Vuzix M300

Much like Google Glass, the M300 allows its users hands-free data access and capture.

Running on a dual-core Intel Atom processor, the Android-based smartglasses are equipped with Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, Micro-USB port with OTG support, integrated GPS, head-tracking sensors, and 64 GB flash memory.

The device's camera is capable of 13 megapixel images and 1080p video, with features including auto-focus, optical image stabilization, and flash, while the eye-mounted display can output 24-bit colour and greater than 2,000 nits brightness with 20 degrees field of view, or the equivalent of a 5-inch mobile device held 14 inches in front of the viewer.

User input on the M300 is conducted via four Android function buttons and a touch pad mounted on the display side frame rail, as well as through voice navigation and a remote control app from paired iOS and Android devices.

The company also has an app store available for the device, with offerings available from mobile standards like Instagram, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, and Skype as well as AR-focused apps like Wikitude.

Retailing for $1,499, the devices are available for purchase directly from Vuzix by customers in the US as well as in Europe.

a suite of accessories for the device, including hot-swappable on-frame batteries, higher capacity external batteries, left and right eye safety helmet mounts, Micro-USB power adapters, a safety glasses kit that supports prescription lenses, and a carrying case. The accessories range in price from $9.99 for charging cables or ear hooks to $99.99 for frames.

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Learning and Memory Enhancer Was Discovered

A team of medical researchers from the University of Bristol have found the explanation for the interaction between brain state and the neural triggers responsible for learning.

This discovery could open the way to new methods of strengthening cognitive functions in people suffering from debilitating diseases like Alzheimer’s, but also help improve memory in healthy individuals.

What makes this finding really exciting is the fact that the researchers from Bristol’s School of Physiology and Pharmacology, were able to study, in isolation, the exact neurotransmitter that enhances learning and memory – acetylcholine.

They studied the effects that drugs targeting acetylcholine receptors and SK channels have on the force of the connections between nerve cells in animal brain tissue. 

They found out that administrating drugs that activate acetylcholine receptors or block SK channels, made changing the connection strength much easier, thus establishing a link between the two proteins.

Lead researcher Dr Jack Mellor, from the University of Bristol’s Medical School said that “from a therapeutic point of view, this study suggests that certain drugs that act on specific acetylcholine receptors may be highly attractive as potential treatments for cognitive disorders. 

“Currently, the only effective treatments for patients with Alzheimer’s disease are drugs that boost the effectiveness of naturally released acetylcholine. 

“We have shown that mimicking the effect of acetylcholine at specific receptors facilitates changes in the strength of connections between nerve cells. 

“This could potentially be beneficial for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or schizophrenia.”

During learning, acetylcholine is released in the brain where it boosts the capacity of acquiring new memories, by facilitating the activity of the NMDA receptors – proteins in charge of the strength of the connections between nerve cells, within the brain.

The researchers have shown that acetylcholine facilitates NMDA receptors by inhibiting other proteins called SK channels, which normally restrict NMDA receptors' activity.

They do so by preventing changes in the strength of nerve cells connections, weakening the brain's ability to encode memories.

Releasing acetylcholine removes the SK barrier, and enhances the brain’s capacity of learning and remembering information. 

Still, Dr Mellor said that “these findings are not going to revolutionize the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of cognitive impairment overnight.

“However, national and international funding bodies have recently made research into aging and dementia a top priority so we expect many more advances in our understanding of the mechanisms underlying learning and memory in both health and disease.”

The researchers were affiliated to the University of Bristol’s MRC Center for Synaptic Plasticity and the Division of Neuroscience in the School of Physiology & Pharmacology, part of the Bristol Neuroscience network, and their work was supported by the Wellcome Trust, MRC, BBSRC and GSK.

The results are described in the journal Neuron.

Bike Concept Turns Into Cart

Green types that like to ride their bike to buy groceries rather than having to drive to the store, but worry that their bike will get stolen will get a kick out of the Urban Folding Bicycle concept. The concept was designed by Hyuk-Jae Chang and won a bronze prize at the IDEA Design Awards 2010.

The basic concept is a normalish looking bike that you can ride around town with a chain and disc brakes. Once you get to the store rather than chain your bike to a post or bike rack, you simply fold it down into your own shopping card.

The cart has a push handle and a pair of baskets for your purchases. Once back outside you unfold the bike again and ride away. The only downside I see is that the baskets are a bit small. You won’t be buying many groceries at once.

Sony Laser Enables 1TB Optical Disks

It was just a short while ago that Sharp announced its first BDXL Blu-ray disks, with a capacity of 100GB and, soon after, TDK revealed its own plans to join this movement. Later, once the first batch of disks starts selling, the two hope to move on to 128GB disks. Needless to say, these capacities are nothing to be frowned upon, but they may not keep their title as greatest for as long as some might think. Sony, in partnership with Tohoku University of Japan, have apparently developed a laser that has a watt output 100 times higher than the currently highest values for conventional blue-violet pulse semiconductor lasers.

Basically, the new type of laser has an output of 100 watts and supposedly has the ability to scribe up to 20 times more data on a disk, compared to 'regular' Blu-ray. Essentially, this equals about 1TB. Granted, this technology isn't exactly in line with the vision of a future completely free of the need for optical storage, but a technology like this is still a great step forward. Unfortunately, there was absolutely no mention of how long it will take for it to see practical implementations.

“This latest successful development is an all-semiconductor laser picosecond pulse source with a laser wavelength of 405 nanometers (1 nm = one-billionth of a meter) in the blue-violet region,” the Sony/Tohoku University press releasereportedly states. “It is capable of generating optical pulses in the ultrafast duration of 3 picoseconds (1 picosecond = one-trillionth of a second), with ultrahigh output peak power of 100 watts and repetition frequency of 1 gigahertz. Advanced control of the newly-developed and proprietarily-constructed GaN-based mode-locked semiconductor laser and semiconductor optical amplifier have enabled peak output power in excess of 100 watts to be achieved, which is more than a hundred times the world’s highest output value for conventional blue-violet pulse semiconductor lasers.”

“There are high expectations that this newly-developed semiconductor laser system, which incorporates semiconductor diodes, will be able to be used in a much wider range of applications in the future thanks to technology such as this, which enables the size of devices such as the light source box to be drastically reduced,” they added.

Postage Stamp-Sized SSDs Coming in 2012

End-users are most likely more than aware of the fact that solid state drives are still a way off from becoming mainstream, even though they have significantly higher data-transfer rates when compared to hard drives. This lower popularity is mostly due to the fact that hard disks have larger storage capabilities and are a more mature technology than that of SSDs. Still, SSDs have steadily been filling the gap and it seems that this gap might disappear altogether in the not-so-distant future, if the work of a team of Japanese researchers is anything to go by.

Led by Professor Tadahiro Kuroda, the group created a prototype of a postage stamp-sized SSD.

The Nikkei reports that the research team claims to have put together a technology that allows solid state drives to shrink considerably. The storage unit will supposedly be 90% smaller than current solutions. This would already be noteworthy, but the device will also, supposedly, be able to pack even 1TB of space in this stamp-sized form factor. Not only that, but the storage device will also see an added energy efficiency, namely of 70%. 

The research team is made up of people from Toshiba and the Keio University of Tokyo. Under the guidance of Professor Tadahiro Kuroda, they were able to create the aforementioned prototype with 128 NAND flash memory chips and a controller chip. The unit is able to achieve a transfer speed of up to 2Gbps and, the team says, is based on radio communications. According to them, radio communication will ultimately lower the production cost of such SSDs. This means that, in addition to being capacious (1TB) and efficient, the new solid state drives will also be cheaper than competing HDDs. 

Unfortunately, even though the researchers were able to patch together a working prototype, it seems that such a product won't become available in the very near future. The team expects the first such device to only come out during 2012.

Hitachi Surprises with 7mm 7200RPM 320GB HDD

There are many ways that a new storage solution can cause jaws to be inadvertently dropped. Usually, it is because the read and/or write speed is spectacular, or because some new feature or another is supported. Other times, a device would stand out through being the first of its kind, as it happened with the first SSDs and, later, with the first PCI Express solid state drives. It appears, however, that there might be another way of turning heads.

Toshiba has combined inventiveness with experience in order to come up with a hard disk drive that stands out through being smaller than all of its peers. To be more specific, the SATA 3.0Gbps Travelstar Z7K320 that the hardware maker presented today, though it uses the same 2.5-inch form factor that all compact HDDs come with, is much thinner than one would expect. In fact, it is so thin that it will probably make its way into most ultrathin laptops slated for release during the later parts of 2010.

The actual thickness if of 7 millimeters, a full 2.5mm less than standard units (9.5mm). The performance, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have suffered the same shrinkage effect. The platter still manages to maintain a rotary speed of 7,200RPM (rotations per minute) and, backed by 16MB cache, the maximum transfer rate still gets as high as 1,334Mbps. This is quite significant, especially considering the power draw (1.8 Watts during read/write and 0.8 watts during standby).

As for noise hazards, the humming produced by the storage solution shouldn't go over 23dB when idle and 24dB when seeking. August is the earliest one can expect to see this product, as well a 5,400RPM version, being mass produced, which means that super-thin notebooks will start to show up soon after.

“As a leading personal computing company, we are constantly evaluating and offering new designs and technologies that make computing more enjoyable and affordable for our customers," said Wentao Yang, vice president, Global Procurement, Lenovo Group. "Hitachi's 7mm product family represents important advancements for the industry. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Hitachi and working together to innovate and take the computing landscape to newer smaller heights."

Seagate Momentus Thin Hard Drive Hugely Small

Laptop hard drives have to be small. The form factor dictates it. Now Seagate pushes the envelope with a 7mm drive – shaving around 2.5mm off of the thickness of the drive. What’s next, paper thin?

Though it does spin at 5400rpm, it does maintain very good storage ratios. It comes in 250GB and 160GB versions. It also support SATA connections and even the SATA 3 protocol. All this means very good bandwidth in a small package. The 250GB version will cost $55 when it comes out in January.

Thin is in.

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