Researchers design vehicle to help blind drive

October 5th, 2009 LONDON - A 7-year-old blind boy has been given the nickname Batboy, for he has learnt how to "see" by using his ears. Lucas Murray, who was born blind, is believed to be the first in Britain to use echoes to visualise his surroundings.

October 1st, 2009 LONDON - Reports indicate that a local authority in London has become the first in the world to charge motorists for parking on the basis of how "green" their vehicle is. According to a report by Sky News, Richmond upon Thames is to charge drivers varying prices based on the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of their vehicle of choice.

September 29th, 2009 LONDON - A study by an international team of researchers has shown that partially blind people can "unconsciously" sense the facial expressions of others. Led by Marco Tamietto and Beatrice de Gelder at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, the study involved two patients from the United Kingdom who have the very rare condition known as partial cortical blindness.

September 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a retinal implant for people who have lost their vision from retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration- two of the leading causes of blindness. The retinal prosthesis would help restore some vision by electrically stimulating the nerve cells that normally carry visual input from the retina to the brain.

September 24th, 2009 ROTTERDAM - The Netherlands will focus on industrial design at the "Design Cross-over Rotterdam" conference here Friday to promote India-Dutch collaboration, the European nation's India desk said Thursday. "The roundtable conference in Rotterdam shall open doors to opportunities between Rotterdam and India in integrated and sustainable design and the related design sectors," the Netherlands India desk said in a statement.

September 22nd, 2009 LONDON - A British company has come up with new airplane designs that have interiors like a tube train. The most striking feature of the design is its seating arrangement where passengers would sit on seats with their backs towards the windows.

September 15th, 2009 SEOUL - GM Daewoo hopes to make inroads into the mini-car market with its first such vehicle now on sale in South Korea and due to come to Europe at the start of 2010. It will be assembled at GM plants in India, Vietnam, Columbia and Uzbekistan.

September 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA's Orion spacecraft has passed a significant design milestone by completing the Orion Project's preliminary design review (PDR), and thus taking a major step toward building the next crew exploration vehicle. Orion is being designed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and other destinations.

July 5th, 2009 LONDON - A man who lost his eyesight in an accident at work can now see again, thanks to doctors who transplanted his tooth in his eye. Martin Jones, 42, a builder, had been blind for 12 years after a tub of white-hot aluminium exploded in his face while working at a scrapyard.

June 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers has revealed that tobacco manufacturers have continually changed the design and ingredients of their cigarettes over time, and that such changes have exceeded acceptable product variance guidelines. The researchers say that consumers who buy the same brand of product are not made aware of the alterations, and how they might affect their levels of addiction or harm.

May 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Purdue University researchers claim that they have created a new type of invisibility cloak that works for all colors of the visible spectrum, making it possible to cloak larger objects than before. Research leaders Vladimir Shalaev and Anne Burnett say that their new design may also pave the way for practical applications in "transformation optics"-such as the creation of "hyperlenses" for microscopes 10 times more powerful than those existing presently; computers and consumer electronics that use light instead of electronic signals to process information; advanced sensors; and more efficient solar collectors.

April 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at Purdue University, US, have developed a critical part of a hydrogen storage system for cars that makes it possible to fill up a vehicle's fuel tank within five minutes with enough hydrogen to drive 300 miles. The research, funded by General Motors Corp.

March 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - We use the stairs only when we are shut out of elevators or in a tearing hurry -- but how many of us realise that they are the only escape mode during an emergency like the 9/11 or a raging fire. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers examined what people know about stairs being an emergency evacuation route and found that the answer is -- not nearly enough.

March 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An American company has successfully tested its "flying car", which took flight and landed at an upstate New York air strip recently. According to a report in Boston Herald, the "roadable aircraft" was made by Terrafugia Inc., which is based in Woburn.

December 25th, 2008 WASHINGTON - Researchers have demonstrated that people can successfully navigate an obstacle course even after the loss of their vision. The findings reveal the importance of alternative routes in the brain, active in those who have suffered severe brain damage to the visual cortex as well as in all of our everyday lives.