Amazon's drones delivery

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos recently announced his company plans to use commercial drones. Amazon called the new serves as Amazon Prime Air. According to the company, the goal of this new delivery system is to get packages into customers' hands in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles. The drones are expected to carry items up to five pounds, which is approximately 86% of all deliveries Amazon makes, and they also expected to provide services to customers who live within 10 miles from the point of origin. 

Amazon is expected to use the drones after 2015 if it gets permission from The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). But getting permission is not going to be easy because there are a lot of safeties questions need to be answered. For example, will Amazon able to design the drones to commercial aviation standards? The possibility of a collision between a drone and a commercial aircraft. Some congressional lawmakers are even rejecting military use of drones. At this time there is a little optimistic to expect them to pass law for commercial drones. But, we might see the use of drones in other countries.

Amazon is not the only company that came up with this idea. Domino's U.K. and Zookal from Australia also released a video of drones delivering pizzas and textbooks. Zookal is already got permission to use drone to deliver textbook rental in Australia next year. It will take some years, but we will definitely see use of commercial drones around the world.

Source CNN

By: AW - Extra Blog

 

Laptop "Entire Palm" Reader

 Toshiba has recently launched the first laptop utilizing their Palm authentication technology.

This new technology is more than just a bio-metric print reader. The device actually scans a user's entire palm. One may wonder how an entire bio-metric reader for the palm can be done on the dimensions of a laptop. The answer is with conventional bio-metric technology. What Fujitsu has done is instead of using a bio-metric print scanner similar to the finger-print scanners on several modern day laptops, they have instead used a device that scans the veins in ones palm with near-infrared rays.

Laptops with Palm scanners should be even more secure than ones using finger print readers since it is harder to copy the vein signature of a palm than the images of one finger print from a convention bio-metric reader.

The way to use the device is to simply raise your hand over the reader, where it will then copy your vein signature in black and from there it will verify the hand to be the user's or someone attempting to break into the user's computer.

Source: http://www.slashgear.com/fujitsu-celsius-h730-laptop-launches-with-palm-based-vein-authentication-30307224/

-posted by TL (Extra Blog)

Contact Lens Detects Glaucoma

A company from Switzerland has made an astounding new product.  They designed a contact lens that is specifically made to check for glaucoma.  Glaucoma is currently the second leading cause of blindness in the United States.  It is a disease that damages the optic nerve and causes irreversible loss of vision.  It occurs when fluid pressure in the eye rises and medical experts are sometimes unsure of what causes this build up of pressure.  The new contact lens is called Sensimed Triggerfish Sensor and is a new type of lens called smart lens.

These new lenses feature a regular contact with a circular micro-ring. The lens itself has an embedded micro-sensor that records changes in pressure and shape of the eye.  It specifically is designed to measure intraocular pressure which is the best way to predict glaucoma. An antenna is placed right under the eye with an adhesive to receive information wirelessly from the contact.  The antenna then transmits the data to a recorder that is worn around the patient’s neck by a thin cable.  The information is then stored until the physician retrieves it.

The contact lens is prescribed by a doctor for a patient to wear for a twenty-four hour period.  The patient then goes on their day as usual, and even sleeps in this Triggerfish lens. The lens takes a measure, or data point, every five minutes while the patient is wearing it.  At the end of the twenty-four hour period, the patient reports back to their physician. The data is then transferred through Bluetooth from the recorder worn by the patient to software that is stored on a practitioner’s computer.  The doctor can then effectively evaluate the readings and more accurately determine if glaucoma is present.

The lenses themselves to do not have many symptoms besides slight irritation and redness.  These lenses provide a huge new opportunity for detecting glaucoma.  With this new technology, glaucoma can be detected earlier than any other device.  The regular method of measuring eye pressure is not always as promising, because eye pressure can change constantly. This new device provides an excellent evaluation of the patient.  The Triggerfish lens is currently being used by European countries like Germany and Switzerland.  It is not yet approved by the FDA for sale in the United States, but is becoming more recognized.  It is most likely this new technology will be utilized in the United States in 2014. 

Posted by: Jacob, Asayenow, and Thomas