Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Coffee Break


Share with us any links, tips, ideas or suggestions you may have about the content matter of our course!!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello everyone!!!
I always use this link
http://www.wordreference.com
I think is good for me, maybe for you too.
Greetings
Laura :)

Trina Isabel said...

Discovery News: Material World
New Inventions January 18, 2008
Innovate or Die
Last fall, Google teamed up with with Specialized and Goodby, Silverstein, & Partners to sponsor the Innovate or Die contest, which challenged people to build a machine that transformed pedal power into a new and useful purpose. The winners were announced this week, with the grand prize going to team Aquaduct—five California-based design students.Their invention addresses the needs of the more than 1.1 billion people in the world who don't have access to clean drinking water. The pedal-powered machine allows a person to transport water from a well to another location, and along the way, filter it. The Aquaduct Mobile Filtration Vehicle team received $5,000 and five new Specialized Globe bikes. See the YouTube video.
rated 4.0 by 18 people [?]

Posted by Tracy Staedter at 11:19 AM in New Inventions | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) ShareThis
November 25, 2007
Clean Teeth Without the Toothpaste
Sometimes I wonder if the day will ever come when we'll be able to take a shower without using any water. Well, we're not there yet, but along those lines, we may be able to clean our teeth without using toothpaste. A solar-powered toothbrush (manufactured by Osaka, Japan-based Shiken Corporation and being distributed in North America by Soladey USA) uses natural light, not Crest, to get rid of plaque.

The Soladey-2 has titanium dioxide in the handle just below the bristles. When natural light (not fluorescent) shines on the titanium dioxide, it causes a chemical reaction that releases negatively charged electrons. Inside the mouth, the negatively charged electrons stick like magnets to positively charged ions in dental plaque acid. The bound neutralizes the acid, decomposing the plaque.See this graphic and the story in the NY Times.
Posted by Tracy Staedter at 11:29 AM in New Inventions | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) ShareThis
November 21, 2007
Computer Converts Thoughts into Speech and Motion
There's a lot of work going on in brain machine interfaces. That is, machines that can read a person's brain activity and translate that into movement. Most of these approaches require a person to wear an electrode cap. They also require very sophisticated algorithms that can discern the appropriate brain wave activity from other brain wave activity.
A new device called the Audeo, from Ambient (developed by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), does not use an electrode cap. It uses a collar that wraps around the neck. Electrodes there pick up neural activity that the brain is transmitting to the vocal chords. The machines then translates those neural signals into computer speech or to drive a wheelchair. So basically, you just think "My name is Tracy" and the computer outputs a synthesized version of that. Or you think, "Turn right" and the computer turns your wheelchair to the right. Very cool. Check out the video.
Posted by Tracy Staedter at 11:47 AM in Biotech, New Inventions | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) ShareThis
November 05, 2007
A Mobile Phone That Does Your Taxes
Well, not yet. But today Google announced the Open Handset Alliance, a group of mobile phone technology companies, and Android, a free, open-source platform for mobile devices, that could help push cell phone innovation even beyond the iPhone. Normally I wouldn't mention consumer products in this blog, but I think the key ideas here are "free" and "open source," which could cut competitors off at the knees, while at the same time spark new and interesting uses for smart phones. Maybe make them cheaper. You should be able to get a phone late next year with the software.
The down side: It won't be available on your current phone. You'll have to buy a new one. And it could be just one more place for Google to sell and display advertising.
Posted by Tracy Staedter at 12:47 PM in New Inventions | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) ShareThis
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Tracy Staedter pulls the levers and pushes the buttons behind the curtain of the Discovery Tech Web site.
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I'm trying to give you a links about invents...
Trina

Trina Isabel said...

Here is the link:
http://blogs.discovery.com/news_tech/new_inventions/page/2/
Trina

Patricia Murillo said...

Trina, we need a couple of those Japanese tooth brushes!! :)