Augmented Reality: Wrap920AR Glasses
2010-06 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
Engadget reports of augmented reality (AR) glasses becoming more mainstream: The Vuzix Wrap920AR, sporting camera and display over each eye, is announced for 2010 and will cost less than 1000 EUR. Researchers can join the Vuzix AR Education Group. In other news, eye tracking may get easier with the Tobii glasses (reported by Engadget too).

JAXA Solar Sail Deployed
2010-06 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
The Ikaros mission by JAXA (the japanese space agency) has deployed a 20m solar sail by slowly spinning it out, as Slashdot, Centauri Dreams and Inhabitat report. It will research the propulsion provided by the Sun's photons bouncing off the sail.

NoSQL Guide
2010-06 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
Heise reports of 4 types of NoSQL (not-only-SQL) database that grow into niches relational databases will not cover: Document oriented like CouchDB; graph oriented like Neo4J; key/value oriented like Redis; or column oriented like Cassandra.

Ground Tracks with Orbitron
2010-06 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
If you want to see the spot on earth that a satellite is currently hovering over, you use ground tracks. Sebastian Stoff has developed Orbitron, a Windows software that does this for a wide range of satellites.

Quadrocopter Aggressive Maneuvers
2010-05 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
Engadget reports (with video) on a quadrocopter capable of quite aggressive maneuvers, like flying through a vertical slit into a room. Prototype by Uni Pennsylvania (USA).

Next Generation Commercial Aircraft
2010-05 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
Slashdot and Inhabitat report of two MIT commercial aircraft concepts: One to replace the Boing 737 on domestic flights, and one to replace the Boing 777 for international flights. Both have wider bodies, smaller wings and turbines at the rear, where the air pressure is lower; and cut fuel use by up to 70%.

Hand-picked Free Fonts
2010-05 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
Finding beautiful free fonts is a constant challenge for web designers, one that the Font Squirrel website attempts at solving. In related news: Smashing magazine with an article about the myriad different font systems used world wide, by different cultures.

Thinkpad Style Keyboards
2010-05 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
Slashdot points to a Pettijohn article comparing three Thinkpad-style keyboards, which have a joystick in the middle. The verdict: Lenovo keyboards have the best stick, if not the best keys.

Cognitive Bias Song
2010-05 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
Boing boing reports on a music video by psychology teacher Brad Wray about our cognitive biases: From hindsight bias ("I knew it all along") over confirmation bias ("I only listen to what I agree with") to self-consistency bias ("my opinion now was my opinion then").

Robotic Elephant Trunk
2010-04 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
Engadget and Medgadget link to an Eureka article about a robotic arm in the form of a elephant trunk, made by German company Festo. The trunk can react to pressure by humans and is targetted to improve human/machine interactions in assembly lines.

First Sun Images from SDO
2010-04 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
SDO (the Solar Dynamics Observatory), a NASA satellite looking at the Sun, has begun sending images. Slashdot links to a Network World article, NASA's Scientific Visualisation Studio (SVS) has images, and the SDO youtube channel has videos.

Input Device: Multi Toe
2010-04 :: Kai Ruhl :: link to article
After multitouch (with fingers), now multi toe (with shoes): Engadget links to a Design Boom report on a 2x2 m mat that recognizes different shoes, the relative applied load (so you can lean to the left or right), and up to 10 persons at once. Made by Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam.