Cleantech ticker: 8 June 2009
Cleantech news as it happaens — check back for regular updates:
- A group of scientists at IPMS is working on an interactive data eyeglass device which incorporates eye tracking — users can influence the content presented by moving their eyes or fixing on certain points in the image. Without having to use any other devices to enter instructions, the wearer can display new content, scroll through the menu or shift picture elements;
- Offshore oil platforms were once secure communities in which production was controlled by closed processes that were isolated from the external world. Today, the picture is somewhat different: in what are known as “integrated operations,” offshore-onshore contact is transparent and many of the processes out on the platform are controlled by onshore personnel via networked PCs. Although this has several advantages, one disadvantage is a fall in information security. When onshore and offshore networks are linked together, the chances of attacks by viruses and hackers increase, SINTEF scientists warn;
- Trains, planes, buses and automobiles do not only affect the environment via their exhaust pipes. There is a full life-cycle of processes associated with getting from a to b that we rarely acknowledge. Research published today in IOP Publishing’s Environmental Research Letters outlines a new framework to help us calculate the true environmental cost of travel;
- ZTC Energy Group announces the acquisition of the first 25,000 SuperPV-modules for the EU market; SuperPV, a new patented add-on technology, increases the power output of photovoltaics by 60 to 200 per cent;
- The Guardian reports that negotiators at the climate talks in Bonn are seeking a levy on rich nations’ international flights and shipping fuel to fund climate change adaptation in poorer countries.
