Assorted tech, part 2

[dracodraconis]

Military Plans Cyborg Sharks
The US military is exploring the idea of using neural implants to remotely control sharks. Part of the implant would direct the shark to perform certain actions while others would monitor neural patterns arising from the shark's senses to gain some idea of what the shark is perceiving.
Turf Mat
	This matt, available for less than $50(US) per square foot, consists of Korean velvet grass in a rubber matt, complete with irrigation channels. Intended for us as roofing tiles (where they provide excellent thermal insulation), they could easily be adapted as flooring. Imagine having living grass in your living room.
Nokia Silence Booth
	This booth is intended for use as a phone booth at concerts, airports, or anywhere you need a quiet spot to talk. The double-chamber design deadens sound from the environment, leaving you in blissful silence.
Forehead Retina Sensor
	I published this recently in F2F, but this link has more information (that will be added to the F2F post). This device uses tactile sensors to represent a scene as it would be if you passed it through an edge detector. More specifically, the image is broken down into three colour channels before edge detection is performed. The reason for this is that image colour can be approximated by using three types of receptors in the skin. Merkel cells sense pressure and are used to represent red by varying the pressure applied (more pressure, more red). Meissner cells detect low-frequency oscillations and are used to represent green. Pacinian cells detect high-frequency oscillations and are used to represent blue. Related articles: http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?f=conference&p=etech&s=forehead
SPOT-NOSE electronic nose
	A layer of olfactory receptor proteins are placed on a microelectrode array to form an electronic nose. The microelectrodes measure changes in the proteins in reponse to the presence of certain chemicals. The human nose uses about 1,000 different proteins and can distinguish more than 10,000 different odours. Scientists hope to ue this to improve the sensitivity of current detection systems, allowing them to identify spoiled food, the presence of blood, explosives, or drugs.