The Livre, designed by Nedzad Mujcinovic, a student at at Monash University, is vying with Amazon’s Kindle to become the next-generation e-book reader.

The design won a Dyson Student Award in 2007. Perhaps the most important feature that makes this gadget stand out is it’s simple, easy-to-use gesture input scheme. Instead of pressing buttons, you simply slide your finger from corner to corner to turn pages, somewhat like a real book. Sliding two fingers skips by 10 pages, and three fingers goes 50 pages ahead.

The touch surface overlays an e-paper (or e-ink) surface, which is standard for these sorts of e-book readers. What does set it apart is the leather stitched cover, making the device resemble a real book.

Livre seem set to bridge our gap between traditional books and their digital counterparts. A device like this could help us transition to e-books with ease due to its intuitive nature. We hope to see a real-life version of Livre in stores soon, so Nedzad better work on making this a reality. Another pic after the jump. Read more »

Surgeons and robotics experts at the University of Calgary have developed neuroArm, a robot which is capable of performing brain surgery within the powerful magnet of an MRI.

Being able to work within such a powerful magnetic field is a first for robots. Most brain surgeries are performed with their assistance, but so far no robot has been able to go within an MRI. Not only can it go inside, but this robot is also guided by the detailed images the MRI creates.

The neuroArm is a huge advance for medical technology and robotics. Innovations like this will translate into more lives saved and much better surgery results seeing as robots are much less prone to mistakes than their human counterparts. More photos after the jump. Read more »

Apple today announced a much-anticipated update to their MacBook and MacBook Pro computer lines. The MacBook Pro has acquired some new features while MacBook remains mostly the same with the exception of a speed boost.

The biggest news is the addition of multi-touch to the MacBook Pro, the same one that’s found on the new MacBook Air. Users can now use two fingers to zoom, rotate, and scroll through their photos. Unfortunately, the new MacBooks still have the same old, boring trackpad.

Both lines have been upgraded to Intel’s new Penryn CPUs, meaning less heat and lower power consumption. That should certainly make new owners happier.

The rest of the upgrades are fairly minor. Processor power has been bumped up slightly to a base 2.4GHz for the MacBook Pro and 2.1GHz for the MacBook. Optional video memory has been doubled to 512MB. The MacBook Pro has also been upgraded to an LED backlight for the 15-inch models with the LED remaining an option for the 17-inchers. Hard drive capacities have also been increased to a minimum 200GB for the Pro and 120GB for the MacBook.

Other than that, the size, shape, and weight appear to be the same. We were looking forward to some new visual touches, but it looks like that’ll have to wait until the next round of updates.

Polymer solar cells that are used today to convert sunlight to electricity degrade over time because of ultraviolet light. Scientists at UCLA have found a solution to that problem.

They suggested coating solar cells with a material that converts photons of ultraviolet light into ones of visible light. Such a material would increase the efficiency of the solar cells and reduce damage to them from sunlight, making them last longer.

The material could be made of a liquid, a gel, nanoparticles, or a solid, the researchers claim. They have already performed some experiments which have confirmed their ideas. A patent has, of course, already been filed.

This is another great step toward renewable energy. With innovations like this we can finally start lowering our dependence on fossil fuels and switch to better sources of energy.

Nokia has recently announced their Morph concept, a gadget which should (in about 100 years) replace everything you carry in your pocket today.

Featured in The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition, the Morph aims to be the only gadget you’ll ever need due to its adaptable nature. Made of flexible and transparent materials, Nokia imagines this gadget taking on just about any shape and size.

For example, it can start in the shape of a cell phone, but then unfold into a screen to view movies and other media on. This larger screen would incorporate input devices such as keyboards and touch pads as well to allow for communication. It could then be folded up into a bracelet that you wear on your wrist. As Nokia says, the Morph would “allow us to communicate and interact in unprecedented ways.”

Read more »

The world’s first wooden supercar, called the Splinter, has been unveiled. Producing 600 bhp from its 4.6 liter V8 engine, and with a top speed of 240 mph, this car will leave just about everyone else in the dust.

Splinter is made from a combination of maple, plywood, and MDF, giving it a beautiful look while cutting from its weight. Even the wheels have wooden rims. Joe Harmon, who is heading the project, said, “Wood has a higher strength-to-weight ratio than aluminium or steel, and it possesses a versatility that makes many types of construction techniques possible. The satisfaction involved in making something from a piece of wood is awesome.”

The car also has a roll cage to protect the occupants and stiffen the chassis. We’re guessing that would come in handy seeing as there is an almost infinite number of things that can go wrong with a wooden car. Read more »

San Jose-based company MetaRAM has achieved something that none of us expected. They have accelerated memory technology development by 2-4 years with their new DIMMs while being able to offer them at a much cheaper price.

How did they do it? MetaRAM has created a chipset which allows up to four times more mainstream DRAMs to be integrated into an existing stick of memory while fooling the computer into thinking it’s just one big piece.

For example, a 1GB DRAM is much cheaper than a 2GB one, and the new chipset allows manufacturers to just use two of the 1GB DRAMs instead of the 2GB one for a huge cost reduction. Now think of that on a massive scale: MetaRAM is advertising that you can put a quarter-terabyte (256GB) of memory into a server at as little as 10% of the cost. “That’s insane,” you say. “Why didn’t I think of that?” Well, we’re with you on that one.

The technology seems absolutely brilliant, and it’s a wonder why no one has thought of it before. Hopefully MetaRAM can lower the prices on consumer memory as well so we can start seeing mainstream computers with 16GB or 32GB of memory.

Read the press release here [pdf].

Researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory have announced a project called Green Freedom, aimed at extracting CO₂ from the air and converting it into fuel to power cars and airplanes.

Green Freedom hopes to provide a method of large-scale production of carbon-neutral, sulfur-free fuels and organic chemicals from air and water. Their goal is to create a fuel that will work with today’s existing car and airplane engines.

The footprint of the technology is fairly small. It would outfit existing nuclear power plants with carbon-capture equipment, so no new facilities would need to be built.

This project is a huge leap forward in the quest to protect our environment. Who can complain about taking harmful carbon dioxide out of the air and turning it into fuel? We’re all for this project, and hopefully they can get the technology ready soon so it can be put to work.