Nov 17, 2015
Apple might release 3 new iPhones next year
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: mobile phones
Everyone is waiting for the iPhone 7, but reports suggest we might see more than two size options available for Apple’s next smartphone.
Archive for the ‘mobile phones’ category: Page 221
Nov 16, 2015
#24 AVATAR TECHNOLOGY DIGEST / Get a Virtual-Reality Punch
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical, mobile phones, robotics/AI, virtual reality
Welcome to #24 Avatar Technology Digest! We provide you with the latest news on Technology, Medical Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence the best way we can. Here are the top stories of the last week!
1) Did you know that Disney does more than shoot box office hits and sell toys to your kids? They also have a very active Research Department that specializes in a variety of applications that can be used throughout the Disney empire. And now another interesting innovation has come out of the Research Department, as they have developed a method for generating those 3D printable robots without the need for time and energy-consuming work at all.
2) Being able to identify problems with a person’s body without subjecting them to invasive procedures is the fantasy of all Star Trek doctors. There’s even a prize offering a fortune to anyone who can effectively recreate the tricorder technology out in the real world. Now, Stanford scientists think that they’ve developed a system that, in time, could be used to spot cancerous tumors from a foot away.
Continue reading “#24 AVATAR TECHNOLOGY DIGEST / Get a Virtual-Reality Punch” »
Nov 16, 2015
Graphene Could Give Us Sleek Night Vision Sensors
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: computing, electronics, materials, mobile phones
Because of its unique chemical and physical properties, graphene has helped scientists design new gadgets from tiny computer chips to salt water filters. Now a team of researchers from MIT has found a new use for the 2D wonder material: in infrared sensors that could replace bulky night-vision goggles, or even add night vision capabilities to high-tech windshields or smartphone cameras. The study was published last week in Nano Letters.
Night vision technology picks up on infrared wavelengths, energy usually emitted in the form of heat that humans can’t see with the naked eye. Researchers have known for years that because of how it conducts electricity, graphene is an excellent infrared detector, and they wanted to see if they could create something less bulky than current night-vision goggles. These goggles rely on cryogenic cooling to reduce the amount of excess heat that might muddle the image. To create the sensor, the researchers integrated graphene with tiny silicon-based devices called MEMS. Then, they suspended this chip over an air pocket so that it picks up on incoming heat and eliminates the need for the cooling mechanisms found in other infrared-sensing devices. That signal is then transmitted to another part of the device that creates a visible image. When the researchers tested their sensor, they found that it clearly and successfully picked up the image of a human hand.
Nov 16, 2015
Walmart’s $10 Smartphone Has Better Specs Than the Original iPhone
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: mobile phones
Nov 12, 2015
Asus says it’s building an augmented reality headset to release in 2016
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: augmented reality, mobile phones, virtual reality
Taiwanese PC manufacturer Asus says it’s building an augmented reality device and aims to release it next year. According to a report from CNET, Asus CEO Jerry Shen confirmed the plans during an earnings call on Wednesday, arguing that augmented reality or AR will be more useful than virtual reality. “You can make a real setting meld together with yourself and the AR portion,” said Shen. “Internally, we are talking about how to prepare.”
Unlike VR, augmented reality doesn’t show you a completely fabricated view, but instead overlays digital elements onto the real world. The current frontrunner in this nascent field is Microsoft’s HoloLens, which the company has shown off in a range of impressive demos. However, the HoloLens is hampered by a number of problems, including bulkiness, constrained viewing angles, and a high price tag, with Microsoft releasing a $3,000 HoloLens developer kit in the first quarter of 2016. (By comparison, Samsung’s Gear VR, a virtual reality headset powered by the company’s smartphones, became available for preorder this week for just $99.) Asus has previously hinted that it might build its own version of the HoloLens, but as a company best known for its budget laptops, tablets, and smartphones, we wouldn’t expect it to match Microsoft’s price.
Despite the lack of unknowns surrounding Asus’s announcement, it’s still interesting to see a company align itself with augmented, rather than virtual, reality. The Verge’s Adi Robertson has argued that the complete immersion of VR makes it difficult for multitasking, and that augmented reality, by comparison, is more practical. Asus apparently agrees. “We think AR will be very important for people’s lives,” said Shen according to CNET. “It should be next year when we come out with a product.”
Nov 6, 2015
Researchers have designed a battery that’s 90 percent more efficient than lithium-ion
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: electronics, energy, mobile phones
Smartphones, laptops, and all manner of electronics have advanced by leaps in bounds over the past few decades, but an essential component of most of them — the battery, or more precisely the lithium-ion battery — hasn’t. The technological remnant of the mid-’90s has a tendency to degrade and isn’t particularly efficient, which is why scores of researchers have spent years pursuing alternatives. Until now, though, practical limitations — i.e., physical dimensions and mass manufacturing constraints — have permanently relegated many to laboratories. But a new design, a refinement of so-called lithium-air design by scientists at the University of Cambridge, looks to be one of the most feasible yet.
Lithium-air (Li-air) batteries have been around for a while — chemist K. M. Abraham is credited with developing the first rechargeable variant in 1995 — but they’ve never been considered very practical. That’s because they use carbon as an electron conductor instead of the metal-oxide found in conventional Li-ion batteries, and generate electricity from the reaction of oxygen molecules and lithium molecules, a process which leads to the production of electrically resistant lithium peroxide. As the lithium peroxide builds up, the power-producing reaction diminishes until it eventually ceases completely.
Related: Why batteries suck, and the new tech that might supercharge them.
Nov 5, 2015
NASA is about to announce key findings from its Mars mission – watch live right here
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: internet, mobile phones, space
NASA’s announcement in late September that it found evidence of flowing water on Mars was only the beginning of the revelations that will be the result of its current Mars mission. The organization’s exploratory mission carried out by the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft began with the intention of examining Mars’ atmosphere to an extent that had never before been possible, and now NASA is about to reveal what it is calling key science findings on the “fate Mars’ atmosphere.”
MUST READ: The first thing everyone needs to do with a new iPhone 6s
NASA is being very tight-lipped about its upcoming announcements, which are scheduled to be made beginning at 2:00 p.m. EST / 11:00 a.m. PST on Thursday, November 5th. If you’re interested in NASA’s current mission though — and you certainly should be — you’ll be able to find out what NASA has in store for us the very same moment that the rest of the world does, because NASA will broadcast its special news conference live on the web.
Nov 3, 2015
Professor Kaku strikes again
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: military, mobile phones, nuclear energy, space, supercomputing
Nov 3, 2015
Researchers create lithium-air battery that could be 10x more powerful than lithium-ion
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: chemistry, electronics, mobile phones, solar power, sustainability, transportation
A new lithium-air battery created by researchers at the University of Cambridge points the way to the ultimate battery packs of the future, its makers say. With a very high energy density, more than 90 percent efficiency and the capability for more than 2,000 recharge cycles, the new test battery could prove an important stepping stone in the development of this essential technology.
If you’re getting tired of announcements about breakthroughs in battery technology, that’s understandable: as they’re so essential to modern life, many teams of scientists are busy working on the problem around the clock, but it’s an incredibly complex area of chemistry. Any new battery has to improve on what we already have, be safe to use in consumer gadgets, and be commercially viable enough to be affordable for manufacturers.
Those are difficult targets to hit, and that’s why many ‘miracle’ batteries have since fallen by the wayside – once the initial lab work is done, proving concepts and scaling up production is very difficult to get right. The potential rewards are huge though, not just for smartphones but for electric cars and solar power, where batteries are essential for storing energy to use when the sun isn’t shining.
Nov 2, 2015
New artificial skin can detect pressure and heat simultaneously
Posted by Bryan Gatton in categories: computing, cyborgs, materials, mobile phones, robotics/AI
A team of researchers with Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology and Dong-A University, both in South Korea, has developed an artificial skin that can detect both pressure and heat with a high degree of sensitivity, at the same time. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the team describes how they created the skin, what they found in testing it and the other types of things it can sense.
Many scientists around the world are working to develop artificial skin, both to benefit robots and human beings who have lost skin sensation or limbs. Such efforts have led to a wide variety of artificial skin types, but until now, none of them have been able to sense both pressure and heat to a high degree, at the same time.
The new artificial skin is a sandwich of materials; at the top there is a flexible surface meant to mimic the human fingerprint (it can sense texture), beneath that sit sensors sandwiched between graphene sheets. The sensors are domed shaped and compress to different degrees when the skin is exposed to different amount of pressure. The compression also causes a small electrical charge to move through the skin, as does heat or sound, which is also transmitted to sensors—the more pressure, heat or sound exerted, the more charge there is—using a computer to measure the charge allows for measuring the degree of sensation “felt.” The ability to sense sound, the team notes, was a bit of a surprise—additional testing showed that the artificial skin was actually better at picking up sound than an iPhone microphone.
