Future of Trains

After reading Andrews blog about ‘travelling like a speeding bullet’ and having spent a good three years travelling around the world I was quite excited what could be yet to come. Currently quick long distance travel is undertaken by air. However with oil prices increasing, air travel is expensive and with more congestion at airports, trains could be our future.

We have seen steam, oil and electric trains, but how will it be powered in the future?  

New technologies such as magnetic levitation or maglev trains increase train speed even more. These trains don’t have wheels but rather travel on superconducting magnetic rails. The train is pretty much floating over a guide way using the basic principles of magnets.

http://www.quantumlevitation.com/updates/ted.html

Evacuated Tube Transport is a futuristic high-speed airless vacuum travel system that will have us travelling in a tube around the world in just 6 hours.

http://travel.msn.co.nz/asia/242427/tube-travel.slideshow

Imagine combining the two technologies. In the future we may see magnetic levitating trains travelling in vacuum tunnels at speeds that are mind blowing? 

Space Tourism

Space tourism could be the next big thing. The prospect of safe and affordable travel into space is one that excites many people. People have always desired to visit exotic locations, and what could be more exotic than a whole other planet or looking back down onto the Earth.

Space Tourism is the term that's come to be used to mean ordinary members of the public buying tickets to travel to space and back. Many people find this idea futuristic. But over the past few years a growing volume of professional work has been done on the subject, and it's now clear that setting up commercial space tourism services is a realistic target for business today.

One main problem about Space Tourism is that it is too expensive to get there. Mainly due to launch vehicles being expendable. Currently, the only vehicles that can take you into space are the space shuttle and the Russian Soyuz, both of which are terribly inefficient. Each spacecraft requires millions of pounds of propellant to take off into space, which makes them expensive to launch. One pound of payload costs about $10,000 to put into Earth orbit.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-tourism3.htm

A number of companies are now working diligently on their aircraft so that they can send space tourists into low earth orbit within the next year or two. Richard Branson has confirmed that his company will commence with space tourism. You can see a clip of Richard Branson talking about his new launch with Virgin Galactic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6HjHNdWQBg&feature=player_embedded

Therefore once it does become a commercial service the next question is how to afford a ticket. The price for a seat with Virgin Galatic are seen below:

Pioneer Astronaut – The Earliest Available Seat

Deposit - US$200k full payment up front 


Our most popular reservation and nearly sold out 


Join the community of over 500 future astronauts 


Secure one of the last remaining seats among the first 500 to fly 


Expect to be among the first 1000 humans to have travelled to space 


Priority access to Galactic events, milestones and trips 


Pioneer welcome and confirmation package 


Guarantee the price of $200k for your spaceflight

Voyager Astronaut – Join the Waiting List for a Later Seat

Deposit - $20k 
Join the community of over 500 future astronauts 


Secure a spot on the waiting list after the first 500 to fly 


Take part in the Galactic milestones, events and trips 


Voyager welcome and confirmation package 


Guarantee the price of $200k for your spaceflight

Spaceship Charter

$1 million
An exclusive spaceflight for you and up to 5 friends


Pioneer status for all 6 seats


6 seats for the price of 5

Where will people stay once in space? The Hilton Hotels has shown interest in the space tourism industry and the possibility of building or co-funding a space hotel. However, the company did say that it believes such a space hotel is 15 to 20 years away.

Therefore within the next 20 years, space planes could be taking off for another planet or the Moon, at the same frequency as airplanes flying on Earth.

Battery Powered Vehicles

Continuing on from one of my previous blogs about Driverless cars, there was an interesting article about the electric C5. This is a battery electric vehicle invented by Sir Clive Sinclair launched in 1985.  Not only are companies trying to invent cars that can drive themselves but also cars that can operate on alternative methods to gas.

Petrol is getting more expensive and you can’t help think that the world is going to run out. How will we travel from A to B when it does?

Back in 1985 when Sinclair launched the C5, I think he was well ahead of his time.  I think the reason the C5 was not successful was battery technology was not as good as it is today and also because the price of fuel was significantly lower nearly 30 years ago. Also today, motors are smaller, cheaper, and more powerful than those used by Sinclair.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5

These days battery and electric motor technology is catching up, and with the higher fuel prices, we may see a major trend towards electric vehicles. These can be seen already with the development of Hybrid cars. The public today are probably more accepting of battery powered vehicles.

Batteries for electric and hybrid cars will drop over the next 10 years to a more affordable level.

Some other alternative that are currently being developed:

-     Compressed air

-     Hydrogen fuel cells

-     Ethanol

-     Vegetable oil

-     Water

-     Wood pellets

Inventions such as the Segway are more successful because it is appealing to everybody, it looks practical, fun to use, is compact, and is making use of more powerful compact batteries and electric motors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=edmeLXXwTwU

Nanotechnology - Never Wet

Never Wet - not only keeps items DRY, but CLEAN too.

http://www.neverwet.com/

Ross Nanotechnology have developed a 100% waterproof spray called Never Wet. You can virtually spray it on anything, such as shoes seen in the image opposite, that you wish to keep clean and dry.

It repels all liquids, heavy oils, ice, dirt, even bacteria, pretty much anything. For example when liquids are spilt onto a surface coated with Never Wet, the liquid literally rolls completely off the surface without leaving a trace.

Ross Nanotechnology uploaded a demonstration video of an iPhone coated in Never Wet, which was submerged inside a bowl of water for 30 minutes remaining completely functional afterwards.

Whats for the future, will this product be for consumer use? or will it be a product that only companies, and the manufacturing industry will be allowed to use. Rubbermaid has already announced their new plunger that has a Never Wet coating.

http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?CatName=CleaningUtility&SubcatId=Plungers&Prod_ID=RP092048&Redirect=5

Also see link below for other demonsatratons,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9YrWmaphdw

Driverless cars

A driverless car can also be known as an autonomous vehicle. Pretty much a passenger vehicle that drives itself. These driverless, auto pilot cars will help avoid accidents and congestion on the roads, as they will be capable of determining the best routes and be able to pass information on the road conditions to other cars. Greater suitability for car sharing, removals of constraints on occupants state. People can use travel time more efficiently, e.g. eating meals, preparing for events, or checking emails rather than getting stressed sitting in traffic.

Google made the announcement for the Driverless cars in 2012 and have been extensively testing the cars ever since. In March 2012, Nevada in the USA put a law into effect concerning the operation of self driving cars and issued a license for the first self driving car in May 2012. Japan is aiming to have autonomous cars on its roads in 10 years time. 

The Driverless car has been tested over 200,000 miles, the car uses Google maps technologies along with radars and sensors to help navigate through it journey. Car manufacturers are already using technology in cars for various driver assist systems and this is a trend that is becoming more common. These are all steps towards more autonomous cars.

The car would improve the lives of thousands who are physically unable to drive themselves.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/23/3797260/self-driving-cars-automated-vehicles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car

Historical Technology Innovations

Here are my three technological innovations: 

-Social Networking

-Television

-GPS (Global Positioning System)

Social Networking:

Social networking is a very recent historical technology innovation that has had a massive impact on the world. It is a means by which people can stay connected with each other for business purposes or simply just for socialising. This has been done through interactive websites with message boards, chat rooms or the ability to leave comments and have a discussion with other people. Much like this course.

The best example is Facebook. It is an online service that focuses on building social networks among people who share common interest, activities, backgrounds or real life connections. It enables people to share their ideas, create event and activities. Old friends are able to reunite.

I loved using Facebook while I was travelling the world. It meant I could stay connected with my family back home, but also create new networks among friends I travelled with. I was later able to meet up with some fellow travelers again. It was also a great way to get information from one another about best ways to get to a country, find hostels, sites to see etc. Made travelling so much easier.

Companies now have their own social network pages to promote products. Consumers feel like they are interacting with the company in a way. It has been used in the past to reunite family and friends after natural disasters. Someone is always just a click away. Negatives that have arisen are cases of bullying and privacy problems.

Television:

Television has been around for many years now. At the end of the 18th century, scientists had discovered a way to transmit an image from a point to another. The first successful colour TV began in the 1950’s. Even in the last decade the humble TV has come a long way. It now seems every household has one, even two or three. TV sets keep changing. We know have better images, flatter screens and new features. TVs are still rapidly evolving and prices are in a flux, requiring a lot of homework to buy the most suitable TV.

-Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) were first introduced in 1922.

-Rear Projection (RPTV) been around since the 70’s but these days are very bulky.

-Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD) First made mainstream in computer monitors. Was the best selling TV in 2007 thanks to bigger screen sizes and price drops.

-Plasma Display Panel (PDP) Had more benefits than LCD but had a large price tag when first introduced. From 2000 to 2002 Plasma TV prices plummeted more than 50% in 2 yrs. In 2010 they were 90% less than 2000.

-Light Emitting Diode Backlight (LED) most TVs sold today are LED.

-3D Technology - first TV used polarised or red/blue lenses to see the 3D image that is otherwise blurry. Alternate-frame sequencing used battery powered glasses to create the 3D effect, otherwise without the glasses the image looked normal still.

-Autostereoscopic (Auto-3D) Requires no glasses and is not blurry within the right viewing angle. Still being developed.

It is predicted that the average screen size in 2015 is going to be 60 inches.  Over the years, it has revolutionised people’s life. It has changed people’s life because the TV is seen as a mean of entertainment. TV was actually a positive effect on family togetherness when it first started spreading in the 1950's. The whole family would gather around that little picture in the middle of that big box and learned more about the world than previous generations ever had. Neighbours wanted to visit the family that had the first TV. Instead of mum sewing, kids reading or dad doing his thing, everyone was in the same room.

The striking point is that TV has become a usual good whereas in the past it was almost considered as an expensive good that not all the families could afford. By watching TV, people are easily able to escape from the routine of their everyday life, and to relax. In other words, television is a mean of discovering, exploring, learning, dreaming, and thinking. Personally I love watching sport so love spending my weekends relaxing with a beer flicking through the many sport channels.

However, even if it has changed people’s life and has a good effect on them, it has many bad effects on them too. It can destroy peoples life’s. Some people are not able to see what is true and false as have been influenced by violence from the TV screen. It can make people lazy, and many people believe can halt childrens learning abilities at younger ages.

GPS:

A GPS calculates the real-time position of a device using atomic clocks and orbital satellites. GPS satellites continuously broadcast signals that tell the satellite's location and time, accurate to a billionth of a second.

The technology has staggering significance militarily and was originally made for them in the 70’s. It helps friendly troops stay organised and find their way back to base or to targets. It can also help pinpoint enemy positions and threats.

Today, GPS is used by millions to navigate on a daily basis and can be immensely useful in mapping driving or walking directions.

Most of us would be familiar with GPS in an automobile. A GPS is perfect for anyone who deals with confusing city roads or is traveling around an unknown area. A GPS is useful for anyone that travels anywhere, whether for 200 miles or 20 miles. It is a great device that gives directions when you ask and also can help prevent you from getting tied up in traffic jams. The GPS usually is capable of letting you know when road construction has a road closed and you need to take a detour or it can tell you when there is one lane traffic causing a slow down. The GPS can give you an alternative route that will save you time and your fuel.

Aside from using GPS in an automobile or on the street to find directions, it has a variety of other important uses. GPS is used for mapping and surveying the earth. It is also able to help monitor earthquakes. Civilian pilots use GPS in flight, as do airlines to coordinate flights. The technology is also used by companies to keep track of the very satellites that make GPS possible.

Biodegradable mulch/plastics: Better for the environment?

New Zealand is portrayed as a clean, green environment, however littering will always be a problem of some sort. People believe that if we used biodegradable plastics, such as plastic bags, we could tackle the problem. Is this really better for the environment?

I think by making the products biodegradable, more people will throw away rubbish thinking that it is ok. Much like when we throw fruit such as a banana skin into a paddock without much worry. This will mean more plastics on the road sides and waterways until they eventually break down, and thats if they break down.

Biodegradable plastics require specific conditions to biodegrade properly (micro-organisims, temperature, and humidity) and if not managed properly they may be worse for the environment  than conventional plastics.

We need to approach this correctly, focusing on changing peoples attitudes. The best way I believe is to improve our own behavioural patterns and concentrate on ways of recycling and recovering all plastics.

However it does have its uses. I work in the horticulture industry and we use plastic mulch to help improve our performance, keep weeds out etc in our Lettuce crops. After a three month period the mulch breaks down into different forms, such as water, carben dioxide and some bio material. We can then plough this mulch into the soil and start planting our next crop without the worry of bits of little plastic hanging around for many years. Farmers are beginning to use this biodegradable mulch with their silage wraps also.

Other useful benefits are in the medical industry, absorbable sutures, micro-devices containing medicines which could break down in the body. Food packaging that can be composted together with its contents when the product is past its use by date.

Smartphones - Next big thing could be the eye scroll

The use of smartphones is on the rise. They not only let you make phone calls but are pretty much a mini computer offering individuals and businesses a way to stay connected on the move. They have advanced to the stage where we have touchscreen, cameras, GPS navigation, WIFI and mobile broadband capabilities.

• Web Access - browser installed
• Email - can synchronise with home/work emails sent and receive
• Applications - features for fun, business or personal benefit
• Advanced keyboards - make it easier for typing

The nest big thing with Smartphones could be something Samsung have spent a lot of money in research and development is the 'Eye Scroll'. 

Simply your phone following what your eyes are doing. 

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/next-big-smartphone-technology-scrolling-eyes-165048974.html

Census night

I am busy doing my census online and thought it would be a good chance to set up my blog site. I have not had much to do with blogging so should be interesting but I look forward to posting my findings here and will enjoy reading others.