In 2009, I had the honor of picking up Emerging Tech soon after its previous steward, the unequaled Roland Piquepaille, unexpectedly passed away.

Roughly two hundred and sixty posts later, the shifting tides of business means a refocus on ZDNet. Emerging tech and few other blogs (e.g., Friending Facebook and Home Theater) will be closing shortly.

Thank you for your readership and participation. Here are some highlights:

Top posts: Computers have speed limit as unbreakable as speed of light, say physicists (most comments) 5 trends driving the future of work (most tweets) Report: Acts of space warfare likely by 2025 (top views) Brazil goes all-digital with 2010 census (top destination coverage) Sony creates own holodeck with PlayStation tech (coolest video post)

Recent photo galleries: Superhumans, dead worlds, and the fate of the universe in pictures 10 military technologies that will change the face of battle Duck! Look out for space junk (photos)

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With data rates up to 10 Mbps, IEEE 802.15.6TM-2012 is designed to address and compensate for the effects of a body on network performance, and enable a variety of applications including medical, consumer electronics, and personal entertainment.

The short range, low power, and reliable wireless communication protocol could give rise to a new generation of wireless implantable devices and wearable computing devices, such as head-up displays.

Art Astrin, chair of the IEEE 802.15.6 Task Group, said, "The new standard underscores our commitment to the realization of a true body area network to meet the challenges of achieving far-ranging and futuristic solutions for healthcare, prosthetics, implants and a variety of novel consumer uses."

Medical examples include routine diagnostic testing, smart blood monitors, automated drug delivery, and brain and retinal implants. Similarly, the new standard could make sport fitness devices and wearable gaming gadgets smarter.

"The existence of a body area network standard provides a myriad of opportunities to create a wide variety of new products and capabilities aimed at enhancing people's comfort and well being in ways we can only begin to imagine," said Astrin.

While it may take some time before manufacturers take full advantage of the standard, others are ahead of the pack with connecting on-person hardware with wireless technology. For instance, Google was recently granted a patent for a method allowing hand gestures to control its Project Glass augmented reality system. It would use an invisible reflective infrared identifier placed on a user's ring, glove, or even fingernail.

The new IEEE body area network standard won't replace IR or Bluetooth by any means; in fact, it will work with Bluetooth.

Related:

7 things you should know about Body Area Networks (BANs) Five signs the mobile phone form factor is maxed out Exploring use cases for electronic clothes

We’ve entered a new era of computing that promises to provide users with a rich and seamless experience across all of their connected devices. Up to now, humans interacting with their computing environments have depended on keystroke instructions or a mouse click to perform a task. Now, smart devices will be able to monitor and even anticipate behavior. They will automatically perform what needs to be done or make a user’s environment more personal. Welcome to the world of context-aware computing.

In this new era, emerging applications will integrate and interoperate with the smart, connected sensing objects around them, and garner data about what the user is doing and how they are doing it. Data such as a user’s location, presence, devices in range, and soft sensing data, including preferences and social networks, can be harnessed by new applications via sensing capabilities embedded in smart wearable devices. Contextual data can be derived from any number of systems or connected devices, including a user's GPS coordinates, search query logs, or the transaction history of an account. Using this information, smart applications, which will rely on increasingly complex algorithms to understand and predict the environments, will proactively perform automated tasks that can enrich or personalize the user’s experience by removing friction points in day-to-day activities.

As an example, let’s look at the interaction between a user’s sensor-enabled headset and his smartphone. Our scenario begins with a person having lunch at their favorite restaurant. It is noon and the restaurant is particularly popular and noisy. When a call comes in for the user, the headset knows the location and the degree of ambient sound in the room and will automatically adjust the noise reduction algorithm to enhance the caller’s experience and automatically increase the headset volume for the user. Context-aware applications will also be able to predict or infer a user’s intentions by detecting or interpreting the environment. Because a smartphone knows that a user is having a conversation, it could withhold incoming calls, for instance.

Among the new wearable devices is a new generation of smart headsets. Taking the incredible processing power that is now available in small, low power-consuming form factors and combining it with flexible sensor technology, headsets can deliver information about a user’s actions and preferences. By exposing the smart headset capability through an API, developers can integrate contextual information contained within the headset such as caller ID, proximity, and wear state to enhance presence and availability within their applications.

The potential for these new context-aware applications is huge. Gartner projects within a few years, we will be spending $96 billion on applications that are contextually aware. In fact, the analyst firm expects that by 2015, “context will be as influential in mobile consumer services and relationships as search engines are to the Web.”

There are countless applications for business in the office or out in the field. For example, when a call comes in on a user’s smartphone, a smart headset would be able to capture the caller’s number and propagate the information to an application that is running on the user’s laptop. The application would use the contextual data to automatically pop up information about the caller in order to prepare the user for the call even before saying hello. This type of application can strengthen a customer relationship or improve an opportunity with a new business prospect. In a contact center environment, call routing functions can be more intelligently routed based on the availability of subject matter experts.

Context-aware computing makes it possible to give employees the right information they need to make a particular decision or take the appropriate action. Business applications would be able to take advantage of the contextual information provided by the smart objects around the user to search for and retrieve background information on participants coming together a video conference and even send documents to the team to be reviewed before the meeting even takes place.

Many vertical industries will also benefit from context-aware computing, healthcare being a primary one. Imagine a situation where a doctor visits a patient in a hospital room. A smart device the doctor is wearing can turn on the doctor’s workstation in the room, then authenticate the doctor to the patient management system, detect which patient is near the doctor, and finally pull up the patient’s record. When the doctor leaves the room, all the information is saved and the doctor’s workstation powers down.

These are just some of the ways context-aware computing is going to change how we interact with our devices. It’s fair to say, your information devices soon will have your back.

The same means of generating a charge that allows scanning probe microscopes, cigarette lighters, and push-start propane barbecues to function can now be harnessed from viruses.

Researchers at Berkeley Lab have developed a way to generate power using a virus called M13 bacteriophage to convert mechanical energy into electricity.

The technology could one day lead to gadgets like smartphones that harvest energy from everyday movements, such as walking.

The newly created generator is the first to produce electricity by harnessing the piezoelectric properties of a biological material, according to a news release. Piezoelectricity is the accumulation of a charge in a solid in response to mechanical pressure.

The scientists tested their approach by creating a paper-thin generator that produces enough current to operate a small liquid-crystal display. It works by tapping a finger on a postage stamp-sized electrode coated with the engineered viruses. The viruses convert the force of the tap into an electric charge.

"More research is needed, but our work is a promising first step toward the development of personal power generators, actuators for use in nano-devices, and other devices based on viral electronics," says Seung-Wuk Lee, a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division and a UC Berkeley associate professor of bioengineering.

The M13 virus is commonly used in bioengineering because it is benign to humans and can replicate by the millions within hours to provide a sufficient supply. The rod-shaped viruses naturally orient themselves into well-ordered films, much the way that chopsticks align themselves in a box.

Lee and his team first tested the virus and ascertained that it is naturally piezoelectric. Next, they boosted the strength of the property by genetically tweaking it, and then stacked 20 films containing single layers of the virus on top of each other for maximum effect. Finally, to test the multi-layered film, they sandwiched it between two gold-plated electrodes, which were connected by wires to a liquid-crystal display, and then tapped on it.

The researchers measured 400 millivolts of potential, which is small yet enough current to flash the number "1" on the display, and about a quarter the voltage of a triple A battery.

"We're now working on ways to improve on this proof-of-principle demonstration," says Lee. "Because the tools of biotechnology enable large-scale production of genetically modified viruses, piezoelectric materials based on viruses could offer a simple route to novel microelectronics in the future."

The video below demonstrates the virus-based power generator:

Related Viruses harnessed as molecular building materials Doors that 'revolutionize' power generation Big forecast for technology that harvests energy

Researchers at the Human Media Lab at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, have developed a life-sized hologram-like telepod that uses Microsoft's Kinect System and a cylindrical display for live, 3D videoconferencing.

The system, called "TeleHuman," allows two people to simply stand in front of their own pods and talk to 3D hologram-like images of each other. An array of six Kinect sensors mounted at the top of the display capture track 3D video and convert it into the lifesize image.

Since the 3D image is visible 360 degrees around the pod, the person can walk around it to see the other person’s side or back, a key advantage over flat displays.

"Why Skype when you can talk to a lifesize 3D holographic image of another person?" said professor Roel Vertegaal, director of the Human Media Lab.

TeleHuman was built primarily with existing hardware, including a 3D projector installed at the base of the 1.8 meter-tall translucent acrylic cylinder and a convex mirror.

The researchers used the same pod to create another application called BodiPod, which presents an interactive 3D anatomical model of the human body. Through gestures and speech control, the model can be explored 360 degrees; and when people approach the pod, they can wave their hands to peel off layers of human tissue.

While 3-D holographic video is not a new technology (Cisco and Musion Systems created an on-stage holographic video conference 5 years ago), TeleHuman demonstrates that it can be done for a lot cheaper using the versatile Kinect platform and off-the-shelf hardware.

Dr. Vertegaal will unveil TeleHuman and BodiPod at CHI 2012, an international conference on human-computer interaction, held in Austin, Texas, from May 5 to 10.

Related:

'Mask-bot' gives robots a human face Three reasons why telepresence robots trump videoconferencing Cisco tackles 'post-PC era' with new mobile telepresence options

New Scientist reports of a 3-D navigation system for the blind being developed at the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France. It consists of a pair of glasses equipped with cameras and sensors like those used in robot exploration, and a handheld electronic Braille device.

The system produces a 3-D map of the wearer's environment and his/her position within it that is constantly updated and displayed in a simplified form on the handheld device.

It uses a collection of accelerometers and gyroscopes that keeps track of the user’s location and speed. This information is combined with the image to determine the user’s position in relation to other objects.The system generates roughly 10 maps every second, which are transmitted to the handheld Braille device to be displayed as a dynamic tactile map.

The system could eventually allow blind people to make their way, unaided, wherever they want to go, according to Edwige Pissaloux, a researcher working on the project. She told New Scientist:

"Navigation for me means not only being able to move around by avoiding nearby obstacles, but also to understand how the space is socially organized - for example, where you are in relation to the pharmacy, library or intersection."

Other new navigation systems for the blind include MIT's EyeRing, which uses a small camera worn as a ring that can be pointed at objects to "see" or "hear" more information about it. The ring takes a picture or a video that is then sent wirelessly to a mobile phone, where software analyzes the content and reads out an answer.

Taking it a step further, there is no shortage of research into bionic eyes. A 10-year-long effort by Bionic Vision Australia to develop glasses could help the blind regain some acuity of large objects after tests kick off next year.

One day visually impaired people or those with eye-related diseases will have more options to consider, and the white cane could become a thing of the past.

Related

Successful test for electronic contact lens A better wearable brain-computer interface Bionic eye to help the blind see

The next-generation router is backwards-compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n technology and operates in dual band, with speeds potentially reaching 1300Mbps over 5Ghz, and 450Mbps over 2.4Ghz. The R6300 runs on a Wi-Fi chip from Broadcom.

The sleekly designed router is designed to deliver gigabit wireless speeds that are three times faster than today’s 802.11n routers, allowing users to send multiple streams of HD video across a wireless network.

The 802.11ac standard, which is headed toward finalization by the IEEE later this year, is capable of the high throughput because it extends the techniques used in 802.11n to provide wider channel bandwidth, more MIMO spatial streams, multi-user MIMO, and additional modulation modes.

The R6300, marketed as "5G Wi-Fi" will be priced at $199.99; Netgear plans to begin shipping it in May.

D-Link and other competitors also plan to follow suit with 802.11ac products slated for release in 2012.

Now the project begins a detailed engineering design, schedule, and budget phase, with the DOE funding the design and construction. The full cost and logistics of the small car-sized telescope will be shared by the DOE and the National Science Foundation, as well as a large partnership of public and private organizations in the United States and abroad.

The LSST will capture about 6 million gigabytes per year, the equivalent of shooting roughly 800,000 images with a regular 8-megapixel digital camera every night. The images are expected to help unlock the secrets of dark energy and dark matter and aid studies of near-Earth asteroids, Kuiper belt objects, the structure of our galaxy, and many other areas of astronomy and fundamental physics.

"With 189 sensors and over three tons of components that have to be packed into an extremely tight space, you can imagine this is a very complex instrument," said Nadine Kurita, the project manager for the LSST camera at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. "But given the enormous challenges required to provide such a comprehensive view of the universe, it's been an incredible opportunity to design something so unique."

Data from the LSST will be made publicly available, so that anyone with a computer will able to fly through the universe, zooming past objects a 100 million times fainter than can be observed with the unaided eye. The LSST project will also provide analysis tools to enable both students and the public to participate in the process of scientific discovery.

"Not only should LSST revolutionize our understanding of the universe, its contents and the laws that govern its behavior, but it will also transform the way all of us, from kindergarteners to professional astrophysicists, use telescopes," said Tony Tyson, LSST director and a professor of physics at the University of California, Davis.

If the project continues as planned, construction on the telescope will begin in 2014. Preliminary work has already started on LSST's 8.4-meter primary mirror and its final site in northern Chile.

Now researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a more efficient data transmission approach called centrality-based power control that can dramatically boost the amount of data the networks can transmit.

"Our approach increases the average amount of data that can be transmitted within the network by at least 20 percent for networks with randomly placed nodes – and up to 80 percent if the nodes are positioned in clusters within the network," said Dr. Rudra Dutta, an associate professor of computer science at NC State.

The approach also makes the network more energy efficient, which can extend the lifetime of the network if the nodes are battery-powered.

Multi-hop wireless networks use nodes spread through a space that not only capture and disseminate data, but also serve as a relay for other nodes. But these networks have "hot spots" – places in the network where multiple wireless transmissions can interfere with each other, which puts a cap on how quickly the network can transfer data. The nodes have to take turns transmitting data at these congested points causing delays.

Traditionally, there are two ways to deal with the problem. Data can be transmitted at low power over short distances, which limits the degree of interference with other nodes. But in this case the data may have to be transmitted through many nodes before reaching its final destination. The alternative approach transmits data at high power, which means the data can be sent further and more quickly. The drawback is that the powerful transmission may interfere with transmissions from many other nodes.

NC State researchers Dutta and Ph.D. student Parth Pathak created what they call centrality-based power control to address the problem. It uses an algorithm that instructs each node in the network on how much power to use for each transmission depending on its final destination. The algorithm decides when a powerful transmission is worth the added signal disruption, and when less powerful transmissions are needed. The result is an overall jump in system efficiency.

A paper, "Centrality-based power control for hot-spot mitigation in multi-hop wireless networks," published online by the journal Computer Communications, details how hot spots can be better mitigated in wireless sensor networks:

Using a heuristic based on the concept of centrality, we show that if we increase the power levels of only the nodes which are expected to relay more packets, significant relay load balancing can be achieved even with shortest path routing. Different from divergent routing schemes, such load balancing strategy is applicable to any arbitrary topology and traffic pattern. With extensive simulations, we show that centrality-based power control can drastically increase the network lifetime of sensor networks. We compare its performance with other divergent routing schemes and multiple battery level assignment strategy. Also, it is shown that centrality-based power control results into better throughput capacity in many different topologies.

The research was supported in part by the U.S. Army Research Office.

Related:

Breakthrough could make smartphones and laptops 1,000 times faster LTE spectrum sharing could accelerate coverage New full-duplex technology doubles wireless capacity

Researchers at Rice University and Penn State University have discovered that adding a dash of boron to carbon while creating nanotubes turns them into solid, spongy, reusable blocks that have an astounding ability to absorb oil spilled in water.

The team was the first to to add boron to nanotubes, which puts kinks and elbows into the microscopic material as they grow and also helps covalent bonds to form, giving the sponges their robust qualities.

The researchers say that the nanotube blocks are both superhydrophobic (they hate water, so they float really well) and oleophilic (they love oil). Once soaked in oil, the block can be squeezed and even burned to remove the oil, leaving the block intact and ready for more.

The nanosponges, which are more than 99 percent air, also conduct electricity and can easily be manipulated with magnets.

Nanotube sponges with oil-absorbing potential have been made before, but this is the first time the covalent junctions between nanotubes in such solids have been convincingly demonstrated, say the researchers.

The material could one day have environmental applications. “For oil spills, you would have to make large sheets of these or find a way to weld sheets together," said Pulickel Ajayan, a professor at Rice. Other potential uses include more efficient and lighter batteries, scaffolds for bone-tissue regeneration, and -- with added polymers -- robust and light composites for the automobile and plane industries.

An open-access research paper and corresponding video provide more details.

Source: Rice University News & Media

The Distributed Robotics Laboratory (DRL) at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory hasdetailed research into algorithms that could enable “smart sand.” These are self-sculpting reconfigurable robotic cubes that send messages among themselves to recreate a three-dimensional object.

Unlike 3-D printing techniques, which use an additive process, the smart sand approach aims to replicate objects by essentially carving them out of a larger heap of building blocks with only an original shape as a guide.

The algorithms work for 2-D (see video below) and 3-D objects, the researchers said.

For the 3-D research, the MIT team tested the algorithms on larger "pebbles" measuring about 10 millimeters across, or just under a half an inch, with rudimentary microprocessors inside and magnets on four sides, which is all they could accommodate. Computer simulations revealed that the algorithm would work with a 3-D block of cubes just as it did for 2-D objects.

There are engineering challenges to get the cubes down to a size akin to grains of sand and still function as expected, but the team said that the core functionality is in place.

Researchers envision the system used for rapid prototyping or reproducing broken objects, such as car parts that need replacing. “Say the tire rod in your car has sheared,” said Kyle Gilpin, co-author on the new paper. “You could duct tape it back together, put it into your system and get a new one.”

The team will present the research at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation next month.

Related:

3-D printer with nano-precision sets world record Autonomous swarming blocks basis for display concept Japanese mill carves perfect helmet from metal block

According to Lux Research, while larger-scale production of Li-ion batteries will help reduce costs, the effect of scale-up and likely technology improvements will bring the nominal Li-ion electric vehicle battery pack cost to $397/kWh in 2020. That falls short of the $150/kWh target from the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) and is not enough to reach the mass market, the report suggests.

The key to growing the market is reducing the cost of Li-ion batteries, according to the Lux Research report. “Vehicle applications demand a different scale in both size and performance, and no other incumbent technology combines the power and energy performance of Li-ion batteries,” said Kevin See Ph.D., a Lux Research analyst and the lead author of the report: Searching for Innovations to Cut Li-ion Battery Costs.

“Plug-in vehicles’ fates are tied to the cost of Li-ion batteries, so developers need to focus on the innovations that have biggest impact on cost,” he added.

Upon studying the cost structure of Li-ion batteries, Lux Research concludes that to reduce the cost of Li-ion batteries and spur growth of the EV market, manufacturers should consider the following:

Materials improvement and scale are insufficient to cut costs. While scale does have a significant impact in driving costs down, it is not likely to lead to a disruptive drop in battery pack costs unless coupled with other innovations.

Cathodes remain the biggest target. Cathode capacity and voltage improvement hold much more value than anode innovation. In the optimal case, with a maximum voltage increase of 1V and capacity increase of 200 mAh/g, the nominal pack cost dropped 20 percent.

Look beyond Li-ion. Technologies such as Li-air, Mg-ion, Li-S and solid-state batteries push past the limitations of Li-ion batteries and achieve higher energy densities and specific energies. Each technology has its supporters -- PolyPlus and IBM for Li-air, Toyota for Mg-ion, Sion Power and BASF for Li-S and Sakti3 for solid state batteries -- but all face significant obstacles. A clear leading contender that can meet strict requirements on cycle life, power performance, and manufacturability has yet to emerge.

Li-ion batteries have been getting a bad wrap lately. Li-ion battery maker A123 Systems recently launched a campaign to replace defective batteries that are used in the sleek Fisker Karma EV. Fisker now has to deal with a second costly battery recall after the automaker preemptively recalled faulty A123 systems batteries late last year for posing a fire hazard.

Related:

Development boosts lithium-ion battery power by 8-fold Electric motorcycles rev up design and performance (w/photos) Giant futuristic batteries to power 2,000 households

One in eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer, and most will have no choice but to face age-old chemotherapy drugs, surgery and breast reconstruction. As many as one-fifth of those women will suffer relapse.

To help drive down the rate of relapse, researchers at Brown University have created a breast implant with a "bed-of-nails" surface at the nanoscale that deters cancer cells from dwelling and thriving.

The implant, made from a common federally approved polymer, has a nanoscale surface that impedes cancerous cells from gathering the nutrients they need to thrive because of the lack of blood-vessel architecture that they depend on. The implant attracts healthy breast cell formation instead.

"We've created an [implant] surface with features that can at least decrease [cancerous] cell functions without having to use chemotherapeutics, radiation, or other processes to kill cancer cells," said Thomas Webster, associate professor of engineering. "It's a surface that's hospitable to healthy breast cells and less so for cancerous breast cells."

To create the implant, Webster and his team built a cast on a glass plate using 23-nanometer-diameter polystyrene beads and polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), a biodegradable polymer approved by the FDA and used widely in clinical settings, such as stitches. The result was an implant surface covered with adjoining, 23-nanometer-high pimples. For comparison, Webster and his lab partner also created surfaces with 300-nanometer and 400-nanometer peaks; they found that the 23-nanometer surface worked best at deterring breast cancer cells.

"I would guess that surface peaks less than 23 nanometers would be even better,” Webster added, although polystyrene beads with such dimensions don’t yet exist. "The more you can push up that cancerous cell, the more you keep it from interacting with the surface."

Next, the researchers will look closely at why the nano-modified surfaces deter malignant breast cells. They will manipulate the surface features to yield greater results, and experiment with alternative materials.

The test results are published in Nanotechnology.

Source: Brown University

Vinnie Mirchandani has a lot of friends at ZDNet and beyond covering his newly released book: The New Technology Elite: How Great Companies Optimize Both Technology Consumption and Production. I thought I'd do something different. My prompts are in bold and Vinnie completed them:

Most tech companies see each other as peers and competitors when so much innovation is happening in their customers and their communities. There is much to learn from 3M, Corning, GE, Roosevelt Island, UPS, Virgin America and countless others profiled in my books. And as a good technology salesperson knows, so much to sell to them. Dennis Howlett is the only person with barista, beer brewer and biker skills I know who is also a darn good blogger. Technology-driven inspiration is a true joy when it solves real business or societal needs -- and when the airline technology picks me for an upgrade. Writing a blog is the ultimate compliment to Gutenberg, who would be astonished at the democratization we have today in publishing. Microsoft should have never killed Bob. Both SAP and Oracle are first-ballot Hall of Famers, but they need to retire to qualify! The biggest misconception about innovation is it has to be product-related. In fact, bigger impact can come from business model, channel, supply chain and other innovations. Exhibit A is Apple and how we mostly celebrate its gorgeous products. Deal Architect has taught me nothing. All I know I learned from my beagle, Peanuts. And Peanuts adds: dare not give any credit to any cat or Android apps. I really hope society gets over the Kardashians soon. That time needs to be invested on Angry Birds. I often think automation is too demonized for job losses. Each generation frets, then adapts with new skills and applications. And endless upgrades till that becomes a resume enhancer. I will never interview Steve Jobs but I will keep trying to channel via Siri till it yells out “You bozo” as only he could. Most businesses think Gartner has a probability engine, an auto-TLA generator and a dart board shaped like a Magic Quadrant. If it does now, I am pissed because they would have made my job so much easier when I was there. One thing about ZDNet is its readers have a nice sense of humor and an endless supply of rotten tomatoes. The New Technology Elite is a bland title compared to my last book, "The New Polymath." The working title for this one was "The Technology Switch-Hitter" as I explain in Chapter 5, but the publisher thought pervs would have a field day with that one. On matters of sustainability I always feel a twinge of guilt with my 3 million Delta lifetime miles. I do relish the fat fees I am paid to speak about the sustainability chapters in my books. Twitter is to Facebook as Cam Newton is to Aaron Rodgers. They are both young, but both are poised to burn up the record books when it comes to yardage and other volumes and stats.

Interview format credit to Esquire Magazine, "What I've Learned."

Related:

Brian Sommer: The New Technology Elite - Author Interview Dennis Howlett: The New Technology Elite Phil Wainewright: Polymaths see the bigger picture Chris Jablonski: The New Polymath: Interview with author Vinnie Mirchandani Jason Hiner/Larry Dignan: Is polymath the answer to IT innovation? [podcast] Joe McKendrick: Why IT professionals are driving the new 'Renaissance'

The high-precision 3-D printer at TU Vienna is purportedly orders of magnitude faster than similar devices and opens up new areas of applications, such as in medicine.

The super-fast nano-printer uses a liquid resin, which is hardened at precisely the correct spots by a focused laser beam. The focal point of the laser beam is guided through the resin by movable mirrors; it leaves behind a hardened line of solid polymer just a few hundred nanometers wide. The result is a detailed sculpture measuring a couple hundred micrometers in length.

"Until now, this technique used to be quite slow," said Professor Jrgen Stampfl from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at the TU Vienna. “The printing speed used to be measured in millimeters per second --– our device can do five meters in one second.” In two-photon lithography, this is a world record.

The scientists at TU Vienna are now developing bio-compatible resins for medical applications that can be used to create scaffolds to which living cells can attach themselves for the systematic creation of biological tissues. The 3-D printer could also be used to create tailor-made components for biomedical technology or nanotechnology.

The video below shows the 3-D printing process in real time. The very fast control mechanism connected to the laser beam produces 100 layers, consisting of approximately 200 single lines each, in four minutes.

Source: Vienna University of Technology

Related

World's smallest microphone barely visible to naked eye World's first 'printed' airplane takes to the skies World's smallest electric car made of single molecule First inkjet-printed carbon nanotube circuit

The University of Pittsburgh team claims to have successfully generated a frequency comb, which entails dividing a single color of light into a series of evenly spaced spectral lines for a variety of uses, that spans more than 100 terahertz (THz, or 1 trillion cycles per second) bandwidth.

Terahertz radiation is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and microwave light.

Hrvoje Petek, a professor of physics and chemistry at Pitt, said that this has been long-awaited discovery in the field. Petek and his team generated the all-optical frequency comb by investigating the optical properties of a silicon crystal and "exciting a coherent collective of atomic motions in a semiconductor silicon crystal" with an intense laser pulse.

First, they observed that the amount of reflected light oscillates at 15.6 THz, the highest mechanical frequency of atoms within a silicon lattice. The oscillation then caused additional changes in the absorption and reflection of light, multiplying the fundamental oscillation frequency by up to seven times, which then generated the comb of frequencies extending beyond 100 THz.

"Although we expected to see the oscillation at 15.6 THz, we did not realize that its excitation could change the properties of silicon in such dramatic fashion," says Petek. "The discovery was both the result of developing unique instrumentation and incisive analysis by the team members."

According to a news release, the team is now investigating the coherent oscillation of electrons, which could further extend the ability of harnessing light-matter interactions from the terahertz- to the petahertz-frequency range. Petahertz frequencies scale up to 1 quadrillion hertz.

The research is published in Nature Photonics and is funded by the National Science Foundation.

The Cheetah Robot is being developed by Boston Dynamics, with funding from DARPA's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program, which seeks to create and demonstrate significant scientific and engineering advances in robot mobility and manipulation capability.

The video below shows the robot galloping at speeds of up to 18 miles per hour (mph), setting a new land speed record for (four) legged robots. The previous record was 13.1 mph, set in 1989.

Via SmartPlanet

Related:

Meet MABEL, world's fastest robot with two legs (w/ video) Soft robot uses air to move 'Mask-bot' gives robots a human face

Similarly, ZDNet's James Kendrick laments:

Hopefully some company will come along and produce something to catch us by surprise. Something radically different from all the other phones that rekindles the excitement we all felt about smartphones not that long ago. It’s not clear what that might be, but a giant 5-inch phone doesn’t seem to be it.

While smartphones are becoming ever more capable and just about everyone has one (or two), they've reached the ceiling of innovation because of the limitations imposed by their changeless form factor. Battery and display technologies are constrained, which means manufacturers can't pack anything more into phones without sacrificing performance. While the software side looks brighter, the Android platform is becoming more fragmented, making it hard for developers to keep up.

Then there's the growing consumer class "big data" problem. Mobile users are receiving millions of emails, status updates, news reports and other alerts each day. The data avalanche is no match for a user trying to stay on top of it all with a gadget in one hand and a latte or steering wheel in the other. (Federal data suggests there have been16,000 deaths nationwide due to texting while driving.)

Here are three more signs that the smartphone form factor has hit the innovation ceiling:

• Micro projectors, massive cameras, flexible screens, and other dubious add-ons are the final frontier. Some smartphones double as other devices with great success, such as GPS receivers. But do you really need a 41-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera on your phone? Or how about the Samsung Galaxy Beam, the vendor's second attempt at a device with integrated pico projector. I'm all for new features--I recently wrote about how a new tiny temperature sensor could find its way into phones. But all such features are still at the mercy of the handheld form factor.

• Voice recognition system and interactive projection displays are decoupling computing from the various boxes and devices we call computers. Siri may have yet to prove itself, and gestural computing on-the-go is pretty far off. But many, like visionaries at frog design, say computing is poised to transcend the physical limits of devices to provide flexible, externalized resources distributed throughout a space. Spatial operating systems could help make it work.

• On-person hardware is set to explode, providing the surprise we've been craving. Google's recent decision to sell head-up display (HUD) glasses later this year caused a bit of a stir, and there's no telling if the idea will flop or change the game. But Google is not alone in this endeavor. In fact, HUD displays are commonly used in the military and for industrial purposes, so what is to stop them from trickling into the mass market? Moreover, retinal displays are also in development. If you want cool eyeglass technology sooner, Pivothead video-glasses are due out next month. They'll allow you to record anything you are looking at in high quality. Some futurists envision all of this evolving towards microscopic, wireless, implantable devices linking neural activity directly to electronic circuitry.

Companies like Google are developing head-up displays for the consumer market (Credit Sellingpix | Dreamstime.com)

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Why the future of mobile is screenless, touchless TI's contact-less temperature sensor opens up possibilities Exploring use cases for electronic clothes New T-rays could lead to Star Trek 'Tricorder' medical scanners Successful test for electronic contact lens

The TMP006 is a "game changer" that could open up new applications for devices that were previously unable to use IR temperature measurement because of size, power, or costs. That means going past industrial applications to include consumer electronics, such as smartphones, tablets, and notebooks. The invention earned the company an award at CES in Las Vegas last month.

The 1.6 mm x 1.6 mm square dot packs a MEMS thermopile sensor, signal conditioning, 16-bit analogue-to-digital converter (ADC), local temperature sensor, and voltage references all into a package than can be integrated into a silicon manufacturing process. The chip operates from -40 to +125?C, with typical accuracy of 1?C for the passive IR sensor and 0.5?C for the local temperature sensor.

Daniel Mar, a product marketing engineer at TI, recently told ZDNet: "We combined the guts that you need in order to take a contact-less temperature measurement and squeeze it into a very low-cost single chip device."

TI says the device is 95% smaller than competitive devices and uses 90% less power for a fraction of the cost. (The TMP006 is priced at $1.50 for 1,000 units). It gives manufacturers the ability to accurately measure device case temperature using IR technology.

"If you put the chip on a motherboard facing the case, it can pick up the energy coming off the case and provide its true temperature," said Mar.

It can also be used to measure temperature outside the device, enabling new features and user applications. For instance, the chip could be added to the assortment of sensors found in smartphones--gyroscopes, cameras and GPS chips--to measure the temperature of objects, food, ambient air, etc.

EN-Genius Acquisition Zone said that the device could find a large range of applications for CPU, motor, power management temperature sensing, and gas detectors. "There are also likely to be applications that simply cannot be thought of at this time."

"One day, you may be able to take your cell phone and put it against your ear and find out if you are running a fever," said Mar.

Sounds like a solid step towards Star Trek 'Tricorder' medical scanners.

Their latest project (Field) in a series known as Nervous Structure is an interactive installation consisting of a physical structure and a video projection coded and simulated using OpenFrameworks andChipmunk Physics.

The work calls into question the idea of interface between two entities, as there are several for consideration, note the artists. Those include between the viewer and the piece (a human/computer interface); between the real and the virtual (the physical structure and its relationship with the projected structure); and between the foreground and the background (as the projection interferes with its shadow).

Viewers can interact with the piece by moving in the field of vision of a camera, which is connected to the computer. The motion is sensed by the software, which in turn influences the projected lines. The result is an ambiguity designed to be solved, Mendoza recently told Fast Company:

At first, Mendoza said, the physical arrangement of the installation is unclear. (Is it a series of lights? Is there a projector?) Then, it is the nature of the movement that matters. (Is the structure moving, or is it the light?) Finally, it is the nature of the interaction. (My movements are reflected in the projection.) "Some ambiguities are so only because we have not studied them enough," he said. Their hope is that viewers will be intrigued enough to investigate further.

If you're intrigued to investigate further, you can view the the following videos:

Nervous Structure (field) (2012) from Cristobal Mendoza on Vimeo.

Nervous Structure Series (2010 - Present) from Cristobal Mendoza on Vimeo.

(Via Fast Company Co.Design and Triangulation Blog)

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