -- at least in pigs. They hope to begin the first human trial later this year, and are hoping for FDA approval within three years.

Right now, the device transmits its data directly to an external display. But ultimately, the researchers hope that ultimately data from their sensor could be transmitted directly to a patient's smartphone, eliminating the need for any additional hardware. In combination with other technologies in development -- an algorithm-crunching computer that uses glucose data to calculate how much insulin a person needs to control his blood sugar, and an automatic insulin pump to dispense the dose -- the new sensor could help create a low-maintenance system that does the work of a pancreas.

"Continuous glucose monitors are very helpful, but the key thing is that you have to wear them, and that's a big challenge for many people," says Aaron Kowalski, research director for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's artificial pancreas project. He notes that, because current devices are still slightly conspicuous and require vigilance, teenagers and young adults are less likely to wear them. "So the idea of having a one-year sensor that is implanted is very, very appealing. A device that alleviates some of these real-life issues means you don't have to insert so much, you don't have to see it, and you can walk around and not have all this stuff stuck to you."

An Order of Seven Global Cyber-Guardians Now Hold Keys to the Internet

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:36:29 -0400

The seven members of this holy order of cyber security hail from around the world and recently received their keys while locked deep in a U.S. bunker. But the team isn’t military in nature. The Internet safety program is overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit watchdog group that has access to a security system designed to protect users from cyber fraud and cyber attacks.

Part of ICANN’s security scheme is the Domain Name System Security, a security protocol that ensures Web sites are registered and “signed” (this is the security measure built into the Web that ensures when you go to a URL you arrive at a real site and not an identical pirate site). Most major servers are a part of DNSSEC, as it's known, and during a major international attack, the system might sever connections between important servers to contain the damage.

A minimum of five of the seven keyholders – one each from Britain, the U.S., Burkina Faso, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, China, and the Czech Republic – would have to converge at a U.S. base with their keys to restart the system and connect eveything once again. We’re imagining a large medieval chamber filled with techno-religious imagery where these knights cyber must simultaneously turn hybrid thumb drive/skeleton keys in a massive router, filling the room with the blinking light of connectivity.

In reality, it’s not so dramatic. The keys are actually smartcards that each contain parts of the DNSSEC root key, which could be thought of as the master key to the whole scheme. But it is interesting to know that there is a group of individuals out there that hold actual, physical keys that would reboot the Internet as we know it. Find out more about these cryptographic keys and how/why they’re made here.

[BBC]

Video: Curiosity Rover Tries Out Its New Wheels for the First Time

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:04:23 -0400

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory had a big week last week, mounting the Remote Sensing Mast and an array of navigation and sensing cameras on their latest Mars rover. Then on Friday Curiosity took its first drive, traveling about three feet back and forth on its brand new 20-inch aluminum wheels.

To the applause of cleanroom-clad NASA engineers, Curiosity crawled along the floor of a lab at JPL while being controlled remotely by wire, rather than by the software that will direct the rover’s movement on Mars. But as a milestone it’s fairly significant. Just a few weeks ago, Curiosity looked like spare parts; today it is the size of a small SUV – far larger than the Spirit and Opportunity rovers already on Mars – and looks the part of a next-gen space exploration vehicle.

But the best is yet to come. While Curiosity is now outfitted with two navigation chams, two mast cameras and a laser chemistry camera, it will soon enough be augmented with its principal geology tool: a 6-foot robotic arm sporting a powerful jackhammer drill and a microscope.

If the schedule holds up, Curiosity should launch next year and arrive on Mars in August 2012. From there, it will explore the landscape for a suitable landing site for future missions while collecting and analyzing rock samples that should shed more light on the planet’s geological history.

See Curiosity go in the video below.

[MSNBC via Discovery]

Aging Odyssey Orbiter Creates Most Detailed Map of Martian Surface

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:34:01 -0400

The new Martian map is a composite of 21,000 images captured by Odyssey over the last decade that can be zoomed to scales as small as 100 meters across. While the newer Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will eventually trump that with higher resolution maps that can zoom in down to about one meter wide, it still has a lot of landscape to cover.

The above image is a detail of Mars' Valles Marineris, capturing a swath of terrain about 90 miles across, so that should give you some idea of how detailed the map really is. But rather than take our word for it, you can check out the real thing here. Taken on the whole it looks fairly unimpressive, but zoom in and you can see individual features on the Martian surface quite clearly.

Though Odyssey's "most detailed map" record will eventually be eclipsed, it still has the chance to capture one more record if it can hang on for a few more months. NASA's Mars Global Surveyor is currently the longest-operating Martian spacecraft, having operated for just more than nine years. Odyssey began orbiting in October of 2001, so if it can reach the new year, it will collect a longevity record as well.

[NASA JPL via New Scientist]

A Slick Fix: Oil-Eating Robots Could Mop Up Ocean Disasters

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:58:20 -0400

Aeros (Airborne Robotic Oil Spill Recovery System) is a fleet of airplane-deployed robots that cordon off the oil and use centrifuge-like oil/water separators to collect oil for refining. Each ’bot can purify up to 3,000 gallons of water a minute. Several could clean an 11-million-gallon, Exxon Valdez–size spill in a few days.

Global Response Group, Aeros’s developer, is building its first prototype robot to test on an experimental oil spill next year. The company is also in talks with the Chinese government to establish the first Aeros airbase, which will deploy ’bots to protect that country’s fishing waters from offshore drilling. It will cost $800 million, a small fee compared with the billions of dollars in damage that a spill can cause.

Spills present challenges for any cleanup. “Booms don’t work well with big waves,” says oil expert Greg McCormack of the University of Texas. But the industry is eager for new strategies, he says, and will embrace Aeros if the prototype works. Aeros’s inventor, Myron Sullivan, says it will. “It needs fine-tuning,” he says, “but the technology is proven. There will be another disaster. All we can do is prepare for it.”

How It Works
1. ’Bots Away! Planes drop minivan-size water-cleaning robots and inflatable booms near the spill site.
2. Trap the Spill Once inflated, the U-shaped booms surround the oil. Robots use GPS to get behind a boom’s flap, which directs water into the ’bot’s cleaning system.
3. Clean The robot sucks oily water into a cone that spins the liquids, sending denser water to the outside and creating a stream of oil in the center. Low pressure at one end draws oil away while the heavier—and 99 percent clean—water flows out the other side.
4. Collect the Black Gold A bladder collects the oil, which crews pick up later to recycle. One robot can clean up to 3,000 gallons of water per minute, scrubbing the affected area in just a few days.

To Thwart Predators, South Korea Is Issuing GPS Devices to Schoolchildren

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:43:59 -0400

Starting in October, about 1,200 elementary school children in Anyang City, south of Seoul, will receive matchbox-sized GPS-embedded beepers. The devices can notify authorities of the kids' location and activate surveillance cameras.

The move comes a month after a 44-year-old habitual sex offender was arrested and accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl. That case, as well as other crimes against children, shocked the country and mobilized the government to declare war on child molesters.

The 8-year-old girl was abducted from her school, and officials have stepped up school security in response. After a trial run, the government might expand the GPS devices to the rest of the country, AFP says.

[AFP]