Month: June 2020

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Researchers Have Created Transparent, Breathable Face Masks

https://gizmodo.com/researchers-have-created-transparent-face-masks-1843966867

As mask-wearing becomes the new norm around the world, researchers from the EPFL and Empa in Switzerland have come up with a way to improve at least one of the many challenges of wearing face protection with a new transparent design that no longer completely hides and obscures the wearer’s mouth.

With everyone now being encouraged to wear masks while out in public, the problems with the current designs are finally being addressed, despite health care workers and caregivers being forced to just suck it up and deal with those issues for decades now. Even thin masks can be hot, uncomfortable, and have a tendency to muffle voices, which anyone who’s ever tried to use a voice assistant while wearing one has discovered. But the biggest challenge is that disposable masks can be very impersonal, making it challenging for caregivers to comfort patients or show compassion through facial expressions, and limit communications, particularly with those dealing with hearing impairments.

Over the past few months, the occasional prototype for see-through masks has been shared online, but the designs mostly involve replacing part of a mask with clear plastic panels which reduce breathability and often quickly fog up from the wearer’s breath, rendering the solution mostly useless. Researchers from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology have spent the past two years developing a better alternative that offers near full transparency while still being breathable and protective.

Made from an organic biomass-based material, the transparent masks will be eco-friendly and biodegradable.
Photo: EPFL

The result of their combined efforts is the HelloMasks, which are made from organic biomass-based materials. So, in addition to being transparent, they’ll also be recyclable and biodegradable given the masks’ need to be removed and disposed of after a certain amount of time for them to remain effective. Using a manufacturing process called electrospinning where an electrical charge is used to create ultra-thin threads, the new polymer the researchers’ developed features fibers spaced just 100 nanometers apart which is the same as conventional disposable masks that allow air particles to pass through but block bacteria and viruses.

The new mask design isn’t remaining just a research project, thankfully. The research teams created a startup company to market the technology, and are currently in the process of developing the manufacturing processes needed to create the transparent masks en masse. They’re optimistic the masks could be available as soon as early 2021, and while they’ll first be offered to medical and health care professionals, as production increases they could eventually be made available to the general public as well.

via Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com

June 9, 2020 at 11:27AM

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This Nintendo Switch Painting App Includes a Pressure-Sensing Stylus Powered by Sound Waves

https://gizmodo.com/this-nintendo-switch-painting-app-includes-a-pressure-s-1843951086

A popular painting app for the Nintendo DS and 3DS that relied on each handheld’s stylus is finally coming to the Switch. But instead of forcing users to paint with their fingers, Colors Live will include a stylus that cleverly uses the Switch’s headphone jack for pressure sensitivity and a better painting experience.

The Switch’s touch screen means that styluses are already available for the console, but they simply emulate the capacitive effect of a human finger and don’t facilitate other advanced functions like shortcut buttons or pressure sensing. Those features require additional technologies that Nintendo presumably skipped to keep the Switch’s price tag down, but they’re also features that can improve the digital doodling experience, as anyone who’s ever sketched or painted using a Wacom tablet or the Apple Pencil can attest.

For the Nintendo Switch version of his Colors! painting app, Jens Andersson wanted to introduce an improved experience given the system’s power, and its large screen. So the app is being bundled with a new stylus accessory that doesn’t rely on Bluetooth and doesn’t require batteries or even charging. The SonarPen instead features a half-meter cable on the end that plugs into the Switch’s headphone jack. The painting app sends an 8,000 hertz tone through the cable to the tip of the stylus, and when the SonarPen makes contact with the Switch’s screen that tone is dampened as pressure is applied. A microphone inside the stylus records the altered tone and sends it back to the Switch through the headphone cable where the Colors Live app translates the changes in volume into varying levels of pressure being applied.

The SonarPen might not be as sensitive as a Wacom stylus or the Apple Pencil, but it’s also nowhere near as expensive as both of those accessories are. Colors Live for the Switch is currently being crowdfunded through Kickstarter (as Nintendo didn’t think the hardware + software combo was a good fit for its eShop) and the bundle will set you back about $41 for the app and the SonarPen together. Assuming you’ve already got a Switch, that’s probably the cheapest way to dabble in digital artistry.

The usual crowdfunding risks apply here, but over the years Andersson has delivered countless versions of his art app to various platforms, and it’s always been well-reviewed. Colors Live for the Switch does add hardware challenges to the mix with the SonarPen—there’s always the chance snags or hiccups in production could delay the estimated August 2020 delivery, and Nintendo still has to complete its certification process for the app to be allowed on the console. But the campaign has already blown past its funding goal, so as long as you’ve got the patience to weather a potential delay, this seems like another innovative way to expand what your Switch can do.

via Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com

June 8, 2020 at 10:09AM

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Everybody Needs A Hobby: This Crazy-High Production Value Marble Race Video

https://geekologie.com/2020/06/everybody-needs-a-hobby-this-crazy-high.php

This is a video from Youtube channel Jelle’s Marble Runs of marbles standing in for the real Formula E (single seat electric car) racing teams in a multi-lap marble race inspired by the track layout in Jakarta, Indonesia. The track and video work are impressive in their own right, but it’s the commentary that really makes the video something special. I mean these guys are total professionals. If you only heard the audio you’d never guess they were commenting on a marble race. "I thought it was a dog show." *tousling hair* Bless your heart.
Keep going for the full video, which begins with qualifiers before the actual races start at 6:30.

Thanks to Carmen, who agrees if those online betting ping pong matches had this high of production value maybe people would actually feel comfortable betting on them.

via Geekologie – Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome https://geekologie.com/

June 8, 2020 at 09:37AM

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Google Maps Gets Real-Time Stats for Crowded Public Transit Stations

https://www.droid-life.com/2020/06/08/google-maps-gets-real-time-stats-for-crowded-public-transit-stations/

Read the original post: Google Maps Gets Real-Time Stats for Crowded Public Transit Stations

Google Maps has been displaying predicted information regarding whether a location is busy for select businesses and public areas for some time now, but with COVID-19, Google is going to be stepping up its ability to deliver information on crowded areas and public transit options in a real-time sense.

Starting this week, Google will be accepting real-time user feedback for how crowded public transit is.

We’re now making it simpler for people to contribute crowdedness information for their transit lines. Look up Directions, tap through to see the Transit Details, then scroll down to find crowdedness predictions (where available) and easily contribute your own experiences.

Google’s thought behind this is that essential workers, or anyone else in need, can see if they should take the risk of boarding a busy train or bus. One can never be too careful, so the addition on real-time data and not just a prediction can be clutch.

Furthermore, things like transit stations, which also used to rely on predictions, are now tapping directly into real-time user location data. Maintaining privacy is crucial here, but once a certain threshold is reached that allows the data to be properly anonymized, Google Maps can and will display real-time data for how busy a location is.

Starting today, you can easily see the times when a transit station is historically more or less busy to plan your trip accordingly or you can look at live data showing how busy it is right now compared to its usual level of activity. Simply search for a station in Google Maps or tap on the station on the map to see the departure board and busyness data, where available.

Google Maps will also incorporate COVID-19 checkpoint notifications for users when navigating to an area that has them, such as the borders between Canada, Mexico, and the US.

Again, Maps has been able to display predicted busyness levels for some time now, but with things the way they are, Google is looking to take more advantage of all of the location data they have at their apparent disposal.

// Google

via Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog https://ift.tt/2dLq79c

June 8, 2020 at 12:50PM

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IIHS study finds self-driving cars may only avoid a third of crashes

https://www.engadget.com/iihs-says-self-driving-cars-might-not-avoid-most-crashes-164241217.html

Self-driving cars are theoretically ideal for safety. Take human limitations out of the mix and no one gets hurt, right? Not necessarily. A new IIHS study (via Autoblog) suggests that completely switching to autonomous technology would only prevent about a third of crashes if the systems “drive too much like people” — that is, focus on speed and convenience. Only 24 percent of crashes come down to sense or perception errors, while about 10 percent comes down to incapacitation (such as driving drunk). The rest comes down to errors in decision making, predictions and performance, and a self-driving system won’t automatically fix those.

The researchers pointed to Uber’s fatal collision with pedestrian Elaine Herzberg in 2018 as an example. The car’s autonomous hardware not only “struggled” to initially detect Herzberg, but also couldn’t predict where she was going and didn’t perform the evasive maneuver needed to save her life.

The crash rate would only drop further if cars prioritized safety over rider preference, the IIHS said, and that could frustrate people used to weaving around cars during their daily commute. They might drive more slowly than humans would when there’s low visibility or an abundance of foot traffic, for example.

It’s still early days for autonomous driving, and safety has taken higher priority for Uber and others in recent times. However, this study indicates that a driverless utopia might require a lot of patience and understanding. You’d safely get to where you were going — it would just take longer.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

June 4, 2020 at 11:51AM

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You’ll Soon Be Able to Buy That Distraction-Free Rotary Dial Cellphone

https://gizmodo.com/youll-soon-be-able-to-buy-that-distraction-free-rotary-1843903183

Earlier this year, Justine Haupt revealed a custom cellphone she built that eschewed unwanted battery-killing distractions like a touchscreen. In its place was an old-school rotary dial for placing calls, and while it looked antiquated, there were apparently enough people as fed up with the state of modern smartphones that Haupt has created a new version that she will actually build and sell.

Haupt’s original rotary cellphone was created with an open source design that allowed anyone to build their own, with firmware, build notes, and even the 3D models for printing the custom housing made available for download on their website. To make the build easier, Haupt created a starter kit offering the 3D printed housing for $50 (straight out of the 3D printer) as well as the cellphone’s mainboard for $90. But there were still lots of additional components that needed to be sourced to complete the build, including the dial that Haupt salvaged from a slim Western Trimline telephone.

Realizing the appeal of a distraction-free cellphone that excels at actually making calls (just look at the size of that antenna) extends well beyond hardware hackers and tinkerers, Haupt is currently developing a “mark 2″ version of the design that will be available as a ready-built device for those who don’t know the first thing about soldering. In addition to an upgrade from 3G to 4G which ensures the right networks will be active for at least another 10 years, the new version will include a larger electronic paper display, newly manufactured rotary dial parts instead of old salvaged hardware, and an SD card slot allowing a contact list to be added by just uploading a text file full of names and numbers.

Haupt is also teasing, “another VERY cool feature but won’t announce it until I’m sure I can do it” for their new rotary cellphone which remains a complete mystery for the time being. But a listing for the device on the website for Haupt’s new robotics company called Sky’s Edge claims it could be available as early as September. You can’t pre-order it yet, and it’s safe to assume the pandemic will probably result in some minor delays, but if you’re interested you can subscribe to updates on the project’s development, and notifications for when it’s finally available.

via Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com

June 4, 2020 at 09:45AM

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Kitty Hawk moves on from its original flying car project

https://www.engadget.com/kitty-hawk-flyer-heaviside-045616682.html

Kitty Hawk’s Flyer, the company’s first flying car project, is no more. The company has announced that it’s shutting down the initiative in a blog post, where it has also revealed that it’ll focus on its Heaviside plane going forward. According to TechCrunch, Kitty Hawk is laying off most of Flyer’s 70-person team, though a few employees will be transferred to Heaviside.

The original Flyer that debuted in 2017 was a one-seat, propeller-driven vehicle that looked like a flying motorcycle. Kitty Hawk introduced a new version one year later, and while it remained a single—seater, the updated 250-pound aircraft looked more like a mix of a drone and a stunt plane. The company put emphasis on how easy it is to pilot the Flyer — it was, after all, designed to be flown by anyone — so much so, that all it takes is two hours of training. Over the course of the project’s lifetime, Kitty Hawk built 111 Flyer machines and conducted over 25,000 crewed and uncrewed flights.

Unfortunately, it failed to find a way to turn the project into a viable business venture. “No matter how hard we looked, we could not find a path to a viable business,” Kitty Hawk CEO Sebastian Thrun told TechCrunch. The company had another project called Cora that developed two-seater autonomous taxis. Since that one evolved into a joint venture with Boeing, which will soon conduct passenger trials in New Zealand, Heaviside is its only known initiative at the moment.

Kitty Hawk revealed Heaviside, its all-electric plane, in 2019. Like Flyer, it’s a one-seater vehicle that’s capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) like a helicopter, though it’s supposed to be 100 times quieter. “Going forward, we are doubling down on Heaviside as our primary platform,” its announcement reads. “But we would never have gotten here without launching and learning from Flyer, and the amazing team of people who built and operated it.”

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

June 4, 2020 at 12:03AM