Orion of NASA comes to life

Technicians working inside the Orion Crew module

Latest information from NASA says that Orion have been powered up for the first time. It powered up for a series of tests at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, last week. Its initial performance is much than expected with innovative power ,networking capabilities etc. 

Orion is NASA's first-ever deep space craft. It will be put to test for its first mission, Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), which will hopefully getting launched in the fall of 2014. EFT-1 is a two-orbit, four hour mission that will send Orion, uncrewed, more than 3,600 miles above the Earth's surface. It will be 15 times farther than the International Space Station. During the test, Orion will return to earth, enduring temperatures of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit while travelling 20,000 miles per hour, faster than any current spacecraft capable of carrying humans. This trip is also planned for gathering data about design decisions, validate existing computer models and guide new approached to space systems development. It will also look for reducing risks and costs of subsequent Orion flights. 

"Orion will take humans farther than we have ever been before, and in just about a year we are going to send the Orion test vehicle into space,"said Dan Dumbacher, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development in Washington. "The work we are doing now, the momentum we are building, is going to carry us on our first trip to an asteroid and eventually to Mars. No other vehicle currently being built can do that, but Orion will, and EFT-1 is the first step."

"Its been an exciting ride so far, but we are really getting to the good part now." said Mark Geyer, Orion program manager. "This is where we start to see the finish line. Our team across the country has been working hard to build the hardware that goes into Orion, and now the vehicle and all our plans are coming to life." 

The completed Orion spacecraft will installed on a Delta IV heavy rocket for EFT-1. NASA is also developing a new rocket, the Space Launch System, which will power subsequent missions into deep space, beginning with Exploration Mission-1 in 2017. 

You can read more on : www.nasa.gov

Gaint hologram: First anatomy teaching tool of its kind in the world

Latest information from College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine department, University of Edinburgh, says about the development of first full colour, animated 3D hologram teaching tool of its kind in the world. Viewed from different angles, the life -sized teaching device shows muscle structures, skeleton, internal organs, blood vessels and nerves. 

Currently, visitors to the University's Anatomy Museum will be able to study the new teaching tool, which is the largest anatomical hologram ever made. The 3D image of a female body is made of three synthetic layers and stands 1.7metres high. 

"Teaching the true 3D structure of the human body to medical students can be challenging when teaching material is largely all in 2D. We hope that this Hologram and others that we make in future, will introduce our students to a novel and innovative way of visualising 3D anatomy."  

This is a major achievement and can help the students to understand the complexity of human anatomy, along with their conventional 2D textbooks. The Hologram was produced in collaboration with University anatomists and Scottish company Holoxica, one of the world's leading research companies in holographic 3D displays. 

The hologram was commissioned by the University of Edinburgh's School of Biomedical Sciences. It will go on display at different sites across the University in the coming months. 

Is it really possible to modify facial features?

Is it really possibly to modify facial features? Some might think, its an unwanted question. But in reality, there are some news which says human are next. :D :) Are you surprised? 

Scientists at Berkeley have done a series of studies where they identified thousands of DNA regions responsible for influencing the development of facial features. Currently they have undergone experiment in mice, where they tried to modify the face of embryonic mice. The question is, are humans next? 

The shape of the face is one of the most distinctive features among humans, and differences in facial morphology have substantial implications in areas such as social interaction, psychology, forensics and clinical genetics. New researches shows that our unique facial features are developed by more than 4000 small regions of DNA (candidate enhancer sequences), but only a few genetic alterations required to shape our faces. As we know, the shape of the face is highly heritable. But new studies have identified distant-acting transcriptional enhancers active in the developing of facial shape. Scientists studies their activity patterns in details in transgenic mice. Selected enhancers were deleted from the genome in mice in order to examine their role in modulating facial morphology. It showed some significant effects of enhancers on the shape of the face and skull.  

CT scan of a mouse's face undergoing experiment

Identifying developmental enhancers contribute to facial morphology

A Solar walk: Solar paneled pathway

The George Washington University completed the first walkable solar-paneled pathway in the world this month on Virginia Science and Technology Campus as a part of the sustainable Solar Walk Project.

The landscaped pedestrian sidewalk boasts a solar-powered trellis and 27 slip-resistant semi-transparent walkable panels with photovoltaic technology that converts sunlight into electricity. The walkable solar panels are an extension of public sidewalk between Exploration and Innovation Halls at the intersection of GW Boulevard and University Drive. The walkable panels have a combined average of 400-watt peak capacity, the maximum amount of power that can be produced under perfect conditions. This is enough energy to power 450 LED pathway lights below the panels. The trellis was installed at the end of the sidewalk to create energy that feeds back to Innovation Hall. 

"GW uis proud to announce that the Solar Walk which includes the first installation of walkable solar paneled sidewalk in the world," said GW Senior Land Use Planner Eric Selbst. 

Senior Land Use Planner Eric Selbst at the site of walkable solar paneled pathway during construction

Onyx Solar, a company based in Spain, designed the walkable panels. The company is known internationally for designing and manufacturing photovoltaic materials that generate electricity from the sun, while also providing thermal and acoustic insulation and UV/IR filters. 

GW campus planning began working with Onyx in the summer of 2011 after discussions about the design with Studio39, a company that GW contracted to construct the pedestrian walkway between Innovation and Exploration Halls and the solar-powered trellis.  

Your kid never want to miss a "Play-i" mate

What all your kids perform? Does she/he sing songs, tell stories, recite poems, draw with imagination? Your kid might have a lot of gifts and abilities to do. According to Vikas Gupta, founder and CEO of Play-i, these skills are all a child needs to program and operate a robot. 

Gupta, who left his job as a senior manager at Amazon to begin the company, said he got the idea to build robots for kids after seeing some MIT research about how kids as young as five are able to grasp the concepts of programming. "Kids are great at sequences, just not abstract sequences. Since programming tends to be an abstract concept, you have to make it tangible. For kids, robots make it tangible," said Gupta. 

Meet Play-i Bo & Yana

Bo

Bo is an explorer. Bo is playful and curious. Bo loves going on adventures and making new friends. As you play together Bo learns new skills and becomes a more capable robot. 

Yana

Yana is a story teller. Yana is clever, imaginative, and full of dreams. Yana can surprise and entertain you by bringing characters to life as you play. Use the power of your imagination to unlock Yana's potential. 

Here's how it works: a child uses the drag-and-drop visual programming interface on an iPad  to map out some commands or movements for Bo. When the child indicates that he is finished, the app trasmits to Bo via bluetooth. With Bo, the kids got tools they need to program themselves. This is a wonderful way for kids to accomplish things. Bo gets its name from a simplified version of the word "robot", Yana is an acronym: You are Not alone. The two can be programmed separately, or to respond to one another. Yana is a light, durable ball suitable for even younger kids. 

The team developed Yana or we can say Yana came into existence based on the interest of the kids. Initially there was only Bo, and the kids want Bo to fly,leap,jump etc. All these came into existence with Yana, where the kids spin it and becomes a helicopter, they might shake it and suddenly changes into an animal. Its really amazing what the kids do with Yana. Among Bo and Yana, Bo is much more complex. With the 3D visual interface, kids can program him to act out extended sequences, even playing "Twinkly Twinkle little star". 

Currently Gupta and his team are working to make sure that Bo grows along with kids. They are making an iPad app based on Scratch, MIT's programming language for kids, and perhaps even more sophisticated languages later on. 

With their API for developers, we will get full control over all of Bo and Yana's capabilities in the language and on the platform of our choice. Continually API is evolving and defining and the in future we can see much more developments. 

Play-i was founded with the mission to bring the joy and magic of programming to every child. And I would really say that you kid never want to miss Play-i.

Play-i team

A common blue pigment could change the face of quantum computing

A common blue pigment used in the 5 pound note could have an important role to play in the development of a quantum computer, according to a paper publishes in the journal Nature and news from UCL. 

The pigment, copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) is a low cost organic semiconductor that is found in many household products. Crucially, it can be processed into a thin film that can be readily used for device fabrication, a significant advantage over similar materials that have been studied previously. 

Researchers from the London Centre for Nanotechnology at UCL and the University of British Columbia have shown that the electrons in CuPc can remain in 'superposition'- an intrinsically quantum effect where the electron exists in two states at once- for surprisingly long times, showing this simple dye molecule has potential as a medium for quantum technologies. 

Lead author Marc Warner from the London Centre for Nanotechnology, said: "In theory, a quantum computer can easily solve problems that a normal, classical, computer would be able to answer in the lifetime of the universe. We just dont know how to build one yet. Our research shows that a common blue dye has more potential for quantum computing than many of the more exotic molecules that have been considered previously."

Dr Warner added: "The properties of copper phthalocyanine make it of interest for the emerging field of quantum engineering, which seeks to exploit the quantum properties of matter to perform tasks like information processing or sensing more effectively than has ever been possible". 

There some important attributes that CuPc possesses. Attributes that could exploit the spin of electrons, rather than their charge, to store and process information which are highly desirable in a more conventional quantum technology. A simple example is, consider a pigment, it can strongly absorbs visible light and is easy to modify chemically and physically, so its magnetic and electrical properties can be controlled. 

CAPTCHAs cracking surprise: The Vicarious Program 'The HERO'

Vicarious, a San Francisco-based company is currently working on teaching software to develop a sense of vision. Ultimately, the vision system should be able to recognize letters wherever they appear, identify objects in photographs, and generally do all the stuff any kid with healthy vision do. Breaking CAPTCHAs, those distorted letter patterns that websites often use to weed out human users from spambots. The company currently says, their software solves CAPTCHAs on average, 90% of the time. 

"CAPTCHA is a good test because it is a representative of many of the problems you see in general perception. For example, variation- the amount of variation in the letter. The difficult of recognizing the letters from clutter and overlap. These are all problems that you have to solve in general vision also", says Dileep George, one of the Vicarious founders. 

The software uses machine learning, a technique pioneered in 1980s. During that time programmers teach their program concepts such as the shape of the letter A by feeding the program thousands of examples of A. Usually its hard for the computer to identify particular shape of the letters etc. But George and his colleagues say they have advanced the field by building a program that learns by example, but instead of requiring thousands of examples, may be just 10 per letter. That makes the program a more human-like learner, says Scott Phoenix, George's co-founder. 

Appreciation even started coming all over the world. "I think what they have done is pretty impressive", says Chris Eliasmith, a researcher at the University of Waterloo in Canada who works on a brain model named Spaun. He also says, "I believe they have made progress in basic machine learning kind of  problems, problems that have been sort of staples of the field for a while". 

If their work is going to be a success, we  can see a major break through in the field of artificial intelligence where these sort of programs can be used in an expert level. But still there is a lot to go ahead by the Vicarious's team, hoping for the best. But at the same time, one question rises, what if the same program gets into the wrong hands, for example, what happens if the spambot becomes a learner of this program? :D :) 

Note: CAPTCHA - Complete Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart

You never want to miss this luxury trip: "Picchio Boat"

When both are artists, when they combine their art together, what might be the result?  I can surely say, "a legendary art is born". That's what happened when one of the legendary Yacht designer Christian Grande joined force with award winning Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino and the result was "Picchio Boat (Woodpecker boat).    

The "Picchio Boat" concept incorporates values like family, respect for nature and the eulogy for slowness, meaning the ability to take the time and the space for a complete enjoyment of the travel itself, of the navigation, of the surroundings and the will to express freely the personal passions. 

Christian Grande has chosen a 21 meters displacing catamaran, in order to transform the actor's dream into reality. A boat to navigate for long times and in total comfort, fully appreciating the natural beauties and the intimacy proper of travel on the sea. 

EXTERIOR

From the very shaping of the exterior surfaces we can feel the strict connection with nature. The stern decking, for example, is made with transversal planks of wood, bended and curved on both sides to give space to the stairs. Everything is treated to be gentle both in the forms and in the materials, including the choice of pastel colours and continuous glass, this one used to slighting the profile of the deck house and terminating with two vertical gardens on both sides of the external living area. One of them offering a relaxing hammock, another clear symptom of the slow-life and slow-mind concept behind the whole project. A stern terrace with glass bounds and smooth sofas and cushions creates a real overlook on the sea, and its repeating itself on the fly bridge level, with a lounge area and sunbathing mattresses on the forward balcony. 

INTERIORS

Starting with the central salon, furnished with a bar and a very large sofa, a dining area and a peculiar submarine observatory: a glass platform integrated and coplanar with the floor and overlooking the central tunnel, giving a suggestive vision of the sea and its inhabitants, more and more emphasised during night time and with the aid of specifically designed underwater spotlights. From the salon to the lower deck, the potentially of the catamaran are fully used in terms of space, with two spacious vip cabins with private bathroom. There's also the galley and a children room with foldaway births and a super sofa, giving them a real and generous playground. The pilot area as well as the master cabin are well designed with comfort and variety of features. 

LAYOUT

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Length : 21.70m / 71 ft

Maximum beam: 9.60 m

Cruise speed: 12 Kts

Maximum speed: 19 Kts

Range: 2500 miles

Fuel Capacity: 10,000 litres

Fresh water capacity: 1500 litres

Engines: 2xVolvo Penta IPS1200

Displacement: 50 T

This amazing design provide the real comfort and eco-friendly trip that you will ever dream of. I will surely say, you never want to miss this chance. :) 

Who is Christian Grande?

One of the youngest designers to be included in the palmares of the yacht design world, starting form 1992, when he conceived the new Sessa marine boats, an historical brand of the "Made in Italy". With more than 70 yacht projects in 20 years the experience and interdisciplinary vision of Christian led him to collaborate as a teacher or lecturer for important academic institutes and during the relevant international events on design and lifestyle. He also works for renowned brands like Sacs Marine and SanLorenzo. A real yacht artist and genius. 

A good news for mobile users: 3D scanner coming your way

Structure sensor added to iPad

There was a high level increase in the development of advanced applications that can used along with mobile devices. Now there is another good news for the mobile users. San Francisco-based company focused on computer vision-based applications launches the first-ever 3D sensor for mobile devices on Kickstarter. 

Until now 3D scanning hasn't been mobile. But introduction of this product changes the entire concept of 3D scanners. Once this product is attached to a mobile device, the Structure Sensor will enable exciting new possibilities for mobile 3D applications including 3D scanning of objects and people and indoor 3D mapping for rapid measurement and modelling of interior spaces. If you are a developer, structure gives you the ability to build mobile applications that interact with the three dimensional geometry of the real world for the very first time. You can even launch you app on the App store. 

The Structure Sensor has a mobile-optimized range that begins at 40 cm and stretches to over 3.5m. It is battery powered and provides up to 4 hours of active use, and 1000+ hours of standby. The dual infrared LEDs allows you to capture the world in infrared- a night vision to your iPad. Really interesting, isn't it? :D 

The Structure Sensor enables completely a new set of mobile applications, including:

• 3D object scanning for 3D content creation with no knowledge of CAD required. 
• 3D mapping of indoor spaces for instant measurements and virtual redecoration.
• Body scanning for fitness tracking and virtual clothes fitting.
• Virtual reality games using 3D environments imported from the real world.
• Augmented reality games where virtual objects interact precisely with the geometry of the physical world, including occlusions. 

Currently, the Structure Sensor support iPad (4th generation), but the team says that it can stream data to any iOS device that uses the lightning connector - such as iPhone 5, iPad mini etc. For an android device, you may need the applicable USB OTG adapter. The company will also provide an open 3D CAD model for a starter bracket that you can adapt to work with your device and then 3D print. 

Attach your bracket to your Structure Sensor with 4 screws (included)

A design revolution in watches- Never miss this watch "FACE2FACE"

The Swiss made American brand treads new watch making ground in 2013 by applying the concept of dual identity to its latest innovation, "The Hamilton Jazzmaster Face 2 Face". Avant-grade and classical embrace each other in a watch with two distinct personalities, guaranteed never to come face to face, on or off screen. 

Real an amazing concept in the design revolution of watches. The are two different sides to the deign concept and to the time piece itself. A unique rotating case houses two dials, one presenting a sophisticated "boy racer" chronograph, the other a clam, elegant three-hand timekeeper. The common denominator of the two contrasting faces are the decorated, skeletonized rotors of each automatic movement, fully visible in the oval-shaped case. Only 888 of these type of watches are being made.  

Dolphin inspired new radar system

The TWIPR diode target

Scientists at the University of Southampton, in collaboration with University College London and Cobham Technical Services, have developed a new kind of radar that can detect hidden surveillance equipment and explosives. The TWIPR (twin inverted pulse radar) is able to distinguish true 'targets', such as certain types of electronic circuits that may be used in explosive or espionage devices, from 'clutter' that may be mistaken for a genuine target by traditional radar and metal detectors. 

The new system has been developed by a team led by Professor Tim Leighton from the University's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research and is based on his unique sonar concept called twin inverted pulse sonar (TWIPS). TWIPS exploits the natural abilities of dolphins t process their sonar signals to distiniguish between targets and clutter in bubbly water. Some dolphins have been observed to blow bubble nets around schools of fish, which force the fish to cluster together, and their sonar would not work if they not distinguish the fish from the bubbles. 

Professor Leighton's team proposed that the TWIPS method could be applied to electromagnetic waves and that the same technique would work with radar. They teamed up with Professor Hugh Griffiths and Dr Kenneth Tong of University College London and Dr David Daniels of Cobham technical services to test the proposal, by applying TWIPR radar pulses to a target to distinguish it from clutter. In the test the tiny target showed up 100,000 times more powerfully than the clutter signal from an aluminium plate measuring 34cm by 40 cm. 

This is a major discovery and it can help in a lots applications in addition with the ones we discussed above. It can be extended to other radiations such as magnetic resonance imaging and light detection and ranging etc.  

Art is Motion project by Lexus

Art is Motion is installed in a Lexus IS 300h sedan

In recent years, we have seen a lot of developments and design concepts from the automobile industry. The competition has been high and regularly new developments in technologies became a brand for every car brand. In between Lexus, the famous international automobile company comes up with a 'creative art' technology called "Art is Motion system". They have already tried in one of its IS 300h sedans, which has the peculiar ability of painting a portrait of the driver while they are driving. 

The Lexus IS 300h hybrid is an entry-level luxury car with a grille featuring a distinctly pinched look. Even though its just an ordinary luxury car with a lot of common features that a luxury car posses, company was looking for something special to be a part of this car. This lead into a computerized art installation. Created by the firm of Happiness Brussels, the "Art is Motion System" measures various driving parameters such as speed, rpms, and hybrid status, and runs them through a computer algorithm to create "digital brushstrokes" in real time. Using a pre-recorded image of the driver as a model, the system uses the style of Spanish multi-medium artist Sergio Albaic combined with driving data and random number generation to build up a portrait of the driver based on his driving style. The completed work is on the art car's dash view screen and sent to the Lexus website for public viewing. 

Its a wonderful effort done by the company. A sweet success, but still a question arise? Does this help enough to increase the value of this car? 

NASA with its LCRD and with a spectacular application of Laser

NASA has just set a new communication speed record using lasers. In January NASA sent the Mona Lisa to the moon using lasers. You may wonder how it was possible? NASA converted an image of the Mona Lisa into a black and white, 152 by 200 pixel image. After that they singaled to the orbiter how bright to make each pixel by delaying the message (or pulse) to one of 4,096 slots in a very small time-frame. Depending on the length of that variation, the pixel appeared one of 4,096 shades of gray. Rinse and repeat with each pixel until you have the Mona Lisa. Amazing, isn't it? :D 

LCRD 

On Tuesday, NASA announced that the Lunar Laser communication demonstration successfully used a pulsed laser beam to transmit data between the moon and earth. At a download rate of 622 megabits per second, the data travelled 239,000 miles. 

In their website NASA mentioned: The Laser Optical Communication Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will completely change the way we communicate mission-critical data, video and other information. Future optical communication systems will be able to transmit data at rates 10-100 times faster than radio-based communication systems. For example, at the current limit of 100-Mbps for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), it takes a few minutes to transmit a single high-resolution image back to earth. In some instances, this bottleneck can limit scientist's ability study the moon. An equivalent LRO mission outfitted with an optical communications transmitter would have the capacity to transmit data back to earth at more than ten times that speed, reducing the single image transmission time to just a few seconds.

Lunar Lasercomm ground terminal

Also note that, LCRD is NASA's first, long-duration optical communications mission. The team is working to fly and validate a reliable, capable and cost effective optical communications technology directly applicable to the next generation of NASA's space communication network. 

LLCD inside the LADEE spacecraft NASA

In the upcoming future, Helicopters might fly like Aeroplanes

The upcoming future is good for helicopters. The failing and crippling during the operational missions have made defence research teams to think a lot more about an aircraft that could combine the speed and range of jet with the vertical lift of a helicopter. We have already seen a lot of such creations in movies. But in reality, most of the defence research teams are working hard to find out a solution which can help the hostage-rescue operations and troopers. The very fair example of helicopters failing in missions was in 1980, when Iran hostage-rescue attempt has a disastrous turn, when three of eight helicopters failed and crippled during the mission. This lead U.S fleet to find a new solution. In the very response they designed the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey. It can carry two dozen troops 1000 nautical miles at speed around 250 miles an hour. It is considered as one of the most versatile craft in U.S Vertical take off and landing fleet (VTOL). 

In between a vertical take off model of the modification of U.S fighter F-35 Lightning 2 was developed. But it wasnt up to the task. The vertical launch fan, coupled with the jet engine, weighs more than two tons- more than the jet engine. The fan works only during take-off and turns into useless "dead weight" in level flight. "To overcome this problem, DARPA launched VTOL X-plane program to challenge traditional aviation technologies and at the same time to go beyond certain limits in four areas:speed, performance management, effective range and pay load" said program manager Ashish Bagai. However this is a very hard work and have to create something beyond imagination. Meanwhile, Israeli company Urban Aeronautics also develops a project of high-speed UAV VTOL based on AirMule, reports Flightglobal, the website of Flight International magazine. The company has achieved impressive progress. The work was began in 2009, when the first tests of the unmanned vehicle were made in a wind tunnel. 

Currently research are going on to improve the speed, range, and hover efficiency of VTOL aircraft. Two programs have been launched in this year. A new technologies are also on run, which includes new designs in next generation rotor craft. Hopefully by 2017, we might see advanced aircrafts with advanced weapons, developed in a combine effort of DARPA and army research teams. 

What is VTOL aircraft? It is an aircraft that can hover, take off and land vertically. This classification includes fixed-wing aircrafts as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors. 

The U.S Marine corps parachutists free fall from an MV-22 Osprey at 10,000 feet above the drop zone at Fort A.P.Hill

Gulfstream G560 aircraft sets the world record speed

G560, the fastest certified civilian aircraft, recorded an average speed of 568.5 miles per hour (915 kilometers per hour) on the journey, claiming 22 city-pair speed records in process. G560 now has a total of 38 records since getting its first (Burbanl, Calif., to Savannah) in January 2011.

"This is a momentous occasion for Gulfstream and business aviation," said Larry Flynn, president, Gulf stream. "This was an awesome display of the G560's speed and range, two performance capabilities that help make this aircraft the industry standard since entering service in 2012."  

Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics which designs, develops, manufactures, markets, services and supports the world's most technologically advanced business -jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced more than 2,000 aircraft for customers around the world since 1958. 

Crew of G560 that broke the record

Immerse-A-Clean- Do you like this wand?

A new revolution in cleaning developed by GenEon,Texas. Its a new Immerse-A-Clean Wand which take cleaning to another level. Its versatility, convenience and cost-effectiveness makes it so special with its competitors. Its one of its own kind that you will never see before. The genuine new innovation makes safe,sustainable cleaning and sanitizing solutions in virtually any container-wherever and whenever needed. Best of all, there is no need to carry around numerous chemicals in order to clean, degrease and sanitize our establishment. 

Simple submerge the wand into a bucket, jug, scrubber or carpet extractor, add the catalyst, fill with tap water, press a button and in minutes a highly effective cleaner or degreaser is created. For sanitizing, the wand creates a ph-neutral sanitizer/cleaner solution, delivering all the germ-killing benefits of other sanitizers-without harm to surfaces, clothes,animals or people.

First Supercapacitor that can even store electricity inside a silicon chip

A group of researchers at the Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenessee has designed a supercapacitor made primarily of silicon  with the microelectronic circuitry that it powers. In fact, it should be possible to construct these power cells out of the excess silicon that exists in the current generation of solar cells, sensors,mobile phones and a variety of other electromechanical devices, providing a considerable cost savings. 

Silicon chip with porous surface next to the special furnace where it was coated with graphene to create a supercapacitor electrode

This is a wonderful step in the field of semi conductor electronics. Just imagine about the solar cells that produce electricity 24/7, not just when sun is shining. Mobile phones with built-in power cells that can recharge in seconds and work for weeks between charged. Amazing, isn't it. :)  

Assistant Professor Cary Pint

"If you ask experts about making a supercapacitor out of silicon, they will tell you it is a crazy idea". Said Cary Pint, the assistant professor of mechanical engineering who headed the development. "But we have found an easy way to do it."

As we all know batteries store energy in chemical reactions. But on the other hand, supercapacitors store electricity by assembling ions on the surface of a porous material. As a result, they tend to charge and discharge in minutes, instead of hours and operate for a few million cycles, comparatively  less when compared to that of batteries. These properties will be able to help this "supercap" to capture markets and we will be able to see amazing applications of this little master. 

Initially silicon wasn't their choice. Research to improve the energy density of super capacitors has focused more on nanomaterials like nanotubes and graphene. Because these devices store electrical energy on the surface of their electrodes. But there was always a challenge for this choice. Mainly assembling the materials. Not only that, doubts where always present about repeating the same success even if the first attempt will be a mark. So Pint and his research team-graduate students Landon Oakes, Andrew Westover and post-doctoral fellow Shahana Chatterji-decided to take a radical different approach. Their choice was porous silicon, a material with a controllable and well-defined nanostructure made by electrochemically etching the surface of a silicon wafer. This allowed them to create surfaces with optimal nanostructure for supercapacitor electrodes. But still there was a major problem. Silicon is generally considered unsuitable for use in supercapacitors because it reacts readily with some of chemicals in the electrolytes. But Pint and his team were determined and his experience in growing nanostructures helped him in this problem. They decided to coat the porous silicon surface with carbon. The amazing thing was, it stabilized the silicon surface which will avoid the further chemical reactions with electrolytes. 

Transmission electron microscope image of the surface of porous silicon coated with graphene. The coating consists of a thin 5-10 layers of graphene which filled pores with diameters less than 2-3 nanometers architecture of the underlying silicon

Currently research are still going on to develop energy storage that  can be formed in the excess materials on the unused back sides of solar cells and sensors. The supercapacitors would store excess the electricity that the cells generate at midday and release it when the demand peaks in afternoon. That will be another breakthrough we cant wait until it get released. It will be definitely energy saving measure that can help a lot.   

Supercapacitor research group

A High School Student develops a Flight Simulator

LifeBeam Flight Simulator

How do you want to spent your school days? Or have you done enough on your school days? I still don't remember how was mine? :D :) But I definitely know how Dominic Lee spent his time. :D

Dominic Lee, a senior high school student who is also a programmer along with the help of Dr. Bert Pinsky, a physics professor, have developed a Life Beam Simulator so  that everyone can enjoy the fun of physics, robotics and aviation. It is basically a motion platform that can make full rotations at about 40 degrees. It also has physical movements and runs on two pneumatic cylinders. 

What is LifeBeam Flight Simulator? It is a full setup of equipment that's runs simultaneously and collaboratively. The data is first sent from the graphics computer through a custom software program that acquired game data. The game data is scaled and converted into specific coordinates for the pitch and roll axis, The program sends out the final signal which is received by an Arduino, which is basically a micro controller. The Arduino has a complex program that combines serial commands and parses certain values to calculate a voltage which is then converted into PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). PWM is sent to a low-pass filter which smooths the PWM into analog voltage. The voltage is sent to Pneumatic Valve Amplifier which controls the pneumatic cylinders to make the simulator platform move accordingly with the users control. A liner potentiometer measures and regulated the movement of each pneumatic cylinder. 

In the above explanation I know there are some terms which aren't similar. Let me make it simple for you. 

Control Components:

1) Arduino: It is an essential part of this simulator because it is the micro controller that generates the signal to the Flight Simulator. It is programmed to receive serial commands from a computer at 57600 times per second. 

Arduino

2) PVC Structure: It is the main physical base. It consists of a racing seat mounted on a series of schedule 40 PVC pipes. All the pipers are secured with screws. The PVC structure rests on a large wooden base, which is where the pneumatic cylinders are mounted. 

PVC Pipes

3) Gaming PC: It is a high end gaming computer built specifically for the FlightSim. This computer features an AMD Tricore 3.4 GHz Processor with 8GB RAM. This computer runs the gaming software that provides the visualizations for the pilot, and simultaneously run the Custom FlightSim software which controls the pneumatics on the motion simulator.  

Gaming PC

4) Motion Components: it has pneumatic cylinders and valves. Cylinders are connected to servo valves, which are components that can dynamically change the amount of pressure in the cylinders using electricity. It also has a control box that contains power supply, Arduino, PWM regulator and servo amplifiers. Along with all these set up comes an important part of pneumatic set up called the air compressor. This is the unit that pressurizes the pneumatic cylinders for usage. It also maintains the air pressure etc. 

Pneumatic Cylinder and valves

Control Box

Air compressor

5) Display components: It consists of Projector, speakers (BOSE high quality speakers) and a tactile transducer (a high power vibrating sub woofer which is mounted directly under the racing seat). Projector used is a latest 3D technology having wireless active shutter glasses. The graphics are exceptionally crisp since they use HIS 6770 video-card for the gaming computer. 

Projector and wireless glass

BOSE speakers