New technologies for the benefit of mankind Robotics, mobile phones, information technology, medical research: science constantly breaks new ground in many fields, helping to develop cutting-edge technologies and improve our everyday lives. A STIMTAC prototype in use. Inset: a compact USB prototype. STIMTAC, a doubly tactile surface --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Touchscreens on our tablets and mobile phones are a wonderful invention, but there’s room for improvement. Researchers have developed a tactile input and feedback touchpad with programmable friction, STIMTAC, which can detect the position of a user’s finger and produce tactile sensations. The controlled vibration of the surface creates an air bearing that alters its coefficient of friction. This can be used to provide tactile feedback on certain objects, such as an icon, thus making it easier to position the cursor. The system uses piezoelectric ceramics to produce this effect on copper-beryllium or glass plates. This work has received many awards, including that of second best demonstration at the ACM UIST 2011 conference in Santa Barbara, California. ACM UIST 2011 Conference in Santa Barbara (California, US) iPhone is researchers’ new ally Engineers have developed a novel system to weigh moving trains or trucks. This An international team has developed an iPhone application called accurate and effective device, which can Science XL enabling users to take part in a scientific study on reading skills carried out on an unprecedented scale. Presented as a game weigh loads of over 20 tons, uses metal where players must rapidly distinguish between invented words beams as sensors. The weight of an entire train and real words, the experiment could lead to the development of can be assessed with a margin of error of around 0.5%. smartphone software to help people improve their reading skills. -------------------------------------------- The Caen-based laboratory GREYC, coordinator of the ‘Robot malins’ (Smart robots) consortium, has been crowned Game of Go software storms vice-champion of the ‘Carotte’ terrestrial the Japanese market robotics championship organized by the French Defense Procurement Agency DGA and the National Developed by a French lab, the game of Go software CrazyStone is Research Agency ANR. The objective was to produce marketed in Japan by the company Unbalance Corporation. The software an autonomous robotic system able to move around an had already made the headlines in 2006 when it was awarded the gold enclosed space and recognize the objects in it, in order medal at the 11th Computer Olympiad. What makes CrazyStone different to draw a complete map of the space. is that it uses the so-called Monte Carlo method to take the next move. -------------------------------------------- This makes it capable of surprising achievements in a game where humans still largely outperform machines. 22 A year at CNRS 2011
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