Next-generation products from WowWee will use advanced vision and navigation technologies from Evolution Robotics. (Photo: Business Wire)

WowWee will incorporate two of Evolution's unique technologies in their line of products: ViPR(TM) and Northstar(TM). ViPR (Visual Pattern Recognition) is the "gold standard" in visual recognition technology, and provides reliable and fast recognition of patterns, objects, and locations in realistic environments. Northstar, known as "Indoor GPS," is the world's lowest-cost solution for position-awareness for consumer robots, and enables robots to navigate autonomously and intelligently. Both of these technologies will be used by WowWee as they continue to create breakthrough robotic companions and entertainment products.

"We are excited about joining WowWee to develop a new generation of robotic products that will provide amazing features to consumers," said Paolo Pirjanian, President and Chief Technology Officer of Evolution Robotics. "These new robots will be truly intelligent and autonomous -- a first in mass-market robots."

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The concave-eared torrent frog is the first non-mammalian species found to be capable of producing and detecting ultrasounds for communication. Credit: Used with permission of A. Feng

Amolops tormotus, also referred to as the concave-eared torrent frog, is the first non-mammalian species found to be capable of producing and detecting ultrasounds for communication, much like dolphins, bats, and some rodents. It does so, the researchers report, to make itself heard above the din of low-frequency sounds produced in its surroundings so that it can communicate territorial information to other males of its species. In addition to helping researchers puzzle out how the ear evolved, the research may one day enable scientists to develop new strategies or technologies that help people to hear in environments in which there is a lot of background noise.

“In the study of communication and communication disorders, researchers can gain a great deal of insight by looking at the natural world,” says James F. Battey, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIDCD. “The more we can learn about the extraordinary mechanisms that Amolops and other animals have developed to hear and communicate with one another, the more fully we can understand the hearing process in humans, and the more inspired we can be in developing new treatments for hearing loss.”

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Methane bubbles at Håkon Mosby mud volcano. Some hundred tons methane are emitted per year. Photo: Ifremer.

Greenhouse gases contribute significantly to present changes of the global climate. Carbon dioxide and methane are major greenhouse gases, whereby methane molecules do 20 times more efficiently prevent reverberation of heat into outer space.

The sources of methane are mostly known in terrestrial areas; however, oceanic emissions are much less investigated. Our knowledge is poor, in particular concerning the amount of methane from oceanic sources that reaches the atmosphere. Hitherto scientists assumed that micro-organisms almost immediately destroy methane emitted from the sea floor. Under this assumption methane from the deep-sea would have no impact on the climate.

A German-French-Russian cooperation under the leadership of the Alfred Wegener Institute actually found considerable quantities of deep-sea methane going into the atmosphere. Investigation of the active mud volcano Håkon Mosby between Norway and Svalbard, the scientists discovered a plume of methane bubbles 800 metres above sea floor. By means of optical and acoustical observations researchers found a upward water stream induced by the buoyancy of the bubbles. This upward stream transported methane to the ocean surface even beyond the depth of bubble dissolution. Scientists estimate that the Håkon Mosby mud volcano emits some hundred tons methane per year to the upper water column. "The number of submarine mud volcanoes is estimated to several thousands world-wide", explains Eberhard Sauter, geochemist at the Alfred Wegener Institute. "Their contribution to the global methane budget might be important."

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