i-eclectica.org

Japan’s Nissan Motor Co. unveiled last week a new version of its egg-shaped Pivo concept car, which can drive sideways and has a small robot to assist with navigation or calm down angry drivers. Pivo 2 builds on the popularity of the first Pivo, which became a cult hit at shows from Beijing to Geneva.

The Pivo 2 three-seater car is powered by Nissan’s advanced Compact Lithium-ion batteries, and it utilises “by-wire” technologies that use electric signals for steering and braking. Like its predecessor, which was unveiled in 2005, the new Pivo incorporates revolutionary technologies. One allows the cabin to revolve 360 degrees thus eliminating the need to reverse. The other does away with axles (in difference to its predecessor) by powering each of the four wheels through separate electric “In-wheel 3D Motors”, a feat allowing the driver to turn the wheels 90 degrees for easy sideways and parallel parking.

To make urban driving not only functional and more sustainable but also fun, the Pivo 2 is equipped with a round-eyed robot head sitting on the dashboard. The bot has cameras that can tell when a driver is getting sleepy. “You look tired. There’s a coffee shop 500 metres ahead on the left,” it told a driver with drooping eyelids during a recent demonstration. It can also nod or shake its head, helping to improve the mood of irate or glum drivers. In addition, it provides a unique interface through which to communicate with Pivo 2 on everything from basic vehicle functions through to the nearest available parking. The robot is bi-lingual (English & Japanese).

The Pivo 2 will be on display at the Nissan Ginza Gallery in Tokyo for an exclusive public sneak preview ahead of the Tokyo Motor Show near the capital from October 27.

[see also Concept Carz]

On this date in 1887, Dorr Felt invented what became known as the comptometer, a mechanical or electro-mechanical adding machine. The comptometer was the first adding device to be driven solely by the action of pressing keys. Although the comptometer was designed primarily for adding, it could also subtract, multiply and divide simply by pressing keys. Special comptometers with varying key arrays (with from 30 to well over 100 keys) were produced for a variety of purposes, including calculating currencies, time and Imperial measures of weight.

In the hands of a skilled operator, comptometers can add numbers very rapidly, since all the digits of a number can be entered simultaneously using as many fingers as required, making them much faster to use than electronic calculators. Consequently, in specialist applications they remained in use in limited numbers into the 1990s, but with the exception of a handful of machines, have now all been superseded by computer software.

Explore the undersea world with the C-Quester personal submarine. The funky Dutch-made electric submersible, launched earlier this year, can dive up to 50m and has its own air supply, so no scuba experience is necessary. Beneath the waves it can cruise at up to 4 knots (7km/h); it can stay underwater for two-and-a half hours straight or 36 hours in the event of an emergency. The vessel’s high-strength pressure hull allows the pilot to submerge in a totally dry cockpit and surface straight from the maximum depth without risk of decompression problems. The one-seater version is 2.8m long, and the 3.4m model seats two. Custom paint jobs are offered. The entry model C-Quester come with a price tag of around A$170,000 plus the costs for the yacht to launch it.

The video shows a pair of silicon tweezers snapping off a carbon nanotube and depositing it on the tip of a microscope. It’s a new technique that could revolutionise nano-scale production and become part of future nano-factory assembly lines. So far, nanotubes and wires are chemically grown, but only certain kinds can be made to sprout exactly where they are needed. They also can be shunted over short distances, but not moved around in the precise way the nano-scale tweezers allow for.

The tweezers or “gripper” is made from silicon beams through which a current is sent, pushing the tips tightly together. But not all problems are solved yet: releasing the objects is still a challenge because weak molecular forces make the nano objects sticky, so soldering them onto a surface is needed to release them. The team of researchers of the Technical University of Denmark, University of Cambridge and University of Oldenburg in Germany are currently exploring non-stick coatings for the “gripper”.

For further information click here.

Inscentinel Ltd is a small UK biotechnology company specialising in harnessing the olfactory ability of insects for trace vapour detection. In particular, they train bees to recognise specific odours (e.g. that of explosives) and associate that smell with a food reward. When the bees detect the odour, they extend their tongue in expectation of food. As the picture below shows, the poor bees are strapped to some contraption that is inserted into a box (see above), in which image recognition software monitors and records detection effort by the bees, converting their response into an electronic form. This electronic output can be given in a simple yes/no, green light/red light form.The bees supposedly feel totally comfortable.I wonder whether humans would make the same comment about their state of wellbeing feel if bees strap us up in this way and wait for Pavlovian responses. I always find it astonishing though, how we arrive at conclusions about other creatures like the one above, given that we haven’t got the faintest idea about how they really experience their world. But this or course is not just another demonstration of our ignorance, but also for how we exploit all life forms to simply serve us, and how little or no respect we have for their existence.