Engineering stuff from the week 2-8/7/12

[videos] 'Smart headlights let drivers see between the raindrops'
A team at Carnegie Mellon have developed an 'intelligent' headlight system that identifies falling raindrops/snowflakes and cancels the light signal in the direction of the drops.
The utility of this is largely in driving safety -- falling raindrops form streaks of bright light, bouncing back toward the driver, which makes it difficult to see where they're going.
By identifying falling drops, predicting where they're going to go, and then not shining light in those places, this system significantly reduces glare.
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-smart-headlights-drivers-raindrops.html

A computer program, has, in honour of Alan Turing, composed a series of orchestral pieces, called 'Transits Into An Abyss'
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528724.300-computer-composer-honours-turings-centenary.html

'No show stoppers for concentrating solar power'
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) uses arrays of reflecting panels to focus light on a central point, which uses the consequent heating to produce electricity.
The only problem facing this industry is the consumption of restricted resources (rare ones) - but abundant replacements are already becoming widely available.
It is prospected that CSP could produce five times as much energy as the entire world's current energy consumption!
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-stoppers-solar-power.html

[video] 'A floating port for docking boats offshore'
If you can understand spoken french, you can tell me what the pretty lady's saying!
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-port-docking-boats-offshore-video.html

[video] A team of MIT graduates have designed a shirt that actively regulates body temperature, pulls moisture away from the skin, and decays sweat chemicals, reducing smell:
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-nasa-space-temperature-regulating-shirts-video.html

The world's fastest-counting camera software has been designed, to find cancerous cells amongst the millions of others that are not.
"To catch these elusive cells, the camera must be able to capture and digitally process millions of images continuously at a very high frame rate... Conventional CCD and CMOS cameras are not fast and sensitive enough. It takes time to read the data from the array of pixels, and they become less sensitive to light at high speed."
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-world-fastest-camera-rogue-cancer.html

Advances in solar thermal technology at Michigan Technological University have led to solar cells that are good at both photovoltaics, and thermal energy generation.
“They give you the most usable solar energy per square foot of roof space,” Pearce said. “I think that 20 years from now, every roof will be made of integrated PVT.”
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-solar-energy.html