Flying Car in China First Test Done.
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
The Roberts Radio is 80 life review 2012
The iconic Roberts Radio is 80 years old, Life review 2012.
One of its first employees (who still works there) tells Emma Barnett about radio’s early days – and its digital future.
In December 1942, Stan Vandenberghe was 14 and embarking on his first job – his only job, as it turned out – at a small, family-run company with just nine employees, in East Molesey, Surrey.
One of its first employees (who still works there) tells Emma Barnett about radio’s early days – and its digital future.
Harry Roberts, the co-founder of what would become a British institution, had spied Stan outside the factory gates one day waiting for his brother to come out. He offered him a job when he was old enough to leave school. And Stan, as he is known to everyone in the business, is still working for Roberts Radio nearly 70 years later.
Roberts’s leather-bound sets – now the height of retro chic – turn 80 in October; and in its anniversary year, it seems the British public has embraced radio once more.
Despite the lure of television, the internet, Xboxes and the Wii, the latest statistics show that a record 91.7 per cent (47.6 million) of the British adult population listen to the radio every week; and the total weekly amount of time we tune in has swelled to 1,076 million hours.
It is a far cry from Stan’s pessimistic prediction to his boss, Harry Roberts, in the Fifties, when TV was taking off. “I turned to him and said: 'Well that’s that then. Radio’s had it,’ he explains. “Harry said: 'Stan, radio is like bread and butter to people; they will never do without it’. ”
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Hybrid solar system makes rooftop hydrogen
While roofs across the world sport photovoltaic solar panels to convert sunlight into electricity, a Duke University engineer believes a novel hybrid system can wring even more useful energy out of the sun's rays.
Instead of systems based on standard solar panels, Duke engineer Nico Hotz proposes a hybrid option in which sunlight heats a combination of water and methanol in a maze of glass tubes on a rooftop. After two catalytic reactions, the system produces hydrogen much more efficiently than current technology without significant impurities. The resulting hydrogen can be stored and used on demand in fuel cells.
For his analysis, Hotz compared the hybrid system to three different technologies in terms of their exergetic performance. Exergy is a way of describing how much of a given quantity of energy can theoretically be converted to useful work.
"The hybrid system achieved exergetic efficiencies of 28.5 percent in the summer and 18.5 percent in the winter, compared to 5 to 15 percent for the conventional systems in the summer, and 2.5 to 5 percent in the winter," said Hotz, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering.
The paper describing the results of Hotz's analysis was named the top paper during the ASME Energy Sustainability Fuel Cell 2011 conference in Washington, D.C. Hotz recently joined the Duke faculty after completing post-graduate work at the University of California-Berkeley, where he analyzed a model of the new system. He is currently constructing one of the systems at Duke to test whether or not the theoretical efficiencies are born out experimentally.
Hotz's comparisons took place during the months of July and February in order to measure each system's performance during summer and winter months.
Like other solar-based systems, the hybrid system begins with the collection of sunlight. Then things get different. While the hybrid device might look like a traditional solar collector from the distance, it is actually a series of copper tubes coated with a thin layer of aluminum and aluminum oxide and partly filled with catalytic nanoparticles. A combination of water and methanol flows through the tubes, which are sealed in a vacuum.
"This set-up allows up to 95 percent of the sunlight to be absorbed with very little being lost as heat to the surroundings," Hotz said. "This is crucial because it permits us to achieve temperatures of well over 200 degrees Celsius within the tubes. By comparison, a standard solar collector can only heat water between 60 and 70 degrees Celsius."
Once the evaporated liquid achieves these higher temperatures, tiny amounts of a catalyst are added, which produces hydrogen. This combination of high temperature and added catalysts produces hydrogen very efficiently, Hotz said. The resulting hydrogen can then be immediately directed to a fuel cell to provide electricity to a building during the day, or compressed and stored in a tank to provide power later.
The three systems examined in the analysis were the standard photovoltaic cell which converts sunlight directly into electricity to then split water electrolytically into hydrogen and oxygen; a photocatalytic system producing hydrogen similar to Hotz's system, but simpler and not mature yet; and a system in which photovoltaic cells turn sunlight into electricity which is then stored in different types of batteries (with lithium ion being the most efficient).
"We performed a cost analysis and found that the hybrid solar-methanol is the least expensive solution, considering the total installation costs of $7,900 if designed to fulfill the requirements in summer, although this is still much more expensive than a conventional fossil fuel-fed generator," Hotz said.
Costs and efficiencies of systems can vary widely depending on location – since the roof-mounted collectors that could provide all the building's needs in summer might not be enough for winter. A rooftop system large enough to supply all of a winter's electrical needs would produce more energy than needed in summer, so the owner could decide to shut down portions of the rooftop structure or, if possible, sell excess energy back to the grid.
"The installation costs per year including the fuel costs, and the price per amount of electricity produced, however showed that the (hybrid) solar scenarios can compete with the fossil fuel-based system to some degree," Hotz said. 'In summer, the first and third scenarios, as well as the hybrid system, are cheaper than a propane- or diesel-combusting generator."
This could be an important consideration, especially if a structure is to be located in a remote area where traditional forms of energy would be too difficult or expensive to obtain.
Provided by Duke University (news : web)
Instead of systems based on standard solar panels, Duke engineer Nico Hotz proposes a hybrid option in which sunlight heats a combination of water and methanol in a maze of glass tubes on a rooftop. After two catalytic reactions, the system produces hydrogen much more efficiently than current technology without significant impurities. The resulting hydrogen can be stored and used on demand in fuel cells.
For his analysis, Hotz compared the hybrid system to three different technologies in terms of their exergetic performance. Exergy is a way of describing how much of a given quantity of energy can theoretically be converted to useful work.
"The hybrid system achieved exergetic efficiencies of 28.5 percent in the summer and 18.5 percent in the winter, compared to 5 to 15 percent for the conventional systems in the summer, and 2.5 to 5 percent in the winter," said Hotz, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering.
The paper describing the results of Hotz's analysis was named the top paper during the ASME Energy Sustainability Fuel Cell 2011 conference in Washington, D.C. Hotz recently joined the Duke faculty after completing post-graduate work at the University of California-Berkeley, where he analyzed a model of the new system. He is currently constructing one of the systems at Duke to test whether or not the theoretical efficiencies are born out experimentally.
Hotz's comparisons took place during the months of July and February in order to measure each system's performance during summer and winter months.
Like other solar-based systems, the hybrid system begins with the collection of sunlight. Then things get different. While the hybrid device might look like a traditional solar collector from the distance, it is actually a series of copper tubes coated with a thin layer of aluminum and aluminum oxide and partly filled with catalytic nanoparticles. A combination of water and methanol flows through the tubes, which are sealed in a vacuum.
"This set-up allows up to 95 percent of the sunlight to be absorbed with very little being lost as heat to the surroundings," Hotz said. "This is crucial because it permits us to achieve temperatures of well over 200 degrees Celsius within the tubes. By comparison, a standard solar collector can only heat water between 60 and 70 degrees Celsius."
Once the evaporated liquid achieves these higher temperatures, tiny amounts of a catalyst are added, which produces hydrogen. This combination of high temperature and added catalysts produces hydrogen very efficiently, Hotz said. The resulting hydrogen can then be immediately directed to a fuel cell to provide electricity to a building during the day, or compressed and stored in a tank to provide power later.
The three systems examined in the analysis were the standard photovoltaic cell which converts sunlight directly into electricity to then split water electrolytically into hydrogen and oxygen; a photocatalytic system producing hydrogen similar to Hotz's system, but simpler and not mature yet; and a system in which photovoltaic cells turn sunlight into electricity which is then stored in different types of batteries (with lithium ion being the most efficient).
"We performed a cost analysis and found that the hybrid solar-methanol is the least expensive solution, considering the total installation costs of $7,900 if designed to fulfill the requirements in summer, although this is still much more expensive than a conventional fossil fuel-fed generator," Hotz said.
Costs and efficiencies of systems can vary widely depending on location – since the roof-mounted collectors that could provide all the building's needs in summer might not be enough for winter. A rooftop system large enough to supply all of a winter's electrical needs would produce more energy than needed in summer, so the owner could decide to shut down portions of the rooftop structure or, if possible, sell excess energy back to the grid.
"The installation costs per year including the fuel costs, and the price per amount of electricity produced, however showed that the (hybrid) solar scenarios can compete with the fossil fuel-based system to some degree," Hotz said. 'In summer, the first and third scenarios, as well as the hybrid system, are cheaper than a propane- or diesel-combusting generator."
This could be an important consideration, especially if a structure is to be located in a remote area where traditional forms of energy would be too difficult or expensive to obtain.
Provided by Duke University (news : web)
Thursday, July 14, 2011
New Transistor will Built Atom by Atom
A more precise manufacturing method will help as electronics shrink ever smaller.
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Chip stack: This illustration shows the layers that make up a gate in a 22-nanometer transistor. The white balls on the bottom are silicon. The light blue balls in the middle are silicon dioxide molecules; the larger turquoise balls higher up are hafnium oxide; and the yellow balls are nitrogen atoms.
Credit: Applied Materials.
Applied Materials, the world's leading supplier of manufacturing equipment to chipmakers, has announced a new system for making one of the most critical layers of the transistors found in logic circuits.
Applied Materials' new tool, announced at the Semicon West conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, deposits a critical layer in transistors one atom at a time, providing unprecedented precision.
As chipmakers scale transistors down to ever-smaller sizes, enabling speedier and more power-efficient electronics, atomic-scale manufacturing precision is a growing concern. The first chips with transistors just 22 nanometers in size are going into production this year, and at that size, even the tiniest inconsistencies can mean that a chip intended to sell at a premium must instead be used for low-end gadgetry.
Transistors are made up of multiple layers: an active silicon material topped with an interfacing layer and then a layer of a material called a dielectric, which makes up the "gate" that switches the transistor on and off.
Applied Materials sells equipment for depositing these layers, called the gate stack, on top of silicon wafers. In the switch from today's 32-nanometer to the next generation of 22-nanometer transistors, it's become trickier to make the gate. The interface and dielectric layers both have to get thinner, and the behavior of the layers can be affected by tiny flaws where the materials touch. And as the layers get thinner, tiny flaws can be magnified even more than in larger transistors made from thicker layers.
Manufacturing accuracy will be even more important in the next-generation three-dimensional transistors that chipmaker Intel will begin producing later this year. In these devices, the active area is a raised strip that the interface and gate layers contact on three sides. This increased area of contact helps these devices perform better, but it also means an increased vulnerability to flaws.
The process uses atomic-layer deposition, or ALD, which lays down a single atomic layer of the dielectric at a time. This method is more expensive, but it's become necessary, says Atif Noori, global product manager of Applied Materials' ALD division. For the heart of the transistor—the gate—to work, "you have to make sure you're putting all the atoms right where you want them."
One source of inconsistencies in microchips is exposure to air. In Applied Materials' new tool, the entire process of depositing the gate stack is done in a vacuum, one wafer at a time. Making the gate stack entirely under a vacuum also leads to a 5 to 10 percent increase in the speed at which electrons travel through the transistor; this can translate into power savings or faster processing. Ordinarily, there's significant variation in the amount of power it takes to turn on a given transistor on a chip; manufacturing under a vacuum tightens that distribution by 20 to 40 percent.
Credit: Applied Materials.
Applied Materials, the world's leading supplier of manufacturing equipment to chipmakers, has announced a new system for making one of the most critical layers of the transistors found in logic circuits.
Applied Materials' new tool, announced at the Semicon West conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, deposits a critical layer in transistors one atom at a time, providing unprecedented precision.
As chipmakers scale transistors down to ever-smaller sizes, enabling speedier and more power-efficient electronics, atomic-scale manufacturing precision is a growing concern. The first chips with transistors just 22 nanometers in size are going into production this year, and at that size, even the tiniest inconsistencies can mean that a chip intended to sell at a premium must instead be used for low-end gadgetry.
Transistors are made up of multiple layers: an active silicon material topped with an interfacing layer and then a layer of a material called a dielectric, which makes up the "gate" that switches the transistor on and off.
Applied Materials sells equipment for depositing these layers, called the gate stack, on top of silicon wafers. In the switch from today's 32-nanometer to the next generation of 22-nanometer transistors, it's become trickier to make the gate. The interface and dielectric layers both have to get thinner, and the behavior of the layers can be affected by tiny flaws where the materials touch. And as the layers get thinner, tiny flaws can be magnified even more than in larger transistors made from thicker layers.
Manufacturing accuracy will be even more important in the next-generation three-dimensional transistors that chipmaker Intel will begin producing later this year. In these devices, the active area is a raised strip that the interface and gate layers contact on three sides. This increased area of contact helps these devices perform better, but it also means an increased vulnerability to flaws.
The process uses atomic-layer deposition, or ALD, which lays down a single atomic layer of the dielectric at a time. This method is more expensive, but it's become necessary, says Atif Noori, global product manager of Applied Materials' ALD division. For the heart of the transistor—the gate—to work, "you have to make sure you're putting all the atoms right where you want them."
One source of inconsistencies in microchips is exposure to air. In Applied Materials' new tool, the entire process of depositing the gate stack is done in a vacuum, one wafer at a time. Making the gate stack entirely under a vacuum also leads to a 5 to 10 percent increase in the speed at which electrons travel through the transistor; this can translate into power savings or faster processing. Ordinarily, there's significant variation in the amount of power it takes to turn on a given transistor on a chip; manufacturing under a vacuum tightens that distribution by 20 to 40 percent.
A New Direction for Digital Compasses
The advance could lead to motion sensors showing up in running shoes and tennis rackets.
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Cell phones and many other mobile devices now come packed with sensors capable of tracking them as they move. The digital compasses, gyroscopes, and accelerometers embedded in such devices have spawned a wide range of location-based services, as well as novel ways of controlling mobile gadgets—for instance, with a shake or a flick. Now a new way of making these sensors could make such technology smaller and cheaper.
The advance could also result in motion sensors appearing in many more devices and objects, including running shoes or tennis rackets, says Nigel Drew of the Barcelona, Spain-based Baolab Microsystems, which developed the new technology.
Baolab has made a new kind of digital compass using a simpler manufacturing method. The technology will appear in GPS devices next year, says Drew. The company has also made prototype accelerometers and gyroscopes, and plans to combine all three types of sensor on the same chip.
Conventional digital compasses are made using what's called complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor manufacturing, the most common method for making microchips and electronic control circuitry. But such compasses include structures such as magnetic field concentrators that need to be added after the chip is made, which adds complexity and cost. "The fundamental difference is that [our compass is] made entirely within the standard CMOS," says Drew.
This is possible because the compass exploits a phenomenon called the Lorentz force. Most commercial digital compasses rely on a different phenomenon, called the Hall Effect, which works by running a current through a conductor and measuring changes in voltage caused by the Earth's magnetic field.
The Lorentz force, in contrast, happens when a magnetic field generates a force on a conducting material when a current is flowing through it. A device can determine the magnetic field by measuring the displacement of an object upon which this force is acting.
In Baolab's chips, a nanoscale micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) is etched out of a conventional silicon chip. This nano-MEMS device consists of an aluminum mass suspended by springs. When a device drives a current through the mass, any magnetic fields present will exert a force on the mass and affect its resonance. A pair of metal plates that flank the mass will detect these changes. A device can they measure the magnetic field in one direction by noting minuscule changes in the capacitance of these plates. Using a set of three of these sensors, the device can determine direction of the Earth's magnetic field, and hence it's orientation.
"This sort of MEMS-CMOS co-integration technology will improve the sensitivity and enable smaller, and therefore cheaper, sensor chips compared to the conventional ones," says Hiroshi Mizuta, a professor of nanoelectronics at Southampton University's NANO Group.
Each of Baolab's nano-MEMS sensors is less than 90 microns long. Drew says it should be possible to integrate all three types of sensors into a single chip just three millimeters long.
The advance could also result in motion sensors appearing in many more devices and objects, including running shoes or tennis rackets, says Nigel Drew of the Barcelona, Spain-based Baolab Microsystems, which developed the new technology.
Baolab has made a new kind of digital compass using a simpler manufacturing method. The technology will appear in GPS devices next year, says Drew. The company has also made prototype accelerometers and gyroscopes, and plans to combine all three types of sensor on the same chip.
Conventional digital compasses are made using what's called complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor manufacturing, the most common method for making microchips and electronic control circuitry. But such compasses include structures such as magnetic field concentrators that need to be added after the chip is made, which adds complexity and cost. "The fundamental difference is that [our compass is] made entirely within the standard CMOS," says Drew.
This is possible because the compass exploits a phenomenon called the Lorentz force. Most commercial digital compasses rely on a different phenomenon, called the Hall Effect, which works by running a current through a conductor and measuring changes in voltage caused by the Earth's magnetic field.
The Lorentz force, in contrast, happens when a magnetic field generates a force on a conducting material when a current is flowing through it. A device can determine the magnetic field by measuring the displacement of an object upon which this force is acting.
In Baolab's chips, a nanoscale micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) is etched out of a conventional silicon chip. This nano-MEMS device consists of an aluminum mass suspended by springs. When a device drives a current through the mass, any magnetic fields present will exert a force on the mass and affect its resonance. A pair of metal plates that flank the mass will detect these changes. A device can they measure the magnetic field in one direction by noting minuscule changes in the capacitance of these plates. Using a set of three of these sensors, the device can determine direction of the Earth's magnetic field, and hence it's orientation.
"This sort of MEMS-CMOS co-integration technology will improve the sensitivity and enable smaller, and therefore cheaper, sensor chips compared to the conventional ones," says Hiroshi Mizuta, a professor of nanoelectronics at Southampton University's NANO Group.
Each of Baolab's nano-MEMS sensors is less than 90 microns long. Drew says it should be possible to integrate all three types of sensors into a single chip just three millimeters long.
Soft Memory Chip have new windows for biocompatible electronics
Conventional electronics are typically made of rigid, brittle materials and don't function well in a wet environment. "Our memory device is soft and pliable, and functions extremely well in wet environments -- similar to the human brain," says researcher Michael Dickey. Credit: Michael Dickey, North Carolina State University.
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Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a memory device that is soft and functions well in wet environments – opening the door to a new generation of biocompatible electronic devices.
"We've created a memory device with the physical properties of Jell-O," says Dr. Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research.
Conventional electronics are typically made of rigid, brittle materials and don't function well in a wet environment. "Our memory device is soft and pliable, and functions extremely well in wet environments – similar to the human brain," Dickey says.
The device's ability to function in wet environments, and the biocompatibility of the gels, mean that this technology holds promise for interfacing electronics with biological systems – such as cells, enzymes or tissue. "These properties may be used for biological sensors or for medical monitoring," Dickey says.
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In each of the memory device's circuits, the metal alloy is the circuit's electrode and sits on either side of a conductive piece of gel. When the alloy electrode is exposed to a positive charge it creates an oxidized skin that makes it resistive to electricity. We'll call that the 0. When the electrode is exposed to a negative charge, the oxidized skin disappears, and it becomes conducive to electricity. We'll call that the 1.
Normally, whenever a negative charge is applied to one side of the electrode, the positive charge would move to the other side and create another oxidized skin – meaning the electrode would always be resistive. To solve that problem, the researchers "doped" one side of the gel slab with a polymer that prevents the formation of a stable oxidized skin. That way one electrode is always conducive – giving the device the 1s and 0s it needs for electronic memory.
Provided by North Carolina State University (news : web)
"We've created a memory device with the physical properties of Jell-O," says Dr. Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research.
Conventional electronics are typically made of rigid, brittle materials and don't function well in a wet environment. "Our memory device is soft and pliable, and functions extremely well in wet environments – similar to the human brain," Dickey says.
Researchers have created a memory device with the physical properties of Jell-O, and that functions well in wet environments. Credit: Michael Dickey, North Carolina State University
Prototypes of the device have not yet been optimized to hold significant amounts of memory, but work well in environments that would be hostile to traditional electronics. The devices are made using a liquid alloy of gallium and indium metals set into water-based gels, similar to gels used in biological research.The device's ability to function in wet environments, and the biocompatibility of the gels, mean that this technology holds promise for interfacing electronics with biological systems – such as cells, enzymes or tissue. "These properties may be used for biological sensors or for medical monitoring," Dickey says.
The individual components of the "mushy" memory device have two states: one that conducts electricity and one that does not. These two states can be used to represent the 1s and 0s used in binary language. Most conventional electronics use electrons to create these 1s and 0s in computer chips. The mushy memory device uses charged molecules called ions to do the same thing. Credit: Michael Dickey, North Carolina State University.
The device functions much like so-called "memristors," which are vaunted as a possible next-generation memory technology. The individual components of the "mushy" memory device have two states: one that conducts electricity and one that does not. These two states can be used to represent the 1s and 0s used in binary language. Most conventional electronics use electrons to create these 1s and 0s in computer chips. The mushy memory device uses charged molecules called ions to do the same thing.In each of the memory device's circuits, the metal alloy is the circuit's electrode and sits on either side of a conductive piece of gel. When the alloy electrode is exposed to a positive charge it creates an oxidized skin that makes it resistive to electricity. We'll call that the 0. When the electrode is exposed to a negative charge, the oxidized skin disappears, and it becomes conducive to electricity. We'll call that the 1.
Normally, whenever a negative charge is applied to one side of the electrode, the positive charge would move to the other side and create another oxidized skin – meaning the electrode would always be resistive. To solve that problem, the researchers "doped" one side of the gel slab with a polymer that prevents the formation of a stable oxidized skin. That way one electrode is always conducive – giving the device the 1s and 0s it needs for electronic memory.
Provided by North Carolina State University (news : web)
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
New Video Glasses For Blinds Like Smartphones
Bionic glasses for poor vision
A set of glasses packed with technology normally seen in smartphones and games consoles is the main draw at one of the featured stands at this year’s Royal Society Summer Science
Exhibition.
But the exhibit isn’t about the latest gadget must-have, it’s all about aiding those with poor vision and giving them greater independence.
‘We want to be able to enhance vision in those who’ve lost it or who have little left or almost none,’ explains Dr Stephen Hicks of the Department of Clinical Neurology at Oxford University. ‘The glasses should allow people to be more independent – finding their own directions and signposts, and spotting warning signals,’ he says.Technology developed for mobile phones and computer gaming – such as video cameras, position detectors, face recognition and tracking software, and depth sensors – is now readily and cheaply available. So Oxford researchers have been looking at ways that this technology can be combined into a normal-looking pair of glasses to help those who might have just a small area of vision left, have cloudy or blurry vision, or can’t process detailed images.
The glasses should be appropriate for common types of visual impairment such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. NHS Choices estimates around 30% of people who are over 75 have early signs of age-related macular degeneration, and about 7% have more advanced forms.
‘The types of poor vision we are talking about are where you might be able to see your own hand moving in front of you, but you can’t define the fingers,’ explains Stephen.
The glasses have video cameras mounted at the corners to capture what the wearer is looking at, while a display of tiny lights embedded in the see-through lenses of the glasses feed back extra information about objects, people or obstacles in view.
In between, a smartphone-type computer running in your pocket recognises objects in the video image or tracks where a person is, driving the lights in the display in real time.
The extra information the glasses display about their surroundings should allow people to navigate round a room, pick out the most relevant things and locate objects placed nearby.
‘The glasses must look discrete, allow eye contact between people and present a simplified image to people with poor vision, to help them maintain independence in life,’ says Stephen. These guiding principles are important for coming up with an aid that is acceptable for people to wear in public, with eye contact being so important in social relationships, he explains. The see-through display means other people can see you, while different light colours might allow different types of information to be fed back to the wearer, Stephen says. You could have different colours for people, or important objects, and brightness could tell you how near things were.
Stephen even suggests it may be possible for the technology to read back newspaper headlines. He says something called optical character recognition is coming on, so it possible to foresee a computer distinguishing headlines from a video image then have these read back to the wearer through earphones coming with the glasses. A whole stream of such ideas and uses are possible, he suggests. There are barcode readers in some mobile phones that download the prices of products; such barcode and price tag readers could also be useful additions to the glasses.
Stephen believes these hi-tech glasses can be realised for similar costs as smartphones – around £500. For comparison, a guide dog costs around £25-30,000 to train, he estimates.
He adds that people will have to get used to the extra information relayed on the glasses’ display, but that it might be similar to physiotherapy – the glasses will need to be tailored for individuals, their vision and their needs, and it will take a bit of time and practise to start seeing the benefits.
The exhibit at the Royal Society will take visitors through how the technology will work. ‘The primary aim is to simulate the experience of a visual prosthetic to give people an idea of what can be seen and how it might look,’ Stephen says.
A giant screen with video images of the exhibition floor itself will show people-tracking and depth perception at work. Another screen will invite visitors to see how good they are at navigating with this information. A small display added to the lenses of ski goggles should give people sufficient information to find their way round a set of tasks. An early prototype of a transparent LED array for the eventual glasses will also be on display.
All of this is very much at an early stage. The group is still assembling prototypes of their glasses. But as well as being one of the featured stands at the Royal Society’s exhibition, they have funding from the National Institute of Health Research to do a year-long feasibility study and plan to try out early systems with a few people in their own homes later this year.
Provided by Oxford University (news : web)
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Sunday, June 19, 2011
New Pleane at rocket Speed by EADS
New rocketplane 'could fly Paris-Tokyo in 2.5 hours'
A computer-generated image from the European defense group EADS shows the so-called "Zero Emission Hypersonic Transportation" (Zehst) rocket. The European aerospace giant said it hopes the rocket plane will be able to fly from Paris to Tokyo in 2.5 hours by around 2050.
European aerospace giant EADS on Sunday unveiled its "Zero Emission Hypersonic Transportation" (Zehst) rocket plane it hopes will be able to fly from Paris to "I imagine the plane of the future to look like Zehst," EADS' chief technical officer Jean Botti said as the project was announced at Le Bourget airport the day before the start of the Paris International Air Show.
Tokyo in 2.5 hours by around 2050.
The low-pollution plane to carry between 50 and 100 passengers will take off using normal engines powered by biofuel made from seaweed before switching on its rocket engines at altitude.The rocket engines, powered by hydrogen and oxygen whose only exhaust is water vapour, propel the plane to a cruising altitude of 32 kilometres (20 miles), compared to today's passenger jets which fly at around 10,000 metres.
"You don't pollute, you're in the stratosphere," Botti said.
To land, the pilot cuts the engines and glides down to Earth before reigniting the regular engines before landing.
EADS hopes to have a prototype built by 2020 and for the plane to eventually enter service around 2050.
The project is being developed in collaboration with Japan and uses technology that is already available.
A four-metre model of the plane, which looks similar to the now defunct Concorde supersonic jet, will be on show at Bourget for the biannual aerospace showcase which begins on Monday and opens to the general public on Friday.
(c) 2011 AFP