Lens Changes Focus Like a Human Eye

Human eyes are an ideal lens. They can easily shift focus between several objects in a given scene, even if those objects are located at different distances. Attempting a similar ability with a camera may require the photographer to change lenses.
Oops! Word’s Thinnest Glass Made By Accident
Ohio State University engineers took a crack at giving a camera lens some of the versatility of a human. They made a fluid-filled lens that can change its shape and focus, as well as alter the direction it focuses in. The work was described in the Technical Digest of the 25th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. The technology could improve the capabilities of digital phone cameras and make cameras overall more reliable by eliminating the need for certain moving parts.
The Ohio State University lens is made from a flexible polymer. The design is like an insect’s compound eye, with a single large lens made up of several small dome-shaped pockets, each filled with fluid. Tiny channels supply the fluid to each of the pockets.
By pumping fluid in and out of the pockets, the engineers were able to alter the lens’ shape and focus. The point where the image is focused can also be moved off-center. In a lens made of glass or plastic the only way to change where the image is centered is to point the lens in a different direction.
This method of focusing is a lot like what human eyes do. In humans, the muscles in the eye squeeze the lens or stretch it a bit to change the focal point of the image. When you look at something far off, for instance, the lens in your eye becomes slightly flatter.
Another advantage of the design is a wide angle of view. This is where the designers took a cue from insects’ compound eyes. The reason flies can see behind them is that their eyes are made of thousands of tiny facets, each pointed in a different direction. The down side (for the fly) is that each of those tiny facets can’t focus very well. The artificial lens solves that problem by adjusting the fluid-filled lenses.
10 Materials That Emulate Nature
Yi Zhao, associate professor of biomedical engineering and ophthalmology at Ohio State and one of the co-authors of the research, said in a press release that one focus for further development will be making the technology more practical for electronics. Fluid-filled lenses probably aren’t going to work in a smart phone. Lenses made of piezoelectric material, which changes shape in response to current, would function much better.
Credit: Jo McCulty, courtesy of Ohio State University

Source : news.discovery.com

Google Glass: Surgery Tool Of The Future?

We've been waiting for a while to figure out what practical uses will come out of Google Glass, besides, of course, making dudes look silly. And aha! A surgeon at The Ohio State University used his Google Glass to beam a colleague into an ACL repair surgery, plus allow medical students to watch the surgery from his particular point of view.
Christopher Kaeding, Ohio State's director of sports medicine, got a hold of the futuristic eyewear through Ismail Nabeel, an assistant professor of general internal medicine at the school. Nabeel was one of the 1,000 elite applicants chosen to participate in the Google Glass Explorer program, and decided to partner with Kaeding to test out his new toy.
Seeing a live feed of a surgery from the surgeon's perspective seems a whole lot more useful to a medical student than observing in-person, where much of the nitty-gritty of the procedure is obscured by the people actually operating on the patient. It could potentially be used by a surgeon to bring up x-ray images or patient reports during an operation, too.
And apparently, it's pretty unobtrusive. Kaeding reported it "seemed very intuitive and fit seamlessly." 

Source : popsci.com

How Phase Change Materials Can Keep Your Coffee Hot

Lukewarm coffee. In the grand scheme of life, it’s a mild vexation, but the same sustainable, nontoxic material that keeps babies warm and soldiers cool can now ensure your cappuccino stays at optimal drinking temperature for hours.

PureTemp, a technology developed by Minnesota-based Entropy Solutions, turns vegetable oils into phase change material (PCM) capable of maintaining a specific temperature between minus 40 and 300 degrees for hours. PCMs have been around longer than our species: Water’s transition from a solid to a liquid at the phase change point of 32 degrees is the most obvious example. So we asked PureTemp Chief Chemical Officer William “Rusty” Sutterlin to explain what’s so cool about this hot new take on phase change.

Read Oil About It

PureTemp technology involves purifying a variety of vegetable oils and then isolating different compounds within the blends. Each compound, Sutterlin says, naturally melts or solidifies at a different specific temperature and can be used as the base material for an application, depending on the phase change point needed.

“Think of peanut butter,” explains Sutterlin, who added he’d just stirred a jar of the sticky stuff that morning — not for a PureTemp application, but for a sandwich. “It’s made from the oil of peanuts, but that oil is made of different compounds, some of which are liquid at room temperature and some of which are solid at room temperature.”

Other manmade PCMs exist, but most are petroleum- or mineral-based, with varying levels of toxicity, or water-based, with more limited temperature ranges. PureTemp’s claim to fame is that its materials are biodegradable and nontoxic. PureTemp materials also have a broader range of potential phase change temperatures and containment sizes: Its coffee mug, for example, has a rigid inner core of PCM that could fit in the palm of your hand, while blankets and clothing use the material in thin, flexible sheets or pockets of microcapsules.

Immortal Phase

PCMs have an advantage over other heat or cooling sources: a kind of immortality. “The material never changes composition, latent heat capacity or its phase change point,” Sutterlin says. “Think of it this way: How many times can you freeze and melt and freeze water again before that water goes bad? The answer is unlimited.”

Getting Specific

Unlike water’s set solid-liquid phase change point of 32 degrees, manmade PCMs’ change points vary depending on their molecular composition. But they absorb and release latent heat according to the same principles as ice melting (storing heat) and refreezing (releasing that heat). 

“As soon as we cause something to solidify, boom, there’s a lot of energy there to harness,” Sutterlin says.

The PureTemp mug’s inner PCM core has a phase change point set at 140 degrees, considered the optimal drinking temperature. Coffee is typically brewed, however, at about 190 to 200 degrees.

“You make your coffee and pour it into the PureTemp mug,” explains Sutterlin. “The PCM [inside the core] melts, pulling energy in the form of heat from the coffee.”

It takes a minute or two to reach the optimal drinking temperature — and the PCM’s phase change point. As the coffee cools below 140 degrees, the PCM starts to solidify again, releasing the stored heat back into your coffee and maintaining that perfect drinking temperature.

More Than This

Aside from keeping America’s java drinkers content, PCMs developed by PureTemp are also being used in far more significant ways, including the Embrace infant warmer; the Cool Vest, which prevents overheating in human and canine troops in Afghanistan; and the Greenbox, which safely transports pharmaceuticals, blood and vaccines. We’ll drink to that.

[This article originally appeared in print as "Running Hot and Cold Forever."]

Source : discovermagazine.com

NASA Tests Largest 3-D Printed Rocket Part Ever

In NASA's latest exploration of combining 3-D printing and space travel, the agency ran tests on the largest ever 3-D printed rocket engine component at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
The engine part was a complex subscale injector, similar in size to those that power small rocket engines. When an engine is firing, the injector delivers propellants, which provides power and thrust to get the rocket off the ground. NASA tested the component on August 22; it helped the engine generate a record 200,000 pounds of thrust. And the conditions were grueling, conducted at pressures of up to 1,400 pounds per square inch and at nearly 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Working with NASA, a rapid prototyping company called Directed Manufacturing printed the rocket part using a process called selective laser melting, which creates 3-D objects by building up layers of nickel-chromium alloy powder. Whereas previous injector models have been made of 115 parts, this 3-D printed version is made of just two, which saves on cost. The production process also took much less time—under a month for 3-D printing, whereas traditional injectors sometimes take six months and cost twice as much.
NASA wanted to test a component that was complex and vital to the functioning of the rocket engine, as well as something that comes into direct contact with the extreme heat. It helps that the injector is also very similar to traditional versions that have undergone testing.
The agency says it is looking at 3-D printing as a way to quickly and cheaply replace engine parts for human missions to deep space, including to Mars and asteroids.
In July, NASA completed a successful test of a smaller 3-D printed rocket injector. The 3-D printed injectors showed no difference in performance from traditionally manufactured ones. In the coming days, engineers will perform computer scans and other inspections on the injector tested last week.
"This successful test of a 3-D printed rocket injector brings NASA significantly closer to proving this innovative technology can be used to reduce the cost of flight hardware," said Chris Singer, the director of the Engineering Directorate at the Marshall Center, in a statement.
The first 3-D printed part to be hot-fire tested on a NASA engine system was an exhaust port cover made at the Marshall Center and tested at the Stennis Center. And NASA is looking beyond printing engine parts. The space agency is working with Made in Space to develop and test a 3-D printer for the International Space Station, which would print tools as needed, and they're also looking at printing food for long-duration missions. 

Source : popsci.com

Ferrari 458 Speciale, another "most powerful" ever

Ferrari has prepared an upgraded version of the venerable 458 Italia for debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The Prancing Horse has covered the 458 in improvements, from enhanced aerodynamics to increased power. This special variant promises to add an extra dose of excitement to a sports car already considered one of the best of the best by many a driver and publication.

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Ferrari has been using the term "most powerful" an awful lot lately. The 730-hp F12 Berlinetta took on the role of most powerful road Ferrari ever back at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, ceding it rather quickly to the LaFerrari a year later. The LaFerrari gets its 950 horses from a hybrid powertrain, part of which is Ferrari's most powerful naturally-aspirated road engine ever, a 789-hp 6.3-liter V12.

The all-new 458 Speciale can't lay claim to "most powerful Ferrari or engine ever," but since both the F12 and LaFerrari are motivated by a dozen cylinders, it can rightfully boast about the most powerful Ferrari V8 ever. As usual, Ferrari isn't shy about advertising the claim. It further claims that the 135 cv per liter achieved by the 605-cv (596-hp) 4.5-liter engine is the highest ever put out by any of its road cars.

Of course, the Speciale is far more than just an extra 34 prancing horses over the Italia. The Ferrari Styling Center worked with Pininfarina to sculpt, carve and tuck the 458's physique into more aerodynamic shape, including active aerodynamics that help to optimize downforce and drag. Apparently not sick of superlatives just yet, Ferrari calls the Speciale its most aerodynamically efficient production car ever, citing a 1.5 E index.

The Speciale's upgraded vehicle systems give the driver better control and confidence when rallying the near-600 horses available at his toe tip. The electronic Side Slip angle Control (SSC) keep the car stable and responsive. The SSC system uses a new algorithm to compare the car's current side slip with a targeted number, adjusting torque management and distribution as needed. Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 tires apply all that feedback to the ground below.

As a result of its enhancements, the 2,844-lb (1,290-kg) 458 Speciale cuts a few ticks off the 458 Italia's 0-62 mph (100 km/h) time, meeting the mark in a flat three seconds. It can run to double that speed from park in 9.1 seconds and lap Ferrari's Fiorano track in 1 minute 23.5 seconds, wedged comfortably between the F12 Berlinetta's 1:23 mark and the 599 GTO's 1:24. Not a bad neighborhood to live in.

Ferrari will reveal the 458 Speciale under the bright lights of the Frankfurt Motor Show on September 10. We anticipate having more in-depth information then.

Source: Ferrari

F-35B makes first vertical night landing at sea

After the first vertical landing at sea of the F-35B in 2011 and its first night-time vertical landing in April of this year, the two feats have now been combined in the first night-time vertical landing at sea of the short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.

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The landing took place in the Atlantic Ocean on the US Navy’s multipurpose amphibious assault ship USS Wasp on August 14 with US Marine Corps test pilot Lt. Col. Russell Clift at the controls.

"It all went extremely well," said Clift. "Throughout the night we conducted eight successful launches and landings, so we're on target and quickly gaining experience with F-35B night operations at sea."

The milestone was part of a week of Ship Suitability Sea Trials – also known as Developmental Test Phase Two (DT-II) – that kicked off on August 12 when two F-35Bs (BF-01 and BF-05) touched down on the USS Wasp. By August 18, the two aircraft had completed a total of 40 short takeoffs and 41 vertical landings.

Although Clift took the honors of being the first to complete a night-time at sea landing in an F-35B, UK Squadron Leader Jim Schofield claimed his own first, becoming the first international pilot to carry out a sea-based launch and landing in an F-35B during DT-II.

The F-35B is scheduled to enter initial operating capability with the US Marine Corps in 2015, with sea-trials of the US Navy’s F-35C aircraft carrier variant scheduled for the end of 2014.

The first night-time vertical landing aboard the USS Wasp can be seen in the video below.

Sources: Lockheed Martin, US Navy

10 Upcoming Technology That May Change The World : Part 2

6. SmartThings

The current problem that most devices have is that they function as a standalone being, and it require effort for tech competitors to actually partner with each other and build products that can truly connect with each other. SmartThings is here to make your every device, digital or non-digital, connect together and benefit you.

(Image Source: Kickstarter)

With SmartThings you can get your smoke alarms, humidity, pressure and vibration sensors to detect changes in your house and alert you through your smartphone! Imagine the possibilities with this.

You could track who’s been inside your house, turn on the lights while you’re entering a room, shut windows and doors when you leave the house, all with the help of something that only costs $500! Feel like a tech lord in your castle with this marvel.

7. Firefox OS

iOS and Android are great, but they each have their own rules and policies that certainly inhibit the creative efforts of developers. Mozilla has since decided to build a new mobile operating system from scratch, one that will focus on true openness, freedom and user choice. It’s Firefox OS.

Firefox OS is built on Gonk, Gecko and Gaia software layers – for the rest of us, it means it is built on open source, and it carries web technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3.

(Image Source: Mozilla)

Developers can create and debut web apps without the blockade of requirements set by app stores, and users could even customize the OS based on their needs. Currently the OS has made its debut on Android-compatible phones, and the impression so far, is great.

You can use the OS to do essential tasks you do on iOS or Android: calling friends, browsing web, taking photos, playing games, they are all possible on Firefox OS, set to rock the smartphone market.

8. Project Fiona

Meet the first generation of the gaming tablet. Razer’s Project Fiona is a serious gaming tablet built for hardcore gaming. Once it’s out, it will be the frontier for the future tablets, as tech companies might want to build their own tablets, dedicated towards gaming, but for now Fiona is the only possible one that will debut in 2013.

(Image Source: Razer™)

This beast features next generation Intel® Core i7 processor geared to render all your favorite PC games, all at the palm of your hands. Crowned as the best gaming accessories manufacturer, Razer clearly knows how to build user experience straight into the tablet, and that means 3-axis gyro, magnetometer, accelerometer and full-screen user interface supporting multi-touch. My body and soul are ready.

9. Parallella

Parallella is going to change the way that computers are made, and Adapteva offers you chance to join in on this revolution. Simply put, it’s a supercomputer for everyone. Basically, an energy-efficient computer built for processing complex software simultaneously and effectively. Real-time object tracking, holographic heads-up display, speech recognition will become even stronger and smarter with Parallella.

(Image Source: YouTube)

The project has been successfully funded so far, with an estimated delivery date of February 2013. For a mini supercomputer, the price seems really promising since it’s magically $99! It’s not recommended for the non-programmer and non-Linux user, but the kit is loaded with development software to create your personal projects.

I never thought the future of computing could be kick-started with just $99, which is made possible using crowdfunding platforms.

10. Google Driverless Car

I could still remember the day I watch the iRobot as a teen, and being skeptical about my brother’s statement that one day, the driverless car will become reality. And it’s now a reality, made possible by… a search engine company, Google.

While the data source is still a secret recipe, the Google driverless car is powered by artificial intelligence that utilizes the input from the video cameras inside the car, a sensor on the vehicle’s top, and some radar and position sensors attached to different positions of the car. Sounds like a lot of effort to mimic the human intelligence in a car, but so far the system has successfully driven 1609 kilometres without human commands!

(Image Source: Wikipedia)

“You can count on one hand the number of years it will take before ordinary people can experience this.” Google co-founder, Sergey Brin said. However, innovation is an achievement, consumerization is the headache, as Google currently face the challenge to forge the system into an affordable gem that every worker with an average salary could benefit from.

Source : hongkiat.com