Feel and manipulate 3-D images

A controller developed at Carnegie Mellon University allows computer users to manipulate three-dimensional images and explore virtual environments not only through sight and sound, but by using their sense of touch.
The device, expected to be used mainly for research, training and industrial purposes, comes close to the sensitivity of the human hand.
Using magnetic fields, the socalled haptic device replicates the response a hand might have to textures and gravitational forces, the devices convey the sense of touch.
The controller — like a joystick topped with a block that can be grasped — has just one moving part and rests in a bowl-like structure connected to a computer. Two of the controllers can be used simultaneously to pick up and move virtual objects on a monitor.
Researchers had built 10 of the devices, six of which were to be sent to other universities across US and in Canada, and that a new company, Butterfly Haptics, would begin marketing the device in June or July.
The controller, which will cost “much less” than $50,000, could enable a would-be surgeon to operate on a virtual human organ and sense the texture of tissue or give a designer the feeling of fitting a part into a virtual jet engine.
The interface might also convey the feeling of wind under the wings of unmanned military planes.

Sit back , A robot will fill fuel to your car

Motorists nostalgic for the time they could sit tight while attendants braved windswept garage forecourts to fill their tanks may yet see those heady days return — compliments of a Dutch robot.
Dutch inventors unveiled a 75,000 euro ($111,100) car-fuelling robot they say is the first of its kind, working by registering the car on arrival at the filling station and matching it to a database of fuel cap designs and fuel types.
A robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular petrol pump, carefully opens the car’s flap, unscrews the cap, picks up the fuel nozzle and directs it toward the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.
“I was on a farm and I saw a robotic arm milking a cow. If a robot can do that then why can’t it fill a car tank, I thought,” said developer and petrol station operator Nico van Staveren. “Drivers needn’t get dirty hands or smell of petrol again.”
He hopes to introduce the “Tankpitstop” robot in a handful of Dutch stations by the end of the year. It works for any car whose tank can be opened without a key, and whose contours and dimensions have been recorded to avoid scratching.
Asked whether he would trust his car to a robotic garage attendant, Jelger De Kroon, filling his black Alfa Romeo at a nearby petrol station, said: “Why not? I guess I could keep my hands free and clean, but I’d hope they have good insurance.”
Robots have taken over many jobs traditionally performed by humans. Car production is the primary example. Over the last three decades automobile factories have become dominated by robots. Other fields include the packaging industry and the electronics industry.
Courtsy : TOI

Popping pleasure !

Stress relief, diet aid, lucky charm: few can resist the allure of bubble wrap and now a Japanese company is finding new reasons to pop till you drop.

In Japan, the plastic packaging material is best known by a local brand-name Puti Puti, pronounced "poochy-poochy", and Kawakami Sangyo Co, its biggest manufacturer, has set up the Puti Puti Culture Laboratory dedicated to finding unusual uses for it.

"I think about Puti Puti almost every waking hour," said Ayaka Sugiyama, the head of the laboratory whose hobbies include singing in a five-person band called "Puti Metal".

"I'm not an expert in psychology, but it is said that if people see a chair, they want to sit in it. If they see a button on an intercom, they want to push it," she said.

"It's the same with Puti Puti. The bubbles stick out, so you want to squash them."

Hoping to tap into Puti Puti's appeal, Sugiyama started jotting down notes on unusual uses of the packaging material about seven years ago and the ideas were compiled in a "Puti Puti Official Book" published last year.

Among the suggestions are injecting the bubbles with coloured ink to create mosaic-like artwork, sitting on the sheets at picnics, sewing them into in a wedding dress and -- this from an 85-year-old woman -- popping bubbles to help prevent senility.

Kawakami Sangyo teamed up with toy maker Bandai Corp to develop a Mugen Puti Puti, or an "infinite pop pop" key chain with eight re-poppable bubbles -- although Puti Puti purist Sugiyama admits the sensation isn't the same as the real thing.

Sugiyama, a slender 30-year-old, says she sometimes pops Puti Puti bubbles while watching TV as a way to keep her hands busy and refrain from munching junk food.

Kawakami Sangyo, whose main customers for Puti Puti are manufacturers, is creating products aimed at retail consumers.

"Pucchin Sukatto", a box of small bubble wrap sheets developed solely for popping, went on sale at convenience stores for 198 yen ($1.78) in October and a "Puti Puti Calendar" comes with a square bubble on each day of the month.

"For those who think one Puti Puti per day is not enough, there are extras at the end of each month," Sugiyama said.

Kawakami Sangyo also includes one heart-shaped bubble per every 10,000 on ordinary wrapping for good luck -- sort of like a four-leaf clover -- and offers special sheets of giant bubbles that make a startlingly loud cracking noise when popped.

The company is now trying to develop star-shaped bubbles as well as scented Puti Puti, though both have proven tricky.

"The scent doesn't last," Sugiyama said of the efforts so far to make strawberry-scented Puti Puti.

"But we're still trying. Bursting the bubbles makes you feel calm and reduces stress and if there were a scent, it would be even more soothing."

E-Learning and India !

E-learning is composed of several methods of learning, which are aided by technology.There is no single definition for the term.E-learning has been defined as ‘the convergence of the web and learning on all levels’or ‘the use of network technologies to create, foster, deliver, and facilitate learning, anytime and anywhere’.

Brain drain’is a serious problem in our country.Improving the quality of education provided by Indian universities is crucial to retaining bright students.We need to emphasise that global education is available here and people need not spend extravagant amounts of money and years away from home to avail of it.

India undoubtedly has excellent institutes, like IISc and the IITs, but these are too few and selective.Worldclass education must be available to all for true progress to be made.Also, learning should not be restricted to students.Diverse sections of society, such as professionals, unskilled labourers, housewives and senior citizens should have equal access to knowledge.
E-learning is a viable solution to these issues.