Issue no. 40, 2009
Published: Dec 04, 2009 |
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 Amputee controls robotic hand with thoughts |
| Solar panel costs 'set to fall' |
| Irish university introduces world's largest wave energy converter |
| Intel unveils 48-core cloud computing silicon chip |
| A tongue-tracking artificial larynx |
| Radiator roads too hot for ice to handle |
| Researchers create shape-shifting antennas |
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| Amputee controls robotic hand with thoughts |
An Italian who lost his left forearm in a car crash has been
successfully linked to a robotic hand, allowing him to feel sensations
in the artificial limb and control it with his thoughts. During a
one-month experiment conducted last year Pierpaolo Petruzziello felt
like his lost arm had grown back again, although he was only controlling
a robotic hand that was not even attached to his body.
Although similar experiments have been successful before, the European
scientists who led the project say this was the first time a patient has
been able to make such complex movements using his mind to control a
biomechanic hand connected to his nervous system. The challenge for
scientists now will be to create a system that can connect a patient's
nervous system and a prosthetic limb for years, not just a month.
The team implanted electrodes into the nerves located in what remained
of Petruzziello's left arm. The prosthetic was not implanted on the
patient, only connected through the electrodes. During the month he had
the electrodes connected, he learned to wiggle the robotic fingers
independently, make a fist, grab objects and make other movements.
After Petruzziello recovered from the microsurgery he underwent to
implant the electrodes in his arm, it only took him a few days to master
use of the robotic hand. By the time the experiment was over, the hand
obeyed the commands it received from the man's brain in 95% of cases. |
| Sydney Morning Herald / AP
Dec 03, 2009 |
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| Solar panel costs 'set to fall' |
The cost of installing and owning solar panels will fall even faster
than expected according to new research. At a conference, the
independent EU Energy Institute forecast that solar panels would be
cost-competitive with energy from the grid for half the homes in Europe
by 2020 - without a subsidy.
Incentive programmes for solar panels in Germany, Italy and Spain have
created manufacturing volume that's bringing down costs. Solar panel
prices dropped 30% last year alone due to an increase in output and a
drop in orders because of the recession. But according to the institute,
China has underpinned its solar industry with a big solar domestic
programme which will keep prices falling. There are large-scale solar
plans in the US and India too.
Panels had been expected to last for 20 years and price calculations
were based on this. But the institute's laboratory has been subjecting
the cells to the sort of accelerated ageing through extremes of heat,
cold and humidity that has long been a benchmark for the car industry.
It has shown that more than 90% of the panels on the market 10 years ago
are capable of still performing well after 30 years of life, albeit with
a slight drop in performance.
A key goal for solar is what is known as grid parity. That is the point
when it is as cheap for someone to generate power on their homes as it
is to buy it from the grid. It varies from country to country depending
on electricity prices, but the institute estimates that Italy - which
has a combination of sunny weather and relatively high electricity
prices - should reach grid parity next year. Half of Europe should be
enjoying grid parity by 2020, it estimates. |
| BBC News
Nov 30, 2009 |
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| Irish university introduces world's largest wave energy converter |
An Irish university has launched the world's largest hydro-electric wave
energy converter off the coast of northern Scotland.
The so-called Oyster is a mechanically-hinged flap that is embedded into
the sea floor - at a depth of about 10 meters - and moves with the
motions of the waves. That wave energy pumps high-pressure water to a
shore-based electric turbine. Power will be fed into the national grid
and provide electricity to homes in the Orkney islands. Researchers say
a farm of 20 Oysters could eventually provide enough electricity to
power 9,000 three-bedroom homes.
The technology was developed by Queen's University Belfast and
Scotland-based Aquamarine Power Ltd. School officials say wave and tidal
power could one day provide 20% of the UK's energy needs. |
| Yale Environment 360 / ScienceDaily
Nov 30, 2009 |
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| Intel unveils 48-core cloud computing silicon chip |
Intel has been showing off a new type of multi-core processor which will
revolutionise the cloud computing and server farm businesses, according
to the company. The 48-core chip, dubbed 48 IA, uses an interlinked
lattice of processing cores to share data, but which is individually
controllable to save power.
The chips are built around a 45nm process technology, and consist of
dual-core clusters working in a power envelope of between 25W and 125W,
a threefold improvement in performance per watt, according to Intel. An
additional 24 routers are built onto the chip to manage data around the
cores, and the whole unit is designed to work with DDR3 memory.
The 48 IA chip is one of the first examples of what Intel says will be a
new era in processor design, moving from multi-core to many-core
designs. The company is enlisting the help of the software community to
develop code for the new chips, and has signed up Microsoft, HP and
Yahoo's Open Cirrus to port applications to the chip using Hadoop, a
Java software framework. |
| VNUnet UK
Dec 03, 2009 |
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| A tongue-tracking artificial larynx |
Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg,
South Africa, are working on a new kind of artificial larynx that will
not have the raspy voice of existing devices. The system tracks contact
between the tongue and palate to determine which word is being mouthed,
and uses a speech synthesizer to generate sounds.
The system uses a palatometer: a device that looks much like an
orthodontic plate and is normally used for speech therapy. The device
tracks contact between the tongue and palate using 118 embedded touch
sensors. To use the device, a person puts the palatometer in his or her
mouth and mouths words normally. The system tries to translate those
mouth movements into words before reproducing them on a small sound
synthesizer, perhaps tucked into a shirt pocket.
So far, the researchers have trained the system to recognize 50 common
English words by saying each word multiple times with the palatometer in
their mouth. The information can be represented on a binary space-time
graph and put into a database. Each time the user speaks, the contact
patterns are compared against the database to identify the correct word.
The Witwatersrand team believes its design is superior because it does
not require surgical implants. |
| Technology Review
Dec 03, 2009 |
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| Radiator roads too hot for ice to handle |
Blizzard-bound motorists won't have to wait for a salting truck or snow
plough to clear the way if a 'self-heating' road takes off.
While salting disperses ice and snow, the salty run-off corrodes the
steel rods that reinforce roads and bridge decks, and also damages
vehicles. With the US government striving to improve its road
infrastructure after a fatal bridge collapse in Minnesota in 2007, new
methods to clear snow without damaging structures are being sought.
One such method, being developed by researchers at the University of
Houston, Texas, is to incorporate electric heating elements into
concrete roads or bridge decks. When cold weather is forecast, the
element can be fired up to heat the road and prevent ice forming.
The researchers bonded multiple layers of nanofibre-embedded paper
beneath a chunk of road concrete that was 10cm thick and 25cm2 in area.
It warmed from -10 °C to 0 °C in 2 hours while consuming just 6 watts of
electrical power. Heating the block slowly reduced power consumption. |
| New Scientist
Dec 02, 2009 |
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| Researchers create shape-shifting antennas |
Advancements in display technology have created flexible displays that
could be available commercially in about two years. Now, a new
breakthrough suggests another critical component for most gadgets -
antennas - are set to get more twisty than a pretzel.
Using a new combination of alloys, researchers at North Carolina State
University have created shape-shifting antennas that could be embedded
into materials such as textiles, bandages and bendable displays to bring
in a new generation of flexible devices.
Antennas are a part of most major consumer electronic devices from
cellphones to GPS systems. Traditionally they are made from copper by
milling or etching rigid sheets of copper into a shape that can be used
for a single purpose. While copper makes for efficient antennas, it is
not well suited for flexible electronics because it fatigues when bent
repeatedly and can even break completely.
The researchers made the new antennas by injecting an alloy of the
metals gallium and indium into very small channels - the width of a
human hair. Both metals remain in liquid form at room temperature. The
microchannels that they are injected into are straw-like but could be
any shape, say the researchers. Once the alloy has filled the channel,
the surface of it oxidises, creating a skin that holds the alloy in
place while allowing it to retain its flexibility. |
| Wired News
Dec 01, 2009 |
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