Tech round-up for August 24: Sony's funding research in Canada, Dyson's robot, the science behind Drouin's jumping

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This week, the science that Sony is supporting in Canada, the science behind Canadian high jumper Derek Drouin’s success, and Dyson’s robot vacuum that is the result of 18 years of science.

Sony supporting academic research with new funding award

Sony is inviting university research and innovation in North America with a new Research Award Program, worth up to $150,000 a year.

Faculty Innovation Awards are being considered for research into topics including AI, speech recognition, neural networks, networking, AR and VR, and autonomous driving.

Focused Research Awards are being offered for collaborative research on specific areas that Sony is investigating, including next generation wireless networking and photo-realistic rendering.

Proposals for one-year projects are being accepted until the end of September.

New York Times creates web app to show science behind Derek Drouin’s high jump success

Canadian high jumper Derek Drouin won a gold medal at Rio last week. And his technique, which some are saying could impact high jumping in the same way that Dick Fosbury did, has been broken down by the New York Times.

In a web app, the Times asks why Drouin’s approach to the bar is so slow.

It turns out that Drouin locks his right leg just before he jumps. And by doing so, he is able to maintain more energy that would otherwise be lost if his leg was to bend.

Don’t listen to me. Take a look at the web feature and see for yourself how Drouin is able to jump nearly eight feet. Gold medals come from physics.

The Times have also developed interactive segments on some American athletes, including gymnast Simone Biles.

Dyson wants to help you keep things clean without having to vacuum

The Dyson company, founded by engineer James Dyson, builds great vacuums. After some 18 years of development, the Dyson 360 Eye Robot is now available.

The Eye Robot is Dyson’s take on the Roomba, the vacuum that operates autonomously, engineered the way only Dyson can.

It moves through your space with tank tracks, and it uses the suction and cyclone technology used in Dyson’s cordless vacs.

But what really sets it apart is the way the Eye Robot moves around. It doesn’t just use sensors to avoid obstacles. It actually maps the environment and then tracks its position in that space. It knows where it’s cleaned and where it still needs to clean.

At Cdn$1300, the Dyson 360 Eye Robot is not cheap (for comparison, the top line Roomba is $1,100). But it may be worth a few hours of time each week. Not to mention the clean floors.

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