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Chronicling all the new high tech gadgets that will be running our lives soon.
Updated on Feb 14, 10
Created on Jan 25, 10
Category: Computers & Internet
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Osiris Indigo's List: Incredible Tech
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Feb 14, 10
Using a carbon nanotube instead of traditional silicon, Cornell researchers have created the basic elements of a solar cell that hopefully will lead to much more efficient ways of converting light to electricity than now used in calculators and on rooftops.
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Feb 14, 10
More is merrier for wireless power supply
10:00 14 February 2010 by Nic Fleming
Using magnetic induction to send electricity to devices is more efficient when more than one machine is involved.
The notion of transmitting power over the air is at least 100 years old, with methods from high-powered microwaves to focused beams of infrared being tested.
But researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by physicist Marin Soljacic, think using magnetic fields to induce a current in a distant device is the most promising approach. They tune the transmitter and receiver to magnetically resonate at the same frequency to maximise efficiency. Waves carry energy most effectively between objects that resonate at the same frequency, an effect at work when a singer smashes a nearby glass with the right note.
Two's better than one
In 2007, Soljacic's team reported they could light a 60-watt bulb from across a room.
Now the they have shown it is possible to power two devices wirelessly when they are placed on either side of a single 1–square-metre coil.
A network analyser measured the efficiency of the power transfer, while the researchers varied the distance between the source and receivers from 1.6 metres to 2.7 metres.
The researchers found that power transfer was 10 per cent more efficient with two devices receiving rather than one, regardless of how efficient the transfer was to begin with. Their models suggested that efficiency would be even greater with more devices. Because the efficiency boost is always roughly 10 percentage points, the relative improvement is greatest when a lone device is joined by another, says André Kurs, lead author of a paper on the experiments.
Room coverage
That makes it possible to power a collection of devices with poor individual links, perhaps because they are scattered across a room far from the coil. "We could have reasonably good efficiency over a room-sized area from a coil embedded in ceiling or a wall in order to power multiple gadgets or devices," said -
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A new experiment that reproduces the magnetic fields of the Earth and other planets has yielded its first significant results. The findings confirm that its unique approach has some potential to be developed as a new way of creating a power-producing plant based on nuclear fusion -- the process that generates the sun's prodigious output of energy.
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The new results come from an experimental device on the MIT campus, inspired by observations from space made by satellites. Called the Levitated Dipole Experiment, or LDX, a joint project of MIT and Columbia University, it uses a half-ton donut-shaped magnet about the size and shape of a large truck tire, made of superconducting wire coiled inside a stainless steel vessel. This magnet is suspended by a powerful electromagnetic field, and is used to control the motion of the 10-million-degree-hot electrically charged gas, or plasma, contained within its 16-foot-diameter outer chamber.
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A UK technology company is using quantum-tunnelling to bring a third dimension to mobile touch-screen control
Basic resistive or capacitive technologies are fine for locating where a screen is being touched but poor at gauging the pressure of the touch. The new technology from a company called Peratech, which is based in Richmond, North Yorkshire, uses a material called Quantum Tunnelling Composite (QTC), the resistance of which is extremely sensitive to pressure.
This means it can make writing on screens more like writing with pencil and paper, when the harder you press the thicker the line you produce. Peratech has just announced a $1.4m deal to licence the technology to Japanese mobile screen manufacturer Nissha.
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The exciting one-atom thick super material can now be produced in ample quantities and high quality. Rapid improvements in nanotechnology are now expected.
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Jan 25, 10
"A new experiment that reproduces the magnetic fields of the Earth and other planets has yielded its first significant results. The findings confirm that its unique approach has some potential to be developed as a new way of creating a power-producing plant based on nuclear fusion -- the process that generates the sun's prodigious output of energy."
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Jan 25, 10
""This will be the most important thing I've ever done" - Steve Jobs, referring to the soon-to-be-launched Apple Tablet.\n\nWe haven't heard this first hand, but we've heard it multiple times second and third hand from completely independent sources. Senior Apple execs and friends of Jobs are telling people that he's about as excited about the upcoming Apple Tablet as he's ever been. Coming from the man who has created so much, that's saying something.\n\nIf Steve Jobs thinks the iPhone was just a warm up act to this device, I can't wait to see what it can do. As if our expectations weren't already set high enough. We'll all know a lot more this Wednesday."
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