Monday, April 13, 2009

Augmented Reality

New York City is a very easy place to get lost. Trying to find landmarks and known business are nearly impossible unless you are carrying a lot of maps and books. Now engineers at Nokia are helping improve this by using Mobile Augmented Reality Applications. This is something on your phone where you could hold up a phone to landmarks or known business and it will tell you what they are and where they are. This could also help you when looking for a good restaurant to eat or a nice hotel to stay. Markus Kähäri last October revealed a proto­type of the system at the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality. This is going to help many tourist around the world to get around there city they're in the right way. Not only will it help tourists it will help everyday people navigate themselves around there own cities because no matter how long you have lived in New York City you will never know every restaurant and business.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Sick power

Batteries are needed in everyday life. You use them for your cars, phones, lights, just about anything. The batteries we use for our electronic devices have mostly relied on non-lifelike arrangements such as lead-acid and nickel-cadmium hybrids to produce power. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T) report that they constructed a battery that uses biological matter, namely a virus dubbed M13 as a key component. This virus essentially acts as a “biological scaffold,” to support elements of a lithium ion-type battery. At M.I.T they have already created a prototype that has been as a coin cell, batteries in watches and small lights. Researches believe that eventually this battery would be the new battery used in ipods, cell phones, and even hybrid cars.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Racetrack Memory

There are two main types of memory used in computing today which include flash memory and magnetic hard drives, both with their pros and cons. However, what if a new technology could muster the best qualities of these two technologies, while avoiding their drawbacks? This technology would not only be capable of storing enormous masses of energy, while allowing it to do so at the speed of flash memory but be more efficient (in power and productivity) than any other memory technology in existence today. This is the idea behind Parkin's new technology Racetrack Memory that has the potential to revolutionize memory storage in the computing world.

What sets this new technology apart from the current magnetic drives and solid state drives? As Parkin thoroughly explains current memory technology uses "two-dimensional" concepts, while Racetrack Memory is "three-dimensional". The idea behind racetrack memory is to use vertical nanowires that theoretically can pack 100x more data into the same area as a flash-chip transistor. The nanowires have regions with different magnetic polarities, and the boundaries between the regions represent 1s or 0s. At the base of the U shaped nanowire the boundaries encounter a pair of tiny devices that read and write the data. This memory's speed is fast like dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) used to hold accessed data in computers, yet it can store information even when the power is off. Mainly because there are no atoms being moved in the reading or writing of the data, eliminating wear on the wire.

When Parkin's first proposed this idea in 2003 most believed it to be a great concept that could not possibly work. However, since last December Parkin and his team have been able to successfully move six bits along a wire. If it reaches 10 bits (probably in the near future) it could be competative with flash storage and if his team can manage 100 bits, racetrack memory could replace hardrives. Surely with the progress being made with this new found technology we will experience a new memory storage revolution in the upcoming years.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Sci-Fi City

With the increase of digital screen technology comes dramatically lower prices. The mass production of large digital screens has now reached a cost effective price, opening the way for the futuristic city landscapes of Science Fiction movies to become a reality where digital screens take up all that the eye can see.

Panasonic has released a digital screen dedicated to the digital signage market. The TH-58PF11WK, TH-50PF11WK and the TH-42PF11WK models offer 1920 x 1080p and a 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. In addition, these panels are durable and have over 100,000 hour life span. With a glass panel giving final protection, it makes it perfect for public locations. The screens can be position both in the vertical and the horizontal directions and have easy expandability options. The display id allows up to 100 tv's to be controlled with a single remote.

With these advancements it won't be long before signs of all kinds are replaced with their digital counterparts.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Energy Doors

You've seen revolving doors in malls, stores, supermarkets, and other places. With all the people pushing through these doors scientist made a way the revolving doors can help produce energy. The energy cycle would go from people, to mechanical, to electrical. Revolving doors uses a kind of energy conversion called piezoelectricity, essentially a technique for converting kinetic energy into electrical. Some revolving door utilizes super capacitors that store the generated energy as a buffer. It provides a consistent supply for the low energy LED lights in the ceiling. With this technology the door will save around 4600 kWh per year in energy, which is about enough to power about five average American households for a month. In the long run this door will hopefully broaden the meaning of alternative energy.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Nanohealing!!!

Now there is a new way to heal wounds. This is called Nanohealing also known as the Ellis-Behnke liquid. This liquid has the ability to stop bleeding almost instantly. They are made of peptides that self-assemble into a fibrous mesh but to the naked eye it appears as a clear gel. IT was made by Rutledge Ellis-Behnke who worked on it in MIT labs. Originally, Ellis-Behnke intended to use the material to promote the healing of brain and spinal-cord injuries. To find out how this worked they experimented on brain-damaged hamsters to restore there vision. To show how this worked Elllis-Behnke once made a deep cut in the liver of a rat, intentionally slicing through a main artery­.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Reason for Climate Change

In recent years countless people have been trying to find the cause for the current climate change that has been severely affecting our planet as of late Some researchers say that the sun is getting warmer as years go by, others say it's due to the increase of freshwater in the ocean. However, there is one undeniable fact that has been proven to radically affect the environment the way it has been today. This factor is the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Throughout humanities existence we have been using up most of the Earth's natural resources one more than others, fossil fuels. Prior to the Industrial Revolution the atmospheric concentrations were about 280 parts per million (ppm) for CO2 , now CO2 makes up 386 ppm in the atmoshpere and is rapidly rising. Right now CO2 is mostly monitored from a series of ground observation stations, the most famous being the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. These stations have been measuring atmospheric CO2 levels since 1958. However, despite the amount of data collected by these ground stations it cannot match the information provided by a mere 1-day orbit by the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO).

OCO is a new $278-million satellite that is equipped with three spectrometers to analyze light reflected off the Earth. The satellite also uses a GPS system, commonly found on cell phones and similar devices, to pin point its geographical position to the Earth. The satellite will use this technology to determine how many CO2 molecules are in a part of the atmosphere by how much infrared light has been absorbed. How will this help prevent CO2 concentration you may ask? Well, scientist would analyse the data and enable them to determine what parts of the planet are responsible for producing vast quantities of CO2. Areas like coal power factories, highways, even decaying forests.

In order for this device to analyse the atmosphere the satellite will be placed at an altitude of 438 miles traveling at a velocity of 4.3 miles per second. The satellite will take three measurements per second while circling the Earth from pole to pole as the planet rotates beneath it from its polar orbit. This will lead to a total of 8 million measurements every 16 days. This half ton satellite was scheduled to blast at 4:51 A.M. (Eastern time) on February 24. Hopefully, this device will allow us to decrease the level of concentration of CO2 on the planet and create a cleaner environment for us to live in.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Marking Period 3 Blog Post Due Dates

2/4/09 Jon Filipe                responses due 2/11/09
2/11/09 David Aquino        responses due 2/25/09 *extra week due to Feb Break
2/25/09 Dan Trujillo          responses due 3/4/09
3/4/09 Nick DeGiacomo   responses due 3/11/09
3/11/09 Jon Filipe               responses due 3/18/09
3/18/09 David Aquino       responses due 3/25/09
3/25/09 Dan Trujillo          responses due 4/1/09

Monday, January 19, 2009

space rides

Ever wondered what it'd be like in space? Your dream now becomes a reality with NASA's Suborbital Space Rides. Passengers would spend time in microgravity during rides being offered by aspiring space launch services firms including Virigin Galactic, XCOR Aerospace and others. The Personal Spaceflight Federation (PSF) is the leading organization to make human space rides come true. The fares, which so far range from $95,000 to $200,000 help fund Planetary Sciences division in NASA. This program also has attracted scientists who have been conducting experiments during parabolic flights, which mimic microgravity with 20 to 30 second freefalls through the atmosphere aboard jet aircraft. In addition to getting a ride to outer space, scientists have proposed particle physics experiments, a genetics test, investigations to monitor the sun, an astrophysical experiment related to the theory of relativity, and several materials science exposure runs.

Friday, January 16, 2009

NanoRadio

The new technology is NanoRadio. When you think of small you think of an ipod nano or even somehing you could easily fit in your pocket. Alex Zettl is not stopping there. In order to miniaturize a radio you need to make the antenna and the tuner smaller also. This is a very diffcult task but Alex Zettl found a way to do this by using a single molecule that can receive radio signals at the core of the nanoradio.
Not only is this technology going to make small radios it is going to improve many other things. Tiny radio devices could improve cell phones and allow communication between tiny devices, such as environmental sensors.
In emerging technology smaller is always better, but whats next? The answer is computers so small that you can't see them.

New Algorithm to Revolutionize Data Processing?

Science is all about collecting and making sense of data through hundreds, if not thousands of experiments. With many new large scale projects such as the LHC coming online in recent years, scientists around the globe are being flooded with data. Until now their only choice was to divert money that could have gone into the experiments into purchasing a super computer.

Developers at the University of California, Davis sought to change that, and they have succeeded. In the November-December issue of IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, a paper describing as well as announcing the creation of the algorithm was published. The algorithm not can analyze as well as create images from the data. Something that would have taken a super computer to do, can now be used on a high end laptop.

The algorithm works by splitting the data into tiny parcels. It then analyzes all the parcels separately using what’s known as the Morse-Smale complex. The data is then combined, and anything that isn’t used is simply discarded of. This drastically cuts down the file sizes and the computing power needed to run.

Using algorithms like these, scientists can hopefully overcome the problem of information overload. This is also will cut down costs of running large scale experiments as the cost of processing the data will dramatically decrease, allowing scientists to continue to work towards the ultimate goal of finding just how the universe works.

More information can be found on the University of California, Davis’ website at: http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Classroom Netbooks

Through the growing industry of computers and the decreasing prices of hardware to create netbooks, which are half the price of regular laptop PCs, technology has gradually become more accessible in a school environment. Not only is this affecting schools in the United States, but also schools in developing countries such as Brazil, Jordan, and India.

This in effect brought companies such as Intel to create a "kid-friendly" PC that could fit in a child's educational needs, called the Classmate Netbook PC. These netbooks are not only easy to interact and carry with schoolchildren, mainly due to its tablet mode, but durable enough to survive through any unexpected drops due to its hard plastic exterior and water resistant keyboard. This netbook also carries Intel's Atom chip which allow for longer battery life and better performance.

However, the Classmate Netbook PC is not the only PC available for educational purposes. Other programs such as the One Laptop Per Child program offer the XO computer, in which NComputing claims to be able to deliver their PCs for less than $100, while the ClassmatePC would cost $300 to make (not including software, installation, and computer support). This would be possible by NComputing's "thin-client" model, where several PCs (with limited capabilities) would connect to a central computer to store and retrieve information.

Despite these programs available it still seems that the goal price of $100 per computer cannot be reached due to additional price of software, teacher training, and tech support. Only the future will tell if developing countries will finally be able to afford these types of commodities to educate their children and cultivate a more technologically knowledgeable generation.