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Issue no. 20, 2005 Published: Jun 24, 2005
Data trading races with Avalanche algorithms
'Digital plaster' monitors health
Pyramid lens boosts LED efficiency
'Flying eyeball' to inspect spacecraft
Do games prime brain for violence?
Wine scanner has perfect palette

Data trading races with Avalanche algorithms
Mammoth software patches, movie files and TV-on-demand could be delivered swiftly to internet users using a smart network transfer technology developed by researchers at Microsoft. Its creators say that 'Avalanche' improves upon the highly successful download algorithms employed by BitTorrent, a software tool that optimises the transfer of large amounts of data, such as software or video files. BitTorrent speeds up downloading, even when a file is in great demand, by slicing data into chunks and enabling users to share them with one another. BitTorrent does not, however, ensure that these chunks of data reach a recipient in the most efficient manner, and this can mean a frustrating wait for that elusive last chunk. Avalanche aims to boost the efficiency of such a process. It encodes individual blocks of data using linear equations - in such a way that they slightly overlap - and passes on the encoded pieces instead. This overlapping process means that the original data can be reconstructed even if the user does not receive all the blocks of data.
New Scientist Jun 21, 2005	back to top

'Digital plaster' monitors health
A high-tech plaster, which could keep a constant check on your health, has been developed by scientists from London's Imperial College. The device checks vital signs such as temperature, blood pressure and glucose levels, sending results to a computer, which highlights any cause for concern. The 'digital plaster' - which measures three millimetres by five - contains a silicon chip, which can carry sensors for a range of symptoms. So a sensor could pick up the electrical activity of the heart to show if there were any problems. Other sensors would check signs such as temperature, or blood glucose levels. All this information would then be processed by the Sensium silicon chip which is powered by a tiny battery. The data can be sent from the device via a mobile phone or PDA on to a computer database, which has been set up to detect results which are outside defined ranges. Trials of the new technology should start in the next few months.
BBC News Jun 17, 2005	back to top

Pyramid lens boosts LED efficiency
Researchers from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US have developed a way to boost light emitted from white light-emitting diodes by up to 60 per cent. White light-emitting diodes are made from blue light-emitting diodes covered by a phosphor that absorbs blue photons and emits them in the broad spectrum of wavelengths that makes up white light. Usually 60 per cent of the photons emitted by the phosphor or scattered back to the diode, where they are reabsorbed. The researchers showed that it is possible to recover many of the back-scattered photons if the phosphor is placed away from the diode portion of the device. The researchers' scattered photon extraction method involves placing a lens between the diode and phosphor. Because the phosphor layer covers a larger area than the diode, the lens is shaped like an upside-down pyramid. This allows much of the back-scattered light to escape out the sides of the lens. This increases the amount of useful light the device produces without increasing the power needed.
Technology Research News / Physica Status Solidi Jun 22, 2005	back to top

'Flying eyeball' to inspect spacecraft
A little spherical spacecraft may soon be buzzing around the exterior of the International Space Station and the space shuttles to inspect for any damage. The Miniature Autonomous Extravehicular Robotic Camera has now completed a docking test and could be ready for its first space mission as early as 2006 or 2007. The advantage of Mini AERCam is that is allows inspection of the complete spacecraft from any angle, and from any standoff distance. Another advantage is that it weighs just 4.5 kilograms, much less than the robotic arm extension, currently used for damage inspections. Ground controllers could fly the 19-centimetre-diameter Mini AERCam, astronauts could control it from inside the spacecraft, or the craft could scan a vehicle autonomously. It can work a maximum of six hours before returning to its docking station, where it would recharge its batteries and the tanks that fuel its 12 thrusters.
New Scientist Jun 21, 2005	back to top

Do games prime brain for violence?
A small study of brain activity in video-game veterans suggests that their brains react as if they are treating the violence as real. Klaus Mathiak at the University of Aachen in Germany recruited 13 men aged 18 to 26, who played video games for 2 hours every day on average, and asked them to play a violent game while having their brains scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). He analysed the game scene by scene and studied how brain activity changed during violent interactions. This meant that he could compare patterns of brain activity immediately before and during fights with activity at less aggressive points in the game. He found that as violence became imminent, the cognitive parts of the brain became more active. And during a fight, emotional parts of the brain were shut down. It is impossible to scan people's brains during acts of real aggression so Mathiak argues that this is as close as you can get to the real thing. It suggests that video games are a 'training for the brain to react with this pattern', he says.
New Scientist Jun 23, 2005	back to top

Wine scanner has perfect palette
There is no greater anguish for a wine collector than to spend thousands of dollars on a 50-year-old bottle of Bordeaux, only to have it taste like vinegar when it is opened. But now a US real estate developer and wine enthusiast says he has found a way to guarantee wine drinkers will never taste sour grapes again. Eugene Mulvihill has constructed a $50,000 Wine Scanner to determine the chemical composition of wine without opening the bottle. Developed with the help of scientists at the University of California, the Wine Scanner is based on the same magnetic resonance imaging technology used for medical scans. MRI technology can detect bad wine by analysing the chemical compounds found in the drink. Bottles under investigation are placed inside a 1.8-metre, boiler-like cylinder, and radio waves are shot through them. The compounds that make wine taste bad - acetic acid, and acid aldehyde, - absorb radio waves at different rates than wine that is still good. High concentrations of either compound mean that the wine has gone bad.
Wired News Jun 23, 2005	back to top