Google Maps has taken its Street View to the skies.

Google’s cameras went to Lake Pitkäjärvi in Finland where the Aurora Borealis shines. These Northern Lights will be explored also by unmanned space probes sent by NASA to study their effect on satellite communications. The display occurs when highly charged electrons from the solar wind interact with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the earth’s upper atmosphere.

Aurora Borealis with moon and stars over the frozen lake. Green denotes oxygen atoms, blue-violet is nitrogen.

The average individual rarely has a chance to glimpse this awesome display unless they are dressed for mighty cold temperatures. The conditions that make the glow visible only occur at certain latitudes and times of the year. The lake site is about 550 miles above sea level at a latitude of 63°9’0.01″ and longitude of 25°19’0.01″. This week’s weather hovers around 9°F and 98 percent humidity with a light dusting of snow.

Clouds replace the aurora borealis over Lake Pitkäjärvi.

Charles Swenson, a Utah State University professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the principal investigator for one of the NASA probes, known as the Auroral Spatial Structures Probe (ASSP). The missions are concerned with how the aurora affects Earth’s weather and how they impact Earth’s atmosphere. The ASSP probe will primarily study how heat from the aurora can impact satellites orbiting the Earth. Heat in and around the aurora is an expanded thermosphere. The expanded gas can increase the drag on satellites shifting their orbits significantly.” The probe also will look at how auroras and geomagnetic storms affect power grid infrastructure around the world.

There are five NASA suborbital sounding rockets. The rockets will launch from Poker Flat Research Range near Fairbanks, Alaska. The ASSP probe is disposable according to Swenson. After approximately 10 minutes of collecting data it will splash down in the Arctic Ocean.

Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere Turbulence Experiment (MTeX) at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Image Credit: NASA/Berit Bland

The Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere Turbulence Experiment (MTeX) will be flying on NASA Terrier-Improved Malemute. A second test, the Mesospheric Inversion-layer Stratified Turbulence (MIST) will study atmospheric turbulence and how atmospheric properties are mixed vertically by deploying trimethyl aluminum (TMA) vapor trails seen as whitish clouds that can be photographed for study according to Miguel Larsen, MIST principal investigator from Clemson University, South Carolina. These tracers will be released between 50 and 87 miles up and according to the scientists do not pose a risk to health or the environment.

The phenomena of the Aurora Borealis is named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas. The aurora inspired myths among many Native American tribes. Once such story as quoted by Ernest W. Hawkes says: “There is a hole in it through which the spirits [of the dead] pass to the true heavens. The spirits who live there light torches to guide the feet of new arrivals.”

The colors of these torches are caused by the element and the altitude at which it encounters the sun’s messenger. Oxygen flames green up to 150 miles in altitude or red higher. Nitrogen displays as blue up to 60 miles in altitude and purple/violet higher.

If you want to see the spirits dance, the displays are visible close to the planets’ magnetic poles (not to be confused with the geographic poles). In the US, the Upper Michigan Peninsula should provide a good view, as should the northern coast of Russia or Fairbanks, Alaska. For a current forecast across Alaska and Canada refer to the website of the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The Northern Lights counterpart, aurora australis can be seen from Earth’s southern locations in Antarctica, South America, New Zealand and Australia. Additionally, auroras have been observed on most planets in our solar system from Venus to Neptune.

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As we fight for our Net Neutrality rights in the US, Europeans, who have their Net Neutrality rights already set in stone are about to get Netflix. Netflix has been the core of many of the Net Neutrality debates in the United States because of how successfully it has challenged the cable operators (who are also ISPs) traditional businesses. Netflix has announced they they plan to expand their service into more European countries than they are already serving, adding the two biggest countries in Europe.

Countries where Netflix is currently available – Credit: thebestofnetflix.com

So, in addition to the US, Canada, and basically ALL of the Americas, Netflix is also available in the U.K., Ireland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Netflix plans to add Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg. Effectively, Netflix is doubling the coutries that they’re serving in Europe, but in reality they’re more than doubling their potential audience with the addition of Germany and France, the two biggest countries in Europe.

While this news may be welcome by many, the sad truth is that the Netflix experience in the US is not going to be comparable to the one that Europeans are experiencing. Because of the way that content licensing works in Europe and who holds the copyrights it makes it incredibly difficult for Netflix to have the same size library in Europe as they do in the US. However, adding Germany and France into the mix should also increase the availability of content to Netflix users in Europe because of the sheer size of Germany’s and France’s media markets.

Realistically, though, we won’t really know what to expect from Netflix in these countries until the service launches, primarily because they will probably be making deals with content providers up until the last day. And if Netflix’s past experiences in the US are any similar to what they were in Europe, it will be a slow and steady improvement over time. But the good thing is that for shows like House of Cards, Europeans will not have to worry about whether or not they will get the content because Netflix owns the rights to it.

The post Netflix Expands Further into Europe appeared first on VR World.

As we fight for our Net Neutrality rights in the US, Europeans, who have their Net Neutrality rights already set in stone are about to get Netflix. Netflix has been the core of many of the Net Neutrality debates in the United States because of how successfully it has challenged the cable operators (who are also ISPs) traditional businesses. Netflix has announced they they plan to expand their service into more European countries than they are already serving, adding the two biggest countries in Europe.

Countries where Netflix is currently available – Credit: thebestofnetflix.com

So, in addition to the US, Canada, and basically ALL of the Americas, Netflix is also available in the U.K., Ireland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Netflix plans to add Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg. Effectively, Netflix is doubling the coutries that they’re serving in Europe, but in reality they’re more than doubling their potential audience with the addition of Germany and France, the two biggest countries in Europe.

While this news may be welcome by many, the sad truth is that the Netflix experience in the US is not going to be comparable to the one that Europeans are experiencing. Because of the way that content licensing works in Europe and who holds the copyrights it makes it incredibly difficult for Netflix to have the same size library in Europe as they do in the US. However, adding Germany and France into the mix should also increase the availability of content to Netflix users in Europe because of the sheer size of Germany’s and France’s media markets.

Realistically, though, we won’t really know what to expect from Netflix in these countries until the service launches, primarily because they will probably be making deals with content providers up until the last day. And if Netflix’s past experiences in the US are any similar to what they were in Europe, it will be a slow and steady improvement over time. But the good thing is that for shows like House of Cards, Europeans will not have to worry about whether or not they will get the content because Netflix owns the rights to it.

The post Netflix Expands Further into Europe appeared first on VR World.

Teledyne Dalsa cameras incorporate CMOS technology for high speed, high resolution imaging.

VUE comes with custom built propulsion and battery management systems. The car has a fully digital instrument cluster, and vehicle diagnostic display. The HMIs include information from the car’s radar system which provides information for the driver.

The Driver’s Vue … uh View

The infotainment system is based on the QNX Neutrino Realtime Operating system a true microkernel operating system. QNX promises that virtually any component can fail — and be automatically restarted — without affecting other components or the kernel. Their graphics technology allows images from video, OpenGL ES, HTML5, and Qt 5 on a single display.

Jin Xu of QNX said: “The VUE project car offers a preview of what is possible in terms of autonomous driving and connectivity and demonstrates the value of supporting educational programs with state-of-the-art software tools. We are proud to support them with QNX OS technology, tools, and training.“ 

Components are neatly packaged in the rear of the car

The car contains two electric motors and a 12 volt battery to power the accessories. The vehicle weighs 1,741 pounds, has a 77 inch wheelbase, 98.4 inches in overall length, and is 56.6 inches wide. The lightweight, small vehicle lends itself to electric mobility with a 45km range in city driving.


Alexandre Imbeault, a university student on the VUE project, was showing their project off at CES 2014

VUE had several sponsors based around the world. B3CG Interconnect, outside Montreal Canada and Plattsburgh, New York, manufactures cable, harnesses and electrical mechanical assembly; Phoenix Connect, based in Bloomberg, Germany prides itself on design solutions for the future using trend-setting connection and automation technology. They are active in the field of renewable energies in infrastructure or for complex device connection. Elektrobit is based in Finland.

Future goals are to include voice controls via EB GUIDE Speech Target Framework and EB Navigation integration. 

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