Posted: 27 Oct 2013 06:00 AM PDT
Move over WiFi; successful experiments by a group of Xinhua, Shanghai based scientists have implied the possibilities of improving China’s online means by using the signals sent by light bulbs. This technology is called LiFi, a wireless communication using light as a carrier in place of the usual radio frequencies. This has the advantage of being able to use internet even near electromagnetic sensitive locations such as nuclear power plants and aircrafts, without causing any interference.
In an experiment, four computers in a one-wattage LED light can be connected to the internet. Chi Nan, a professor in Fudan University, Shanghai, has disclosed that a light bulb with inserted microchips is able to generate data rates with the speed of 150 mbps, which is faster than the typical broadband in China. Chi under the information technology department and is leading the research team for LiFi. This team includes researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics.
The LiFi offers a practical and resourceful solution for the local Chinese broadband. Chi reveals that the present wireless signal transmission is costly and inefficient. A big percentage of energy is also wasted on cell phone base stations, which consumes a lot of electricity on their cooling systems. Compared to these stations, there can be limitless number of light bulbs which can produce better broadband signals without consuming a lot of energy.
However, the team of scientists knew that this innovation still has a long way to go to be successful commercially.
“Wherever there is an LED light bulb, there is an Internet signal,” Chi says. However, turning off the light cuts the signal. Light, unlike radio frequencies, cannot go through walls. “If the light is blocked,” Chi continues, “The signal will be cut off”
Netizens are already anticipating the 10 sample kits which will be on display at the China International Industry Fair which will be launched on November 5 in Shanghai. LiFi is still under an experimental period.
[Image via Crewfone]
The post Chinese Scientists Create LiFi (Light Powered Internet) appeared first on TechBeat.
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Posted: 27 Oct 2013 05:00 AM PDT
Whereas most drivers are used to seeing their dashboard screens with rear-view cameras, Bluetooth phones and radio, one driver in Belgium gets to have a whole new different dash digital display. Walter Vanhaertent is the newest to own a hybrid vehicle that is bred with an artistic machinery.
Lexus’ IS 300h car is built with a screen that paints auto-generated portraits of its own driver. The portraits are created real time as long as the driver is behind the wheel.
This experiment cum marketing tactic is created with Art is Motion, a project that utilizes a specially developed software that measures the user’s driving style and converts the data into digital colorful brushwork inspired from the art of the Spanish artist Sergio Abliac. The information is derived between the balance of the fuel use, acceleration and speed. For instance, if the driver accelerates fast, the portrait wil be rendered with blazing red brush strokes. A more serene driving mode results in cooler, blue hues. The speedier the car goes, the more the illustration is drawn in abstract. Greater detailing is achieved when the driver chooses to go slowly.
This car feature is created and developed by the Belgian agency Happiness Brussels as part of its own marketing experiment. The results are displayed on the Art Is Motion website, which contains portraits of Vanhaerent and recreations of the driver’s past records. This allows viewers to see how he drove on a specific day.
It is no surprise that Walter Vanhaerent himself is an art lover. Known to be an art collector, he can now produce masterpieces of his own right in his very own car.
For those who are interested in owning this one-of-a-kind vehicle, you can bit for it on the site. This bid also allows you to be registered for any auction of the vehicle in the future.
[Images via Art Is Motion]
The post Lexus IS 300h Car Paints Driver Portraits appeared first on TechBeat.
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Posted: 27 Oct 2013 04:00 AM PDT
Apple’s support forums were swamped with users complaining that the iOS 7 interface was making them sick, dizzy and causing headaches. In response iOS 7.0.3 has been released, offering users the option to turn off certain effects.
For people who suffer from inner ear disorders such as Meniere’s disease or Labyrinthitis, the zooming effect of the apps and features was making them feel sick. This was also made worse by the pseudo 3d parallax effect that causes icons to appear to move in relation to the Home Screen background.
In previous versions of iOS 7 it was possible to turn off the parallax effect thorugh Settings, however the zooming effect was still present and causing problems for some users.
So Apple has worked to solve the issue by allowing users to turn off the zooming effect by switching the Reduce Motion toggle. Now both of the problematic effects can be replaced by a quick cross-fade.
There are some other changes in iOS 7 too, including the addition of an iCloud Keychain and a Safari Password Generator, as well as the fixing of accelerometer calibration bugs and a flaw that could allow hackers to bypass the Lock Screen Passcode.
Obviously there will still be those who find Apple’s iOS 7 deeply sickening but not for any medical reasons. At least there is always Android for those with this type of complaint.
[Image via NYPost]
The post Apple’s iOS 7 Update Aims To Stop People Feeling Sick appeared first on TechBeat.
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Posted: 27 Oct 2013 03:00 AM PDT
But nanotechnologists have now designed and built a disk that can store data for a million years or more. That time frame is almost incomprehensible compared to the current magnetic hard disks can store data for just over a decade.
Back in 1956, IBM was the first company in the world to introduce a commercial computer capable of storing data on a magnetic disk drive. The IBM 305 RAMAC used fifty 24-inch discs to store up to 5 MB of data. Today, hard drives have no problem storing data with general capacities of 1 TB available on a 3.5-inch disk. Despite this massive increase in storage capacity, things haven’t really changed. The life of data that can be stored on magnetic discs is still approximately 10 years. The question is, how can we preserve information on a timescale greater than that?
Well, Jeroen de Vries at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and colleagues have designed and built a disk capable of storing data over 1 million years. They have performed accelerated ageing tests showing that the disk should be able to store data for 1 million years and maybe longer.
The idea behind accelerating the process of ageing is based around the fact that data must be stored in an energy minimum that is separated from other minima by an energy barrier. So to corrupt data by converting a 0 to a 1, for example, requires enough energy to overcome this barrier. The probability that the system will jump in this way is governed by a principle known as Arrhenius law. This relates the probability of jumping the barrier with factors like temperature and the Boltzmann constant and how often a jump can be made, which is relative to the level of atomic vibrations.
Calculations reveal for data to last a million years, the required energy barrier is 63 KBT or 70 KBT to last a billion years. “These values are well within the range of today’s technology,” say de Vries. To prove this point, the team built a disk capable of storing information for this period of time. The data is stored in the pattern of lines etched into a thin metal disc and then covered with a protective layer. The metal they used was tungsten, which they chose because of its high melting temperature (3,422 degrees C) and low thermal expansion coefficient. The protective layer used is silicon nitride (Si3N4), chosen because of its high resistance to fracture and its low thermal expansion coefficient.
The disk was using standard patterning techniques and stored data in the form of QR codes with lines 100nm wide. The disk was then heated at various temperatures to see how the data would be affected. The results, although carried out in specific laboratory conditions, are impressive. According to Arrhenius law, a disk capable of surviving a million years must survive 1 hour at 445 Kelvin, a test that the new disks passed with no problems. Actually, the disks survived temperatures up to 848 Kelvin, although with major amounts of information loss. That compares well with the Rosetta Project, a proposal by the Long Now Foundation to create archival materials capable of storing data for periods greater than 10,000 years.
This suggests we may to be able to preserve a significant amount of information for future mankind using this technique.
[Image via gizmodo]
The post Million-Year Data Storage Disk Unveiled appeared first on TechBeat.
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Monday 28 October 2013
Chinese Scientists Create LiFi (Light Powered Internet)
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