Kairos Blends Mechanical and Smartwatch Technology

Imagine owning an upmarket, 25-jewel, Swiss-movement mechanical watch. Now imagine one that that can display text messages, notify you of incoming calls and let you remotely control your smartphone or tablet. That may seem a bit farfetched, but Kairos Watches aims to combine a luxury mechanical watch with the functionality of a smartwatch in one seamless device.

Apple iWatch Coming In October With Curved OLED Screen And Health Tracking

Apple revealed a lot of news at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference this year, but it didn’t discuss or show off any iWatch. Still, a new report from Japanese newspaper the Nikkei says that an iWatch is indeed on its way, with a targeted ship date of October. The gadget will include a curved OLED screen and health tracking functions, and be powered by iOS 8, Nikkei reports.

New invisibility cloak works for diffuse light

A new type of invisibility cloak that hides objects from light in diffusive media such as a cloudy liquid – rather than a clear medium such as air – has been unveiled by physicists in Germany. Based on the same physical principle used in cloaks that shield objects from heat, the device has been created by Robert Schittny and colleagues at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Although applications of the device are limited, the researchers say that it could be used to create aesthetically pleasing yet burglar-proof glass.

Lab-on-a-chip can detect cancer in the early stages

Researchers at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) have developed a lab-on-a-chip device that can detect protein cancer markers in a drop of blood, working as a very early cancer-detection system. The device can detect very low concentrations of markers and is reliable, cheap and portable, making it attractive for deployment in remote areas of the world.

"We Feel" tool uses Twitter to provide real-time view of world's emotions

A new online tool aims to create a real-time emotional map of how people all over the world feel, from analyzing how cheerful or depressed different countries might be, to how budget cuts or other news might hit people emotionally. Called "We Feel," the tool analyzes 32,000 tweets a minute to monitor people's collective mood swings and how their emotions fluctuate over time globally.

Are Phablets Signaling a Butterfly Effect for Mobile Devices?

Maybe they’re just small tweaks to make bigger smartphones or smaller tablets, but the rising popularity of phablets could lead to a faster global shift to more always-connected touchscreen computing devices.

Raydiance's R-Cut system promises "new paradigm" in high-tech glass fabrication

Smartphones have come a long way in a few short years, but two things have remained constant; most sport a "slab of glass" form factor, and dropping one makes you wish you’d had it insured.

Bttn: One button to rule them all

With the world seemingly transferring everything online to apps and cloud services, we're losing touch with how our actions trigger reactions. Bttn, a physical button that can be used in any way its owner sees fit, is an attempt to bring back a tactile element to the way we connect with everyone and everything around us.

Acoustic Tractor Beam Pulls In Macroscopic Objects

The tractor beam is a staple of science fiction. Aliens use them to haul up unwilling earthlings into flying saucers for probing, and spacecraft use them to seize enemy ships or tow captured objects around in space. Now a group of researchers working at the University of Dundee actually claim to have built one. But instead of lasers, it uses ultrasonic waves to pull macroscopic objects in.

Scientists Created Weavable Li-ion Fiber Battery Yarn

Scientists at the Fudan University in Shanghai, China, have developed a high-performance Li-ion battery made of carbon nanotube fiber yarns. Roughly one 1 mm in diameter, the fiber shaped lithium-ion batteries are reported lightweight enough to create weavable and wearable textile batteries that could power various devices. The researchers say that the yarn is capable of delivering nearly 71 mAh/g of power, and can also be woven into existing textiles to create novel electronic fabrics.

Hybrid Energy System Mimics Processes In Photosynthesis

Artificially replicating the biological process of photosynthesis is a goal being sought on many fronts, and it promises to one day improve light-to-energy efficiencies of solar collection well beyond what's possible with photovoltaic cells. One of the first steps on the road to achieving this objective is to imitate the mechanisms at work in the transfer of energy from reception through to output.

Scientists from CERN and MIT launch encrypted email service

The privacy of the data that we put online has been a hot topic over the last year. In order to protect against unwanted snooping, a group of scientists has created a new secure email service. ProtonMail provides end-to-end encryption, meaning that even the company itself can't even see the content of your messages.

• 
• 
• 

 

This Algae Battery Could Power A Tesla With 200X The Charge

In a small lab, near a lake at the edge of West Berkeley, sits the prototype of what could revolutionize battery power as we know it. The secret to this power? Algae.

Google Takes Its First 100 Percent Self-Drive Car To The Streets

Google has revealed its first self-driving car prototype, which as you guessed requires no driver. The prototype accommodates for two passengers and is missing quite a few of the features you'd expect to see in a standard car. With no need for a steering wheel, mirrors or braking and accelerating pedals, the car comes fully equipped with special software and sensors that feed information into an onboard computer, which then drives the car.

Google Using Artificial Brains to Teach Its Data Centers How to Behave

 At Google, artificial intelligence isn’t just a means of building cars that drive on their own, smartphone services that respond to the spoken word, and online search engines that instantly recognize digital images. It’s also a way of improving the efficiency of the massive data centers that underpin the company’s entire online empire.

Keep An Eye On Your Home With The Help Of Your iPhone And Butterfleye

Butterfleye is a wireless home surveillance camera that’s joining the growing ranks of intelligent, smartphone connected webcam systems designed to keep watch while you’re out and about. In addition to allowing you to check in on a live video feed whenever you like via iPhone, this smart camera comes equipped with a thermal sensor, motion detector, and facial recognition technology.

These Batteries Charges 20 Times Faster Than Li-ion Batteries

Japanese company Power Japan Plus has announced the development and planned mass-production of "Ryden," a disruptive carbon battery that can be charged 20 times faster than an ordinary lithium-ion cell. The battery, which is cheap to manufacture, safe, and environmentally friendly, could be ideal to improve the range and charging times of electric cars.

These Glasses Will Help Blind People Find Directions And Avoid Obstacles

Researchers from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV) in Mexico have developed a pair of glasses that use a combination of ultrasound, GPS, stereoscopic vision and artificial intelligence to help the visually impaired to navigate their environment. The device, perhaps the most sophisticated of its kind, is slated to reach mass production early next year and will likely cost up to US$1,500.

Google Working With Ruckus To Build Wi-Fi In Cloulds

Google is working with Wi-Fi equipment maker Ruckus Wireless to build a large-scale Wi-Fi network in the cloud off of which any business could hang its wireless routers, according to a source familiar with the project who asked not to be named.

Glasses Free 3-D Projector Developed By MIT as a "Practical Alternative To Holographic Video"

The 3D format has had something of a renaissance in recent years, but the technology still has some way to go before the potential of "real-life" multiperspective 3D can be realized. The Camera Culture group at the MIT Media Lab is developing a new 3D video projection system that doesn't require glasses and provides different users different perspective angles of the same object. The team sees it not as a final answer, but as a transitional system that sits between current technologies and true holographic video.