Colombian Woman Made Houses From Old Tires

A 35 year old woman, Alexandra Posada has made houses with old tires in Colombia.Alexandra Posada is a environmental activist and sports a cowboy hat and jeans.She is working on various houses in the mountains of Choachi.She made bricks from old tires that weigh about 200 to 300 kilograms a brick.

"I get these tires for free because it's a huge problem for people to get rid of them," she told AFP."They take thousands of years to decompose—which we've transformed from a problem into an opportunity," she said. "If you use them as construction materials, they become virtually eternal bricks."

She used different kind of tires in large chimney to make round structures that is work as a insulator and resist anainst the earthquakes.She and her team uses round cement and steel ceiling over the kitchen and bedrooms.They utilized wood ceiling over the living and dining room.Then rooms are covered by tire layers.She used vertically glass bottles in the ceiling to let in skylights.She build the roofs, walls, terraces of "igloos" from 9000 old tires.

"These houses are made with reused materials, but they're also beautiful, airy, with more indirect light," she said.

According to the offical figures more than 5.3 million tires are throwing out by colombians in a year which pollute the environment.Francisco Gomez, who heads the environment ministry's response to the issue said, "it's a huge problem in terms of the public space, the environment and the landscape."In Colombia importers and manufacturers are needed 35% tires of the country's total to recycle.

William Clavijo who is working with her, a 57 year old mason, said the job has taught him a lesson in "valuing things.""People usually just throw this stuff away. Now you see that it can be put to good use," he said as he slapped layers of mortar across a wall of tires, hiding its past as rubbery waste abandoned on the streets of Bogota.

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Engineering Students Create A Fire Extinguisher That Blasts Out Flames Using Sound Waves

Two engineering students Viet Tran and Seth Robertson from George Mason University have introduced a prototype fire extinguisher that uses sound wave to put out fires.They started this project as a part of a senior research project, and after one year of struggle, they have invented a fire fighting device.They spend $600 of their own money to fund their project.

They started work on project with basic concept that sound waves are pressure waves as well as mechanical waves.Due to the to and fro motion, pressure waves displace some of the oxygen.If the sound waves in the range of 30 to 60 Hertz separate the oxygen from the fire, as a result the fire will blasts out.

The two students said, it has been tested on alcohol fire at this time.One of the major problem is, it does not cool the fuel, the fires that go out will reignite because of hot material.But they hope that their small fire extingusher that works without chemicals or water, could be used in a kitchen as a tool against small fires.

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GM Developing Headlights That Will Control With Driver's Gaze

Vauxhall/Opel is working on the project which aims to develop such headlights that will operate with driver's gaze.Engineers at Opel/Vauxhall has unveiled eye-tracking technology which will make it possible for drivers to control the beam of light with eyes.This technology is known as Adaptive Forward Lighting (AFL+).The firm is also testing "LED matrix light system" which monitors light levels and adjusts it automatically with traffic conditions

The eye-tracking system is used camera to scan prominent points such as eyes and nose, in order to observe movement and the driver's line of sight.The engineers used peripheral infra-red sensors and central photo-diodes which enable the system to scan the driver's eyes more than 50 times per second in dusk and night-time conditions.

The company said we are working to optimize the system, as the webcom's recording rate as well as data calculation together were too slow.Due to slow bata transmission a headlight respond too slow.The researchers says, with fast data transmission the headlight actuators react immediately to make horizontal and vertical adjustments.

The team of researchers explained that a driver's eyes unconsciously jump from one focal point to another.Due to this eyes jumping, result in the erratic movement of headlight beams.They solve this hurdle by developing delay algorithm which prevents the headlights from erratic jerking.

The company said that the eye-tracker system could work with any driver without any individual calibration.Vauxhall/Opel told Gizmag that it hopes to roll the system out in the long-term. The LED matrix light system is expected to be introduced within 18 months.

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Treehouse Building To Protect Residents From Noise And Air Pollution

Luciano Pia is an architect from Italy, has wonderfully designed a five story complex apartment which is located in Turin, Italy.A vertical potted forest includes trees and steel girders look like branches and allow residents to feel like they are living in a urban treehouse.This urban treehouse called 25 Verde means 25 Green.25 Verde protects its residents from noise pollution and reduces air pollution in the surrounding.

Lucuano Pia wrote on his website, "the building has been thought as a living forest, a house on the trees like the houses children dream of and sometimes build."

It contains 150 tall trees to absorb approximately 200,000 liters of carbon dioxide an hour and 50 more trees are planted in the courtyard of 63 units building.The seasonal change create perfect microclimate inside the building so temperature falling and rising remain steady in winter and summer.In summer plants foliage block sun rays and in winter allowing sun light to let in.

It is a special building because it is alive: it grows up, it breaths and it changes since 150 trees with tall trunks cover its terraces."

The building has many features such as sun protection, continuous insulation.He wrote the major aim of the project is the increase of the energetic efficiency, continuous insulation, sun protection, heating and cooling systems which make use of the geothermal energy with heat pumps and recycling of the falling rain to water the green.”

Species of plant has been chosen to get the best variety of colours and flowers."When all the green is fully blooming it gives the feeling of living in a tree house." “You can dream of a house or live in a dream!”

Its construction was started in 2007 and ended in 2012.

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"Analog Merory Desk" To Save Your Notes, Ideas And Sketches

Kristen Camara, who is a student at the Minnesota College of Art and Design, has made an Analog Merory Desk to record your past memories, notes, smart ideas and doodle.She wrote on his site, "this Memory Desk is a tool to record all the small items you write down once, but intend to forget tomorrow."

The desk is made of maple wood which features 1,100 yards of butcher paper rolls on the desk legs, which covers the desk surface.When the paper surface filled with notes, ideas and drawing, user will get new paper for work just rolls the crank at side of the table which fold up the used paper.

She explained that 1,100 yards of paper will record the lists, the phones numbers you call once, the pixel size of that box on that website, the street name of that business, and the long division you try to remember.

Kristen Camara's desk is not available for purchase but she released architectural designed blueprints with a creative commons license, so anyone can build their own.

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Toyota Unveiled 3 Wheel i-Road Car At TED

At the TED Conference, Steve Gundrum was smiling when he came out of a Toyota environment friendly electric car (zippy scooter).Gundrum drove i-ROAD prototype "personal mobility vehicles'' in the Vancouver centre during TED conference.

Toyota brought the prototypes to TED to find out how the gathering's attendees see the future of mobility, said Jason Schulz of Toyota Motor Sales USA. 

The i-Road's steering unconditionally connected with its single rear tire.It is a two seater electric vehicle.It weighs approximately 300 Kilograms (660 pound).The i-Road gains a top speed of 56 kilometers per hour and can run approx 48 kilometers with full charged battery.It takes three hours to recharge.It contains sensors and gyroscopes for balancing the three wheels which support on sharp turns.The i-Road could be used for short trips like moving to markets and getting to train stations.

"Look at San Francisco or Manhattan where parking is so constrained," Schulz said."You could get around with this and then park a couple of them in the same space as a typical car today."

"In the 20 years I've been in the car business, this is the most fun, interesting ride dynamic I've ever had because of the rear-steer and the active lean system," Schulz said."It is just a total blast to drive. We have seen so many 'Tedsters' come out of the car smiling and happy."

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Neuroscientist Expects VEST Will Widen Range Of Human Senses

David Eagleman, who is a neuroscientist, has designed special cloth that will allow to sense what is going online without looking at any device.It is a sleeveless for top wearing with vibrating nodes that gives information to a wearer.It is known as VEST (variable extra-sensory transducer).It is able to sync tablet computers and has potential to convert stock prices, information as well as spoken words into digital data.Then send it wirelessly to vibration woven motors.

At the TED conference in Vancouver Eagleman said,""Your brain doesn't know or care where it gets the data from.""It is essentially a general purpose computing device."

Eagleman wore a VEST during conference and received Twitter posts.VEST aims to give the deaf a way to hear through converting spoken words into phonetically vibrations that could be understood as to running fingers over Braille.Its stock marketing feature will help wearers to when they buy and sell shares.

Its cost is expected less than $ 1,000 and available on the market within eight months.

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