Constant incessant unrelenting noise, the bane of our modern existence whether in your home or on the streets. Gone are the days of polite conversation and quiet strolls on uncrowded streets to be replaced with blaring tvs, car horns, screeching undisciplined children and the thump-thump-thump of some bass loaded “music” being broadcast to the world whether the world wants to hear it or not. Oy, my ears, they bleed. Enter Silentium and their active noise control chips which produce “anti-noise – opposing sound waves of the same amplitude as the disturbing noise, which shuts out the din (sans the discomfort of earplugs).” They can put these chips in just about anything and their latest product is called “Quiet Bubble” which is a head rest that has their chip technology in it that shuts out distracting noises in cars and airplanes creating a “zone of quiet” around passengers. Ahhhhh, just think of the possibilities. I know I sure could use one of these sitting around the family table at Thanksgiving. Maybe next year I’ll just stay in the car.

Can you see me now? That’s what everyone stuck behind the winning Corvette C6.R race car at last month’s 12 Hours of Sebring was asking. It’s hard to sneak up on Corvette these days as it has a new secret weapon on board: a Pratt & Miller rear-view radar camera system that gives the driver a heads-up on approaching traffic, even in blind spots and it doesn’t matter whether it’s dark out or raining. The rear-facing radar sensor can track up to 32 objects and shows different colors and symbols on the rear-view screen that lets the driver see what’s behind him, how close they are, their closing speeds and even the approaching vehicle’s racing class. A green marker means the car behind is falling back, yellow means it’s moving at the same speed  and red indicates the car is closing in and about to pass, with a blinking arrow indicating on which side it’ll pass. If you see an extra line in the marker, that’s showing you that the computer thinks the vehicle coming up behind is of a faster class. I guess there really is nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide.

The modern day plague of potholes may have just met its match. Erik Schlangen and his cohorts at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have come up with a self-healing asphalt. They’re taking porous asphalt with its advantages of having splash water drain right through and noise dampening properties, and addressing the problem of revelling or stones at the surface sloughing off leading to cracks and potholes. To solve this issue they are adding steel fibers to the aggregate binding material.  When the binding material does become damaged due to weathering, oxidation or uv light the steel can be heated with an induction machine which will melt the bitumen that then flows into microcracks so that the stones become fixed to the surface again. They estimate the road needs to be “healed” about every four years or so and this supposedly will double the life of the asphalt. I’ve got a nice little stretch of road in front of my house that they can use as a test patch any time they want.

What about concrete you say? There is news on that front too and it’s called Bio-Concrete. The same people who are working with self-healing asphalt have come up with a way to add bacteria to concrete which allows the spores to lie dormant until awakened by moisture and oxygen when a crack appears. The bacteria spores along with calcium nutrients are encapsulated in pellet or granular form and added to a wet concrete mix. Years later when cracks form and water reaches the pellets they open up allowing the bacteria to germinate and to feed on the nutrients which in turn allows them to multiply and produce limestone which ultimately fills in the holes. It’s like Pac-Man in reverse. This is just in the testing stage right now but I wonder what would happen if these little bugs got loose somehow. Maybe they should figure out some kind of food the bacteria wouldn’t like and keep a supply on hand for just in case. I vote they try brussels sprouts.

[Update 04/01/13: Just came across a story about self-healing microchips. To demonstrate how it works, they shot a series of laser pulses at a chip carrying 100,000 transistors which fried about half the circuits. Within less than a second, the chip had already re-routed everything to make itself functional again. What do you think about that Sarah Connor?]

Here is the latest iteration in car makers trying to break into the automatic high beam/low beam market. Volvo Cars is trying to make driving at night safer and more comfortable with their new permanent high beam tech. Active High Beam Control allows continuous use of high beams that amps up visibility in the dark  without having to switch to low beam when meeting or catching up with other cars. A camera located near the rear view mirror detects other cars and a control unit relays the information to a projector mechanism housed in the headlight. A tiny cylinder with metal pieces of different sizes allows shading of just as much of the beam as necessary so as not to blind the other driver. Take a look:

Audi has had their matrix beam LED headlamps, which basically do the same thing, on its concept cars for a few years now but the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn’t allow their use under its current laws even though they pretty much threw their hands up in the air when Audi asked them why not. So we’ll just have to wait and see if Volvo’s system actually gets the go-ahead for the US market.

It seems to be all the rage these days to make things materialize out of thin air. Just this past week we reported on a British company that was making fuel that way and now the French are getting in the act with their Hybrid Air system that operates on compressed air, gasoline or a combination of the two. Car batteries are making headlines too with Toyota and BMW working on a lithium air battery that will allow a major part of the energy-making process to come from oxygen. Don’t forget forever-talked about, seldom-realized hydrogen fuel cell technology with its latest iteration by Renault-Nissan, Ford and Daimler who are joining together with hopes of bringing a vehicle to market in as little as four years. All these pale, however, in comparison to the Wind Explorer vehicle built by Evonik in NJ that actually has a portable wind turbine and a parachute-type kite that moves it along on the slightest of breezes. That last one is a little too funky for me, but I could see quite a few politicians taking a liking to it.

So I’m watching the NFL and getting more ticked off by the minute with all the bad calls (there seem to have been more than usual this season). Before I blow a gasket I decide to tool around on the net and see what I can find to distract myself. I land on a Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) talk by Dennis Hong entitled “Making a Car for Blind Drivers.” Nope, better stay away from anything with the word “blind” in it………on the other hand it’s only nine minutes long and that’s a pretty interesting title that conjures up all kinds of different scenarios in my head.

Mr. Hong starts out by explaining that around 2009 the National Federation of the Blind had challenged the research community to develop a vehicle where blind people could actually drive, making active decisions and maneuvering on their own and not one where they were  just being placed in the vehicle and driven around. His team came up with a prototype that incorporated perception tools (GPS, cameras, lasers that sweep the environment around the vehicle), computer processes (that help understand the info being scanned) and non-visual interfaces (gloves, vests and seat pads with sensors that vibrate to convey instructions, voice command units, etc.). One of the really innovative non-visual interfaces is called AirPix where the driver holds his hand over a small tablet that is full of holes and they shoot compressed air through certain holes in certain patterns, with differing intensity and temperature to convey details – kind of  like a braille board that “draws” pictures with air. All of this info is then used by the blind driver to navigate a course as any normal sighted person would do except that he has gathered all the necessary info in a non-visual way.

It was quite exciting to watch a demo of the prototype at Daytona in January, 2011. The driver was genuinely thrilled to have successfully made a trip around the track while successfully dodging boxes that were being thrown in his path, passing another moving vehicle and maneuvering between barrels at the finish line. This avenue (punny) opens up a myriad of possibilities not only for those with limited sight but for spin-off applications like helping to see through fog, use in everyday home appliances, and for office or classroom settings.

I started thinking about what they should call this vehicle. Too bad Land Rover is already taken. What about the Batmobile? That might be just a little too out there. Then I glanced over at the muted TV and had what I thought was a flash of brilliance – what about calling it the “Linesman”? Tough call.