For New Lamps, An Unlikely Energy Source: Gravity

As long as you reset a weight every 30 minutes, you can have a continuous, battery-free light source.

Kerosene lamps used in off-grid, rural areas are a major problem. They're bad for people's health and the environment's. One startup's solution is to tap another, greener resource, something we all have in abundance: gravity.
The invention, GravityLight, does exactly what the name suggests: It keeps a light going through the power of gravity. As an attached weight falls, it pulls a cord through the center of the light, powering a dynamo. That dynamo converts the energy from the falling weight into power for the light. (It's the same idea as a hand-cranked device, just more vertical.) The weight can be set in a few seconds, and as it slowly reaches Earth, enough energy is generated to keep a light working for 30 minutes. As long as it's set every 30 minutes, it makes for a green, battery-free, continuous stream of light. Other, similar devices like battery chargers could be used through the same process, too.
The inventors say the gadgets can be sold now for less than $10, which would make a return on investment for owners three months after dumping kerosene lighting. And speaking of investments, the group has already shattered the goal for its Indiegogo campaign, meaning we'll hopefully see these in action soon.

http://vimeo.com/53588182

Flying Robots by Professor Vijay Kumar at TED 2012

Professor Vijay Kumar is the Deputy Dean for Education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, where he is doing  his work in robotics, blending computer science and mechanical engineering to create the next generation of robotic wonders.

Vijay Kumar and his team members Daniel Melligner and Alex Kushleyev from GRASP (General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception) Labs presented these flying robots (AKA Robot Quadrotors) during his speech at TED 2012.

Professor Vijay Kumar and its team’s Flying robot quadrotors performed the James Bond Theme by playing various instruments including the keyboard, drums and maracas, a cymbal, and the debut of an adapted guitar built from a couch frame. The quadrotors play this “couch guitar” by flying over guitar strings stretched across a couch frame; plucking the strings with a stiff wire attached to the base of the quadrotor. A special microphone attached to the frame records the notes made by the “couch guitar”.

These flying quadrotors are completely autonomous. It means the humans are not controlling them; rather they are controlled by a computer, infra-red lights and cameras which are programmed with instructions to play the instruments. the flying robots are designed to mimick the swarming behaviors of birds, fish and insects. Figuring out how to move in unison without crashing into obstacles, or one another, is a critical skill for robot teams to develop, especially since they may one day be used to survey landscapes, build structures, provide support, or even play music.

Each quadrotor weighs just barely over a pound and can deliver a thrust of a little over 2.5 pounds. Team members of Professor Vijay Kumar, Alex Kushleyev and Daniel Mellinger has formed a company called KMel Robotics that will design and market these quadrotors.

3 Effective Leadership Lessons That I Learned As A Child..

When I was growing up, the kids in my neighborhood would play in a nearby park every evening. Our undisputed leader was a boy who was barely a year older than I was.
He was a take charge type of person who introduced the new kids to everyone, taught them the rules of games we played, and made sure no one felt left out. We also trusted him blindly because he always had our backs whenever we messed up.


None of the leadership lessons I have learned, unlearned or relearned since then have had as profound an impact as the ones I learned as a child. Three, in particular, stand out:

Vineet Nayar, CEO HCL Technologies

 

 

 1. Trust: Do your co-workers trust you? Do they accept that you will consistently and without hesitation, stand up for them whatever the situation? Only that kind of trust makes people feel empowered, gives them the courage to innovate, take risks, and push themselves beyond their comfort zones to find success.
David Maister, Charles Green, and Robert Galford, who wrote The Trusted Advisor, outlined four attributes for assessing your trust quotient. They focus on the key traits of credibility, reliability, intimacy, and self-orientation. Take this online assessment to evaluate your trust quotient..

2. Empathy: Did you notice that look of anxiety as your teammate walked into the office this morning? Or did you completely miss it because you were locked in your own thoughts, more concerned with pending deadlines and deliverables? Do you treat your team members as human beings, and not just as co-workers?
Here’s the issue: Emotional intelligence is widely recognized as a leadership quality, but being transparent about your emotions isn't. I'm puzzled by the fact that organizational and company leaders are expected to maintain a “stiff upper lip”.. Why can't we rejoice in and celebrate our successes or conversely, show concern with setbacks, rather than taking them in stride? Why don't we laugh and cry with the highs and lows in the lives of our colleagues? We are human beings, and knowing that our bosses care about us is a fundamental human need.

3. Mentorship: No matter how talented we may be as individuals, we all crave the guidance and direction from a mentor who will teach us the rules of the game. Pat Riley, the widely respected former NBA coach, once said that there was no great player who didn't want to be coached. The same holds true in the workplace. Would you be where you are today if your first manager hadn't nudged you in the right direction? When people are unsure or uneasy about what the future holds for their organizations and for themselves, mentorship and coaching are critical.
I certainly didn’t realize when I was playing with my friends in the park that I was learning important leadership principles and life lessons that would never go out of fashion. At a time when people everywhere are questioning their leaders' values, these characteristics seem to resonate even more.

Robots Will Quickly Recognize and Respond to Human Gestures, With New AlgorithmsNew intelligent algorithms could help robots to quickly recognize and respond to human gestures. Researchers at A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore have created a computer program which recognizes human gestures quickly and accurately, and requires very little training.

New intelligent algorithms could help robots to quickly recognize and respond to human gestures. Researchers at A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore have created a computer program which recognizes human gestures quickly and accurately, and requires very little training.

New intelligent algorithms could help robots to quickly recognize and respond to human gestures. 

 

 

 

 

Many works of science fiction have imagined robots that could interact directly with people to provide entertainment, services or even health care. Robotics is now at a stage where some of these ideas can be realized, but it remains difficult to make robots easy to operate.
One option is to train robots to recognize and respond to human gestures. In practice, however, this is difficult because a simple gesture such as waving a hand may appear very different between different people. Designers must develop intelligent computer algorithms that can be 'trained' to identify general patterns of motion and relate them correctly to individual commands.
Now, Rui Yan and co-workers at the A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore have adapted a cognitive memory model called a localist attractor network (LAN) to develop a new system that recognize gestures quickly and accurately, and requires very little training.
"Since many social robots will be operated by non-expert users, it is essential for them to be equipped with natural interfaces for interaction with humans," says Yan. "Gestures are an obvious, natural means of human communication. Our LAN gesture recognition system only requires a small amount of training data, and avoids tedious training processes."
Yan and co-workers tested their software by integrating it with ShapeTape, a special jacket that uses fibre optics and inertial sensors to monitor the bending and twisting of hands and arms. They programmed the ShapeTape to provide data 80 times per second on the three-dimensional orientation of shoulders, elbows and wrists, and applied velocity thresholds to detect when gestures were starting.
In tests, five different users wore the ShapeTape jacket and used it to control a virtual robot through simple arm motions that represented commands such as forward, backwards, faster or slower. The researchers found that 99.15% of gestures were correctly translated by their system. It is also easy to add new commands, by demonstrating a new control gesture just a few times.
The next step in improving the gesture recognition system is to allow humans to control robots without the need to wear any special devices. Yan and co-workers are tackling this problem by replacing the ShapeTape jacket with motion-sensitive cameras.
"Currently we are building a new gesture recognition system by incorporating our method with a Microsoft Kinect camera," says Yan. "We will implement the proposed system on an autonomous robot to test its usability in the context of a realistic service task, such as cleaning!"

Dark Chocolate Could Prevent Heart Problems in High-Risk People

Daily consumption of dark chocolate can reduce cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, in people with metabolic syndrome (a cluster of factors that increases the risk of developing heart disease and diabetes), finds a study published in the British Medical Journal.

Daily consumption of dark chocolate can reduce cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, in people with metabolic syndrome (a cluster of factors that increases the risk of developing heart disease and diabetes), finds a new study.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Dark chocolate (containing at least 60% cocoa solids) is rich in flavonoids -- known to have heart protecting effects -- but this has only been examined in short term studies.
So a team of researchers from Melbourne, Australia used a mathematical model to predict the long-term health effects and cost effectiveness of daily dark chocolate consumption in 2,013 people already at high risk of heart disease.
All participants had high blood pressure and met the criteria for metabolic syndrome, but had no history of heart disease or diabetes and were not on blood pressure lowering therapy.
With 100% compliance (best case scenario), the researchers show that daily dark chocolate consumption could potentially avert 70 non-fatal and 15 fatal cardiovascular events per 10,000 people treated over 10 years.
Even when compliance levels were reduced to 80%, the number of non-fatal and fatal events potentially averted was 55 and 10 per 10,000 people treated over 10 years, and could still be considered an effective intervention strategy.
The model also suggested that $A40 (£25; €31; $42) could be cost effectively spent per person per year on dark chocolate prevention strategies and could be used for advertising, educational campaigns, or subsidizing dark chocolate in this high risk population, they add.
The authors stress that only non-fatal stroke and non-fatal heart attack were assessed in their analysis, and that the potential effects on other cardiovascular events, such as heart failure, are yet to be tested.
Also important, they say, is that these protective effects have only been shown for dark chocolate (at least 60-70% cocoa), rather than for milk or white chocolate, probably due to the higher levels of flavonoids found in dark chocolate.
Nevertheless, they conclude that the blood pressure and cholesterol lowering effects of plain dark chocolate "could represent an effective and cost effective strategy for people with metabolic syndrome (and no diabetes)."