EOscc2 electric car can drive sideways and make itself shorter

The EO smart connecting car 2, or EOscc2 (Credit: Timo Birnschein, DFKI GmbH)

Nissan's Pivo 2 and NASA's Modular Robotic Vehicle are both rather special prototype vehicles, in that they can rotate all four of their wheels 90 degrees in order to drive sideways – a feature that would definitely make parallel parking easier. Now they've got some company, in the form of the electric EO smart connecting car 2, or EOscc2.

Created by a team from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, the EOscc2 was designed to be "an ultra-flexible micro-car for mega-cities." It's powered by a 54-volt lithium-iron phosphate battery pack, which drives four 4-kW wheelhub motors.

The car is also equipped with stereoscopic front and rear cameras, potentiometer sensors, a LiDAR system, and six 3D time-of-flight cameras. Tied into the onboard computer, this suite of sensors allows for autonomous parking and other driver-assistance functions.

It is hoped that once developed further, the technology will also allow the automobile to drive itself with complete autonomy, and to link up with other EOscc2's to form connected train-like "platoons" for longer road trips. Sharing each others' battery power and experiencing less wind resistance, the cars in these platoons would use less power than if they were each making the trip individually.

And yes, the EOscc2's wheels can turn completely sideways. This means that it can pull straight in and out of tight parking spots, made even easier by the fact that its cabin can sort of "hunch up" while doing so, making the whole vehicle one meter (3.3 ft) shorter – not unlike the experimental Armadillo-T car. It can also turn on the spot, and drive diagonally.

Should the car not be big enough or have enough range for some applications, it also has a docking interface that allows not only for the platooning and battery-charging, but that additionally lets it receive extension modules such as range extenders, passenger modules, or cargo modules. Rinspeed's Dock+Go concept works along the same lines.

There's no word on whether or not we'll ever see a commercially-available version of the EOscc2. In the meantime, you can see it in action on YouTube.

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Silent Guitars given SRT power boost

The SLG200 series Silent Guitars are set for a US launch at the Summer NAMM in July

Yamaha has revealed the third generation of its award-winning Silent Guitars series ahead of a July release in the US. Described as the perfect guitars for practice, travel or stage, the new "near silent" SLG200 series guitars feature something called Studio Response Technology that's been designed to recreate the body resonance, tone and ambiance of an acoustic guitar in an instrument that, well, doesn't have much of a body.

The Studio Response Technology (SRT) pickup and preamp system brought over from the company's A Series dreadnoughts offers SLG200 series players a choice of the sound straight from the piezo pickup or a modeled acoustic simulation based on recordings of acoustic instruments via Neumann U67 or Royer R-122 microphones, or a blend the two. The instruments come with three "studio quality" onboard effects – a chorus effect, a room reverb and a new Hall reverb that's said to give the player the feeling of playing in a concert hall – and a built-in chromatic tuner.

Guitarists can string pick on the quiet or plug in the supplied in-ear headphones. There's an aux-in socket to feed in backing tracks from external music players for jam sessions that won't result in neighbors calling the authorities, and an auto power off feature should ease the strain for the two AA-sized batteries providing the juice for the electronics (though the system can run from AC power). An instrument out jack at the back can also be used to connect the guitar direct to a recording device or powered amplifier.

Elsewhere, the plastic of old has been retired in favor of an all-new collapsible rosewood and maple frame and a mahogany body with a new modernized shape. The 25 or 25.5 inch scale mahogany neck is topped by a rosewood fingerboard and benefits from a dual-action truss rod for both concave and convex bow adjustment.

Yamaha is offering both nylon and steel string versions, which will come in a choice of three finishes – natural satin, tobacco brown sunburst or translucent black. With the top frame section detached and placed with the body and neck in the supplied gig bag, the ensemble is reported to be small enough to comfortably fit in an aircraft's overhead storage compartment with room to spare.

Visitors to Musikmesse in Frankfurt, Germany, last month got to see and hear the new SLG200 series in action before the scheduled US launch at the Summer NAMM in July. We've no word on US pricing at the moment, but UK suggested retail prices start at £515 (about US$800).

The introduction video below offers an overview of the new SLG200.

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Octopus-arm-like tool may find use in surgery

The octopus arm tool moves between water balloons, standing in for delicate organs (Credit: Tommaso Ranzani)

When surgeons are trying to operate on hard-to-reach organs, they'll often have to make multiple incisions to get at the area from different angles, or use tools such as retractors to pull other tissue out of the way. A team of researchers from Italy's Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, however, is developing an alternative – a flexible octopus arm-inspired tool that can squirm its way between organs, then hold them back while simultaneously operating.

The prototype device consists of two joined modules, each one containing three cylindrical air chambers. By selectively varying the inflation of different combinations of those chambers, it's possible to get the arm to bend and stretch in different directions, anywhere along its length.

In order to be able to hold tissue out of the way, however, it can't be too flexible – at least, not all the time. That's why it also has a granular material (ground coffee, actually) contained within a flexible interior membrane. Ordinarily, that material is able to shift around easily, allowing the device to remain pliable.

Once a vacuum is applied and the air is sucked out of the membrane, though, the density of the material increases as the coffee grounds all jam together. It's a phenomenon appropriately known as "granular jamming," and it causes the membrane – and thus the device itself – to become rigid until the vacuum is released.

The idea is that the arm would first be in a flexible state, in order to move its business end to the target site without the need for retractors or other tools. Once it reached its target, it would push the surrounding tissue away from that area, then stiffen itself up to hold that position. Surgical tools on its end would then be remotely operated by a surgeon, to perform the procedure.

In tests of the prototype, it was able to bend at angles of up to 255 degrees, stretch up to 62 percent of its relaxed length, and stiffen by up to 200 percent. It was also able to manipulate water balloons – representing organs – without damaging them.

"Traditional surgical tasks often require the use of multiple specialized instruments such as graspers, retractors, vision systems and dissectors to carry out a single procedure," says lead scientist Dr. Tommaso Ranzani. "We believe our device is the first step to creating an instrument that is able to perform all of these tasks, as well as reach remote areas of the body and safely support organs around the target site."

A paper on the arm was recently published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics. The research is being carried out as part of the European STIFF-FLOP project.

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Kokoon EEG headphones monitor brainwaves to track your sleep

Kokoon's Bluetooth headphones incorporate EEG sensors intended to track the quality of your sleep

Noise canceling headphones can be pretty handy if you're trying to catch some shut-eye on a plane or bus. But with their hardened earpieces and stiff bands, most aren't all that great when you're in need of a solid night's sleep. London-based startup Kokoon has designed a pair of headphones equipped with electroencephalography (EEG) sensors and an emphasis on comfort, designed to keep you snoozing until the early hours and then wake you up with feedback on just how well you slept.

Kokoon says that high-tech pillows and sports shoes provided the inspiration for its comfort-oriented, Bluetooth headphones. They are designed to nestle into the natural contours of the skull and store all the electronics inside the band to keep the earpieces nice and slim. The earpieces also feature gel cushioning inside to serve as a mini-pillow for the ears.

Additionally, the team has developed custom EEG sensors that sit inside the headphones. These monitor the tiny voltages in the brain of the wearer as they drift off to sleep and relay data to a companion smartphone app. Using special algorithms, the system is then able to detect when the user is asleep, lowering the volume and canceling out external noises so as not to wake them up again.

Over time, the system learns exactly what techniques are most effective at summoning the sandman and tailors its approach the next time you lay down to rest. This thoughtfulness also extends to the next day with an intelligent alarm that detects the optimal time to wake you up, so as to avoid that early morning grogginess.

There are plenty of sleep tracking apps that offer the same thing, though these generally rely on the accelerometer in a smartphone that is placed on the bed. With its sensors fixed to the top of the user's skull, Kokoon would appear to offer a more precise sleep tracking solution (the company claims it to be 100 times more accurate).

The app offers users a sleep score, and sorts their different states of sleep into categories, such as deep, REM, light or awake. It also offers an alternative to your own music through a library of audio sounds developed with the help of sleep scientists to coax you into a deep slumber.

Kokoon is currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, with the team having already cruised past its funding goal of US$100,000. Early pledges of $169 will have a pair sent your way in February 2016 if everything runs as planned.

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Forget dive watches – GrillTimer is a barbecue watch

Instead of letting you know how much longer you can stay underwater before running out of air, the GrillTimer shows you how long to cook stuff on the barbecue (Photo: Little Griddle)

In the past, Michigan-based outdoor cooking enthusiast Jon Stein used his dive watch to time the cooking of foods on his barbecue. Once he realized that he barely ever used the watch for its actual intended purpose, however, he set out to make one that was specifically designed for use by his fellow grillers. The GrillTimer is the result.

Like a retro dive watch, the GrillTimer has a bezel-style timer – the big difference being that it displays cooking times for eight popular barbecue items.

To use it, you just twist the bezel so that the watch's minute hand lines up with the start of the cooking time for the food you're cooking. As the hand progresses, the bezel display will indicate when you should flip the item, how "done" it's getting, and when the cooking is complete. Needless to say, individual grill temperatures and meat cuts will vary, but Stein is confident that the suggested times will serve as a good guide.

The bezel only turns in one direction, so it can't accidentally be bumped back to an earlier point in the cooking time. Additionally, an accompanying guide lets users know what other foods the displayed cooking times can be applied to – for instance, if you're cooking scallops, lobster or shellfish, you can use the watch's "shrimp" setting.

The GrillTimer itself has a stainless steel case, Seiko quartz movement, a scratch-resistant mineral crystal, and is water-resistant to 10 m (2.8 ft). It's also reportedly "sauce resistant" to three tablespoons.

Much as we think it could be handy for cooking, we particularly like the idea of it being worn in non-grilling situations. Imagine the looks it would get if you were wearing it in a board meeting or while arguing a court case, for instance.

If you're interested in the GrillTimer, it's currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign. A pledge of US$40 will currently get you one, when and if they reach production. The planned retail price is $50.

The watch is demonstrated in the following video.

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