Tech Universe: Friday 13 May

Neurowear's Necomimi is a commercial headband that monitors brain signals. Photo / Supplied

EARS UP: Neurowear's Necomimi is a commercial headband that monitors brain signals. Furry 'cat ears' respond to detected signals by perking up or laying flat. Gimmick today; useful tech tomorrow. More at JapanTrends and video on YouTube.

DOLPHIN SPOKEN HERE: US researchers are using pattern recognition to try to learn the basics of natural communication amongst dolphins. A diver will carry a small computer and hydrophones to recognise sounds and will respond by selecting a recorded sound. The software is designed to discover interesting features in any data set. Watch out for those cross-cultural language bloopers. More at NewScientist.

MORE TALK MORE JUICE: A researcher at Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea, sandwiched tiny strands of zinc oxide between two electrodes with a sound absorbing pad on top. Vibration from sound hitting the pad compressed and released the zinc oxide, generating a current. A prototype converted 100 Db sound to 50 millivolts of electricity. They aim to eventually power a cellphone by talking. Which comes rather too close to perpetual motion. Details on The Telegraph.

THE STARS BY DAY: 37,440 exposures of the night sky stitched together created the Photopic Sky Survey - a 5,000 megapixel photo. Nick Risinger travelled thousands of kilometres to make the images of the night sky using 6 air-cooled cameras each fitted with their own lenses and filters, and software to ensure each exposure contributed the right data to the whole. The interactive 360 degree image is available online for viewing day or night. We need to keep the stars visible offline too. More at SkySurvey.

SUNNY AUTOCLAVE: Sterilising medical instruments in an autoclave is straightforward with good access to electricity. But for developing countries with plenty of sun and not much electricity a new design from Rice University, USA, should be very useful. Curved mirrors focus sunlight to produce steam that heats a hotplate to 121C for 30 minutes. It all sits in a plywood box wrapped in silicon-based Thermablok insulation, which has the highest R-value of any known material. Those sunrays sure are useful. More at Rice University and video on YouTube.

- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz