Technology in the news – Articles from 2011

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Electronics news articles

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New York Times online, 9 January
The blending of television and the Internet is inevitable. But will it happen in concert with the major cable and satellite distributors, or in spite of them?
Discussion starter:
• Merging of technologies
TVNZ, 21 February
Nanotechnology is the 21st century's scientific buzz word. The technology provides solutions so minute it cannot be seen with the naked eye or even a standard microscope and could revolutionise the way we generate energy, treat illness and even make beauty products. However, the long-term effects of its daily use are still largely unknown.
Discussion starter:
• Technological Modeling: functional and practical reasoning
New Scientist magazine online, 1 March
The latest 3D printers are amazingly flexible, but some shapes are still beyond the reach of current technology. Michael Hansmeyer, an architect and programmer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich found an alternative method to create the detail required in his sculptures.
Discussion starter:
• Digital technologies: 3-D modeling ; computer programming
NZ Herald online article, 2 March
The final trip into space by USA shuttle Discovery delivered a permanent storage compartment for the orbiting international space station. Its contents included R2 - a kitset robot which will be assembled in May and tested as a potential astronaut helper.
Discussion starter:
• Technological Modelling: prototype testing
BBC News online, 3 March
Apple has launched the second generation of its iPad tablet computer at an event in San Francisco. The company said the machine featured a faster processor, improved graphics, and front and rear cameras. Apple leads the industry in sales of tablet devices, but is beginning to face competition from rivals such as HP and Samsung.
Discussion starter:
• Digital infrastructure: Trends in computing
New York Times, 4 March
It was the end of a three-day binge of invention in March 2009. Bre Pettis, Zach Hoeken Smith and Adam Mayer had locked themselves in a bare cement room in Downtown Brooklyn pretty much around the clock. No one was hollering Eureka; they had to chase screws that rolled under the table.
They were building a three-dimensional printer, a machine that works like an inkjet printer except that it squirts molten plastic, not ink. The layers of plastic rise into almost any shape - bolts, tools, toys - based on digital models sent to the printer from a computer.
Stuff.co.nz, 09 March
Eden Sawczenko used to recoil when other little girls held her hand and turned stiff when they hugged her. This year, the four-year-old autistic girl began playing with a robot that teaches about emotions and physical contact - and now she hugs everyone.
Discussion starters:
• Technological Modeling: Prototype testing
• Key competencies: Relating to others
Stuff.co.nz article, 14 March
Hundreds of retailers across New Zealand have been disconnected from the computer network which linked their Eftpos terminals to banks, after the network operators said the out-of-date terminals posed risks to the safety and security of transactions.
Discussion starter:
• Digital infrastructure: connection and interaction of component
• Characteristics of Technological outcomes: Fitness for purpose
NZ Herald article, 23 March
Scientists are working with a highly sophisticated robot with a twist. This robot is designed to learn like a human. Instead of programming the robot with lines of code the creators wanted to learn from what it experiences. They are hoping that this will mean the robot becomes more flexible in its actions.
Stuff.co.nz, 23 March
Scientists believe they are one step closer to creating time travel. American physicists from Vanderbilt University believe they may be able to use the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest atom smasher buried underground near Geneva, to send a type of matter called the Higgs singlet into the past. But they're unsure if the Higgs singlet actually exists and whether the machine can produce it, according to a report by Live Science.
Stuff.co.nz article, 23 March
Six Christchurch pupils have created a device that uses a pot of boiling water to charge cellphones, power a light and run a radio. The device was developed in a backyard shed after the St Thomas of Canterbury College pupils came up with the idea after the September 4 earthquake.
Discussion starter:
• Technological modeling: prototype development
• Enterprising attributes: generating, identifying and assessing opportunities
Cubed E-zine, March
Queuing, unpacking and repacking our suitcases is the price of Airport security. Suitcases go through an x-ray and any suspicious image means the luggage is sent on to a second machine, but a new 3D scanner may speed things up. The idea is that the bags could have a three dimensional scan and be viewed from any angle, enabling the security people to get a much better idea of the contents of a piece of luggage much faster.
Discussion starters:
• Nature of Technology: Collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of technological practice
• Digital Technologies: computer programming - algorithmic design
www.stuff.co.nz video, 8 April
Robots can already beat humans at chess and Jeopardy and soon they'll take us on in ping pong if a viral experiment in Zurich is any guide.
A team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has developed autonomous quadrocopters (helicopters with four blades) that are able to play ping pong against each other and juggle balls - all without any human intervention.
Aussies are already using similar technologies to film surfing competitions, while a German company has developed quadrocopters for traffic surveillance and crowd monitoring.
A video clip of the Swiss copters battling it out in the "Flying Machine Arena" has garnered over 1.5 million views on YouTube.
TV3 Campbell Live video, 18 April
It sounds like a load of rubbish: A detection system that will warn of an incoming earthquake up to a minute before it actually hits. In fact earthquake warning systems are already up and running in Japan where residents of Tokyo who had signed up to the Japanese system had about 80 seconds of warning before the devastating March 11 quake. Experts say even a five second warning could reduce casualties by 80 percent and now a Christchurch company says it has perfected its own early warning system.
Discussion starters:
• Technological Practice: addressing needs and opportunitie
• Intervention by design: legal constraints
Stuff.co.nz article, 4 May
Most of the wine industry knows that pioneer Verdun Burgess and his partner Sue Edwards are selling their long-standing central Otago winery.
What most don't suspect is that Mr Burgess intends devoting much of his time once the winery is sold to getting a new project off the ground, literally. He will take to his shed and build a flying saucer, the self-confessed inventor said.
The technology, if he can make it work, would also be embraced by the car industry, he said.

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