Technology – Page 3

Data Transfers At Gigabits To Terabits Per Second

June 8, 2014 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

UPCOMING TECHNOLOGY – Let’s talk about ongoing research developments that are working out solutions to provide digital data transfers at extraordinary speeds. These researches have shown possibilities with transferring data at gigabits per second (Gbit/s); even terabits per second (Tbit/s) in certain cases. This article will peek into the ‘future of super-fast’ complex interactions within your personal computer, searching through extremely large amounts of data and internet connections with super-speeds.

Li-Fi – Achieving low-cost, high speed internet at 10 Gbit/s through LED lights.

A white light is made up of red, green and blue colours. The researchers in UK were able to transmit 3.5Gbit/s of data through each red, green and blue lights of a micro-LED bulb. The video briefly explains how and why this technology is better than the current Wi-fi technology.

Via [BBC] [See.ed.ac.uk]

New Optical fibre cable transfers data at almost the speed of light – 73 Tbit/s.

Even the best quality optical fibres we find today are limited to handle data transfers of 40 Gbit/s. Now, researchers in England were able to transfer data at 99.7% of the speed of light (73 Tbit/s) using newly developed optical fibres.

Via [Nature]

5th Generation of Cellular networks.

The next major upgrade to cellular networks and mobile internet connectivity may take few more years. So far, confirmed reports have shown successful tests of 10 Gbit/s of mobile data transfer speed. Watch the presentation by Takehiro Nakamura at NTT Docomo explaining their views on 5G Networks.

Via [NTTDocomo]

Searching Big Data at 40 Gbit/s.

Big Data technology is meant to be a solution when data becomes voluminous and complex enough where it cannot be handled and processed by traditional solutions. So while Big Data does it’s job of handling and processing, there is also a need for fast searching and finding data within such enormous volume. A recent development by Fujitsu allows searching through such enormous and complex data at 40 Gbit/s.

Big Data Comic — Image credits to D.Fletcher at CloudTweaks.com

via [Fujitsu]

Intel’s Silicon Photonic Link to transfer data at Tbit/s within, and with other computers.

Intel has built a prototype Silicon Photonic link that has successfully been tested to transfer data at 50 Gbit/s, and they’re currently working on pushing the limits to a speed in terabits per second. The following video explains the working of Silicon Photonics.

Via [Intel]

Lithium-ion Batteries With Extreme Folding Capabilities

May 31, 2014 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

UPCOMING TECHNOLOGY – The idea of bending and twisting any electronic device can seem bizarre and discomforting. But, there are instances when such deformability can be very useful. One of the most desired capabilities while building any compact system is to allow deforming of larger devices and forcibly fitting them into smaller areas, possibly with no loss of intended behaviour and output. Let’s take a look at researches that aim to bring out lithium-ion batteries with extreme folding capabilities.

Origami Lithium-ion battery

The researchers at Arizona State University have built a origami lithium-ion battery with the main purpose to provide foldable solar panels for spacecrafts, particularly to save space (no pun intended!).

The following video shows how high deformability of lithium-batteries is very much achievable, while persisting high quality of output.

Via – [Nature]

Paper lithium-ion battery with 14 times more energy density when folded

Foldable battery — This illustration is demonstrating the possible folding pattern and ability of the battery

How about a battery made out of nanotube-coated paper that can be folded and unfolded like a map? The battery has been demonstrated to produce more energy when folded. Researchers are working on further improving the energy density.

This battery could find it’s use with the popular idea of “flexible” consumer electronics.

Via [PUBS.ACS.ORG]

Elastic/ Stretchable Lithium-Ion Batteries That Charge Wirelessly

These stretchable lithium-ion batteries can power tiny medical devices to be implantated inside the human body. The stretchable batteries within implanted devices could be wirelessly charged.

Via – [NorthWestern.EDU]

Turning Humans And Objects Invisible

November 27, 2013 by Raj Agrawal 2 Comments

UPCOMING TECHNOLOGY – What is an invisibility cloak? It is a device that can render humans and objects completely invisible. And we’re talking about actual invisibility from sci-fi stories; not cheap trickery. First, we’ll talk about some ongoing non-military researches. Followed by a Canadian company’s claim to have already made a fully functional invisibility cloaking material, exclusive to military applications.

Active invisibility cloaking

One of the researchers at The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering said (excerpts),

“We’ve demonstrated a different way of doing it,”
“It’s very simple: instead of surrounding what you’re trying to cloak with a thick metamaterial shell, we surround it with one layer of tiny antennas, and this layer radiates back a field that cancels the reflections from the object.”

**Cloaking small electrical signals with Time cloaking (Space-time cloaking is currently much more complex and currently a challenge)**

The research is being led at Purdue University. Joseph Lukens, a co-publisher of the findings said (excerpts),

“Time cloaking is relatively new. It’s based on the idea that there are places in time where if something were to happen it wouldn’t be picked up, so no one can tell that it has occurred.”
“Say you have a light beam. Speed up the front half and slow down the back half, and you create a place where the light beam splits apart. There is no light intensity there.”
“If you send a piece of data, but the light beam isn’t there, you can’t make the record. So if someone depicts the absence of light they will think no data was sent.”

Cloaking objects with ‘mirrors and lenses’

cloaking with mirros and lenses — The device cloaks a portion of the chair with a trash can. Photo credit – TechnologyReview.com

Wait, isn’t that what magicians do? Well, the researchers at the University of Rochester in New York acknowledge that this idea has been indeed used by magicians since a long time, but their research adds an layer of ‘easy scalability’. They have devices to unidirectionally cloak a human to something as big as a satellite.

Quantum Stealth

The camouflage design company based in Canada – HyperStealth Biotechnology Corp, claims to have successfully designed a material that completely hides any object by bending light. The creators also claim that the working of their technology remains a well kept secret.

On the company’s official page, they have answered several questions like why it made sense to release this news in public, and questions like could there be a commercial version of Quantum Stealth? And as claimed, the material has been declared classified by the US and Canadian military. With of all these on one hand, there is no existence of a solid proof of it’s existence on the other. Whether if it’s real or another hoax, we would probably never know.