T-ray antenna (via Tokyo Institute of Technology)

It may seem sometimes that we have exploited the vast reaches of the electromagnetic spectrum, but technologies like WiGig, are showing this notion is not correct at all. T-rays, or electromagnetic waves found in the terahertz band, have traditionally been used for imaging research like X-rays, but now researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology are developing a system to apply this technology to ultra fast data transmission.

The terahertz band actually makes use of the 300 GHz to 3 THz frequencies a range currently unregulated by telecommunication authorities. Using a frequency of 542 GHz the team achieved data transfers of 3 Gb/s using a device called a resonant tunneling diode (RTD). These results are higher than anything achieved so far in the terahertz band.

This device is revolutionary in the terahertz data transmission because of its small size of only 1 mm-squared and low power necessities.  RTDs are unusual in that the voltage across them can be decreased as the current increases. The RTDs generate waves in the terahertz band by making the diode inside them resonate.

Due to the energy usage, the Tokyo researchers hope to some day implement them in hand held devices for short-range data transfers. It is likely that terahertz Internet would work only in short distances of up to 10 m (33 ft), and this short range is something the researchers are trying to improve by making their devices resonate at higher frequencies, but this will also require more power.

It will take a long time before these devices are put in any device consumers can hold, but the future hopes for speeds of up to 100Gb/s, which blows current transfer rates out of the water at 15 greater than 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

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Attendees at the TEDx conference (via TEDxMogadishu)

Somalia’s capital city Mogadishu hosted their first ever TEDx (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference earlier in March of this year. Between 50 and 100 people from diverse backgrounds attended the conference, held at the First Somali Bank, and discussed how to best to rebuild the war-torn capital and bring in new businesses after two decades of conflicts.

The forum was also a way of changing the world’s opinion about the country to show that there is more going on than terrorism and piracy in the hopes that new businesses will bring forth foreign investors (capitalists?). The event (called ‘Rebirth’) featured short films, music and speakers that included a University founder, property developers and health-care specialists. Only those who were invited (most of the invitee’s never heard of the TEDx conference) attended the talks due to security concerns, however, the forum was broadcasted over the internet for those who were interested. The talks came with mixed reviews as some thought that rebuilding Mogadishu gave them hope while others thought the focus should have been on rebuilding the country of Somalia itself. Still, no matter how you look at it any step forward is a monumental undertaking and a beacon of hope for that country.

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Dragon capsule (via SpaceX)

SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) has recently announced that they will launch their Dragon free-flying reusable space craft on Tuesday May 22nd. This will mark the first time in history that a commercial company has launched a manned space vehicle into space to rendezvous with the International Space Station.

The Dragon re-usable space craft was designed using three main components which feature a nosecone that’s used as a shield during lift-off and houses the docking adapter needed to connect to external hatches found on the ISS. The second component featured is the spacecraft itself and was designed to be configured based on payload specifications and houses the avionics, RCS (Reaction Control System or thruster control systems) system, parachutes and other un-pressurized cargo/systems. The third component featured on the spacecraft is the Trunk which is used for un-pressurized cargo, solar arrays and thermal radiators needed to power the craft.

The re-usable vehicle will be launched atop of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 two-stage heavy-lift rocket which uses 10 Merlin 1C liquid oxygen and kerosene motors (9 on the first stage and 1 on the second). The mission will bring much needed supplies to the ISS as well as challenge the Dragon in a series of tests designed to test the feasibility of using commercial craft for future missions contracted through NASA and other organizations. If all goes well the launch will take place at Cape Canaveral at 4:15 AM Eastern Time and is expected to return a few hundred miles off the coast of California two weeks later. For those interested in watching the launch head over to SpaceX.com which will start broadcasting 40 minutes prior to launch.

Update: The rocket was scheduled to launch this past Saturday, the 19th. However, the team discovered a faulty check valve on the "Merlin Engine." The component was swapped, and not the historic flight will take place this Tuesday, the 22nd. The post was updated to reflect the change.

Update 2: The Falcon 9 is now in orbit. The launch was successful.

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ARM Cortex A-9 (via TSMC)

Today's processor industry is largely controlled by two companies, Intel and ARM Holdings. Intel produces processors running in most of today’s laptops, desktops, and servers. On the other hand, ARM largely dominates the quickly growing mobile industry. Both are looking to invade each others markets soon by developing processors with high performance and low power consumption, or a strong performance per watt ratio.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) may have just made ARM Holdings future in the CPU market a bit more promising. At TSMC, they have recently ran a 28nm dual-core ARM Cortex A-9 processor at a max speed of 3.1GHz. The clock speed is 55% higher than present and is about twice as fast as its 40nm counterpart at TSMC. Additionally, the ARM chips also have the advantage of very little heat dissipation, giving them the ability to be densely packed together with one another.

Two of ARM's many partners include Nvidia and Calxeda, are both looking to produce ARM based processors to compete with Intel. Calxeda is working on producing chips for servers that work more efficiently. Such as implementing overlapping operations during each clock cycle to allow better speed handling. The method gives them an efficiency boost and may work to an advantage for large data retrieving applications such as web hosting.

TSMC also produces mobile chips for Nvidia. The successful high speed processing test can also mean good things for Nvidia. Nvidia is working on a custom ARM based processor to use in desktops and laptops to compete with Intel. The CPU project dubbed Project Denver has already been in development for some time, but TSMC's latest breakthrough could give the project a large boost.

The coming products produced from this “competition” should give us some interesting products in the future. Both companies will not easily be letting other companies invade their markets. The server market is worth $50 billion due to the rise of cloud computing and use of social networking. In addition, everyone can see the rise in the uses of tablets and smart phones.  The competition will lead us into the future of processor technology, which will be developed with these two companies paving the way.

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PlanetSolar leaving Vieux Port (Via marcovdz)

Sometimes a simple idea or dream can lead to massive accomplishments. For Rapheal Domjan, his thought of  building a solar ship did just that.  MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, a unconventional yacht, traveled around the globe in 585 days using only solar energy to power its journey. In a quadruple record breaking feat, the ship stopped at 28 countries along the way promoting solar energy and exploiting its power. The ships demonstration of solar power will lead to many new boating innovations and will revolutionize the way ships are built.

Craig Loomes and his team designed the 40 person 'PlanetSolar' optimizing energy collection, aerodynamics, propulsion, and materials used. The ship is extremely durable , and light due to its carbon structure and also is the biggest solar powered ship built to date. Additionally, it is 35 meters long and 23 meters wide and boasts a large array of solar panels upon its top, nearly every surface. The solar panels bring in a 22.6% yield that allows for a maximum engine output of 120 kW and an average output of 20 kW. The solar panels charge a row of 6 large lithium-ion batteries that give them a maximum energy density. With the impressive completion of the solar only commute, soon many ships will be equipped with solar powered systems similar.

Working on the ship brought together a team of diverse people including electrical engineers, physicians, sea captains, and ship builders. Navigating around the globe brought them to many different places along the way. Though most of the stops were around the equator for maximum sunshine harvesting. The global adventure showed just how powerful solar energy can be. For now, the ship is resting at Hercule Harbour in Monaco soaking up rays in the sun. Solar energy is an option that may be too appealing to pass on for the future of sea faring ships.

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LED Wishing Star art show (via Tokyo Hotaru)

LEDs have been used to create some of the world’s most interesting art. One of the more impressive pieces was showcased at the Licht Festival in Belgium last year, showcasing the cathedral of light. This year brought another large display of LEDs from Panasonic for Tokyo’s Hotaru Festival (Firefly Festival) which celebrates an age old tradition of…well…watching fireflies along river-banks. Panasonic took part in the ‘Symphony of Light’ celebration by releasing 100,000 ‘wishing star’ LED free-floating balls into Tokyo’s Sumida river which was complemented by the illuminated Tokyo Sky Tree. Each ball contains an individual LED which is powered by a tiny solar-cell and rechargeable battery making them fully self-sustainable and reusable. The piece is strikingly similar to what Mother Nature does naturally with bioluminescence.

Bioluminescent bloom of plankton, Maldives (via Doug Perrine)

Illuminating art can be found in nature and also uses self-sustainable energy like Panasonic’s ‘wishing star’ LED balls. These however rely on a chemical reactions (chemiluminescence) rather than solar to emit light. Plankton (much like the firefly) use a group of chemicals, known as luciferins, that oxidize and set off a catalyst called luciferase which produces ‘cold light’. Many of this plankton wash up on various shores where lucky on-lookers can appreciate a fantastic light-show like that recently found on Vaadhoo Island in the Maldives. Both of the displays were impressive in their own right, but only one of them was edible which edges Mother Nature as the winner of the illuminated art shows!

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More of the Panasonic Tokyo art show:

Augmented reality give a new way to interact with technology, and ambitious companies are clamoring to be firsts in the field. One of those concepts being developed by the software giant is called MirageTable. The system lets the user interact with objects in both the real and virtual worlds on a table top.

For instance; a person could set up a series of virtual bowling pins that could then be knocked over with a virtual ball with only using one pin as a real model to clone the others. The researchers developed MirageTable with the idea that two people could interact with each other in the same space without actually being with one another (think of it as being like Star Trek’s Holodeck). To do this, the researchers used an Acer H5360 3D stereoscopic projector (1280 X 720) to display objects, as well as the other person, onto a curved screen. A Kinect is positioned on top of the screen and captures the objects that are being projected and also tracks the eye movements of each corresponding user. This is to give the corresponding user the correct perspective of what’s in front of them. To view the objects in an augmented reality 3D environment each user wears a pair of Nvidia 3D shutter glasses which makes them appear spatially registered in conjunction with the real world. Any object can be scanned and then cloned for interaction by either of the two parties in both the real and virtual space.

Virtual Bowling (via Microsoft)

Free-hand interaction (because no trackers, gloves or other hardware was implemented) with virtual objects in MirageTable was done by using software that takes all real-world objects and represents them as proxy particles, which are constantly updated and used for collision geometry in the virtual world. To process all of the dynamic physics constantly being updated the team relied on Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580 along with their PhysX game software. This gives each person the ability to interact with both environments at the same time. The researchers admit that there are still limitations to overcome as the Kinect (at present) can only capture the front of an object and not all sides which leaves ‘gaps’ that make for bad texturing. Another problem the team faces is users can only scoop or catch objects from below instead of grasping or picking them up but hope to improve on these limitations with further development. I for one am very impressed at what they have already accomplished with MirageTable. What will its full capabilities be in the future if only as a gaming platform?

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Have you ever been skiing and had to put up with the hassle of trying to answer your cell phone or listen to music? I have not, but Anthony Griesel has. This skier and software developer is recruiting people to contribute to his Kickstarter for a project Called Neva that will facilitate staying connected while outside in the cold elements.

The idea is simple, to avoid having to fumble with small devices while you are bundled up on the slopes, he has developed a smart ski pole that allows you to manage calls, SMS, and displays other useful information like time, temperature and elevation on a 0.96’’ extra bright OLED touch display placed directly on top of one of the ski poles. Of course, all of the electronics are kept safe inside by a waterproof seal.

The poles wirelessly communicate with Android and iPhone via a low power Bluetooth using a free downloadable app. This app has more features like using the GPS locations for calculating slope angle and aspect and can also track your route in Google Earth KML format.

The poles themselves are made with 7075 grade aluminum, which has properties comparable to mild steel. The included rechargeable battery is said to last 3 days between charges and will last about 500 charging cycles. It is charged using a generic USB connection, but this will not be included.

Griesel hopes that his system will prevent users from losing or damaging their devices, and he hopes that added features will provide valuable information as to avoid dangerous parts of the mountains or avalanche prone areas. He does mention  that there is no substitute for experience and good judgment.

So far Griesel's kickstarter has raised over $11,000, which is still far from the goal of $100,000 , but there are 21 days to go. The rewards for a pledge are very enticing. A modest contribution of just $150 will earn you your own set of Neva ski poles.

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