Scientific data in various fields of human endeavor. Interesting user friendly presentation of articles in sciences both recent and in the distant past
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1:51pm | Steve Jobs had no formal schooling in engineering, yet he’s listed as the inventor or co-inventor on more than 200 US patents.
Joint co-founder of Apple retires as CEO of the mighty conglomerate which he drove to the top of the IT world.
Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha
Soon we may be able to power our iPads, iPhones and other portable electronics with just the tap of our finger.
That’s because researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne have for the first time discovered how they can use piezoelectric thin films to turn mechanical pressure into electricity.
Lead co-author of the findings at RMIT, Dr Madhu Bhaskaran, said the university’s research combined the potential of piezoelectrics – materials capable of converting pressure into electrical energy – and the cornerstone of microchip manufacturing, thin film technology.
Dr Madhu Bhaskaran.
“The power of piezoelectrics could be integrated into running shoes to charge mobile phones, enable laptops to be powered through typing or even used to convert blood pressure into a power source for pacemakers – essentially creating an everlasting battery,” Dr Bhaskaran said.
The Australian Research Council-funded study assessed the energy generation capabilities of piezoelectric thin films at the nanoscale, for the first time precisely measuring the level of electrical voltage and current – and therefore, power – that could be generated.
“The next key challenge will be amplifying the electrical energy generated by the piezoelectric materials to enable them to be integrated into low-cost, compact structures,” Dr Bhaskaran said.
A club in London has used piezoelectricity to generate about 60 per cent of the energy needed to run the club. It requires people to dance on its dance floor to generate electricity.
Solve the world’s energy problems?
Piezoelectric thin films were “never going to be something that’s going to save the energy problems of the world”, Dr Bhaskaran told Fairfax Media, publisher of this website.
This was because the amount of electricity generated from the pressure would not be enough to power anything other than something that “runs off a couple of batteries”, Dr Bhaskaran said.
In about five or six years we would begin to see the first devices integrating piezoelectrics, she said.
Dr Bhaskaran co-authored the study with Dr Sharath Sriram, within RMIT’s Microplatforms Research Group, which is led by Professor Arnan Mitchell. The pair collaborated with Australian National University’s Dr Simon Ruffell on the research.
The study was published in materials science journal Advanced Functional Materials.
OLD FLATBOARD SCANNER CAN BE RECYCLED INTO ANOTHER USEFUL ITEM
By Paul Ridden
07:45 February 14, 2011
Outdoor types who need power for mobile devices away from the grid may find themselves carrying solar chargers or battery packs but, as we reported last year, hydrogen fuel cells offer instant juice benefits and zero degradation. Now, Stockholm’s myFC and SiGNa Chemistry have teamed up to launch the PowerTrekk, a pocket-sized, portable charging solution that combines the convenience of a battery pack with the instant power of a hydrogen fuel cell.
Developed to provide some off-the-grid juice to outdoor enthusiasts or anyone who finds themselves away from a wall socket when their smartphone, GPS or digital camera battery dies, myFC‘s PowerTrekk 2-in-1 portable charger is the first to use Mobile-H2 technology from SiGNa Chemistry. In addition to sporting a Li-ion battery pack, the device also takes a Mobile-H2 cartridge called a PowerPukk.
The PowerPukk disc contains sodium silicide (NaSi), a non-flammable powder which rapidly produces hydrogen thanks to a stable and controllable reaction with a wide variety of non-potable, non-distilled water – including salt water – at room temperature. SiGNa says that the powder is generated from salt (sodium chloride) and sand (silicon dioxide) starting materials in a solvent- and purification-free process where the heat generated during manufacture is recaptured and used within the process, keeping energy consumption down.
About a tablespoon of water is added to the central well of the PowerPukk after it’s placed inside the belly of the PowerTrekk, after which the device’s Proton Exchange Membrane starts to silently convert the hydrogen into electricity. The only by-product of the process is a little water vapor. There’s no more waiting around for the sun to harvest enough energy to power your gadgets, and the unit is said not to suffer from degradation often associated with battery packs.
The PowerTrekk’s built-in Li-ion battery buffer has a capacity of 5.9 Wh (1600 mAh, 3.7 V) and the device has a rated output of 5V, 1000 mA and rated input of 5V, 500 mA. The PowerPukk Fuel Cartridge can be swapped out without interrupting the supply of power to the attached mobile device.
PowerPukk cartridges come in either five or ten packs and have a shelf life of two years minimum. myFC says that the fuel cell “is part of an industry program for reusing its materials and is made of coated can materials which prevent corrosion and leakage of chemicals,” and the PowerTrekk itself should become part of the industry’s electronic waste recycling program at the end of its operational life.
The 2.59 x 5 x 1.65-inch (66 x 128 x 42mm) PowerTrekk, which is currently on display at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona, will come in green, red or yellow and is expected to be shipped internationally in October for about US$200.
Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha
By Mike Hanlon
23:12 January 21, 2008
January 22, 2008 It’s not often in this era of rampant technological innovation that a fundamentally new concept surfaces – with almost no limitations to what can be achieved with the myriad new technologies coming to market over the last few years, fundamentally new ideas of this magnitude are becoming increasingly rare, much less technologies with groundbreaking societal implications. Such a technology emerged this week when it was announced that engineers at the University of Washington have used microscopic scale manufacturing techniques to combine a flexible contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.
Though in its infancy, the combination of a wearable contact lens with embedded optoelectronic and electronic devices promises many things, most notably this could well be the beginning of the Computer Human Interface of the future.
The trend towards miniaturization of computers has now reached a roadblock due to our inability to adequately display the information they provide on smaller screens – the main limiting factor in relation to the ever-shrinking size of computers and telephones has become the size of the display – if it gets any smaller, we can’t read it.
Currently, the most obvious solutions for further reduction in size of wearable computer-based devices are miniature projectors and externally worn heads up displays.
The amount of investment in miniaturized projector technologies bears testimony to the prospects for this market and we have seen numerous prototypes showcased recently by the likes of Microvision, 3M, Texas Instruments, Explay, Neochroma,Digislide, Light Blue Optics and from research labs such as the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems . Though the microprojection area promises the ability to project a large screen on any flat surface, we have yet to see commercially available products and the technology won’t suit everyone, partially because they’re still not quite small enough, and partially because of privacy issues – projecting delicate company information onto an airport terminal wall, for example, might not be a good idea.
Similarly, those heads up displays that have come to market are either prohibitively expensive or do not yet offer high resolution screens of sufficient clarity and stability to avoid the attendant migraine headaches. The promise is there for the near future, but one of the major drawbacks to mass adoption of these products is that not everybody wishes to look like a cyborg.
Accordingly, the University of Washington’s contact lens offers the promise of a viable large screen display alternative for connecting users with their mobile devices. Project head and Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Babak Parviz envisages that his team’s electronic contact lens will offer the ability to superimpose a transparent high resolution display over the field of vision of one, maybe both eyes of the wearer .
“Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside,” says Parviz.
Apart from the expectation of eventually offering a large screen display for our wearable and micro computers, PDAs and phones, the heads-up aspect of the contact lens leaves the way open for a democratization of Augmented Reality.
Unlike Virtual Reality, where the user’s field of view is completely replaced with an artificial visual environment, Augmented Reality uses head tracking in conjunction with augmented vision to overlay complimentary information on the user’s view.
The system can tell which direction the user is looking and adjusts the displayed image accordingly, displaying new and appropriate information for the scene being viewed. For example, when viewing a map, it may be beneficial to orient the map to the user’s field of view so that the user can identify landmarks in the real world by their proximity to landmarks on the map.
Augmented Reality is already in use in a wide range of industrial applications due to the work of companies such as Arkiva which is used by technicians doing extremely complex work, enabling them to overlay instructions, circuit diagrams, mechanical drawings and the like over real-world tangles to ensure they get it right.
If the tools were readily available and in mass usage, a plethora of new applications for augmented reality would almost certainly come to light.
In tourism, for example, Augmented Reality would offer the ability to see the ancient ruins in Rome, overlayed with what the buildings originally looked like and for buildings to be labeled in a real/virtual mixed tour.
At a sporting event, players might be labeled, the ball/puck tracked, distances marked, and for certain professions, such as a surgeon, vital organs, veins and arteries could be delineated. Obviously, such capabilities would require additional technologies to come into play, but with wireless networking becoming ubiquitous, it’s a possibility for the mid-term future.
Another aspect of AR is displaying vital information to someone who is actively involved in doing something where the need to refocus on a dashboard or set of instruments would impair that person’s ability to perform their task. The heads up display was pioneered and significantly evolved in jet fighters, and has been trailed in Formula One and there are now commercially available systems on the market for racing drivers, motorcyclists and bicycle riders.
The Parviz team’s contact lens would enable pervasive heads up displays in automobiles, which would significantly reduce accidents, even if it only helped people tune their radio or find the album they wanted on their iPod whilst driving.
Taking wireless technologies and the evolution of the UW Contact Lens even further, there’s significant promise of using the contact lens displays in coordinating groups of people to work more effectively in teams, the most likely first up usage for this being for military personnel on the battlefield and for disaster response teams in a crisis where saving time and doing things efficiently means saving lives.
There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle’s speed projected onto the windshield. Video-game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.
“People may find all sorts of applications for it that we have not thought about. Our goal is to demonstrate the basic technology and make sure it works and that it’s safe,” said Parviz, who heads a multi-disciplinary UW group that is developing electronics for contact lenses.
Bionic Zoom Vision
One of the aspects of the UW Contact Lens most likely to capture the imagination of the public is its promise of bionic vision, popularized in mass market science fiction such as the Terminator movie series where Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cyborg character and his cyborg combatants demonstrated the ability to zoom in on distant objects, as did Lee Majors’ character Steve Austin in the Six Million Dollar Man television series.
“Using nanotechnology you can extend the sophistication of the contact lens as far as you like,” says Parviz. “There is interest in including cameras on the contact lens and incorporating other lenses so that, for example, if you were looking at something very small, you would be able to zoom in to get a closer look. Similarly, if something is far away, you would be able to zoom in.”
With an array of lenses wirelessly connected to a wearable computer, there’s obviously the capability of “recording images” says Parviz. We prompt him on the possibility of recording in real time what we see, and he adds that there are many uses for the technology they are developing that have not yet been explored, and indeed, that there are uses they almost certainly haven’t even thought of.
Once again, the military and law enforcement domains are the most likely to pony up the dollars for real-time recording of critical encounters, but the possibilities are almost endless once someone is wearing such a contact lens – could it be that at some point in the future, those “this conversation could be recorded for training purposes” on-hold telephone announcements (warnings) might be applicable to every conversation with a customer service representative?
With the ability to record everything we see, which the UW Contact lens will ultimately enable, the concept of privacy, instant recall and a whole host of new capabilities come into play – remember that reliable, solid state data storage is becoming more cost effective by the day. A decade from now, recording everything we say and do is now a distinct possibility.
Bio-sensing and a wearable health monitoring system
Perhaps the most left-field aspect to the UW study is the promise of a wearable health monitoring system. “The second big area that we are looking at is bio-sensing, because on the surface of the contact lens there are a lot of biomarkers already present that are important for monitoring health care,” explains Parviz.
“We recognized that if we could have a contact lens that incorporated biosensors that could sample the biology of the eye we could constantly report it outside, and hence have a non-invasive way of putting people on continuous health monitoring.”
Whatsmore, the system also has the capability of displaying the key indicators in real time to the wearer or a relevant third party as a personal dashboard via their heads up display.
How the project began
“The way this whole thing started,” says Assistant Professor Babak Parviz, “was that we were looking at conventional contact lenses and we noticed that they were straightforward polymer structures. They do something useful in vision correction, but the structure of the system is simple – it’s just one material.”
“The expertise we have in our group surrounds nanotechnology and microfabrication which enables us to make a lot of very small, very useful devices, so we thought that if we could migrate all these devices onto a contact lens, we could get a lot more functionality out of this simple object that’s used by millions of people. The contact lens is safe to use and people are quite comfortable with using them.”
“We had a few things in mind. The first was that we could display some information – the level of the sophistication of the display would obviously be dependent on the sophistication of the technology we used. At its simplest, it might just be a single pixel that switched on and off and indicated something that’s important to the user. Going several levels beyond that, it might be a high resolution display.”
“There are a variety of applications in that domain once you have a reasonable degree of resolution in a display, such as augmented reality and computer generated images that you could superimpose over the outside world.”
“Going beyond that, we could incorporate all sorts of optical devices on a contact lens. Obviously it needs to be remotely powered and it would communicate with outside devices via a wireless link.”
“A fully functional high resolution display is still some way off,” he says, explaining that the existing prototype lens contains an electric circuit as well as red light-emitting diodes for a display, and have been tested on rabbits with no adverse effects.
“Our immediate goal is to have a display that has only a few pixels to demonstrate the viability of the concept and after that we will work upwards towards increasing the resolution of the display but it will be some time yet before we have a fully functional hires display.”
“This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it’s extremely promising.”
“So those are all doable things that are on our agenda”, says Parviz, referring to the array of technological possibilities mentioned elsewhere in this article, “but they’re not easy to implement so they’re all in the future still.”
“What’s interesting and encouraging is that a lot of these things have already been demonstrated independently so there are lots of different micro-lens designs already.”
“These are lens that are exactly the right size, but they have never been incorporated into a contact lens so what’s really encouraging is that a lot of these things exists and one of our hopes is that we have opened the venue of the contact lens to microelectronics – people thinking about contact lenses as a place where we can put elecronics and optoelectronics.”
Building the lenses was a challenge because materials that are safe for use in the body, such as the flexible organic materials used in contact lenses, are delicate. Manufacturing electrical circuits, however, involves inorganic materials, scorching temperatures and toxic chemicals. Researchers built the circuits from layers of metal only a few nanometers thick, about one thousandth the width of a human hair, and constructed light-emitting diodes one third of a millimeter across. They then sprinkled the grayish powder of electrical components onto a sheet of flexible plastic. The shape of each tiny component dictates which piece it can attach to, a microfabrication technique known as self-assembly. Capillary forces – the same type of forces that make water move up a plant’s roots, and that cause the edge of a glass of water to curve upward – pull the pieces into position.
The prototype contact lens does not correct the wearer’s vision, but the technique could be used on a corrective lens, Parviz said. And all the gadgetry won’t obstruct a person’s view. Ideally, installing or removing the bionic eye would be as easy as popping a contact lens in or out, and once installed the wearer would barely know the gadget was there, Parviz said.
“There is a large area outside of the transparent part of the eye that we can use for placing instrumentation,” Parviz said. Future improvements will add wireless communication to and from the lens. The researchers hope to power the whole system using a combination of radio-frequency power and solar cells placed on the lens, Parviz said.
The results of the project to date were presented last week at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ international conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems by Harvey Ho, a former graduate student of Parviz’s now working at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif. Other co-authors were Ehsan Saeedi and Samuel Kim in the UW’s electrical engineering department and Tueng Shen in the UW Medical Center’s ophthalmology department.
Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha
This post was originally published on Mashable.com
Apple was granted 563 patents in 2010, some of which will show up in future products and might well change the consumer technology landscape just like the iPod, iPhone, App Store and now the iPad have.
Apple patent expert Jack Purcher of Patently Apple has been monitoring the company’s patents since 2006. Mashable asked him why he thought Apple is such an innovative company.
“Many have asked me why I think that Apple is more innovative than others. I usually answer that question the same way each time,” says Purcher. “I’m not sure that they are on a technical level. The difference is that Apple has an inspired leader and CEO who, for decades, has had a real vision of where technology should go.”
Mashable has taken a look at some of Apple’s recent patent applications to see what exciting developments might be in store for the future – as any one of these patents could be the next step in Steve Jobs’s master plan or vision. As Purcher puts it:
“Jobs’s vision for the digital lifestyle a decade ago is still on a roll. It’s innovation at its finest. But it began with a vision – and that’s the difference.”
Apple’s smart bike concept is like the Nike+ running system, but for those on two wheels. In addition to seeing pertinent data from you (heart rate, etc.) and the bike (speed, distance, etc.) on your iPod or iPhone, the system could be used as a tool for group communication when biking with others.
Is gesture control the next big thing to follow touch? It seems Apple might think so with this patent for the Apple TV that sees the home entertainment gadget shipped with a Wiimote-like motion controller. Besides managing the on-screen cursor via movement, the “remote wand” could be used to browse through and control media.
Apple has come up with a way – in theory anyway – of adding solar tech to its portable devices without spoiling the all-important aesthetics. By integrating the photocells into the touchscreen, future iPods, iPads and iPhones could soak up the power of the sun via their displays, making for greener gadgetry.
This clever concept gives the desktop PC iPad-esque functionality. While the monitor is upright, it’s a common iMac running Apple’s full operating system controlled with a mouse, but flip it horizontally and it switches to the iOS and the touch controls take over.
Chances are your iPhone has already replaced your compact camera, MP3 player and handheld gaming console, but Apple could take the convergence a step further and replace your keys. The Cupertino company has patented the idea that your iPhone could unlock your car and home with a proximity-based PIN code system.
This is one patent we could definitely see coming to market. Apple has designed a Bluetooth headset with standalone media playback functionality. This could well be a future version of the iPod Shuffle – small, wearable and, thanks to the Bluetooth features, multi-tasking.
How would you like to be able to beam your latest App Store download to a buddy? Apple has come up with the idea of an “application seed” system whereby developers could choose to make their apps shareable via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It’s a fantastic concept for content providers who are looking to spread the word as far and wide as possible. Additionally, trial version options could be a great word-of-mouth money maker.
iPhotography is hot, and its potential is limited only by hardware restrictions. Although Apple has steadily improved the iPhone’s camera, it’s still just a point-and-shooter. This patent describes a way of enhancing a portable device’s camera functionality with a magnetic zoom or macro lens attachments.
This exciting idea could see future Apple laptops coming with built-in projectors. Just think how handy it would be to be able to share what’s on your laptop screen – whether that’s a movie or a presentation – with a group of others by simply clicking a mouse.
Spourced & published by Henry Sapiecha
December 14, 2010
Henn Tan, chairman of Trek 2000 International posing in front of the company’s signage in Singapore. Photo: AFP
Henn Tan could have ruled the global market in what became the ubiquitous USB flash drive that helped consign the floppy disk to the dustbin of technological history.
But his grip on the ThumbDrive slipped and the market was flooded with a myriad of brands for the handy memory device which could be small enough to dangle on a key ring.
Now the Singaporean entrepreneur hopes to prove he was no one-hit wonder.
This photo shows various thumb drives displayed at the office of Trek 2000 International in Singapore. Photo: AFP
Tan, who holds the patent for the compact data storage device in over 30 markets and the global trademark for the ThumbDrive brand, now has a firmer hold on another invention with a rather unusual name.
The FluCard – a postage stamp-size storage device that can also transmit data wirelessly – is Tan’s new baby, and he hopes to see it used by millions of people; just like the USB drive.
Tan said many thought the ThumbDrive was a one-hit wonder.
“I told them no, but many refused to believe me,” the 54-year-old said.
“We are more than just about ThumbDrives and the power of this FluCard is going to be immense,” insisted the chairman and chief executive of Trek 2000 International, which is listed on the Singapore Exchange.
Tan laments that he made a mistake with the ThumbDrive by going it alone instead of partnering with an established player in 2000, an admittedly “naive” move that allowed rivals to get big slices of the USB-based data storage pie.
This time around, he has teamed up with Japan’s Toshiba Corp to promote the FluCard and ensure its patent is protected globally.
Why the name?
“It’s contagious and easy to recall,” says Tan, a marketing man who employs technical experts to flesh out his ideas.
“You go to Afghanistan, you say flu, and they understand.”
Marc Einstein, regional manager at technology consultancy Frost and Sullivan, said the FluCard is a sign of the convergence underway in consumer electronics and computer technology.
“I do think that this is where the future lies for technologies and consumer devices,” he said, adding that securing Toshiba’s support “is a good first step” for the Singapore firm.
Tan said his company and Toshiba, now the second largest shareholder in Trek 2000 International after him, formed a consortium of camera makers to adopt the FluCard as the industry standard.
Terence Wong, co-head of research at Singapore brokerage DMG and Partners, sees good commercial prospects for the FluCard and also feels partnering Toshiba is a right move for Tan.
“This FluCard can potentially kill off the dummy SD card if they get it right,” Wong said.
Shaped exactly like the Secure Digital (SD) memory cards now used widely in compact digital cameras, the FluCard comes embedded with Wi-Fi to transmit data to other wireless-enabled devices such as mobile phones, laptops and tablet computers.
“It can do more than what an ordinary dumb, dumb SD card can do which is just to store data,” Tan said.
“As long as you have a hardware embedded with Wi-Fi, you can download anything from the FluCard.”
Launched earlier this year, the FluCard works in any device that has an SD slot and the camera market is the most obvious target for Tan.
SD cards are predominantly used in compact digital cameras, 100 million of which were sold in 2009 alone, according to industry estimates.
Using a FluCard in the digital camera the user has the option of uploading new photos directly to the internet for sharing with friends on Facebook and other social networks.
It also functions as a data storage back-up since the content inside the FluCard can be instantly transferred to a private user account on a portal set up by Trek 2000 International.
Tan’s idea for the FluCard came about after a holiday with his family in China five years ago was ruined when they lost their camera.
“You can’t be going back to the places to retake the photos, and I felt lousy there wasn’t any data backup,” said Tan.
“The power of this FluCard is going to be immense if I get it right,” he said, adding it could catapult his company from a fringe player into the major leagues of the data storage industry with Toshiba’s support.
Tan’s anguish was clear as he recalled how his company lost out to the “big boys” of data storage who came out with their own USB-based devices – and to pirates who simply made ThumbDrive knockoffs.
“Right now we are still generating income [from royalties] but not much,” said Tan.
“Size counts, and I learnt my lesson real hard.”
In retrospect, Tan said it would have been better if he had partnered one of the big brands when the ThumbDrive was launched in March 2000, but his eagerness got the better of him at the time.
“I was naive, I was gullible and I decided to take this product all alone, believing that we can do it.”
“Now I have Toshiba, I am riding on the coat-tails of Toshiba.”
Sourced & published by henry Sapiecha
 High-precision digital humidity sensor
Sensirion now launches a high-precision version of the world’s smallest digital humidity & temperature sensor. The fully calibrated SHT25 offers an improved accuracy while maintaining all other features of the standard version SHT21: I2C interface, excellent stability, low power consumption, smallest size. Free samples of the standard version SHT21 can be ordered online! Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha
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