Shared: [U.S. Copyright Group caught stealing competitor's code] http://ping.fm/LSHq7

Should I use JPEG or is there something built for the addition of symbols? I already tried the clip and it does not work in Photoshop. I use version 5 and 7 Thank you very much.

Image via TorrentFreak (click image for full size) . In an ironic twist, The USCG seems to have been caught quite red-handed in an attempt to lazily steal code from a competitor's website. They didn't just take bits and pieces, either; the site they had

Over the last year or so a new cottage industry has risen in the patent field; namely a new type of patent troll that seeks to sue companies that are continuing to sell products containing an expired patent number. These so-called false marking cases

'Three Apple patent applications... just became public on USPTO website. From the looks of them, it seems that Apple is now trying to patent mobile app ideas,' Staska reports for Unwired View. 'For now Apple is seeking to get a patent for 3 apps –

Power Channels: Power Components Power Integrations announced that a federal district court has found that Fairchild Semiconductor willfully infringed its patents. Fairchild was found to infringe four of the company's patents following a jury trial in

Week in tech: jailbreaks ahoy, mechamice, comedians, and copyright By Eric Bangeman | Last updated July 31, 2010 12:00 PM We're approaching the dog days of summer in the northern hemisphere, and tech news shows no signs of cooling down. Apple loses big

Using a new electrowetting (EW) technology, researchers can manipulate colored oil droplets stacked on top of each other and produce high-resolution color video. Red, green and blue layers of dyed oil are separated by layers of water. When a low voltage is applied to a water layer, the oil next to is moved to the side and is replaced by water, allowing the color below it to become visible.

Perfect 10, Inc., the former publisher of Perfect 10 Magazine, is back at it with Google over whether Google’s display of certain images of scantily clad women infringes the copyrights owned by Perfect 10. Perfect 10 created and sold pictures of nude

The Advanced Wound Management division of Smith & Nephew, Inc., a subsidiary of Smith & Nephew plc. (LSE: SN; NYSE: SNN) notes the finding of the Patents Court of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales in the patent litigation brought by Kinetic

Innovation for the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law ( Hardcover ) By Michael A. Carrier Buy new : $52.00 32 used and new from $20.00 Customer Rating: First tagged "science" by K`Tetch Customer tags:

Ahwatukee Life: Inventor wary of freeway plans AZ Central.com Hobbies: Songwriting - "Blue Flame" - inventing - Sharper Image Power Tower CD and DVD Motorized Racks - and I am an obsessive football fan. ... and more »

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  Copyright subsists in original literary dramatic musical and artistic works. Concept of originality means the originality in expression of the ideas and not in origin of the ideas. Further, it must originate from the author and labour and skill should

Posted by mincho2008 Saturday, 31 July 2010 Claim Post Resources Inc. (the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has completed the acquisition from Dayton Porcupine Gold Mines Inc. and J. Patrick Sheridan of a 100% interest in 49 patented

  YouTube DMCA Ruling is Good News for Blog Sites by Chip Cooper Copyright © 2010 Chip Cooper The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides a “safe harbor” from strict liability for copyright infringement to online service providers that

Apple starts patenting mobile apps ideasvruz: You can only innovate so much when Apple do it for you. I hate to use “Apple is the new Microsoft” sort of cheap shots. That would be unfair and inaccurate. Frankly, this is something even Microsoft at

The Petsafe Deluxe Bark Control Collar Has Petsafe’s Patented Perfect Bark Technology For The Most Reliable Bark Dection To Control Dog Barking Dog proprietors, most oft than not, recognize their dogs wish their own friends or children. As such, you

Ahwatukee Life: Inventor wary of freeway plans Arizona Republic Hobbies: Songwriting - "Blue Flame" - inventing - Sharper Image Power Tower CD and DVD Motorized Racks - and I am an obsessive football fan. ... and more »

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Child being spoon fed his lunch The delivery of the Inventor Fusion Technology Preview continues to evolve: When we first released the Inventor Fusion Technology Preview, we let you download and install the whole application. As a follow up to this, we

New Delhi, July 31 -- Brabec Christoph, Chan Randolph W, Childers Richard, Mcgahn Daniel Patrick and Oliver Kevin P of Konarka Technologies Inc and Leonhard Kurz GmbH & Co KG, Lowell, USA have developed displays with integrated photovoltaic cells.

The following Intellectual Property cases were filed in July 2010. Stay tuned for updates.Northern District of Indiana1A Smart Start v. Indiana Safe StartSweetwater Sound v. J2 Electronics GroupSouthern District of IndianaBrandt Industries v. Pitonyak

New Delhi, July 31 -- Heyer Klaus, Ambrosi Massimiliano, Eisenlauer Michael, Rietsche Michael, Tischer Michael, Steingass Stephan and Hilden Michael of Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany have developed solenoid valve. Robert Bosch GmbH filed the

New Delhi, July 31 -- Ishizaki Syuji, Kobayashi Takahiro, Tokuda Tetsuya, Sato Shunsuke, Oana Hideaki and Ishifuku Souichi of Sanyo Electric., Ltd., Osaka, Japan have developed 'absorption refrigerating machine'.Sanyo Electric., Ltd. filed the patent

New Delhi, July 31 -- Ramsayer Reiner and Kittel, Sonja of Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany have developed laser beam welding device and method. Robert Bosch GmbH filed the patent application on Jan. 25, 2010. The patent application number is

New Delhi, July 31 -- Baccini Gisulfo of AFCO C V, Parnassustoren, Netherlands has developed drying apparatus and method for silicon-based electronic circuits. AFCO C V filed the patent application on Jan. 21, 2010. The patent application number is

New Delhi, July 31 -- Dr. Juergen Klein, Tanja Woywod, Dr. Stephan Behle and Dr. Owe Rothhaar of Schott AG, Mainz, Germany have developed 'PICVD coating for plastic containers'.Schott AG filed the patent application on Oct. 12, 2007. The patent

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Google App Inventor At the SAAD-NYC event last night I explained how Google App Inventor lets you make apps for Android phones without knowing how to program. It was beta tested "mainly in schools with groups that included sixth graders, high school

Pfizer Inc,'s erectile dysfunction drug Viagra finds an alternative use, could be used to treat a rare lung disorder among children. < The lung disorder is called pulmonary arterial hypertension a condition that increases the blood pressure in the

There are millions of tech enthusiasts in the world who would want to fiddle with their electronic gadgets. Most companies would allow some amount of tweaking on the gadgets their customers buy, but not Apple. The company controls the hardware and

- M•CAM, Inc. released its Patently Obvious™ report today on the patent holdings of Thomson Licensing. On July 23, 2010, Thomson Licensing SAS, a subsidiary of Technicolor SA, formerly Thomson Multimedia, filed a lawsuit against three Hon Hai

- General Patent Corporation (GPC) announced today that it obtained a judgment of past damages, attorneys' fees and pre-judgment interest in its lawsuit against C-One Technology Corporation another victory in its patent enforcement campaign on behalf of

San Antonio's Kinetic Concepts Inc. obtained an injunction against Smith & Nephew Inc. prohibiting the infringement of two KCI patents relating to negative-pressure wound therapy. The patent court in the United Kingdom that issued the injunction,

July 30 (BusinessDesk) – Pacific Edge Biotechnology Ltd., the cancer diagnosis firm, has a “pipeline of new products coming through” after winning New Zealand patents for gastric cancer detection and melanoma prognostic technology, said its chief

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(Los Angeles Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The U.S. Copyright Office trimmed the power of copyright holders in a small but meaningful way this week, giving documentarians, amateur video remixers and iPhone users more

ADC (NASDAQ: ADCT) says that its patent infringement suit against AFL Telecommunications has been settled. Per an agreement, ADC has added AFL as another licensee to certain patents pertaining to ADCs fiber-to-the-premises (FTTX) technology. ADCs patent

house moving The Trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) that was adopted in 1994 in Uruguay during the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994. The TRIPS is been followed by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The

From LegalTimes: The legislation, which now goes to the president, stems from the rather unusual budget system for the PTO and the annual problems that system creates. The office is fully financed by user fees. Every year it estimates the amount of fees

Stretching graphene to form nanobubbles causes electrons to behave as if they were subject to huge magnetic fields. This is a completely new effect. Formerly the record for a huge magnetic field was 85 tesla (a few thousands of a second) - but the graphene study field was sustained for 300 tesla.

This lightweight aerodynamic wind-driven cart has shattered world records by traveling 2.8 times faster than the wind that propelled it. The wheels spin the wind turbine, which is boosted from the wind, which transfers power back to the wheels.

Researchers have figured out how to get rabbits to regrow their bones and joints with artificial implants. The implants are like scaffolds and give damaged bones a blueprint to grow into. Rabbits were able to regrow their joints and move around normally in just a few weeks.

One thing that may go unnoticed when you look at static images of IKAROS is that the sail rotates as the spacecraft glides along, collecting photons from sunlight as it goes to keep its forward momentum. IKAROS usually corrects its attitude via onboard thrusters attached to its main body, but if long-term space sailing is to become reality mission handlers need a way to create a disparity between the thrust on one part of the sail’s surface versus the rest of the sail.

To do this, JAXA researchers built eight blocks of thin liquid crystal panels into the edges of the solar sail, two on each edge. The panels are designed to be operated independently, so the LCDs can be activated on any part of the sail while on other parts they remain off. When activated, the LCDs reflect the incoming photons straight back, producing increased forward thrust; when deactivated, the incoming light is diffused, decreasing pressure on that portion of the sail.

In this way, mission controllers can keep sunlight pressure on a certain fixed spot by activating and deactivating LCDs even as the sail spins, causing a gradual shift in the craft’s attitude. The experiment continues, but for now it seems that JAXA engineers have figured out how to control the direction of a solar sailing spacecraft without using up precious propellant. That brings us one step closer to serious deep space travel beyond the boundaries imposed on conventional spacecraft by their limited fuel capacities.

[JAXA]

The signal degradation inherent in sending data across copper wires can be circumvented by Intel's breakthrough that uses light beams instead of electrons to carry data in and around computers. The silicon-based optical data connections with integrated lasers can move data as speeds of up to 50 gigabits per second - the equivalent of moving an entire HD movie every second.

Would you eat a sandwich that looks like this? No, me either. And the designers of this ingenious little bag hope it will ward off those office thieves that just can't keep their hands off some one else's lunch. A perfectly good sandwich looks like something that crawled out from the back of the fridge when slipped into these nifty camouflage bags.

Wikipedia is arguably the largest repository of knowledge on the Internet. But what if you can't access it? The Humane Reader is a $20 8-bit computer, that makes an offline version of Wikipedia available to people in developing countries who cannot afford net access, by allowing them to view it through their TVs.

Like many of its counterparts, the individual RTM snake can slither into tight spaces, climb impassible obstacles, or swim where soldiers cannot, all the while beaming back images to the soldier controlling it by remote. Each snake is equipped with a sensor array, not least of which is a LIDAR scanner that lets it render 3-D depictions of objects, landscapes, or faces.

But the snakes also work in groups, acting more like fingers or the tentacles of an octopus. Arranging several of them on a circular base creates an array that can gingerly pick up, rotate, and inspect an IED or possibly even open a door -- a seemingly simple task that falls outside the capabilities of most robotic platforms. Its touch sensitivity allows it to do delicate work -- you don't want to squeeze a live munition, for instance -- yet in tandem the snakes could be reasonably strong.

The developmental hardware that the RTM program is currently working with spun out of research into snakebots conducted in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute and consists of three 9.5-inch tentacles and a large screen laptop for the operator. The master program runs advanced algorithms that are able to manipulate the motors in each link of the snakes to work in concert as though they belong to single organism. But the system is completely scalable, so a small custom array could be designed to give the Army's Warrior robot system a more dexterous "hand," while larger tentacle arrays could be fitted to larger vehicles or robots.

[U.S. Army via CNET]

Inspired, of course, by the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- which as of this writing appears to still be contained -- the new X Challenge aims to provide impetus for both venture capital and innovative talent gravitate toward next-gen oil cleanup technology.

"The devastating impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will last for years and it is inevitable that future spills will occur -- both from wells and from transport tankers," stated X-Prize Chairman Dr. Peter Diamandis at this morning's official announcement of the prize in Washington, D.C.

The challenge will be a two-stage affair. Phase one calls for those vying for the prize to put their technical approaches to the problem before a panel of judges that will evaluate them for feasibility, cost, scalability, environmental impact, and the degree to which the technology improves over current methods like skimming and booms.

Phase two, of course, is the demonstration of the technology in action. Competitors won't actually take their ideas to the Gulf for testing -- all evaluations will take place at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility (OHSMETT) in New Jersey. But with any luck some of that technology will make it to the field eventually. The team with the single best technology will receive a $1 million prize purse, with second and third place taking home $300,000 and $100,000 respectively.

The prize's namesake and benefactor, Wendy Schmidt, is the wife of Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the philanthropic force behind a handful of charitable foundations, including the Schmidt Marine Science Research Institute, which she co-founded with her husband.

The Fengyun satellite that China blew up in 2007 is space enemy number one

This month, NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office released data naming the top ten incidents contributing to the space junk problem. The Fengyun fiasco is hands down the largest single contributor to the growing space junk crisis. NASA has identified some 19,000 objects larger than four inches that are running loose in orbit at extremely high rates of speed just waiting for a functioning satellite, a spacecraft, or the ISS to get in their paths. Of those, 2,841 are thought to have come from the destruction of Fengyun 1C.

Most of the garbage hurtling through space belongs to China and the Soviet Union, the report says, though Western commercial interests and space agencies also shoulder their shares of the blame. Some of the blame can even be divvied up; last year an operational Iridium communications satellite collided with a spent Russian Cosmos spacecraft, spawning nearly 2,000 pieces of smaller debris.

But Europe could soon take the top spot on the space junk tally. When the European Space Agency's Envisat Earth observation satellite goes defunct in three years, the ESA will be the proud owner of the largest and most dangerous piece of junk out there: a nearly 9-ton, $2.9 billion piece of orbiting detritus that won't be pulled into Earth's atmosphere for 150 years. The danger isn't that the massive satellite might slam into the ISS -- the chances of that are quite slim. But if it collides with another large piece of junk at high speed -- say, a rocket stage or another retired satellite -- the impact could release 10 times as much junk as the Iridium-Cosmos smash up.

With so much junk up there, the DoD has even warned of a scenario in which such a massive collision could trigger a cataclysmic chain reaction in which one impact begets another and then another until entire orbits are unusable. Unlikely, sure, but some insist it's possible. The good news is we're working on the problem. Northrop Grumman is working with DARPA to develop a ground-based radar system to help track space debris from the ground, and the U.S. Air Force is planning to launch a Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite in the near future that will help direct traffic in space. Assuming, of course, a piece of orbiting junk doesn't knock it clean out of the sky.

[Space, Network World, Voice of Russia]

An experimental new video game controller just revealed at this week’s SIGGRAPH conference includes a pair of thermoelectric panels on each side of a controller. Those surfaces heat or cool rapidly in reflection of what’s happening in the game, offering players a new sensory connection to what’s happening on the screen.

The controller temperature doesn’t swing wildly – less than 10 degrees in either direction in just five seconds – but apparently a small sensation is all that’s needed to add a rich layer of sensory experience to a virtual reality environment. No word on whether any major console makers are eyeballing such technology, but the idea is pretty cool. After all, remember how thrilling it was when our gaming peripherals started vibrating?

[Technology Review]

Researchers have discovered how to trigger ice formation at room temperature by manipulating the mechanisms by which water condenses. Possible uses? Artificial snowmaking, more efficient ice skating rinks, better freezer technology.

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. Learn more about it in this video.

Airport security beware: this elegant looking puzzle actually re-assembles into a gun. The Intimidator puzzle disassembles into a myriad of pieces made from six different metals, that when put together create a gun, bullets, sight, laser sight, canister for black powder pellets, a ramrod tool for loading bullets and more.

Scientists have figured out how to make bandages with built-in-bacteria barriers, a big step up in the fight against infection. The key is a single atom-thick sheet of graphene, which it turns out bacteria have difficulty colonizing on, while at the same time leaving human cells virtually unaffected. The new nano-material could also have uses in food packaging or to ward off foot odor in shoes.

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."

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]

Originally used by astronauts, these odor and bacteria-absorbing underwear are now available to the public. The nanotechnology-enhanced drawers can actually neutralize the smell from four liters of sweat. The eucalyptus-infused fabric is lightweight, antibacterial, antistatic, flame-resistant and quick drying. So who needs a drawer full of undies when one pair will last you a month? And just think of all the wash water you will save!

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]

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]

Researchers have created a new virtual reality device that enables viewers to see and "feel" 3D images. The Heads-Up Virtual Reality device (HUVR) combines a consumer 3D HDTV panel and a touch feedback device. Using such a device, a physician, for example, could "feel" a defect in the brain, rather than just seeing it.

The Aeros robot can be deployed by airplane to the site of an oil spill and purify up to 3,000 gallons of water a minute. Aeros uses a system of inflatable booms to cordon off the oil and then uses centrifuge-like oil/water separators which capture the separated oil into bladders for use. One robot can clean up to 3,000 gallons of oil/water per minute, which would clean up a major spill in just a few days.

Israeli researchers have developed a device that converts nasal pressure into electrical signals that enable paraplegics to use an electric wheelchair, or patients with locked-in syndrome to write messages. The "sniff controller" looks similar to the oxygen feeds you see in patients noses. Anyone who has enough control over their soft palate to be able to vary the speed and volume of their "sniffs," can now access a new degree of freedom. It can take as little as 15 minutes for a paraplegic to become proficient in driving a wheelchair using the sniff controller.

Now you can know the exact nutritional of nearly 2,000 foods just by placing them on this digital food scale. You can tally the precise amount of calories, fat, carbs, sugar, fiber or sodium, as you are cooking, by placing each ingredient in turn on the scale. What a boon to dieters!

So why *DO* wind turbines work on a vertical axis? You, know, like a windmill. the Aerogenerator X works on a vertical axis and produces three times the megawatts as a traditional windmill. Deployed at sea, the Aerogenerator X has a blade span of more than 900 feet and can crank out ten megawatts of electricity. The prototype could become a reality by 2013.

The Flowboard has 14 wheels, instead of a skateboard's 4, giving it handling features that mimic a snowboard. A skateboard can lean up to 25 degrees, while the Flowboard allows you to carve at 45 degrees.

Sony is pursuing technology that would let you view two different programs on the same TV at the same time, so you could watch reality TV on channel 5 at the same time your kids watch cartoons on channel 12. Or kids and parents could watch the same show, with two different levels of censoring. The technology employs the same shuttering glasses as 3D TVs, but instead of displaying a right and left image, it displays two completely different images.

General Compression is developing a new technology for storing energy from wind power using compressed air. Their 2 MW compressor/expander absorbs and releases energy from conventional wind farms. When the wind blows too hard, the energy is stored as compressed air. When there is no wind, the compressed air is expanded to generate power. And, no fuel is used in this process.

AIRO is a rescue device that can be deployed from helicopters to aid recovery of survivors of sea accidents. Survivors can easily get into the large ring, which then has inflatable bags which give maximum support to the swimmers. The ring can be used in rough or calm seas and its LED spotlights make it easy for swimmers to find. Once secured, the survivor is easily lifted into the helicopter.