YOUR TRUE ID LIES JUST SKIN DEEP

Fingerprints have traditionally been the one sure-fire ID to prove that you were you. Till the crooks got better than the good guys with stick-on rubber fingertip covers to spoof someone else's prints. The current biometric ID rage is iris scans, which use mathematical pattern recognition techniques on images of the irises of an individual's eyes, whose complex random patterns are unique to the individual. But now it is common knowledge that contact lenses can be fabricated to cheat security scanners and let an imposter through.

Enter the latest wrinkle in biometric authentication -- thermal imaging of the veins of your face. Facial recognition is widely accepted by security systems, and now this technique takes the scanning to the subcutaneous level to identify that you are you, and not some pretender wearing a skin-thin mask.

Researchers at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Jadavpur University, (Kolkata, West Bengal) led by Prof Debotosh Bhattachrjee have now come up with a biometric authentication protocol that relies on the unique nature of the complex web of veins just below the facial skin -- Thermal Face Recognition System (TFRS). Here the thermal infra-red 'maps' of the facial veins are analyzed and compared by computer algorithms in order to authenticate the individual. The technique is 'non-invasive' in that it needs no physical contact unlike in the case of a fingerprint ID system. (Even iris scans need "a close look"at your eyes.) The thermal scans are superior as they are immune to changes that might be brought on by aging, facial hair growth, glasses or cosmetics, and, yes, disguises/masks. Studies have revealed that even identical twins have differing thermal facial patterns. It is claimed that the system has accuracy levels exceeding 97 per cent.

The path-breaking development is sure to take biometric authentication to higher levels ... oops! one level lower!! Who said your face identifes you; it is what lies beneath the skin that counts really!

Learn more at:
http://www.biometricupdate.com/201307/thermal-imaging-of-face-vein-patterns-enters-the-biometric-discussion/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3424639/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometrics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_recognition

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DVD Drive + Ingenuity = Scanning Microscope

It is not everyday that brilliant lateral thinking can work magic and convert everyday objects into exotic instruments. Now such news comes out of the research labs of the School of Biotechnology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. And the icing on the cake is the cheap diagnostics it will augur in for HIV patients.

Early diagnosis of HIV infection is a key factor in successful treatment, and this depends on a reliable blood test. An established test for HIV is to measure the population of CD4+ T-helper cells - white blood cells with a key role in the body's immune system. Currently Flow Cytometry has been the method of choice for monitoring the number of these cells in a blood sample. But it is an expensive (upwards of $ 30,000) and relatively complex test, requiring lab facilities and trained personnel.

Now Dr Aman Russom, senior lecturer at the School of Biotechnology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, has taken the ubiquitous (and cheap!) DVD drive for computers and, with just a few 'tweaks', converted it into a scanning laser microscope! The breakthrough 'Lab-on-DVD' technology has created the possibility of an inexpensive and simple-to-use tool that could have far-reaching benefits in health care in the developing world. "With an ordinary DVD player, we have created a cheap (less than $ 200) analytical tool for visualizing DNA, RNA, proteins and even entire cells," said Dr Russom.

The CD and DVD drives, devices of choice for high volume data storage in computers, have built-in high-precision laser optics and servo mechanisms. Dr Russom has now integrated the cheap optics of DVD drives with centrifugal microfluidics to come up with an accurate analytical platform.

The  blood sample is placed on a disposable polymer disk that fits into a standard DVD drive. Each disk is built from two half-disk substrates--the bottom portion with all the operational information required to allow the disc to be read by a standard DVD drive, while the top half-disk contains fluidic microchannels pre-treated to promote attachment of the cells of interest to the channel walls. The standard photodetector is complemented by another one on the opposite side of the disk. This allows a 2D image of particulates on the surface of the DVD channels to be built up by tracking changes in the absorbency and light-scattering observed. The proof-of-concept system demonstrated the specific detection of CD4+ cells direct from whole blood, with single-cell resolution images.

The KTH system is capable of imaging down to one micron, a figure dependent on the drive's optical specifications and the detection layer of the DVD disc, in which the linear distance between each spiral of the tracking path is 0.74 microns. The use of Blu-ray drives could enhance the resolution further, thanks to the shorter wavelength of the blue laser.

"The low cost of the technology and portability makes it suitable as a diagnostic and analytical tool in clinical practice close to the patient," Russom says. "And because it delivers extremely fast analysis, the patient ... can get [results] right on the first visit to a doctor."

The development is sure to warm the hearts of the original designers of the CD/DVD drive, seeing their 'baby' take a 'side-step'  to be transformed into a scanning laser microscope!

Explore more at:
http://www.kth.se/en/aktuellt/nyheter/dvd-lasaren-gor-comeback-som-hiv-testare-1.380911

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'Long shot' Laser 3-D Camera

A 'normal' camera takes flat pictures that have only two dimensions. As children many of us had come across 3D picture viewers that employed two pictures of the same object taken from slightly different angles to 'cheat' the eye into thinking that we are seeing a solid, three-dimensional object.

Now researchers have developed a new laser-driven camera system that creates high-resolution 3-D images of objects from up to a kilometre away. Mimicking radar, a laser beam is swept and bounced off the object, and the time for it to travel back to a detector is measured, from which the contours of the object are computed. The technique, called time-of-flight (ToF), is used in navigation systems for autonomous vehicles, but many current systems have a relatively short range and are virtually useless with objects that do not reflect laser light. The new system, however, has overcome these limitations.

The research team, led by Gerald Buller, professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, has perfected a ToF imaging system that can gather high-resolution, 3-D information of objects from up to a kilometre away. A low-power infrared laser beam is swept rapidly over an object and the round-trip flight time of the photons in the beam as they bounce off the object and arrive back at the source is recorded. The detector that can count individual photons can resolve depth on the millimetre scale over long distances. Also, the ability of the new system to image objects like items of clothing that do not easily reflect laser pulses makes it useful in a wider variety of field situations.

One of the key characteristics of the system is the long wavelength of laser light the researchers chose. The light has a wavelength of 1,560 nanometres, meaning it is longer, or "redder," than visible light. This long-wavelength light travels more easily through the atmosphere, is not drowned out by sunlight, and is safe for eyes at low power. Already the researchers are gunning for extending the range of the 3D 'scanning camera' to 10 kilometres.

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Jap Scientists in Dreamland

Dreams had always tantalized man from the ancient times to the Freudian and their interpretations had as many variations as there were practitioners. Psychology, we could easily see, inhabits that narrow borderline area between science and non-science. But whatever your take on dreams, be it Freudian or Jungian, or something more exotic, you just cannot hide your dreams from the Japanese scientists.

Scientists in Japan, using nothing more exotic than MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanners commonly employed in diagnostics, have found a way to 'read' people's dreams, thus unlocking the secrets of the unconscious mind. According to researchers, this was "the world's first decoding" of night-time visions, the subject of centuries of speculation and study.

Scientists at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories (in Kyoto, western Japan) used EEG (Electroencephalography) and fMRI (funtional MRI) scans to map patterns of brain activity during the first (non-REM) phase of sleep. Once dream patterns were seen, the volunteer 'dreamers' were woken up and asked about the visual images that they had dreamed about. This was repeated for about 200 times for each of the volunteers. A computer algorithm correlated the resulting data of the dreamer's perceptions with the corresponding MRI patterns, with the result that soon the scientists could, with a fair amount of accuracy (sometimes as high as 70% !) predict what images the volunteers were dreaming about by looking at the MRI patterns. Specific items like men, words, books, cars etc could easily be identified, said the scientists. "We have concluded that we successfully decoded some kinds of dreams with a distinctively high success rate," said Yukiyasu Kamitani, a senior researcher at the laboratories and head of the study team.

US neuroscientist and dream expert Dr Robert Stickgold, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, said "...we are still far from having a machine that can fully read our dreams." But, despite this, he described the study as ‘stunning in its detail and success’ and added that "This is probably the first real demonstration of the brain basis of dream content".

At present, the system is apparently limited to detecting only very basic classes of objects which the dreamers visualise, and it would take a few bulky lab instruments and a team of boffins to open the doors to your dreamland. However, we can expect a further refinement of the 'dream-reader' algorithm, as well as an extension of the same to map smells, emotions and entire stories. That would mean plumbing the depths of REM sleep. So be careful about what you choose to say about your dreams. Sooner or later an app could even be available for the smartphone that could easily 'read' your secret dreams accurately!

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Self-healing Microchips—the origin of a new species

Science is getting closer and closer to making 'intelligent' robots that are almost lifelike. Artificial intelligence programs have beaten the best of humans in that good old game of strategy, chess. But try as they might, the most sophisticated of them are unlikely to be classed as living things. The simple reason? Well, they lack the capacity for self repair. In fact the capacity for adaptive self repair has been something that has put living beings on the topmost rung of the ladder. Just one wee little bit of a circuit going awry could spell "curtains" for the best of robots. One wrong line of code could throw the spanner into the works of the best of AI programs. That, then is the "fact of life".

Now engineers at Caltech (California Institute of Technology) have sowed the seeds for the origin of a new species-- a microchip that could learn to heal itself. A self-healing chip is but a few steps short of a self-healing machine, the Holy Grail of robotics and AI. In a typical microchip, there are thousands of pathways by which information can travel, but a single fault can render the whole system inoperative. By a rough count, these days a typical chip may house upwards of 100,000 transistors, the basic building blocks of a chip. All of these transistors might not function simultaneously, though the failure of just one or two could turn the chip into a dud. The researchers wanted to broadly mimic the human brain, which, if one pathway for information flow becomes unavailable, quickly seeks out alternative pathways.

The chip with the "electronic immune system" has a range of on-chip sensors that monitor temperature, current, voltage, and power. The data from the array of sensors is fed into a custom-made Application-Specific Integrated-Circuit (ASIC) unit on the same chip, a central processor that acts as the "brain" of the system. In the event of a failure, the chip's brain draws conclusions based on the aggregate response from the sensors and switches actuators to "reconfigure" the chip's functionality on the fly. "We have designed the system in a general enough way that it finds the optimum state for all of the actuators in any situation without external intervention", says one of the designers.

Part of the chip that was 'laser-fried'
-damage from which the chip recovered

In order to demonstrate this self-healing functionality, the research team zapped a high frequency communications chip multiple times with a high power laser, 'frying' many devices on the chip. However, when next switched on, the chip's "brain" swung into action and restored the functionality in about a second, and that too to nearly ideal levels. "...(the ciruits) can now both diagnose and fix their own problems without any human intervention, moving one step closer to indestructible circuits...", was how the lead researcher put it. The team is confident that the self-healing approach can be extended to virtually any other electronic system.

The development, though in its infancy now, is sure to open up a world of possibilities. Making a cyborg like 'Terminator' may not happen overnight, but truly the mind boggles when once considers the future when inanimate systems could "take care of themselves".

Learn more at:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-self-healing-microchips

http://www.caltech.edu/content/creating-indestructible-self-healing-circuits

'Remote sensing' Electronic Tattoos

Tattoos are as old as mankind, though it was the exposure to the Polynesian practice that had re-ignited interest in tattooing in the West. Tattooing has been practised for centuries in many cultures around the world. The 'skin art' is mostly decorative in purpose. But now medical researchers at the University of Illinois have converted the tattoo into a diagnostic tool.

The electronic circuit 'printed' on skin

The project, pioneered by materials scientist John Rogers, is the latest development in research into flexible "epidermal electronics". This involves flexible circuit boards and electronics that can be printed directly on to the skin of a person, whose health parameters like heart rate and temperature, strain and hydration, could be monitored directly by the sensors and the accompanying circuits, and beamed back to the physician. Techniques have been developed to print circuits directly on to human skin with a rubber stamp. it is then covered with a spray-on bandage to form a protective coating. The ultra-thin mesh electronics operate like a standard computer circuit board – with electrodes, sensors and wireless communication systems.

This development could be the first step in a futuristic system of networked healthcare. With such a "tattoo system" in place, patients could be sent home to recuperate post-surgical procedures and doctors could monitor their progress remotely, with the "printed-tattoo" devices taking over the roles of electromyographs and electrocardiographs, the "big iron" of hospital rooms. The "tattoo" circuits will continue to do their job for a couple of weeks before the skin's natural exfoliation process will cause them to flake off.

That makes one wonder: Is it right to call them tattoos--which are more or less permanent?!

Explore more at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2013/mar/13/electronic-tattoo-monitor-patient-symptoms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoo

A Smart Phone ECG

A patent has finally been granted to an innovative idea that was mooted in the 1990s by physician-inventor David Albert (chief medical officer at AliveCor, San Francisco) -- a wireless personal electrocardiogram (ECG) device.

As could very well be surmised, this is another feather in the cap of the 'smart' phone. The patent is for an ECG device that looks like a smart phone case and snaps in place around the phone. The device has embedded sensors to measure the electrical activity of the heart. The associated electronic circuitry analyzes the data and sends it wirelessly to the smart phone. Yes, the smart phone has to be loaded with an 'app' (in this case AliveECG, made by AliveCor) that can interface the data to a distant physician for live examination over a secure network. All that the user needs to do is to place his fingers on the sensors after starting the app. The ECG readout provided by the app may not be as complete as a typical  hospital ECG machine, but it could provide critical data for correct diagnosis.

Now that a beginning has been made in harnessing the smart phone to diagnose heart problems, it will not be long before software enhancements will be released that could automatically zero in on dangerous medical problems and alert the physician without wasting critical moments. Patents are pending for such an application that could detect atrial fibrillation, a common cause for about a third of the strokes that occur.

Science has finally put medical diagnostic power into the hands of the man in the street.

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Kids Dream Up 'Mosquito Syringe'

Radha and gopis celebrating Holi -18th C

Come to think of it, India can lay claim to having invented the syringe. Ancient paintings of 'Holi' celebrations show the use of squirting instruments that pack a colourful punch, not much different from those you might encounter in a north-Indian street now during Holi. But the modern medical syringe is an invention from the mid-19th Century, and it has served patients and doctors well all these years. But now 'kid researchers' at a biotechnology company are dreaming big about unleashing "mosquito syringes" to deliver vaccines.

An interesting concept

No, it is not an April 1st joke; this is for real. Provita is a biotechnology company and what sets it apart from the others in its class is the fact that all the company's employees are under-18 'juveniles' ! Everyone on the 15-plus team, from research and development to finance, is in high school. The sixteen year-old CEO of the company and his team have been able to impress the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with their idea that the Foundation now funds the research. The proposal was for a "flying syringe", a tool that harnesses mosquitoes as a vector to deliver vaccines to humans.

The 'young' company was founded in 2008 when some science-focused high-school kids decided to collaborate with other business-minded students on a business plan competition for their research. CEO Joshua Meier was a finalist in the 2012 Google Science Fair. The firm has a stem cell lab and a microbiology lab and other sophisticated equipment, and has supporters like the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York to help with future development of the firm.

Their first goal will be to "genetically engineer" mosquitoes so that they can produce and deliver a vaccine, via their saliva, for the West Nile Virus. The researchers said utmost care will be taken to ensure that the mosquitoes will be sterilized to prevent any out-of-control problems. The company's first product, Coagula, will be targeted at haemophiliacs. The haemophiliac's blood has no tendency to clot naturally and so they have to regularly (often several times a week) take coagulants to make their blood thicker -- a painful procedure that also carries with it the risks of infection etc. The "mosquito syringe" method will be painless and efforts are on to develop a treatment that has to be taken once in a few months.

Given the track record of the company and the enthusiasm and expertise of the young team, it is more than likely that such a revolutionary method of vaccine delivery will be the norm in the days to come. Be careful, though, with that swatter when mosquitoes start buzzing!

Explore related links:
http://www.biospectrumasia.com/biospectrum/news/174754/firm-run-kids-mosquito-deliver-vaccine#.USWI7R3Iv0Q
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=this-biotechnology-company-run-by-h-2013-02&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_TECH_20130219

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Tackle Stroke with a Fizzy Drink

Now it appears that some fizz in a glass of plain water is what you need to cure stroke after-effects.

But if it is your favourite carbonated, sugared-water drink that comes to your mind, forget it. It is a squirt of hydrogen that you need in a glass of water to keep strokes away.

Hydrogenated water

Discover magazine reports the experimental work by drug researchers at Kyushu University in Japan that might point to a cure for stroke-related brain cell damage. A stroke occurs when a clot blocks blood flow to a part of the brain. Neurons or nerve cells are destroyed as a result.

Experiments on mice conducted by Mami Noda in Japan and neurologist Bruce Ransom (University of Washington) found that a simple drink of water charged with hydrogen gas appeared to act as an anti-oxidant, protecting brain cells from the toxic after-effects of oxygen starvation that strokes can cause. A stroke kills a lot of brain cells, but the worst comes afterward, when these damaged cells release reactive oxygen species, molecules that can damage and kill  more neurons.

Normally only about 25% of nerve fibres survive when deprived of oxygen for say, 60 minutes. When the hydrogen water therapy was administered, the survival rate climbed to 50%, and apparently other signs of damage from reactive molecules were also reduced. The researchers surmise that hydrogen is reacting with and disabling the toxic oxygen species.

The findings are being evaluated, but it looks like this could lead to the formulation of a simple preventive medicine against strokes, one of neurology’s long-held goals.

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Floating Schools: Building Differently

What if your locality is prone to floods most days of the year? Do you simply call it quits and look for higher/drier ground? Or, maybe take a lesson from those Venetians and opt for a 'floating city"? What if you are poor, or rather "resource-challenged"? Opt for a floating village!

Adeyami's vision .. ...

Surely that is no pipe-dream, especially if you have a committed and resourceful architect like Kunlé Adeyemi on your side. Adeyemi, a Nigerian-born architect who now lives in Holland, (to borrow his own words) "... was inspired, shocked, and motivated" by what he saw as he drove by the Makoko settlement in Lagos, Nigeria. It is a shanty-town on stilts (to beat the almost year-round floods) that about 250,000 people call home. Water is everywhere and canoes are the only vehicles of choice.

... .. and the reality !!

While visiting this water-logged settlement, one request that came to him was to find a solution to the flooding of the little school house. As an architect who "thought out of the box", he felt that the solution lay in "building just a little differently". He could see that stilts were not practical for a lot many reasons, and instead chose to build the school on a floating platform. As an eco-conscious architect, he put in rainwater harvesting, solar power generation and sustainable means of waste disposal. Makoko's revolutionary floating school was ready -- on paper.

With enthusiastic community participation, he started building ... building differently. And now rain or shine, the school keeps the children happy and safe. Adeyami saw the floating school project as a "seed to cultivate a new type of urbanism on water in African cities". The three-storey wooden structure, built of local, cheap wood, is 108 square feet at its base, and 33 feet high, built on a floating deck made of 256 used plastic drums. The school can accommodate about 100 children and the design is simple and inexpensive. He has a vision of applying the technique in the creation of entire floating villages and towns, and serving as a catalyst for such revolutionary approaches to issues like climate change and flooding, energy and waste management, and the squeeze on infrastructure.

With visionaries like Adeyami taking the lead, let us hope it will not be long before we can have simple, practical answers to the many issues that vex people in developing nations.

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World Radio Day 2013

Today is World Radio Day.

An antique valve radio

The UNESCO has declared 13 February as World Radio Day:
— a day to celebrate radio as a medium; to improve international cooperation between broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information and freedom of expression over the airwaves.

Like most things technological in our lives, radio too has evolved much from the "cat's whisker" days.
In this predominantly digital era, let us talk a little about DAB or digital radio and novelties like the Software Defined Radio.

(... article under review .. ....)

Solar Thermal v. Photo Voltaics

Solar photo-voltaic panels are the accepted method to harness the Sun's energy.
Now solar thermal generators offer a viable challenge to photo-voltaics.
Read about the breaking tech.
(... article under review....)

Micro grids and the future energy scenario

Are Micro Grids the key to energy security through energy independence?
What are micro grids?
Is it time to "de-centralize" ?
Is there a 'smart grid' in our future?
A'green' case for micro grids.

Follow these and other questions as we dissect the concept of the micro grid.
(... article under review...)

A 'Viral Pacemaker' : Teaching a Virus New Tricks

We all know that the human heart is a tireless pump. Biologists tell us that this wonderful organ is made up of billions of cells. But its steady "rhythm of life" is kept up by the electrical pulses produced by a collection of just about 10,000 cells that make up the Sino-atrial Node. These pacemaker cells are formed in the embryonic stage itself. With time, they naturally lose their precision with age and disease. The result? Their pulses might speed up, slow down, become irregular, or, God forbid! even stop. These are the instances when heart surgeons would implant an artificial, battery-powered pacemaker to serve as a substitute. But these 'foreign' devices bring with them the risks of breakdowns, power loss and infections, not to speak of a comparatively short life span on account of the limitations of technology.

The ideal solution, then, would be a replacement pacemaker that is built and powered by the body. Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute are on their way to creating just such a thing. They have succeeded in teaching a few good tricks to viruses and have deployed them as pacemakers.

When pacemaker cells are developing in the embryo, a particular gene—Tbx18—is also activated. Researchers inserted this Tbx18 gene into a virus and inserted that virus into normal, adult guinea pig heart cells. In a matter of days, these cells morphed into pacemaker cells and began sending heartbeat signals of their own. The approach is similar to the reprogramming of heart scar tissue to function like normal heart cells, but in this case the researchers were reprogramming the heart’s pacemaker, thus controlling the beating of all other heart cells.

Another good thing was that the effects lasted even after the Tbx18 had faded away. Researchers are confident that the structural change is permanent and might offer long-term treatment for patients with heart rhythm irregularities. At this point, though, the research, which was published in Nature Biotechnology, is far from human trials.

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Matter Net : a Net for Matter

The Gulf war and the Afghan conflicts have made us familiar with 'drones', small hunter-killer Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that are deployed by the military. Military UAVs began as reconnaissance platforms that could penetrate enemy territory easily. Unlike a manned aircraft, the miniscule pilotless UAVs could evade radar and other defences. Today technologies as diverse as aeronautics, artificial intelligence and robotics have combined to create autonomous UAVs or AAVs, whose capabilities are astounding, to say the least.

Now the drones or the AAVs are again in the news. In an interesting twist, the primarily military hunter-killer is turning into a good samaritan. Challenged to find solutions to help the world's poor, a team of visionaries at the Singularity University came up with a network of autonomous quad-copters that could 'connect' far-flung communities and deliver things likes medicines and medical samples for laboratory analysis. The Matter Net, as the network of AAVs has been christened, will serve isolated communities in developing nations that are not connected by roads.

AAV with medicines arrive at a remote
village (Courtesy: motherboard.com)

The name 'Matter Net' might sound right out of Star Trek. But don't think it is some kind of a sci-fi 'tele-transportation' system. We are all familiar with the globe-spanning Internet that transports 'packets' of data around. Here the packets are those of goods, and the 'net' is an intelligent network of autonomous flying robots that implement a real-world goods delivery system. The first stage is designed to carry small loads of one to two kilograms using a quad-copter that the team built using off-the-shelf parts in just three weeks. Stage two is planned to have fully autonomous AAVs with capacities of about 200 kg. The plan also envisages fully automated solar recharging stations for the copters installed at intervals on the ground. The third stage has ambitious plans of transporting people and goods, with AAVs that can carry 1,000 kg.

With visonaries like space enthusiast Dr. Peter Diamandis, Dr. Ray Kurzweil, the Artificial Intelligence guru, and Andreas Raptopoulos, a designer of fantastic flying machines, supporting the project, it is not easy to call this a 'pipedream'. Still there are a lot of questions that call for a deeper look at the concept. What will happen if the small AAVs are destroyed/damaged by storms? Who will answer for the life that could be lost as a result (assuming that the AAV was carrying life-saving medicines)? What will happen if they are 'hijacked' by unscrupulous elements? Will the MatterNet be a corporate monopoly? Will it be really cheaper and easier for the developing nations to maintain a fleet of hi-tech flying robots than developing roads and transportation?

The questions are many and nobody has definitive answers, at least for now. But the concept is indeed tantalizing and surely within our reach as has been demonstrated by the dream-team at Singularity University.

Explore more at:

http://matternet.us/
http://singularityu.org/
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120209-i-say-to-you-today-i-hover-dream/1
http://sites.psu.edu/amh5892edsgn100/2012/12/05/matternet-a-fascinating-but-flawed-proposal/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle

Flexible 'yarn' battery

LG is a company that is associated with consumer products. Now the chemicals division of the company has come up with a revolutionary battery -- a flexible, rope/cable-type Lithium-ion battery, that is so flexible that it could be tied in knots, or even woven into textiles. This, naturally, opens up new possibilties in design.

The LG battery's technology is nothing revolutionary -- it is the same as any conventional Li-ion battery in a smart phone or tablet or camera. But they have adopted a novel fabrication technique that makes the battery truly flexible. The conventional batteries are built up in layers, while the 'yarn' battery is, well, twisted like a rope into a hollow, spring like helix.

LG flexi battery powering a display
(courtesy: www.phys.org)

Thin strands of copper wire are coated with a nickel-tin (Ni-Sn) alloy to create the anode. These strands are twisted into a yarn, and then wrapped tightly around a 1.5mm-diameter rod. The rod is removed, leaving a strong spring. Next, aluminium wire is wrapped around the spring, and then the whole assembly is dragged through a slurry of lithium cobalt oxide, which coats the aluminium wire and becomes the cathode. Finally, the anode-cathode spring is wrapped in a protective outer coating, and then an electrolyte is poured down the middle of the hollow spring. Voila! the battery is ready!

Dont think of running to the market to get a replacement 'rope battery' for your smart phone. The technology is quite a few years away so far as commercial production is concerned.

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Solar Cells: thin is 'in'

Being thin is 'in' not only in the world of beauty and fashion, but in technology also. Now it is the turn of solar cells. The quest for alternate/renewable sources of energy and the need for greater energy efficiency is driving scentists and researchers to explore newer possibilities. Norwegian researchers at the University of Oslo have succeeded in producing solar cells that are about 20 times thinner than conventional products. This means a saving of nearly 95% of precious silicon from which solar cells (and most other electronic components) are fabricated, thus making them considerably cheaper.

Currently solar cells measure about 200 micrometers (that is, 0.2 mm) in thickness. The individual cells are 'sawn' from a large block of silicon, and this means a lot of wastage of silicon (nearly 40-50 %) by way of 'saw dust'. Naturally, thin cells would mean that the yield is very high.

A 'side effect' that results from this development is that the cells are so thin that a lot of light, especially the wavelenghts near red, passed straight through without contributing to electricity generation. The University boffins have, however, found a way to trap these rays and increase the efficiency of the 10 micrometer thin cells. They deposited small plastic 'micro beads' on the silicon that scattered the rays, making the apparent thickness of the cell about 250 micrometers.

Hectic work is on to adapt these techniques to large-scale manufacturing, and commercial realization could take a few years.

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Solar Cell 'Stickers' : 'bye to breakages

As far as we know, solar cells come as rigid panels that need a more or less flat area like a roof top to support it. This was thanks chiefly to the brittle nature of Silicon and the rigidity of the glass substrate. The cells were fragile, unless mounted to and shielded by shatter-proof glass. This limited the 'flexibility' of  their use too.

Now all that is set to change. Researchers at Stanford University have created the first 'peel-and-stick' solar cells. These cells are flexible and can be attached to a variety of surfaces. “Now you can put them on helmets, cell phones, convex windows, portable electronic devices, curved roofs, clothing – virtually anything,” says Xiaolin Zheng, the lead researcher. Most importantly, the peel-and-stick cells have the same efficiency as conventional glass-substrate devices, and they retain their performance through thousands of bending cycles. Another plus -- they can be produced using conventional, industry-standard facilities and materials.

The peel-and-stick solar cell begins life as a standard silicon wafer that has had a layer of silicon dioxide grown on it. A 300nm (0.3 micron) layer of nickel is deposited on the wafer, and then a conventional, hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film solar cell (TFSC) is deposited on top of that. The whole thing is covered in a protective polymer (plastic), and finally a piece of thermal release tape is attached to the top of the solar cell.

Before sticking the cell to a surface, it is placed in a room-temperature water bath. The tape is peeled back slightly so that water seeps between the silicon dioxide/nickel interface, separating the cell from the wafer. The thermal tape is removed by heating it to 90 C (194 F) for a few seconds, and then it’s simply a matter of affixing the flexible solar cell to any surface you like — with double-sided tape, glue, or other adhesive. The process is waste-free as  the Silicon wafer is undamaged and clean after removal of the solar cells, and can be reused.

The commercial realization of the process is sure to bring in highly innovative design thinking and novel applications of solar cells.

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Knowledge Graph Search -- a Plain English Guide

[... coming up soon
 ... the layman's guide (Is there such a person as a 'laywoman'?) to the latest tech that is on offer from the search giant Google
... written in plain, simple English!]

KIDs and the Need for SID

Today's world is powered by technology. High tech that is often far more complex than anything you have experienced. And technology often puts very powerful tools into the hands of the individual. These tools more often are double-edged, and can cause extreme hurt -- unless you have the knowledge and training to handle them.

Today's online tools are perhaps the most powerful and, in a manner of speaking, the most dangerous that our kids have (easy) access to. But take heart that you don't have to be a rocket scientist or a security expert to stay safe online. This is where the relevance of initiatives like SID comes in. Safe Internet Day initiative started back in 2004 as part of the EU Safe Borders project. It is observed on the second day of the second week of the second month, and is now celebrated in more than 90 countries across the world. The theme for SID 2012 was "connecting generations", when children, parents and grandparents were invited to “discover the digital world together… safely”.

The tenth SID celebrated on 5 February, 2013 revolved around the theme "online rights and responsibilties", and its slogan will be "connect with respect". Naturally this would make an additional set of three R's for the kids to follow while online.

R-1: Being online and 'connecting' with the rest of the world starts with respect. Polish up your etiquette and that should serve you well on the Net too! (Pundits call it Netiquette, but dont worry, it is more or less the same old thing!) Treat every other individual you 'meet' online with the same sort of respect you would show him or her normally in real face-to-face situations. Always be polite in what you say. Respect the rights of others--here is a situation where you can "give respect and take respect"!

R-2: Just as an individual enjoys many rights in this world, there are rights in the online world too. The SID website has a good poster that sums up your rights online.

R-3: Now, the important part -- your responsibilities. Be honest, especially when stating your age to access sites, which is important from the angle of security shields. Always present authentic information, and don't upload trash, viruses, or copyrighted material owned by others, and don't generate spam email. Always keep parents, elders and teachers informed of your online activities, especially when you are in doubt, or when you come across rights violations or abuse. Behave responsibly while blogging or while on social sites. Be careful about what you say online or what pictures you upload. Always learn and observe safe online practices. (Check out the tips below from security experts.) To freely paraphrase the Biblical injunction, Don't do unto others what you wouldn't want others to do unto you. That should keep you safe and sound in the online jungle.

Google, the search giant, has posted ten tips for online safety. Their security experts are sure to know a thing or two when it comes to spotting skulduggery online, and how to save your skin while trawling the web.  Needless to say, these tips could be useful for kids and grown ups alike.

• Use a long, unique password made up of numbers, letters and symbols for each of your important accounts like email and online banking.

• Don’t send your password via email, and don’t share it with others.

• Set up your password recovery options and keep them up-to-date.

• Keep away from scams - don’t reply if you see a suspicious email, instant message or webpage asking for your personal or financial information.

• Report and flag content that is abusive or illegal.

• Check your privacy and security settings often, and customize how you want to share your content.

• Be mindful of your online reputation — think twice before you post something embarrassing, harmful or inappropriate.

• Keep your device’s browser and operating system up-to-date. When you do install software, make sure it's from a trusted source.

• Pay close attention when asked to sign in online. Check to see if the web address begins with https:// — which signals that your connection to the website is encrypted and secure, and so more resistant to snooping or tampering.

• Always lock your screen when you're finished using your computer, tablet or phone, and for added security, set it to lock automatically when it goes to standby/sleep.

Do find time to explore:
http://www.saferinternetday.org/web/guest/home
http://googleblog.blogspot.in/2013/02/safer-internet-day-how-we-help-you-stay.html
http://www.jaagoteens.com/

The Invasion of the QR Codes

When something designed with a specific purpose finds an application in a totally unrelated field, we can be sure that it is the result of inspired innovation. A case in point is the strange places that QR codes have migrated to, and that too with admirable results.

QR code on Rio street

The latest news is that city officials in Rio de Janeiro, the city of carnivals and beaches, have begun embedding QR codes into pavements that provide guidance and details to smart phone toting tourists. The hi-tech black and white mosaic patterns easily blend with the more traditional decorative mosaic designs, and the city has plans to make around 30 locations, including historic sites, more visitor friendly by providing instant access to information and a range of services via connected smart phones and tablets. This is not a first as there have been such innovative use of the QR codes in places like Portugal, Gibralter and Wales.

QR codes became familiar to the lay public with comparatively recent trend of using them in print advertisements. The small, square pattern of black and white tiles, when photographed using a smart phone's camera and after being processed by a free 'app', gave a lot of details and links to the website of the company and the product. This was perhaps the first time that a direct 'bridge' was offered between print and digital media.

A typical QR code

Originally designed by the Toyota company in Japan in 1994 to track vehicles during manufacture, QR (Quick Response)  code is an optical machine-readable code like the more familiar product bar code. But the standard QR code can store more than 1,800 characters of text information. Though patented initially, the technology was later released for free use, and today it has found many applications in diverse fields mainly on account of its easy and fast readability and sizeable capacity.  The black and white chequer pattern, after being photographed (or scanned) is analysed by an 'app', the data extracted and error-correction applied, following which the information is made available to the user. Often a printed QR code in an ad will lead the consumer directly to the product's website. The advantage here is the 'instant linking' that QR codes offer, in contrast to the usual practice of a consumer having to type in a  URL after reading a print ad if s/he wishes to visit a company's website.

Today anybody with a camera phone and a suitable (free) app, can 'shoot' the QR code and in a few seconds can have on tap text, contact info, directions and direct links to 'rich media' interactive sites. For example the QR code at Arpoador in Rio tells the tourist the origin of the place name and also gives detailed information and even maps with GPS data. This type linking from physical objects is termed 'hard linking' or 'object hyper linking'.

There have been many innovative applications of the QR code. The Philippines National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is known to use them to store personal data -- documents issues by NBI carry QR codes that embed the information about the holder. To celebrate its centennial, the Royal Dutch Mint issued the world's first coin with a QR code in June 2011. Many universities have found unique applications for the QR code. Heritage buildings in the campus sport QR codes in their facades which could give the visitor their background. Innovative notice boards often carry QR codes that take students directly to sites with resources for study. In libraries, QR codes stuck to books direct the reader to related sites. QR codes on a visiting card can embed all the information about the person, the company and its products. Museum exhibits carry QR codes that lead patrons to additional information, photos etc.

In short, the versatility of the QR code and its application seem to be limited only by your imagination. Think of it like this -- wherever you would like to provide a 'hot' link from a physical object to a website with added, 'rich' content, the easiest way to do that is to generate and print a QR code and stick that to the object. The rest, as they say, is easy!

Learn more from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alextaub/2012/12/06/qr-codes-are-dead-long-live-qr-codes-a-conversation-with-scans-founder-garrett-gee/
http://www.teachthought.com/technology/18-innovative-uses-of-qr-codes/
http://onebiginternet.com/2011/02/the-complete-guide-to-qr-code-technology/

Want to generate QR codes? Visit:
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/

LEPs: a New Flash on the Horizon

Lighting and Energy Efficiency
Time was when your fancy and the weight of your wallet decided what you chose to do with energy and lighting. Not any more. Energy these days is an expensive thing, both from the monetary point as well as from the environmental angle.

Pursuit of energy efficiency is not merely fashionable, but it has assumed the proportions of an essential survival strategy for Homo sapiens on Planet Earth. Hectic campaigns till recently called for the banishment of the ubiquitous incandescent light bulb -- an acknowledged energy guzzler-- and its replacement with a more efficient 'avatar', the CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp). In the meantime, questions of environmental concern and energy savings have dimmed the prospects of the CFL, which, like its bigger brother, contains the dangerous pollutant Mercury.

Into this background, LED (Light Emitting Diode) lamps have emerged as a viable alternative. Of late LEDs have been occupying centre stage, having taken a giant leap from its role as the humble indicator lamp on the front panels of electronic equipment to powerful and bright flood-lights illuminating the public spaces and buildings of our cities. The versatile and energy efficient LED is now more or less the de facto choice for lighting.

A Challenger in the Arena

Now a new contender has thrown a challenge to the LED and its claim to the energy efficiency crown. The new technology is actually an 'old timer' into whom new life has been breathed by the boffins at the nanotechnology labs of Wake Forest University, North Carolina, USA. Dr David Carroll, director of the Centre for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials of the University, has announced the breakthrough with his LEP (Light Emitting Polymer) lamp.

The new LEP lamp is based on Field-induced Polymer Electroluminescence (FIPEL) technology. Polymer electro-luminescence, as mentioned earlier, is rather 'old' technology that involves applying electricity through a conductive polymer to produce light. But this had remained a lab curiosity at best till now as the light emission was rather low--not enough to offer any competition to traditional lights. The Wake Forest researches led by Dr Carroll have worked some magic to make them more efficient. They doped the polymer with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), which drove up the luminance about five times. The device in its final practical form consists of three layers of mouldable polymer 'laced with' carbon nanotube material, with dielectric layers sandwiched in between. When driven by an alternating current (AC), the LEP produces pure white light, with virtually the colour temperature of clear sunlight, in which the eyes see best. According to the inventors, "...they produce a color and quality of light that can match the solar spectrum perfectly”.

This indeed is breakthrough technology, and something that could very well eclipse the future prospects of LEDs (to say nothing of CFLs!). The inventors, though secretive about their plans, point out that this is stable and proven technology on the verge of commercial realization. Dr Carroll has one lamp in his lab that has been working for nearly ten years, and it has been estimated that FIPEL lights can have a service life of 20,000 to 50,000 hours. The University is currently working with an industry partner (rumoured to be CeeLite Technologies, who apparently hold the world-wide licences for the technology) to begin production of the LEP lamps this year itself.

The Bright Duellists
What fires the enthusiasm of the inventors is the clear superiority of the FIPEL technology when compared directly with the CFL and the current favourite, the LED.

The CFL, as we know, is a 'mini' version of the conventional fluorescent tube, the traditional 'choke' (inductor) being replaced with an electronic high-voltage circuit. The fluorescent lamps, because of their flickering light output, is tiring to the eyes, and another irritation is the 50 Hz hum they often produce. They are still made of fragile glass tubes and they have a coating of fluorescent chemicals inside. The greatest danger to the environment, however, comes from the mercury that they contain, which is a hazardous pollutant. The high-voltage driving circuits also contain components and chemicals that are not easy to dispose of as e-waste. Above all, their cost/life factor too is not advantageous.

Longer service life and greater environment friendliness made the LEDs beat the CFLs. Further, they needed no high voltages and they contained no mercury. Over the past few years, great strides were made in the field of LED lighting and today we have capable LED replacements for almost all types of lamps. Yes, LED lamps are "hot" in a world looking for energy efficient alternatives. But they are "hot", unfortunately, in more ways. The fact is high-luminance LED lamps create a lot of heat, necessitating effective cooling/heat-sinking mechanisms. This is not a mere inconvenience, this is energy wastage. Another drawback was the bluish-white light emission of bright LEDs, which was 'tamed by' many innovative techniques, to get a near enough 'natural white' colour temperature. Currently the race is on amongst the leading semiconductor companies like the veteran Philips or the newbie Seoul Semiconductor, to develop a 'universal replacement' for the common ' light bulb'.

All things considered, the LEP has a lot going for it. It scores right away from the environmental angle-- it is all plastic and carbon, a far easier load on the environment as it could be recyclable fully. And their energy conversion efficiency is very high -- virtually the entire energy input gets converted to light, and consequently there is no waste heat. Dr Carroll sums up the LEP's benefits thus: "... we've found a way of creating light rather than heat. Our devices contain no mercury, they contain no caustic chemicals, and they don't break as they are not made of glass". Another great plus for the lamp designer is the versatility the technology offers -- the plastic 'light panels' can be moulded in any shape or size. This means the applications for LEPs would be much wider than as a replacement for the humble light bulbs, CFLs or LEDs. Surely with such mammoth world-wide demand, prices are likely to tumble to affordable or even 'cheap' levels.

At this point in time, the LEP looks like a technology breakthrough whose time has finally come.

(All pics courtesy: The Wake Forest Uty site.)

To learn more, trawl:
http://media.news.wfu.edu/experts/david-carroll/
http://users.wfu.edu/carroldl/Lighting_Display.html

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Watch Out for the e-Watch: a 'smart' 21st C avatar

Old pocket watch

The watch... ahem! shouldn't we call it by its proper name the wrist-watch? The term is a hangover from the days when 'real' watches were meant for the coat pockets of macho men, and not for the wrists and certainly not to be worn in that timeless style adopted by Gandhiji -- hung from the waist with the chain hooked to the loincloth!

Wrist watches or 'wristlets', as they were called, were reserved for women, and considered more of a passing fad than a serious timepiece! Like the car, the watch too had kept its resemblance to its predecessors since the early 1900s when names like Rolex emerged as a byword for durability and accuracy. But they started becoming truly popular only in the post-WW I era when soldiers returning from the frontiers started sporting 'trench watches' on their wrists, and suddenly wrist watches started becoming popular.

WW-I era watch

Admittedly till lately the wrist watch had remained a 'one-trick pony' that could tell the time, and not do much else. This changed when in the 1970s digital watches were introduced. From then on till the end of the 20th C, watches added on many capabilities to their itinerary, like calculators, games, stop watch and even GPS systems.

That was the track record for the watch for the 20th Century. But now getting into the 21st Century, the good old 'wristlest' is going through a r/evolution to perhaps wrest the title "watch of the year" in 2013. As we all know, 2012 was the year of the 'smart' phone when reality overtook the hyped capabilities of the multi-role device, which perhaps for the first time gave new meaning to the oft--repeated phrase "convergence". An equivalent 'smart' r/evolution is all set to be applied to the staid old wrist watch, thanks to the innovative dreams of nearly half-a-dozen emerging companies. Dont think these start-ups are alone; some of the industry heavy-weights and trend-setters in today's world like Apple, Sony and Google have quietly got into the bandwagon. Surely the action is going to be hectic in the coming months.

First off, let us take a look at what exactly a 'smart watch is. Well, the modern digital time-piece is a capable instrument that can do many things, and tell time too, but that doesn't make it any smarter. What makes the 21st Century e-avatar of the trusty old timekeeper on the wrist a winner? Comparing it with the 'smart' phone paradigm, it is easy to see why. Software configurability is the mantra of the smart device. A new 'app' re-defines the functionality of the instrument, and with an array of apps, the same old piece of hardware can be a dozen different things to a dozen different users. This, then, is going to be the decider in favour of the e-watch.

Custom faces (Pebble)

For starters,  the appearance of the e-watches are infinitely customizable to match your mood, activity or outfit, with beautiful downloadable watch faces displayed on a screen behind scratch-proof crystal. What makes them really 'smart' is when they connect and sync with your smart phones over a Bluetooth wireless link. (both Android and Apple standards are catered for, and there are rumours about a Blackberry compatible model too.) In addition to answering calls that come to your phone, most of them can also display incoming SMSs, let you check social media sites and postings, control your phone's music player, alert you about your calendar appointments etc. Their power  and versatility stem from the numerous 'apps' and here the limits are set by your (rather, the app programmer's!) imagination.

It is interesting to note that agile young start-ups have stolen a march over the tech behemoths in this field driven by innovation and "out-of-the-box" thinking. Companies with just a bright idea and no capital have gone online to seek what is known as "crowd funding" in order to go into production. Let us have a look at the current players in the field and what they have to offer.

Pebble Watch

It is not easy to connect the name Pebble Watch with a tech novelty. But the somewhat curiously named Pebble Watch is from a crowd-funded ($ 10 million!) start-up. It has an e-ink display that is readable in bright sunlight that can be customized with downloaded watch face designs; it connects to both Android and iPhone, and in addition to the 'basic' features, can also serve as a sports computer for cyclists, runners and hikers and as a golfer's range finder, thanks to its ability to access GPS data from the smart phone. It can access email and show weather alerts too. It is powered by an ARM micro and the rechargeable battery is claimed to hold its charge for a week.

I'm Watch

An expensive contender in the arena, though with a 'standard' feature set, is the I'm Watch with a conventional touch screen and the ability to sync to both iPhones and Android smart phones. It is powered by an Atom processor, 128 MB of RAM and has a built-in storage of 4 GB.

The Martian smart watch is a model that is closer to the 'Dick Tracy' watch of the early 20th C comic book era. It has voice recognition and you could initiate action with voice commands. In addition to the traditional analog clock face, it has an additional tiny display below that for alerts and messages.

Basis Technology squarely targets its product at the fitness crowd. It has an array of sensors (for heart rate, skin temperature etc) and it can track your workouts and measure a wide range of biometric data in real time, and even your sleep patterns.

Cookoo Watch

The Cookoo Watch is for those at the entry level, though its features too are somewhat basic and limited. It closely resembles an analog watch and has a long-lasting (1 year) disposable battery and it is waterproof up to 50 meters depth.

The inexpensive inPulse watch can sync with a Blackberry smartphone, and has also an app for slide/powerpoint presentations. It is powered by an ARM-7 processor.

Sony, the consumer electronics giant, too has joined the fray with smart watch models that have all the popular features and a stylish touch screen.

Rumours are already floating around about an iWatch that Apple is planning to release soon. With its market clout and design prowess, Apple could really set the cat among the pigeons. It is interesting to note that the company has neither confirmed nor denied the rumours about the product.

Google e-watch concept

Industry watchers have pointed out that Google, the search and tech giant, is apparently very close to releasing its own version of the smart watch. In 2012 Google did secure a patent for some features of its watch, including a flip-up semi-transparent display. Rumour mills report that Google's watch would be able to give directions, retrieve product information and display email notifications, and will be packed with sensors, radio, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and accelerometer.

It looks like the e-watch evolution is on in earnest and 2013 will be the year when the humble old wristlet of the 20th C will be taking on a 'smart' e-avatar to offer unprecedented synergy to the already powerful smart phone. With innovation and ingenuity powering the vision of designers and programmers, it is likely that today's 'smart watch' could very well rival yesteryear's sci-fi fantasy.

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The Induction Cooker- It's Hot!

The staid Indian kitchen has of late witnessed a hi-tech invasion of unprecedented scale. Electric induction cookers have all but replaced the gas and thermo-electric cookers in the households of most cities and towns. Though most of us take the induction cooker to be a new-fangled invention, patents (filed by Frigidaire, the 'fridge' people) for the technology date as far back as 1909. But the practical implementation of the technology had to wait till the 1970s when reliable high power solid-state devices became available for use in the power control circuits of induction cookers. Today's induction cooker is fast and highly energy efficient when compared to any traditional cooker, gas or electric.

(... watch this space ...

G-Lamp -- dependable as Gravity!

Wind-up torches with a spring and a mini-generator inside are still popular as emergency stand-bys. So was the wind-up radio released by Philips and one or two other companies sometime back. But nobody had thought of roping in the "old reliable" Gravity to run a lamp-- till now, that is!

Two London-based designers, Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves, after four years of "hard work" (pulling up a 10 kg weight umptenn times, even for research, is not exactly relaxing work!) have released production models of a novel gravity-powered LED lamp. The lamp, aimed squarely at the off-grid backyards of 'civilization', is an inexpensive, safe, and health-neutral alternative to the ubiquitous smoky kerosene lamp.
The Gravity Lamp employs a novel approach to storing energy and creating illumination. It takes only 3 seconds to lift the weight which, as it descends, drives a mini-generator that powers the light for about 30 minutes.

Rough estimates place the number of people in the world who live in interior villages, mostly in Africa, South America and India at over 1.5 billion. For lighting the people here have to turn to kerosene lamps, which are expensive to run, polluting and have significant negative health impacts. A shocking statistic is that the 'passive smoking' of kerosene smoke turns 60% of adult females in developing nations into lung-cancer victims. Millions also suffer from burns inflicted by overturned/burning kerosene lamps, the result of kitchen accidents. Another currently relevant figure is that the burning of kerosene for domestic lighting releases 244 million tonnes of Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.

No doubt, there are those who swear by solar photo-voltaic systems as being the answer to the needs of the villagers and contribute a significant percentage of the power needs of developing nations. However, the high initial costs of a solar panel and storage battery, and the short service life of the battery are deterring factors for marginalised individuals. The whole photo-voltaic system has complex circuitry that needs maintenance and the solar panels need bright sunlight to produce electricity. In comparison, the Gravity Light has no batteries to run out, replace or dispose of -- it has a "perpetual gravity battery", no fragile parts (like the solar panel, wiring, control ciruit boards etc) that could break, and works whether it is shining or raining! Truly it is a totally clean and green alternative!

The self-contained lamp and its drive belt comes packed in a bag. The oval body of the lamp houses a geared drive mechanism and generator and an LED lamp. Hang it up by its integral hook and thread the drive belt through. Now fill the bag with some sand or rocks hook it to the end of the drive belt. Pull the other end of the drive belt so that the weight is up, and release it. The weighted bag (nearly 10 kg) through the gearing drives the mini-generator for about 30 minutes. The generator output is fed to the high intensity LED, and is also available at terminals to say, charge a mobile device etc. This means there are no recurring running or maintenance costs (nor any polluting waste by-products) after the initial low purchase price, expected to be less than $5.

Rain or shine, the Gravity Lamp will work -- so long as Gravity is there!

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Check out:  www.deciwatt.org

The BioLite Camp Stove

How could a simple stove help the people in off-grid villages or in the wilderness? And that too without needing any exotic fuel? On top of that suppose the device was truly 'green'?

The BioLite home/camp stoves claim to do all that. BioLite is a low-cost biomass cook stove that burns things like sticks, pine cones, brush or virtually anything that burns. The waste heat is converted to electricity to charge mobile phones, LED lights and other life-changing gadgets. It is an efficient stove that cuts smoke by 95% (soot is almost fully eliminated), carbon monoxide by 91% and needs only 50% less wood than conventional stoves. BioLite lets you use renewable resources for fuel instead of petroleum, thus reducing your carbon footprint.

The 'fuel' burns in the stove’s combustion chamber. Waste heat radiates into a thermo-electric generator, which converts the heat into usable current. Some of that current powers a small fan, which boosts airflow within the burn chambers for more efficient combustion. The BioLite burns as hot as a propane stove and can boil water in five minutes. The remaining current (about 2Watts at 5 Volts) is fed to a USB port for charging an external device. The BioLite Camp stove is only the size of a large coffee can and weighs less than a kilogram.


To learn more, visit:
http://biolitestove.com/homestove/overview/
http://biolitestove.com/campstove/camp-overview/features/

'TECH' A Look at 2012

For us nothing marks the march of Time better than the diurnal rhythm of night and day. Like it or not, the relentless beat of Time is the rhythm to which man and what we call progress march. Developments in science and technology, like Time itself, have no clear demarcations of a beginning or an end. One thing leads to another, and often to a dozen other things. The twelve cubby-holes into which we straitjacket Time serve our purpose of stopping it enough for some kind of a stock-taking.
Here are a few things that had remained in our viewfinder as markers and milestones of the eventful twelve months we had traversed in 2012.

Peter Higgs and bosons

There was one thing that was on the lips of everybody in 2012 -- Higgs boson. Whether you understood particle physics or not, the 'God Particle' (a nickname strongly disliked by many physicists) was the trigger for all sorts of conjectures, both at the rarified heights of science or at the lay level. People dropped the name of Peter Higgs left and right, but many appeared to have no clue as to the Indian connection hidden within the boson. (Bosons are particles that are governed by Bose–Einstein statistics --though that explanation doesn't make things any easier for most of us!)

Whatever your take might be on the Higgs particle or the technological benefits of 'catching' it, you have to agree that the proton-smashing Large Hadron Collider was one mammoth experiment to 'tech' things forward into the next year!

GM is not always General Motors
With the success of the Human Genome Mapping project, man got his hands on the 'blueprint of life'. But man was not about to try his hand at‘re-building’ according to the good old blueprint. What he wanted to do was more like 'genome engineering' or modification of the DNA to play God.

A related fallout that created a lot of anxiety in the lay mind in 2012 was the question about the safety and advisability of Genetically Modified foods and crops. Studies, mostly conducted by the makers of GM foods/crops, quickly gave a “clean/green chit” to them, though there were serious “conflict of interest” issues behind them. On top of that the lobbying by the concerned companies and the news of the manipulation of media in their favour, all gave the layman enough heartaches trying to sort out the truth from the barrage of mis-/disinformation.

The Three C’s
Computing. Communication. Convergence. Finally, they sort of gelled in 2012. Convergence -- the coming together of ‘bits and pieces’ of technologies that offered a synergy of its own, and perhaps for the first time gave man a 'super tool'. Convergence of communication and computing was a term hyped about in the closing decades of the last century.

Today it has finally 'come to be' thanks to the spread of the mobile ‘smart’ phone, which had an idle (for most of the time) computer within, and which was 'connected'. All we needed were suitable 'apps' to make it do anything/everything and make it into a software avatar of the Swiss knife. The medical 'Tricorder' has teleported itself from Star Trek to the app stores of today. You can read, you can play, you can keep tabs on your health, you can pay your bills (with NFC-enabled devices), you can work 'in the Cloud', you can explore the Web, you can navigate, and yes, you can communicate either visually, by mail or by message, and also in the old-fashioned 'phone way'.... all thanks to the 'smart phone' and the smarter apps that are mushrooming around us. In 2012 we didn’t need to carry around a dozen devices to do all that and more. If that is not true convergence .....

Take a Tablet
As the cognoscenti might say, 2012 was the year of the tab. Whether you owned one or not, the 'tab' or the tablet computer was in the news and you saw it everywhere. India jumped onto centre-stage with the government announcing plans of empowering the millions of school/college students with the world's cheapest tablet sourced from a company named Datawind. Surely a new wind was set to blow in the Indian 'aakash' (sky). No prizes for thinking of another 'maruti' (the God of wind) that had transformed the Indian roads, and here was another avatar seeking to "burn the rubber" on the information superhighway.  Nicholas Negroponte's OLPC (no, that is not an "ol' personal computer"; it was his brainchild, the One Laptop Per Child organization) had struggled along for a full decade without getting anywhere near its projected goal, and here was the Indian behemoth all set to open a floodgate of connected, cheap tablets.

Another plus for the tab invasion-- perhaps for the first time, users finally could concentrate on the 'apps' to get their work done, instead of wasting their time and money on selecting a 'super-hyped' OS (operating system, which ought never have been the concern of the lay user). Now we all know how Microsoft and Intel made all that stash of cash. And all are pleasantly surprised that computing is zooming along faster, thanks to the 'lean and mean' tab which has left in the dust the 'wintel' juggernaut.

Climb onto a Cloud

If you wanted to be on a cloud, well, you would choose to be on Cloud 9. Not that anybody knew anything about the experience of being on Clouds 1 to 8. But even the dictionary tells you that being on the ninth cumulo-nimbus is a euphoric experience indeed. Today's cloud enthusiasts know little about the US Weather Bureau's terminology that places the ninth class of clouds at 30,000 to 40,000 feet up in the sky-- high enough for euphoria to set in! Rather, they have in mind the stylized cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure that delivers computing resources to them.

2012 was the 'Year of the Cloud' for most of ‘us’, when the average guy in the street could jostle a natty Tom, Dick or hurry along with Harry while "on the Cloud" for free -- and, to boot, do some real work and collaborate in real time, breaking all time and geographical bonds. That was courtesy of Google (a company that is becoming as big a presence in our lives as the big math number on which it modelled its name) and its Drive, a file storage and synchronization service, mated with productivity apps and tools released in April last. Perhaps the only question is at what cloud level that will be classified.

Testing Time for HIV
In a manner of speaking, 2012 was the year when man (and that includes woman too!) finally could get a handle on HIV/AIDS. The $ 40 rapid home HIV test (OraQuick), according to The Lancet, the respected grand-daddy of medical journals, "...poses dilemmas and opportunities..." for the wo/man in the street.

The test involves a simple mouth swab that detects HIV antibodies in saliva. The swab in placed in a vial of developer solution for 20 -- 40 minutes, when you get the result. There was a time when ignorance (especially about your sexual partner's HIV 'status') was bliss; but these days, knowledge of that could very well be power to make choices. Why fear dilemmas when opportunities abound?? Power, at long last, to the people!

Printers Go Solid

'Printer'- Gutenberg era (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

Not much had changed since the time of Johannes Gutenberg, the 15th Century German polymath, whose invention of printing ignited the launch of the modern era. From the crude hand press of the medieval master pretty little had changed despite the "massive strides" printing had taken over the intervening centuries. Lithography, offset, rotogravure, intaglio and the current favourite, digital printing, all were incremental improvements on the combination of techniques perfected by the inspired master in the bygone era.

RepRap 3D printer (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

Until, that is, 2012, when the word 'printing' took on an entirely new connotation, divorced as it was from paper and ink. Long a lab curiosity and an enchanting research project, 3D 'printers' achieved the goal of self-replication by 2008 with the RepRap project. Another landmark was the release of a DIY 3D printer by the open source company Makerbot in the very next year.

MakerBot Replicator

A 3D printer makes a three-dimensional solid object from a digital model by a process called ‘additive manufacturing’ by laying down successive layers of a material. 2012 was a watershed year for 3D printers in that they started appearing on the desktops of engineers and hobbyists thanks to the availability of affordable (and capable) Makerbot models like Replicator. This echoed the earlier personal computer revolution, when computing morphed from the mainframes to the minicomputers to the ubiquitous desktop PC.

The way things are moving in the field of 3D printing, it will not be long before we accept as the norm a different paradigm for the distribution of physical goods. Today's technology can already 'print' gun parts, working models and even prostheses. Think how instead of buying new furniture, we could buy new replication materials and download the designs over the Internet. If the replication materials are recyclable, we might be able to change our home’s decor in very little time and at a lower price point. This then could very well be the frontier of creation!

Android Rules

Android enthusiasts, and particularly Google, would love it if someone were to go 'official' with the statement “2012 was the Year of Android”. To those who still think that it is a loveable little green Droid related to R2D2 of Star Wars, well that is what Google calls its open source (Linux-based) operating system for mobile devices with touch screens. A secretive California startup founded by four enterprising young techies, Android Inc. was acquired by Google in 2005. Later the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of hardware, software, and telecom companies and the open standards compliance opened the doors to a wider acceptance. Though Android achieved 'critical mass' in 2011 with a user base that crossed 50% of the mobile market, it was in 2012 that it cemented its place as numero uno with a market share of 75%, according to many market surveys. In the era of the Smartphone wars, may the 'Force' be with us during the coming years too!

TWTYTW. TC!, as the Gen Text might SMS you.
(Translation for the rest of us: That was the year that was. Take care!)

Let’s join the march to ‘tech’ things forward into another year of innovations that have the power to change life beyond recognition.

Come to think of it, one might agree that dreams are the stuff technology is made of!

-- The Prof

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Web links to explore further:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/large-hadron-collider.htm

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/28/higgs-boson-discovery-may-signal-the-worlds-last-physics-experiment/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food

http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2012/12/07/what-you-need-to-know-about-gm-foods-is-half-the-story/

http://tribune.com.pk/story/480482/genetically-modified-food-crops-blessing-or-curse/

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/gm-crops-should-go-back-to-the-lab/article4074872.ece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_tricorder

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Negroponte

http://www.ubislate.com/

http://tech2.in.com/features/tablets/aakash-2-indias-low-cost-tablet-dream-come-true/656122

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Drive

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)61585-2/fulltext

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/06/health/another-use-for-home-hiv-test-screening-partners.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press

http://individual.troweprice.com/staticFiles/Retail/Shared/PDFs/3D_Printing_Infographic_FINAL.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RepRap_Project

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/makerbot-replicator-2-opens-door-high-quality-home-3d-printing.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)

http://www.bitrebels.com/technology/the-complete-android-history-timeline-infographic/