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.

Eavesdropper

Light communication is nothing new (see the Fraunhofer Institute’s VLC system), but new advancements are making technologies such as free-space retroreflectors more power, efficient, as well as giving them an over-all boost in speed. One of the major draw-backs of using free-space optical communication systems, on space-craft for example, is that they require a sizable power supply to transmit data over significant distances and space for those is often limited.

This is where CCR’s (Corner Cube Retroreflectors) become handy. Light can be emitted from a base station that has no power constraints, and the CCR can ‘bounce’ light back to the source with little scattering. They function by using two vertical separately angled mirrors and one horizontal that together form a concaved cube which pulses light from the source to the hub resulting in an ‘on’ state and diverts the light using a piezoelectric cantilever to redirect the horizontal mirror which creates an ‘off’ state. However, they too have their draw-backs in terms of the high-voltage needed to redirect the (off) light-source, but a team of engineers from Kwangwoon University in Seoul have tackled the voltage problem with the help of MEMS (Micro Electrical Mechanical Systems) technology.

(Top left) Concept of CCR unit (top right) tunneling microscope image (bottom left) CCR on state (bottom right) CCR off state (via J. Park, et al. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd)

The teams CCR design uses perfectly aligned silicon mirrors fabricated using a double SOI (Silicon on Insulation) wafer with an anisotropic KOH (potassium hydroxide) wet etching technique which makes them almost perfectly flat. The team then micro-fabricated a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric cantilever that runs on a voltage of only 5 volts to actuate the horizontal mirror. The reduction in overall voltage is attributed to the almost perfect alignment of the specially designed mirrors. In addition to being more accurate and energy conservative, they can also be outfitted with sensors as well as CMOS circuitry giving them additional micro-optical systems applications such as coded data communications for the military. While the team's new CCR design is extremely efficient over previous iterations, it still has its faults. Its range is limited due to a slight curvature in the horizontal mirror, but the engineers state that the problem will be overcome through ‘optimization of the material selection and the process conditions.'

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Inside and outside of the DIT cell phone (via high-low tech)

Every so often MIT opens its doors to the general public and holds a sort of ‘open house,’ where people can view the latest works and lectures (312+ of them in 5 hours!) from every department. One of the more notable works of technology from the prestigious school centered around a do-it-yourself cellphone from the "high-low tech" group at the MIT Media Lab.

Designed by PhD student David Mellis, the DIY prototype phone features a custom circuit-board with 1.8 inch (160 X 128) TFT color display from Adafruit Industries. For cellular connectivity, the phone uses a SM5100B GSM module made by Sparkfun and can accept any SIM card from any GSM provider. The components are housed inside a laser-cut plywood and veneer case with flexors that enable the buttons to be pressed. Another notable feature on the phone is the giant coaxial antenna that’s needed to make and receive calls. This reminds me of the old box-like cell phones from the 80’s. For power, the phone relies on an every-day 9 volt battery over rechargeable lithium-ion batteries found in current smartphones. Sure the phone doesn’t have the app-packed super-powers of those found in current cellphones it’s still appealing for those who love DIY projects and costs around $150 US for the parts to build one.

Eavesdropper

Every day more people are growing concerned over their right to privacy when it comes to the internet. What sites they go to, what they purchase as consumers (more on that in a bit) and what is said on social-sites can/are being monitored. In some extreme cases, people are required to hand over their passwords to sites such as Facebook through either school officials (12 year-old in Minnesota) or potential employers (growing trend). Internet service providers are often used by government officials to spy on or track person/s of interest. Recently, companies such as AT&T and Verizon have been caught handing over millions of user’s phone records over to the NSA (National Security Agency) while Verizon reportedly gave user data over to the FBI as well without a court-appointed warrant. This was done in 2006 and was made legal through a retroactive bill passed by the US Congress in 2008 (Patriot-Act part deux).

Not being comfortable with the idea of ‘Big Brother’ watching over our online habits, Nick Merrill (who founded Calyx Internet Access in 1994) is set to launch the non-profit ISP Calyx Institute which will provide customers with a secure-level of anonymity for the internet as well as mobile phone service for as low as $20 US a month. The users of Calyx will have end-to-end encrypted web-surfing along with encrypted E-mail services as well as a host of other services. This is of course if he gets the funding he needs ($2,000,000), featured on Indegogo (a kickstarter clone), to get it off the ground. (Combine this with the Hacker satellite, and here comes a budding free digital world.)

The other concern centers around the ever ambiguous ‘net neutrality’ issue which is designed to protect copywriters from having their wares pilfered on the web. Sure, no one wants their hard-earned ideas grifted by shady predators but sometimes this concept travels over to the absurd side of the tracks. For instance, Portugal’s PSP (Portugal Socialist Party) want’s to tax storage devices in the name of copyright protection thereby curbing piracy. This entails consumers to pay 0.2 Euros (or roughly $0.26 US) for every gigabyte of storage up to 1 terabyte ($28.00 US in taxes for 1TB) in capacity. It gets better; devices with a storage capacity of over 1TB are subjected to an aggravated tax of 2.5 cents Euro for each GB over 1 TB (adding an extra $51.2 Euros in taxes for a 2TB hard-drive). It doesn’t stop there as portable drives take the cake with devices over 1TB getting an additional 5 cents Euro per GB, which would make a portable drive with a capacity of 2TB taxed to the tune of a whopping $103.2 Euros. This insane tax initiative would effectively kill the storage industry in Portugal.

While officials say the ‘taxation measure’ would destroy their piracy problem, others suspect it may be designed to hold off a financial melt-down like that of Greece. While these two problems are ‘spun’ as a way to protect us from outside threats that could potentially hurt us, we may only need ‘sensible’ thinking in order to achieve the same result.

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2012 Summer Olympic Games logo. Created by Wolff Olins, it represents the number "2012." The logo cost £400,000 ($635,120 USD). (Via International Olympic Committee)

The BBC is sparing no expense when it comes to this year’s Olympic coverage. The company is making 24 live-stream HD channels available (48 in all if you count non-HD channels) for the games which will give some viewers the option to follow just one event. That means you can watch events such as the blistering Table-Tennis matches or the nail-biting Canoe-Sprint event from beginning to end without any interruption from the rather mundane competitions like Hokey or Gymnastics (joking of course). Live streaming will also be available for mobile devices thanks to the BBC’s sports web-site.

This year may also see another Olympic first with the inclusion of a robotic torch runner if Dr. James Law from Aberystwyth University(UK) has his way. Last year (2011), Dr. Law nominated the Department of Computer Science’s iCub robot to bear the Olympic torch which was being sponsored by Lloyds TSB (Euro-Bank). The robot was acquired by Aberystwyth in the hopes that they could make it learn much like human infants do to overcome the challenges of sensory overload that other ‘bots inevitably encounter with programming.' Apparently iCub was terrified at the prospect of carrying ‘fire’ that the Olympic committee declined the nomination (just kidding, it’s currently unknown as to why the nomination was declined). We may still see a robotic torch carrier. If a robot can complete the "Ironman Triathlon," they can carry a torch too.

Let the games begin! (July 27th, 2012)

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Concept (via Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona)

Slowly but surely, the cloaking devices seen on almost every sci-fi show in existence are becoming a reality. Sure we can’t actually hide a Klingon Warbird (we haven’t figured out how to build one yet), but we can do the next best thing, cloaking objects from magnetic fields. A collaboration with researchers from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) and the Institute of Electrical Engineering (Slovakia) have designed a special cylinder that is able to hide objects from magnetic fields.

The research team was able to build the device using a super-conductor material encased in iron, nickel and chrome (chrome for style?). There are two main layers. One is a superconductor that reflects magnetic fields, while the other ferromagnetic layer attracts the same fields. Anything placed inside a cylinder of the composite materials will be undetectable. Think of it as being able to bend a magnetic field around an object. Theoretically you could pass through a metal detector at an airport with anything that could fit inside the cloaking tube undetected. That is until security notices the liquid nitrogen vapor (used for the superconductor) coming off the metallic cylinder. All kidding aside, the technology could be adapted for use in the medical field to shield pacemakers or other implants from magnetic resonance tests, as well as a host of other applications.

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Engineering On Friday shows the military application for this tech.

WICC NFC antenna and wireless charger adapter (via Duracell)

Some innovations are coming out that will let you recharge your mobile devices wirelessly and on-the-go. The first, announced by Duracell, is called the ‘PowerMat WICC’. The WICC is a super thin add in card (as well as a NFC antenna) that enables you to grab power wirelessly from any Duracell or its competitors charging mat. This technology is also combined with an app that helps you locate the nearest charging station in case you need a re-charge before your mobile device looses all power. Your phone will require an add-in plug (or specialized case) that is said to be "easily installed," otherwise just wait for your wireless provider to have them built in with future designs. Duracell is not releasing this add-in card anytime this year as the company is waiting for phone manufacturers to come on board with adopting the WICC specifications. My guess is that it will show up around, or after, the 2012 holiday season.

Corey Hewitt holding a piece of "Power Felt" (via Wake Forest University)

The next charging innovation needs to be ‘Felt’ rather than seen. This charger is known as ‘Power Felt’ and was designed by Wake Forest University graduate student Corey Hewitt. The two-inch piece of black fabric is comprised of carbon nano-tubes bound in plastic fibers and has thermoelectric properties that take body-heat and convert it into electrical energy. While this has potentially unlimited uses  aside from mobile device charging, its not cost effective. Demand from leading electronic manufacturers is the only way for lowering the cost of the Power Felt (about $1,000 US per kilogram) and starting tech adoption by the industry. Still, Power Felt is indeed a novel approach in recharging mobile devices just by carrying it. No word on the exact figures of heat to energy conversion.

I like the direction that industry people are headed. Wireless charging and energy-scavenging are paramount features in the future of staying mobile.

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Rosepoint chip (via Intel)

‘Fused’ chips are fast becoming the status quo in powering today’s mobile devices, particularly tablets and smartphones. For those of you who don’t know what fused chips are, they combine CPU’s and  For those of you who don’t know what fused chips are, they combine CPU’s and GPU’s on a single chip (or die) such as AMD’s Fusion. Intel has recently stepped up their game in this field with the introduction of their Sandy Bridge line of fused chips, but they have not stopped the integration there.

The company has recently stated that they have combined Wi-Fi with their line of Atom processors code named Rosepoint which will be unveiled at this year’s International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. Not much is known about Rosepoint but a few ‘leaked’ images and a vague Intel press release. Details say that it features a 32nm SoC with a built-in Wi-Fi transceiver (running at a reported 2.4 GHz or 4G) with two Atom CPU’s all crammed onto the same die. Another goal is to reduce the chip-count. Although a wireless transmitter that close to other digital signals would cause interference, Intel has found some "hush-hush" way to shield the CPU from the WiFi onboard. The integration of wireless onto CPU cores means less power usage as well as costs. If all goes well, the technology could be found in mobile devices as early as 2013.

More information will be released at this year’s ISSCC so check back for an update! (ISSCC runs from February 19-23rd.)

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