杏吧原创

Gloves let singer compose with a wave

With a wave of her hand, Imogen Heap can create and control soundscapes that appear to be snatched from thin air. This week the singer demonstrated a pair of musical gloves in her performance at the TED conference in Edinburgh, UK, that lets her mix tracks live on stage, add different sound effects and play virtual instruments. The gloves, developed by Tom Mitchell at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, contain sensors that monitor the motion of the wearer鈥檚 finger joints. They have a gyroscope and accelerator to track the orientation of the wearer鈥檚 hands in space, and microphones attached to the wrist. Data is streamed to a laptop for analysis and audio processing.

A future for an all-electric Formula 1?

The success of KERS, the battery-assisted speed booster used by Formula 1 cars this season, has motorsport executives believing that an all-electric version of the competition could spur development of longer range electric road cars. 鈥淲e鈥檒l definitely see an electric F1 one day,鈥� says Nick Fry, chief executive of the Mercedes F1 team. 鈥淭o start with, it would be in parallel with regular F1, like the electric version of the Isle of Man TT motorbike race run alongside the TT.鈥� KERS is already influencing road car technology, so imagine what a whole race designed around electric vehicles could lead to, he adds.

Cash for answers with Google

Google鈥檚 latest site, Prizes, is all about making crowdsourcing pay 鈥� if you know your stuff. It lets people create 鈥渃ontests鈥� asking others to answer a question or complete a task, with the best answer receiving a cash prize. Current contests include a $50 prize for planning a honeymoon in Italy and $10 for suggesting the best place to buy a bike in San Francisco. One odd thing, though: the site requires you to have a Facebook or Twitter account 鈥� you cannot yet sign up with the search giant鈥檚 latest offering, Google+.