Stanford Engineering Library Blog

IEEE Xplore® , the digital library of IEEE journals, conference papers and Standards, has added new research options, including tabbed search results, improved author search, citation search, and more.

Search results now show four tabs. The first tab (default view) will display all IEEE/IET publications. Users can now click on tabs to view other results including Books, Courses, or Application Notes

1. IEEE/IET - IEEE journals, transactions, letters, magazines, conference proceedings, and standards.

2. Books – Citations to books published by IEEE Press and IEEE Computer Society Press in partnership with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

3. Educational Courses - Interactive online content developed from IEEE conference tutorials.

4. Application Notes [BETA] – produced by GlobalSpec, Application Notes are content created by companies to explain, illustrate, and promote technologies or products.

The IEEE and the Engineering Library are anxious to hear what you think of these improvements. Send your comments to Helen Josephine, Head Librarian, Engineering Library
at - helenj@stanford.edu. For more information, click on -

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/guide/g_oview_notes.jsp

The AP (12/6) reported that "Toyota's new robot plays a pretty solid 'Pomp and Circumstance' on the violin." The "five-foot-tall, all-white robot," was "shown Thursday, [and] used its mechanical fingers to press the strings correctly and bowed with its other arm, coordinating the movements well." Toyota Motor Corp. "has already shown robots that roll around [and] work as guides and have fingers dexterous enough to play the trumpet." According to Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe, "robotics will be a core business for the company in coming years." The company "will test out its robots at hospitals, Toyota-related facilities and other places starting next year," Watanabe said, adding that Toyota "hopes to put what it calls 'partner robots' to real use by 2010." He and other Toyota officials described robotics as "a natural extension of the automaker's use of robots in manufacturing, as well the development of technology for autos related to artificial intelligence, such as sensors and pre-crash safety systems." Toyota's president "presented a vision of the future in which wheelchair-like 'mobility robots'...would offer 'bed-to-bed' services to people, including the elderly and the sick, just like cars take people 'door-to-door.'"

The AFP (12/6) noted that Toyota's "new robots come three years after" the automaker unveiled its "trumpet-playing robot – [the company's] first humanoid machine -- in a bid to catch up with robot technology frontrunners such as Honda Motor Co. and Sony Corp." Robot makers "see big potential for their use in Japan, where the number of elderly people is rapidly growing, and causing labor shortages in a country that strictly controls immigration." The country's "most famous robot is arguably Asimo, an astronaut-looking humanoid developed by Honda which has been hired out as an office servant and has even popped up to offer toasts at Japanese diplomatic functions."

Snipped from ASEE's First Bell Custom Briefings

The New York Times (12/2, Marshall) reported that "the city of San Francisco...completed a yearlong project to convert its entire array of diesel vehicles...to biodiesel, a clean-burning and renewable fuel that holds promise for helping to reduce greenhouse gases." The fleet of 1,500 vehicles is using B20, a mix of 20 percent "virgin soy oil bought from producers in the Midwest," and 80 percent petroleum diesel fuel. The city's effort is "intended to sharply reduce toxic diesel exhaust linked to a higher risk of asthma and premature death." The city has pledged to cut its emissions to "20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012." In addition, the city has started SFGreasecycle, "a program to collect fats and cooking oils from restaurants" and convert them to biodiesel fuel.

Snipped from ASEE First Bell Customized Briefing