Military Researchers Design Real-life 'Transformer' Plane

UK aerospace and defense contractor BAE Systems have taken the wraps off several concepts it envisions as possible tools for the military in the decades to come — and if these designs are any guide, future battlefields are going to look like the set of a science fiction movie.

The most interesting of the concepts is called the Transformer, a stealth aircraft that's actually composed of three airplanes — a large, diamond-shaped model, and two smaller flanking planes.

The Transformer is theoretically capable of longer flights that conserve fuel by reducing overall aerodynamic drag.

Right now, the most common aerial refueling techniques are the probe-and-drogue and the boom method, both of which require the delicate mid-air synchronization of separate aircraft. The Transformer would conceivably make the prospect of longer missions easier by requiring fewer mid-air fueling runs.

Alongside the Transformer, the firm also unveiled several other concept vehicles, including a self-healing aircraft called the Survivor (see video above). This plane repairs its exterior in mid-flight using a lightweight adhesive fluid within a pattern of carbon nanotubes.

BAE's concept videos also include an aircraft capable of shooting a concentrated energy beam to disable missiles as well as an aircraft (see video below) with the ability to fabricate and deploy UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) using on-board 3D printers.

But while BAE's advanced research group is known for coming up with fascinating innovations, the company is careful to mention that the concepts are mere predictions of what might be possible by 2040.

"[W]e don't know exactly what sorts of aircraft technologies will be used in 2040 with any certainty," said Nick Colosimo, an engineering manager from BAE's R&D team, in a statement. "But it's great to be able to show the public some concepts that might be possible through projecting where today’s technology could get to."

Image:youtube BAE SYSTEM

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Researchers Create Walking Bio-Bots That Are Powered by Muscle

Researchers at the University of Illinois are developing what they call “bio-bots," or machines that combine synthetic 3D-printed frameworks with biological muscle tissue.

When the muscle fibers are jolted with electricity, they contract. Those muscles are attached to 3D-printed "bones," which are flexible enough to bend under the strain, and the result is forward motion. Scientists can control the speed of each bot by varying the frequency of electric pulses.

Researchers here have worked on similar projects before. A walking bio-bot in 2012 used rat heart cells to provide motion. However, the heart cells were "always on"; researchers couldn’t control when they fired.

The new version solves that problem.

“Skeletal muscles cells are very attractive because you can pace them using external signals,” head researcher Rashid Bashir said. “We want to have different options that could be used by engineers to design these things.”

The Illinois group envisions bio-bots that act as surgical aids or drug delivery vehicles, perhaps even with their own neurons so they can recognize and respond to light or chemical stimuli.

The team’s findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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'Smart Glass' Could Produce DSLR-Quality Smartphone Photos

Newly developed "smart glass" technology that mimics the shutter capabilities of a traditional camera could improve the pictures you snap on your smartphone. Researchers in Germany have developed a camera component for smartphones that helps adjust light, exposure and focus.

Traditional cameras have what photographers refer to as an aperture — overlapping blades around the inside of a lens that move mechanically to change the size and focus of the lens. The aperture is sometimes referred to as an "iris." Much like the iris of the human eye, it controls how much light enters the mechanism, which affects the image that is eventually produced. When it comes to cameras, the amount of light that touches the camera's sensors affect the overall focus of the picture you take.

Because of their size, smartphone cameras currently don’t have aperture mechanisms. "There is no technology today that can realize an iris aperture for smartphone cameras," said Tobias Deutschmann, physicist at the Technische Universitaet Kaiserslautern in Germany and lead-author of the study.

As a result, camera phone pictures won’t have the same quality or focus as pictures taken by a DSLR camera, for instance.

"The [smartphone] cameras would benefit from an iris, because it allows [the camera] to change the depth of focus, which is not possible right now, and would further close the gap in functionality between smartphone cameras and conventional digital cameras," Deutschmann told Live Science. "In addition it would be an option to create larger optics for the smartphones to increase the picture quality in bad light situations, like at night, while the iris would decrease the amount of light that reaches the sensor in bright environments."

Deutschmann and his colleagues developed a mechanism to make up for the need for better focus — a "micro-iris." The thin device, made of electrochromic material sometimes referred to as "smart glass," can be placed on the smartphone camera lens. Electrochromic material controls how much light passes through itself by changing its transparency in response to light or heat. Smart glass has been used in sunroofs, windows and skylights, and the material changes in opacity from transparent to translucent when heated or when voltage is applied to it.

In rearview mirrors, smart glass tints the mirror to reduce light glare. In architecture, smart glass is being employed in buildings as a way to cut energy costs, Green Tech Media reports.

But in smartphone cameras, the smart glass in the micro-iris could function as an aperture — it can adjust how much light enters the camera, preventing too much exposure and helping to focus the image. The micro-iris is also incredibly low-powered, requiring only 1.5 volts of electricity, which means handheld smartphones are well-suited to handle it, the researchers said.

Deutschmann said the smart glass is still in its early stages of development, which means the idea works in principle but isn’t quite ready for commercial products just yet. Future research will look at how well electrochromic materials can control camera focus — an important parameter that will determine whether smart glass will be a key feature for next-generation smartphones.

This article originally published at LiveScience.

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Zappos Launches Native Windows Phone App

You can now add Zappos to the list of companies slowly making their way to Windows Phone.

The Las Vegas-based retailer launched its first Windows Phone app Tuesday. Zappos developed the app through a partnership with Microsoft.

Unlike some Windows Phone apps — such as the one recently launched for Pinterest — Zappos' app is a true native app, and not just a shortcut to its mobile site.

"Windows Phone doesn't have a lot of native apps," Aki Iida, Zappos' head of mobile, told. "When you build web apps, one of the main challenges that you have is you have to build the same experience for all devices. With native experience, you can build technology that allows you to make all the transitions much smoother and easier."

The Windows Phone app has the same basic functionality as Zappos' existing iOS and Android offerings, including free shipping on all orders placed through the app. However, it has fewer features overall. For example, the Windows Phone app doesn't allow users to initiate returns, track orders or manage their account information.

This highlights a much bigger problem with the Windows Phone platform. Companies are often reluctant to spend the time and resources developing native Windows Phone apps, and even when they do — as we've seen recently with Pinterest, Spotify and Instagram, which is still in beta more than a year after its launch — the apps are rarely on par with their iOS and Android counterparts.

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Samsung Announces New 85-Inch UHD TV and Curved Sets

Samsung announced three new UHD televisions on Tuesday, including two curved sets and a monstrous $10,000 addition to its HU8550 series.

At a whopping 85 inches, the new TV is the largest set in Samsung's HU8550 lineup, though it's not the company's largest UHD TV, which is 110 inches. The television will sell for $10,000 when it becomes available later this month.

The two new curved sets — part of Samsung's new HU7250 lineup — come in more manageable 55- and 65-inch varieties, and will retail for $2,200 and $3,300, respectively, when they hit stores in August. The new curved offerings are powered by a quad-core processor, and include Samsung's UHD Dimming feature, which adjusts the display's brightness and contrast. They also have the ability to display content from four different sources onscreen, simultaneously.

Finally, Samsung announced its new HU6950 series, new flat screens meant to be more affordable UHD TV offerings. The sets come with some of the same features as Samsung's flagships, including UHD Dimming, UHD Upscaling and multiscreen capabilities. The HU6950 lineup come in 40-, 50- and 55-inch options, and will cost between $1,000 and $2,000.

Image: Samsung

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