Motorola's UK Defy gets rugged JCB-treatment, still useless for excavating

Everyone loves diggers: Motorola's let that natural fascination get the better of it by teaming up with digger-maker JCB to produce a ruggedized version of its Defy+ "life proof" phone. The limited-edition handset comes pre-loaded with branded-applications for the construction site including a spirit-level, theodolite, decibel meter and a DIY store locator: although we're more interested in seeing if you can use the tough device to hammer in nails. The Gingerbread-with-Motoblur operating cellular telephone has a 1GHz processor, 2GB internal storage / 2GB microSD card (up to the usual 32GB) and a 3.7-inch Gorilla Glass display. There's also a five megapixel camera for snapping pictures of diggers and digger-related items -- best of all, you can use the handset as a walkie-talkie with group call functionality. It'll be available in the UK (sorry, America) for £260, meanwhile you can pneumatically drill-down into the PR we've got after the break.

Continue reading Motorola's UK Defy+ gets rugged JCB-treatment, still useless for excavating

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Markerless motion capture offers a new angle on tennis injuries

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Alison Sheets
Sheets.203@osu.edu
614-247-6367
Ohio State University

COLUMBUS, Ohio A new approach to motion capture technology is offering fresh insights into tennis injuries and orthopedic injuries in general.

Researchers studied three types of tennis serves, and identified one in particular, called a "kick" serve, which creates the highest potential for shoulder injury.

The results, published in a recent issue of Annals of Biomedical Engineering, could aid sports training and rehab, said Alison Sheets, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State University.

With further development, she added, doctors could use her "markerless motion capture" technique to diagnose patients.

"The potential for markerless motion capture in medicine is vast and exciting, because it can quantify how a person moves without the need to attach electronic markers or other equipment to their body," Sheets said. "People can move naturally, and in a natural setting outside of a laboratory."

Traditional motion capture technology works by attaching markers to a subject's skin or clothing and tracking them as the subject moves, she explained. The markers can emit an electronic signal or reflect light, and the associated wiring and other equipment can limit or otherwise influence people's movement. Moreover, the tracking has to take place in a laboratory setting, where lighting and background are carefully controlled.

Sheets and her colleagues are working to do away with the markers and take motion capture out of the laboratory.

For a project at Stanford University where Sheets was a postdoctoral researcher before coming to Ohio State she was part of a team that designed a system of eight video cameras that record a person's movements at the same time, each shooting from a different angle.

A computer program combines the images to identify the 3D volume and shape of the person in each video frame. By comparing this shape to precise body measurements of the person under study, researchers can pinpoint the parts of the body that engage for a particular action, such as serving a tennis ball.

Study coauthor Marc Safran, MD, an expert in shoulder surgery at Stanford, proposed the project in order to investigate why he'd seen an uptick in the number of tennis players with shoulder injuries. Safran's own 2005 research had shown that tennis injury rates had risen to as high as 20 injuries per 1,000 hours played, with most injuries to the upper body.

"To understand the cause of these injuries, we wanted to study how players move in a real, game-like situation," Sheets said.

They recruited seven members of the Stanford men's varsity tennis team for the study. The serve is the most often performed stroke in the game, so researchers focused on gauging the effects of three common types of serves on the players' back, arm, and shoulder joints.

A tennis serve is analogous to a baseball pitch, in that a player must deliver the ball to particular location. In baseball, it's the "strike zone," and in tennis it's the "service box," an in-bounds section of the opposite side of the court. And just like a pitcher a server artfully delivers the ball to make it harder to hit.

The first serve in the study, the "flat" serve, is a straight shot down the center of the court similar to a pitcher's fastball. The second, the "slice" serve, requires the player to brush the racquet against the ball sideways during the hit. That gives the ball a slight spin that makes it skid across the ground and take an unpredictable bounce somewhat analogous to the unpredictable flight of baseball's knuckle ball.

The last, the "kick" serve, requires the player to brush the ball upwards from underneath, giving it a lot of topspin. Just like a pitcher's curve ball, the kick serve sends the ball sideways along a wide arc. Ideally, it drops into the opponent's service box from high above, and produces an equally steep bounce.

Sheets draws one big difference between a tennis serve and a baseball pitch, however.

"In baseball, a pitcher uses the arm like a whip. The movement is sequential shoulder, elbow, wrist. But in tennis, the shoulder and elbow move together toward the ball, followed by the elbow alone and then finally the wrist, so that the racquet is moving the fastest right before ball impact."

"For the flat serve, the player puts almost of all of the energy into moving the racquet in the forward direction," she continued. "But for the kick serve, the player is also trying to precisely time upwards and sideways racquet movements to generate that characteristic spin."

The study examined the difference in body positioning for the three serves. Researchers measured the distance between the vertical center line of a player's body and the hitting surface of the racquet when the player hit the ball. For the kick serve, players swung the racquet closer to the center -- about 21 cm (8 inches) and 16 cm (6 inches) closer than for the flat serve and slice serve, respectively. The players also extended the racquet farther behind them for the kick serve: 8 cm (3 inches) farther than for the flat serve.

Those measurements suggest that the kick serve generates larger forces on muscles crossing the shoulder joint than the other two serves, which could promote injury, Sheets said.

She's now working with Ajit Chaudhari and Timothy Hewitt of OSU Sports Medicine, who study ACL injuries a tearing of a ligament in the knee joint. She also has a new project with D. Michele Basso, professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, to use the technique with animals in order to develop more effective spinal cord injury rehabilitation protocols.

Sheets envisions that tennis coaches could use motion capture analysis of their players both to prevent injury and improve performance. She doesn't think the kick serve itself is going to change anytime soon, though.

"I can see how motion capture might change training and rehab, but I don't think it'll change how the game is played," she said. "In tennis as in all sports, you do whatever it takes to keep your opponent on their toes."

###

Other coauthors on the tennis study include Geoffrey D. Abrams and Thomas P. Andriacchi of Stanford and Stefano Corazza of Mixamo Inc. in San Francisco. The research was funded by the BioMotion Laboratory at Stanford.

Contact: Alison Sheets, (614) 247-6367; Sheets.203@osu.edu

Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu


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?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Alison Sheets
Sheets.203@osu.edu
614-247-6367
Ohio State University

COLUMBUS, Ohio A new approach to motion capture technology is offering fresh insights into tennis injuries and orthopedic injuries in general.

Researchers studied three types of tennis serves, and identified one in particular, called a "kick" serve, which creates the highest potential for shoulder injury.

The results, published in a recent issue of Annals of Biomedical Engineering, could aid sports training and rehab, said Alison Sheets, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State University.

With further development, she added, doctors could use her "markerless motion capture" technique to diagnose patients.

"The potential for markerless motion capture in medicine is vast and exciting, because it can quantify how a person moves without the need to attach electronic markers or other equipment to their body," Sheets said. "People can move naturally, and in a natural setting outside of a laboratory."

Traditional motion capture technology works by attaching markers to a subject's skin or clothing and tracking them as the subject moves, she explained. The markers can emit an electronic signal or reflect light, and the associated wiring and other equipment can limit or otherwise influence people's movement. Moreover, the tracking has to take place in a laboratory setting, where lighting and background are carefully controlled.

Sheets and her colleagues are working to do away with the markers and take motion capture out of the laboratory.

For a project at Stanford University where Sheets was a postdoctoral researcher before coming to Ohio State she was part of a team that designed a system of eight video cameras that record a person's movements at the same time, each shooting from a different angle.

A computer program combines the images to identify the 3D volume and shape of the person in each video frame. By comparing this shape to precise body measurements of the person under study, researchers can pinpoint the parts of the body that engage for a particular action, such as serving a tennis ball.

Study coauthor Marc Safran, MD, an expert in shoulder surgery at Stanford, proposed the project in order to investigate why he'd seen an uptick in the number of tennis players with shoulder injuries. Safran's own 2005 research had shown that tennis injury rates had risen to as high as 20 injuries per 1,000 hours played, with most injuries to the upper body.

"To understand the cause of these injuries, we wanted to study how players move in a real, game-like situation," Sheets said.

They recruited seven members of the Stanford men's varsity tennis team for the study. The serve is the most often performed stroke in the game, so researchers focused on gauging the effects of three common types of serves on the players' back, arm, and shoulder joints.

A tennis serve is analogous to a baseball pitch, in that a player must deliver the ball to particular location. In baseball, it's the "strike zone," and in tennis it's the "service box," an in-bounds section of the opposite side of the court. And just like a pitcher a server artfully delivers the ball to make it harder to hit.

The first serve in the study, the "flat" serve, is a straight shot down the center of the court similar to a pitcher's fastball. The second, the "slice" serve, requires the player to brush the racquet against the ball sideways during the hit. That gives the ball a slight spin that makes it skid across the ground and take an unpredictable bounce somewhat analogous to the unpredictable flight of baseball's knuckle ball.

The last, the "kick" serve, requires the player to brush the ball upwards from underneath, giving it a lot of topspin. Just like a pitcher's curve ball, the kick serve sends the ball sideways along a wide arc. Ideally, it drops into the opponent's service box from high above, and produces an equally steep bounce.

Sheets draws one big difference between a tennis serve and a baseball pitch, however.

"In baseball, a pitcher uses the arm like a whip. The movement is sequential shoulder, elbow, wrist. But in tennis, the shoulder and elbow move together toward the ball, followed by the elbow alone and then finally the wrist, so that the racquet is moving the fastest right before ball impact."

"For the flat serve, the player puts almost of all of the energy into moving the racquet in the forward direction," she continued. "But for the kick serve, the player is also trying to precisely time upwards and sideways racquet movements to generate that characteristic spin."

The study examined the difference in body positioning for the three serves. Researchers measured the distance between the vertical center line of a player's body and the hitting surface of the racquet when the player hit the ball. For the kick serve, players swung the racquet closer to the center -- about 21 cm (8 inches) and 16 cm (6 inches) closer than for the flat serve and slice serve, respectively. The players also extended the racquet farther behind them for the kick serve: 8 cm (3 inches) farther than for the flat serve.

Those measurements suggest that the kick serve generates larger forces on muscles crossing the shoulder joint than the other two serves, which could promote injury, Sheets said.

She's now working with Ajit Chaudhari and Timothy Hewitt of OSU Sports Medicine, who study ACL injuries a tearing of a ligament in the knee joint. She also has a new project with D. Michele Basso, professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, to use the technique with animals in order to develop more effective spinal cord injury rehabilitation protocols.

Sheets envisions that tennis coaches could use motion capture analysis of their players both to prevent injury and improve performance. She doesn't think the kick serve itself is going to change anytime soon, though.

"I can see how motion capture might change training and rehab, but I don't think it'll change how the game is played," she said. "In tennis as in all sports, you do whatever it takes to keep your opponent on their toes."

###

Other coauthors on the tennis study include Geoffrey D. Abrams and Thomas P. Andriacchi of Stanford and Stefano Corazza of Mixamo Inc. in San Francisco. The research was funded by the BioMotion Laboratory at Stanford.

Contact: Alison Sheets, (614) 247-6367; Sheets.203@osu.edu

Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/osu-mmc011712.php

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CES 2012: Guitar Apprentice turns your iPad into a full-sized instrument, mullet not included (Yahoo! News)

At some point in our lives, we all dream of being rock stars, but most of us never actually learn to play an instrument. Games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band give us an artificial look at what it's like to wow a crowd, but offer little in the way of actual tutelage. ION Audio hopes to change that ? and remove the need for a gaming console in the process ? with its new Guitar Apprentice controller for iPad.

Simply drop your iPad into the rear of the device, load up the free app, and start rocking out. The gadget uses the iPad's touchscreen to guide you through the various nuances of playing the instrument, and its lighted fret buttons are designed to help you learn as you play. The only real downside we see is the lack of tactile feedback in the strings, which means you need to be eyes-on the entire time you're strumming. Still, it seems like a great starting point for those who still need to check "Learn an instrument" off of their bucket list.

This article originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/techblog/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20120116/tc_yblog_technews/ces-2012-guitar-apprentice-turns-your-ipad-into-a-full-sized-instrument-mullet-not-included

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Democrats Prefer Celebrities, Republicans Statesmen for Political Endorsements (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | The way in which the two parties view endorsements cannot be better illustrated than by two stories, one by the Tennessean about whom President Barack Obama would like to give him the nod and one by the Washington Post about which ones influence Republicans.

The Tennessean reports Obama has a wish list of people who he would like to endorse him. The list is heavily weighted toward Hollywood players such as Tom Hanks, Tina Fey and Harvey Weinstein. There are a few actual politicians such as Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. One music group, "Lady Antebellum," was included on the list but has responded it does not comment on political issues.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post has published a poll of Republican voters asking the question of whose endorsement would most sway them to pick a candidate to vote for. On the top of the list is former President George W. Bush. Following close behind is Sarah Palin.

The dichotomy could not be starker. On the one hand, President Obama thinks the endorsement of an actor or musician is important. Mind, Tom Hanks is a great actor and producer, but does one really care about whom he likes for president? Politico once reported that Hanks was going to vote for Obama because of the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" and because he saved a "billion" jobs at General Motors and Chrysler. He also once said, according to CBS News, that World War II in the Pacific was of "racism and terror."Just like the War on Terror.

On the other hand, Republicans tend to value the opinion of people who have actually been in public office in picking someone to vote for. George W. Bush was president and Sarah Palin a governor and candidate for vice president. Tom Hanks has not even played a president in the movies.

This suggests that while Democrats like Obama tend toward the superficial in politics, Republicans take the notion of who should be president seriously. If one regards a candidacy for president as a job application, the nod from someone who has actually held the job counts for far more than someone who has achieved popularity in the entertainment industry due to being able to speak his lines and make his marks.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120114/cm_ac/10834717_democrats_prefer_celebrities_republicans_statesmen_for_political_endorsements

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Anti-European Sentiment is Stirred Up for Political Gain (ContributorNetwork)

GOP presidential hopeful and former House speaker Newt Gingrich has run an ad against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney that takes aim at the latter's ability to speak the French language, as reported by the BBC. The Newt 2012 ad can be seen at YouTube. This isn't the first time politicians and/or the political climate in America have been inspired to stir up considerable anti-European sentiment in this country. This has often been the result of foreign policy disagreements and/or war, taking aim at even the most innocent of bystanders and objects.

"Freedom fries" and "freedom toast"

CNN reported in 2003 that France wanted the United Nations to let weapons inspectors have more time to do their work in Iraq instead of giving the green light to the invasion of the country, led by the U.S. and Great Britain. This didn't sit well with two congressmen -- Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and Rep. Walter Jones, R-North Carolina. They reacted by setting in motion the changing of the names of two menu items that were served in House cafeterias. French toast and french fries became "freedom toast" and "freedom fries," which caught on at other eateries around the nation.

Dachshunds were once called "liberty pups"

Anyone who has ever owned a dachshund knows just how special and unique they are, but in this day and age, who would ever see them as representing the enemies of America? Yet The Economist reported the name "liberty pups" became fashionable among patriotic American dachshund owners during World War I. But these lovable dogs were used to stir up even more anti-German sentiment, as the Almost Home Dachshund Rescue Society reported that during the same world conflict, they were used to represent the German enemy, and thus, the desirability of this breed declined during that period of time.

Obama's policies linked with Europe by GOP partisans

Republicans and tea party members have so many issues with President Barack Obama that they are never short of verbal ammunition to use in which to attack him with. One of their favorite jibes is branding him as a "socialist" in the style of European countries.

The New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof remarked Romney said this of Obama: "He wants us to turn into a European-style welfare state," and that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum quipped that the president is "trying to impose some sort of European socialism on the United States."

Yet the Socialist Party (United Kingdom's entity) currently says on its website that no genuinely socialist countries on the continent exist, saying the following: "Sometimes countries have governments that call themselves 'Socialist,' but they do not carry out genuine socialist policies." This is in answer to the website question, "Are there any socialist countries in Europe?"

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120115/pl_ac/10837545_antieuropean_sentiment_is_stirred_up_for_political_gain

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Ark. boy, 15, tells police he fatally shot sister

(AP) ? Arkansas authorities were investigating the death of a 16-year-old girl as a homicide after her younger brother confessed to fatally shooting her this weekend, a local sheriff said Monday.

The girl's 15-year-old brother was crying and appeared remorseful when he turned himself in on Sunday morning, Franklin County Sheriff Anthony Boen said. But Boen said he doesn't believe the sister's death was an accident.

"He just said that he had just shot and killed his sister," Boen said. "... He didn't give a motive."

Authorities found the sister's body in a bedroom at the family's home near Ozark, which is about 120 miles northwest of Little Rock. No one else was there.

The teen likely killed his sister sometime after 8 a.m., when his parents left to go grocery shopping in Fort Smith, about 40 miles away, Boen said. The boy turned himself in at the sheriff's department about an hour and a half later.

Boen said deputies had never been called to the home and there weren't any reports of trouble with the children.

The boy's name has not been released because he's a minor. He was in custody in nearby Sebastian County because Franklin County isn't set up to house juveniles, Boen said. He's expected to go before a judge on Tuesday. So far, it's not clear whether he will be charged as a juvenile or adult.

Guns were confiscated from the family's home and vehicle, the sheriff said. Authorities were trying to determine which weapon was used in the shooting.

"Both the dad and the son were avid hunters," Boen said.

The girl's body has been sent to the state crime lab, where investigators will determine how exactly she died. Preliminary autopsy results are expected sometime this week.

The Arkansas State Police are investigating the case, but spokesman Bill Sadler declined to talk about it.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-16-Teen-Sister%20Shot/id-4cd1711feb584504b6490d35ad866926

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The World Needs More GIFs of Sam Biddle Dancing With CES Booth Babes [Gif Of The Day]

Sam already posted a video of his antics involving booth babes and a giant iPod dock. But a pack of admirers over at one Kanye West fan forum were so impressed with his, um, skills, that they GIF'd and meme'd to their hearts' content. You can find all the goodness right here. [Kanye To The] More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/uwc2RadiNJw/the-world-needs-more-gifs-of-sam-biddle-dancing-with-ces-booth-babes

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Golden Globes Nominees' Red Carpet Flashback!

Cold winters caused by warmer summers, research suggests

Friday, January 13, 2012

Scientists have offered up a convincing explanation for the harsh winters recently experienced in the Northern Hemisphere; increasing temperatures and melting ice in the Arctic regions creating more snowfall in the autumn months at lower latitudes.

Their findings may throw light on specific weather incidents such as the extremely harsh Florida winter of 2010 which ended up killing a host of tropical creatures, as well as the chaos-causing snow that fell on the UK in December 2010.

Published today, Friday 13 January, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, this new research suggests that the trend of increasingly cold winters over the past two decades could be explained by warmer temperatures in the autumn having a marked effect on normal weather patterns, causing temperatures to plummet in the following winter.

The strongest winter cooling trends were observed in the eastern United States, southern Canada and much of northern Eurasia, which the researchers, based at Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), the University of Massachusetts and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, believe cannot be entirely explained by the natural variability of the climate system.

Their results showed strong warming throughout July, August and September in the Arctic, which continued through the autumn and, according to their observational data, appeared to enhance the melting of sea ice.

This warmer atmosphere, combined with melting sea ice, allows the Arctic atmosphere to hold more moisture and increases the likelihood of precipitation over more southern areas such as Eurasia, which, in the freezing temperatures, would fall as snow. Indeed, the researchers' observations showed that the average snow coverage in Eurasia has increased over the past two decades.

They believe the increased snow cover has an intricate effect on the Arctic Oscillation ? an atmospheric pressure pattern in the mid- to high-latitudes ? causing it to remain in the "negative phase".

In the "negative phase", high pressure resides over the Arctic region, pushing colder air into mid-latitude regions, such as the United States and northern Canada, and giving the observed colder winters.

The lead author of the study, Judah Cohen, said: "In my mind there is no doubt that the globe is getting warmer and this will favour warmer temperatures in all seasons and in all locations; however, I do think that the increasing trend in snow cover has led to regional cooling as discussed in the paper and I see no reason why this won't continue into the near future. Also if it continues to get much warmer in the fall, precipitation that currently falls as snow will fall as rain instead, eliminating the winter cooling."

It is also deduced that one of the main reasons conventional climate models fail to pick up on this observed winter cooling is their failure to account for the variability of snow cover, which, as demonstrated in this study, can greatly improve the accuracy of seasonal, and lengthier, forecasts.

"We show in the paper how using the snow cover in a seasonal forecast can provide a more skilful or accurate forecast. Without correctly simulating the coupling of winter climate patterns and the variability of snow fall, the models currently used by Government centres miss an important influence on winter and will therefore continue to be deficient in predicting winter weather on seasonal time scales, and even longer decadal time scales," continued Cohen.

###

Institute of Physics: http://www.iop.org

Thanks to Institute of Physics for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116723/Cold_winters_caused_by_warmer_summers__research_suggests

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