Robocop’s Helmet Gives Policemen The Most Sci-fi Tech Ever

Alfred Boyadgis, a design student of UNSW and 23-years of age has brought Robocop to life. Mr Boyadgis is presently enrolled as a student for honours in industrial design at the University of NSW. This prototype design of the helmet is his final year project. Boyadgis has designed a futuristic motorcycle helmet for police officers. It not only shows information in the visor but is a conglomeration of various high level technologies that presently seem impossible to exist.

The helmet is called Forcite and includes various amazing properties like having turn-by-turn GPS by voice and a display showing critical information right in front of the cops’ eyes. It can also link to and identify number-plate with an automatic recognition system; just stare at it for 5 seconds and the officer will know if the vehicle is registered or not. A built in radio channel and frequency tuner enables an officer to connect to the local area command, a nearby hospital or the fire brigade; a semi-modular visor system, helps increase vision and impact safety by more than 65 per cent.

With its amazing profile, the helmet has already gained popularity with the Chief of Police in Coral Gables in the US state of Florida, who wants to test it in the field and look for its potential for positioning of tactical response as well. The helmet is designed to take care of emergency response times in emergencies to save lives.

In his discussions with the NSW Police Traffic and Highway Patrol Command, Mr Boyadgis says,”The way that helmets are designed at the moment is quite archaic,” he further added, “There’s no direct electronics in there and, if you think about it, everyone has a smartphone, and all the luxuries of smart technology aren’t with riders. They’re still using strap-on GPSs and they have no ability to communicate with each other in a safe manner with something that’s integrated.” Boyadgis thinks that the helmets, as made and used today, were made incorrectly however Forcite uses a material called D3 polyurethane which is much stronger and thus safer.

What inspired him to make this design was the hard work of the officers that went through a lot of stress wearing the usual helmets. They wanted better ways to deal with emergency situations and connect back to the control rooms. In order to celebrate ingenuity, creativity and sustainable engineering, Forcite is in the running for the James Dyson Award. It is on display at the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore as part of the Red Dot Design Awards being in the top 30 out of 300,000 entries; it was also presented at UNSW’s LuminoCITY design exhibition in November. According to Mr Boyadgis,”It’s probably about a year off from being an actual, viable prototype”. It is estimated to cost around $790 and commercializing it will cost around $1.5 million.

The Chief of Police in Coral Gables, Dennis Weiner, told Fairfax Media that he was interested in field testing the helmet and said, “As designed, this helmet offers significant additional capabilities to the motor officer. Besides improved radio communications delivery, it also provides for two-way flow of data between the communications centre and the officer.” Mr Weiner added that the improved field of vision will be able to help with the comfort issues experienced by officers wearing such helmets.

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Robotic Bird Is So Real It Got Attacked By A Real Hawk

SK Gupta’s research group at the University of Maryland has been building robotic bird MAVs (micro-air vehicles) for the last eight years. Gupta is collaborating with Hugh Bruck, a faculty member at the university, and graduate students Luke Roberts, John Gerdes, and Ariel Perez-Rosado on a new design. These students have been working tirelessly to get this latest robotic bird concept, called Robo Raven, to take off. Robo Raven is the first robotic bird with complete control over each individual wing, enabling it to do crazy acrobatics like back flips, dives, and rolls, previously not possible with flapping wing MAV platforms.

This has been an incredibly difficult problem to solve because controlling each wing separately requires two motors and a larger LiPo battery which, in the past, have made robotic birds too heavy to fly. Gupta’s group used new manufacturing technology like laser cutting and 3D printing to create lightweight and geometrically complex Delrin™ and ULTEM (high quality lightweight nylon) parts for the bird’s body. The bird has an onboard Arduino™ microcontroller used to program wing motions which can be either coupled or completely separate, allowing programmable wing motion profiles to ensure the wings maintain the right speed to generate the right balance between lift and thrust forces. These forces are measured using a custom built test stand with a 6 degree of freedom load cell to measure the forces and torques acting on the bird simultaneously. The team also performed system level optimization to make sure all the components worked well as an integrated system. Each of these aspects were key in making Robo Raven light enough to fly.

One of the coolest things about this new robotic bird is that real birds actually mistake it for one of their own. A hawk apparently felt threatened by it and attacked Robo Raven (see 1:50 in the video) and other birds even flew in formation with (see 1:58). Though Gupta’s group wasn’t as focused on making it look so much like a bird, it was definitely a really cool result of the research.

Robotic bird MAVs will offer advances in many different applications like agriculture, where it can be used as a mobile scarecrow and monitor crops; environmental monitoring; and surveillance. Robo Raven presents a fundamentally new platform for flapping wing MAVs and is a big step in realizing true bio-inspired robotics.

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NASA Tests A Hybrid Plane That Works Like A Toyota Prius

Recently there has been a shift in paradigm and now science is doing its best to go green. We have come to realize how our inventions have affected the nature and are doing our best to undo those harmful effects and to be more and more environment friendly. One such project was ERO robot that recycles concrete and Project Zero Electric Plane. This was the reason behind NASA’s project known as Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA). The ERA’s goals were to reduce aircraft emissions, noise and fuel consumption. This is what inspired the engineering students from the University of Virginia into focusing their time and energy into the simulation of an environment friendly plane. The result of this work is a simulation that employs a hybrid electric plane which is capable of flight with 50 passengers aboard. The team was led by aerospace engineering students; Sohail Ahmad and Kelly Thomas and these undergraduates used Flight Optimization System (FLOPS) to evaluate a number of designs which were based on propulsions systems and airplanes which are already in use. The whole study was carried out to find out if a hybrid – internal combustion engine and electric motor – was feasible for being a passenger aircraft.

The team decided,  to make use of the batteries while takeoff and landing since they take place in congested areas and the internal combustion engine (ICE) would be in charge during the rest of the flight. The ICE would be charging the batteries for the landing part too. The test plane was chosen to be ATR 42-600 which is a twin turbo propeller commercial aircraft that can carry 48 persons. The team wanted to see if converting this model would result in a feasible hybrid solution to the problem. Two methodologies were employed; series and parallel. In a series system; ICE works to charge the batteries and powers an electric generator which in turn runs the motor. However, for the parallel system; the propeller is capable of being powered by either the ICE and/or electric motor. Their final conclusion was that the parallel system was more efficient for their design and project.

The batteries are a crucial part of this system and they had to consider a number of factors including the power to weight ratio and life of battery. The modeling they did in FLOPS gave them specifics for the battery they needed. Accordingly they needed energy enough to provide them with a thrust of more than 6,000 lbs at a speed of 368 km/hr. This came down to be 1500 kW per engine. Their final choice of battery was a Lithium polymer battery which ended in a total weight of batteries equaling less than 13,000 lbs.

The final conclusion from the team tells us that in the coming years using this modification approach for an aircraft designed to work ICE  would be much more fuel efficient  for distances of up to 300 miles and holds a promise for the environment. However, retrofitting the current technology won’t prove to be very fruitful.  But they are confident that using the current technology to design an aircraft specifically for the hybrid propulsion system would do the trick. Research is in progress and we wish them good luck. This sure is a work of wonderful engineering.

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Lamborghini Unveils Its Ugliest SuperCar For 4 Million Dollars!

Lamborghini marked its 50th anniversary in March of this year by unveiling the lamborghini Veneno. The new car is being touted by Lamborghini as a “Race car and a road going super car” based on its ancestor, the lamborghini Aventador. Keeping everything very angular and sharp has been the focus of the designers when they were designing the exterior. Though most of the car enthusiasts and car reviewers are of the view that the Veneno has been overdone in the design department, the car surely packs some real punch when it comes to performance. Boasting a 12 cylinder 6.5 liter engine thats been coupled with a 7 speed transmission, the car can go from 0-100 km/hr in just 2.8 seconds. The total engine output is a whopping 750 BHP. The car also comes with 5 different driving modes to suit the driver’s style of driving. To get maximum performance, the car is a permanent 4 wheel drive.

Lamborghini has decided to keep the car very exclusive for now. They have made it possible by keeping the price tag of the car at a hefty $4 Million and only 3 of these are being produced. The best part, they have already been purchased by 3 lucky owners. Check out some of the pictures of this new super car at its unveiling ceremony and tell us in comments if you find the car worth it for 4 million dollars!

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German invention – M16 Crossbow

Talk of the day on internet these days is The Zombie Apocalypse. We’ve all seen memes regarding them and how it is turning into a big hyped up thing. Our today’s article is about what a certain person, Joerg Sprave, did in regard to this zombie apocalypse. Some might call it inspirational and others might call it crazy – we call it impressive and wonderful engineering!

Okay so what led to this invention? Here is a scenario; zombie apocalypse has started. You survived the first wave all thanks to your survival bunker. Way to go soldier, but the second wave is here and your impressive gun, M16 assault rifle is out of bullets. What are you going to do now? While majority would just panic and might give in to the fear and be taken by zombies, our inventor, Joerg Sprave, did otherwise. He has constructed a crossbow using the spare parts of M16 assault rifle. The end result is a dead on accurate machine which slings bolt and might come in handy when you encounter the zombies.

In Sprave’s words he described the crossbow as ‘unregulated in Germany, so (it’s) totally legal to own’. The rubber band protective housing acts as a silencer, while also helping in propelling his ammunition. A combo of a Zippo hand warmer and you’re all set for the winters. He sure did give it a lot of thought. Sprave is still working on improving the design and he has set new task of coming up with a multi-firing version that would of course be the weapon of choice if you are surrounded by zombies. Oh and the arrows are aluminum, just in case if you were wondering.

While this might not come as a huge advancement of science, it sure acts as a proof that just a bit of thinking and use of engineering can help us out of tight situations quite easily.

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Top 10 Things You Never Knew You Could Do With Chrome Read

Google Chrome seems to be taking the internet by storm, but do you know everything it can do for you? Here is a list of ten… that we know of now.

1. Generate Passwords

When running Chrome on Windows, Linux or Chrome OS, Chrome Flags will fill in passwords for you when you open an account creation page. To get started you will have to be signed in to your Chrome account (if you don’t have one sign-up for it) and have your password manager enabled. Visit the Flag site, chrome://flags, and find “Enable Password Generation.” This tip will save you a lot of time at work!

2. Tab Overview

This Chrome feature will be familiar territory for Apple fans because the Tab Overview flag uses MacBook’s trackpad to deliver a new way of browsing for users. The “how-to” for your MacBook? All you need to do is swipe three fingers down on the pad and there you go! All your open tabs in a simple tile display just like the Mac feature many of us know. Unfortunately, that means that this is only available on Mac.

3. Stack Your Tabs

Mac users aren’t the only ones who can reorganize their tabs for easier viewing. Rather than using squashed tabs at the top of the screen, why not stack them? Use a similar “how-to” as the Mac users – type “about:flags” into the Omnibox and find “Stacked Tabs” on the Flags page. Enable stacking tabs so that your tabs won’t shrink and they’ll stack on top of one another as space runs out.

4. Post to Tumblr/Pinterest

We all have had that moment – you found the coolest post for your Pinterest or Tumbler followers but don’t have time to sign in and post it and there’s no pin it button. Now you can! There is a Post to Tumblr extension allowing you to simply right-click on any image you want to share.

5. Make Reddit Better

Reddit and Chrome go hand in hand really well. There are a ton of extensions for improving Reddit’s appearance and performance on Chrome. So, why haven’t you customized your experience yet? Try ‘Reddit Companion’ to add an info bar to your browser to let you vote and view comments at your convenience.

6. Pocket Stories for Later

Don’t have time to really read that interesting headline you saw on a Google search? Simply install Pocket to keep your tab bar organized and manageable. This useful button lets you store articles and pages to read later all in one place. You can also tag them for easy access and read them on the go with their cool app. Both the app and the flag work on an easy to understand minimalist format.

7. Manage All Your Chats

On the internet there are a myriad of ways to communicate and chat – Gtalk, Facebook Chat, Instant Messenger, and even texting. That’s a lot of conversations to keep track of! ‘Talk.to’ can help youconsolidate all of your online communication with a simple, intuitive interface that makes it easy for you to jump between conversations and platforms easily. Think Hootsuite for chats – oh and don’t forget that you can still meet everyone in one place on your mobile device – there’s an app for that!

8. Save Your Tabs

Keeping track of all your tabs and not wanting to lose them is a frustratingly common issue for internet users! Free up your browser bar from overcrowding by using Tab.bz, which will create a link to a list of open tabs you want to reference later, creating a perfect instant bibliography and catalogue of your favorite pages.

9. Un-baby Your Facebook Feed

Tired of seeing babies everywhere on your Facebook feed? Get Unbaby.me to change out baby photos with stuff that you are actually interested in. Same thing with Unpolitic.me – even with the elections over you might be tired of seeing all the political rants from everyone on Facebook.

10. Put a Unicorn On It

Need to add some sparkle and magic to your internet pages? Use Cornify!! to go unicorn crazy on any of your webpages. This flag gives you a colorful button in your Chrome bar that give you instant “cornification” on any webpage of your choice.

These Google Chrome Flags will make your internet experience more organized and manageable and some of them just plain fun! Check out these today and more by searching “about:flags” in your Google bar.

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10 of the Best Internet Hoaxes

Remember the tourist of death? That guy standing on the World Trade Center with a plane incoming behind him, supposedly this is the moment when 9/11 happened. That photo did a hell lot of rounds on the internet. But well, it turned out to be a hoax but it did fool many people before being torn down and declared as fake. Today, we take a look at ten such famous internet hoaxes.

No 10. Bill Gates Giving Away Money

Well, yes he is rich and he is a great philanthropist now but hey, you’ll never get any money by forwarding a chain letter. This is what happened in 1997, people were asked to forward an email to their contacts for testing a new email forward tracking system powered by Microsoft. The email said that you’ll get more money depending on how much your email gets resent by your friends. It would need to be quite a sophisticated system to keep track of such forwards.

No 9. Bill Gates Buys the Catholic Church

Quite a personality is Bill Gates. This one started in 1994 when a press release began circulating around the internet claiming that Microsoft had bought the Catholic Church. “The combined resources of Microsoft and the Catholic Church will allow us to make religion easier and more fun for a broader range of people” it quoted Gates as saying. It was so widespread and significant that eventually, Microsoft had to issue a formal denial of the release on December 16, 1994.

No 8. Gigantic Camel Spiders in Iraq

This one started in 2004 when an email started making rounds asking people to be sympathetic to the American troops in Iraq, not only because they have to be away from their families or because war zones are dangerous, but more so because they have to deal with absolutely horrifying prehistoric spiders. The email claimed that these spiders can run up to 25 miles per hour, could jump several feet in the air and could grow almost up to 1 foot in length.

This one was quite believable due to the photo that was attached with email showing some really big spiders, as it turned out it was just the angle that made them look so stupidly large.

No 7. Lonelygirl15

This was just a normal girl complaining about normal teenage problems until she started giving out details of the bizarre cult that her family was involved in. She even had a MySpace page where she would interact with her fans, but eventually people started to doubt and found out that this all was faked. It was actually a full-fledged web series created by EQAL under the working title “The Children of Anchor Cove.”

No 6. Charge Your iPod Using an Onion

This viral video showed you how to charge an iPod using nothing but an onion and a glass of Gatorade. The pseudo science did make it plausible but it frustrated a lot of people who were made to look stupid by plugging in their devices into veggies.

No 5. No Drunken Surfing

Well, not the one pictured above though, in 1994 the Congress was supposedly considering a bill that would make it illegal to surf the internet while drunk, or to discuss sexual matters over a public network. The hoax was so believable that it generated a slew of angry calls to congress which prompted Senator Ted Kennedy to issue a statement denying rumors of the supposed bill.

No 4. The Derbyshire Fairy

In 2004 Dan Baines of Derbyshire, England created what he told people was the corpse of a “fairy,” and put it up for sale on eBay and on his web site. This convincing prank resulted in his site getting over 20,000 visits in one day but he had to reveal that it was all a hoax. But fairy-believers would not take that with one person telling him “to return the remains to the grave site as soon as possible or face the consequences.”

No 3. Hercules the Dog

This hoax began in 2007 with this fake photo which was purported to be of the world’s largest dog. The email said “Hercules was recently awarded the honorable distinction of Worlds Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff and has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.” His owner Mr. Flynn says “I fed him normal food and he just grew.” Well yeah, believable.

No 2. Triple Waterspouts

This one began with a photo going around in emails in 2002 which showed a trio of menacing water spouts approaching a container ship as Hurricane Lili neared. But the National Weather Service of the US quickly debunked the photo and revealed it as a photoshopped piece of work. What really struck the meteorologist was three large spouts so near to each other.

No 1. The Blair Witch Project

This movie which came out in 1999 wasn’t so obvious to a lot of people in that it was fiction. Perhaps fueling the belief of it being real was a network of background web sites about the movie’s mythology created by the movie makers. The movie was taken to be an actual footage of kids disappearing in the woods by many.

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