Battery life to increase ten-fold

Laptop and mobile phone batteries could see a ten-fold boost in performance if a technology breakthrough from scientists in the US comes to fruition, says PC Pro.

According to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, replacing conventional battery electrodes with ones coated with carbon nanotubes can drastically increase the power to weight ratio compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries.

The scientists say the energy output for a given weight of this new electrode material was five times greater than for conventional capacitors, and the total power delivery rate was 10 times that of lithium-ion batteries.

Games are only the starting point for interface-less technology, such as Microsoft's body-sensing Project Natal, renamed Kinect, according to a company official dealing with advanced object recognition algorithms, states New Scientist.

Kinect, a set-top add-on for the Xbox 360 console, allows gamers to become the controller. But Jamie Shotton of Microsoft Research UK in Cambridge says: "Looking forward into the future, I expect to see it in other types of applications."

While games provided the initial impetus for Kinect, Shotton is now interested in exploring other practical applications, such as hands-free access to patient files for surgeons, smoother presentation software, and intelligent monitoring systems.

California is being crippled by debt and the situation is so desperate it looks like state lawmakers are now considering a licence plate led recovery, writes Gizmag.

A bill proposed by Senator Curren D Price Jr, D-Inglewood, gives the Department of Motor Vehicles the authority to investigate emerging Digital Electronic Licence Plate technology. This would enable rear licence plates on vehicles to become message boards to display advertising or other images when the vehicle is stationary for periods longer than four seconds, such as at a stop light or in a traffic jam.

The senator argues the adoption of this emerging technology could bring significant benefits to the state and its taxpayers. The technology could also be used to broadcast critical real-time traffic and public information such as Amber alerts and emergency traffic updates to drivers.