News

A headset that shows cyclists safer routes through the city in realtime and a projectable blind-spot visualisation for buses and lorries are among the speculative prototypes developed by a team from Future Cities Catapult. The five mock-ups for Connected Cyclists all envision possible futures for creating a "soft infrastructure" for cyclists – a layer of digital information that can help make city roads safer to navigate and help riders choose more intelligent routes.

"Many cities are spendin…

Nasa reveals $2.3m plan to help a new generation of supersonic planes take flight. The money will be spent on eight research projects addressing technical challenges of supersonic flight; Engineers are developing something called the 'hybrid wing body' to improve the aerodynamics of planes; Nasa scientists are also working to define a new standard for sonic booms to improve travel speed; Another project aims to address the impact of supersonic aircraft emissions on the ozone layer

On October, …

20-year old inventor's idea for how o make ocean clean itself will be launched in Japan. Boyan Slat, a 20-year-old innovator in the Netherlands, has a lot on his plate – he’s set out to do nothing less than rid the oceans of the millions of tons of plastic garbage that circle along their currents. And judging by the support that has rallied behind his novel approach to the problem, there’s a good chance he just might succeed.

This 2,000m floating line will become the longest floating structure…

bromley caldari architects, in collaboration with acumen capital partners & brooklyn grange LLC, renovated a 300,000ft2 building in long island city, new york. originally a seven story commercial loft building, it has since catered to a range of industries including media, architecture, fashion, film, and printing, and design. as part of the $US 10,000,000 overhaul, the 42,000ft2 rooftop was transformed into a urban rooftop farm.

new york is home to a vibrant food-producing community that …

Some of the greatest science fiction movies of all time all include personal flight. now, an unexpected development coming out of hungary could really make it a reality. a few flight aficionados from bay zoltan nonprofit ltd, developed a fully electric personal flight device named ‘flike’. the project started in the summer of 2014 at an applied research institute in the country. it is a coaxial ‘Y6’ layout tricopter, which means that the lift is generated by six rotors, grouped in counter rotat…

NASA has unveiled a one-of-a-kind vehicle that can perform a few out-of-this-world maneuvers ... perhaps because the technology behind it is borrowed from concepts for astronaut rovers designed for eventual use on the moon or Mars.

The MRV in action

The bureaucratically-named "Modular Robotic Vehicle" is described by NASA's Game Changing Development Program Office (yes, that's a real office) as "a fully electric vehicle well-suited for busy urban environments." But really, the MRV is much mor…

senseFly recently upgraded the software on its eBee aerial mapping drone to t makes it easier for agricultural professionals to capture high-resolution photos of their fields and analyse crop health. The eBee Ag now runs a new feature -packed, yet simple to use, version of senseFly’s Postflight Terra 3D data processing software. Adam Klaptocz, Head of Hardware and Mechanical Engineering at senseFly, gives us an in-depth look at the unmanned aerial system and its capabilities.

http://www.en…

DERBY - Rolls-Royce (IW 100/234) on Wednesday unveiled designs for its next generation of fuel-efficient plane engines, aimed at powering civilian aircraft of the future.

Two weeks after announcing a shock profit warning with government cutbacks on defense spending impacting its military engines business, the British group revealed plans to build on its successful Trent XWB engine, which is exclusively powering Airbus A350 long-haul passenger planes.

"A big bulk of the (aircraft cost) efficie…

Does this design solve the plane boarding nightmare? Airbus patents new style of cabin in which passengers enter through double doors in widened middle section.

Boarding a plane can prove to be one of the more frustrating aspects of air travel.

Ipek believes that not only will his design reduce queuing time, but passengers will also find it much easier to locate their seats

From scrambling for position in the queue to squeezing past passengers blocking the aisles once on board, it can often pr…

Formula Drift driver Matt Powers has successfully driven his Roush Stage 3 Mustang at high speed in the real world while immersed in a 3D virtual world (via an Oculus Rift headset). Instead of the test track that he was actually driving on, Powers saw falling boulders, sheer cliff drops, crumbling and collapsing track, and other game-like elements.

He did this as part of the Titanium Trials series by motor oil company Castrol. These trials, which are meant to promote the company's premium prod…

If you've seen Mad Max: Fury Road, then you'll be familiar with the tank-tracked Peacemaker chase vehicle. In fact, the Peacemaker was actually a modified Ripsaw, an off-road vehicle manufactured by Maine-based Howe and Howe Technologies. Although the movie version had a car body on top, the consumer/military version is open-topped. Now, however, Howe & Howe has announced the new-and-enclosed Ripsaw EV2 (Extreme Vehicle 2) – it's described as a "high-end luxury super tank."

http://www.gizma…

Italian architect Giancarlo Zema has designed a new eco-friendly floating home. The WaterNest 100 is a circular pod-like structure that provides 100 sq m (1,076 sq ft) of living space. Up to 98 percent of the structure is made of recycled materials and it is powered by a roof-top solar array.

Zema is no stranger to designing innovative aquatic residences. His previous concepts have included the Trilobis 65 yacht-cum-home, a semi-submerged cliff-side dwelling and a five-level floating apartment…

Android Auto, Google's operating system for cars, will be available for the first time in a real car with the introduction of the 2015 Hyundai Sonata -- though not currently in the UK.

The technology runs on a smartphone connected to a dashboard touchscreen, and uses voice commands and steering-wheel controls to let users listen to music, reply to messages, make calls and get directions while driving.

Existing owners of the 2015 Sonata with navigation features can visit their local dealer for…

Dubai is known for its extravagant development projects, like the indoor ski resorts, rotating skyscrapers and "miracle gardens," to name just a few.

But the newest project, "The Floating Seahorse," is exceptionally lavish: it's a floating home with underwater rooms.

Dubai developer Kleindienst Group revealed the visually stunning renderings for "The Floating Seahorse" at the Dubai International Boat Show in March 2015. They say they'll build 42 of the structures, which are essentially boats w…

If you've ever wished you could post up on a mountaintop forever, then meet your new home. Ecocapsule is a tiny, 86 square-foot living capsule that, as soon as next year, will enable owners to live virtually anywhere. Each mobile pod comes with sleeping space for two, a mini kitchen, a fully functional toilet and shower, storage space, a desk and two windows.

“The biggest challenge was to integrate all the different technologies into the small body of the pod and still have some space left for…

A team of students have created a concept kitchen table for Ikea, which acts as an integrated cooking hob and dining table and can suggest recipes based on ingredients you put on it (+ movie).

The interactive table, which was developed by students at Lund University and Eindhoven University of Technology together with design consultancy IDEO, can identify an ingredient placed on it via a camera and image-recognition technology.

It will then suggest other ingredients to combine with it and …

From pancakes to jelly beans, a new breed of intelligent robots are preparing our food, discovers Veronique Greenwood, and it can be a dazzling sight.

Last July, while touring a jelly bean factory, I came upon a startling sight. Over a conveyor belt, a large robot spider danced over packets of sweets, plucking each one up with human speed and precision and placing it in a carton. The packets were piled willy-nilly, but the machine and its colleagues – two others were also manning the line – se…

Regular cameras only give you part of the picture. Spectrolab and Boeing have developed 3D LiDAR cameras that use lasers to give robots, cars, and more, human-like vision. Find out more about all of Boeing's latest innovations at http://www.boeing.com/innov....

https://www.youtube.com/user/Boeing?v=VGrQl2afVMo

Near an erupting volcano is nowhere you want to be: molten lava, air dense with asphyxiating ash. Up in the air, tiny shards of the airborne glass can wreak havoc on planes, melting inside jet engines and blocking fuel nozzles. After an eruption, airlines sometimes call off flights because radar and satellites can't always predict where particles might do the most damage. So researchers are trying a new way to map airspace ash: fleets of autonomous gliders that collect and geotag samples.

Afte…

Automated (self-driving) vehicles are seen by many as the future of personal transport, with the eventual promise of fully-automated vehicles expected to bring significant societal benefits. Road safety is perhaps the most important factor, as it has been estimated that human error is at least partly responsible for more than 90% of today’s road fatalities.

It’s also anticipated that automated vehicle systems will allow for more efficient movement of people and goods – potentially leading to a…