EV4 four-wheel-drive electric scooter leans into turns

EV4 four-wheel-drive electric scooter leans into turns
Being able to lean into a corner has to be one of the greatest joys of riding two wheeled transport. Adding more wheels to a bike may increase 
stability  ШУУД ҮЗЭХ and make it

easier to ride, but it also strips that sublime pleasure away. Unless the multi-wheeler can tilt too. Poland's Jacek Skopinski has developed an interesting four-wheeled electric scooter called the EV4 that does just that. 

"Moving within Warsaw, which from year to year is becoming more and more jammed, I lacked alternative means of transport, which could easily get around street jams, Skopinski told Gizmag. "I could simply not accept the daily, pointless and costly waste of time. I began to think about the development of an innovative vehicle that would allow for faster urban transport."

On his checklist of must-haves, the head of light aircraft design, construction and repair firm Aero-Service set about making a must-have checklist, which included that the vehicle must be faster than a bicycle, be cheap to run yet be a high quality product, be small enough to ride on bike lanes, in parks and through forest tracks, and get from A to B faster than a bicycle but emission free. He decided on an electric drive four-wheeler for stability, but one that wouldn't be too large for use in narrow cycle lanes.

"From the very beginning the EV4 was designed and constructed just like an airplane," revealed Skopinski. "Hence, I aimed at a low weight. Nearly all components are made of highly durable aeronautical aluminum alloy. An interesting fact is that the main frame of the vehicle is riveted just like in the case of airplanes. This approach makes the main frame even more durable and lightweight."

He went on to explain that the EV4 has an adaptive suspension system featuring two bicycle shock absorbers with adjustable damping and welded aluminum wishbones designed to adjust to the shape of the terrain at any given moment and keep all four wheels uniformly on the ground. Its two 500 W electric motors, geared belt drives and 36 V Li-ion battery pack in either 20 Ah or 40 Ah configurations offer a top speed of 40 km/h (25 mph) and a range of between 30 and 50 km (18.6 - 31 miles) with the 20 Ah battery installed and up to double that with the larger pack on board.

The four-wheeler sports hydraulic disc brakes on each of the four wheels ensure short stopping distances. It's 150 cm long and 60 cm wide (59 x 24 in) and benefits from a height-adjustable seat. Sans battery pack, the EV4 tips the scales at 41 kg (90 lb), which increases to 47 kg with the 20 Ah battery installed and 53 kg with the 40 Ah pack. There's a twist-grip throttle and ride information, such as speed and remaining charge, is displayed on a handlebar-mounted LCD display.

Netherlands' largest hotel will be twisted OMA creation

Netherlands' largest hotel will be twisted OMA creation
The winner of a tender for a major new hotel development in Amsterdam was announced last week. It will be based 
at the   ШУУД ҮЗЭХ Amsterdam

RAI exhibition and conference center. Designed by architects OMA, the Nhow Amsterdam RAI hotel is designed to be an attraction in itself and will have a striking twisted design.
Plans for a new hotel at Amsterdam RAI date back to 2011, whilst the tendering process for the hotel began in June last year. Of the 11 entries submitted, the concept from OMA, developer COD and the NH Hotel Group is said to have stood out because of its additional special facilities. 
Although primarily designed to be a hotel, the Nhow Amsterdam RAI will house a number of other functions including a television studio, a gallery, a sculpture garden, and a spa. Public floors at the top of the building will be home to a skybar and restaurant.
In addition to its facilities, the concept's design was said to have been a factor in its success. OMA has aimed to ensure the building will fit in with the existing RAI complex, whilst having a new and modern look. The structure will be comprised of three main separate sections that will appear to be twisted or rotated on a central vertical axis.
At 91 m (299 ft) tall with 25 floors, the Nhow Amsterdam RAI will be the tallest hotel in the Benelux countries of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, according to a press release. It will have 650 rooms and guests will enjoy a 4-star quality rating.
The construction of the Nhow Amsterdam RAI hotel is planned to begin in mid-2016.

Google set to rival Sonos with Cast for audio wireless streaming

Google set to rival Sonos with Cast for audio wireless streaming
Google has announced that the Cast technology on which its Chromecast is based will soon be used in speakers. Google
Cast for  ШУУД ҮЗЭХ audio will


allow users to stream audio services wirelessly to compatible speakers. Users will also be able to control the speakers via a computer or mobile device.

Google Cast for audio will provide users with similar functionality to Sonos. Cast-enabled speakers will connect directly to the internet via a home network and the user will be able to control what services they stream from and play via a computer or mobile device. The recently released Gramafonaims to bring the same functionality to non-Wi-Fi-capable stereo system setups.

What Google Cast for audio offers that Sonos and Gamafon do not is a connected platform used by a variety of different speaker manufacturers. As such, there should be more choice among the speakers available and a potentially greater incentive for audio services to make themselves compatible with the platform.

Google says that Cast-compatible speakers will initially work with Deezer, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, NPR One, Pandora, Rdio and TuneIn radio, to name a few, with more services being added going forward. Users will be able to control the service via an Android phone or tablet, iOS devices and from the Chrome browser on a Windows, Mac or Chrome OS computer.

The first Google Cast Ready speakers are expected to be available in the US in the first half of this year. Manufacturers will include Sony, LG and HEOS by Denon.

Painless Parker: Part dentist, part showman, all American

A pioneer of modern dentistry mixed showmanship with medical knowledge. Writer James Bartlett remembers the legacy
of  ШУУД ҮЗЭХ Painless Parker.

You might not look twice at the name on the gravestone in Saratoga, California - Edgar Randolph Parker. His daughter made sure it offered no clues to his alter-ego, "Painless" Parker, the most famous dentist in America.

I came across Parker while researching a book about how the idea of "bad teeth" and dentistry came to the masses. Parker's insistence on high-quality dental care and his relentless showmanship played a big part of this shift - but he's almost forgotten now. Only one obscure book by two dentists has been written about his life - The Early Adventures of Painless Parker, by Peter M Pronych and Arden G Christen.

It wasn't just a nickname. In 1915 he legally changed his name to Painless Parker, just so he could continue to practice after California insisted dentists work under their legal title. Parker felt it was deliberately aimed at him and opposed it vociferously.

Over his career, Parker had dozens of offices spread between Utah, California, Oregon, New York, Idaho, Colorado and Washington state, but he began his career in New Brunswick, his hometown province.

At the time he favoured what was known as the "ethical" route - he didn't solicit for customers. But check-ups weren't a regular occurrence for most people at the time. With other dentists already in town - and the ever-present fear-of-pain factor - he soon faced an empty chair.

Desperate, he rented a room in a nearby town and took to the street corner. He talked about dental health and then, armed with a syringe of watered cocaine he christened "hydrocaine", said he'd extract anyone's tooth for 50 cents.

He promised extraction would be completely painless, and offered $5 if the patient wasn't satisfied.
Unsurprisingly, the narcotic did its job, and soon he was making money as a travelling dentist, borrowing a rocking chair for his patients wherever he went.
Some years later he and his family moved to New York, where he struggled again, until he met William Beebe, a former employee of PT Barnum. Together they planned to do the unthinkable - brazenly advertise Parker and his skills, and take the act on the road.
Out on the bustling streets, a musician or brass band would play to draw attention - it also provided great cover for patient screams. Parker would give his well-practiced speech and offer to treat anyone.
Customers soon filled his expanding offices, so he commissioned a "Paris Trap" , a horse-drawn flatbed with a dentist's chair, for his shows, and kept his ever-filling bucket of teeth close at hand for people to see.
Despite his undoubted dental proficiency, his maverick showmanship saw him endlessly dismissed as a quack and a charlatan. He regularly fought in the courts against limits on advertising, his legitimacy and "ethics", but also against overcharging and monopolies - Parker always kept his prices affordable for poor clients.

After Beebe's sudden death Parker moved to California, briefly considering an early retirement. But he bought up a shabby dentist's office in Los Angeles and was soon building more.
The West Coast establishment didn't welcome his ways either. He eventually set up the Institute of Dental Economics to train dentists and fight his many legal battles with the California State Dental Association.
He also eschewed an office full "costly rugs and pictures" in favour of new technology, and offered mouthwashes, toothpastes and powders for brushing at home.
In 1913 Parker bought a travelling circus and became ringmaster. On one notable day he claimed to have extracted over 350 teeth, while non-patients could see the elephants, watch the performers, or ogle the tattooed lady.
As Parker expanded in California and across the western US, he gave up smoking and drinking - but the showman remained. He treated a hippo called Lucas, performed at a theme park in Long Beach, and was snapped with celebrities - and all the while still advertising relentlessly.
Eventually, concerns about bacteria and sterilisation led Parker to give up his sidewalk demonstrations - which he switched out for screening educational films about oral care in his office. Interested crowds were then invited to come next door for a free check-up, of course.

In 1948, a few years before Parker died, Bob Hope played hapless dentist Peter "Painless" Potter alongside Jane Russell in Paleface, a Western comedy that was loosely based on some incidents in Parker's early life. Parker of course loved the movie - and the publicity.
Today Parker's still a star at the small Historical Dental Museum at his alma mater, Temple University, but he's largely forgotten outside California.
But his biggest office, on the corner of 7th and Main in Los Angeles, still operates as a dental practice. Naturally, there's a large billboard of a smiling face on the roof.
With two entrances, nine treatment rooms, a lab full of teeth moulds, x-ray and dark rooms, reception, offices, staff rooms, waiting rooms and endless half-empty storage spaces, it has changed little since it opened in 1906.
Though he had other offices across town, this one was purpose-built by Parker as a "one stop shop", says Dr Jong M Lee, the current owner.
Lee took over the office from another dentist, but he says many of his patients are relatives of those who were treated by Parker. It's meant he's never had to advertise. In fact, Lee only put up the large billboard in 2007 in advance of some building upgrades.

Lee apologises, insisting that I look around the building as he gets back to his patients. Walking down the long corridors, I make a closer inspection of some unusual skylights and several gorgeous amber-coloured windows that look like stained glass, tucked away between two rooms.
Then I see a wall clock that's so ancient Parker may have tallied his pocket watch to it, and it's out through the double doors into the main waiting area, past the obligatory aquarium with tropical fish, and out onto the bustling streets.
High above, the billboard's shiny white teeth and ruby red lips suggest I call or "Just Come In".
Painless Parker would approve.

BMW and Alpinestars team up for Tech-Air-based motorcycle gear

BMW and Alpinestars team up for Tech-Air-based motorcycle gear
BMW Motorrad and Alpinestars have just launched an exclusive
partnership  ШУУД ҮЗЭХ to develop

airbag safety clothing. The first product from the pairing will be a motorcycle jacket equipped with an airbag waistcoat based on Alpinestars' Tech-Air airbag technology.
Alpinestars touts its Tech-Air as the world’s first self-contained street airbag system designed to function without the need for sensors to be fitted to the motorcycle. This eliminates the need for any kind of installation or pairing with a specific bike. All the rider has to do is zip up their jacket and the system is activated.

An LED display located on the sleeve provides visual confirmation the system is active and displays the battery’s charging level. When fully charged, its battery pack should be good for 25 hours of continuous use, with Alpinestars adding that one hour of charging is sufficient for four hours of riding time.

The airbag is controlled by a small electronic unit housed in a durable, water resistant casing and uses an algorithm to detect imminent danger. This custom analysis software owes its sophistication to the experience harvested from MotoGP and the Tech-Air race airbag system developed by and for world champions Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.

The algorithm of the street version has been optimized to identify all possible danger situations, including low- and high-side collisions. It even detects accidents that occur when the motorcycle is stationary, such as a rear impact while waiting at the traffic lights, for example.

Depending on the accident type, the system will typically detect an impact within 30 to 60 milliseconds and deploy in the subsequent 25 ms, promising protection to the chest, kidney areas, back and shoulders.

Interchangeability is another strong selling point for the Tech-Air system. Although it can only be used in combination with specifically designed jackets, one airbag vest can be attached to different Tech-Air jackets depending on motorcycle type, weather conditions or simply the rider’s desire.

The BMW Motorrad jacket, which will carry branding of both BMW and Alpinestars and come in male and female versions, is set to make its public debut later this year.

The following video shows the Alpinestars Tech-Air street airbag system in action and outlines its functions.

Dashcam footage accepted by insurers in disputed claims

Most UK insurance companies will now accept dashboard camera footage in disputed claims - but few will offer a discount on premiums for using one.

These "dashcams" are small, forward-facing cameras that film a driver's
view of  ШУУД ҮЗЭХ the road.


When asked by provider Nextbase, 29 insurers said they would consider using dashcam evidence in the claims process.
This would be put alongside any accounts from independent witnesses if the parties involved disagreed.
Experts also stress that drivers with dashcams should still collect as much evidence as possible in a claim when there is disagreement between the parties involved, such as the details of other motorists who may have seen the collision.

Discounts

Insurance premiums have been falling in recent months, according to various measures.
The AA said that the cheapest annual comprehensive car insurance on the market was £200 lower in the early months of 2015 than at its peak in 2011.
But the motoring group said it expected this average of the cheapest deals - £540 a year - to increase in the coming months.
Some drivers are able to secure a discount on their premium by installing a "black box" in their vehicle.
This records evidence, such as whether a driver is travelling within speed limits, and is aimed at encouraging safer use of the roads.
Malcolm Tarling, of the Association of British Insurers (ABI), said that it was far more likely for motorists to get a discount from their insurer when using a black box than when using a dashcam.
He added that insurers would generally have to write a clause into the terms and conditions of any discount to be able to demand dashcam footage be released by the owner, even if this implicated the driver as the cause of a collision.

Meanwhile, a price comparison website is warning drivers to ensure that any pets travelling in vehicles are secure.
"The law is clear - you must secure your animal while in a car," said Matt Oliver, car insurance spokesman at Gocompare.com.
"Therefore if you don't do this and an animal roaming freely around the vehicle is said to have contributed to causing an accident, then an insurance company could be well within their rights not to pay out on a claim."

Jambé offers 10 zones of percussive playability

Jambé offers 10 zones of percussive playability
The Jambé takes bits of electronic drums, hand bangers and 
finger   ШУУД ҮЗЭХ tappers and

mashes them all up into one traditional-looking percussive instrument. Its makers say that a special combination of materials and sensors allow it to read every playing nuance, transforming the mighty wallop of a drum stick into thunderous sounds or a gentle tinkle from light finger taps with the help of an iPad or iPhone processing brain. 

"SensorPoint was founded around the idea of developing products that integrated advanced electronics with everyday objects," the company's John Worthington told us. "Essentially trying to bridge the gap between the maker world and professional production. We were approached about consulting on the design of an electronic musical instrument. Mark Bain, my co-founder, and I have a background in music, so this seemed perfect. Unfortunately, companies can be fickle and the project went nowhere. But by that point, we had done a lot of thinking about what we wanted in an electronic instrument. We decided we to start with a drum."

That drum is called the Jambé, a digital instrument designed to look and feel like a traditional drum and one that allows accomplished percussionists to put their skills to good use straight away or start from scratch to create brand new playing techniques. The aim was to create a playing surface that was mechanically resilient, could efficiently transfer force to the sensors underneath it and had a good bounce for use with sticks but was also easy on the hands. Worthington reckons that "based on the feedback we've received, I think we got it exactly right."

 

Within a sustainable hardwood rim sits a 10 geometric play zone interface which transforms actions registered by its thin multilayer membrane with force-sensing resistors into dynamic sounds via proprietary software running on an iOS device.

"When the pressure on the sensor increases, there's a proportional change in the resistance," explained Worthington. "There's one sensor per pad. We digitize the state of the sensor at 10-bits and pass that back to the iOS application. We have algorithms in the app that recognize playing gestures based on the result. The sensor is mounted beneath a foam playing surface. The unique feel of the instrument is a result of the foam, the substrate the sensor is mounted to and how that substrate is supported."

The design team reckons that each sensor is capable of detecting more than a thousand different pressure levels and different hits, strikes and touches can be programmed into the system allowing, for example, one sound to fire with an open hand strike and another for a closed hand hit.

Where some electronic drums might employ a gate time or default duration to specify note duration after a strike on the surface has been detected, with Jambé the player can have the sound continue until the pressure on the pad is released, similar to playing a keyboard. The SensorPoint team is currently working on adding modulation similar to polyphonic aftertouch.

The app presents the user with a number of large icons that change the sounds assigned to each sensor zone. Kits and sounds can be changed in real time by tapping the screen and sounds or kits can be added to the arsenal that comes with the Jambé app from an in-app store. The app can also be used to create custom kits and adjust the instrument's sensitivity.

Players will need a smart device running at least iOS 8 to use the Jambé and, for the moment at least, the Android OS will not be supported. "Audio on Android is a mess at the moment," Worthington told us. "We continue to track this, but it's not really an option at the moment given the limitations of the OS."

Official up time stats are still to be confirmed, though Worthington did say that he ran a first gen on battery power and a pre-production Jambé prototype from a wall socket at the NAMM Show back in January and got almost 9 hours of use before the iPad Air needed some juice. He also said that he's managed a good 4 hours running the Jambé and app from the iPad Air's battery alone.

Developed as a feature-rich yet inexpensive digital music instrument for professional players and students of music alike, the Jambé project has launched on Kickstarter. Successful funding will enable the SensorPoint team to finish hardware production tooling and testing and polish up the app (which is currently in beta) for release.

Early Bird Specials in a choice of light or dark stain for the wooden rim are still available for US$499 as of writing, which represents a saving of $300 on the expected retail price. The campaign is set to run until April 28, with shipping due to start in August if all goes to plan.