2011-01-27

Talking Cars: Intelligent Vehicle Technology

'Talking' cars may someday warn of crashes and save lives


Using specialized WiFi signals that are emitted 10 times every second, the technology senses when a collision is imminent and alerts a driver through flashing red lights and beeps.
[...]
Some cars already have limited radar devices that can detect obstacles in the front, as well as those in the blind spots missed by mirrors. Such systems can cost $1,000 or more.

The advantage of the WiFi technology is not only that it is far cheaper - possibly adding as little as $100 to the cost of the car - but also that it can detect other vehicles much farther away and in all directions, officials said.




CNBC's Phil LeBeau appears on the Today show to discuss new crash avoidance technologies coming out of Detroit.


The Ford Story: What if Your Car Could Talk?



“Ford believes intelligent vehicles that talk to each other through advanced Wi-Fi are the next frontier of collision avoidance innovations that could revolutionize the driving experience and hold the potential of helping reduce many crashes,” said Sue Cischke, group vice president, Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering.

Ford is building the first-ever prototype intelligent vehicles that will tour the U.S. beginning this spring. The company will provide additional prototypes for the Department of Transportation’s world-first research clinics expected to begin this summer.




FORD ACCELERATES INTELLIGENT VEHICLE RESEARCH, CREATING ‘TALKING’ VEHICLES TO MAKE ROADS SAFER | Ford Motor Company Newsroom


How it works

Ford’s vehicle communications research technology allows vehicles to talk wirelessly with one another using advanced Wi-Fi signals, or dedicated short-range communications, on a secured channel allocated by the Federal Communications Commission. Unlike radar-based safety features, which identify hazards within a direct line of sight, the Wi-Fi-based radio system allows full-range, 360-degree detection of potentially dangerous situations, such as when a driver’s vision is obstructed.

For example, drivers could be alerted if their vehicle is on path to collide with another vehicle at an intersection, when a vehicle ahead stops or slows suddenly or when a traffic pattern changes on a busy highway. The systems also could warn drivers if there is a risk of collision when changing lanes, approaching a stationary or parked vehicle, or if another driver loses control.


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2011-01-26

Neural Origins of Master Chess Intuition

RIKEN

RIKEN | Press Release | 2011 | Researchers uncover neural origins of expert intuition

January 21, 2011
RIKEN
New findings reported this week in Science by researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI) shed first-ever light on the neural mechanisms that enable board game experts to quickly generate optimal moves. Results identify specific brain regions involved in granting shogi masters their superior skill, offering insights into the neural origins of expert intuition.

What makes experts different from the rest of us? Over the past century, this question has prompted a range of studies on various aspects of human cognition, revealing clues about the psychological and neurological origins of intelligence, perception and memory. While board games such has chess have provided the most productive setting for such studies, the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive expertise in board game play nonetheless remain poorly understood.

[...]


Master chess players use hidden brain parts: study


(Reuters) - Professional chess players have long stumped fans with how they make killer moves so swiftly and intuitively, and a Japanese study published on Friday may have unlocked their secret.

Tracking blood flow in the brain to detect spikes of activity, researchers found that master players of shogi -- a Japanese game similar to chess -- use two regions of the brain to make critical moves.

Unlike amateur players, who use the precuneus area of the parietal lobe, professionals use the caudate nucleus in the center of the brain, said Keiji Tanaka at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute's Cognitive Brain Mapping Laboratory.

"Professionals are trained extensively for a long time, over 10 years, hours every day. This extensive training (may have) shifted the activity from the cerebral cortex to the caudate nucleus," the study's lead author Tanaka said.


Precuneus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Precuneus of left cerebral hemisphere(shown in red)



Functional MRI brain scans show activation in an area of the brain known as the precuneus, as exhibited here by a professional shogi player when presented with a board game pattern.

 This fMRI scan highlights activity in the caudate nucleus of a professional shogi player.

 The pros' brains showed more activity in the precuneus region of the parietal lobe, which has been linked to pattern recognition, as well as in the head of the caudate nucleus, deep within the brain. [...]
The research team found that the precuneus-caudate connection showed up consistently when professionals were asked to come up with a rapid-fire choice of moves, but not as much for the amateurs. "These results suggest that the precuneus-caudate circuit implements the automatic, yet complicated, processes of board-pattern perception and next-move generation in board game experts," the researchers reported.

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2011-01-24

Insects: Food of the Future

Eat insects, up food security (Science Alert)



Dining on crickets, locusts, or even cockroaches, instead of cattle or pigs, could ease both food insecurity and climate change, according to researchers.

Insects caught in the wild are already eaten widely in the developing world. Now a study says that farming them on a large scale for food would damage the environment far less than equivalent livestock production.


Save the planet: Swap your steak for bugs and worms | Reuters

(Reuters) - All you need to do to save the rainforest, improve your diet, better your health, cut global carbon emissions and slash your food budget is eat bugs.
Mealworm quiche, grasshopper springrolls and cuisine made from other creepy crawlies is the answer to the global food crisis, shrinking land and water resources and climate-changing carbon emissions, Dutch scientist Arnold van Huis says.

The professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands said insects have more protein than cattle per bite, cost less to raise, consume less water and don't have much of a carbon footprint. He even has plans for a cookbook to make bug food a more appetising prospect for mature palates.



Discovery News

'Insect Pizza,' 'Bug Mac' Foods of the Future? : Discovery News

THE GIST
  • Insects are abundant, produce less greenhouse gas and manure and do not transfer any diseases.
  • So some argue we should start eating them.

Someday your burger could be made up of ground worms


"There will come a day when a Big Mac costs 120 euros ($163) and a Bug Mac 12 euros, when more people will eat insects than other meat," head researcher Arnold van Huis told a disbelieving audience at Wageningen University in the central Netherlands.


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2011-01-23

Killer Paper: Nano-coated Food Packaging

'Killer paper' could prolong shelf life of foods


Silver is a known killer of harmful bacteria, and has already been incorporated into things such as antibacterial keyboards, washing machines, water filters, and plastic coatings for medical devices. Now, scientists have added another potential product to the list: silver nanoparticle-impregnated “killer paper" packaging, that could help keep food from spoiling.

Led by Aharon Gedanken from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, the team discovered that paper could be covered with silver nanoparticles through the application of ultrasonic radiation – a process known as ultrasonication. It involves the formation and subsequent collapse of acoustic bubbles near a solid surface, which creates microjets that throw the desired nanoparticles onto that surface. To the team’s knowledge, this was only the second time that ultrasonication had ever been attempted on paper.





Killer paper for next-generation food packaging


Foods could get a longer shelf life using “killer
paper,” a new packaging material made of anti-
bacterial nanoparticles.

Scientists are reporting development and successful lab tests of “killer paper,” a material intended for use as a new food packaging material that helps preserve foods by fighting the bacteria that cause spoilage. The paper, described in ACS’ journal, Langmuir, contains a coating of silver nanoparticles, which are powerful anti-bacterial agents.
[...]
The scientists describe development of an effective, long-lasting method for depositing silver nanoparticles on the surface of paper that involves ultrasound, or the use of high frequency sound waves. The coated paper showed potent antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus, two causes of bacterial food poisoning, killing all of the bacteria in just three hours. This suggests its potential application as a food packaging material for promoting longer shelf life, they note.


Langmuir

Sonochemical Coating of Paper by Microbiocidal Silver Nanoparticles

Ronen Gottesman, Sourabh Shukla, Nina Perkas, Leonid A. Solovyov, Yeshayahu Nitzan, and Aharon Gedanken

Langmuir, 2011, 27 (2), pp 720–726
DOI: 10.1021/la103401z



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2011-01-22

Fraunhofer's Micro Nano Array Projectors

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Nanoworld in color

Press Release 20.01.2011

Microscopically small nanostructured arrays of lenses that can record or project amazingly sharp images in brilliant colors are being demonstrated by Fraunhofer research scientists at the nano tech 2011 trade show in Tokyo from February 16 to 18.


[...]
The image illuminating the wall of the Fraunhofer exhibition stand at nano tech 2011 will be produced by a luminous cube. The prototype of the new projector consists of an optical system just eleven millimeters square and three millimeters thick through which a powerful LED lamp shines. The images are amazingly sharp, the colors brilliant – all thanks to micro and nanotechnology. "The special thing about the new projection technology is that the image is already integrated in the microoptics. The pixels measuring just a hundred nanometers or so are stored in a chromium layer under the lens array. Such a microarray has around 250 microlenses, and under each lens there is a microimage. When all of them are projected onto the wall together, a high-quality complete image is produced from an extremely small projector," explains Marcel Sieler, physicist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena.


Mini-projectors – maximum performance

Research News Special Edition May 2010

[...]



In all current systems of pocket projectors, a single imaging channel is used. This means a minimal size for the projector is a given – and smaller will not work. Except for Marcel Sieler: His construction method relies on a number of regularly ordered micro-lenses – an array – as the projection lens. Thanks to the many channels, the construction length of the entire system can be clearly reduced, without impeding luminosity. A high-performance LED is used as the light source.


Prototype projector still shines through in sun-lit rooms | News | The Engineer


The technology was inspired by a device known as a fly’s eye condenser used to smooth out beams of light from LEDs. The Fraunhofer team had to design a very precisely arranged array of aspheric lenses designed with a specific shape.

The array is created from a glass wafer with moulded micro-optics on either side. ‘You put a liquid monomer layer on top of the glass and press a negative tool into it and it’s polymerised to get the perfect shape for the microlenses,’ said Sieler.

As well as the basic proof-of-concept model, the team have also used the technology to create prototypes of a larger projector for advertising and illumination, a video graphics array (VGA) camera, and a video projector that takes images from a micro-LCD display.

The team is now seeking industrial partners to help commercialise the devices and Sieler estimates that it is likely to be five years before they are available to buy.


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2011-01-21

Solar Roadways

Solar roadway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A solar roadway is a road surface that generates electricity by solar photovoltaics.
[...]
An organization called Solar Roadways, run by Scott and Julie Brusaw in Idaho, USA, has been awarded a $100,000 research contract by the US Department of Transportation.[2] This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract will enable them to prototype Solar Road Panels.[3][4]



Solar Roadways - Introduction


The heart of the Solar Roadway™ is the

Solar Road Panel™

The Solar Roadway is a series of structurally-engineered solar panels that are driven upon. The idea is to replace all current petroleum-based asphalt roads, parking lots, and driveways with Solar Road Panels that collect energy to be used by our homes and businesses.



Each individual panel consists of three basic layers:

Road Surface Layer [...]
Electronics Layer Base [...]
Plate Layer [...]



Related


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2011-01-19

innowattech Alternative Energy Harvesting from Road Traffic



The Innowattech system is applicable to asphalt, concrete or composite concrete and asphalt roads. It may be installed in new roadways or while resurfacing of existing road ways is being performed. The busier the roadway the more energy is produced. Heavier vehicle produce more energy.


Innowattech - Energy Harvesting Systems

has developed a new alternative energy system that harvests mechanical energy imparted to roadways, railways and runways from passing vehicles, trains and pedestrian traffic and converts it into green electricity. The system, based on a new breed of piezoelectric generators, harvests energy that ordinarily goes to waste and can be installed without changing the habitat.




Collected from: YouTube - WIM

Technology |

's solution - The Innowattech Piezo Electric Generator (IPEG™) The basis for the system is the patented new breed of piezoelectric generators (IPEG™) developed by . They have unique abilities to harvest energy from weight, motion, vibration and temperature changes.
There are specific generators for roadways, railways, runways and pedestrians.
Collected from: Innowattech - Technology

Technical Information |

IPEGs harvest energy ordinarily wasted by vehicles


For a road with embedded piezoelectric generators, part of the energy the vehicle expands on roads deformation is transformed into electric energy (via direct piezoelectric effect) instead of being wasted as thermal energy (heat).





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2011-01-18

Quantum Entanglement Allows Time Teleportation

arXiv blog

New Type Of Entanglement Allows 'Teleportation in Time,' Say Physicists

Conventional entanglement links particles across space. Now physicists say a similar effect links particles through time.

To see how, imagine an experiment that Ralph and Olson describe in which a qubit is sent into the future. The idea is that a detector acts on a qubit and then generates a classical message describing how this particle can be detected. Then, at some point in the future, another detector at the same position in space, receives this message and carries out the required measurement, thereby reconstructing the qubit.

But there's a twist. Olson and Ralph show that the detection of the qubit in the future must be symmetric in time with its creation in the past. "If the past detector was active at a quarter to 12:00, then the future detector must wait to become active at precisely a quarter past 12:00 in order to achieve entanglement," they say. For that reason, they call this process "teleportation in time".

Time travel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects (or in some cases just information) backwards in time to some moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to experience the intervening period (at least not at the normal rate).

Although time travel has been a common plot device in fiction since the 19th century, and one-way travel into the future is arguably possible given the phenomenon of time dilation based on velocity in the theory of special relativity (exemplified by the twin paradox), as well as gravitational time dilation in the theory of general relativity, it is currently unknown whether the laws of physics would allow backwards time travel.
Any technological device, whether fictional or hypothetical, that is used to achieve time travel is commonly known as a time machine.


Quantum entanglement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quantum entanglement is a property of the quantum mechanical state of a system containing two or more objects, where the objects that make up the system are linked in such a way that the quantum state of any member of the system cannot be adequately described without full mention of the other members of the system, even if the individual objects are spatially separated. Quantum entanglement is at the heart of the EPR paradox that was described by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen in 1935, and it was experimentally verified for the first time in 1972 by Stuart Freedman and John Clauser[1].


Quantum teleportation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quantum teleportation, or entanglement-assisted teleportation, is a technique used to transfer quantum information from one quantum system to another. It does not transport the system itself, nor does it allow communication of information at superluminal (faster than light) speed. Neither does it concern rearranging the particles of a macroscopic object to copy the form of another object. Its distinguishing feature is that it can transmit the information present in a quantum superposition, useful for quantum communication and computation.


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2011-01-17

BAE Systems Invisible Tanks

Active Camouflage System Uses E-Ink to Make Tanks Invisible on the Battlefield | Popular Science



Tank camouflage has come a long way since the good old days of painting them green and slapping a white star on the side. British defense tech firm BAE Systems is developing an active “e-camouflage” system that will employ a form of electronic ink to project imagery of a vehicles surrounding terrain, rendering the vehicle somewhat invisible to potential attackers.

Invisible tanks could be on battlefield within five years - Telegraph

Armoured vehicles will use a new technology known as "e-camouflage" which deploys a form "electronic ink" to render a vehicle "invisible".
Highly sophisticated electronic sensors attached to the tank's hull will project images of the surrounding environment back onto the outside of the vehicle enabling it to merge into the landscape and evade attack.
[...]
The concept was developed as part of the Future Protected Vehicle programme, which scientists believe, will transform the way in which future conflicts will be fought.

The programme is based around seven different military vehicles, both manned and unmanned, which will be equipped with a wide variety of lethal and none lethal weapons.

BAE Systems

News Release

Armoured Vehicle Study Turns Sci-fi to Sci-fact

16 Dec 2010 | Ref. 297/2010
FARNBOROUGH, UK - A vehicle which can "sweat" to improve stealth was among hundreds of ideas presented to the UK Ministry of Defence from a BAE Systems study designed to show them the future.

The Future Protected Vehicle programme aims to highlight both short and long-term technologies and concepts which can be used to boost the effectiveness of lightweight armoured vehicles.
[...]
Ideas identified for exploitation include:
  • Sweating vehicle could use water from a diesel or fuel cell propulsion system to reduce a vehicle's thermal signature by "sweating" it out through pores in the vehicle skin. That same water could also be reclaimed to enable soldiers to stay in the field for longer.
  • eCamouflage will allow a vehicle to match its camouflage to its surroundings by using electronic ink - rather like a squid.

    [...]

Sweating stealth vehicle among BAE Systems future battlefield concepts

BAE Systems has presented the fruits of its Future Protected Vehicle program (FPV) to the U.K. Ministry of Defence

Image Gallery (7 images)


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2011-01-16

Harvest City Haiti "A Concept to Recovery"

Harvest City is a Floating Agricultural and Industrial City for Haiti


Boston-based architect E. Kevin Schopfer in collaboration with Tangram 3DS (visualization) envisioned "Harvest City" in Haiti as a floating agricultural / light industrial city off the shores of the island. Harvest City would be a vibrant fully functioning city of 30,000 residents which embraces three major concepts.

1. The creation of an artificial, floating, productive and livable land desperately needed for Haiti.

2. A city designed based on the principle of Arcology (Architecture and Ecology) which embodies an ecologically sustainable and practical urban platform.

3. That harvest City should be established as a “Charter City”. Charter City is a relatively new and advanced economic model specifically developed for struggling nations.








Harvest City, Republic of Haiti

'A Concept to Recovery'

Architects: Schopfer Associates LLC

Introduction:

Since the tragic earthquake of 2010, Haiti has been the subject of worldwide attention. All would agree, the devastation seems particularly cruel to this struggling country. Massive relief efforts have been forthcoming and have demonstrated considerable generosity and determination from individuals, organizations and countries. For Haiti to stabilize, this effort will require a consistent long term commitment. There is no one solution to solve all of Haiti’s problems. Rather it will take a thoughtful program of balance and renewal. In the most simplistic terms, much attention has been focused of establishing basic ingredient for recovery.

Harvest City Haiti Harvest City Haiti Buildings Harvest City Haiti Proposal Harvest City Haiti Design


[...]
Master Plan

Harvest City is envisioned as a 2 mile diameter complex of tethered floating modules. The overall design is divided into four zones or communities interconnected by a linear canal system. The four major canals will focus built neighborhoods consisting of four story housing complexes. The outer perimeter of the design is predominately “one acre” crop circles with secondary feeder canals. The inner “harbor” will house the city center with schools, administrative, community activities and general marketplace. The entire complex will float and be cable secured to the sea bed. Because of its low profile, low draft dead weight capacity and perimeter wave attenuators, hurricanes and typhoon will have little effect other than collection of much needed water harvesting. A breakwater will be constructed to add to the city’s stability. (It should be noted, this proposal suggests using all the concrete rubble debris from the earthquake as the breakwater filler.) Harvest City is seen as the first floating city for Haiti. The system of floating platforms allows for a master plan to grow and link to other future cities within the harbor.

Harvest City Haiti Harvest City Haiti Buildings Harvest City Haiti Proposal Harvest City Haiti Design

[...]
Conclusion

The proposal of harvest City is both a bold and simple idea. It attempts to bridge both short and long term objectives for Haiti’s ongoing recovery. As stated before, Harvest City is seen as a complimentary element of that recovery. This initial program should be viewed as conceptual only and can easily accommodate whatever program is determined. Innovation, when appropriately applied, is a tool which can solve problems and provide refocused hope on seemingly unsolvable situations.

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