Endoacustica Europe's Blog

The latest novelty in the clean energy field comes, needless to say, from the Far East, where Japanese firm Iwatani has just presented its hydrogen bicycle, which uses a fuel cell to generate approximately 60 Watts of power.

The fuel used to power it is liquid hydrogen, which is in turn used to charge a Li-ion battery, responsible for supplying the necessary energy to generate motion. At the current stage, the bicycle is being tested within the Osaka Kansai airport, where it is used by staff to move from one terminal to the other of the huge Japanese airport, famous for being built on an artificial island.

On a full battery, the bicycle can travel for around 45 kilometers, roughly the equivalent of approximately 3 hours of operation. Charging is started by inserting a liquid hydrogen cartridge, with a 0.25 liter capacity, in its slot placed above the bicycle’s rear wheel.

A valve would then reduce the pressure generated by liquid hydrogen, to optimize its flow towards the PEFC fuel cell, which generates a current of approximately 30-35V, which in turn is reduced by a converter until it reaches 26V, necessary to charge the Li-ion battery.

Currently, its creators are studying solutions to increase the engine’s output power, which may not be enough in case of particularly difficult conditions such as a long uphill road or so.

For this reason, at the moment a public release date has not been planned yet, and the bicycle might hit our roads only when the problem is satisfactorily solved, allowing us to face the traffic without polluting the air, saving energy and also attracting curious or envious looks from fellow car drivers stuck in a queue!

In our times, being always connected, always available and always traceable has become a modern need. The problem is that often, we may not be aware that even while we are offline, the net is always around us, as well as other surveillance and detection systems, mobile phones and Bluetooth connections.

To respond to this need, Richard Etter has created AwareFashion, the first clothing line made up of shirts which inform you about the presence of wireless networks, mobile phones or transmission systems around you.

By using a shirt from the AwareFashion line, it is for example possible to make sure that, inside a meeting or conference room, all mobile phones are duly switched off, or that no one is transmitting any confidential information to an outside receiver. The shirt is equipped with some sort of external pocket, with the same design as the shirt, which is attached on the shirt’s front or sleeve by means of buttons.

Inside this pocket, you can find a small lightweight antenna, which in turn is connected to thin optical fiber cables. When the antenna detects a transmission source, the end of the optical cable, placed on the shirt’s sleeve, will discreetly glow, informing its wearer that a source of transmission is nearby.

Optical fiber cables are sawn and inside the shirt’s stitches, making them look like an element of design and fashion rather than an electronic device, and the color of the glowing light can also be chosen by its wearer in order to add one further touch of style. Furthermore, the cables can easily be washed along with shirt and detachable pocket (but not with the antenna!).

The price of this techno-fashion wonder has not been disclosed yet, but quite sure, fashion or tech victims will anxiously be waiting to get one!

At Virginia Tech University, a group of researchers is at work on designing an unmanned helicopter which, due to its characteristics, is one that its creators hope that they will never have the chance to use.

In fact, it is designed to be used for reconnaissance missions in areas hit by a nuclear strike or a dirty bomb, which combines conventional explosive and radioactive material, supporting investigators to detect radioactivity levels and gather intelligence data and images to assess the damage suffered.

The micro helicopter, approximately 6 foot long and with a weight around 200 pounds, is a Yamaha RMAX UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) which has been engineered by adding a software which, among other things, would have it head automatically towards a radioactivity source, if it is detected by the sensors mounted on the vehicle.

On top of that, it can carry, along with photo and video equipment, a mini robot, which is connected to a retractable wire and dropped on the affected area, where thanks to a small “vacuum cleaner” it can be used to gather evidence and debris, which is then analyzed to evaluate the level of radioactive contamination.

Thanks to its high maneuverability, this robot can reach the crater where an explosion took place, take pictures and measurements; furthermore, researchers are working to make it waterproof, in order to be able to use it in the difficult environmental conditions that follow an explosion, with broken water pipes, puddles and the like.

They are also studying the possibility of adding a range of devices to take 3D images of the ground, in order to better analyze characteristics of the blast and optimize rescue operations.
The project is being financed by the US Department of Defense, and should see the light before the end of the year although, for obvious reasons, we all hope that it is never used for applications for which it was designed.

Human flight is nowadays really possible. Or at least, it is for those who can afford to spend at least 70000 dollars for this toy, which can turn anyone into a real jet man.

Manufactured by Martin Aircraft Company, a firm based in New Zealand (in Christchurch, to be more precise), the personal Jet Pack has a power of approximately 200 HP, and weighs around 115 kgs.
Thanks to its twin engines, it is capable of covering a distance of about 45 kilometers in half an hour with a full tank load. In order to use it, there is no need to have a pilot license, all you need is the 70000 dollars on its price tag and you are ready to experiment first-hand the thrill of human flight.

The latest evolution of Jet Pack can reach a speed of approximately 90 kilometers per hour, while taking its pilot to a height of over 2400 meters above sea level. At the current stage, Martin Aircraft has just started industrial production of what should be its commercial spearhead, and the first deliveries to their well-heeled customers should take place somewhere near the end of the current year.

Obviously, Martin Aircraft’s clientele is not limited to rich clients who wish to try human flight, but most of all the New Zealand manufacturer caters to other fields: for example, rescue and first aid services, or armed forces which might use it for reconnaissance missions or recovery of wounded personnel in war zones, especially where the terrain is particularly rough and unsuitable for conventional means of transport.

As anyone living on planet Earth may have heard lately, the recent gossip news about world class professional golf player Tiger Woods teach us that sometimes, forgetting to delete text messages from your mobile phone may leave tracks and evidence which may turn out very harmful for our personal life, as well as for our finances, especially for those who, like Woods himself, are sitting on a substantial fortune.

Of course, the world of telephone communication could not leave the problem unsolved, and more specifically, the world of iPhone applications has quickly found a solution, by releasing a small piece of software which can automatically delete your text messages, both incoming and outgoing.

With a slight touch of irony, this application has been christened TigerText, and it works on iPhone and iPod Touch (but in the near future there will be a release for Android and BlackBerry). By using it, one will have the possibility to send text messages which, almost like in the movie Mission Impossible, will automatically self-destruct after being read, or will be automatically deleted after a certain time lapse which can be defined by the user, ranging from one minute to a maximum of 30 days after the message has been read.

Along with deleting text messages from the phone on which it is installed, TigerText can also remove it from the receiver’s handset, provided that both users are equipped with an iPhone and that the application is installed on both of them.
When a message is removed, the text disappears and is replaces by tiger footprints. By doing this, no dangerous tracks are left on either of the phones involved.

Unfaithful wives and husbands have a new friend now, and it comes really cheap: in fact, the service costs a maximum of 2.49 dollars a month; certainly an affordable price to protect peace in your family!

One of the main reasons for headaches, when using USB sticks to transfer data files from one computer to the other, especially if the transported files contain sensitive or private data, is that the key may, one way or the other, end up in the wrong hands, along with the data and files that it contains, with all the possible negative consequences that one may imagine.

To protect oneself from such kind of threat, the usage of USB encrypted keys is becoming more and more widespread, while the USB drives are becoming bigger (up to 256 GB of capacity) and most importantly, much safer than before, thanks to the application of several encryption technologies, which aim at making the data inaccessible for a non authorized user.

The latest example under this point of view is coming from the encrypted drive manufactured by the Californian company Super Talent, specializing in high security data storage devices and solutions.

Their new USB drive, called SuperCrypt, is equipped with AES type hardware encryption, and thanks to the USB 3.0 standard, it ensures an extremely high operating speed, which allows for a very quick transfer of large files (for example, transferring a 600 MB movie file would not take more than 7 seconds).

This USB drive is, of course, password protected, and is available with two different encoding levels (at 128 or 256 bit), which guarantee absolute protection for the data stored on your stick. The storage capacity varies from 16 to 256 GB, with different security and speed features depending on model and capacity of your choice.

For those who want to protect their photo camera in case of rain, for who wants to take quick shots without being immediately noticed, or simply for those who are just too lazy to take their camera out of its bag but still do not want to miss a single snapshot.

For all these situations and many more, a new product, called Cloak Bag, has just been launched on the market. At a first sight, it looks like your ordinary camera bag, but at a closer look you can see that it has a little secret: its bottom can be removed by unzipping it open, thus revealing its contents.

The photo camera is placed on the upper half of the bag, and by opening a slit on the side you can grab it and quickly take photos through the now open bottom. Thanks to its size and features, this bag is mostly suitable for reflex type cameras (SLR), which can be a little uncomfortable to use since they are not as quick as a digital camera, or because, especially in big cities, using them may not always be safe.

In some parts of the world, in fact, sometimes a gesture as simple as pulling out your camera (especially if it is as expensive as a SLR generally is) is tantamount to an invitation for pickpockets. For this reason, you may lose that special moment or that particular sight just out of fear that your camera might get stolen.

By using the Cloak Bag, the gesture is so quick and discreet that any potential robber would not have the time to figure out what you are really doing, and would not be able to do his dirty job.

In short, by spending a mere 49 dollars, we will no longer have to regret those pictures we could not take!