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terça-feira, 9 de junho de 2015
Veterans will be first to try cyber physical therapy
Ultrafast heat conduction manipulates nanoscale magnets
| Tue, 06/09/2015 - 12:27pm Rick Kubetz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Schematic, cutaway view of the geometry used to generate currents of spin from currents of heat. Pulses of laser light heat the left side of the sample and create an intense current of heat passing through the [Co,Ni] ferromagnet. This current of heat creates a separation of electron spins that then diffuse through the Cu heat sink and affect the magnetization of a second ferromagnetic layer, CoFeB, causing the magnetization to tilt and then precess. The total thickness of the sample is approximately 100 nm. Alex Jerez, Imaging Technology Group, Beckman Institute.Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have uncovered physical mechanisms allowing the manipulation of magnetic information with heat. These new phenomena rely on the transport of thermal energy, in contrast to the conventional application of magnetic fields, providing a new, and highly desirable way to manipulate magnetization at the nanoscale. “In our study, we make use of the fact that a heat current passing through a magnetic material creates a separation of electron spins. This process creates a current of magnetic dipoles that we use to manipulate the orientation of a second magnetic layer,” said David Cahill, a Donald B. Willett Professor of Engineering and head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Illinois. “The physics of separating spins with heat currents is related to the operation of thermocouples and the thermoelectric generators that power deep space probes. In those thermoelectric devices, a heat current causes a separation of electrical charges. That separation of electrical charge can then be used to measure a temperature or provide electrical power.” “We use the spin current created by ultrafast heat conduction to generate spin transfer torque. Spin transfer torque is the transfer of the spin angular momentum from conduction electrons to the magnetization of a ferromagnet and enables the manipulation of nanomagnets with spin currents rather than magnetic fields,” explained Gyung-Min Choi, who recently completed his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at Illinois. “Spin transfer torque has often been realized by passing electrical currents through magnetic layers. In our paper, we showed how spin transfer torque can be generated by an intense current of heat.” Choi is lead author of the paper, “Thermal spin transfer torque driven by the spin-dependent Seebeck effect in metallic spin-valves,” published in Nature Physics. (The term “Seebeck effect” refers to a thermoelectric phenomenon by which temperature differences between two dissimilar materials in a circuit generate a voltage. The spin-dependent Seebeck effect refers to the analogous phenomenon involving the spin of electrons in a ferromagnet.) “We quantify thermal spin transfer torque in metallic spin valve structures using an intense and ultrafast heat current created by picosecond—one trillionth of a second—pulses of laser light,” Cahill added. “This heat current has the impressively large magnitude of 100 GW per square meter and persists for approximately 50 trillionths of a second. The sign and magnitude of the heat-driven spin current can be controlled by the composition of a ferromagnetic layer and thickness of a heat sink layer.” Cahill’s research group at Illinois studies the physical mechanisms governing the interplay of spin and heat at the nanoscale, addressing the fundamental limits of ultrafast spintronic devices for data storage and information processing. In addition to Choi and Cahill—whose work was supported by the Army Research Office MURI program—co-authors of the paper include Byoung-Chul Min, Center for Spintronics Research, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul; and Kyung-Jin Lee, Department of Materials Science and Engineering and KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology, Korea University, Seoul.
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![Schematic, cutaway view of the geometry used to generate currents of spin from currents of heat. Pulses of laser light heat the left side of the sample and create an intense current of heat passing through the [Co,Ni] ferromagnet. This current of heat creates a separation of electron spins that then diffuse through the Cu heat sink and affect the magnetization of a second ferromagnetic layer, CoFeB, causing the magnetization to tilt and then precess. The total thickness of the sample is approximately 100 nm. Alex Jerez, Imaging Technology Group, Beckman Institute.](http://www.rdmag.com/sites/rdmag.com/files/Ultrafast_heat_conduction_can_manipulate_nanoscale_magnets_ml.jpg)
The Possibilities of 3D Printing: It’s Only the Beginning
Fri, 06/05/2015 - 6:00pmDr. Elena Polyakova, Chief Operating Officer, Graphene 3D Lab
A 3D-printed battery. Images: Graphene 3D LaboratoriesThe future of 3D printing is bright and full of exciting promise. But the most intriguing scenario for this technology isn’t in the manufacture of objects we see every day—that will only be a small niche in the 3D-printing industry. Instead, 3D printing will realize its full potential when it enables people to innovate and create all new objects and devices in a one-touch process. 3D printing allows for distributed manufacturing—meaning products can be created on demand in a facility nearby. In the near future, this will allow consumers to purchase goods which fit their very specific needs. It will also have these goods printed and shipped in a matter of hours, as opposed to the weeks it can take to receive a custom item. Furthermore, 3D printing will allow people to exchange their creative designs quickly and easily, from a new take on an everyday objects to an entirely new electronic device. The ability to create and share like never before is what really makes 3D printing the process of the future. While it has endless possibilities to improve the world around us, it’s still in the early stage of commercial development. Currently, 3D-printing technology allows people to print parts for a broken washing machine, granted the part that’s broken doesn’t need to withstand high force and can be made out of plastic. But within just five years, I foresee 3D printers capable of printing high-quality parts on-demand; and within 10 to 15 years, we will see at-home 3D printing for the majority of needs. So what are some hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve these big feats? The two biggest problems are there are limits in production capabilities and 3D printers aren’t easy to use. But when 3D printing evolves into a simple-push button process, people will be able to go to a local store and use a 3D printer or use one at home to print useful items, as opposed to just models. The way forward to overcome these problems is two-fold. The first is to incorporate advanced materials into thermoplastics used in 3D printing, allowing for functional 3D printing materials. The second is to develop a user-friendly 3D-printing ecosystem which makes the technology more accessible to non-engineers. Moreover, for 3D printing to be used in commercial applications, the speed at which prints are completed must be improved upon, as well as the quality of prints themselves. For example, 3D prints currently have a sub-optimal quality to them when compared to products on store shelves. However, since many products are made solely out of plastic, if these two problems were solved, we would probably see its widespread use for producing both custom and generic objects. The applications of 3D printing can be further expanded with an improvement in available 3D-printing materials. A combination of functional materials with plastics within 3D prints would allow for the printing of operational devices. The advancement of materials for 3D printing is essential to its future. Take graphene for example—a highly conductive nanomaterial—which when introduced to thermoplastics used in 3D printing, adds electrical conductivity to the final product. This is a major step forward because graphene enables us to make a number of applications through 3D printing, including capacitive touch sensors and circuitry. There are also a number of other advanced materials worth experimenting with for 3D printing, including MoS2 and boron nitride. Such materials can bring their own unique functionalities to 3D printing, which can prove useful for very specific applications. For instance, MoS2 has a high level of photoluminescence, which can be used in the creation of optoelectronics.
Graphene 3D employee at work in the lab.In addition to development of materials, one of the greatest challenge is in making one printer capable of printing a wide range of objects with several materials. Such a machine should be able to print a faux-wooden chess piece, as well as an operational device with some embedded electronics. The development of 3D printers capable of printing objects in more than just plastic will move the 3D-printing process forward. 3D printers are wonderfully disruptive already, but much innovation needs to occur for these devices to do more, print more and be used by everyday people who have no former experience in 3D printing. This brings us to the next big challenge in 3D printing—the software. Today, it takes someone with some level of expertise in designing, as well as troubleshooting mechanical devices, to be successful with a 3D printer. However, in the future, troubleshooting a 3D printer will be a rare occasion and the software will be easy and quick to learn, much like desktop printing today. When that happens, at-home 3D printing will flourish. 3D printing is poised to make big breakthroughs in the way people create and acquire goods; and the industry is well on its way to overcoming its key challenges—improving the printers, advancing materials used in printing and improving the software that enables 3D printing. The good news is we are only 10 to 15 years away from achieving 3D printing’s full potential.
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Physicists develop ultrasensitive nanomechanical biosensor
| Tue, 06/09/2015 - 12:42pm Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Image showing the principle of the sensor. Courtesy of Dmitry Fedyanin and Yury StebunovTwo young researchers working at the MIPT Laboratory of Nanooptics and Plasmonics, Dmitry Fedyanin and Yury Stebunov, have developed an ultracompact highly sensitive nanomechanical sensor for analyzing the chemical composition of substances and detecting biological objects, such as viral disease markers, which appear when the immune system responds to incurable or hard-to-cure diseases, including HIV, hepatitis, herpes, and many others. The sensor will enable doctors to identify tumor markers, whose presence in the body signals the emergence and growth of cancerous tumors. The sensitivity of the new device is best characterized by one key feature: according to its developers, the sensor can track changes of just a few kilodaltons in the mass of a cantilever in real time. One Dalton is roughly the mass of a proton or neutron, and several thousand Daltons are the mass of individual proteins and DNA molecules. So, the new optical sensor will allow for diagnosing diseases long before they can be detected by any other method, which will pave the way for a new-generation of diagnostics. The device, described in an article published in the journal Scientific Reports, is an optical or, more precisely, optomechanical chip. “We’ve been following the progress made in the development of micro- and nanomechanical biosensors for quite a while now and can say that no one has been able to introduce a simple and scalable technology for parallel monitoring that would be ready to use outside a laboratory. So our goal was not only to achieve the high sensitivity of the sensor and make it compact, but also make it scalabile and compatibile with standard microelectronics technologies,” the researchers said. Unlike similar devices, the new sensor has no complex junctions and can be produced through a standard CMOS process technology used in microelectronics. The sensor doesn’t have a single circuit, and its design is very simple. It consists of two parts: a photonic (or plasmonic) nanowave guide to control the optical signal, and a cantilever hanging over the waveguide. A cantilever, or beam, is a long and thin strip of microscopic dimensions (5 micrometers long, 1 micrometer wide and 90 nanometers thick), connected tightly to a chip. To get an idea how it works, imagine you press one end of a ruler tightly to the edge of a table and allow the other end to hang freely in the air. If you touch the latter with your other hand and then take your hand away, the ruler will start making mechanical oscillations at a certain frequency. That’s how the cantilever works. The difference between the oscillations of the ruler and the cantilever is only the frequency, which depends on the materials and geometry: while the ruler oscillates at several tens of hertz, the frequency of the cantilever’s oscillations is measured in megahertz. In other words, it makes a few million oscillations per second! There are two optical signals going through the waveguide during oscillations: the first one sets the cantilever in motion, and the second one allows for reading the signal containing information about the movement. The inhomogeneous electromagnetic field of the control signal’s optical mode transmits a dipole moment to the cantilever, impacting the dipole at the same time so that the cantilever starts to oscillate. The sinusoidally modulated control signal makes the cantilever oscillate at an amplitude of up to 20 nanometers. The oscillations determine the parameters of the second signal, the output power of which depends on the cantilever’s position. The highly localized optical modes of nanowave guides, which create a strong electric field intensity gradient, are key to inducing cantilever oscillations. Because the changes of the electromagnetic field in such systems are measured in tens of nanometers, researchers use the term “nanophotonics”—so the prefix “nano” is not used here just as a fad! Without the nanoscale waveguide and the cantilever, the chip simply wouldn’t work. Abig cantilever cannot be made to oscillate by freely propagating light, and the effects of chemical changes to its surface on the oscillation frequency would be less noticeable. Cantilever oscillations make it possible to determine the chemical composition of the environment in which the chip is placed. That’s because the frequency of mechanical vibrations depends not only on the materials’ dimensions and properties, but also on the mass of the oscillatory system, which changes during a chemical reaction between the cantilever and the environment. By placing different reagents on the cantilever, researchers make it react with specific substances or even biological objects. If you place antibodies to certain viruses on the cantilever, it’ll capture the viral particles in the analyzed environment. Oscillations will occur at a lower or higher amplitude depending on the virus or the layer of chemically reactive substances on the cantilever, and the electromagnetic wave passing through the waveguide will be dispersed by the cantilever differently, which can be seen in the changes of the intensity of the readout signal. Calculations done by the researchers showed that the new sensor will combine high sensitivity with a comparative ease of production and miniature dimensions, allowing it to be used in all portable devices, such as smartphones, wearable electronics, etcetera. One chip, several millimeters in size, will be able to accommodate several thousand such sensors, configured to detect different particles or molecules. The price, thanks to the simplicity of the design, will most likely depend on the number of sensors, being much more affordable than its competitors. This work was financed by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science through state order # 16.19.2014 / K. SOURCE: Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
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‘No-ink’ color printing achieved on nanomaterials
Tue, 06/09/2015 - 11:45amAndrew Careaga, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Missouri S&T researchers have developed a method to accurately print high-resolution images on nanoscale materials. They used the Missouri S&T athletic logo to demonstrate the process. At top left is the original logo. At right are examples of the logo printed at the nanoscale level.Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology are giving new meaning to the term “read the fine print” with their demonstration of a color printing process using nanomaterials. In this case, the print features are very fine—visible only with the aid of a high-powered electron microscope. The researchers describe their “no-ink” printing method in the latest issue of the journal Scientific Reports and illustrate their technique by reproducing the Missouri S&T athletic logo on a nanometer-scale surface. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, and some nanomaterials are only a few atoms in size. The method described in the Scientific Reports article “Structural color printing based on plasmonic metasurfaces of perfect light absorption” involves the use of thin sandwiches of nanometer-scale metal-dielectric materials known as metamaterials that interact with light in ways not seen in nature. Experimenting with the interplay of white light on sandwich-like structures, or plasmonic interfaces, the researchers developed what they call “a simple but efficient structural color printing platform” at the nanometer-scale level. They believe the process holds promise for future applications, including nanoscale visual arts, security marking and information storage. The researchers’ printing surface consists of a sandwich-like structure made up of two thin films of silver separated by a “spacer” film of silica. The top layer of silver film is 25 nanometers thick and is punctured with tiny holes created by a microfabrication process known as focused ion beam milling. The bottom layer of silver is four times thicker than the top layer but still minuscule at 100 nanometers. Between the top and bottom films lies a 45-nanometer silica dielectric spacer. The researchers created a scaled-down template of the athletic logo and drilled out tiny perforations on the top layer of the metamaterial structure. Under a scanning electron microscope, the template looks like a needlepoint pattern of the logo. The researchers then beamed light through the holes to create the logo using no ink—only the interaction of the materials and light. By adjusting the hole size of the top layer, light at the desired frequency was beamed into the material with a perfect absorption. This allowed researchers to create different colors in the reflected light and thereby accurately reproduce the S&T athletic logo with nanoscale color palettes. The researchers further adjusted the holes to alter the logo’s official green and gold color scheme to introduce four new colors (an orange ampersand, magenta “S” and “T,” cyan pickaxe symbol and navy blue “Missouri”). “To reproduce a colorful artwork with our nanoscale color palettes, we replaced different areas in the original image with different nanostructures with specified hole sizes to represent various visible colors,” says Dr. Xiaodong Yang, an assistant professor at Missouri S&T, who leads the Nanoscale Optics Laboratory in the university’s mechanical and aerospace engineering department. “We chose the athletic logo to fill that need.” “Unlike the printing process of an inkjet or laserjet printer, where mixed color pigments are used, there is no color ink used in our structural printing process—only different hole sizes on a thin metallic layer,” says Dr. Jie Gao, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Missouri S&T and a co-author of the paper. In their paper, the authors note that the process resulted in “pure colors with high brightness” with little need for protective coatings. The researchers believe the process could lead to “high-performance, pigment-free color printing and relevant applications such as security marking and information storage.” Other co-authors of the Scientific Reports paper are Dr. Fei Cheng, a researcher at Missouri S&T’s Nanoscale Optics Laboratory, and Dr. Ting S. Luk of the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. SOURCE: Missouri University of Science and Technology
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Who will do the technical jobs needed to fuel a commercial spacecraft industry?
| With NSF funding, SpaceTEC is preparing the next generation of spacecraft technicians
A Francis Tuttle Technology Center instructor certifies a student in CertTEC Aviation Structures. May 13, 2015 For more than 100 years, humans have been buying airline tickets to the next best destination. Soon, that destination could be space, and space technology companies are working hard to have the first commercial spacecraft in the air. To be space ready, they need aerospace technicians with the right credentials, and one center is situated to provide them. SpaceTEC National Resource Center for Aerospace Technical Education is at the front end of preparing a technician workforce for this new commercial space travel. SpaceTEC, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) since 2002 through the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program, provides resources and nationally recognized certifications for aerospace technology. It offers assessment tools and performance-based certifications to its 18 college partners, according to SpaceTEC managing director Steven Kane. "The commercial space companies now are like the aviation industry was back in the 1920's, opening doors for entrepreneurs like Bill Boeing to take an aircraft, stretch it, put some seats in it and start carrying people," says Kane. According to Kane, SpaceTEC saw a drop in enrollment when NASA's space shuttle program ended in 2011, but the industry underwent some retuning. "Companies are starting to recognize that the curriculum that was created through SpaceTEC fits their needs for those technicians to start doing that work again," says Kane. And, he adds, SpaceTEC has certified about 425 technicians for this industry. Educating a qualified workforce is part of keeping the U.S. globally competitive in this industry, according to Celeste Carter, lead program director for the ATE Program. Creating SpaceTEC SpaceTEC began as a way to create a national certification program that all companies would recognize. Earlier, companies conducted their own training and certification process. This meant that a technician starting a contract at a new company would have to go through training again and start at zero, no matter his or her experience. Brian Madgett, a SpaceTEC certified examiner, has worked in the aerospace industry for over 30 years and says he knows how essential certifications are. "It was difficult to get into the industry because there were no standardized certifications for this type of work," says Madgett. After being certified Madgett says the technical certification gave him an edge over other applicants. "Employers need to see the proof of your training and experience," he says. Partnering with educators and employers The center works with colleges, companies, government agencies and the military to ensure that the curriculum SpaceTEC created is accepted at the educator and employer levels, according to Kane. This way, he says, educators and industry representatives have a seat at the table when the decisions are about the curriculum. Some colleges like Eastern Shore Community College (ESCC) look to SpaceTEC to guide their program and curriculum, according to assistant professor of electronics and computer technology John Floyd. "As a national resource center, with decades of experience relating to the shuttle program and other high profile Aerospace ventures, the partnership gives us access to information and standards that we do not have locally," says Floyd. He also says that ESCC partnered with SpaceTEC in 2011 to prepare students for the aerospace industry and for job opportunities at the close-by NASA Wallops Flight Facility. Government agencies like NASA make the SpaceTEC certificate a requirement in their employee contracts. "The industry collaborations are essential to ensure that educators are producing the graduates that industry values," says Carter. Mechanical engineering technician Kevin McLain took the SpaceTEC exam at Thomas Nelson Community College as a requirement for his NASA contract. "I think they made it a requirement to ensure that I had sufficient knowledge of the aerospace industry and could prove to them that [I'm] serious about [my] career field," McLain says. SpaceTEC expands to other industries Before SpaceTEC experienced a resurgence in certifications, the center saw an opportunity to apply the same skill sets required in their certification program in other industries, such as the automobile, airline and energy industries. So NSF granted SpaceTEC a supplement in 2009 to create CertTEC, which offers performance-based, national certifications for technical training beyond aerospace technology. It includes certifications for Basic Electricity & Electronics, Aviation Structures, Aviation Mechanical Assembly and Basic Composites. CertTEC has certified almost 1200 technicians, according to Kane. And like SpaceTEC, the program helps students enter and move up in their industry, according to CertTEC examiner and senior instructor Kenny Payton of the Francis Tuttle Technology Center. "Being in the aviation field for over 40 years, the training and testing baseline insures the employee has the skills that the employer is seeking, making for an easier transition into productive employment," says Payton. A new project for veterans SpaceTEC's newest project is VetTEC, a one-stop-shop to help veterans apply the skills they learned in the military to industry jobs. "When they come out of the military, there's nothing really that provides industry a guide to what this person knows," says Kane. According to Kane, the military uses skill codes, according to Kane, but they don't translate well to job postings' qualifications. VetTEC would be a tool that would let veterans input their skill code, find the certifications that fit their skills and see the jobs available for that skill set. The project is a work in progress, but could give veterans a way into the commercial space industry, among others. Beyond national certification, an ongoing dialogue with industry is key to SpaceTEC's success. "The benefit of a national certification is that no matter what college teaches the information, everybody has to meet this national standard," says Kane. "In order to ensure that there's a home for these certified technicians that are created, the industry has to be involved."
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Revealing the ocean's hidden fertilizer
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Press Release 15-053 Tiny marine plants play major role in phosphorus cycle
An instrument system used to collect samples from different water depths in the ocean. May 14, 2015 Phosphorus is one of the most common substances on Earth. An essential nutrient for every living organism--humans require approximately 700 milligrams per day--we're rarely concerned about consuming enough because it is in most of the foods we eat. Despite its ubiquity and living organisms' dependence on it, we know surprisingly little about how it moves, or cycles, through the ocean environment. Scientists studying the marine phosphorous cycle have known that phosphorus was absorbed by plants and animals and released back to seawater in the form of phosphate as these plants and animals decay and die. But a growing body of research hints that microbes in the ocean transform phosphorus in ways that remain a mystery. Hidden role of ocean's microbes A new study by a research team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Columbia University reveals for the first time a marine phosphorus cycle that is much more complex than previously thought. The work also highlights the important but previously hidden role that some microbial communities play in using and breaking down forms of this essential element. A paper reporting these findings is published this week in the journal Science. "A reason to be excited about this elegant study is in the paper's last sentence: 'the environmental, ecological and evolutionary controls ...remain completely unknown,'" says Don Rice, a program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research through its Chemical Oceanography Program. "There's still a lot we don't know about the sea." The work is also supported by an NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity grant. "This is an exciting new discovery that closes a fundamental knowledge gap in our understanding of the marine phosphorus cycle," says the paper's lead author Ben Van Mooy, a biochemist at WHOI. Much like phosphorus-based fertilizers boost the growth of plants on land, phosphorus in the ocean promotes the production of microbes and tiny marine plants called phytoplankton, which compose the base of the marine food chain. Phosphonate mystery It's been unclear exactly how phytoplankton are using the most abundant forms of phosphorus found in the ocean--phosphates and a strange form of phosphorus called phosphonates. "Phosphonates have always been a huge mystery," Van Mooy says. "No one's been able to figure out exactly what they are, and more importantly, if they're made and consumed quickly by microbes, or if they're just lying around in the ocean." To find out more about phosphonates and how microbes metabolize them, the researchers took samples of seawater at a series of stations during a research cruise from Bermuda to Barbados. They added phosphate to the samples so they could see the microbes in action. The research team used ion chromatography onboard ship for water chemistry analyses, which allowed the scientists to observe how quickly microbes reacted to the added phosphate in the seawater. "The ion chromatograph [IC] separates out the different families of molecules," explains Van Mooy. "We added radioactive phosphate, then isolated the phosphonate to see if the samples became radioactive, too. It's the radioactive technique that let us see how fast phosphate was transformed to phosphonate." Enter the microbes The researchers found that about 5 percent of the phosphate in the shallow water samples was taken up by the microbes and changed to phosphonates. In deeper water samples, which were taken at depths of 40 and 150 meters (131 feet and 492 feet), about 15 to 20 percent of the phosphates became phosphonates. "Although evidence of the cycling of phosphonates has been mounting for nearly a decade, these results show for the first time, that microbes are producing phosphonates in the ocean, and that it is happening very quickly," says paper co-author Sonya Dyhrman of Columbia University. "An exciting aspect of this study was the application of the IC method at sea. In near-real-time, we could tell that the phosphate we added was being transformed to phosphonate." Better understanding of phosphorus cycle A better understanding of phosphorus cycling in the oceans is important, as it affects the marine food web and, therefore, the ability of the oceans to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. The researchers say that solving the mystery of phosphonates also reinforces the need to identify the full suite of phosphorus biochemicals being produced and metabolized by marine microbes, and what physiological roles they serve for these cells. "Such work will help us further resolve the complexities of how this critical element is cycled in the ocean," Dyhrman adds. Grants from the Simons Foundation also supported the work. -NSF- |
Balancing life, health and research
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Graduate student perseveres to increase access for persons with severe disabilities
Key goal: Designing robotic devices that will increase the independence of people with disabilities. June 2, 2015 Kavita Krishnaswamy's doctoral dissertation defense at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), was fairly typical. Dissertation committee, doctoral candidate, explanatory slides, questions from the committee. When it was over and time to deliberate, Tim Oates, Kavita's advisor, asked her to leave the room. Because Kavita delivered her presentation via a Beam Smart Presence System (BeamPro), she powered down the computer screen beaming her into the meeting. This was business as usual for the computer science student whose research involves developing robotic prototypes to transfer, reposition and perform personal hygiene tasks for those with severe disabilities. She is also studying how to improve control over robotic interfaces for these individuals. Her tool kit includes elements of machine learning, artificial intelligence, brain-computer interfaces and other communication technologies. Using technology to improve technology Knowing intimately the challenges of coping with a severe disability, Kavita makes the most of available technology to continue her quest to improve the quality of life and increase autonomy for individuals with disabilities. As her own physical abilities deteriorate due to spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic condition affecting movement, Kavita uses multiple communication platforms including Skype, Google Hangout, email and phone to stay in touch with her UMBC colleagues. During the past year, she has relied on the BeamPro to interact with her peers and perform research. "I attend many events, talks, seminars, and conferences with the Beam, allowing me independence and mobility to meet, learn, and network with professionals all over the world," Kavita explains. "The Beam gives me independence to be visible in the community to explore and expand technological boundaries from my home to exchange ideas with high-achieving entrepreneurs, innovative researchers, and industry leaders." Pursuing excellence Her strong academic record and research insights have not gone unnoticed. Kavita is the recipient of a Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Fellowship, an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) and a Ford Foundation Fellowship. These highly selective programs recognize and provide financial support for individuals that have demonstrated the potential for significant achievements in science and engineering. "I am extremely grateful for the research support of these fellowships," says Kavita. "These fellowships are instrumental in facilitating my research career in many ways and making it possible for me to be one step closer to achieving my goals to assist people with disabilities. They enable me to focus on my research goals with greater determination to succeed." In reviewing Kavita's credentials for the LSAMP BD Fellowship, UMBC LSAMP Director Cynthia Hill says, "she just stood above so many others." In addition to double-majoring in mathematics and computer science at UMBC and achieving a 4.0 GPA as an undergraduate, Kavita also started an organization for students with disabilities and people who wanted to support them. Tasha Inniss, program director and co-lead, along with Art Hicks, of NSF's LSAMP program, describes the UMBC BD Fellowship program as "unique and innovative" because it allows students to live their lives while staying involved in STEM. Adds Hill, who is also associate provost, "Many of our students are still persisting like Kavita. We have students who work full time while pursuing a Ph.D. part time. Some have moved through the program faster than others, but they're hanging in there." The UMBC BD program provides two years of financial support from NSF and requires a commitment from a Fellow's department to continue to fund the student when the fellowship ends. The program also requires Fellows to mentor new BD Fellows. Kavita embraces this aspect of the program and works closely with Renetta Tull, UMBC associate vice provost for graduate student development and postdoctoral affairs. "Dr. Tull encourages me to share my research updates with the BD Fellows to inspire and motivate them to pursue STEM research that will benefit society in a significant way." To stay in touch with other Fellows, Kavita uses the BeamPro and social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. Expanding access Pursuing technologies to increase independence for people with disabilities is just one goal Kavita would like to achieve. The other is to increase the active participation of underrepresented groups in the community locally, nationwide and internationally via research, especially those with disabilities. Kavita's NSF Graduate Research Fellowship has helped provide a foundation for this latter goal. "The best and brightest individuals are selected through a national competition early in their graduate careers based on their potential to succeed in science and engineering and to broaden participation in the field," says GRFP Program Director Gisele Muller-Parker. "[Kavita] is clearly passionate about helping others through the development of robotics research and is an inspiring leader in this area." The NSF GRFP awards 2,000 fellowships annually, selecting recipients from a pool of 16,000 or more applicants. Each award provides three years of financial support for graduate study that leads to a research-based master's or doctoral degree in science and engineering. After receiving her doctorate, Kavita plans to focus solely on research in either academia or industry. "I will emphasize the importance of an inclusive environment for all by conducting research to advance technology development and increase diversity as a leader in computing, robotics, and accessibility," she says. Inspired by others For Kavita, her biggest challenge is balancing life, health and research. "As a woman with a severe physical disability, this is comparatively more challenging than it is for my peers without a disability," she says. When she began her undergraduate studies Kavita could still attend class, and with the help of her mother, Pushpa, wrote mathematical equations with a soft lead pencil. As her condition progressed she turned to MathType, an equation editor suggested by math advisor Muddappa Gowda. This allowed Kavita to type mathematical notations in a word processing program. Now, using the index finger on her right hand, one of the few sets of muscles she can still control, she guides a trackball mouse to write papers and programming code with the help of an onscreen virtual keyboard. The resourcefulness of countless colleagues continues to inspire Kavita to reach her highest potential. "I am most surprised that my dream to help others become more independent is coming to reality little by little through the product of combined efforts of many individuals that have supported the progress of my research," she says. "The latest developments in technology, specifically in the field of robotics, inspire me to design and develop robotic devices that will allow people with disabilities to accomplish the tasks of daily life independently to positively change the quality of their lives and revolutionize accessibility." When UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski III shared his favorite words by Langston Hughes with Kavita, she says her perspective broadened and her confidence to always believe in achieving her dreams grew: "Hold fast to dreams
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OpenEars headphones designed to bring binaural sound recording to the mainstream
| OpenEars Bluetooth headphones promise quick and easy binaural recording Binaural recordings use two microphones to capture sound in the same way it is captured by human ears. The spatial depth of the resulting 3D sound is often impressive, but it can only be fully appreciated when wearing headphones and the recording process tends to be reserved for professionals as it usually involves a dummy head with a microphone placed in each ear. A German company called Binauric is looking to bring binaural recording to a wider audience with its OpenEars Bluetooth in-ear headphones that feature a microphone in each earpiece. Binaural recordings are different to regular stereo recordings for a number of reasons. The sound perceived by the ear/microphone closer to the sound source arrives earlier (inter-aural time difference or ITD) and is louder (inter-aural level difference or ILD) than that further away from the sound source. Additionally, the sound arriving at the furthermost ear will be slightly modified as a result of traveling around the head and being reflected off surfaces around the head (masking and head-related transfer functions or HRTFs). Since, binaural recordings don't offer much of an advantage for studio recordings since studios aren't that interesting spatially, the technology never really took off for musical artists. However, its ability to provide the acoustic impression of another space makes it more applicable to recordings in the outdoors or locations with interesting acoustic spatial qualities, such as concert halls. It is these markets Binauric is targeting with its OpenEars headphones that are the subject of a crowdfunding campaign. In addition to the 25 Hz to 22 kHz in-ear speakers, the headphones feature MEMs condenser microphones with a frequency range of 18 Hz to 23 kHz. The wireless units feature an inline volume control connect to iOS or Android devices via Bluetooth and boast a play and record time of 6 hours on a single charge. They can be fully recharged in under an hour, with a 15 minute fast charge providing 1.5 hours of playback time. The headphones are also designed to be water repellent and dust- and sweat-proof. One group of prolific video content creators whose work Binauric believes could benefit from binaural recordings are GoPro aficionados. To this end, the company has developed OpenMics, a pair of optional standalone microphones that can be attached to a helmet (or drone) and wirelessly relay the sound to a connected GoPro via 2.4 GHz radio frequency. OpenEars can of course be used as regular Bluetooth headphones for listening to music or for hands-free calls. Thanks to the “Hear Through” functionality users are able to listen to music and their surroundings at the same time and customize how much ambient sound they want to hear, which is a big plus for safety-conscious cyclists and pedestrians. However, you don't have to be a skater or a bungee jumper to use OpenEars. Binauric wants users to record binaural sound with every video or photo they take and start using spatial sounds to help someone viewing the material feel like they were there with you. The headphones could also appeal to ASMR devotees, many of which have already embraced the technology. The companion app for iOS and Android lets users share recordings via Dropbox, email or SoundCloud, or stream them in real time. Binauric has taken to Kickstarter to raise funds to get the OpenEars headphones into production. If all goes well, the company expects the headphones to retail for €199 (US$222), but early bird backers can stake a claim for a pair at €119 (US$133). Delivery is estimated for November, but the team is still some way off the €125,000 goal with just over two weeks left to run. You can check out a binaural recording of some New York City sightseeing below, but just be sure to use headphones to get the effect. Source: Binauric
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iOS 9 introduces app improvements, transit maps and iPad multitasking
| Apple announced a huge number of additions to its mobile OS at WWDC 2015 Apple has taken the wraps off iOS 9 at its yearly WWDC event in San Francisco. The latest version of the company's popular mobile operating system doesn't make any big visual changes, but offers numerous app tweaks, improvements to Siri, new multitasking features for iPad users, and much more. First up, Siri will be getting a big upgrade with iOS 9, with the company beefing up the service to compete with Google Now. Apple's personal assistant will be much more context aware with the new release, giving users the ability to make commands such as "remind me about this later" when looking at a piece of content. Siri is also getting a new, more colorful look in iOS 9, and "Siri Suggestions" will debut, offering context aware contact and app recommendations in Search. There are plenty of additional tweaks to the service. For example, if you're into yoga, an appropriate app will be recommended when you get up in the morning, and track suggestions will automatically pop up when you plug in a set of headphones. The new release will also see event invitations added automatically to Calendar, and will provide deep links between Search and third party apps, allowing users to get suggestions and jump straight into relevant apps. Multitasking comes to iPad The new OS will also introduce some new multitasking features for iPad users, most notably a new Split View that allows users to use two apps side-by-side. The feature is activated by swiping in with one finger from the right of the display, with app switching handled by swiping down from the top right. Picture-in-picture video will also arrive on iPad with iOS 9, allowing users to resize and move around videos. Lastly, there's a big new feature coming to the iPads, with the ability to use the keyboard like a trackpad via two finger gestures. The new multitasking features will be available to iOS 9 users on iPad Air and iPad Air 2, as well as iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 3. iOS 9 will also bring introduce a number of improvements to apps, with a new toolbar coming to Notes, providing formatting options, interactive check lists, drawing tools and a new way of viewing entries based on attachments. Maps is also getting a big upgrade with the addition of a new Transit view, showing public transport routes, with step-by-step directions. Users can click on a train station to see which lines are running through it, and Apple has taken the time to map stations, giving users more detailed directions about which entrances and exits to use than you'll find on competing services. Next up is News – a news aggregation app that allows users to pick their favorite publications and topics (there are more than one million of the latter on offer), with the service creating a personalized feed. If you're familiar with services like Flipboard, then you'll know roughly what to expect from News, but the app looks to have some nice features, including support for animations, videos and a slick-looking gallery view. It'll launch first in the US, UK and Australia. Apple Pay hitting the UK The company also announced that its mobile payments service – Apple Pay – will make its way to the UK in July, with more than 250,000 retail locations at launch. The service is also being expanded in the US, with support for more retailers, more banks, and more in-app payments using the service. Apple Pay will also be improving when iOS 9 hits, with the ability to add store and reward cards. The company also announced that PassBook will become Wallet, putting everything from flight boarding cards to credit cards in one place. The restOn other fronts, Apple says users can expect an extra hour of battery life after installing the new version of the OS, and it will bring with it a new low power mode that extends uptimes by an additional three hours when juice starts getting low. There were also a number of announcements for developers at the conference, the biggest of which was is an update to the company's development language, now known as Swift 2. There are numerous enhancements and changes on the way here, the biggest of which is that the language will be going open source, with compilers available for OS X and Linux by the end of the year. iOS 9 will be compatible with the same set of devices that are capable of running the current iOS 8 release (see above). The Developer Preview of iOS 9 will be available today, while the public beta will hit this July. Rather wait for the polished public release? It's scheduled to land in the (Northern hemisphere) Fall of 2015. Source: Apple
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15 New Technologies That Will Become Mainstream Soon
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Natural rubber from dandelions
Mon, 06/08/2015 - 10:59amFraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Left to right: Dr. Christian Schulze Gronover, Dr. Carla Recker (Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH) and Prof. Dirk Prüfer make use of the Russian dandelion to obtain natural rubber for subsequent use in the manufacture of car tires. Image: Dirk Mahler/FraunhoferDandelions are modest plants that are an excellent alternative source for a raw material of high demand: natural rubber, the fundamental ingredient in rubber products. Fraunhofer researchers have established the basis for the large-scale production of high quality rubber with Russian dandelion. Approximately 40,000 products of everyday life contain natural rubber. It's the material that provides extreme elasticity, tensile strength and low-temperature flexibility in products from mattresses and gloves to adhesive tape and tires. As yet, it has no artificial replacement. However, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME were able to identify a cost-effective and eco-friendly alternative to the natural rubber tree: the dandelion. Currently, all our natural rubber comes from Hevea brasiliensis, a tree that grows under subtropical climate. Increasing demands and potential problems with a devastating fungus have made natural rubber into a valuable resource. Southeast Asia accounts for 95% of global production. In order to meet growing demands, producers turn rainforest into agricultural land. Now Prof. Dirk Prüfer and his colleague Dr. Christian Schulze Gronover from Fraunhofer IME in Münster are developing Taraxacum kok-saghyz, also known as Russian dandelion, as an efficient replacement for the natural rubber tree. "The plant is extremely resilient, able to grow in moderate climates and even in soil that is not or just barely suited for the cultivation of food and feed crops," explains Christian Schulze Gronover. "Dandelions also have the advantage of growing annually. The natural rubber tree takes between seven and ten years to deliver the first harvest." Dirk Prüfer decided to investigate the dandelion after a sudden insight on a day out. "I was sitting in a meadow in the Sauerland region in Germany, and it was absolutely covered with dandelions. Having plucked the flower off one of them, I was wondering if the expelling white latex contains rubber." However, Germany's native dandelions don't produce sufficient quantities of rubber for being industrially viable. That's why the researchers subsequently turned their attention to the Russian dandelion, which produces large amounts of natural rubber. With the help of precision breeding, the researchers were quickly able to double the amount of natural rubber in the Russian dandelion. This was achieved without genetic modification; instead, Dirk Prüfer and Christian Schulze Gronover analyzed the dandelion's genome and identified suitable DNA markers. These genetic tools could tell already in a very early stage of plant development if a given plant will possess an efficient rubber production. Extraction of natural rubber from the plant was another challenge. To this end, the scientists developed an eco-friendly technique whereby only the roots are pulverized because the leaves contain very little rubber. At the end of the process, water is used to separate the resource from the other substances. New natural rubber successfully undergoes practical testing Since natural rubber is critical to the quality of many rubber products, industrialized nations in particular regard it as a strategically important resource. Natural rubber obtained from dandelions could reduce the dependence on imports from Asia. However, if the entire world production will be based on dandelion rubber, one would need the size of Austria for its cultivation. Thus, Dirk Prüfer points out that rubber from dandelion will not replace the actual source, but will compensate the additional demand in the future. Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
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