Friday, 17 May 2013

Carbon Nanotubes

A carbon nanotube is a nano-size cylinder of carbon atoms. Carbon nanotubes are extremely small, the diameter of one carbon nanotube is one nanometer, which is one ten-thousandth (1/10,000) the diameter of a human hair.

Imagine a sheet of carbon atoms, which would look like a sheet of hexagons. If you roll that sheet into a tube, you'd have a carbon nanotube. Carbon nanotube properties depend on how you roll the sheet. In other words, even though all carbon nanotubes are made of carbon, they can be very different from one another based on how you align the individual atoms. They can come in different forms, it all depends on the chemistry, and how they are arranged.

Carbon nanotubes are classified according to their structures: single-wall nanotubes, double-wall nanotubes, and multi-wall nanotubes. The different structures have individual properties that make the nanotubes appropriate for different applications. It can help benefit many fields such as:
  • Structural 
  • Electromagnetic
  • Electroacoustic
  • Chemical
  • Mechanical
  • Electrical circuits
  • Medicine
For instances, with the right arrangement of atoms, you can create a carbon nanotube that's hundreds of times stronger than steel, but six times lighter. Engineers plan to make building material out of carbon nanotubes, particularly for things like cars and airplanes. Lighter vehicles would mean better fuel efficiency, and the added strength translates to increased passenger safety.

The properties of nanotubes have caused researchers and companies to consider using them in several fields. For example, because carbon nanotubes have the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any known material, researchers at NASA are combining carbon nanotubes with other materials into composites that can be used to build lightweight spacecraft.


Saturday, 11 May 2013

Gesture Based Computing


Gesture recognition is a topic in computer science and language technology with the goal of interpreting human gestures via mathematical algorithms. We first saw this on the movie, Minority Report featuring Tom Cruise.

Gesture based computing is another form of computer input using, hands, whole body, eyes, facial expressions. Some devices react to shaking, rotating, tilting, or moving the device in space. We already have finger based gesture movements by physically touching a touch screen, such as Apple’s iPhones, iPads, etc.

Businesses will see new applications emerging using gesture based computing, and as they see the benefits with increased control, they will start demanding applications which fit their business needs. This will replace existing technology such as the computer mouse, and even touch screens. Gesture based computing will fit well with some other emerging technology such as improvements in screen technology and voice recognition.

While gesture-based computing has found a natural home in gaming, as well as in browsing files, its potential uses are far broader. The ability to move through three-dimensional visualisations could prove compelling and productive, and gesture-based computing is perfect for simulation and training. Gesture-based computing has strong potential in education, both for learning, as students will be able to interact with ideas and information in new ways, and for teaching, as faculty explore new ways to communicate ideas.

Flexible Displays

OLED is a new display technology, which uses light emitting organic material to create beautiful and efficient displays. These are very thin and can be put on flexible materials like plastic or metal creating the ability to make flexible and bendable displays. This will also enable the displays to be more durable than current displays that require glass thus making them virtually shatterproof. 


Flexible OLED displays could be making their way to our gadgets sooner rather than later as Samsung has seen huge orders for the bendy screens. OLEDs will replace LCD’s as the main mobile display from around 2015 as the screens are thinner and brighter. Samsung has massively invested in OLED-related technologies and will continue to do so. 



There are several companies working towards the commercialising of flexible displays. This is a technology that is starting to come out of the lab. We can classify future display products into two categories:

- Bendable displays such as e-books, e-paper, bendable GPS, curved mobile products.
- Rollable displays such as rollable e-paper, rollerable PC, billboard, roll-up TV.

Thus future converging technology enables us to use flexible displays anywhere, anytime with multimedia functions.

Mobile Internet



Mobile Internet is the use of Internet-connected applications, or browser based access to the Internet from a mobile device connected to a wireless network. Mobile Internet is also being used more for making money transfers, searching, music, advertising, making payments, monitoring health, and near field communication. There are more people, especially the young generation using their mobile devices to listen to music online and jump on social media sites such as Facebook.

Having Internet on the go and being able to connect just about anywhere at any time on your mobile phone is much easier than waiting until you get back home to your PC or heading to a internet café. These days most people like convenience.

The number of people accessing the internet via mobile is growing fast and is expected to overtake the PC as the most popular way to get on the web within the next 5 years. This means many sites will be specifically catered towards mobile devices.

According to Cisco Global mobile data traffic grew 70 percent in 2012. Last years mobile data traffic was nearly twelve times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000.

3D Printing

These amazing machines could be used to scan an object and print highly detailed digital models and an exact copy of your object, whether it is part for a classic car that is no longer made, a lighter and more efficient airplane part or a custom prosthetic limb 3D printed to the patients personal shape and needs.

3D printing as a trend is already here but currently it is hugely expensive and not very accessible by your average person. I see a lot of growth in this trend with the advent of low cost and more friendly 3D printers and printing that will enable a lot of small businesses to compete in various manufacturing niches and circles that were previously unattainable. There are currently several projects and companies working on making 3D printers suitable and cheap to be used in households. Currently most 3D printers are used to produce prototypes or moulds.

Desktop 3D printers for home are already a reality and should cost no more than a few hundred dollars by 2015. 3D printers capable of outputting in colour and multiple materials also exist and will continue to improve to a point where functional products will be able to be output.

The feasibility of 3D printing is here to stay with ground breaking medical miracles conducted. An 83 year old women successfully had jaw implants. Experts from the University of Hasselt in Belgium have helped build a 3D printed lower jaw bone for replacement surgery in an 83-year-old woman. It's not only the first 100% customised implant to replace an entire jaw, but the first time a 3D printed prosthetic has been used, the report said. It was made by printing out the mandible with titanium powder. The method was developed by Research Institute BIOMED at Hasselt University, in cooperation with surgeons from the Orbis Medical Center Sittard-Geleen and companies Xilloc Medical BV, Maastricht and Cam bioceramics BV of Leiden. 
http://www.ibtimes.com/experts-build-3d-printed-jaw-bone-83-year-old-implant-patient-405446

Automotive specialist use 3D printers to recreate parts that are no longer manufactured. Like the automotive industry, the defense forces also use 3D printers to manufacture obsolete or new parts. 3D printers also help devise model crafts, testing aerodynamics and design before printing the big aircraft with hopefully a larger sized 3D printer as anticipated

At this stage one can predict that 3D printers will be common tools of the electrician, plumber, mechanic, etc. As parts break down, the tradesman can instantly print one off. Comedian Jay Leno owns a number of classic cars that require rare parts or parts that no longer exist. Jay uses a 3D printer to redesign and create these replacement parts as he needs them.

Monday, 6 May 2013

Electric car aims for 700 km/h

A new electric vehicle could shatter perceptions surrounding battery-powered transport. The Venturi VBB-3 will take to the famous Bonneville salt flats in August, with the aim of shattering its own records. 




Built as a joint venture between Ohio State University and Venturi, a boutique French manufacturer of alternative powered vehicles, the car is expected to push the new record to 700 km/h from its current 495km/h mark. 


The car will be powered by a 2230kW engine and driven by Ohio-based test driver Roger Schroer. He was the same driver who hit a top speed of 515km/h in VBB-2 on his way to the current electric powered land speed record of 495km/h in 2010. Land speed records are based on two runs in opposite directions on the same day. 


The picture above shows us the impressive set of battery's to power the car. 

Sunday, 5 May 2013

Cloud Computing


Cloud computing is now evolving like never before, with companies of all shapes and sizes adapting to this new technology. This trend will only continue to grow and develop even further in the coming years. Cloud computing is transforming how consumers, companies, and governments store, process information and utilise computing. It allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation, and access their personal files at any computer providing they have Internet access. 

Cloud technology is also used for online data storage with sites such as DropBox, Microsoft, Skydrive, Google docs and iCloud offering this service which continues to grow in popularity daily with private users, but it is still not very widely known about or understood by everyday Internet users. The corporate sector is not completely convinced about the safety of having their intellectual property online. The possibilities and advantages for users of being able to access content from anywhere are endless. 

St Vincent's Hospital developing body parts using 3D printing

On a work visit in Melbourne over the weekend I heard a news bulletin on the radio where researchers at St Vincent's Hospital and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) are working on developing human organs by building body cells layer by layer using a 3D printer. 

The team has used the 3D printer to make body cells, including muscle cells, nervous systems cells and cartilage. Professor Mark Cook, director of neurosciences at St Vincent's Hospital, said 3D body part printing was like 'bubble jet printers'. "Instead of putting in ink for printing, you can put in these new materials which will grow tissues successfully," he said. 

The process could eventually do away with the need for organ transplants. "It's possible to print devices and structures that can be implanted in human bodies, and these devices can have cells grown on them so that bodily functions can be replicated on these very tiny devices," he said. "In the future, these sorts of devices will be able to recreate parts of people's joints and bones, conceivably, in the future, even organs."

ACES director Professor Gordon Wallace said he believed it would be possible to manufacture living tissues like human skin, cartilage, arteries and heart valves which could be used in transplants and other operations within five years. By 2025, scientists could fabricate complete functional organs, tailored for an individual patient.

Using a patient's own cells to create this tissue avoids issues of immune rejection, Prof Wallace said. "It would have a great impact on people who are waiting for (organ) donors."