Mobius Picnic Table designed by artist Michael Beitz

Unmanned aircrafts to be on air soon in civilian life: U.S

United states is one step closer to make an history were the unmanned crafts are going to be a part of their daily life. The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates civilian flight in America publishes a report titled "Integration of Civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace system (NAS)". A road map for adding drones to the skies is also published. In fact it clearly explains they are going ahead with their plan. Next time when are in road we can see unmanned systems flying on skies with certain responsibilities.

What is a Drone? In the above lines I have specified a term called 'Drone'. So what is actually a drone? Its a device used or intended to be used for flight in the air that has no onboard pilot. This device excludes missiles, weapons, or exploding warheads, but includes all classes of aeroplanes, helicopters and powered-lift aircraft without an on-board pilot. Currently drones are highly restricted in American airspace. But soon we can is without restrictions a lot of drones flying around. Drones are flying machines intended for more than a single use. 

We have to wait and see how FAA is planning more about using drone in a civilian environment. You can read more about this on: FAA Civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems

A device that could store unwanted energy and convert it into electric power

Duke engineering students Alexander Katko (left) and Allen Hawkes show a wave guide
containing a single power-harvesting metamaterial cell, which provides enough energy to power the attached green LED 

A group of researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have designed a power-harvesting device which can wirelessy convert microwave signals to direct current voltage. 

The device operates on a similar principal to solar panels, which convert light into electrical current. But this device is so special since it could be tuned to harvest the signal from other energy sources, including satellite signals, sound signals or Wi-Fi signals. The key to the power harvester lies in its application of meta materials, engineered structures that can capture various forms of energy. 

The main ingredient of this device are metamaterials. They are composed of sub-wavelength particles that exhibit bulk properties that are different from their individual components. There are other group of metamaterials known as electromagnetic metamaterials that are engineered, which can achieve parameters not possible within naturally occurring materials. These metamaterials are well-suited for harvesting power. They also provide flexibility in design due to their electrically small, low-profile nature. The nature of these metamaterials have been utilized by the researchers of Duke for their development. 

Harvesting array

Thanks to all specially to Allen Hawkes, an undergraduate engineering student working with graduate student Alexander Katko and lead investigator Steven Cummer, professor of electrical and computer engineering. They designed this electrical circuit capable of harvesting microwaves. 

They used a series of five fiberglass and copper energy conductors wired together on a circuit board to convert microwaves into 7.3V of electricity. By comparison, USB (Universal Serial Bus) chargers for small electronic devices provide about 5V. 

"We were aiming for the highest energy efficiency we could achieve," said Hawkes. "We had been getting energy efficiency around 6 to 10 percent, but with this design we are able to dramatically improve energy conversion to 37 percent, which is comparable to what is achieved in solar cells." 

"It is possible to use this design for a lot of different frequencies and types of energy, including vibration and sound energy harvesting," Katko said. "Until now, a lot of work with metamaterials has been theoretical. We are showing that with a little work, these materials can be useful for consumer applications." 

For instance, a meta material coating could be applied to the ceiling of a room to redirect and recover a Wi-Fi signal that would otherwise be lost, Katko said. Another application could be to improve the energy efficiency of appliances by wirelessly recovering power that is now lost during use. 

These are just some of the applications of this device. It can be even built into a cell phone with some modifications, allowing the phone to recharge wirelessly while not in use. This feature could, in principle, allow people living in locations without ready to access to a conventional power outlet to harvest energy from a nearby cell phone tower instead. 

"Our work demonstrates a simple and inexpensive approach to electromagnetic power harvesting," said Cummer. "The beauty of the design is that the basic building blocks are self-contained and additive. One can simply assemble more blocks to increase the scavenged power."

The research was supported by a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative from the Army research Office. 

The prince with a spectacular eye: BMW develops laser headlights

A global successful car maker within the premium segment comes out with a new technology for the headlights. When we speak about headlights, the car that will flash through our eyes will be BMW. Yes, it this prince who is going to bring a spectacular concept in the development of headlights. 

Introduction of the full LED headlights always went ahead looking for the next logical step in the development of vehicle headlights. And now BMW has come up with an effective innovative technology and its source is a blue-laser diode which is 1000 times as bright as an LED but uses just two-thirds the energy. 

The idea came up within three BMW's brightest lights. They are Project founder Volker Levering, who laser inspiration-a mental bulb, if you will-flashes on during a 2010 Christmas ski trip in the Alps, Stefan Weber, the current program leader and Helmunt Erdl. "A person may not directly aware, but you can instantly feel the difference between good and bad light," says Weber, as he switches on a wall of fluorescent panels. Panels stimulate a sunny day above ground, right up to the 6500-kelvin colour temperature that photographers consider natural daylight. And guess what, BMW's system will deliver about 5500-6000 K- the highest colour temperature that international regulations will allow. 

Until the dawn of semiconductor lighting, the whitest brights any headlights could manage mere high-intensity discharge (HID) also know as xenon lamps, which BMW introduced on the 1991 7Series coupe. HID light is still an optional for today's cars as well, but its weaker ,yellower and less energy efficient than either LED or laser light.  

The first LED headlights shone from a car a mere six years ago, when Lexus introduced them on its LS600h L sedan. Soon, the technological torch may pass to lasers. Laser light will debut in Europe in the 2014 BMW i8, a plug-in hybrid sports car that promises 2.45 litres per 100 kilometres and a 4.4 second surge from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour. 

Blue laser light from a tiny diode proceeds through a phosphor, which converts some of it into
wavelength in the yellow part of the spectrum. The resulting mix is a white beam that can be focussed
very tightly

BMW engineers are currently working on the it which will be in series production soon. By definition, laser lighting is radically different from sunlight and also the various types of artificial lighting in common use today. For a start, laser lighting is monochromatic, which means that the light waves all have the same length. And it is also what is know as a "coherent" light source, which means that its waves have a constant phase difference. As a result, laser lighting can produce a near parallel beam with an intensity a thousand times higher than conventional LEDs. In vehicle headlights, these characteristics can be used to implement entirely new functions. Also, the high inherent efficiency of laser lighting means that laser headlights have less than half the energy consumption of LED headlights. Simply put, laser headlights can save fuel. 

The intensity of laser light posses no possible risks to humans, animals or wildlife when used in car lighting. Amongst other things, this is because the light is not emitted directly, but is first converted into a form that is suitable for use in toad traffic. The resulting light is very bright and white. It is also very pleasant to the eye and has a very low energy consumption. 

BMW always aims at some advantages that are purely visible and noticeable. With a length of just ten microns, laser diodes are one hundred times smaller even than the small, square-shaped cells used in conventional LED lighting. This opens up all sorts of new possibilities when integrating the light source, although that would be theoretically possible. Also note that, it can play an important role in new headlight positioning and body styling. Another important advantage that BMW engineers intent to use is high inherent efficiency. A single statistic will make this clear. LED lighting generates only around 100 lumens per watt and laser lighting generates about 170 lumens. Now we can see why they took a step more into laser technology. 

One more important aspect that BMW take into account is safety. For BMW, the complete eye safety of this technology for all road users and its complete reliability in day-today use have top priority. Importantly, therefore, before the light from tiny laser diodes is emitted onto road, the originally bluish laser light beam is first of all converted by means of a fluorescent phosphor material inside the headlight into a pure white light which is very bright and pleasant to the eye. As a result, in future it will be possible to use laser light to implement all the familiar -including more recent-BMW lighting functions such as Adaptive Headlights, the "Dynamic Light Spot" spot lighting system and the "Anti-Dizzle High-Beam Assist". It will also help them to implement new functions that uses very less power consumption. 

Cant wait to see them on the road. :) :D 

Giga data transfer- A laser that can transmit data at 40 gigabits per sec

A new laser technology has been developed at the University of Illinois that transmits error-free data over fiber optic networks at an unimaginable speed of 40 gigabits per second- the fastest in the United States. 

The high speed communication got a turbo boost again. Milton Feng, the Nick Holonyak Jr. Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering, demonstrated the tiny, fast device along with post doctoral researcher Fei Tan, graduate students Mong-Kai Wu and Michael Liu, and Holonyak, who is emeritus professor. The team published its result in the journal IEEE Photonics Technology Letters. 

Laser devices called oxide VCSELs are used to transmit data over fiber optic cables at high speed. They can carry data faster and in greater quantities than traditional electrical cables. "The oxide VCSEL is the standard right now for industry," Feng said. "Today, all the optic interconnects use this technology. The world is in a competition on how to make it fast and efficient, and that's what this technology is. At the U. of I., we were able to make this technology the fastest in the U.S." 

At 40 gigabits per second, this technology is 400 times faster when compared to home-speed internet connections which reach about 100 megabits per second. Thanks new oxide VCSEL which also provide energy efficiency and error free data transmission. This can be a breakthrough which can be useful in cloud computing and other applications. 

Feng believes that researchers could push oxide VCSELs to about 60 gigabits per second, but not far beyond that because of the inherent limitations in the materials.