New spongy material instantly hardens on exposure to magnetism [Materials]

A new kind of material (of which currently no actual picture exists anywhere) with the consistency of pudding that hardens instantly when exposed to magnetism has been developed by a team of researchers at Japan’s Yamagata University. And once the substance, a mix between high polymer and iron oxide granules, hardens, it can become up to 500 times stiffer than plastic.
The researchers say when the magnetic field is 300 milli-tesla strong, for example, the material hardens 300-fold in under one second. The iron oxide granules are spread randomly throughout the gel-like material, but when magnetized, they align in rows and stiffen the gel, which is made of more than 50% water.
The gel could be used in card and trains one day to dampen vibrations. Furniture makers could adjust the softness of chairs and other furniture.
[CrunchGear via Nikkei]

Japanese rules volleyball: one player must be robotic

There’s not much for me to add here. In addition to walking normally, robots can now play pool, baseball, volleyball, and make ramen. Anybody else feeling a bit like an endangered species?
[CrunchGear]

Codenamed Yellow Jacket, This Unmanned Helicopter Sniffs Out Roadside Bombs [Drones]

Roadside bombs are a source of fear for both soldiers as well as their worried families at home. Thankfully the Pentagon is working on projects such as Yellow Jacket, unmanned helicopters which detect electromagnetic emissions from potential IEDs, Improvised Explosive Devices.



As many IEDs are set off using a wireless signal, these drones will be able to survey areas for the electromagnetic emissions associated with receivers and provide an early warning to soldiers. No matter how silly the codename, this is one important project and I hope that it gets put into use as soon as possible.
[Gizmodo via Aviation Week via Pop Sci]

MIT's AIDA Robot Is Going To Be The Ultimate Backseat Driver [Robots]

Actually, the Affective Intelligent Driving Agent (AIDA) won't be riding in the backseat, it's mounted right on the dashboard—but it will make comments on how you drive. It also reacts to your emotional state and helps you navigate.

In other words, AIDA is like your highway helper. A robot pal you can bond with on those long lonely trips. Kind of like a naggy, whiny version of Kitt.

To identify the set of goals the driver would like to achieve, AIDA analyses the driver's mobility patterns, keeping track of common routes and destinations. AIDA draws on an understanding of the city beyond what can be seen through the windshield, incorporating real-time event information and knowledge of environmental conditions, as well as commercial activity, tourist attractions, and residential areas.
'When it merges knowledge about the city with an understanding of the driver's priorities and needs, AIDA can make important inferences,' explains Assaf Biderman, associate director of the SENSEable City Lab. 'Within a week AIDA will have figured out your home and work location. Soon afterwards the system will be able to direct you to your preferred grocery store, suggesting a route that avoids a street fair-induced traffic jam. On the way AIDA might recommend a stop to fill up your tank, upon noticing that you are getting low on gas,' says Biderman. 'AIDA can also give you feedback on your driving, helping you achieve more energy efficiency and safer behavior.'

Oh, and did I mention that it emotes with facial expressions? I have plenty of relatives that are perfectly willing to bitch about my driving as it is. On the other hand, maybe AIDA will qualify a an additional passenger on HOV lanes—then maybe it can tag along.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — MIT researchers and designers are developing the Affective Intelligent Driving Agent (AIDA) - a new in-car personal robot that aims to change the way we interact with our car. The project is a collaboration between the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, MIT's SENSEable City Lab and the Volkswagen Group of America's Electronics Research Lab.
'With the ubiquity of sensors and mobile computers, information about our surroundings is ever abundant. AIDA embodies a new effort to make sense of these great amounts of data, harnessing our personal electronic devices as tools for behavioral support,' comments professor Carlo Ratti, director of the SENSEable City Lab. 'In developing AIDA we asked ourselves how we could design a system that would offer the same kind of guidance as an informed and friendly companion.'
AIDA communicates with the driver through a small robot embedded in the dashboard. 'AIDA builds on our long experience in building sociable robots,' explains professor Cynthia Breazeal, director of the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab. 'We are developing AIDA to read the driver's mood from facial expression and other cues and respond in a socially appropriate and informative way.'
AIDA communicates in a very immediate way: with the seamlessness of a smile or the blink of an eye. Over time, the project envisions that a kind of symbiotic relationship develops between the driver and AIDA, whereby both parties learn from each other and establish an affective bond.
To identify the set of goals the driver would like to achieve, AIDA analyses the driver's mobility patterns, keeping track of common routes and destinations. AIDA draws on an understanding of the city beyond what can be seen through the windshield, incorporating real-time event information and knowledge of environmental conditions, as well as commercial activity, tourist attractions, and residential areas.
'When it merges knowledge about the city with an understanding of the driver's priorities and needs, AIDA can make important inferences,' explains Assaf Biderman, associate director of the SENSEable City Lab. 'Within a week AIDA will have figured out your home and work location. Soon afterwards the system will be able to direct you to your preferred grocery store, suggesting a route that avoids a street fair-induced traffic jam. On the way AIDA might recommend a stop to fill up your tank, upon noticing that you are getting low on gas,' says Biderman. 'AIDA can also give you feedback on your driving, helping you achieve more energy efficiency and safer behavior.'
AIDA was developed in partnership with Audi, a premium brand of the Volkswagen Group, and the Volkswagen Group of America's Electronics Research Lab. The AIDA team is directed by Professor Cynthia Breazeal, Carlo Ratti, and Assaf Biderman. The SENSEable City Lab team includes team leader Giusy di Lorenzo and includes Francisco Pereira, Fabio Pinelli, Pedro Correia, E Roon Kang, Jennifer Dunnam, and Shaocong Zhou. The Personal Robots Group's technical and aesthetic team includes Mikey Siegel, Fardad Faridi and Ryan Wistort as well as videographers Paula Aguilera and Jonathan Williams. Chuhee Lee and Charles Lee represent the Volkswagen Group of America's Electronics Research Lab.

[Gizmodo via MIT]

Asustek announces WiMAX enabled E-Books coming soon

Asustek will be launching an e-book reader in the near future that will combine wi-fi with WiMAX mobile technologies as soon as the end of 2009. Asustek will most likely release the reader under the extremely popular EEE name here in the U.S. Looks like the predictions back in August were right.
Information is somewhat sparse at this time, but we do know that Asustek has made WiMAX hardware before, for companies like Clearwire, so that part of the technology isn’t new to them. Of course, Asustek frequently produces hardware and sells it to other vendors for re-branding, so we might see this technology under another brand name. We can probably expect Asustek to price their reader in the range of Amazon and B&N, in order to be competitive. One thing for sure, it’s turning out to be a good year for e-book readers.
[CrunchGear]

Sony Ericsson Rachael UI Looks Anything But Android…

…And that’s a good thing. Check out the two minute video below which shows what the Sony Ericsson Rachael UI looks like when doing some of the increasingly more common phone tasks. We’re no longer just making and receiving calls - We want to play videos, look at pictures, and listen to music. If the user interface ends up looking like the concept video, consider us officially “in love”.

There’s nary a drop of stock Android to be phone in the design and that’s probably what the SE folks had in mind. It’s elegant, functional, and certainly unique. May we also add that it is astonishing? As in “The Astonishing Tribe“. TAT is one of the founding members of the Open Handset Alliance and has done work with Sony Ericsson so it would not be a surprise to us at all if they were behind this design. Swing by their showroom and take a look at some of their other work!
[AndroidGuys]

Sinister Sabre Warrior Drone Will Kill Us All One Day [Airplanes]

This is Lockheed Martin's Sabre Warrior, a next-generation plane that looks like something Batman and Darth Vader would fight over for. Instead, some good-turned-evil computer will get a fleet, as part of a plan to destroy us all. It's impressive.
The Sabre Warrior drone is 46 feet long, with a 36-foot wingspan, capable of taking off with 30,000 pounds of load using a 22,000-pound trust afterburning turbofan engine. It has two modular payload sections, which can be changed by soldiers in the field. Each bay can handle one 2,000 pound or two AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles or 10 smart bombs or sensors, or even fuel for extended range missions—even while this thing is air refuelable.
Its twin nose can also hold multiple sensors, which are interchangeable. And it is designed so there could be a version with a cockpit, so they can send man version as an on-the-scene controller, overlooking over the unmanned versions.
Ah Lockheed Martin's SkunkWorks, always working on making all our nightmares real, you nutty engineers who don't watch apocalyptical movies you. OK people, we may as well burn the office and run to the hills now.
[Gizmodo via Defense Tech]