New wearable technology can sense appliance use, help track carbon footprint

 

This MagnifiSense research prototype can sense what appliances its wearer is using, based on the electromagnetic radiation emanating from devices such as blenders, remote controls or even automobiles. Credit: University of Washington In today's smart home, technologies can track how much energy a particular appliance like a refrigerator or television or hair dryer is gobbling up. What they don't typically show is which person in the house actually flicked the switch. A new wearable technology developed at the University of Washington called MagnifiSense can sense what devices and vehicles the user interacts with throughout the day, which can help track that individual's carbon footprint, enable smart home applications or even assist with elder care. In a study to be presented this week at the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, MagnifiSense correctly classified 94 percent of users' interactions with 12 common devices after a quick one-time calibration, including microwaves, blenders, remote controls, electric toothbrushes, laptops, light dimmers, and even cars and buses. Even without the calibration, MagnifiSense was still correct 83 percent of the time. The sensor worn on the wrist uses unique electromagnetic radiation signatures generated by electrical components or motors in those devices to pinpoint when its wearer flicks a light switch, turns on a stove or even boards a train. "It's another way to log what you're interacting with so at the end of the day or month you can see how much energy you used," said Shwetak Patel, Washington Research Foundation Endowed Professor of Computer Science & Engineering and Electrical Engineering, who directs the UW Ubicomp Lab. "Right now, we can know that lights are 20 percent of your energy use. With this, we divvy it up and say who consumed that energy," said Patel. In a 24-hour test in which a single user did everything from read on a laptop to cook dinner and take a bus ride, the system correctly identified 25 out of 29 interactions with various devices and vehicles. MagnifiSense also has potential for other smart home applications, such as recognizing a user's preference for interacting with an appliance or device. By sensing whether an adult or child is turning on a television or tablet, for instance, a system could automatically display their favorite programs or tailor the device with appropriate selections. In assisted living settings or nursing homes, the wearable sensor could help keep track of how efficiently elderly people are going about everyday tasks such as cooking or grooming. It could also detect when a stove has been left on for a long period of time and help alert someone to that danger. "The nice thing with MagnifiSense is that you don't have to instrument every single appliance in your house, which gets expensive and cumbersome," said lead author Edward Wang, a UW electrical engineering doctoral student. "It can also sense some of the blank spots that other technologies can't, like battery-powered devices." The team combined three simple, off-the-shelf sensors that use inductors, or coils of wire wound around magnets. Those proved to be the most accurate without being so power-hungry that wearing them would be impractical. The sensors also capture a broad frequency range that allows the system to differentiate between electromagnetic radiation emanating from the unique combinations of electronic components such as motors, rectifiers and modulators embedded in everyday devices. "When a blender turns on, for instance, modulators change the current profile of the device and create something similar to a vocal cord pattern," Wang said. "A blender 'sings' quite differently than a hair dryer even though to our ears they sound similar." The team also developed innovative signal processing and machine learning algorithms to help the system correctly match those patterns with a particular type of device. One advantage to a wearable option is that anyone concerned about privacy issues can control when they use it, researchers said, or simply take it off. Next steps include testing MagnifiSense on a wider variety of devices and distinguishing between multiple devices operating in close proximity. In preliminary tests, for instance, MagnifiSense had the most trouble correctly classifying a handful of particular toothbrushes, shavers and cars. The researchers also plan to work on miniaturizing their proof-of-concept device into something that could be embedded into a watch or band. Based on its investigation, the team believes that with slight improvement to the update rate of magnetic sensors in current smartphones and smartwatches, MagnifiSense could soon be enabled on new devices with a simple software upgrade. "We think it could be integrated into any wrist-sized product," said Patel. "The next steps are really to look at what other devices we can detect and work on a prototype that's wearable." Co-authors include UW electrical engineering doctoral student Tien-Jui Lee, UW computer science and engineering doctoral students Alex Mariakakis and Mayank Goel, and Sidhant Gupta. Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150909091227.htm

MIT’s groundbreaking mini fusion reactor could power the world within 10 years

 

by Cat DiStasio, 08/13/15 Engineers at MIT spend a lot of time figuring out how to make things better, faster, and often smaller. Now, powerful new magnet technology has led the way to a groundbreaking design for a small, modular fusion ARC reactor that generates the same amount of power as its larger predecessors. MIT researchers believe this new concept could be realized in as little as 10 years, and this type of power generation could be the clean, renewable energy the world has been waiting for. Nuclear fusion power plants are a dream fusion scientists have been chasing for decades, and it’s always been just out of reach. Until now, the enormous size and heat involved in a fusion reactor large enough to produce utility-scale power made projects like that very expensive. As with many things, the ability to make a fusion reactor smaller also makes it less expensive and easier to build. Related: MIT genius team can measure how fast a technology is developing Researchers have published their design proposal in the journal Fusion Engineering and Design. The new breakthrough design is based on a single advancement in magnet technology. The difference is commercially available superconductors, rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) superconducting tapes, which researchers propose to use in high-magnetic field coils for the reactor. According to Dennis Whyte, a professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering and director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, “It changes the whole thing.” In addition to being more economical to build, the superconductors in the smaller modular fusion reactor are strong enough to increase fusion power by about a factor of 10 compared to standard superconducting technology, says PhD candidate Brandon Sorbom, who co-authored the report with Whyte and 11 others at MIT. For perspective, Sorbom explains the world’s largest planned fusion power plant- a huge device called ITER that is under construction in France – was designed before these new superconductors were available and will cost $40 billion. If the same power capacity were to be achieved using MIT’s new design, Sorbom and the MIT team estimate the reactor would be about half the diameter or ITER and could produce about the same amount of power for a fraction of the cost, while being built in a shorter span of time. Via MIT Images via MIT ARC team and Jose‑Luis Olivares/MIT   http://inhabitat.com/groundbreaking-magnet-technology-from-mit-could-catalyze-renewable-nuclear-fusion-industry-within-10-years/

Preparing for the ubiquitous technologies of tomorrow

 

NSF enlists National Academies experts to envision future multidisciplinary engineering research. August 5, 2015 What is needed to create ubiquitous future technologies that will enable new industries, and who will create them? Currently, NSF Engineering Research Centers address a variety of engineering and technological challenges as they pursue transformational research, education and innovation outcomes. This model has resulted in significant national returns on investment for 30 years. In consideration of significant, ongoing changes -- in science, engineering, education, economics, demographics, and the global landscape -- the National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to ensure future engineering research centers will continue to benefit the nation. To do so, the NSF Directorate for Engineering has awarded a grant to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences for a study to determine what center-based research, education and innovation models could be the most effective as the U.S. and global landscapes undergo future shifts. “Our Engineering Research Centers, first developed nearly 30 years ago with the help of the National Academies, have yielded great advances in manufacturing, communications, biomedical, and other sectors,” said Pramod Khargonekar, NSF assistant director for engineering. “Now we are thinking of the next 30 years, and how to ensure that our center-scale investments in engineering research, innovation and education continue to create innovators and catalyze new technologies and industries for the benefit of all Americans.” "This announcement highlights a continuation of over three decades of collaboration between the National Science Foundation and National Academy of Engineering on multidisciplinary, center-based engineering research, development and innovation,” said NAE president C. D. Mote, Jr. “Collaborations that advance multidisciplinary engineering and develop talent for the great problems of our time are mandatory for leadership in this world of accelerating change." During the next two years, forward-thinking experts appointed by the presidents of the NAE and National Academy of Sciences will envision potential future opportunities, missions, measures and models for engineering research centers. The committee will evaluate center designs and features for their ability to achieve breakthrough, multidisciplinary discoveries and innovations and to prepare an inclusive, innovative engineering workforce for success. They will also anticipate forms of university-industry partnerships that will spur translational research and accelerate real-world deployment in the future, allowing centers to maximize their contributions to the innovation ecosystem in the coming decades. As part of their collection of data and perspectives, the committee of experts anticipates holding a public symposium in 2016. At the end of the project, the committee will publish a peer-reviewed report. Media Contacts Sarah Bates, NSF, (703) 292-7738, sabates@nsf.gov Nicole Flores, National Academy of Engineering, (202) 334-2226, nflores@nae.edu Program Contacts Garie Fordyce, NSF, (703) 292-4603, gfordyce@nsf.gov Sohi Rastegar, NSF, (703) 292-5379, srastega@nsf.gov Principal Investigator James Lancaster, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, jlancaster@nas.edu Related Websites Previous engineering research center study by National Academies: http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/good-bye?http://www.nap.edu/catalog/616/the-new-engineering-research-centers-purposes-goals-and-expectations "This announcement highlights a continuation of over three decades of collaboration between the National Science Foundation and National Academy of Engineering on multidisciplinary, center-based engineering research, development and innovation,” said NAE president C. D. Mote, Jr. “Collaborations that advance multidisciplinary engineering and develop talent for the great problems of our time are mandatory for leadership in this world of accelerating change." The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2015, its budget is $7.3 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 48,000 competitive proposals for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $626 million in professional and service contracts yearly.   Useful NSF Web Sites: NSF Home Page: http://www.nsf.gov NSF News: http://www.nsf.gov/news/ For the News Media: http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp Science and Engineering Statistics: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ Awards Searches: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

15 New Technologies That Will Become Mainstream Soon

 

Technology is an ever changing, always evolving thing. There are new technologies coming out every year and there is always something on the brink of becoming mainstream. Take the smartwatch for instance. Two years ago it was a prototype and now there will be at least four different high quality smartwatches by the end of 2014. Let’s take a look at other new technologies that are about to become mainstream soon.   1. Smart glasses We’ve seen this already a little bit with Google Glass but that’s just the beginning. Despite getting a lot of press and controversy, Google Glass is a very young product. In fact, all the pairs that are out now are beta test units. Sometime in the next couple of years Google will be releasing a consumer level version for a much cheaper price. It’s also very likely that there will be competitors releasing smart glasses right alongside Google Glass. There will be some who don’t like it at first but eventually the kinks will be worked out and this is a thing that will happen.   2. Smart data More and more things are becoming automated these days but there are things we still have to do manually. Like adding someone to your contacts list on your phone or in your email. Things like this are probably coming to an end soon.  A company called RelateIQ is already working on turning your relationship management into an automated thing by building a contacts list automatically based on things like your email inbox and your current contacts list, messages, etc. There will come a point where you just need to ask for someone’s name and you can create a contact profile immediately without any work on your part.   3. Wearable electronics With the aforementioned Google Glass and smartwatches, we’re already seeing this to a degree but it’s going to get way more crazy than that. Smart glasses and smart watches are social devices that connect you to the outside world. There are other wearable electronics in the works that connect you to your body. We’re talking ear buds that measure heart rate, contact lenses that can measure your blood sugar, temporary tattoos that can unlock doors via NFC technology, and all sorts of cool stuff. Once they work this out for consumer use, it wont’ be long until you start getting options for implants that’ll track your vitals in real time so you’ll know you’re having a heart attack before your heart does. It’s going to save lives.   4. Smart houses Once again, this is a thing that is right on the brink of being a real thing. We already have smart appliances such as refrigerators that will tell you when you’re low on a certain food item or an oven you can control with your smartphone. Sometime in the near future these things will be aggregated into an entire home unit that you’ll be able to control with your smartphone, tablet, or computer. We’re talking changing the thermostat, changing the channel on TV, and getting notifications that your laundry is ready all without leaving your couch. You can preheat the oven for dinner as you leave work so it’s ready to cook when you get home. It won’t be too much longer before your house talks to you and you can talk to it. The tech is already there, it’s just a matter of putting it all together in a stable enough manner for consumers.   5. Virtual reality gaming You game nerds out there prepare yourselves. Many gaming fans already know of the Oculus Rift which is a VR headset that plays video games. It was recently bought by Facebook that is actively working on turning it into a social device as well as a gaming device. Samsung is reportedly working on their own as well. There will come a point where you’ll be able to go buy one of these headsets, take them anywhere, and watch, play, or view anything. It’s already almost there. 6. Screenless displays Screenless displays are pretty much what they sound like. Displays that display things but without a screen. This technology has apparently come a long way in the last two years and is expected to make even more strides in the coming years. Things like holograms won’t be science fiction anymore. There may even be contact lenses that shoot images straight into your eye. This won’t just be a breakthrough for entertainment mediums, but people who can’t see well will be able to enjoy things for the first time without laser eye surgery.   7. Brain-Computer interfaces These actually already exist to a degree. Quadriplegics have been using them for years to talk through a computer. The technology isn’t as refined as it could be but it’s well on its way. That means there could be a point in the future where you don’t need a mouse or a keyboard anymore. You can just think things and they happen on screen. This is great for people who have disabilities, people who want to be productive, and for gamers. 8. Universally available services This may sound complicated but it’s really not because services like this exist. You may have heard of Uber. Uber is a taxi service that you can access pretty much anywhere where Uber has drivers. It’s in the U.S. and Europe with more places being planned. What makes Uber unique is its ability to be a universal service. There will come a time where you can call an Uber driver no matter where you are. These kind of services that transcend borders and continents by using the magic of the internet will continue to pop up. It doesn’t matter what language you speak or what country you’re in, you’ll be able to use the same service everywhere. Mark my words, there will be more services like Uber (but for other things aside from transportation) popping up once people have more ideas! 9. Digital downloads will kill physical objects The end of owning physical copies of a video game are upon us. Popular computer gaming platforms like Steam and Origins have already begun distributing video games digitally without a disc or a cartridge. With the plummeting prices of flash storage (like you find on smartphones) and the increasing stability and speed of the internet, it’s absolutely certain that all video games (and media for that matter) will one day be only distributed digitally. That means no more CDs, game discs, DVDs, Blue-Ray, etc. It’ll all be files that you download directly to your TV, phone, MP3 player, or video game system. Music has pretty much done this already and movies are well on their way. Soon, it’ll be everything. It’s hard to imagine but streamlined and mainstream media and game downloads have only been a thing for about half a decade now and they still have a long way to go. 10. Robots will be everywhere Huge strides have been made in robotics in the last ten years and more are expected to be made in the coming decade. We’re not talking fully intelligent robots (yet) but definitely ones that are stable and reliable enough to start working. It’ll likely start with places like assembly lines and work their way into other facets of manual labor that humans don’t want to do. We’re even seriously talking about robots performing surgery on humans while being controlled by a doctor and a technician. You can find demos of robots doing things like shooting wads of paper into trash cans or ones that pour coffee. If those are prototypes, then the finish products can’t be all that far behind. 11. Biofuels and renewable energy The people alive right now know one thing for certain. We will be the last living creatures who considered fossil fuels as the only source of energy available on this planet. Within the next few decades, huge strides are expected to be made in solar and wind energy. People are exploring potential fuel sources from everything from wheat to algae. Our dependence on oil and coal is still pretty steadfast but it’s beginning to loosen its grip. In the next ten years, expect a huge push for electric cars, solar panels on houses, and lots of complaining from oil company executives. 12. Wireless energy transfer There are already examples of this out in the wild. The Qi Wireless charging dock allows people with some smartphones (generally newer ones) to charge their devices without the use of cables. This is a big deal because wireless energy transferring has a lot of applications. When electric cars are a bigger deal, you’ll be able to just park on top of a charging center and your car will charge. They may even build solar-powered roads that charges your car as you drive (how cool would that be, really?). The applications are limited only by one’s imagination and wireless cell phone charging is just the tip of a very large ice berg. 13. 5G mobile data Yes, I know we just now got 4G under control here in the United States and many places in the world are still stuck on 3G. Technology doesn’t stop just because we’re behind on our infrastructure. Currently 5G is in the research phase but the phrase has been increasingly tossed around. Keep in mind it only took a decade or two to go from 3G to 4G. Don’t expect it to take any longer going from 4G to 5G. 14. Artificial Intelligence You’ve seen the movies about it but could it actually exist in our lifetime? The answer is yes, it very well may. If you’ve seen the famous robot designed by IBM that schooled everyone in Jeopardy then you’ve already seen the kind of progress we’ve made in artificial intelligence. There is still a long way to go but thanks to things like contextual technology (Siri, Google Now, Cortana, etc), we’re getting a lot better at drawing up software that can predict and react like a real person can. It won’t be much longer until it’s all integrated together to create a robot that can think. 15. Graphene Back in 2004, the first sheet of graphene was produced. Ever since, scientists have been trying to figure out a way to mass produce it. Why? Because it’s going to make everything better. It could give us much faster internet. It’s 100 times stronger than steel so naturally it’s going to be awesome for building anything. We could use it as a filter for water and scrub the oceans clean of toxic waste. It could be used on smartphones to make them virtually indestructible. It would make batteries obsolete. Truth be told, we’re not going to list all the things graphene could be useful for because its applications are practically limitless. Sooner or later we’ll figure out how to mass produce it. Prepare for the second industrial revolution where everything is made from graphene. I mean everything. Not kidding. It wasn’t long ago that most of this stuff was science fiction. To many (including myself) it still seems like something you saw in an episode of Star Trek or read in an HG Wells book. It’s almost frightening how far we’ve come but we’re almost there and in a few more decades, it’s going to be amazing to see how far we’ve come.

Cars That Run on Air and Water? Audi Rolls Out E-Diesel.

 

As research into clean cars expands, Audi unveils a synthetic diesel that’s made with water, air and carbon dioxide. Audi is making a synthetic diesel from water and carbon dioxide at a pilot plant in Dresden, Germany, that's run by its partner sunfire, a clean technology company. Photograph courtesy Sunfire Cars that run on a synthetic fuel, made from water and air, represent the cutting-edge of innovation now sweeping the auto industry. In a German factory, Audi is making “e-diesel” that uses— rather than emits—carbon dioxide. The carbon-neutral fuel contains no sulfur or fossil oil. If it catches on and is produced for a mass market, it could make internal combustion engines much cleaner in the future. “Synthetic diesel using CO2 is a huge success,” says Germany’s Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka, who showed her support last week by putting the first five liters (1.3 gallons) into her work car, an Audi A8. E-diesel is the latest in a slew of breakthroughs aimed at building cleaner cars via carbon-neutral fuels or extended-range batteries. Earlier this month, in research partly funded by Shell*, Virginia Tech unveiled a much more affordable way to produce hydrogen fuel by using discarded corn cobs, stalks and husks. Alternatively-fueled cars are starting to hit the streets—and racetracks. In California later this year and in Northeast U.S. states next year, Toyota is launching Mirai, a four-door hydrogen-powered sedan that can go up to 300 miles on a full tank and emits nothing but water and vapor from its tailpipe. The Mirai was the first hydrogen-fueled vehicle to enter a NASCAR race on April 25 at the Richmond International Raceway. Recent Energy Stories Will Huge Batteries Save Us From Power Blackouts? Audi has been working on cleaner diesels since 2009, and the only raw materials needed for its newest synthetic are water and carbon dioxide. Its pilot plant in Dresden, operated by the German clean technology company sunfire, uses CO2 supplied by a biogas facility. Additional CO2 for e-diesel is captured from ambient air via technology from Audi’s Zurich-based partner Climeworks. “We are promoting another fuel based on CO2 that will allow long-distance mobility with virtually no impact on the climate,” says Reiner Mangold, Audi’s chief of sustainable product development, in announcing the first batch of e-diesel. He says this “fuel of the future” could be used in other industries and other countries. Making e-diesel requires several steps, which are powered by renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. High-temperature electrolysis splits water, heated to form steam, into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is released into the atmosphere while the hydrogen is fed into a reactor, where it reacts with CO2 to form a liquid long-form hydrocarbon known as “blue crude.” Audi says the  efficiency of the overall process is “very high”—about 70 percent. “The engine runs quieter and fewer pollutants are created,” says sunfire Chief Technology Officer Christian von Olshausen. He says the demonstration facility, which opened in November, can produce up to 160 liters (42 gallons) per day, but a bigger plant could follow. “If we get the first sales order,” he says, “we will be ready to commercialize our technology.” *Shell is sponsor of The Great Energy Challenge, a special series that explores energy issues. National Geographic maintains autonomy over content. On Twitter: Follow Wendy Koch and get more environment and energy coverage at NatGeoGreen.

Patents forecast technological change

Thu, 04/16/2015 - 12:20pm MIT News Office How fast is online learning evolving? Are wind turbines a promising investment? And how long before a cheap hoverboard makes it to market? Attempting to answer such questions requires knowing something about the rate at which a technology is improving. Now engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have devised a formula for estimating how fast a technology is advancing, based on information gleaned from relevant patents. The researchers determined the improvement rates of 28 different technologies, including solar photovoltaics, 3-D printing, fuel-cell technology and genome sequencing. They searched through the U.S. Patent Office database for patents associated with each domain—more than 500,000 total—by developing a novel method to quickly and accurately select the patents that best represent each technology. Once these were identified, the researchers analyzed certain metrics across patents in each domain, and found that some were more likely to predict a technology’s improvement rate than others. In particular, forward citations—the number of times a patent is cited by subsequent patents—is a good predictor, as is the date of a patent’s publication: Technologies with more recent patents are likely innovating at a faster rate than those with older patents. The team devised an equation incorporating a patent set’s average forward citation and average publication date, and calculated the rate of improvement for each technology domain. Their results matched closely with the rates determined through the more labor-intensive approach of finding numerous historical performance data points for each technology. Among the 28 domains analyzed, the researchers found the fastest-developing technologies include optical and wireless communications, 3-D printing and MRI technology, while domains such as batteries, wind turbines and combustion engines appear to be improving at slower rates. Chris Benson, a former graduate student in MIT’s Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, says the new prediction tool may be of interest to venture capitalists, startups and government and industry labs looking to explore new technology. “There’s a lot of nuance to our method, and I don’t see it as something to hand out to the masses to play with,” says Benson, who helped developed the prediction tool. “I see it more as something where we work with somebody to help them understand what the future technological capabilities that they’re interested in are. We’re probably more like a real estate agent, and less like Zillow.” Benson and Chris Magee, a professor of the practice of engineering systems at MIT, have published their results in PLoS ONE. The paper contains the fundamental findings and equations relating technological improvement to a variety of patent characteristics. Technological dynamism In 2003, Magee began determining the improvement rates of various technologies. At the time, he was curious how technologies were developing relative to Moore’s Law—an observation pertaining originally to computers, in which transistors on a computer chip double every two years. “There were a lot of things that weren’t going as fast as Moore’s Law, and I started trying to get measures of them,” Magee recalls. Magee initially approached the problem on a case-by-case basis, determining which metrics best represent productivity for a given domain. He then compiled data for each metric, such as the price and speed of manufacturing a product, and used the data to calculate the overall rate of improvement. In 2010, he realized that one of the most comprehensive resources on technology lay in the U.S. patent record. “We thought, ‘Maybe there’s enough information there that we can do something about linking it to the dynamism of technical change,’” Magee says. For several years, he and his group identified the most relevant patents in a technological domain, by literally reading through thousands of patents—an incredibly time-intensive process. The approach was not very reliable, as two people may choose entirely different sets of patents to represent the same technology. A “Standard & Poor’s” for technology In 2012, Magee and Benson came up with a more efficient, repeatable method for identifying relevant patent sets, by looking at the overlap between the U.S. and international patent-classification systems. For each patent accepted by the U.S. Patent Office, a patent reviewer will file the patent under several classes within both classification systems. For instance, a solar photovoltaics patent may be entered under the U.S. classes “batteries” and “active solid-state devices” and within the international system as “semiconductor devices.” The team found that by looking for patent overlap between both classification systems, they could repeatedly identify the same set of patents that best represent a technology, within a matter of hours, rather than months. Once they identified a relevant set of patents, the researchers looked for metrics within patents that they could use to calculate a technology’s rate of improvement. They found that a patent set’s average forward citations within the first three years after publication, and the average date of publication, were the best predictors of technological improvement. Benson says they were also able to weed out less-helpful patent information. “If a technology has more patents in general, it should be moving faster, but that turns out not to be the case,” Benson says. “3-D printing only has 300 to 500 patents, and that’s improving at the same rate as semiconductors, which have about 150,000 patents. So there’s almost zero correlation.” The team devised a simple equation incorporating forward citation and publication date, and used the method to predict improvement rates for 28 technologies. The researchers then compared the rates with those they previously obtained using their more time-intensive, historical data-based approach, and found the results from both methods matched closely. They then used their more efficient approach to predict the improvement rates of 11 emerging technologies in the next 10 years. Among these, the fastest-growing domains appear to be online learning and digital representation, while slower technologies include food engineering and nuclear fusion. Doyne Farmer, a professor of mathematics at Oxford Univ., says that the notion that technological progress is predictable “is both intellectually fascinating and quite powerful in its practical implications.” “[The group’s] methods should be useful to any organization that is considering investments in technology, in particular government funding agencies such as the [U.S. Department of Energy] that fund engineering applications; venture-capital firms; or firms that are actually in the technology business,” says Farmer, who was not involved in the research. “Making the right bets on technological progress is essential for solving problems such as climate change. Thus, we should all benefit from this work.” Magee hopes the method may be used much like a rating system, similar to Standard & Poor’s and other stock-market indices. Such ratings could be useful for investors looking for the next big breakthrough, as well as scientific labs that are contemplating new research directions. Magee says knowing how various technologies may improve in the next decade could give innovators an idea of when “feeder technologies” may mature, and enable more pie-in-the-sky ideas, like mass-produced hoverboards and flying cars. “We can help reduce the uncertainty of the capabilities of a technology in the future, not to zero, but to a more manageable number,” Benson says. “I believe that’s valuable in a lot of different ways.” Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ultra-stiff and lightweight: Carbon-fiber epoxy honeycombs mimic material performance of balsa wood

 

Like other manufactured products that use sandwich panel construction to achieve a combination of light weight and strength, turbine blades contain carefully arrayed strips of balsa wood from Ecuador, which provides 95 percent of the world's supply.

For centuries, the fast-growing balsa tree has been prized for its light weight and stiffness relative to density. But balsa wood is expensive and natural variations in the grain can be an impediment to achieving the increasingly precise performance requirements of turbine blades and other sophisticated applications.

As turbine makers produce ever-larger blades -- the longest now measure 75 meters, almost matching the wingspan of an Airbus A380 jetliner -- they must be engineered to operate virtually maintenance-free for decades. In order to meet more demanding specifications for precision, weight, and quality consistency, manufacturers are searching for new sandwich construction material options.

Now, using a cocktail of fiber-reinforced epoxy-based thermosetting resins and 3D extrusion printing techniques, materials scientists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed cellular composite materials of unprecedented light weight and stiffness. Because of their mechanical properties and the fine-scale control of fabrication, the researchers say these new materials mimic and improve on balsa, and even the best commercial 3D-printed polymers and polymer composites available.

A paper describing their results has been published online in the journal Advanced Materials.

Until now, 3D printing has been developed for thermo plastics and UV-curable resins -- materials that are not typically considered as engineering solutions for structural applications. "By moving into new classes of materials like epoxies, we open up new avenues for using 3D printing to construct lightweight architectures," says principal investigator Jennifer A. Lewis, the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard SEAS. "Essentially, we are broadening the materials palette for 3D printing."

"Balsa wood has a cellular architecture that minimizes its weight since most of the space is empty and only the cell walls carry the load. It therefore has a high specific stiffness and strength," explains Lewis, who in addition to her role at Harvard SEAS is also a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute. "We've borrowed this design concept and mimicked it in an engineered composite."

Lewis and Brett G. Compton, a former postdoctoral fellow in her group, developed inks of epoxy resins, spiked with viscosity-enhancing nanoclay platelets and a compound called dimethyl methylphosphonate, and then added two types of fillers: tiny silicon carbide "whiskers" and discrete carbon fibers. Key to the versatility of the resulting fiber-filled inks is the ability to control the orientation of the fillers.

The direction that the fillers are deposited controls the strength of the materials (think of the ease of splitting a piece of firewood lengthwise versus the relative difficulty of chopping on the perpendicular against the grain).

Lewis and Compton have shown that their technique yields cellular composites that are as stiff as wood, 10 to 20 times stiffer than commercial 3D-printed polymers, and twice as strong as the best printed polymer composites. The ability to control the alignment of the fillers means that fabricators can digitally integrate the composition, stiffness, and toughness of an object with its design.

"This paper demonstrates, for the first time, 3D printing of honeycombs with fiber-reinforced cell walls," said Lorna Gibson, a professor of materials science and mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of world's leading experts in cellular composites, who was not involved in this research. "Of particular significance is the way that the fibers can be aligned, through control of the fiber aspect ratio -- the length relative to the diameter -- and the nozzle diameter. This marks an important step forward in designing engineering materials that mimic wood, long known for its remarkable mechanical properties for its weight."

"As we gain additional levels of control in filler alignment and learn how to better integrate that orientation into component design, we can further optimize component design and improve materials efficiency," adds Compton, who is now a staff scientist in additive manufacturing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. "Eventually, we will be able to use 3D printing technology to change the degree of fiber filler alignment and local composition on the fly.

The work could have applications in many fields, including the automotive industry where lighter materials hold the key to achieving aggressive government-mandated fuel economy standards. According to one estimate, shedding 110 pounds from each of the 1 billion cars on the road worldwide could produce $40 billion in annual fuel savings.

3D printing has the potential to radically change manufacturing in other ways too. Lewis says the next step will be to test the use of thermosetting resins to create different kinds of architectures, especially by exploiting the technique of blending fillers and precisely aligning them. This could lead to advances not only in structural materials, but also in conductive composites.

Previously, Lewis has conducted groundbreaking research in the 3D printing of tissue constructs with vasculature and lithium-ion microbatteries.

Primary support for the cellular composites work came from the BASF North American Center for Research on Advanced Materials at Harvard.

Additional support was provided by the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at Harvard, funded by the National Science Foundation (DMR 0820484).

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnGPYwNM4rE

New ultrastiff, ultralight material developed

 

This microscope image shows a single unit of the structure developed by the team, called a stretch-dominated octet truss unit cell, made from a polymer using 3-D microstereolithography.

What's the difference between the Eiffel Tower and the Washington Monument? Both structures soar to impressive heights, and each was the world's tallest building when completed. But the Washington Monument is a massive stone structure, while the Eiffel Tower achieves similar strength using a lattice of steel beams and struts that is mostly open air, gaining its strength from the geometric arrangement of those elements.

Now engineers at MIT and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have devised a way to translate that airy, yet remarkably strong, structure down to the microscale -- designing a system that could be fabricated from a variety of materials, such as metals or polymers, and that may set new records for stiffness for a given weight.

The new design is described in the journal Science by MIT's Nicholas Fang; former postdoc Howon Lee, now an assistant professor at Rutgers University; visiting research fellow Qi "Kevin" Ge; LLNL's Christopher Spadaccini and Xiaoyu "Rayne" Zheng; and eight others.

The design is based on the use of microlattices with nanoscale features, combining great stiffness and strength with ultralow density, the authors say. The actual production of such materials is made possible by a high-precision 3-D printing process called projection microstereolithography, as a result of the joint research collaboration between the Fang and Spadaccini groups since 2008.

Normally, Fang explains, stiffness and strength declines with the density of any material; that's why when bone density decreases, fractures become more likely. But using the right mathematically determined structures to distribute and direct the loads -- the way the arrangement of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal beams do in a structure like the Eiffel Tower -- the lighter structure can maintain its strength.

A pleasant surprise

The geometric basis for such microstructures was determined more than a decade ago, Fang says, but it took years to transfer that mathematical understanding "to something we can print, using a digital projection -- to convert this solid model on paper to something we can hold in our hand." The result was "a pleasant surprise to us," he adds, performing even better than anticipated.

"We found that for a material as light and sparse as aerogel [a kind of glass foam], we see a mechanical stiffness that's comparable to that of solid rubber, and 400 times stronger than a counterpart of similar density. Such samples can easily withstand a load of more than 160,000 times their own weight," says Fang, the Brit and Alex d'Arbeloff Career Development Associate Professor in Engineering Design. So far, the researchers at MIT and LLNL have tested the process using three engineering materials -- metal, ceramic, and polymer -- and all showed the same properties of being stiff at light weight.

"This material is among the lightest in the world," LLNL's Spadaccini says. "However, because of its microarchitected layout, it performs with four orders of magnitude higher stiffness than unstructured materials, like aerogels, at a comparable density."

Light material, heavy loads

This approach could be useful anywhere there's a need for a combination of high stiffness (for load bearing), high strength, and light weight -- such as in structures to be deployed in space, where every bit of weight adds significantly to the cost of launch. But Fang says there may also be applications at smaller scale, such as in batteries for portable devices, where reduced weight is also highly desirable.

Another property of these materials is that they conduct sound and elastic waves very uniformly, meaning they could lead to new acoustic metamaterials, Fang says, that could help control how waves bend over a curved surface.

Others have suggested similar structural principles over the years, such as a proposal last year by researchers at MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) for materials that could be cut out as flat panels and assembled into tiny unit cells to make larger structures. But that concept would require assembly by robotic systems that have yet to be developed, says Fang, who has discussed this work with CBA researchers. This technique, he says, uses 3-D printing technology that can be implemented now.

Martin Wegener, a professor of mechanical engineering at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany who was not involved in this research, says, "Achieving metamaterials that are ultralight in weight, yet stiffer than you would expect from usual scaling laws for elastic solids, is of obvious technological interest. The paper makes an interesting contribution in this direction."

The work was supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and LLNL.

Breakthrough method for making Janus or patchy capsules

 

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Paul Dommersnes, left, from the University of Paris, Diderot, and Jon Otto Fossum, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, were among the team that has come up with a novel way to create patchy capsules.

Hollow capsules that have a selectively permeable shell are promising candidates as tiny containers for molecules, particles or bubbles, and are becoming increasingly important in a wide variety of applications. But making these kinds of capsules with more than one kind of substance on their shells has been challenging -- until now.

In a article in the latest edition of Nature Communications, NTNU researcher Jon Otto Fossum and Paul Dommersnes from the University of Paris, Diderot, were part of a team that showed that both Janus and more advanced patchy capsules can be assembled by combining electro-coalescence and electro-hydrodynamic flow in leaky dielectric emulsion drops. This technique can be used with any type of insulating or weakly conductive particles.

Their work is the realization of one possible direction foreseen by the same researchers in a publication in Nature Communications in 2013.

Hollow capsules with two or more substances on their surface are able to organize themselves in specific ways, which means they could be used to grow human skin or other body tissues, or to make porous tissues and composites. They can also be used to transport a variety of substances and release them in specific environments.

Janus capsules, named for the two-faced Roman god, have just two different substances in their shells. They are a sub-group of patchy capsules, which can have more than two different substances in their shells. The researchers were able to make both Janus capsules, with two different substances, and patchy capsules, which had stripes or flecks on them.

Janus and patchy capsules are distinct from Janus and patchy particles, which are solid. These capsules combine the characteristics of Janus or patchy particles, and those of capsules such as colloidosomes.

The different characteristics on the shells of the capsules make them attractive to each other in different ways, depending on the composition of the capsule shells, which means they can create scaffolds suitable for biomedical applications, for assembling electric circuits or optical structures such as photonic crystals, and as vehicles for liquid or molecular transport.

The researchers foresee that their route for designing patchy capsules will facilitate the foundation for many advanced applications, for example, by using microfluidic methods.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Zbigniew Rozynek, Alexander Mikkelsen, Paul Dommersnes, Jon Otto Fossum. Electroformation of Janus and patchy capsules. Nature Communications, 2014; 5 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4945

10 Real Technologies That Look Insanely Futuristic

 

 

Why wait for the future when many of today’s technologies look as though they got here in a time machine? Here are 10 real-life technologies that come from the future.

A couple of clarification points before we get started. By real-world, I mean any kind of technology that actually, physically exists (no vapourware, no conceptual designs, etc.). It needs to be functional, whether it be a fully fledged product, or a working prototype in the lab. And second, we’re strictly going for form over function, here. A futuristic appearance in this case means everything.

Okay, let’s take a trip to the next century and beyond.

1. Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit

The first stealth bomber was developed back in the 1980s. That's some 30 years ago — and it still looks like something that Buck Rogers should be pimpin'.

Credit USAF.

The B-2 is considered a first-strike weapon (at least that’s what the enemy thinks of it), and it can carry upwards of 16 B83 nuclear bombs. Its sleek, innovative design allows it to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defences.

And if you think that’s crazy futuristic, consider the U.S. Navy’s X-47B, which just became the first unmanned stealth aircraft to land on an aircraft carrier:

2. The Oracle AC72 Catamaran

Priced at $10 million apiece, this catamaran is the pride and joy of Larry Ellison. These badboys are used in the America’s Cup — and they’re revolutionizing the sport. The radical yacht features a scrim of netting stretched between twin knifelike hulls, each 72 feet long, but just a few feet wide. Connecting the two blades are girder-like crossbeams.

But the pièce de résistance is the rigid wing which towers 13 stories in height, serving as the boat’s veritable engine. When moving at full tilt — often at speeds twice the windspeed — the catamaran appears to fly through the air. Which is actually kind of the point.

The boats are so expensive that only four teams could opt into the challenge.

And they’re also dangerous. Like, really dangerous. Earlier this year, Olympic gold medalist Andrew Simpson was killed during a capsize of the AC72 catamaran while training for the America’s Cup in San Francisco Bay.

 

Credit: Guilain GRENIER/ ORACLE TEAM USA

3. NASA’s Xenon-Ion Engine

If you were to imagine what a “xenon-ion space engine” was supposed to look like, you would probably picture something that looks exactly like this. This functional prototype sits in a vacuum chamber where it’s being tested at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. It could be used by 2019 to propel an asteroid-retrieving robotic probe.

4

NASA shows off a prototype of its new xenon-ion engine

In 2019, NASA will send out a robotic probe to retrieve an asteroid. And it’ll be this little piece … Read more

4. Boston Dynamics’ PETMAN Humanoid Robot

The Department of Defense asked Boston Dynamics to create a humanoid robot to test the performance of protective clothing designed for hazardous environments. Instead, they created something that will haunt us in our nightmares forever.

4

Meet the Pentagon's latest robotic abomination: ATLAS

No, it's not a souped-up version of Robby the Robot — it's ATLAS, DARPA's latest… Read more

5. Google’s Server Farm

 

 

 

All images: Google.

Steven Levy from Wired puts this modern marvel this way:

This is what makes Google Google: its physical network, its thousands of fiber miles, and those many thousands of servers that, in aggregate, add up to the mother of all clouds. This multibillion-dollar infrastructure allows the company to index 20 billion web pages a day. To handle more than 3 billion daily search queries. To conduct millions of ad auctions in real time. To offer free email storage to 425 million Gmail users. To zip millions of YouTube videos to users every day. To deliver search results before the user has finished typing the query. In the near future, when Google releases the wearable computing platform called Glass, this infrastructure will power its visual search results.

4

This computer took 40 minutes to simulate one second of brain activity

And it required 82,944 processors, to do it — showing that we're still quite a ways off from… Read more

7. Virgin America’s Plane Cabins

This is the interior of the Airbus A320. But you could be forgiven for thinking it was the inside of a spaceship headed for the Gamma Quadrant. (Photos: Virgin America)

 

8. Dyson’s 10-inch Air Multiplier

First off, anything with the word 'Dyson' in it has to be cool. Second, how the hell does this bladeless fan actually work?

How Stuff Works explains:

As you might imagine, there are a few scientific principles at play here. There's also an electronic element. While the tube doesn't have any blades inside it, the pedestal of the fan contains a brushless electric motor that takes in air and feeds it into the circular tube. Air flows along the inside of the device until it reaches a slit inside the tube. This provides the basic airflow that creates the breeze you'd feel if you stood in front of the fan. Dyson claims that the Air Multiplier generates a breeze with 15 times more air than what the device actually takes in.

According to Dyson, the breeze generated by the Air Multiplier is more consistent and steady than one from a standard fan with blades. Since there are no rotating blades, the breeze from the fan doesn't buffet you with short gusts of air. [h/t Mark McAllister]

9. The Vestas SailRocket

Don’t be fooled by the name. There are no rockets used to power this thing — it opts instead for wind which it captures by using a highly engineered sail.

Late last year the VSR2 set the work record for 500-meter sailing speed by reaching 54.1 knots (62.2 mph). But during an unofficial run it reached 65.8 knots (74.6 mph). (Photo: Jonathan Torgovnik)

10. Levitron World Stage Levitating Globe

This thing belongs on a starship captain’s desk.

Top image: USAF.

4 Robots That Teach Children Science and Math in Engaging Ways

 

Modular, programmable automatons make STEM learning fun

May 1, 2014 |By David Geer

Robots are proving to be valuable educational tools from the lower grades all the way up to graduate school.
Credit: Play-i Images

Robots can capture a child’s imagination like no other tool by creating a fun, physical learning process. With robots, kids learn programming via interactive play by moving a robot in various sequences and using intuitive, visual programming on a computer screen. The children also learn STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) by watching and interacting with robots that demonstrate the practical results of the day’s lesson. “Kids recognize when they are learning something themselves—robots give them that,” says Larry Johnson, CEO of the New Media Consortium, a research organization that specializes in educational technology. Robots are proving to be valuable educational tools from the lower grades all the way up to graduate school. “Building and programming these devices is part of becoming a creative science and engineering kind of person,” he adds.
Furthermore, by interacting with robots, kids learn a component of programming known as computational thinking—without even realizing it. This programming may be visual at first but over time it transitions to the kind of character-based coding that enables machines to execute more complex missions.
Educational automatons take many forms—including mini humanoids, boxes on wheels and multirotor flying drones. Scientific American highlights four platforms that demonstrate a robot’s educational prowess.

Outrage Against the Machines

 

A short history of tech wrongs righted by widespread indignation

May 1, 2014 |By David Pogue

Protest against Apple for ignoring Foxconn's Labor Conditions Credit: SACOM via Wikimedia Commons

My Scientific American column this month praises the upside of techno-fear. Yes, fear of new machines is often irrational—but it also keeps us vigilant. When technology really does start to threaten the public good, public outrage frequently rights the ship.

Here are some of my favorite examples from the annals of consumer technology:

December 2009: Verizon's flip phones were programmed to take you to the Web when you pressed the “UP” button. An internal whistle-blower revealed that you got billed $2 each time, even if you immediately canceled.
Verizon's first response was to deny it. "Usage fees are not charged when a customer simply launches the Internet browser and lands on the Verizon Wireless Mobile Web home page, which is the default setting," it said in a statement at the time.
But the public was outraged, the Federal Communications Commission investigated, and Verizon turns out not to have been so innocent after all. It was charging $2 per accidental button-press—and it had to refund $52 million to customers and pay the FCC a record $25 million fine.

August 2010: The Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania had issued MacBook laptops to every student. It had also installed software that permitted administrators to operate the laptop's built-in camera remotely and secretly. Although school administrators claimed that the software was intended to help track down laptops after they'd been stolen, an investigation determined that the district had taken over 30,000 pictures of students (including at home) and 27,000 screen shots of what they were doing.

After a public outcry the school system wound up paying $610,000 in fees and fines. It immediately ended the spying program and implemented new policies to "safeguard the protection of privacy" of its students.

September 2011: Google's Street View vans have been driving and photographing roads and their surroundings around the world since May 2007 so that you can see what any address looks like on Google Maps.

Unfortunately, those cameras also capture people—who are occasionally doing things they would probably rather keep private, such as leaving strip clips, hiring prostitutes and so on.

When public outrage (and fines in several countries) erupted, Google added tools for blurring faces and license plates, and for flagging images for removal.

January 2012: Protests, petitions and demonstrations ignited when a front-page New York Times article documented working conditions at Foxconn Technology, the Chinese factory that builds Apple's products. The article mentioned fatal accidents, employees working with toxic chemicals, long hours, low wages and suicides. (Apple was singled out but Foxconn also builds products for Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Asus, HP, Dell, Intel, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, NETGEAR, Nintendo, Nokia and Vizio—products that include the Xbox, PlayStation and Amazon Kindle.)

The outrage set in motion a long series of reforms that continues to this day. Apple hired the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to survey 35,000 Foxconn employees about factory conditions. Foxconn raised salaries as much as 25 percent.

A year later the FLA reported that Foxconn had made "steady progress," constructing additional restrooms and limiting overtime hours to 36 a month and three a day. Apple’s own Foxconn workers' average workweek dropped to 53 hours.

Most interestingly of all, the scandal triggered a new emphasis on exploring tech manufacturing here in the U.S. Apple's new top-of-the-line Mac Pro, for example, is built in Austin, Texas.

In short, you shouldn't assume you can get away with anything in our connected age. The public will find out—and the outrage will hurt.

SCiO is made to analyze ... everything

 

The SCiO Pocket Molecular Sensor

Wondering how nutritious that food is, if that plant needs water, or just what that misplaced pill is? Well, the makers of SCiO claim that their device is able to tell you all of those things, plus a lot more. To use it, you just scan the item in question for one or two seconds, then check the readout on a Bluetooth 4.0-linked smartphone.

SCiO is actually a miniature spectroscope. Like the bigger, more expensive laboratory-grade models it's based on, it works by shining near-infrared light on materials, exciting their molecules in the process. By analyzing the light that's reflected off those vibrating molecules, it's reportedly possible to identify them by their unique optical signature, and thus determine the chemical composition of the material.

In the case of SCiO, an accompanying iOS or Android app sends its readings to the cloud, where algorithms process the data in real time. The results should appear on the phone's screen within a matter of seconds.

According to Consumer Physics, the Tel Aviv-based company that's developing the device, it will initially come with apps that allow it to analyze food, plants and medication. As described in a press release:

"The food app delivers macro nutrient values (calories, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins), produce quality, ripeness, and spoilage analysis for various foods, including cheeses, fruits, vegetables, sauces, salad dressings, cooking oils, and more. SCiO can also identify and authenticate medication in real-time by cross-checking a pill's molecular makeup with a database of medications. Finally, SCiO can analyze moisture levels in plants and tell users when to water them."

The company also plans on providing an Application Development Kit, so that third parties can create their own apps for use with SCiO. These apps could greatly expand the variety of materials that can be analyzed, as the designers claim that it should work on just about any material, "including cosmetics, clothes, flora, soil, jewels and precious stones, leather, rubber, oils, plastics, and even human tissue or bodily fluids."

SCiO is powered by an integrated battery, that should provide approximately one week of use per charge. It's compatible with iPhone 4S and up, iPad 3rd generation and later, and with devices using Android 4.3 and later. Consumer Physics is currently raising funds for its commercial production, through Kickstarter. A pledge of US$179 will get you one when and if they're ready to ship, this December.

The very similar TellSpec is also presently in development, although it's being marketed more as a food-specific device.

 

Sources: Consumer Physics, Kickstarter

A Razor That Reaches Every Weird Spot on Your Face

 

 

Photo: Courtesy of Gillette

Gillette’s new FlexBall razor may be the first razor designed to eliminate craning your neck and making dumb faces while shaving.

Rather than add yet another blade to its shaving cartridges, the FlexBall features a new handle design. The key addition is a more nimble pivoting head, one that swings side to side with a 24-degree range of motion and works with the company’s existing ProGlide blade cartridges.

The FlexBall isn’t literally a ball joint, but it behaves like one. The dual-hinge system–a side-to-side pivot beneath the traditional tilting blade mechanism–allows the blade to stay in contact with skin more regularly, sort of like a car with an independent suspension system.

“We shave in straight lines, but our faces aren’t flat,” says Stew Taub, director of Shave Care research and development at Gillette. “That causes the blade to miss contact, and men try to alter their faces to improve contact with the blade.”

The FlexBall’s more pliable design also means you don’t have to lift and reposition the razor as often. According to Taub, the average number of individual lifts and strokes per shave is around 150. Some 750-stroke shaves have even been documented. The new pivothead makes it more like shaving in cursive. Gillette says you can trim your entire face with a single meandering sweep of the new razor. That’s a unlikely shaving strategy, but it’s possible with this razor.

Gillette says FlexBall has been in development for five years, time needed to nail down the right range of motion and resistance for the razor. Because no one shaves the same way–and no two faces are the same–it took several years to get it right. The company leaned heavily on computer simulations and high-speed cameras that helped capture data on peoples’ shaving habits in Gillette’s labs.

“For me, the problem area is under the chin,” says Taub. “Every guy’s face is different, and we all use different pressure on the razor. Our hair density is different. Whether you shave in the shower or at the sink, how well you hydrate hair–all these things make a huge difference in the shave. What the FlexBall does, you don’t have to go over tricky areas as much. Overall it will lead to a lower probability of cutting yourself or missing hairs.”

Video: Courtesy of Gillette. GIF: WIRED

In my experience, the new razor’s fluidity and flexibility does seem to come in handy when you’re transitioning from your jowls to under your jawbone or shaving along the cheekbone–prime areas to end up dotted with little squares of toilet paper. But old habits die hard, and it’s tough to get used to just shaving a large patch in one fell swoop; you’ll probably find yourself lifting the razor as often as ever to start. Is it the most revolutionary thing to ever happen in the world of shaving? No, but the experience did feel smoother than shaving with my normal razor. It is an improvement.

Still, there’s a bit of controversy surrounding the new system. New York Magazine’s Kevin Roose calls FlexBall an example of “everything that’s wrong with American innovation,” mostly because Gillette added predictable stuff like another pivot point instead of adding cooler stuff like lasers. And Quartz’s Gideon Lichfield compares the new razor to a duck’s penis.

The main points of contention are that the razor industry is always up to something, and that something has everything to do with selling more blades. In recent years, new companies such as Dollar Shave Club have established themselves as cheaper, hassle-free alternatives to the traditional routine of selling cheap handles and pricey cartridges. Coming from the old guard, a system like FlexBall seems like another forced-upgrade gimmick.

But beyond the smoother-feeling shave, there’s evidence that Gillette’s new tricks go beyond that.  It has responded to Dollar Shave Club’s model by launching its own lower-priced blade-subscription service. And the fact that the FlexBall razor uses existing blades is a welcome oddity in the world of razors, where new systems are often introduced simply to sell newer, pricier cartridges. According to Taub, the new handles will do a better job with the same blades.

“We knew from the beginning that we wanted it to be compatible with (ProGlide blades), because it took us nearly a decade to develop ProGlide,” says Taub. “We knew we already have the best cartridge technology. But we needed to help the cartridge work better. That’s a handle problem, not a cartridge problem.”

A high-resolution endoscope as thin as a human hair

 

Home » About » News & Updates » A high-resolution endoscope as thin as a human hair

Engineers at Stanford have developed a prototype single-fiber endoscope that improves the resolution of these much-sought-after instruments fourfold over existing designs. The advance could lead to an era of needle-thin, minimally invasive endoscopes able to view features out of reach of today’s instruments.

Engineers at Stanford have demonstrated a high-resolution endoscope that is as thin as a human hair with a resolution four times better than previous devices of similar design. The so-called micro-endoscope is a significant step forward in high-resolution, minimally invasive bio-imaging with potential applications in research and clinical practice.  Micro-endoscopy could enable new methods in diverse fields ranging from study of the brain to early cancer detection.

The new endoscope was developed by a team under the direction of Joseph Kahn, professor of electrical engineering at the Stanford School of Engineering. The results were published recently in the journal Optics Express and showcased in the Optical Society of America’s Spotlight on Optics.

Their prototype can resolve objects about 2.5 microns in size, and a resolution of 0.3 microns is easily within reach. A micron is one thousandth of a millimeter. By comparison, today’s high-resolution endoscopes can resolve objects only to about 10 microns. The naked eye can see objects down to about 125 microns.

Professor Joseph Kahn (right), and graduate students Reza Nasiri Mahalati (left) and Ruo Yu Gu (center) with their prototype single-fiber endoscope. The device improves resolution by four times over previous instruments. (Photo: John Todd)

Light paths

Kahn is best known for his work in fiber-optic communications—the ultra-fast data pipes essential to the Internet and large-scale data centers. His work on endoscopy began two years ago when he and a fellow Stanford electrical engineer, Olav Solgaard, were discussing biophotonics—a field of light-based technologies used in studying biological systems.

“Olav wanted to know if it would it be possible to send light through a single, hair-thin fiber, form a bright spot inside the body, and scan it to record images of living tissue,” said Kahn.

The opportunity and the challenge, Kahn and Solgaard knew, rested in multimode fibers in which light travels via many different paths, known in optics as modes; hence the name, multimode fiber. Light is very good at conveying complex information through such fibers—whether computer data or images—but it gets scrambled potentially beyond recognition along the way.

Kahn devised a way to undo the scrambling of information by using a miniature liquid crystal display called a spatial light modulator. To make this possible, Kahn and his graduate student, Reza Nasiri Mahalati, developed an adaptive algorithm—a specialized computer program—by which the spatial light modulator learned how to unscramble the light. Several years before, Kahn had set world records for transmission speeds using a similar trick to unscramble computer data transmitted through multimode fibers.

Research on the micro-endoscope took an unexpected and fortunate turn when Nasiri Mahalati mentioned seminal work in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) done by John Pauly, another Stanford electrical engineer. Pauly had used random sampling to dramatically speed up image recording in MRIs.

“Nasiri Mahalati said, ‘Why not use random patterns of light to speed up imaging through multimode fiber?’ and that was it. We were on our way,” recalls Kahn. “The record-setting micro-endoscope was born.”

A schematic rendering of Kahn's rigid endoscope using a multimode optical fiber. Random patterns of light generated by a spatial light modulator pass through a fiber and illuminate a region near the fiber tip. Reflected power values are recorded and used to reconstruct an image. The arrows indicate the direction of light travel. (Illustration: Joseph Kahn, Stanford School of Engineering.)

 

Confronting the Laws of Physics

In Kahn’s micro-endoscope, the spatial light modulator projects random light patterns through the fiber into the body to illuminate the object under observation. The light reflecting off the object returns through the fiber to a computer. The computer, in turn, measures the reflected power of the light and uses algorithms developed by Nasiri Mahalati and fellow graduate student Ruo Yu Gu to reconstruct an image.

Kahn and his students were stunned to discover their endoscope could resolve four times as many image features as the number of modes in the fiber.

“Previous single-fiber endoscopes were limited in resolution to the number of modes in the fiber,” said Kahn, “So this is a fourfold improvement.” 

The result, however, raised a scientific conundrum for the team.

“This meant that, somehow, we were capturing more information than the laws of physics told us could pass through the fiber,” said Kahn. “It seemed impossible.”

The team wrestled with the paradox for several weeks before they came up with an explanation. The random intensity patterns mix the modes that can propagate through the fiber, increasing the number of modes fourfold and producing four times as much detail in the image.

“Previous research had overlooked the mixing. The unconventional algorithm we used for image reconstruction was the key to revealing the hidden image detail,” said Kahn.

Kahn's endoscope illuminates the object under observation with random intensity patterns (below) instead of a scanning spot (above). The technique produced a fourfold increase in the number of resolvable image features.(Image: Joseph Kahn, Stanford School of Engineering)

 

The ultimate endoscope

Kahn and team have created a working prototype. The main limiting factor at this point is that the fiber must remain rigid. Bending a multimode fiber scrambles the image beyond recognition. Instead, the fiber is placed in a thin needle to hold it rigid for insertion.

Rigid endoscopes—those used frequently for surgeries— are common, but they often use relatively thick, rod-shaped lenses to yield good images. Flexible endoscopes on the other hand—the kind used in colonoscopies and ureteroscopies—usually employ bundles of tens of thousands of individual fibers, each conveying a single pixel of the image. Both types of endoscopes are bulky and have limited resolution.

A single fiber endoscope such as Kahn’s would be the ultimate minimally invasive imaging system, and has been the focus of intense research in optical engineering over the past few years.

Kahn is not the first to develop a single-fiber endoscope, but in boosting the resolution it is possible now to conceive of a fiber endoscope about two-tenths of a millimeter in diameter—just thicker than a human hair—that can resolve about 80,000 pixels at a resolution of about three-tenths of a micron. Today’s best flexible fiber endoscopes, by comparison, are about half-a-millimeter in diameter and can resolve roughly 10,000 pixels with a resolution of about three microns.

The future

A rigid single-fiber micro-endoscope could enable myriad new procedures for microscopic imaging inside living organisms. These range from analyzing neuronal cellular biology in brain tissue to studying muscle physiology and disease to the early detection of various forms of cancer.

Looking ahead, Kahn is excited about the potential of working with biomedical researchers to pioneer these applications, but being a physicist and an engineer at heart, he is most enthralled by the technical challenges of creating a flexible single-fiber endoscope.

“No one knows if a flexible single-fiber endoscope is even possible, but we’re going to try,” said Kahn.

Andrew Myers is associate director of communications for the Stanford University School of Engineering.