Standing Out in the Crowd

In the face of budget cuts throughout the government, many agencies are scrambling to become more efficient and innovative in their pursuit of solving problems.  The Air Force has an innovative strategy called “crowdsourcing” to find solutions to some of the biggest problems.  In this particular case, two winning solutions identified for the crowdsourcing challenges were “Vehicle Stopper” and “Humanitarian Air Drop”.  The solutions came from engineers in Peru, Indonesia and the Netherlands.  By going traditional ways to find solutions would have prevented such innovative ideas.

The Vehicle Stopper challenge was to identify ways to stop a fleeing vehicle without causing severe damage or injuring its occupants. The award winning solution came from Dante Barbis, a retired 66-year-old mechanical engineer from Lima, Peru, who suggested an electric, remote-controlled robotic vehicle capable of accelerating to 130 mph within three seconds to catch up to a fleeing vehicle, deploying an airbag underneath to lift the car off the ground, and then slowing to a stop.

The second challenge, Humanitarian Air Drop, needed a way to drop huge amounts of food and water packages from an aircraft without injuring anyone on the ground. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) ended up choosing two winners: Agung Nuswantoro, a self-employed engineer from Tangerang City in the Republic of Indonesia, and Siepko Bekkering, an engineer working for an international engineering consulting firm in the Netherlands.

Both engineers provided pieces to the problem which when combined were just what AFRL was looking for.

Way to think differently!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44994706/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/t/air-force-innovation-prizes-make-cents-budget-era/

Monkey See, Monkey Do...

It never ceases to amaze me at the scientific innovations being created which will improve or enhance our existence.  Recent breakthroughs in brain-machine interface technology have made it possible for monkeys as well as some humans the ability to control prosthetic limbs with their thoughts.  Subjects are implanted with microwire arrays in the motor cortex.  Not only does the brain control the movement of the limbs, but bidirectional signals allow touch feedback and pressure sensitivity.   During the Duke University research, monkeys were trained through the use of a virtual “avatar” to identify object textures on a screen and were rewarded for proper responses.

What next? 

The combination of brain-machine interface and touch sensory is the next step in aiding wounded veterans and people with restricted movement to have better life experiences.  Future advancements in microwire arrays simulating the motor cortex worn externally to the brain, would potentially make the technology ideal for many other uses.

Courtesy of Duke University

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/38792/?mod=chfeatured