Madeleine : A Camera that can Capture your Favorite Smells (scentography)

Do you want to arrest your favorite smell and keep it with your self? What if you could recapture the aroma of that freshly baked birthday cake, or the scent of that shampoo your girlfriend used to use.

A new camera has been developed that can capture the aroma of your favorite food or the smell of the seaside holiday.


Designer Amy Radcliffe’s MA project at Central Saint Martins  brings a more meaningful sensory dimension to storing our favourite memories.


The Madeleine , named after Marcel Proust’s story of involuntary memory prompted by biting into a cake , is Radcliffe’s design for a new kind of camera that records not images, but smells.

Radcliffe's project, developed in the college’s Textile Futures department, draws on “headspace capture” techniques pioneered in the 1970s by Swiss fragrance chemist Roman Kaiser, for obtaining the composition of rare botanical scents for the perfume industry.

With its faceted ceramic casing, glass funnel and plastic tubes, it also looks like a mysterious piece of scientific apparatus.

How it Works

Place the funnel over the object or environment you wish to capture. 
A pump sucks the air across an odour trap made of Tenax – a porous polymer resin which adsorbs the volatile particles that make up the smell.
It can take anything from a few minutes to capture the scent of fresh strawberries, to around 24 hours to store the more subtle aroma of an atmosphere.
The Madeleine records the molecular information of a smell.

WiSee: Wi-Fi signals enable gesture recognition throughout entire home

Want to control your electronics appliances from any room in your house?


University of Washington computer scientists have developed gesture-recognition technology that works throughout entire room . They have used  Wi-Fi signals  to detect specific movements without needing sensors on the human body or cameras.

Users can control their electronics and household appliances from any room in the home with a simple gesture by using an adapted Wi-Fi router and a few wireless devices in the living room.


Researcher Shyam Gollakota, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering said,
This is repurposing wireless signals that already exist in new ways . You can actually use wireless for gesture recognition without needing to deploy more sensors.


They call this technology “WiSee,” is to appear at The 19th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking. The conference will be held in Miami, Florida, September 30-October 4, 2013.

RoboCup 2013: Robot Football Championship

GERMAN ROBOT NIMBRO roared in medium sized Robocup  while the JAPANESE JOITECH robots triumphed in the full size Robocup, a sporting competition for medium and full sized robots

Robocup 2013 took place in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Robocup, like the football World Cup, challenges countries to dent teams against each other. Two robots, in this case teen sized robots, take on two others while people watch. 

The Nimbro Teensize team from Germany had an easy win in the final of the Humanoid Teen Size League against CIT Brains Teen from Japan.
The Japanese team had problems with their robots, while both the German robots were on the field for most of the match - a numerical superiority which they used to full advantage.

The German team scored three goals in the first half and then sealed the cupl with a fourth in the second half.Robots do a little shuffle in the direction of a ball before kicking one leg at it.


SCORECARD
NimbRo (Germany): 4
CIT Brains Teen (Japan): 0


This video shows the robots NimbRo-OP, Copedo, and Dynaped performing walking, kicking, obstacle avoidance, throw-in and getting-up motions.
Team NimbRo is affiliated with the Autonomous Intelligent Systems Group at the Computer Science Institute VI of University of Bonn, Germany.

The Japanese Joitech robots triumphed in the full size Robocup 

The robot from the Japanese JoiTech team  won  RoboCup 2013 final against HuroEvolution AD from Taiwan. 
The match – a penalty race in which both robots had five shots at goal ­– ended with a score of 4-3

The Adult Size final saw JoiTech from Japan take an early lead. But then JoiTech’s robot couldn’t find the ball when it was his turn to take a penalty shot, making the score even again. However the Japanese team went back into the lead when the next shot by the Taiwan team’s robot hit the goalpost. 

SCORECARD
HuroEvolution AD (Taiwan): 3
JoiTech (Japan): 4

The goal of the competitions is that a robot team be in a position to win the real World Cup by 2050. For now, one of the criteria is that they must be able to get up if they fall over.

Hollow ( Thermoelectric ) Flashlight by 15 year old Ann Makosinski



Fifteen year old Tenth grader Ann Makosinski, with her body heat powered flashlight, has attained a position within the fifteen finalists who will be going to the Google Campus in Mountain View California to compete for the grand prize of $50,000.

"Hollow Flashlight"  can be powered by the heat of a hand.



On researching she stumbled across a device called the Peltier tiles.

Peltier tiles can produce energy when it is heated on one side and cooled on the other. She experimented with these device ( Peltier tles)  in her seventh grade science project and thought it can potentially capture the thermal energy produced by the human body.

She discovered that the amount of energy produced by the warmth of a person's hand was more than enough energy to power a LED flashlight. She bought Peltier tiles from Ebay but the tiles generated only a fraction of the voltage needed. On more researching  she made some changes to the design of the circuit, transformers could be used to boost the voltage.

She came across an article on the web about energy harvesting that suggested an affordable circuit that would provide the voltage she needed when used with a recommended transformer.

The flashlight is made up of an aluminum tube, obtained from a mechanical shop at the University of Victoria, where her father works as a laboratory manager. The aluminum was used to transfer the cooler temperatures of the air to one side of the Peltier tiles.
Also a PVC tube from Home Depot used to house the aluminum tube, with an opening cut in it to allow a person's hand to come in contact with the other side of the Peltier tiles.

All these materials cost a total of around $26, and if it were to be mass produced Makosinski says it can be manufactured and sold for a much lower price.

Makosinski is looking forward to her trip to the Google headquarters. 
She said, 
I just can't believe that I actually made it this far.

Hubble Telescope Captures Penguin Guarding its Egg



The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a pair of giant galaxies that bear a striking resemblance to a penguin guarding its egg.

This cosmic  find—known as Arp 142—is in reality the blue spiral galaxy, NGC 2936, twisted by the gravitational pull of the smaller elliptical galaxy NGC 2937 below it.

Hubble captures exquisite details within the tortured “penguin” galaxy. 

  • Its bright core, represents “eye” of this celestial penguin , is filled with millions of stars huddled together. 
  • The red streak slashing across the penguin’s face just above its eye is the warped remains of what was once a spiral arm.
  • The bird’s celestial body is composed of the pinwheeling spiral arms of former galaxies which now only show up as bright, feathery blue and red streaks stretching out for thousands of light years.

The galactic pair is 400 million light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation Hydra. They are in the midst of a slow motion collision—violently exchanging material and  disrupting their original structures.

The tiny, elongated red and blue smudges in the background—which look like pesky flies—are in reality much more distant galaxies.

Intel 4th Generation ‘Haswell’ Processors

Intel has officially launched its 4th Generation Core chipsets under the codenamed Haswell which promises to provide the biggest ever jump in battery life, and double the performance in Ultrabooks.


Haswell  utilise a newly designed architecture and will be manufactured using the 22nm process. The chipsets are set to have a transistor count of 1.4 billion and Intel has released a number of different skews.

  • Intel’s next-generation processors have been built from the ground up to deliver both improved performance and battery life. 
  • Intel’s Haswell platform is based on the 22 nanometer architecture and is designed to double or even triple graphics performance with its integrated GPU.
  • The chip consumes less power than Ivy Bridge processors and is said to improve battery life by up to 50% with no loss of performance, which roughly translates to 9.1 hours of HD video playback. 

Intel claims 
Haswell will deliver the biggest battery life increase in Intel history
The mobile processors will come in four varieties, and will have different capabilities depending on their suffix.

  • H – The quad-core processors will have Intel’s highest graphics capabilities available – dubbed Iris Pro (5200).
  • M – These traditional 2-chip models which will be available in quad-core/dual-core varieties.
  • U – Designed specifically for Ultrabooks – these System-on-chip (SoC) processors will available in either 28Watt or 15Watt varieties. The 28W chip will have the highest available Iris Pro (5200) graphics capabilities and the 15Watt chips will have the Iris graphics (5100).
  • Y – The lowest power Core-based processor will also have a System-on-chip design and will be designed for detachable products.

PERFORMANCE

  • Twice the vector processing performance.
  • A 10% increase in sequential CPU performance (eight execution ports per core versus six).
  • Up to double the performance of the integrated GPU (Haswell GT3e vs Ivy Bridge's built-in Intel HD4000)
  • In the various tests, Haswell showed significant improvement when it came to gaming, but commonly used tasks such as converting video, music and documents didn't show too much of an increase.

FEATURES 


  • A 22 nm manufacturing process.
  • 3D tri-gate transistors.
  • A 14-stage pipeline (since the Core microarchitecture).
  • Mainstream up to quad-core.
  • Native support for dual channel DDR3.
  • 64 KB (32 KB Instruction + 32 KB Data) L1 cache and 256 KB L2 cache per core.
  • Haswell New Instructions (HNI, includes Advanced Vector Extensions 2 (AVX2), gather, bit manipulation, and FMA3 support).
  • New sockets — LGA 1150 for desktops and rPGA947 & BGA1364 for the mobile market.
  • New socket - LGA 2011-3 for for the Enthusiast-Class Desktop Platform Haswell-E. 
  • Intel Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX).
  • Graphics support in hardware for Direct3D 11.1 and OpenGL 4.0.
  • DDR4 for the enterprise/server variant (Haswell-EX).
  • DDR4 for the Enthusiast-Class Desktop Platform Haswell-E. 
  • Variable Base clock (BClk) like LGA 2011.
  • Supervisor mode access prevention (SMAP)
  • Fully integrated voltage regulator, thereby moving a component from the motherboard onto the CPU.
  • New advanced power-saving system.
  • 37, 47, 57 W thermal design power (TDP) mobile processors.
  • 35, 45, 65, 84, and ~140 W (high-end, Haswell-E) TDP desktop processors.
  • 15 W TDP processors for the Ultrabook platform (multi-chip package like Westmere) leading to reduced heat which results in thinner as well as lighter Ultrabooks, but performance level will be lower than the 17W version.
  • Shrink PCH from 65 nm to 32 nm.
  • A new cache design.
  • Up to 32 MB unified cache LLC (Last Level Cache).
  • Support for Thunderbolt technology.
  • There will be four versions of the integrated GPU: GT1, GT2, GT3 and GT3e. Haswell's predecessor, Ivy Bridge, has a maximum of 16 EUs.
Intel 4th Generation Core Processor Core i7-4770K

Specifications & Features

  • 8-Way Multi-Task Processing: Runs 8 independent processing threads in one physical package. 
  • Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0: Dynamically increases the processor frequency up to 3.9 GHz when applications demand more performance. Speed when you need it, energy efficiency when you don’t. 
  • Intel Hyper-Threading Technology: Allows each core of the processor to work on two tasks at the same time providing unprecedented processing capability for better multi-tasking, and for threaded applications. 
  • Intel Smart Cache: 8MB of shared cached allows faster access to your data by enabling dynamic and efficient allocation of the cache to match the needs of each core significantly reducing latency to frequently used data and improving performance. 
  • CPU Overclocking Enabled (with Intel Z87 Chipset): Fully unlocked core multiplier, power, base clock and DDR3 memory ratios enable ultimate flexibility for overclocking. 
  • Graphics Overclocking Enabled (with Intel 8 Series Chipset): Unlocked graphics multiplier allows for overclocking to boost the graphics clock speed. 
  • Integrated Memory Controller: Supports 2 channels of DDR3-1600 memory with 2 DIMMs per channel. Support for memory based on the Intel Extreme Memory Profile (Intel XMP) specification. 
  • Chipset/Motherboard Compatibility: Compatible with all Intel 8 Series Chipsets 
  • AES-NI: Provides processor instructions that help to improve performance for AES encryption and decryption algorithms. 
  • Built-in Visuals: New enhanced built-in visual features deliver a seamless visual PC experience for doing everything from simple e-mail to enjoying the latest 3D and HD entertainment. The built-in visuals suite includes: 
  • Intel Quick Sync Video Technology: Media processing for incredibly fast conversion of video files for portable media players or online sharing. 
  • Intel InTru 3D: Stereoscopic 3D Blu-ray playback experience in full HD 1080p resolution over HDMI 1.4 with 3D. 
  • Intel Clear Video HD Technology: Visual quality and color fidelity enhancements for spectacular HD playback and immersive web browsing. 
  • Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 2.0 (Intel AVX 2.0): Increased performance for demanding visual applications like professional video & image editing. 
  • Intel HD Graphics 4600: Significant 3D performance for immersive mainstream gaming on a broad range of titles. The dynamic graphics frequency ranges up to 1250MHz.

Pricing
Online vendors such as The PC SuperStore have put up a price list for Core i5 and i7 parts. Prices range from $197 for the Core i5 4430 to $368 for the high-end Core i7 4770K.




How marine mammals hold their breath?

How marine mammals hold their breath

The sperm whale can dive for up to an hour and to depths of a kilometre

Scientists say they have solved the mystery of one of the most extreme adaptations in the animal kingdom: how marine mammals store enough oxygen to hold their breath for up to an hour.

The team studied myoglobin, an oxygen-storing protein in mammals' muscles and found that, in whales and seals, it has special "non-stick" properties.

This allowed the animals to pack huge amounts of oxygen into their muscles without "clogging them up".

The findings are published in ScienceMag.org.

Dr Michael Berenbrink from the Institute of Integrative Biology at the University of Liverpool took part in the study.
He said that scientists had long wondered how marine mammals managed to pack so much of this vital protein into their bodies.At high enough concentrations, [proteins] tend to stick together, so we tried to understand how seals and whales evolved higher and higher concentrations of this protein in their muscles without a loss of function
The team extracted pure myoglobin from the muscles of mammals - from the land-based cow, to the semi-aquatic otter, all the way up elite divers like the sperm whale.

Led by researcher Scott Mirceta, this painstaking examination traced the changes in myoglobin in deep-diving mammals through 200 million years of evolutionary history.

And it revealed that the best mammalian breath-holding divers had evolved a non-stick variety of myoglobin.

Dr Berenbrink explained
The secret was a subtle but crucial piece of chemical trickery; marine mammal myoglobin is positively charged.This has important physical consequences. Like the similar poles of a magnet; the proteins repel one another.In this way we think the animals are able to pack really high concentrations of these proteins into their muscles and avoid them sticking together and clogging up the muscles.
I was excited by the discovery because it helped make sense of the incredible changes that took place in mammals' bodies as they evolved from land-based animals to the aquatic, air-breathing creatures that inhabit the oceans today.It showed the physiological change that accompanied the land to water transition of mammals.It also allows us to estimate the dive times of the ancient ancestors of whales.
We can look the fossils and predict the dive times they had.
Understanding exactly how mammals' bodies store oxygen so efficiently could also aid medical research.
Copying this bit of natural chemistry could aid the development of oxygen-carrying liquids that would deliver emergency supplies of oxygen to a person's tissues when a blood transfusion is not possible.

But its biggest impact will be in the realm of evolutionary biology.

Harbour seals routinely hold their breath for 30 minutes and even sleep underwater
Nicholas Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, said 
The study was an exciting advancement for understanding the evolution of deep-diving.The idea that we can estimate maximal dive times for early diverging relatives of today's marine mammals will have a profound impact on how we think about their ancient ecology and biology.

Professor Michael Fedak from the University of St Andrews' Sea Mammal Research Unit pointed out that myoglobin was only "part of the story" of how marine mammals were able to dive.

"But it's an important part," he said.

The scientist, who was not involved in this study, explained that a great deal of research at the moment was looking into how marine mammals manage to survive repeatedly cutting off and re-establishing the blood supply to their body tissues, something he likened to repeatedly suffering a crush injury.

"But being able to pick up a few [fossilised] bones of an extinct marine mammal and estimate its dive time from that - that's miraculous."

5 Sky Events This Week: You don't want to miss!

This week skywatchers get a chance to watch the  most elusive of naked-eye  sky show of the year.


Moon with Venus
About 30 minutes after sunset on Monday, June 10, skywatchers around the world had looked towards the very low northwest for the razor-thin crescent moon to the left of Venus.

Surprise meteor shower? 

The gamma Delphinids are coming to Earth tonight, NASA says, as it predicts that the early hours of Tuesday, June 11, will bring the best visibility of the meteors since they were first observed in 1930. People in North and South America may be able to spot them in areas with dark skies, the agency says.
Because no viewing of the gamma Delphinids has been strongly confirmed since a group of Maryland sky watchers reported seeing them in 1930, the meteor shower has retained an air of mystery.
While there is no guarantee, the best bet to observe any activity will be to find a dark location away from city lights and face the southern sky where the meteors will appear to radiate out from their namesake constellation, Delphinius (the dolphin) before local dawn. 


Mercury at its best

On Wednesday, June 12, Mercury will be at its farthest possible separation from the sun in our evening sky for the entire year, positioned at its very best for mid-northern latitude observers. Mercury will be easy to find even for a novice because Venus acts as a convenient guide, appearing less than 5 degrees below (equal to the width of your three middle fingers at arm’s length).
Even a small telescope adjusted with high power will reveal that Mercury disk is about 40% illuminated and looks like a miniature version of the crescent moon.


Moon joins lion’s Heart  

Thursday, June 13, for the crescent moon will be hanging below the brightest star of constellation Leo, the lion.
Regulus marks the heart of the lion and lies 78 light years away. A hot blue-white star, it is about 3.5 times larger than our Sun and, at 300 million years old, is an adolescent when it comes to star lifetimes.
By the next evening, June 14,  the moon will slid to the lower left of Regulus. Meanwhile southern hemisphere observers will see the crescent moon to the immediate left of the brilliant blue-white star.


Mars meets Aldebaran 

Saturday, June 15, try to spot down the Red Planet  in the very low eastern sky near Aldebaran, the red eye of Taurus, the bull constellation.
Start spotting  about an hour before your local sunrise and look for Aldebaran to the lower right of Mars (upper right in southern hemisphere). The planet-star pair will appear higher in the sky–and therefore brighter and easier to spot–the more southerly your observing location. Binoculars will help in tracking down both objects.
While both morning stars shine with similar brightness and orange tinges, they lie at very different distances. Mars is currently stationed 369 million kilometers (229 million miles) from Earth, while the dying red giant star is a respectable 65 light years off.

Acer Iconia W3: First 8-inch Windows 8 tablet

Billed as the world’s first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet, the Acer Iconia W3 is shipping this month and will be available for preorder starting yestarday, June 4.




Acer is attempting to differentiate itself in the highly competitive tablet market with its new Iconia W3. The company says the tablet, which debuted at the 2013 Computex show, delivers desktop PC capabilities and is the first 8.1-inch tablet running Windows 8. 

The W3 is compatible with all current Windows software, including productivity tools like the bundled Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 suite.

Its Windows 8, not Windows 8.1
First, it’s worth pointing out that the Acer Iconia W3 will ship with Windows 8 and not Windows 8.1 as its arriving within weeks and Windows 8.1 won’t be finalized until late this summer.

Office
 As was hinted at the Amazon leak, the W3 ships with a free copy of Office 2013 Home and Student, presumably to make this offering more competitive with Windows RT. 

Size and weight
 The W3 weigh barely over 1 pound in weight and 0.45 inches thin.

Hardware specs

  • The W3 utilizes a current-generation (“Clover Trail”) Atom Z2760 processor running   at 1.8 GHz, meaning the tablet is zippy enough to handle Windows 8 operations
  • 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB or 64 GB of solid state storage.
  • 8.1-inch 1280 x 800 LED display.
  • 802.11 b/g/n wireless and Bluetooth 4.0 networking.
  • Front- and rear facing 2 megapixel web cameras.
  • Micro-SD (with support for up to 32 GB cards).
  • One micro-HDMI port and 
  • One micro-USB port. 

Notably, there is no full-sized USB port.

Keyboard
Acer Iconia W3 can be coupled with a full-sized keyboard base that looks like it was ripped out of an Ultrabook. This keyboard is wider than the W3, so the tablet sits on it in a kind of groove and connects via Bluetooth.
Unfortunately, the keyboard doesn’t have a wrist rest area or a trackpad/pointer of any kind.

Battery
The W3  gives 8 hours of battery life.

Price

  • The 32 GB version of the W3 will cost $380 (Rs 21465.44) in the US
  • The 64 GB version will hit at about $430 (Rs 24217.60) 
  • The keyboard dock will cost $80 (Rs 4505.60) 
  • A case will cost $35 (Rs 1694.64 )

Acer Aspire S7 and Aspire V3

Acer also showed off the second-generation follow-up to the award winning Acer Aspire S7  keeping all of the best design elements from the first.

The new models gain several new features as well, like a 
  • Acer's dual-torque hinge,
  •  Gorilla Glass covered lid,
  • Retina-like high-resolution display
  •  new dual-fan cooling system that runs nearly silent, 
  • a keyboard with 30 percent more key travel
  • a larger battery that boosts battery life by a third without changing the bulk-free super-slim design.
The updated Acer Aspire S7 will begin selling this fall, but no specifics were given for pricing or evaluation.

ASTON MARTIN V12 VANTAGE S: The Most Extreme

THE MOST EXTREME IN  ASTON MARTIN HISTORY

The V12 Vantage was an unprecedented engineering achievement. Combining a V12 engine withlightest sports-car in a package of pure aggression.

The 2015 V12 Vantage S ranks only behind the extremely limited-production (and now discontinued) One-77 supercar in terms of sheer pace and performance.

Fitted with a new 6.0-liter V-12, the engine delivers 565-hp and 457 lb.-ft. of torque. That’s a significant jump from the previous 510-hp V-12-powered version of the Vantage. A similarly new 7-speed semi-automatic gearbox has been added to the V12 Vantage S

It is 15kg lighter than V12 Vantage. 573PS of power. 620Nm of peak torque. With enhanced low and mid-range power the new-generation AM28 engine pushes the V12 Vantage S to a top speed of 205mph, creating the fastest series production model.






Aston Martin Vintage V12 S  Specification

DIMENSIONS

LENGTH: 4385 MM (INC. FRONT NUMBER PLATE PLINTH)

WIDTH: 2022 MM (INC. MIRRORS)

HEIGHT: 1250 MM

KERBWEIGHT: (ESTIMATE)1665 KG

FUEL TANK CAPACITY:80 LITRES (17.6 UK GAL/21.1 US GAL)

WHEELBASE:2600 MM
ENGINE

AM28 ALL-ALLOY, QUAD OVERHEAD CAMSHAFT, 48 VALVE, 5,935CC, V12

FRONT MID-MOUNTED ENGINE, REAR-WHEEL DRIVE

FULLY CATALYSED STAINLESS STEEL EXHAUST SYSTEM WITH ACTIVE BYPASS VALVES

MAX POWER: 573 PS (565 BHP) AT 6,750 RPM

MAX TORQUE: 620 NM (457 LB FT) AT 5,750 RPM

ACCELERATION (ESTIMATED): 0-100 KM/H (0-62 MPH) TBC

MAX SPEED (ESTIMATED): 330 KM/H (205 MPH)



2013 ASTON MARTIN V12 VANTAGE SAFETY OVERVIEW
Anti-lock brakes
ABS brakes automatically sense when a tire has stopped rotating under extreme braking, and will modulate the brake pressure to allow the tire to rotate. This increases the vehicles ability to turn while braking.
Stability control
Stability control automatically senses when the vehicles handling limits have been exceeded and reduces engine power and/or applies select brakes to help prevent the driver from losing control of the vehicle.
Front-impact airbags
Front-impact airbags for the driver and passenger have been designed to protect the head during a frontal crash.
Side impact airbags
Side impact airbags for the front seats have been designed to protect the torso during a side impact collision.
Pretensioners
Seatbelt pretensioners automatically tighten seatbelts to place the occupant in the optimal seating position during a collision.
Security system
The vehicle is equipped with a means of anticipating and/or detecting unwanted vehicle intrusion. The vehicle is equipped with an ignition disable device that will prevent the engine from starting if the correct original manufacturer key is not used.



Black Edition
Aston Martin offers a special Carbon Black edition of the V12 Vantage for customers desiring for their car to have a unique aesthetic treatment. Featuring bespoke Carbon Black metallic paint especially formulated with a subtle metallic twist to create a deep rich patina., each car will undergo 50 man-hours of hand painting followed by stringent quality checks.

The side strake has been fashioned from real carbon fiber backed by a black mesh and complimented with gloss black 10 spoke diamond turned alloy wheels. A bright finished grille and front parking sensors (normally an option) complete the exterior detailing.

Inside, owners will be greeted by swathes of Obsidian Black leather highlighted with a contrast silver coarse stitch all hand stitched by the craftspeople at Gaydon - Aston Martin's global headquarters in England.

Key Competitors
Supercar rivals to the V12 Vantage are numerous and all offer their own distinctive traits. The Audi R8 V10 combines a brutish motor with a user-friendly chassis, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG serves up a combination of power, elegance and luxury, the Porsche 911 Turbo S uses Teutonic engineering prowess to provide blistering acceleration while the Ferrari 458 Italia brings Formula 1 technology and performance to the road.

Aston Martin has not revealed exact pricing. However, with the price of the previous Vantage V12 starting at roughly $180,000, it’s safe to assume the V12 Vantage S will break the $200,000 barrier.

GRID 2 BAC MONO EDITION: Most Expensive Game Ever

GRID 2 Mono Edition costs $190,000 breaking the bank and records !






You might be thinking that some countries use commas instead of decimal points, but the headline above does indeed say one hundred and twenty-five thousand British Pounds ($188,700).

 With just one instance available for GRID 2's May 31st release, the Mono Edition bundle is more of a promotional stunt than a business strategy -- but it might be the only special edition where the extras are more exciting than the game itself.



It seems Grid 2 Bac Mono Edition has taken things even further by offering an actual racing car with its latest release.

The GRID 2 BAC Mono Edition isn't so much a special edition of a game as it is a luxury sports car that happens to come with a game.

According to Guiness World Record, the GRID 2: Mono Edition is the “most expensive video game commercially available — special edition.” Weighing in at $190,000.

 

So what does the $190,000 GRID 2: Mono Edition come with?


  • It comes with a 170 mph BAC Mono Supercar with exclusive GRID 2 livery. An actual vehicle that you can get into and drive.
  • A Day at the BAC factory with a tour and time with technician to customize the vehicle to your own specifications.
  • GRID 2 racing gear including A GRID 2: Mono Edition-branded Bell Racing helmet, race suit, boots, gloves, all made to measure in BAC Mono and GRID 2 branding.
  • A PlayStation 3.
  • Not to be left out, Best Buy is hosting a special edition of GRID 2 in North America. It includes the IndyCar DLC pack and retails for $59.99.
  • Oh yeah and the game itself.

 About the SuperCar: BAC MONO




The BAC Mono is a British manufactured, street legal formula racing, ultra-high performance supercar which stars in the game. 

Created from high-strength carbon fibre, the BAC Mono is an unrivalled example of light-weight performance engineering and its 2.3 litre, 280 bhp four cylinder power plant will propel its driver from 0-60 mph in just 2.8 seconds, reaching a top speed of 170 miles per hour

On its own, the car costs $146,000, which means there is still $44,000 that needs to be accounted for, unless the company is also trying to set a new record for the most expensive video game.

Only one copy of the BAC Mono Edition is being manufactured, making it something a collector's item. You can place your pre-order exclusively with GAME. 

Oh, and shipping is free

GRID 2: Be Fast, Be First and Be Famous

Be Fast,Be First and Be Famous as the race returns in GRID 2, the sequel to the BAGTA-award winninG Race Driver: GRID



Developer(s)
Codemasters Southam
Publisher(s)
Codemasters
Distributor(s)
EU Namco Bandai Games[1]
Engine
EGO 3.0
Platform(s)


Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
Release date(s)

28 May 2013 (North America)
31 May 2013 (Europe)
Genre(s)
Racing
Mode(s)

Single-player,
multiplayer
Media/distribution
DVD, digital distribution


With a variety of driving disciplines pulled from all corners of the globe, Grid 2 is an exciting blend of arcade and simulation racing.

Pros 
Handling strikes a great balance between arcade and simulation   Stellar audio and visual design   Broad selection of events reflect a variety of driving disciplines   Engrossing multiplayer.

Cons
No driving assists to fine tune the difficulty   Occasional frame rate hitches during collisions.

FINAL VERDICT
Last year’s Dirt Showdown never really knew what it was. Grid 2 does. Its continued shift away from its sim pedigree will still disappoint those of us who fondly recall the Race Driver games of old, but it still a great, modern package. A well-curated car list, a great sense of speed, and a well-thought out career mode combine in a racer that is a lot of fun to play through.

GRID 2 System Requirements

Minimum system requirements

OS
Windows Vista®, Windows® 7, or Windows® 8
Processor
Intel® Core 2 Duo @ 2.4Ghz or AMD Athlon™ X2 5400+
Memory
2 GB RAM
Graphics


Intel® HD Graphics 3000 /
AMD HD2600 /           
NVIDIA Geforce 8600
DirectX®
11
Hard Drive
15 GB HD space
Sound
Direct X® compatible soundcard
Other Requirements
Broadband Internet connection


Recommended system requirements
OS
Windows Vista® 64 Bit, Windows® 7 64 Bit, Windows® 8 64 bit
Processor
Intel® Core i7/AMD Bulldozer
Memory
4 GB RAM
Graphics


Intel® Graphics 5200/
AMD HD6000 Series /
Nvidia GTX500 Series minimum 1GB RAM
DirectX®
11
Hard Drive
15 GB HD space
Sound
Direct X® compatible soundcard
Other Requirements
Broadband Internet connection







The GRID 2 Achievements in full :

  • Touge Fast, Touge Furious - You shutout an opponent in a career Touge event .
  • C-C-C-Combo Maker - You reached the maximum multiplier in an Overtake event .
  • All Night Long - You took part in and completed an online Endurance race .
  • Pinball Wizard - You traded paint with every competitor during one offline race and still won the race.
  • Mo Money, No Problems - You've gone above and beyond the call of duty and completed 5 career sponsor objectives.
  • Vanishing Point - You've won a race in a white Dodge Challenger but lived to tell the tale, unlike Kowalski .
  • Rocket Manski - You've driven faster than a Russian torpedo, which incidentally is 230 mph .
  • Sellout - You've got one thing on your mind: money! You completed 20 career sponsor objectives .
  • One For The Team - You've completed an individual Global Challenge goal and ultimately helped the community.
  • A Different Class- You've upgraded a car and bumped it to 'Upgraded' class .
  • Ring Master - You finished 5 seconds ahead of the target time in a Vehicle Challenge on the Red Bull Ring.
  • Tokyo Drift - You scored 350,000 drift points in Okutama in a Mazda RX-7 TYPE RZ or a NISMO R34T-R Z-TUNE.
  • Shaken, Not Stirred - You rolled a car at least 7 times and landed on its wheels, just like Bond did .
  • Keep Your Friends Close - and your enemies even closer. You beat a Rival on track.
  • You rOCDed! - You finished first in every career event, during season play and/or via the timeline .
  • Dipping Your Toes - You've reached level 10 online and opened up a new world of possibilities .
  • Social Butterfly - You took part in an online playlist and stuck around for at least 5 races .
  • Sideways Shenanigans - You performed a 100m drift.
  • Could It Be Magic? - You beat all of the Prestige drivers in career club events .
  • Master Racer - You won a career event on the hardest difficulty without using Flashbacks .
  • Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - You won a race in an upgraded car 
  • A Vision of What's to Come - You won a career Promo Event .
  • Beginner's Luck - You set the fastest time on the first lap of a Time Attack event .
  • Remember Me? - You lapped a competitor .
  • Eat It! - You won the first round of a career Touge event using the 5 second rule .
  • Making My Way Down Town - You've driven more than 1,000 miles (1,610km).
  • Pedal to the Medal - You won a round of a career event without using the brakes .
  • SWAGtastic! - You beat the target time in a Vehicle Challenge .
  • Global Domination - You won a week of Global Challenge .
  • California Dreaming - You completed California Big Sur in under 3 minutes .
  • Jack of All Trades - You've competed in all race types .
  • Natural Ability - You won an Online Playlist event.
  • The Artist- You've individually applied customised liveries to 5 vehicles.
  • Quantum Leap - You repeated an event using the Timeline.
  • Gone in 60 Seconds - You completed a lap of Chicago - Wabash Run driving the Ford Mustang Mach 1 in less than 60 seconds .
  • Harlem Globeshaker - You raced at every city at least once .
  • Drifting Like a Boss - You've scored 250,000 points in a single drift.
  • Flawless Victory - You've won an Overtake event making no contact with anything. (Excludes Global Challenge events) 
  • Winging It - You've won a LiveRoute event .
  • Here's My Number, Call Me Maybe? - You returned Callahan's call and became his poster boy for the World Series of Racing .
  • That New Showroom Smell - Having wowed the crowds in America, it's time to upgrade your digs .
  • Oriental Express - Look out Asia, here we come.
  • Going Global - The WSR goes from regional to global thanks to your impressive form .
  • Even Balboa Had a Montage - The WSR is so big now that it's even getting montages on TV. You've made it to the big time! 
  • The World's Greatest - Congratulations, you have become the ultimate WSR champion. What an investment!
  • T3XT M3SSAG1NG I5 GR8 - Thanks to you, the WSR is now the talk of the town k
  • Internet Famous - The message boards are alight with the talk of the WSR's increasing popularity k
  • Clubbed to Death - That's it, folks. The club format is behind you, it's all about the leagues now. Good luck!
  • Toca Juniors No More - You got your first taste of a Super Touring Car and never looked back
  • Imma Let You Finish - You amassed more fans than Taylor Swift has Twitter followers. That's 23.5 million, by the way .