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Technology in the news – Current Articles

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Viewing 1 to 15 of 190 articles

   
  • Cooking without compromise
    NZ Herald online article, 17 May, 2013

    A NZ baker reckons there's a place in the market for biscuits made just the way you'd make them at home. With their pantry-fresh ingredient list and handmade production, complete with the imprint of fork tines, his biscuits are gaining a following among buyers who want home-made taste with store-bought convenience.

    Discussion starters:

    • Technological Modelling: consumer testing and trialling
    • Manufacturing Technology: scale-up considerations
    • Enterprise and Innovation: establishing and growing a brand

  • Medical wristband one step closer to market
    NZ Herald online article, 15 May, 2013

    A NZ company which is developing a wristband that constantly monitors a patient's health data and uploads the information to the internet has received funding to help get the invention to market. The device is designed to collect data including heart rate and body temperature. This is then uploaded to the internet where it can be accessed anywhere by caregivers, doctors or specialists, including on a smartphone or tablet device. The wristband should go through clinical trials in October and is expected to be commercially released in December.

    Discussion starters:

    • Technological Systems: data collection and monitoring
    • New Product Development: commercialisation funding; clinical trials

  • US government orders removal of 3D-gun designs
    BBC.com online article, 10 May, 2013

    The US government has demanded designs for a 3D-printed gun be taken offline. The order to remove the blueprints for the plastic gun comes after they were downloaded more than 100,000 times. The US State Department wrote to the gun's designer,suggesting publishing them online may breach arms-control regulations.

    Discussion starters:

    • Nature of Technology: sociocultural impacts - political intervention
    • Manufacturing Technology: additive manufacturing

  • Broadcast Video Will Soon Be Packed into Smartphone Signals
    MIT Technology Review , 6 May, 2013

    If you want to watch video on your phone or tablet, you’ll find that many networks can’t always serve up the data fast enough. So your choices are limited. Early next year, an emerging wireless technology known as LTE Broadcast could change all that, essentially making it possible for carriers to put a TV-like broadcast stream within LTE cellular signals.

    Discussion starter:

    • Digital Technologies: digital infrastructure; wireless standards

  • Colour-Changing Gloves Detect Airborne Toxins with Shades of Blue
    innovationWatch.com, 5 May, 2013

    Researchers in Germany have developed new color-changing gloves designed to alert lab workers to the presence of invisible toxic chemicals. The idea, researchers say, is to provide scientists or factory workers with a simple and straightforward alert system. The gloves could also provide a more energy efficient alternative to the heat imaging systems or electronic sensors currently used to detect airborne toxins.

    Discussion starters:

    • Characteristics of Technology: interdisciplinary nature of technology
    • Characteristics of Technological Outcomes: fitness for purpose

  • Engineers flag concern over imported steel
    Fairfax NZ news article, 5 May, 2013

    The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has been informed by the Institution of Professional Engineers (IPENZ) of concerns about the quality of imported structural steel used in New Zealand buildings.

    Discussion starters:

    • Construction Technology: structural integrity
    • Technological Products: product traceability and conformance to standards

  • A new problem for fracking: Drillers are running out of water
    Quartz, 2 May, 2013

    Could severe water shortages short-circuit the recent US shale gas boom? With 64% of the country in drought, water is looming as the next hot-button issue in the debate over hydrofracturing, also known as fracking, which involves injecting chemical-laden water under high pressure to create fissures in subterranean rock formations so gas and oil can be extracted.

    Discussion starter:

    • Nature of Technology: resource management issues

  • Interactive Packaging: Here it Comes!
    Innovation Watch, 28 April, 2013

    Consumer goods and technology companies are aggregating the supply chain partners necessary to advance interactive packaging. Currently pilot projects are running in numerous industries, ranging from beverages to pharmaceuticals. The leading companies involved are learning, adapting, re-engineering and re-testing to evaluate the full potential of the technology and the opportunity to build relationships and unique interactions with customers

    Discussion starter:

    • Processing technologies: packaging innovation utilising Near Field Communication (NFC)

  • 'Smart skin' hope for touch sensor
    BBC.com article, 26 April, 2013

    Scientists have made a step forward in their ability to mimic the sense of touch. A team from the US and China made an experimental array that can sense pressure in the same range as the human fingertip. The advance could speed the development of smarter artificial skin capable of "feeling" activity on the surface and also help give robots a more adaptive sense of touch.

    Discussion starters:

    • Technological Products: new material formulation - potential impacts on future product function
    • Nature of Technology: collaborative inter-disciplinary practice.

  • Harpooning space junk
    TV3 News, 18 April, 2013

    Space junk, such as old satellites, used bits of rocket and other debris, is an increasing threat to the international space station and satellites. However, British engineers are working on a way of clearing up space junk, using a harpoon.

    Discussion starter:

    • Outcome Development and Evaluation: fitness for purpose - experimentation and testing

  • A cell-abration of the mobile phone
    TV3 News video, 4 April, 2013

    It's been 40 years since the first call was made on a mobile telephone on a New York street. Since then mobile phones have changed not only their appearance and capabilities, but also our lives.

    Discussion starter:

    • Nature of Technology: product evolution - sociocultural impacts

  • App makes British teen an instant multi- millionaire
    NZ Herald online article, 27 March, 2013

    One of Britain's youngest internet entrepreneurs has hit the jackpot after selling his content-shrrinking application to internet search giant Yahoo

    Discussion starters:

    • Digital Technology: software applications
    • Innovation and Enterprise: angel investment

  • Chinese counterfeits: How to beat the cheats
    BBC.com, 25 March, 2013

    Ryan Lee was busy revelling in the immediate success of his invention - a high-quality mini speaker that could fill a room with music - when the party was cut short. Six months into production, he started receiving calls from his distributors in Europe, telling him they had been offered what looked like the exact same speaker at a much cheaper pric.e

    Discussion starters:

    • Manufacturing Technology: counterfeit production
    • Nature of Technology: intellectual property protection

  • Bid to boost NZ ICT talent launched
    NZ Herald online, 22 March, 2013

    An Auckland technology firm has launched an initiative aimed at changing the perception of computer science in schools and building the pool of talent the ICT industry needs.

    Discussion starter:

    • Digital Technologies: computer programming; raspberry pi

  • Walking again after 18 years with a false leg
    TV3 Campbell Live video, 21 March, 2013

    For 18 years amputee Leigh Ellis has lived with a false leg – putting it on, taking it off, with discomfort and sometimes even bleeding.Now thanks to a groundbreaking operation carried out in Christchurch to fit a metal stem into her femur bone she can be fitted with a new robotic attachment to become a more natural extension of her upper leg

    Discussion starter:

    • Medical Technology: robotic prosthetics