Dropping Science: New Tech For A New Year : Car Stability Chip
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If you are fishtailing all over the road this holiday season, take hope–help may be on the way with a new stability chip. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have created a tiny 1.7 millimeter-wide device that helps automobiles become more stable and more able to pass through slippery roads and sharp turns. The device is a micro-electro-mechanical systems gyroscope. It is designed to maintain a constant center of gravity and alerts the safety system to correct stability when it detects that the car is beginning to take a tumble off the road. Electronic stability control is available in some luxury cars already, but sensors made from quartz were too expensive for widespread installation. The new generation of gyroscope technology is possible to install cheaply and the research team expects the sensors to be widely deployed after about four years of testing. So the worry of rolling your car on slick roads may get a little less scary in a few more Christmases. |
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What an idiotic idea!!! What if an other person in the car wants to use their cell phone???? What if there is an emergency!?!?!?!
i agree, no one will buy that car. hehe
You can't be serious? If you can't tell a recorded disc from an original one with your bare eyes you need to check your glasses.
Electronic gyros are nothing new, they've been around in r/c helis for several years. And they're not very expensive. Cheapest goes for 20 bucks.
Umm.. the difference between a pressed(original) cd and a copy(burned) is that a pressed cd's data (0 and 1) are represented by physical pits and peaks whereas a burned cd's information is represented by burned (reflective and not reflective) marks on a flat plain. Make a system to differentiate peaks (which are reflective, but does not reflect into the target sensor) from non-reflective burn marks. Then you can tell which is a copy, and which is an original.
Great another way to entice road rage... turn the mobile off while blocked in traffic.
Robotic Clams...? Yes, finally! what we've all been waiting for!