Robotic birds that look and fly like the real thing

Photo by Indian express

A Dutch designer has come up with unique remote-controlled robotic birds that look and fly exactly like the real creatures and act as a deterrent to flocks of nuisance birds.

Brainchild of Nico Nijenhuis from Clear Flight Solutions in The Netherlands, the ‘Robirds’ actually flap their wings to fly, and in a way that makes them remarkably similar to the real thing.

“Birds are beautiful creatures. However, if you work in aviation, waste management or agriculture, you will be aware that birds can be a very tough problem to deal with. Birds are not only a nuisance, they can also be a serious threat to safety in aviation,” the creators wrote on their website.

The Robird is an environmentally-friendly solution for all such bird-related problems, they wrote.

According to the creators, the Robird can fly in and around problem areas, encouraging nuisance birds to leave by exploiting the natural instinct of birds to avoid predators, particularly through silhouette and wing movement recognition, ‘Gizmag’ reported.

The creators claim that as the system is fully remote controlled by an operator on the ground, difficult birds can be persuaded to leave by singling them out with the Robird to chase them away.

Targeted bird populations learn to avoid what they perceive as the active stalking grounds of a bird of prey and that bird numbers in the areas of Robird operation drop by 50 per cent or more, according to the creators.

The Robirds virtually eliminate the chances of nuisance bird flock habituation in the long term, the report said.

With a body length of up to 58 cm and a wingspan of 120 cm the peregrine falcon model can reach 80 km/h and is designed to act as a deterrent to birds of up to 3 kg.

The eagle model is even more intimidating. With a body length nearly twice the length of the falcon and wingspan of up to 220 cm, this robot bird is designed to scare off any type of bird.

News by Indian Express

Nanoparticles Detected And Counted With New Sensor

Photo by Hngn

Researchers developed a new sensor that can detect and count nanoparticles as small as 10 nanometers, in the future it could detect even smaller particles, viruses, and molecules. 

Nanoparticles are all around us and can benefit human health as early cancer treatments or interfere with it in viruses and pollution, Washington University in St. Louis reported. 

The Raman microlaser sensor in a silicon dioxide chip has the ability to find nanoparticles without needing to "dope" the chip with rare-earth ions providing optical gain for the microlaser; this cuts costs and biocompatibility risks. 

"This gives us the advantage of using the same dopant-free sensor at different sensing environments by tailoring the lasing frequency for the specific environment, for example, at the band where the environment has minimum absorption, and for the properties of the targeted nanoparticles by just changing the wavelength of the pump laser," said Sahin Kaya Ozdemir, PhD, a research scientist in the research team and the first author of the paper.

The team integrated the Raman lasing in a silica microcavity with the mode splitting technique to develop the more powerful sensor. 

The technology could benefit the "electronics, acoustics, biomedical, plasmonics, security and metamaterials fields." 

"Our new sensor differs from the earlier whispering gallery sensors in that it relies on Raman gain, which is inherent in silica, thereby eliminating the need for doping the microcavity with gain media, such as rare-earth ions or optical dyes, to boost detection capability," Ozdemir said. "This new sensor retains the biocompatibility of silica and could find widespread use for sensing in biological media."

"It doesn't matter what kind of wavelength is used, once you have the Raman laser circulating inside and there is a molecule sitting on the circle, when the beam sees the particle it will scatter in all kinds of directions," study leader Lan Yang said. "Initially you have a counterclockwise mode, then a clockwise mode, and by analyzing the characterization of the two split modes, we confirm the detection of nanoparticles."

The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online Early Edition Sept. 1, 2014.

By Hngn

Sania advances in U.S. Open women, mixed doubles

Sania Mirza ( Photo by The hindu)

Sania Mirza made it to the quarter-finals of women’s doubles and the semi-final of mixed doubles at the U.S. Open tennis event in New York.

The top seeded pair of Sania and Bruno Soares made it to the semi-final of the mixed doubles with a 7-5, 2-6, 10-5 win over the sixth seeded pair of Bopanna and Katarina Srebotnik in the quarter-finals on Monday.

In the women’s doubles, Sania and Cara Black, seeded third, won their third round match against Jelena Jankovic and Klara Koukalova 6-3, 6-2.

Meanwhile, Paes lost both his men’s doubles and mixed doubles encounters. Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek, seeded sixth, went down 2-6, 6-4, 1-6 to the 11th seeded pair of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez in the third round of men’s doubles.

In the mixed doubles, Paes and Cara, seeded third, lost 4-6, 6-4, 8-10, to Abigail Spears and Santiago Gonzalez in the quarter-finals.

Usain Bolt arrives in Bangalore to face Yuvraj Singh

Bangalore, Sep 2: The fastest man on the planet, Usain Bolt of Jamaica arrived in Bangalore today to face off in a exhibition cricket match against India left-hander Yuvraj Singh at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium this evening. 

Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan will also be part of this seven-a-side cricket game of four overs each, organised by Puma. Both Bolt and Yuvraj are Puma ambassadors.

Usain Bolt ( Photo by That's cricket)

Multiple Olympic and world champion and 100m world record holder Bolt announced his arrival on Tuesday morning in Bangalore on Twitter. This is his maiden visit to India.

 "India I'm here!!!!!! #Bangalore," he tweeted earlier this morning. 

He followed that tweet with another one with a picture of his in the traditional "Mysore peta" (Mysore turban). In another tweet for Yuvraj, he wrote "Hey @yuvstrong12, I'm in your neighborhood. Up for a little cricket face off? #CatchBolt." "Puma brings Usain Bolt down for a one-of-a-kind cricket face-off between two sporting legends. 
For the first time ever, watch the Fastest Man on Earth -- Usain Bolt, challenge Yuvraj Singh to an exclusive cricket showdown at Chinnaswamy Stadium on September 2," Puma had said in a media release last week. The match starts at 4PM IST. 

Fans can enter the stadium through gates 7 and 8 from 2.45 PM. The entry is free through these gates. 

Several other fans have been selected through contests on social media and passes were given at various Puma outlets in the city.
By That's cricket 

Thigh Five! How Pro Kabaddi League captured the hearts

Photo by TOI

MUMBAI: Jaipur Pink Panthers' skipper Navneet Gautam was trying his level best to keep his feet on the ground after his team won the inaugural Pro Kabaddi League title beating U Mumba on Sunday.

The flash bulbs, numerous cameras and a full house were something he and the other players were trying hard to deal with over the past six weeks.


On Sunday, the excitement was even more. From relative obscurity, the sport of kabaddi had captured the public and the TV audience.

So what led to this turnaround? "It was a complete entertainment, a masala package," feels Gautam. "We will try to make it more entertaining next time," he promised.

More than 500 million viewers watched the entire competition. It seemed unthinkable till a few weeks ago.

"Kabaddi had every ingredient, including skill, strategy and speed, to emerge as a serious sport and woo fans. Above all, it is a true blue Indian sport," felt Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India, the official broadcasters.

Anand Mahindra, co-promoter of Mashal Sports, the organisers of the league, was also taken by surprise.

"We have genuinely been overwhelmed by the support kabaddi has received from all quarters, be it the media, film fraternity, sportspersons or the government. The viewership data further reinforces the fact that Pro Kabaddi is India's new sports revolution," said Mahindra.

The brain behind the event, Charu Sharma, reckons, "It was a visual spectacle which caught the fancy of the people. I think our success lies in not only retaining rural fans, but making it appealing for the urban audience at the same time. I think it did the trick," he added.

Indeed, state-of-the-art technical equipment that included 14 cameras - including ultra-slow motion cameras that magnified the smallest details on the field, crane cameras for overhead shots, all delivered by a world class team, and played a part as it made for great prime time viewing.

"The fact that kabaddi was never considered a prime time sport for the urban audience was the reason for its grand success," feels veteran kabaddi enthusiast Ranjit Dalvi. He further observes, "Kabaddi events were always organized to celebrate politicians' birthdays or to mark the silver or diamond jubilees of clubs. PKL was the first event when a genuine effort was made to organize a world class event," he observed.

Kabaddi Worlds likely in January

Buoyed by the success of the PKL, organisers are thinking of organising a World Championship next January and the second edition of PKL in March next year.

"A lot depends on various permissions, but we are keen to organise the World Championships in January next year with about 10 to 12 countries participating," informed Charu Sharma, managing director of Mashal Sports, organisers of PKL.
By TOI

Maharashtra government releases Rs 50 lakh grant for World Junior Chess Championship

The Maharashtra government has released a grant of Rs 50 lakh for the World Junior Chess Championship, to be held at Pune from October 5 to 20.

Photo by DNA India

The cheque was formally handed over to grandmaster Abhijit Kunte by Padmakar Valvi, Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, a release said today. 

Organising committee chairman Aniruddha Deshpande thanked the government for the funds. "Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had earlier agreed to be the Chief Patron of the championship during a meeting with Vishwanathan Anand and officials of Maharashtra Chess Association.

"He had also assured to extend full support from his Government for this tournament. We are extremely thankful to him and his team for this grant which will go a long way in successful conduct of the championship," said Deshpande.

"This event is being held for the first time in Maharashtra," he added.

The tournament is being jointly organised by Maharashtra Chess Association and Pune district Chess Circle under the auspices of All India Chess Federation and world governing body for the game FIDE.

Two hundred and fifty players from 50 countries, including Grandmasters and International Masters, are expected to play in the 15-day event. 

By DNA India

Saina Nehwal splits with Pullela Gopichand; to train under Vimal Kumar

New Delhi: Just ahead of the Asian Games, star Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal split with the national head coach Pullela Gopichand as she has decided to train under former India coach Vimal Kumar.

The Olympic bronze medallist had also conveyed the decision to Gopicahnd during the recently concluded World Championships in Denmark.

Saina Nehwal ( Photo by Zee news)

The 24-year-old has decided to move to Bangalore to work under Vimal Kumar for the upcoming Asian Games, which will kick-start from September 19.

Nehwal has been struggling with her form for quite some time now. On the other end, the dramatic rise of teenager PV Sindhu (another Gopichand-trained shuttler) might have forced her to think of other coaching options.

In the sports, Saina-Gopi pair is by far the best coach-player partnership in India, which brought many laurels to the country.

However, this is the second time that the shuttler has decided to split with the Gopichand. Earlier in 2011, Nehwal went to train under Baskar Babu. Though, she soon realised her mistake and returned to Gopi within a few months. She had also apologised to Gopi later. And within a year, the partnership reached a new level when Saina won an Olympic bronze in 2012.

Now, it would be interesting to see how long will Nehwal train under Vimal Kumar.

By Zee news