Sallows, the owner of a barbershop(理发店), designed a wheelchair-accessible barber chair, which was brought to reality by the engineers in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. They have developed the device that will help individuals with physical disabilities have a more tailored, comfortable and safe experience at the barbershop. “It’s a barber chair—that was the first concept,” said Sallows. “But now we are in the process of creating, developing, and applying new technologies for applications in multiple settings such as dentist chairs or stadium seats,” said Sallows.

Sallows worked in a hospital as a certified therapist(治疗专家)for nearly 20 years. He enjoyed his career but decided to learn a trade. “I want something in the wheelhouse of therapists,” said Sallows. “I need something fulfilling, so I think barbering.” In one way, some may see it as a big career change, but Sallows says he is still a therapist. “I joke, I say I’ve gone from therapy to ‘hairapy’,” said Sallows. “Barbering gives me that therapeutic kind of environment that allows me to still talk. People know me as a therapist when they come in, not only as a barber, and so, just the conversations are really cool.”

Sallows learned that a barbershop proved complex for clients in wheelchairs. Having one’s hair washed or getting a close shave often means being physically lifted out of the wheelchair and into a barber chair—an experience that is both difficult and embarrassing. So Sallows, with the help of the UPMC, has created the barber chair that lifts and tips a wheelchair back safely and comfortably. The user rolls onto the barber chair and is raised one or two feet, much like what one would see in a car shop. Sallows hopes that the device will provide clients with the kind of service people have come to appreciate at a barbershop.

As data and identity theft becomes more and more common, the market is growing for biometric(生物测量) technologies—like fingerprint scans—to keep others out of private e-spaces. At present, these technologies are still expensive, though.

Researchers from Georgia Tech say that they have come up with a low-cost device(装置) that gets around this problem: a smart keyboard. This smart keyboard precisely measures the cadence(节奏) with which one types and the pressure fingers apply to each key. The keyboard could offer a strong layer of security by analyzing things like the force of a user’s typing and the time between key presses. These patterns are unique to each person. Thus, the keyboard can determine people’s identities, and by extension, whether they should be given access to the computer it’s connected to — regardless of whether someone gets the password right.

It also doesn’t require a new type of technology that people aren’t already familiar with. Everybody uses a keyboard and everybody types differently.

In a study describing the technology, the researchers had 100 volunteers type the word “touch” four times using the smart keyboard. Data collected from the device could be used to recognize different participants based on how they typed, with very low error rates. The researchers say that the keyboard should be pretty straightforward to commercialize and is mostly made of inexpensive, plastic-like parts. The team hopes to make it to market in the near future.

During spring, meltwater from snow rushes down rivers and wind blows hard in the Pacific Northwest. These forces turn power turbines (涡轮机) and generate much electricity at a time of mild temperatures and low energy demand. But much of the extra electricity—which could power air conditioners in summer—is lost, since when most conventional batteries aren’t in use, chemical reactions happen. Some rechargeable batteries lose almost a third of their charge in a month.

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a US Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory, are developing a new battery. They demonstrated how a molten salt (熔盐) solution creates a rechargeable battery that stores energy cheaply and efficiently for extended periods. Such a capability is crucial to shifting the electric network away from traditional fuels toward renewable energy. “In our battery, we tried to stop self-discharge,” says Li Guosheng, who leads the project. Creating a battery that can withstand repeated cycles of heating and cooling is tough. Researchers had to identify materials that could tolerate temperature changes. The result is a battery made from relatively inexpensive materials that has seasonal shifting capability.

Heating molten salt batteries may be a challenge, especially in cold places. Even under mild conditions, the heating process requires energy equal to about 10 to 15 percent of the battery’s total electricity, Li says. Later phases of the project will explore ways to lower temperature requirements and include a heating system in the battery itself. Such a feature would make it easy for users to use and potentially make it suitable for home or small-scale (规模) use.

The DOE is working to narrow the gap between initial research demonstrations and the commercialization of energy technologies, but ultimately it’ll be up to industries to develop a commercial product. “Our job is really to derisk new technology,” Sprenkle, a strategic advisor, says. “Industries will make the decision as to whether they think that it’s been derisked enough, and whether they’ll take that on and run with it.”