Pulse Phone app has its finger on the pulse

nstead of relying on the iPhone’s microphone or extra hardware to measure a user’s heart rate like most other heart rate apps, Antimodular Inc.’s Pulse Phone does so by using the iPhone’s built-in camera. When the user places their finger over the iPhone camera, the app detects the changes in the intensity of light passing through the finger, which changes as blood pulses through the veins.
The app’s use of the iPhone’s camera by way of an (at the time) unauthorized “hack” of Apple’s code for the camera meant that the app was rejected when it was initially submitted to Apple over a year and a half ago. However, the recent relaxing of restrictions means Pulse Phone has now been approved. The use of the camera means that users can measure their pulse in noisy environments where microphone-based apps may struggle.
Pulse Phone works on older iPhone’s and will handle a variety of different ambient light conditions, although bright light yields the best results. However, with the use of the iPhone 4’s built-in flash, the app is even able to function in complete darkness – if measuring your pulse in complete darkness is your thing. Users can also save their readings and email them from within the app to keep a track of your heart rate over time.
Although there are other camera-based heart rate apps available, Pulse Phone developer Rafael Lozano-Hemmer believes his app’s image analysis is superior. Even so, a warning that appears when the app loads cautions against using the app for medical purposes.
Pulse Phone is available on the iTunes App Store for US$1.99.

500 Hz remote eye tracker watches what you watch

SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI) of Germany has launched its latest gaze and eye tracking system called the RED500. Eye tracking is a key research technique for many types of scientific, marketing, and design studies. Billed as the world’s first high-performance and high-speed remote eye tracker, the RED500 features a “scientific grade” 500 Hz sampling rate, binocular tracking, and a portable all-in-one design.
Gaze and eye tracking studies measure and plot the movement of the human eye. In the neuroscience and psychological fields, eye tracking can be used to analyze how we process visual information and to help detect neuro-degenerative diseases or comprehension disorders such as dyslexia. Marketers and designers can use eye tracking to pre-test designs and actually measure what their audience sees and where they focus. Eye tracking has also been used in sports and professional training to improve performance, and there are even security applications.
Eye tracking follows the subjects gaze as they perform a visual task such as reading or interacting with a web site. Far from being a smooth path, a human’s gaze is made up of many quick, minute eye movements called saccades. Saccades are measured in degrees of movement per second, and can reach speeds of up to 1000 degrees per second. The RED500’s 500 Hz sampling rate allows it to capture more saccades, and provide a high resolution measurement of eye movement.

Like previous SMI RED products, the RED500 looks something like a Microsoft Kinect game unit. But instead of connecting to your Xbox, the RED500 can be integrated with a workstation, most EEG systems for medical studies, plus MATLAB or other scientific hardware and software. The RED500 is "remote" in that it does not need to be attached to the subject to measure their eye movements.
The RED500 can be used with computer monitors, TVs, and projector systems. SMI also offers an all-in one version built into a 22-inch display. SMI also offers a free RED API to allow for integration with custom applications. Building on earlier RED models, SMI designed the RED500 with new, faster hardware and algorithms to achieve its higher level of performance.
The RED500 measures eye data such as the eye’s position on a surface and changes in the size of the pupil. Eye color, contacts, and glasses do not affect the measurements. Data can be exported in a variety of formats including SPSS and Excel. Software such as SMI’s Experiment Suite 360 and BeGaze allow you to manage your experiments, identify areas of interest, track the scan path, or visualize a “heat map” showing the most viewed areas.
No information yet pricing or availability for the RED500, but more product details are available at the SMI web site.

Electronic explosive-detecting sensor out-sniffs sniffer dogs

The recent Yemeni bomb threat has only highlighted the need for quick, accurate ways of detecting explosives. With their excellent sense of smell and the ability to discern individual scents, even when they’re combined or masked by other odors, this task is usually given to man’s best friend. But training these animals can be expensive and good sniffer dogs can be hard to find. Scientists have now developed an electronic sensor they say is more sensitive and more reliable at detecting explosives than any sniffer dog.
The new sensor, developed by scientists at Tel Aviv University, is able to detect multiple kinds of explosives and is especially effective at detecting TNT – an explosive that currently requires equipment that is high cost, has lengthy decoding times, is large and needs expert analysis to be detected.
"There is a need for a small, inexpensive, handheld instrument capable of detecting explosives quickly, reliably and efficiently," says lead researcher Prof. Fernando Patolsky of Tel Aviv University's Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Chemistry.
The device is made from an array of silicon nanowires, coated with a compound that binds to explosives to form a nanotransistor. To enhance the device’s sensitivity, the scientists developed each one with 200 individual sensors that work together to detect different kinds of explosives with what the scientists say is an unprecedented degree of reliability, efficiency and speed.
In addition to being portable, the device is also capable of detecting explosives at a distance. This means it can be mounted on a wall, with no need to bring it into contact with the item being checked. Also, unlike other explosives sensors, the device provides a definitive identification of the explosive that it has detected. Its developers say that, to date, the device has not produced a single detection error.

The Kno digital textbook

Remember the Kno digital textbook for students? After much development and student input, the devices are now ready for shipping. In addition to the 14.1-inch dual-screen version, the developers have also created a single screen edition that offers similar functionality to its bigger cousin but in a now familiar tablet format. Students can now also browse through an online textbook store, which is to include tens of thousands of titles from top publishers.
Printed textbooks can be a heavy and cumbersome affair which can also make the wallet feel much, much lighter. The Kno digital textbook was developed to provide a relatively lightweight solution to carrying volumes of information around at a fraction of the cost. The development process has involved the targeted users - students - at every stage and after a round of beta testing, the device has now been priced and an availability window announced.
It was originally developed as a huge 14.1-inch dual touchscreen device where each display was hinged down one side so that they folded in on each other, just like a printed book. However, there are now two options on offer. The dual-screen option has been joined by a single display version, 14.1-inch tablet model. As previously announced, the Kno benefits from a LED backlit 1440 x 900 WXGA resolution multi-touch screens, a 1GHz Tegra T200 dual core processor and wireless connectivity courtesy of 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR.

Both versions will now be offered in 16GB and 32GB storage capacities and should be capable of up to six hours of "normal campus use" before the Li-polymer battery pack needs to be charged. Although not immediately available, full 1080p video playback will be available shortly after shipment via a software update.
Students can browse through the company's textbook store where popular titles and supplementary content will number in the tens of thousands. Reference material from publishers like McGraw Hill, Macmillan, Freeman & Worth, Random House and a large number of the University Presses will be on offer, which will "typically cost between 30 and 50 percent less than physical textbooks."
The company – which has calculated that "the Kno actually pays for itself in three terms" – is now accepting a limited number of pre-orders for an initial end-of-year shipment date. The single screen Kno is priced at US$599 for the 16GB flavor and US$699 for the 32GB option. The 16GB dual-screen version will cost US$899, with the 32GB model costing US$999.

 

Four ways to harvest solar heat from roads

Walk barefoot on an asphalt road and you'll soon realize how good the substance is at storing solar heat – the heat-storing qualities of roadways has even been put forward as an explanation as to why cities tend to be warmer than surrounding rural areas. Not content to see all that heat going to waste, researchers from the University of Rhode Island (URI) want to put it to use in a system that harvests solar heat from the road to melt ice, heat buildings, or to create electricity.
“We have mile after mile of asphalt pavement around the country, and in the summer it absorbs a great deal of heat, warming the roads up to 140 degrees or more,” said Prof. K. Wayne Lee, leader of the URI project. “If we can harvest that heat, we can use it for our daily use, save on fossil fuels, and reduce global warming.”



The research team has four main ideas for how that harvesting could be performed.

Cells on barriers

A relatively simple method of harnessing the sunlight shining on the road, if not the heat stored in it, is to wrap flexible photovoltaic cells around the top of the Jersey barriers on divided highways (Jersey barriers are those long rectangular concrete slabs). These cells could also be embedded in the asphalt between the barriers and the adjacent rumble strips. The electricity generated by the cells could be used to power streetlights and illuminate road signs.

Water pipes in the road

Another approach would be to install water-containing pipes within the asphalt. As the road heated up, so would the water, which could then be piped underneath a bridge deck to reduce icing, used to heat or provide hot water for nearby buildings, or even turned to steam at a power plant. URI grad student Andrew Correia has created a prototype for such a system, which he hopes will demonstrate how it could actually work in the real world.

Thermo-electricity

A small amount of electricity can be created by connecting two semiconductors to form a circuit linking a hot and a cold area. If those semiconductors were embedded in the road at different depths, or in sunny and shady areas, then the difference in temperature between them could conceivably be used to generate electricity. If enough of them were used together, their electrical output could be used for purposes such as defrosting roadways. URI’s Prof. Sze Yang proposes that instead of traditional semiconductors, inexpensive plastic sheet organic polymeric semiconductors could be used.

Electronic block roadways

In what the researchers admit would be the most costly option, asphalt roads could be replaced with roads made from clear-yet-durable electronic blocks. These would contain photovoltaic cells, LED lights and sensors, and could generate electricity, display changeable lane markings, and display illuminated warning messages. Idaho’s Solar Roadways has been working on just such a system, although according to Lee, a driveway made with the blocks cost US$100,000 to create. He believes that such technology may first show up in corporate parking lots, before decreased costs allow it to be used for public roads.

Agloves give full 10-finger gloved touchscreen functionality

With capacitive the technology of choice on the majority of touchscreen devices hitting the market, people have been coming up with all kinds of interesting ways to interact with their devices when the winter chill sets in and gloves become a necessity. Many South Koreans apparently turned to using sausages as a stylus but if you’d prefer not to be hassled by dogs as you type a text there are less meat product-based solutions, such as the North Face Etip gloves. Now there’s another glove-based solution in the form of Agloves, which provide even greater touchscreen friendly surface area for your hands.
Whereas the Etip gloves feature a conductive material known as X-Static fabric on the tips of the thumb and index finger, the Agloves are made with silver coated nylon to make the entire glove conductive. With silver boasting particularly high electrical conductivity it allows the Agloves to better transfer the skin’s bioelectrical charge through the gloves to the screen.
The Boulder-based company behind the Agloves says that since the whole glove is knitted with its unique silver yarn they are able to work even if the wearer’s fingertips lose conductivity, when they are too cold or dry for example. In such cases the rest of the hand is able to pick up the slack and allow the bioelectricity to travel from other areas on the hand, through the glove to the fingertips to maintain a connection.
Also, because the Agloves provide full 10-finger functionality, users are able to type using full QWERTY onscreen keyboards like that found on the iPad, or do four-finger swipes. Oh, and they should also keep your hands warm.

The Agloves are available now for US$17.99 a pair.