Kinect Hacked to Weigh Astronauts in Space | PCWorld

Kinect Hacked to Weigh Astronauts in Space | PCWorld: "Astronauts might soon be able to watch their weight in space by using a Microsoft Kinect. And no, I don’t mean that they’ll be playing Kinect Sports and Dance Central. A group of European scientists have found a way to hack a Kinect so it can determine your weight just by "looking" at you."

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A bionic prosthetic eye that speaks the language of your brain | ExtremeTech

A bionic prosthetic eye that speaks the language of your brain | ExtremeTech: "On the grand scale of things, we know so very little about the brain. Our thick-headedness isn’t quite cosmological in scale — we really do know almost nothing about the universe beyond Earth — but, when it comes down to it, the brain is virtually a black box."

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Will the world end December 2012

Will the world end December 2012: "Will Dec. 21 2012 be the end of the world? There have been a lot of discussion on this topic. There are a lot of end of the world predictions and arguments saying that the world is going to end on this day. What is the basis for these predictions?"

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Latest HondaJet test aircraft lifts-off

Latest HondaJet test aircraft lifts-off: "Honda's first ever commercial aircraft, appropriately named the HondaJet, follows in the footsteps of the company's ground-breaking CB750 motorcycle and S600 sports car by aiming to provide superior performance and value - this time in the light business jet market. "

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O1M One Moment natural, biodegradable shoes are like condoms for your feet

O1M One Moment natural, biodegradable shoes are like condoms for your feet: "The concept for these bright plastic shoes comes from native Amazonians, that did essentially graft soles to their feet. As explained by the manufacturer, the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest painted their soles with latex derived from Hevea trees"

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New diode promises to uncork optical computing bottleneck

New diode promises to uncork optical computing bottleneck: "When it comes to speed, photons leave electrons for dead, which means optical computers will be much faster than their current electron-based cousins. While diodes for use in optical information processing systems already exist, these require external assistance to transmit signals so cannot be readily integrated into computer chips."

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Researchers create invisibility cloak for sound

Researchers create invisibility cloak for sound: "Many of the current experimental "invisibility cloaks" are based around the same idea - light coming from behind an object is curved around it and then continues on forward to a viewer. That person is in turn only able to see what's behind the object, and not the object itself. Scientists from Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have applied that same principle to sound waves, and created what could perhaps be described as a "silence cloak.""

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Self-healing electronics may result in less expensive, longer-lasting devices

Self-healing electronics may result in less expensive, longer-lasting devices: "A hard material is impregnated with microcapsules that burst when the material cracks, releasing a stored liquid that hardens on contact with the air, thus repairing the crack ... it's a system that we've recently seen used in a number of applications, including self-healing concrete and polymers."

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Researchers develop cheap and easy to mass-produce "solar-paint"

Researchers develop cheap and easy to mass-produce "solar-paint": "A team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana is reporting the creation of a "solar paint" that could mark an important milestone on the road to widespread implementation of renewable energy technology. Although the new material is still a long way off the conversion efficiencies of commercial silicon solar cells, the researchers say it is cheap to make and can be produced in large quantities."

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spnKiX motorized shoes edge closer to production

spnKiX motorized shoes edge closer to production: "Peter Treadway's battery-powered motorized shoes - which we first spied as a concept in mid-2010 - are edging closer to production. Called spnKiX, these electric roller-skates have gone through more than thirty prototypes over a five year period to reach the final design and if all goes to plan they will hit the pavement in March 2012."

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Climate change from CO2 may not be as bad as predicted

Climate change from CO2 may not be as bad as predicted: "According to a recent study funded by the National Science Foundation's Paleoclimate Program, climate change may be far less sensitive to carbon dioxide fluctuations than previously predicted."

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Mercedes to debut E 300 BlueTEC HYBRID and E 400 HYBRID in Detroit

Mercedes to debut E 300 BlueTEC HYBRID and E 400 HYBRID in Detroit: "Mercedes-Benz has announced that two new hybrid models will be making their world premiere at the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit next month."

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