News Tech Gadget Update : Check Out the World’s First Pain Relieving Wearable

Not every wearable is about sleep tracking or counting steps. Among the many wearables showed at CES 2015, a useful one was called Quell. It is a drug-free service that helps in relieving chronic pain. The technology used for this device has been developed by Neurometrix, a company from Harvard Medical School which specialises in Neurotechnology.

This device consists of a strap that is worn around the affected part of the body, with its electrode touching the skin. When activated, it stimulates the nerves, in turn sending a message to the brain to release endogenous opioids- the body’s natural defence against pain. This brings relief within 15 minutes.

The main advantage of this device is that it is portable and can be carried along almost anywhere. The correct stimulation has to be attuned the first time, and Quell then automatically selects the same each time. iOS already has a supporting app and Android one is on its way.

The only shortcoming would be the user will have to keep on buying the electrodes periodically. Normally, this would cost $250 (approx Rs. 15,773), but pre-ordering would cost $199 (Rs. 12,555). Details about its mass availability is still uncertain, though the device is currently up for pre-order on Indiegogo. The device has already reached $250,000 in pledges.

Posted by Unknown Saturday, March 14, 2015

New Product Innovation Update : Quantum Optical Hard Drive Breakthrough

Scientists developing a prototype quantum hard drive have improved storage time by a factor of more than 100.
 

The team's record storage time of six hours is a major step towards a secure worldwide data encryption network based on quantum information, which could be used for banking transactions and personal emails.

"We believe it will soon be possible to distribute quantum information between any two points on the globe," said lead author Manjin Zhong, from the Research School of Physics and Engineering (RSPE) at The Australian National University (ANU).

"Quantum states are very fragile and normally collapse in milliseconds. Our long storage times have the potential to revolutionize

This image shows quantum information being written on to the nuclear spins of a europium ion.

the transmission of quantum information."Quantum information promises unbreakable encryption because quantum particles such as photons of light can be created in a way that intrinsically links them. Interactions with either of these entangled particles affect the other, no matter how far they are separated.

The team of physicists at ANU and the University of Otago stored quantum information in atoms of the rare earth element europium embedded in a crystal.

Their solid-state technique is a promising alternative to using laser beams in optical fibres, an approach which is currently used to create quantum networks around 100 kilometres long.

"Our storage times are now so long that it means people need to rethink what is the best way to distribute quantum data," Ms Zhong said.

"Even transporting our crystals at pedestrian speeds we have less loss than laser systems for a given distance."

"We can now imagine storing entangled light in separate crystals and then transporting them to different parts of the network thousands of kilometres apart. So, we are thinking of our crystals as portable optical hard drives for quantum entanglement."

After writing a quantum state onto the nuclear spin of the europium using laser light, the team subjected the crystal to a combination of a fixed and oscillating magnetic fields to preserve the fragile quantum information.

"The two fields isolate the europium spins and prevent the quantum information leaking away," said Dr Jevon Longdell of the University of Otago.

The ANU group is also excited about the fundamental tests of quantum mechanics that a quantum optical hard drive will enable.

"We have never before had the possibility to explore quantum entanglement over such long distances," said Associate Professor Matthew Sellars, leader of the research team.

"We should always be looking to test whether our theories match up with reality. Maybe in this new regime our theory of quantum mechanics breaks."

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, February 04, 2015

New Technology Update : Computer Chips Engineers Use Disorder To Ccontrol Light On The Nanoscale

A breakthrough by a team of researchers from UCLA, Columbia University and other institutions could lead to the more precise transfer of information in computer chips, as well as new types of optical materials for light emission and lasers.

The researchers were able to control light at tiny lengths around 500 nanometers -- smaller than the light's own wavelength -- by using random crystal lattice structures to counteract light diffraction. The discovery could begin a new phase in laser collimation -- the science of keeping lasers precise and narrow instead of spreading out.

The study's principal investigator was Chee Wei Wong, associate professor of electrical engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Think of shining a flashlight against a wall. As the light moves from the flashlight and approaches the wall, it spreads out, a phenomenon called diffraction. The farther away the light source is held from the wall, the more the beam diffracts before it reaches the wall.

The same phenomenon also happens on a scale so small that distances are measured in nanometers -- a unit equal to one-billionth of a meter. For example, light could be used to carry information in computer chips and optical fibers. But when diffraction occurs, the transfer of data isn't as clean or precise as it could be.

Technology that prevents diffraction and more precisely controls the light used to transfer data could therefore lead to advances in optical communications, which would enable optical signal processing to overcome physical limitations in current electronics and could enable engineers to create improved optical fibers for use in biomedicine.

To control light on the nanoscale, the researchers used a photonic crystal superlattice, a lattice structure made of crystals that allows light through. The lattice was a disorderly pattern, with thousands of nanoscale heptagonal, square and triangular holes. These holes, each smaller than the wavelength of the light traveling through the structure, serve as guideposts for a beam of light.

Engineers had understood previously that uniformly patterned holes can control the spatial diffraction somewhat. But the researchers found in the new study that the structures with the most disorderly patterns were best able to trap and collimate the beam into a narrow path, and that the structure worked over a broad part of the infrared spectrum.

The study's lead author was Pin-Chun Hsieh, who was advised by Wong during his doctoral studies at Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

The effect of disorder, known as Anderson localization, was first proposed in 1958 by Nobel laureate Philip Anderson. It is the physical phenomenon that explains the conductance of electrons and waves in condensed matter physics.

The new study was the first to examine transverse Anderson localization in a chip-scale photonic crystal media. It was published online today by Nature Physics.

"This study allows us to validate the theory of Anderson localization in chip-scale photonics, through engineered randomness in an otherwise periodic structure," Wong said. "What Pin-Chun has observed provides a new path in controlling light propagation at the wavelength scale, that is, delivering structure arising out of randomness."

Hsieh, who also is chairman and majority owner of Taiwan-based Quantumstone Research, said the findings are completely counterintuitive because one might think that disorder in the structures would lead the light to spread out more. "This effect, based on intuition gained from electronic systems, where introduced impurities can turn an insulator into a semiconductor, shows unequivocally that controlling disorder can arrest transverse transport, and really reduce the spreading of light."

The numerical simulation was performed at University College London, and the sample fabrication was carried out at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan.

The research was supported primarily by a grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research. Additional support was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the government of the United Kingdom. Hsieh is supported by a scholarship from Taiwan's Department of Education

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, February 04, 2015

News Update Nano Technology : Robo-Wings: Military Drones That Mimic Hawks And Insects

Picking through the rubble of war-damaged buildings in combat zones, looking for enemies, survivors, booby traps or worse is one of the most dangerous jobs in the military.

To take the dirt and danger out of mopping up operations, a Pentagon agency is developing a surveillance robo-hawk that could fly through the detritus of the urban combat jungle at 45mph.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) -- already famous as the maker of some of the U.S. military's more far-fetched war robots -- aims to develop autonomous drones small enough to fit through an open window.

Speeding through unstable buildings or threatening indoor spaces at 20 meters per second, the unmanned aerial vehicle would obviate the need for physical entry that puts troops or civilian response teams at risk. 

Part of a military brief called the Fast Lightweight Autonomy program, the study is looking at developing new algorithms to allow a small UAV operating without a remote pilot and without use of GPS waypoints to navigate stairways, corridors and other obstacles.

"Birds of prey and flying insects exhibit the kinds of capabilities we want for small UAVs," said Mark Micire, DARPA's Program Manager. "Goshawks, for example, can fly very fast through a dense forest without smacking into a tree.

"Many insects, too, can dart and hover with incredible speed and precision.

"The goal of the FLA program is to explore non-traditional perception and autonomy methods that would give small UAVs the capacity to perform in a similar way, including an ability to easily navigate tight spaces at high speed and quickly recognize if it had already been in a room before."

Ultimately, the agency says the algorithms developed in the program could enhance other types of unmanned missions, including underwater environments where GPS systems don't work.

"Urban and disaster relief operations would be obvious key beneficiaries, but applications for this technology could extend to a wide variety of missions using small and large unmanned systems linked together with manned platforms as a system of systems," said Stephanie Tompkins, director of DARPA's Defense Sciences Office.

The aim of the program would be to take the grunt work out of repetitive tasks where fatigue can mean the difference between life and death.

"By enabling unmanned systems to learn 'muscle memory' and perception for basic tasks like avoiding obstacles, it would relieve overload and stress on human operators so they can focus on supervising the systems and executing the larger mission."

Miniaturizing drones that could negotiate indoor environments has also been a focus of the U.S. military.

Its Army Research Laboratory, known as ARL, in Adelphi, Maryland, are currently working on a project to develop robotic surveillance insects with wings just 3-5 centimeters in length.

The wings are made of lead zirconium titanate, known as PZT, a material that flaps and bends when a small voltage is applied.

"We demonstrated that we can actually create lift," said Dr Ron Polcawich who heads the team. "So we know this structure has the potential to fly."

Powered by tiny ultrasonic motors that measure just 2 to 3 millimeters, the team has also designed a millipede-like robot that simulates crawling when voltage is applied to the PZT material.

While the team has shown that the project works in principle, Polcawich said that it may take a further 10-15 years of research before the Army has a fully functional robotic surveillance insect.

He said that more research would be needed to establish algorithms that would allow a robotic insect to stabilize itself.

More collaboration with other institutions -- Harvard University, for instance, has a "robo-fly" project three-times larger than the ARL's robotic insect -- would be necessary to make a fully working prototype.

Polcawich said the smaller the mechanical device, the more intricate are its aerodynamic problems.

In a gust of wind a fly "doesn't instantaneously stabilize itself," Polcawich said. "It will tumble, tumble, and then stabilize itself."

Creating this type of artificial intelligence or "cognitive ability" would take time, he said, and a number of different systems must be integrated to develop a robot that functions like an insect.

Posted by Unknown Monday, February 02, 2015

New Technology Update : Nanobots Could Be Small Solutions To Big Problems And Will Canotechnology Soon Allow You To 'Swallow The Doctor'?

A little knife :
The first to suggest that you could one day "swallow the surgeon" was beloved physicist and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman. He coined the idea in the provocative 1959 talk "There's plenty of room at the bottom", which is widely considered the first conceptual argument for nanotechnology.

"You put the mechanical surgeon inside the blood vessel and it goes into the heart and 'looks' around," Feynman said, "It finds out which valve is the faulty one and takes a little knife and slices it out."

Nelson's microrobots might not yet have a little knife, but they sure have something special: their shape is inspired by the common E.coli bacteria, which is propelled by a rotating "tail" called the flagellum.

"Bacteria have a rotary motor," he explains, "Now, we can't make that motor, we don't have the technology for that, but we can use magnetism to move these things, so we actually take these flagella and we magnetize them, which allows them to swim."

The nanobots have already been tested "in vivo" in an extremely delicate environment, the eye. They can swim through the vitreous humor -- the clear gel that fills the eyeball -- and deliver drugs in the retinal area to treat age-related diseases such as macular degeneration, which can cause blindness.

At the heart of the matter :

The robots are made in a "clean room" environment to keep them sterile, much in the same way as computer chips.

Nelson says that the test done with eyes have inspired other potential applications, such as the treatment of heart conditions. In this case the nanobots would be guided through a catheter - 2 to 3 millimeters in diameter - to reach the specific part of tissue that needs to be treated.

The catheter technique could also be used to reach the brain, and other target area include the smaller intestine and the urinary track. All difficult to reach areas where precision is a must. For that very reason, nanotechnology has long been touted as our best future weapon against cancer.

But how would surgeons operate with nanobots?:

"They would need training to learn how to use them," says Nelson, "but it's kind of an intuitive interface, and the nanobots would be guided with a joystick."

The technology is ready for the first clinical tests on human patients, which will begin to take place this year, according to Nelson.

Beyond medicine :
"More recently people in the field have been looking at other applications like water treatment or environmental cleanup, where you might be able to operate hundreds, thousands, millions of these devices and have them swim through polluted water, catalyze pollutants, and then collect them back," he says.

This could be applied for example to oil spills: "There have been some recent publications that have shown how they can actually attach to oil droplets and move them to other locations."

But the most outlandish prediction on the use of nanotechnology comes from MIT's digital guru Nicholas Negroponte, who believes that in the future we will receive information and knowledge directly from nanobots that will swim up to our brain from within our bloodstream.

We'd love to hear what Richard Feynman would have had to say about "swallowing the teacher."

Posted by Unknown Sunday, February 01, 2015