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ROADWORTHY PLANE: The Terrafugia Transition, which is powered by the same 100bhp engine whether it is on the ground or in the air, can be parked in any garage with its wings folded

Authorities OK 2-Seater That Spreads Its Wings To Fly At 185Kmph

Your dream of a car that runs on road but can fly you out of a traffic jam could soon come true as the US aviation authority has given the green signal for the commercial production of such a vehicle.

The "Terrafugia Transition" is a two-seater car that can convert from road to air in just 30 seconds, without the driver leaving the vehicle.

Developed by former Nasa engineers and built by a small American company from Massachusetts, Terrafugia Inc, the vehicle can travel at speeds of up to 145kmph in car mode with its wings folded.

The wings then unfold for flight mode in which it can cruise at the speed of 185kmph for up to 805km on a tank of unleaded gasoline, the Telegraph reported. With its wings folded, it can be parked in an ordinary car garage.

The company says tests have shown that the vehicle can drive, fly and switch from being a plane to a car in just 30 seconds. The company claims the flying car has been successfully test-flown many times. It will have front-wheel drive on the road and a propeller for flight.

Source: Times Of India Stuck in traffic? Turn your car into a plane in 30 secs

Better connectivity has pushed up agricultural income in rural India by 17.6% and income from non-farm activities by 12.11%, a recent Planning Commission report said. The study conducted between January 2008 and May 2010, covered 14 districts in seven states.

"Farmers are now ensured that their products reach the market on time, particularly perishable products like vegetables. Roads helped them in moving from subsistence farming of traditional crops to marketable products like horticulture and off seasonal vegetables," Planning Commission former member Anwarul Hoda said.

The government has constructed about 18,240 kms of rural roads in 2009-10 under the flagship programme, about 76% of the target. As per the report, connectivity has increased mobility in remote areas creating opportunities for trade. It also helped in improving their socioeconomic life. Before rural roads, it was difficult to take patients to the hospitals and even the doctors in primary healthcare centres and sub centres were reluctant to join service in the unconnected habitation.

Source:Economic Times By Prachi Marwa Road To Riches: Better connectivity changes rural landscape

The US military has appointed its first senior general to direct cyber warfare - despite fears that the move marks another stage in the militarisation of cyberspace.

The newly promoted four-star general, Keith Alexander, takes charge of the Pentagon's ambitious and controversial new Cyber Command, designed to conduct virtual combat across the world's computer networks. He was appointed on Friday afternoon in a low-key ceremony at Fort Meade, in Maryland.

The creation of America's most senior cyber warrior comes just days after the US air force disclosed that some 30,000 of its troops had been re-assigned from technical support "to the frontlines of cyber warfare".

The creation of Cyber Command is in response to increasing anxiety over the vulnerability of the US's military and other networks to a cyber attack.

James Miller, the deputy under-secretary of defence for policy, has hinted that the US might consider a conventional military response to certain kinds of online attack.

Although Alexander pledged during his confirmation hearings before the Senate committee on armed services last month that Cyber Command would not contribute to the militarisation of cyberspace, the committee's chairman, Senator Carl Levin expressed concern that both Pentagon doctrine, and the legal framework for online operations, had failed to keep pace with rapid advances in cyber warfare.

In particular Levin voiced concern that US cyber operations to combat online threats to the US, routed through neutral third countries, "could have broad and damaging consequences" to wider American interests.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk By Peter Beaumont US Appoints First Cyber Warfare General

Scholars will be able to polish their practical skills and conduct experiments through virtual labs, a first for India.The Human Resource Development Ministry granted Rs 80 crore for the project last week.

"The idea is to expand the range of experiments for students in far-flung areas," a senior ministry official said.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will set up the online labs in partnership with institutes such as the National Institutes of Tech- nology and the Indian Institutes of Information Technology.

In the next six months, IIT- Delhi will begin rolling out some of the labs developed during the pilot project. Full-fledged labs will be ready in two years. Students can perform remote triggered or simulation-based experiments. In the first, the student has to log in and book a time-slot.
The control of the equipment will be given to the student, who can perform the experiment sitting in a college hundreds of kilometres away.

This doesn't require a physical instructor thanks to an instructional video and a step-by-step manual.

For simulated experiments, many students can simultane-ously log in and conduct the experiments.

swaha.sahoo@hindustantimes.com

Developers at Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University are working together to create an armband -- named Skinput -- that projects an interface directly on your skin.

They have combined a mini projector, which creates a changing display, with a sophisticated sensor that can tell which part of your arm is being tapped.

The researchers showed Skinput could be used to control audio devices, play simple games such as Tetris, make phone calls and navigate simple browsing systems.

The gadget effectively turns your arm into a touchscreen surface by picking up the various ultra- low sounds produced when you tap different areas.

Different skin locations are acoustically distinct because of bone density and the filtering effect from soft tissues and joints.

Source: Mail Today New gadget turns your hand into a touchscreen

Fancy a bite to eat? Tea for the kids? All you need to do is press your hand down on the softened surface to create a hole and in go the ingredients.<center></center>

Setting the temperature and time is then another simple flick of a finger. This is the future according to Electrolux and their new tactile design concept called ‘ Heart of the Home’. The ingredients are placed on the mouldable surface and the same area then heats up and cooks your food. Before it does this, it analyses what has been placed on it and offers you a range of recipe options to choose from.

So, unlike cooking stoves in use at present, the cooker will afford some choices of recipes for the ingredients after putting them in its mouldable surface.

If you need to cook larger amounts and need a wider surface, then you simply press down on a bigger area. And because there are no pots and pans, there won’t be any washing up.

Although the firm’s concept video doesn’t explain how it is cleaned, it presumably takes just a swish of a dishcloth to clear away any remains.

In the video, the user is shown creating a number of pans simply by pressing on the malleable surface. Once a recipe is selected the user is able to move the ‘ hobs’ across the surface.

Source: Mail Today Future cooker does away with utensils

Users will simply have to think of what they want to say and a voice synthesizer will translate the thoughts into speech almost immediately. They have tested the device on a patient who has " locked- in syndrome", after a stroke stopped neural signals travelling from his brain to the rest of his body.

The rare condition means that the person is aware and awake, but cannot move or communicate because of complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body except for the eyes.

The 26- year- old volunteer was asked to think of a series of basic vowel sounds. The researchers were able to translate these and vocalise them in just a fraction of a second using the new system.

His accuracy increased with each practice session from 45 per cent to 89 per cent.

Scientists began the experiment three years ago, when they implanted an electrode in the patient's brain on the boundary of the two regions that govern speech and movement.

Within four months, neurites had grown into the electrode and begun producing neural signals.

Source: Mail Today Implant in brain that could read your mind