Now, an intelligent system to help the elderly avoid forgetting everyday tasks

September 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - An international team of scientists has developed a novel system that detects "unusual behaviours" in drivers before a curve or an obstacle on the road and generates signals of alarm to warn of an accident risk. The so-called DRIVSCO system allows vehicles to learn from the behaviour of their drivers at the wheel.

September 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An intelligent surveillance system, developed by researchers from the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), can detect aberrant behaviour by drivers and people on foot crossing pedestrian crossings and in other urban settings. The study, by David Vallejo, from the ORETO Applied Intelligent Systems research group of the UCLM, could be used to penalise incorrect behaviour.

September 11th, 2009 LONDON - A user-friendly forearm crutch with an in-built sensor has been developed to monitor whether or not it is being used correctly. The new crutch is based on low-cost, off-the-shelf technology and sensors similar to those used in Nintendo Wii.

September 8th, 2009 LONDON - The U.S. Department of Transportation is funding a new research project aimed at replacing asphalt with solar panels as the basic material for making roads, in a bid to solve the crisis of electricity.

September 2nd, 2009 LONDON - Parrots that are strongly right- or left-footed are better at problem-solving tasks than their ambidextrous counterparts, according to a new study. Lead researchers Maria Magat and Culum Brown at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, worked with eight species of Australian parrot, some of which are primarily left-biased - gang-gang cockatoos, for instance, are 100 per cent left-footed - others right-biased and the rest "ambidextrous".

August 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Elderly people with limited mobility may soon come to be served by robots in a manner as if they are being served by other persons, thanks to a collaborative study by three University of Illinois at Chicago engineers and a Rush University nursing specialist. "We want to help elderly people communicate with robots, to tell them what they need, and to perform physical activities," said Milos Zefran, UIC associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

August 13th, 2009 LONDON - A design that makes bikes as "intelligent" as computers has been unveiled by British Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman. Thanks to the revolutionary system, the bike can never be stolen and has puncture-proof tyres, and it could be in everyday use by 2029.

August 12th, 2009 MELBOURNE - All Australians have been invited to pen an SMS-like message - no longer than 160 characters - which will eventually be transmitted to Gliese 581d, a planet 20 light years away. The planet is considered the closest to Earth capable of supporting intelligent life.

April 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Thinking your memory will get worse as you become older may actually make it come true. Researchers found that the elderly who thought that seniors would perform poorly on memory tests scored worse than their counterparts who didn't buy this outlook.

April 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - People's attention does not return time and again to the objects they have already seen while searching for something, but they tend to shift their eyes to previously fixated locations when performing other visual tasks, according to a study. Psychologists Michael D.

March 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, a scientist has suggested that chimpanzees are four times stronger than humans because our nervous systems exert more control over our muscles, thus preventing great feats of strength. The research was done by evolutionary biologist Alan Walker, a professor at Penn State University.

March 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - While many reckon the benefits of working in teams, a new research has shown that people working in groups do share information, but they only discuss things they already know. The analysis of 22 years of applied psychological research has also shown that "talkier" teams are less effective.

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has found that older air traffic controllers perform as well as their young counterparts on complex, job-related tasks. The research, led by psychology professor Art Kramer, has shown that despite certain deficits older people's expertise on the job enables them to function on a par with their younger peers.

January 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Consumers do not end up always buying the product they really want, especially when their minds are preoccupied with other tasks, according to a new study. The research, conducted by Aimee Drolet of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Mary Frances Luce (Duke University) and Itamar Simonson (Stanford University) identified two factors that can lead consumers to use shortcuts (heuristics) when they make product choices.

January 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Seniors with damaged kidneys are more likely to suffer heart failure, stroke and other causes of mortality, says a new study. These findings indicate that the elderly with impaired kidneys should make lifestyle changes, particularly if they are at risk from high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure to avoid developing cardiovascular problems.