THE TECH-LICIOUS

Proposed device would instantly display the number of calories in any food

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="A mock-up of the universal calorie counting device " height="358" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/universalcaloriecounter-2.jpg" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Although there are already devices that can tell you approximately how many calories are in your food, they typically require you to manually input data regarding the type and amount of food that you're eating ... and as we all know, people generally don't like having to "do" things. A senior scientist at GE, however, is developing a gadget that could instantly display the caloric content of any food placed within it, at the touch of a button.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Matt Webster was inspired to create the device after his wife told him that she wasn't interested in receiving an activity monitor as a gift, if it didn't automatically track her caloric intake.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Working with colleagues at the GE labs in upstate New York, he devised a formula that estimates the calorie density of foods based on their weight, fat content and water content. The formula just assumes values for other factors such as sugar, carbohydrate and protein content – and apparently it's still pretty accurate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"You actually don’t need to know the details," he said. "We just have  to account for it. That’s the secret sauce."</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/ge-universal-calorie-counter/32792/pictures#2" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Lead scientist Matt Webster with the mock-up " src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/universalcaloriecounter-1.JPG" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="530" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Webster and his team are now working on sensing systems that could ascertain a food item's fat and water content by subjecting it to microwaves, then analyzing the signature of the waves that pass through. Although they're currently working with simple mixtures of oil, water and sugar, the researchers hope to ultimately produce a household device that could provide instant readings of plated meals and snacks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">More information is available in the video below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/ge-universal-calorie-counter/32792/" target="_blank">gizmag</a></span></div>
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Proposed device would instantly display the number of calories in any food

Although there are already devices that can tell you approximately how many calories are in your food, they typically require you to man...

NASA Testing Saucer Shaped Spacecraft

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">NASA’s has a project that looks like it had its beginnings in the 1950’s.  The <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/" style="color: #0092dd;" target="_blank" title="NASA">NASA</a> team plans to fly a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped landing technology test vehicle into near-space from a U.S. Navy Facility (PMRF) on Kauai, Hawaii.  The project is called Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">NASA’s test of the craft will be groundwork for future Mars missions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The original test flight date was on 3rd June but bad weather hampered the launch.  “Due to weather conditions, there will be no launch of the LDSD test vehicle Thursday, June 5. Other potential launch dates include June 7, 9, 11 and 14. The decision to move forward with another launch attempt of the LDSD test is made the day before each launch opportunity date.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Michael Gazarik, associate administrator for Space Technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington said, “The agency is moving forward and getting ready for Mars as part of NASA’s Evolvable Mars campaign.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As growth of the space program continues, NASA is planning ambitious robotic missions to Mars, thereby laying the foundation for human science expeditions in the future.  The objective of the LDSD project is to ascertain if the rocket-powered test vehicle operates as it was designed to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Mark Adler, project manager for the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator at NASA’s <a href="https://oco.jpl.nasa.gov/" style="color: #0092dd;" target="_blank" title="JPL">Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> said, “We use a helium balloon that, when fully inflated, would fit snugly into Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, to lift our vehicle to 120,000 feet…From there we drop it for about one and a half seconds. After that, it’s all about going higher and faster and then it’s about putting on the brakes…After years of imagination, engineering and hard work, we soon will get to see our Keiki o ka honua, our ‘boy from Earth,’ show us its stuff…If our flying saucer hits its speed and altitude targets, it will be a great day,” says Adler.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A fraction of a second after dropping from the helium balloon, four small rockets will fire to spin up and gyroscopically stabilize the saucer shaped craft. Half second later, a Star 48B long-nozzle, solid-fuelled rocket engine will ignite with 17,500 pounds of thrust.  This thrust will then send the test vehicle to the edge of the stratosphere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ian Clark, principal investigator of the LDSD projects at JPL said, “Our goal is to get to an altitude and velocity which simulates the kind of environment one of our vehicles would encounter when it would fly in the Martian atmosphere…We top out at about 180,000 feet and Mach 4. Then, as we slow down to Mach 3.8, we deploy the first of two new atmospheric braking systems.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">NASA has identified five potential launch dates for the high-altitude balloon carrying the LDSD project: June 28, 29, 30, July 1, 3. The launch window for Saturday, June 28 extends from 8:15 to 9:30 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time (11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PDT / 2:15 to 3:30 p.m. EDT).  The test will be carried live via Ustream and simulcast on <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/" style="color: #0092dd;" target="_blank" title="NASA TV">NASA Television</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://news.filehippo.com/2014/06/nasa-testing-saucer-shaped-spacecraft/" target="_blank">tech beat</a></span></div>
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NASA Testing Saucer Shaped Spacecraft

NASA’s has a project that looks like it had its beginnings in the 1950’s. The NASA team plans to fly a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped la...

TrackingPoint rifle lets you hit what you can’t see

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="TrackingPoint rifle lets you hit targets you can't see" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/TrackingPoint-rifle-lets-you-hit-targets-you-cant-see-640x353.jpg" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">When we first covered TrackingPoint’s computer-assisted weapons at CES, it was the rifles’ object-tagging that got everyone’s attention. Its Precision-Guided Firearm (PGF) system allows a shooter to tag the target prior to pulling the trigger. Once tagged, the shooter can squeeze the trigger, but the rifle will not fire until the target is correctly sighted. The gun’s ballistic computer takes into account the target distance, ammunition, barrel condition, and the shooter manually inputs wind conditions. In a new development, TrackingPoint has pushed its Xact System technology even further, allowing the shooter to look at a video screen not connected to the rifle while aiming — thus making possible that spy movie dream of shooting around corners.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Inside-a-TrackingPoint-scope-is-actually-a-camera-electronics-and-display.png" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Inside a TrackingPoint 'scope' is actually a camera, electronics, and display" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-185538" height="213" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Inside-a-TrackingPoint-scope-is-actually-a-camera-electronics-and-display-640x213.png" style="border-style: none;" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Making un-sighted shooting work for hitting stationary targets is actually easier than it sounds for TrackingPoint, because what looks like an optical scope on the rifle actually isn’t a scope. It is a video camera and small display, with a lot of electronics in between. Think of it like the Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) on a mirrorless camera, except the rifle shoots bullets instead of pictures. Having an EVF meant it was a small step for TrackingPoint to stream the same video to another device over WiFi – where it can be seen in the company’s Shotview mobile app. Initially, this capability was marketed for recording shooting sessions, but it didn’t take long for <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/145332-real-world-aimbot-the-17000-rifle-with-a-linux-powered-scope" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;">TrackingPoint</a> to realize the same technique could actually be used while shooting. Shooting around corners makes for a great demo, but the company hasn’t explained whether the link is secure enough to keep it from getting hacked, or fast enough to allow shooting at a moving target.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Pd2jZIwYwC4" width="640"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">TrackingPoint has said that the US Army has purchased six of its rifles, possibly for integration into its M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle, so someone is paying attention. Outside of military and SWAT team use, though, it is a little hard to see the value of turning a $10,000 to $20,000 rifle into more than a party trick.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The largest use of TrackingPoint rifles is for hunting. Whatever you think about hunting, ethical hunters believe that the best kill is a quick, clean one. If the tagging feature of a TrackingPoint is used to help with that, great. Unfortunately, it is also being marketed and used with more of a “cowboy” mentality to set distance hunting records, so it isn’t hard to imagine the weirdness that will happen now that hunters don’t even need to be looking at what they kill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185535-trackingpoint-rifle-lets-you-hit-what-you-cant-see" target="_blank">extream tech</a></span></div>
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TrackingPoint rifle lets you hit what you can’t see

When we first covered TrackingPoint’s computer-assisted weapons at CES, it was the rifles’ object-tagging that got everyone’s attention....

Amazon is One Step Closer to Drone Delivery

Amazon is One Step Closer to Drone Delivery

After the FAA released some new rules regarding the use of drones this week, many people who were looking forward to Amazon’s delivery dr...

Android L Developer Preview Hands-On: Google’s Material Design Is Looking Great

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Android is getting a facelift. At Google’s I/O keynote last Wednesday, the company detailed some big changes coming to the platform this fall, highlighted by something the search giant is calling “material design.” Not that Android looked all that bad to begin with, especially in Android KitKat. But Android L, <a href="http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/06/25/android-l-developer-preview/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: initial; color: #28a0ff; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;">as it’s being called</a>, is a complete reimagining. This is what Android fans will see not only across mobile, but on the desktop, watches and TVs, too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Google describes material design as something that uses bolder graphics, more fluid motion and more tactile surfaces. All of this combines to create an even more intuitive experience, something that will be consistent across all of Google’s platform. In the Developer Preview, it’s difficult to get a thorough idea of what material design will bring to Android when it becomes available to consumers, but it’s just enough for us to get a taste. And we can’t wait to see more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We got the software up and running on a Nexus 7, and although material design isn’t present across the entire OS just yet, there are already some big changes in how the software looks and behaves. In some ways the emphasis on design is akin to Apple changing from iOS 6 to iOS 7. And from what we can tell so far, Android will be better off for it. Everything is more fluid, more accessible. Playing with something like the calculator in Android L shouldn’t bring so much joy, but it does. And so on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On the home screen, you can already see that the software buttons are new—now a triangle, circle and square. And there are other little flourishes as well; Google uses surfaces and shadow in Android L that allows the company to better convey a physical structure. This helps Google explain “what can be touched and what can move” within Android L—these are the kind of changes users will see throughout the OS when it launches this fall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Moving deeper through the developer preview, notifications are also receiving a big makeover, both in looks and in functionality. They now show up in a beautiful card-style, similar to Google Now. The notifications are also active, too; you can either swipe to dismiss them or swipe down to interact and replay—and you can do this from any app you’re in. It isn’t quite so flushed out just yet, but we can’t wait to see how the changes affect the experience in the long term.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Since we ran the Android L preview on the Nexus 7, we couldn’t really see the new dialer in action, but we did get a feel for how apps will change with the new-look calculator. I know, it’s just a calculator. But you really get a sense for the bright colors, geometric shapes and shadows used to indicate what and where the software can be touched. Everything you touch animates, too, and looks very, very beautiful.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Elsewhere, Google is also making changes to multitasking, which is now laid out in a kind of rolodex. Here, you’ll not only see your most recent apps, but also tabs open in Chrome, thought that’s not present just yet in the current preview. The layout is super simple and easy to use—you can swipe stuff away like you normally would in existing version of Android, or you could hit the little X in the top right corner. We can see this implementation getting really messy with a lot of apps and tabs running, but it’s simple to quickly swipe through your recently used apps.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Google’s Android L is still early in development—it doesn’t even have a proper name! Licorice? Lollipop?—but we’re still really excited to see what material design will look like across the entire operating system. From what we’ve seen so far, we’re excited about the direction Google is headed, and can’t wait to see what the finished product has to offer when it hits this fall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://www.technobuffalo.com/videos/android-l-developer-preview-hands-on-googles-material-design-is-looking-great/" target="_blank">tehno bufallo</a></span></div>
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Android L Developer Preview Hands-On: Google’s Material Design Is Looking Great

Android is getting a facelift. At Google’s I/O keynote last Wednesday, the company detailed some big changes coming to the platform t...

New water-based organic battery is cheap, rechargeable and eco-friendly

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<img alt="The USC organic redux flow battery (not pictured) replaces metals with water-soluble organ..." height="358" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/organic-redox-flow-battery-1.jpg" width="640" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Lithium-ion batteries have made portable, rechargeable electronics commonplace. Unfortunately, they do have some glaring drawbacks, including heat issues, being made with rare, toxic elements, and the fact the technology doesn't scale up very well, which limits applications. A team of scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) is working on an alternative in the form of a water-based organic battery that is not only cheaper and more environmentally friendly, but also holds the potential for scaling up for use in wind and solar power plants as a means to store large amounts of energy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The technology developed by the USC team is what’s called an organic redux flow battery. It’s a bit like a fuel cell, and a similar one was developed for NASA’s <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/go/1444/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Helios</a> electric-powered drones. It consists of two tanks containing solutions of electroactive chemicals. These are pumped into a cell, which is divided by a membrane. The solutions interact through the membrane and electricity is produced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">According to the team, the tanks can be of any size in comparison to the cells, so the total amount of energy that the system can store depends on how large the tanks are, which is one up on conventional batteries. The flow battery also has a better life span than lithium-ion batteries and its variants.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"The batteries last for about 5,000 recharge cycles, giving them an estimated 15-year lifespan," says Sri Narayan, professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “Lithium ion batteries degrade after around 1,000 cycles, and cost 10 times more to manufacture.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The key to the new flow battery is the electroactive materials used. Instead of metals or other toxic materials, the USC team used organic compounds. By trial and error, the researchers were able to develop materials based on oxidized organic compounds called quinones, which are found in plants, fungi, bacteria, and some animals and involved in photosynthesis and cellular respiration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Specifically, the quinones used in the new battery are anthraquinone-2-sulfonic acid or anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonic acid on the negative side, and 1,2-dihydrobenzoquinone- 3,5-disulfonic acid on the positive side of the cell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The team sees the technology as one day leading to large “mega-scale” battery banks that are cost-effective and environmentally friendly. The quinones used in the flow battery are currently produced from naturally occurring hydrocarbons, but the team hopes one day to derive them directly from carbon dioxide. However, the immediate goal of the team is to scale up the technology to make it more practical.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/organic-redox-flow-battery/32739/" target="_blank">gizmag</a></span></div>
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New water-based organic battery is cheap, rechargeable and eco-friendly

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