iRobot Cofounder Developing UAVs for Search and Rescue

The NSF has given The Droid Works a grant worth nearly $100,000 to develop indoor and outdoor unmanned air vehicles. According to the report, the UAVs will be used for emergency response:

Indoor applications would enable the UAVs to respond to emergency situations that involve large steps, closed doors and rough terrain. The NSF grant will be used to develop indoor flight control and safety technology for the UAVs.

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New radar aims to detect illegal border tunnels

The DHS is working with Lockheed Martin to develop a ground-penetrating radar technology that would be designed specifically for finding underground tunnels. If successful, the tool will help agents locate and plug tunnels almost as fast as they can be dug.

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Next up in body protection: Cement armor

Engineers in England have come up with a product to save a few bob for those who work in semi-dangerous occupations--cement body armor.

The vests combine "super strong" cement with recycled carbon fiber, making the vests tough enough to withstand most bullet calibers, according to researchers at the University of Leeds' School of Civil Engineering.

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What Supersonic Looks Like

he breaking of the sound barrier is not just an audible phenomenon. As a new picture from the U.S. military shows, Mach 1 can be quite visual.

This widely circulated new photo shows a Air Force F-22 Raptor aircraft participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Alaska June 22, 2009 as it executes a supersonic flyby over the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.

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NGC Demos Rocket Engine Technology

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has demonstrated rocket engine technology that may enable the return of American astronauts to the moon.

Working with NASA on the TR202 lunar descent engine, the company has successfully demonstrated stable combustion over a broad throttling range, utilizing high-performance pintle injector technology. The ability to throttle thrust level over a wide range is critical to providing a soft, precision lunar landing with hazard avoidance capability.

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Spanish Scientists Develop Human Echolocation

A series of clicks and whistles could allow the blind to find their way, batlike, with sound

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DARPA selects Pranalytica as one of three to continue development of high-efficiency mid-IR QCLs

The US's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Pranalytica, Inc. (Santa Monica, CA) to continue its involvement in the Efficient Mid Infrared Laser (EMIL) program, a project created to fill the Department of Defense's (DoD's) need for directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM), advanced stand-off chemical sensors, and laser radar (LADAR).

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Wireless Bluetooth RFID Reader to locate passive tags in real time

DAILY RFID has released 13.56MHz bluetooth RFID Reader DL990 for mobile RFID application. It is designed as a palm-sized wireless reader to locate passive tags in a real-time mode by transferring data to a back-end computer via the Bluetooth connection.

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A Green Way to Dump Low-Tech Electronics

Since 2004, 18 states and New York City have approved laws that make manufacturers responsible for recycling electronics, and similar statutes were introduced in 13 other states this year. The laws are intended to prevent a torrent of toxic and outdated electronic equipment — television sets, computers, monitors, printers, fax machines — from ending up in landfills where they can leach chemicals into groundwater and potentially pose a danger to public health.

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U.S. Releases Stingers to Taiwan

The U.S. has released a $45.3 million sale of 171 Stinger air-to-air missiles to Taiwan. Raytheon's Missile Systems won the contract under the Foreign Military Sales program.

The missiles will be outfitted on new AH-64D Apache attack helicopters released to Taiwan in October.

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$125M to CACI for Army Fire Support System Software Engineering

CACI International in Arlington, VA received a $125 million task order to provide the U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Command’s (CECOM) Fires Software Engineering Division (FSED) with software engineering support for fielded fire support systems. The award, for 1 base year and 2 option years, was competitively awarded under the Army’s Strategic Services Sourcing (S3) contract vehicle.

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Raytheon to Develop Network Centric Radio Systems for DARPA

Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems in Fort Wayne, IN won a $21.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee and fixed-price contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the Network Centric Radio System (NCRS). DARPA envisions two critical technologies for the NCRS: 1) a backbone radio architecture that enables IP versatile networks and 2) a radio gateway that enable legacy analog and digital communications systems to be linked together.

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Carbon Ring Storage Could Make Magnetic Memory 1,000 Times More Dense

Attach a couple of cobalt molecules to a ring of carbon and you have the dream memory material.

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UltraCell to Build Fuel Cell Systems for Unmanned Air Vehicles

UltraCell Corporation, a leading producer of fuel cells for mobile power applications, today announced plans to build fuel cell systems for the Center for Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) Exploitation (CUE) in its Dayton, Ohio, manufacturing plant. UltraCell will initially build 10 units based on the company’s XX25™ reformed methanol fuel cell (RMFC) technology, with potential to expand production in the future.

Funded by the State of Ohio Third Frontier Project, the CUE is a collaborative effort between local Dayton-area businesses, academic institutions and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. The CUE was developed to improve integration between UAV controls, wireless communications, advanced sensor technology and portable power.

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Raytheon Demos Breakthrough Antenna Technology During AF Flight

During a recent flight test, Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) successfully demonstrated breakthrough antenna technology that dramatically improves and delivers on the next generation of airborne communications for wide-body aircraft.

The Advanced Multiband Communication Antenna System (AMCAS), developed for the U.S. Air Force, is an extremely low-profile antenna that significantly reduces drag on an aircraft. Attaching to the aircraft skin, the antenna extends 8 1/2 inches. This solution, which simplifies installation and minimizes time out of service, is an affordable alternative to today's antennas, which require more extensive and complex installations and extend considerably farther from the aircraft's fuselage.

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Ultra-fast camera

Celestial images from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) array are set to be given a boost, claim the developers of OCam: the world's fastest high-precision faint-light camera.

OCam will be part of the SPHERE second-generation VLT instrument. Due to be installed in 2011, SPHERE will take images of giant exoplanets orbiting near stars.

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Army's Most High-Tech Infantry Unit Set to Touch Down in Afghanistan

Each equipped with $48,000 worth of GPS components, electronic maps, and Wearable computers, troops of the Army's 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division are heading to Afghanistan as part of the resurrected Land Warrior program. The Army is hoping the revised, eight-pound set of gear will be more beneficial than when the $500 million program was canceled in 2006.

As the latest futuristic military program to be made real, Land Warrior gear will allow troops to identify comrades and enemies on the battlefield, receive updated objectives, locate buildings and find the nearest exit--all through a head-mounted eyepiece.

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Strategies Unlimited forecasts high growth rates for LED replacement-lamp market

Market conditions are right for the LED replacement-lamp market to accelerate in the next few years, according to a new market report by Strategies Unlimited (Mountain View, CA). Dramatic improvements in commercially available LED performance in recent years, as well as significant cost reduction, has made it feasible to design LED lamps to offer comparable lumen output and to compete with other established lighting technologies on the basis of cost of ownership. The market is in a state of flux as utilities, energy efficiency organizations, and customers look for optimum solutions that save energy, minimize the cost of ownership, and give acceptable quality of light. Customers are in the process of being educated about comparing cost of ownership rather than the initial price of lamps.

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Ultrathin RFID modules fit paper tags

Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd has significantly reduced the thickness of its Magicstrap tiny RFID modules range making them suitable for paper label inlays for mainstream retail applications.

The Japanese group has managed to embed all the necessary RF circuitry, including antenna filters, matching circuitry and ESD protection within the LTCC substrate using its multi-layer ceramic technology expertise.

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First quantum processor created

A team led by Yale researchers has created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, a major step in the quest to build a quantum computer.

They also used the two-qubit superconducting chip to successfully run elementary algorithms such as a simple search, demonstrating quantum information processing with a solid-state device for the first time.

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Laser-induced sound waves would also be used for mapping the ocean floor

Shooting laser beams at a submarine won't destroy it, but new technology being tested by the U.S. Navy could help find enemy subs.

"Instead of dumping hardware (into the ocean) you could shoot a light pulse into the water and generate acoustic signals," said Ted Jones of the Naval Research Laboratory, who presented his results at a recent meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.

"With this, you could do communications, acoustic navigation beacons or sonar."

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Toyota Develops Wheelchair Steered by Brain Waves

Toyota Motor Corp. says it has developed a way of steering a wheelchair by just detecting brain waves, without the person having to move a muscle or shout a command.

Toyota's system, developed in a collaboration with researchers in Japan, is among the fastest in the world in analyzing brain waves, it said in a release Monday.

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DARPA wants a super-efficient supercomputer that can fit into a 19-inch cabinet, thanks

If you can squish all the processing power of say an IBM Roadrunner supercomputer inside a 19-inch box and make it run on about 60 kilowatts of electricity, the government wants to talk to you.

The extreme scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this week issued a call for research that might develop a super-small, super-efficient super beast of a computer.

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America's Fortress: Cheyenne Mountain, NORAD live on

If there are two things that drive the folks at the world-famous Cheyenne Mountain complex crazy, it's the widely held public perceptions that, for one, the complex has shut down altogether, and that it is synonymous with NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

After visiting as part of my Road Trip 2009 project Friday, I'm here to report that both perceptions are quite incorrect.

For one, the Cheyenne Mountain complex is very much still operational. In some ways, in fact, in a world where existential threats come not from the Soviet Union but from things like natural disasters, cyberattacks, and amorphous terrorist organizations on the hunt for nuclear weapons, it may today even be considered more important than ever.

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Faster data transfer

GridFTP, a protocol developed by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, has been used to transfer unprecedented amounts of data over the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Sciences Network (ESnet).

The Argonne-developed system proved key to enabling research groups at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center in California to move large data sets between the facilities at a rate of 200MBytes/s.

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Raytheon awarded DARPA deal for nano tech

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded Raytheon funding to improve the advanced defense electronics system's thermal performance.

U.S. company Raytheon was selected by DARPA to lead a team that includes experts from Purdue University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Under the $6 million award, Raytheon will develop nano thermal interface materials.

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Pranalytica selected for DARPA phase 1B

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected Pranalytica to continue its involvement in the development of advanced laser technologies.

U.S. company Pranalytica was selected by DARPA to support the next phase of the Efficient Midinfrared Laser program. Pranalytica was one of three companies selected to work on the program's phase 1B.

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Iranians Avoid Censorship with US Navy Technology

Iranians seeking to share videos and other eyewitness accounts of the demonstrations that have roiled their country since disputed elections two weeks ago are using an Internet encryption program originally developed by and for the U.S. Navy.

Designed a decade ago to secure Internet communications between U.S. ships at sea, The Onion Router, or TOR, has become one of the most important proxies in Iran for gaining access to Web sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

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Waterproof Lithium-Air Batteries

A company based in Berkeley, CA, is developing lightweight, high-energy batteries that can use the surrounding air as a cathode. PolyPlus is partnering with a manufacturing firm to develop single-use lithium metal-air batteries for the government, and it expects these batteries to be on the market within a few years. The company also has rechargeable lithium metal-air batteries in the early stages of development that could eventually power electric vehicles that can go for longer in between charges.

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Building The Exascale Computer

1,000 trillion FLOPS: Welcome to the world of exascale computing - machines so powerful they could save the world.

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Revolutionary Armour Unveiled at Defence Equipment Event

A ground-breaking armour system and a fleet of new armoured vehicles that will provide better protection to troops in Afghanistan were unveiled at the Defence Vehicle Dynamics (DVD) event yesterday, Wednesday 24 June 2009.

The revolutionary, textile-based TARIAN vehicle armour system will give lightweight protection against rocket-propelled grenades, in place of the current bar armour that is fitted to vehicles such as Mastiff and Ridgback.

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Raytheon Awarded Contract for nTIM Development

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has been awarded a $6 million contract, if all options are exercised, to develop nano thermal interface materials (nTIM) to improve the thermal performance of advanced defense electronics systems.

This three-phase, 45-month Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program uses engineered nanomaterials to provide significant reductions in the thermal resistance between interface layers found in electronic assemblies.

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Kongsberg Receives New Air Defence System Order for the US Army

KONGSBERG has as a partner of a Raytheon team, booked an order valued at MNOK 23 from fellow team member, the Boeing Company. The order approves the long-lead purchases, leading to low rate initial production of the MNOK 91 Surfaced Launched AMRAAM (SLAMRAAM) Program for the US Army. Full rate production is expected to start in 2012, at a value of approximately MNOK 500 for KONGSBERG, if all options are executed.

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NGC and USAF Unveil Next-Gen of High-Flying Global Hawk

Northrop Grumman Corporation unveiled the next-generation of high-flying unmanned aircraft - the RQ-4 Block 40 Global Hawk - in a ceremony today at Northrop Grumman's Palmdale, Calif., manufacturing facility.

"This unveiling of the first of 15 Block 40 aircraft is a significant step to fielding Global Hawk to Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, in 2010 and reaffirms our excellent track record of delivering Global Hawks since low rate production began," said Duke Dufresne, sector vice president for Northrop Grumman Aerospace System's Strike and Surveillance Systems Division. "Carrying an advanced, all-weather multi-platform radar technology insertion program (MP-RTIP) sensor, the Block 40 aircraft will provide game-changing situational awareness for our warfighters with its unprecedented capability to detect, track and identify stationary and moving targets."

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Fanless Computer features waterproof, rugged design

Stealth.com Inc. (Stealth Computer) a leading ISO 9001 manufacturer of industrial rugged computers and peripherals has released the new Model WPC-500F, a waterproof rugged, small footprint, fanless computer for environments where ordinary computer hardware won't survive.

The new Stealth WPC-500F is a rugged PC that is completely water-tight, surviving liquids, chemicals, dust and dirt intrusion, meeting IP67/NEMA 6 environmental specifications. Designed without cooling fans the internal CPU is cooled through advanced heat pipe technology. The rugged aluminum chassis also acts as a heat sink to dissipate internal heat and provide noise free operation.

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Can America's Trains Go High-Speed?

The U.S. already has high-speed trains: the Acela Express has been carrying millions of riders between Washington, D.C., New York and Boston since 2000. It zips along at 150 miles per hour for relatively short distances—just over 25 miles per hour faster than conventional counterparts.

But compare it with high-speed trains in Europe and Asia that can reach speeds over 200 miles per hour on hundreds of miles of track. The problem is: tracks in the U.S. are not designed to support high-speed travel. Plus, any new express trains might have to share those lines with slower freight traffic.

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Diving Robots Could Recover Air France 447's Black Box

As details of the telemetry sent by Air France 447 in its final minutes become known, deep-sea technology experts are saying that the recovery of the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder—the black boxes—will be difficult, but not impossible, with the help of deep-sea-diving robots.

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NASA Tests Orion Seat Shock Absorbers

Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center are using the Landing and Impact Research Facility to test the seat pallet that will protect astronauts in the planned Orion crew capsule from the shock of landing.

Requirements call for Orion to be able to parachute-land anywhere on Earth after returning from space, although the nominal spot would be in the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, Calif. To test the pallet and its "energy-absorbing struts," the 20,000-pound test article is dropped 18 feet onto a crushable honeycomb material designed to simulate different landing surfaces.

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Lawmakers Fund Study Of Next Bomber

The decision by U.S. House defense overseers to authorize continued funding for Next Generation Bomber studies has buoyed the hopes of Senate bomber advocates, even though Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to wait before spending more.

“We’re going to do everything we can to keep that program alive and keep it going,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee. Thune, whose state was a likely candidate for a long-range strike bomber base, has been a vocal critic of Gates’ plan to delay further research on the bomber. Gates has told lawmakers he wants to suspend related funding until after the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and Nuclear Posture Review are completed.

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NorthCom/NORAD Seeks Multirole Aircraft

The U.S. Air Force general in charge of U.S. Northern Command (NorthCom) says he needs multi-role aircraft to perform his varied missions, meaning the newest U.S. fighter is not necessarily the answer.

Those missions include maritime surveillance and air patrol and interdiction, Gen. Victor Renuart told Aviation Week after a speech last week on Capitol Hill. “Part of this air sovereignty mission is identification and non-kinetic enforcement. It’s diverting airplanes away. It’s identifying unknowns in our system. That doesn’t always require an F-22,” he said.

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Chinese ASBM Development: Knowns and Unknowns

China wants to achieve the ability, or at minimum the appearance of the ability, to prevent a U.S. carrier strike group (CSG) from intervening in the event of a future Taiwan Strait crisis. China may be closer than ever to achieving this capability with land-based anti-ship homing ballistic missiles. There have been many Western reports that China is developing an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM). Increasingly, technical and operationally-focused discussions are found in a widening array of Chinese sources, some authoritative. These factors suggest that China may be close to fielding, testing, or employing an ASBM—a weapon that no other country possesses.

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Navy Laser Success Key In UAV Research And Development

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), with support from Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren, for the first time successfully tracked, engaged and destroyed a threat representative unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) while in flight at Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, Calif.

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Russia Starts Tests for Strategic Nuke-Powered Sub

Russia's first submarine developed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the strategic nuclear-powered Yury Dolgoruky, was launched on June 19 into the White Sea, where it will undergo 20 days of naval tests, the Russian government publication Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported June 23.

Yuri Dolgoruky is the first submarine of the Borei class (Project 955) that was being built for the Russian navy. Two more nuclear-powered submarines are being built at the Severodvinsk-based Sevmash plant where Dolgoruky was also produced.

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Solar Impulse Is Revealed

An aircraft was unveiled Friday in Switzerland that aims to take off with one pilot aboard and fly day and night propelled only by solar energy, flying around the world without expending any fuel or expelling any pollution. The team led by Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg believes the goal is unachievable "without pushing back the current technological limits in all fields."

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Space Solar Power: The Next Frontier?

Solaren says it plans to generate the power using solar panels in earth orbit, then convert it to radio frequency energy for transmission to a receiving station in Fresno County. From there, the energy will be converted to electricity and fed into PG&E's power grid.

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Fuzzy Future for the Internet 'Cloud'

Russ Daniels, the cloud services CTO at Hewlett-Packard, said this week: Cloud computing will allow people to bring technology to bear in the real activities that drive business and personal life, which are collaboration and information-sharing among people, according to an article in PCWorld. The Cloud will make data "programmatically accessible" so applications and services can tap into the information, rather than just having it be browsed by people. This will allow the Internet to solve new kinds of problems, Daniels said.

However, decisions made now concerning security and openness will largely dictate how the Internet of the future works, researchers say.

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IBM Builds 3D World For Business Meetings

Big Blue's new Virtual Collaboration for Lotus Sametime service, launched Wednesday at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, offers a host of tools that allow employees and business partners to interact in 3D spaces without leaving their desks.

Users can select colleagues from their Lotus Sametime contact list and invite them, in avatar form, into the online world, where there's boardrooms, auditoriums, and collaboration spaces. The space supports a number of online chat, voice, and presentation tools to facilitate full communication. IBM worked with VoIP specialist Vivox on the voice component.

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Feather fibers fluff up hydrogen storage capacity

Scientists at the University of Delaware say they have developed a new hydrogen storage method — carbonized chicken feather fibers — that can hold vast amounts of hydrogen, a promising but difficult to corral fuel source, and do it at a far lower cost than other hydrogen storage systems under consideration.

The research, presented Tuesday, June 23, at the 13th annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference being held in College Park, Md., could eventually help overcome some of the hurdles to using hydrogen fuel in cars, trucks and other machinery.

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Weapon Locating Radar Upgrade Project Achieves Key Milestone

"The radar operates by using technology to identify the firing paths of enemy shells and rockets and from this data determine the enemy firing points, with up to ten locations able to be determined simultaneously."

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ZeMapper provides high-resolution precision 3-D surface maps

The ZeMapper interferometric optical profiler provides three-dimensional surface maps with the highest lateral and vertical resolution in a user-friendly automated process. Its 4-megapixel image sensor combines a large field of view with highest resolution available in any commercial profiler

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Dynamic Optical Tags (DOT)

The goal of the DARPA Dynamic Optical Tags (DOTs) program is to develop a small, robust, persistent, 2-way tagging, tracking and locating device that also supports communications at data rates greater than 100 kbps and can be interrogated at significant range. These tags will allow for two-way data exchange and tagging operations in friendly and denied areas. The DOTs will be passive and non-RF

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Researcher Discovers Method to Fully Process Encrypted Data Without Knowing its Content

An IBM Researcher has solved a thorny mathematical problem that has confounded scientists since the invention of public-key encryption several decades ago. The breakthrough, called "privacy homomorphism," or "fully homomorphic encryption," makes possible the deep and unlimited analysis of encrypted information -- data that has been intentionally scrambled -- without sacrificing confidentiality.

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Raytheon And Ultra Electronics Pursue Next-Gen Bomb Rack System

Raytheon and Ultra Electronics Precision Air Systems have teamed to pursue the BRU-69/A Multi-Purpose Bomb Rack (MPBR) program for the U.S. Navy's Naval Air Systems Command.

MPBR is a twin-store, non-pyrotechnic carriage system that will replace several legacy bomb racks currently deployed on the F/A-18 E/F. Advanced on-board avionics will ensure that MPBR is compatible with current and future "smart weapons." Use of a common, non-pyrotechnic bomb rack will provide substantial life-cycle cost savings.

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IBM and ETH Zurich Unveil Plan to Build New Kind of Water-Cooled Supercomputer

To make computing systems and data centers energy-efficient is a staggering undertaking. Up to 50% percent of an average air-cooled data center’s energy consumption today is not caused by computing but by powering the necessary cooling systems to keep the processors from overheating.

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Fujitsu Develops World's First Gallium-Nitride HEMT for Power Supply

Fujitsu Laboratories today announced the development of a new structure for gallium-nitride high electron-mobility transistors (GaN)(HEMT) that can minimize power loss in power supplies, thus enabling reduced power consumption of electronic equipment such as IT hardware and home electronics.

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Kamikaze drone loiters above, waits for target

A new kamikaze drone out of Israel is designed to hang about overhead until it spots a target, then crash into it with "pinpoint accuracy" destroying the target, and itself, with 50 pounds of on-board explosives.

While classified as a Loitering Munition, the HAROP comes equipped with many of the usual UAV capabilities: high-performance FLIR and color CCD camera with 360-degree hemispherical coverage, allowing it to transmit video back to its operators just like a surveillance drone.

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Unmanned Little Bird Helicopter

The US Navy has released photographs of the Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) helicopter, a smaller variant of the larger, manned A/MH-6M, can be controlled by a pilot or piloted remotely. The ULB may be used for multiple missions that may include re-supply and casualty evacuation and is capable of carrying a 300-pound payload.

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Beyond-Line-of-Sight Capability for E-8C Joint STARS Fleet Paying Dividends

Like the advertisement that speaks to the value of a product, Northrop Grumman Corporation's new Beyond-Line-of-Sight (BLOS) communications capability is priceless for troops on the ground. That is the sentiment coming from the 116th Air Control Wing, which flies the U.S. Air Force E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS).

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LM Installs Next Evolution Of Aegis BMD System On Cruiser USS Lake Erie

Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] installed the latest evolution of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System - which includes a new ballistic missile defense signal processor, Aegis BSP - on the cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70). Over the next year, USS Lake Erie will complete a series of tests, leading up to full certification of the system upgrade by the U.S. Navy in early 2011.

The Aegis BMD 4.0.1 system represents the next incremental capability upgrade that has been the hallmark of Aegis and its "build a little, test a little, learn a lot" systems engineering philosophy.

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Your Next House Could Come Out of a Printer

The world's largest 3-D megaprinter to build a 10-meter-tall structure

3-D printing may soon expand beyond the small scale. In 2010, the world's largest 3-D printer will build the Radiolaria Pavilion, a 10-meter-tall structure in Pontedera, Italy. Made out of sandstone, the building will be printed one 5-10mm layered sheet at a time.

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Israel Air Force to Deploy a New Video Recorder & Data Server from RADA

RADA is unveiling the latest mission data recorder model developed by the company and selected to equip the Israel Air Force first line fighters - the Video Recorder & Data Server System (VRDS), introducing cutting edge approach to video and data recording and mass-storage management onboard combat aerial platforms. RADA's VRDS has been accepted as the sole source for flight recorders for the vast majority of the Israel Air Force aircraft.

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New e-APU promises more power

Microturbo is ground testing its e-APU, a new auxiliary power unit designed for new-generation business aircraft that are expected to need more electrical power. The company projects certification and first deliveries in early 2012.

The test program started in Toulouse, France, in December. Trials have focused on control of the APU and its thermal and dynamic performance. According to Microturbo commercial director Jean-Baptiste Jarin, dynamic characteristics are meeting design expectations. The e-APU has already supplied up to 60 kWe (kilowatt-electric) in electrical power on the test bench.

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Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears

New project will tap geothermal energy by fracturing hard rock more than two miles deep to extract its heat. AltaRock, founded by Susan Petty, a veteran geothermal researcher, has secured more than $36 million from the Energy Department, several large venture-capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Google. AltaRock maintains that it will steer clear of large faults and that it can operate safely.

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Blowin' in the Wind

Michael McElroy, a professor of environmental studies at Harvard, did an analysis of wind power with two colleagues, and here's what they report:

A network of land-based 2.5-megawatt (MW) turbines restricted to nonforested, ice-free, nonurban areas operating at as little as 20% of their rated capacity could supply >40 times current worldwide consumption of electricity, >5 times total global use of energy in all forms."

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WARMS Project: Swarming Drones to Sting the Enemy?

Like a swarm of angry bees, unmanned aerial, ground, and sea vehicles automonously converge on enemy troops, aircraft and ships, decide what to do, then engage the enemy with surveillance or weapons to help U.S. forces defeat them. All this without direct human intervention. Sounds like science fiction? The American military is one of several working on the technology, called “swarming,” in order to make this scenario a reality.

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Scientists break light modulation record; develop fastest LED

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Champaign, IL) have constructed a light-emitting transistor that has set a new record with a signal-processing modulation speed of 4.3 gigahertz (GHz). By internally connecting the base and collector of this light-emitting transistor, they created a new form of light-emitting diode (LED) that modulates at up to 7 gigahertz, breaking a previously announced record of 3.6 GHz for a plasmonic LED.

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Funding The Machine That "Might Save The World"

General Fusion, the Canadian duo who hope to produce a cold fusion power plant for perhaps a tenth the cost of other such promised projects, just got a $12 million shot in the arm.

According to the Toronto Star, the four-year grant comes from a non-profit called Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). However, SDTC will only provide the grant if General Fusion can match it with $28.7 million in private investment. Considering General Fusion only raised $6 million in its last round of funding, that sounds pretty steep.

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Sparton to deliver sonobuoy tech to Navy

Sparton Corp. has been contracted to support the U.S. Naval Antisubmarine Forces with sonobuoy acoustic signal receive array technologies.

Sparton announced it was selected for a subcontract to supply its sonobuoys for the Navy as part of the company's Erapsco joint venture with Undersea Sensor Systems Inc.

Under the $19.3 million subcontract, Sparton produce subassemblies systems for approximately 7,320 of its AN/SSQ-101A (Q-101A) sonobuoys. Officials say the sonobuoys detect potentially hostile submarines' acoustic emissions.

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Suspect Detection Systems completes R and D

Suspect Detection Systems Inc. announced the successful completion of Israeli-based research and development of its Cogito4M military grade technology.

Suspect Detection Systems has completed a two-year research and development project on its Cogito4M technology. Officials say the Cogito4M is a portable interrogation technology with multilingual tools developed to ensure soldiers in the field get accurate identification of terrorist suspects for detention.

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Radioactive threat detectors fail tests

The U.S. Congress's watchdog agency has recommended further testing of next-generation radiation detectors designed to increase security against radioactive threats at the country's ports of entry after tests produced lackluster results.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security had hoped to replace its existing detectors with the new advanced spectroscopic portal radiation detection monitors.

But the U.S. Government Accountability Office was not impressed with the advantages of the new high-tech detectors given their price tag or the rigor of the tests themselves.

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Perfect pitch

Communications company Orange has revealed its vision of what a high-tech tent might look like in the future.

Rather than relying upon solar panels to provide power for the tent, the designers have based their concept around the futuristic idea of using 'solar threads' that would be woven into the fabric of the tent.

The tent’s solar shell uses the idea to full effect with three directional glides which can be moved throughout the day to maximise its solar efficiency, capturing the optimum amount of energy that can be used throughout the tent.

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Ebrake contract

Meggitt Aircraft Braking Systems has won its first commercial contract for Ebrake: its advanced electric braking system that was successfully flight tested on a Bombardier demonstrator aircraft last year.

Meggitt’s electric brakes and control system will be installed on the Bombardier CSeries family of 110- to 130-seat aircraft launched in 2008 and due to enter service in 2013.

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Reverse-Engineering the Quantum Compass of Birds

Scientists are coming ever closer to understanding the cellular navigation tools that guide birds in their unerring, globe-spanning migrations.

The latest piece of the puzzle is superoxide, an oxygen molecule that may combine with light-sensitive proteins to form an in-eye compass, allowing birds to see Earth’s magnetic field.

“It connects from the subatomic world to a whole bird flying,” said Michael Edidin, an editor of Biphysical Journal, which published the study last week. “That’s exciting!”

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NGC Submits Proposal to Revolutionize GPS Operations

The Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) Global Positioning System (GPS) Advanced Control Segment (OCX) team on June 20 submitted its proposal to the U.S. Air Force for the OCX Phase B contract.

The Northrop Grumman proposal draws upon the team's decades of navigation experience, years of OCX risk reduction activities and a successful Phase A demonstration performance. The Northrop Grumman team has worked hand-in-hand with the Air Force GPS Wing over the course of the 22-month Phase A contract and has now provided a comprehensive plan, cutting-edge technologies and innovative ideas for the advanced control segment. GPS is fully embedded into U.S. military operations, American commercial practices and civilian uses.

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Toyota plans fuel-cell car by 2015

Toyota Motor, the world’s top automaker, plans to roll out a fuel-cell car by 2015 in its push to stay ahead in the global race for green autos, vice president Masatami Takimoto said.

His comments came at a shareholders’ meeting at Toyota headquarters in Aichi prefecture in response to an investor’s question about the company’s outlook on zero-emissions technology, but he declined to elaborate.

Fuel-cell technology is considered a cutting-edge solution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions as it generates electricity by combining a fuel — usually hydrogen — with oxygen, and therefore only emits water.

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IBM supercomputer reuses heat to warm buildings

IBM’s latest green venture is a highly efficient supercomputer that uses water to siphon off waste heat, and then uses the excess energy to warm up a building.

High-tech giants from Microsoft to Google are eager to cut the huge amounts of power used to run their data centers, particularly now that the recession has companies leaving no stone unturned to slash costs and global warming is driving them to think green.

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IBM 'Roadrunner' Holds World's Fastest Computer Crown

IBM (NYSE: IBM)'s Roadrunner supercomputer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory held on to its title as the world's fastest computer, followed once again by Cray's Jaguar.

The biannual Top500 list, released Tuesday at the 2009 International Supercomputing Conference, also saw two new systems enter the top 10. Both systems -- the IBM BlueGene/P called Jugene and the Juropa, which is built from Novascale and Sun Microsystems Sun Blade x6048 server -- were at Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany. The Jugene achieved 825.5 teraflops and the Juropa 274.8 teraflops. A teraflop is a trillion floating point operations per second.

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New Washing Machine Uses Plastic Instead of Water

Xeros is working on a new breed of washing machines that will use only a cup of water per load, relying on reusable nylon beads to trap dirt and stains for hundreds of washes.

The U.K.-based Xeros has been testing the machine for three years. Through a partnership with GreenEarth Cleaning, the machines will soon be sold in North America. The initial target will be commercial dry cleaners and laundromats.

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Altierre Sees Opportunity for Temperature Tags

Altierre, a San Jose, Calif., provider of wireless solutions for retailers, has released a new temperature-sensing product designed to help stores monitor the conditions under which food is stored or displayed. The system can be installed in a matter of hours, with a typical cost to a supermarket of approximately $15,000, including software, sensor tags and interrogators. Alternatively, it can be added to an Altierre wireless shelf tag system already installed, by simply deploying the sensor tags, priced at less than $10 apiece.

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Telstra, Salmat give voice to NAB biometric security system

The new speech security service enables customers calling NAB’s customer contact centre to register their voice pattern and use this for authentication on subsequent calls, enhancing security and removing the need for customers to remember PINs and passwords.

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Telstra, Salmat give voice to NAB biometric security system

The new speech security service enables customers calling NAB’s customer contact centre to register their voice pattern and use this for authentication on subsequent calls, enhancing security and removing the need for customers to remember PINs and passwords.

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Progress on Making Fuel Cells a Commercial Possibility

The high cost of manufacturing fuel cells makes their large-scale production for power generation next to impossible, but researchers at Arizona State University are working to change that so cars, electricity and much more can run on the “green” technology.

Engineering technology professor Arunachalanadar Madakannan (Kannan) has been studying the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) for more than eight years. The fuel cells Kannan and his graduate students are focusing on employ carbon nanotube-based catalysts and electrodes.

Fuels cells, which cleanly and quietly generate electric power by passing fuels like hydrogen over one electrode while passing air over a second electrode, have been around for more than 100 years. But their development has long been dogged by costs of the technology as well as safety concerns.

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Lockheed Martin has successful DAGR test

Lockheed Martin announced it has successfully tested a next-generation rocket technology at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.

Lockheed Martin successfully conducted a test of its DAGR rocket system demonstrating the technology's target acquisition capabilities during night and daylight environmental conditions.

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Google: We’ve Made a Breakthrough in Image Search

The search giant Monday presented a paper on landmark recognition at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) conference in Miami. The new technology allows computers to quickly I.D. images of more than 50,000 world landmarks with 80-percent accuracy, Google says.

Google is quick to point out its pattern-recognition technology is still a research project and not a new service. That makes sense, as a search tool that's right just 8 out of 10 tries isn't ready for prime time.

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HP Touchscreen Printer Will Connect to the Web

Hewlett-Packard will release an inkjet printer later this year that will let users print documents from the Internet without a PC, the company said Monday.

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Trans-Atlantic Internet Cables May Be Filled by 2014

Voracious Web surfers, e-mailers and downloaders will use up the trans-Atlantic cables that were overbuilt early in this decade within the next five years, forcing carriers to invest in new ones in a market that's become used to adding bandwidth cheaply, according to research company Telegeography.

The telecommunications boom spawned so much new data capacity on fiber-optic cables across the Atlantic that the market has seen a supply glut and low prices for years, Telegeography said in a report released Monday. That has reduced the financial incentive for carriers to invest in new cables, but they may have to do so by 2014, said Telegeography analyst Erik Kreifeldt.

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Private Companies Claim Better, Cheaper Options for New NASA Rocket

Executives from several private space companies said Wednesday that they could provide cheaper, more reliable launch systems than those of NASA's Constellation program.

The executives made their comments about alternatives to NASA's plan for sending astronauts to the moon and on to Mars during the first meeting of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee created by President Barack Obama.

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IAI Introduces New Medium Laser Guided Weapon

AI/MBT is unveiling here the MLGB, - Medium Laser Guided Bomb, offering dual-mode guidance employing GPS and terminal laser guidance. The weapon comprising an 80 kg warhead offers pinpoint accuracy under all weather conditions. The MLGB kit employs the warhead, terminal seeker and guidance system, attached to a wing assembly that retracts after release.

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Russian Sukhoi Reinforces Domestic Military Platform

While Russia's military elite have already seen the prototype - or perhaps prototypes - of the air force's nextgeneration heavy fighter, the aircraft will likely only make its public debut after first flight, if tradition is followed.

Senior Russian government and military leaders continue to insist first flight will be this year. Up to three prototypes are thought to be in various stages of final assembly at the Sukhoi manufacturing site in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

The Russian air force's fighter fleet replacement strategy in the near to medium term is built around two Sukhoi programs: the Su-27SM2 (Su-35) development of the Flanker and the T-50 design to meet its fifth-generation fighter project, known as PAK FA.

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Drinking Water in Action…Bottles or Pouches?

Providing reliable drinking water to teams in action in theatre and in the field time and time again is a top notch logistic performance.

The new way to perform at the right level is to organize on site production and distribution rather than rely on vulnerable long distance transport.

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Citrix To Boost US Army's Satellite Communications Capabilities

Citrix Systems has announced that the company's Government Systems team has partnered with TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) on its Secure Internet Protocol Router (SIPR) Non-secure Internet Protocol Router (NIPR) Access Point (SNAP) program for the U.S. Army.


Specifically, Citrix WANScaler technologies are integrated into TCS SNAP Network Packages which support ongoing military operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Boeing Team Completes Segment Testing Of SBSS

Boeing has successfully completed integration and testing of the space segment, as well as initial testing of the ground segments, of the Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) system under development for the U.S. Air Force. Completion of these milestones confirms that the space vehicle and ground segments meet requirements for the first SBSS mission.

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JHSV Fast Catamaran Transport Program Moves Forward

These Australian-designed ships give commanders the ability to roll on a company with full gear and equipment (or roll on a full infantry battalion if used only as a troop transport), haul it intra-theater distances at 38 knots, then move their shallow draft safely into austere ports to roll them off. Unsurprisingly, their use has attracted favorable comment and notice from the US Navy, Marines, and Army alike.

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Can DARPA Teach Machines to Read?

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched the Machine Reading program to develop a revolutionary, automated reading system that bridges the gap between naturally occurring text and the artificial intelligence (AI) reasoning systems that need such knowledge.

AI systems continue to grow in use by the US military as there is a consistent emphasis on using high technology as a strategic advantage and reducing reliance on humans. DID has more on the military applications of AI.

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First floating wind turbine buoyed off Norway

Development of offshore wind farms has been restricted to places where turbines can be attached to the sea bed.

But earlier this week, Siemens and energy company StatoilHydro installed what they call the first large-scale floating turbine. The installation is off the coast of Norway, and testing is expected to last for two years.

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Laser Projector delivers 3D images at 4K x 4K resolution

Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation (www.es.com) (E&S) (NASDAQ:ESCC) announced today it will demonstrate for the first time its revolutionary new 3D capable laser projection system at the InfoComm 2009 tradeshow, booth 3813, June 17-19 in Orlando, Florida. This newest E&S Laser Projector (the ESLP(TM) 8K) is the world's highest resolution production video projector, and it provides superior 3D images at an astounding 4K x 4K resolution. It will offer museums, universities, research labs, control rooms, creative studios and indoor venues worldwide with a 3D experience that brings viewers into worlds both real and imaginary in a way that they have never experienced before.

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Mine's eye

A UK company has developed real-time sonar-imaging technology that uses a computer graphics card to greatly improve the image quality for side-scan sonar, as used in mine-hunting and pipeline surveys.

Synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) techniques enhance the resolution of images processed from sideways-looking sonar by up to 10 times, but existing systems require expensive technology to estimate the motion of the platform, as well as requiring it to move relatively straight. University College London (UCL) spinout Bloomsbury DSP is using the processing power of an NVIDIA graphics card to run proprietary algorithms to deliver high-resolution sonar images in real time without these restrictions.

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Harris launches new receiver technology

U.S. company Harris Corp. announced the launch of its new hand-held intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance video receiver technology.

Harris, a communications and information solutions developer, introduced its new RF-7800T ISR Video Receiver. The handheld RF-7800T receiver is designed to provide soldiers with a next-generation tactical video technology supporting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

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Advanced tactical laser aircraft fires high-power laser in flight

Members of the 413th Flight Test Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Fla., and contractor Boeing recently successfully fired the high-power laser aboard the Advanced Tactical Laser aircraft for the first time in flight.

The combined effort between Boeing and the 413th was instrumental to the "first light" of the high power ATL.

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Lockheed Martin JSF Sales Could Reach 6,000

A chief official involved in the F-35 aircraft programme has forecast the prospect of Joint Strike Fighter sales reaching the 6,000 mark, which would put the new technologically-advanced multi-role type up there among the most-produced combat jets in history.

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GPS Device + Web Access = Never Get Lost Again

Web access is popping up in everything. If you make a product and don't offer access to the intertubes, you might as well toss it in a black hole and let it get crushed into a state of infinite mass and density. GPS makers have bought into this mindset and now haphazardly toss web browsers into their products, whether they need them or not.

TomTom's Go Live 740 is a new breed of web-ready GPS in which web access seems like a well-integrated enhancement, not a useless afterthought.

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NetWitness Launches Insight Solution for IT Risk Discovery and Remediation

NetWitness Corporation, the provider of the award-winning NextGen network security solution, today announced the availability of NetWitness InSight, an innovative solution for automated risk discovery and remediation for workstations and servers. NetWitness InSight improves upon current risk assessment methodologies by both discovering sensitive data on host systems across the enterprise and concurrently evaluating the security condition of each system.

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Human-Powered Subs Start Your 'Engines'

A group of budding engineers will be diving, splashing and swimming in the pool next week for the first time this summer. The difference between them and a lot of other high school and college students is the pool: an in-ground, freshwater basin that is about 3,000 feet (914.4 meters) long, 51 feet (15.5 meters) wide, and 22 feet (6.7 meters) deep at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Bethesda, Md. The occasion is this year's International Human-Powered Submarine Race.

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Unproven Missile Shield System Sent To Hawaii, Countering Potential North Korean Threat

Rumblings from Pyongyang regarding a long-rage missile test prompt deployment of an experimental missile shield and radar system

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Raytheon's C-RAM system testing grinds to a halt

Raytheon's work on a laser-based Phalanx counter-rocket and mortar (C-RAM) system has ground to a halt because the 50 kW fibre laser the company had borrowed for field tests has had to be returned to its owner.

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$27M to Harris for DISA Multinational Information Sharing Network

Harris Corp received a potential 5-year, $27 million contract from EDS to provide network and systems engineering and other support services for the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Multinational Information Sharing (MNIS) Program Management Office. Harris is the sole subcontractor to EDS on the MNIS System Engineering/Technical Assistance (SETA) contract, which was awarded under Encore II.

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New green and quiet jet-engine test results announced

US jet-engine colossus Pratt & Whitney have announced the test-programme results of their (ahem) revolutionary new PurePower™ Geared Turbofan (GTF) at the Paris Airshow. Unsurprisingly, P&W consider that the GTF will become the new standard in commercial jet engines, significantly greening the aviation industry.

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Dassault Sees Composite Next-Gen Falcons

Although Dassault's Super Mid-Size [SMS] jet still is being designed on the firm's CATIA V workstations, engineers already are brainstorming concepts for a family of aircraft to be introduced in two decades, Bruno Stoufflet, VP scientific strategy, R & D and advance business, said today in Paris. The European Community's $2.2-billion Clean Sky joint technology initiative is a main driver. By 2015, Clean Sky seeks to develop technologies that will reduce carbon and noise emissions by 50 percent and slash nitrous oxide emissions by 80 percent.

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Supersonic travel may return, minus boom

The next generation of passenger air travel at speeds faster than sound may start as soon as 2015, with business jets leading the way, said Peter Coen, principal investigator for NASA's supersonic fundamental aeronautics program.

A small supersonic airliner capable of transporting 75 people might follow in 2025 and a larger one could arrive five years later, he added.

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Revolutionary finding to pave way for smaller, faster and powerful electronics

Electronic devices that will be more efficient and consume less energy than those present today may be just round the corner-all thanks to a breakthrough discovery by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

And the discovery involves a method to measure intrinsic conducting properties of ferroelectric materials, which for decades have held tremendous promise but have not yet been proven in lab.

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New advance in imaging technology, sCMOS, promises to facilitate scientific applications

Scientific CMOS (sCMOS), an advanced imaging technology, was the subject of a major announcement at this week's Laser World of Photonics (Munich, Germany, June 15-18). The new technology offers a number of useful features that operate simultaneously: extremely low noise, rapid frame rates, wide dynamic range, high quantum efficiency (QE), high resolution, and a large field of view. It represents a cooperative effort among three photonics companies: Andor Technology (Belfast, Northern Ireland), Fairchild Imaging (Milpitas, CA) and PCO (Kelheim, Germany) and has implications for numerous applications including biomedical research, astronomy, and security and defense.

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Photo-Sensitive Threads Turn Clothing Into Cameras

A new fiber optic-laced thread opens the door for large, flexible cameras made of cloth

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Picture perfect

A type of megapixel image sensor developed by scientists at Andor Technology in Northern Ireland, Fairchild Imaging in the US and PCO in Germany made its debut at the Laser Conference and Exhibition in Munich this week.

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Study discovers clues into how eyes search

Like the robots in the "Terminator" movies, our eyes move methodically through a scene when seeking out an object. If we don't immediately find what we're searching for, our attention leaves the already-scanned area behind and moves on to new, unexplored regions of a scene, still seeking the target.

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Boeing Completes Communications and ATM Upgrade for USAF AWACS Fleet

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] announced today that it has completed satellite communications and air traffic management upgrades on the U.S. Air Force's 32 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) surveillance aircraft as part of the Integrated DAMA/GATM (IDG) program.

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Generating Usable Energy, Just by Driving

A British supermarket chain is harvesting renewable energy from a most unexpected place: the parking lot.

Sainsbury’s, the self-proclaimed eco-conscious superstore that dots the UK, installed “kinetic road plates” in the car park of its latest store in Gloucester. They work a lot like speed bumps, and the store says vehicles passing over them can generate enough power to run the cash registers.

These aren’t run-of-the-mill speed bumps. The plates depress slightly under the weight of the cars, creating a rocking motion that turns a generator without the driver feeling the difference.

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RFID System provides document inventory management

DAILY RFID has launched a RFID document management system for documents inventory management. This RFID document management system includes the needed passive RFID devices to realize documents automatically tracked throughout the file control process.

This RFID document management system, basing on HF, integrates RFID smart labels and handheld RFID reader to allow automated identification of circulating files, thus not only saving the time, enhancing security as well.

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Acoustic laser - SASER

Scientists at Nottingham University, in collaboration with colleagues at the Lashkarev Institute of Semiconductor Physics in the Ukraine, have produced the saser, a sonic equivalent to the laser.

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Hudson Plane: Out-of-Town Geese Did It

Back on January 15th, US Airways Flight 1549 made that amazing water landing in the Hudson after both engines were taken out by Canada geese, which can weigh eight pounds each. Now scientists have used forensic techniques to clear local geese—the perpetrators were out-of-towners. The study appears June 8th in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

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"Smart" Bridges Harness Technology to Stay Safe

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Michigan Department of Transportation are funding a $19 million project to build next-generation monitoring systems for bridges. "There are quite a few bridges that get a D grade" for maintenance and safety, says Marc Stanley, director of the Advanced Technology Program at NIST, which is promoting sensor-laden "smart bridges."

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Don't Sink My Battleship: 5 Ways to Defend a Supercarrier

Will America’s enemies be able to sink the Navy’s next-generation aircraft carriers? The answer is debatable, but it’s inarguable that potentially hostile nations are developing—and exporting—weapons for the task. And tactics are evolving: Think-tank researchers and military intelligence professionals follow Chinese military journals for the latest theories on stopping U.S. aircraft carriers. The Navy then incorporates new defenses to thwart these emerging threats.

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Magnetochromatic Material Changes Color on Command

In the future, signs will be instantly rewritable and walls will change color at the flip of a switch. A research team at the University of California at Riverside has created a new magnetically activated, instantly and reversibly color-changing material with potentially groundbreaking applications.

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Network of Wi-Fi Enabled Insects Hunts Down WMDs

In its attempts to quash weapons of mass destruction, the Pentagon has been trying novel ways to track down dangerous materiel. For years, DARPA has been trying to train insects and bugs to sniff out toxic substances, providing more sensitive detection, as well as access that conventional sensors might not have.

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AF ready for F-22 export version

The Air Force is prepared to create a version of the F-22 Raptor that the U.S. could sell to foreign countries if it gets the go-ahead from Congress and the State Department, according to one of the service’s top acquisition officers.

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ORNL finding could help electronics industry enter new phase

Electronic devices of the future could be smaller, faster, more powerful and consume less energy because of a discovery by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The key to the finding, published in Science, involves a method to measure intrinsic conducting properties of ferroelectric materials, which for decades have held tremendous promise but have eluded experimental proof. Now, however, ORNL Wigner Fellow Peter Maksymovych and co-authors Stephen Jesse, Art Baddorf and Sergei Kalinin at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences believe they may be on a path that will see barriers tumble.

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Colossus, Cray and Blue Gene: The History of Supercomputers

They are the most powerful computers in the world and this is their story from start to finish. Enter the world of computing's heavyweights.

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Move Over, Silicon; Here Come Quantum Bismuth Chips

Newly discovered properties of bismuth telluride hold promise for spintronic quantum computing

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Sukhoi secretive on PAK-FA programmes

Sukhoi is still working on a prototype of its fifth-generation "PAK-FA" advanced tactical frontline fighter, but the schedule for its flight-test programme remains unconfirmed, despite earlier indications that the aircraft would fly in 2009.

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Life's tough, so cameras are getting tougher

Industry heavyweights Canon and Panasonic this year introduced their own rugged, waterproof cameras. Pentax, which has had a line of waterproof cameras for several years, recently added a "freezeproof" feature to its Optio W60, though it's not shockproof.

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Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder Missile Demos Surface-Launch Capabilities

Raytheon Company's (NYSE: RTN) AIM-9X Sidewinder missile demonstrated surface-to-air capability when it engaged an unmanned aircraft vehicle target during a May 16 test.

The AIM-9X is a fifth-generation, high off-boresight, infrared-guided missile developed and deployed for the air-to-air mission. This test marks the second time the AIM-9X was fired in a surface-to-air role.

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A Lightweight Display Brings Instant Army Intelligence to Your Wrist

The flexible, durable, wearable screen could soon be standard issue.

A special-ops soldier carries a slew of gadgets into battle. There's the GPS unit to pinpoint his squad's location, and a laptop for pulling up blueprints of terrorist compounds or infrared readings of buildings scoped out by robotic surveillance drones. With a radio and its five-pound battery, it's too much gear. But in a couple years, troops could lighten their load with a rugged, flexible, wrist-mounted display that's in development by the U.S. Army and HP Labs.

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Unmanned Power Gliders Assume Long Endurance Surveillance Patrols

he French UAV maker Sagem has teamed with German glider producer Stemme AG to introduce the Patroller, a long endurance UAV based on a powered glider. The Stemme S 15 was first presented at the Berlin Air-Show last in 2008. In its current configuration, the Patroller is designed to perform long endurance missions, to be used in a wide spectrum of roles, from military surveillance to homeland security and maritime patrol.

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Raytheon Weighs Continued Funding For MKV

Raytheon is considering whether and how to proceed with work on key technologies that were part of the dying Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) and Kinetic Energy Interceptor efforts, which have been funded by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

The Pentagon proposed terminating MKV and KEI in the fiscal 2010 budget; Congress hasn’t yet approved the plan.

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Beechcraft May Add Weapon-Carrying Capability to King Air

King Air 350 builder Hawker Beechcraft is studying the possibility of fitting out the aircraft with precision-guided weapons as one option to extend the platform's capabilities.

Terry Harnell, the Hawker vice president for special mission aircraft, said the company was looking at designing wing hardpoints capable of carrying small precision weapons, electronic sensor pods or external fuel tanks to make the King Air more versatile.

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Will Future U.S. Military Submarines Be Invisible to Enemy Sonar Detection?: Enter Acoustic Metamaterial Cloaking Tech

It looks like the whole metamaterial/negative-index material movement just got another shot in the arm with development of an “acoustic metamaterial lens” that can theoretically create an acoustic/sonic “invisibility cloak” a.k.a. “cloak of silence” capable of hiding military submarines from enemy detection. DefenseReview first reported on metamaterials a.k.a. negative-index materials or “negative index metamaterials” in August 2006. The technology on which we were reporting at the time theoretically has the potential to lead to an optical invisibility cloak for cloaking soldiers and military equipment and vehicles.

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$20M to BAE Systems for CPX Friend or Foe ID System

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems in Greenlawn, NY received a $20 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-priced contract (N00019-08-C-0061) for the production and delivery of Mode 5 common transponder system (CPX) identification friend or foe (IFF) hardware and associated platform integration and testing. IFF systems enable forces to recognize friendly aircraft and surface vessels to avoid inadvertent firing on friendly forces. The technology, in use since World War II, has two main components: interrogators, which ask the questions, and transponders, which provide the responses. The Mode 5 IFF system was developed by NATO as an enhancement to older, less capable IFF systems. BAE Systems will perform the work in Greenlawn, NY and expects to complete it in December 2011. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD manages the contract.

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Raytheon Fires 1st Excalibur Ib Projectiles From Archer Gun System

In a first-of-its-kind test, Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) fired four Excalibur Ib projectiles from a Swedish Archer gun system, demonstrating Excalibur Ib's compatibility with the system and meeting all test objectives.

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NGC Completes Successful GBFR Demonstration

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has successfully demonstrated the Defense Department's new Ground Based Fighter Radar (GBFR), a multi-mission ground tactical radar designed to provide on-the-move air defense capability to the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps.

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Portable Hard Drives offer capacities up to 500 GB

Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE:EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced the worldwide availability of the new Iomega(R) eGo(TM) Portable Hard Drive for Mac users, featuring multiple interface connections, a stylish new aluminum design, superior ruggedness and a robust combination of software, all backed with a three-year limited warranty. Available in three different colors and up to 500GB* in capacity, the new Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive for Mac users provides the dependability and versatility to meet today's on-the-go data storage needs.

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Supercarrier 2015: How to Build the World's Most Powerful Warship

The first pieces of the U.S. Navy’s newest class of aircraft carrier—meant to be the cornerstone of American military sea power over the next hundred years—lie in the open air of a shipyard in Virginia. A misting rain is falling on the jumbled field of steel bulkheads, stacks of pipe and 200-ton sections of hull. It’s as if some gargantuan child broke apart his model ship and scattered the pieces on the ground.

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Jets of 7200°F Hydrogen Cut Through Granite at 100 Feet per Hour

Tired of wearing out diamond bits when you're drilling miles deep into the earth's crust? Try using a high-velocity flame jet instead

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World's Smallest VGA Display is Literally the Size of a Thumbnail

Full-color LCD with a resolution of 600 x 480 pixels (more than your iPhone's 480 x 320) that measures just over a quarter of an inch, diagonally--the world's smallest. Each individual pixel measures 2.9 x 8.7 µm (that's micro); for reference, the thickness of a human hair is around 100 µm.

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Quantum computer one step closer to making today's AMD and Intel chips seem archaic

New approaches to the field of quantum entanglement have given Colorado scientists a boost in the right direction in formulating the world's first quantum computer.

According to a report at ScienceNow, scientists from NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Boulder, Colorado have managed to go one step closer towards showing the relationship between quantum mechanics via quantum entanglement by demonstrating the relationship between particle beams and quantum entaglement in an experiment in the lab.

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Manipulating light on a chip may lead to development of quantum technologies

A team of physicists and engineers at Bristol University has demonstrated exquisite control of single particles of light - photons - on a silicon chip to make a major advance towards long-sought-after quantum technologies, including super-powerful quantum computers and ultra-precise measurements.

The Bristol Centre for Quantum Photonics has demonstrated precise control of four photons using a microscopic metal electrode lithographically patterned onto a silicon chip.

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Stealthy Jammer Considered for F-35

Study work has been carried out examining the benefits of fitting a low-observable electronic warfare pod to the Lockheed Martin F-35 to further boost the aircraft’s electronic combat capability, according to a U.S. Marine Corps officer.

The F-35 is a candidate platform for the next-generation jammer (NGJ), though a conventional pod design would impact the aircraft’s radar cross-section. Using a stealthy pod configuration would provide additional capability while minimizing the impact on the aircraft’s low-observable characteristics.

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Raytheon Begins Testing Upgraded Laser-Guided Maverick Missile Components

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) is testing key components that will be used in the AGM-65E2, the U.S. Air Force's newest variant of the laser-guided Maverick missile.

The laser-guided Maverick missile is a direct-attack, air-to-ground precision munition used extensively by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps in ongoing combat operations.

The newest variant of the missile, the AGM-65E2, will have an enhanced-laser seeker and new software, reducing the risk of collateral damage and enabling aircraft to use their onboard lasers to designate a target.

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Air Force Awards First Phase of Next Generation Space Fence

The Air Force awarded firm-fixed-price contracts totaling $90 million for Phase A of Space Fence development to Lockheed Martin Corp. in Moorestown, NJ; Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. in Linthicum, MS; and Raytheon Co. in Sudbury, MA. Under the contracts, each worth $30 million, the companies will provide Space Fence system design review, plans trades analysis and data, systems engineering planning; architecture planning; prototyping, modeling and simulation systems trades and analyses; risk management life cycle cost estimate and technical data. Hill Air Force Base in Utah manages the contract (FA8213-09-C-0051).

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MC-12 Flies First Combat Mission

The Air Force's newest intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft flew its first combat sortie June 10 over Iraq.

The MC-12 Liberty, assigned to the 362nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, arrived in Iraq June 8 and took off from Joint Base Balad at approximately 2:30 p.m. local time for a four-hour mission.

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Steam Tech Gets Less Punk, More Stimulus Money

Take a jet engine hooked up to some big magnets, add some steam pipes, and what do you have? The comeback of some old-school technologies that could help solve our modern energy problem.

The idea is simple — generate both electricity and heat in the same place, but the potential benefits are big.

Unlike a traditional electric power plant, which can convert about 40 percent of its fuel into electricity but wastes the rest as heat, these combination plants capture that heat and use it to warm or cool buildings. The efficiency of combined heat and power plants can reach into the 80 percent range. If you hook up that plant to a network of steam pipes and electrical wires, you’ve got the tools to power an entire campus or community.

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Human vs. machine: IBM supercomputer takes on Jeopardy

In what could be a leap for AI, IBM programs Watson to take on quiz show champs.

IBM today unveiled Watson, an advanced computing system that engineers hope will be able to compete against humans on the long-running game show Jeopardy. And the show's producers seem to be up for the challenge: They are expected to soon announce plans to air a show pitting human against machine.

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Acer to build laptop with 3-D screen

Hoping to ride a recent surge in movies and TV shows filmed in 3-D, Acer Inc. plans to release a notebook PC this fall equipped with a 15.6-inch 3-D screen, according to a report.

The notebook will have built-in software that can correctly display 3-D movies but also convert regular 2-D movies into 3-D, Campbell Kan, vice president of Acer's mobile computing unit, told the Taiwanese magazine, Digitimes on Monday.

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Mind-Reading Tech May Not Be Far Off

At the World Science Festival this week, indications that brain scanners may soon uncover your private thoughts

Last night at the World Science Festival in New York, leading neuroscientists took the stage to discuss current research into functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), a type of scan that indirectly measures neural activity by measuring the change in the blood oxygen level in the brain. Neurons require oxygen in order to fire, so if a person is thinking about or looking at a specific image, by looking at the oxygen levels the scientists can see the patterns that "light up" in the brain, and link them to a specific word or image. Study results in this field are astonishing.

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Skunk Works nears flight for new breed of all-composite aircraft

When the latest X-plane crafted by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works team soon takes flight over Palmdale, California, observers will be watching a throwback to a previous era of experimental flight technology, but also a potential harbinger of things still to come.
The Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA), a heavily modified Dornier 328JET, is expected to receive an XC-series designation by the US Air Force. It is perhaps the most significant airlifter project dedicated to experimenting with new technologies since the early 1970s, when the McDonnell Douglas YC-14 and Boeing YC-15 were flown.

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Plasma Waves Studied for New Electronics

First proposed in 1973 by Michael Dyakonov and my thesis advisor Michael Shur, plasma-waves are expected to allow silicon FETs to operate as high as 10 terahertz! In our lab, we’ve demonstrated detection from 0.2 to 1.6 terahertz with these devices, and terahertz detectors based on silicon FETs will be easy to integrate with complex image processing circuits.

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China 'Green Dam' Censorware Called Security Risk

China's plan to require Web filtering software on all PCs sold in the country after July 1 continues to draw fire from individuals and organizations inside and outside the country.

Three computer scientists with the University of Michigan on Thursday published an analysis of the "Green Dam Youth Escort" software required by the Chinese government and found that "it contains serious security vulnerabilities due to programming errors."

The researchers state that the software contains systemic flaws in its code as a result of unsafe programming techniques and that the software's problems are compounded by a design that exposes it to a large variety of potential attacks.

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Aluminium hydride: a reversible material for hydrogen storage

Hydrogen storage is one of the challenges to be overcome for implementing the ever sought hydrogen economy. Here we report a novel cycle to reversibly form high density hydrogen storage materials such as aluminium hydride. Aluminium hydride (AlH3, alane) has a hydrogen storage capacity of 10.1 wt% H2, 149 kg H2/m3 volumetric density and can be discharged at low temperatures.

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Impulse flight

The first solar aircraft aiming to fly night and day without fuel will be unveiled in Switzerland on 26 June.

The prototype aircraft, called the HB-SIA, has been developed through Solar Impulse, a project run by Swiss aviators Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg.

The aircraft, which has been under construction since 2007, combines a lightweight 1,500kg structure with a 61m wingspan and a length resembling that of an Airbus 340. The difference is these wings are covered in a thin sheet of solar cells that convert the sun’s rays into electricity that drives the machine’s engines.

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Turbine-powered car

Capstone Turbine, a Los Angeles-based manufacturer of microturbine energy systems, has announced that its C30 liquid-fuelled microturbine has been integrated into a Ford S-Max people carrier in the UK.

Langford Performance Engineering, which is based in Wellingborough, designed and modified the Ford S-Max seven-seat crossover vehicle into a series hybrid plug-in vehicles with a C30 under the hood as an electric range extender.

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The Navy's New 100 KiloWatt Laser Weapons

The Office of Naval Research has awarded Raytheon a year-long contract to develop the preliminary design of a 100 kilowatt experimental Free Electron Laser (FEL) for naval warships. A FEL uses superconducting electron accelerators to produce high-power laser beams that could target cruise missiles, airplanes or boats.

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A Giant Solar Plane That Will Stay in the Air for Five Years Straight

Odysseus, an autonomous surveillance-plane concept, 
will fly for years on end, powered by nothing but the sun

Nine days: That's the longest any airplane has stayed in the air. Burt and Dick Rutan's Voyager set the record in 1986 by flying 24,986 miles around the world without refueling. But nine days of uninterrupted flight won't cut it for Darpa, the Pentagon's advanced-research organization. It's challenged the aviation industry to come up with an unmanned surveillance and communications plane that can circle targets for half a decade — and do so on nothing but solar power.

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The plan for smaller, faster, deadlier UAVs

Besides wanting to shrink its UAVs, the Air Force wants them to fly faster — much faster.
The X-51A Scramjet Engine, designed to fly six times the speed of sound, will launch into space — its first test — this fall. Air Force officials, though, think it could serve as a UAV as easily as it could a space launch vehicle.

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New RFID Automated Self Serve Library Management Solution from SkyRFID Inc.

SkyRFID Inc. recently announced the availability of their new Automated Self Serve Library Management Solution. This new Microsoft SQL database solution allows patrons to access the facility with their RFID patron cards and select their item choices from the easy to use touch screens that are conveniently located throughout the facility. Multiple search functions allow looking for items by titles, descriptions, categories, sub categories and more, making it very easy to find what they are looking for.

Facility defined locations provide unlimited location control and the screens display the Aisle and Shelf Location of each item. If a selection is not in stock the patron can effortlessly reserve it and be automatically notified when their selection is subsequently available. For those patrons who like to select multiple items that may be located in disparate locations, they can simply touch the screen to receive a printout of their choices complete with location information.

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NEC builds WiMAX router for sharing sweet broadband goodies with your friends over WiFi

NEC is showing off a vaguely defined Mobile WiMAX Router at Interop Tokyo 2009, which can run on battery and shares its connection over WiFi.

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'Black box' could hold answer to plane crash mystery

The "black box" is actually an orange cylinder -- about 13 pounds of metal wrapped around a stack of memory chips and designed to withstand the force of being slammed high-speed into a brick wall.

One such device -- possibly sitting more than two miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean -- is the object of a massive international search and could hold the answer to why Air France Flight 447 mysteriously plunged into the sea off the coast of Brazil last week with 228 people on board.

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Smaller Aircraft Tests With ABL Eyed

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) wants to explore putting Airborne Laser (ABL) technology on a smaller aircraft than its current jumbo jet platform, MDA's director said June 11.

The high-powered laser, designed to destroy an attacking missile shortly after launch during the boost phase, currently flies on a modified Boeing 747-400 freighter. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has vetoed the idea of acquiring another 747, saying the existing equipment should first be used as a research and development platform to prove the capabilities of the large laser technology.

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Real Lessons of a Great Engine War

The whole reason for the Great Engine War was a strained relationship between the Air Force & Pratt and Whitney at that time. In fact, Pratt & Whitney officials will be the first to say that that relationship was not handled in the best possible fashion, and that they learned many lessons from the experience, the most important lesson being the critical importance of listening to and working to meet your customer’s needs. As the F100 matured in the F-15, it experienced some performance challenges. The USAF was pushing the state of the art in jet engine technology on a very accelerated schedule and decided the military shouldn’t rely on just one engine at the time.

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Boeing Moving FAST on Satellite Power and Propulsion System

Boeing Satellite Systems in El Segundo, CA won a $13.8 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for Phase 2 of the Fast Access Spacecraft Testbed (FAST) satellite power generation and propulsion program. The objective of the FAST program is the development and demonstration of a high power generation and propulsion system for mobile satellites.

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$6.3M to Northrop Grumman for Navy Network Management System

Northrop Grumman Information Technology in McLean, VA received a $6.3 million hybrid firm-fixed-price/cost/cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order (NS09) under a previously awarded contract for a Navy network enterprise management system. Under this order, Northrop Grumman will provide tactical switching increment II spiral B1 equipment, including program management; configuration management; logistics; hardware and software updates; configuration management support; testing support; and on-site technical support at 2 Regional Network Operations and Security Centers (RNOSCs).

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Top Gun (Sans Top Gunners)

The Los Angeles Times' Julian E. Barnes reports that the Air Force "is preparing to graduate its first pilots of unmanned drones from the elite U.S. Air Force Weapons School -- a version of the Navy's Top Gun program -- in a bid to elevate the skills and status of the officers who fly Predators, one of the military's fastest growing aircraft programs."

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USAF deploys first “Project Liberty” platform

The United States Air Force is about to deploy the first of its new manned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, designated “Project Liberty.”

The imminent deployment was highlighted during this week’s joint service Fire Support Seminar, hosted by the U.S. Army‘s Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

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French physicists claim breakthrough in ultra-fast data access

French physicists said on Sunday they had used ultra-fast lasers that could accelerate storage and retrieval of data on hard discs by up to 100,000 times, pointing the way to a new generation of IT wizardry.

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Raytheon Submits KillerBee UAS Bid to US Navy

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) submitted its KillerBee unmanned aircraft system in response to the U.S. Navy's Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Tier II request for proposal.

The KillerBee UAS features a blended-wing aircraft body design. It also has systems for land or sea launch, recovery and ground control. The unique design of KillerBee enables growth for future payloads and additional mission capabilities.

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NASA's Icy-Hot Rocket Engine

Rocket engines don't get much cooler than this. The Common Extensible Cryogenic Engine being developed for NASA burns a mixture of liquid oxygen (-297 degrees Fahrenheit) and liquid hydrogen (-423 degrees). Though the fuels are frosty, upon ignition they generate scorching steam (5,000 degrees) and plenty of thrust.

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The Mercedes ESF: Almost Death-Proof?

An experimental concept car from Mercedes-Benz turns turns the entire vehicle into an airbag using novel metal panels that inflate moments before impact.

The unimaginatively named ESF 2009 Experimental Safety Vehicle features gadgetry and safety features akin to a moon shot. Chassis components inflate to maximize impact resistance. An airbag under the car slows and supports the vehicle in a crash. Seats protect passengers like eggs in a carton. The list goes on.

“Safety is a central element of the Mercedes-Benz brand,” Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Daimler chairman and Mercedes CEO, said in a statement. “In this respect we have been setting the pace in the market for almost 70 years. The ESF 2009 shows that we still have plenty of ideas and the absolute will to lead the automobile industry in this field even in the future.”

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