Technology N net

Superbus

2012-06-16T06:38:00.000-07:00

Speed : 250 kph

Passengers : 23

The Dutch-built Superbus was shown to the media at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi (Apr 10, 2011). Fully electric and designed to be capable of 250 kph while carrying 23 passengers, it is being pitched as the next-generation solution to the Dubai-Abu Dhabi commute. The high-speed bus that could slash journey times between Abu Dhabi and Dubai to 30 minutes.

Team

Research and development team

The research and development team is headed by the following three persons:

Prof.dr. Wubbo Ockels

First Dutchman in space and now full professor at TU Delft and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. At TU Delft he heads the ASSET chair (AeroSpace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology). Within the project he has the role of General Manager

Dr. ing. Antonia Terzi

Italian designer with a Formula 1 background. She used to be the chief aerodynamicist of the BMW-Williams Formula 1 team. Antonia holds the position of Chief Vehicle Designer. Next to that she is assistant professor in the ASSET chair.

Joris Melkert MSc

Aerospace engineer and now assistant professor in the ASSET chair. He has been involved in several aircraft development projects as well in the development of NUNA 3, the fastest solar car on earth. He is in charge of logistics and infrastructure matters.

The Superbus, which is being developed at the Delft University of Technology in Holland (http://home.tudelft.nl/), is on show in Dubai at the UITP Mobility and City Transport Expo - the first time it has been seen outside Europe.

TU Delft Faculty of Aerospace Engineering

The streamlined midnight-blue vehicle has eight gull-wing doors on each side, can hold 23 passengers plus a driver and was designed to travel on both normal roads and a special high-speed track.

Prof Ockels said his team was about to hold talks about the project with UAE transport officials. They hope to arrange a demonstration run for Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority after the expo ends.

The fully functioning prototype has already reached 140kph in tests, and Prof Ockels said he would be surprised if the electric vehicle had not touched its theoretical cruising speed of 250kph by October.

The team has brought the environmentally friendly Superbus to the UAE because of the interest shown in sustainable transport by the authorities here.

"We always had an interest in the Abu Dhabi-Dubai route. I was here 16 or 18 years ago and have followed the development, and I think here there is an ambition to grow into a sustainable world and a need to introduce proper public transport," Prof Ockels said.

"And the fact that you have quite substantial economic support, that combination is a good opportunity for us.

"During my space flight [on the space shuttle Challenger in 1985], I realised that the Earth is just a big spaceship where the hull is the thin layer of the atmosphere which is protecting us against the dangers of space, because in space you can't live.

"So that gave me the urge to work on sustainability."

The idea for the Superbus was born during a rather more prosaic journey - a commute between the two towns in Holland where he worked as a university professor.

"Delft and Groningen are 200km apart," Prof Ockels said. "On the days I travelled between them it took me fours hours in the morning by train and five hours to go back in the evening. So I had nine hours for 200km and I said, 'this is not right'.

"And then I thought, as a customer, what's the ideal public transport? It needs to be fast but not like a fast train, because I don't live near a station.

"So fast, but I want it to be flexible and use normal roads because, with normal roads, you can access the place where you want to be.

"So I had to think of a combination of high speed and flexibility - and that's a high-speed bus. Then I didn't want it to pollute, so it had to be electrical."

He said he hoped that within five years the first Superbus system would be up and running, adding: "Within 10 years I'd hope we would have a few hundred vehicles."

The Superbus was designed by Italian Antonia Terzi, an ex-Formula One aerodynamicist with the Ferrari and Williams teams. The vehicle incorporates a number of technologies borrowed from Formula One.

She said: "Firstly there's the aerodynamics. Then there's the chassis design and manufacture; it's all in carbon epoxy.

"We have carbon-ceramic brakes, like in Formula One. We have carbon-magnesium wheel rims - only 16kg for each wheel rim, nothing when you consider the vehicle weighs 10 tonnes."

Ms Terzi admitted she was not initially keen to move from the glamour of Formula One to designing a bus.

"Wubbo asked me and I was like, I don't want to design a bus, no, no, no - I come from Formula One!

"But I really liked the concept and the fact that there was nothing - normally every year you start with a baseline for a vehicle and then you develop it, but here there was no baseline.

"It was like a white piece of paper. It was such a wonderful challenge."

The Superbus will remain on show at the expo at the Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre until April 14.

Wind Tunnel Test 01

Wind Tunnel Test 02

Floor Assembled Chassis

Floor Assembling

Rear Body Panel

Front Sub Frame

Nose Panel

Side Frame Moulds

Vacume Infusion of the side frame

View From Inside

Map Projector - Maptor

2012-04-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

This is a concept which eliminate the use of traditional folderable maps which shows inconvenience when scanning large area.

Its a compact device which has a built in blue tooth and projector. Blue tooth helps to download new maps and through projector it will project them to anyware. And built in GPS will show the current location in the map.

Probably this has some draw backs, as this runs from battery, the projection may not be very powerfull. if the device has LED bulb, then it may not be clear in day light. But if uses a laser bulb, thats a different story.

The device has a higher percentage of environment friendly ness, since large part of it is biodegradable plastic.

Wireless Speakers for bicycles

2012-04-17T04:34:00.001-07:00

Brand Name: Cy-Fi
Model: KB472

Product Features

GENERAL INFO
Launch date 2008, September
Casing Plastic
Color options Black, Black + Silver, Black + Red

BATTERY
Battery functioning life 6 hours

POWER-RELATED FEATURES
Power source Mains

AUDIO
Sound system All

CONNECTIVITY
Bluetooth Bluetooth A2DP

PLAYBACK FEATURES AND EXTRAS
Remote control Yes

OTHERS
Remote control Changes the track, volume and playlists settings from your speaker
Mountable -Easily mount CyFi on your bike, boat, backpack, etc., with the provided hardware
Wireless Range- 30 feet Lightweight- less than 4 ounces

Cy-Fi is the world's first wireless sports speaker for biking, boating, camping or any activity that can be enhanced with a portable speaker. It is available in two models that support almost any music-carrying device: one is the ultimate iPod accessory, and the other supports Bluetooth-A2DP enabled cell phones, PDAs and MP3 players.

The Cy-Fi stereo speaker system is completely self contained, weighing in at a mere 4 ounces, including the integrated 6 hour battery. It comes in either an iPod version (with a wireless transmitter attachment for your iPod) or a A2DP stereo Bluetooth version. The iPod version even lets you change volume and tracks from the speaker unit itself.

Although you can use the Cy-Fi just about anywhere, it was originally designed for bikes, and that seems like what it’s most appropriate for. It mounts on your handlebars, with the directional stereo speakers pointing back toward you.

The Bluetooth version is also great for hands-free phone calls; you can yell at it if your cell phone supports voice dialing and hold a windy conversation up until you slam into the side of a bus, which should be most entertaining for whoever is listening on the other end.

Compatible with iPod and iPod Nano lets you enjoy 100% lossless, CD-quality wireless audio via Kleer technology while the remote control allows you to change the track, volume and playlist settings from your speaker. Kleer is the first wireless audio technology to combine full CD-quality audio with ultra-low power consumption. Thanks to its patented sub-sampling radio architecture, Kleer is able to deliver 100% lossless performance at a fraction of the power consumption of other technologies.

Futuristic Bicycle - Concept

2012-04-04T22:31:00.001-07:00

Toyota Concept Car - Fun Vii

2012-04-03T20:07:00.001-07:00

Its a new car presented by Toyota. Of course its a concept and it has some crazy features as well. But some are not unless its a company maintained car.

Repair cost of, even a small scratch would be a enormous. That where impracticality pops up for ordinary car users. Well.., if you are not targeting for a bigger market, a product like car, would not be much profitable production.

But it surely has advantage when use for advertising. I mean only as an advertising entity. Think of a scenario where a celebrity comes out from this car with various videos on the body of the car. And that would be a very noticeable incident.

And if the celebrity poses same way when particular advertisement plays on the body of the car would certainly make people talk about that particular pose and about the advertisement.

Interior of this car is crazy. Surely passengers would feel very insecure. And would have the feeling of sitting inside an egg shell.

Two in One ( Combination ) Monitor - Concept

2012-03-22T03:27:00.000-07:00

This is a nice concept which PC monitor has a built in printer. Since the monitor is touch screen, users just have to select the area to be print and release the print command.

Even though, this sounds fancy and looks fancy, tough screen monitor users and printer users know better. At first, using right click would be very difficult and time consuming with touch screens. That is one would have to keep press the finger against the monitor to imitate the right click functionality of the right mouse click. Since we all are used to the scroll mouse and touch pad, this would be bit inconvenient.

If the printer built in to the screen, there would be a problem from excessive heating. We all know that there is fusser unit in all laser printers, which heats the toner(ink) and bind it to the paper. That would course heavy damage to the monitor in long run.

Paper jamming is a common to all printers. If the paper got jammed in this printer, it would course entire unit to be taken off for remove the paper. Changing the fusser unit or any other repair in printer would result the same. That is, if there is a fault in either unit, one would have to stop working on other unit too.

Finally, Of course, its a very fancy concept.