360 DEGREES Weblog

A new invention out of Norway promises to keep the skies of the world open. When a volcano in Iceland erupted in 2010, it spewed out invisible clouds of ash that spread across Europe – effectively shutting down all civilian and military air traffic, stranding millions of people and costing the world economy billions of dollars. Now, a new camera has been developed that will allow pilots to see and avoid volcanic dust clouds, making similar eruptions in the future much less disruptive.

Enter Australian Fred Prata of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU). Under funding from Easyjet airlines, Prata has developed AVOID (Airborne Volcanic Object Imaging Detector). Based on technology originally designed for Earth-orbiting satellites and built by Nicarnica Aviation, his wing-mounted infrared camera closes the gap between the volcano and the computer model without having to build expensive fleets of sample planes. Since it works in the infrared range of the light spectrum. AVOID can see the ash particles in day or night up to 60 miles (100 km) away and when combining what it sees with air speed and GPS data, it can display ash concentrations in real time. Since the ash is in plumes and clumps, AVOID can tell planes where to fly safely even in conditions produced by the 2010 eruption.

But the really clever thing about AVOID is that it isn’t intended to be used in special meteorological aircraft. It’s meant to be mounted on ordinary airplane wings, so airliners can look out for themselves. In this way, a continental disaster can be reduced to a local problem.

After previous experiments with volcanoes in Japan and the Mariana Islands as well as during the 2010 eruption, AVOID has undergone extensive testing recently, including 10 days guiding a light aircraft through the ash plumes from Italy’s Mount Etna. Easyjet was so impressed with the result of their investment that they are installing AVOID on 20 of their Airbus aircraft in 2012 and will make the technology available to other airlines. It may not keep volcanoes from exploding, but it does make the aftermath a little easier to deal with.

Yves Rossy is the world’s only flying man. He attaches himself to a custom-built wing and 4 turbojets, and simply takes to the skies (dropping from a helicopter for now), tilting his body to control his flight path. He’s been making headlines for a while, especially when he first crossed the English channel with his wing, back in 2008. And now he can add another feather to his cap: he’s flown in formation with two L-39C Albatros planes from the Breitling Jet Team, flying at their minimum speed. You can see what it looked like in the video below.

A little on the wing itself. It has a wingspan of 2m and weighs 55kg (121lbs) fully fueled and with smoke solution, 30kg (66lbs) dry. It’s propelled by 4 Jet-Cat P200 turbojet engines, with 22 kilograms thrust each. It has an average speed of 200 km/h (120mph) and a top speed (in descent mode) of 300 km/h (180mph). Finally, the amount of fuel on board lets Yves fly autonomously for 10 minutes. After that, it’s parachute time.

The future of Flash looks dimmer and dimmer as another major player in the mobile space shuns support of the platform.

Microsoft’s brand new Windows 8 Metro user interface will not support Adobe Flash or other plug-ins, instead embracing the HTML5 set of web standards, according to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team leader Dean Hachamovitch. For users who access legacy ActiveX controls, they’ll have to jump out of the Metro UI and switch to the classic-styled desktop browser.

Hachamovitch explains that running IE without Flash or other plug-ins “improves battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers.” These are pretty much the same reasons that Apple doesn’t support Flash on its devices.

“Providing compatibility with legacy plug-in technologies would detract from, rather than improve, the consumer experience of browsing in the Metro style UI,” Hachamovitch wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

Of course, Adobe immediately went on the defensive, shifting attention away from Microsoft’s mobile devices.

Adobe’s Flash product has had a rough time as computing has shifted to a mobile environment. Apple has long banned Flash from its mobile devices, publicly announcing the reasons (which Adobe directly responded to). Recently, Apple stopped shipping Flash capability with products like the 2010 MacBook Air, which gave the 11-inch model a whopping two extra hours of battery life. Since Google released Android version 2.2 (Froyo), many Android-powered smartphones have supported Flash. But some say Android’s Flash-capabilities are wanting.

As Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is leading the way in space tourism, others who are taking the plunge in this genre for leisure, recreational or business purposes include the Russian company, Orbital Technologies, who has unveiled the design for its first space hotel. We recently told you about the Bloon space travelling balloon which would take you to near space and show the earth like you would never have seen before. But having a complete vacation is a new concept, which we had earlier shown in the Galactic Suite space resort and Orbital Technologies space hotel takes this adventure travel to new heights with its $1 million vacation plan.
The price tag of the vacation has been mainly due to the cost of the 2 day trip that it will take for the passengers to reach the space hotel, apart from the cost of accommodation in the unique spaceship cum hotel. A special Soyuz rocket manned by experienced crew will accompany the chosen 7 guests to the hotel in space, and show them the galactic space never seen before up close. The hotel itself has 4 cabins for these guests and staff members, and will avail every comfort possible on the spaceship hotel. Delicacies like potato soup, braised veal cheeks with mushrooms will be cooked on earth and taken along in special containers for service to the guests who would be experiencing and enjoying the weightless vacation in the hotel. For relaxation, the guests also have the choice of using vertical or horizontal beds. Practical aspects like human waste management have also been looked into. Instead of the abundant supply of water like in normal hotel facilities, more of flowing air will be used to keep the toilets clean. Also, facilities of waste water management have been included to make sure that the limited supply is most optimally used.

After experimenting on 24 adults, a research team at the University of California, Berkeley has determined that viewing content on a stereo 3D display hurts your eyes and your brain. The scientific term is “vergence-accomodation,” which means that the eye must constantly adjust to both the distance of the physical screen and that of the 3D content.

This can supposedly cause visual discomfort, fatigue, and headaches, which I had thought were just a part of life but apparently there’s a scapegoat: 3D technology.

When the space shuttle Atlantis touched down at 5:57 a.m. EDT this morning at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center it marked the end of an era. Over 30 years, NASA’s Space Shuttle program has overseen a total of 135 shuttle missions for the five-shuttle fleet, beginning with the April 12, 1981 launch of Columbia carrying two astronauts into space on an operational test flight. In their lifetimes, the world’s first reusable spacecraft have been used to launch and repair satellites, carry out cutting-edge research and facilitate the construction of the largest manmade structure in space, the International Space Station (ISS). As the curtain comes down on the space shuttle era we take a look back at the craft that have defined space travel for a generation.

If you are doing up your house and think it isn’t well lit, you can ensure it’s brighter with LED illuminated walls. Philips has come out with this unique collaborated effort with Kvadrat Soft Cells, for “an innovative luminous textile”, which ideally translates into better light and texture for your rooms indoors. The fabric is side to have “Philips’ addressable LEDs integrated into the Kvadrat Soft Cells acoustic panels”, thus you can play around with colors and light that use little resources.

An excellent chance to gawk at history, before they box it up and stick it in a museum.

360 view

American Airlines is certainly down with tablet fever, where they recently started to put Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets as part of the package for their First and Business Class passengers, where those tablets will be able to tap into the inflight Wi-Fi service. Passengers aren’t the only ones who will be able “play” around with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 though, since pilots will also be able to have their fair share of fun, thanks to a new test program that will use an iPad. The specially made iPad app will actually be a special FAA-approved app that will provide the pilot with all the navigational information that are contained within the traditional flight bag.

You can pay for your coffee, turn off your lights, control your TV, and start your car with your smartphone — so why can’t you unlock your doors? That’s exactly what Lockitron ($295 and up) does. Compatible with several styles of door locks, this ingenious system is comprised of a replace lock and handle and a “base station” that connects to your router via Ethernet, receiving your lock/unlock commands over the Internet. It can even allow you to text a code to a friend, letting them unlock the door — just in case you’re worried about Rover crapping on the floor during your extended absence.