USA: Richard Branson's spaceship and other hi-tech products on display at a technology convention in New York

Virgin's mock-up spaceship, Galactica and other futuristic gadgets were unveiled at a technology convention in New York City on Thursday (September 28th). Sir Richard Branson's ambitious venture to take tourists to outer space was one of the main attractions at Wired NextFest, the four day festival of innovative technologies, gadgets, and gizmos. "Well as a young man, I watched people landing on the moon and I dreamt one day of going into space. But it was just too expensive and I met an incredible engineer called Burt Rutan. He'd come up with the idea of Space Ship One and Space Ship One did three test flights, proved the technology could work. So Space Ship One is actually above us. This is about three times as big as Space Ship One and is really pushing the boundaries literally into space," said Sir Richard. At the cost of $ 200,000 (USD) those interested will be able to make the journey in Branson's ship which features reclining white seats and large circular windows. However, the space ship is not ready to fly passengers out just yet. The real space ships are being built and will be brought out in 12 months time and several tests will be conducted before they can be sent out into space. "There will be more flights done than NASA have ever done space flights into space before we take passengers and once we've tried and tested it, 24 months from now myself, my parents, my children will take the first flight into space and then we will avail it to anybody who wants to go," said an excited Branson. And if you thought robots could be distinguishable from human beings, think again. Japanese company Kokoro's robot, could easily fool anybody. The company whose name means spirit or heart in Japanese tried to make the robot as life like as possible. The robot, in the form of a Japanese woman, is multi lingual and can talk in English, Chinese, and Korean. "Now its purpose is for receptionist or some commentators. In future I want to use the robot in the house or in the human life and in the school and any other purpose," said Mita Takeshi, of Kokoro, speaking about the usefulness of the robot. Another robot on display was a Korean Einstein humanoid robot in a space suit that drew people with its dance moves. Symbol Technologies had to offer a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology that can be used to verify passenger information, while checking boarding passes. "As you go up to the kiosk it takes your picture, then associates the RFID tag that's on the boarding pass with your image. Then as you walk through the boarding gate, the RFID reader will capture the information on the tag which is an unique identifier, very analogous to what's at the back of your license plate. It ten associates that with the biometric image and then uses software to do a match to your face. So that way it prevents terrorists from printing fake boarding passes and fake ids and walking through security and then getting onto a plane. It will also speed up the boarding gate process," said Tim Heffernan, Director of Public Affairs for Symbol Technologies. RFID technology is currently in use to track luggage at airports such as McCarran International in Las Vegas. Other gizmos on display were the Pay By Touch machine that uses finger scanning sensor to pay for credit card purchases and a revolutionary in-frared technology that can map and image the veins under the skin. The technology visualizes the location of the target area and can be an alternative to venipuncture, an invasive procedure. Also available for hi tech fans was the ETAF automatic door, a door that slides open when a person walks up to it. The door opens in the shape of the person entering and thereby saves energy and keeps out dust and bugs. 'Wired NextFest' opens to the public tomorrow (September 29th) and runs till October 1st at the Javits Center in New York City.

ITN Source | September 29, 2006

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