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Feed Engadget: Dragon Skin body armor gains piezoelectric sensors, keeps bullet-stopping abilit (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed
This Dragon Skin armor has been knocking about since 2007, but now that piezoelectrics and intelligence have been thrown into the mix we couldn't stop ourselves from taking a peek at it. The armor's strength is derived from a reptilian arrangement of overlapping ceramic and titanium composite discs, which simultaneously block incoming rounds and dissipate the impact to a wider area. What's interesting about the new design is the two piezoelectric sensors attached to each end -- one of them transfers a low voltage of power through the armor in the form of vibration, which the other picks up, and the reported energy loss is interpreted as armor degradation. Gnarlier still is the ability of these sensors to generate electricity from bullet impacts, which can then themselves give you an indication of what sort of bullet hit you. Capable of being applied to soldiers and vehicles alike, this could make the real act of soldiering a whole lot more like a video game (minus the whole "infinite respawn" thing), with HUDs showing you how much "shield" you have left. You can see an old(ish) video of the original armor after the break.

Continue reading Dragon Skin body armor gains piezoelectric sensors, keeps bullet-stopping abilities

Dragon Skin body armor gains piezoelectric sensors, keeps bullet-stopping abilities originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Software

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Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Whether you consider Opera an underdog browser or not, it came out on top in a feature on CNet this weekend. It was up against "underdog Web browsers" Camino, K-Meleon, Shiira and Arora in a piece loosely aimed at determining whether these browsers are yet ready to steal significant numbers of users from Firefox, Safari, IE etc. Interesting most to me, however, is that it transpires that Shiira, the Mac browser from Japan, is one of the fastest browsers on the planet, beating the original Chrome v1.0, Firefox 3.5 and more in its benchmark tests.
Programming

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hsoft
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Privacy

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Submitted by
Al
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Biotech

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Submitted by Anonymous Coward
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Disturbing news indeed.
Medicine

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Submitted by phyrebyrd
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The Internet

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Submitted by
netbuzz
netbuzz writes: "Next time a major Web site like Facebook, Google or eBay changes their seldom-read terms of service, a new project from the Electronic Frontier Foundation will be there to chronicle the alterations and highlight them for all to see. Called TOSBack, the EFF site launched today and is already tracking 44 sites. "Terms of service form the foundation of your relationship with social networking sites, online businesses, and other Internet communities, but most people become aware of these terms only when there's a problem," said EFF Activism and Technology Manager Tim Jones. "We created TOSBack to help consumers monitor terms of service for the websites they use everyday, and show how the terms change over time."

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/42432"

Comment Re:First! (Score 1) 210

by HisOmniscience (#28206361) Attached to: Sony Unveils PS3 Motion Controller

Nintendo's solution requires not just the controller but also a sensor bar.

The motion controls for the Wii are handled by the internal components of the Wiimote and now the Motion Plus. The sensor bar is only used for onscreen pointers.

A creative programmer can use the IR for 3D, but nobody uses the Wii this way, most likely because it is underpowered.

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