This Flapping Device Makes Electricity From Wind Rushing Past Your Car

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-flapping-device-makes-electricity-from-wind-rushin-1638351487

As far as car accessories go, we have to admit this one looks pretty silly. But the Samsung scientists who made it could also be onto something. The flapping tongues inside are actually coated with gold, and when they rub up against a smooth plate, electricity is created through something called the triboelectric effect. It could be a whole new way to harness wind energy.

Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...

ARM's new processor should add oomph to smart appliances and drones

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/23/arm-cortex-m7/

If you have any smart device -- be it a phone, tablet, router, wearable or otherwise -- there's a good chance ARM's Cortex lineup is responsible for the brains behind the scenes. The company just announced the latest processor in its M-series, which is a set of low-power processors capable of handling embedded devices like smart home appliances, drones, automotive and wearables, which is focused on making said devices even more powerful. The M7, as it's called, comes with a 400MHz processor, packing more than twice the punch as the 168MHz M4 that came before it (and will continue to be available to manufacturers). It comes with support for more displays, motors, voice controls, connectivity, audio performance and improved GPS accuracy. In other words, the infamous Internet of Things should become even stronger and more powerful. ARM says that manufacturers are already building devices with the chip embedded, so it won't be long before we get to see if the extra power actually makes a difference in our everyday lives.

Filed under: Wearables, Wireless, Mobile

Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

The Most Talked-About Food In Every State

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/popular-food-on-twitter-in-every-state-2014-9

Researchers at the University of Arizona have released a study that reveals America’s food preferences based on the most commonly used Twitter hashtags.

Spotted on FirstWeFeast, the researchers analyzed 3.5 million tweet with food hashtags that were taken from Twitter’s API between October 2013 and May 2014. 

The original purpose of the study was to determine if what people hashtag and talk about on Twitter can convey information about their community and health, such as their likelihood of diabetes, their weight, and even their political preferences.

What they found was that our food preferences can actually reveal a lot about us. Diabetes sufferers, for example, were more likely to tweet about Mexican, fried food, or bacon. Food also delineated party lines, with Democrats tweeting about vegan food, brunch, and the deli counter, while Republicans were all about lunch, snacks, and #party.

The researchers created visual maps of the food patterns they found as well, such as which foods each state hashtagged the most on Twitter.

Some of the findings were unsurprising, such as Texans loving brisket and Wisconsinites favoring sauerkraut. But other states had bizarre results, such as the spiky fruit durian being popular in Maine or Alaska loving to tweet about the herb tarragon.

It should be noted that these results don’t necessarily show the state’s favorite food, but the food that is most often hashtagged on Twitter. New York’s “prune” result for example was not about the fruit at all, but i! s instea d the name of a popular NYC restaurant.

The researchers also filtered out the highest-weighted hashtag results for some major US cities where, it seems, everyone loves to get drunk. Mixed drinks were one of the most popular hashtags across the board (especially if they were bottomless), as was #wine, #foodie, and #brunch. 

Last but not least, researchers broke down the findings by region for the West, Midwest, South, and Northeast. The Midwest was most likely to tweet about breakfast and recipes, the Northeast loved its brunch, the South favored lunch as well as mixed drinks like bloody marys, and the West tweeted most about dinner and #foodporn.

You can read the paper online here or play with this interactive tool that allows you to create your own graphic visualizations.

SEE ALSO: The Best Food You Can Eat In Every State

DON'T FORGET:  Follow Business Insider's Life on Facebook!

Join the conversation about this story »

Read More...

Summary only...

$30 Million And Three Years Later, Mysterious Payments App Clinkle Finally Launches

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/clinkle-payments-app-is-live-2014-9

At long last, the mysterious — and often controversial — payments app Clinkle is finally live. 

And it looks like it's a way different app than what it was first positioned to be. 

"Our goal is to completely modernize how payments work," the app's founder, Lucas Duplan, told Business Insider last year. "What we're trying to do is basically take your phone and have it for the first time be able to rival cash and credit cards. We've developed a way for consumers to download an app, no hardware needed, and achieve scale from a software point of view."

Instead, it now looks like it's a prepaid debit card program. And it looks like it's only available in "select colleges," according to its site. 

Clinkle will send you a physical card, which you can load and reload with money. 

You can then earn what Clinkle calls "Treats." Treats can also be sent to friends. They can do things like refund a purchase you made, or even pay for a friend's purchase. But it's still a little unclear how these Treats work.

Clinkle can also be used to send money to friends, kind of like Venmo or PayPal. 

And that's about it. There are no fees to load money onto the card or use treats, although there are some fees involved, which are explained in the cardholder agreement. 

This is a very different approach for the app, which was supposed to replace credit cards and cash. But it might not be a big surprise.

After Apple announced its mobile payments system, Apple Pay, Clinkle told Business Insider that it's no longer focusing on its original plans: "Last year, we made the decision to focus our product around consumer engagement, not the hardware layer of storing payment instruments, so we are excited that this will give customers yet another way to use their Clinkle card," Duplan told Business Insider in an email after the Apple event. "We look forward to working with Apple and others that will likely enter the space."

SEE ALSO: Uber's Biggest Rival Acquired A Startup That'll Help Make Rides Cheaper

Join the conversation about this story »

Read More...

Summary only...

Soft octopus robots are equal parts speedy and graceful

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/23/octopus-robot/

Soft robotics can go a long way toward recreating the graceful movements of fish and other animals, and it now looks like they're helpful for replicating some of the stranger creatures on our planet, too. A team of Greek researchers has developed an octopus robot that uses silicone tentacles and webbing to move as elegantly as the real thing -- it's convincing enough that small fish will follow along. It's also much faster than a previous attempts, which used stiff plastic to plow through the water. While the original robot moved along at four inches per second, its squishier successor moves along at a healthier seven inches. That's not nearly as quick as the real deal, which can reach 25MPH in bursts, but it's far more consistent with what you'd expect from a real critter this size.

However attention-getting this mechanical cephalopod may be, it isn't just for show. Scientists believe that a camera-equipped version could observe sea life without disrupting it, unlike conventional robots or humans. There's no timetable for when that would happen, but it won't be surprising if eight-armed automatons are eventually scouting underwater ecosystems everywhere.

Filed under: Robots, Science

Comments

Via: Science News, Gizmodo

Source: IEEE/RSJ

Read More...

Summary only...