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Submission + - Nanotech 'Nose' Sniffs Out Bombs From Five Metres Away (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: An Israeli start-up has developed the world's first "electronic nose" that uses super-sensitive nanotechnology sensors to sniff out bombs, and can even outperform dogs.

The Tracense bomb detecting device is designed to test for numerous substances simultaneously with a high rate of accuracy, giving results almost instantly.
Odours are a combination of several specific molecules, whereby each smell contributing to the odour gives off its own specific chemical properties.

At the moment, there are systems able to break down odours using analytical chemistry equipment, but these systems are bulky and meant to be used in a laboratory, or requiring a big sample of an odour to detect what it is.

Tracense wants its invention to be an affordable portable device that can be easily used by the police and airport security, so the chip in the device contains hundreds of tiny nano sensors capable of detecting even the most minute traces of chemicals, even as low as a few molecules per 1,000 trillion.

Submission + - Watch How These Russians Deliver Pizzas From Mid-Air Using Flying Drones (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: A pizza restaurant in the Komi Republic of Russia has announced the launch of the country's first pizza delivery service using unmanned helicopter drones, following a successful test trial.

On 21 June, the company demonstrated drone technology to residents of Syktyvkarsk, the capital city of the Komi republic, flying the drone through the city's main square to deliver pizza to a man within half an hour. The drone was able to complete six commercial orders on its first day.

Drone enthusiasts will be able to see the software program being used to control the drone remotely, together with another field test showing the drone hovering over a hundred feet in the air and lowering a pizza box down on a cable.

Submission + - Japanese iPad App Replaces Receptionists With Virtual Girls (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: Are you having problems replacing your last receptionist, or just fancy going high tech? If so, you could get yourself a virtual receptionist instead, who can interact with visitors via an iPad app.

Japanese app developer Analogue Twelve have come up with Beauty Receptionist (or rather, BIJIN=UKETSUKE in Japanese), an interactive iPad app that creates an interactive touch screen interface allowing guests to place an internal call using voice over internet protocol (VOIP) from the office foyer to someone in a particular team or department that they want to see.

If you would like a different "girl", you can pick from seven different avatars, and an additional in-app purchase of $2.98 is required per virtual receptionist.

Submission + - JAESA: Help Bring Iron Man's Jarvis Virtual Personal Assistant to Life (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: Have you ever wished you could have a virtual personal assistant like Jarvis in Iron Man? Well, a Canadian start-up is trying to make that dream a reality, and is currently seeking your help on Kickstarter.

Ainova Robotics has designed an artificially intelligent virtual personal assistant called Jaesa (Just Another Essentially Smart Application), which at 150MB in size, will be able to run on iOS and Android devices, as well as Windows OS, Windows Phone and Mac OS X.

You can command Jaesa to open a computer program or mobile app for you, and even hold a conversation with her about anything you like.

When you first receive Jaesa out of the box, she will have a default personality, but according to software develop Arseniy Nikulchenko, who has been working on the project for over two years, her personality will change as you talk to her due to machine learning technology.

Submission + - Japan: Life-Sized Thomas The Tank Engine Steam Train to Run This Summer (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: If you're planning to visit Japan this summer, you might want to check out the Oigawa Railway in Shizuoka Prefecture, as the railway line has dressed up one of its steam engines as Thomas the Tank Engine, and will be offering rides on the train as a special attraction.

The Oigawa Railway is famous for its old-fashioned steam locomotives, which are all in perfect working condition and carry passengers through isolated spots in the area, populated by mountains and hills, to one of the many hot spring resorts.

In order to drum up tourism and keep interest going in the steam trains, the rail line owners have collaborated with Japanese distribution company Sony Creative Products to offer people the chance to ride on a fully-working version of Thomas in July, using a C11-227 steam locomotive.

Submission + - Whoops: Flying Drone Laden With Drugs Crashes Into Dublin Jail (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: Drug dealers are at it again, using remote-controlled unmanned helicopter drones to drop drugs into prisons — but this time they've messed up.

Prison staff at Wheatfield Prison in Dublin noticed a large object crash-landing from above, and prisoners ran towards the drone, which was packed with lots of drugs.

Ironically, the drone is said to have crashed due to hitting special netting installed to prevent man-sized helicopters from attempting to land in the prison yard to help prisoners escape.

Submission + - Epic Fail: World Cup Security Team Accidentally Reveals Internal Wi-Fi Password (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: Israel-based security firm RISCO Group are clearly very proud of their good work in securing the World Cup, which includes monitoring and maintaining hundreds of wirelessly-connected CCTV security cameras dotted all over the 41,000-seat Arena Pantanal football stadium in Cuiaba, Brazil.

So proud, in fact, that they have made a huge faux pas this week by posting a photo of Luiz Cravo Dorea, head of international cooperation at the Brazil Federal Police, standing right in the middle of the World Cup's main command and control security centre.

Clearly visible in the picture are a bank of computer monitors showing the security centre's Wi-Fi SSID and password, as well as a secret internal email address used to communicate with some Brazilian government agency.

Submission + - Krusty Krab: Iconic SpongeBob SquarePants Restaurant to Open in Palestine (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: SpongeBob SquarePants fans alert! A real life version of the Krusty Krab, the iconic fastfood restaurant that SpongeBob works at in the Nickalodeon cartoon is set to open up in Ramallah, on the West Bank in Palestine.

The family restaurant has been designed to be an exact replica of Mr Krabs' establishment in Bikini Bottom, from the fixtures outside the building to the Krabby Patty burgers on the menu.

Submission + - Human or Machine? Check Out These Incredibly Life-Like Android Robots From Japan (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: Be afraid, be very afraid – the dystopian future of genetically engineered robots featured in 1982 Harrison Ford film Blade Runner is coming towards us now.

A new exhibition entitled “Android: What is Human?” launching tomorrow at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) in Tokyo will showcase some of the most realistic humanoid robots that have ever been seen.

The three android robots include Otonaroid, an adult female android robot; Kodomorid, a human female child robot and Telenoid, a minimally designed robot. They are the brainchild of Japanese robotics expert Hiroshi Ishiguro, a professor at Osaka University’s Department of Systems Innovation who has been developing robots for over 20 years.

The three robots will be stationed in a permanent exhibition at the Miraikan and the public's interactions with these robots will help researchers to explore robot-human interactions, and to examine what it means to be human.

Submission + - Physicists Prove Time Travel Possible by Sending Light Particles into the Past (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: Scientists from the University of Queensland have used photons (single particles of light) to simulate quantum particles travelling through time, which would solve some famous paradoxes, such as the grandfather paradox that argue time travel is not possible.

The grandfather paradox states that if a time traveller were to go back in time, he could accidentally prevent his grandparents from meeting, and thus prevent his own birth. However, if he had never been born, he could never have travelled back in time, in the first place.

It was predicted in 1991 that quantum mechanics could avoid some of the paradoxes caused by Einstein's theory of relativity, as quantum particles behave almost outside the realm of physics, so the scientists simulated the behaviour of two photons interacting with each other in two different cases.

In the first case, one photon passed through a wormhole and then interacted with its older self. In the second case, when a photon travels through normal space-time and interacts with another photon trapped inside a closed timeline curve forever.

Submission + - Pie in the Sky: Unmanned Flying Drones Delivering Pizza in Russia (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: A restaurant in Russia has launched the country's first ever pizza delivery service using unmanned flying helicopter drones.

DoDo Pizza, located in Syktyvkarsk, the capital city of the Komi republic, launched the new service on Saturday, drawing much applause from people who watched the drone deliver a pizza within half an hour to a man standing in the city's main square.

When the drone reaches the customer's door, the manager calls the customer to come outside to accept the delivery, so that the pizza doesn't fall into the wrong hands, and the pizza is lowered to the ground using a cable.

Submission + - SmartCane: A Smart Walking Stick That Uses Sonar To Guide Blind People (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: We've got smartphones, smart watches, smart home appliances, so why not a smart walking cane? Well now computer engineers at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) have invented a light, affordable device that uses ultrasound to guide blind people around cities.

Costing only 3,000 Rupees (£29) and powered by a lithium-ion battery that lasts 10 hours, the SmartCane is a device inspired by the skills of dolphins and bats, which attaches onto the end of a normal white cane.

While regular white canes are only able to detect obstacles up to knee height, the SmartCane uses ultrasound waves to scan a 45-degree span above the knee, and contains sensors able to detect obstacles that are up to three metres away.

Submission + - New Computer Algorithm Makes It Possible to See the Arrow of Time (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: If you know anything about Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, you'll know that he envisioned time as a spatial dimension, similar to the way height, weight, width and depth is quantified.

However, in theoretical physics, something cannot be considered to be a dimension if it's either based on three dimensions, or if it only goes in one direction, and time only seems to go one way – forward.

A group of computer scientists from MIT, Oxford University and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems disagrees.

They claim to have found a way to show that not only does the arrow of time exist, but it is actually possible to see it going backwards, or forwards, using an algorithm analysing video signals.

Submission + - A phone charger that doesn't consume electricity when not charging (asmocharger.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Asmo charger ( http://www.asmocharger.com/en/ ) is the first mobile phone charger, that doesn't consume electricity when not charging. The idea materialized when inventor's partner’s childhood home burned to the ground because a mobile charger was left connected to an electrical socket. First concepts were done in June 2013 followed by the first functional prototype in January 2014. The project is currently on kickstarter ( https://www.kickstarter.com/pr... ) with estimated delivery in december 2014.

Submission + - New "Silk Road Clone" Mobile App Lets You Anonymously Buy Goods With Bitcoin (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: A developer is working on a new mobile app that allows users to anonymously trade goods and services from other users nearby, using bitcoins – essentially an anonymous equivalent of Gumtree or Craigslist.

Reddit user CiniCraft has posted the link to BitCraft, a new "Silk Road Clone" for mobile that is now in beta mode for users to test out.

Currently only accessible in a web browser, users can sign up for an account, which includes a public profile, a wallet they can add bitcoins to, a private inbox, and a public chat message board for their local region.

Users of the app can also locate users providing services and goods they want on an interactive map, provided using the Google Maps API.

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