Tankpitstop robot finally automates car tank filling

Source: Reuters

The first robotic car tank filling I have seen was at experimental hydrogen stations in Iceland. Hydrogen is simply too dangerous to handle manually, so cap height, cap shape and filling mechanism were all designed as one system. Now Dutch inventors automate the care tank filling task with a robot that costs €75,000. It recognises the car as it approaches the pump, finds its fuel tank opening, unscrews the cap, fills the tank and then closes cap and flap again.

The shape of things to come in Barcelona Mobile World Congress 2008

The Barcelona Mobile World Congress of 2008 is finishing tomorrow, and those that are following events even superficially must have already got the message. Smartphones and mobile operating systems are all the rage, and later in 2008 we are going to see some really cool new models. Here is some facts from the event worth mentioning:

• Microsoft is getting ready for the upcoming mobile battle with Google. It has even gone as far as talking with Nokia about integrating Windows Mobile in some of its phones. It has not worked out so far but who knows…
• Android is coming later this year and prototype demos are springing up with OS features trickling out.
• Microsoft and Sony-Ericsson have reached agreement to combine their OS and hardware in new products. Sony-Ericsson is also participating in Symbian, so I am not sure how well this will go down with Nokia…

Harvesting energy from revolving doors

Source: Fluxxlab

Remember the Matrix movie and the way humans became grown heat-producing plants to provide for their machine lords? The word “harvesting” gives me the crawls, but luckily harvesting in this world is for our own benefit and energy dependence. Interesting ideas so far are the energy harvesting from gym users or vibrations from trains and human steps. Kinetic energy is everywhere, it is just a matter of how to harness the damn thing and convert it to useful energy.

However there are some nice opportunities where kinetic energy presents itself in more organised ways and can be collected more easily. Case in point is Fluxxlab’s revolving door harvester. It can be an all new installation or a conversion to an existing door. Unsuspecting humans rotate the spindle, that then rotates a magnetic wheel, that in turn creates current flow in stationary wire coils. Simple and effective.

Torvalds calls Apple file system “utter crap”

I was reading last week how Apple fans feel an air of superiority against Microsoft users. Well it seems that Linus Torvalds, the famous Linux boy, is not eating any of this. When in Melbourne for Linux Conference Australia that finished on February the 2nd, he was asked to compare Microsoft Windows to Apple OS X.

Depending on what you read and who you speak to, you will hear opposing opinions. Well Torvalds did not hesitate to say that the OS X file system is “utter crap”. This sinks in heavily, but wait for the second part, he thinks that “OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for”. One would expect that Torvalds would prefer to compare Linux against Windows and Apple separately without getting involved in the endless Microsoft against Apple debate.

As far as Torvalds is concerned, I am limited to what everybody knows of him related to Linux and his involvement with open source operating systems. But I have a suspicion that he is a guy that has got bored of listening all the time by Apple users how much better OS X is, and how it turns everything else into dust. And as an open source driving force, it is certain that the close approach that Apple takes with every single piece of software and hardware it delivers is hardly promoting a neutral stance, against everything that Torvalds and Linux represent.

Greater Helsinki Vision 2050 competition looks at future urban development

Source: Greater Helsinki Vision 2050 – “Emerald” submission

In a previous post I have written about the technological ascent of Finland in the last three decades. It is a country that does not rest on its laurels but looks far ahead with planning and environmental sensitivities rarely met in most parts of this world.

Helsinki is the capital of 1.3 million inhabitants, expected to grow to 2 million in the next fifty years. Because of the scale of the expansion that will take place, 14 towns and municipalities of the Helsinki region set up an international competition for proposals as to how it will all take place. The aim was to not only build a larger orderly city, but to also increase the influence and appeal of the city in financial, residential, business and cultural terms. An all important factor is the environmental impact and how to minimise it with public transport and sensible zone creation.

4 questions to ask yourself before you invest in the Blu-ray format

I have yesterday given here 9 reasons why you should not yet invest in Blu-ray.

As a follow up, and in order to help readers decide whether it is the right time to go ahead and buy, I decided to list here the questions I would be asking myself before making a sensible decision:

1. Do you own a HDTV and home cinema audio equipment? Do not bother without these prerequisites. Even if you only have a HDTV without the audio part, you will miss the uncompressed surround sound bliss which is more or less half of the fun.
2. Does your local video club stock films in the Blu-ray format? If not, you will not want to buy all the movies you wish to watch. Simple economics. It will work out cheaper to go to the cinema…

Lumenlab’s more affordable Q42 from $3,850

About 2 weeks ago we discussed here whether the Lumenlab Q is worth $10,000. I did not hide the fact that I fancy its daring and innovative concept, but unfortunately a 10K product is definitely not accessible by the majority of us.

Earlier this week, Lumenlab presented the cheaper Q42, as a follow up to two important steps:

1. It created the Q, an expensive and impressive product to differentiate itself from the competition and draw press attention, a goal I think it has achieved for its small size. This way it created anticipation for a cheaper model.
2. Less than a month later it presented the cheaper Q42 model, probably the central product in its effort to get a market foothold.

The two product announcements were too close together to be a result of online comments on the high price of the Q. Whatever the case, at $3,850, the Q42 is a much more affordable model that sports the same cool appearance and functionality of the Q.

9 reasons to not upgrade to Blu-ray and stick to DVD

All reports say that the war is effectively over and even sales figures show that finally Blu-ray is trampling HD-DVD. So now that HD-DVD is seemingly out of the way, you are thinking it is the right time to invest in Blu-ray right? Maybe not…

Here is nine reasons to stick to good old DVD:

1. You still have a non-HDTV, in which case watching films on Blu-ray discs is completely pointless. The signal is downgraded to SD (standard definition) and you pay for quality that you even get from analogue TV stations.
2. You have an HDTV but its diagonal is not more than 37 inches. At these sizes it will be difficult to see real quality benefits with HD, and certainly there will only be tiny discernible differences between 720p and 1080p.

Top 100 3D movies by CGSociety and 3D World

Source: CGSociety

If you love technology, gadgets and movies, it’s almost certain that you also love those movies that involve heavy 3D effects or even the complete computer 3D generation of the environments in which the scenario takes place.

Issue #100 of the popular 3D World magazine had as its main feature the 100 greatest 3D movies -spot the connection? No wonder it became a classic, as the people buying the magazine range from 3D professionals to casual readers -like myself- that love simply love 3D. Now CGSociety-one of the most popular web resources for 3D- and 3D World are presenting the very same list in online form here.

6 reasons Tesla will make a gas-electric hybrid car

Tesla has shaken the automotive world with its all-electric Roadster and will now build a gas-electric hybrid. The new approach will be applied in its Whitestar sedan that will appear in 2009, the new model will also be available in all-electric form. So is this important news? I think yes because it seems that Tesla never started with serious hybrid vehicle intentions and really counted on its all-electric approach for both technical and marketing differentiation. So why will they now make a gas-electric hybrid Whitestar? I came up with the following explanations:

1. Range: it s no surprise that Tesla calls their gas-electric car a REV, or Range Extended Vehicle. It of course implies that with hybrid technology you get more miles or kilometers than with the all-electric approach. While the all-electric Whitestar will get 150 to 200 miles before its batteries give up, the hybrid’s small internal combustion motor recharges the battery so in terms of usage it is like a conventional car.