Blogspedia

World’s Smallest Electronic Circuit

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.

'Solar Paint' That Generates Electricity !

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.

Robots To Increase Your Efficiency

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.

Summer Internship 2012 : IISER Kolkata

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

Summer Internship 2012 : NCRA , TIFR

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

Summer Internship 2012 : IIT-Rajasthan

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.

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

Summer Internship 2012 : IIIT-Delhi

Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi is a global centre of excellence in Information Technology education, training and research.

Its twin aims are:

To carry out advanced research and development in information and software technologies, and in leveraging IT in specific domain areas.
To train and educate, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, engineers of outstanding ability who can become innovators and new product creators.

It aims to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in specified domain areas of IT. Towards this end it plans to organize itself as a conglomerate of R&D Centers, some of which would be in partnership with different companies and global organizations. All centers will also be engaged in teaching and thesis guidance. These centers, with various labs, will be the hub of activity, with active contribution from faculty and students—BTech, MTech and PhD.

Now , Some of the research groups and faculty members of IIIT-Delhi are looking for summer interns for 2012. The list of current opportunities is given below.

To apply for internship

send an email to tnp@iiitd.ac.in (subject must be "application for Summer Internship") along with your resume.
Mention the name/details of the project you wish to apply for.
Each student can apply for a maximum 3 projects.
Last date to apply is 10th March, 2012

Complete details can be found on IIIT-D Summer Internship Page

Summer Internship 2012: NIT Rourkela

NIT, Rourkela has launched a Summer Internship Programme with an objective to encourage ambitious bright B.Tech. as well as B.Sc. and M.Sc. students of different Institutes in India other than NIT, Rourkela to pursue an innovative research and development project under the guidance of NIT faculties. The summer fellow will register at NIT, Rourkela for whom there will be no institute registration fees. The Institute is pleased to provide 50 nos. of Summer Fellowships as follows.

The fellowship will cover the following:

(a)	A gross fellowship of Rs.3500/-, for a period of two months to meet travel and other expenses. The fellowship will be provided to those, who stay in NITR hostels.
(b)	Free Accommodation in the NIT Halls of Residences.
(c)	Laboratory and Computing Facilities.

The fellowship is available in the following departments.

1	BM	:	Biotechnology & Medical Engineering
2	CE	:	Civil Engineering
3	CH	:	Chemical Engineering
4	CR	:	Ceramic Engineering
5	CS	:	Computer Science & Engineering
6	CY	:	Chemistry
7	EC	:	Electronics & Communication Engineering
8	EE	:	Electrical Engineering
9	HS	:	Humanities & Social Sciences
10	ID	:	Industrial Design
11	LS	:	Life Science
12	MA	:	Mathematics
13	ME	:	Mechanical Engineering
14	MM	:	Metallurgical & Materials Engineering
15	MN	:	Mining Engineering
16	PH	:	Physics
17	SM	:	School of Management

Eligiblity :
Any B.Tech., B.Sc or M.Sc. student with a good academic record who has completed 2 or 3 years of study toward engineering or science degree may apply for this fellowship.

How to Apply :
Interested students need to complete the online application form before 5th March 2012. After filling online application, the student needs to get a hard copy of the application from and enclose the documents (Photocopies of all grade cards/mark sheets, studentship certificate) and submit by speed post before 23 March 2012

For complete information go to NIT Rourkela Summer Internship Program 2012 page

Summer Internship 2012 : IIT Bombay

Program Overview

They undertake a significant amount of software and hardware development work in their Affordable Solutions Lab, to support their efforts in the National Mission on Education through ICT. Last year, they selected 60 interns to work on these projects, simultaneously enabling them to fulfill the summer internship requirements of their respective academic programs. This year also, they are offering a fresh set of projects. These are described in some detail under the subsection projects.

All the work under the mission project is released under Open Source.
Consequently most of the tools and software environment used in their R&D,
are also from Open Source Software(OSS). You will thus be working on Ubuntu
(a variant of Linux), and using Java, MYSQL/Postgress, GCC, and such other
packages. Even if you do not have adequate exposure to these, you will get
ample opportunity to learn them during your internship. All they expect is that
you are able to learn fast, and are able to meaningfully use what you learn.
You will be engaged for a period of 8 weeks. Your project leader will evaluate
your work at the end of the internship. We expect everyone to work hard, and
successfully complete the assignments well in advance of the last date.

You have to strictly adhere to the time slots. Requests to adjust the time slot
will not be entertained.
You have to stay within the IIT campus. A room (on a twin sharing basis) will be
made available to you during the period of internship.
They will extend nominal financial support which is designed to cover a major
portion of your expenses during your stay in IIT. Further details of the terms and
conditions are available under the subsection 'Financials'. The tentative schedule
for the program is available under the subsection 'Tentative Schedule'. Detailed
schedule will be given to you on the first day of internship.
IIT will provide you library reading room facility, and limited access to Gymkhana
facilities.
A certificate will also be issued on successful completion of internship.
Kindly note that Prof Phatak does not give any recommendation letter for
admission to Institutions outside India.

Eligibility

Students graduating in Computer Science/Engineering, IT,or Electronics.Who

will be completing 3rd year in April/May 2012. Students completing 2nd year,

with exceptional academic performance and other achievements,may also be

considered.Students with experience in programming and/or hardware design

will be preferred.

Financials

Internship and stay at IIT Bombay involves some items expenditure to be
incurred by interns. These are:

Rs. 6000/- to be paid to the IIT Bombay academic office (Internship Fee's)
Hostel room rent of Rs 1100/- per month or part thereof (totaling Rs 2200/-

for the internship period)
Additional Rs 20/- per day if you wish to rent a mattress + bucket
Approximately Rs 100/- per day for food (breakfast, lunch, dinner) in the

vacation mess

Of these, we will pay Rs. 6000/- directly to the institute, on your behalf.
In addition,we will pay you an honorarium of Rs. 8000/- on successful
completion of 8 weeks of internship. Please note that since this amount
will be paid at the end, you will have to make your own arrangements to
meet the lodging and food expenses initially .

For detailed information go to Summer Internship 2012 : IIT Bombay page

Hurry Last Date of application : Friday, 23rd March 2012

Biological Computer to Read DNA

US scientists have developed the world's first 'biological computer' composed entirely of DNA molecules constructed on a gold-coated chip, which can accept as many as one billion programs and can decipher images encrypted on DNA chips.

The Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) and a team from Scripps Research Institute in California have developed the biological computer. In the research, when suitable software was applied to the biological computer, the scientists found that it could decrypt, separately, fluorescent images of Scripps Research Institute and Technion logos. This is the first experimental demonstration of a molecular cryptosystem of images based on DNA computing, say the scientists led by Prof Ehud Keinan.

"In contrast to electronic computers, there are computing machines in which all four components are nothing but molecules," says Keinan. "For example, all biological systems, and even entire living organisms, are such computers. Every one of us is a bio-molecular computer, that is, a machine in which all four components are molecules "talking" to one another in a logical manner."

The world's first biological computer integrates complex biological molecules in form of hardware and software in these devices. These biological molecules activate one another to carry out some predetermined chemical work, says Keinan. The computer uses molecules for both input and output. For input, a molecule undergoes specific, predetermined changes, following a specific set of rules (software); the output of this chemical computation process is another well-defined molecule.

The biological computer is "built" by combining chemical components into a solution in a tube. Various small DNA molecules are mixed in solution with selected DNA enzymes and ATP. The latter is used as the energy source of the device, reports TOI.

The results are published this week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society by Prof. Ehud Keinan. "An equally significant breakthrough is the incorporation of chips as an integral part of the computer," he says.

CMOS that Captures Images In Dim Light

Clicking high resolution pictures in dim light will soon become a reality with an upgrade in present CMOS technology by Fraunhofer University.

Fraunhofer University has brought a technology that removes the the drawbacks of Pinned Photodiodes using pixel size 10 Âµm or above and helps the cameras capture images in dim light. Scientists have developed the lateral drift field photodetector (LDPD) that helps in boosting the speed of traditional CMOS sensors.

Keeping in mind the changing trends in electronics goods, manufacturers have to make CMOS circuits compatible with the smaller and thinner devices. With the reduced size, it is difficult to capture better quality images many-a-times. The problem is more seen if someone is clicking pictures in dim or no light situations like that in astronomy. Usually bigger size pixels are used opdevelop devices that can amount to faster conversion of light to electrical signal.

Scientists from Fraunhofer hence introduced an upgrade for the the present CMOS sensors. The speed of conversion in these CMOS sensors has been improved for about 100 times that the initial.

According to a report, the optoelectronic device developed by the team is a lateral drift field photodetector (LDPD) which does not let the generated current to diffuse and sends it at an unprecedented speed to the reading device. The scientists have got the technology patented and the team is now awaiting approval for a series production of the device.

Laser Enabled Finer Chip Structures

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has invented a new way of shrinking circuit structures in semiconductors, which is certainly an advancement of the Moore's law. Moore’s law is the standard that defines the growth in semiconductors. The law named after Intel co-founder, Gordon E Moore, states that the number of components in integrated circuits had doubled every year from the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 until 1965. His prediction proved to be accurate and the law is still practised in the semiconductor industry for long-term planning and to set targets for research and development, said a report.

The chip manufacturing industry resorts to photolithography techniques, which means producing chip features that are larger than the wavelength of the light applied. MIT researchers have developed a new process that can create complex chip structures, which would be 1/8th the size of the wavelength of the light used. It is a process that is described in the paper as "Breaking the Far-Field Diffraction Limit in Optical Nanopatterning via Repeated Photochemical and Electrochemical Transitions in Photochromic Molecules", published in Physical Review Letters.

The researchers term it as an effect called Stimulated Emission Depletion imaging (STED), which enabled them to go beyond the current limitations of photolithography. Scientists make use of the fluorescent characteristics of materials to emit light when targeted by a laser beam in STED. The power of light emitted can be controlled by the intensity of the laser beam. If the power falls enough, it causes a 'dark patch' that is smaller than the wavelength of the laser light itself. These dark patches can be used as masks, which can be applied to a surface, said a Toms Hardware report.

The MIT Researchers opine that this invention can help in constructing semiconductors with much finer structures than what is possible today. MIT said that there could also be an opportunity to apply this technology in photonic devices.

Marine Solar Cell : taking energy from water

Can you imagine a solar cell taking energy from water? If you think its weird, you need to think again. Phil Pauley, a British industrial designer, has already done this. Pauley has designed Marine Solar Cells, which are capable of taking energy from both the sun and the sea water on which it floats.

The designer was successful in doing this with the help of a web of energy generators. With the web of energy generators, he made it possible to capture energy off-shore, as he cleverly combined floating photovoltaics and natural buoyancy displacement.

According to an Ubergizmo report, the reflective nature of water enables the solar component’s efficiency to be increased by another 20 per cent or so compared to having it remain stationary on land. An even more interesting fact is that the Marine Solar Cells can be manufactured by recycled materials. Because of its connection with underwater mooring, the marine solar cells can be placed just about anywhere off-shore. This can result in subsea batteries or power plants. This technology is presently in its conceptual stage.

Nano-Ear That Can Hear Sound Of Bacteria

Scientists at Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich have created a nano-ear which can trap sound waves much below the human ear can hear. With this technology, scientists have added an entirely new dimension to the domains of acoustics and biology. This nano-ear studies sound waves emitted by micro-organisms.

A team of German engineers including Jochen Feldmann and Andrey Lutich have achieved the breakthrough. After working on the principle of sensing sound waves at nano level, the two scientists have come to the conclusion that if gold nano particles are used along with lasers, an instrument which has sensitivity 6 magnitudes less than human ears can be created.

The duo used a beam of laser at specific point in this experiment. They created an electric field with the network of lasers. According to a report, this makes the electric dipole moment attract nearest nano particle in the Web so created.

The frequency of the sound waves making vibrations in nano-particles is sensed and related to sound waves of a particular frequency. The engineers claim that with this nano-ear, one can hear sense sound as low as -60dB.

Undergraduate Research at LIGO

Undergraduate students are encouraged to participate in the development of gravitational-wave astronomy through the LIGO Project. This intensive summer program takes place each year at Caltech, funded in part through the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program of the National Science Foundation. Undergraduate students from all institutions (both U.S. and foreign) are invited to apply to the LIGO Summer Undergraduate Research Program. Research awards include a summer stipend and some funding for travel to Caltech as needed.

The LIGO Project is an NSF-supported endeavor to design, build, and operate an astrophysical observatory for the detection and study of gravitational radiation. The observatory includes two sites (Hanford, Washington and Livingston Parish, Louisiana) with laser interferometric detector systems. (More information on LIGO can be found on the LIGO home page, and from "LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory," A. Abramovici, et al., Science, 256, 325, 1992.) The aim of the LIGO Summer Undergraduate Research Program is to organize the participation of undergraduate students in research associated with the LIGO Project.

LIGO research projects may cover many areas of science and engineering related to the detection of gravitational radiation, including:

Laboratory projects in mechanical, laser, optical, and electronic systems
Modeling and analysis of optomechanical systems
Software development projects
Modeling of astrophysical sources of gravitational radiation

The LIGO Summer Program runs from approximately June 18 through August 24, 2012 (exact dates are not yet known, but will be posted here shortly). These dates are somewhat flexible, depending on a student's particular circumstances. It is also possible to work longer than the standard 10 weeks of the program (for more pay), if this is arranged in advance.

Be quick last date to apply is 10 Feb 2012

For complete information refer to LIGO page

Tegra 3 mobile processors : Most energy efficient

Tegra 3 comes with DIDIM technology which optimises the energy use per pixel, per frame and hence the end result in battery saving is huge.

If you're waiting for Transformer Prime, HTC Quattro or other Tegra 3 devices, you'd already be thinking about how the quad core would impact battery life. Most users think quad core would use every possible bit of battery life available faster than dual core devices do, but Tegra 3 is going to be different.

Chief executive officer of Nvidia, Jen Hsun, said, "We save as much power in the backlight without changing the visual fidelity at all to save, essentially, the entire power used by our chip."

The touchscreen uses much of the phone's power. Tegra 3 comes with DIDIM technology which optimises the energy use per pixel, per frame and hence the end result in battery saving is huge.

The technology adjusts the backlight of images on the screen to save battery. When the processor is fully active, it consumes only 1-2 Watt. The display consumes 3-6 Watt as per brightness, so the DIDIM technology saves more power than the Tegra 3 CPU uses.

Charge Cell Phones With Water

Can you think of dipping your mobile phone in water? No. But now, you can use water to charge your cell phone. A Swedish company MyFC will be launching a device at the Consumer Electronics Show 2012 that converts hydrogen into electricity. The device PowerTrekk is a fuel-cell charger that uses plain tap water to charge mobile devices.

The PowerTrekk is said to be the world's first portable fuel cell. It can be used as a portable battery pack as well as a fuel cell. As a portable battery pack, it can be used as a ready source of power or storage buffer for the fuel cell. While as a fuel cell it enables instant charging from a depleted battery state. A user just has to add water to the fuel tray after inserting a fuel pack. Users can connect devices like mobile phones, cameras and GPS devices to the PowerTrekk via a USB port.

"PowerTrekk has a competitive edge over traditional portable chargers. Fuel-cell power is generated immediately and charging is not impacted by weather or the position of the sun, as for solar panels. Compared with battery-powered travel chargers, PowerTrekk offers reliable charging as the fuel packs do not deplete as batteries do," said Björn Westerholm, CEO, MyFC.

The company has not yet announced the pricing of PowerTrekk which will be demonstrated at the CES this month.

Read Someone's Mind Through Ears

Ears are really a great part of our body.When you are relaxed or bored, the ears lie flat, when you are concentrating or focused they perk up, and even wiggle if you are amused.

The "Necomimi", which means "cat's ears" in Japanese, were launched in May but are set to go on sale at the end of the year, and were picked by Time magazine as one of the year's 50 best inventions.

The invention's goals are simple - it has two brain-wave sensors that can detect and interpret what you are thinking, and show it through four movements.

"We were exploring new ways of communicating and we thought it would be interesting to use brainwaves," Kana Nakano of Neurowear told Agence France-Press this year."Because the sensors must be attached to the head, we tried to come up with something cute and catchy."

While having brainwave sensors attached to a pair of fluffy ears may seem frivolous, it is one example of the increasing accessibility of such technology, and how it can be used not just for high-end medical equipment, but also for children's toys and games.

The catch, though, is that accurately reading EEG (encephalogram) signals, which these technologies are attempting to do, can be difficult because of the amount of "noise" a brain generates.

Associate Professor Ross Cunnington of the Queensland Brain Institute, who is developing brain computer interfaces for communication, said the industry was moving in two streams.

"We're really going to have this split - the gimmicky toys and games that will get just more reliable and the medical-type applications, which is more challenging because they will never be used until they are entirely reliable."At the moment, that's entirely within a research field. But what's coming out of the research field is driving a lot of the commercial applications in gaming and toys."

Associate Professor Cunnington said the key to improving the technology was data.
The more data is fed into these systems, the more accurate they become in reading EEG signals, he said, adding that the main costs were associated with the development of signal processing.

"The technology really relies on the computer learning. What is the pattern that represents happy? What is a pattern that represents sad? And those patterns are going to differ a lot between individual people."One of the big applications currently is detecting drowsiness or fatigue in people driving, especially truck drivers. That's also proved incredibly difficult to work reliably enough that the driver will wear it and use it.

"In a toy or a game, not having 100 per cent reliability is not a problem ... In situations where there is safety involved, it's really important that it works."

This year, German scientists announced they were working on a system that harnesses a driver's brainwaves to control their car's emergency braking system.

In Japan, developers from car manufacturer Nissan and Swiss University Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne are using technology developed for disabled people to manipulate their wheelchairs to create a car that can be driven with just the mind.

And in Australia, Emotiv Systems has for some time been selling a wireless headset for people to play computer games using their thoughts alone.

Maimpok

Main Menu

Search

World’s Smallest Electronic Circuit

'Solar Paint' That Generates Electricity !

Robots To Increase Your Efficiency

Summer Internship 2012 : IISER Kolkata

Summer Internship 2012 : NCRA , TIFR

Summer Internship 2012 : IIT-Rajasthan

Summer Internship 2012 : IIIT-Delhi

Summer Internship 2012: NIT Rourkela

Summer Internship 2012 : IIT Bombay

Biological Computer to Read DNA

CMOS that Captures Images In Dim Light

Laser Enabled Finer Chip Structures

Marine Solar Cell : taking energy from water

Nano-Ear That Can Hear Sound Of Bacteria

Undergraduate Research at LIGO

Tegra 3 mobile processors : Most energy efficient

Tegra 3 comes with DIDIM technology which optimises the energy use per pixel, per frame and hence the end result in battery saving is huge.

Charge Cell Phones With Water

Read Someone's Mind Through Ears

Labels

Blog Archive

Followers

Like Us On Facebook

Main Menu

Search

Tegra 3 comes with DIDIM technology which optimises the energy use per pixel, per frame and hence the end result in battery saving is huge.

Subscribe to My Blog

Labels

Blog Archive

Followers

Like Us On Facebook

Subscribe To