NANOTECH2DAY

Here Is The Way To Check If Your Facebook Data Was Leaked

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 10:29:00 +0000

Here Is The Way To Check If Your Facebook Data Was Leaked

Recently, there has been a huge uproar on social media on how Facebook revealed information about millions of users that was used to influence politics. It is now known as the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook made a move that allows the users to check if they were the victims of this scandal.

(Source: FB News Post)

Millions of users chose to deactivate their Facebook accounts after the scandal came to light. Here are the simple steps you can follow to check if your personal data was revealed:

First of all, go to the top right corner and click the “Help” button.

(Source: FB News Post)

After clicking the help button, you will see a menu. In the menu, click on “Help Center”.

(Source: FB News Post)

Once you are there type in “Cambridge Analytica” and select the page “How can I tell if my info was shared with Cambridge Analytica?”.

(Source: FB News Post)

It will then tell you if your data was shared or not. The message suggests that only a small number of people who had the app “This Is Your Digital Life” had their data shared and it was not millions of users but it is just another stunt to save face.

(Source: FB News Post)

Many people are still not convinced and are still choosing to stay away from Facebook after the recent scandal.

Scientists Develop Brain Prosthesis That Boosts Memory

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 17:01:00 +0000

Scientists Develop Brain Prosthesis That Boosts Memory

A study funded by DARPA increased the possibility of memory-enhancing brain prosthetics. The animal research done previously showed successful results after which the study was conducted on patients at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The patients there were already having brain implants as a part of their epilepsy treatment. They experienced major improvements in both short-term and long-term memory. The patients were asked to play a memory-related computer game in which they were asked to remember specific things.

When the patients were trying to remember those things, the researchers recorded various patterns of neural firing in the brain’s hippocampus area. The hippocampus area of the brain is responsible for the memory. They also paid attention to neural patterns that resulted in the correct memory being encoded. After that, they made the patients play the game again and electrically simulated each patient’s brain by using the encoding patterns studied earlier. They were hoping to use those electrical simulators to trigger more effective memory storage of the data which they have.

The method worked successfully and showed results that were better than what the team was expecting. The results on the short-term memory tests jumped by a huge 37% and the long-term memory tests enhanced by 35%. Robert Hampson, the lead author of the study said, “We showed that we could tap into a patient’s own memory content, reinforce it and feed it back to the patient. Even when a person’s memory is impaired, it is possible to identify the neural firing patterns that indicate correct memory formation and separate them from the patterns that are incorrect. We can then feed in the correct patterns to assist the patient’s brain in accurately forming new memories, not as a replacement for innate memory function, but as a boost to it.”

The research has opened the door to the memory-enhancing brain implants. These implants might give a button which can be pressed when looking at something to increase the chances of remembering it later. The researchers are looking at this as a potential medical device to help the patients with Alzheimers, stroke or traumatic brain injury patients. The implant will help them re-start the process of forming new memories using their brain’s own activity patterns. The team is also hoping that the technology might be able to assist people in keeping memories which they have encoded already. Hampson says, “In the future, we hope to be able to help people hold onto specific memories, such as where they live or what their grandkids look like when their overall memory begins to fail.”

source : wonderful engineering

These Smart Glasses Convert Text To Sound For The Visually Challenged

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 10:30:00 +0000

These Smart Glasses Convert Text To Sound For The Visually Challenged

A Japanese company is developing a pair of smart glasses to help the visually impaired to read the written text more easily. The smart glasses called Oton Glass are meant to translate text into audio using two cameras and an earpiece, both fitted to the frame of the glasses.

Half of the lens is a mirror reflecting the wearer’s eyes back to the first camera, which tracks eye movement. The camera can detect blinking while the other one is used to capture text. The wearers used the smart glasses by staring at the text they can’t read and blinking in order to trigger the glasses.

(Source: The Verge)

A Rasberry Pi is used as the glasses’ computer and the text captured by the glasses is sent to Raspberry Pi cloud system which converts the text into audio and the audio is played through the earpiece. In the case that the text is not identified by the computer, it is sent to a remote worker who can decipher it.

The Oton Glass is a little like Google Translate but you don’t have to pull out your phone and swipe over the text. This makes Oton glass much easier to use. Keisuke Shimakage, the lead designer, started working on the glasses in 2012 to aid his father who had developed dyslexia. His father eventually recovered but he continued developing the glasses to help others suffering from the disorder.

(Source: Hypestation)

The Oton Glass is a Campfire (Japanese version of Kickstarter) project and you can get a pair of glasses for around $47. Smart glasses have not been a success in the past but that has been due to the fact that the developers wanted to include literally everything in the glasses and this led to steep prices. The Oton Glass is simple to use and comes at a much lower price and should be a huge convenience for people who have trouble reading the text around them.

This Artificial Heart Will Work Forever

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 07:41:00 +0000

This Artificial Heart Will Work Forever

The artificial heart is not something completely new. There are a number of options available, but there is only one that is approved for human use and even that is only intended to keep the patients going until they can get a heart transplant. However, a device being developed by the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is hoped to be a permanent fix.

The OHSU artificial heart was invented by the Dr. Richard Wampler, who is now retired, with the spinoff company OregonHeart. The device has been in the works since 2014. The company stopped working on the device so the University took over its development last year.

(Source: Medical Xpress)

The chance of mechanical failure increases with the increased number of moving parts and the device has been kept simple with just one moving part so no valves can get stuck. The moving part is a titanium alloy-coated hollow rod that shuttles back and forth inside a titanium tube.

This is suspended within the tube on hydrodynamic bearings. This is used to serve the same purpose as that of the lower chambers of the heart. The first step is to move blood to the lungs and then through the rest of the body. One thing that the OHSU artificial heart has is that it creates a blood flow that mimics a natural human pulse as opposed to others that create a continuous flow. This minimizes the blood damage and clotting and reduces the risk of a stroke.

(Source: New Atlas)

The device gets its power from a combined control unit/rechargeable battery pack. This can be carried in the pocket or can be worn on the belt. There are talks about further developments that would allow the battery to be implanted under the skin and recharged through external sources.

The OHSU artificial heart has been tested successfully in cows and sheep for short periods. The scientists are now developing a smaller model that is hoped to be implanted for three months. If this proves successful, then they will look forward to human trials. We will have to wait for the results to know if a permanent heart solution is going to become a reality or not.

source: Wonderful Engineering

SpaceChain, Aim to Archive Human Knowledge in Space

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 13:00:00 +0000

SpaceChain, Aim to Archive Human Knowledge in Space

SpaceChain on Monday announced that it has entered a partnership with theArch Mission Foundation to use open source technology to launch an ambitious project involving the storage of large data sets in spacecraft and on other planets.

Arch Mission will load large quantities of data onto SpaceChain's satellite vehicles with the eventual aim of storing data on other planets.

"The goal of archiving and preserving knowledge of future generations will advance archiving science and human knowledge by itself," SpaceChain cofounder Zheng Zuo said. "The ambitious goal of disseminating this knowledge throughout the solar system is finally achievable today, thanks to greatly reduced launch costs through new space launch providers."

SpaceChain's decision to support the Arch mission to archive human data in space will help launch the Earth Library -- a ring of backup data orbiting around the Earth -- said Nova Spivack, cofounder of the Arch Mission Foundation.

The goal of the foundation is to "preserve and disseminate humanity's most important information across time and space, for the benefit of future generations," he told LinuxInsider.

Data Preservation

Among the data sets that are included are Wikipedia, the human genome, Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive and the Rosetta Project, Spivack said. The project ultimately will include a vast library of books, music, photos, film, video and other data sets.

The partnership would allow SpaceChain's long-term goal of storing data archives throughout the solar system come to fruition.

The venture follows an earlier partnership involving Elon Musk's Space X, which launched its Falcon Heavy rocket into space last month. Among other things, the launch carried a cherry red Tesla Roadster into space. The car is expected to circumnavigate the sun for at least 30 million years.

The Arch Mission included its first library, including the Isaac Asimov Foundation Trilogy, in that Falcon Heavy payload. There are plans to include additional libraries on future space flights, including a Lunar Library scheduled for delivery to the moon by 2020, and a Mars Library that is designed to accompany the first human settlers to the red planet.

SpaceChain, which was co-founded by CTO Jeff Garzik, a pioneer in the blockchain field and a key Linux kernel engineer, recently entered a critical venture with Qtum Foundation, in order to launch the world's first blockchain node in space.

Qtum launched a CubeSat into space that uses its blockchain technology on a Raspberry Pi.

"Blockchain is an interesting technology as a foundational infrastructure for future space colonies," said Aditya Kaul, research director at Tractica.

"Beyond the secure storage of data, I am personally very excited about how these could come together to create decentralized economies and possibly even governing mechanisms," he told LinuxInsider.

"There is an interesting conference on some of these themes coming up in June in London," Kaul noted.

Race to Space

The efforts to put a decentralized ledger into space follow an earlier effort involving nanosatellite firm Vector and blockchain firm Nexus to develop a cryptocurrency that is hosted in space, noted Jessica Groopman, industry analyst at Kaleido Insights.

Blockstream last year announced plans to launch Blockstream Satellite, a venture to enable satellites to broadcast real-time bitcoin data down to Earth from space, she told LinuxInsider.

"The general push 'to the outer limit' is one driven by intense distrust not only in existing centralized structures, but in the potential for the blockchain market itself to float too far in that direction, as more and more of the world's largest institutions are investing in the technology," Groopman pointed out.

In the early days of the sharing economy, that same sensibility existed in the peer-to-peer community, she recalled, but firms like Uber and Airbnb eventually became dominant.

Source : technewsworld

Scientists Have Discovered A New Organ We Never Knew About

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 10:30:00 +0000

Scientists Have Discovered A New Organ We Never Knew About

Just when we think, we know everything there is to know about the human body, we are proved wrong. The use of a new microscopic technique led a team of scientists to identify a previously unknown human anatomical feature. There are calling it the interstitium. It was previously thought to be simply dense connective tissue sitting below the skin’s surface and surrounding the organs but it is actually a complex series of interconnected, fluid-filled compartments.

While examining a patient’s bile duct with a new type of endoscope that uses laser and fluorescent dyes to examine the living tissue, researchers identified a pattern of cavities that didn’t fit with the known anatomy of the bile duct. They took their results to pathology expert Neil Theise and the team proceeded to take bile duct biopsies in a way that did not dehydrate the samples.

(Source: New Atlas)

Theise explained to ResearchGate, “Rather than process the sampled bile duct tissue as usual, with dehydration and chemical fixation to make slides, we quickly froze the tissue, keeping the resected piece as close to the normal living tissue as possible.”

The previously assumed dense connective tissue was actually revealed to be a network of tiny fluid-filled cavities supported by a lattice meshwork of proteins. It could never be identified before as prior microscopic analysis involved some degree of cellular dehydration.

(Source: New Atlas)

“We would often see little “cracks” between collagen bundles in these layers,” says Theise. “I was taught, and in turn taught many of my trainees, that these cracks were artifacts of processing. We had pulled the tissue too hard in preparing the slide and separations had formed. But these were not artifacts: these were the remnants of the collapsed spaces. They had been there all the time. But it was only when we could look at living tissue that we could see that.”

Once identified, it was seen across the entire human body from the linings of organs to the surrounding muscles. The aspect of the research that has gained the most traction is the suggestion that the interstitium should be classified as a new organ. Theise says that it fulfills the criteria for the definition of a new organ and could be the 80th organ to be classified in the human body.

“The definition of ‘organ’ is imprecise, but usually implies that there is a unity and uniqueness of structure or of function,” says Theise. “This space has both: unique properties and structures not seen elsewhere and functions that are highly specific and dependent on the unique structures and cell types that form it.”

(Source: The Daily Beast)

Everyone is not convinced that it is enough to be classified as a new organ and even though they agree that this is a huge scientific discovery and will help in understanding the human body better, they feel that it is not enough to be classified as a new organ.

“I would think of this as a new component that is common among a variety of organs, rather than a new organ in and of itself,” says Nathanson in an interview with CNN. “It would be analogous to discovering blood vessels for the first time, in that they are in every organ but they aren’t an organ themselves.”

The coming months will give us a better idea of what this discovery signifies.

Source : wonderful Engineering

Charles – A Robot That Can Read And Interpret Human Facial Expressions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 07:23:00 +0000

Charles – A Robot That Can Read And Interpret Human Facial Expressions

A team of researchers from Cambridge University’s Department of Computer Science and Technology has successfully created a robot which can copy human emotions. This implies that humans have crossed into the final frontier of artificial intelligence (AI) research and development (R&D). The robot is named Charles and it can scan and interpret several expressions which are written on a person’s face. The process takes only a few seconds and starts with a camera capturing images of a person’s face.

After capturing the images, the data is transferred to a computer for analysis of facial expressions. Charles then closely matches the subject’s facial’s expressions. The robot looks like a very friendly creation from a Hollywood special effects studio. He has a large humanoid expressive face and eyes. This is because of the high-quality prosthetics which went into his design.

Cambridge University Professor Peter Robinson explained about their robot saying, “We’ve been interested in seeing if we can give computers the ability to understand social signals, to understand facial expressions, the tone of voice, body posture and gesture. We thought it would also be interesting to see if the computer system, the machine, could actually exhibit those same characteristics, and see if people engage with it more because it is showing the sort of responses in its facial expressions that a person would show. So we had Charles made.”

The reason behind the production of Charles is that the researchers want to use Charles as a tool for analyzing the perceptions of robotics and robots by the public. He said, “The more interesting question that this work has promoted is the social and theological understanding of robots that people have. Why do, when we talk of robots, always think about things that look like humans, rather than abstract machines, and why are they usually malicious?”

Charles is able to project a lot of emotions including shock, fear, and anger. It can also capture some subtle and complex expressions like arrogance and grumpiness. It can detect these intended emotions without any prompts or indications. It also shows that in terms of the future of emotional robot, R&D has the larger task of creating a platform for understanding the surface of the human heart and hidden deep emotions. However, for now, we are content with the capabilities and potential of Charles.

Source: wonderful Engineering

Scientists developing a new device that give humans ‘cat-like hearing’

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 17:00:00 +0000

Scientists developing a new device that

give humans ‘cat-like hearing’

Scientists are developing an atomically thin device that could receive and transmit signals

across a radio frequency range far greater than what humans can hear.

Scientists are developing an atomically thin device that could receive and transmit signals across a radio frequency range far greater than what humans can hear. Representational Image. ThinkStock.

Scientists are developing an atomically thin device that could receive and transmit signals across a radio frequency range far greater than what humans can hear. The “drumhead” device being developed by researchers at Case Western Reserve University in the US is trillion times smaller in volume and 100,000 times thinner than the human eardrum.

The advance may lead to the next generation of ultra-low-power communications and sensory devices smaller and with greater detection and tuning ranges, researchers said. Dynamic range is the ratio between the signal ceiling over the noise floor and is usually measured in decibels (dB).

Human eardrums normally have dynamic range of about 60 to 100dB in the range of 10Hz to 10kHz, and our hearing quickly decreases outside this frequency range. Other animals, such as the common house cat or beluga whale, can have comparable or even wider dynamic ranges in higher frequency bands.

The vibrating nanoscale drumheads developed by Philip Feng, an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University, and his team are made of atomic layers of semiconductor crystals, with diameters only about one micron. In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, the researchers demonstrated the capability of their key components – the atomic layer drumheads or resonators – at the smallest scale yet.

The work represents the highest reported dynamic range for vibrating transducers of their type, researchers said. To date, that range had only been attained by much larger transducers operating at much lower frequencies – like the human eardrum, for example, they said.

“What we have done here is to show that some ultimately miniaturised, atomically thin electromechanical drumhead resonators can offer remarkably broad dynamic range, up to 110 dB, at radio frequencies (RF) up to over 120 MHz,” Feng said. “These dynamic ranges at RF are comparable to the broad dynamic range of human hearing capability in the audio bands,” said Feng.

Enthusiast From Japan Makes Insane Wristwatches

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 13:00:00 +0000

Enthusiast From Japan Makes Insane Wristwatches

Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. There are many people around the world that practice it regularly. One such person is the Japanese designer FRISK_P. She makes the most insane wristwatches that will just blow your mind.

Her mission is “to make wristwatches that nobody else makes” and she has succeeded. The insane wristwatches might not be practical or very compact but they are definitely one of a kind.

(Source: Oddity Central)

Looking at them, it is hard to tell what went into making them. All we can be sure about is that they took a lot of effort.

If you are a steampunk fan then you might have seen steampunk accessories before but FRISK_P is one a completely different level as all her inventions are fully functional. They can tell time in the craziest ways possible.

(Source: Oddity Central)

Lucky for us, she posts a lot of pictures and videos of her inventions.

An article on IT Media states that FRISK_P uses software like 3D CAD and Fusion 360 to design the steampunk wristwatches.

(Source: Oddity Central)

She then uses a 3D printer to bring these to life.

NASA’s Hubble Telescope spots farthest individual star ever seen

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 12:33:00 +0000

NASA’s Hubble Telescope spots farthest

individual star ever seen

Setting a new distance record, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope

have discovered an enormous blue star nicknamed "Icarus", the farthest individual star ever seen.

Setting a new distance record, astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered an enormous blue star nicknamed “Icarus”, the farthest individual star ever seen. They also used Icarus to test one theory of dark matter and to probe the make-up of a foreground galaxy cluster, the US space agency said on Tuesday. “This is the first time we’re seeing a magnified, individual star. You can see individual galaxies out there, but this star is at least 100 times farther away than the next individual star we can study, except for supernova explosions,” explained Patrick Kelly, study leader from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. The star, harboured in a very distant spiral galaxy, is so far away that its light has taken nine billion years to reach Earth.

Icarus, whose official name is “MACS J1149+2223 Lensed Star 1”, is only visible because it is being magnified by the gravity of a massive galaxy cluster — located about five billion light-years from Earth. In gravitational lensing, gravity from a foreground, massive cluster of galaxies acts as a natural lens in space, bending and amplifying light. The discovery of Icarus through gravitational lensing has initiated a new way for astronomers to study individual stars in distant galaxies. These observations provide a rare, detailed look at how stars evolve, especially the most luminous stars, NASA said.

Detecting the amplification of a single, pinpoint background star provided a unique opportunity to test the nature of dark matter in the cluster. Dark matter is an invisible material that makes up most of the universe’s mass. When NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is launched, astronomers expect to find many more stars like Icarus. “Webb’s extraordinary sensitivity will allow measurement of even more details, including whether these distant stars are rotating. Such magnified stars may even be found to be fairly common,” NASA added.

Earth’s Smallest Electric Vehicle Is Going to be Ready by 2020 Olympics

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 10:31:00 +0000

Earth’s Smallest Electric Vehicle Is Going to be Ready by 2020 Olympics

SkyDrive could change the way the world commutes very soon indeed. A manned test flight of a prototype is planned for the end of 2018. SkyDrive was designed by 30 Toyota employees who are developing it in their spare time. Incredibly, this electric vehicle is hoped to light the flame of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

Imagine a future where we will be able to fly above our cities, much like the Jetsons or promises of many a Sci-Fi author. This future may become a reality with SkyDrive. One of the world’s largest car manufacturers, Toyota, has recentlysold its entire stake in Tesla and go it alone. Toyota has decided to invest in a group of their own employees who are working tirelessly on this future electric vehicle.

[Image Source: Cartivator]

The SkyDrive began as a concept back in 2012 when one Tsubasa Nakamura and his friends had a dream. They went on to win a competition with their initial design of a flying electric vehicle under the team name Cartivator. This humble team of 30 started to develop SkyDrive in 2014. They have since won not only financial backing from Toyota but also built and tested proved concept scale models.

Toyota enter the ring with other electric car companies

Toyota’s official stamp of approval has stepped the project up a gear. Their financial backing will enable the team to build a full-scale prototype and conduct a manned test flight. Toyota has invested around £272,000 in making the dream a reality.

The full-scale prototype will be around 2.9 meters long, 1.3 meters wide and 1.1 meters tall. This will make it, by virtue, the world’s smallest electric vehicle. Cartivator’s hope is that SkyDrive will attain a flight speed of 100 km/hwith a standard driving speed of 150 km/h. This tiny electric vehicle will feature technology commonly found in drones. These include the vehicle’s most prominent feature, its four rotor blades. Locomotion and flight control will be achieved by varying the speed of each rotor accordingly.

Scale models have proven the concept. [Image Source: Cartivator]

The team envisages that the vehicle will travel at no more than around 10 meters above ground. It will use vertical takeoff and landing VTOL so it won’t require roads or runways to operate.

When can you buy your own?

Captivator hopes that once the test flight is complete and obviously successful, full production can begin shortly afterward. They believe that a full commercial version may be able to go on sale as early as 2023. Mass production for developed countries is penciled in for around 2030, with developing countries about a decade later. Pretty ambitious but Captivator could let humanity realize our long-held dream of personal flying transportation.

SkyDrive is not the first time Toyota has played around with flying cars, however. In 2014 they applied for a patent for an “aerocar” that could make the leap from land vehicle to flying machine. This was designed to shape shift with hidden wings hidden under the main fuselage. These would pop out from a hatch and deploy fully loaded propulsion system. Once deployed the driver could take to the air! The wings were inspired by the design of bird wings and unfurl in much the same manner.

Toyota’s “aerocar” would have a main fuselage built from tensile skin that “stretches around and/or between flexible frame members”. “Aerocar” would have been driven using power system including a battery pack, internal combustion engine turbine, fuel cell and energy conversion technology. This mix of old and new would also power the car during flight.

There is little to show that SkyDrive will incorporate any of this technology.

[Image Source: US Patent Office]

SkyDrive will help developing nations

Anyway, back to SkyDrive. According to Cartivator’s own website, “Transportation including the automobile have enriched our lives by expanding human mobility. However, if it is an airplane – airports and runways are necessary, and if it is a car – roads and bridges are necessary.” They note that this infrastructure requires significant investment in labor and resources to build and maintain.

They also note that a lot of developing countries can have difficulty raising the money for this. This lack of ability to invest in their infrastructure seriously hampers their economic and social development.

They believe that SkyDrive will let not only developed countries but the less developed ” to realize infrastructure-free transportation”. They aim that by 2050 we will live in a world where “anyone can fly in the sky anytime and anywhere”. A nice thought and probably one we would all love to see a lot sooner.

Cartivator certainly doesn’t lack ambition!

Cartivator notes that to realize this kind of ambition they needed to build a compact flying car. It needed to be so light that it could utilize VTOL. This will alleviate the need for costly roads and roadways needed for conventional automobiles and airplanes.

“It’s very difficult to realize the compact flying car due to noise control, all-weather handling, and guaranteeing absolute safety. However, if this flying car is realized, then passengers can freely enjoy the scenery from the sky, go to places where we were not able to reach before and uninterrupted travel by avoiding traffic jams is no longer a dream.” – Cartivator.

We do wish them luck with their project and hope they meet their targets. It would be cool to see the 2020 Olympic flame lit using one of these.

SkyDrive is certainly ambitious, and to be honest, it looks pretty neat. The possibilities and freedoms this will open up for anyone are tantalizing. We wonder though if the freedoms it provides might well develop other issues. Will you need a flying license to use one? How will large scale civilian sky traffic be managed and controlled? But these are issues for the future, let’s just dream for now.

So there you go, SkyDrive. What do you think? Are the developers a little too ambitious with their project? Are you excited by the possibilities of this technology? Will they meet their own targets? Only time will tell.

Sources: Cartivator, WordlessTech, Forbes

iOS 11 : Every Feature You Need to Know About It

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 10:17:00 +0000

iOS 11 : Every Feature You Need to Know About It

Introduced on June 5, 2017 at the Worldwide Developers Conference, iOS 11 is the next-generation version of iOS. As Apple CEO Tim Cook said on stage, the update takes the best and most advanced operating system and turns it up to 11.

iOS 11 brings subtle design changes to interface elements throughout the operating system. Text is bolder, apps like Calculator and Phone have a new look, and the Lock screen and Control Center have been entirely redesigned.

The Control Center is customizable and there are options to include a wider range of settings. It's no longer split across multiple screens, and 3D Touch integration has expanded, so you can do more without needing to open the Settings app.

As for the Lock screen, it's been merged with Notification Center. Swiping down on the screen to access notifications now brings up the Lock screen. Today view continues to be available with a side swipe, and everything generally looks the same - there's just no separate Notification Center anymore.

Siri has a more natural voice and is more intelligent than ever. Siri learns user preferences and syncs that information across multiple devices, allowing the personal assistant to learn more about you and anticipate what you want. Siri can also translate English into different languages like Spanish and Chinese, and there's deeper Siri integration with Apple Music.

For the iPad, Apple has introduced a host of new features that make it more capable than ever before. A persistent Dock at the bottom of the display a makes it easy to launch and switch between apps, and there's a new App Switcher that's similar to Spaces on the Mac, letting you see everything you're working on at a glance. For iPad Pro owners, the Apple Pencil does more, and several apps, like Mail and Notes, support inline drawing.

Drag and drop lets you drag content like images and links from one app and drop it in another, and on both the iPad and the iPhone, there's a new Finder-style Files app for managing files. Files lists all files stored locally, in iCloud Drive, and in third-party cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive.

There are new keyboard features, like a one-handed keyboard on the iPhone and a "Flick" option for typing numbers and symbols more quickly on the iPad, and many of the built-in apps have new functionality.

Notes features searchable handwriting and document scanning, Maps gains lane guidance, speed limit info, and indoor maps for malls and airports, while Apple Music includes options to see what your friends are listening to. The Memories feature in Photos is smarter than ever, and in the Camera app, Portrait Mode and Live Photos have beenimproved with new capabilities.

HomeKit now supports speakers and there's a new AirPlay 2 protocol that includes multi-room functionality. Do Not Disturb has been expanded to encompass driving, muting notifications while a vehicle is in motion, and Messages has been improved with a new App Drawer that makes it easier to access Messages apps and stickers.

Messages is also gaining support for a new person-to-person Apple Pay feature that lets you send money to friends and family right through an iMessage, and iMessages themselves are now stored in iCloud, sync across devices, and take up less storage space. Photos and videos also take up less space through the adoption of new HEIF and HEVC formats.

The App Store has been completely revamped in iOS 11, and there are now two distinct sections for apps and games. There's also a new "Today" view that features new content on a daily basis to make it easier to discover fresh apps and games.

Apps can do a whole lot more thanks to several new APIs Apple is introducing, including CoreML and ARKit. CoreML provides machine learning tools to developers, while ARKit lets developers build complex and richly detailed augmented reality features into their apps.

iOS 11 is limited to developers at the current time, but Apple plans to release a public beta in late June. iOS 11 will see a public release in the fall alongside new iPhones.
Design Changes

Before iOS 11 was unveiled, rumors suggested it would see design changes. We didn't get a complete overhaul to the design language, but there are indeed subtle design updates throughout the operating system.

Many built-in apps have been refined with darker lines and bolder fonts, with Apple moving away from the thin fonts that have dominated since iOS 7. Some apps, like Phone and Calculator have new designs with darker fonts and round buttons sans borders, while others, like Reminders and Calendar, remain entirely unchanged. Still others, like Messages, Podcasts, and Apple News, feature smaller design tweaks.

Important UI elements like the Control Center and the Lock screen have seen the most significant updates.

CONTROL CENTER

In iOS 10, Apple split the Control Center, accessed by swiping upwards from the bottom of the display, into multiple windows. In iOS 11, it's back to a single consolidated window and it has an entirely new look with bubble-style icons. There are two top sections for basic networking options and Apple Music controls, plus sliders for volume and brightness. Smaller icons are available for rotation lock, Do Not Disturb, and other options.

Instead of taking up just the bottom half of the display when brought up, Control Center now takes over the entire iPhone screen. Because the Control Center is no longer restricted to half the display, it can offer access to a wider range of functions, which can be customized.

In the Settings app, there's a section for choosing which features you want to be able to access in the Control Center, and there are quite a few options available. Low Power Mode can be added to the Control Center, for example, and there's even an option to add an Apple TV remote.

Flashlight
Timer
Calculator
Camera
Accessibility Shortcut
Alarm
Apple TV Remote
Do Not Disturb While Driving
Guided Access

Home
Low Power Mode
Magnifier
Notes
Screen Recording
Stopwatch
Text Size
Voice Memos
Wallet

You can add all of the options to Control Center if you want, or just what's most relevant to your usage habits.

Along with new customization options, Control Center also has expanded 3D Touch access. A 3D Touch on one of the icons brings up additional options. For example, with the Music icon, play controls are accessible by default, but with a 3D Touch, a bigger playback window opens up with song info and more granular control options.

3D Touch options are available for all of the Control Center settings that are more complex than just a simple toggle on/off button.

While the Control Center takes up the full display on the iPhone, it works differently on the iPad. A swipe up from the bottom of the screen opens up the App Switcher, where Control Center is located on the right side of the display in both landscape and portrait mode.

LOCK SCREEN

The Lock screen and the Notification Center have been merged into one entity in iOS 11. When you pull down from the top of the iPhone or iPad's display to access your notifications, it's the Lock screen that comes down now instead of a separate Notification Center window.

Once on the Lock screen, missed notifications are prominently displayed, while recent notifications you've already seen can be accessed by a second upward swipe in the middle of the display. A second upward swipe from the middle of the display brings you back to the Home screen.

The Notification Center "Today" view that houses widgets continues to be accessible from the Lock screen and the Home screen with a swipe to the right.

What's New With Siri

Siri improves with each iteration of iOS, and iOS 11 is no exception. Siri has been updated with more realistic male and female voices that are designed to more closely mimic natural human speech. Apple says Siri's new voice options are powered by deep learning for better pronunciation and a more expressive voice.

In iOS 11, Siri is using on-device learning to understand more about your preferences, allowing the personal assistant to learn more about your interests to better anticipate what you might need next. Siri is also syncing that information across all of iOS and Mac devices so the Siri experience is the same regardless of what product you're using.

Cross-device Siri syncing is a new feature that's going to make Siri smarter faster, but Apple had privacy in mind when enabling this function. End-to-end encryption is in place so the data being shared is readable only by your devices.

These new Siri features will let Siri do things like suggest a topic you might be interested in Apple News based on Safari browsing habits, or suggest a Calendar reminder for an appointment you've booked. Or when you're typing, Siri might suggest things based on what you've recently viewed - names of movies or places, for example.

When using Siri, you might notice a new icon at the bottom of the display in iOS 11, and you can now ask Siri to translate English to Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Apple plans to expand translation languages over the coming months.

As part of enhancements to Apple Music, Siri is able to learn your music tastes and instantly bring up content you'll like when you ask Siri to play some music. Siri is also able to answer Music-related trivia in iOS 11, like "Who is the drummer in this song?"

With new Accessibility options, available in the Settings app, there's a new "Type to Siri" feature you can turn on that allows you to type your Siri queries instead of speaking them aloud.

Finally, the SiriKit API that allows developers to add Siri integration into their apps works with more kinds of apps. SiriKit was previously limited to ride scheduling, banking, messaging, photo search, VoIP calling, and car controls, but it has expanded to encompass bill paying, task management, and QR codes in iOS 11.

The Files App

There is no iCloud Drive app in iOS 11, because it's been expanded into a more comprehensive "Files" app that's designed to mimic the Finder app on the Mac. Files houses all of the content stored locally on the iPhone or iPad, iCloud content, app content, and content stored in other cloud services like Dropbox, Box, One Drive, Google Drive, and more.

Files is well-organized and offers up quick access to all content that's stored on an iOS device. Like Finder for Mac, it's searchable, has a section for viewing all recently accessed files, and it supports tags, spring-loading, nested folders, and favorites. Adding a tag to a file for organizational purposes is as simple as dragging the file to the tag color of your choice.

Developers are able to add Files integration into their apps, so individual apps will also be listed in the Files app, making it simpler than ever to transfer documents, photos, videos, and other content between apps.

Files is available on both the iPhone and the iPad, and while many users will likely never need to access the Files folder because much of the file management on iOS is automatic, it's a nice feature for pro users.

iOS 11 for the iPad

iOS 10 was an operating system update that largely ignored the iPad, but Apple made up for it in iOS 11 with a range of iPad only features that cater to users who want to use the tablet as a full PC replacement. In addition to the new Files app, there are several other new functions in iOS 11 that iPad users have long wanted.

DOCK

The Dock on the iPad has been expanded in iOS 11, and it's a lot more like the dock on the Mac. Before iOS 11, the Dock was only accessible from the Home screen, but now it's persistent and can be pulled up in any app.

A quick swipe up from the bottom iPad's display will bring up the Dock regardless of what you're doing on the iPad, which makes accessing your favorite apps and switching between them much faster. The Dock is able to hold up to 13 apps, along with a user's most recently used app and Continuity icons when using Handoff.

The Dock can be used for multitasking purposes. Bringing up the Dock while using an app and then dragging a Dock icon upwards will pop up a new window. The secondary window can be used for a quick task and then swiped away, or it can be pulled into a Slide Over or Split View window. If Slide Over or Split View are already in use, the open windows can be changed by dragging an app icon from the Dock.

APP SWITCHER

While the newly revamped Dock offers a quick way to switch between apps, Apple has also included a revamped iPad App Switcher in iOS 11. Accessible with a double tap on the Home button or a double upwards screen swipe, the App Switcher is similar to the Spaces app on the Mac. It shows the Dock and a tiled view of the apps that are open, with the most recently used apps at the forefront.

The App Switcher is where the Control Center is located on the iPad. Control Center icons are at the right of the App Switcher display, giving iPad users a streamlined way to access apps and change settings all in one location.

There's one other notable thing about App Switcher - it preserves your current Split View or Slide Over multitasking windows, so you can quickly access a third app without needing to interrupt a split-screen workflow.

DRAG AND DROP

A new Drag and Drop feature allows text, links, photos, files, and more to be transferred between one app to another without the need to bother with in-app share sheets. A tap and a hold with a finger initiates a drag action, while another finger can be used to bring up the Dock or access the Home screen to open up another app where the item being dragged can be dropped.

Drag and Drop is especially useful in Split View mode, where it's simple to drag files between two open apps on the iPad's display. Multiple items can be dragged and dropped at the same.

QUICKTYPE KEYBOARD

The keyboard on the iPad now uses flicks as a way to enter numbers and symbols without the need to use a shift key. All of the keys now display both letters and numbers/symbols, and a downward swipe or a "flick" can be used to type a symbol or a number instead of the letter on the key.

Typing symbols and numbers this way is simple, intuitive, and quicker than taking the time to use the shift key. Holding down on a key continues to bring up special characters with accent marks. The new flick feature is available on all iPad models except the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

APPLE PENCIL

For iPad Pro models, Apple Pencil support has been expanded with new features and functionality that allows it to work anywhere in the operating system, similar to a standard stylus or a finger. In previous versions of iOS, the Apple Pencil could only be used within certain apps, but there is system-wide support in iOS 11.

INSTANT MARKUP

Instant Markup is a feature that allows essentially anything on the iPad to be annotated using the Apple Pencil.

Taking a screenshot, for example, now brings up a small icon in the corner of the screen, and a tap on the icon opens up a Markup interface where the screenshot can be edited using simple drawing tools. A similar feature is available for all kinds of other documents through a new "Markup Through PDF" Share Sheet option that converts any document into a PDF and then opens up Markup. Anything that can be printed can use the "Markup Through PDF" feature.

These Markup features were designed to be used with the Apple Pencil on the iPad, but a finger works just as well - the Apple Pencil is not required. Instant Markup is also available on the iPhone, where a finger or a stylus can be used for editing.

INLINE DRAWING AND INSTANT NOTES

Two other features have been added with the Apple Pencil in mind - Instant Notes and Inline Drawing. With Instant Notes, a tap of the Apple Pencil on the Lock screen of the iPad Pro will automatically open up the Notes app, allowing you to quickly start a new notes document.

Inline Drawing is available in Notes and Mail and allows simple drawings to be added right inside of a note or an email message. Inline Drawing was also designed with the Apple Pencil in mind, and Inline Drawing options will automatically pop up when using the Apple Pencil, but it also works on both the iPad and the iPhone without the pencil.

App Updates in iOS 11

MESSAGES AND APPLE PAY

In iOS 10, Apple introduced apps for Messages and an iMessage App Store. In iOS 11, there's a new App Drawer located below the text entry in Messages that's designed to make it easier to access apps and stickers.

All installed apps and stickers are located in the App Drawer and can be selected with a tap and scrolled through with swipes. The first icon in the App Drawer opens the App Store for downloading new apps.

Along with the App Drawer, Messages is the home of a major new Apple Pay feature - peer-to-peer payments. Using an Apple Pay Messages app, you can now send and receive money using Apple Pay and a connected debit or credit card, similar to apps like Square Cash or Venmo.

Money can be sent in Messages using standard fingerprint authentication, and funds received are available in a new Apple Pay Cash card that's located in Wallet. This card can be used to make Apple Pay purchases where Apple Pay is accepted (similar to any other credit or debit card stored in Apple Pay), or it can be transferred to a bank account.

Sending money using Messages requires an Apple Pay-compatible device, which includes the iPhone SE, iPhone 6 or later, iPad Pro, iPad 5th generation, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 or later, and Apple Watch. Person-to-person payments are limited to the United States at the current time.

Like many peer-to-peer money transferring services, sending money will be free when a debit card is used, but will incur a 3 percent fee when using a credit card.

Going forward, there's a new Messages in iCloud feature that will let you store all of your iMessages in iCloud. Messages will sync across all devices, including new devices, and they stay in sync on everything. Storing iMessages in iCloud means only the most recent conversations need to be cached on your device, freeing up valuable storage space and making iPhone backups both smaller and faster.

Messages also includes two new Screen Effects, "Echo" and "Spotlight." Echo is designed to multiply any message sent to a friend over and over again, filling up the screen, while Spotlight adds an emphasis to a message through a visual spotlight effect.

NOTES

As outlined above, Notes features an Instant Notes option that works with the Apple Pencil, and Inline Drawing for annotating notes with simple sketches and images.

Notes includes a new Document Scanner that senses and scans a document, crops the edges, and removes tilt or glare before allowing the document to be edited, saved, and shared. The new Document Scanner is able to effectively replace third-party document scanning apps.

Notes is also now smart enough to recognize your handwriting, making it searchable for the first time. Handwritten content will act just like typed content, coming up in Spotlight searches so you can quickly locate notes you've taken.

MAPS

Apple has purchased several indoor mapping companies, and in iOS 11, it's making use of that technology. iOS 11 supports indoor maps of select malls and airports around the world, displaying full layouts of each location with icons for restaurants, bathrooms, and other notable indoor landmarks.

Indoor mapping technology is limited to a handful of malls and airports at launch, but Apple says support will be dramatically expanded over time.

Maps is gaining lane guidance, which is designed to help you avoid missing a sudden turn or an exit by telling you which lane to be in, and it will now display the speed limit of the road that you're on.

APPLE NEWS

Apple News has a new tab called "Spotlight" that houses a selection of news stories picked by the Apple News editorial staff. Each day, Spotlight features a new topic and highlights stories centered on that particular topic. Apple describes Spotlight as "a deep-dive into the story of the day, with features, photos, and videos handpicked by our editors."

The "For You" section of Spotlight will also now surface content suggested by Siri based on your Safari and app usage.

APPLE MUSIC

The "Connect" feature in Apple Music that required you to make a Connect account back when the service first debuted is finally being put to use beyond following artists. In iOS 11, you can make an Apple Music profile that allows you to share playlists with friends and see your friends' playlists.

Your profile lives in the "For You" section of Apple Music, and when you tap it, you can see the profiles of the friends that you follow. From there, you can see what they've been listening to. Profiles can be set to public or private, as with any social network.

CAMERA

Live Photos, the feature that adds a bit of motion magic to still photos, is even better in iOS 11. For the first time, you can use a slider to select a portion of the Live Photo that looks the best. Since Live Photos are essentially short videos, it's like pulling the best still shot out of a video.

This is a nice change for images where the key photograph might have been blurred, because now you can select a non-blurry section of the image. There's also an option to crop Live Photos to keep only a portion of the motion recording, and there are new Loop, Bounce, and Long Exposure options.

Loop causes a Live Photo to loop continually like a GIF, while Bounce is the same thing but forwards and then backwards. Long Exposure has a more limited use because it converts a the video portion of the image into a long exposure photograph, but it is useful where only a part of an image moves, like running water.

For iPhones that support Portrait Mode, iOS 11 brings some important improvements. Image quality has been improved, low light performance is better, and Portrait Mode images support optical image stabilization. Flash works in Portrait Mode for the first time, and it also supports HDR for even better lighting and filters for adding flare.

When you FaceTime someone in iOS 11 on an device that's capable of taking Live Photos, there's a new button for capturing a Live Photo during the chat.

HEVC and HEIF
Internally, the way photos and videos are stored is being updated, which means images and videos are going to take up less space on iPhones and iPads. For video, Apple is implementing HEVC or H.265 video encoding, which results in 2x better compression. The JPEG image format is also being changed to HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format), which also allows for photos that are half the size.

Photos and videos will also take up less storage space in iCloud, and though there are new storage formats, photos and videos sent from iOS devices remain compatible with other devices so you can still share content with your friends. These new formats are available on Apple's latest devices, those with an A9 chip or later.

PHOTOS

Facial recognition in Photos, which was previously exclusive to each iOS or Mac device, will now sync with all of your devices. That means you only have to tell Photos who each person is once, and it'll sync that info across Macs, iPhones, and iPads.

Photos is taking advantage of better machine learning techniques to surface new kinds of Memories (aka built-in automatically generated slideshows). In iOS 11, you'll see Memories of pets, activities, and children growing up, among other new montages. Memories can also recognize a device's orientation and put together a slideshow in either landscape or portrait mode.

In Photos, there's also a new custom Share Sheet option that's designed to make it much easier to turn a photograph into a watch face for an accompanying Apple Watch.

SAFARI

Safari has a new feature that's designed to prevent websites from tracking you across multiple sites for the purposes of delivering ads. It's not going to cut down on the ads that you see, but it will make it harder for advertisers to gather data about what you've been browsing.

Safari also integrates with Siri in new ways, letting Siri to learn more about your web browsing preferences, information that's used to allow the personal assistant to better anticipate what you might type or what you might want to see when doing things like browsing Apple News.

HOME

The Home app, and HomeKit, are gaining support for speakers. HomeKit-compatible speakers, like Apple's HomePod, will be able to interface with HomeKit, allowing the Home app to be used to configure and control them.

AirPlay 2
A new AirPlay 2 feature adds multi-room audio support to compatible speakers, allowing music to be played to all of the connected speakers in a home or just a select few, similar to how Sonos works. Major speaker manufacturers like Beats, Bose, B&O, and Bowers & Wilkins plan to support HomeKit. Apple TV will also be able to control all of the audio in the house using the new AirPlay 2 feature, either through the Apple Music app or Siri. Developers will be able to make apps that support AirPlay 2, so it won't be limited to Apple Music.

Other iOS 11 Features

DO NOT DISTURB WHILE DRIVING

Do Not Disturb has been expanded with a new "Do Not Disturb While Driving" feature that mutes all incoming notifications on an iPhone when it's connected to a car's Bluetooth or WiFi. The feature is meant to cut down on distracted driving.

Do Not Disturb While Driving not only mutes notifications but also responds to any incoming messages with a quick note letting people know you're in the car. It will, however, let through emergency texts, and it can be disabled if you're a passenger in a car.

QUICKTYPE ONE-HANDED KEYBOARD

If you tap the emoji or globe icon on the iPhone's keyboard, there's an option to select a one-handed keyboard that shifts all of the keys either to the left or the right. This is designed to let you type one handed with just a thumb.

AUTOMATIC SETUP

In iOS 11, when you buy a new iPad or iPhone, it can be set up much more quickly by holding it near an iOS device or Mac you already own through Automatic Setup. Automatic Setup transfers personal settings, preferences, and iCloud Keychain passwords to your new device automatically.

APP STORE REDESIGN

The App Store looks entirely different in iOS 11 because it's been completely overhauled. Games and Apps are split out into their own individual sections and there's a new "Today" section that's designed to surface new app content on a daily basis.

Today features an App of the Day and a Game of the Day, along with editor's choice app selections, interviews with developers, app tutorials, and more. Individual app pages have also been redesigned, with more of a focus on reviews and video overviews, and there are options that will let developers do things like highlight new in-app purchases or levels so users can be notified when their favorite apps gain new features.

iOS 11 includes App Store features that were previously announced, including limits on the number of times developers can ask users for reviews, options to turn reviews off entirely in settings, and a new interface for app reviews that doesn't require leaving an app. There are also new App Store guidelines covering tips, a new feature that can be built in apps to give developers a new way to monetize. Tips are treated like in-app purchases and are common in apps in China.

Tidbits and Hidden Features

iOS 11 introduces a huge number of major changes to the operating system, ranging from a redesigned Control Center experience to a host of new features specific to the iPad, but along with all of these major changes, there are also dozens of smaller changes that have been added to the beta.

Below, we've outlined some of the smaller but still significant tweaks that are hidden within the operating system update.

- Offload Unused Apps - In the Settings app, there's a new option that will automatically uninstall apps that haven't been used in a while. Documents and data for uninstalled apps will remain available in case the app is re-installed.

- Unified Siri and search settings - In the Settings app, there's now a single tab for Siri and Search, which is a more logical layout. There are also options for toggling on Siri suggestions for each individual app that's downloaded on a device.

- Revamped storage management - The "Storage and iCloud Usage" tab is now just "iPhone Storage" and it features at at-a-glance view of the storage space available on a device along with recommendations for improving storage space like auto deleting old conversations, clearing large Messages attachments, and storing Messages in iCloud, a new feature that syncs Messages across all of your devices.

- Accounts and passwords - There's a new "Accounts & Passwords" section in Settings that provides access to all iCloud and Mail accounts along with app and website passwords stored in Keychain, accessible only after authenticating with Touch ID. Passwords are also available in the Safari section of the Settings app.

- Safari Settings - Additional privacy options are available for Safari in the Settings app. There's an option to "Try to Prevent Cross-Site Tracking," a new iOS 11 feature, and there are options for Camera and Microphone Access.

- Emergency SOS - There's an Emergency SOS option in the Settings app that allows users to turn on an "Auto Call" feature that will immediately dial 911 when the Sleep/Wake button is pressed five times.

- Camera QR code scanning - The Camera app automatically detects QR codes and will respond appropriately, doing things like opening up Safari to a specific website.

- Password Autofill - Password autofilling options are now available for third-party apps.

- AirPods Settings and Next Track - AirPods can now be customized with separate double tap gestures for the left and right AirPod. One can be set to access Siri, for example, while another can be set to play the next track. Next Track and Previous Track are two new settings in iOS 11 that make it easier to skip songs.

- Auto-pausing for uploads - Photo syncing and other such updates are automatically paused in iOS 11 when battery life is low.

- Smart Invert - In the Accessibility section of the Settings app, under Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Invert Colors, there's a new option for "Smart Invert." Smart Invert reverses the colors of the display except for images, media, and some apps. It's quite similar to the Dark Mode that users have been hoping for, but it doesn't extend to all UI elements.

- WiFi password sharing - An iOS device that knows a password to a WiFi network can share it with another device in iOS 11, through new password sharing prompts that popup when two devices are near each other.

- Video volume slider - When watching a video and adjusting the volume, the built-in iOS volume slider no longer obstructs the screen. Instead, there's a small slider in the top right corner of the video.

- Location Services - In iOS 11, a "While Using the App" location services privacy setting is available for all apps. Previously, it was a setting that developers needed to implement. This means that there's better granular control over Location Services.

- GIFs In the Photos app, GIFs saved in the Camera roll now animate when opened. In the main album view, they are still, but will work properly when tapped.

iOS 11 for Developers

In addition to the many outward-facing changes and internal tweaks that have been made to iOS 11, the operating system update also delivers many new tools for developers to make apps better than ever.

ARKIT

Apple developed a new ARKit API for developers s that is designed to allow them to create high-quality augmented reality apps by taking advantage of all of the sensors and cameras built into the iPhone.

With ARKit, an iOS device is able to identify a surface like a table, and then virtual objects can be added to it. Because of the computing power of the iPhone and the iPad, ARKit's augmented reality capabilities are impressive. For a game like Pokémon Go, for example, ARKit results in smoother, much improved graphics. Apple foresees ARKit being used to create a huge range of apps and games, blending digital objects with the real world.

DEPTH MAP API

The technology that powers Portrait Mode in the iPhone 7 Plus is being expanded to developers, enabling a range of new camera apps and depth of field object placement. Developers have access to the depth information captured by the two cameras in the iPhone 7 Plus and can use it to create fun and artistic photo editing tools.

HOMEKIT

Developers can now experiment with HomeKit without needing to apply for Made for iPhone (MFi) approval from Apple. That means developers can start creating and testing products before bringing them to market and Apple is even permitting experimentation popular custom-fit boards like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi.

HomeKit products also no longer need a hardware authentication chip, which means new and existing product manufacturers will be able to add HomeKit support to devices through a firmware update.

APPLE MUSIC

In iOS 11, Apple has made an Apple Music available to developers to give them full access to Apple Music, iCloud Music Library, For You, Recommendations, Featured Music, and Charts, all of which can be built into apps.

CORE ML

Core ML is a machine learning framework that's designed to let developers build apps with intelligent features using a few lines of code. Core ML includes deep neural networks, a vision API for things like face tracking, face detection, text detection, object tracking, and more and a Natural Language API for language identification and other related features.

NFC CHIP

Developers have access to a new "Core NFC" framework that allows apps to read Near Field Communication (NFC) tags. According to Apple, this lets developers create apps that can read tags to "give users more information about their physical environment and the real-world objects in it." Specific examples include apps that can provide information about items in a store, or exhibits in a museum.

Compatibility

iOS 11 will run on all devices that have an A7 chip or better, including the iPhone 5s and later, the iPad mini 2 and later, the iPad Air and later, all iPad Pro models, and the sixth-generation iPod touch.

Release Date

iOS 11 will follow a standard release schedule and will debut in the fall alongside new iPhones. The first few betas of iOS 11 will be restricted to developers, but Apple plans to make a public beta of iOS 11 available to testers in late June, so non-developers will have a chance to try the software ahead of its official release.

Source:Macrumors

Monday, 5 June 2017

6 Best Game Hacking Apps for Android (with/without Root)

Playing video games on your android smartphone is a great pass time activity for many youths across the globe. However, most video games now have annoying features that suck the fun out of the endeavor and makes playing them a tasking activity. For example, many free games come with annoying advertisement and limited features which are geared towards making you purchase their premium versions. However, this can destroy the desire to play the games.

To solve such problems many avid gamers are turning to game hacker apps to help remove annoying features from video games so that they can enjoy playing. To do this effectively you need to use the best cheat apps for android devices. The best android cheat apps are:

Part 1: SB Game Hacker APK

The SB Game Hacker Apk is an android game modifying that is easy to install and use than most other available tools. The SB Game Hacker apk game hacker app android works by helping you get more coins and lives so as to maximize the playing a given game. Furthermore, the app helps remove those annoying ads and bypass license restrictions so that you can fully enjoy playing a given game. This app works best on rooted devices and therefore it is important that you root the device first before installing the game.

Key Features

Offers both accurate and Fuzzy searches
It enables data filtering
Supports more than one language (English and Chinese)

User Reviews

The SB Game Hacker Apk is a popular app for hacking video games and has a lot of reviews online. The majority of the users say that they love the app because it gives them a lot of freedom when playing various computer games. However, some have issues with the app because it cannot hack non-rooted android devices properly.

Part 2: Creehack

Creehack is the perfect game hacker app android tool that you need if you want to enjoy playing lots of video games on your android device for free. Usually, many video games require that you make purchases if you want to enjoy all the features of the game. With Creehack, you can bypass all the limitations and then enjoy your favorite game without having to make the purchase. In addition, you can get playing items such as lives, levels and coins for free.

Key Features

Can bypass all App payment requirements
Allows for unlimited In-App purchases
Does not require rooting
Is compatible will almost all apps

User Reviews

Most of the Creehack game hacker android users agrees that it is one of the best things that they have encountered. It allows them to play a lot of different games successful without having to make costly purchases. In addition, the app is easy to install and use and thus quite useful even to the video game lovers who are not tech savvy.

Part 3: LeoPlay Card

The LeoPlay Card is another great game hacker android tool that will allow you to play lots of android video games for free. The app just like CreeHack comes with an inbuilt card that you can use for free on Google play. It is also better than most other apps because it does not require rooting.

Key Features

Does not require rooting
Allows you to make unlimited in-app purchases
Is compatible with almost any app
Allows for addition of new units

User Reviews

The majority of the reviewers agree that the LeoPlay Card android game hack is the best tool they have that allows them to access many different games for free. The tool has many features and allows player limitless access to numerous video games. However, a number of users have had issues playing their favorite games given the fact that the app does not work with all online games.

Part 4: Game Killer

Game Killer APK is one of the best android game hacker apps that allow you to modify or hack gems, coins, and other game features as you play your video games. The app uses the memory modifying technique and thus is compatible with a wide range of android versions of video games. The app is great for hacking all manner of games but modifying paid games is often discouraged. The Game Killer android game hack must have root access to your device for it to function effectively.

Key Features

Root access required
Use memory modification technique
Can lock video games to required level
Can search for games with unclear directions

User Reviews

Gamekiller game hacker android has over 10 million users worldwide. The app has received mixed reviews with the majority of the reviewers loving it. However, a few people feel that since it cannot hack online games, it is of limited use.

Part 5: Gamecih

GameCIH is an amazing free cheat software that will help you modify video games and gain an edge considerably. The app allows you to modify many variables in a wide range of online games without having to master the game codes. For example, you may use the app to gain more coins, change the attributes of characters in the game, or change your score and a lot of the other game statistics.

Key Features

Requires android rooting
Work best with offline games

User Reviews

Thousands of people have downloaded this app and love using it to hack video games. Many have reported that it works perfectly with their online games however, there are quite a number of reviewers who believe that the GameCIH is not as good as the Game Killer or the SBMan Game Hacker.

Part 6: Xmodgames

The XMOD Games game hacker android is an amazing tool for playing video games on rooted android smartphones. The devices work by scanning your devices for all games stored on it and then comps the internet for any trick or assistance that you can use to hack the games. The app is cool for playing all manner of video games as it provides great tricks to inject fun into the game and make it a lot easier to play.

Key Features

Automatic search for opponents and other game features
Provides you with a super game mode to ensure that you gain an edge over your opponents
Have thousands of game modes for different games
Regular updates for the hot games

11 latest Gadgets of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 09:59:00 +0000

11 latest Gadgets of 2016

1. SmatHalo - Turn any bike into a smart bike

This device is still in pre-order for any country . Plug the device in your motobike/bicycle and just enter your destination in the app , the device take's care of the rest . It connects to your phone through Bluetooth and app in your phone assists the device with direction , which the device displays with colorful LED light .

Features:

Shows direction in colorful light
Bright LED night light
Calls and SMS notification
Alarm , if some one tries to steal you bike
Good data visualization like time , distance , calories , average speed
Forgot where you parked ? no issues , the app tells the exact location .

You can preorder from their site here

2. Chromecast Audio - Turn your ordinary home speaker into Wifi speaker

I guess everyone might be aware of it , i have a 5.1 speaker in my home and i badly need it . Getting a wifi enabled Home audio system needs heavy money in your pocket . Thank god !! Chromecast Audio to the rescue , it turns your old and wired Home Audio system to a wireless Sound System . Just plug in the device and connect the device and your Android/iOS/Computer to same network and you are good to go

Features:

Supports almost all speaker sold in the market since past decade
Support for major audio streaming app in the market
Multiroom support .
Music keeps playing even when you get call , SMS , Notifications

It isn't still available in India , i guess it will be in few months . You can get it here

3) Cicret Bracelet - Turn your hand into a Touch Screen

Even this device is in pre-order stage . The bracelet has 8 projected sensor which detects your touches and send it to the processor . You can check out the video here

4. Amazon dash button!

I saw this product on Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more and I thought this idea is worth sharing!

These little buttons are not available for the Indian amazon shoppers but I hope to see them on Online Shopping: Shop Online for Mobiles, Books, Watches, Shoes and More soon.

Amazon has always been one step ahead of it's competitors. Now they have came with thisthing which is said to revolutionize the shopping experience of the daily online shoppers!

The Amazon Dash Button is a small electronic device designed to make ordering products easier and faster. The Dash buttons come in packs, each device contains an embedded button and is emblazoned with the name of an oft-ordered product. Users can configure each button to order a specific product and quantity, via the user's Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more account, and mount the buttons, using adhesive tape or a plastic clip, to locations where they use the products. Pressing the button sends a Wi-Fi signal to the Amazon Shopping app, and automatically orders new stock of whatever product the button is configured to order. The click also sends a message to the user's mobile phone, and the user has a half-hour window to cancel.

These are available for a variety of products that we use on a daily basis. Introducing this product to the Indian market will extensively increase the laziness of the Indians.

5. Tile: Never Lose What is Important

Tile keeps a track of your important belongings. This means you will not loose your cellphone again. You can buy tile here or similar alternatives can be bought here.

6. Solar-Powered Camping Tent

Solar powered camping tent developed by Eddie Bauer Katatatic is another innovative product that helps you camp with zero carbon footprint. It generates enough electricity to power small electronic devices. More information is available on manufacturers website.

7. Sky Wi-Fi Smartpen

Livescribe stores everything you write with the pen electronically. It is an innovative product useful for both students and professionals for taking notes and team collaboration. Get yours here.

8. Blind-Spot Free Rearview Mirror

This amazing blind spot free rear view mirror gives full 180 degree view. This helps ensure safe and accurate lane changes without guesswork. An essential upgrade for your car. Get yours today. Available here.

9. Heated Butter Knife

When you are in a hurry, a nicely buttered toast is something you miss as the butter is too hard out of the fridge. Well, with Warburton’s Toastie Knife, this problem is solved.
10. Laser Keyboard

Laser keyboard is an innovative product that lets you convert any surface into a keyboard. The keyboard connects to any device with a bluetooth such as your iPad or cellphone.

11. The Biolite Camping Stove

Never run out of battery on your next camping trip. With the Biolite camping stove, you can charge your mobile device by simply burning wood in the stove. Here is a video of Biolite camping stove in action.

A Film About An Over-Unity (Free) Energy Machine Just Premiered At The Vienna International Film Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 15:51:00 +0000

A Film About An Over-Unity (Free) Energy Machine Just Premiered At The Vienna International Film Festival

“Much to my surprise, these concepts have been proven in hundreds of laboratories around the world, but have not really seen the light of day.” – Dr. Brian O’Leary, former NASA Astronaut and Princeton Physics Professor (source)

Collective Evolution has had the pleasure of communicating with Toby Grotz, an electrical engineer who has researched new energy technologies since 1973, over the past couple of years. He has worked in the aerospace industry, was involved with space shuttle and Hubble telescope testing in a solar simulator and space environment test facility, and has been on both sides of the argument when it comes to exploring energy generation. He has been involved in exploring oil and gas and geothermal resources, as well as coal, natural gas, and nuclear power-plants. He is very passionate about new energy generation, and recognizes that the time to make the transition is now.

He is also a close friend and colleague of Paramahamsa Tewari, electrical engineer and former Executive Director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India. Tewari’s background includes engineering project management for construction of nuclear power stations.

In Austria, a docudrama about Tesla’s vision and the work of paramahamsa Tewari has just been released.The pair can be seen together in the film, and you can also view pictures of the machine, which has been built and independently tested as high as 250% efficiency. You can find out more about the machine by visiting Tewari’s website HERE. There is more on the film below.

Tewari is the real deal. His work has been described as “majestic” by John Archibald Wheeler, a famous American theoretical physicist, among others.

The implications of this are far-reaching and have been written about extensively within the field of theoretical physics by researchers all over the world. Today, we are beginning to see that these concepts are not just theoretical, but instead very practical. In fact, back in 1984, a researcher at Hughes laboratory by the name of Robert L. Forward demonstrated something remarkable — the Casimir Effect, which is a small attractive force that acts between two close parallel uncharged conducting plates. He suggested that two metal plates held apart in a vacuum could trap the waves, creating vacuum energy that could attract or repel the plates. As the boundaries of a region move, the variation in vacuum energy (zero-point energy) leads to the Casimir effect. Recent research conducted at Harvard University, Vrije University in Amsterdam, and elsewhere, has proved the Casimir effect to be correct.

A paper published in the journal Foundations of Physics Letters in August 2001 shows that the principles of general relativity can be used to explain the principles of the motionless electromagnetic generator (MEG). This device takes electromagnetic energy from curved space-time and outputs about twenty times more energy than inputted. The paper demonstrates that electromagnetic energy can be extracted from the vacuum and used to power working devices such as the MEG used in the experiment.

Another astonishing paper titled “Extracting energy and heat from the vacuum,” by the same researchers, this time in conjunction with Daniel C. Cole, Ph.D. and Associate Professor at Boston University in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was published in the same journal.

Relatively recent proposals have been made in the literature for extracting energy and heat from electromagnetic zero-point radiation via the use of the Casimir force. The basic thermodynamics involved in these proposals is analyzed and clarified here, with the conclusion that yes, in principle, these proposals are correct. Technological considerations for actual application and use are not examined here, however.

HERE is a video of physicist Harold E. Puthoff explaining the reality of ‘free energy.’ He is an American physicist who earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University and the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin. His research includes theoretical and experimental projects in electrodynamics, quantum physics, gravitation, cosmology, energy research, and more. He has published over thirty technical papers in the areas of electron-beam devices, lasers, and quantum physics.

Out of The Void & The Second Law of Thermodynamics

“While the world has been distracted by hula hoops, pet rocks, dot coms, fiber optics and the latest new App to to hypnotize the masses, engineers, and inventors have quietly been at work trying to understand what Tesla meant when he said, ‘Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point in the universe.’ ” Toby Grotz (source)

Over-unity generators are rarely successful. Experts have yet to find a machine that works all the time, in any place, without any flaws, but it seems Tewari’s machine has done the trick. Some physicists will lose their mind at the very suggestion of an ‘Aether,’ even though they now believe space is filled with the Higgs Field. How can they do this while contemplating dark matter, super strings, and other variables that cannot even be seen? He can we expect to find the ‘God’ particle if the very ‘thing’ that makes up our universe is unseen?

Many will cite the second law of thermodynamics to refute the concept of over-unity, but often fail to realize that the second law of thermodynamics must be modified to account for the fact that space is not empty.

By eliminating back-torque through innovative magnetic circuit design, a reactionless AC generator has been built and tested. The Tewari Reactionless Generator (RLG) is now profiled in a new movie that was released last year in Austria. The film debuted at the Vienna Film Festival.

You can view the film trailer HERE, and read the synopsis of the film here,

Movie Review From Toby Grotz

On October 28th, 2015, the documentary film Out of the Void premiered at the Vienna International Film Festival. As far as I know, this is the first time a film of this nature has been presented to an international audience at a film festival. The film is in part a docudrama about the attempt to go beyond the known frontiers of science and to literally go into the void to extract energy.

It begins with film footage from the 1920’s of the Austrian Researcher Karl Schappeller during the time he attempted to design and build a device to harvest energy from the Aether. Schappeller did not succeed but his writings and work have been kept alive by a dedicated team of researchers from the UK and Austria who found and preserved drawings and documents found behind a stairway in the castle that served as his research lab.

The actors and production crew including, video, sound, editing, and set design succeed in recreating the work and vision of Schappeller. Interviews with local residents, now in their 80’s and 90’s are interlaced throughout the film adding a touch of authenticity to a man who was once the subject of wide press coverage and who became a local legend. The castle survives to this day and is available to the public for meetings and events.

The film jumps to the future and features a demonstration of a machine invented by Professor Claus Turtur from Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. The demonstration takes place in a wooden shack adjacent to the devastation of a coal strip mine. It is a high-voltage static apparatus slowly turning in a static electric field. It has been shown that the mechanical output is substantially over unity. It is obvious at this point that the laws of physics must be modified. The film then covers the current research, experiments and theories of Paramahamsa Tewari and documents tests of his Reactionless Generator filmed at his lab in India.

In his Space Vortex Theory (SVT), Mr. Tewari postulates and then proves by deductive reasoning the fundamental nature of a space and matter. The void makes up the interior of the electron and is created from the Aether as Nikola Tesla described when he said, “All perceptible matter comes from a primary substance, or tenuity beyond conception, filling all space, the akasha or luminiferous ether, which is acted upon by the life giving Prana or creative force, calling into existence, in never ending cycles all things and phenomena.”

Tewari has proven the existence of the Aether (ether) using Space Vortex Theory to build machines with efficiencies greater than one. Efficiencies as high as 2.38 have been measured. A more detailed description of the system tests is available at the links below. This discovery is a verification of his theories and those of other physicists such as Descartes, Maxwell, Helmholtz, and Kelvin. These physicists have pointed out that space is not empty as has been taught for over one hundred years.

Tewari’s discovery requires that the laws of physics as now taught must be modified to recognize that space is not empty and that the substance of space is the origin of matter as described in the Upanishads and known by the ancient seers of India for more than 10,000 years.

As Tesla also explained: Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point in the universe. Paramahamsa Tewari, an electrical engineer and retired Executive Director of The Nuclear Power Corporation of India has built, demonstrated, and has had third party verification of a generator that produces more power than it consumes thus affirming Tesla’s vision.

Out of the Void is scheduled to be released to theaters in Austria in March. The film is being submitted to other film festivals and distribution in other countries is under consideration.

The next showing of the film will be at the Diagonale Festival in Graz, which takes place from March 8th to March 13th. Please see the trailer. Sit down, turn up the sound and buckle your mental, emotional, and physical seat belts. The English version is here. The German version is here. Scroll down past the description to see the trailer and click on the play button in the middle of the picture.

Announcement of the film debut. Official Release: March 11 – 2016. Vienna, Stadtkino/Künstlerhaus on the evening of March 11th. Saturday, March 12th it will be in Linz, Moviemento-Cinema. March 14th to 16th it will be in Salzburg and Innsbruck.

Reactionless Generator Update

A new version of the RLG is under construction and is expected to be tested by the end of the year. Details to follow, as Mr. Tewari makes them available. More information is at theOut of the Void website. From the gallery, scroll through using the arrow on the right for scenes from the film. See also the Austrian Films website.

More Information on the Reactionless Generator can be found by following these links.

1. Test Report
2. Economic Times of India Report
3. www.Tewari.org

Why we need this now. Please review the articles I have posted on www.MotherEarthNews.com and pass on these thoughts as you see fit.

Top 10 Engineering Gadgets

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:27:00 +0000

Top 10 Engineering Gadgets

Although tech gadgets are being released in massive numbers these days, to find that best gift idea for your loved ones is often a tough ask. You go through tons of websites to get that one good tech product and the whole process becomes so cumbersome that you don’t get to discover the right product at the right time. Here’s a list that will make things easier for you – let’s have a look at 10 new engineering gadgets that would make for a great gift for anyone (even yourself).

Flair Central Air Control System

Get each room in your hope to the perfect temperature with the Flair Central Air Control System. Combining two units, Puck and Vent, this system works with central air units, mini-splits, as well as window A/C units to make sure every room remains at your ideal temperature. Puck is the wireless thermostat that controls the system and Vent, an actual vent, helps direct the air throughout the room and house.

Brain One – Standalone Telemetry Device for Motorsports and Action Sports

BRAIN One is a portable device that attaches to any vehicle or apparatus without cables or wires. It contains a range of sensors, including GPS+Glonass, thermometer, microphone, barometer, 9-axis inertial sensor and more, that measure all aspects of an action sport performance–from speed and bending angles to lap time and elevation differences.

Phoenix – World’s Most Advanced Exoskeleton

Introducing Phoenix – one of the world’s most advanced exoskeleton for helping people with mobility disorders. The purpose of this design is to help them stay upright and mobile. Both at the clinic as well as at home, Phoenix has been able to help individuals stand up and walk about, thus making them come out of their disorder, one step at a time.

Gest – The Gesture Controlled Wearable

Control your smartphone, tablet, or computer just by moving with Gest, the gesture controlled wearable. Designed to fit around the palm of your hand, this wearable has cable-connected rings that slide onto your fingers. Using advanced technology, Gest detects and interprets the location and movements of your hand and fingers to perform actions such as closing apps, moving your cursor, and flipping through slides.

Fleye – Your Personal Flying Robot

Introducing Fleye, you personal flying robot. More than just a drone, Fleye is extremely smart and has been engineered to fix many problems we face with ordinary drones. Built with a single shielded propeller and four control vanes, this flying robot instantly takes flight, has the ability to automatically follow you, and even responds to physical actions such as being pushed away without the risk of injury.

Sona Connected Bracelet by Caeden

Relieve some stress in your day with the Sona Connected Bracelet by Caeden. Designed for the busy professional, this bracelet isn’t just smart by staying connected but it truly intelligent. Rather than track just your heart rate, the Sona Connected Bracelet measures your heart rate variability, the gaps between your heartbeats.

The New Segway Robot by Ninebot – Personal Mobility Gone Cuter

Segway’s self-balancing technology has finally been reduced into a tiny form-factor than the original personal transportation device. This one’s just a few feet tall and happens to come with a head and face with two LED eyes that seem to blink and smile. You can even add a pair of articulated arms. They plug into the back where, eventually, you’ll also be able to add other hardware accessories.

Endless Mini Desktop Computer

Introducing the Endless Mini Desktop Computer, an entire computer that fits in your hand. Designed for those that have never owned a computer or had access to the internet, such as those in developing countries, the Endless Mini can easily connect to a user’s TV or other display system they already own.

Nima by 6SensorLabs – World’s First Portable Gluten Sensor

Healthy eating won’t be much of a tedious job if you have the Nima sensor in your bag. This tiny pocket-sized sensor is capable of analyzing your food quality at the molecular level. The one-time use capsules allows you to put what you want to test and gives you an accurate result at the end of the next 2 minutes.

TP-Link Talon AD7200 – The World’s First 802.11ad Router

With the introduction of the first 802.11ad Wi-Fi enabled laptop comes the TP-Link Talon AD7200, the world’s first 802.11ad router. The 802.11ad Wi-Fi feature, also known as WiGig, lets a device connect and communicate over Wi-Fi at multi-gigabit speeds. But this feature remains unused without the proper equipment.

Gravitational waves: Groundbreaking discovery could let us hear from the very darkest and strangest parts of space

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 16:04:00 +0000

Gravitational waves: Groundbreaking discovery could let us hear from the very darkest and strangest parts of space

On 11 February, the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced that it had made the first ever direct detection of gravitational waves, ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein almost exactly 100 years ago.

Nature is live-blogging the news and what it means for science below; scroll down for the LIGO webcast live from Washington DC.

Scientists are claiming a stunning discovery in their quest to fully understand gravity.

They have observed the warping of space-time generated by the collision of two black holes more than a billion light-years from Earth.

The international team says the first detection of these gravitational waves will usher in a new era for astronomy.

It is the culmination of decades of searching and could ultimately offer a window on the Big Bang.

The research, by the Ligo Collaboration, has been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters

The collaboration operates a number of labs around the world that fire lasers through long tunnels, trying to sense ripples in the fabric of space-time.

Expected signals are extremely subtle, and disturb the machines, known as interferometers, by just fractions of the width of an atom.

But the black hole merger was picked up by two widely separated LIGO facilities in the US.

"We have detected gravitational waves," David Reitze, executive director of the Ligo project, told journalists at a news conference in Washington DC.

Image copyrightNSF/LIGO

Image captionThe LIGO Collaboration fires lasers through long tunnels, trying to sense ripples in the fabric of space-time

Prof Karsten Danzmann, from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physicsand Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany, is a European leader on the collaboration.

He said the detection was one of the most important developments in science since the discovery of the Higgs particle, and on a par with the determination of the structure of DNA.

"There is a Nobel Prize in it - there is no doubt," he told the BBC.

"It is the first ever direct detection of gravitational waves; it's the first ever direct detection of black holes and it is a confirmation of General Relativity because the property of these black holes agrees exactly with what Einstein predicted almost exactly 100 years ago."

Ripples in the fabric of space-time

Gravitational waves are prediction of the Theory of General Relativity
Their existence has been inferred by science but only now directly detected
They are ripples in the fabric of space and time produced by violent events
Accelerating masses will produce waves that propagate at the speed of light
Detectable sources ought to include merging black holes and neutron stars
LIGO fires lasers into long, L-shaped tunnels; the waves disturb the light
Detecting the waves opens up the Universe to completely new investigations

That view was reinforced by Professor Stephen Hawking, who is an expert on black holes. Speaking exclusively to BBC News he said he believed that the detection marked a moment in scientific history.

"Gravitational waves provide a completely new way at looking at the Universe. The ability to detect them has the potential to revolutionise astronomy. This discovery is the first detection of a black hole binary system and the first observation of black holes merging," he said.

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Media captionFive reasons why gravitational waves matter

"Apart from testing (Albert Einstein's theory of) General Relativity, we could hope to see black holes through the history of the Universe. We may even see relics of the very early Universe during the Big Bang at some of the most extreme energies possible."

The Ligo laser interferometers in Hanford, in Washington, and Livingstone, in Louisiana, were only recently refurbished and had just come back online when they sensed the signal from the collision. This occurred at 10.51 GMT on 14 September last year.

On a graph, the data looks like a symmetrical, wiggly line that gradually increases in height and then suddenly fades away.

"We found a beautiful signature from of the merger of two black holes and it agrees exactly - fantastically - with the numerical solutions to Einstein equations... it looked too beautiful to be true," said Prof Danzmann.

Prof Sheila Rowan, who is one of the lead UK researchers involved in the project, said that the first detection of gravitational waves was just the start of a "terrifically exciting" journey.

"The fact that we are sitting here on Earth feeling the actual fabric of the Universe stretch and compress slightly due to the merger of black holes that occurred just over a billion years ago - I think that's phenomenal. It's amazing that when we first turned on our detectors, the Universe was ready and waiting to say 'hello'," the Glasgow University scientist told the BBC.

Being able to detect gravitational waves enables astronomers finally to probe what they call "dark Universe" - the majority part of the cosmos that is invisible to the light telescopes in use today.

Perfect probe

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Media captionScience correspondent explains gravitational waves and what their discovery means for science

Not only will they be able to investigate black holes and strange objects known as neutron stars (giant suns that have collapsed to the size of cities), they should also be able to "look" much deeper into the Universe - and thus farther back in time. It may even be possible eventually to sense the moment of the Big Bang.

"Gravitational waves go through everything. They are hardly affected by what they pass through, and that means that they are perfect messengers," said Prof Bernard Schutz, from Cardiff University, UK.

"The information carried on the gravitational wave is exactly the same as when the system sent it out; and that is unusual in astronomy. We can't see light from whole regions of our own galaxy because of the dust that is in the way, and we can't see the early part of the Big Bang because the Universe was opaque to light earlier than a certain time.

"With gravitational waves, we do expect eventually to see the Big Bang itself," he told the BBC.

In addition, the study of gravitational waves may ultimately help scientists in their quest to solve some of the biggest problems in physics, such as the unification of forces, linking quantum theory with gravity.

At the moment, the General Relativity describes the cosmos on the largest scales tremendously well, but it is to quantum ideas that we resort when talking about the smallest interactions. Being able to study places in the Universe where gravity is extreme, such as at black holes, may open a path to new, more complete thinking on these issues.

A laser is fed into the machine and its beam is split along two paths
The separate paths bounce back and forth between damped mirrors
Eventually, the two light parts are recombined and sent to a detector
Gravitational waves passing through the lab should disturb the set-up
Theory holds they should very subtly stretch and squeeze its space
This ought to show itself as a change in the lengths of the light arms (green)
The photodetector captures this signal in the recombined beam

Scientists have sought experimental evidence for gravitational waves for more than 40 years.

Einstein himself actually thought a detection might be beyond the reach of technology.

His theory of General Relativity suggests that objects such as stars and planets can warp space around them - in the same way that a billiard ball creates a dip when placed on a thin, stretched, rubber sheet.

Gravity is a consequence of that distortion - objects will be attracted to the warped space in the same way that a pea will fall in to the dip created by the billiard ball.

Inspirational moment

Einstein predicted that if the gravity in an area was changed suddenly - by an exploding star, say - waves of gravitational energy would ripple across the Universe at light-speed, stretching and squeezing space as they travelled.

Although a fantastically small effect, modern technology has now risen to the challenge.

Much of the R&D work for the Washington and Louisiana machines was done at Europe's smaller GEO600 interferometer in Hannover.

"I think it's phenomenal to be able to build an instrument capable of measuring [gravitational waves]," said Prof Rowan.

"It is hugely exciting for a whole generation of young people coming along, because these kinds of observations and this real pushing back of the frontiers is really what inspires a lot of young people to get into science and engineering."

Image copyrightGEO600

Image captionMuch of the R&D work necessary for the breakthrough was done at Europe's GEO600 laser interferometer

source:http://www.bbc.com , www.nature.com

HYPER LOOP TECH IS REVOLUTIONIZING TRANSPORTATION

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 14:33:00 +0000

HYPER LOOP TECH IS REVOLUTIONIZING TRANSPORTATION.

Elon Musk has a plan for humanity that covers clean energy, electric cars and spreading out amongst the stars. The billionaire also wants to do away with the tired and slow railways of the past in favor of pushing people around like parcels in a mail tube. That's what Hyperloop is: a series of vacuum tubes that'll enable travelers to get from A to B inminutes rather than hours. But Musk himself didn't have the time to develop the concept beyond his original idea, so in 2013 he open-sourced the project for anyone to have a go. Less than three years later, the first strides toward a global network of near-supersonic travel tubes are being taken.

The Principle

Remember those vacuum tube networks that businesses used to use to send papers across large buildings? Hyperloop is basically that, but big enough to shoot people cross-country at amazing speeds. First, the tube is six feet wide, and is maintained as a low-pressure environment, though not a true vacuum. In order to prevent the passenger pod from touching the tube, it'll float slightly above it, either on a cushion of air or using magnetic levitation. Arx Pax, creator of the Hendo Hoverboard, is working to see if its magnetic field architecture technology is suitable for keeping Hyperloop friction-free.

In many ways, Hyperloop is just a sort of maglev train. But because it doesn't have to deal with as much air resistance, top speeds are much higher. Hyperloop is expected to hit 750MPH, more than twice as fast as the Central Japan Railway's record-breaking 366MPH speed run. California's $70 billion high-speed rail project looks positively tortoiselike when you realize that it'll only reach speeds of "over" 200MPH.

If a network of Hyperloop tubes were built across the United States, it would effectively eliminate the domestic short-haul airline industry. For example, if you want to get from New York to Washington, DC, it'll take you just under three hours on Amtrak's Acela Express -- which is what passes for high-speed rail in the US. You could also take a flight, which would take an hour and 15 minutes, plus the time spent at security, the gate, and baggage claim. That same journey with Hyperloop is expected to take just half an hour.

It was the amount of money thrown at California's high-speed railway project that prompted Musk to launch the Hyperloop idea. He felt that the technology was outdated, the costs too high and the speed insufficient for a modern, 21st-century transport system. In his original outline, Hyperloop would be cheaper for several reasons, including the fact that governments wouldn't need to purchase land to make it happen. Instead, it would be held in the air by a series of pylons so small that they could sit in the median strip of a major highway. Construction would be quick and cheap, too, since the pipes could be fabricated elsewhere and just welded into place when they were delivered.

Hyperloop isn't just about making sure business types can get between meetings faster than everyone else, either. A huge cause of congestion on roads is freight traffic -- eighteen-wheelers carrying cargo containers from ports to warehouses. Los Angeles Port is one of the largest points of entry for containers into the United States, and much of that is taken east by road. Imagine if, instead, containers were pushed via Hyperloop to a new logistics center in Nevada; it would cut thousands of road journeys each year. Yup, Hyperloop could even do something to reduce LA's notoriously awful traffic.

The Contenders

Musk's open-sourcing of the idea meant that anyone who wanted to have a go could try and build their own futuristic transport system. Very quickly, two Los Angeles–based players emerged, ready for the challenge and going by infuriatingly similar names: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies and its main rival, Hyperloop Technologies. But while their names are similar, almost nothing else about them is. In fact, when someone comes along wanting to write a David and Goliath movie about Hyperloop, they'll find it remarkably easy.

David: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT)

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) is a crowdsourced engineering project led by German entrepreneur Dirk Ahlborn. When people think about involving the "crowd" in an enterprise, it's normally in the hope of gaining their money -- but not here. Instead, scientists and engineers have agreed to donate their time and expertise, collaborating with one another online to refine the Hyperloop technology.

You might think that HTT is staffed entirely by amateurs. But last year, Ahlborn assured Engadget that the bulk of his team members have day jobs at legitimate science and engineering outfits like Tesla, SpaceX and NASA. Each person who gets involved is rewarded with the promise of stock options in whatever corporate entity is formed in the future. Ahlborn doesn't believe that they're doing it for the promise of cash, but give their time in the hope of making a difference.

Testbed: Quay Valley, California

Quay Valley is a "new town" that's being cooked up by GROW Projects, an LA-based company that develops environmental projects. Located halfway between San Francisco and LA, Quay Valley is slated to run entirely on renewable, sustainable technology and house 75,000 people by the early 2020s. The project has stalled several times, but GROW Projects signed a deal with HTT to host a five-mile test loop that would encircle the community. This would be used as a proving ground to refine the technology, as well as convey residents from one end of the city to the other in just 80 seconds.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies filed permits with the local Kings County authorities on January 20th. If it's granted permission to begin construction and everything goes according to plan (and that's a big if), HTT will open the facility to passengers by 2018. Then again, there's still no word on when Quay Valley will begin construction, and right now the green city of the future is reminding us a bit of Florida's Babcock Ranch, which has also foundered.

Goliath: Hyperloop Technologies (HT)

If HTT is the scrappy underdog relying on the goodwill of its engineers, then Hyperloop Technologies is the blue chip alternative. Its co-founder Shervin Pishevar is a venture capitalist with stakes in firms like Uber, AirBnB and Warby Parker. His wealth is estimated to be in the high hundred millions or low billions. Pishevar is also friends with Elon Musk and knew about the Hyperloop concept before it was made public.

HT's other co-founder is Kevin Brogan -- now known as Brogan BamBrogan -- who leads the engineering side of the enterprise. Brogan was a key figure at SpaceX and is responsible for designing the Falcon 1 rocket as well as the Dragon spacecraft. Late last year, the company also recruited another industry heavyweight in the form of ex-Cisco presidentRob Lloyd, who became the new CEO.

Testbed: City of North Las Vegas, Nevada

Hyperloop Technologies is building its first test facility at the Apex Industrial Park in the City of North Las Vegas, Nevada. The company has already broken ground on the location and is expected to begin testing inside a two-mile tube by the end of this year.

The Enabler: SpaceX

Elon Musk has no interest in building a Hyperloop himself, but SpaceX will act as a sort of evangelist to help push the idea along. The company is co-sponsoring a pod design competition that'll see teams from colleges all around the world build the ultimate passenger capsule. It's also rumored that Musk had a large proportion of his engineers working to refine the Hyperloop concept before he made it public.

Testbed: Hawthorne, California

SpaceX has pledged to build a one-mile test track close to its HQ in Hawthorne, California, where winners of the pod design competition can test their ideas. The firm has recruitedAECOM to build the facility, and construction is expected to begin this spring. The company has always said that the loop will be built next to its headquarters, but that part of LA is heavily developed. It's not clear, at least for now, where exactly there's sufficient space.

The Problems with Hyperloop

Elon Musk's original white paper spoke disdainfully of California's high-speed rail project, which is expected to cost $70 billion. His feeling was that a smaller, lighter, nimbler Hyperloop would cost less. Of course, the sums involved are still eye-watering. Musk's essay on the technology makes it plain: "Several billion is a low number when compared with the tens of billions proposed for the track of the California rail project." Unfortunately, nobody's yet able, or willing, to put a price tag on a real-world Hyperloop.

Then there's the question of who is expected to pick up the bill, since private finance rarely puts in cash for big infrastructure projects without the public's help. Hyperloop Technologies has the backing of some of the wealthiest people in the world, and could bankroll this itself. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies doesn't have the same deep pockets, but it's hoping investors will step up to finance a test track at Quay Valley. If these firms struggle to keep the cash flowing, then help may have to come from governments, which may not be willing to subsidize an untested system.

If Hyperloop does become entangled in the political process, HT has an ace up its sleeve:Jim Messina (pictured, left). Messina was the deputy chief of staff in the Obama White House between 2009 and 2011 and was a key adviser in Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. Messina is likely to be involved with Hillary Clinton's election campaign this year, and also has ties to the prime ministers of the UK and Italy.

If you're working on an experimental but potentially world-changing piece of technology, it helps if you have the ears of some of the most powerful people in the world. But while Messina's involvement may be a blessing, it could also be a curse that'll set back Hyperloop development. His backing of the UK's Conservative Party likely guarantees that the technology will never be adopted in that country. The party is pursuing a policy of de-funding public infrastructure and has no interest in upgrading its transport system -- meaning that there's no money for a Hyperloop.

It's going to be interesting to see what the experience of Hyperloop will be like from the perspective of its passengers. Many of the early concept drawings show windowed pods flying through transparent tubes, but the tubes are likely to be all metal. That means that pods will be similarly enclosed, and it's not clear how that'll affect people who suffer from motion sickness. Dirk Ahlborn has said that it's likely there will be displays inside each pod simulating the journey, tricking people's eyes into thinking that they're in a car. There should be no physical side effects beyond this, since Hyperloop will travel faster than your average jumbo jet, but slower than craft like the Concorde.

The State of Hyperloop in 2016

Hyperloop Technologies is pledging to have its first working loop by the end of 2016, while HTT is promising that its version will be ready in 2017. SpaceX is planning to have its shorter test loop completed by this summer, to help engineers refine designs for the transport pods. Both HT and HTT claim they'll have passenger-ready Hyperloops by the end of the decade. Given that the concept was unveiled only in 2013, that would be a staggeringly fast turnaround. If everything goes according to plan, we'll be shooting people across cities in futuristic vacuum tubes long before Google can get its first self-driving electric cars in consumer driveways.

[Image Credits: SpaceX (Initial Sketch, Interior Concept), Hyperloop Transportation Technologies/Omegabyte 3D (Quay Valley Concept), Jae C. Hong/Associated Press (SpaceX HQ), Hyperloop Transportation Technologies/Enzo Mazzeo (crowd shot), Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty (Musk), Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty (Obama and Messina)]

Renewable energy: The future looks bright for Energy Storage

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 17:23:00 +0000

Renewable energy: The future looks bright for Energy Storage

High voltage testing area and transformer testing area on the exterior of the Energy Storage Lab (ESL), Bay 3 at the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (Image: Dennis Schroeder / NREL)

Energy storage is increasingly becoming a vital part of the deployment of renewable energy technologies, largely because of the intermittent nature of certain renewable energy systems, particularly wind and solar, which rarely generate energy when it is most in demand. Thus the role of energy storage is to counter the imbalances caused by this intermittency.

At present, utilities use baseload plants to maintain supply. Many of these are coal-fired and nuclear plants and they are supported by load-following or ‘cycling’ plants, which are typically natural gas or hydroelectric.

Stored energy has the advantage of being available more rapidly than a turbine powering up, storing excess energy and releasing it when needed. Thus far, the dominant form of energy storage has been pumped hydro, based on reservoirs where the water passes through generators which convert the energy potential into electricity. When demand is low, excess generation capacity is used to pump water from a lower level to a higher reservoir. When demand increases, the water is released back into the lower reservoir, passing through a turbine that generates the electricity. This approach is most associated with countries such as Norway, parts of the US and Wales. In Norway, pumped storage has an instantaneous capacity of 25-30 GW, which can be expanded to 60 GW.

At present, at least 140 GW of large-scale energy storage is currently installed in electricity grids across the globe, the vast majority of which (99 percent) consists of pumped hydro (PSH) with the remainder consisting of a mix of battery, compressed air energy storage (CAES), flywheels and hydrogen. Electricity sector decarbonization would require an estimated 310 GW of additional grid-connected electricity storage in the US, Europe, China and India, according to Energy Technology Perspectives (ETP) 2014.

However, there are increasing global discussions going on about, firstly, in which particular circumstances energy storage is actually necessary to support renewable energy integration, and, secondly, what kinds of energy storage technology are we likely to see making it through the research and development process to commercialization.

For example, with regard to the first question, Amory Lovins at the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, USA, argues that energy storage may not actually be necessary.

Furthermore, despite all the criticism of solar and wind from some quarters of the energy sector, a study by scientists at Stanford University in March 2014 found that wind power can actually produce enough surplus electricity to support up to 72 hours of stored energy.

The wind farm at Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil (Image: Eduardo Fonseca, Flickr)

This means that the wind industry could easily cope with three-day lulls in wind availability and therefore could both grow and maintain itself with the aid of energy storage. However, more work is required for solar in that some solar technologies, such as crystal silicon, are growing so fast that they are becoming net energy sinks, in essence consuming more power than they give back to the grid. The Stanford study showed that most PV technologies can only afford up to 24 hours of storage, but this still means that solar PV systems can be deployed with enough storage to supply electricity at night.

Another advantage with wind is that energy return on investment (EROI) is much better than that of solar, with a wind turbine being able to generate enough electricity within a few months to pay back all the energy required in its construction. With solar energy, the payback time is more like two years.

Even more encouraging is the fact that, should it turn out that energy storage is required, all sorts of novel technologies are in development at present, many of them looking very promising indeed.

In addition to these new technologies, there are some very interesting innovative ideas being presented by a number of highly experienced people in the sector. Take for example the blog by the anonymous Scottish Scientist who advocates a unique storage solution that would store energy from solar and wind by using hydrogen-filled bags underwater.

Scottish Scientist argues that PV panels can be mounted on platforms, either individually or dotted around in the spaces between turbines on wind farms. The PV panels would be kept above the water level but below the level at which their presence would interfere with the wind flow. Hydrogen gas would then be used to store the energy generated by the renewable energy platforms.

Scottish Scientist’s highly intriguing floating wind, solar and hydrogen energy storage concept (Image: Scottish Scientist)

The way it would work is this. Surplus wind and solar electrical power would be sent down a sub-sea cable to power underwater high-power electrolysis, which would then be used to make compressed hydrogen. This would be stored in underwater inflatable gas-bags, to be piped from the gas-bag up to the platform where it would fuel gas-fired turbine generators or hydrogen fuel cells, generating electricity on demand in all weathers.

Air lifting bags are already used in diving and salvage work and are available at volumes of up to 50 cubic metres. Therefore, Scottish Scientist argues, it should be possible to make much larger gas-bags or rig multiple gas-bags together.

This kind of approach is much better performed in deeper seas because the water pressure is proportional to the depth, thereby allowing the hydrogen to be compressed more densely. This would allow more hydrogen, and more energy, to be stored in the inflatable gas bags. Meanwhile, the oxygen from the electrolysis process could either just bubble away or be stored so that it could increase the efficiency of the system while also reducing the nitrogen oxide combustion by-products produced by the hydrogen-fired generators.

The undersea electrolysis would have to use a custom electrolyte solution in order produce oxygen as the anode gas, because direct electrolysis of sea water produces chlorine gas at the anode. This is poisonous and difficult to dispose of. Therefore, the concentrated electrolyte solution would have to be separated from the sea water by a semi-permeable membrane, allowing pure water to pass through it by osmosis from the dilute sea water.

Given the pressure exerted by the sea underwater, there would be no need for a high-pressure containment vessel for the electrolyte, as required by high-pressure electrolysis systems operating on the surface. The semi-permeable membrane would be sufficient to keep the electrolyte solution contained.

Scottish Scientist suggests that offshore solar power could be deployed off the west coast of Africa, between the Canary Islands and the Caper Verde Islands. Another potential area for deployment of this system could be somewhere around Spain or in the Mediterranean. The electricity would be transported from these areas by undersea interconnectors, as with offshore wind farms.

Deep seas, required for hydrogen storage, say of a depth greater than 4,000 metres, can mostly be found in particular areas of the Atlantic Ocean, to the south-west of the Bay of Biscay. On this basis, Scottish Scientist argues that one area particularly suitable for this type of operation, could be just to the west and south-west of the Canary Islands and to the north of the Cape Verde Islands. However, this may not be close enough to supply Western Europe, given the costs of longer interconnection cables.

Inevitably, this idea has met with some criticism. For example, one of the comments on the blog suggests that the air bags would leak. However, Scottish Scientist argues that the pressure outside the bag being the same as inside would prevent this. In essence, the only way for gas molecules, or atoms in the case of helium, to leak through the air bag, would be by diffusion, which requires a pressure gradient to overcome the energy barrier. The same comment objects that the counter-pressure of hydrogen, also present in the water, would be very low and that because hydrogen molecules are so small, they will diffusethrough most materials.

Density of hygrogen with depth (Graph: Scottish Scientist)

In response to this, Scottish Scientist suggests that experiments with hydrogen-filled diver’s bags could be used to assess this possibility and to gather further data. Another comment on the blog observes that there are patents already in existence for ionically charged polymeric membranes that would overcome any problems involving diffusion of gas out of the bag. Furthermore, the challenges associated with hydrogen storage are being addressed by metal organic frameworks (MOFs), compounds consisting of metal ions or clusters coordinated to organic molecules forming one-, two- or three- dimensional structures which could be used for the storage of gases such as hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

Scottish Scientist goes on to state that the pressure difference across the wall of the bag would vary from “none at all, at the bottom of the gas-bag, to the difference in water pressure between the higher water pressure at the bottom of the bag to the lower water pressure and the top of the bag, according to the difference in height at a rate of one atmosphere difference per 10 metres. So for a 5 metre height difference between bottom and top of the gas-bag, the pressure difference would be 0.5 atmospheres at the top of the bag.”

In other words, the pressure gradient would be fairly low.

Another potential problem would be the distance over which the electricity is to be transported. Scottish Scientist suggests this would be overcome by the development of even higher voltage transmission lines. Furthermore, the integration of solar PV with wind turbines and energy storage at a remote location would also make possible the development of a combined electricity generation system which itself would provide the maximum power capacity of the transmission line.

The discussions and debates around ideas such as this are inevitably going to continue for many a year yet. However, this discussion in particular is illustrative of the innovative thinking currently going on with regards to energy storage, and this is just hydrogen being discussed here – there are many other promising ideas being researched using a whole variety of different approaches. Add all that up and it looks like there’s going to be a very interesting market developing for energy storage technologies in the years to come, if there isn’t already.

But let’s look at this in a little more detail. What is going on out there already?

Just recently, on January 19th this year, IHS announced that reductions in battery cost, along with government funding programs and utility tenders, have led to a 45 percent increase in the global energy storage pipeline over the course of the fourth quarter of 2015 (Q4) compared to the previous quarter, reaching 1.6 GW in Q4 2015.

The announcement of several large projects at the end of 2015 shows that the storage industry is beginning to transition from the research and development stage, involving demonstration projects, to commercially viable projects. These included a 90 MW order by STEAG for the primary reserve market in Germany and 75 MW of contracts awarded by PG&E to a range of companies using various established and emerging technologies.

IHS expects approximately 900 MW of global grid-connected battery projects to be commissioned in 2016, supporting a predicted doubling of global installed grid-connected energy storage. Of the planned installations, 45 percent of them will be in the US with another 20 percent in Japan.

Unfortunately, this is a truly vast subject, and one which, with regard to most technologies outside batteries and pumped storage, is still in its infancy. Therefore a truly comprehensive overview of what’s going on in the energy storage sector would occupy several more pages yet. Therefore, expect some more articles on energy storage before too long, looking at a deeper level of some of the research going on out there.

Most Amazing Offerings At This Year’s Tokyo Auto Show

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 13:46:00 +0000

Most Amazing Offerings At This Year’s Tokyo Auto Show

One of the biggest auto shows of the year kicked off in Chiba, Japan on January 15 and as usual, the car manufacturers didn’t disappoint. The Makauri Messe convention center in Japan where the upcoming concepts in cars were displayed saw a huge influx of auto enthusiasts from around the globe eager to see what the industry and designers had in store for them. Here are some of the best performers of the car show:

A Lamborghini for She; Lamborghini Murcielago with pink Swarovski crystals.

Nice bouquet of a car. Must have come with a built-in “Just Married” sign….

This cool reptilian gold engraving on a Nissan GTR-35 is surreal.

Two young onlookers appreciate the subtle beauty of the incredible custom audio system. It extends to the back seat with sparkling colors and swirling galactic design.

This odd-looking thing from the Tsukuba Institute of Science and Technology is called March 718 Speed Ster. I guess rain wasn’t considered in the making of this car!

1949 Mercury appears to come out from the garage of a classical villain. It broke sales records when it was first released, and this impressive paint job takes it to an entirely new level.

Mazda LM55 Vision from the video games Grand Turismo 6 is seen here in full scale. How cool is she?

A Mercedes-AMG GT that will probably be released commercially this summer.

Mazda RX-Vision concept with a rotary engine!

Mercedes-Benz G550 4×4 that has a compact design and very low gas exhaust emissions.

The car show ended this Sunday and what an amazing one it was this year!

FFZERO1 Concept Is The Future Of Electric Super cars

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 13:47:00 +0000

FF ZERO 1 Concept Is The Future Of Electric Super cars

Do you think electric cars can’t really compete when it comes to design and power? Well, think again as you take a look at Faraday Future’s FFZERO1 – a single seater concept vehicle – that has been unveiled at CES in Las Vegas. This concept vehicle is a test-bed for the company’s future range of EVs. The car features a new chassis design while also boasting of a ‘sixth sense’ that allows it to adapt to the driver’s intentions and requirements while generating real-time data and images.

The exterior of this amazing vehicle sure reminds us of speed demon; a highly aerodynamic bodywork with a forward-set cockpit. The bodywork is made of carbon composite and the car features a racing suspension along with advanced vehicle dynamic control and torque vectoring. It also features an aero-tunnel design for reduced drag and for cooling down its battery.

The cooling down of battery is crucial since the FFZERO1 packs quite a lot of power. It sports the Faraday Future’s Variable Platform Architecture (VPA) – new and centrally placed battery structure. It has been arranged into modular strings to incorporate flexibility when it comes to design and helps in reducing the cost while enhancing safety and speed. The VPA drives four Quad-Core motors that are able to crank out over 1,000bhp. This translates into 0-60mph in under three seconds and a top speed of more than 200mph.

The interior is equally impressive with white and carbon mesh motif. It also claims of NASA-inspired ‘zero-gravity’ seat that has been set at 45º to allow for circulation along with offsetting g-forces. The car also features a Halo safety program that has been incorporated to provide support to driver’s neck and comes with a bespoke helmet and racing suit.

The driver is given control of the vehicle via smartphone, thus allowing the driver to control the vehicle from inside or outside. The company says the FFZERO1 might even be driver-optional. Richard Kim, head of design at Faraday Future said, “The FFZERO1 Concept is an amplified version of the design and engineering philosophies informing FF’s forthcoming production vehicles. This project liberated our designers and inspired new approaches for vehicle forms, proportions, and packaging that we can apply to our upcoming production models.”

The World’s First Solar Road Is Producing More Energy Than Expected

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 14:59:00 +0000

The World’s First Solar Road Is Producing More Energy Than Expected

In its first six months of existence, the world’s first solar road is performing even better than developers thought.

The road, which opened in the Netherlands in November of last year, has produced more than 3,000 kilowatt-hours of energy — enough to power a single small household for one year, according to Al-Jazeera America.

“If we translate this to an annual yield, we expect more than the 70kwh per square meter per year,” Sten de Wit, a spokesman for the project — dubbed SolaRoad — told Al Jazeera America. “We predicted [this] as an upper limit in the laboratory stage. We can therefore conclude that it was a successful first half year.”

De Wit said in a statement that he didn’t “expect a yield as high as this so quickly.”

The 230-foot stretch of road, which is embedded with solar cells that are protected by two layers of safety glass, is built for bike traffic, a use that reflects the road’s environmentally-friendly message and the cycling-heavy culture of the Netherlands. However, the road could withstand heavier traffic if needed, according to one of the project’s developers.

So far, about 150,000 cyclists have ridden over the road. Arian de Bondt, director of Ooms Civiel, one of the companies working on the project, said that the developers were working on developing solar panels that could withstand large buses and vehicles.

The SolaRoad, which connects the Amsterdam suburbs of Krommenie and Wormerveer, has been seen as a test by its creators — a stretch of bike lane that, if successful, could be used as a model for more roads and bike lanes. The researchers plan to conduct tests of the road over the next approximately two and a half years, to determine how much energy the road produces and how it stands up to bikers. By 2016, the road could be extended to 328 feet.

Though the Netherlands’ solar road seems to be going as planned, solar roads overall typically aren’t as effective at producing energy as solar arrays on a house or in a field. That’s because the panels in solar roads can’t be tilted to face the sun, so they don’t get as much direct sunlight as panels that are able to be tilted. However, solar roads don’t take up vast tracts of land, like some major solar arrays do, and they can be installed in heavily-populated areas.

One couple is set on making solar roads a reality in the U.S. Scott and Julie Brusaw created anIndiegogo campaign last year to help fund their Solar Roadways project, and the campaign raised more than $2.2 million. The U.S. might have to wait a while to see solar roads installed, however. As Vox pointed out last year, cost could be a major barrier for solar road construction in the U.S. And according to a Greentech Media article from last year, one of the biggest things that officials still aren’t sure about with the roads is safety. They want to be sure the roads can stand up to heavy traffic, and that the glass protecting the solar panels won’t break.

“We can’t say that it would be safe for roadway vehicular traffic,” Eric Weaver, a research engineer at the Federal Highway Administration’s research and technology department, told Greentech Media. “Further field-traffic evaluation is needed to determine safety and durability performance.”

This engineer has finally created a real burning lightsaber

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Sat, 26 Dec 2015 17:05:00 +0000

This engineer has finally created a real burning lightsaber

We do see a lot of replicas around, but lightsabers still remain a very iconic weapon without any functionality when recreated. And this is due to very basic physics: light can’t interact with matter that way, light beams cannot be interrupted without having its course cut off – which means we can’t recreate in real life we see in those awesome fights in Star Wars.

But Pan did a pretty good job in making a functional lightsaber with a flame blade. Even if is not EXACTLY like the real deal, at least it’s the coolest cigarette lighter I’ve ever seen. He uses a nichrome ignition system to shoot a beam of fire from the saber, fueled by a highly flammable methanol-acetone fuel mixture, and butane propellant. The saber also counts with some cool sound effects to add a bit more drama to the weapon. From the video you can see he handles the saber with extreme care, but then again, who wouldn’t when holding a meter-tall column of fire in their hands?

Scientists in Sweden create ‘Power Paper’ that can store energy

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 17:07:00 +0000

Scientists in Sweden have developed what they call "power paper" – a thin, paper-like material with a remarkable capacity to store energy.

Just one sheet of the material measuring 15 centimetres in diameter and less than 0.5 millimetre thick can store 1 farad of electrical capacitance, which is about the same as many supercapacitors used in electric devices today.

The material, which is made from nanocellulose and a conductive polymer, can be used then recharged, lasting for hundreds of charge cycles. And best of all, it only takes a few seconds to power up again.

"Thin films that function as capacitors have existed for some time," said Xavier Crispin, a researcher from Linköping University's Laboratory of Organic Electronics. "What we have done is to produce the material in three dimensions. We can produce thick sheets."

The researchers' material looks like black paper, but to the touch, has a more plasticky feel. Nonetheless, it exhibits other paper-like qualities too, such as strength, as demonstrated by its ability to be folded into origami shapes (the researchers apparently amused themselves by making an origami swan!).

The team created the sheets by breaking down cellulose fibres using high-pressure water. These fibres measure just 20 nanometres in diameter, and are added to a water solution containing an electrically charged polymer. The polymer then forms a thin coating over the fibres.

"The covered fibres are in tangles, where the liquid in the spaces between them functions as an electrolyte," said one of the team, Jesper Edberg. The full process is described in Advanced Science.

The material, which the researchers claim sets new records for simultaneous conductivity for ions and electrons, could have a significant impact on how we store charge in small devices, and with further research might even be able to serve higher-capacity power needs.

Unlike the batteries and capacitors we currently use – which use large amounts of metal and often contain toxic chemicals – the power paper is made from simple materials: renewable cellulose and readily available polymer.

According to the researchers, the paper is light, requires no dangerous chemicals or heavy metals, and is waterproof to boot. The one challenge is developing an industrial process to manufacture it on a large scale.

Like regular pulp paper, the material has to be dehydrated to make the sheeting. If the team can solve this puzzle, possibly with the help of commercial partners, power paper could be something we see a lot more of in the future.

Plant-Powered Lamps by soil nutrients Light Up A Rural Areas of Peru

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 08:10:00 +0000

Plant powered by soil nutrients bring electricity to remote areas of Peru

Soil naturally contains energy conducive metals like zinc, copper and iron, and microbial fuel cells (sometimes referred to as an earth batteries) which are capable of converting electrolytes in soil into usable energy. Dutch designer Marieke Strap’s Soil Lamp uses conductive plates made from copper and zinc buried within the soil to provide constant and (nearly) eternal light for an LED bulb. Maintaining a Soil Lamp is as simple as watering a plant – just feed it a splash of water every now and then to keep the energy flowing.

In parts of the world that don’t have steady access to the electricity grid, finding power for essential things like night lighting are an ongoing challenge. While you can burn kerosene in lamps to provide illumination, the unhealthy smoke and fumes make it a far from ideal solution.

Luckily for the inhabitants of Nuevo Saposoa, a remote native community in Peru, they were chosen to be the recipients of experimental ‘plant lamps’ (Plantalámpara in Spanish). The lamps run for 2 hours a day and provide bright LED lighting with low power consumption, which in this case is sourced from nutrients in the plant and soil itself.

“We put the plant and soil into a wooden plant pot together with a previously established and properly protected irrigation system,” said engineer Elmer Ramirez from Peru’s University of Technology and Engineering (UTEC). “Then, inside the pot we place the energy generation system that we created which stores soil and electrodes capable of converting plant nutrients into electric energy.”

In conjunction with advertising agency FCB, the researchers developed 10 trial plant lamps and donated them to Nuevo Saposoa’s residents. The village, situated in rainforest, is located in Ucayali, a region noted for having Peru’s lowest rate of access to electricity.

While the extensive rainforest surroundings are part of what keeps the village separated from the country’s electrical infrastructure, the vast amounts of vegetation and flora in the area would also be the perfect resource to build more of the plant lamps, which run on the free electrons of microorganisms released by the plants during their growth.

“We made proper use of the Amazon region’s own natural resources such as the soil and plants, in harmony with the environment without any impact whatsoever on the forest,” said Ramirez.

In addition to helping people cook food, perform work, and entertain themselves in the evenings when the sun has gone down, the fundamental benefit of Nuevo Saposoa’s plant lamps will be in giving the village’s children extra hours of the day for reading, writing, and school work. Education in Ucayali is not strong, with less than 30 percent of people attending secondary school and almost 15 percent of the population illiterate.

“While there are shortages of a number of resources in Nuevo Saposoa, the absence of electric energy has a major impact on its social, educational and family development”, said Jessica Ruas, a marketing director at UTEC. “We are positive that this will result in a better quality of life for community families because, by using the Plantalámpara, they will have access to renewable energy to provide light to their homes for use by the children during their school work study hours … [and]contribute to the self-sustainability of the population.”

10 Best Electric UniCycles That Are Really Cooler

noreply@blogger.com (Kalyan Gupta) — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 16:18:00 +0000

Personal Transportation Devices have become popular nowadays. They are popular with both adults and children alike & since they are emission free, they are environment-friendly as well. Electric unicycles are competing with hoverboards (electric scooters) to reach out to users, and we have covered some of the best unicycles available.

10. 16-inch Self-balance Electric Unicycle by EYU for Kids (299.66$)

Powered by a Samsung battery, this electric unicycle can run for 20km on a single charge. The machine can reach speeds of 16km/h and can handle weights of around 60kg.

9. MonoRover R4(519.99$)

Mono Rover has an extensive collection of personal transporters for kids. This model can reach speeds of almost 20km/h and powered by 500W motor. This Electric UniCycle takes 45min to charge completely.

8. CAMTOA TG-T3 Self Balancing Unicycle (274.99$)

This unicycle takes only 25-minutes to charge 80% of its battery. The product is available in many different colors so that you can pick the one that best matches your taste.

7. Electric Unicycle by Generic(310$)

A unicycle meant to for adults as it can handle payloads more than 120kg while maintaining its top speed of 18km/h. The item weighs 10kg and is installed with a 500 Watt motor.

6. CAMTOA Bluetooth Speaker Self Balancing Electric Unicycle(389$)

We discussed a unicycle from this supplier at no.8, but this model is an upgrade as it is fitted with Bluetooth speakers & tilt protection of 45 degrees. As a plus, this model also features LED on the sides.

5. Fotowelt X30(450$)

Here is another manufacturer that is an expert in personal transportation devices. With a max speed of 18km/h, this unicycle can climb inclinations as high as 20 degrees with payloads of over 100kg.

4. Airwheel X3(280$)

One of the best value for money buys.The machine can reach speeds of 16km/h and has a battery life of 20km. The unicycle features tilt protection and weighs less than 10kg.

3. Ninebot ONE-E Unicycle (799$)

This distinct looking unicycle has the best range of 30-35km on a single charge. The transporter can reach speeds of 22km/h and can handle individuals with a weight of 120kg maximum.

2. IPS® FBA 19.9kph 340wh/260wh 16 Inch Self Balancing Electric Unicycle (989.99$)

The premium model from IPS. The machine features one of the best control system around and with 2.5 inch wide tyres you get the most smooth riding experience.

1. XIAOTU Unicycle(920$)

This unicycle features a seat and remote control functionality. The impressive machine can run over 40km on a complete charge. With a top of 18km/h and tilt protection, you can reach your destination safely & swiftly.

source: wonderfulengineering.com