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Prototype open source 'Frankencamera'
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Issue no. 29, 2009
Published: Sep 04, 2009 |
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 New open-source camera could revolutionize photography | | UK scientists claim first calculation on optical quantum chip | | A liquid design for cheaper fuel cells | | Robots swim with the fishes | | Nanolasers offer super-tight focus | | Computer algorithm to decipher ancient texts |
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| New open-source camera could revolutionize photography |
Stanford photo scientists are out to reinvent digital photography with
the introduction of an open-source digital camera, which will give
programmers around the world the chance to create software that will
teach cameras new tricks. If the technology catches on, camera
performance will be no longer be limited by the software that comes
pre-installed by the manufacturer.
Virtually all the features of the Stanford camera - focus, exposure,
shutter speed, flash, etc. - are at the command of software that can be
created by inspired programmers anywhere.
The researchers imagine a future where consumers download applications
to their open-platform cameras the way Apple apps are downloaded to
iPhones today. When the camera's operating software is made available
publicly, users will be able to continuously improve it, along the
open-source model of the Linux operating system for computers or the
Mozilla Firefox web browser.
Programmers will have the freedom to experiment with new ways of tuning
the camera's response to light and motion, adding their own algorithms
to process the raw images in innovative ways. |
| ScienceDaily
Sep 04, 2009 |
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| UK scientists claim first calculation on optical quantum chip |
A big step towards construction of a massively powerful quantum computer
has taken place, following research by a team at University of Bristol's
Centre for Quantum Photonics.
The mathematical computation investigated was to find the prime factors
of 15, which although trivial, points the way to more important
quantum-based calculations, once the hardware can be scaled up to herald
fully functional optical quantum compute systems. The system outputs the
correct prime factors of 15 as three and five.
The three main components of the system was a photon source, a single
photon detector, and circuitry sandwiched in between to perform a simple
cryptographic calculation. |
| VNUnet UK
Sep 04, 2009 |
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| A liquid design for cheaper fuel cells |
Platinum remains the best material for speeding chemical reactions in
hydrogen fuel cells, although the scarcity and cost of this element keep
fuel cells from becoming more affordable and practical. Most alternative
approaches involve simply replacing the platinum in the electrodes. Now
UK company ACAL Energy has overhauled fuel cell design to reduce the
amount of platinum used by 80%.
In a conventional fuel cell, platinum is embedded in porous carbon
electrodes. ACAL's design replaces this with a solution containing
low-cost molybdenum and vanadium as the catalyst. The resulting fuel
cell works as well as a conventional one but should cost 40% less.
ACAL says its design gives power densities of 600 milliwatts per square
centimetre at 0.6 volts. Adding pressure should increase the power
density further and could reach 1.5 watts per square centimetre,
according to ACAL.
The company has already made a one-kilowatt system that it intends to
sell to select customers next year, and the fuel cells should be
available more widely in 2011. The plan is to first target the market
for diesel generators with one- to 10-kW systems, then move on to larger
applications such as home power generation and electric cars. |
| TechnologyReview
Sep 03, 2009 |
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| Robots swim with the fishes |
Borrowing from Mother Nature, a team of MIT researchers has built a
school of swimming robo-fish that slip through the water just as
gracefully as the real thing, if not quite as fast.
The sleek robotic fish was designed to more easily manoeuvre into areas
where traditional underwater autonomous vehicles can't go. Fleets of the
new robots could be used to inspect submerged structures such as boats
and oil and gas pipes; patrol ports, lakes and rivers; and help detect
environmental pollutants.
Robotic fish are not new: In 1994, MIT ocean engineers demonstrated
Robotuna, a four-foot-long robotic fish. But while Robotuna had 2,843
parts controlled by six motors, the new robotic fish, each less than a
foot long, are powered by a single motor and are made of fewer than 10
individual components, including a flexible, compliant body that houses
all components and protects them from the environment. The motor, placed
in the fish's midsection, initiates a wave that travels along the fish's
flexible body, propelling it forward.
The robofish bodies are continuous, flexible and made from soft
polymers. This makes them more manoeuvrable and better able to mimic the
swimming motion of real fish, which propel themselves by contracting
muscles on either side of their bodies, generating a wave that travels
from head to tail. |
| MIT
Aug 24, 2009 |
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| Nanolasers offer super-tight focus |
Laser beams are about to get a whole lot more precise. Independent teams
have found ways to shrink lasers to nanoscale dimensions in two
radically different ways; one creating a spherical laser device 44
nanometres in diameter, while the other can concentrate laser light into
a gap just 5 nm across.
Sources of electromagnetic waves cannot normally focus a beam to a size
smaller than half its wavelength. For the spectrum of visible light,
that's 190 to 350 nm. To go smaller, the teams used quasiparticles
called surface plasmons - fluctuations in the density of electrons on a
metal surface - which can absorb light, travel along the surface and
re-emit that energy. They are much smaller than the wavelength of
visible light, so it's possible to sustain a laser in a smaller area.
The trick to using them in a laser is to couple them with a medium which
can amplify their light. Silver sheet
The 'plasmonic laser', developed at the University of California, uses
an optical laser to create surface plasmons in a specially designed
nanowire. The wire rests on a sheet of metallic silver covered by a film
of insulating material. The surface plasmons are created on the silver
surface, with the wire acting to contain these plasmons and amplify them
before they release their light. The researchers generated laser light
at 489 nm, and they succeeded in focusing it onto a zone just 5 nm wide.
Separately, a group at Norfolk State University created a device called
a 'spaser', which amplifies surface plasmons in a similar manner to a
laser's amplification of light. |
| New Scientist / Nature
Aug 30, 2009 |
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| Computer algorithm to decipher ancient texts |
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University in Israel have developed software
that can decipher previously unreadable ancient texts and possibly lead
the way to a Google-like search engine for historical documents.
The program uses a pattern recognition algorithm similar to those law
enforcement agencies have adopted to identify and compare fingerprints.
But in this case, the program identifies letters, words and even
handwriting styles, saving historians and liturgists hours of sitting
and studying each manuscript.
By recognizing such patterns, the computer can recreate with high
accuracy portions of texts that faded over time or even those written
over by later scribes, according to the researchers. The computer works
with digital copies of the texts, assigning number values to each pixel
of writing depending on how dark it is. It separates the writing from
the background and then identifies individual lines, letters and words.
It also analyses the handwriting and writing style, so it can fill in
the blanks of smeared or faded characters that are otherwise
indiscernible, the researchers say.
The team has focused their work on ancient Hebrew texts, but they say it
can be used with other languages, as well. A program for all academics
could be ready in two years, they say. |
| Reuters / Pattern Recognition
Sep 02, 2009 |
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