August is half over and summer is winding down. Do you have any big plans between now and Labor Day? It seems my family is planning on fitting a bunch of stuff into the next few weeks. Should be fun…but busy!

Students Create Cane With E-tags to Guide Blind
A cane equipped with the technology used to tag merchandise could help blind people avoid obstacles. An engineering professor and five students at Central Michigan University created a “Smart Cane” that can read electronic navigational tags installed between buildings. During the spring term, the professor and the students tested the cane.

The canes have a Radio Frequency Identification technology, which is similar to what retailers put on items to keep them from being stolen. The Smart Cane has an ultrasonic sensor and a miniature navigational system inside a messenger-style bag.

Star Adoption Helps Fund Kepler Mission

The Pale Blue Dot project, is being run by a nonprofit organization (not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA). So far the project has raised about $10,000 to fund the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium. This is a project to measure the absolute sizes of the stars on Kepler’s target list. This project is separate from Kepler’s main mission to hunt for planets, and is not covered by the same $600 million NASA budget.

When someone adopts a star, it is tagged with the sponsor’s name, both in Google Sky and in a text version of the catalog. No two people can adopt the same star.

Web Site Sends Texts Into Space

An Australian Web site is giving texting a new twist and allowing users to send short mobile messages into space. From Aug. 12 until Aug. 24, people can visit Hello from Earth to post messages no longer than 160 characters. that will be transmitted to Gliese 581d. This is the nearest Earth-like planet outside the solar system that is likely to support life.