Existing infrastructure relies on a "heads-up" visual awareness; for a society frequently buried in smart devices we believe that pedestrian signaling must be extended to the screens of smart devices.
TUG sends localized phone-based alerts to pedestrians approaching crosswalks for which they do not have right of way. The solution specifically targets phone-engaged pedestrians who fail to take notice of pedestrian signaling.
By re-engaging pedestrian attention to traffic signaling we believ…
03.12.2014 | Angelika Jacobs | Research
The use of biodegradable plastic packaging made of polylactic acid (PLA) is spreading. Since this year, PLA cups are available also in the ETH canteens. (Photo: Bo Cheng / ETH Zurich)
Plastic waste…
03.12.2014 | Angelika Jacobs | Forschung
Design Miami 2014: Audi's new head of design has created his first concept car for the brand, which is on display at this year's Design Miami event (+ movie).
Featuring a flowing shape punctuated by defined lines and a spacious interior, the two-door Audi Prologue show car introduces a new design era for the German manufacturer under its recently appointed head of design, Marc Lichte.
The radiator grille has been widened from previous Audi models and integrates the brand's four-ringed e…
Designs have been revealed for one ofZaha Hadid's smallest new structures – an advertising billboard for a stretch of road in west London that the architect says will "create a new genre in the roadside advertising canon
Zaha Hadidwas commissioned by outdoor advertising companyJCDecauxto design a "curved and flowing" billboard for a narrow plot of land on the south side of West Cromwell Road – one of the main routes into central London from Heathrow airport.
Described as a "unique double…
Clio Capeille's Nighttime Depends On Us project imagines a new kind of built landscape suited entirely to darkness, designed as a reaction against the 24-hour city culture that keeps many urban spaces brightly illuminated after hours.
"Stressed under tension between economical intensification and pro…
The idea that humanity might eventually have to leave Earth and set out for the stars is a persistent one in both pop culture and our collective imagination. Why, just now, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is lighting up the multiplexes with a big-budget version of this very story.
That's what makes Erik Wernquist's Wanderers, first brought to my attention by Slate's Phil Plait, such a lovely short film. It imagines humanity's ultimate destiny among the stars as a series of beautiful table…
Most US airlines follow the same procedure for allowing non-first-class passengers to board a plane. They let people who are sitting in the back board first, then people in the next few rows, gradually working their way toward the front.
This procedure makes absolutely no sense. If asked to devise a boarding method without any data, you might settle on this as a pretty sensible one. But the airlines do have data — and numerous studies have shown this is not a good way to board an airplane, in t…
Randsportarten sind in der Schweiz im Trend. Sei es Einradfahren, Bogenschiessen oder Mountainbiken – alternative Sportarten jagen Fussball- oder Eishockeyclubs mehr und mehr die Vereinsmitglieder ab. Seit sieben Jahren steht auch Lacrosse auf der Liste der Schweizer Randsportarten. Mit dem Team Herzogenbuchsee Iroquois ist der Oberaargau in der oberen der beiden Lacrosseligen der Schweiz vertreten.
«Als ich mit meinen Kollegen das Team aufbaute, war die Sportart in der Schweiz noch völlig un…
Brown University, Posted by David Orenstein-Brown on December 1, 2014
Should girl lacrosse players be required, like boys, to wear protective headgear? A small study shows that while helmets offer some protection, they don’t prevent concussions and may actually make the game more aggressive.
In many girls' lacrosse game situations, given how little other protective equipment female players wear, a hard-sided helmet could easily cause more injuries that it prevents, says Joseph Crisco. "It cou…
University of Southampton, Posted by U. Southampton on December 1, 2014
Teenagers who are deaf have better reading skills if their deafness was identified by the time they were nine months old.
Researchers have been studying the development of a group of children with permanent childhood hearing impairment (PCHI) at a very early age in a pilot screening program conducted in Southampton and London in the 1990s
"Screening all babies for hearing impairment at birth enables families to have the in…
Concorde Comback? New York to Los Angeles in just over two hours? Passenger jets that fly faster than the speed of sound without that annoying sonic boom? That could become reality thanks to two projects that aim to bring supersonic planes back to commercial air travel. Lockheed Martin is working with NASA on a design called the N+2, an 80-passenger jet capable of cruising at Mach 1.7 (1.7 times the speed of sound).
Lockheed Martin is working with NASA on a design called the N+2, an 80-pass…
The "wonder material" graphene could be used to make bulletproof armour.
US researchers carried out miniature ballistic tests by firing tiny silica spheres at sheets of graphene
In Science magazine, they report that atom-thick layers of this material can be stronger than steel when it comes to absorbing impacts. Graphene consists of a sheet of single atoms arranged in a honeycomb structure. It is thin, strong, flexible and electrically conductive, and has the potential to transform electronics …
A startup wants to make it easier for people with epilepsy to detect seizures and let others know when they need help. Why it matters: There are about 50 million people in the world with epilepsy.
A new wristband from a startup called Empatica is built for people with epilepsy—it hopes to detect their seizures and alert family when they’re in the throes of one—but it could also appeal to people who simply want a sleek-looking gadget for logging activities and stress.
Empatica, which builds wear…
Light can prod blood vessels to relax, a discovery that came about almost accidentally when researchers moved some gear into a room with motion-triggered lights. They found that blood vessels in mice have a light-sensitive receptor that, when activated, causes arteries, veins, and capillaries to relax.
"I had this slightly crazy idea," says Dan Berkowitz. "What if there were receptors for light on blood vessels? Perhaps blood vessels could 'see' the light or 'had eyes.'" (Credit: Lucas Cobb/…
In recent years, credit scores have been used for pre-employment screening and many other functions beyond their original intent, Salomon Israel says. This study seems to bear out their usefulness as a proxy for a person's reliability and steadfastness, and in turn how healthy they may be.
(Credit: iStockphoto)
A new study confirms what insurance companies already know: Credit scores can reveal how healthy you are.
Researchers have uncovered a strong relationship between low credit scores an…
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, Posted by Jean Spinelli-Arizona on November 25, 2014
Insomnia is relatively common. About 20 percent of adults in the United States have difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early. But chronic insomnia is associated with a 58 percent increase in risk of death. (Credit: Kevin Jaako/Flickr)
A 40-year study shows that people who suffer from chronic insomnia face a higher risk of dying.
Insomnia—difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too ea…
Electric Mirror continues its industry-leading innovation by introducing Vive™, the first and only Bluetooth® enabled smart ready mirror. Vive is simple and easy to use and transforms any of our products into a wireless stereo system. It is the perfect way to create a streaming audio experience in any space with just a touch. Connect any Bluetooth smart ready device, such as a smart phone or tablet to Vive, and your hotel bathroom or guest room is revolutionized!
Vive is part of the SmartMirr…
Audi schraubt in München fleißig weiter am Vorsprung durch Technik. Besucher des Münchner Flughafens erlebten das Markenversprechen des Automobilherstellers hautnah in der Audi Erlebniswelt. Die Ingolstädter verzauberten Europas größte überdachte Freifläche in eine spannende Welt aus zukunftsträchtigen Ideen und technischen Errungenschaften. Bei der Inszenierung ging es allerdings nicht nur ums Automobil sondern um Erlebnisse und Berührungspunkte mit Technologien, die vielleicht schon bald zu …
Don't act too surprised if, some time in the next year, you meet someone who explains that their business card isn't just a card; it's an augmented reality business card. You can see a collection and, at visualcard.me, you can even design your own, by adding a special marker to your card, which, once put in front of a webcam linked to the internet, will show not only your contact details but also a video or sound clip. Or pretty much anything you want.
It's not just business cards. London Fash…
