GO FOR GREEN: Sometimes as you drive round town it seems like you catch every red light. But what say your car could call ahead to the nearest intersection and let it know when it would arrive? The intersection could then advise the car whether it could proceed or must stop. This is the idea of one professor at the University of Texas, who says it would be just like reserving a room at a hotel.
Great idea, until a city decide to charge for it or sell higher access levels. Some of us could be stuck with the red forever. Details at Discovery News has more.
HOLD YOUR TONGUE: If you rely on an electric wheelchair you need some way to control it. The Tongue Drive System from Georgia Institute of Technology puts the control into the user's mouth. An inconspicuous dental retainer includes sensors, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and an induction coil to charge the battery. The retainer is moulded to fit tightly around the wearer's teeth. Meanwhile the person has a tiny magnet attached to their tongue. As the wearer moves their tongue data from the sensors is sent to a smartphone and interpreted to move a cursor on a computer screen or to move the wheelchair. So it is all in the way you hold your mouth. Georgia Institute of Technology has more here.
SMART PHONE; SMART BAG: A team in Dubai think we could use RFID tags on our personal possessions to make sure we never again walk off leaving our keys or wallet behind. Their IPURSE concept merges RFID and near-field communication technologies into a single system. Your smartphone could contain a list of the items in your bag and then alert you if one or more of those items were removed or left behind.
Yes. Alpha Galileo.
WOUND ZAPPER: The US Army is testing a bioelectric bandage. The bandage contains small silver and zinc dots in the pattern of tiny batteries that create micro-currents when moist. The electric current is supposed to ease pain, kill infectious microbes and speed up healing. Woo. Nice one. More at Discovery.
NOAH'S SUBURBAN HOUSE: Suppose you live by a river, perhaps the Thames in London. And suppose the height of that river increases, perhaps because of climate change. Wouldn't it be handy if instead of flooding your house were to float? That's the story for the UK's first amphibious house to be built beside the Thames. A lightweight timber construction rests on a concrete hull, creating a free-floating pontoon. 4 permanent guideposts keep it in place so it doesn't just float away. I wonder where the lifeboat's stored. World Architecture News has more here and there's video here.
