ExoHand Boosts Strength, Transmits Touch

Imagine a remotely operated robot hand that imitates the movements of an operator exactly -- picking up objects and manipulating them, perhaps in environments too dangerous for people to work in. Or an exoskeleton that prevents repetitive stress injury.

The ExoHand, from Festo, a German company, may one day do just that. It's an exoskeletal system designed to provide greater strength and dexterity to the user, showcased at a recent trade show in Hanover.

External actuators boost the grip strength of the wearer, and a software algorithm controls the position of the joints. And the ExoHand can do more than make a person's grip strong -- it can also transmit the motions of the wearer in real time to a robot, with a silicone hand fitted where a human one would ordinarily be.

One thing the ExoHand has is feedback -- the operator gets a sense of the pressure exerted on the object grasped. That makes remote operation a lot more precise -- one has a "feel" for the object that isn't there with traditional remote-controlled robot graspers.

Though it is still inthe proof-of-concept stage, it's a big improvement on the claws or mechanical graspers common in robotics and automated systems, as it duplicates the movements of fingers and can grab things more delicately. It's also better than a traditional glove box for handling objects that might be dangerous where more room is needed to operate.

The ExoHand might one day be used in factories where people do repetitive tasks -- by assisting the wearer it reduces the strain on muscles. It could also show up in physical therapy, not unlike the Ekso, an exoskeleton designed for paraplegics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcTL7Hig8h4&feature=player_embedded

ExoHand Boosts Strength, Transmits Touch

Imagine a remotely operated robot hand that imitates the movements of an operator exactly -- picking up objects and manipulating them, perhaps in environments too dangerous for people to work in. Or an exoskeleton that prevents repetitive stress injury.

The ExoHand, from Festo, a German company, may one day do just that. It's an exoskeletal system designed to provide greater strength and dexterity to the user, showcased at a recent trade show in Hanover.

External actuators boost the grip strength of the wearer, and a software algorithm controls the position of the joints. And the ExoHand can do more than make a person's grip strong -- it can also transmit the motions of the wearer in real time to a robot, with a silicone hand fitted where a human one would ordinarily be.

One thing the ExoHand has is feedback -- the operator gets a sense of the pressure exerted on the object grasped. That makes remote operation a lot more precise -- one has a "feel" for the object that isn't there with traditional remote-controlled robot graspers.

Though it is still inthe proof-of-concept stage, it's a big improvement on the claws or mechanical graspers common in robotics and automated systems, as it duplicates the movements of fingers and can grab things more delicately. It's also better than a traditional glove box for handling objects that might be dangerous where more room is needed to operate.

The ExoHand might one day be used in factories where people do repetitive tasks -- by assisting the wearer it reduces the strain on muscles. It could also show up in physical therapy, not unlike the Ekso, an exoskeleton designed for paraplegics.

Plans for an enormous telescope, equipped with a 3.2 billion-pixel camera, are ready for detailed designs, its creators announced on April 24. When built, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will take photos of every inch of visible night sky every week for 10 years in a kind of time-lapse picture that will provide scientists with unparalleled views of the universe.

The telescope’s research team, which received Critical Decision 1 approval from the U.S. Department of Energy, will now begin to make in-depth designs, a schedule and a budget. Department of Energy projects go through five critical decision stages, according to a department document posted online.

The telescope, known as LSST, is a long-planned and long-anticipated project, originally conceived in 1998. “It is tremendously satisfying to finally see this move forward to the point when we can begin to carry out the project,” a LSST project director, Steven Kahn, of the SLAC National Accelerometer Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif., said in a statement.

The LSST will gather 6 million gigabytes of data annually, and its detailed images will teach astronomers more about dark energy, dark matter, near-Earth asteroids and the Kuiper belt, a region just beyond Neptune’s orbit where Pluto and other icy objects carve their paths in space.

It can also help researchers track asteroids that threaten Earth, according to the LSST’s website. All the LSST’s data will be publicly available, so “anyone with a computer will be able to fly through the Universe, zooming past objects a hundred million times fainter than can be observed with the unaided eye,” the site says.

Though the telescope was originally scheduled for completion this year, SLAC now says construction will start in 2014. Researchers have already started work on its 8.4-meter (27.6-foot) mirror and on preparing its construction site, atop the Cerro Pachón mountain in northern Chile.

3.2 Billion-Pixel Camera Telescope

Plans for an enormous telescope, equipped with a 3.2 billion-pixel camera, are ready for detailed designs, its creators announced today (April 24). When built, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will take photos of every inch of visible night sky every week for 10 years in a kind of time-lapse picture that will provide scientists with unparalleled views of the universe.

The telescope's research team, which received Critical Decision 1 approval from the U.S. Department of Energy, will now begin to make in-depth designs, a schedule and a budget. Department of Energy projects go through five critical decision stages, according to a department document posted online.

The telescope, known as LSST, is a long-planned and long-anticipated project, originally conceived in 1998. "It is tremendously satisfying to finally see this move forward to the point when we can begin to carry out the project," a LSST project director, Steven Kahn, of the SLAC National Accelerometer Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif., said in a statement.

The LSST will gather 6 million gigabytes of data annually, and its detailed images will teach astronomers more about dark energy, dark matter, near-Earth asteroids and the Kuiper belt, a region just beyond Neptune's orbit where Pluto and other icy objects carve their paths in space.

It can also help researchers track asteroids that threaten Earth, according to the LSST's website. All the LSST's data will be publicly available, so "anyone with a computer will be able to fly through the Universe, zooming past objects a hundred million times fainter than can be observed with the unaided eye," the site says.

Though the telescope was originally scheduled for completion this year, SLAC now says construction will start in 2014. Researchers have already started work on its 8.4-meter (27.6-foot) mirror and on preparing its construction site, atop the Cerro Pachón mountain in northern Chile.

Ultra thin Motorola Droid Razr.

Motorola takes us inside the engineering of the ultra thin Motorola Droid Razr.

World,s smallest single atom transistor

This transistor is made using only one atom of phosphorous.

It is smallest transistor built in Nature Nanotechnology journal.

Michelle Simmons says "the development is less about improving current technology than building future technology".

The biggest problem with it is that it has to be kept at a temperature of minus 196 celsius.

If interested see,
http://www.techpark.net/2012/02/21/worlds-smallest-transistor-created-using-single-atom/