Solar cell window

I had brilliant idea the other day. I though: "Let's make a special windows that would be like a two-way mirror but instead of a mirror on the bright side, it would be a solar cell that convert some light into usable energy." All those building and skyscraper with curtain wall could be self-sustained during the day.

Sadly I wasn't the first to have this idea. Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Los Alamos Nation Laboratory are already fabricating transparent films which are able of generating an electrical charge by absorbing light.

You can read more about it here: http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-transparent-material-power-generating-windows.html

Urban Transport

Have you ever dream of a small automated method of transportation that take you from point A to B without having to actually drive it without the hassle of a bus? This might be closer then you imaging. A company name Ultra PRT are actually designing and build a new form a transport. Their name stand for Urban Light TRAnsport Personal Rapid Transit. They are making a system of small electricity power vehicle that wait at specific location near a track, waiting for a user to get in and give the vehicle a location he need to reach. They are already building one at the London Hearthrow airport to link a station with two remote other station in the airport car park.

You can see a nice video about the system here:

Robot that can learn.

In Germany, at the Robot Learning Lab, which is part of the Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Dr. Jan Peters and his team are trying to design robot that learn complex task by showing them what they need to do.

The robot then try to repeat the task and improve by itself on a trial-by-trial basis. Even though Dr. Peters's work is still preliminary, their robot was able to learn how to play the ball-in-a-cup game.

The following video show their robot in active.