The US Department of Transportation loses $100 billion each year through accidents and delays caused by highway lane closures.

Shane Farritor, a roboticist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has developed self-propelled markers that can open and close traffic lanes faster and more safely than humans.

Each fleet of robots is made up of a lead robot or "shepherd", equipped with a GPS receiver.

A (human) operator, controls their deployment with a laptop and a special software to mark on the screen where the traffic barrels should be placed.

The software calculates the GPS coordinates of the point where the shepherd should be placed, and this is sent to the shepherd via a radio link. The shepherd takes up its position, and also tells the other markers, by radio, where to go.

Read in New Scientist

Motorola is working on a mobile handset that can be used almost anywhere in the world, even between networks which use incompatible standards.

The device will work on all GSM networks but also with CDMA (code division multiple access) technology, found in the US and Asia.

Although it has not yet been established which suppliers would sell this mobile phone, Motorola has announced that it will arrive on the US market during the second half of 2004.

For its part, the main US mobile phone supplier, Verizon Wireless said recently that it was planning to offer its customers a dual-standard phone by April this year.

MIT Technology review reported that two inventors are claiming they have invented an audio technology known as directional sound: using an ultrasound emitter, the technology enables to shoot a laserlike beam of audible sound so focused that only people inside a narrow path can hear it. So, you could listen to rap music in a car, while your neighbour listens to the news, you could be in a crowd and be the only one to hear a specific message.

Atheros Communications, developer of advanced WLAN chipsets, has developed a solution that would equip PDAs (and maybe even smartphones) with 802.11g, the new version of WiFi that’s five times faster than 802.11b.
Read Press Release and Engadget.

Motion Research is planning to launch on the market the Head-Mounted-Displays, an affordable (between $ 250 and 350) data display system to attach to motorcycle helmet. The display will let riders control a series of informations: speed, rpm and gear position without taking eyes off road; gathers data from GPS receiver attached to helmet's rear, etc.

Microsoft's Beijing research lab in China came out with a pen that captures hanwriting on regular paper and transports it on a nearby computer.
Inside the pen, there is ordinary ink, but also a digital camera, a pressure sensor, a Bluetooth device and a memory chip.

Read Technology Review.