Emerging Tech
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Wearable devices to usher in context-aware computing
In this guest post, Joe Burton, CTO at Plantronics, lays out a vision for intelligent wearable devices and sensors that will redefine relevance and greatly simplify and automate the lives of users.
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Scientists create first electricity generator powered by viruses
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a method for generating power using harmless viruses that convert mechanical energy into electricity.
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'TeleHuman' taps Kinect for 3D holographic videoconferencing
A Queen’s University researcher has created a Star Trek-like human-scale 3-D videoconferencing pod that allows people in different locations to video conference as if they were standing in front of each other.
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Sensing systems for robots could help blind navigate
Parisian researchers have developed a 3D navigation system for the blind using a pair of glasses equipped with cameras and sensors like those used in robot exploration.
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Netgear ushers in Gigabit Wi-Fi with first 802.11ac router
The networking company looks poised to be the first with a next-generation router on the market with speeds up to three times faster than 802.11n.
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World's largest digital camera one step closer to reality
Construction on the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a 3.2 billion-pixel camera that will capture the widest, fastest and deepest view of the night sky ever observed, could begin in 2014.
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New technique boosts efficiency of multi-hop wireless networks
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a more efficient data transmission approach that can boost the amount of data the networks can transmit by 20 to 80 percent.
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Nanosponges soak up more than 100x their weight in oil
Rice, Penn State researchers laced carbon nanotubes with boron to create reusable oil-soaking sponges that show promise for environmental cleanup, among many uses.
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Programmable 'smart sand' can assume any shape
MIT researchers are developing small magnetic cubes that can communicate with each other to auto-duplicate objects in a “sand box” using a subtractive production algorithm.
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Cost of Li-ion batteries in 2020 not low enough for mass adoption of EVs: report
Despite technology improvements and growing industry scale, Li-ion electric vehicle batteries will cost $397/kWh in 2020, falling short of the $150/kWh target needed to reach the mass market, say experts.
