FUMBLING in your pocket to play with your iPod can ruin your concentration while running. Now you won’t even have to break stride to change a track with a device that allows users to control and toggle through a play list without even touching their iPod.

The unnamed device, which Japanese firm NEC hopes will go on sale within the next couple of years, is composed of two black sports wristbands, each embedded with an acceleration sensor, which detects movement. The sensors use Bluetooth to transmit data on the position of your hands, for example, to your iPod or MP3 player, pre-loaded with NEC’s software.

The wristbands are able to create five “buttons” out of the user’s hands and arms. Clapping hands is registered by the software as “play” or “stop”. A tap on the lower left arm means “next” track, while a tap on the upper left arm is “previous” track. The right arm acts as the volume control. Tapping the lower right arm signals volume-down, tapping the upper right arm is volume-up.

“The wristbands can create five ‘buttons’ out of the user’s hands and arms. A clap means ‘play’ or ‘stop’”

Lead researcher Shin Norieda, says that the sensors can tell where the user is tapping by how attenuated the signal is – the further up the arm the tap takes place, the weaker the signal reaching the sensor. Data from the acceleration sensor tells the software which arm is moving and which arm is receiving the tap and also whether it is a sharp one. Norieda claims normal running movements will not be confused with taps. “If you tap something, the waves form a sharp peak,” he says. “We filter out the shorter wave patterns to avoid confusion.”

Each sensor also carries a positive charge on the outer side and a negative charge on the inside of the wrist. The software detects when the two negative charges are brought close together as you clap and switches between “play” and “stop”.

Hiroshi Tanaka, professor of engineering at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology in Atsugi, Japan, said that “a certain amount of calibration may be needed for each user of the device” as each individual taps in a different way.

NEC also hopes to sell the technology to commuters to control music on crowded trains where it can be hard to free your arms. NEC researchers presented the technology at last month’s Tokyo’s Interaction 2011 conference.

THEY’RE the last item in your basket, apples. But when you’re using self-checkout at the supermarket it can take forever trying to pick the right variety from a list on the screen.

It would be much easier if the machine could identify them itself, and that is Toshiba’s aim.

Its system, developed by Susumu Kubota and his team at Toshiba’s research centre in Kawasaki, Japan, uses a webcam, image recognition and machine-learning software to identify loose goods, such as fruit. The company claims the system can tell apart products that look virtually identical, by picking up slight differences in colour and shape, or even faint markings on the surface.

When shoppers want to buy, say, apples at existing self-service checkouts they must choose the right product from a long list of pictures on a screen. Toshiba’s technology, part of which was presented last year at the 11th European Conference on Computer Vision in Chersonissos, Greece, compares the image captured by the webcam against a database of images and detailed information on the item’s appearance. The software uses an algorithm to produce a list of pictures of similar items, with its choice for the closest match at the top. If this choice is the correct one, the checkout user presses a button to confirm the purchase.

If the machine’s first choice isn’t the right one, perhaps because the angle of the previous photo was very different, the checkout user has the option to “re-educate” the system by choosing the correct product name to go with the picture of their item. The new photo then will appear at the top of the list.

“This system gets smarter as you use it more,” says Kubota. He says recent tests showed it was able to recognise produce even when it was placed in a clear plastic bag. Still, it is not perfect yet. Naoki Mukawa at Tokyo Denki University warns that users could take advantage of the re-educating mechanism to allow the wrong identification to go through because the mistaken product might be cheaper.

“Since Toshiba is thinking of implementing these to self-checkout stands, it would be interesting to know what they would do when shoppers are dishonest,” says Mukawa.

Kubota acknowledges there may still be holes in the system. “We are seriously looking at the problem of how to deal with misuse of the system by shoppers,” he says. “We might add a filtering step.”

Keiji Yanai of the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo points to another difficulty. He says this type of object recognition system is more difficult to perfect than facial recognition technology, as it is harder to distinguish between generic objects. Similar ideas designed to identify products without barcodes have never made it to market in the past, he adds.

Toshiba says it hopes to commercialise the system within three years.

When it comes to extreme weather Japan’s population have more on their minds than a repeat of last summer’s record-breaking temperatures, when some 170 died from heat stroke. It seems the number of powerful tornadoes hitting the country may be on the increase.

In an effort to understand how extreme weather causes structural damage, four Japanese organisations – the (NILIM), the Building Research Institute, the University of Tokyo and the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University – have been developing a tornado simulator .

“We’re doing this because there’s been many more reports of serious structural damages in recent years compared to before,” says Hitomitsu Kikitsu at NILIM in Tsukuba, Ibaraki.

The simulator is 1.5 metres in diameter and is mounted on a frame that is 2.3 metres tall and 5 metres wide. It can generate maximum wind velocity of 15 to 20 metres per second, enough to simulate an F3-size storm. On Japan’s Fujita Scale, an F3 storm is one powerful enough to uproot large trees, lift and hurl cars, knock down walls and destroy steel-frame structures.

“This device has the ability to simulate a F3-size storm and that’s never been done in Japan,” Kikitsu says.

Kikitsu and his team plan to test the device by building model houses that fit under his simulator.

The researchers, headed by Yen Hsun Su of the in Taipei, dipped , an aquatic plant used commonly in indoor aquaria, into a solution of these nanoparticles, which diffuse into the plant’s cells after a day or so. The plants are then exposed to ultraviolet rays, which energise electrons in the nanoparticles and cause them to emit a violet-blue light. That light in turn makes the chlorophyll fluoresce and emit red light.

The nanoparticles stayed in the leaves for between two weeks to two months.

The shape of the nanoparticles is key, says team member Wei-Min Zhang, a physicist at the . They are shaped like sea urchins, with narrow spines. “The spines can produce a stronger electromagnetic field,” Zhang says – which leads to brighter light.

Costly light

, a bio-organic chemistry expert at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, Japan, says that combining nanoparticles with live organisms is a hot research topic.

“There are several hurdles these researchers will need to clear,” Niwa says. “Cost is one factor: they will need to make sure maintenance and other costs involved in setting up such a ‘bio-LED’ would make economic sense.”

The team hopes to make the bio-LED principle work in other plants, perhaps for decorative effect or even to provide faint illumination – although a constant UV light source is needed to create the glow.

But this won’t be happening any time soon, the researchers told New �Ӱ�ԭ��. “The efficiency of our bio-LED is not high enough for a commercial device,” Su says.

Journal reference:

Yoko Ihara is watching her 5-year-old son Yoshinobu playing at a nursery in Tsukuba, Japan. She works full-time, and wonders how Yoshinobu gets on when they are apart. In this way, she’s like many other mothers. Yet for the next five weeks, Ihara will gain insights into her child’s life that few parents have before.

She and Yoshinobu are taking part in an experiment to test a unique child safety device. The technology builds on existing devices that can track the location of a child, but this gadget also monitors what the child is seeing, and even their pulse. If a child’s heart rate is faster than usual, it snaps a photo of their point-of-view and alerts parents via email.

The device’s makers, a team led by Seung-Hee Lee at the , say carers could use it to identify bullying, for instance. It could also reveal if a child is separated from other device-wearing children for a given stretch of time. A password-protected website allows parents to access an activity log and photos taken during the day.

During the trial, 10 children aged 2 to 6 will wear the 97-gram device for several hours a week. As well as a camera, it holds an accelerometer with gyroscope, a GPS receiver and a digital compass. The heart rate monitor sits under clothing.

Light play

When New �Ӱ�ԭ�� visited, the children were showing off their colourful devices to each other. “The devices have been sturdy and have endured kids falling off of play equipment and accidentally hitting them,” says Lee. “It was important for us to make sure these were light and children’s activities wouldn’t be hindered by the device, and it was equally important they would want to wear it.”

To minimize possible effects from exposure to electromagnetic waves, the units are set to emit signals that are only a hundredth of what an average cellphone emits. “The signals are weak, but we set it up that way to make it safe,” says team-member Masatoshi Hamanaka. The weak signals mean that 30 relay points and 18 transmitters needed to be planted around the nursery.

Right now, each device costs roughly 100,000 yen (£800) to make. But with cheaper sensors, the team aims to manufacture the devices for half that price. Lee also sees the device being used in the care of people with dementia.

Privacy concern

Future experiments are planned for school children aged 6 to 11 in Japan, with an additional microphone that can pick up and store the wearer’s conversations.

Kenji Kiyonaga, who researches child safety at in Tama, Kawasaki, says the technology is intrusive, but would be tolerated in Japan, at least in the near future. “Standards of privacy are low here,” he says. “In the US or Europe, there would be much more controversy surrounding such child-tracking devices.” Even if it’s lightweight, the strap would feel oppressive for the child, he adds.

Lee brushes off such criticism. “I’m a mother and I’d say that if it’s a parent’s choice between a child’s privacy and keeping them safe, most would choose the latter,” she says. The strap has been carefully designed to be comfortable, she adds.