A round-up of the latest technology news from around the globe.
DUCK NOW: Worried that an asteroid may hit Earth and obliterate everything? Now you can put numbers to your concern and work out exactly what damage an impact will cause. Choose parameters such as School Bus or Small Planet size, distance, speed and angle. The online 'Impact Earth!' calculator takes your data and outputs a damage report. It may all be worse than you fear. Details at Purdue and video on YouTube.
JCB PHONE HOME: If you make a habit of dropping your cellphone into pools of water then the JCB Toughphone Tradesman floating cellphone may be for you. The rugged phone can survive tough treatment such as being buried under rubble or being immersed in water for 8 hours. Action heroes start your orders now. More at CellularNews.
TOOL AGE: Do you have a multi-tool in your earthquake kit? 1800 years ago the Romans were using a folding tool that combined an eating implement, a three-pronged fork, spatula, pick, spike and knife. We're not as modern as we think. More at FitzMuseum.
SWISS DATA BANK: It's huge, underground and in Switzerland. The Large Hadron Collider? Well, yes, but also another facility: the world's toughest server farm. A former Cold War nuclear bunker is now the home of a fortified data repository. It has its own power supply and cooling system, in fact all the systems it needs to be self-sufficient in a catastrophe. Backup your holiday photos: no; backup the human genome sequence: yes. More at Wired.
EYE SPEED: Traditional eye-tracking devices often can't keep up, but a robotic camera from Germany mimics and can even exceed the speed of human eyes. The system uses ultrasonic piezo actuators and prismatic joints to precisely follow an eye it's tracking. The device could also be used for robot eyes. Augmented vision for tennis players and cricketers? More at Spectrum and video on YouTube.
- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz
