Articles in the ‘Tech‘ Category
Tech »
Green architecture – Greenwood Close prefabbed houses
Greenwood Close (previous project name was Birchway Eco-community) is the first large-scale affordable housing initiative to achieve Level 5 (with 6 being the highest possible score), Code for Sustainable Homes in London and the South. It was built by Paradigm Housing in partnership with the London Borough of Hillingdon, while… »
Bionics, Tech »
Sea shells inspired a new material made of chalk and polystyrene
A team of materials scientists and chemists from The University of Manchester and The University of Leeds have taken inspiration from sea shells found on the beach to create a composite material from dissimilar ‘ingredients’. They have successfully reinforced calcium carbonate, or chalk, with polystyrene particles that are used to… »
Gadgets, Tech »
Skinput uses sound to turn your body into an input device
In our previous article we wrote about a new material which gives the sense of touch, and here is an invention with a different twist. Since devices with increasingly larger computational power and various capabilities are becoming much smaller, they can be easily carried on our bodies. However, their small… »
Robotics, Tech »
Peratech Limited QTC – new generation of tactile robotic skin?
As robotic devices continue to make inroads to our daily life, their ability to understand the presence and interaction with humans and other objects within a space becomes critically important. Peratech Limited, a company devoted to the development of new materials designed for touch technology, has announced that they have… »
Bionics, Tech »
Mussel biomimicry could lead to new super-strong polymers
We may like to eat mussels steamed in white wine, but we also like to find mussels at the beach. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and collaborators at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Chicago believe they have uncovered the… »
Gadgets, Robotics, Tech »
MIT’s Flyfire – swarms of micro helicopters form 3D images
Flyfire, a project initiated by the SENSEable City Laboratory (the same folks that came up with AIDA) in collaboration with ARES Lab (Aerospace Robotics and Embedded Systems Laboratory) aims to transform any ordinary space into a highly immersive and interactive display environment. Imagine that pixels could fly out of your… »
Robotics, Tech »
Robot equipped with LIDAR and IR camera takes 3-D images
Although we already mentioned the potential of such technology in 3D photography, the researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology and the University of Missouri-Columbia partner developed a remote-controlled robot that is equipped with an infrared camera and LIDAR technology capable of providing detailed images of room interiors even… »
Bionics, Featured, Tech »
Spider hairs biomimicry for hydrophobic surfaces
Although we already wrote about lotus biomimicry for water-repelling surfaces, in this article we’re going to write about a surface with similar properties. Engineering researchers have created what they say is a “nearly perfect hydrophobic interface” by mimicking spiders. By using plastic to reproduce the shape and patterns of the… »
Featured, Tech »
Green architecture – 19 Fourth St. NE carbon neutral renovation
GreenSpur Inc., a design/build firm specializing in carbon-neutral building, and TriCon Construction, which specializes in air sealing and insulating, have worked together to retrofit a Civil War-era home on Capitol Hill to match the LEED Platinum-level standards. Renovating the residence at 19 Fourth St. NE (which dates to 1852) required… »
Featured, Tech »
Bloom Box fuel cell system provides cleaner power
Bloom Energy Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based company committed to changing the way people generate and consume energy, announced today the availability of the Bloom Energy Server, a patented solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology that provides a cleaner, more reliable, and more affordable alternative to both today’s electric grid as… »