Earlier this week, I came across some interesting news regarding the creation of flexible, paper-thin displays. Known as AMOLED technology, companies like Samsung, Sony, Nokia, and other communication giants were all working towards the development of digital devices that would be controlled through manipulation and not touch. In addition, they would thinner and lighter than any and all previous digital devices, and virtually immune to destruction.
Well it seems that touch screens are not to be outdone yet. In the midst of all the fanfare about the future of communications and information technology, a company by the name of Corning had its own vision of things to come. In their world, display screens can and will be built into panes of what they call “Gorilla Glass”. These panes could be the screen on your next smartphone, or the window in your bathroom, the panels in your car, on a wall in the street, or the basis of portable computing.
Just imagine, information kiosks on the street made out of large panels of illuminated glass, tablets that are less than a centimeter thick and completely transparent, and a handheld mirror that can also receive text messages, email and incoming calls. Much like flexible displays, this sounds like something out of a truly awesome science fiction novel, or a somewhat awesome Hollywood approximation thereof.
For some time, speculative writers have predicted that the future of computing will lie in “smart surfaces” and “smart materials” that are composed of computers and displays so tiny, that any flat surface can be made into a dynamic display device or interface. Once again, it seems that reality is catching up to fiction, and not a moment too soon either! I don’t know about you, but it’s nice to learn about technological innovation that doesn’t evoke feelings of dystopia or apocalypticism.
Check out the video below to see what Corning has in mind and how they will likely effect future generations and how they interact with their everyday environment:
China has been featured quite a bit in the news lately due to the rapid pace of its industrial, urban and technological development. However, one area which has not ceased to garner attention has been the parallel growth in its military industries. Whether it is the development of digital soldiers, stealth fighters, or naval vessels, any movement in these areas is bound to make analysts and defense planners in the West nervous.
For example, last year China finished the aircraft carrier which it had purchased fourteen years ago from the Ukraine, an aged Soviet-era vessel that they renamed the Liaoning. However, as Wired magazine columnist David Axe reported, the carrier was “a piece of junk”, and therefore not worth stressing over. Thought its engines were running and it was outfitted with the latest in anti-aircraft artillery, it was still an old model that was not up to the latest western standards.
But just two days ago, China managed to make its first aircraft carrier-based landing, a move which demonstrates that not only is the carrier sea worthy, but capable of deploying combat-ready planes into the Pacific. After deploying from its naval base in Northern China, the Liaoning began conducting take-off and landing drills using a J-15 fighter, a Chinese variant on the Russian SU-33 Flanker D. After performing a successful takeoff from the carrier, the fighter managed to circle back and perform a perfect landing. This was part of a series of exercises designed to test the aircraft carrier’s capabilities as part of China’s ongoing efforts to enhance their navy and “protect national sovereignty” at sea.
Naturally, the news has some people worried, as this development comes at a time when China is engaged in some territorial disputes with Japan over control of several islands in the East China Sea. What’s more, the Liaoning’s deployment took place amidst rumors that China is in the process of building its own carriers, which are expected to be ready by 2015. However, given the fact that the US still boasts a technological and numerical edge, and China is still several years away from deploying a fully combat-effective aircraft carrier the Pacific, few people are genuinely frightened.
In the end, all sides agree that this is a largely symbolic achievement on China’s part, and an indication that it is joining the ranks of global powerhouses in more ways than one.
It’s like something out of a Neal Stephenson novel, or possibly movies like Minority Report or Red Planet. A display which you can not only morph and twist, but which is barely thicker than a piece of paper. Yes, some pretty impressive developments have been making the rounds in the world of displays of late, most of which are coming to an electronics store near you!
Many of these products were displayed last year at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Samsung unveiled its revolutionary new AMOLED display on a number of items. AMOLED, which stands for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, is a process where organic compounds are used to form the electroluminescent material while an active matrix takes care of pixelation and display.
The result is a display that can be twisted and shaped without fear of breaking the display, or ruining the picture quality. At CES, many of the displays came on hand-held devices, all of which boasted displays that were almost paper-thin and could be bent, hammered, and still maintain their picture. Check out the video below to see a few such items on display, which have since become commercially available, at least in some discerning sectors of the market.
But what is really exciting about this news is that it is not reserved to any one company. During 2011, virtually all technology firms with a hand in portable devices, laptops and tablets had their own ideas on new-age flexible displays that utilized AMOLED technology. Nokia has its own concept for the “Kinetic Device”, which it demonstrated at the Nokia World Conference in London this past September. This flexible phone is controlled not by touching the screen, but by manipulating the body itself. Check out this video of a demo of the Kinetic running Windows Phone OS.
Megagiants Sony, 3M and Microsoft are also on board, producing videos of products that are under development that utilize holographic technology, bendable displays, and all kinds of neat and futuristic concepts to produce the next great leap in gaming, personal computing, and communications. After viewing the majority of them, it seems clear that the future envisioned here will involve ultra-light, transparent devices that are extremely portable and merged with items we were on our person in the course of everyday life.
We can also expect things like windows and panes of glass to carry displays and interfaces as well, allowing people to get directions and access public databases just about anywhere. Consider the following video as an example of what’s in store. Not to left behind in the speculative department, Samsung produced this video of what they felt the future of tablets would look like:
You know the old saying, the truth is stranger than fiction? Well in this case, it seems the truth is catching up to the fiction. It’s nice when that happens, even if it comes a little bit later than expected. Now if someone would just invent a damn flying car already, we’d be in business!
Remember Project Glass, the Google glasses that featured a heads-up-display and the option for augmented reality? Yeah, that was quite the big ticket news item for fans of cyberpunk and people who felt smartphones were becoming a little passe. Well, it seems that the world of sporting goods doesn’t want to be left out of the loop either!
They are known as the Oakley Airwave goggles, a set of eye wear that allows skiers to to consult stats on a heads-up-display while they are on the sloped. Amongst the information that skiers can project into their field of view are such stats as distance, temperature, speed and altitude. In addition, the goggles have a wireless connection feature which will keep the user apprised of their incoming calls and text messages. No word yet if emails will be included, but one thing at a time I guess 😉
I can remember my father telling me that you could tell if a person was important based on whether or not they carried a cell phone. According to him, unimportant people carried cell phones to look important; whereas important people didn’t need them because people waited on them. Having one only meant that you were on call wherever you were. And I don’t know about you, but the slopes is one place I don’t want to be reached! That’s why I go there in the first place!
Still, it’s a cool concept as far as hands free communication and networking are concerned. Coupled with Project Glass and other such products, this new wave of devices is paving the way for a future in which cell phones are obsolete. I imagine Apple and Blackberry are going to have something to say about this, or possibly an even more revolutionary product in mind. Only time will tell…
An interesting slew of news has been coming from NASA recently, courtesy of the Curiosity Rover and its mission to Mars. First, there was the announcement by John Grotzinger on NPR radio that Curiosity’s science team had discovered something potentially “earth-shattering” on the Red Planet, which came just two days ago. Since then, researchers over at NASA have been keeping a tight lip on what that might be, though it seems to be taking an extraodinary effort to do so. One can only imagine what they’re dying to tell us…
But it seems more stories are coming in the wake of this. First, there was the revelation by the Curiosity Rover that Mars radiation levels, once thought to be problematic for life, are actually safe for humans. According to Don Hassler, the principal investigator on Curiosity’s Radiation Assessment Detector instrument (RAD), Curiosity determined that “the Mars atmosphere is acting as a shield for the radiation on the surface and as the atmosphere gets thicker, that provides more of a shield and therefore we see a dip in our radiation dose.”
Apparently, the levels are equal to what astronauts deal with on the International Space Station, which means people in suits will be able to walk on the Red Planet safely once a manned mission is mounted. Knowing that they can conduct surveys on the surface without additional radiation shields should prove to be a boon for colonization as well. More settlers will certainly be drawn to Mars now that they know they can settle in without having to worry about little things like radiation sickness or mutations!
Third, there was the news that in the wake of making its “one for the history books” discovery, that Curiosity has finished collecting and analyzing soil samples and is preparing to move on. The final checks and preps were made amidst ethereal whirlwinds and twisters, which are characteristic of the region known as the “Gale Crater”, where it has been conducting its research for the past month. The rover is now being prepared to move on in search of suitable targets for a compact rock drill, the final major sample acquisition system to be tested.
Ashwin Vasavada, the deputy project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory rover at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, had this to say on the next phase of the mission: “We still would like to get a little further into this Glenelg region where we see this diversity of rocks and layered rocks and other really interesting terrain. And then we still have a goal in the next month or two of doing the big U-turn and heading up to Mount Sharp.”
Mount Sharp is a 3-mile-high mound of layered terrain that sits in the center of the Gale Crater, where Curiosity is expected to spend the bulk of its planned two-year mission. In the meantime, the research team needs to go over all the information Curiosity has sent back, including an ongoing analysis of the martian weather.
On top of all that, there’s still the matter of that “earth shaking news”. How about it NASA? You too, Grotzinger? We’re ready and waiting… how much more time do your researchers need before they’re sure and are free to break the news they are so clearly dying to share? I still say its organic molecules, but what do I know?
Countless species of wildlife are on the endangered list today, as a result of ongoing urbanization, deforestation, and pollution. Compared to these combined destructive forces, all attempts at wildlife enhancement and preservation – especially in the developing and underdeveloped parts of the world – seem ill-suited or limited in scope. However, scientists in Brazil have announced a new and startling plan which might just be the difference because success and failure.
The groundbreaking initiative is being carried out as a partnership between the Brasilia Zoological Garden and the Brazilian government’s agricultural research agency, aka. EMBRAPA. Thus far, their efforts include such species as the jaguar, the maned wolf, and the black lion, as well as numerous others that are on the Red List of Threatened Species, as compiled by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Currently, the initiative is in phase two of development. Phase one involved the collection of samples of genetic material, or germplasm, in the form of blood, sperm, somatic cells and umbilical cord cells, which were gathered over the course of two years. The researchers harvested the genetic material primarily from dead specimens of animals native to the Cerrado, the vast tropical savannah biome that stretches across central Brazil. The next phase will be the training of researchers at the zoo.
According to Carlos Frederico Martins, an EMBRAPA researcher, their organization has already been responsible for the cloning of cows. This began in 2001 with birth of a calf named Vitória, and has since gone on to include over 100 specimens made up largely of cows and horses. They hope to transfer the knowledge gained from these experiments to the staff over at Brasilia Zoological Gardens so the techniques can be adapted to wildlife. Currently, the plan is reserved to increasing the number of captive specimens of endangered animals, but that they are prepared to release these cloned animals into the wild if need be.
Countries like the US and South Korea are also working on similar plans to rehabilitate endangered species of wild animals. In there cases, as well as Brazil’s, the lack of prior knowledge is cited as an potential obstacle to success. As such it may be many years yet before animals such as wild tigers, jaguars, the Gray Brocket Deer, Bison and even simians are successfully cloned in captivity. In the meantime, here’s hoping other conservation efforts fare better than they have in the past! As well all know, humans aren’t the only ones in danger of suffering from Climate Change!
In an interview with NPR earlier today, John Grotzinger – the Principal Investigator for NASA’s Mars Science Labs – said a recent soil sample test with the SAM instrument (Sample Analysis at Mars) shows something”‘earthshaking.” Like any good scientist (or a terrible tease), Grotzinger and his team are awaiting confirmation before announcing just what it is they’ve found. Nevertheless, the announcement of a potential discovery which could be “one for the history books” has fueled speculation and put many on the edge of their seats.
Thus far, the smart money has been on the discovery of organic molecules in the Martian soil, which is precisely what Curiosity has been up to for the past few months. This is because the very purpose of the SAM instrument to examine the chemical and isotopic composition of the Martian atmosphere and soil, specifically to determine if anything organic is capable of living there. If so, it will end the age-old argument of whether or not life can exist on the surface Mars, even if it doesn’t currently.
It will also prove to be a boon for those who are seriously looking ahead, and plotting manned missions to the Red Planet with the intent of making it habitable for humans. As I’m sure all people are aware of by now, there are plenty of people who are monitoring Curiosity’s findings and hoping they will help determine whether or not terraforming can be carried on the the planet, with the long-term goal of creating a “Green Mars” where terrestrial species can live and thrive, crops can grow, and oceans and rivers can once again exist.
I think I speak for them and myself when I say, “Grotzinger, best of luck to you, and this better not be some kind of media stunt!” Oh, I can’t wait to hear what they find!
Wow, that title line sounds depressing. But that’s kind of my state right now, dealing with a worsening cold, some serious commitments that leave me strung out, and another form letter telling me my work is “not a good fit”. Yes, it seems that this past week has been the week from hell, or at least my own limited version of it. I have heard some people describe a week which could set your teeth on edge, so mine is really just a whiner’s approximation. Still, I think it’s been pretty sucky and I intend to complain. So consider yourself warned!
Oh, and my apologies to all those who read my site and have been taking part in the superhero challenge, or who are waiting on edits from me and have noticed delays. The events of the past week have been preventing me from being my usual verbose self, not that I’m making excuses. I’ve written and edited sick before, but things have been different lately. That should change soon, but until such time, let me tell what’s been occupying the past few days..
It all started around Wednesday, when I felt the onset of sickness that was characterized by bad headaches, general congestion and stuffiness, and a lack of energy. I figured twenty-four hours would be all I needed to kick it, so when I got a call asking me to fill in for an EA at the school where I work, I accepted it.
There’s a reason they call it “dog tired”
That night, I slept about five hours, worrying I wouldn’t be any better. Somehow, knowing you have to sleep to make the following day work always gives me parasomnia. By morning, I felt like crap and figured there was no way I was making it in. However, the lady who called me and asked me to fill in had already left town – her daughter was having a baby! So instead, I went into school, grabbed the sub list, and began calling everyone on it to see if anyone could take my place. No one was available, except one lady who was also sick but willing to soldier on. That clinched it for me! People were having babies and willing to work sick, so why was I trying to duck out? I decided at that point to officially to suck it up, slug some coffee, and do my damn job!
Well, that didn’t go so well. For starters, I was in the Kindergarten room with the woman I like to call the “micromanager”. She’s nice, but the tendency to explain simple tasks in minute detail, which annoys me! However, silver lining, she was impressed with the way I knew how to use the fancy functions on the printer and gave me a ton of administrative work to do. I like this stuff, so I spent much of the afternoon getting her lessons prepared for the coming weeks.
But of course, there were downsides. For one, it took me three cups of coffee just to keep from passing out. Two, the main child I was responsible for needed to be changed at the end of the day. This was the first time I changed a dirty diaper in my life, and it was one of the most icky experiences I’ve ever had! You don’t put a grown man and a child in a closed room together, as a rule, especially when it involves changing their clothes and cleaning them up. But I got through it and was kind of honored they trusted me enough to do something so sensitive. Ah, and then came downside number three, which was me being given bus supervision at the end of the day. And clearly, the children picked this day to be extra hyper and constantly be out of their seats and making messes with food and drink (which they are not supposed to have on the damn bus)!
But alas, it all ended and I went home to pass out. My wife was a real sweetheart and took the bus home too, and made dinner so I could rest. I made the mistake of sucking down some beer so I could feel better, which didn’t do me any favors since the next day, the cold was back with a vengeance. And I knew that we had to get up early and go help her brother move the next day, so I tried to get some rest and recoup. Needless to say, Saturday was a real trial! All day we spent cleaning out his cottage, vacuuming up cobwebs, dealing with black mold, and trying to erase ten years of continuous habitation. My feet got soaked from the muddy grounds outside, and once again my head was throbbing and my body aching and sore.
Oh, and when I opened my email to see what I’d missed, I found a letter from the latest magazine I submitted my work to, telling me that Domicile 4.5 was not a “good fit” with their work. They didn’t even mention the numerous articles I sent them, but I assumed their opinions on those were the same. It didn’t help that the message was clearly a form email letter with the field for the title of the submission being left open. That made what was already a hard day even harder! But at least we had some hot pizza and some sack time to compensate.
Today, we go back to help out some more. The moving is largely done, but there’s still some odds and ends to pack up. Then, silver lining again, we will get to see my wife’s family and see the new puppy her mother got! She looks so cute and furry from the photos, so I imagine the day will improve. Ah, but then the weekend is over, and I’m committed to go up north to house sit my parent’s house this Wednesday, their eight cats and my grandmother during mid-week. Sounds like a mini-vacation, but we already did that this past summer; and believe me, it was not a vacation!
As I griped to my wife about last night, when am I supposed to get better here? Unless I don’t get worse today (again), and Monday and Tuesday prove to be restful and incident-free, I’ll be going north a veritable corpse, in danger of infected my grandma. Dammit body, get better! However, I anticipate a third silver lining, as the days up in Comox with little to do but housesit, catsit, and make sure my Grandma is attended to will give me plenty of time to recoup and catch up on all my writing and editing duties. I’m hoping I will be better come Wednesday, and the trip north won’t be like this weekend, feeling half-dead in the midst of highway driving!
Like I said, full of complaints and whininess. In the grand scheme, I got nothing to complain about. I just really need this week to be over, know what I’m saying?
Just a quick post to say, my site has just reached 150,000 views today! Yaaaaaay! These milestones do get less exciting, the more there are, but it’s likely to be awhile before I reach 200,000. I figure, now’s as good a time and milestone to celebrate as any. And I could use some picking up, considering the week I’ve had!
For one, I got sick this week, which is sucky enough. However, that was coupled with the worst day of work I’ve ever had. It started got called in to fill in for an EA in my school’s kindergarten room the night before. I thought I might be well enough to work, but found that after a night of restless tossing and turning, I was exhausted and had a wicked headache!
But wouldn’t you know it, no one was available, so I decided to suck it up. And of course, the children chose that day to be especially rambunctious! I tell ya, sugar is like crack to kids, a terrible epidemic! And I don’t want to go into details, but suffice it to say, helping kids with special needs can be quite demanding, especially when they’re little guys! And today,s till sick and headachy, I’m trying to get better so the wife and I can go help her brother move tomorrow. I love moving…
So in the midst of the blahs, it’s nice to be reminded of something positive. I got nothing in the world to complain about, and hope people everywhere are having as stress-free a week as they possibly can! I also promise to be getting back on my writing and editing duties, so those who are waiting on notes from me, trust that they will be coming shortly. Thank you all for making this site an enduring possibility, and good night!
An update on the ongoing efforts to create invisibility technology has been bearing some pretty interesting fruit. Earlier this year, scientists at Berkeley announced that they were working on a suit that would be capable of bending light around it. Unlike adaptive camouflage, this technology would not merely broadcast a background image to conceal a soldier, but would render them virtually invisible to the naked eye.
Well guess what? Scientists at Duke University have finally created a cloak that works. Granted, it is only capable of concealing objects on the centimeter-scale, it is the only cloak of its kind that is capable of channeling incident light around itself, creating perfect invisibility. In all previous cases, the devices created reflected a certain degree of incident light, leaving the concealed object disguised but discernible.
In addition to the small scale on which it functions, the cloak has a few additional drawbacks. For now, the Duke invisibility cloak only works with microwave radiation; and perhaps more importantly, the cloak is unidirectional, meaning it only provides invisibility from one very specific direction. But that should hardly matter, seeing as how such a device even exists. With a little time, development, and a big fat DARPA contract, soon we may be seeing cloaking devices that are capable of concealing something as large as a person, a vehicle or even a building.
The Duke cloaking device, pictured at left, is composed of metamaterials – an artificial, man-made material that almost always have a negative refractive index. A negative refractive index allows for the creation of some interesting things, such as superlenses that go beyond the diffraction limit; or in this case, invisibility cloaks. Due to their unusual index, they are capable of refracting light around an object so a viewer does not see the object, but what is behind the object.
But in addition to metamaterials, the compositional materials also need a to be arranged in such a way that the illusion is perfect. After all, a 3D object has multiple sides, and the wearer has to be expected to turn a corner and change direction at some point. All previous designers in this case have struggled to fashion metamaterials that bend waves around corners without causing reflections. In this case, it was researcher Nathan Landy, a Duke University student, who arranged the metamaterials into the shape of a diamond to acheive the desired effect, since diamonds are apparently the best shape for minimizing reflections.
According to the Duke team, the next step is to expand on their design and make their cloak omnidirectional, meaning that it can bend light around the object from all directions. Don’t worry, I’m thinking some rather interested parties (i.e. every high-tech developer and military on the planet) is likely to be knocking on their door real soon!
Earlier this week, I came across some interesting news regarding the creation of flexible, paper-thin displays. Known as AMOLED technology, companies like Samsung, Sony, Nokia, and other communication giants were all working towards the development of digital devices that would be controlled through manipulation and not touch. In addition, they would thinner and lighter than any and all previous digital devices, and virtually immune to destruction.
Stories by Williams 