Passenger accidentally activates ejector seat

The Telegraph report a story on a tricky and not uncommon design problem - that of a safety-critical control that needs to be very quick and easy to access, without it ever being activated acidentally. A novice aviator took off for a joyride with an experienced pilot from South Africa's Silver Falcons air display team, and got a free parachute ride. During an aerobatic manoeuvre, the flier accidentally pulled on the black and yellow emergency handle between his legs, activating two rockets attached to the back of the seat. The seat and occupant were sent through the jet's perspex canopy and 100 metres into the sky. The lever is fitted as standard in the Pilatus PC-7 Mk II jets. The man floated back down to Earth on a parachute as the South African Airforce bosses scrambled a helicopter to pick up the passenger near Langebaanweg airfield, 80 miles north of Cape Town. Source: Telegraph, 1 November 2009. tinyurl.com/yk76k95

Mobile phone use and inattentional blindness

It's always good to be on the lookout for unicycling clowns and other dangers while on the move, but if you're talking on a mobile phone, chances are they will escape your attention, according to research highlighted in the Independent. Researchers at Washington University observed pedestrians as they crossed the campus either talking on a mobile phone, listening to a personal music player, in conversation with another pedestrian, or walking alone, without any electronic devices.

The researchers noted aspects of their walking behaviour – the time it took them to cross the square, whether they stopped, zig-zagged or stumbled, direction changes , and  collisions or near collisions with others. The researchers also observed  whether they noticed an obvious distraction just off the walking path, like a brightly-colored unicycling clown ("very rare on campus pathways", according to the study authors).

Only 25 percent of people using their mobile phones noticed the clown, compared to more than half of people in the other groups. Pedestrians talking on a mobile phone were slower, change direction more, have difficulty navigating. The study did not blame electronic devices per se (61% of people using a music player saw the unicyclist) or on having a conversation (chatting couples were the most vigilant with a 71% detection rate).

Instead, mobile phone users fail to notice what is going on around them due to inattentional blindness. The study provides further evidence of the dangers of phone driving and will be published in the December issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology. Source: Independent, 26 October 2009. tinyurl.com/yz57dj5

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Apple files multi-touch interface patent

Following the success of the iPhone and iTouch, a larger 'tablet' has been rumoured to provide a multi-touch interface to Apple's computer range. Indeed, Apple has submitted a patent for a sophisticated keyboard-sized touch interface. The Telegraph reports that the patent application, filed in June by Fingerworks, an Apple-owned company, shows two hands hovering over a flexible, screenlike device, which will offer "unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device". 

If the product is developed, another level of automation could be on its way. According to Apple, the multi-touch interface would be able to interpret gestures made by the whole hand or individual fingers, and also predict what the user might want to do – type, write or draw or launch programs, menus or interfaces. Source: Telegraph, 02 October, 2009. tinyurl.com/ydtdm6c

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Crash me if you can

Richard Blackburn of the Sydney Morning Herald discusses forthcoming automotive technologies that may bring us closer to "the world's first uncrashable cars". Some of the advanced technologies available now or soon should help drivers to remain stability, stay in lane, avoid low-speed rear-end collisions. Looking further ahead, your car could tell you whether it's safe to overtake or whether you're approaching a corner too fast, help you decide if you have enough time to get across an intersection before the oncoming traffic arrives. You car could even drive itself in a “platoon” formation on the freeway, and automatically avoid pedestrians.

Toyota's product planning manager, Peter Evans, is cautious about predicting dramatic reductions in the road toll in the next decade: you can build an intelligent car but developing intelligent roads and drivers is more of a challenge. "It's that old saying about the nut behind the wheel being the most unreliable part of the car," he says.

The SMH points to intelligent speed adaptation technology being considered by the New South Wales Government in Australia. The technology relies on satellite-linked devices which can read road signs and alert the driver if he or she is speeding. The technology has the potential to actively decrease the flow of fuel to the engine if a car is speeding. Unlike some of the devices being used in the NSW Government trial, a BMW system provides information only. It doesn't intervene to slow the car down. The responsibility for that remains with the driver. 

Meanwhile in Japan, car companies including Toyota and Nissan are working with the Government to develop intelligent freeways. Toyota is about to debut technology that will feed real-time traffic information from roadside sensors into a car's cabin. The technology has the potential to stop minor collisions becoming deadly pile-ups.  

Interested readers should view the whole article. Source: Sydney Morning Herald. 25 September 2009. tinyurl.com/yea4ma3

Pedestrian friendly cars within sight

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, hundreds of lives could be saved if new pedestrian avoidance technology filters its way in to mainstream cars in the near future. Volvo will soon introduce a car that can automatically apply maximum braking to avoid hitting a pedestrian or reduce injuries. The “Collision Warning with Full Auto Brake and Pedestrian Detection” will arrive in the new S60 in 2010. 

Using a radar and a camera, it can react within 50ms, avoid an impact below 25km/h and reduce speed by 25km/h (at higher speeds). Volvo says its system, also being developed by Audi and Mercedes-Benz, has the potential to reduce injury risk to pedestrians by 83 per cent. 

Software was ‘trained’ after analysing 530,000 kilometres of real world driving to recognise people of all shapes and sizes in thousands of scenarios and even take in to account prams and special clothes. Applying the brakes before a collision is intended to help account for the inattention, which Volvo says contributes to 93 per cent of crashes. “In 47 per cent of crashes the driver doesn’t do anything [brake or steer] before the collision”, said Volvo manager of active safety functions Jonas Tisell.

The SMH warns the hundreds of thousands of kangaroos killed on Australian roads each year not to get too excited. Tisell noted that “The next step is handling animals. But the difficulty with animals is that they are shaped by evolution not to be seen.” Pedestrians will still need their wits about them too. The system may not detect a person stepping out from behind a bus or truck and is unable to detect pedestrians at night. The system is as an iterative step in safety improvement.

The Volvo pedestrian detection system is part of a trend towards crash avoidance rather than vehicle occupant protection. Mercedes-Benz is working on an innovative anchor-like metal and rubber-faced airbag that deploys beneath the car on to the road surface when it detects a collision is imminent. Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 18 September 2009. tinyurl.com/yfk6vuy

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Under 25's ditch maps for sat-nav

The Telegraph reports that a generational gap may be developing with older drivers sticking with printed road maps while under 25 rely on the electronic systems to navigate the roads. A survey by Autonational Rescue found that three in 10 motorists checked a road map first to double check their location, but only one in 10 of under-25s did this. It also found that one in three prefer to print a route from the internet and take it with them, although almost one in 10 of these drivers found internet instructions can sometimes take them miles out of their way.

Out of the satnav motorists, more than one in 10 said the machines took them on a long-winded route. Four fifths are happy with the system. "It seems we have a generational satnav age gap," said Ronan Hart, Autonational's marketing manager. But Hart reckons that sat-nav is making younger drivers lazier and less geographically aware.

Also, last year it was reported that satellite navigation systems were blamed for causing around 300,000 people to crash in Britain, while a further 1.5 million admitted performing sudden direction changes because they were following the devices' directions.

Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA noted that, "When you're driving a car, a satnav is a darn site easier and safer to use than a roadmap, but when sitting in the living room plotting what to do a roadmap is easier to use... The question is whether they are supplementary or complementary." Source: The Telegraph, 14 September 2009. tinyurl.com/y99nhne

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How the mouse points us to the future

Melbourne's 'The Age' reviews the past, present and future of the humble mouse, "the incredibly simple tool that translated a user's physical hand movements to virtual onscreen gestures". Douglas Engelbart's original prototype at the Stanford Research Institute in California in 1963 had two external wheels that translated the X-Y position into an electrical signal that moved an onscreen cursor. Bill English (of Xerox PARC facility fame) improved on Engelbart's design by moving the sensors to the inside of the mouse. Since then, the mouse has changed quite dramatically, with Apple's Mighty Mouse and Logitech's top-of-the-range MX Revolution on the scene. Mice now have foot covers and have lost their tails, They can have 1, 2, 3, or 4 buttons and a scroll wheel, or two. Out are rubber balls in in are LEDs. But now the Mark I finger seems to be taking over again, from track pads to touch screens. "It's natural, obvious and smells of the future." Source: The Age, 3 September 2009. tinyurl.com/nmfgor 

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