gTar uses an iPhone to teach you the guitar

Learning to play any musical instrument can be a mammoth task, especially for those who aren't naturally gifted in that regard. The guitar is particularly difficult to learn to play, with a steep learning curve and some extraordinary finger dexterity required right from the start. Therefore, any tool designed to make the process less painful is welcomed with open arms by budding guitar gods. A company called Incident is hoping that will be the case for gTar, a new digital guitar that utilizes the power of the iPhone.

Incident, a company based in Santa Clara, California, has designed a new digital guitar it hopes will come to the aid of guitarists of all skill levels. The device looks like a cross between a real guitar and a Rock Band/Guitar Hero guitar; it's easy to spot it isn't "real" but it's more authentic than the videogame peripherals that appear to have peaked in popularity several years ago.

The gTar comprises a digital guitar with strings, frets and various other of the different components that make up the instrument. The big difference is the presence of an iPhone (4 or newer) running a specially-designed app.

Instead of pick-ups to amplify the sound of the string being strummed, the gTar has sensors along the neck that are able to detect, in real time, which note is being played. This information is then relayed to the iPhone docked in the body of the gTar, which produces the actual sound.

The app comes bundled with songs that the user can choose from to play along with. Despite the name, the gTar is not limited to guitar sounds, with the app making it entirely possible to play a grand piano by plucking the notes instead. Whatever the song and whatever the instrument, users have a choice of three levels of difficulty: Easy, Medium, and Hard.

Easy means just playing the open strings, and hitting the wrong string means no sound is produced. Medium adds fretwork to the mix, but there is still no danger of messing up thanks to the built-in SmartPlay feature. Hard means needing to play the correct notes; not doing so will result in every mistake being heard. This learning curve is the gTar's strength, as real guitars start and end on the Hard level of difficulty.

The gTar is initially being sold through a Kickstarter project. Incident asked for US$100,000 to fund the initial production run and has already raised more than that amount. Approximately $70,000 of the target was raised quickly by backers paying US$350 each to get their hands on the first 200 gTars produced. The company has stated the final retail price will be $449.
The device has also made an appearance at TechCrunch Disrupt 2012, where it was actually on show and demonstrated to work as advertised. This is an important step in the Kickstarter model, which requires a certain amount of trust to exist between the project creators and the project backers.

In the future, Incident plans on releasing an SDK (software development kit) that will allow third parties to create apps for the gTar. The possibilities are only limited by the breadth of developers' imaginations.

In conclusion, the gTar is a relatively expensive way to learn to play guitar. On top of the $350-and-up asking price for the gTar itself, you'll also need to own or buy an iPhone. However, this isn't just a learning tool. Even if and when you do reach Jimi Hendrix-like status, the gTar can still be used as a digital guitar to hone your skills on or to show off to friends. It also looks good.
There are other options to consider though, such as Rocksmith, a game/training tool available for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. This lets you use a real electric guitar to play well-known songs with visual guidance. At least with Rocksmith you end up with a real guitar after the lessons have come to an end rather than a digital copy. There's also the iTar, which incorporates an iPad into a somewhat guitar-like body.

The video below shows the gTar in action along with some brief words from the founder and CEO of Incident.

UniKey replaces physical door lock key with an app

 


Well, we really should have seen this one coming. The humble door lock key, which has been around in one form or another for literally thousands of years, may be getting replaced by an app ... or more specifically, by an app that works with a dedicated lock. It’s called the UniKey system, and it has some features that are actually kind of clever.

The UniKey app transmits a Bluetooth signal from the user’s iPhone, Android or BlackBerry smartphone, which is picked up by a paired UniKey deadbolt lock as it is approached by the user. All the user has to do when they subsequently reach the door is simply touch the outer surface of the lock, at which point the bolt will electronically withdraw. A touch of the lock can likewise be used to engage it when the user is leaving.

While not having to dig out a key and stick it in the lock may be somewhat convenient, what’s more intriguing is the system’s ability to send, revoke, and limit access to virtual “copies” of the key.

If you have a visitor coming to stay with you, for instance, you can simply send them a key to your house via their phone, in the form of a text message. This copy can take the form of a one-time, extended or permanent use key. Regardless of which type is chosen, it can also be revoked at any time. People such as maids, on the other hand, can be granted keys that only operate at certain times.

Should your phone get lost or fall into the wrong hands, the lock itself can be reset to work with your new phone. The lock also does come with a traditional physical key, which can be used if your phone is lost or out of juice. For people who don’t carry a smartphone, a Bluetooth-enabled key fob is also available.

The UniKey company is currently looking at selling the technology to a larger corporation, although it could also end up selling the product independently. The cost per system is estimated to be between US$149 and $199.

Natural cancer drug available from soaking soybeans

A group of plant scientists at the University of Missouri have discovered a new, inexpensive approach to extracting an powerful anticancer chemical from soybeans. The incidence of a number of common cancers (breast, colorectal, prostate, bladder, lymphoma, and oral cancers) is lower in Japan by a factor of two to ten times than in North America or Western Europe (GLOBOCAN 2008). The medical profession is edging toward a conclusion that a significant portion of the reduction in alimentary system cancers and breast cancer is associated with the importance of the humble soybean to Japanese diets.

Researchers have considered the medical benefits of the soybean for centuries. However, the modern level of interest began with the identification of the Bowman-Birk Protease Inhibitor (BBI) in 1963.

This small protein (molecular weight of about 8,000 Daltons) has demonstrated strong cancer chemoprotective and anticancer treatment properties. It has been found effective against breast, colon, liver, lung, esophageal, and oral cancers. The studies are so impressive that BBI has been an FDA Investigational New Drug since 1992.

Unfortunately, BBI has also been very expensive (~US$2,000/gram at Sigma/Aldrich) owing to the very complex extraction sequence developed during its discovery. Early studies showed that BBI is found primarily in the soybean hulls (seed coats), which are generally removed before processing raw soybeans for the produce and fermentation markets. As a result, the hulls are extremely inexpensive at about $0.10 per kilogram. Ten percent of soybean hulls extracts as sugary solids with a protease inhibitor activity equivalent to about 70 mg/gram of solids, so that protease inhibitors make up about 7 mg/gram of the raw hulls.

Protease is any enzyme which starts the digestion of proteins by breaking peptide bonds in proteins. The extract of protease inhibitors consists of two main inhibitors, the Kunitz trypsin inhibitor and the Bowman-Birk protease inhibitor (BBI), which make up about 6 percent of the total protein of soybeans. However, the fraction with the largest level of protease inhibition is that containing BBI, a substance known to possess chemopreventive activity against a range of cancers.
BBI is traditionally purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, organic solvent extraction, centrifugation, gel filtration, column chromatography, or high performance liquid chromatography. Each of these procedures is time-consuming, involves a variety of hazardous materials, and results in limited amounts of purified material. The result is, as mentioned earlier, an extremely expensive substance.

The Missouri plant scientists have invented a green procedure for extracting BBI from soybean hulls. They found that soybean hulls soaked in water at 122ºF (50ºC) for about four hours naturally release large amounts of BBI that can easily be harvested from the water. Higher extraction temperatures yield less BBI activity – apparently the protein will denature with very long exposures to 50ºC water. When the chemoprotective anticancer properties of the extracted BBI were tested, the extract proved capable of stopping the dividing of in-vitro breast cancer cell division.

There remains considerable research and testing to be carried out on soybean-extracted BBI. However, it provides another tempting and relatively harmless approach to fighting a wide range of cancers.

Feligan PowerBrick aims to be the one device to power them all

The dramatic increase in the number of devices finding their way into people’s homes has made the humble electrical outlet hot property, with all manner of power-hungry hardware and proprietary port-packing mobile gizmos clamoring for attention. The PowerBrick universal charger from Feligan aims to be your one-stop electricity outlet by virtue of its ability to simultaneously power 11 devices.

The lower front of the PowerBrick - which is aptly named as it is roughly the same size as a housebrick - boasts two 10 W USB ports for larger mobile devices, such as tablets, and two universal 1,500 W sockets for more power intensive household gadgets that Feligan claims will take plugs from any country. However, options for plugging the PowerBrick into the wall are slightly more limiting with the choice of Italian, Sschuko, Swiss, UK and US cords.

Meanwhile, on the top of the device are six customizable connectors to accommodate Micro USB or proprietary connectors for just about any mobile device from any manufacturer (Feligan claims compatibility with over 10,000 devices). Each of the these customizable connector cords is also retractable, allowing the device to be used while it is charging or so the connectors sit neatly along the top of the PowerBrick when not in use. The plugs can also be swapped out and replaced at a later date if you update to a different device after purchasing the PowerBrick.

Previously available in black or white for €69 (US$88), Feligan has just announced the availability of leather-coated PowerBricks in a variety of colors. However, that extra touch of class will set you back €150 (US$192).

Doughnut-shaped Pulpop MP3 speaker made from recycled pulp

Unfortunately, when it comes to sharing digital music with friends, there aren't too many eco-friendly portable speaker options available for the discerning green consumer. When such things do make an appearance, they tend to be acoustic docks made from materials like bamboo (think iBamboo) that simply boost the source audio in a similar way to using an old-fashioned horn speaker, or otherwise get their power from renewable resources (as with the SoliCharger or Rukus, for instance). The Pulpop MP3 speaker designed by Balance Wu and Chin Yang takes a slight diversion from such norms. It's made from recycled paper pulp and uses of vibration speaker technology to amplify the source audio through the surface on which it stands and the hollow space inside the doughnut.

 When FeONIC Technology's SoundBug first appeared in 2002, I was intrigued by the claims of being able to turn any flat surface into a speaker. The reality, however, was something of a let down. The quality of the music that seemed to be coming from windows, mirrors and tables varied considerably from surface to surface but never offered nearly enough bass presence to satisfy my tastes. The Pulpop MP3 speaker is claimed to give crisp, crystal clear and enriched sonic output, which can be felt as well as heard.


As sound doesn't usually travel well through paper, the hollow loop doughnut shape is said to provide enough surface area to distribute sound more evenly and "allow the biggest resonance of vibration to travel 360 degrees throughout the speaker."

The hollow ring is made from eco-friendly paper pulp paste that's molded under high temperature and high pressure. Paper density, temperature control, and even the craftsmanship of those involved in the manual side of each unit's creation can all have an influence on the finished piece. Something that's not mentioned in the specs but is an obvious bonus is that the outer shell will also be biodegradable, although the small amount of internal electronics will need to stripped out before disposal.
Sounds from the digital music player are fed into the electronics via Pulpop's 3.5mm input jack, after which it's said to provide mono output of up to 5-watts RMS. The included 3.7V/600mA rechargeable battery is juiced up via an included USB charging port, although there's no mention of charging times or how long you'll be able to use Pulpop before needing to seek out some power.
It's an attractive and unusual green audio sharing solution but with dimensions of 10.2 x 11.6 x 2.4-inches (259 x 294 x 60 mm), portability could be a problem - particularly as you're not really going to want to take the risk of damaging/denting the paper doughnut by stuffing the speaker into your backpack.

Pulpop is priced at US$56, which is a good deal cheaper than the latest version of the SoundBug, although the latter does offer Bluetooth wireless connectivity and both left and right channel speakers.

Horizontal Shower gives new direction to keeping clean

If you find standing up in the shower just too strenuous then the Horizontal Shower from German company Dornbracht could be just the thing for your bathroom. It features an array of six “Water Bar” showerheads built into a horizontal platform that is attached to the wall, with another platform below on which to recline.

Due to its larger footprint, you'll either need a pretty decent sized bathroom or have to ditch the bathtub to make room for the Horizontal Shower. Thankfully, you won’t have to deal with an array of faucets while in repose, with the shower controlled via a minimalist “eTOOL” control panel embedded in the wall. Sporting a few buttons and a single knob, the eTOOL allows users to select a range of pre-programmed water temperature, intensity and quantity settings, along with the ability to control the choreography of the various showerheads.

While having water cascade down on you in varying patterns looks pretty relaxing, laying on what appears to be a rock hard slab doesn’t look all that comfortable and having to roll over to lather up various body parts might be a bit of a pain. It’s also probably not something for those concerned about water conservation either, unless you’re willing to cut the duration of your shower to a sixth of its usual length. But on the upside, you’re much less likely to slip in the shower and break a hip.
The Horizontal Shower is available now and pricing is "upon application" - i.e. it's expensive.
Purely for illustrative purposes, here’s a video from the company showing the Horizontal Shower in action.

Poultry scientists working on "chicken translator"

Any experienced chicken farmer will tell you, the relative contentment of the birds can be gauged by the sounds they’re making. While this has generally been accepted as anecdotal folk wisdom, a team of scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Georgia are now trying to scientifically verify it. They’re hoping that their research could lead to better living conditions for the animals, lower costs to farmers, and higher productivity.

The scientists have been conducting a series of experiments, in a commercial-scale chicken barn. They started by recording a baseline of the regular background bird noise. Next, they made recordings while introducing elements of mild stress – these consisted of things such as raising the temperature or ammonia levels for a few hours. By using computers to analyze qualities such as the speed, volume, and pitch of the subsequently-recorded vocalizations, they were able to identify the specific changes that resulted when different stressors were introduced.
One challenge that they faced involved being able to hear the chickens over the sound of the industrial fans used to circulate the air in the barn. Through the application of signal-processing algorithms, however, they were for the most part able to overcome this problem.

Although the research is far from over, the team members hope that their findings could ultimately be applied to an automated system, in which custom software would continuously analyze a real-time audio feed from a barn. If that software detected a change in vocalizations that indicated a particular problem, it would notify the barn’s control system, which would rectify the situation – if the sounds indicated that the chickens were too hot, for instance, the control system would automatically lower the temperature.

While automated systems do already exist, they don’t respond to feedback from the birds themselves.
If successful, the Georgia system could result in more contented chickens, which would subsequently grow larger, faster, and with less need for medication. The required microphones could also provide a cheaper alternative to more expensive, less robust traditional sensors.
More information is available in the video below.

Playsurface: The affordable flat-pack touchscreen for the masses

Founded upon open source plans for optical touch tables, the designers of the Playsurface hope to develop a versatile touchscreen table-top suitable for a variety of "blazingly fast" applications (yes, including gaming) supporting multpiple users. Though purely an input and display device, the table can be had with an integrated PC as an extra. If the project goes ahead (funding is currently sought through Kickstarter), its designers claim it would be as easy to assemble as Ikea furniture. It's not a bad comparison: the flat-packed, affordable Playsurface is a product that its makers at Templeman Automation hope will close the disconnect between the popularity and availability of table-top touchscreens.

The Playsurface's touch surface is not a touch-screen, as such. Instead it is a transparent plastic surface with a special layer applied, onto which a mirror reflects an image from a short-throw projector housed within the unit. Touch detection is handled optically, with sensors working with infrared sources within the table to pick up shadows created by user touches. It's a relatively low-cost technology growing in popularity, and is well suited to larger touchscreens.

Crucial to the promise of responsive performance is the ability of the peripheral to remove the burden of touch detection and tracking from the connected computer, which could otherwise compromise computer performance. "The problem we found with giving out tables like the prototypes we had was that every program was tricky in its own way to get touch events to work smoothly," Michael White, CEO/CTO of Templeman Automation told Gizmag. " We wanted to produce something that developers could jump on and make apps. That is when we decided that the right way to upgrade the tables you find on NUI Group [a global research group looking into natural user interfaces] is to offload the image processing to dedicated hardware."

In order that the Playsurface can work well with lower-spec computers, the designers have come up with what they call the "blob board," a USB device that handles all the touch detection and processing. The purpose of the Kickstarter funding is partly to cover the costs for the first run of boards. And because the table design is open source, users can buy a blob board and build the rest of the table themselves.

The table itself is made of untreated pine, and comes in two forms: a legged table for standing use, and a legless coffee table to sit around. A hinged panel means one whole side of the table can be opened up to get to the innards, if necessary.
As an R&D outfit more used to working with the US Navy than producing affordable consumer product, the Playsurface might seem a strange avenue for Templeman Automation to follow. But in fact the product is something of a logical progression for the company.
"In one program we have been working with the Navy on ways to help them quickly and efficiently move planes around on the decks of aircraft carriers," White told Gizmag. "This involved making software that imported from AutoCAD and allowed drag and drop with a physics engine so planes could collide and be packed, as well as automating packing algorithms. As part of this work, we found out that the Navy does lots of collaborative work with scale models of planes and deck drawings where, say, ten guys get around a big table and come up with deck arrangements. But it involved getting guys from all over the country to that table. So we started working on touch tables to enable them to do the same thing both over the internet and in a way that it could be saved and new planes or gear could be imported and moved around easily."

But with a prototype built it was inevitable that the company's engineers would start putting the table to other uses - flash games, predictably enough. But the prototypes received enthusiastic responses at events such as Maker Faire, and White is confident that there's a market in education for the Playsurface, especially for use among young or disabled children. And while hoping to nail down some separate contracts for its table-top touchscreens, Templeman Automation says some of the Kickstarter money will go towards putting Playsurfaces into classrooms.

Ultimately, though, it seems that the goal is just to make table-top touchscreens much more available.
"Microsoft has touted its Surface and that Windows 8 will be heavily touch enabled, mostly based on the rise of smart phones and tablets," White told Gizmag. "But the explosion of the app economy really followed the ability for developers to make their own apps with low overhead. At US$8,000 the MS Surface is out of the price range for most people. On the other hand, people expect touch interfaces to be playing a larger and larger role in the desktop computer experience. A critical part that is missing is a platform that is priced to penetrate into people's homes."

At the time of writing and with 20 days to go, 41 Kickstarter backers had pledged almost US$11,000 of the $40,000. Not always the case with Kickstarter projects, lower pledges come with compelling or useful rewards. Though $20 buys you a magnet, half of that money will go towards educational programs. Meanwhile, $150 buys you a blob board PCB, and $250 comes with all the electronics components you'd otherwise need to build your own Playsurface table. A complete table will set you back $1250, while $1550 and $2300 pledges will net you Playsurfaces with integrated PCs - the more expensive option billed as a fully fledged "multi-touch game machine."

 

Chilled-out mice hold key to new treatments for psychological disorders

“Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry,” the Hulk’s alter ego Bruce Banner famously said. Now researchers have made a discovery that might one day have implications for anyone considering Bruce as a potential house guest. The researchers have identified a brain receptor that malfunctions in overly hostile mice - a receptor that also exists in humans - and found a way to shut it down, offering the potential for the development of treatments for severe aggression.
The breakthrough by Marco Bortolato and Jean Shih from the University of Southern California’s (USC) School of Pharmacy, working with colleagues in Italy, builds on previous work by Bortolato and Shih, in which they identified a specific gene disposition resulting in low levels of the enzyme monoamine oxidase A (MAO A). They found that humans and mice with this congenital deficiency of the enzyme respond to stress with violent outbursts.

“The same type of mutation that we study in mice is associated with criminal, very violent behavior in humans,” Bortolato said. “But we really didn’t understand why that it is.”
To replicate elements of human pathological aggression in mice, the researchers combined low enzyme levels with stressful events early in life, such as trauma and childhood neglect.
“Low levels of MAO A are one basis of the predisposition to aggression in humans. The other is an encounter with maltreatment, and the combination of the two factors appears to be deadly: It results consistently in violence in adults,” Bortolato said.

Their research showed that extremely aggressive rodents lacking in MAO A required high levels of electrical stimulus to activate a specific brain receptor in the pre-frontal cortex known as NMDA. They add that, even when NMDA does work, it remains active for only a short period of time. Bortolato says that NMDA is thought to play a key role in helping people make sense of multiple, coinciding streams of sensory information.

“The fact that blocking this receptor moderates aggression is why this discovery has so much potential. It may have important applications in therapy,” Bortolato says. “Whatever the ways environment can persistently affect behavior – and even personality over the long term – behavior is ultimately supported by biological mechanisms.”

With pathological aggression a component in a number of common psychological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, autism, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, the researchers are now studying the potential side effects of drugs that reduce the activity of the aggression receptor.
“Aggressive behaviors have a profound socioeconomic impact, yet current strategies to reduce these staggering behaviors are extremely unsatisfactory,” Bortolato said. “Our challenge now is to understand what pharmacological tools and what therapeutic regimens should be administered to stabilize the deficits of this receptor. If we can manage that, this could truly be an important finding.”

Aston Martin revives the Vanquish nameplate

 

The Vanquish name is to return to the Aston Martin stable with deliveries of the 183 mph, £190,000 (US$299,000) sports car expected in late 2012. There's a lot of the limited edition £1.2m One-77 supercar in the recipe, with a 565 bhp 6.0-liter V12 driving through a Touchtronic six-speed automatic gearbox, and 0-100 km/h acceleration in 4.1 seconds.

The Vanquish is the latest evolution of Aston Martin’s visual language, with styling cues such as the new waist, elongated side strakes and LED rear light blades all derived from the One-77. It's not entirely unexpected, with a teaser video earlier this year indicating pretty closely what was in store. Project AM310 was shown in Italy at the Villa d'Este and has now emerged as the Vanquish.
The original Vanquish was unveiled at the 2001 Geneva Motor Show and was produced until 2004 replaced by the Vanquish S until production ceased in 2007. Its rise to household recognition came partially from being James Bond's car in the film "Die Another Day" with the DBS which replaced it following up as the 007 car in the remake of "Casino Royale."

The New Vanquish

The new Vanquish is very well detailed. One of the design highlights of the is the new Aero Duct on the rear boot lid - it counteracts lift at the car’s rear when traveling at speed, but the end-result is so gorgeous that it'll win a lot of hearts in the automotive enthusiast community for its aesthetics.

If you're thinking that a big V8 signifies old school, the Vanquish has carbon fiber body panels on the car is constructed from carbon fiber with its torsional rigidity up 25 percent.
Aston Martin Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ulrich Bez said of the new car: “Today’s Vanquish is the ultimate expression of Aston Martin design ethos, engineering innovation and technical ability. It offers luxurious, continent-crossing capability and pure driving excitement without compromise.
“The new Vanquish mixes beautiful design with impressive technology such as the superb new infotainment system. This is the latest incarnation of everything we know, informed and developed from One-77. It is the ultimate Super Grand Tourer – confident and assured – and is the newest representation of Power, Beauty and Soul.”

Of course when you're shopping in this price range, you'll be considering the Ferrari F12Berlinetta, the McLaren MP4-12C , Bentley Mulsanne, Rolls-Royce Ghost, and you'll save if you settle for an AMG Mercedes-Benz SLS Coupe or CL65 Coupe.