Research - SlashGear

‘research’ Stories

Vuzix and NEC scoop Google on cloud-connected Smart Glasses

Chris Davies, Feb 13th 2012 Discuss [0]

Vuzix and NEC BIGLOBE have partnered on cloud-connected Augmented Reality glasses, a wearable display that can identify people and match them with their Facebook and Twitter profiles, in an apparent attempt to get in ahead of Google's HUD Smart Glasses. Based on Vuzix's STAR series of AR video eyewear, which we made fools of ourselves wearing last September, the concept demo uses the headset's integrated camera and a persistent wireless web connection to NEC BIGLOBE's servers, though the potential applications go much further than simply showing you your neighbors latest tweets. Read The Full Story

Apple Stores face protests over iPhone labor ethics

Chris Davies, Feb 9th 2012 Discuss [0]

Apple stores across the world will face demonstrations over worker mistreatment among suppliers today, though research by SlashGear suggests public opinion is strongly divided over whether Cupertino company should shoulder the ethics blame. Two concurrent petitions demanding Apple force change among its manufacturing partners have prompted the protests, with Change.org telling CNN that the signatures will be presented at six Apple stores at 10am local time today. However, in a SlashGear survey, votes were split between holding Apple responsible or whether the electronics industry as a whole is flawed.

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DARPA begins testing LS3 robot pack mule

Rue Liu, Feb 8th 2012 Discuss [0]

DARPA has begun real world testing of a quadruped robot that can traverse all sorts of terrain and act as a pack mule for soldiers. This semi-autonomous robot is called Legged Squad Support System (LS3) and is developed from Boston Dynamic's Big Dog and Alpha Dog robots. The agency has released the first field test video of the LS3 navigating an outdoor terrain. Read The Full Story

Researchers devise a way to store data on magnetic media using heat

Shane McGlaun, Feb 8th 2012 Discuss [0]

Much research has been performed working on ways to improve the speed and power efficiency of data storage devices such as hard drives. A group of researchers from York University are working as part of an international team and the team has found that they can store information using heat instead of a magnetic field on a magnetic medium. The results is much faster and more power efficient storage of data than any traditional hard drive offers today. Read The Full Story

Nano Quadrotor robot swarm video is mesmerizing, terrifying

Chris Davies, Feb 1st 2012 Discuss [0]

If you fear the rise of intelligent, collaborative robots swarming together and gathering human prey for the battery tanks, look away now: the Nano Quadrotors have taken to the skies and they're terrifyingly adept. The handiwork of researchers in the GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, the latest-gen Quadrotors can not only handle being tossed, inverted or generally batted around without crashing, but fly in formation. Read The Full Story

Scientists create the world’s first atomic x-ray laser

Shane McGlaun, Jan 31st 2012 Discuss [0]

Dr. Evil will really like this new development by team of scientists at the Menlo Park SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The team has created the world's first atomic x-ray laser. The project resulted in the shortest, purest x-ray laser pulses ever achieved. These x-ray laser pulses were created when the researchers aimed the SLAC Linac Coherent Light Source at a capsule filled with neon gas. Read The Full Story

Bee deaths down to agriculture not armageddon say researchers

Chris Davies, Jan 30th 2012 Discuss [0]

Dramatically falling bee populations aren't a sign of the impending apocalypse or even a hive-mind abandoning Earth but the side-effect of neonicotinoid insecticides discovered to be highly toxic to honeybees. Researchers at Purdue University found the insecticides - which are commonly used to coat corn and soybean seeds prior to planing, Science Daily reports - cause tremors, loss of coordination and convulsions, before eventually death, in bees. However, discovering the cause of the decline is only part of the problem: bee populations in the US continue to dive by around a third each year, the Purdue team believes. Read The Full Story

BlackBerry squeezed out of Enterprise say stats

Chris Davies, Jan 30th 2012 Discuss [0]

RIM's new CEO faces a dual-challenge, Apple in North America and the ascendence of Samsung in Europe, according new research, though BlackBerry is a surprise hold-out in the UK. "Android and Apple together are eating BlackBerry's lunch" Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett said of the smartphone pincer-movement, the NYTimes reports, with global stats indicating 27-percent of smartphone users have an Android device and 24-percent an iPhone. BlackBerry slots in-between, at 26-percent, but enterprise users are progressively looking elsewhere from previous business darlings RIM. Read The Full Story

Apple takes Smartphone crown in Q4 2011

Chris Davies, Jan 27th 2012 Discuss [0]

Apple has edged past Samsung again in global smartphone shipments, according to new research, reclaiming the smartphone top-spot in Q4 2011 thanks to huge demand for the iPhone 4S. The Cupertino company shipped 37m devices in Q4, versus 36.5m for Samsung, Strategy Analytics reckons, giving Apple 0.4-percent more marketshare worldwide than its Korean rivals. However, when the numbers are crunched for 2011 as a whole, Samsung still comes out ahead. Read The Full Story

Apple will blitz Windows in business say researchers

Chris Davies, Jan 26th 2012 Discuss [0]

Apple device adoption in the enterprise is surging, research suggests, with one in five information workers now using at least one Apple gadget for work, even if they have to buy it themselves. Forrester Research surveyed 10,000 people and found 11-percent use iPhones and 9-percent use iPads in their daily business, concluding that 81-percent of companies will support or are interested in supporting the iPad and 55-percent the iPhone this year. Read The Full Story

Scientists show off 3-D cloaking from all angles in microwave spectrum

Shane McGlaun, Jan 26th 2012 Discuss [0]

We are a long way off from creating a cloak of invisibility that a person can wear or being able to turn a vehicle of some sort invisible. Scientists are working on cloaking things in certain spectrums of light. A team of researchers has demonstrated the ability to cloak a 3-D object from all angles. The catch is that the cloaking only works on microwave spectrums. Read The Full Story

X-ray laser produces temperatures hotter than the sun’s corona

Shane McGlaun, Jan 26th 2012 Discuss [0]

There is lots of research around the globe that focuses on lasers and their application. The laser is being investigated for all sorts of uses, including weapons. Some of the research that involves lasers aims to recreate conditions of all sorts that involve high temperatures and exotic matter. Read The Full Story