Wearable device allows graphic designer with Parkinson's disease to write her name again

Emma Lawton was a graphic designer. At age 29, she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Three years later, hand tremors had progressed to the stage where she could no longer write her name, or draw a straight line. Now, a BBC project & Haiyan Zhang, Microsoft Research Cambridge’s innovation director, have produced a wearable device which allows her to do those things again.



Emma Lawton speaking at Being the Story. (The blue line across the screen which you may notice early in the video is not a fault in your equipment, or anywhere else – you’ll see the cause later in the video.)

/ graphic designer Emma Lawton diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease three years ago age of 29 BBC project Haiyan Zhang Microsoft Research Cambridge’s Microsoft Research Cambridge innovation director wearable device reclaim her lifelong passion for drawing and sketching The Big Life Fix BBC series got underway Emma Lawton featured first episode of the series focuses people United Kingdom’s top inventors solutions problems affect day-to-day life Parkinson’s disease cause sufferer’s hands shake uncontrollably making simple actions almost impossible Emma Lawton’s tremor becoming so severe career graphic designer serious jeopardy report from MS Power User Haiyan Zhang previously created cutlery disabled people reacts to their movements avoid spilling food building upon that foundation create wrist-worn device wearable dubbed the Emma facilitate facilitates drawing sketching counteracting impulses sent to the wearer’s arm The Emma intentionally shakes user’s arm interrupting feedback loop impedes normal movement while wearing the device Emma Lawton able to draw straight lines write legibly BBC program was filmed wearing the Emma on a daily basis Haiyan Zhang no plans to develop the Emma no commercial release commercial release designed the device to fit Lawton’s particular needs others will take the technology continue to develop it further /

Feathered dinosaur tail encased in amber

99 Million year old amber with the feathered tail of a dinosaur trapped inside – amber appears to have been shaped by a jeweller
Credit: Ryan McKellar/Royal Saskatchewan Museum/The Age

Fossilisation typically preserves the shape of the hard parts of an organism. Bones are not preserved as such. The process of fossilisation replaces the bones with minerals, atom-by-atom, so that the structure of the bones is preserved in stone. This is what we see in the image below – the fossilised skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex.


Fossilised skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex
Credit: bnps.co.uk/Daily Mail

Rarely, a softer structure, such as this sample of Triceratops skin, is fossilised – but because, once again, the original is replaced atom-by-atom, no colour information is retained.


Fossilised Triceratops skin
Credit: Fossils ourprehistoricworld/Pinterest

Shown in the image at the top of this post, & below, is the tail of a dinosaur which was engulfed by tree sap 99 million years ago. Subsequently, the tree sap hardened into amber, preserving bones, skin & feathers, almost wholly intact, without mineralisation. As a result, colour information has been preserved. It appears that the dinosaur was brown above & white below.


Detail from the piece of amber. Notice that the four tips in the top left & middle left all branch from the same shaft
Credit: Ryan McKellar/Royal Saskatchewan Museum/New York Times

Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Feathered dinosaur tail discovered in lump of amber from a market in Myanmar
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-09/99-million-year-old-amber-fossil-holds-dinosaur-bones-feathers/8092526

Sydney Morning Herald – Dinosaur tail feathers encased in amber found at a market in Myanmar
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/dinosaur-tail-found-encased-in-amber-found-at-a-market-in-myanmar-20161208-gt7bia.html / feathered dinosaur tail discovered lump of amber from market Myanmar amber piece chestnut brown feathers sprout fossilised tail dinosaur Royal Saskatchewan Museum RSM/R.C. McKellar preserved bones feathers tip dinosaur tail amber piece chestnut brown feathers sprout fossilised tail dinosaur Royal Saskatchewan Museum R.C. McKellar exquisitely preserved bones feathers tip dinosaur tail discovered piece 99-million-year-old amber found palaeontologist hunting fossils Myanmar market piece dinosaur tail preserved 99-million-year-old amber 99 million year old amber first time dinosaur skeleton material found in amber help scientists understand development feathers dinosaurs birds astonishing fossil contains first skeletal remains dinosaur ever found preserved amber international team scientists journal Current Biology spotted amber market last year palaeontologist Dr Lida Xing tail fragment young dinosaur about size sparrow lived mid-Cretaceous period amber was originally assumed contain some sort plant material destined to become jewellery Dr Xing China University of Beijing scientific significance colleague Dr Ryan McKellar co-author research paper private collection gone entirely unnoticed Dr McKellar Royal Saskatchewan Museum Canada close inspection fossil microscope CT scanning revealed stunning 3D detail feathers sprouting from either side central rod preserved traces pigmentation reveal top feathers light chestnut brown underside pale white colour feathers tail 3.5 centimetres long eight to nine tiny vertebrae fossil contains remnants soft tissue muscles analysis tissue revealed molecules iron may indicate traces haemoglobin protein trapped fossil once-in-a-lifetime project dinosaur visually stunning level of detail specimen amber dinosaur bone digs Alberta Saskatchewan fragment of a feather part of the animal skeletal remains too fossil dinosaur not bird wispy-tailed juvenile dinosaur theropod group of largely carnivorous animals included creatures Tyrannosaurus rex ancestors modern birds dinosaur bird bones within tail aren't fused together into rod modern birds shows more similarity dinosaurs velociraptor tyrannosaurus modern birds specimen help scientists better understand how feathers developed dinosaurs evolved into birds feather and amber feathers intermediate form modern bird feathers have barbs central shaft well developed central shaft particular pathway development of feathers dinosaurs leading to birds feathers developed barbules and barbs before developing entral shaft /

John Glenn 1921-2016

Credit: NASA/Michael Lawrence Films
God speed John Glenn

Scott Carpenter, backup pilot &
capsule communicator
1962 orbital flight

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NASA movie of John Glen’s orbital flight, 20 February 1962

/ John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016 American aviator engineer astronaut United States Senator Ohio 1962 first American to orbit the earth circling three times NASA distinguished fighter pilot World War II Korea five Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen clusters Mercury Seven group military test pilots selected 1959 NASA America's first astronauts February 20 1962 flew Friendship 7 mission first American to orbit the Earth fifth person in space Congressional Space Medal of Honor Honour in 1978 U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame last surviving member of the Mercury Seven /

X-rays show how gas “pillows” make lithium-ion batteries explode

Credit: Journal of the Electrochemical Society

Abuse or manufacturing errors can cause a lithium ion cell to evolve gas, causing it to expand, or “pillow”. Abuse can take the form of overheating, overcharging, overdischarging, electrical short or physical abuse such as a forceful blow or bending. This process may continue with some combination of heat, smoke, flames & explosion. Perhaps most famously, in the recent events which lead to cessation of production & recall of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones.^1,2,3,4

This much has been known for some time. Recently, a team at Canadian Light Source Inc., has used computed tomography (CT) scan technology to investigate what actually happens inside a cell failing in this way.⁵


Cross sections through a lithium ion cell produced by CT scans:   (a) as manufactured   (b) after overdischarge
(c) image difference map of the two scans with areas of expansion (gas formation) in red
Credit: Journal of the Electrochemical Society

Notice that areas of gas formation are frequently concentrated in irregularities in the manufactured cell. This suggests that improvements in manufacturing techniques can make cells less susceptible to this failure mode.

New Scientist
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2115413-x-rays-show-how-gas-pillows-make-lithium-ion-batteries-explode/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter&utm_term=Autofeed&cmpid=SOC%7cNSNS%7c2016-Echobox#link_time=1481109691
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¹ Hitchhiker’s Guide 2 Tech: “Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fires – cause – simple solution”, http://hhg2tech.blogspot.com/2016/09/samsung-galaxy-note-7-fires-cause-what.html

² Hitchhiker’s Guide 2 Tech: “Samsung Galaxy Note 7 – fires continue – simple solution”, http://hhg2tech.blogspot.com/2016/09/samsung-galaxy-note-7-fires-continue.html

³ Hitchhiker’s Guide 2 Tech: “iPhone has fire too”, http://hhg2tech.blogspot.com/2016/09/iphone-has-fire-too.html

⁴ Hitchhiker’s Guide 2 Tech: “More lithium ion battery fires – not just phones”, http://hhg2tech.blogspot.com/2016/11/more-lithium-ion-battery-fires.html

⁵ Toby Bond et. al.: “Electrode Stack Geometry Changes during Gas Evolution in Pouch-Cell-Type Lithium Ion Batteries”, http://jes.ecsdl.org/content/164/1/A6158.full / Recipe for Swiss roll flambé Toby Bond Canadian Light Source battery has swollen up like an inflatable pillow LiIon lithium-ion lithium ion batteries battery cell cells ubiquitous phones laptops device devices tablets pad iPad hoverboards lightweight hold a lot of charge high charge density recent spate of explosions safety concerns batteries damage-prone damage prone structure Toby Bond Canadian Light Source synchrotron facility Saskatoon Canada Canadian Light Source Inc. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 2V3 Canada contain electrode sheets wrapped in a spiralling Swiss roll jelly roll configuration energy-producing layers causes problems gas forms inside gas build up battery becomes overheated overcharged left drained of charge for too long liquid components battery vaporise and produce gas causes external casing swell up resulting in the characteristic pillow appearance battery can either pillow small amount keep operating pillow a lot cease operation keep generating gas rupture cell explosion fire pillowing battery’s outer appearance looking inside high-powered X-ray technique called computed tomography CT scan process as gas built up electrode layers appeared buckle push apart subtle defects already present battery found to be points of weakness defects probably introduced assembly process suggesting improvements manufacturing make lithium batteries more resistant unclear whether pillowing involved recent battery failures Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones reduce risk develop lithium-ion batteries no liquid components Neeraj Sharma University of New South Wales Sydney Australia working on solid-state batteries can be very safe scientific technical challenges need to be overcome compete with conventional lithium-ion batteries protect your lithium battery from pillowing stop it from overheating Avoid many uninterrupted hours playing 3D games your phone binge-watching movies nine-hour flight /

Nike’s self-lacing shoes too expensive? – try the Xpand Lacing System

Credit: Xpand

With Nike HyperAdapt retailing at $720 (if you can get your hands on a pair),¹ plus their complexity, & the need to keep the batteries charged, you may have decided that self lacing shoes are not for you.

Good news is that the Xpand Lacing System adds most of the same functionality to your own shoes, without any of the disadvantages – for as little as $5 per pair.



New Atlas
http://newatlas.com/xpand-lacing-system/40295/

Gear Junkie
https://gearjunkie.com/xpand-lacing-system

Indiegogo project
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/xpand-lacing-system-shoes/x/9010251#/

Kickstarter project
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/914635363/xpand-lacing-system/
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¹ Sneaker News: “How To Buy The Nike HyperAdapt 1.0”, http://sneakernews.com/2016/11/14/how-to-buy-the-nike-hyperadapt/ / Xpand traditional shoelaces shoelace tied in a bow hide the lace-ends inside your shoes new Xpand lacing system uses elastic laces slim anchors keep your shoes comfortable looking slick elastic laces bulky toggles hang outside the shoe Xpand system providing a means keeping your shoes laced tightly discreet and unintrusive manner designed by Charles Harris partnership with Seattle-based Pillar Product Design Xpand system lace shoes normal laces Lace Anchor lace-end and adjust desired tightness lace-ends trimmed off excess optional additional clip provides a tidy finished look Lace Anchors worn either inside or outside shoe worn inside they rest flat against the inside of the shoe comfort ensure wearer's laces look no different to conventional laces worn outside the shoe look more understated and streamlined than other solutions anchors and clips made of made of fiber-reinforced resin laces elastic rubber available in a variety of colors allows users to put on their shoes in three seconds flat system is easy enough for five-year-olds to use strong enough for triathletes Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign Xpand system production and roll-out /

Strongest hint yet Apple is working on self-driving tech

Credit: Fabrice Coffrini/Getty/Wired

There has been speculation for some time that Apple is building a motor vehicle/electric vehicle/autonomous vehicle – including in these pages.

And Apple registered some motor-vehicle-related domain names such as apple.car & apple.auto some time ago.¹

In the last few days, Apple has been reported as having written a five page letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Quotes include:

● [Apple is] “... excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation”

● “... significant societal benefits of automated vehicles”

Despite some of the headlines, the only way that the Apple letter to NHTSA advances the speculation is that in indicates that:

● Apple has an interest in autonomous vehicles

● this interest may extend to an Apple autonomous vehicle, or something less ambitious, such as hardware &/or software for integration into vehicles by other manufacturers

BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38199880

Wired
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/apple-self-driving-car-plans

MacRumours
http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/apple-car/

Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/12/apple-is-excited-about-the-potential-of-self-driving-cars/
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¹ Apple Insider: “Apple registers apple.car, apple.auto and apple.cars domain names”, http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/01/08/apple-registers-applecar-appleauto-and-applecars-domain-names / Apple letter clearest hint working on a self-driving car letter transport regulators Apple excited about automated systems transportation Apple given its clearest indication yet working on a self-driving car working with car manufacturers letter National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA Washington Apple uses machine learning products and services smarter investing heavily study machine learning automation excited about potential automated systems transportation comments response proposed Federal Automated Vehicles Policy Apple policy fundamental ensuring safety public acceptance automated vehicles providing flexible path for innovation five-page letter stops short explicitly admitting Apple working on self-driving car despite some headlines suggesting hopes new entrants industry same opportunities established manufacturers testing technology public roads Apple would be so vocal on this matter some stake in its progress rumoured Apple's self-driving car resemble a minivan initial reports design Apple told Wired does not comment on rumours or speculation Apple in talks acquire Formula 1 team owner McLaren Technology Group rumours potential F1 acquisition surfaced July tech giant approached car firm full takeover McLaren later denied claims reports Apple's car development report McLaren claims Apple's car program dubbed Project Titan responsible design and development car Apple has also hired driverless car experts engineers Tesla other car firms Apple /

AirDroid vulnerability threatens millions of users – Update: fix released

AirDroid
Credit: GreenBot

Update 01:50 Saturday 10 December GMT: just updated to version 4.0.0.3 which claims to fix the vulnerability described below.

AirDroid is a utility for the Android phone OS which allows sharing messages & files on phones with desktops & laptops – this functionality accounts for the 10 million + downloads indicated on the Google Play store.

All of those users are now at risk due to a vulnerability in the app which makes phones susceptible to a man-in-the-middle attack. Affected versions include the latest, version 4.0.0.1 (frequently misreported as 4.0.1). Claims have been made that the author has known about the vulnerability for 6 months – although a fix is promised within 2 weeks.

What should you do? Mobile security firm Zimperium, which discovered the vulnerability, advises that users should uninstall AirDroid until a fix is available.

GreenBot
http://www.greenbot.com/article/3146640/android/severe-airdroid-vulnerability-threatens-tens-of-millions-of-android-users.html

Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/12/at-least-10-million-android-users-imperiled-by-popular-airdroid-app/ / popular remote management utility AirDroid attracted millions users sharing messages files phones PCs firing it up today mobile security firm Zimperium published report several major vulnerabilities threaten threat hijack your device security issue latest 4.0.0.1 release Zimperium insecure communication channels send the same data used to authenticate the device to their statistics server same network simple man-in-the-middle attack intercept user’s email address password AirDroid hacker download malicious updates app give them full control over the device Zimperium contacted Sand Studio vulnerability last month’s release version 4.0.0.1 vulnerability has not been patched advises users uninstall AirDroid until a fix is available Betty Chen, chief marketing officer Sand Studio Greenbot working on the solution roll out within next two weeks security vulnerabilities Google accounts Google Play store AirDroid popular utility 50 million Android users developers obligation users app safe and secure as possible quickly patched similar bug exposed by Check Point /