Inventions and discoveries that will change the worldPATENTLY OBVIOUS
with James Lloyd
THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE
UpdateSupernova seen in a new light
Astrophysics
The need for speed reading
Bookworms rejoice! a new app means that you could soon be powering
through novels in under 90 minutes. Spritz is a speed-reading technology
that streams individual words to your mobile device one
after the other. Because each word is positioned according to what the
developers call its ‘optimal recognition point’ you won’t need to move
your eyes to read. The idea is that by eliminating the eye movements
you usually make from word to word, your reading speed will be
dramatically increased.
The team behind Spritz claims that its technology will increase your
reading speed to 1,000 words per minute – nearly five times faster than
the average rate of 220wpm. That would mean you could polish off an
issue of Knowledge in under an hour, or blitz through War and Peace in
under 10 hours... if you haven’t fallen asleep first, that is. Try out Spritz
for yourself at http://www.spritzinc.com
Patent pendingEmotional computers
Software that converts text into
speech is used in many applications,
but existing technologies tend to use
voices that sound about as emotional
as a plate of turnips. A new system
from Toshiba aims to change that by
analysing the text and working out
how it should be spoken. It’ll use
sophisticated algorithms to associate
different sentences with different
tones of voice, meaning that it’ll sound
happy or sad on the right occasions.
Patent application number:
GBYour iPhone’s got your back
Is your smartphone your constant
companion? If so, it could soon be
saving your life. A new patent from
Apple describes how an ‘attack
detection mode’ could automatically
summon help in an emergency. This
may be triggered when the iPhone's
accelerometer detects a sudden shock,
or when the mic records an unusually
loud noise. The phone will then ring the
emergency services or emit an alarm to
attract passers-by.
Patent application number:
PHOTO: NASA/JPL-CALTECH, HARVARD UNIVERSITY X2 ILLUSTRATOR: ADAM HOWKINGUS 20140066000
They’re one of the most
spectacular events in the
cosmos, but little is known
about what goes on in the cores
of stars during a cataclysmic
supernova explosion. These
occur when a star runs out
of nuclear fuel and is unable
to support its own mass; it
collapses with a colossal blast.
Now scientists have come
a step closer to understanding
the process as NASA’s
NuSTAR, a high-energy
X-ray observatory, has
created the first-ever map of
radioactive material from a
supernova remnant named
Cassiopeia A (Cas A). The
image shows the action of
shock waves pulsing through
the massive star’s core during
its death throes.
“Stars are spherical balls
of gas, and so you might
think that when they end
their lives and explode, that
explosion would look like
a uniform ball expanding
out with great power,” explains
Fiona Harrison, the principal
investigator of NuSTAR at
the California Institute of
Technology (Caltech). “Our
new results show how theexplosion’s heart, or engine,
is distorted, possibly because
the inner regions literally slosh
around before detonating.”
Cas A was created 343
years ago when a massive star
exploded, ejecting its remains
into space and leaving behind
a dense remnant. The well-
known supernova remnant has
been photographed previously
by many optical, infrared and
X-ray telescopes. But NuSTAR
has produced the first map of
high-energy X-ray emissions
from material created in the
actual core of the exploding
star: the radioactive isotope
titanium-44.
“With the NuSTAR
observatory we have a new
forensic tool to investigate the
explosion,” said Caltech’s Brian
Grefenstette. “Previously, it
was hard to interpret what was
going on in Cas A because the
material that we could see
only glows in X-rays when
it’s heated up. Now that we can
see the radioactive material,
which glows in X-rays no
matter what, we are getting a
more complete picture of what
was going on at the core of
the explosion.”NuSTAR’s image of
Cassiopeia A shows
radioactive material as
high-energy X-rays in blue