16-year-old invents device to convert breath to speech

This is no government funded university project… 16-year-old high school student Arsh Shah Dilbagi from India has developed a device that converts breath to speech. Dilbagi says that 1.4% of the globe’s population are physically unable to express themselves and this was the inspiration for his project.

He is the only entry from Asia to reach the final 15 entries to the Google Science Fair 2014, a competition for 13-18 year olds. His device, ‘Talk’, has the potential to help a large number of people, roughly the population of Germany.

“In nutshell, Talk has the potential to change the world by enabling people with disorders like LIS, ALS etc., speech impairments like Dysarthria and even Mutes to communicate and interact with the world like never before,” Dilbagi says. “It’s my turn to change the world.”

Stephen Hawking uses an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device, however it is rather expensive, bulky, and not accessible to most. Dilbagi’s device is light, portable and costs just $80US. The device converts breath to speech with the use of Morse code.

Using a basic $25 Arduino microcontroller as the core of the device, a special microphone called MEMS Microphone converts the breathing pattern into electrical signals. This technology uses a pressure-sensitive diaphragm etched directly onto a silicon microchip, and an amplifying device to increase the sound of the user’s breath.

The user gives distinguishable exhales that vary in length and intensity and this can then be translated using Morse code into speech or other commands. Microprocessors compute the electrical signals and convert them into speech, with the device currently offering 9 different voices.

“After testing the final design with myself and friends and family, I was able to arrange a meeting with the Head of Neurology at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi and tested TALK (under supervision of doctor and in controlled environment) with a person suffering from SEM and Parkinson’s Disease,” Dilbagi explained. “The person was able to give two distinguishable signals using his breath and the device worked perfectly.”

It took him three months of research and another seven months to build the final prototype. Voting for the competition closes on September 15 and Google will announce the winners on September 23. Winners will get a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands, a visit to the Virgin Galactic Spaceport, and $50,000 in scholarship funding.

Via: [Science Alert]
Cast your vote: [Google Science Fair 2014]

The Dubai Mall: The biggest and most elaborate shopping mall in the world

The world’s biggest and most elaborate shopping mall has to be the Dubai Mall, in Dubai (obviously) and it is situated at the foot of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. The mall is home to more than 1,200 stores and cost more than $20 billion to construct.

[Image Courtesy of DubaiMall]

The shopping mall is four times the size of the Westfield Centre in London and it opened in 2007 after the opening had to be delayed twice. When it opened it had 600 retailers, making it the largest commercial project along with the biggest ever mall opening in retail history. The shopping mall spreads out over 12 million square feet, which is about the equivalent of 50 football stadiums.

[Image Courtesy of DubaiMall]

In total there is more than 5.9 million square feet of floor areas. The car park is almost the same size as the shopping mall and holds a capacity of 16 000 cars. Each and every year the Dubai shopping mall sees around 26 million people walk through its doors.

[Image Courtesy of DubaiMall]

The Dubai shopping mall is home to more than just the 1,200 shops, one of the biggest attractions to the mall is the Dubai Aquarium. This also happens to be one of the largest aquariums in the world at a size of 51m x 20m x 11m and has one of the biggest viewing panels offering a view into the aquarium. The aquarium is home to more than 33,000 animals over 85 different species and 400 rays and sharks. Visitors to the shopping mall can see a ‘Living Ocean’ and the ‘Rocky Shore’ and meet a penguin colony, otters, piranha fish and catfish.

[Image Courtesy of DubaiMall]

The Dubai aquarium also has a 270 degree walkthrough tunnel made of glass for close up views of the aquarium. The aquarium comes with a lunar cycle lighting system which means that the whole ambiance of the tank is changed and this depends on the time of the day.

On level two of the Dubai Mall is the Reel Cinemas Movie Megaplex and this is one of the largest movie theatres in the whole of the UAE as it is home to 22 cinemas, which play the latest movies. It is also the very first movie theatre to have one cinema that is totally devoted to Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles movies.

[Image Courtesy of DubaiMall]

The Dubai shopping mall is also the place to experience the Dubai Fountain which is on the 30 acre Burj Kalifa Lake. The fountain sends jets of water as high at 500 feet into the air, this is around the same size as a 50 storey building. The fountain is an amazing 900 feet in length and is comprised of five circles, with each having their own sizes, along with two arcs in the middle. The Fountain performs each day to music and a light show.

Via [DubaiMall]

Must See: LumiLor lets you paint with light

U.S. based company, Darkside Scientific, have developed a new interesting way to paint with light. Their patended and trademarked LumiLor is a technology that lets you add a glow in the dark effect to complex surfaces that lights up when a current is applied. This means there is no fade and it can be controlled to flash, strobe or produce patterns.

[Image Courteys of Darkside Scientific]

The Ohio based company has developed the electroluminescent coating over the past few years but unfortunately you can’t just buy it off the shelf as applying the paint requires some training in order to produce quality results. The colours are currently limitted to white and a luminescent blue-green but they’ve already been put to impressive uses.

Just check out the finish on this Tesla, which is normally a head-turner in its own right:

The tech is a complicated multi-layer coating that includes a conductive base, two-wire connections to electrical power, an insulating primer coat and the final lighting top coat – hence the lack of on the shelf products.

[Image Courteys of Darkside Scientific]

What began as a way of customising motorbikes could now see a lot more uses than originally expected. The company are now looking into everything from household applicances, car accessories and building materials.

“We have broken new ground, and it would be very dangerous for us as a company to compromise our (intellectual property) in any transaction,” said Darkside Scientific’s CEO Shawn Mastrian.

“We have told everyone we deal with that we will walk away from any deal that includes sharing our IP. That’s where our value is.”

Via: [LumiLor]

Australian Cliff House concept has its owners over the edge

In many places around the world, land for building homes is scarce. In Australia, Modscape has come up with a new and different concept for home construction. They have designed a concept for a home with the name of the Cliff House and it hangs on the side of a cliff over the ocean.

[Image Courtesy of Modscape]

The Cliff House concept came about from Modscape who were designing a home for a couple that wanted to build on land they have in Victoria. The architects took inspiration from barnacles and how they cling onto the hull of a ship.

[Image Courtesy of Modscape]

The property would be very challenging to build and as such they came up with the idea of building it in prefabricated sections.

[Image Courtesy of Modscape]

The three bedroomed house would have just a single entrance and this would be via the carport, situated on the top floor of the property. The owners would get to each level of the home via an elevator, one of which would come with an en suite bathroom in the bedroom, a separate bathroom, dining room, lounge, kitchen, spa and an area for a BBQ.

[Image Courtesy of Modscape]

Due to the position of the house and the fact that it would be built in a location that is so remote, it is thought that it would operate completely off-grid. The architects would have to take many factors into account before making the dream house a reality. This includes concerns over erosion and the structural stability of such a large property along with the cost.

While the render of it does look stunning and there is no doubt that the home would offer some of the most fantastic views out over the ocean, for the time being we are only going to see the home in renders.

[Image Courtesy of Modscape]

Via [Modscape]

10 of the best American companies to work for

Some fortunate people love their jobs but others are just powering through to get by. There are numerous factors that go towards being happily employed and one of the biggest factors is of course, the employer. So with this in mind, here are 10 of the best American companies you might want to consider working for.

Linked In

• Rating 4.5
• CEO Rating 97%
• Employees 5, 045
• Revenue $1.5 billion

[Image Courtesy of Reuters/Robert Galbraith]

LinkedIn is the best company to work for based on the ratings given by current and former employees. One thing that boosts morale in the workplace is a good pay check and it was said by Glassdoor.com that on average, software engineers get a yearly salary of $127, 817. Senior software engineers can expect around $145, 192. LinkedIn also offer many perks, these include free food and encouraged social engagement – employees talk non-stop about the superb work-life balance and having inspired leadership. 97% of those asked had a very high opinion of Jeff Weiner, CEO.

Facebook

• Rating 4.5
• CEO rating 96%
• Employees 6, 337
• Revenue $7.9 billion

[Image Courtesy of Reuters/Robert Galbraith]

Facebook comes in second as the best place to work. This is a company that is very profitable and one that is growing at a rapid pace. It was said that Google were worried that their employees would leave and move to Facebook that they offered a counter offer to anyone recruited by Facebook, within just one hour. There are many perks and benefits and the workday is said to be fast paced, which apparently the employees enjoy.

Eastman Chemical

• Rating 4.5
• CEO rating 91%
• Employees 14, 000
• Revenue $9.4 billion

Employees always give Eastman Chemicals rave reviews, saying that work and life is balanced great, the teamwork is strong and the safety record is excellent. About the only complaint is the fact that the company has a small town nature.

Insight Global

• Rating 4.4
• CEO rating 94%
• Employees N/A
• Revenue $918 million

The IT staffing firm are said to fill more than 20,000 positions each year and they always get superb reviews from their employees. Reviewers said that they are placed quickly and one said that they got a job in less than 24 hours.

Bain & Company

• Rating 4.4
• CEO rating 99%
• Employees 5, 500
• Revenue $2.1 billion

Bain & Company are one of the highest rated of consulting companies on this list, with the CEO getting a huge 99% score. Employees give nothing but praise and love the workplace culture of the company. Let downs are said to be the long work hours and demanding travelling schedules, but that still hasn’t stopped its employees from giving it high ratings.

Riverbed Technology

• Rating 4.3
• CEO rating 94%
• Employees 2, 556
• Revenue $1.0 billion

[Image Courtesy of Mark Lennihan/AP]

Both current and former employess of the Riverbed Technology say that the work and life balance is superb and products are top of the range. On the down side though are relative weak earnings.

Google

• Rating 4.2
• CEO rating 96%
• Employees 47, 756
• Revenue $59.8 billion

Google is well known for the perks offered to employees and there are such things as scooters and bikes located around the campus at California. Google also offer employees 7 fitness centres along with 25 cafeterias. They offer great health benefits along with retirement plans, legal aid, travel insurance and more. On the downside however is the difficulty in getting a promotion and how big the company feels.

Southwest Airlines

• Rating 4.2
• CEO rating 91%
• Employees 44, 831
• Revenue $17.7 billion

[Image Courtesy of WikimediaCommons]

The employees of Southwest Airlines praise the company for offering great benefits and good company culture. The employees get free flights and the company matches 401 k contributions for a big part of the salary of the employee, along with running a profit sharing plan which rewards employees for success of the company.

McKinsey & Company

• Rating 4.1
• CEO rating 96%
• Employees 17,000
• Revenue $7.8 billion

The employees at McKinsey say that life at the company is good, but there have been complaints about work hours along with travelling. Employees do say that the company offers a wide range of benefits and generally find the work interesting.

Boston Consulting Group

• Rating 4.1
• CEO rating 95%
• Employees 9, 700
• Revenue $4.0 billion

[Image Courtesy of YouTube]

The consultants at the company say that they are treated very well and they value the talents of each other. Many employees have pointed out the strengths of their co-workers as being among the highlights of the company.

Via [BusinessInsider]

Mexico Will Build The Most Sustainable Airport In The World

Projects for the creation of mega-airports are growing, each one trying to be more sustainable than the other. Recently, the studioFoster + Partners revealed that their project will be the most sustainable international airport worldwide, located in Mexico City.

Winner of an international competition, the project was developed to meet the requirements of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum. The airport construction would resort to a exclusive pre-manufactured system designed for fast construction and minimal waste.

Despite the enormous inherent ecological footprint, the airport will have a single and compact terminal encased in glass and steel so that large amounts of sunlight can light up the space. Mobility is also one of the aspects that was emphasized in the project. So the airport will have an easy and intuitive alignment, with short walking distances and few floors.

The architects chose to put the airport’s service systems in a way that the ducts and pipes won’t disturb the appearance of the vaulted ceiling. To reduce dependence on fossil fuels, the airport will make the most of natural light and is equipped with solar panels and systems for re-utilization of rainwater. They will also adopt a system of intelligent ventilation so they won’t need to resort to additional heating or cooling.

“It pioneers a new concept for a large-span, single airport enclosure, which will achieve new levels of efficiency and flexibility – and it will be beautiful” said Foster on their website, “The experience for passengers will be unique. Its design provides the most flexible enclosure possible to accommodate internal change and an increase in capacity. Mexico has really seized the initiative in investing in its national airport, understanding its social and economic importance and planning for the future. There will be nothing else like it in the world.”

Source and images: Foster + Partners

New Alienware Area 51 is out of this world

Alienware have carved out a name for themselves over the last twenty years when it comes to gaming computers. The 2014 Alienware Area 51 gaming system has lived up to this name. Dell has said that the flagship gaming system offers performance that is state of the art, along with scalability, while at the same time being easy to use.

[Image Courtesy of Alienware]

The desktop gaming system offers a stunning new chassis and has been built around the Extreme Edition Core i7 processor of Intel. No surprises that it will support 4K gaming via three full-sized video cards.

[Image Courtesy of Alienware]

Dell has called the design of the chassis, the Triad. Along with having stunning extra terrestrial-eqsue looks, it was developed to be efficient for thermal management. The design of it makes it easy to get to the interior for any system upgrades. Internal fans have been fitted at the bottom front so as to pull cool ambient air in and the warm air gets expelled out of the back at the top diagonally. Even if the computer was to be pushed up back against a wall there would still be enough venting to ensure efficient heat dissipation.

[Image Courtesy of Alienware]

From the seated position the port panel on the front can be seen easily and the back panel has been angled away from the wall, to allow people to get a look when cable stabbing.

[Image Courtesy of Alienware]

The Area 51 is going to be made available with choices of 6 or 8 cores and these are the Intel Haswell-E core i7 processors, which come on the Intel x99 Express chipset. The configurations will be shipped from the factory overclocked with support for up to as much as 32GB of 2,133 MHz DDR4 RAM along with solid state storage and HDD hybrid options, which will support up to five drives.

[Image Courtesy of Alienware]

As many as three NVidia or AMD graphics cards are able to be installed and these will drive multiple monitors at UHD resolutions and higher. Wireless will be available in 802.11ac Wi-Fi and there is support for Bluetooth 4.0, with gamers being able to choose up to 1.5kW power for running the monster of a computer.

[Image Courtesy of Alienware]

The Command Centre suite of Alienware has been given an update and is now at version 4.0. It comes with utilities for overclocking tweaks along with fine-tuning to get the best performance, monitoring of hardware, auto performance profiles for apps and games, along with personalized controlling of nine lighting zones in the chassis.

[Image Courtesy of Alienware]

Dell has also announced a curved display of 34 inches, which is to offer immersive gaming and is said to need less in-game eye movement compared to flat panels. The 60Hz  UltraSharp monitor has a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 and comes with an ultra-thin bezel, with 9 watt stereo speakers integrated, an HDMI 2.0 MHL port, Display Port, and support for Mini Display Port connections.

[Image Courtesy of Alienware]

You will be able to get your hands on the Alienware Area 51 from next month, with the monitor being available around the world from December.

[Image Courtesy of Alienware]

Via [Alienware]

‘Boris’ the robot can load up your dishwasher

‘Boris’ the robot was shown off at the British Science Festival today as an one of the first robots to be able to work out how to pick up unfamiliar objects in a human like fashion. Previously, robots could only pick up objects of a fixed size in a fixed location, however, Boris can intelligently work out how to pick up objects it has never been put in front of before.

The robot took 5 years and £350,000 to develop. Leader of the project Professor Jeremy Wyatt from the Birmingham University explained why learning how to load a dishwasher was its sole objective:

“The scenario that we’ve got is to get the robot to load a dishwasher. That’s not because I think that dishwasher-loading robots are an economic, social necessity right now. It’s because it encapsulates an incredibly hard range of general manipulation tasks,” he said.

“Once you can crack that, once you can manipulate an object that you’ve never seen before, you can do a whole bunch of different things.”

It comes with humanlike hands and aluminium arms and although loading a dishwasher may seem like a mundane challenge to accomplish, it opens up doors to uses in a broad range of areas in industry and other sectors like surgery. The robot can learn new grips and test out previously learned grips on familiar looking objects. Wyatt said ‘the robot comes up with about 1,000 different grasps in its head in about 10 seconds.’

[Image Courtesy of the Daily Mail]

It can intelligently work out how to grasp, whether to curl the fingers in a looping fashion, use them in a pinching manner, or to use the palm of the hand in a power-grip – each continually growing with variations as the robot learns from experience.

“The system we have developed allows the robot to assess the object and generate hundreds of different grasp options. That means the robot is able to make choices about the best grasp for the object it has been told to pick up, and it doesn’t have to be re-trained each time the object changes.”

Unfortunately it’s going to be a while before you have a robot at home loading your dishwasher. The team says the next big task on the adgenda is to get Boris to use both arms and transfer an object from one to the other.

“Being bi-manual is a real advantage for all sorts of purposes,” said Prof Wyatt, who hopes to see the robot stacking plates by next April.

Via: [BBC]

Australian scientists close to commercialising printable solar panels

A team of solar power scientists in Australia known as the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium are closing in on finally commercialising a cheap and quick way of printing solar panels onto plastic. The team is made up of experts from the CSIRO, the University of Melbourne and Monash University, and they have all been working on the project together for seven years.

[Image Courtesy of CSIRO]

CSIRO’s senior research scientist Dr Fiona Scholes said the technology was ready for the commercialisation stage and could be used to power “laptops to rooftops“. As the solar panels are printed onto plastic it means they have a broad range of uses; thin cases for your electronics will not only protect them but could also power them.

“iPad covers, laptop bags, skins of iPhone – not just for casing electronics but to collect some energy as well and power those electronics,” Dr Scholes said.

They can also be printed semi-transparent which means they can be applied to windows, perfect for giant skyscrapers. “It can be made to be semitransparent – we can use it for a tinted window scenario.”

[Image Courtesy of CSIRO]

The team modified a normal commercial printer so that it could print what they call ‘solar ink’ which is then printed onto thin sheets of plastic. The team originally produced a coin sized solar panel before rapidly upscaling the technology to an A3 sheet.

“It’s very cheap. The way in which it looks and works is quite different to conventional silicon rooftop solar,” she said. “We print them onto plastic in more or less the same way we print our plastic banknotes.”

The CSIRO has had the solar cells on its Clayton roof for the past 18 months, with decent results. The printed cells are 10 times less efficient than standard solar panels, which are made of silicon, but scientists hope to improve that. The technology is however said to be a lot cheaper than silicone photovoltaics.

“It would be wonderful if we could achieve a similar power delivery at significantly reduced cost. Silicon is falling in price, but think about how cheap plastic is. The ink is a negligible cost, so the raw materials are very cost effective.”

Another huge benefit is the ease of transport, meaning that the tech could reach difficult and less fortunate areas of the world pretty easily. According to ABC they have already received a lot of interest from companies interested in commercialising the product.

“We can’t manufacture them here, but we are at the point where they can be taken up by a manufacturer,” she told Guardian Australia.

Source: [ABC Australia]

Have you seen the world’s biggest swimming pool?

Welcome to the San Alfonso del Mar, a private resort in Algarrobo, Chile that is home to the world’s largest swimming pool, holding theGuinness World Record for largest swimming pool by area. It stretches just over a kilometre, 13m more to be precise, and covers 20 acres with a maximum depth of 35.1 m.

It contains 250 million litres of seawater supplied from the pacific ocean which is pumped by a computer-controlled suction and filtration system and treated before entering the pool.

The pool was developed by Crystal Lagoon’s owner Fernando Fischmann and was opened back in December 2006.  Estimates suggest that the pool cost somewhere between US$1.5 billion to US$2 billion total, with annual maintenance racking up a bill of almost US$4 million.

It dwarfs the world’s second biggest pool, the Orthlieb – nicknamed the Big Splash – in Morocco, which is a mere 135m long and 90m wide.

Fischmann said advanced engineering meant his company could build “an impressive artificial paradise” even in inhospitable areas.

“As long as we have access to unlimited seawater, we can make it work, and it causes no damage to the ocean.”

The sun warms up the water to 26 degrees celcius, 9 more than the adjoining sea.

Guests can lounge on inflatable beds or partake in watersports such as kayaking, jet-skiing, water-skiing and yachting. If none of that tickles your fancy then how about hanging out with your friends on a giant inflatable lilly pad, complete with trampoline and slide.

The water is crystal clear and you can nearly see the bottom even at the 35m deep-end.

The view at night is also something quite spectacular.

The Yerka bike could be impossible to steal

If you live in a city then one of the best and most affordable ways of getting around is by bicycle. However, bikes can be stolen relatively easier than cars and even with a good lock they are often stolen. Now the Yerka project has come up with a bike that doesn’t need an additional lock as it is its own lock and the result could be close to impossible to steal.

[Image Courtesy of Yerkaproject]

The Yerka project comes from three engineering students in Chile, and they worked out how to make the bike lock itself. Often bikes that have are chained up have the locks broken and then the bike is easily taken untouched. However their design means that if you break the lock, you effectively render the bike useless.

[Image Courtesy of Yerkaproject]

The bike has a frame that doubles as the lock. The tube that runs downward on the bike frame can be opened so that the bike can be locked around any solid object, such as a lamp post. The saddle that you sit on, along with the saddle post, can then be inserted through the open ends of the frame and this locks the bike. If a thief were to try and break the frame lock they would be unable to ride the bike. The process of locking up the bike takes only the time it would take to put on a conventional lock, around 20 seconds.

[Image Courtesy of Yerkaproject]

At the moment the Yerka is in prototype and the students want people to become involved so that they can turn their idea into a reality. At the moment there are some kinks they are still working out. For instance, how to stop someone steeling the wheels and what would happen if you lost the key to your bike, or whether the materials used are strong enough to withstand any unwanted attention the bike may get. Of course there is also the issue of whether the security compromises the ride in any way. If everything adds up, then this could be the world’s first bike that doesn’t need an additional lock and which cannot be stolen.

[Image Courtesy of Yerkaproject]

Via [YerkaProject]