Top TechTop Tech #46: Reuseable Rocket Rescued by Helicopter, Stimulated Recall for Alzheimer’s, Haptic Glove
Highlighting interesting or important innovations with long-term promise.
By Paul Worthington
Today’s Top Tech:
• Feel the Air in a Haptic Glove
• Stimulated recall may alleviate Alzheimer’s
• Rocket to be Reused via Helicopter rescue
Feel the Air in a Haptic Glove
Top Tech has covered haptic devices such as displays that use ultrasonic to make you think you’re feeling shapes and textures that aren’t really there — and now comes a more dedicated device aimed at gaming and virtual reality: a glove, equipped with air jets.
Student engineers at Rice University developed the “Hands Omni” with bladders in the fingertips that precisely inflate to simulate the pressure you’d feel if touching real objects.
The prototype gaming glove is wireless and weighs about 350 grams.
Stimulated Recall may Alleviate Alzheimer’s
A simple app on a smart phone provides the crucial familial details an Alzheimer’s patient can have trouble recalling.
At the Samsung Electronics lab in Tunisia they “wanted to make life easier for Alzheimer’s patients as well as their caretakers.” They cite studies showing “mental stimulation in the form of regular reminders of past events could potentially slow down the progression of the disease.”
The resulting smartphone app, Backup Memory, “functions as a memory stimulator for those exhibiting early signs of Alzheimer’s. The app helps patients become aware of their immediate surroundings by identifying nearby family members and friends, and also reminds patients about their relationship with each person and memories they’ve shared in the past through photographs and videos.”
It’s available in the Google Play store.
Rocket to be Reused via Helicopter rescue
One primary reason space travel is so expensive: rockets are single-use. Imaging if you had to buy a new car every time you took a road trip.
Now United Launch Alliance is building a more affordable way get to space and back — by catching the rocket engine as it falls back to Earth after the launch… with a helicopter.
The “Sensible, Modular, Autonomous Return Technology” (SMART) initiative will allow ULA “to reuse the most expensive portion of the first stage – the booster main engines – via mid-air capture.”
The Vulcan will “provide the country’s most reliable, affordable, and accessible launch service,” ULA claims, and “transform the future of space.” It’s “a game-changer in terms of creating endless possibilities in space.”
Why the name? It was chosen by more than 1 million online votes.
ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, formed in 2006. It’s also partnered with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
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