Slashdot Mirror

There are french cars that run completely on compressed air around for years.

http://www.gizmo.com.au/go/3523/

slashdot, wake the fsck up.

"The development of the BrainGate program is the culmination of 10 years of research in my academic laboratory at Brown University. . ."

About the BrainGate device

The BrainGate Neural Interface Device is a proprietary brain-computer interface that consists of an internal neural signal sensor and external processors that convert neural signals into an output signal under the users own control. The sensor consists of a tiny chip smaller than a baby aspirin, with one hundred electrode sensors each thinner than a hair that detect brain cell electrical activity.

The BrainGate technology platform was designed to take advantage of the fact that many patients with motor impairment have an intact brain that can produce movement commands. This may allow the BrainGate system to create an output signal directly from the brain, bypassing the route through the nerves to the muscles that cannot be used in paralysed people.

The chip is implanted on the surface of the brain in the motor cortex area that controls movement. In the pilot version of the device, a cable connects the sensor to an external signal processor in a cart that contains computers. The computers translate brain activity and create the communication output using custom decoding software. Importantly, the entire BrainGate system was specifically designed for clinical use in humans and thus, its manufacture, assembly and testing are intended to meet human safety requirements. Five quadriplegics patients in all are enrolled in the pilot study, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Yeah, she doesn't look like the prototypical geek chick, but then, neither do most of the other geek chicks I know. If nothing else, it's good to see that females are becomming more common in the Engineering universe.

There you go; some sensible comments. If you want to see this idea (i.e. a product designed by women for women) in a slightly saner implementation, look at what Volvo did. (There are plenty of other sites if you Google a little.)

They made a design team comprised of women and said "design the car you want". They thought outside of traditional lines and asked themselves how they actually used the car. The result -- it's not some silly pink frilly thing, but a real car, with real horsepower, but loads of convenient attributes designed by women for women.

I won't go into all the details, but things like a race-style gas filler cap for ease of use, more thought on placement and design of storage compartments, and no bonnet at the front for maintenance, but instead having the whole front of the car lift up. By the way, not mentioned in the linked article -- they've drastically cut down on the amount of maintenance necessary, so it only needs an oil change every 31,000 miles.

This Taero 4000 reminds me of the Sokol A400 Flying Car. I haven't looked deeply, but I'll bet some of the same people are involved.

It's ashame that the Solotrek died so fast (see more about it here).

And they also just broke a speed record on Nov. 12th. Only 501 kph, but on a "real" track soon to be opened for public transport, and with a train passing in the opposite direction at 430 kph.

I guess the petrolhead in me was hoping to see the Bugatti Veyron in there. Yeah, sure it wouldn't exactly make it in there for safety, but for engineering perfection it pretty much has it in the bag. The engine is a Volkswagen developed 16 cylinder, 8 litre, 64 valve quad turbo lump outputting 1001BHP..

Acceleration on this machine must only be comparable to a ride in a jet plane.. 0-62MPH is estimated at just over 3 seconds, and do from 0-186MPH in little under 14 seconds. And the top speed is around 250MPH.

If you fancy Slashdotting someone, try this link for more information and pictures :

http://www.gizmo.com.au/public/News/news.asp?artic leid=1290