The war in Iraq is serving to highlight traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and now the U.S. Army awarded Simbex, of Lebanon, NH, a million-dollar contract to develop sensor-studded helmets for combat soldiers. They could reach our soldiers as early as December.

They are designed to "measure the shock from explosive devices." The most common cause of TBI is improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which emit shock waves–waves of air pressure–that travel at around 1,000 feet per second, or close to the speed of sound. While such blasts can cause devastating wounds, and even death, they can also rattle the brain’s soft tissue, causing invisible, permanent damage.

Simbex has equipped the combat helmets with sensors that measure the magnitude, location, and direction of blasts and the pressure changes that occur because of the resulting shock wave.

"There are lots of different types of injuries that can be caused by blast events," says Jeff Chu, the vice president of engineering at Simbex, "and we are only measuring two of the parameters that are most associated with shock waves and blast events: the acceleration of the body and pressure."

Ford is now the "world’s first automaker to set a land speed record for a production-based fuel cell powered car."

The Place: Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover UT
The Date: August 15 2007
The Skinny: retired Ford employee Rick Byrnes cranked that Hydrogen Fusion 999 to a speed of 207.297 mph which now becomes the benchmark for fuel cell powered vehicles.

Imagine, the previous post was on a 2000 lumen flashlight that requires 20 lithium batteries. And then here we have Panasonic developing a vehicle capable of moving an actual human at an average speed of 65mph, hitting 75.8mph when running all-out. Now, that’s some impressive use of battery power, and the Guinness Book of World Records took note. Of course, I’m sure Panasonic’s working on other sorts of battery technology, but hey, world records are world records, yah know?

Harman/Becker Automotive Systems is introducing its Traffic Assist Highspeed 7934 GPS. Featuring –
* Detailed maps of the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico
* 3.5-inch touch-screen with color display and a day/night display option
* 400 MHz processor for fast route calculations
* Two internal speakers for better sound quality
* Speed limit display (legal speed limits are shown on the display and a voice signal warns the driver in case of excess speed)
* Integrated MP3/WMA player to listen to music via two integrated speakers or headphones.
* A display which supports JPEG format photos and a slideshow feature.

The new product is available only at Office Depot for $299.

Leave it to Alienware to be one of the first to offer SSD, like the 32GB or 64GB SSDs they’re offering in their M9750, M9700, and M5550 systems. They’re even offering an 64GB SSD RAID-0 configuration, along with a 32GB SSD coupled with a 200GB standard HDD to combine speed with storage. As always, SSD will provide more speed with less power, and since the technology probably came from Area 51, it makes perfect sense that Alienware should be one of the first to offer them. Of course, you’ll pay for the luxury: from $500 for the 32GB solo to $920 for the 64GB RAID configuration.