Nanotech Bomb Detector More Effective Than Trained Dogs

• A highly sensitive bomb-detecting device uses nanotechnology to identify different types of dangerous explosives. More reliable than bomb-sniffing dogs, the device is already attracting significant attention from security companies.
• We recently wrote about an electromagnetic system that could someday be used to detect dangerous substances from a distance. Now, a similar device that uses nanotechnology could soon be available for the commercial market.
  Current explosive-detecting technologies lack speed, require expert analysis and are too expensive for frequent application. "There is a need for a small, inexpensive, handheld instrument capable of detecting explosives quickly, reliably and efficiently," said Fernando Patolsky, a professor at Tel Aviv University.
  Researchers at Tel Aviv University's Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Chemistry have built the device, which is made from an array of silicon nanowires. The tiny wires are coated with a compound that bonds to explosive devices. Together, these elements form a nanotransistor.
  Each device is equipped with 200 individual nanosensors, and each unique sensor is able to detect different types of explosives. The different sensors work together to identify a large range of dangerous substances with high reliability and speed.
  The small, portable device is capable of accurately detecting different types of explosives at long distances (source: Tel Aviv University). 
  Particularly adept at detecting TNT, the sensor is more reliable than the bomb-sniffing dogs standard in any airport.
  The new detector is especially promising because of its portability and small size. It can be carried around by hand without compromising its sensitivity. Because it is capable of identification from a distance, it could also be mounted on walls. The sensor is more accurate than any bomb detector ever created, say the device's inventors. Amazingly, it has not had a single detection error to date.
  Security companies already have the low-cost device on their radar. U.S.-based Nanergy has developed a prototype of the researchers' patent and is working with potential partners to ready the device for the commercial market.
  The researchers, whose work was recently published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, hope their sensor could someday be tweaked to detect biological toxins such as anthrax and cholera. In addition to national security applications, the device could also be used for medical purposes.

Coming soon: Control car functions from smartphone with AutoBot

Mavizon Technologies just introduced AutoBot, a smartphone application that allows drivers to control several car functions with the push of a few buttons.

The new app will be available in 2012, but you don't need a brand-new car to use it. According to Amy Gilroy at CEOutlook, it will work in all vehicles with an OBD-ll port (1996 or later). Drivers can sync information with a their home computer using a cloud-based account.

AutoBot functions will allow the driver to lock and unlock doors, control window settings, start the car, and even locate the car if it gets stolen.

There are other features that will allow drivers to check engine functions and get tips on saving money.

Mavizon will show AutoBot at CES 2011. When it launches, it will be available for a fee with some free services.

Toyota integrating Internet radio app

Toyota announced that it is working with Clear Channel to integrate the latter's mobile app, iheart radio, into some of its vehicles next year.

The iheart radio app is currently available for iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Phone 7. It lets you listen to more than 750 Clear Channel radio stations, the majority from specific cities with a few genre-oriented stations not tied to a particular market. Music streams over the phone's data connection.

Toyota offered no details on exactly how it will integrate the app. If it takes a similar route as Ford's Sync Applink, an interface in the car will let you control the app on a phone. This model opens up the possibility for Toyota to include interfaces or other apps.

If the app will be installed in the car, it will require a data connection. This route could point toward a strategy by Toyota to build data modems into its cars. Or the app could rely on a data connection provided by a phone brought into the car.

Toyota will reveal further details in January during CES 2011.

GM to show EN-V mobility device at CES 2011

The next stop for GM's Electric Networked Vehicle(EN-V) concept is the upcoming 2011 Consumer 

A cutaway of GM's Electric Networked-Vehicle.

(Credit: GM)Electronics Show in January. In addition to its next-generation infotainment system, the carmaker will be showing off the three electric two-seater concepts it debuted at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai last March.

The personal mobility vehicles are one-third the size of typical cars, offer a 25-mile electric range, and are built on Segway's self-balancing two-wheeled PUMA platform. But the EN-V is more than just an upgraded Segway: it's equipped with drive-by-wire technology, and its carbon-fiber body is outfitted with GPS, distancing-sensing, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-grid communications technology that enables the EN-V to be driven either manually or autonomously.

While autonomous drive will free occupants' hands for whatever time-wasting social media is popular in the future, the feature is designed to ease traffic congestion in dense urban environments, which will house the majority of the world's population by 2030, according to estimates. The following video shows one of the EN-V concepts in motion.

Google Nexus S hands-on

How To Make a Metal Detector

How to Make an IPhone Dock Out of Old CDs