Day: June 12, 2012

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From Engadget: Insert Coin: Sensordrone lets your smartphone monitor temperature, air quality, inebriation

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line.

Insert Coin Sensordrone lets your smartphone monitor temperature, air quality, blood pressure

Sensordrome is an attempt to pair a sensor-heavy dongle with your smartphone. The result is something slightly Star Trek, with the device connecting across Bluetooth to share a wealth of data on what’s going on around you. Pledging over $149 to the Kickstarter project will net investors a spot on the first production run, while over $99 will land you a beta version for slightly zealous devs and testers. The sensor array includes some standard offerings like temperature and humidity but it also throws in a light sensor, non-contact IR thermometer and barometer. It can also analyze breath alcohol levels, and detect Carbon Monoxide and even gas leaks. Throw in an expansion connector to open up even more options, including medical equipment like blood pressure monitors, and you can see why it’s piqued our interest.

Sensors aside, the gadget will hook-up with Android (other platforms will be considered in the future) and will be able to connect to the likes of Twitter and Facebook. Sensordrone can offer up its data in three different ways; call-respond mode will give you immediate read-outs, while streaming mode will send continuous data to your phone. Data logging mode will store the same data in its built-in memory which can be downloaded later as a .csv file — and should mean graphs abound. Sensordrone’s application software will also be open-source, allowing plenty more apps to utilize that sensor medley in the future. We’d still love a built-in radiation detector though. That aside, you can take a tour of Sensordrone’s talents after the break. How can you say no to that face?

Previous project update: Motion-controlled sword-em-up Clang has just under a month left to go and has notched up just shy of $160,000 for the project — all from under 3,100 backers. However, plenty of support is still needed to reach its heady $500,000 target.

 

from Engadget

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From Ars Technica: Verizon’s shared data plans won’t save solo users much money

Verizon’s shared data plans will finally be available to customers starting June 28. Well, not exactly shared data plans—plans that share everything, including data, unlimited texts, and unlimited voice minutes. Currently, there’s no way to get shared data without an otherwise fully unlimited plan.

Verizon and AT&T have been promising shared data on family plans for some time, saying it was a logical evolution of the way phone plans have been offered. Verizon’s new plan charges an “account access” rate based on the size of the shared data bucket, and then a separate fee per device that uses the plan. The least expensive access fee is $10 per tablet, going up to $40 per smartphone. Plans start at $50 to share 1GB, up to $100 for 10GB.

The breakdown of the charges for Verizon’s “share everything” plan.

While families may have endless permutations of device combinations, one of the use cases we expected to be alleviated by shared plans is that of a single user with a smartphone and tablet. Previously, such a person would have had to buy separate data plans for each device.

 

from Ars Technica

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From Ars Technica: Using LiDAR, filmmaker discovers “lost city”

Cinematographer Steve Elkins announced last week that by using LiDAR (light detection and ranging), he discovered “what appears to be evidence of archaeological ruins in an area long rumored to contain the legendary lost city of Ciudad Blanca.” The phrasing “lost city” is problematic, however: it’s hard to lose a city when the city itself is a myth.

The mapping project, conducted over 40 hours split between seven flights during April and May, was led by Elkins’ group, UTL Scientific. Participants include the thriller writer Douglas Preston, who is the former editor at the American Museum of Natural History. The project took place in conjunction with the government of Honduras with the help of technicians from the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping and professors from the University of Houston.

The tech

The LiDAR survey covered the history-rich northeastern Mosquitia region of Honduras. They overflew the area, sending “25 to 50 laser pulses per square meter—a total of more than four billion laser shots” to the ground, according to the University of Houston, and capturing differences in elevation of as little as four inches. This process can look underneath forest canopies, producing a 3D map of areas in hours or days that an overland, machete-hacking expedition might take years to do.

 

from Ars Technica