Gizmag News - Bosch and Cannondale team up on ebike drive

Welcome to the newsletter for gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine. These are the headlines for September the 9th, 2010. Bosch and Cannondale team up on ebike drive Tech developer the Bosch Group and bicycle maker Cannondale are collaborating on a new electric drive system for bikes. The motor is rated at 250 watts, with a peak power of 350 watts. It’s powered by a 36-volt lithium-ion battery pack, which is good for 288 watt-hours, 500 charge cycles, and recharges in no more than 2.5 hours. Read More It's pulling us in! Researchers make tractor beams a reality In a move that is sure to warm the hearts of those in the upper echelon of the Galactic Empire, researchers have taken tractor beams from the realm of science fiction to the realm of science fact. The researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) have developed a laser beam that can move very small particles up to distances of a meter and a half using only the power of light. Unfortunately this means it won’t be able to reel in anything the size of the Millennium Falcon, and the fact it won’t work in the vacuum of space probably won’t help matters either, but it’s a remarkable breakthrough nonetheless. Read More Zotac Zbox Blu-ray series first mini-PCs to boast an integrated Blu-ray drive There’s no doubt the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray scared a lot of consumers away from upgrading from DVD to a higher definition format. Even though it’s been more than two years since Blu-ray took the honors and HD-DVD was relegated to the technological scrap heap sales of Blu-ray players haven’t really scaled the heights that manufacturers would have liked. But as prices continue to drop more and more Blu-ray devices are hitting the market. The latest is the world’s first mini-PCs with an integrated Blu-ray drive in the form of the Zotac Zbox Blu-ray series. Read More Mind reading – scientists translate brain signals into words Using the same technology that allowed them to accurately detect the brain signals controlling arm movements that we looked at last year, researchers at the University of Utah have gone one step further, translating brain signals into words. While the previous breakthrough was an important step towards giving amputees or people with severe paralysis a high level of control over a prosthetic limb or computer interface, this new development marks an early step toward letting severely paralyzed people speak with their thoughts. Read More Lamborghini’s new direct-injection V12 carbon fiber supercar – the Jota Car companies such as Lamborghini need to test their products in the real world and hence can fall victim to well-educated enthusiasts being in the right place at the right time with a camera. Earlier this week the VW-owned Italian supercar maker posted a “teaser image” of what everybody expects to be the Murcielago replacement. Only trouble is, we’ve already seen it – that’s the car itself shot on an autobahn between Chemnitz and Dresden during road testing. Just how everyone seems to know the specs a month prior to the show is a matter for conjecture, but if you want to read the unconfirmed details of the new direct injection 7.0-litre V12, carbon fiber monster which does zero to 60 in 3.0 seconds, read on. Read More Researchers create nano-architectured aluminum alloy with strength of steel Using a technique that creates a new nanoscale architecture, researchers have created an aluminum alloy just as strong as steel but with reasonable plasticity to stretch and not break under stress. Importantly, the technique of creating these nanostructures can be used on many different types of metals and the team plans to work on strengthening magnesium, a metal that is even lighter than aluminum that could be used to make strong, lightweight body armor for soldiers. Read More KTM eGnition brings electricity to freeride cycling The Austrian KTM eGnition was definitely one of the more interesting bicycles at last week's Eurobike show in Germany. It has the frame and components of a freeride mountain bike, but with a 1,000-watt Clean Mobile electric motor that delivers extra power when the rider is pedaling. The fact that the electric assist is only available when pedaling was a key factor in the design of the eGnition, as KTM wanted it to be clearly different than an electric motorbike. The folks who run Eurobike obviously approved, as it received their Design Award for this year’s event. Read More Willow Garage's PR2 robot now for sale Earlier this year we reported how Californian robotics company Willow Garage was giving away a number of its PR2 robots to various institutions as part of its PR2 Beta program. Lucky PR2 recipients were asked to use the robot to pursue their research and development goals and share their progress with the open source robotics community so that the community as a whole can build on each other’s results. Now anyone can get in the act with Willow Garage officially announcing commercial availability of the robot. And if you’ve got a proven track record in the open source community you could be eligible for a hefty discount. Read More Conway E-Rider kicks out 2,000 watts You may have just read our take on the KTM eGnition freeride bike that was on display at this year’s Eurobike, but it wasn’t the only electric mountain bike in attendance. German bike-maker Conway also used the event to premiere its burly-looking E-Rider. Its motor can generate up to 2,000 watts, which definitely separates it from the commuting ebikes, while its weight is somewhere under 20 kilograms (44 lbs.) – not bad for something with a motor and a battery. Read More Nikon introduces new COOLPIX cameras Shortly after launching the new COOLPIX S1100pj with inbuilt projector, Nikon has announced three new COOLPIX cameras to its COOLPIX range. The P7000, S8100 and the S80 are filled with functions and specs you don’t often see on point-and-shoot cameras. All three cameras feature Nikon’s exclusive EXPEED C2 high performance digital image processing engine and Nikkor Ed glass lenses. Read More New guitar pickup design offers natural 3D sound The incredible guitar virtuosity from the likes of Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and Stanley Jordan all rely on their string-picking proficiency being registered by the instrument's pickups. These vibrations are then transformed into electrical signals and sent off to an amplifier for our listening pleasure. Using such a setup, string movement can only be read on one axis, the horizontal. The 3Dxy pickup system reads each string twice, on both the horizontal and the vertical and is said to result in a rich, surround sound effect called natural stereo. Read More If you would like to refer this newsletter to a friend or colleague, please point them at our free subscription page. Please don't try to forward this email, as the formatting is unlikely to remain intact. And don't worry, we don't share email addresses. Please read our privacy policy if you are concerned. Watch for more of the best new innovations, ideas and practical technologies in your inbox. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our daily newsletter at http://www.gizmag.com. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter please click here to unsubscribe. COPYRIGHT GIZMAG (C) 2010