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Lockheed Martin's 360-degree laser turret gets cleared for take-off
Lockheed Martin has an affinity for lasers -- that much is apparent. Not satisfied with simply having ground-based energy weapons, though, the outfit has recently tested its airplane-mounted death ray over the skies of America's High Five, Michigan. The Aero-optic Beam Control (or ABC, as its friends are fond of saying) was recently run through its paces to prove airworthiness, among other things. The kicker here is that the laser can rotate 360 degrees and eliminate targets from basically any direction. Yeah. Lockheed says that the turret's been designed to engage bogies at basically any position and there's tech in place to counterbalance any turbulence caused by the protruding sphere (pictured above). The trials aren't done just yet however, and they'll only increase in complexity to further prove the system's military-aircraft mettle as time wears on. So, you know, enjoy hiding out in your secret lair while it lasts.
University of Michigan connects 3,000 cars for year-long safety pilot
Road safety continues to be a major concern for both researchers and car makers alike. Yesterday saw yet another real-world trial kicking off, this time on a much grander scale. A total of 3,000 vehicles in Ann Arbor, Michigan are taking part in a 12-month project run by the state's Transportation Research Institute. The vehicles have Dedicated Short Range Communications and video recording facilities, which means the cars can communicate with each other, traffic signals, and share data to a central platform -- which in turn issues warnings when high risk situations, or if traffic problems occur. Of course, this trial will also create a massive data set, which researchers will be able to plunder, and help the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) better determine the viability of such systems. So while it's unlikely to lead to self driving cars just yet, it's a step in the right direction.
Ford underscores its love of electric cars, spends $135 million to make them happen
Ford really, really wants you to know that it's big on electric cars. Really. To that end, it's putting $135 million where its mouth is as part of the design and production for the electrified vehicles rolling out to dealer lots this year, such as the Focus Electric. A new research building in Dearborn is also being renamed as the Advanced Electrification Center to emphasize the uniform dedication to EVs and hybrids among the 1,000 researchers that call the Center their home away from home. We already know that the company plans to triple its manufacturing capacity to make 100,000 of the cars a year by 2013, but many of the supporting aspects are getting their own lift, Ford adds: it's hiring more engineers and doubling its battery testing capacity. The checklist of improvements you'll find after the break reflects some braggadocio on Ford's part, especially while it tries to stretch its jobs claims, but it's good news all the same. If the expansion keeps the likes of GM and Tesla on their toes, drivers hopefully win as a whole.
FBI raids University of Michigan apartment over possible WoW fraud
A University of Michigan student apartment became the focus of a recent investigation by the FBI, which conducted a raid on March 30th over "potentially fraudulent sales or purchases of virtual currency that people use to advance in the popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft." While the FBI did not make any arrests, it did confiscate several items, including computers, video game equipment, and credit cards. The Bureau is checking out whether one or both of the students were involved in a fraudulent scheme to buy or sell virtual gold, and the agency is looking for online transaction records with various online banks and websites. The two students who share the apartment claim that they do not play WoW and are confident that they are innocent. One of the unnamed students commented: "They thought we were involved in some kind of fraud. I'm pretty sure they have the wrong people, but they took all my stuff."
Scientists improve blue OLED efficiency, don't promise everlasting light
Although this is not the first time we've seen an efficiency increase in blue OLEDs, it's worth noting that their proposed cap of productivity up to this point was a lowly five percent. It's exciting to learn, therefore, about a breakthrough by professor John Kieffer and graduate student Changgua Zhen from the University of Michigan, which has resulted in them successfully increasing azure diode power efficiency by 100 percent. The duo, accompanied by some bright minds in Singapore, manipulated performance controllers by rearranging OLED molecules in a computer model, improving material characteristics. In simple terms though, we're still looking at a measly ten percent efficiency, so we'll see where they take it from here.
Strait Power turbine is water-powered, shark-inspired (video)
The basking shark, with its five foot jaw, is one of the most ferocious looking critters that ever swam the sea. However, it's pretty much harmless, just filtering out tiny bits and leaving idle dippers and their water wings alone. This is what served as the inspiration for Anthony Reale, who turned that gaping maw into Strait Power. It's effectively a double-nozzle that fits around a hydro turbine or two, turning the flow of water into electrical power, boosting the efficiency of the turbine by creating areas of high pressure ahead and low pressure behind, as visualized above. The result was a 40 percent boost in efficiency -- and some soggy jeans, as you can see in the videos below. The first gives a quick overview, the second an uber-detailed discussion of the development from start to finish. Choose your path.
My Mac Setup: Gameday Edition in the UK
My girlfriend Danielle recently emigrated from the US to live with me in Wales. Her move meant leaving behind family and friends, but most importantly she abandoned decent live coverage of her beloved Michigan Wolverines. Here in the UK, our only broadcast option for college football is ESPN America with a paltry 75 non-Bowl games per year. In the first five weeks of the season, only two Wolverines game were broadcast, and one of those was two days after the game was played. Even if you're prepared to go illegal and use bittorrent to download the broadcast, sports fans abroad still need to tiptoe around spoilers for anything up to a few days after the game. Yesterday, just a few hours before the grudge match with Michigan State, she discovered ESPN Player; the Flash-based streaming service offers excellent coverage of college football games for £13 (around $20) per month, and unlike many streaming options it isn't locked down to be US-only (commenter SimDan notes it doesn't work in the US at all, a complete list of countries it's available in is in the ESPN Player FAQ). Sadly, I couldn't find a DVI-HDMI cable to show the game on my television, so she was facing the prospect of having to watch the big game on a small screen -- a 13" Macbook Pro, to be exact, complete with tinny speakers and optional lap-cooking technology. Hardly ideal. Fortunately though, if there's one thing I know how to do, it's how to solve problems with too much technology. So I jury-rigged the system you see in the picture above.
Sequoia e-voting machine hacked to play Pac-Man (video)
Oh Sequoia, why are you so changeable? The thoroughly hacked electronic voting machine is back with another ignoble showing, courtesy of researchers from the universities of Michigan and, of course, Princeton. Picking up an AVC-Edge box that had seen live duty in collecting votes for the 2008 Virginia primaries, they quickly and all too easily managed to supplant the embedded psOS+ software with DOS, which was promptly followed by the installation of Pac-Man. Given that the underlying circuit boards were populated with such luminaries as a 486 processor and 32 megabytes of RAM, we find this a most appropriate match of hardware and software. As to that whole voting security thing, maybe next time we should let people do it with their BlackBerrys, eh? See the Pac do his thing on video after the break.
Ford to install solar cells at SUV factory, Mother Nature sees glimmer of hope
From the Baby Steps department: Ford will be working with Detroit Edison to install a 500-kilowatt photovoltaic array and 750kw battery storage system at its Michigan Assembly plant in Wayne. While this is a great thing, the sun will only be handling about 0.5 percent of the plant's yearly 140,000,000-kilowatt-hour consumption. More important than that 0.5 percent, however, is the fact that the PV system will serve as a kind of teaching facility on the subjects of load-shifting, voltage support, off-peak charging, and demand response for an industrial setting -- i.e., an automobile manufacturing plant. Kudos to Ford for the teachable moment, but we know it can do better: the outfit's Dagenham Diesel Center in the UK is powered completely by on-site wind turbines. And we think they will do better: it tells us it's still investigating the possibility of a wind energy component for this and other facilities. You're welcome, Ma Earth.
San Francisco Bay Area gets $5 million for EV chargers, Detroit will charge $40 per month
Electric vehicles are inching closer, with several already priced and rearing to go, but so far would-be owners won't have to pay for the devices to charge their cars. Free charging stations are popping up at every red dot on this map, and apparently not satisfied with the 1,600 that Coulomb's installing in California and the three at City Hall, San Francisco and neighboring cities have just approved $5 million for over 5,000 more chargers -- of which only 50 will appear along public highways, for some reason. Meanwhile, the state of Michigan has approved the first standardized rate for EV charger use -- a pilot program by provider DTE Energy will see 2,500 customers paying $40 per vehicle per month (or a variable off-peak rate) through December 2012. Gotta wonder how those grey states are feeling right about now.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: street-legal Tron lightcycles, electronic eyeglasses, and the American Solar Challenge
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us. This week Inhabitat saw solar-powered vehicles blaze trails around the globe as the University of Michigan's sleek pod car crossed the finish line to win the American Solar Challenge. We also watched the Solar Impulse gear up for its first eagerly anticipated night flight -- a pivotal undertaking as the sun-powered plane prepares to circle the earth. In other clean transportation news, and we were stunned to see a set of street-legal electric Tron lightcycles pop up on eBay. The field of renewable energy also heated up this week as researchers revealed an innovative tri-layered solar panel that's capable of catching the full spectrum of the sun's rays. Wind power made waves as well as Principle Power unveiled a new ultra-sturdy ocean platform that's able to support the world's tallest wind turbines. Finally, we saw the light this week as Illumitex unveiled the world's first square LED bulb, which they claim is cheaper, more efficient and more practical than typical round bulbs. We also peered at an innovative new type of electronic eyeglasses that can change your prescription with the push of a button. And for all you shutterbugs looking to share your vision with the world, you won't want to miss this handy solar camera strap that ensures you'll never miss a shot.
Suda 51 wants to remake Grasshopper Manufacture's 'Michigan'
Not the state -- we don't know how he feels about that, nor do we think he'd have the power to remake it. Michigan (the game) was a 2004 PS2 adventure developed by Suda's Grasshopper Manufacture and directed by Contact's Akira Ueda, in which the player controls a cameraman who follows, and indirectly influences, a reporter investigating mysterious phenomena."There's a Spanish horror film called REC," Suda told Gamasutra, "and when I watched it, I realized it was pretty much Michigan, right there. I still have a lot of ideas along those lines, and I'd love to work with Spike sometime to make a new Michigan or a remake." Interviewer Brandon Sheffield discussed talks he'd had with US publishers about the game, who told him Sony declined it due to a lack of gameplay. So a remake would probably include more direct gameplay or ... would be for another platform.Suda also said that he never expected to become a superstar game designer as a kid. "I wanted to become a sushi chef or an astronaut."
There's more to starting a cable company than just pirating DirecTV
Blame it on the economy, lack of common sense, or lowered aspirations, but it seems like an awful lot of you guys think it's a good idea to re-sell DirecTV "on the sly," as they say in the business. Hell, this morning alone no less than two items have come across our desk to this effect -- and you know as well as we do that if both John Metzler, the owner and operator of Phoenix Communications and Pine River Cable in Michigan, is reselling premium digital channels, and if four unnamed Haysi, Virginia residents have also thought if it, then it's a growing concern. Our advice? Just don't do it. You don't want to be like OJ, do you? Didn't think so.Read - DirecTV Sues Virginia Residents for Unauthorized Distribution of DIRECTV ProgrammingRead - DirecTV sues Michigan man for redistributing its content
Audio Karma Fest going down in Livonia, MI this weekend
If you don't have plans for this weekend yet and you're in the neighborhood of Livonia, MI, maybe pencil in some time to check out Audio Karma Fest. It sounds like it's going to be quite the playground for audio- and videophiles, with demos of the really expensive stuff from some high-end brands. For example, McIntosh will be showing off the limited-run Classic System and unveiling its MR88 AM/FM/XM/HD tuner. Paired up with McIntosh equipment will be some high-ticket speakers from sister company Snell; and if you want to boost your speaker design chops, you can't do a whole lot better than sitting in on a Joseph D'Appolito seminar. Also getting the "for your eyes only" treatment is the US unveiling of the Marantz UD9004 universal Blu-ray deck. Hit the links for more detailed info on what vendors are bringing to the party; playground admission is $25.Read - McIntosh at Audio Karma Fest 2009Read - Snell's lineupRead - D'Appolito seminarRead - Marantz demos
Stardock talks staying afloat in The Great Lakes State
News of PC game publisher and developer Stardock's plans to expand further into its home state of Michigan was a bright light in what has been an otherwise gloomy series of months, seeing numerous studios crippled by an ongoing tepid economic climate. We asked ourselves if it was something in the water, though to hear Stardock boss Brad Wardell talk, we wonder if more studios may someday begin to follow suit and swim to The Great Lakes State."I definitely see the state of Michigan moving in a direction to try to attract technology companies and consumer entertainment companies – movie studios, interactive digital entertainment, etc," noted the exec. "One of the reason I suspect is simple geography -- Michigan is located in a pretty good spot for this kind of thing. The other is that Michigan is a state in transition. The state knows that it needs to diversify and it is putting its efforts to focus on an area ripe for growth such as digital entertainment."Michigan is already home to a handful of developers, including Reactor Zero, which is handling the PC version of THQ's upcoming Red Faction: Guerrilla, and Realm Online dev Norseman Games. None, however, have left a footprint in the snow nearly as deep as Stardock.
Comcast throws in ten HD channels in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids just got eight high-def channels in mid-December, but already the cable carrier is adding ten more in order to keep the competition fierce between it and AT&T. As of now, locals can find Travel HD (183), MGM HD (216), Spike HD (HD), Nick HD (228), Toon Disney HD (238), Lifetime HD (239), Fuse HD (250), ESPN HD (257), IFC HD (260) and WE HD (261). Not bad Comcast, not bad at all.[Thanks, Corey]
Comcast pushes 7 new HD channels to Lansing, MI subscribers
How's this for coincidence? Just days after AT&T announced that it would be making its U-verse TV available in Lansing, Michigan, out pops a few new high-def stations in the area courtesy of Comcast. According to a local who's kicking around watching TV on the first day of 2009 (good choice, by the way), Cartoon Network HD, Planet Green HD, Fox News HD, Lifetime Movie Network HD, Speed HD, E! HD and Biography HD have shown up. Nice way to start off what's looking to be the best year of all time, eh?[Thanks, ElanVital]
AT&T pushes U-verse to Lansing, Michigan
Flint and Saginaw aren't too far from Lansing, and apparently it's the latest town in Michigan to get AT&T's U-verse. According to a fiber-craving local who has been plugging his address in for months in hopes of getting good news, he finally got the reply he has been looking for. In at least some parts of the city, U-verse TV and high-speed internet can now be ordered, and we hear Sparty is quite happy to know of the additional competition.[Thanks, Glenn]
Comcast adds an HD trio in Flint / West Bloomfield, Michigan
The weather may be downright dreadful in the Detroit area, but Comcast's warming the hearts of local subscribers with an HD trifecta. Arriving just in time for the weekend, residents of Flint and West Bloomfield, Michigan can now soak in the sweet high-def vibes cast from SPEED HD (223), FOX News HD (214) and FX HD (224). Happy holidays, indeed.[Thanks, Patrick and Jeremy]
Comcast adds eight HD channels in Grand Rapids, MI
What's up with this end-of-year glut of high-def channels? Seriously, it's like someone informed every cable carrier in America that it could get extra tax deductions if they hosted up a few more stations before the year's end -- not that we're complaining. Jason from Grand Rapids, Michigan has written in to inform us (and you) that eight new ones have arrived on his Comcast EPG. Biography HD (180), Planet Green HD (210), FOX News HD (214), Lifetime Movie Network HD (221), SPEED HD (223), FX HD (224), E! HD (225) and Cartoon Network HD (227) are all go for viewing, and all's that left for you to do is make it through the torrential snowstorms from work so you can actually watch 'em.[Thanks, Jason]
