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[click banner to learn more] NEXGEN TO SHOW PATENTED DUO OF XRAY REMOTE EXTENDERS For more info visit: http://www.nexgensmarthome.co.uk/ Solutions-Based Distributor Introduces Award-Winning Technology to European Market Submitted to HomeToys.com on:

4:38 PM EST Medtronic, TiVo, Kohler, Megaupload: Intellectual Property Medtronic, TiVo, Kohler, Megaupload: Intellectual Property By Bill Callahan (Updates with Medtronic lawyers comment in eighth paragraph.) Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Medtronic Inc.s $101.2

NEW DELHI: Maharashtra beats all other states hollow when it comes to filing patents. But it is Delhi that records the best leverage ratio (percentage of patents being filed against the percentage of GDP of the state) at 4.81%, followed by Karnataka

Rambus (RMBS -10.5%), hit hard after providing soft Q1 guidance (revenue of $59M-$64M vs. consensus of $70M) to go with its Q4 beat, falls 2.9% AH after the USPTO discloses it invalidated a patent relevant to lawsuits Rambus filed against NVDA, HPQ, and

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The World Economic Forum annual gathering of private sector leaders today released a ?Cyber Resilience Initiative to Safeguard the Digital Environment? that includes a commitment to protect intellectual property rights online. The initiative, including a

Protesters shout slogans as they demonstrate against ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement , in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. The Polish government signed the agreement Thursday amid attacks on

Last year, when Universal Music issued a very questionable takedown of a Megaupload commercial -- which involved some Universal Music artists -- UMG suggested that it had extra special rights with YouTube in which it could take down videos that it didn't

A great many drinkers have watched helplessly as their BAC became inversely proportionate to their common sense, throwing around cash as thought it were Monopoly money before grabbing the mic to belt out Adele's latest track. Karaoke has been the go-to

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The district court in Mannheim, Germany, has again sided with Apple in a patent suit brought by Samsung Electronics, saying on Friday that the company had not infringed on a second patent asserted by Samsung against the iPhone and iPad. Last week the

Diane Bartz / Reuters: U.S. government invalidates potent Rambus patent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The last of three patents that tech licensing company Rambus used to win infringement lawsuits against Nvidia Corp , Hewlett-Packard and others has been declared invalid, according to legal documents. The three patents -

It’s always great to check out what Apple’s got going on in terms of patents, because you never know just which pieces of the impressive arsenal of intellectual property will be making their way to devices near us, and which of them will just be fun

Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said today that he agrees with the conclusion of the editorial of today's The Times that 'there now seems to be only one way forward: an election as soon as possible'. In an entry on his facebook wall in which he

Proposed Rule Package to Significantly Hike Fees As , the proposed rule package for supplemental examination is expected this week; in fact, it will publish tomorrow. In addition to the expected rule package on the new supplemental examination

Yesterday's announcement that Twitter would be selectively censoring tweets based on country was not well-received. But part of that announcement was the assurance that the process would at least be transparent. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go

An advertising agency's copyright lawsuit against personal injury firm Parker Waichman can move forward to trial next month, but without a breach-of-contract claim.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A Delaware federal judge did not err in finding that a plaintiff had standing to maintain an infringement action against a competitor or in upholding a jury verdict in favor of that plaintiff, a divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of

The sun came out for the first time on the fourth day of the World Economic Forum

A couple of recent articles in The New York Times painted a less than rosy picture of Apple and its role in allegedly urging its suppliers in China to take shortcuts despite concerns to worker safety. It's a hot topic considering the multiple reports of

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Samsung‘s second 3G/UMTS patent strike against Apple has been thrown out of court, with a German judge apparently deciding the Korean firm had no leg to stand on in its claims that the iPhone and other devices infringed its patented technology. Judge

  << MPAA Exec Admits: 'We're Not...    Copyright by Tim CushingFri, Jan 27th 2012 12:54pmA great many drinkers have watched helplessly as their BAC became inversely proportionate to their common sense, throwing around cash as thought it were

Silo-ed = party who is receiving only certain of the documents (pleadings, discovery, document production, etc.) in a case.  See Are You Surrounded by Knowledge Silos?.

Macworld 2012: Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac Coming Friday January 27, 2012 12:46 pm PST by Arnold Kim Autodesk was at Macworld showing off a new product for the Mac called Autodesk Inventor Fusion. Autodesk Inventor Fusion is an existing 3D

Check out the LTN article "Patent Pilot Discovery: the Tip of the Spear," by Mark Michels, which reports on Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Randall Rader's keynote speech at Stanford Law School on January 18, 2012, on the Patent Pilot

Perhaps one of the greatest problems inherent in any mobile device, no matter how ruggedized, is the fact that they all have inherent weakness to water and dust. Sure, we’ve seen cases that do a pretty good job of providing rubberized flaps over

In a very complicated and long post, Patently Apple discusses a few new ground-breaking patents filed by Apple. There’s a lot of interesting things in these patents, but one thing stuck out as particularly interesting: programable magnetic power

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica: Twitter uncloaks a year's worth of DMCA takedown notices, 4,410 in all

Twitter uncloaks a year's worth of DMCA takedown notices, 4,410 in all By Jon Brodkin | Published January 27, 2012 1:50 PM On almost any given day, Twitter receives a handful of requests to delete tweets that link to pirated versions of copyrighted

Contact: Thejeswi Venkatesh Intel has announced the acquisition of 190 patents, 170 patent applications and video codec software from RealNetworks for $120m. The transaction comes just eight months after Intel bought SiPort, a Santa Clara,

Ernesto / TorrentFreak: Copyright Industry Calls For Broad Search Engine Censorship  —  It's no secret that the entertainment industries believe search engines are not delivering enough when it comes to protecting copyright works.  Just last month,

Ever wonder why all lash primers are white and/or clear? Quite honestly, I never thought much about it until I experienced Tarte’s new Black Lash Primer. And now my mind is blown. Part of a QVC-exclusive duo , Tarte’s Black Lash Primer & Black

An advertising agency’s copyright suit against personal injury firm Parker Waichman can move forward to trial next month, but without a breach-of-contract claim. Market Masters-Legal claims the firm, a former client, improperly used certain phrases,

2012 Student Writing Competition The Virginia State Bar Intellectual Property Section is seeking papers written by law students who are attending law school in Virginia or are residents of Virginia attending law school outside of Virginia and relating

With a well-deserved reputation for counterfeiting and knockoffs, we have rarely looked to China for innovation and invention. Nevertheless, as an ever-growing giant on the world’s economic stage, China has taken steps to remedy this deficiency. About

Moving the image back and forth between the two perspectives tricks the eye into seeing depth--it's kind of a lo-fi way to get around that problem of both eyes seeing the same thing. (Regular 3-D beams a different image to each eye.) Here's a recent example:

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

It's especially cool that the tool, while easy to use, isn't really automatic--you still have to play around with it to get the perspective and speed just right. Go check it out!

[NYPL Stereogranimator]

Moving the image back and forth between the two perspectives tricks the eye into seeing depth--it's kind of a lo-fi way to get around that problem of both eyes seeing the same thing. (Regular 3-D beams a different image to each eye.) Here's a recent example:

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

It's especially cool that the tool, while easy to use, isn't really automatic--you still have to play around with it to get the perspective and speed just right. Go check it out!

[NYPL Stereogranimator]

With the design complete, Puig-Suari began to work with the three U.S. agencies that regularly launch satellites—the National Reconnaissance Office, the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program and NASA—to convince them to build CubeSat-ready berths into as many launches as possible. Meanwhile, the aerospace engineering department at CalPoly has become a sort of standards clearinghouse for NASA, testing each academic satellite to make sure the box won’t shake itself apart and cast shrapnel through the rocket during launch. CalPoly and Stanford maintain a forum and post all standards on CubeSat.org.

With so many scheduled launches, an undergraduate engineering student [...] can design one during her freshman year and see it reach space before graduation.Twiggs and Puig-Suari’s efforts are paying off. Since 2001, about 50 CubeSats have entered space. The pair sent up their first in 2003, spending $100,000 in grant money to stow it on a Russian Dnepr launch. When the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched in December 2009, six CubSats were aboard, packed three units at a time inside a spring-loaded jack-in-the-box container called a Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD), that was developed at CalPoly. After the payload deployed, the door of the P-POD popped open and the spring pushed all three satellites into orbit, where they unfurled solar panels and began transmitting information to their creators below. This year at least three rockets will launch with room for CubeSats, including the NROL-36, which can fit 11.

With so many scheduled launches, an undergraduate engineering student at one of the nearly 100 schools making CubeSats can design one during her freshman year and see it reach space before graduation. When Roland Coelho, a CalPoly graduate student, was filling out a preflight survey for his CubeSat last year, the range safety officer at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California approached him in confusion. “It asks whether you’ll need a military convoy to escort you,” the officer said. “You don’t?”

“Oh, that’s right,” Coelho replied. “It fits in the trunk of my car.”

Many academic CubeSats currently in orbit report their position, battery life and findings to ham-radio operators on Earth, who forward the information to the originating school. But projects are becoming more ambitious. The Air Force plans to use two networked CubeSats to monitor the Earth’s atmosphere and provide the world’s first real-time look at space weather. Carl Brandon of Vermont Technical College is developing an ion-drive CubeSat system that he says will be able to propel itself to the moon.

Puig-Suari and Charles Scott MacGillivray, who ran a small team of satellite developers at Boeing until last year, have now spun off their own company, called Tyvak, which produces CubeSats on a contract basis for private clients and the U.S. government. A marketplace of standardized components has also emerged, led by Stanford engineering professor Andrew Kalman’s Pumpkin, Inc., which has sold CubeSat kits to more than 100 universities, governments and nonprofit organizations. Kalman says that once people begin to think of CubeSats as disposable, building them out of off-the-shelf components and sending them up 100 at a time, the devices will truly have come of age. “If we launch a group of satellites built out of Android phones, you’ll have app developers able to dream up what to put in space,” he says.

A CubeSat today can cost as little as $100,000 to build, and buying a berth on something like a Falcon 9 runs around $250,000. In the aerospace industry, that’s spare change. The low cost also makes losing a CubeSat tolerable. Last March, a rocket carrying NASA’s Glory satellite and three CubeSats crashed into the ocean. “We were bummed,” says Coelho, who watched the failed launch. “But the NASA guys had lost a $400 million satellite.” One of the lost CubeSats was, in fact, a duplicate. In October, its twin made it into space.

HOW TO READY A CUBESAT FOR SPACE
The pre-launch guidelines for CubeSats stipulate that the object must be 10 by 10 by 11 centimeters (the extra centimeter is for the little metal feet) and no heavier than 1.3 kilograms. A satellite must remain fully deactivated—no power of any kind—until it exits its spring-loaded launch container; errant signals could scramble the electronics of the primary payload or the rocket’s guidance system. And teams must submit a detailed plan for de-orbiting—tipping the satellite such that it disintegrates in the atmosphere—within five years of leaving Earth, or risk having their satellite killed before it ever takes off.

In microwaves, that is

So that’s pretty huge. What we generally hear about when we hear about invisibility is some new trick with metamaterials that allows for cloaking in two-dimensions by bending light around some tiny object. This means that from a single side, the object is concealed. Take a walk around the object, and it reappears. Less like a cloak, more like an invisibility curtain.

The UT team used a different method, known as plasmonic cloaking, to conceal an 18-centimeter cylinder from every direction. This is true “cloaking,” as the plasmonic material is actually coated onto the object to be concealed. These plasmonic materials work by doing the opposite of what normal materials do: reflecting light. When you see an object, it’s because light is bouncing off of it and striking your eyes, which send that info on to the brain for processing. Plasmonic materials scatter light instead, producing what is essentially transparency from all angles of observation.

Ready for the attached strings? This has only been demonstrated with microwaves. In the visible range, the cylinder is still plenty visible. But the UT Austin team thinks that making this work in the visible spectrum isn’t outside the realm of possibility. And if they can pull that off, you’ll know it because it will be leading the news here. In previous studies the team has shown that its plasmonic coating can cloak any object regardless of shape or symmetry. If they can sort this out in visible light, we may someday be able render just about anything invisible.

[Institute of Physics]

Researchers have developed a blood sugar test able to measure the tiny amounts of glucose in saliva, enabling diabetics to skip the needle. The test sensor, created by researchers at Brown University, is based on a surface cut with a pattern of nano-meter wide grooves and slits. The slit captures protons while the grooves scatter them, causing the photons to interact with free electrons to form a surface plasmon. The plasmon wave can detect trace differences in lightwaves, by which the researchers can determine the amount of glucose in the sample.

The emWave2 pocket portable monitor guides the user to inner calm by monitoring stress and provided visual cues for peace. Developed by HeartMath, the emWave2 gathers real time data on the breath and heart rate of the user through either an ear clip or thumb button. Once it determines the level of stress, the device uses colored LED lights to provide a guide to synchronize the heart rate with the breath, which relieves tension. emWave2 from HeartMath on Vimeo.

A new compound can create a surface material that provides significantly better grip in both wet and dry environments. Developed by Kraiburg TPE of Germany, the Wet Grip technology is permanent and completely incorporated into the material, so it will not shift over time. The strong grip of the material will be useful in the development of tools that require a firm hand and steady control.

The E. chromi system uses E.Coli to color-code the user's poop, making self-diagnosis quick and easy. To diagnose through E. chromi, the patient must drink a substance laced with E.coli that have been engineered to turn different colors in the presence of different enzymes and other disease indicators. The E.coli's color would be obvious in the feces, indicating the disease. E. chromi could also have applications in creating non-toxic dyes for food and fabrics. E. chromi from Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg on Vimeo.

The Dearman engine runs on liquid air and releases no emissions, potentially adding another alternative energy option to the list. The Dearman operates by the injection of cryogenic air into the natural heat inside the engine. This creates a high pressure gas, which drives the engine and is emitted as cold air. The engine can be built more cheaply than fuel cells or batteries, and liquid air is a very safe fuel source. The Dearman engine technology was recently heralded as valid by Ricardo, an esteemed British engineering firm.

A new 3D muscle imaging system is able to create maps of muscle tissue in 90 seconds, making it possible to capture a muscle contraction. Previous imaging methods took 15 minutes to complete a scan, which is too long for subjects to be able to hold a contraction. The new system, designed by James Wakeling of Simon Fraser University, uses a combination of ultrasound, 3D motion capture technology, and a proprietary data processing software. The new system could be used to create better muscle models, particularly for planning tendon transfers in children in cerebral palsy. Image: Julien Tromeur

Opportunity is nestled for the winter at a rocky outcropping called Greeley Haven, perched at a southerly angle to provide its solar panels with maximum light. Winds have been kind to Opportunity during the past eight years, occasionally brushing its panels clean, but it’s been a while and the panels are pretty obscured. Opportunity’s science team has some winter missions planned, so the rover needs a steady power supply.

One key mission is a radio science campaign to study Mars’ interior, according to rover scientists. The rover’s high-gain antenna will track Earth and scientists will measure the Doppler shift in the radio signal as Mars wobbles. This will give some information about Mars’ core, said Ray Arvidson, deputy principal investigator on the rover mission and a professor at Washington University in St. Louis. The wobble can indicate how much of the core is melted — the way a raw egg wobbles vs. the tight spin of a hardboiled one.

Opportunity will also use its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer to look at a rocky outcropping called Saddleback, determining what it’s made of, and it will also stare at the floor of Endeavour Crater, checking for wind-caused changes, Arvidson said.

Its emission spectrometer no longer works, and its Moessbauer spectrometer, which identifies minerals containing iron, is almost out of cobalt-57 juice, so some of these measurements will take a lot longer than they would with a younger rover.

But Opportunity — and its twin, Spirit, before it fell silent two years ago — have already far surpassed scientists’ greatest expectations. Watch some of the rover team discuss their findings in the video below.

So what happens when that data becomes evidence in a criminal trial, but because of your careful data husbandry, the government can’t access it? You may be required to decrypt it for them, handing over access to personal records that might incriminate you. That’s one vision of the future of personal data under a ruling by a federal judge in Colorado. It’s a case that could bring the Fifth Amendment, and its protection against self-incrimination, firmly into the digital age.

Ramona Fricosu, who lives in rural southeastern Colorado, was indicted a year and a half ago on suspicion of mortgage-related bank fraud. Authorities seized several computers from her home, at least two of which were encrypted, according to her lawyer, Phil Dubois. One encrypted machine was already unlocked when it was seized, its records freely accessible, but another was protected with a password.

Federal prosecutors sought a court order to force Fricosu to decrypt that laptop, allowing them access to documents that they argue could be crucial evidence in their case against her. U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn issued that order Monday.

“If the government is permitted to get orders compelling us to decrypt our drives, we are headed down a very bad road.”“If the government is permitted to get orders compelling us to decrypt our drives, not only to investigate but prosecute us, we are headed down a very bad road,” said Dubois, who is filing an appeal.

Prosecutors contend that failing to compel a defendant to provide access is tantamount to letting them get away with crimes, so long as they use tough enough encryption keys to hide their records. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver said attorneys couldn’t comment on an ongoing matter, but he referred to pleadings in the case, which outline the DOJ’s argument: “Failing to compel Ms. Fricosu amounts to a concession to her and potential criminals (be it in child exploitation, national security, terrorism, financial crimes or drug trafficking cases) that encrypting all inculpatory digital evidence will serve to defeat the efforts of law enforcement officers to obtain such evidence through judicially authorized search warrants, and thus make their prosecution impossible.”

But civil libertarians and information-freedom advocates say this flouts the Fifth Amendment, which protects Americans against unwillingly incriminating themselves.

“The Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination is not necessarily a right to prevent you from giving bad things over to the government, but you are protected from disclosing your thoughts,” said Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed an amicus brief in this case. “We argued that providing access to the contents is the equivalent to her ‘emptying the thoughts of her mind,’ because it would require her password.”

Blackburn’s ruling is pretty limited to the facts of this case, and it also skirts one of the main constitutional questions surrounding cases like this. The order stipulates that if the government finds anything on Fricosu’s computer and uses it against her at trial, they can’t use the act of turning it over against her. That seems to meet the self-incrimination standard in the Fifth Amendment. The ruling compels Fricosu to decrypt the hard drive by Feb. 21, but Dubois said he is seeking a stay of execution on the order while he files a motion with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The computer, a Toshiba laptop, was encrypted with Symantec software called PGP Desktop (for Pretty Good Privacy), Dubois said. (Incidentally, he previously represented PGP’s creator, Phil Zimmermann, several years ago.) Were it protected by the lightweight protection built into Windows, government software and IT workers could have bypassed it and accessed the contents. They must follow certain evidentiary standards, but by and large, the government can do what it needs to do to access records on a seized device. But PGP’s secure whole-disk encryption is another thing entirely, and there’s no way to breach that wall without the key, Dubois said.

He wishes more people would use it, not just to stymie prosecutors, but to protect themselves against fraud and invasion of privacy. “But if we do, the government will more often be confronted with encrypted drives and media in general, and we’re going to see this over and over,” he said. “It’s always the case that the law lags behind technology, and it should ... but it still has to recognize technology at some point, that this is the situation we have now, that’s different from what we had 40 years ago or 20.”

Fakhoury said the ruling’s narrow scope means he doesn’t consider it a watershed moment in information-related jurisprudence. But he agreed he expects to see many more cases like this in the future, as encryption becomes easier and more common. Appellate courts and even the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately have to resolve it, he said.

“It is a case that prosecutors are going to use when arguing you can compel a defendant to do this. I think this is the beginning of a long fight ahead, until it gets resolved,” he said.

Creating and observing super-hot solid plasma could lead to a greater understanding of fusion processes

Researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory used the Linac Coherent Light Source, a rapid-fire X-ray laser, to flash-heat a small piece of aluminum foil and create a solid plasma known as hot dense matter. A team led by Sam Vinko, a postdoc at Oxford University, took the temperature of this matter — 2 million degrees Celsius, or 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit — and the whole process took about a trillionth of a second. The measurements will lead to more accurate models of how hot dense matter forms and behaves. These models could help scientists understand — and maybe someday recreate — the process of nuclear fusion that fuels the sun, according to a news release from SLAC.

Scientists can create plasma from gases using conventional lasers, but you need a super-powerful laser to create a plasma from a solid material. The LCLS’ ultra-short wavelengths of light can penetrate a dense solid and look at it, all at the same time. The LCLS is underground in Palo Alto and covers a distance of a little more than a mile. It can create intense bursts of X-ray radiation more than a billion times brighter than any other laser source.

In a separate study, the LCLS was harnessed to build the first-ever atomic-scale X-ray laser, a feat that could open up a whole new field of atomic imaging.

Since the laser was invented more than 50 years ago, scientists have tried to lase at shorter wavelengths, but it’s difficult to do because shorter wavelengths require faster atom pumping. But free-electron lasers in the X-ray range can produce superfast pulses of intense energy, so this pumping is now feasible. Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used the LCLS to give a pumped-up kick to a cluster of neon atoms. This knocked some electrons up to higher energy states and created a cascade of X-ray emissions — a mini atomic-sized laser.

The atomic laser’s light is much more pure, and its pulses are much shorter, so it could be used to tease out sharp details of atomic-scale interactions and phase changes that would otherwise be impossible to see.

Both papers were published today in Nature.

Previous bone screws were made in mass quantities in a range of different sizes. Although the size variations were large, it did not always properly fit the size requirements of the customer. Using CNC precision machining technologies, bone screws can be designed and manufactured to fit the exact specifications and needs of an individual customer. This reduces damage during surgery and ensures faster recovery times.

One of the main concerns in cleaning up oil spills (and other industrial waste) is the addition of new chemicals into the environment. Dispersants and surfactants — the technical word for soap — can also harm plants and animals, so researchers have long been looking for easy ways to retrieve them or break them down. Some soaps respond to changes in pH, others may break down in sunlight, and so on.

For the first time, scientists have developed a magnetic one, which can conceivably be hoovered up with a magnet after it’s done cleaning. It is made of iron-rich salts that dissolve in water and a host of other inert soapy solutions, the same types found in mouthwash or fabric softener, according to the University of Bristol. The iron creates metallic centers inside the soap particles.

Led by Bristol professor Julian Eastoe, the team tested their soap by placing it in a test tube and pouring in a less-dense organic solvent material on top, so the soap was sandwiched at the bottom. They placed a magnet near the test tube and watched the soap levitate through the less-dense layers and reach the magnet. The team wanted to investigate how this worked, so they examined the iron soap at the Institut Laue-Langevin, a French research facility that uses a neutron beam for imaging experiments. The researchers learned that clumping soap particles brought about their magnetic properties, according to a news release from ILL.

The magnetic soap probably won’t be appearing on supermarket shelves anytime soon, but it’s an interesting breakthrough that could lead to new cleanup solutions for a wide range of industries. A paper on the soap was published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

[via New Scientist]

The Phillips Wake-Up Light alarm clock makes getting out of bed just a little bit easier, gently increasing the light for a more natural alarm. The light is meant to simulate the natural sunrise, slowly increasing its glow over a period of 30 minutes, and can be programmed to include chirping birds or music. It will also dim slowly, easing the user into natural sleep.

Mitsubishi has released their new low friction hull concept, which they claim will reduce CO2 emmisions by 35 percent. The design uses the Mitsubishi Air Lubrication Systems (MALS) to blow small bubbles around the hull of the ship. The bubbles create an air pocket and reduce the amount of the hull actually touching the water, significantly reducing friction. This MALS system will be used on a high-performance hull, already designed for efficiency and CO2 reduction. The first boats to be using the system are planned for completion by 2014, and are being build by Oshima Shipbuilding.

Researchers have developed a 'magnetic soap' that could make cleaning up oil spills more eco-friendly and efficient. Scientists from the University of Bristol created the soap by dissolving the ions of different materials, such as the chloride and bromide ions found in mouthwash. When the soap was placed in a container holding a thick layer of organic solution, introducing a magnet over the surface of the soap caused the soap to rise through the organic solution to reach the magnet, breaking the surface tension. The soap can also be fully recovered to be used again. Different soaps could eventually be fine tuned to tend to an array of cleaning needs.

The Searaser uses a simple design based on a bicycle pump to harness wave energy and generate electricity. The Searaser consists of two buoys with a piston between them. The larger buoy on top floats on the surface of the water, while the smaller buoy is weighted to the ocean floor. The movements of the ocean waves cause the piston to pump seawater to a reservoir on shore, where it is then released downhill to a turbine with produces electricity.

Petzl's new NAO headlamp is being touted as the world's smartest lamp, able to adjust automatically to meet varying light conditions. The NAO includes a sensor able to measure the surrounding light and alter the beam strength and pattern to provide the best illumination while using the least amount of power. Called Reactive Lighting, NAO owners can also customize their own light levels using the Petzl software. The NAO is powered by a rechargeable lithion-ion battery and can accept a pair of AAA batteries if required.

A new method of creating T-rays could lead to the development of more powerful medical scanning handheld devices. Terahertz rays are able to penetrate fabric and plastics, detecting weapons as well as tumors. Teams from Singapore and the UK have increased the efficiency of T-rays by creating an electrode structure with a nano-sized gap, which amplifies the THz wave by 100 times. The resulting image will have a higher resolution, and wavelength can be tuned as needed to create a beam suitable for scanning.

CellCONTROL uses a Bluetooth signal to prevent cell phone use, including texting and apps, while the vehicle is in motion. Developed by Scosche with the parents of teenagers in mind, once the device has been installed in the car it will disable cell phone functions automatically, and will send an email alert if it detects tampering. It will allow cell phone operation if the user is wearing a hands-free headset. CellCONTROL currently works with all operating systems except iDevices, and the app must the installed on the cell phone in order to work.

A new device able to block out the high pitched whine of dentist drills may soon make a visit to the dentist more tolerable. Currently in development by a team at King's College Dental Institute, the device consists of a headset that contains a microphone and a microchip, which use adaptive filtering to block certain sound waves, even when shifting frequencies. The selective blocking of the sound waves allows music from the dentist or a mobile device to reach the patient's ears, while eliminating the sound of the drill. Image credit: Therese Branton/stock.xchng

Researchers have developed a new type of micro-tweezers that are cheaper to build than current versions, and don't need electricity, magnetism, or heat to operate. The tweezers, created by a team from Purdue University, consist of a thimble knob, a silicon tweezer, and a 'graphite interface', which translates the thimble knob motion into the opening and closing of the tweezer's prongs. While conventional tweezer systems require multiple parts, the new design is made of one piece, and is also compact and portable. The tweezers could be used to build new types of MEMS structures or assist in printing protein or chemical dots.

A new eye test device developed especially for children uses cartoons and games to simplify eye exams. Developed by a team from the University of Tennessee Space Institute, the Dynamic Ocular Evaluation System (DOES) is able to screen the child's eyes while they watch a short cartoon or play a video game. The device uses infrared light to gather data, and the assessment is available within one minute. The test also works without the need for eye dilation or verbal responses from the child.

A new technology of creating hyrdophobic down has resulted in a range of waterproof, warm jackets. The down jackets, soon to be released by Brooks Range and Sierra Designs, consist of down that has been coated with a nano-polymer to make it resistant to water, as well as anti-bacterial and anti-microbial. According to the manufacturers, the jackets stay dry up to seven times longer than conventional down. The Brooks Range down, called DownTec, and the Sierra Designs DriDown will appear in jackets in the fall clothing line.

A new contact lens is able to deliver anesthetic over an extended time in uniform doses, providing better comfort for post-eye surgery patients. The lenses, developed by researchers from the University of Florida, are created specifically with laser eye surgery patients in mind. The team found that dosing them with vitamin E extended the time of release of 3 common anesthetics from 2 hours to a whole day. The vitamin E also functions as a barrier, keeping the medication on the eye.

The prefabricated Week'nder house from FlatPak Studio is sturdy enough to stand up to 160 mph winds and earthquakes. The Week'nder also includes high quality roof and wall insulation as well as superior thermal glass, which keeps the home comfortable throughout a range of temperatures. The homeowner can also choose a snow load sturdy roof, termite resistant layer, natural ventilation and in-floor heating. FlatPak homes are created as a cooperative effort between the home buyer and the studio, and can be shipped to a variety of locations.