We all are well familiar with VLC media player. Here I'm going to tell a cool and funny trick for VLC Media player.
- Open VLC Media Player
- Press Ctrl + N
- Type 'screen://' ( without the quotes )
- Click on Play
- Now , wait and watch
- Enjoy
A combination of the two technologies--wireless power transfer and magnetic levitation--does this trick.
Watching a thousand glowing light bulbs floating in mid-air, is no longer a distant reality. It could now be possible thanks to a project by Chris Rieger, an electrical engineering student currently enrolled at University of Queensland. What did the trick for Rieger was a combination of the two technologies called wireless power transfer and magnetic levitation. While he modified an existing circuit built by Eric Taylor for levitating the bulb, he made changes to the circuit design by Marko for building a wireless power transfer.
Sharing the details of the project, Rieger says: "This is a project I've been working on for about six months now next to my regular studies. It is a levitating light bulb. This project came to life when i saw Jeff Lieberman's implementation of it a few months before starting. I was fascinated and started research on building my own, reading many academic papers and spending long nights reading up on pretty much every project which included wireless power transfer or magnetic leviation. What I found is that there are many many existing projects of both, but only a few have combined both these technologies. Once you have both working, it's really just a matter of overlaying them. The high frequency magnetic field generated from the wireless power transfer circuit does not effect the leviation aspect of the build."
He adds: "For the levitation system, I ended up slightly modifying an existing circuit built by Eric Taylor. My configuration is slightly different and am using a 3-pin linear hall effect sensor from RS components to act as the feedback mechanism. I opted for a 1.325mV/g sensor (the smallest sensitivity i could find), as the magnetic flux it was sensing was maxing out the reading on others. If you are looking to build one, this circuit is simple and works with only slight modification depending on the input sensor you have. The drive coil I'm using is 300 metres (1kg) of 20awg wire. It draws about 0.2 - 0.25A when stable at 12V. It doesn't seem to heat up over time, unless the light is not levitating, in which maximum (0.8A) current is driven through the coil."
To read more about this project go here : http://chrisrieger.com/LevLight.aspx
The researchers can control the surface, texture and the reflectance of the surface by using speakers that emit ultrasonic sound waves.
Talk about thin displays and this news can truly take the cake away. A set of researchers at the University of Tokyo developed the world's thinnest screen, using a soap bubble! This screen is different from regular screens because a soap bubble is transparent and the "micro-membrane" allows the passage of light and displays colors. Researcher, Yoichi Ochiai along with his colleagues created an ultra-thin and flexible Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF). They used a mix of two colloidal liquids to make the screen. Ochiai's official blog states: "There have been several researches on dynamic BRDF display in the past. However, our work is different in several ways."
That blog states that the researchers can control the surface, texture and the reflectance of the surface by using speakers that emit ultrasonic sound waves. It further reads: "The combination of the ultrasonic waves and ultra thin membranes results in more realistic, distinctive, and vivid imageries on the screen. This system contributes to open up a new path for display engineering with sharp imageries, transparency, BRDF and flexibility." Interestingly, one can even poke the bubble allowing for interactivity.
If their claims are anything to go by, this may give way to a new chapter for flexible displays. The soap bubble display will be visible at SIGGRAPH 2012 (The 39th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) which is set to be held.
Luc Douay, a researcher at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris was successful in creating artificial red blood cells in a lab. The researchers were also able to inject it into a human and the results were positive without any side-effects.
A healthy volunteer was first selected for the program, and his hematopoietic stem cells were extracted from his bone marrow. Some of the basic growth factors that are required for the growth of a red blood cell were also mixed with this sample. Luc’s team labelled these cultured cells for tracing, and injected 10 billion of them (approximately equal to two millilitres of blood), back into the same donor’s body.
They found out that almost the whole percentage of blood cells remained circulating in the body for the first five days. Like in the case of naturally produced red blood cells, about (45-65)% of the blood cells remained in the body after 26 days of experimentation. As no serious conditions were registered for a month after the experiment was conducted, it was sure that the red blood cells injected were working like a normal blood cell, and carried the oxygen around the whole body.
This experiment is sure going to be a stepping stone to further technologies, and a clear way to produce an artificial blood reserve without the help of any blood donor. Though the numbers of blood donors have increased in the past couple of years, their reserve list is still short in some parts of the world, where the number of people suffering from HIV and blood cancer are comparatively more.
There are also researches going on in developing an artificial blood substitute that is known to be less toxic than the protein in its unbounded state. Such a substitute was first developed by Chris Cooper of the University of Essex in Colchester. He was able to develop a haemoglobin based blood substitute that could easily provide a solution for transfusion in worst cases like natural disasters, and combat fields. The main advantage of such a system is that there is no need to store it in a cool place like a fresh and stem cell-grown blood.
But the former technology has more advantages than this one. Since the blood grown through stem cell method resembles a real blood cell, it can easily alleviate some of the safety concerns that continue around the use of the current generations of artificial products.
When it comes to light weight materials, the first thing that comes to our mind is Thermocol.
Since its discovery in the year 1941, it has been used in many applications that are suitable for the common man like small life raft, disposable coffee cups, cushioning material in packaging, and so on. Since then, the weights of most light weight materials are compared to Thermocol, and have been given a special category called Ultra-light materials. A team of researchers from HRL Laboratories (Hughes Research Laboratories), in collaboration with Caltech and the University of California, developed a new material that weighs only 1/100th of the weight of Thermocol. The material is also known o be lighter than a diamond aerogel, one of the best ultra-light materials in the world. Before going into detail about the lightest material, let us make a brief study about diamond aerogels.
Diamond aerogel was discovered by researchers at the Lawrence Rivermore National Laboratory by combining high density diamond substances and least dense materials called aerogels. Aerogel is known to be a porous, diffuse rigid material that looks similar to a solid block of smoke and with the texture of a chunk of thermocol. They are industrially manufactured by constructing a conventional gel and then removing the liquid though supercritical drying. The material finds various applications in the making of insulate space suits, pick up cosmic particles, and even home insulation.
The combination of both the materials gave birth to a spongy, translucent version of a diamond. This material when tested was found out to be the least dense diamond ever, and thus the most expensive aerogel ever. They called it a diamond aerogel, definitely the least dense diamond ever and perhaps one of the most valuable aerogels ever. The material was found to be a little denser than air and has all the physical capabilities of a non-liquid gel component. This material also found many applications in the field of structural engineering, optical engineering, and quantum computing and so on.
The lately found ultra-light material has a density of 0.9 mg/cc, and is known to have its own unique kind of “micro-lattice” cellular architecture. The researchers were successful in making a material that consists of 99.99% open volume by designing the 0.01% solid at the nanometer, micron and millimetre scales.
The material was developed for DARPA so that it could be used for applications in battery electrodes, catalyst supports, vibration or shock energy damping applications and so on. The material has shown excellent mechanical behaviour for a metal, including complete recovery from compression exceeding 50% strain and extraordinarily high energy absorption, when compared to its compact architecture.
This discovery has led the researchers to bring in more ideas to revolutionalize lightweight materials by using this concept to the materials level and designing their architectures at the nano scale.
Artificial satellites placed in orbits are used for a variety of purposes like communication, GPS, military applications, TV broadcasting, and so on.
No matter how much time and money has been spent on building these hi-tech devices, satellites are basically just machines, and constant use can damage any machine. Every year NASA is spending millions of dollars just for the maintenance of these satellites, but they have not found a feasible way to repair a damaged one. Till present, there was only one option left for the researchers –completely blow–off the satellite!!They could not find any other feasible method to repair it. They tried using manpower by sending them directly to the repair site. This turned out to be a bad idea, as they could not adapt themselves to the outer space characteristics.NASA had to face a lot of criticism for blowing up satellites in outer space. Since a single satellite contains millions of electronic equipments, blowing them off would literally mean the disposal of e- waste all over the outer space. These toxic wastes could bring serious threats to humans by affecting the Earth’s atmosphere in the coming future.
A remotely operated robot could easily do the job but controlling of the robot will be a difficult task. Precise controlling of the robot is necessary, as things are different in outer space.
Engineers at John Hopkins University are known for designing robots for medical purposes. They have created various robots that were used in medical transplants and other complex surgeries. Currently they are working on a project in which a medical surgery robot called da Vinci console is transformed into a robot that can be used for repairing satellites.
A brief description of this robotic surgery project has been presented by two graduate students Tian Xia and Jonathan Bohren from John Hopkins’ Homewood campus . In this demonstration, researchers showed how the da Vinci console, which was used for the treatment of cancer was modified as a satellite-repairing robot. It consists of a 3D eyepiece by which the operator can remotely control the robot. By using the 3D eye piece the user gets a better vision which helps him to repair with ease .
It also includes a touch or haptic feedback to the operator. With the technology the user gets to know the exact amount of force, vibration or motion applied to the machine through computer stimulation.
This robot was successfully tested on 29th November 2011. The modified da Vinci console was used to control an Industrial robot at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre about 30 miles away . This test was successful and researchers concluded that they could use it in space mission too. The most challenging problem is that the satellites are travelling in an orbit and thus, prone to time delay for signal reception. Researchers may have used special algorithms to refine this problem. The robot can also be used for refueling satellites.
Radar detection has always been the nightmare of military aircrafts. Once spotted in the radar zone, it is easy to destroy the aircraft in mid air by using anti-aircraft missiles.
Defense personnel’s across the world are investing billions to develop better stealth equipped aircrafts that will easily escape from radar eyes. The concept of stealth is applied on an aircraft by making changes in the aircraft design such that it deflects the radar beams instead of reflecting them. The aircraft design is such that there are no perpendicular sections in the body of the plane, so the radar beam never reflects back to the receiver. While making a stealth aircraft we have to compromise with one of its main factor – the engine power. Though reducing the engine power can reduce the heat signature, the speed of the aircraft will also be compromised. What if we could develop a better stealth technology without compromising the aircrafts’ speed? We are talking about a technology that will make any aircraft invisible for radars.Researchers have invented a special nano tube paint to make any object ultra black. This concept is also used for making aircrafts invisible to radars.
Engineers of NASA developed carbon nano tubes, being the ‘blackest ‘known material for their space missions. Carbon nano tubes will absorb 99 percent of any light- ultraviolet, visible or infrared that strikes on it. The material is also known for its excellent electrical conductivity and high strength .Carbon nano tubes are tiny yet long tubular structures made of pure carbon. A professor from Michigan University L J Guo first realized that by applying the nano paint or the nano tube coating, the aircraft could absorb the radar waves there by making it virtually invisible.
The researchers implanted large volumes of nano tubes into various substances like silicon wafer. Nano tubes have to be planted in a particular manner to make its reflective index similar to surrounding air. After implantation, the light is absorbed without being scattered. A practical method to implant nano tubes on the surface of aircrafts has not been developed until now. Perfect results were obtained only when nano tubes were implanted in tiny particles under the influence of high temperature and pressure. Guo suggested that first, the nano tubes has to be implanted in tiny particles and then suspended in the paint for stealth aircrafts. Earlier, to prevent absorption and radioactive properties, a metallic mixture was added to black paint and then coated on the aircraft. However, this would add excess weight to the machine. Since nano tube has ultra black property and is denser, there is no need of any additives.
A transistor is the fundamental building block of all electronic devices.
A transistor can be defined as a device, which is used to amplify signals and power. Integrated circuits are used in making of chips inside electronic gadgets such as smart phones, laptops and so on. Researchers in Purdue and Harvard Universities have created a new type of transistor that will make the Integrated circuits more compact. This transistor is made from another material other than silicon and as the name suggest, a 3-D structure is given to the device compared to the conventional flat chips. Nano wires are used in these transistors instead of silicon so they will be more compact and more efficient. The nano wires used in this transistor are made from iridium gallium arsenide semiconductor.Iridium-gallium-arsenide is replaced for silicon in this device. As they are elements from the 3rd and 5th group of the periodic table, they are collectively known as the III-V group semiconductors. These semiconductors are known to conduct electrons five times better than silicon. The mobility of this material is also known to be higher. All these characteristics have urged chip manufacturers to replace silicon with this semiconductor in the coming years.
The 3D transistor was made by a process termed ”top- down method” in which components of the transistor is etched. This method will gain huge acceptance as it is compatible with most of the industrial processes. In 2012, a new generation of integrated chips is believed to come into market in which transistors will be placed horizontally rather than vertically. This is the reason for the 3D effect posed by these transistors. Thus, this device is the world’s first 3D-gate-allround transistor.
The transistor consists of a gate by which rapid ON-OFF switching action is possible and helps in the direct flow of current. By the introduction of 3D transistors, it is estimated that this gate length will reduce from 45nm to 22 nm. The nano wires are coated with a dielectric, which acts as the gate. Further research is being conducted to reduce the gate length to 18 nm. The only option available is to make a thinner dielectric layer by a process called atomic deposition. A thinner dielectric layer offers greater speed, low voltage requirements and lower power consumption. The device has improved its clock speed to 20 GHz. This experiment was funded by the National Science foundation and Semiconductor research group. The latest development in this field was the design of a “finFET or fin Field Effect Transistor” in which the device has a fin like structure other than the conventional flat design.
By the introduction of 3D transistors computers will become faster, cooler and smarter. Intel is planning to release processors made from 3D transistor integrated chips in 2012. These chips are expected to be 10 times faster than the ones used now and will be more compact.
It is heard that a Japanese company named “Unisantis” is working with the researchers of Singapore’s Institute of micro electronics to develop a new 3D transistor called the SGT (Surrounding Gate Transistor) which will increase the clocking speed of the computers from 20 GHz to 50 GHz.
Cyclops, a superhero from the famous comics “X men” has been the favorite of many people across the world. In the story, the character produces powerful laser beams by optical blast from his eyes.
This fiction has become a reality by the joint efforts of Seok-Hyun Yun and Malte Gather, two physicists at Massachusetts General Hospital.They were able to develop a technique by which laser can be produced from human cells. The device used to produce this laser consists of the same components that are used to produce a real time laser. That is, a pump source, an optical cavity and a gain medium. The pump source is used to produce the initial energy, the optical cavity to concentrate the energy, and the gain medium is a substance in which the electrons are exited until they go from a lower energy level to a higher energy level.
Researchers suggest that this laser is suitable for many medical applications. For the diagnosis of diseases, nowadays a laser beam is passed into the body to get images or to attack the disease causing cells. There might also be a time when the human cells can be illuminated as laser. The illuminated cells can gather more information about the interior of the human body by penetrating the damaged tissues more deeply. More research has to be done to realize this as laser needs an external light source to illuminate.
Some say that this technology will be more useful in gaining information about individual cell characteristics than medical applications as the laser needs an external light source and it is difficult to produce it inside human body. Yen suggests that by integrating a nano scale cavity to laser cell we can produce a cell that will illuminate itself without any external source. Let’s hope that this technology will come into reality in the near future itself – who doesn’t want to shoot a laser from our own body.
There will be a time when all the major technologies in the world will be in nanoscale. Recent developments have been undergone in daily used electronic gadgets like mobiles, computers, laptops and so on.
As a part of this, a group of researchers from IBM and CFEL (Centre for free-electron Laser Science) have been successful in developing the world’s smallest magnetic data storage unit. The newly invented unit needs only 12 atoms for storing one bit. That is, 96 atoms for storing one byte. In a conventional memory storage unit a byte consists of half a billion atoms and hence this new technology will prove to be a breakthrough for producing the new generation of devices called “nanogadgets”.This nano data storage unit was made by placing atom by atom by using a STM (scanning tunneling microscope) at IBM’s Almaden research centre in San Jose, California. First a regular pattern of iron atoms were constructed and then they were aligned in such a way that each row contains six atoms. The storage density of this nano structured memory unit is supposed to be a hundred times better than the currently used hard drives.
With the help of an STM data is written to the nano storage unit. The pairs of the atoms will be having two magnetic states representing zero and one. By using the STM the polarity of the atoms are changed to the desired value. For this purpose, an electromagnetic pulse is applied to the electrons from the STM. A weaker electronic pulse is used to read the data from the nano structure.
In conventional hard drives and other data storage structures data is stored by ferromagnetism but here special form of magnetism called the anti ferromagnetism is used here to record data. As the materials are anti ferromagnetic, the atoms can be spaced more closely as the magnetic fields will not be interfering with each other and hence nano size can be achieved. Scientists say that this discovery will open new doors to quantum physics and smarter gadgets can be developed in the near future.
Waterless Washing Machine Cleans Laundry Through Magnetic Levitation
New inventions have made strainful works always easier for people. Let us take an example of a washing machine. In early days, people used to wash their own clothes by hand and scrub all the dirt away using a brush and detergent. Later, the washing machine was invented, which simplified laundry cleaning. The device was further developed to produce semi-cleaners and lately fully automatic washing machines.A new concept has been introduced by a designer named Elie Ahovi, which works under the principle of magnetic levitation.
The device, named as “Laundry Orb” consists of a spherical drum that cleans clothes by scrubbing them using dry ice, instead of water. The spherical drum is basically a ring filled with batteries. These batteries produces magnetic levitation inside the ring. To levitate, a super-conductive metal laundry basket is introduced inside. A low temperature is required inside the ring. This is produced by using liquid nitrogen. A double layered shatterproof glass is also introduced inside. Thus, the whole drum levitates as soon as a magnetic field is produced. The whole process is controlled using a touch screen interface.
The dry ice is introduced inside the ring at supersonic speeds. As soon as it hits the dirty clothes, the carbon dioxide interacts with the dirt and separates them from the clothes. The dirt is then collected and filtered out through small pores. The carbon dioxide is then removed and re-frozen. Thus, the clothes are cleaned and dry.
The cleaning process will take only a few minutes. Since no water and soap is used, the clothes are prone to look new without any wear ad tear. The environment can also be protected to a certain extent by saving soap. Besides, we can use the surplus carbon dioxide for something useful.
Though the whole concept sounds interesting, there are certain cons. The removing of carbon dioxide and refreezing it requires a lot of energy.
Piccolo can be said as the perfect companion for a graphic designer or an engineer as it helps him to sketch his creativity.
Piccolo is a small pocket sized robot which uses servo mechanism for developing and deploying the accurate 2D or 3D output. Like all other robots, this one also works according to CNC technology. CNC is the acronym of Computer Numerical Control. Here the computer converts the design produced by the computer aided design software (CAD) into numbers. These numbers denote different coordinates – that is X, Y and Z in a graph. This technology is employed in a number of places such as the automatic machine cutting, or the drawing tool. We can sketch a simple drawing or cut a sheet using a laser tip by attaching the corresponding tip to this bot. Piccolo will work according to the type of tip attached to it. Another important advantage of Piccolo is its portability. We can carry this cool machine anywhere with us. When compared to other CNC based robots, this one does not cost thousands of dollars but just $70.This device was introduced by the Diatom studio from London with the collaboration of Cheng Xu and Huaishu Peng From CoDe Lab.
Piccolo is open source – anyone can modify its design. The prototype is simple; it can be assembled quickly and is easy to use. The Piccolo includes Arduino and processing libraries so that we can use Piccolo as we wish like moving automatically or by responding to a sensor. We can engage multiple piccolos to work together so that it could create a larger canvas. In the Piccolo kit we are provided with the facility to create 3D or 2D sketches according to our desire.
The elegant design and ease of use has made Piccolo the favorite of designers. It can be used as a learning tool for beginners who want to explore the vast capabilities of the CNC field. Now piccolo is only in the prototype stage but we expect the Arduino -compatible platform to turn our visions into neat sketches in the near future.
The engineers are using Vision Impairment Simulator which helps them understand how a person with eye disorders might see objects while driving.
This goes out to all the people whose visual abilities have got affected because of ageing and troubles like cataract and glaucoma. Cambridge University and Ford Motor Company have come up with a technology that will help the visually impaired patients drive their cars with much ease.
The technology initiative is brought by a team of scientists at Cambridge University’s Engineering Design Centre along with Ford. The two are developing vehicles for the visually impaired. The engineers are using Vision Impairment Simulator which helps them understand how a person with eye disorders might see objects while driving.
The technology initiative is brought by a team of scientists at Cambridge University’s Engineering Design Centre along with Ford. The two are developing vehicles for the visually impaired. The engineers are using Vision Impairment Simulator which helps them understand how a person with eye disorders might see objects while driving.
According to a report, a designer loads an image in the simulator and selects a desired ‘impairment’. The simulator then simulates the image and the engineers then work out solutions to handle those problems. The designers can also change the degree of impairment with the simulator when any object’s image is loaded.
The designers also compare how a person suffering from glaucoma might see an object as against someone suffering from cataract. They assess all the permutations and combinations possible in the comparison.
The Visual Impairment simulator helps in simulating the images for the problems involved in driving when an eye patient is driving. Cars with this technology are expected to be seen on the roads soon.
The designers also compare how a person suffering from glaucoma might see an object as against someone suffering from cataract. They assess all the permutations and combinations possible in the comparison.
The Visual Impairment simulator helps in simulating the images for the problems involved in driving when an eye patient is driving. Cars with this technology are expected to be seen on the roads soon.
A new technology developed by British scientists has brought the dream of television screens that can be rolled up and carried in a pocket closer to reality.
The researchers have developed a new form of light-emitting crystals, known as quantum dots, which can be used to produce ultra-thin television sets, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The tiny crystals, 100,000 times thinner than a human hair, can be printed on flexible plastic sheets to produce a paper-thin display, or on to wallpaper to create giant room-size screens.
According to Michael Edelman, the chief executive of Nanoco, a spin-out company set up by the scientists behind the technology at Manchester University, the firm was working with "major Asian electronics companies".
It is believed that Sony, Sharp, Samsung and LG are working on the quantum dot television technology.
Going futuristic with unmanned fighting systems, the Defence Research and Development Organisation said it is developing robots to function as soldiers.
"We are in the process of developing robots that can work like soldiers. They are working on the data and artificial intelligence that is needed in the process,"Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Director General of DRDO and Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister, told a press conference.
Earlier, Saraswat inaugurated Bharat Earth Movers Limited - Combined Vehicles Research and Development Establishment Technology Centre, Suspension Test Facility and Combat Vetronics technology Centre for CVRDE, the DRDO lab which is making India's Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun.
Stating that India needs to produce aircraft landing gear indigenously, he said organisations like BEML should take the initiative, while CVRDE should get into transmission systems.
"DRDO should join hands with defence PSUs to open offset labs," he said. "There is no major design centre to develop landing gear. This institution along with BEML should take the initiative to start making landing gears. That will be useful for UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and aircraft. And one day we shall have our own commercial aircraft also."
Observing that DRDO was good in designing and prototyping, but has a 'syndrome' of lacking in converting the technology into production, he said collaborations with PSUs are the solution.
Chief Controller (R&D) of Armament and Combat Engineering S Sundaresh said future MBTs should be light weight and set an example to the world. CVRDE director P Sivakumar said trials of MBT Arjun Mark-II would commence from October 2012.
Using this technology, Russian scientists can build new devices, which are as high speed as superconductor ones.
A new technology to make high speed electronics of the new generation has been developed by the Russian scientists. Igor Kazakov, one of the developers of the new technology and a laboratory head with the Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that the history of solid-state electronics goes back to 1947 when a transistor device was invented. "Since then, progress has been following the path of bigger compactness of devices in an integral circuit unit, which is achieved through making them ever smaller," he said. These days, devices are so small that they hardly reach several dozens of nanometers in size. At that point, an electron begins to behave as a wave, i.e. it could either skirt an obstacle or penetrate through it.
Such behaviour from particles virtually cancels principles underlying the operation of devices like transistors or diodes.Going by this, the researchers employed new physical principles - the so-called resonance tunneling - when only electrons of a given energy may penetrate through the obstacle. The developers of this new technology from the research centre Quantum Devices and Nanotechnologies used this principle. They were lead by Yuri Kopayev and Alexander Gorbatsevich, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The new devices made by the researchers are as high speed as superconductor ones. Based on classical physical principles, such as transistors and diodes, with devices built of quantum principles, the researchers have made 3D integration of devices. Looking at the latest development, the researchers from the Physical Institute feel that Russian developments may dominate the global market of new-generation electronics.
Kazakov said that the latest technology gives a chance to Russia to regain its once lost position in the field of advanced hardware components development.
A team of engineers at the University of Illionis has developed an autonomous system that restores electrical conductivity to a cracked circuit in less than seconds.
In electronics, if a circuit breaks or a tiny failure occurs for a reason within an integrated chip, the entire chip or the device becomes useless. In order to save one on such occasions, a team of engineers at the University of Illionis has developed an autonomous restorative circuit system. It is a self-healing system that restores electrical conductivity to a cracked circuit rapidly.The process is so quick that even the user cannot recognise the failure in the circuit.
The system uses tiny micro-capsules-–-as small as 10 microns in diameter--filled with gallium-indium liquid metal, which are dispersed on top of a gold line functioning as a circuit.The micro-capsules break open when a crack starts and then they release the metallic liquid into the gaps in the circuit. This restores the electrical flow after a period of downtime which lasts only a few microseconds.
Jeffrey Mooren, a chemistry professor,said,“It simplifies the system. Rather than having to build in redundancies or to build in a sensory diagnostics system, this material is designed to take care of the problem itself.”
Even with a small amount of micro-capsules, researchers were able to heal 99 per cent of original conductivity in 90 per cent of their samples.
Apart from being autonomous, the self-healing system is also localised. It implies that only those micro-capsules open that are intercepted by a crack. This ensures that repair takes place only at the point of damage. This system does not require any human intervention. It is well suited for applications where accessing a break for repair is impossible, such as a battery, or finding the source of a failure is difficult, such as an aircraft or spacecraft, state the engineers.
Nancy Sottos, professor, said, “In an aircraft, especially a defence-based aircraft, there are miles and miles of conductive wire. You don’t often know where the break occurs. The autonomous part is nice--it knows where it broke, even if we don’t.”
The team of engineers at Illinois has plans to further develop the technology in order to improve the safety and longevity of batteries. They are also looking at the research to explore other possibilities for using micro-capsules to control conductivity.
Just like electronic Gadgets, electronic circuits are also getting smaller. The study by McGill University and Sandia National Laboratories has resulted in the development of world’s tiniest electronic circuit. This is actually a phenomenon on slightly higher stage than atomic level. The circuit which just consists of only two wires is seen as a future of smaller electronic industry.
The ‘get small’ attitude of the industry is reflected in this research. The specialty of the circuit is two bare wires separated by 15nm distance or roughly around 150 atoms thick. The distance is the main parameter which brings a phenomenon called Coulomb Drag into play. When the two wires are kept undisturbed in each other’s vicinity, the wires behave in a different way than normal. Current starts flowing in them but in opposite directions. In other words if the current flowing through one of the component wire if considered positive, the current in other wire flows negatively as if to cancel the effect. However as we are seeing electronic action in the setup, it is termed as an electric circuit; perhaps the smallest in the world until now!
Surprisingly we are overcoming a difficulty in this circuit, it is the heat generated in it. In normal circuits, heat has to be dissipated through the use of extended surfaces or ‘fins’. However, as the distance is smaller, the heat generated will be smaller as adjacent wires can easily absorb those minute quantities. Moreover, speed will also be a parameter and a point of advantage of these electronic circuits over the conventional ones. The setup being smaller than ordinary, electrical signals will take lesser time to travel from one point to another.
The discovery was a part of research by Guillaume Gervais from McGill’s Physics Department and Mike Lilly from Sandia National Laboratories. The experimental facts and the consequent results were published in online edition of Nature Nanotechnology titled Positive and Negative Coulomb Drag in Vertically Integrated One-Dimensional Quantum Wires.
Green homeowners can now bid goodbye to unwieldy solar panels! An inexpensive "solar paint" has been developed by the researchers at the University of Notre Dame in the US, which can be applied on the outside walls of a house to generate electricity from sunlight. The electricity thus produced by "Sun-Believable Solar Paint" can be used to power the home appliances and equipment on the inside, claim researchers.
"By making use of recent advances in semiconductor nanocrystal research, we have now developed a one-coat solar paint for designing quantum dot solar cells," said Prashant V. Kamat of the Radiation Laboratory and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, one of the lead authors of the study.
"By incorporating power-producing nanoparticles, called quantum dots, into a spreadable compound, we've made a one-coat solar paint that can be applied to any conductive surface without special equipment," Kamat added.
Talking about the quantum dots in detail, he said these are "semiconductor nanocrystals which exhibit size-dependent optical and electronic properties. In a quantum dot sensitised solar cell, the excitation of semiconductor quantum dot or semiconductor nanocrystal is followed by electron injection into TiO2 nanoparticles. These electrons are then transferred to the collecting electrode surface to generate photocurrent. The holes that remain in the semiconductor quantum dot are removed by a hole conductor or redox couple and are transported to a counter electrode."
Due to its amazing properties, Kamat and his co-workers christened the new paint as "Sun-Believable Solar Paint". If perfected, the new product is sure to herald a new era in solar power.
Unfortunately, the paint isn't ready for commercial use yet. At around 1 per cent, its efficiency is much less than traditional solar cells. "The best light-to-energy conversion efficiency we've reached so far is 1 per cent, which is well behind the usual 10 to 15 per cent efficiency of commercial silicon solar cells. But this paint can be made cheaply and in large quantities. If we can improve the efficiency somewhat, we may be able to make a real difference in meeting energy needs in the future," Kamat said.
"By making use of recent advances in semiconductor nanocrystal research, we have now developed a one-coat solar paint for designing quantum dot solar cells," said Prashant V. Kamat of the Radiation Laboratory and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, one of the lead authors of the study.
"By incorporating power-producing nanoparticles, called quantum dots, into a spreadable compound, we've made a one-coat solar paint that can be applied to any conductive surface without special equipment," Kamat added.
Talking about the quantum dots in detail, he said these are "semiconductor nanocrystals which exhibit size-dependent optical and electronic properties. In a quantum dot sensitised solar cell, the excitation of semiconductor quantum dot or semiconductor nanocrystal is followed by electron injection into TiO2 nanoparticles. These electrons are then transferred to the collecting electrode surface to generate photocurrent. The holes that remain in the semiconductor quantum dot are removed by a hole conductor or redox couple and are transported to a counter electrode."
Due to its amazing properties, Kamat and his co-workers christened the new paint as "Sun-Believable Solar Paint". If perfected, the new product is sure to herald a new era in solar power.
Unfortunately, the paint isn't ready for commercial use yet. At around 1 per cent, its efficiency is much less than traditional solar cells. "The best light-to-energy conversion efficiency we've reached so far is 1 per cent, which is well behind the usual 10 to 15 per cent efficiency of commercial silicon solar cells. But this paint can be made cheaply and in large quantities. If we can improve the efficiency somewhat, we may be able to make a real difference in meeting energy needs in the future," Kamat said.
Technology has always proved to be a boon for the physically-challenged people. This time we have exoskeletans, also known as light robots, which are technology pieces that increase the efficiency of the person who wears them.
The robots are particularly helpful in case of chronic diseases. For instance, in case of soldiers, who have chronic back injury because of carrying heavy loads on their back across rough terrains. These robots help the soldiers carry a lot more. Ekso Bionics - formerly Berkeley Bionics, has made exoskeletons, which can help a person carry as much as 200 pounds of weight for 20 kilometers and walk up to six hours.
This robot also helps patients suffering from stroke, paralysis and osteoporosis or anyone else with mobility issues or in a wheelchair to walk. Eythor Bender, chief executive officer of Ekso Bionics, said to ET, "When I'm 80 years old and want to go skiing or snowboarding, I can do so by just wearing a bionic device instead of undergoing surgeries.”
When it comes to bionic devices, most of them need to be surgically implanted, which can be complicated. The fact that this robot can be donned like a piece of clothing makes it distinctive. It is now market-ready and will be launched in January 2012. The ET report quoted Larry Fisher as saying, "While it is revolutionary, the cost factor means it will not be a market that grows quickly.”
Ekso's products costs approximately $130,000, plus an annual service charge of about $10,000. The company plans to sell it to 11 rehabilitation centres in the US, including the renowned Rehabiliation Institute of Chicago (RIC), where the world's first bionic man Jesse Sullivan got his legendary bionic arm.
The robots are particularly helpful in case of chronic diseases. For instance, in case of soldiers, who have chronic back injury because of carrying heavy loads on their back across rough terrains. These robots help the soldiers carry a lot more. Ekso Bionics - formerly Berkeley Bionics, has made exoskeletons, which can help a person carry as much as 200 pounds of weight for 20 kilometers and walk up to six hours.
This robot also helps patients suffering from stroke, paralysis and osteoporosis or anyone else with mobility issues or in a wheelchair to walk. Eythor Bender, chief executive officer of Ekso Bionics, said to ET, "When I'm 80 years old and want to go skiing or snowboarding, I can do so by just wearing a bionic device instead of undergoing surgeries.”
When it comes to bionic devices, most of them need to be surgically implanted, which can be complicated. The fact that this robot can be donned like a piece of clothing makes it distinctive. It is now market-ready and will be launched in January 2012. The ET report quoted Larry Fisher as saying, "While it is revolutionary, the cost factor means it will not be a market that grows quickly.”
Ekso's products costs approximately $130,000, plus an annual service charge of about $10,000. The company plans to sell it to 11 rehabilitation centres in the US, including the renowned Rehabiliation Institute of Chicago (RIC), where the world's first bionic man Jesse Sullivan got his legendary bionic arm.
IISER-K Summer Student Research Programme 2012
Objective
To provide B.Sc., M.Sc., B.S., M.S., B.Tech., and B.E. students of other institutions or universities an opportunity of exposure to a research environment by associating them with one of the research groups of IISER during the summer vacation.
Salient Points
The programme will be operative during the summer vacation of the IISER-K from 14th May to 14th July, 2012.
Each summer student will be formally associated with a faculty member of the Institute for a duration of 6 – 8 weeks within the above mentioned dates.
Accommodation may be provided subject to availability.
Access to computational and library facilities will be permitted. However, any misuse of the facilities will result in summary termination of the student from the programme.
A certificate will be given at the end of the programme.
Financial support
Students having KVPY/INSPIRE fellowship, and those selected under the Indian Academy of Sciences summer fellowship programme will receive financial support from the respective sponsoring organization. Students selected for the IISER-K summer fellowship programme without such financial support will be given a stipend of Rs. 3000/- per month.
Requirements
The summer students will have to be on campus throughout the period of visit, will have to abide by the rules and regulations applicable to the regular students of IISER-K, and will have to submit a report on the work done during the period of visit.
Application
Applications should include
1) A covering letter specifying the name of the faculty member the applicant wants to be associated with, and the proposed period of visit. The proposed period of visit should lie between 14th May and 14th July, 2012.
2) a biodata,
3) the academic transcript showing the marks/grades obtained in all the subjects in all the semesters
4) a one-paragraph description of the area of interest
The last date for receiving all applications is 15 March 2012. The application may be sent by e-mail to:
E-mail: summer.research@iiserkol.ac.in
or by post to
Coordinators, IISER Kolkata Summer Student Research Programme 2012,
IISER-K Mohanpur Campus
Nadia-741252, WB
Selection
The coordinators of the Summer Fellowship Programme of the IISER-K will consider the applications and will select the candidates to be accepted in the Programme in consultation with the faculty members of IISER-K and in view of the facilities available. Applicants will be notified about their selection by 30th of March, 2012.
For complete information visit IISER kolkata Summer internship page
Objective
To provide B.Sc., M.Sc., B.S., M.S., B.Tech., and B.E. students of other institutions or universities an opportunity of exposure to a research environment by associating them with one of the research groups of IISER during the summer vacation.
Salient Points
The programme will be operative during the summer vacation of the IISER-K from 14th May to 14th July, 2012.
Each summer student will be formally associated with a faculty member of the Institute for a duration of 6 – 8 weeks within the above mentioned dates.
Accommodation may be provided subject to availability.
Access to computational and library facilities will be permitted. However, any misuse of the facilities will result in summary termination of the student from the programme.
A certificate will be given at the end of the programme.
Financial support
Students having KVPY/INSPIRE fellowship, and those selected under the Indian Academy of Sciences summer fellowship programme will receive financial support from the respective sponsoring organization. Students selected for the IISER-K summer fellowship programme without such financial support will be given a stipend of Rs. 3000/- per month.
Requirements
The summer students will have to be on campus throughout the period of visit, will have to abide by the rules and regulations applicable to the regular students of IISER-K, and will have to submit a report on the work done during the period of visit.
Application
Applications should include
1) A covering letter specifying the name of the faculty member the applicant wants to be associated with, and the proposed period of visit. The proposed period of visit should lie between 14th May and 14th July, 2012.
2) a biodata,
3) the academic transcript showing the marks/grades obtained in all the subjects in all the semesters
4) a one-paragraph description of the area of interest
The last date for receiving all applications is 15 March 2012. The application may be sent by e-mail to:
E-mail: summer.research@iiserkol.ac.in
or by post to
Coordinators, IISER Kolkata Summer Student Research Programme 2012,
IISER-K Mohanpur Campus
Nadia-741252, WB
Selection
The coordinators of the Summer Fellowship Programme of the IISER-K will consider the applications and will select the candidates to be accepted in the Programme in consultation with the faculty members of IISER-K and in view of the facilities available. Applicants will be notified about their selection by 30th of March, 2012.
For complete information visit IISER kolkata Summer internship page
National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune and Tata Institute Of Fundamental Research launched a Summer Internship Programme with an objective to encourage ambitious bright B.Tech. as well as M.Sc. students of different Institutes in India to pursue an innovative research and development project under the guidance of NCRA and TIFR faculties. The summer fellow will register at NCRA , TIFR for whom there will be no institute registration fees.
Hurry Last date to apply online is 15 March 2012.
For Complete Information and To apply visit NCRA Summer Internship Page
Hurry Last date to apply online is 15 March 2012.
For Complete Information and To apply visit NCRA Summer Internship Page
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH & INNOVATION PROGRAM (UGRI- 2012)
Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan Page started the Undergraduate Research and Innovation (UGRI) Programme in 2011 with the objective to promote research and innovation among a diverse group of undergraduate students. We are continuing this programme in the current academic year (2011-2012) to help selected students improve their professional knowledge and skills. We encourage students across the country to utilize the UGRI Programme for their academic and professional developments.
Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan Page started the Undergraduate Research and Innovation (UGRI) Programme in 2011 with the objective to promote research and innovation among a diverse group of undergraduate students. We are continuing this programme in the current academic year (2011-2012) to help selected students improve their professional knowledge and skills. We encourage students across the country to utilize the UGRI Programme for their academic and professional developments.
Financial Assistance and Accommodation :
Selected students will be provided accommodation at student hostel in IITR. During this period, a remuneration of Rs. 8000 per month will be offered as Financial Assistance. Furthermore, the students will receive an additional Rs. 2000 for preparing posters and interim reports. However, the students will have to bear the expenses of their boarding and lodging as per institute rules.
Minimum Eligibility Criteria for students to apply :
- Must have completed 5th Semester of BE/B.Tech/Dual Degree or 1st Year of MSc/ MA.
- Minimum academic score : 70% or a CPI of 7.5 on a 10 point scale for Engineering and 65% or 7.0 CPI for Science programmes. The student should not have any backlogs.
- Minimum score of 60% throughout their academic career
Instructions and procedure for on-line application
Candidates willing to apply for UGRI Programme this year need to fill up an online application form and provide two project preferences in accordance with the proposals available on the website. Candidates also need to submit a one page write-up on “how they can contribute to the project” they are interested in. The students may also propose a new problem or project which he or she would like to take up during this internship. The submitted proposal must comprise title and a brief write up describing the idea the student would like to work on. The write up should not exceed 800 words. Preference will be given to those candidates who will be selecting the research topic from the given list of proposals.
Selection Process :
Students will be selected purely on the basis of academic achievements and the merit of the proposal submitted. If required, the faculty member in charge may adopt any objective mechanism for comparison. The list of short-listed candidates will be announced latest by the second week of April 2012, and they will be intimated through email. Interested students must confirm their participation through email on or before 25th April 2012.
Hurry Last date to Apply is 30 march 2012
For complete Information visit IIT-Rajasthan Summer Internship Page
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