University Researchers Discover Cure for FarmVille Bots [Farmville]

If you are a company who rakes in millions making social games for Facebook, I have good news for you. Researchers at N.C. State University have developed the means of more accurately detecting bot accounts without alerting their owners, so the game's developers can shut them down and kick those freeloading sons of bots out of the cityville.

If you actually play these games, well, sorry, this isn't of much help or use to you. And if you play a bot account, your days are numbered.

The key lies in how this technique analyzes how players move their mouse and click on the screen. Bots give themselves away because they don't show the same range of variability in how they interact with the screen.

"This will allow game designers to differentiate bot accounts from actual human accounts, with confidence, and then cancel the account," said Dr. David Roberts, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper on the work.

Roberts said some sophisticated bot programs may feature some interaction variability "but not enough to fool our monitoring technique consistently. If this technique tracks game play for any significant amount of time, it should detect a bot."

Roberts and his research team are optimistic that they'll have agreements to sell this technology to game companies soon. They'll just be paid in Facebook Credits.

Researchers Unveil New Technique to Detect Bots in Casual Online Games [North Carolina State University]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/Wb51ESZM_BQ/university-researchers-discover-cure-for-farmville-bots

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Jay-Z Puts The Focus On Brooklyn At First Barclays Show

Big Daddy Kane is Hov's only guest during his first of eight shows at the new Nets arena.
By Rob Markman

Jay-Z performs at the Barclays Center
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ Wire Image

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1694687/jay-z-brooklyn-barclays-center-show.jhtml

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Asteroid Dust Could Fight Climate Change on Earth

To combat global warming, scientists in Scotland now suggest an out-of-this-world solution ? a giant dust cloud in space, blasted off an asteroid, which would act like a sunshade for Earth.

The world is warming and the climate is changing. Although many want to prevent these shifts by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that trap heat from the sun, some controversially suggest deliberating manipulating the planet's climate with large-scale engineering projects, commonly called geoengineering.

Instead of altering the climate by targeting either the oceans or the atmosphere, some researchers have suggested geoengineering projects that would affect the entire planet from space. For instance, projects that reduced the amount of solar radiation Earth receives by 1.7 percent could offset the effects of a global increase in temperature of 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C). The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has noted climate models suggest average global temperatures will likely rise by 2 to 11.5 degrees F (1.1 to 6.4 degrees C) by the end of this century.

"A 1.7 percent reduction is very small and will hardly be noticeable on Earth," said researcher Russell Bewick, a space scientist at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. "People sometimes get the idea of giant screens blocking the entire sun. This is not the case ... as [the device] is constantly between the sun and the Earth, it acts merely as a very light shade or filter."

Shading Earth

One proposal to shade the Earth from the sun would place giant mirrors in space. The main problem with this concept is the immense cost and effort needed either to build and launch such reflectors or to construct them in outer space ? the current cost to launch an object into low Earth orbit runs into thousands of dollars per pound. Another would use blankets of dust to blot out the sun, just as clouds do for Earth. These offer the virtue of simplicity compared with mirrors, but run the risk of getting dispersed over time by solar radiation and the gravitational pull of the sun, moon and planets. [Top 10 Craziest Environmental Ideas]

Now instead of having a dust cloud floating by itself in space, researchers suggest an asteroid could essentially gravitationally anchor a dust cloud in space to block sunlight and cool the Earth.

"I would like to make it clear that I would never suggest geoengineering in place of reducing our carbon emissions," Bewick told LiveScience. Instead, he said, "We can buy time to find a lasting solution to combat Earth?s climate change. The dust cloud is not a permanent cure, but it could offset the effects of climate change for a given time to allow slow-acting measures like carbon capture to take effect."

The idea would be to place an asteroid at Lagrange point L1, a site where the gravitational pull of the sun and the Earth cancel out. This point is about four times the distance from the Earth to the moon.

The researchers suggest outfitting a near-Earth asteroid with a "mass driver," a device consisting of electromagnets that would hurl asteroid-derived matter away from the giant rock. The mass driver could serve both as a rocket to push the asteroid to the L1 point and as an engine to spew out sun-shielding dust. [5 Reasons to Care About Asteroids]

The researchers calculate that the largest near-Earth asteroid, 1036 Ganymed, could maintain a dust cloud large enough to block out 6.58 percent of the solar radiation that would normally reach Earth, more than enough to combat any current global warming trends. Such a cloud would be about 11 million-billion pounds (5 million-billion kilograms) in mass and about 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) wide.

Ganymed has a mass of about 286 million-billion lbs. (130 million-billion kg). An asteroid of this size might make one think of disaster movies, such as "Armageddon"; however, "rather than destroying the Earth, it could be used to help mankind," Bewick said.

Asteroid dust challenges

The main challenge of this proposal would be pushing an asteroid the size of Ganymed to the sun-Earth L1 point.

"The company Planetary Resources recently announced their intention to mine asteroids," Bewick said. "The study that they base their plans on reckons that it will be possible to capture an asteroid with a mass of 500,000 kilograms (1.1 million lbs.) by 2025. Comparing this to the mass of Ganymed makes the task of capturing it seem unfeasible, at least in everything except the very far term. However, smaller asteroids could be moved and clustered at the first Lagrange point."

Safety is another concern.

"A very large asteroid is a potential threat to Earth, and therefore great care and testing would be required in the implementation of this scenario," Bewick said. "Due to this, the political challenges would probably match the scale of the engineering challenge. Even for the capture of much smaller asteroids, there will likely be reservations from all areas of society, though the risks would be much less."

Also, there's no way to fully test this dust cloud on a large scale to verify its effectiveness before implementing it, "something that is common to all geoengineering schemes," Bewick said. "On the global scale, it is not possible to test because the test would essentially be the real thing, except probably in a diluted form. Climate modeling can be performed, but without some large-scale testing, the results from these models cannot be fully verified."

Still, if geoengineers did use asteroids to generate clouds, they could drastically reduce how much dust the projects spew out "should any catastrophic climate response be observed," Bewick said, "with the cloud dispersing naturally over time."

The scientists will detail their findings in the Nov. 12 issue of the journal Advances in Space Research.

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asteroid-dust-could-fight-climate-change-earth-132248031.html

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How We Know That Humans Are Getting Smarter [Excerpt]

In this excerpt from his new book, James R. Flynn explains how he came to understand how our minds have gained in cognitive skills over the 20th century

By James R. Flynn

Are We Getting Smarter? Rising IQ in the Twenty-First Century, by James R. Flynn. Copyright ? 2012 James R. Flynn. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press. Image: Cambridge University Press

• 

  Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

  Read More??

Reprinted from Are We Getting Smarter? Rising IQ in the Twenty-First Century, by James R. Flynn. Copyright ? 2012 James R. Flynn. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press.

The phenomenon of IQ gains has created unnecessary controversy because of conceptual confusion. Imagine an archaeologist from the distant future who excavates our civilization and finds a record of performances over time on measures of marksmanship. The test is always the same, that is, how many bullets you can put in a target 100 meters away in a minute. Records from 1865 (the U.S. Civil War) show the best score to be five bullets in the target, records from 1898 (Spanish-American War) show 10, and records from 1918 (World War I) show 50.

A group of "marksmanship-metricians" looks at these data. They find it worthless for measuring marksmanship. They make two points. First, they distinguish between the measure and the trait being measured. The mere fact that performance on the test has risen in terms of "items correct" does not mean that marksmanship ability has increased. True, the test is unaltered but all we know is that the test has gotten easier. Many things might account for that. Second, they stress that we have only relative and no absolute scales of measurement. We can rank soldiers against one another at each of the three times. But we have no measure that would bridge the transition from one shooting instrument to another. How could you rank the best shot with a sling against the best shot with a bow and arrow? At this point, the marksmanship-metrician either gives up or looks for something that would allow him to do his job. Perhaps some new data that would afford an absolute measure of marksmanship over time such as eye tests or a measure of steady hands.

However, a group of military historians are also present and it is at this point they get excited. They want to know why the test got easier, irrespective of whether the answer aids or undermines the measurement of marksmanship over time. They ask the archaeologists to look further. Luckily, they discover battlefields specific to each time. The 1865 battlefields disclose the presence of primitive rifles, the 1898 ones repeating rifles, and the 1918 ones machine guns. Now we know why it was easier to get more bullets into the target over time and we can confirm that this was no measure of enhanced marksmanship. But it is of enormous historical and social significance. Battle casualties, the industries needed to arm the troops, and so forth altered dramatically.

Confusion about the two roles has been dispelled. If the battlefields had been the artifacts first discovered, there would have been no confusion because no one uses battlefields as instruments for measuring marksmanship. It was the fact that the first artifacts were also instruments of measurement that put historians and metricians at cross-purposes. Now they see that different concepts dominate their two spheres: social evolution in weaponry?whose significance is that we have become much better at solving the problem of how to kill people quickly; marksmanship?whose significance is which people have the ability to kill more skillfully than other people can.

The historian has done nothing to undermine what the metrician does. At any given time, measuring marksmanship may be the most important thing you can do to predict the life histories of individuals. Imagine a society dominated by dueling. It may be that the lives of those who are poor shots are likely to be too brief to waste time sending them to university, or hire them, or marry them. If a particular group or nation lacks the skill, it may be at the mercy of the better skilled. Nonetheless, this is no reason to ignore everything else in writing military history.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=6cf543e51332b0c37a0142569b2154ff

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Simulations uncover 'flashy' secrets of merging black holes

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) ? According to Einstein, whenever massive objects interact, they produce gravitational waves -- distortions in the very fabric of space and time -- that ripple outward across the universe at the speed of light. While astronomers have found indirect evidence of these disturbances, the waves have so far eluded direct detection. Ground-based observatories designed to find them are on the verge of achieving greater sensitivities, and many scientists think that this discovery is just a few years away.

Catching gravitational waves from some of the strongest sources -- colliding black holes with millions of times the sun's mass -- will take a little longer. These waves undulate so slowly that they won't be detectable by ground-based facilities. Instead, scientists will need much larger space-based instruments, such as the proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, which was endorsed as a high-priority future project by the astronomical community.

A team that includes astrophysicists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is looking forward to that day by using computational models to explore the mergers of supersized black holes. Their most recent work investigates what kind of "flash" might be seen by telescopes when astronomers ultimately find gravitational signals from such an event.

Studying gravitational waves will give astrophysicists an unprecedented opportunity to witness the universe's most extreme phenomena, leading to new insights into the fundamental laws of physics, the death of stars, the birth of black holes and, perhaps, the earliest moments of the universe.

A black hole is an object so massive that nothing, not even light, can escape its gravitational grip. Most big galaxies, including our own Milky Way, contain a central black hole weighing millions of times the sun's mass, and when two galaxies collide, their monster black holes settle into a close binary system.

"The black holes orbit each other and lose orbital energy by emitting strong gravitational waves, and this causes their orbits to shrink. The black holes spiral toward each other and eventually merge," said Goddard astrophysicist John Baker.

Close to these titanic, rapidly moving masses, space and time become repeatedly flexed and warped. Just as a disturbance forms ripples on the surface of a pond, drives seismic waves through Earth, or puts the jiggle in a bowl of Jell-O, the cyclic flexing of space-time near binary black holes produces waves of distortion that race across the universe.

While gravitational waves promise to tell astronomers many things about the bodies that created them, they cannot provide one crucial piece of information -- the precise position of the source. So to really understand a merger event, researchers need an accompanying electromagnetic signal -- a flash of light, ranging from radio waves to X-rays -- that will allow telescopes to pinpoint the merger's host galaxy.

Understanding the electromagnetic counterparts that may accompany a merger involves the daunting task of tracking the complex interactions between the black holes, which can be moving at more than half the speed of light in the last few orbits, and the disks of hot, magnetized gas that surround them. Since 2010, numerous studies using simplifying assumptions have found that mergers could produce a burst of light, but no one knew how commonly this occurred or whether the emission would be strong enough to be detectable from Earth.

To explore the problem in greater detail, a team led by Bruno Giacomazzo at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and including Baker developed computer simulations that for the first time show what happens in the magnetized gas (also called a plasma) in the last stages of a black hole merger. Their study was published in the June 10 edition of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The simulations follow the complex electrical and magnetic interactions in the ionized gas -- known as magnetohydrodynamics -- within the extreme gravitational environment determined by the equations of Einstein's general relativity, a task requiring the use of advanced numerical codes and fast supercomputers.

Both of the simulations reported in the study were run on the Pleiades supercomputer at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. They follow the black holes over their last three orbits and subsequent merger using models both with and without a magnetic field in the gas disk.

Additional simulations were run on the Ranger and Discover supercomputers, respectively located at the University of Texas, Austin, and the NASA Center for Climate Simulations at Goddard, in order to investigate the effects of different initial conditions, fewer orbits and other variations.

"What's striking in the magnetic simulation is that the disk's initial magnetic field is rapidly intensified by about 100 times, and the merged black hole is surrounded by a hotter, denser, thinner accretion disk than in the unmagnetized case," Giacomazzo explained.

In the turbulent environment near the merging black holes, the magnetic field intensifies as it becomes twisted and compressed. The team suggests that running the simulation for additional orbits would result in even greater amplification.

The most interesting outcome of the magnetic simulation is the development of a funnel-like structure -- a cleared-out zone that extends up out of the accretion disk near the merged black hole. "This is exactly the type of structure needed to drive the particle jets we see from the centers of black-hole-powered active galaxies," Giacomazzo said.

The most important aspect of the study is the brightness of the merger's flash. The team finds that the magnetic model produces beamed emission that is some 10,000 times brighter than those seen in previous studies, which took the simplifying step of ignoring plasma effects in the merging disks.

"We need gravitational waves to confirm that a black hole merger has occurred, but if we can understand the electromagnetic signatures from mergers well enough, perhaps we can search for candidate events even before we have a space-based gravitational wave observatory," Baker said.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Bruno Giacomazzo, John G. Baker, M. Coleman Miller, Christopher S. Reynolds, James R. van Meter. General Relativistic Simulations of Magnetized Plasmas Around Merging Supermassive Black Holes. The Astrophysical Journal, 2012; 752 (1): L15 DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/752/1/L15

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/zg8MOGPtlkE/120927153118.htm

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AP Exclusive: Brown did service at his old daycare

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Chris Brown has logged more than 1,400 hours of community service for the 2009 beating of former girlfriend Rihanna, basically completing his sentence. The Associated Press has learned one-third of those hours were recorded at a rural Virginia daycare center where the singer spent time as a child and his mother once served as director.

And in the last seven months, an AP analysis of the work records indicates Brown's labor credits increased by four times from what they had been during the previous two years. Yet through it all, Brown hasn't stopped being an R&B superstar, performing worldwide, releasing an album and even getting injured in a nightclub brawl.

Brown's service records have come under scrutiny by a prosecutor and a judge, who are trying to ascertain their accuracy. At a Monday hearing, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg called the accounting of Brown's community service by Richmond, Va., Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood "somewhat cryptic."

No specific concerns were detailed by the court, yet the AP analysis of Brown's service shows that in the past seven months, the artist has been credited for working 701 hours ? a feat that previously took him 28 months to achieve, clocking sporadic, shorter shifts mostly at Richmond police and fire stations.

In recent months, the logs show Brown has essentially been working three jobs ? performing cleanup duty in Richmond police precincts by day, janitorial chores at the daycare 45 miles east by night, and hit songs for global audiences in between.

Ida Minter, the administrator of the Tappahannock Children's Center, said Brown attended the nonprofit facility "off and on" for more than 12 years and his mother was employed there for 24 years, including as director.

Brown's community service at the center began in January 2010, but work entries dramatically increased in March of this year. Most of his shifts were logged between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. and were typically listed as "general cleaning," with some entries describing him painting or stripping and waxing floors. It is unclear who supervised him.

Brown's attorney Mark Geragos said Monday that he welcomed inquiries from Los Angeles probation officials and said he urged Brown to work double shifts so the lawyer wouldn't have to keep coming back to court.

Minter described Brown's work at the daycare center favorably.

"I think Chris always goes beyond because he always wants to give back to where he grew up," she told the AP. "And this was a part of his home because his mom worked here full-time."

"If you've ever been involved in stripping and waxing, it's hard," she said. "It's a lot of work."

Minter said Brown was always accompanied by someone while working at the center, but she said she couldn't discuss who it was.

The singer, who pleaded guilty to felony assault in June 2009, only worked at night and on weekends when no children were present, Minter said. That is supported by the logs, which also showed that Brown only worked one other weekend shift that wasn't at the daycare center.

Brown has been undeniably busy in recent months, releasing his new album "Fortune," traveling to France for a video shoot, winning a Grammy Award, performing at other award shows and resuming his friendship and music collaboration with Rihanna.

He has also drawn negative attention for being present at a bottle-throwing brawl at a New York City nightclub that left him with a cut chin. And in February, a woman in Miami accused him of taking her cellphone to prevent her from snapping pictures of him.

It was after that incident that Brown, 23, accelerated his work schedule, completing the 701 hours in seven months, according to the records filed Monday.

Meanwhile, the singer has remained an active promoter of his work on Twitter, where he sends out almost daily links to his music and clothing line, and also interacts with fans.

His international travel, which must be approved by Schnegg, has somehow been squeezed around his marathon community service sessions.

In July, for instance, Brown is listed as working 42 hours in four days before leaving for France. Upon his return, he worked 12 consecutive days, logging 164 hours, 100 of which were at the daycare described in Norwood's log as "Tappa Day Care."

March was similarly busy, with Brown being credited for work on 20 of the month's 30 days; he was approved to travel to Cancun, Mexico, for five of the remaining days.

Before this week, Brown had received praise from Schnegg and had never been in danger of violating his probation. But that could change if the inquiry the judge ordered turns up irregularities with the singer's service.

Schnegg allowed Brown to perform his work in his home state of Virginia under the supervision of Norwood, but on Monday noted there are discrepancies in the chief's accounting.

For one, Brown's work log shows he has put in 1,402 hours, but a couple of errors in the data may push the total up to 1,404. And although Brown was sentenced to perform 1,440 hours of labor, the chief wrote in a letter dated Sept. 14 that Brown had completed all his service hours.

Norwood's spokesman declined to respond to questions from the AP on the discrepancies. "Chief Norwood has reported directly to the judge, providing periodic updates regarding the progress of Chris Brown's community service," spokesman Gene Lepley said.

Prosecutors "are not happy with the quality of the report," Schnegg said Monday. "They don't know if it's reliable, yes or no."

District Attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said the office would make all its comments on the case in court.

The judge and prosecution aren't the only ones concerned about the administration of Brown's sentence. In August, Virginia probation authorities recommended that Richmond police stop supervising Brown after the singer tested positive for marijuana and what they believed was unapproved travel to France. However, they made no critical comments about his community service.

Geragos, Brown's attorney, declined comment for this story, but he said at Monday's court hearing that he believes his client has completed all his community service.

Brown's labors have left a lasting mark at the Tappahannock Children's Center: a colorful wall mural featuring a huge clown face and splashes of purple, orange, green and yellow. The words "Big Room" ? the informal name of the large space amid a warren of smaller classrooms ? is painted in fat letters along a wall where jackets are hung on hooks.

Brown approached Minter, who has known Brown since his birth, to ask if he could use his art skills on the walls of the big room, she said.

The singer is not the only celebrity to perform community service with an entity to which they have close ties. Mel Gibson and Sean Penn had similar arrangements.

Both actors had received permission in advance for the assignments in misdemeanor cases. Before Monday's filings, there had been no mention of Brown working at his boyhood daycare center in probation reports.

___

Steve Szkotak reported from Richmond, Va.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-brown-did-old-daycare-151502349.html

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GALLERY: Audi unveils Crosslane Coup? concept car at Paris ...

Audi provides a glimpse of the future shape of design, along with automotive and drive concepts, through its Audi crosslane coup? concept car. This vehicle is an entirely new fusion of technology, engineering and design, and provides pointers to the design language of Audi?s future Q models.

With a Multimaterial Space Frame, the vehicle concept strikes out along entirely new paths with regard to weight, costs and energy usage over its lifecycle, and is an evolutionary stage of Audi ultra ? the lightweight construction principle from Audi.

An innovative and efficient plug-in hybrid drive based on a purpose-designed 1.5-liter three-cylinder TFSI and two electric motors redefines the benchmark, with fuel consumption of only 1.1 liters per 100 km (213.81 US mpg) and CO2 emissions of just 26 grams per km (41.84 grams per mile).

The result is a cosmopolitan vehicle that will appeal to young, sporty customers in particular thanks to its removable roof and the customizable services available under the Audi connect concept.

Pioneering concept: the Multimaterial Space Frame
The Multimaterial Space Frame of the compact Audi crosslane coup? is comprised of three materials ? aluminum, carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP), and glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP). The concept car has an unladen weight of about 1,390 kg (3,064.43 lb), including the large lithium-ion battery.

The aluminum profiles form a continuous, rigid structure around the occupant cell. Beams beneath the front lid join the single-frame grille, which performs a supporting function and is also made from aluminum, with the occupant cell.

The front and rear crash structures are made from CFRP and the supporting CFRP structures inside the occupant cell include the inner sills, the center tunnel, the bulkhead, and the cross-members in the floor. Surface GFRP components with partial CFRP reinforcements complete the body concept.

Audi is convinced that the highly integrated Multimaterial Space Frame is the right path to the future. Its weight is of the same magnitude as a monolithic body of CFRP. It also offers convincing advantages in terms of costs to the customer and its energy usage in a life cycle assessment.

Innovative: dual-mode hybrid concept
The plug-in hybrid drive of the Audi crosslane coup?, which is described as a dual-mode hybrid, is as innovative as it is efficient. It comprises a combustion engine, two electric motors and a single-stage transmission; its system power is 130 kW (177 hp). The Audi crosslane coup? sprints from zero to 100 km/h (62.14?mph) in 8.6 seconds, and in pure electric mode takes 9.8 seconds. The car?s top speed is 182 km/h (113.09 mph). Its average fuel consumption is a mere 1.1 liters per 100 km (213.81 US mpg) and it emits 26 grams per km (41.84?grams per mile) of CO2. The lithium-ion battery has an output of 17.4 kWh, sufficient for an operating range of around 86 km (53.44 miles) in the electric mode.

The combustion engine is a purpose-developed three-cylinder TFSI with a displacement of 1.5 liters, delivering an output of 95 kW (130 hp) and 200 Nm (147.51 lb-ft) of torque. The three-cylinder engine is coupled to an electric motor (EM 1), which acts primarily as a starter and an alternator. It develops an output of 50 kW (68 hp) and 210 Nm (154.89 lb-ft) of torque. Electrical traction is provided by the second electric motor (EM 2) developing 85 kW (116 hp) and 250?Nm (184.39 lb-ft) of torque. The transmission makes it possible to connect the combustion engine complete with alternator to the remainder of the drivetrain by means of a claw clutch.

The dual-mode hybrid concept enables different operating modes. From 0 up to 55 km/h (34.18 mph), drive power is supplied solely by the EM 2, which draws the energy it needs primarily from the battery. In serial mode, the combustion engine and the alternator (EM 1) produce electrical energy to support, relieve or substitute the battery should it be discharged.

The electric mode is possible up to 130 km/h (80.78 mph). Starting at about 55?km/h (34.18 mph) the drive system allows the TFSI engine together with the alternator to couple to the drivetrain ? in this hybrid mode, the drive sources combine to optimize both efficiency and performance. Above 130 km/h (80.78?mph), the three-cylinder engine becomes the main drive source but the EM 1 can support it if required.

The driver of the Audi crosslane coup? can choose between the ?cruise? and ?race? settings. The ?cruise? mode prioritizes electric driving. The driver does not notice either gear changes or the power source kicking in. When the TFSI is running, its engine speed is always adapted to the road speed ? without a ?rubber-band? effect. The high efficiency of the transmission makes the dual-mode hybrid drive especially efficient in urban traffic.

Forward-looking: exterior design
The 2+2-seater Audi crosslane coup? is 4.21 meters long (13.81 ft), 1.88 meters wide (6.17 ft) and 1.51 meters high (4.95 ft), with a wheelbase of 2.56 meters (8.40 ft). Its body design comes across as powerful and striking, and it already provides a foretaste of the design language of a future generation of Audi Q models.

The single-frame grille, which is subdivided into several segments by struts, dominates the front end. Its prominent frame is integrated into the Multimaterial Space Frame as a supporting element. This solution symbolizes the philosophy behind the Audi crosslane coup?: a totally new fusion of basic concept, technology and design.

The trapezoidal headlights use Audi Matrix LED headlight technology. Small, individually controllable light-emitting diodes generate all lighting functions, and microreflectors enable their precise positioning. The bumper incorporates large, mainly smooth-surfaced air intakes. Through two narrow openings in the front lid it is possible to glimpse the upper aluminum members of the Multimaterial Space Frame.

Along the sides, the horizontal edges are the dominant feature above the wheels. The low greenhouse tapers into a very flat C-post, emphasizing the coup?-like character of the Audi crosslane coup?. The doors extend a long way down thanks to the space frame design, which allows very low sills. The doors open to reveal the aluminum structures of the Multimaterial Space Frame.

The tail lights are a variation on the motif of the headlights; the trunk lid seam divides them each into two segments. The bumper, the lower section of which is made from CFRP, incorporates an aluminum diffuser that extends quite some way up. The roof element comprises two CFRP shells and weighs slightly less than ten kilograms (22.05 lb). The driver and front passenger can unlatch it by an electric drive, remove it from the body structure and fit it over the trunk.

Moveable: trunk
The trunk forms a separate pan within the body structure; it is attached to the backs of the rear seats, which are separate from the seat cushions. At the press of a button, the entire unit travels about 40 cm (15.75 in) forward electrically; this is how the latched roof reaches its end position, in which it protects the luggage. At the same time, the level surface under the trunk becomes accessible, and it offers a flat storage space for dirty or wet objects.

The driver and front passenger sit on electrically adjustable sport seats with integrated head restraints, the shells of which are made from CFRP. The center console integrates a large selector lever, which is electrically extended when the car is started; it is used to control the hybrid drive. The spokes of the steering wheel incorporate control surfaces for the thumbs, which the driver can use to carry out most functions. These can also be controlled just as intuitively from a large touchpad on the center console.

The low dashboard is very clearly turned towards the driver. The air conditioning controls incorporate miniature displays. The virtual displays in the instrument cluster can be toggled between two different levels, and a powermeter visualizes the drive system?s operating statuses.

The Audi crosslane coup? introduces new online services under the key word Audi connect. Its passengers are always connected to the Internet community ? via Twitter, Facebook or by sending photos and videos recorded on the road. A completely new feature is the ?Escape Manager? ? a program passengers can use to review and comment on the routes they are driving for their friends.

Geometric clarity: interior design
The interior design of the Audi crosslane coup? continues the design language of the exterior in the geometrical clarity of its basic shapes; instrument covers and the grilles on the air nozzles, for example, take up the trapezoidal theme. The narrow gap dimensions and three-dimensional surfaces reflect Audi?s uncompromisingly high quality standards.

The dominant interior material of the Audi crosslane coup? is CFRP, which is used in a number of different variations. On the dashboard cowl, for instance, the composite fibers are all aligned in a single direction; this unidirectional arrangement is a new departure in the automotive sector. The CFRP parts are slightly lighter in color in some areas and darker in others, an effect achieved by different clear coat applications.

The aluminum elements, too, are used in a subtly differentiated way. Most of them are machine-polished, but the air nozzles use a black anodized light alloy. The vehicle floor is made from glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) incorporating sections of a new material: Thick cords are woven with rubber threads to form a hard-wearing carpet.

In their leather selections, Audi designers also employed various material grades. The most widely used grade is soft semi-aniline leather. Velvet leather in black provides an enlivening contrast. It has a robust, slightly coarse surface reminiscent of suede.

The equipment and data specified in this document refer to the model range offered in Germany. Subject to change without?notice; errors and omissions excepted.

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Source: http://www.quattroworld.com/2012-paris-auto-show/gallery-audi-unveils-crosslane-coupe-concept-car-at-paris/

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