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British steam car attempts to break land speed record
A bunch of U.K. enthusiasts are attempting to break the 102-year-old land speed record with a steam-powered car. The three-ton vehicle, described as a giant kettle on top of a camping stove, has almost two miles of tubes inside its carbon-fiber-composite/aluminum frame. The team is expecting the 25-foot-long car to reach 200 mph during its record attempt at Bonneville Speed Week in September.
The car — can I call it that? — takes eight minutes to get going, but has only enough fuel, air and water for a three-minute run. The water boils at 482°F due to the fact that there's 40 bar water pressure inside the boilers. It's then super-heated to 750°F, or "dry" steam, which passes through heavily lagged pipes and two industrial steam valves before ending up in a two-stage turbine.
Outsize Goodyear tires and brake pads slow the vehicle down, and there's a parachute system that opens up behind in case the braking system fails.
There are 12 boilers inside the car, which from the front resembles the love child of a Fifties UFO and a Roomba. These boilers heat up the 37 gallons of distilled water needed to push the vehicle to its top speed. Onboard tanks containing Liquid Petroleum Gas fire up the burners that heat the boilers, producing three megawatts of heat. That's enough power to make 9,000 cups of tea — roughly what I drink each month.
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T-Mobile man talks up the future of television
One of the most senior figures in the telecommunications industry has insisted that we will see 1000Mb lines, 3DTV and holographic television inside the next ten years.
Deutsche Telekom is the mother company of T-Mobile, and its Chief Innovation Officer Christopher Schlaffer told the IPTV World Forum that the 'explosion' of broadband connections and the continuing innovation in television will bring a huge shift in how we consume media.
"There is no doubt that bandwidth is tripling every year, so ten years from now are we going to be looking at 1000Mb connections in every home on average? I would say yes, absolutely.
3DTV and Holographic TV
"Storage capacity and processing capacity is exploding. Cloud computing is there and of course there will be 3DTV and holographic TV in the next ten years; we've already seen these things out there.
Mobile computers have increasing processing power and mobile internet devices and mobile phones will be relevant for the IPTV in the future that is clear.
"So technology cannot be considered a limiting factor."
Schlaffer outlined four areas that will be key to the changes in television, richness of content, accessing television on multiple screens, interactivity and embracing third parties to encourage innovation.
"Television needs to embrace the full breadth of the internet," he added.
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Vuzix on Wednesday at the Game Developers Conference demonstrated what it calls the first consumer Augmented Reality video eyewear. Comprised of the company's existing VR920 virtual reality video eyewear and a new augmented reality accessory kit developed in conjunction with metaio. Vuzix claims the technology will bring a new dimension to gaming, educational and business industries. For its demo, flat images in a book were seen in 3D by the wearer of the device.
The kit includes the CamAR clip-on USB camera and the PhasAR wireless augmented reality input controller that work together to let users view a combination of real and virtual images, adding 3D effects to 2-D virtual objects. The PhasAR has a computer mouse-like support to allow users to control virtual objects in 3D space. It has a six-degree of freedom tracking system and sends tracking and position information of where the user is touching to the computer.
Vuzix has not announced shipping dates or prices for the AR accessory kit.
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With the BMW Snug, Hungarian designer David Raffai has created what he considers a social space with wheels. On the inside, staggered seating gives the car's interior a more open feel, much like you'd enjoy in a living room. On the outside, too, the Snug features recessed areas on the side and rear that act as seating.
The Snug's also designed to have changeable graphics along the side of the vehicle to customize it, and take advantage of greener technologies, such as hydrogen fuel cells. Check out the gallery below for more of David Raffai's concept vehicle.
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