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Category: mobile phones – Page 195

Meet The Kenyan Engineer Who Created Gloves That Turn Sign Language Into Audible Speech

Photo: Roy Allela

Twenty-five-year-old Kenyan engineer and innovator, Roy Allela, has created a set of gloves that will ultimately allow better communication between those who are deaf and those who are hearing yet may not necessarily know sign language. The Sign-IO gloves in essence translate signed hand movements into audible speech.

Allela’s gloves feature sensors located on each finger that detect the positioning of each finger, including how much each finger will bend into a given position. The glove connects via Bluetooth to an Android phone which then will leverage use the text-to-speech function to provide translated speech to the hand gestures of a person signing.

After the Smartphone: The Race for the Next Big Thing

As the smartphone market matures, startups are racing to predict what’s next, and venture-capital firms are spraying money into fields like virtual reality, smart watches and even implants in the brain. Here are some of the startups attracting investment.

Venture-capital investors are spraying money into fields like virtual reality, driverless cars and even implants in the brain.

Astronomers aren’t pleased about a Russian plan to put billboards in space

This is a horrible, horrible idea. The company wants to create a series of satellites that can unfurl, which will reflect light, and that can be manipulated to send messages to earth. The entire collection, comprised of CubeSats, will provide an area of about 50 sq. km. and create a whole new kind of orbital debris.

According to the website, “When phones don’t work, during zero visibility, power cuts and catastrophical emergencies – government can use the display for urgent notifications for the population.” We can ignore the idea of them being seen during zero visibility, but can you imagine a message floating in the sky that you can’t just turn off?

It was bound to happen.

While the rest of us look up at the night sky, and wonder at what we’re seeing, ponder how it all fits together, and strain ourselves trying to understand how our origins are intertwined with all that we see, others don’t. They look up at the magnitude of the night sky and think none of these things.

Instead they think, “Hmmm…that’s a big, empty billboard. How can I make money from it?”

Binghamton University researchers design a more durable MEMS switch

Researchers from Binghamton University’s Mechanical Engineering Department have developed a way to make cell phones and power lines more durable.

Assistant Professor Sherry Towfighian and graduate student Mark Pallay created a new type of microelectromechanical system – more commonly known as a MEMS switch – that uses electrostatic levitation to provide a more robust system.

“All cell phones use MEMS switches for wireless communication, but traditionally there are just two electrodes,” said Towfighian. “Those switches open and close numerous times during just one hour, but their current lifespan is limited by the two-electrode system.”

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