E MANN

Virtual-Reality Helmet Gives 360-Degree View

Oct. 23: Toshiba employee Aira Hotta wears a prototype of the 360-degree virtual-reality helmet in Kawasaki, Japan.

t's about as glamorous as wearing an old-style TV set on your head, but the dome-shaped headgear from Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp.

isn't meant to be fashionable.
It's designed to show images in a 360-degree view — synched with the motion of the wearer's head to deliver the illusion of being someplace else: a cityscape at night, for example, or outer space.
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The still experimental 6-pound bubble-headed helmet has infrared sensors

on top that detect which way the wearer's head is moving.
A projector in the back of the helmet displays corresponding images on a 16-inch screen right before the user's eyes.
Although the headgear looks bulky, it's actually smaller than older versions of the same technology, Toshiba spokeswoman Kaori Hiraki said.
But Toshiba has no plans yet to turn the helmet into a commercial virtual-reality

product.
Eventually, Toshiba believes, it will come in handy for computer games or enhancing the impact of movies.

Voyager 1 still has two to three years to travel before reaching the boundary that separates the solar system from the rest of space.

SET TO CROSS THE BOUNDARY
Voyager 1 explores unknown region

Journeys To The Edge Of Solar System Before Entering Interstellar Space

Los Angeles: The unstoppable Voyager 1 spacecraft has sailed into a new realm of the solar system that scientists did not know existed.Voyager 1 and its twin,Voyager 2,have been speeding away from the Sun toward interstellar space,or the space between stars.
Over the summer,Voyager 1,which is farther along in its journey,crossed into this new region where the effects from the outside can be felt.We do believe this may be the very last layer between us and interstellar space, said chief scientist Ed Stone of the Nasa jet propulsion laboratory,which manages the spacecraft.
Stone presented Voyager 1s latest location at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.Voyager 1 is on track to become the first manmade object to exit the solar system.Exactly when that day will come is unknown,partly because theres no precedent.Stone estimated Voyager 1 still has two to three years to travel before reaching the boundary that separates the solar system from the rest of space.
Scientists were surprised to discover the unexpected region at the fringes of the solar system.For the past year,the team has seen tantalizing clues that heralded a new space environment.The amount of high-energy cosmic rays streaming in from outside the solar system spiked.Meanwhile,the level of lower-energy particles originating from inside the solar system briefly dropped.Because there was no change in the direction of the magnetic field lines,scientists were confident that Voyager 1 had not yet broken through.They have dubbed this new zone a kind of magnetic highway.
The Voyagers launched 35 years ago on a mission to tour the outer planets.Though Voyager 2 currently 9 billion miles from the Sun launched first,Voyager 1 is closer to leaving solar system behind.PTI

International [Next]

Shell out46,000 for a flying tricycle,beat rush-hour traffic

REVOLUTIONARY SOLUTION
Shell out46,000 for a flying tricycle,beat rush-hour traffic

London: A man in the US has built a tricycle that will let you soar into the sky and cruise over rush-hour traffic jams.The motor-tricycle,called the super sky cycle,has been developed by Larry Neal from Aurora in Texas and consists of a 582cc engine and a three-blade 68-inch propeller.
It can fly at 56kmph,land in 20ft of space and has a top land speed of 104kph.It has a five hour flight time without refueling,and costs 46,000,the Daily Mail reported.
However,the vehicle requires a pilots licence to fly.Neal,of The Butterfly Aircraft LLC,has just been awarded a US Patent to build the vehicle on a large scale and sell it to the general public.He already has several orders for national and international companies.
The project has been in development for several years but hit a stumbling block as Neal could not work out what to do with the propellers once the vehicle landed.
However,he overcame this problem by making them foldable -- allowing the vehicle to be driven on regular roads.The Texas border patrol has already made a large order of these flying machines.PTI

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