A new hand-held device created by a company called Tribogenics harnesses the power of X-rays in a small, portable package–similar to the tricorder used by Captain Kirk and his team when checking out a new planet. X-ray machines are not known for their portability in real life; the name conjures up images of antiquated doctor’s office tools and the enormous, bulky monstrosities we have to put our luggage through at the airport. But a team of scientists are working to change all that.
CEO Dale Fox and Chief Scientist Dr. Carlos Camara have been developing this useful device–which harnesses energy similar to what is created by static electricity–and say they are on the verge of doing much more. The mini X-ray machine would be invaluable in airports, in combat, on the playing field, and even for every day needs. But the creators are thinking even bigger, saying the technology can also be used to identify metals, which would be useful for toy companies in identifying products with lead paint, as well as mining companies.
Because the energy it produces is small and focused enough to limit harmful exposure to the X-rays, the device is safe enough for anyone to use.
A giant replica of the Starship Enterprise would have drawn Trekkies from all over the world to Las Vegas, but unfortunately, the concept never became a reality.
Gary Goddard owns Goddard Entertainment and has made some of the world’s greatest attractions with his team. He put in a bid to build the mecca back in 1992 as part of an effort bring more tourism to sin city. The project started to move along but got the axe after Stanley Jaffe, then CEO of Paramount, had a change of heart. Jaffe formally rejected the iconic project by saying:
“You know, this is a major project. You’re going to put a full-scale ENTERPRISE up in the heart of Las Vegas. And on one hand that sounds exciting. But on another hand, it might not be a great idea for us – for Paramount.”
“In the movie business, when we produce a big movie and it’s a flop – we take some bad press for a few weeks or a few months, but then it goes away. The next movie comes out and everyone forgets. But THIS – this is different. If this doesn’t work – if this is not a success – it’s there, forever….”
Many thought the combination of sci-fi geeks and close proximity to prostitutes was a sure winner but the “Freemont Street Experience,” a five block pedestrian mall and concert venue, won out in the end.
Goddard explained that he planned for people to eat on the ship while enjoying a show, tour the building, and possibly take a ride on a “high-speed travelator that would whisk guests from deck to deck.”
He attributes Jaffe’s inability to understand the impact of the landmark to its rejection and seems relieved that he can finally share his story with the public.
Instead of launching the larger project, Goddard and his team created Star Trek: The Experience, a themed attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas.
Perhaps Jaffe was right because “The Experience” has not attracted enough tourism. It opened in January 1998, closed in September 2008, and was scheduled to reopen in the Neonopolis Mall on May 8, 2009 in time for the premiere of the Star Trek film. It was then pushed back to 2010, and then in 2011 it was announced that they had lost the license.
Square Enix announced this week that actor John de Lancie will be providing voice talent for their upcoming game, Quantum Conundrum. de Lancie is best known for his role as “Q” in Star Trek: The Next Generation and recently leant his voice to the character of William Miles in the Assassin’s Creed series of games. In Quantum Conundrum, de Lancie will be the voice of Professor Fitz Quadwrangle. The professor will, while lost in another dimension, try and guide his nephew (the player) through his hazardous manor home.
“The professor’s character is funny, a bit bizarre, and a great joy to perform,” said de Lancie. “If players have half as much fun with the game as I did playing the character, then they’ll be having a great time.”
Though the game may sound silly, it is the next game from PORTAL co-creator Kim Swift. In the game, players are a young kid who arrives at his uncle’s mansion and finds him trapped in another dimension. Players must use Uncle Quadwrangle’s wild inventions to save him. The “IDS Device” in particular will allow players to shift dimensions such that the objects around them become “fluffy” or gravity is reversed. The gameplay is exactly the type of puzzle platforming that made me fall in love with the PORTAL games, and I’m hoping Quantum Conundrum can re-create the the joy those games have given me. It is encouraging that they have hired good voice talent.
The game is scheduled for release sometime this summer, and you will be able to download it on PC, the Xbox Live Arcade, or the Playstation Network. Check out the trailer and see all the silly, crazy inter-dimensional action coming your way:
A group of Chinese and Australian scientists have developed a handheld, battery-powered plasma-producing device that can rid skin of bacteria in an instant.
The device could be used in ambulance emergency calls, natural disaster sites, military combat operations and many other instances where treatment is required in remote locations.
The plasma flashlight, outlined in IOP Publishing’s Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics is driven by a 12 V battery and doesn’t require any external generator or wall power; it also doesn’t require any external gas feed or handling system.
In the experiment, the plasma flashlight effectively inactivated a thick biofilm of one of the most antibiotic- and heat-resistant bacteria, Enterococcus faecalis– a bacterium which often infects the root canals during dental treatments.
The biofilms were created by incubating the bacteria for seven days. The biofilms were around 25 micrometers thick and consisted of 17 different layers of bacteria. Each one was treated for five minutes with the plasma flashlight and then analysed to see how much of the bacteria survived.
Results showed that the plasma not only inactivated the top layer of cells, but penetrated deep into the very bottom of the layers to kill the bacteria.
Co-author of the study, Professor Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov, from the Plasma Nanoscience Centre Australia, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, said: “The bacteria form thick biofilms, which makes them enormously resistant against inactivation which is extremely difficult to implement. High temperatures are commonly used but they would obviously burn our skin.
“In this study we chose an extreme example to demonstrate that the plasma flashlight can be very effective even at room temperature. For individual bacteria, the inactivation time could be just tens of seconds.”
Plasma – the fourth state of matter in addition to solids, liquids and gases – has previously shown its worth in the medical industry by effectively killingbacteria and viruses on the surface of the skin and in water.
Although the exact mechanism behind the anti-bacterial effect of plasma is largely unknown, it is thought that reactions between the plasma and the air surrounding it create a cocktail of reactive species that are similar to the ones found in our own immune system.
The researchers ran an analysis to see what species were present in the plasma and found that highly-reactive nitrogen- and oxygen-related species dominated the results. Ultraviolet radiation has also been theorised as a reason behind plasma’s success; however, this was shown to be low in the jet created by the plasma flashlight, adding to the safety aspect of the device.
The temperature of the plume of plasma in the experiments was between 20-230C, which is very close to room temperature and therefore prevents any damage to the skin. The device itself is fitted with resistors to stop it from heating up and making it safe to touch.
“The device can be easily made and costs less than 100 US dollars to produce. Of course, some miniaturisation and engineering design may be needed to make it more appealing and ready for commercialisation,” Ostrikov continued.
The picture in question has hit its “viral” stage popularity, and considering the people in it, as well as the subject matter, it only makes sense. It’s not often we get to see the Leader of the Free World and the best communications officer in the galaxy together, sending a message of peace and prosperity. Clearly, the planets have aligned, bringing us the following gem:
With President Obama is Nichelle Nichols, otherwise known as the original Lieutenant Uhura (sorry, Zoe, but Nichelle still rules), and they are offering the universal sign for goodwill and long life, made popular by the Vulcan race, most notably, Commander Spock.
The image was posted on Nichols’ twitpic page, and while it was taken at the end of February, the image was posted 14 hours ago. At this point, the image has already amassed close to 200,000 views. None of her other images have eclipsed the 10,000 views plateau, which is great indication of the image’s viral popularity.
Considering the fallout after Obama slashed NASA’s budget, he clearly needs all the intergalactic assistance he can find. Good thing for him, Lt. Uhura was willing to comply.
In light of the image, it’s hard not wonder what Obama’s approval rate is among Star Trek fans.
Peter Jansen, a PhD graduate in cognitive science from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, has been working towards an inexpensive, fully-functional device modeled after the ‘tricorder’ devices from the Star Trek TV series.
Jansen envisions a world where children and adults alike carry around tricorders to tell them about the surrounding world. His prototype models measure temperature, humidity, magnetic fields, atmospheric pressure, ambient light levels, distances, and contain a colorimeter, GPS, accelerometer, and gyroscope. Jansen explains his vision in a YouTube video he posted this week:
I hate saying so, but I think perhaps these bulky gadgets may be already antiquated. The smartphones in our pockets are already packed with sensors and might soon have some of the same sensors that are in Jansen’s tricorders. Luckily, selling tricorders is not what the project is about for Jansen. From his website:
“I very much believe in the value of project-based learning to supplement traditional approaches to teaching. Having the flexibility to let a project adapt to your interests as they develop also allows one to gather both breadth and depth — and this was and continues to be the case for the Tricorder project.
“There are some easy examples that come to mind. The Tricorder project has allowed me to explore circuit board design, fabrication, surface mount soldering, large scale project planning — all things that supplement a traditional education in computer science or electrical engineering with open resources for making physical prototypes like Sparkfun or Make.”
Jansen and his father even made their own 3D printer while experimenting with case design. Even though it didn’t help with tricorder cases, the printer sparked other projects. For Jansen, that’s enough and I salute his idealism. I imagine any functional tricorders will be in the form of apps similar to this one:
Granted, Jansen wants a device that is actually useful in the sense that it’s packed with sensors and is more than a toy. However, with near-field communications and 4G speeds becoming the norm, who says the sensors have to be in the actual device itself? In fact, I’m begining to think human technology might just skip past tricorders before they are ever really needed. What we should really work on are Dr. McCoy’s medical scanners.
LeVar Burton, Star Trek’s Lieutenant Geordi, and also Reading Rainbow’s TV show host of 26 years, has attempted to take control of the handle @ReadingRainbow. Apparently while trying to register for the handle he discovered that someone else already beat him to it.
Checking into the matter further, he learned that the user holding the @ReadingRainbow Twitter name hadn’t Tweeted anything in over three years. Seeing an opportunity to assume the name, Geordi, I mean Burton, seized the helm and reached out to his fan base:
“Dear @twitter I’m trying to contact the individual who’s sitting on @ReadingRainbow but he hasn’t Tweeted in #3YEARS Can you help? Thanks!”
Over 700 fans rushed to his aid and retweeted the message. This caught Twitters attention and within hours Burton got what he wanted. @ReadingRainbow was his. No mentioned of a reaction from the previous owner.
After a bumpy start like all MMOs that aren’t World of Warcraft or The Old Republic, sitting in the captain’s chair is now free of charge.
Perfect World Entertainment and the original developer Cryptic Studios announced today that the Star Trek Online MMO has gone free-to-play.
“We couldn’t be more excited,” Jack Emmert, CEO, Cryptic Studios, Inc., said. “Updating Star Trek Online to the popular free-to-play model removes those barriers of entry that previously kept fans and casual gamers away. Anyone can download and play Star Trek Online at no cost. There’s no better way to see how sitting in the captain’s chair feels.”
With the game going free-to-play, anyone can download the game for free without a retail copy or subscription. All players will be able to enjoy the game’s many features for free. Like all freemium games, however, some content and features must be bought through the online store.
The game tasks players to become a starship captain in the wide expanse of the Star Trek universe. Players can either join the Federation or the Klingon Empire in a persistent online universe. Players can expect to journey to strange new worlds and take part in epic ground and space missions.
The game is completely free to play so there is no subscription or any payment required. New weekly episodes will be updated throughout the game’s lifespan and feature story-based gameplay that will put your captain’s ability to command to the test.
The goal is to become a captain and seek out new life. Players can advance to the maximum level for free. Players can expect to travel to Starfleet Academy, Deep Space Nine, The First City of Qo’noS and many other locations from the series.
The Foundry is the final unique feature that allows players to create and build brand new missions to share with the Star Trek Online community. Players can great ground or space missions to their liking by making custom missions or entire series of episodes.
Star Trek Online is available to download and play for free today at the official Web site.
Cryptic have created a new story trailer for the game in celebration of it going free-to-play.
In some cases, Google’s voice search is already far superior to Apple’s Siri. This became immediately clear with some internal testing we did surrounding the Siri abortion story. While it didn’t read us the answers aloud in a robot voice, we just got better results from Google.
In fact, while Siri has certainly been a hit, and has proven useful at times, it’s not perfect. Google’s not perfect either, but when it comes to search, Google has a little bit of background in that area. Siri does more than search obviously, but search is a big part of it. Google happens to do more than search too, and being Apple’s main competitor in the smartphone space, it makes sense that Google would be working on its answer to Siri.
Android and Me reports that this is indeed the case, and we might even see it before the year is over (but more realistically within the next couple of months). It’s being developed under the code name Majel, says Android and Me’s Taylor Wimberly. Majel comes from Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who provided the voice for most of the onboard computer interfaces throughout Star Trek.
The Star Trek theme is one that Google has embraced for quite some time. Just over a year ago, Google acquired Phonetic Arts, a speech synthesis company that generates natural computer speech from samples of recorded voice.
“In Star Trek, they don’t spend a lot of time typing things on keyboards—they just speak to their computers, and the computers speak back,” said Google Speech Technology Manager Mike Cohen at the time. “It’s a more naturalway to communicate, but getting there requires chipping away at a range of hard research problems. We’ve recently made some strides with speech technologies and tools that take voice input: for example, we launched Voice Search, Voice Input and Voice Actions for mobile phones, allowing you to speak web searches, compose emails by voice, ask your phone to play any song, and more. And last year we started automatically transcribing speech to produce captions on YouTube videos.”
But Phonetic Arts comes in when you start talking about computers talking back to you – voice output as opposed to input – kind of like Siri, though Google has offered some things in this area since long before Siri came to the iPhone. Examples include features in Google Translate and Maps Navigation.
A Star Trek mention also came up in a recent video Google put out about the evolution of search.
“The truth is that our users need much more complex answers,” said Google’s Amit Singhal in the video. “My dream has always been to build the Star Trek computer, and in my ideal world, I would be able to walk up to a computer, and say, ‘Hey, what is the best time for me to sow seeds in India, given that monsoon was early this year?’ And once we can answer that question (which we don’t today), people will be looking for answers to even more complex questions. These are all genuine information needs. Genuine questions that if we – Google – can answer, our users will become more knowledgeable and they will be more satisfied in their quest for knowledge.”
Wimberly says the initial release of “Majel” will likely only include Google search queries at first, and it may include some of what is being worked on at Google X (you, know – Google’s secret robot lab). Other, more advanced features like controlling phone actions and apps with natural language, are expected to come later, he says.
I’m sure that won’t stop people from slamming the service when it comes out, proclaiming that it’s not as good as Siri – kind of like what happened with Google Music, even if it has a very legitimate reason for existing (also like Google Music). Android is doing pretty well these days.
Human rights activist and the once and future Mr. Sulu, George Takei, has entered the fray among his two sci-fi colleagues, William Shatner and Carrie Fisher, in hopes of quelling their YouTube dispute over which sci-fi franchise is better, Star Trek or Star Wars. As the debate between the two quickly accelerated from professional disagreement to vile personal attacks (the latter of which was mostly from Shatner), Takei’s entreaty for the warring actors to put aside their petty animosity is an effort to unify the “Star Friends” and focus on what he perceives to be the true threat to their legacy: the Twilight movies.
The feud between Shatner and Fisher, which WebProNews covered last month, began when Shatner proclaimed Star Trek, the sci-fi television show he starred in, as superior to Star Wars, the sci-fi vehicle that Fisher was a part of. Fisher replied with a playful prod to Shatner’s declaration along with a couple of good-humored jabs at Shatner himself, but then Shatner accelerated the debate into a territory of pure venom with a very invective video he recorded for YouTube. In his video response, he launched insult after insult towards Fisher. Fisher, at least publicly, never dignified his attack with a response.
Although the issue seemed to have simmered down following Shatner’s last response, Takei, who co-starred next to Shatner in Star Trek, has possibly resurrected the feud but with the mission of peace. In a video address released last night, Takei implores Shatner and Fisher to call a truce and focus on the greater threat of “vampires that sparkle and mope and go to high school.”
“Sci-fi fans be warned,” Takei declares, “there are no great stories, characters, or profound life lessons to be had in Twilight.” He follows up with a campy appeal to take up arms against pithy supernatural creatures and hopefully “rid the world of this vampire menace.” The full address can be viewed below:
It remains to be seen if Takei can broker peace among the embattled sci-fi stars, or if they even care enough to continue this dispute. While Takei presents the olive branch between Shatner and Fisher, what I really wanna know is if that painting he’s standing in front of in that video is a portrait of himself. If so, then forget about his “Star” Friends. He wins.
The Internet: a perfect model of the purest strain of democracy. Everybody has a voice and can contribute to the discourse of intellectual debates. That is, until you actually read the comments and debates of people arguing on the internet and, if you’re like me, quickly realize that this place, this Internet is where good thoughts go to die.
It’s usually easy to dismiss these debates and arguments because the contributors are almost always anonymous. Almost.
This would be a wonderful exception.
William Shatner and Carrie Fisher have been engaged in a spirited (if not a little hostile) disagreement about the age-old argument that occupies many nerd disagreements: Which is better, Star Wars or Star Trek?
Shatner opened his silo first in this interview:
Carrie Fisher then responded to his comments in this interview:
A pretty playful jab, sure, but even that was too much for Shatner to swallow. He slashed back with this wild retort on Monday (it’s so mean at times that it’s kinda awkward):
So anybody wanna comment and speculate how long it takes for one of these two to resort to Godwin’s Law?
Twitter…the final frontier. These are the voyages of game-maker Atari. Its 2-month mission: to explore strange new social networks, to seek out new geeks and new game players, to boldly go where no ad campaign has gone before!
[Cue intro]
If you’re a Trekkie, you’re probably already well aware of the pending February 2nd launch of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) "Star Trek Online." Well, according to ClickZ, its creator, Atari Inc., has decided to reach those that don’t quite go as far as greeting each other with "Live Long and Prosper," by launching a number of social media initiatives to promote the game.
YouTube, Facebook, and secret access codes on game sites, have all been part of Atari’s marketing efforts, but my favorite has to be its Twitter strategy:
For Twitter, the New York-based company has created a microsite-app combo, dubbed "Tweet in Klingon," that allows viewers to type English phrases and have them tweeted in fictional Klingon language.
And you thought Foursquare updates were annoying. Wait ’til people realize they can start tweeting in Klingon. Better yet, they start updating their Foursquare status in Klingon. Race ya to become the Mayor of Adigeon Prime!
