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Aero-X hoverbike set to take off in 2017

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Aerofex says its Aero-X hoverbike will be available to buy in 2017 (Photo: Aerofex)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That most long-awaited form of transport may finally be arriving with California-based Aerofex announcing that it'll be launching its Aero-X hoverbike in 2017 at an estimated price of US$85,000 (+CPI). The company is already accepting refundable deposits of $5,000 on its website, with first flights scheduled for 2016. The Aero-X is designed to carry two people up to a height of 3 m (10 ft) above the ground and reach speeds of up to 72 km/h (42 mph).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Aerofex has been testing its hoverbike for some time now, attempting to resolve various control and stability challenges. With carbon fiber rotors taking the place of wheels, the Aero-X will be able to take-off and land vertically without the need for a runway or forward speed, according to the company.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's also reported to be as easy to ride as a motorcycle, as pilots will be able to use the handlebar grips, situated at knee level, to control the hoverbike in a similar fashion. They'll only need about a weekend of training to be able to fly it easily, the company claims.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/aerofex-aero-x-hoverbike-2017/32120/pictures#8" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="With carbon fiber rotors taking the place of wheels, the Aero-X will be able to take-off a..." src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/aerofexhoverbike-7.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="397" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With a pre-fuel weight of about 356 kg (785 lb), the hoverbike can carry loads of up to 140 kg (310 lb) over any any type of surface, state company officials. It's also expected to run for about 75 minutes on a full tank of fuel. While it's primarily being designed to be a low-altitude sport and utility vehicle, its developers say it can be adapted for any number of uses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The Aero-X will have a positive impact on agriculture, herd management, and geo-surveying – particularly in those parts of the world lacking general aviation," states Mark De Roche, the company's CTO and founder. "Its intuitive operation, low cost, and unique capabilities make it suitable for disaster relief, search and rescue, and patrolling borders and game parks. We believe it will enable low-altitude utility previously unavailable due to cost and training barriers."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The design features an intuitive pilot interface, two-position control bars and a four-wheel gear. The Aero-X hoverbike is around 4.5 m (14.8 ft) in length and 2.1 m (6.8 ft) in width. Some of the additional features being considered for the Aero-X include whole vehicle airbags, flotation pontoons for water operations and Department of Transport-approved transport trailers</span><span style="font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica Neue, Arial;">...</span></div>
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<img alt="The design features an intuitive pilot interface, two-position control bars and a four-whe..." height="228" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/aerofexhoverbike-2.jpg" width="320" /><img alt="With a pre-fuel weight of about 356 kg (785 lb), the hoverbike can carry loads of up to 14..." height="228" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/aerofexhoverbike-4.jpg" width="320" /></div>
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<img alt="The Aero-X hoverbike is around 4.5 m (14.8 ft) in length and 2.1 m (6.8 ft) in width (Phot..." height="228" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/aerofexhoverbike-0.jpg" width="320" /><img alt="Whole vehicle airbags and flotation pontoons for water operations are some of the addition..." height="228" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/aerofexhoverbike-6.jpg" width="320" /></div>
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Aero-X hoverbike set to take off in 2017

Aerofex says its Aero-X hoverbike will be available to buy in 2017 (Photo: Aerofex) Image Gallery (8 images) That most long-a...

MIT develops glasses-free 3D projector as a "practical alternative to holographic video"

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<img alt="The new MIT 3D system doesn't need glasses to work" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/mit-3d-projector.jpg" /><br />
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The 3D format has had something of a renaissance in recent years, but the technology still has some way to go before the potential of "real-life" multiperspective 3D can be realized. The Camera Culture group at the MIT Media Lab is developing a new 3D video projection system that doesn't require glasses and provides different users different perspective angles of the same object. The team sees it not as a final answer, but as a transitional system that sits between current technologies and true holographic video.</div>
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In one form or another, <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/holovision-life-size-3d-projections/28478/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">3D projection systems</a> have been around almost as long as the cinema itself. The trick has always been to come up with something practical and economical – preferably without the glasses, nausea, and headaches. Over the decades, the Bijous and Odeons of the world have seen two-color systems, polarized light systems, mechanical shutters and multiple projectors systems come and go as each fell short of the mark.</div>
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The MIT approach was to come up with a glasses-free video projection system with a wide vision angle, ultra-high resolution, yet is mechanically simple and doesn't require elaborate installations, as well as being cheaper than conventional holographic systems of comparable quality. The idea is that it will act as a short term, intermediate solution until a more mature technology can be developed, while making it attractive as a transitional technology for users of more conventional 2D systems.</div>
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The <a href="http://web.media.mit.edu/~gordonw/CompressiveLightFieldProjector/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">MIT system</a> doesn't just produce an illusion of parallax – it creates an actual shift in perspective for multiple viewers looking at the image from different angles, as if were looking at real objects. In addition, it provides better resolution and contrast than conventional 2D video.</div>
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The heart of the projector is a pair of flat panels of liquid-crystal modulators that act like tiny liquid-crystal displays (LCD) set between the backlight source and the lens. The first bank of LCDs produces light patterns at particular angles. This pattern passes through the second bank, but only at these angles. These then pass through a series of lenses that are arranged in the same manner as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keplerian_Telescope#Keplerian_Telescope" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Keplerian telescope</a>. The patterns then pass through a transparent projection screen made up of lines of vertical lenses, a bit like the striated transparent sheets found in children’s books and toys that shift between a pair of images. These resolve the patterns into a 3D image that shifts as one moves from one of eight points of view to another.</div>
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The modulators refresh the image 240 times every second, which is less than that of modern televisions, but ten times that of standard-speed film. The system requires a lot of bandwidth to work, but it also opens the possibility of the system displaying ultra-high resolution video. Part of the reason for this is that the MIT system uses data compression algorithms that concentrate on reproducing the edges of the images rather than the body of objects, because edges change more as an object moves or turns. The algorithm also produce a brighter image with stronger contrast by generating something closer to “true black,” which is not possible for LCDs.</div>
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Another way the image is improved is by how the light patterns interfere with one another. By manipulating this, the system can gain higher resolutions, though this requires some prodigious real-time calculations. In addition, the MIT system doesn't simply enlarge the image, which reduces the field of vision in 3D projections. Instead, the system spreads out the pixels from one another.</div>
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The team sees the technology as having applications in collaborative design and medical imaging as well as in entertainment.</div>
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The video below explains the basics of the technology</div>
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Source: <a href="http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/glasses-free-3-d-projector-0516" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">MIT</a></div>
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MIT develops glasses-free 3D projector as a "practical alternative to holographic video"

The 3D format has had something of a renaissance in recent years, but the technology still has some way to go before the potential of ...

Microsoft details the future of the Halo franchise

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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/halo-5-guardians-announced/32113/pictures" id="hero_link" style="background-image: none; color: #1e8dd7; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="Halo 5: Guardians, the new title from 343 Industries, will hit Xbox One next year" height="298" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/halo-5.jpg" style="border: none; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" title="Halo 5: Guardians, the new title from 343 Industries, will hit Xbox One next year" width="530" /></span></a><div class="pic_caption" style="background-color: #444444; border-top-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: #eeeeee; height: auto !important; margin: 0px; min-height: 30px; padding: 5px 5px 10px; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Halo 5: Guardians, the new title from 343 Industries, will hit Xbox One next year</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Microsoft and 343 Industries have announced details regarding the next major instalment in its ever-popular Halo series. We already knew that the game was heading to Xbox One, but the news sheds light on the title and release window for new entry, as well as details regarding the Spielberg-helmed live-action series that will accompany the game.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The first part of the announcement confirms the somewhat unsurprising news that we won’t be seeing a brand new Halo title this year. Instead the next big franchise instalment will hit in fall 2015 with the title <em>Halo 5: Guardians</em>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Beyond that, Microsoft has hinted at what to expect from the new game, stating that it runs on an all-new engine at a solid 60 fps. Given the ongoing battle of resolutions and frame-rates between Microsoft and Sony, it's not surprising that the company is keen to push the game's smooth frame rate. Though cynics will note that Microsoft didn't say a peep about resolution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The 2012 title <em>Halo 4</em> was developer 343 Industries’ first swing at the popular franchise, with the game receiving a positive response (its Metacritic score is 87). Given the success of its first effort, the studio is keen to prove itself again, with the developer’s general manager Bonnie Ross stating that “<em>Halo 5: Guardians</em> is a bigger effort than <em>Halo 4</em>.”</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/halo-5-guardians-announced/32113/pictures#1" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="The company provided a glimpse at the new title at last year's E3 event" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/halo-5-0.png" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="529" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are no details on what form that larger scope will take, but the dev is keen to emphasize that it’s taking full advantage of the much more powerful Xbox One hardware in an effort to provide that elusive “next-gen” experience we hear so much about.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In addition to the <em>Halo 5: Guardians</em> news, Microsoft has also announced that the franchise branded live-action television series, created in collaboration with Steven Spielberg, will also air in the (Northern Hemisphere) Fall of 2015. It’s currently unknown how closely linked the two projects will be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Journey Begins</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Perhaps the most interesting piece of news is the developer’s comments on what to expect in 2014, as it stated that “the journey definitely begins in 2014 with a giant leap, rather than one small step.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This may be a reference to the much-rumoured re-release of 2004 series entry <em>Halo 2</em>. Microsoft released an anniversary edition of the first Halo title in 2011 to mark ten years since its release. With no new Halo title hitting this year, it makes sense that the company would do the same with the second installment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">However, the “giant leap” wording may lend credence to the rumour that the company will in fact release a <em>Master Chief Collection</em>, encompassing retooled versions of <em>Halo 2</em>, <em>3</em> and <em>4</em>, as reported by Engadget.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whatever the company’s plans, we’ll soon know a lot more, with full details about what to expect from the franchise coming at the Xbox E3 2014 media briefing on June 9.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the mean time, scroll down to check out the E3 2013 <em>Halo 5</em> teaser trailer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: Microsoft</span></div>
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Microsoft details the future of the Halo franchise

Halo 5: Guardians, the new title from 343 Industries, will hit Xbox One next year Image Gallery (2 images) Microsoft and 343 I...

IBM Working On Electronic Blood For Powering And Cooling Supercomputers

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The human brain is an amazing organ. It is thousands of times more efficient than the greatest technology out there at the moment. And what helps the brain to be at the top when it comes to efficiency is the network of blood vessels which transports both heat and energy simultaneously. IBM has plans to copy this innovative strategy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Called ‘electronic blood’, the fluid will be charged with an electrical current. The electronic blood will flow to a computer’s processor for providing energy and cooling the machine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As you might know, all the supercomputers around today are quite huge. An example is the “petaflop” supercomputer. It is capable of doing one quadrillion operations per second but it measures about half a football field. The chips of the supercomputer have to be spaced out in its body due to the generation of huge amounts of heat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is where the electronic blood will be a huge help. It will allow us to stack the chips of a supercomputer three-dimensionally and shrink the computer’s size drastically.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Chris Sciacca, spokesman for IBM Research, says, “It makes much more sense to have the chips stacked. What we want to do is to make water-cooled supercomputers of the future that are the size of a sugar cube”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And another issue is that the supercomputers use up a lot of energy. <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/06/technology/enterprise/ibm-electronic-blood/" style="border: 0px; color: #42a2ce; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CNN Money</a> says, “In the United States, data centers are responsible for more than 2% of the country’s electricity usage, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032113008216" style="border: 0px; color: #42a2ce; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">according to researchers</a> at Villanova University. If the global cloud computing industry were considered to be a single country, it would be the fifth-largest in the world in terms of energy consumption”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since so much of heat is generated by the chips, cooling equipment have to be used to cool them up. But half the energy of the machine is eaten up by these equipment. So, if the electronic blood turns out to be an efficient cooling system, we could save a lot of energy.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">- See more at: http://www.mobilemag.com/2014/05/09/ibm-electronic-blood-supercomputers/#sthash.FhBrCHRF.dpuf</span></span></div>

IBM Working On Electronic Blood For Powering And Cooling Supercomputers

The human brain is an amazing organ. It is thousands of times more efficient than the greatest technology out there at the moment. And w...

Broken phone signed by Rihanna fetches $66,500 on eBay

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<a href="http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/article/56218-image/Broken-phone-signed-by-Rihanna-fetches-66500-on-eBay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Broken phone signed by Rihanna fetches $66,500 on eBay" border="0" height="320" src="http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/article/56218-image/Broken-phone-signed-by-Rihanna-fetches-66500-on-eBay.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Talk about making lemonade out of lemons. Pop star Rihanna was attending an NBA Playoff game between the Clippers and the Thunder last week in L.A., when the person in the seat next to her asked if she would mind taking a selfie with him. Perhaps Rihanna was nervous about the game, or maybe she had too much popcorn butter residue on her hands. Regardless of the reason, she dropped the phone.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">As it turned out, the person sitting next to Rihanna whose phone she broke, was L.A. Police Commission President Steve Soboroff. The law enforcement official decided to make the best out of the situation by having Rihanna sign the back of the phone. And then Soboroff did what any red-blooded person would do. He auctioned the phone on eBay.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">The phone, which did work although it was sporting the cracked screen, sold for an incredible $66,500. Soboroff donated the entire amount to the LAPD Cadet program, and Rihanna even added an additional $25,000 of her own money. Overall, it was a great day for the LAPD.</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;">Amazing how some ink can turn a $200 handset into such a valuable property.</span></div>

Broken phone signed by Rihanna fetches $66,500 on eBay

Talk about making lemonade out of lemons. Pop star Rihanna was attending an NBA Playoff game between the Clippers and the Thunder last week...

Your Cellphone Could Be a Sonar Device

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<img alt="echolocation, sonar, ultrasonic, technology, invention, innovation, smart phones, mobile phones" height="425" src="http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/053/869/i02/shutterstock_sonar.jpg?1371497853" width="640" /></h1>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Submarines have used sonar for decades. Bats and dolphins have used it for millions of years. And thanks to a little math, humans could soon be echolocating with their <span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap" id="itxthook0p" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-size: inherit; height: auto; left: auto; line-height: normal; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; white-space: nowrap !important;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap itxtnewhookspan" id="itxthook0w" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: transparent transparent rgb(0, 204, 0); border-style: none none solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; bottom: auto; color: #009900; display: inline; float: none; height: auto; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; right: auto; text-decoration: underline !important; top: auto; white-space: normal;">mobile</span><img class="itxtrst itxtrstimg itxthookicon" id="itxthook0icon" src="http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px !important; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; height: auto !important; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; max-height: none; max-width: none !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; vertical-align: baseline !important; white-space: normal; width: auto !important;" /></span> phones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Switzerland, experts in signal processing discovered a mathematical technique that allows ordinary microphones to "see" the shape of a room by picking up ultrasonic pulses as they bounce off the walls. The work was published in this week's edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Microphone echolocation is harder than it sounds. Ambient noise in any room interferes with the sounds used to locate the walls, and the echoes sometimes bounce more than once. There is also the added challenge of figuring out which echoes are bouncing off which wall. [See also: "How Bats Stay on Target: Bio Sonar"]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Bats have had millions of years to evolve specialized neural circuits to fine-tune their echolocation abilities, said Ivan Dokmanic, a doctoral researcher and lead author of the PNAS paper. He added that humans can echolocate too, though not as precisely. (Some blind people have demonstrated this ability.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One reason echolocation is <span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap" id="itxthook1p" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-size: inherit; height: auto; left: auto; line-height: normal; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; white-space: nowrap !important;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap itxtnewhookspan" id="itxthook1w" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: transparent transparent rgb(0, 204, 0); border-style: none none solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; bottom: auto; color: #009900; display: inline; float: none; height: auto; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; right: auto; text-decoration: underline !important; top: auto; white-space: normal;">easier</span><img class="itxtrst itxtrstimg itxthookicon" id="itxthook1icon" src="http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px !important; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; height: auto !important; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; max-height: none; max-width: none !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; vertical-align: baseline !important; white-space: normal; width: auto !important;" /></span> for bats and humans than it is for<span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap" id="itxthook2p" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-size: inherit; height: auto; left: auto; line-height: normal; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; white-space: nowrap !important;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap itxtnewhookspan" id="itxthook2w" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: transparent transparent rgb(0, 204, 0); border-style: none none solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; bottom: auto; color: #009900; display: inline; float: none; height: auto; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; right: auto; text-decoration: underline !important; top: auto; white-space: normal;">computers</span><img class="itxtrst itxtrstimg itxthookicon" id="itxthook2icon" src="http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px !important; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; height: auto !important; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; max-height: none; max-width: none !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; vertical-align: baseline !important; white-space: normal; width: auto !important;" /></span> is that bats and humans have skulls that filter the sound. Tracking where a sound originates is easier for humans because people's two ears hear slightly different things. This allows humans to pinpoint the origin of a sound.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To enable echolocation in mobile devices, Dokmanic investigated the math behind echolocation. What he found was that it's possible to treat the echoes of sounds emitted by a speaker as sources, rather than as waves bouncing off of something.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's kind of like what happens when you look into mirror: Your eyes see a reflection, but there's the illusion that there's another person who looks just like you standing at precisely the same distance from the mirror.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That's what Dokmanic did with sound. He assumed that each echo was a source, and created a kind of grid, called a matrix, of distances. Using some advanced math, he was then able to create an algorithm that could group the echoes in the correct way to deduce the shape of a room.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First, the team experimented with an ordinary room at the EPFL, using a set of microphones and a laptop <span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap" id="itxthook3p" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-size: inherit; height: auto; left: auto; line-height: normal; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; white-space: nowrap !important;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap itxtnewhookspan" id="itxthook3w" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: transparent transparent rgb(0, 204, 0); border-style: none none solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; bottom: auto; color: #009900; display: inline; float: none; height: auto; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; right: auto; text-decoration: underline !important; top: auto; white-space: normal;">computer</span><img class="itxtrst itxtrstimg itxthookicon" id="itxthook3icon" src="http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px !important; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; height: auto !important; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; max-height: none; max-width: none !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; vertical-align: baseline !important; white-space: normal; width: auto !important;" /></span> to test whether the algorithm worked. It did, and their next step was to test their program in the real world. So they went to a cathedral and tested it there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"It was really the opposite environment," Dokmanic said, adding that unlike a controlled lab setting, a cathedral has a lot of ambient noise and the space isn't perfectly square.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The algorithm worked there too, showing that the echolocationscheme could detect the cathedral's walls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The innovation is in the way that they process the signal to calculate the shape of the room," said Tommaso Melodia, an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University at Buffalo who was not involved in the study.  </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Martin Vetterli, professor of communications systems at EPFL and a co-author of the paper, said that mobile phones could be used to locate people more precisely. One problem with getting anyone's precise location on the phone is that only certain frequencies penetrate building walls, so GPS signals are sometimes useless.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Moreover, GPS is not always precise — if there's a lot of interference,it's not uncommon for a phone to say it can't locate you more precisely than within a half mile. Wi-Fi could work, but it depends on the existence of a local network.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Echolocation partly solves that problem, because it can measure the distance from where a user is standing to the walls of an individual room, and send that more precise information to tell the network exactly where that person is located. Instead of knowing where someone is within a city block, you'd be able to see that he or she is inside a room of a certain size or is surrounded by walls that give an intersection a certain shape.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One other issue is the distance between two microphones on a<span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap" id="itxthook4p" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-size: inherit; height: auto; left: auto; line-height: normal; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; white-space: nowrap !important;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap itxtnewhookspan" id="itxthook4w" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: transparent transparent rgb(0, 204, 0); border-style: none none solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; bottom: auto; color: #009900; display: inline; float: none; height: auto; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; right: auto; text-decoration: underline !important; top: auto; white-space: normal;">mobile phone</span><img class="itxtrst itxtrstimg itxthookicon" id="itxthook4icon" src="http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px !important; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; height: auto !important; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; max-height: none; max-width: none !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; vertical-align: baseline !important; white-space: normal; width: auto !important;" /></span>. Many mobile phones have two mics —the directional mic is used when it's pressed to your head while you're on a phone call, and the other is used for canceling out the ambient noise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The two microphones on a phone calculate the distance by triangulating – measuring the small gap between when an echo reaches each microphone. The distance between the microphones is the base of a triangle, and the time difference between echoes' time of arrival tells you the length of the other two sides.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But these two microphones usually aren't very far apart on phones, so calculating the distance to a source that's far away is harder to do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One solution, Vetterli said, might be to use people's tendency to walk with their phones in order to help echolocate walls more accurately.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since you can't make phones much bigger, it is simpler to have the phone take measurements from more than one spot as the user walks with it, so the base of the triangle is longer, he said.</span></div>
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Your Cellphone Could Be a Sonar Device

Submarines have used sonar for decades. Bats and dolphins have used it for millions of years. And thanks to a little math, humans could ...