By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

WANT to keep those memories alive even when you’re dead? Use the high-tech coffin that has an LCD display panel.

The multimedia coffin was created by Filipino inventor Antonio Andes Sr. who thought of coming up with a more innovative method of paying respects to the recently deceased — by playing videos, music and images on an LCD monitor attached to the open side of a casket.

In an interview with INQUIRER.net, Andes said the LCD monitor is actually attached to a PC discreetly hidden near the casket. The videos, audio and photos can be provided by the family or friends of the deceased and can be rotated as a PowerPoint presentation.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

TEAM Sinag has finished 11th out of the 21 participants in the Challenge category of the Panasonic World Solar Challenge (WSC) in Australia.

Here’s a photo of the Sinag solar car crossing the finish line in Adelaide.

The Philippine team also finished 20th out of the total 38 participants in the WSC, an international competition for developers of solar-powered vehicles.

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By Associated Press

TOKYO, Japan–Japan plans to follow up its first lunar satellite orbit this month by sending an unmanned probe to land on the moon by 2015, news reports said Saturday.

The Space Activities Commission of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology decided Friday to aim to land a SELENE-2 probe on the moon’s surface by 2015, Japanese major daily Asahi reported Saturday. Another daily Mainichi carried a similar report.

The landing would be a follow-up to the launch on Sept. 14 of the Selenological and Engineering Explorer — or SELENE — probe for what officials call the largest mission to the moon since the US Apollo project.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

IN THE LAST six years, only 96 Filipino inventions have been granted patents by the Philippine Intellectual Property Office (IPOPHIL) out of over 8,000 inventions patented in the country.

The sad part here is that very few Filipino inventors, engineers and developers know the processes that could protect their inventions.

In his presentation during an intellectual property forum at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, IPOPHIL Bureau of Patents Director Epifanio Rey Evasco said the lack of knowledge on local patenting and the requirements for patenting have discouraged Filipino innovators from filing for patents.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

IN AN EFFORT to promote intellectual property rights (IPR) and encourage scientists and engineers to develop more technology innovations, science journalists have tied up with the Philippine Intellectual Property Office (IPOPHIL) to conduct seminars for science reporters and other media groups.

The IPOPHIL and the Philippine Science Journalists (PsciJourn) conducted the first media IPR Forum at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology building at the University of the Philippines Diliman last October 25.

Here’s a video of IPOHIL director general Adrian Cristobal Jr. (left) and PsciJourn president Angelo Palmones.

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