Brain reader technology

BRAIN ... the most exclamatory thing in the world,,,,, and the source of all invention

.Behind the mask is a sensor that touches the user's forehead and reads the brain's electrical signals, then sends them to a wireless receiver inside the saber, which lights up when the user is concentrating. The player maintains focus by channeling thoughts on any fixed mental image, or thinking specifically about keeping the light sword on. When the mind wanders, the wand goes dark.

A convincing twin of Darth Vader stalks the beige cubicles of a Silicon Valley office, complete with ominous black mask, cape and light saber. But this is no chintzy Halloween costume. It's a prototype, years in the making, of a toy that incorporates brain wave-reading technology

Engineers at NeuroSky Inc. have big plans for brain wave-reading toys and video games. They say the simple Darth Vader game - a relatively crude biofeedback device cloaked in gimmicky garb - portends the coming of more sophisticated devices that could revolutionize the way people play.

Technology from NeuroSky and other startups could make video games more mentally stimulating and realistic. It could even enable players to control video game characters or avatars in virtual worlds with nothing but their thoughts.

Adding biofeedback to "Tiger Woods PGA Tour," for instance, could mean that only those players who muster Zen-like concentration could nail a put. In the popular action game "Grand Theft Auto," players who become nervous or frightened would have worse aim than those who remain relaxed and focused.

NeuroSky's prototype measures a person's baseline brain-wave activity, including signals that relate to concentration, relaxation and anxiety. The technology ranks performance in each category on a scale of 1 to 100, and the numbers change as a person thinks about relaxing images, focuses intently, or gets kicked, interrupted or otherwise distracted.

The technology is similar to more sensitive, expensive equipment that athletes use to achieve peak performance. Koo Hyoung Lee, a NeuroSky co-founder from South Korea, used biofeedback to improve concentration and relaxation techniques for members of his country's Olympic archery team.

"Most physical games are really mental games," said Lee, also chief technology officer at San Jose-based NeuroSky, a 12-employee company founded in 1999. "You must maintain attention at very high levels to succeed. This technology makes toys and video games more lifelike."

Boosters say toys with even the most basic brain wave-reading technology - scheduled to debut later this year - could boost mental focus and help kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism and mood disorders.

But scientific research is scant. Even if the devices work as promised, some question whether people who use biofeedback devices will be able to replicate their relaxed or focused states in real life, when they're not attached to equipment in front of their television or computer.

Elkhonon Goldberg, clinical professor of neurology at New York University, said the toys might catch on in a society obsessed with optimizing performance - but he was skeptical they'd reduce the severity of major behavioral disorders.

"These techniques are used usually in clinical contexts. The gaming companies are trying to push the envelope," said Goldberg, author of "The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older." "You can use computers to improve the cognitive abilities, but it's an art."

It's also unclear whether consumers, particularly American kids, want mentally taxing games.

"It's hard to tell whether playing games with biofeedback is more fun - the company executives say that, but I don't know if I believe them," said Ben Sawyer, director of the Games for Health Project, a division of the Serious Games Initiative. The think tank focuses in part on how to make computer games more educational, not merely pastimes for kids with dexterous thumbs.

The basis of many brain wave-reading games is electroencephalography, or EEG, the measurement of the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp. EEG has been a mainstay of psychiatry for decades.

An EEG headset in a research hospital may have 100 or more electrodes that attach to the scalp with a conductive gel. It could cost tens of thousands of dollars.

But the price and size of EEG hardware is shrinking. NeuroSky's "dry-active" sensors don't require gel, are the size of a thumbnail, and could be put into a headset that retails for as little as $20, said NeuroSky CEO Stanley Yang.

Yang is secretive about his company's product lineup because of a nondisclosure agreement with the manufacturer. But he said an international toy manufacturer plans to unveil an inexpensive gizmo with an embedded NeuroSky biosensor at the Japan Toy Association's trade show in late June. A U.S. version is scheduled to debut at the American International Fall Toy Show in October.

"Whatever we sell, it will work on 100 percent or almost 100 percent of people out there, no matter what the condition, temperature, indoor or outdoors," Yang said. "We aim for wearable technology that everyone can put on and go without failure, as easy as the iPod."

Researchers at NeuroSky and other startups are also building prototypes of toys that use electromyography (EMG), which records twitches and other muscular movements, and electrooculography (EOG), which measures changes in the retina.

While NeuroSky's headset has one electrode, Emotiv Systems Inc. has developed a gel-free headset with 18 sensors. Besides monitoring basic changes in mood and focus, Emotiv's bulkier headset detects brain waves indicating smiles, blinks, laughter, even conscious thoughts and unconscious emotions. Players could kick or punch their video game opponent - without a joystick or mouse.

"It fulfills the fantasy of telekinesis," said Tan Le, co-founder and president of San Francisco-based Emotiv.

The 30-person company hopes to begin selling a consumer headset next year, but executives would not speculate on price. A prototype hooks up to gaming consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.

Le, a 29-year-old Australian woman, said the company decided in 2004 to target gamers because they would generate the most revenue - but eventually Emotive will build equipment for clinical use. The technology could enable paralyzed people to "move" in virtual realty; people with obsessive-compulsive disorders could measure their anxiety levels, then adjust medication accordingly.

The husband-and-wife team behind CyberLearning Technology LLC took the opposite approach. The San Marcos-based startup targets doctors, therapists and parents of adolescents with autism, impulse control problems and other pervasive developmental disorders.

CyberLearning is already selling the SmartBrain Technologies system for the original PlayStation, PS2 and original Xbox, and it will soon work with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The EEG- and EMG-based biofeedback system costs about $600, not including the game console or video games.

Kids who play the race car video game "Gran Turismo" with the SmartBrain system can only reach maximum speed when they're focused. If attention wanes or players become impulsive or anxious, cars slow to a chug.

CyberLearning has sold more than 1,500 systems since early 2005. The company hopes to reach adolescents already being treated for behavior disorders. But co-founder Lindsay Greco said the budding niche is unpredictable.

"Our biggest struggle is to find the target market," said Greco, who has run treatment programs for children with attention difficulties since the 1980s. "We're finding that parents are using this to improve their own recall and focus. We have executives who use it to improve their memory, even their golf."

Technorati : Brain reader

Radio signal heard from deep space

The huge burst of energy, which has startled scientists with its strength, is thought to have originated over 500 mega-parsecs or one-and-a-half billion light years from earth.

A TEAM of American astronomers has detected a huge burst of radio energy from deep space while using the Parkes radio telescope in NSW

Professor Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University in Melbourne said that the burst was unusual as this kind of activity was usually very faint at such extreme distances.

"Normally the kind of cosmic activity we're looking for at this distance would be very faint but this was so bright that it saturated the equipment," he said in a statement.

The burst of energy, which lasted for only five milliseconds, was so strong that when it was first detected six years ago it was dismissed as man-made interference.

The significance of the burst was discovered by David Narkevik, an undergraduate from West Viginia University, when he re-analysed the six-year-old data collected at Parkes.

Lead researcher Assistant Professor Duncan Lorimer from West Virginia University said that the burst may have been a result of two stars colliding or the death of a black hole.

"The burst may have been produced by an exotic event such as the collision of two neutron stars or be the last gasp of a black hole as it evaporates completely," he said.

The amount of energy thrown out by the burst was 10exp33 joules or the equivalent to the amount of energy that around 185.3 billion average Australian homes would use in a year.

Technorati : Radio signal

Teen scientists rev their motors

In an industry where going green seems logical an innovative electric vehicle comes along that rides like a motorcycle and produces zero emissions. Tango: Tomorrow's Transportation Solution is the vision of Ben Gulak and Jason Morrow.

"We wanted to simulate it as close to an actual sports bike as possible, like a speed bike," said Gulak an 18-year-old high school student from Chisholm Collegiate in Oakville, Ont. "So, that starts with the look alone. When you sit on it, it feels just like a bike."

Gulak and Morrow were among sixteen teen scientists who represented Team Canada in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the annual Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) from May 13-19. A couple of days prior to Intel ISEF Team Canada showcased its projects at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. The Tango was on display as an electric personal transportation vehicle at the event.

Morrow also an 18-year-old high school student, from Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton, Ont., says it's very easy to ride the Tango.

"You sit on it just like the R6 (Yamaha) sports bike," he said, "…and to drive forward just lean forward and it drives right under you, and if you want to turn just lean to one side and the suspension takes care of it and you lean and that's it."

The Tango is designed with two side-by-side wheels and an R6 Yamaha frame with hand machined parts that the motorcycle body is made of.

As far as what it's made of on the inside, it too has electronic technology used in everyday appliances like the Nintendo Wii uses to detect angle and motions said Gulak.

"Accelerometers," he said. "That's what gives the relative position of the bike relative to the ground so the driver leans forward and gives it angle and the speed at which he's leaning forward. And that's what we use to control the wheels."

As the rider leans over the gas tank like on a sports bike the Tango still distributes the majority of the weight along the wheels. As you're turning you depend on your weight as you lean to one side and to the other side, which is automatically detected by the system the wheels have in place.

"The wheels have got an actuating system so if you lean to your right one wheel will rise up and the whole bike will tilt over to that side," Gulak said. "So you still experience high g turns like on a regular bike."

The Tango can reach top speeds of 40 miles per hour and Morrow claims it is more practical than the Segway or the embryo from Bombardier.

"But we use a different bouncing technology than them (segway)," he said. "Just over the top of the wheels we can attain higher speeds. Our design is much better (than the embryo). It's two wheels and it's a lot more maneuverable."

Three top winners of the Intel ISEF were awarded $50,000 college scholarships. From a selection of more than 1,500 young scientists from 51 countries, regions and territories Dayan Li of Greenbelt, Md., Philip Streich of Platteville, Wis., and Dmitry Vaintrob of Eugene, Ore., won the three Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards.

In regards to putting the Tango out on the market, Morrow believes it can benefit society, which is ultimately their goal. They also have markets like Mexico City, Shanghai, and a lot of cities in China and India in mind because the Tango is compact and agile which is ideal in these crowded cities he said.

"Through events like this, publicity, we hope to get investors and what not that believe in our project and that'll take it to next level I guess," Morrow said. "And definitely car manufacturers of course, people that have the technology of mass production already."

Technorati : Teen, motors, rev, scientists

Sputnik changed everything: global TV, weather forecasts, 24-7 communications

This first official picture of the Soviet satellite Sputnik I was issued in Moscow October 9, 1957, showing the satellite with its four antennas resting on a pedestal.

With a series of small beeps from a spiky globe 50 years ago Thursday, the world shrank and humanity's view of Earth and the cosmos expanded.

Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, was launched by the Soviets and circled the globe Oct. 4, 1957. The Space Age was born. And what followed were changes to everyday life that people now take for granted.

What we see on television, how we communicate with each other, and how we pay for what we buy have all changed with the birth of satellites.

Communications satellites helped bring wars and celebrations from thousands of kilometres away into our living rooms. When we go outside, weather satellites show us whether we need to carry an umbrella or flee a hurricane. And global positioning system satellites even keep us from getting lost on unfamiliar streets.

Sputnik gave birth to more than mere technology. The threat of a Soviet-dominated space spurred the U.S. government to increase tenfold money spent on science, education and research. Satellite pictures of Earth inspired an embryonic environmental movement.

Spy and communications satellites also kept the world at relative peace, experts say. Just last week, scientists used commercial satellite images to document human rights violations in Myanmar.

When Sputnik was launched, the public thought a space future would consist of gigantic space stations and colonies on the moon and other planets. The fear was warfare in space raining down on Earth.

"The reality is that the things we expected did not come to pass, and the things that we did not fathom changed our lives in so many ways that we cannot even envision a life that's different at this point," said Roger Launius, senior curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

America got a taste of that in May 1998. Just one communications satellite malfunctioned. More than 30 million pagers went silent. Credit card payment approvals didn't work. National Public Radio and CNN's Airport Television Network went off the air in some places.

"The civilization we live in today is as different from the one that we lived in the mid-1950s as the mid-1950s were from the American revolution," said Howard McCurdy, an American University public policy professor. "It's hard to imagine these things happening without space. I guess I could have a computer, but I wouldn't be able to get on the Internet."

All thanks to an 83-kilogram metal ball with spikes shot into space by a country that doesn't exist anymore.

Because Sputnik was launched by a centralized communist government, people feared that space would help totalitarianism, said Georgia Tech University history professor Steve Usselman.

However, satellites "clearly undermined state authority, particularly national authority," Usselman said. "It's taken us in exactly the opposite direction."

As satellites went commercial, they spurred on financial markets, opened up information to people across the globe - which is not what centralized governments want, Usselman said.

Spy satellites also enabled countries to keep an eye on their enemies.

"Except for crazy guys in airplanes, nobody can pull off a sneak attack," McCurdy said. "I think it made the world much less dangerous than it was in 1956."

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967 said that it was thanks to satellites that "we know how many missiles the enemy has and, it turned out, our guesses were way off. We were doing things we didn't need to do. We were building things we didn't need to build. We were harbouring fears we didn't need to harbour."

Weather satellites now give people an accurate view of threats from nature, as well as vastly improved everyday forecasts, said Keith Seitter of the American Meteorological Society. They save lives when hurricanes approach, giving days of notice instead of hours.

"It's very hard to be surprised these days with the kind of data we have available with satellites," Seitter said. "Certainly 50 years ago that wasn't the case."

In television, satellite communications let upstart networks like HBO, CNN and ESPN develop and feed cable systems via satellite. That brought world events live to people around the globe. But it also allowed people to isolate themselves with niche channels, Usselman said.

Henry Lambright, a professor at Syracuse University, said satellites have had practical benefits, but "the more important benefits are looking at Earth as a whole and looking outward at Earth in the cosmos."

Initial pictures of Earth from space, especially Apollo images from the moon, were embraced by an environmental movement to show how fragile the planet is.

The orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and others have given people views of the universe that not only reach incredibly far away, but billions of years back in time.

"The launch of Sputnik actually triggered heightened interest among the American people, not only in space, but in science, mathematics and education," said White House science adviser John Marburger. "It also opened up people's eyes to the possibility that space could actually be used for something."

Technorati : 24-7, Sputnik, TV, changed, communications, everything:, forecasts, global, weather

Sun's 'twin' an ideal hunting ground for alien life

Astronomers have found the most Sun-like star yet, and they say it is an ideal place to hunt for alien civilisations.

The star, called HIP 56948, lies a little more than 200 light years from Earth. Its size, mass, temperature, and chemical makeup are all so similar to the Sun's that no measurable differences could be found in high-resolution observations made by the 2.7-metre telescope at the McDonald Observatory in Texas, US.

The analysis was carried out by Jorge Melendez of Mount Stromlo Observatory in Weston Creek, Australia, and Ivan Ramirez of the University of Texas in Austin, US.

Other very Sun-like stars have previously been identified, including 18 Scorpii, HD 98618, and HIP 100963. But those three stars have several times more lithium than the Sun, while HIP 56948 is almost identical to the Sun in this respect as well, making it an even closer match.

That similarity might be important, since some studies have suggested that stars with less lithium are less active, experiencing fewer outbursts, or flares, that can bathe planets in deadly radiation, says Ramirez. If that is borne out by further observations, this star probably has a higher chance of harbouring life than other solar doppelgangers, he says.

Sun-like stars are considered good hunting ground for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), says Margaret Turnbull of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, US. She helped draw up an existing list of about 17,000 high-priority targets for SETI called HabCat.

Starting point
"We don't know that Sun-like stars are necessarily the 'best' for intelligent life, but they are certainly a decent starting point given that we know of at least one civilisation around such a star," she told New Scientist.

Peter Backus of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, US, who is heading the institute's upcoming search for alien life with the new Allen Telescope Array, says the Sun's newly identified twin will be targeted in the search, and was already on the HabCat list.

"It's on the list, but I don't think it will be given any special treatment," he told New Scientist. "It's still a matter of speculation on just what range of stars could host habitable planets. We will eventually get around to observing all of the stars [on the list]."

Astronomers at McDonald Observatory have already started looking for planets around HIP 56948, and while observations continue, they have so far ruled out any giant planets in tight orbits around the star - so-called 'hot Jupiters', which would be the easiest planets to spot.

More time
The star does differ in one way from the Sun - it appears to be about 1 billion years older. That should make it all the more attractive for SETI, Ramirez says, because older stars have had more time to produce intelligent civilisations. "Assuming that these stars have planets and those planets have life, then you have given more time for that life to evolve," he says.

Although astronomers hope to observe a radio signal from a civilisation around the star, its distance of over 200 light years from Earth means none of our radio or television signals would have had time to reach it yet, he says. "If there is life there and intelligent life, then they haven't heard from us yet."

The Allen Telescope Array will likely begin observations in November 2007, Backus says, although it will initially be looking at broad swathes of the sky rather than focusing on individual stars in the catalogue.

Technorati : 'twin', Sun's, alien, ground, hunting, ideal, life

Giant telescope in race to become world's largest

The Giant Magellan Telescope will use seven 8.4-metre mirrors arranged into a 'super dish' with an effective aperture of 24.5 metres (Illustration: Giant Magellan Telescope/Carnegie Observatories)

The Giant Magellan Telescope, which is in a race to become the world's largest telescope, will be built in central Chile, officials announced on Thursday. Set to be completed in 2016, the GMT will be able to produce images up to 10 times as sharp as the Hubble Space Telescope.

After considering various sites in northern Chile, telescope officials decided to build the GMT in central Chile at the mountaintop site of Las Campanas Observatory, the existing home of the twin 6.5-metre Magellan Telescopes. The observatory is located in Chile's Atacama Desert and boasts a dry climate, dark skies and a stable atmosphere - all key conditions for making good astronomical observations.

"Excellent science has come from Las Campanas for several decades," says Wendy Freedman, head of the GMT Board and director of the Carnegie Observatories, which operates Las Campanas. "The superb astronomical quality of the site is a significant contributor to this success."

The GMT will use seven 8.4-metre primary mirrors that will be arranged into a single "super dish" with one mirror at the centre and the other six curved around it like petals. Such "off-axis" mirrors have never been made as large as this. The design makes the telescope's vision keener than it would be if all seven mirrors remained separate, and it will be able to resolve details about 10 times sharper than Hubble.

'New age'
The GMT will have an effective aperture of 24.5 metres, much larger than the twin 10-metre Keck telescopes in Hawaii, US, which are currently the world's largest optical telescopes. "We hope to have four of the . . . mirrors in the telescope mount by the year 2013, at which time this would be the world's largest telescope," Freedman told New Scientist. The GMT is scheduled to be finished by 2016.

But it's not certain whether - or how long - the GMT would actually hold the title, since even larger telescopes are currently being planned for the next decade, such as the Thirty Meter Telescope, and a 42-metre telescope called the European Extremely Large Telescope.

"It's not for sure what order these will all be built in," says Arnold Phifer, director of external affairs at the Carnegie Observatories. "[But] it is larger than any telescope ever built."

Charles Alcock, director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, a member of the GMT consortium, says these giant eyes on the sky will usher in "a new age of astronomical exploration. As telescopes get larger, we are able to see fainter, farther and with more clarity than ever before".

High polish
Astronomers hope to study extrasolar planetary systems, the formation of stars, galaxies and black holes and the nature of dark matter and dark energy with the telescope.

The GMT's first mirror - made from 18 tonnes of borosilicate glass made from sand gathered in Florida, US - was cast at the University of Arizona's famed Mirror Laboratory in 2005.

Telescope officials decided to build one of the six off-axis mirrors first, since they - unlike the central mirror - cannot be perfectly symmetric in their concavity. "The six are higher and thicker on the outside [of the super dish] and narrower and thinner on the inside," says Phifer. "We wanted to prove to the astronomical community and potential funders that we're sure we know all the parameters of [how to build it]."

That first mirror is now being polished - a painstaking process that is likely to take until 2009. When it is completed, its surface will be extremely smooth, containing bumps or dips no taller than 25 nanometres.

The entire project is estimated to cost $550 million, and so far about $25 million to $35 million has been raised, Phifer says.

Technorati : Giant, become, largest, race, telescope, world's

Colors Of Alien Plants

Artist's concept of what plants might look like on different planets. Image credit: Caltech/Doug Cummings

In May 2007, Victoria Meadows, Principal Investigator for the Virtual Planetary Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology's Spitzer Science Center, presented a lecture at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In part five of this six-part edited series, she explores the impact plants have on planets, and how the type of star providing sunshine may affect the color of the alien equivalent of bushes, trees, and blades of grass.
"We're studying the co-evolution of photosynthesis with the atmosphere on extrasolar worlds. Our studies determined we had a good chance of predicting the range of colors of plants on other worlds that orbit different types of stars. Studying the co-evolution of photosynthesis with its atmosphere means we were trying to determine whether plants are smart enough to work out where the best places are to get radiation for photosynthesis.

If we can figure out that they are smart enough, and if we can figure out what rules they use to choose the pigments for photosynthesis, we wondered if we could apply those rules to other planets around other stars. Could we use them to predict where the photosynthetic pigments are going to be, and what color these plants are going to be?

A colleague of mine, Nancy Kiang, and a bunch of her biologist friends went through all of the literature and found every pigment life uses for photosynthesis on this planet. And by pigment, I mean a particular type of molecule that's specifically tuned to take in a particular type of light and turn that into food for the plant.

She discovered, as others have done, that plants seem to be spectacularly inefficient. They throw away a large fraction of that lovely green light - we get more green light coming in from the sun than any other color that's available to us.

In fact, if you look at the energy spectrum of light that hits the surface of the planet, there's also more green light in the energy spectrum. So botanists and others had wondered for quite some time, why are plants green? Because, by being green, it means they're reflecting the green light and not using it. But if there's more green light than anything else, why would they not use it and be as efficient as they possibly could be? Why do plants absorb red and blue light but not green?

She used our models to plot out the radiation that's coming down on the surface of our planet. When we model those spectra that show you what a planet would look like through a telescope, at the same time we model what the spectrum of the star would look like to a microbe sitting on the surface. So she used the spectrum of the star for the microbe sitting on the surface. But she plotted it in photons rather than energy, so she plotted it in particles of light. Photosynthesis is photon process - it uses particles of light.

It turns out that chlorophyll A absorbs light right at the peak of the most number of particles that come down to Earth, which is near the red part of the spectrum. So plants are using the light in the form that has the most number of particles. Now the question is, why does the peak move to the red once the light gets down to the surface of our planet? The reason is because of ozone absorption. Plants put out oxygen, which produces ozone, but in doing so they actually shift the usable region of their light more towards the red.

And so plants over time have changed the composition of our atmosphere, but in the process had to evolve to keep up with what they were doing to the planet. So back in the beginning of our history when we didn't have as much oxygen on the planet, plant pigments would have been much more towards the blue. And then over time they would have moved towards the red as they produced ozone.

She then used that to look at planets around other stars. For example, if you're orbiting an F star, the peak of the F radiation is towards the blue, and the ozone just makes it more towards the blue. So if you were a plant on a planet going around an F star, which is a star hotter than our sun, then your pigments are more likely to be in the blue, and so you as a plant are more likely to reflect orange or red radiation.

Another thing she did was look at safe ocean depths. M stars tend to flare quite a bit, so in the very early stages of planetary development -- when you haven't got enough photosynthesis to build up oxygen so you don't have your ozone shield yet -- you are susceptible to large bursts of UV radiation up to 30,000 times what we're used to in any given day. So if you're a life form you don't want to be out on the surface. What can you do? Well, you can go under the surface, or you can go down in the water.

So she asked the question, if you're a microbe who likes to do photosynthesis, can you go down into the ocean to escape the flares but still have enough energy to do photosynthesis?

She and her team found that yes, indeed you can. And even for the worst possible M star flare we could imagine, you could go underwater 9 meters, or about 10 yards, and still be able to escape the flares but have enough energy to do photosynthesis to create your food. That meant even for early planets around M stars, there are regions where it could be possible to have life down in the oceans.

Everything I've described so far is essentially background theory to support one particular mission called the Terrestrial Planet Finders. There's also a sister mission called Darwin, which is also under concept development by the European Space Agency but is potentially a joint US and European effort. We hope that these telescopes will be launched sometime in the next 20 years or so, but for now they've been mothballed. We hope to at least get the concept up and going as soon as possible, so that within many of our lifetimes we will be able to launch telescopes that will be able to take the spectra of Earth-like planets around other stars.

I find that enormously exciting for a number of reasons. First of all, we can look for other habitable worlds and we can see if there are signs of life there. If we find signs of life, that will be an absolutely momentous discovery. But also from a planetary point of view, when we look out at stars in our solar neighborhood, those stars are all very different ages. They range in age from just born to about 10 billion years old. The planetary systems around them are about the same age as the star. So if I'm looking at a 2 billion-year-old star, I'm also looking at a 2 billion-year-old planetary system.

By looking at these stars in our neighborhood, we can essentially look back in time to see how terrestrial planets evolve over time. I think it would be great to be able to get the spectrum of a 2 billion-year-old planet instead of our own 4.6 billion-year-old planet, to be able to look back in time and see what was happening.

So we're looking forward to these missions being able to fly. They are enormously technologically challenging, but well worth it. I invite you to visit our VPL team web site, or the Planet Quest web site to learn about these missions that are eventually going to do this kind of science."

Technorati : Alien, Colors, Plants

Star System Just Right For Building An Earth

This artist's conception shows a binary-star, or two-star, system, called HD 113766, where astronomers suspect a rocky Earth-like planet is forming around one of the stars. At approximately 10 to 16 million years old, astronomers suspect this star is at just the right age for forming rocky planets. The system is located approximately 424 light-years away from Earth.
The two yellow spots in the image represent the system's two stars. The brown ring of material circling closest to the central star depicts a huge belt of dusty material, more than 100 times as much as in our asteroid belt, or enough to build a Mars-size planet or larger. The rocky material in the belt represents the early stages of planet formation, when dust grains clump together to form rocks, and rocks collide to form even more massive rocky bodies called planetesimals. The belt is located in the middle of the system's terrestrial habitable zone, or the region around a star where liquid water could exist on any rocky planets that might form. Earth is located in the middle of our sun's terrestrial habitable zone.

Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers learned that the belt material in HD 113866 is more processed than the snowball-like stuff that makes up infant solar systems and comets, which contain pristine ingredients from the early solar system. However, it is not as processed as the stuff found in mature planets and asteroids. This means that the dust belt is made out of just the right mix of materials to be forming an Earth-like planet. It is composed mainly of rocky silicates and metal sulfides (like fool's gold), similar to the material found in lava flows.

The white outer ring shows a concentration of icy dust also detected in the system. This material is at the equivalent position of the asteroid belt in our solar system, but only contains about one-sixth as much material as the inner ring. Astronomers say it is not clear from the Spitzer observations if anything is occurring in the icy belt, but they believe it could be a source of water later on for the planet that grows from the inner warm ring.

An Earth-like planet is likely forming 424 light-years away in a star system called HD 113766, say astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Scientists have discovered a huge belt of warm dust - enough to build a Mars-size planet or larger - swirling around a distant star that is just slightly more massive than our sun. The dust belt, which they suspect is clumping together into planets, is located in the middle of the system's terrestrial habitable zone.
This is the region around a star where liquid water could exist on any rocky planets that might form. Earth is located in the middle of our sun's terrestrial habitable zone. At approximately 10 million years old, the star is also at just the right age for forming rocky planets.

"The timing for this system to be building an Earth is very good," said Carey Lisse, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Baltimore, Md. "If the system was too young, its planet-forming disk would be full of gas, and it would be making gas-giant planets like Jupiter instead. If the system was too old, then dust aggregation or clumping would have already occurred and all the system's rocky planets would have already formed."

The Right Stuff

According to Lisse, the conditions for forming an Earth-like planet are more than just being in the right place at the right time and around the right star - it's also about the right mix of dusty materials.

Using Spitzer's infrared spectrometer instrument, he determined that the material in HD 113866 is more processed than the snowball-like stuff that makes up infant solar systems and comets, which are considered cosmic "refrigerators" because they contain pristine ingredients from the early solar system. However, it is also not as processed as the stuff found in mature planets and asteroids. This means the dust belt must be in a transitional phase, when rocky planets are just beginning to form.

How do scientists know the material is more processed than that of comets? From missions like NASA's Deep Impact - where an 820-pound impactor spacecraft collided with Comet Tempel 1 - scientists know that early star systems contain a lot of fragile organic material. That material includes water ice, carbonates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are carbon-based molecules found on charred barbeque grills and automobile exhaust on Earth. Lisse says that HD 113766 does not contain any water ice, carbonates, or fragile organic materials.

From meteorite studies on Earth, scientists also have a good idea of what makes up asteroids - the more processed rocky leftovers of planet formation. These studies tell us that metals began separating from rocks in Earth's early days, when the planet's body was completely molten. During this time, almost all the heavy metals fell to Earth's center in a process called "differentiation." Lisse says that, unlike planets and asteroids, the metals in HD 113766 have not totally separated from the rocky material, suggesting that rocky planets have not yet formed.

"The material mix in this belt is most reminiscent of the stuff found in lava flows on Earth. I thought of Mauna Kea material when I first saw the dust composition in this system - it contains raw rock and is abundant in iron sulfides, which are similar to fool's gold," said Lisse. Mauna Kea is a well-known volcano in Hawaii.

"It is fantastic to think we are able to detect the process of terrestrial planet formation. Stay tuned - I expect lots more fireworks as the planet in HD113766 grows," he adds.

Technorati : Building, Earth, Just, Right, Star, System

Robotic Automation and benifits

Robotic Automation has helped an Australian tissue manufacturer to automate its 'end-of-line processes' and at the same time save space, costs and labour. Not only did it help improve on its product quality and reliability but also resulted in increased production.
Prior to automation, the manufacturer faced a major problem. At the end of the production line, there were bundled multipacks that were mounting up at the speed of forty per minute. The rapidness of the production demanded more than two staff in order to pick and pattern-stack these bundles onto their respective pallets. These bundles would rise up to a height of 2.9 metres.

Having a project with three such lines, the company needed more than six staff per shift. This was when it decided to automate its palletising operation. This kind of repetitive, intense and constant labour would result in strain injuries, increase in costs, extra break-times as well as losses due to the time mislaid towards production and staff management. Further, automating would require six robots in total as there need to be two robots in every line. The necessity of a larger investment as well as the limitation of available floor-space started to become an apprehension.

The solution to this problem came in the form of MOTOMAN EPL160 robots that have 4-axis Servo Twin-gripper effectors.

Robotic Automation's engineering team visualised the possibility of an articulated twin-gripper that would pick, orientate independently as well as nest 2 loads as soon as the robot transferred them from the line to the pallet. This exercise would efficiently double the capability of each robot and reduces it to half the floor-space and robots needed. Designs were made, prototyped and computer modeled. Several mechanism and gear-box designs were explored and a compatible design that offered the crucial weight-to-torque output was incorporated to meet the project requirements.

The 160kg mid-range MOTOMAN robot's capacity of payload was adequate to cover the weight as well as the inertia of the twin-gripper and the bundled loads of product. It also offered the best reach to transfer onto a pallet stack of 2.9 metres height.

The final testing and installation revealed that the system was able to orientate, pick, transfer as well as place a multipack bundle every 1.5 seconds. Further robots are now in the process of being commissioned in the company's expanding operations.

The benefits of this system are:

improved productivity
improvement in staff safety
elimination of costs in injury claims and lost production time
improved product quality and elimination of product damage costs
reduced labour costs (x6) and associated management/administration costs

Robotic Automation provides welding solution for Australian Railway Bogie Manufacturer,

A successful Australian Railway Bogie Manufacturer that produces large railway bogies carrying bulk raw materials between cities across the country recently faced difficult and intensive welding challenges amidst the current Skilled Labour Shortage.

Problem:

This Australian Railway Bogie Manufacturer produces large railway bogies that carry bulk raw materials between cities throughout Australia.

The undercarriages of these railway bogies are constructed from large mild steel structures MIG-welded together by skilled tradesman.

This repetitive and intensive task consists of long weld seams that must be traced consistently and accurately across sections - some up to four metres long - to achieve secure, strong and reliable welds.

The arduous nature of this task requires prolonged concentration and physical strain, leaving the skilled tradesmen heavily worn out and requiring large break-times throughout the process in order to maintain work standards, and minimise risk to health and safety - inherent with the use of live welding equipment.

Many parts can require several hours of welding each to complete. Strain injuries are unfortunately quite common as a result of the prolonged concentration and physical exertion required.

The Bogie Manufacturer took on three skilled welding staff to handle the task, however given the difficult nature of the work and the continuing skills shortage, staff turnover was high and it soon became increasingly difficult to keep the positions filled.

With the developing re-staffing issue this created, a bottle-kneck began which had a follow-on effect that threatened production and impacted the entire manufacturing cycle as a result.

Solution:


MOTOMAN HP20-6 (extended reach version of HP-20 robot)
MOTOMAN COMARC arc-tracking and touch sensing options
OTC DP500 Digital inverter pulse welder
MOTOMAN MT1 1000 servo-powered 2-axis Positioner
Robotic Automation servo-powered Traverse Track with 4 metres travel
Robotic Automation Safety Guarding System
Robotic Automation Torch Cleaning Station with pneumatic spatter-cleaner and wire-cutter
After consulting closely with the Railway Bogie Manufacturer, and understanding the manpower problem they were facing, Robotic Automation's engineering team developed an integrated robotic welding solution with a fully synchronised 2-axis work-piece positioner and a 4-metre robot traverse-track.

Together, these machines provide three external axes of movement orientating the part to the robot's proximity with the part as it performs each weld.

In addition, the 6-axis body of the robot enables it to position the torch at optimum angle constantly.

The MOTOMAN NX-100 controller synchronises the entire process, this machine itself capable of controlling 27 more axes of movement - or a further three synchronised robots - if required.

Possibly the most important part of this robotic soltuion provided by Robotic Automation is the fact that the MOTOMAN HP20-6 extended reach robot, MOTOMAN MT1 1000 positioning system, and the MOTOMAN NX-100 controller's memory are flexible enough to handle a varying series of undercarriage parts welds performing detailed, difficult and labour intensive work without the need for a break or the intrinsic health and safety risks encountered by their human counterparts.

Advanced robotic functions specific to this production task enable the Robotic Automation solution to respond to the various welding challenges presented by the shape and surface variance of each individual work-part.

Touch sensing enables the MOTOMAN HP20-6 extended reach robot to confirm weld seam position before commencing, thereby ensuring weld quality throughout each weld from start to finish.

MOTOMAN COMARC arc-tracking allows the MOTOMAN HP20-6 extended reach robot to detect and respond in real time during the weld to any defects or variances, however slight, in the surface profile of each work-part.

The OTC DP500 digital welder uses Synchro Short-Pulse - a shorter, rigid arc to allow the MOTOMAN HP20-6 extended reach robot to weld at higher speed, with a more consistent droplet transfer, minimal spatter and better bead profile.

The Robotic Automation Torch Cleaning Station with pneumatic spatter-cleaner and wire-cutter enables the MOTOMAN HP20-6 extended reach robot to regularly spray-clean its torch head and gas nozzles to keep them free of any spatter and ensure they are flowing freely.

The station also trims the welding wire precisely to ensure the perfection of the next weld-start.

Benefits:

Longer welds
Continuous welds
Consistent welds
Improved weld appearance
Higher weld quality with greater strength
Improved staff health and safety
Improved productivity
Reduced costs and lost time due to weld error
Elimination of costs associated with OH & S
Elimination of cost and lost production time associated with staff breaks
Reduced labour costs and associated management/admin costs

Technorati : Automation

BT creates Wi-Fi community

BT and Fon have finally confirmed their long-expected partnership, thus creating the largest Wi-Fi community in the world.

Fon was founded in Spain in early 2006. Broadband users who sign up to Fon's community agree to share their Wi-Fi connectivity through a separate, secure channel. They do this either for a 50 percent cut of the fees charged to their visitors or for the privilege of being able to surf other users' connections for free, though the community has since changed its rules to allow its members to do both.

One of the biggest hindrances to Fon's expansion has been resistance from Internet service providers, whose terms and conditions have tended to prohibit sharing of broadband connections.

Now BT, the largest ISP in the United Kingdom, has given its approval. By doing so, the telecommunications company has effectively extended its Openzone Wi-Fi network across the 3 million BT Home Hubs--or at least those Home Hubs whose users agree to share their broadband connection.

It is not yet clear whether BT users who share their connection will get remuneration for doing so, though it is likely that they will gain access to BT's new nationwide wireless network, plus Fon's global network of almost 200,000 hot spots. It is currently unclear whether BT's business customers will be offered the same deal.

BT has also invested an undisclosed amount in Fon and gained a seat on its board.

"This is the start of something very exciting for BT," Gavin Patterson, the managing director of BT Group, said Thursday. "Today we are launching a people's network of Wi-Fi, which could one day cover every street in Britain. We are giving our millions of Total Broadband customers a choice and an opportunity. If they are prepared to securely share a little of their broadband, they can share the broadband at hundreds of thousands of Fon and BT Openzone hot spots today, without paying a penny."

Patterson continued. "We have built a public Wi-Fi network and 12 wireless cities already, but today, we are saying to customers: let's build a Wi-Fi community together, which covers everywhere and serves everyone."

Martin Varsavsky, Fon's founder and chief executive, said, "From the beginning, Fon users believed in the concept of sharing and in the people's ability to participate in building something important that would benefit everyone," he said. "With BT Fon, those beliefs have proved to be well-founded."

Rumors that BT and Fon were in talks about the deal have been circulating for over six months, but Thursday's announcement is the first official confirmation of the tie-in. The collaboration between the two companies also raises the possibility of a comprehensive global network of Wi-Fi sharers--with the blessing of ISPs.

Fon has inked similar deals with Time Warner Cable in the United States--though that service is yet to be rolled out--and Neuf Cegetel in France, so BT broadband customers who agree to share their connectivity will soon gain free access to their counterparts' broadband in those countries.

Robert Lang, Fon's European chief, told CNET News.com sister site ZDNet UK on Thursday that Fon had compromised, in that its users will have to pay, albeit at a discounted rate, to use BT's Openzone hot spots and Wireless Cities hot zones, rather than gaining access for free.

The deal means that users of BT Fusion dual-mode handsets will be able to use those devices in far more locations around the world than had previously been possible. Fon also has a software client that can be used on Nokia's Wi-Fi-enabled N series handsets.

source : www.news.com

Technorati : Wi-Fi

For Global Warming Remedies

Nearly three-quarters of Americans are willing to pay more taxes to support local government efforts aimed at mitigating global warming, according to the findings of two recent national surveys conducted by Yale University.
Americans were willing to pay more money in property taxes, home costs and utility fees to support initiatives that would encourage people to use less energy and get that energy from alternative sources, the surveys showed. They follow other polls that have found concern for the environment is growing among Americans and bolder action is desired.
A poll conducted by the Associated Press and Stanford University last month found that Americans are pessimistic about the current state of the environment and disapprove of how the government has been handling environmental issues.
Another national Yale poll conducted in July found that a majority of Americans believe that society must take action to reduce the effects of global warming, partly by enacting a new national treaty that would require much more drastic reductions in carbon dioxide than those required by the Kyoto Protocol (which the United States never ratified). This earlier poll also showed that about 50 percent of Americans say they are personally worried about global warming.
"Nearly half of Americans now believe that global warming is either already having dangerous impacts on people around the world or will in the next 10 years-a 20 percentage-point increase since 2004. These results indicate a sea change in public opinion," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of Yale Project on Climate Change, in response to the findings of the earlier poll.
The results of the new surveys found that this worry has seemed to translate into willingness to take action:
74 percent of those surveyed would support local regulations requiring all newly constructed homes to be more energy efficient, even if it would increase the initial cost of the new home.
72 percent of respondents said they would support local subsidies aimed at encouraging homeowners to install solar panels on their homes, even if it would increase property taxes, because of potential savings in energy and utility bills.
71 percent would pay higher property taxes to support local subsidies aimed at replacing old furnaces, water heaters, air conditioners, light bulbs and insulation.
69 percent would pay higher taxes to require utilities to produce 20 percent of electricity through renewable energy sources.
68 percent would approve changing local zoning rules to decrease sprawl.
and 53 percent would support fees on electricity bills aimed at encouraging people to use less electricity.
"City and local leaders are critical players in the effort to reduce global warming, and it's clear that their constituents want action," Leiserowitz said. "The public is on board and willing to help foot the bill. All that's left to do now is act."
On the other hand, the results, culled from two national telephone surveys conducted in September, showed that most of those surveyed were unwilling to change zoning rules to encourage apartment buildings over single-family homes or support local fees on gas to promote less fuel consumption. (However, the earlier Yale study found that people were willing to pay more to require auto manufacturers to make more fuel efficient cars, trucks and SUVs.)
The results of these latest surveys stand in stark contrast to some conducted just a year ago. A 2006 poll conducted by ABC News, Time, Stanford University and Ohio State University found that only 3 in 10 Americans thought that global warming is caused by humans and less than 40 percent thought it was an immediate threat.

TIPS: Green Your Home

Trees, in a word, rock. They absorb heat-trapping carbon dioxide, hold soil together to prevent landslides, and provide a rich habitat for diverse plants and animals. Choose furniture made from eco-friendly sources such as sustainably managed forests, bamboo, and reclaimed wood. Buying vintage wherever possible, rather than adding something new into the waste stream, is always in style. Also, look for furniture that is durable and likely long-lived-you'll save money on replacements in the future and prevent more wasted materials from winding up in the landfill. And, if for some reason, that dresser or dining table no longer suits your needs, something in fine shape will always have takers via Craig's List, eBay, or Freecycle.

Technorati : Global Warming

"Halo" 1st-week sales were $300 mln

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday that its "Halo 3" video game racked up worldwide sales of $300 million in its first week, making it one of the year's best sellers and helping to nearly triple sales of its Xbox 360 console.

The news builds on Microsoft's previous announcement that the final chapter in its series of alien-battling shooting games did $170 million in sales in the first 24 hours after its September 25 debut.

The game is crucial to Microsoft's efforts to establish dominance in the $30 billion global video game industry that has been dominated by Sony Corp the past few years. Microsoft also competes against Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii console, which has enjoyed stronger sales this year.

"Initial reports from retailers worldwide show console sales have nearly tripled compared with the weekly average before the launch of 'Halo 3,'" Microsoft said in a statement.

Microsoft did not elaborate, but industry figures show that the company sold 277,000 Xbox 360 units in the United States in August and just over 11,000 units in Japan in that month.

Microsoft also said "Halo 3," which lets people play the game together or battle each other over the Internet, had spurred a "record number" of people to sign up for its paid Xbox Live online service.

The company said all three "Halo" games had sold more than 20 million copies. Earlier this year, Microsoft said the first two games had sold 14.8 million copies, which could mean "Halo 3" has sold as many as 5.2 million copies.

Shares in Microsoft rose 0.9 percent to close at $29.71 on Nasdaq. Over the past year, the stock has risen 6 percent.
Some more
Halo 3 is a first-person shooter developed by Bungie Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. The game is the third title in the Halo series and ends the story arc begun in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued with Halo 2.[5] The game was released on September 25, 2007[1] in New Zealand (which due to its midnight release made it first available for official retail), Australia, Singapore, India, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, and the United States; September 26, 2007 in Europe; and September 27, 2007 in Japan. GameSpot reported that 4.2 million units of Halo 3 were in retail outlets on September 24, 2007, a day before official release,[6] a world record volume release. Halo 3 also holds the record for the highest grossing opening day in video game history, making US$170 million in its first 24 hours.[7]

The game features new vehicles, weapons, and gameplay features not present in the previous titles of the series. Halo 3 focuses on the interstellar war between 26th century humanity and a collection of alien races known as the Covenant, who after a decades-long war have begun the invasion of Earth. The player assumes the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier, as he wages war in defense of humanity.

For Global Warming Remedies

Nearly three-quarters of Americans are willing to pay more taxes to support local government efforts aimed at mitigating global warming, according to the findings of two recent national surveys conducted by Yale University.
Americans were willing to pay more money in property taxes, home costs and utility fees to support initiatives that would encourage people to use less energy and get that energy from alternative sources, the surveys showed. They follow other polls that have found concern for the environment is growing among Americans and bolder action is desired.
A poll conducted by the Associated Press and Stanford University last month found that Americans are pessimistic about the current state of the environment and disapprove of how the government has been handling environmental issues.
Another national Yale poll conducted in July found that a majority of Americans believe that society must take action to reduce the effects of global warming, partly by enacting a new national treaty that would require much more drastic reductions in carbon dioxide than those required by the Kyoto Protocol (which the United States never ratified). This earlier poll also showed that about 50 percent of Americans say they are personally worried about global warming.
"Nearly half of Americans now believe that global warming is either already having dangerous impacts on people around the world or will in the next 10 years-a 20 percentage-point increase since 2004. These results indicate a sea change in public opinion," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of Yale Project on Climate Change, in response to the findings of the earlier poll.
The results of the new surveys found that this worry has seemed to translate into willingness to take action:
74 percent of those surveyed would support local regulations requiring all newly constructed homes to be more energy efficient, even if it would increase the initial cost of the new home.
72 percent of respondents said they would support local subsidies aimed at encouraging homeowners to install solar panels on their homes, even if it would increase property taxes, because of potential savings in energy and utility bills.
71 percent would pay higher property taxes to support local subsidies aimed at replacing old furnaces, water heaters, air conditioners, light bulbs and insulation.
69 percent would pay higher taxes to require utilities to produce 20 percent of electricity through renewable energy sources.
68 percent would approve changing local zoning rules to decrease sprawl.
and 53 percent would support fees on electricity bills aimed at encouraging people to use less electricity.
"City and local leaders are critical players in the effort to reduce global warming, and it's clear that their constituents want action," Leiserowitz said. "The public is on board and willing to help foot the bill. All that's left to do now is act."
On the other hand, the results, culled from two national telephone surveys conducted in September, showed that most of those surveyed were unwilling to change zoning rules to encourage apartment buildings over single-family homes or support local fees on gas to promote less fuel consumption. (However, the earlier Yale study found that people were willing to pay more to require auto manufacturers to make more fuel efficient cars, trucks and SUVs.)
The results of these latest surveys stand in stark contrast to some conducted just a year ago. A 2006 poll conducted by ABC News, Time, Stanford University and Ohio State University found that only 3 in 10 Americans thought that global warming is caused by humans and less than 40 percent thought it was an immediate threat.

TIPS: Green Your Home

Trees, in a word, rock. They absorb heat-trapping carbon dioxide, hold soil together to prevent landslides, and provide a rich habitat for diverse plants and animals. Choose furniture made from eco-friendly sources such as sustainably managed forests, bamboo, and reclaimed wood. Buying vintage wherever possible, rather than adding something new into the waste stream, is always in style. Also, look for furniture that is durable and likely long-lived-you'll save money on replacements in the future and prevent more wasted materials from winding up in the landfill. And, if for some reason, that dresser or dining table no longer suits your needs, something in fine shape will always have takers via Craig's List, eBay, or Freecycle.

Technorati : Global Warming