IN BRIEF THE LATEST DESIGN AND ENGINEERING NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
USING A ‘LOOMING EYE’ TO SAVE BIRDS A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS from BirdLife International and the Estonian Ornithological Society has designed a ‘floating scarecrow’ that may help to stop vulnerable seabirds getting caught in fishing nets. Known as a looming-eyes buoy (LEB), the device was developed in collaboration with engineers from Devon-based company Fishtek Marine, which develops and distributes innovative technical devices designed to minimise bycatch in commercial fisheries. In a study conducted in Küdema Bay in Estonia, the LEB’s large, bright eyespots and looming movements were found to reduce the numbers of birds within 50 metres of the buoy by a quarter. Still in prototype phase, the buoy will be tested in small-scale fisheries, where it’s hoped that it will help stop thousands of seabirds from diving into gillnets each year. ‘The development of low-cost devices such as the loomingeyes buoy offers up simple, yet innovative, solutions to these conservation problems and so that everybody benefits,’ said Yann Rouxel, a project officer in BirdLife International’s marine programme and lead author of the study. ■
‘Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.’ Steve Jobs
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SCANNER CREATES DIGITAL TWINS
RESEARCHERS AT IMPERIAL College London have designed a cheap 3D scanner that can be used to photograph small animal specimens in meticulous detail. Called scAnt, the cocoon-shaped scanner could help researchers and museums to display, share, study and protect their physical specimens by creating digital 3D models, or ‘digital twins’.
The scanning process can be configured so that the scanner automatically moves the specimen, which is held in place on a pin that can rotate about two axes, so that its cameras capture the specimen from every angle. These images are then combined to create a 3D model of the specimen. The scanner was built using a mixture of generic and 3D-printed components with a total cost of about £175. All of the relevant software and technical drawings are freely available, so anyone can build and operate one. The researchers suggest that the new technology could help museums to create an immersive experience for virtual museum visitors and could also be adapted for use in largescale behavioural studies, particularly of insects that live in complex societies. ■
Bloodhound goes on display
BLOODHOUND, THE red-andwhite jet car that’s aiming to break the world land speed record, has gone on public display at Coventry Transport Museum, where it will sit alongside current record holders Thrust 2 and Thrust SSC. During testing in South Africa in 2019, the car reached a peak speed of 1,011
km/h. Bloodhound’s sponsorship team is currently raising the funds required to outfit the car with a Nammo monopropellant rocket and battery-powered fuel system, which the engineering team hopes will give the car a top speed in excess of 1,280 km/h, significantly greater than the speed of sound. ■
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