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May 20 2011
When You Never Leave Your Car, It Can Be Your Doctor (and Doting Parent)
Those allergies are going to spike—better roll that window up.
Ford wants to make your car more like a phone. Or maybe like a self-contained living pod that you never have to leave.
Some Fords already feature SYNC, a system the company developed with Microsoft in 2007 that lets you control your phone or media player in your car using voice commands and buttons on the steering wheel. With SYNC, you can make hands-free phone calls, have your texts read aloud to you, and automatically call 911 when an air bag deploys in an accident. But the next generation of SYNC apps will be keeping tabs on your health—only logical, the company says, considering how much time we spend in cars and how much more we probably will in the future.
In fact, they sound almost gleeful about the prospect: “People are spending so much time behind the wheel, and that’s expected to increase as we go forward, with increased traffic density and congestion,” a spokesperson said (via PopSci). “(This is) about seeing the car as more than just a car.”
The new suite of applications, which are not expected for at least a year or ...
February 23 2011
More Proof That We Live in the Future: Mind-Controlled Cars
Driving a car using only one’s thoughts is no longer the stuff of science fiction. It may not be ready for commercial use, but scientists have successfully completed a road test of the world’s first mind-controlled car.
Created by researchers at the AutoNOMOS labs of Freie Universität Berlin, the technology uses commercially available electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors to detect four different patterns of brain activity, which a computer translates to “turn left,” “turn right,” “accelerate,” and “brake.” The road to this achievement was long, as AutoNOMOS says on its website:
After testing iPhone, iPad and an eye-tracking device as possible user interfaces to maneuver our research car named “MadeInGermany”, we now also use Brain Power. The “BrainDriver” application is of course a demonstration and not roadworthy yet but on the long run human-machine interfaces like this could [have] huge potential in combination with autonomous driving. For example when it comes to decide which way you want to take on a crossroad while the autonomous cab drives you home.
The research car was formerly a wholly computer-controlled car, but was re-engineered to be thought-powered. In the new navigation system drivers control ...
February 11 2011
Want the City to Fix a Crater-of-Doom Pothole? There’s an App for That
Doing good is getting easier. Soon, you’ll be able to do your civic duty of reporting potholes without even lifting a finger. The city of Boston is working on a smartphone app that would automatically report potholes to authorities–making it easier to find and fill the more than 19,000 potholes Boston grapples with each year.
The in-development Street Bump app uses a smartphone’s GPS and accelerometer technology to register the moment when a car lurches into a pothole and to identify the location. No need for the driver to call or email city officials, the app just goes ahead and sends the message on its own.
The engineers behind the app–who hail from the Boston mayor’s office of New Urban Mechanics, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and the Santa Fe Complex–believe Street Bump will make city driving easier, and will save city government some headaches.
As the Boston Globe reports:
Currently, most potholes are identified by DPW repair crews dispatched to drive until they find them, Boston Public Works Commissioner Joanne Massaro said. Roughly one in every six potholes that ...
November 15 2010
How Not to Get a Flat on the Moon: Use a Spring-Packed Super Tire
Future Mars rovers or moon buggies might be riding the wings of Goodyear spring-based tires. This high-tech tire just won a 2010 R&D 100 award, also known as the “Oscar of Innovation,” from the editors of R&D magazine.
The tire was invented last year in a joint effort between NASA and Goodyear, and was tested out on NASA’s Lunar Electric Rover at the Rock Yard at the Johnson Space Center. The spring tire builds upon previous versions of the moon tire, and the improvements enable it to take larger (up to 10 times) rovers up to 100 times further, NASA scientists explained to Gizmag:
“With the combined requirements of increased load and life, we needed to make a fundamental change to the original moon tire,” said Vivake Asnani, principal investigator for the project at NASA’s Glenn Research Centre in Cleveland. “What the Goodyear-NASA team developed is an innovative, yet simple network of interwoven springs that does the job. The tire design seems almost obvious in retrospect, as most good inventions do.”
The tire is made up of 800 helical springs, which simulate the flexibility of an air-filled tire. Because there are so many springs, the tire can’t completely fail all at once, like a punctured air-filled tire would, Asnani said in the Goodyear press release:
“A hard impact that might cause a pneumatic tire to puncture and deflate would only damage one of the 800 load bearing springs. Along with having this ultra-redundant characteristic, the tire has a combination of overall stiffness yet flexibility that allows off-road vehicles to travel fast over rough terrain with relatively little motion being transferred to the vehicle.”
Tires used for off-world adventures have to be durable. Goodyear’s engineers note that the moon’s lack of atmosphere leaves the tires open to a beating from unfiltered solar radiation, which would degrade traditional rubber (meaning more flat tires in a world without roadside assistance). The flexible spring-based tire is well suited to the lunar surface, Jim Benzing, Goodyear’s lead on the project, told Gizmag:
“The spring design contours to the surface on which it’s driven to provide traction. But all of the energy used to deform the tire is returned when the springs rebound. It doesn’t generate heat like a normal tire.”
The tire might also be useful on earth–perhaps on military vehicles where flats can be dangerous.
Related content:
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80beats: Spirit Doesn’t Return NASA’s Calls; Rover Might Be Gone for Good
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Image: Goodyear
November 05 2010
The Secret Knowledge of Taxi Drivers Could Be Added to Online Maps
Microsoft researchers in Beijing are trying to best Google maps by culling knowledge from a mythical beast known as the taxi driver.
The Microsoft folks are trying to improve their online maps using the cabbies’ deep knowledge of Beijing. The problem with typical maps and the directions they offer is that the shortest route isn’t always the fastest route. In big cities, cabbies know which side streets offer shortcuts, and what areas of the city to avoid at which times.
The researchers are trying to rake that data out of the cabbies’ habits by analyzing the GPS data from over 33,000 taxis in Beijing. The group at Microsoft Research Asia, led by Yu Zheng, developed an approach (called T-drive) to analyze and merge this cabbie data with satellite maps to improve the mapping experience and offer faster directions–even if the driver doesn’t engage in the lane swerving, honking, and pedestrian slaloming that give cabbies an edge. 
As Technology Review reports:
According to the Microsoft researchers, the routes suggested by T-Drive are faster than 60 percent of the routes suggested by Google and Bing maps (which provide essentially the same driving time estimates as each other). Overall, T-Drive can shave about 16 percent off the time of a trip, the researchers say, which translates into about 5 minutes for every 30 minutes of driving.
This approach could work just as well in other dense, cabbie-infested cities. The team is also working on projects that will incorporate real-time accident and traffic data into these “smart” maps.
Technology Review reports that other companies trying to improve maps and directions are taking data from driver’s cell phones in California and Boston, while a person-to-person route sharing application called WAZE allows you to share tips with your social network.
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Cosmic Variance: Self-Driving Cars
Bad Astronomer: Astronomer make first map of extrasolar planet!
DISCOVER: Big Picture 5 Reasons Science [Hearts] Google
Image: Flicrk/Boris van Hoytema
September 30 2010
The World’s Fastest Lawn Mower, a Fire-Throwing Bike, and More Bizarro Vehicles
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September 16 2010
iPhone App Lets You Tell Drivers Exactly What You Think of Them
A new smart phone app aims to get you communicating with the drivers around you, and we don’t mean yelling choice obscenities through the window or shaking your fist of rage when someone cuts you off.
By photographing, typing, or saying a license plate number and state you’ll be able to message the driver–if they’re also signed up for the service, named Bump. The message recipient can choose how they get their messages, through text or the Bump.com website. Bump launches today on iPhones, and an Android app will soon be ready as well.
Venture Beat talked to Bump’s CEO, Mitch Thrower about the idea:
Thrower says his social network for cars brings to mind a classic scene in the film American Graffiti…. Actor Richard Dreyfuss sees a beautiful blonde played by Suzanne Somers in a white T-Bird. She blows a kiss at him. He tries to follow her but can’t catch up. Maddeningly, he never sees her again. Oh, if he had only gotten her license plate.
And while the idea of giving drivers more reasons to constantly be on their phones gives most of us the willies, Bump’s developers say using their application could encourage a safer diving experience overall, bringing personal accountability to the road–a normally anonymous place. As fun as scolding bad drivers sounds the service can also be used to warn other drivers about low tires, broken tail-lights, car alarms, or headlights left on. Or, of course, we could turn traffic jams into the new singles scene.
The company is touting the app as some sort of social network for drivers, but it also has a data-mining trick up their sleeve. Bump wants to offer up its users as targets for advertising, by selling businesses the ability to contact people who frequently drive by their establishments.
Bump’s VP of technology, John Albers-Mead, explained the idea to Technology Review:
“It allows us to track users, it’s like putting a cookie on a car,” says Albers-Mead, likening his technology to the small files used to track web users and offer functionality like autologins online. Once connected up to Bump’s tech, a camera at a store or drive-in burger joint could, for example, showing menu choices similar to those you’ve selected before. That extra data could be valuable to store owners, Bump say, who could also make use of the messaging functions. “You could register as a fan of the Dodgers and then receive a message welcoming you to the stadium and offering discount vouchers when you visit,” says Albers-Mead.
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80beats: Sorry, Australian iPhone Users: You’ve Been Rickrolled
Image: Wikimedia Commons / Ed Poor
September 14 2010
Citizen Scientists Take Charge of California’s Roadkill
California science needs a favor from you. Can you drive around until you spot some roadkill, and then–instead of jerking the wheel, squealing in disgust, and averting your eyes–can you instead take careful note of the species and location?
For one year now, helpful motorists have been contributing info to the online California Roadkill Observation System, and lead scientist Fraser Shilling of the University of California, Davis has just released the data from this citizen science survey. The press release reports that over 6,700 roadkill observations were made by 300 people, and the road victims covered 205 animal species “from acorn woodpeckers to zebratail lizards.” Raccoons were the most common casualties.
Shilling hopes the data from this ongoing project will eventually help transportation planners design more wildlife-friendly roads, and is grateful to the motorists who have contributed their time. Like the man known to his friends as Doctor Roadkill, a 69-year-old retired veterinarian named Ron Ringen who has logged more than 1,000 dead animals into the system.
The New York Times reports that Shilling and his colleagues hope to expand the project by building a smartphone app.
They think one would attract new and younger volunteers, speed up the process, and, with built-in GPS function, assure more accurate location information.
Which means you may one day be able to say, “Roadkill? There’s an app for that.”
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Image: UC Davis
September 07 2010
Speed Bumps of the Future: Creepy Optical Illusion Children
Today, West Vancouver officials will roll out a new way to keep drivers alert and slow them down: a little girl speed bump. A trompe-l’œil, the apparently 3D girl located near the École Pauline Johnson Elementary School is actually a 2D pavement painting, similar to the one shown here.
In what sounds like a terrifying experience, the girl’s elongated form appears to rise from the ground as cars approach, reaching 3D realism at around 100 feet, and then returning to 2D distortion once cars pass that ideal viewing distance. Its designers created the image to give drivers who travel at the street’s recommended 18 miles per hour (30 km per hour) enough time to stop before hitting Pavement Patty–acknowledging the spectacle before they continue to safely roll over her.
The illusion is part of a $15,000 safety program that will run this week, led by the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation and the public awareness group Preventable.ca. As drivers approach, the police will monitor the fake girl’s effects. Despite fears that drivers may stop suddenly or swerve into actual 3D children, David Duane of the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation told CTV news that the bump was meant to bring attention to driver-caused pedestrian injuries, and that the fake girl should not cause accidents:
“It’s a static image. If a driver can’t respond to this appropriately, that person shouldn’t be driving….”
In 2008, Philadelphia used similar, virtual speed bumps–more common in Europe–in its “Drive CarePhilly” campaign. Philadelphia, however, chose a less anthropomorphic route–opting for three spikes.
Route:
Discoblog: For the Driver Who Has Everything: An Augmented Reality Windshield From GM
Discoblog: Texting-While-Driving Coach Slightly Delays Appalling Crashes
Discoblog: Confused (and Injured) Pedestrian Sues Google Maps Over Bad Directions
Discoblog: AD4HERE: Digital License Plate Ads May Come to California
Image: Handout/Preventable.ca via PhysOrg.com
August 11 2010
Texting-While-Driving Coach Slightly Delays Appalling Crashes
If your car could talk, it might tell you to stop texting. At least that’s what one research team hopes: after paying young drivers to perform texting-like games while driving a simulator, they found that visual warnings from an in-car “coach” helped keep drivers’ eyes on the road.
For high-risk drivers, the warning system “more than doubled their time until a virtual crash,” a University of Washington press release says. That might not sound entirely reassuring. But the researchers say a similar system installed on a real car might help risky drivers avoid a crash altogether.
A team led by Linda Ng Boyle, an industrial and systems engineer at the University of Washington, first had a group of 53 drivers, ages 18 to 21, attempt to drive a simulator while simultaneously playing a matching game. As an incentive to take the game seriously, they paid drivers according to the correct number of matches they made. The riskiest drivers took their eyes off the road for between two and a half to three seconds, compared to moderate and low-risk drivers who would glance off the road for less than two seconds during their longest glances.
In later tests the researchers activated the driving coach, which flashed warnings on the matching game’s screen. The study noted that the coach decreased the length of high-risk drivers’ glances by an average of 0.4 seconds, decreased their longest glances by about one second compared to risky coach-less drivers, and increased high-risk drivers’ time to collision by around 8 seconds. In the press release, Ng Boyle says the research shows that driver coaching systems can work for both risky and safer drivers:
“I think that drivers are coachable…. The worst drivers can benefit the most, because we can change their behavior the most dramatically. We can also reinforce the good behavior for safer drivers.”
If future driving coaches can talk, we suggest the voice of Knight Rider’s KITT or, better yet, Obi-wan.
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Discoblog: The New Defense Against Despotism: Text Messaging
Image: Linda Ng Boyle / University of Washington News
July 19 2010
Danger! Car Salesmen Now in Possession of “Perfect Handshake” Equation
To seal more car deals, Chevrolet UK looked to arm its salesmen with the perfect weapon of confidence: an unstoppable handshake. Here’s the secret they received from Geoffrey Beattie, Head of Psychological Sciences at the University of Manchester:
PH (Perfect Handshake)= √ (e^2 + ve^2)(d^2) + (cg + dr)^2 + π{(4<s>^2)(4<p>^2)}^2 + (vi + t + te)^2 + {(4<c>^2 )(4<du>^2)}^2
We hope (and suspect) the training posters and equation, supposedly meant for Chevrolet-sellers, are meant for publicity and are not a real attempt to improve customer relations.
The variables, as outlined in a Chevrolet press release:
(e) is eye contact (1=none; 5=direct) 5; (ve) is verbal greeting (1=totally inappropriate; 5=totally appropriate) 5; (d) is Duchenne smile – smiling in eyes and mouth, plus symmetry on both sides of face, and slower offset (1=totally non-Duchenne smile (false smile); 5=totally Duchenne) 5; (cg) completeness of grip (1=very incomplete; 5=full) 5; (dr) is dryness of hand (1=damp; 5=dry) 4; (s) is strength (1= weak; 5=strong) 3; (p) is position of hand (1=back towards own body; 5=other person’s bodily zone) 3; (vi) is vigour (1=too low/too high; 5=mid) 3; (t) is temperature of hands (1=too cold/too hot; 5=mid) 3; (te) is texture of hands (5=mid; 1=too rough/too smooth) 3; (c) is control (1=low; 5=high) 3; (du) is duration (1= brief; 5=long) 3.
The press release details some pretty common sense advice: avoid sweaty palms; don’t squeeze too hard or hold on too long; make eye contact. But putting the formula into action might be tough; if actually meant to inspire confidence (which the release says 70 percent of hand-shakers are lacking), doing the math before every hand-to-hand may instead lead to more perfect head scratching.
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Image: flickr / Aidan Jones
July 02 2010
How to Build a Car for Blind Drivers: With Vibro-Gloves and Air Puffs
A group of new drivers may never watch where they’re going. They won’t need to: Instead, they’ll listen and feel. The National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech are developing a car for the blind, and hope to demonstrate a prototype in January of 2011.
Don’t be fooled: Unlike like the do-it-themselves cars that compete as part of the DARPA Urban Challenge, this car will actually let the blind driver take control and drive, and will require the same quick judgments needed by sighted drivers. The only difference will be how these drivers sense what’s around them.
Instead of looking at the car cutting them off or the pedestrian about to step into traffic, the blind drivers must feel them or hear them. Though the final design is still in the works, the car may communicate an obstacle’s presence by audio instructions, vibrating gloves (called DriveGrip), and puffs of compressed air (called AirPix). AirPix is sort of like a map of the road, a flat board with different air jets corresponding to different obstacles.
This vehicle is the next step in an ongoing project at Virginia Tech. Last summer, mechanical engineering professor Dennis Hong and his team unveiled a buggy that used laser tracking systems, audio commands via headphones, and a vibrating vest to tell blind drivers where to go. Several blind volunteers successfully steered the buggy through an unfamiliar obstacle course (see video below).
Mark Maurer, the president of the National Federation of the Blind, came up with this challenge about a decade ago. Even after this new car’s unveiling next January at the Daytona International Speedway, it may still be a long while before blind drivers take to the road. But, Maurer says, that’s not the point. Instead he wants to show that blindness is a difference rather than an insurmountable impairment. He told The Telegraph:
“We’re exploring areas that have previously been regarded as unexplorable. . . We’re moving away from the theory that blindness ends the capacity of human beings to make contributions to society.”
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Image: iStockphoto
June 22 2010
AD4HERE: Digital License Plate Ads May Come to California
What’s a quick way to make some cash? Sell advertising space on anything you’ve got. That’s what a proposed bill suggests to put a dent in California’s $19 billion deficit. If the bill gets passed, the state will roll out digital car license plate ads for traveling promotion.
While the car is in motion, the plates will display the driver’s standard license plate number, but four seconds after stopping the magic happens. The plates will then flash ads alongside the number until the car starts to move again.
This bill was the bright idea of Curren Price, a democratic state senator from Los Angeles, who told the AP:
“We’re just trying to find creative ways of generating additional revenues,” he said. “It’s an exciting marriage of technology with need, and an opportunity to keep California in the forefront.”
By forefront, Price implies that other states are also considering digital license plate technology–which he says wouldn’t only drum up advertising revenue, but would also cut costs associated with the traditional ways states distribute and activate license plates.
A San Francisco-based company called Smart Plate is working on this technology, but chief executive M. Conrad Jordan says the product isn’t ready for the assembly line yet. According to the AP, Jordan also sees the plates as a way to show off college or company affiliations–the next step in custom plates.
Given that researchers have recently found ways to hack a car itself, hacking a digital license plate seems relatively easy. One wonders if the DMV, expected to weigh in on the bill in 2013, will consider not just the possible distractions to drivers, but also what it might be like to drive off into the California sunset with IAMDUM on your bumper.
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Image: flickr / gruntzooki
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