Pacemakers go wireless so patients can be monitored by their doctor from afar.
Posted by Lara Pageler
31.8.09
Wi-Fi for Life
Pacemakers go wireless so patients can be monitored by their doctor from afar.
Posted by Lara Pageler
New Colour Added to the Spectrum?
Dye is now being used to create a more effective solar cell.
Posted by Lara Pageler
30.8.09
Don't buy Brazilian wood! watch the movie "They Killed Sister Dorothy"
trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVaqqPURp1U
This movie is a true story about an American Nun who was trying to save the Amazon.
If you buy Brazilian wood check for this (image below) logo! if it doesn't have this logo it is illegal wood! If I was you I wouldn't buy any Brazilian wood or any product that has Brazilian wood in the USA. I strongly believe that every Brazilian wood that gets here is illegal wood. Heads up! Do your research!
Mariana de Salles Ewell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVaqqPURp1U
This movie is a true story about an American Nun who was trying to save the Amazon.
If you buy Brazilian wood check for this (image below) logo! if it doesn't have this logo it is illegal wood! If I was you I wouldn't buy any Brazilian wood or any product that has Brazilian wood in the USA. I strongly believe that every Brazilian wood that gets here is illegal wood. Heads up! Do your research!
Mariana de Salles Ewell
New lighting technology seeks to revamp or replace incandescent bulbs
July 8, 2009 at 9:05 am by Jessica McCormick
Back in 2007, when Congress passed a law setting more stringent rules on the manufacture of light bulbs, a lot of people sounded the death knell for Thomas Edison’s incandescent bulb. Australia got rid of them, along with a few other countries, and news articles and blog entries in the United States dubbed the planned phasing out as a full-on “ban.” Now, with President Obama’s most recent call to make lighting more efficient in homes and businesses, it again seems that the incandescent bulb will go the way of the dodo in the name of energy savings.
Or will it? It seems that some folks are instead using this governmental push for efficiency as the kick in the pants they needed to finally stop making outdated products.
As one example, companies like Deposition Sciences, an optical-coating company in California, are working to make special reflective coatings to surround an incandescent bulb’s filament and make it more efficient. When a tungsten filament is used to make light, most of the energy is actually wasted in the form of heat, not light. It is hoped that special coatings can make a heat mirror that will reflect heat back into the filament and transform that into light. So far, such coatings have created only a 30-percent increase in efficiency in bulbs that have been sold so far, but Deposition Sciences says it has gotten a 50-percent increase in the labs. This tech is being used in bulbs like the Philips Lighting Halogena Energy Savers. Such bulbs are reputedly not as efficient as CFLs, but they do create an alternative to the slower start-up times, potentially dangerous mercury content and other components that lead some to criticize CFLs.
However, some people have just bitten the bullet and focused on non-incandescent options, like working with LED bulbs. LEDs (light-emitting diodes) can be clustered together to make a larger light source, like a bulb you can stick in that lamp on your end table. The advantage is that, through the joys of parallel circuitry and the like, if one little diode dies, there are still plenty other diodes pumping out light like nothing’s wrong, so the “bulb” lasts for a good long while. The disadvantage is that such bulbs are expensive - usually ranging from $65 up to $100 and $120 apiece. Now, I like the concept, and mercury is also not a factor with these bulbs, but I don’t want to have to sell my liver just to buy one. Here’s hoping scientists can think up a way to lower the price tag.
The bottom line is that legislation might be getting tougher, but innovations in energy efficiency might just help the future look a little greener (and brighter, natch).
-Posted by: Erin Wheeler
Back in 2007, when Congress passed a law setting more stringent rules on the manufacture of light bulbs, a lot of people sounded the death knell for Thomas Edison’s incandescent bulb. Australia got rid of them, along with a few other countries, and news articles and blog entries in the United States dubbed the planned phasing out as a full-on “ban.” Now, with President Obama’s most recent call to make lighting more efficient in homes and businesses, it again seems that the incandescent bulb will go the way of the dodo in the name of energy savings.
Or will it? It seems that some folks are instead using this governmental push for efficiency as the kick in the pants they needed to finally stop making outdated products.
As one example, companies like Deposition Sciences, an optical-coating company in California, are working to make special reflective coatings to surround an incandescent bulb’s filament and make it more efficient. When a tungsten filament is used to make light, most of the energy is actually wasted in the form of heat, not light. It is hoped that special coatings can make a heat mirror that will reflect heat back into the filament and transform that into light. So far, such coatings have created only a 30-percent increase in efficiency in bulbs that have been sold so far, but Deposition Sciences says it has gotten a 50-percent increase in the labs. This tech is being used in bulbs like the Philips Lighting Halogena Energy Savers. Such bulbs are reputedly not as efficient as CFLs, but they do create an alternative to the slower start-up times, potentially dangerous mercury content and other components that lead some to criticize CFLs.
However, some people have just bitten the bullet and focused on non-incandescent options, like working with LED bulbs. LEDs (light-emitting diodes) can be clustered together to make a larger light source, like a bulb you can stick in that lamp on your end table. The advantage is that, through the joys of parallel circuitry and the like, if one little diode dies, there are still plenty other diodes pumping out light like nothing’s wrong, so the “bulb” lasts for a good long while. The disadvantage is that such bulbs are expensive - usually ranging from $65 up to $100 and $120 apiece. Now, I like the concept, and mercury is also not a factor with these bulbs, but I don’t want to have to sell my liver just to buy one. Here’s hoping scientists can think up a way to lower the price tag.
The bottom line is that legislation might be getting tougher, but innovations in energy efficiency might just help the future look a little greener (and brighter, natch).
-Posted by: Erin Wheeler
The bike lane that travels with you
URBAN TRANSPORT
The bike lane that travels with you
By Jude Garvey
03:17 June 26, 2009 PDT
LightLane creates a brightly-lit lane around and behind cyclists to improve safety at night
The first automobile crash in the United States is said to have occurred in 1896, in New York City, when a car crashed into - surprise, surprise - a bicyclist. Even today, despite the introduction of reflective gear, helmets and lights, cyclists are still very vulnerable, particularly at night. Enter LightLane – a clever concept that uses lasers to project a virtual bike lane on the ground behind and around the cyclist.
Conceived by Alex Tee and Evan Gant from design firm Altitude Inc., LightLane will mount under the seat and project up to 10 feet behind the rider, giving approaching drivers a clear visual guide to ensure they stay well clear of cyclists at night.
A prototype is in development and the designers hope to have a product ready for Interbike in October.
Gabriel Collins
Eric Giler demos wireless electricity
Eric Giler wants to untangle our wired lives with cable-free electric power. Here, he covers what this sci-fi tech offers, and demos MIT's breakthrough version, WiTricity -- a near-to-market invention that may soon recharge your cell phone, car, pacemaker.
Gabriel Collins
Building Computer Chips With DNA
Researchers have achieved another step in a process which may eventually end up with massively powerful computer chip that virtually assemble themselves using the unique properties of DNA
Nathan Tommer
Nathan Tommer
Materials of The Future
Carbon nanotubes and Buckyballs. Architecture on a molecular scale. Endless possibilities.
Nathan Tommer
Nathan Tommer
29.8.09
Lighting Design Inspiration
Arty sunflowers look good and provide power, too
By Paul Ridden
17:38 August 24, 2009 PDT
The Electric Garden comes to life by night using power captured during the day
A boring and unattractive loading area at the rear of a retail development in Austin, Texas is now hidden from view by a collection of 15 huge blue sunflowers, the petals of which collect energy from the sun to power the artwork's LED lighting and generate funds to help towards costs. Whether driving past or walking through the Electric Garden, onlookers will be treated to an awe-inspiring panorama where art meets functionality.
Commuters on Austin's I-35 are in for a pleasant surprise as they pass loading bays at the rear of some retail outlets on the edge of the Mueller Development. An array of northbound-facing large blue metal flowers have recently grown along a footpath behind the complex in an attempt to divert attention away from the busy loading docks and give onlookers pause for thought.
The 15 sunflowers spend the day soaking up the sun using the blue crystalline photovoltaic solar collector panels which sit on welded steel frames and stems. These eye-catching giants also have stamens containing LEDs which bring the installation to life when the sun goes down.
By day, they provide a shaded canopy for cyclists and pedestrians as well as fodder for some interesting conversations. By night, the LEDs illuminate the walkway beneath thanks to special transparent gel-filled areas in the paneling which allow light to flow downwards.
The panels on the petals of the sunflowers use the collected solar energy to power the LEDs but also to help pay for the operating and maintenance costs of the Garden. The excess 15Kw or so of power collected is fed into the grid which generates a credit from the utility company.
The landscaped icon for sustainable development in energy-conscious Austin, which was officially opened on July 30th, also benefits from genuine trees and shrubs and is the work of artists Mags Harries and Lajos Héder.
Eric Collins
Sunlight Transport System
Inhabitat
April 26, 2005
When I first saw discovered this amazing technology, I instantly wondered why no one has come up with a sunlight transport device before. The technology has been around for awhile, and the idea is so fabulous, you would think we would all have these in our homes by now. Swedish company Parans has developed a system of rooftop solar panels that collect sunlight and then transport it via fiber optic cables to illuminate light-deprived rooms inside a house. The light emitting luminaries, which hang from the ceiling like lamps, give off a mixture of parallel light beams and ambient light, which changes as the sunlight outside changes, resembling the dappling of sunlight through trees. Hence the name “Bjork” which is Swedish for Birch tree (No it doesn’t mean Icelandic pop star). The idea is that by bringing outdoor natural light inside a house, you will be able to re-establish a connection with the outside environment, even in the absence of windows or skylights. This sounds like a great idea for New Yorkers, with all the tiny lightless apartments out there. I want one! My one window faces a brick wall. NYC Developers take note.
Eric Collins
Smarter touch surfaces with new pressure sensitive technology
By Darren Quick 
01:43 August 28, 2009 PDT
A sheet of plastic that has been imprinted with thin lines of conductive metal (Images: Porter Gifford)
Resistance touch technology, which generally relies on the use of a stylus or similar instrument, typically detects touch by measuring changes in electrical resistance. But it can only detect one touch at a time. Touch screen using capacitance technology can detect multiple inputs, but can’t detect pressure. Now researchers at New York University (NYU) are looking to get the best of both worlds with a new type of touch-sensitive pad that responds precisely to pressure and can detect multiple inputs at once.
In an attempt to make a pressure-sensitive touch pad to replace the humble computer mouse researchers Ilya Rosenberg and Ken Perlin printed thin sheets of plastic with a pattern of electrically conductive metal lines. A special program is used to design the pattern, which is tailored for the device’s intended usage. The sheet is then covered with an even coat of semi-conductive, pressure sensitive ink.
Eric Layton
Hi-Res LED Pendant Lamp
A bit of inspiration. Beauty in form. Light 4 is an exploratory exercise in trying to understand the iconic nature of objects through their form. Christian Harrup wanted the design to be unique, functional, and memorable. The main structure of this pendant lamp is made of injection moulded polycarbonate and uses high resolution LED’s or linear fluorescents concealed behind a polycarbonate lens. Simple and totally feasible. The shape lends well to a fashion studio thanks to the inherent “hanger” form.
Erik Roth
New LED tech promises more flexible displays
A new LED display process could change the way you watch TV, monitor your health, and gaze out of windows.
Developed by a team of international researchers, the new process creates tiny, ultrathin inorganic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that shine brighter and last longer than conventional LEDs.
Stretchable micro-LED display, consisting of an interconnected mesh of printed micro LEDs bonded to a rubber substrate.
(Credit: Photo by D. Stevenson and C. Conway, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois)John Rogers, professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois, teamed up with experts at Northwestern University, the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore, and Tsinghua University in Beijing to create the new process, as described in a news story published Thursday by the University of Illinois and in the journal Science.
Micro_LED display printed on a thin sheet of plastic, wrapped around a finger.
(Credit: Photo by D. Stevenson and C. Conway, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois)Inorganic LEDs are bright and long-lasting, but they're costly, thick, and difficult to manufacture. Organic LEDs are cheaper and easier to make, thinner, and can be applied to flexible surfaces. The new process combines the best of both worlds.
"Our goal is to marry some of the advantages of inorganic LED technology with the scalability, ease of processing and resolution of organic LEDs," said Rogers. "By printing large arrays of ultrathin, ultrasmall inorganic LEDs and interconnecting them using thin-film processing, we can create general lighting and high-resolution display systems that otherwise could not be built with the conventional ways that inorganic LEDs are made, manipulated, and assembled."
The technology could pave the way for TV screens that you roll up and brake light indicators that fit the contour of your car.
One especially promising use for flexible LED sheets lies in the medical field. "Wrapping a stretchable sheet of tiny LEDs around the human body offers interesting opportunities in biomedicine and biotechnology," said Rogers, "including applications in health monitoring, diagnostics, and imaging."
Eric Layton
CRISTAL
Now we'll never have to leave the couch again! CRISTAL (Control of Remotely Interfaced Systems using Touch-based Actions in Living spaces) is a extreme simple user interface for controlling multimedia devices and home automation systems. Erik Roth
Airport travellers get a robot chauffeur
Driverless, battery-powered pod-cars will soon zip passengers around part of London's Heathrow Airport. The manufacturers of the Ultra personal rapid transit (PRT) system say it is the world's first public transport to balance the convenience of a taxi with the efficiency of a bus or light rail – albeit only for business passengers arriving at the world's third busiest airport.
Personalised rapid transit has been an elusive dream of engineers and city planners. Since the mid 1970s, many schemes have been proposed at sites around the world, and a PRT-like system has been built at Morgantown in West Virginia. But Ultra is the first PRT system to give passengers control over their destination.
Ultra has been in the works since 2005, when BAA – the company that runs Heathrow – ordered a pilot project from Advanced Transport Systems (ATS) of Bristol, UK. Four years later, Ultra is undergoing final tests before its opening to the general public, planned for later this year.
The Heathrow Ultra system will initially carry passengers between the business car park and terminal 5. Each pod-car holds up to four passengers and can travel at speeds of up to 40 kilometres per hour on 4.3 kilometres of dedicated roadway, stopping at any of three stations. The journey takes around 3 minutes, non-stop, with wait times of no more than a minute for the next available car. A central computer system monitors demand and controls traffic.
Jed Davis
Soap bubbles to take the drag out of future cars
Soap bubbles filled with helium are helping to improve the fuel efficiency of future cars.
The 3-millimetre bubbles swirl around cars in a wind tunnel. Engineers at automotive research consultants Mira in Nuneaton, UK, use 12 cameras to track the bubbles, and so capture air flows in unprecedented detail (see video, above).
The helium in the bubbles gives them neutral buoyancy: left to their own devices they will neither rise or fall in the air, so any up or down movement can be attributed to air flow around the car.
"There aren't any tools in use today that can give such insight into what's going on in the fluid around a vehicle," aerodynamics specialist Angus Lock, who is leading development of the system, told New Scientist.
Low drag
Consumers are beginning to consider fuel economy and carbon emissions when choosing a new car, says Lock, and so aerodynamics has become much more important to car manufacturers. Cutting a vehicle's air resistance is usually a cheaper way of improving those stats than reworking an entire engine or drivetrain.
For example, although the Honda Prius's hybrid engine helps boost its mileage, so does the car's shape, which creates much less drag than other cars in its class.
The bubble technique is not completely new. It has long been used to see how air moves around a structure: for example, it was used to test models of NASA's space shuttle. But Mira's camera system gives extra insight by capturing the precise movement of individual bubbles in 3D for later analysis and exploration.
Jed Davis
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