Gizmodo: georgia institute of technology

Modded Kids Snowmobiles to be Used to Aid Climate Research

Kit Eaton — Wed, 28 May 2008 05:55:00 EDT

Instead of trekking across ice sheets and into dangerous areas to gather data on climate change, scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology are going to send robots in instead. Dubbed SnoMotes, the in-development robots are modified kids snowmobiles—chosen for their cheapness and resilience—packed with navigation gear and sensors, and able to work as a team without the need for remote control.

The SnoMotes will use their cameras and sensors to navigate across terrain, and they'll be able to communicate with each other to ensure they collect the necessary research data most efficiently. The trick is getting the system to work in difficult icy white-out conditions, and one possible solution is to allow the robots to "bid" on a particular destination, based on how far away they are from it, and how healthy they are, mechanically and electronically speaking.

Recently unveiled at IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, and funded by NASA, when functional the robots will be able to collect data in Greenland and Antarctica that will aid research into the effects on ice-masses caused by climate change. [Gizmag]

Researchers Reach 15Gbps Wireless Transfers

Haroon Malik — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 14:40:28 EDT

The boffins at the Georgia Institute of Technology are working on a realistic solution for high-speed wireless data transfer. The technology, dubbed multi-gigabit wireless, has reached a blazing 15Gbps at 1m.

The vision is in creating Personal Area Networks (PAN), and relies upon utilizing unlicensed, 60GHz RF frequencies. The transfer speeds are only limited by distance; speed falls drastically as distance increases. (At 2m, 10Gbps and at 3m, 5Gbps).

The practical applications come to life in the form of peer-to-peer file sharing. The new standard, to be called 802.15.3C, is also cross compatible with FireWire and USB. The possibilities for such advancement, seems to be endless. Fast wire free data transfer between electronic devices would replace the necessity for close range, wired communications. (E.g. TV to DVD, Laptop to Laptop/Mobile etc, the list goes on).

Speed freaks and the rest of the World, watch this space. [Georgia Tech]

Hand Gesture Watch Needs No Buttons

Mark Wilson — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:53:40 EDT

In a case of divine irony, the smaller and more desirable our gadgets become, the harder they would be to use. That's why researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a watch that can be controlled by gesturing, eliminating tiny controls not meant for our mortal caveman hands.

Measuring movement through five infrared sensors, four of these sensors are used for two-dimensional hand controls occurring over the watch face (like up/down, left/right and circles). The fifth sensor seems to be designated for movements of the watch itself, though that aspect of control is less clear.

With embedded Bluetooth, users could control a host of objects through a wrist interface, promoting seamless-designed devices á la The Future. As a child I was always fascinated by buttons, but I guess that my own children will laugh at such antique novelties. [discovery via technabob]