Meet the next generation of art installations. Together, the SENSEable City and ARES Labs at MIT have created an adaptable, remote-controlled display comprised of dozens of robotic, flying "smart pixels." The concept is simple: As with any digital image, the picture is made of groups of tiny dots of varying colors that, at the right scale, appear as one large image. Now imagine the pixels in a pointillist painting like a Georges Seurat aren't tiny flecks of paint, but thousands of miniature helicopters with varying color LEDs arranged as the image.
Flyfire, though, takes things one further by adding depth. The face of the Mona Lisa, for example, can be blown out and backward to create a 360-degree rendering of the painting.
The helicopters are about the size of a golf ball, each with a color-changing LED. It took the expertise of the ARES flying robotics lab to make small 'copters that fly steadily enough and that can adapt quickly and with utmost precision.
Right now, Flyfire is best suited for large-scale art installations, since the 'bots are still a bit hefty. In the future, though, smaller parts will mean smaller 'copters and more exact displays that don't need to take up a whole room.

VTOL Drone Would Land, Refuel and Take Off By Itself

Drones can do just about everything autonomously these days, but most systems still require human assistance to land, refuel and take off again. Now, an aerospace startup, Aerovel, hopes to change that with its hover-capable Flexrotor drone that will come with its own automated docking station. No human ground support needed, The Register reports.
The notion comes from Tad McGeer, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who created the small ScanEagle drone for fishermen and U.S. Navy SEALS. ScanEagle relied upon a pneumatic catapult launcher and "SkyHook" recovery pole, but the Flexrotor would do away with either requirement.
Instead, McGeer envisions his new drone using VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) abilities. Tiny wingtip thrusters would do the same job as a helicopter's tail rotor and counteract the torque of the drone's main propeller in hover-mode.
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That would permit the Flexrotor to land in its auto-base, refuel and launch back into the air with no human intervention. One human handler could then oversee an entire swarm of drones, which translates into big economic savings from the reduced manpower.
More drones such as the familiar Predators flying recon and strike missions above Iraq and Afghanistan may also soon get automated landing systems, if only because the military wants to cut back on drone losses due to human operator error.
But the Flexrotor truly seems unique as a practically self-sufficient drone. We're just waiting for that future drone to announce: "All your auto-base belong to us."

Tiny Chip Made of Paper Diagnoses Diseases and Costs Just a Penny

Existing lab-on-a-chip designs can put the power of testing in the palm of your hand, but an upcoming model may represent the cheapest and most colorful one yet. A Harvard University chemist has created a prototype "chip" technology out of paper that could help diagnose HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases for just a penny each time, according to CNN.
A drop of blood on one side of the paper chip results in a colorful tree-like pattern that tells physicians or nurses whether a person has certain diseases. Water-repellent comic-book ink helps channel the blood into the tree-like pattern, as several layers of treated paper react to the blood and create the telling colors.
George Whitesides, the Harvard chemist, said that the colors can also reveal the severity of a disease rather than just saying if a person has it or not. It's not the most sophisticated lab-on-a-chip, but that's the point -- many of these could become cheap diagnostic tools for a developing world that often lacks physicians and clinics.
Patients in Africa or Asia could even take photos of their diagnostic results with mobile phones, which have become wildly popular even in the poorest regions. They could then send the photos on to medical centers for proper diagnosis.
Whitesides was one of the speakers at the recent TED Conference. Perhaps he should discuss his work with fellow TED attendee Bill Gates -- we know that the Gates Foundation has devoted $10 billion over the next decade toward vaccines as a method of combating childhood diseases. Maybe Gates could spare a bit of change for this nifty yet simple tech as well.

Honda's Concept Trike for the Urban Commuter

Honda's EV-N concept may have the visage of a throwback car from the 1960s, but the car company's new 3R-C looks like nothing less than a futuristic trike. The sleek three-wheeled, single-person vehicle is set to debut at the Geneva Motor Show next week as a zero-emission concept with a lithium-ion battery, Autoblog Green reports.
The 3R-C seems designed to address the single urban commuter, and unsurprisingly comes from Honda's Research and Design facility in Milan, Italy. Its clear canopy lowers over the driver's seat while parked, and is raised during operation to become a wind-shield for the rider. That's a bit of a shame, given how perfectly streamlined the vehicle looks with the canopy downHonda's EV-N concept may have the visage of a throwback car from the 1960s, but the car company's new 3R-C looks like nothing less than a futuristic trike. The sleek three-wheeled, single-person vehicle is set to debut at the Geneva Motor Show next week as a zero-emission concept with a lithium-ion battery, Autoblog Green reports.
The 3R-C seems designed to address the single urban commuter, and unsurprisingly comes from Honda's Research and Design facility in Milan, Italy. Its clear canopy lowers over the driver's seat while parked, and is raised during operation to become a wind-shield for the rider. That's a bit of a shame, given how perfectly streamlined the vehicle looks with the canopy down
Stability for the vehicle would come from the electric drivetrain sitting low in the chassis, and there's even a lockable "boot area" in front of the driver to provide storage for luggage.
These concept vehicles won't enter production, but they provide some food for thought concerning the needs of future commuters winding through narrow streets or alleyways. And given global trends, it's safe to say that the cities of the world will only become more crowded in the near future. If you're not down with a regular bike or a full-blown car, perhaps an affordable single-seat vehicle might not be a bad alternative, unless GM's two-wheeled P.U.M.A. somehow takes off in a way that the Segway didn't.

Skinput Turns Any Bodily Surface Into a Touch Interface

The future of touchscreen interfaces is: you? A project between a Carnegie Mellon researcher and a couple of creative thinkers over at Microsoft Research have created Skinput, a Bluetooth-enabled device that allows you to use your own skin as a peripheral input device for devices like cell phones, MP3 players or gaming consoles.
The device works via an armband, which contains a small projector that beams whatever relevant interface you need onto your hand or forearm. Then you simply press the appropriate part of your skin just like you were tapping the screen of an iPhone. An acoustic sensor in the armband can tell where you are tapping because of the different bond densities, tissues, and other differentiating factors inherent in your body’s geography.
Bluetooth then transmits the corresponding signal to the appropriate device; if you’ve just dialed a phone number, it sends the info to your phone and dials the call.
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TagsGadgets, Clay Dillow, cell phones, computers, interfaces, mobile tech, touchscreen, wireless technologyWhile it seems pretty dazzling and all, we can’t help but question the benefits. For one, dialing on your skin only seems like a benefit if it means we don’t have to carry an extra device around with us; if the added benefit of using my arm as, say, my TV remote means I have to don an armband at all times, I’m not sure I’ve gained anything. Not to mention, if I dial a phone number on my hand and then have to reach into my pocket to get my phone with that same hand, have I really saved myself any trouble over simply retrieving the phone before I dial? I guess I could get a Bluetooth headset to go truly hands free, but then I would be one of those people with a Bluetooth headset.
The technology, however, is pretty amazing, and could be the precursor to a range of software that doesn’t work off input devices as we know them (mice, keyboards, touchscreens) but rather projects interfaces onto a surface of your choosing and let’s you input without peripherals. If nothing else, it will turn heads on the street when you start scrolling through your apps via your forearm

IPAD

The iPad is a tablet computer developed by Apple Inc. Announced on January 27, 2010, it is similar in functionality to the iPhone and iPod touch, running the same operating system (iPhone OS) and almost all of the same applications.

The iPad has a larger 9.7-inch (25 cm) LED backlit multi-touch display with a pixel resolution of 1024x768, 16 to 64 gigabytes (GB) of flash memory, a 1-gigahertz (GHz) Apple A4 processor, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 30-pin dock connector to sync with iTunes and connect wired accessories.
Two models have been announced: one with 802.11n Wi-Fi (available in March 2010 worldwide) and one with Wi-Fi, 3G (which can connect to HSDPA cellular networks), and Assisted GPS (available in April in the U.S. and several other countries). Both models may be purchased with three different memory capacities

Optional accessories
Apple will sell several iPad accessories, including:
Keyboard Dock with hardware keyboard, 30-pin connector, and audio jack
Case which can be used to stand the iPad in various positions
Dock with 30-pin connector and audio jack
Dock Connector to VGA Adapter for external monitor or projector
Camera Connection Kit including a USB Type A connector adapter and an SD card reader, for transferring photos and videos
USB Power Adapter with 2A (10W)

Software
Like the iPhone, with which it shares a development environment (iPhone SDK, or software development kit, version 3.2 beta onwards), the iPad will only run software downloaded from Apple's App Store. The iPad will run almost all third-party iPhone applications unmodified (they can be displayed at iPhone size or enlarged to fill the iPad's larger screen); developers can also create apps specifically for the iPad's features.
The iPad will come with the following applications: Safari, Mail, Photos, Video, YouTube, iPod, iTunes Store, App Store, Maps, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, and Spotlight. The iPad syncs with iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC. Apple ported its iWork suite from the Mac to the iPad; the Pages, Numbers, and Keynote applications will be sold in the App Store. Although the iPad is not designed as a cellphone replacement, a user can pair it with a Bluetooth headset and place phone calls using a VoIP application over WiFi or 3G.

The iPad will also include the iBooks application, which displays books and other ePub-format content downloaded from the iBookstore. Currently several major book publishers including: Penguin Books, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan have committed to publishing books for the iPad