Editorial

Esta é a Newsletter Nº 148 que se apresenta com o mesmo formato que as anteriores. Se gostar da Newsletter partilhe-a!

Todas as Newsletters encontram-se indexadas no link.

Esta Newsletter tem os seguintes tópicos:

• Novidades da Semana
• Ciência e Tecnologia
• Modelos 3D
• Documentação
• Projetos Maker

Faz anos hoje que nascia, em 1611, John Pell. Este Matemático inglês introduziu o sinal de divisão (obelus, ÷) na Inglaterra. O obelus foi usado pela primeira vez por Johann Rahn (1622-1676) em 1659 na Álgebra de Teutsche. O livro de Rahn foi interpretado em inglês e publicado, com adições feitas por John Pell. Segundo algumas fontes, John Pell foi uma influência chave sobre Rahn e ele pode ser responsável pelo desenvolvimento do símbolo. Ficou igualmente conhecido pela equação de Pell e pelos números de Pell.

Faz igualmente anos hoje que nascia, em 1880, Isaac Shoenberg. Este Engenheiro electrotécnico britânico de origem russa foi o principal inventor do primeiro sistema de televisão de alta definição, usado pela British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) para a primeira transmissão pública de alta definição do mundo (de Londres, 1936). Ele instalou as primeiras estações de rádio na Rússia antes de se mudar para a Inglaterra em 1914. Foi chefe de um grupo de pesquisa para Indústrias Eléctricas e Musicais (EMI) que desenvolveu (1931-35) um tipo avançado de câmara (o Emitron) e um tubo de raio catódico de vácuo rígido relativamente eficiente para o receptor de televisão. Até 1964, a BBC usou sua proposta técnica padrão - 405 linhas de varredura e 25 imagens por segundo.

Faz também anos hoje que nascia, em 1910, Archer Martin. Este bioquímico inglês partilhou (com R.L.M. Synge) o Prémio Nobel de Química em 1952 pelo o desenvolvimento de cromatografia de partição de papel usando dois líquidos diferentes movendo-se em ângulos rectos. Esta técnica analítica rápida e económica separa os diferentes componentes de uma mistura, permitindo sua identificação e análise. Como uma nova ferramenta, proporcionou extensos avanços na pesquisa química, médica e biológica. Em 1941, Martin e Synge perceberam que a partição de um soluto entre um gás e um líquido era possível, mas foi no início dos anos 1950 que Martin desenvolveu a técnica de cromatografia gás-líquido com A. T. James.

Por fim, faz anos hoje que nascia, em 1928, Seymour Papert. Este Cientista informático norte-americano ficou conhecido por ter inventado a linguagem de programação de computador Logo, uma linguagem educacional de programação de computadores para crianças. Estudou sob Piaget, absorvendo suas teorias educacionais. Ele estudou formas de usar a matemática para entender melhor como as crianças aprendem e pensam, e sobre as maneiras pelas quais os computadores podem ajudar na aprendizagem de uma criança. Com Marvin Minsky, ele co-fundou o Laboratório de Inteligência Artificial no MIT.

Nesta semana que passou ficámos a saber que um homem de Saskatoon desenvolveu o maior bungalow de campismo impresso em 3D. Randy Janes, de Saskatoon, finalmente tem o bungalow de campismo de seus sonhos. Janes desenvolveu e imprimiu em 3D no que foi avaliado como não apenas o maior bungalow de campismo impresso em 3D, mas também um dos maiores objectos impressos em 3D internos. A impressão levou nove dias e meio com a maior impressora 3D da América do Norte. James e sua equipa de impressão agora têm um protótipo funcional do bungalow. Este tem quatro metros de altura e pesa 272 quilogramas.

Também esta semana ficámos a saber que a Nokia e a Vodafone vão instalar tecnologia 4G na Lua. A primeira rede móvel cósmica apoiará uma aterragem lunar planeada pela empresa de espaço privado PTScientists. Comemorando 50 anos desde os pequenos passos de Neil Armstrong, a empresa com sede em Berlim tem programado lançar o seu Módulo Autónomo de Aterragem e Navegação (ALINA) em 2019 a bordo de um foguete SpaceX Falcon 9. A cápsula, projectada para transportar e aterrar com dois Audi Lunar Quattro rovers, também servirá como uma estação base LTE, permitindo a transferência suave de dados e vídeos de volta à Terra.

Na Newsletter desta semana apresentamos diversos projetos de maker assim como alguns modelos 3D que poderão ser úteis. É apresentada também a revista newelectronics de 27 de Fevereiro.

João Alves ([email protected])

O conteúdo da Newsletter encontra-se sob a licença Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Saskatoon man develops largest 3D-printed camper

"He’s been planning it for the past two years, but Randy Janes of Saskatoon finally has the camper of his dreams. Janes developed a 3D-printed camper in what has been billed as not only the world’s largest 3D-printed camper, but also one of the largest indoor 3D-printed objects ever. The print took nine-and-a-half days with North America’s biggest 3D printer. James and his printing team now have a functioning prototype of the camper. “It's kind of surreal,” James told CTV Saskatoon. “I had the thought of walking into it when I designed it on my kitchen table and I got it to work.” The camper stands at four metres tall and 272 kilograms." [...]

Nokia, Vodafone To Install 4G on the Moon

"There are parts of the world still without mobile service. But Nokia and Vodafone are bringing 4G coverage to the moon. The first cosmic cellular network will support a planned lunar landing by private space company PTScientists. Celebrating 50 years since Neil Armstrong’s small steps, the Berlin-based firm is scheduled to launch its Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module (ALINA) in 2019 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The capsule—designed to transport and land two Audi lunar quattro rovers—will also serve as an LTE base-station, allowing the smooth transfer of data and video back to Earth. “This is a crucial first step for sustainable exploration of the solar system,” according to PTScientists CEO Robert Böhme." [...]

Made In Space Sets Guinness World Record for Longest 3D-Printed Piece

"A company that aims to build big structures in space has just set a record here on Earth. California-based Made In Space earned a Guinness World Record for "World’s Longest 3D Printed Nonassembled Piece," company representatives announced Thursday (Feb. 22). That piece is a beam 123 feet 8.25 inches (37.7 meters) long, and it now hangs from the ceiling at Made In Space's facility in Moffett Field, California, on the campus of NASA's Ames Research Center. [3D Printing in Space: A Photo Gallery] "We believe that this record is indicative of the transformational work we're doing in space today," Made In Space President and CEO Andrew Rush said in a statement. "Guinness is the most recognized, ultimate global authority in record breaking, and our team couldn't be prouder to receive this recognition for their incredible work. They deserve it."" [...]

Simplify Industrial-Grade Linux Designs with SAMA5D2 MPU-Based System On Module (SOM)

"There is a great deal of design effort and complexity associated with creating an industrial-grade microprocessor (MPU)-based system running a Linux® operating system. Even developers with expertise in the area spend a lot of time on PCB layout to guarantee signal integrity for the high-speed interfaces to DDR memory and Ethernet Physical Layer (PHY) while complying with Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) standards. To remove the traditional design complexity in this space, Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP) has unveiled a new System on Module (SOM) featuring the SAMA5D2 MPU. The ATSAMA5D27-SOM1, which contains the recently released ATSAMA5D27C-D1G-CU System in Package (SiP), greatly simplifies design by integrating the power management, non-volatile boot memory, Ethernet PHY and high-speed DDR2 memory onto a small, single-sided Printed Circuit Board (PCB). For more information visit www.microchip.com/SAMA5D2SOM. The SAMA5D2 family of products provides an extremely flexible design experience no matter the level of expertise." [...]

Intel Ships Industry's First 58G PAM4-Capable FPGA Built for Multi-Terabit Network Infrastructure and NFV

"Intel today announced it has begun shipping its Intel® Stratix® 10 TX FPGAs, the industry’s only field programmable gate array (FPGA) with 58G PAM4 transceiver technology. By integrating the FPGA with 58G PAM4 technology, Intel Stratix 10 TX FPGAs can double the transceiver bandwidth performance when compared to traditional solutions. This exceptional bandwidth performance makes the Intel Stratix 10 TX FPGAs the essential connectivity solution for next-generation use cases: optical transport networks, network function virtualization (NFV), enterprise networking, cloud service providers and 5G networks applications where high bandwidth is paramount. To facilitate the future of networking, NFV and optical transport solutions, Intel Stratix 10 TX FPGAs provide up to 144 transceiver lanes with serial data rates of 1 to 58 Gbps. This combination delivers a higher aggregate bandwidth than any current FPGA, enabling architects to scale to 100G, 200G and 400G delivery speeds. By supporting dual-mode modulation, 58G PAM4 and 30G NRZ, new infrastructure can reach 58G data rates while staying backward-compatible with existing network infrastructure." [...]

Microsoft updates its Quantum Development Kit and adds support for Linux and Mac

"Today we’re announcing updates to our Quantum Development Kit, including support for macOS and Linux, additional open source libraries, and interoperability with Python. These updates will bring the power of quantum computing to even more developers on more platforms. At Microsoft, we believe quantum computing holds the promise of solving many of today’s unsolvable problems and we want to make it possible for the broadest set of developers to code new quantum applications. When we released the Quantum Development Kit last December, we were excited about the possibilities that might result from opening the world of quantum programming to more people. We delivered a new quantum programming language – Q#, rich integration with Visual Studio, and extensive libraries and samples. Since then, thousands of developers have explored the Quantum Development Kit and experienced the world of quantum computing, including students, professors, researchers, algorithm designers, and people new to quantum development who are using these tools to gain knowledge." [...]

Mbed OS 5.7.6 released

"We are pleased to announce the Mbed OS 5.7.6 release is now available. This is the latest patch release based on the feature set that Mbed OS 5.7 introduces. Summary In this release we have updated the ST HAL driver for STM32F7 with CubeF7 v1.10.0 and the ST HAL driver for STM32F4 with CubeF4 v1.19.0. We have also added support for Nuvoton M487 ECP Crypto H/W accelerator, SERIAL_ASYNCH for STM32F429ZI, 220MHz core speed on LPC54628 and the use of LPUART in stop mode for STM32L0/4. For lwIP we have enabled EMAC IPv6 support. How you write and erase the flash on the NRF52 changes depending on whether the SoftDevice is enabled or not." [...]

Low-Cost Debugging and Programming is Now Faster and More Feature Rich with MPLAB PICkit 4 Development Tool

"The debugging process remains an important area where many embedded design engineers would like to see improvements, according to AspenCore’s 2017 Embedded Market Study. To address these needs and enhance the development experience, Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP) introduces the MPLAB® PICkitTM 4 In-Circuit Debugger. The low-cost PICkit 4 in-circuit programming and debugging development tool is meant to replace the popular PICkit 3 programmer by offering five times faster programming, a wider voltage range (1.2-5V), improved USB connectivity and more debugging interface options. In addition to supporting Microchip’s PIC® microcontrollers (MCUs) and dsPIC® Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs), the tool also supports debugging and programming for the CEC1702 family of hardware cryptography-enabled devices. This low-cost programming and debugging solution is ideal for those designing in the 8-bit space, but it is also perfectly suited for 16- and 32-bit development due, in part, to its 300 MHz, high-performance ATSAME70Q21B microcontroller on board. The benefits of faster programming time are less waiting and better productivity during development." [...]

NASA's Newest Wearable Technology Takes on the Human Shoulder

"You’ve heard of NASA’s X1 robotic exoskeleton, right? It’s the robot a human can wear over his or her body to either assist or inhibit movement in leg joints. Well, now NASA’s Wearable Robotics Laboratory, in collaboration with Rice University, has used the technologies developed for the exoskeleton and the Space Suit Roboglove to help with rehabilitation and augmentation of one of the most complex human joints … the shoulder. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate supported the development of X1 and the Robo-glove through its Game Changing Development Program (GCD). GCD advances innovative technologies that have the potential to revolutionize future space missions as well as improve life on Earth. The Soft Wearable Upper Extremity Garment, or “Armstrong,” is worn on the upper body and can activate the shoulder and elbow joints using a Bowden cable transmission system." [...]

"Hello, I am CIMON!"

"Airbus is developing the CIMON astronaut assistance system for the DLR Space Administration Alexander Gerst will test the technology demonstrator aboard the ISS Watson AI (IBM’s artificial intelligence technology) is designed to support space flight crews Friedrichshafen / Bremen, 26/02/2018 – Airbus, in cooperation with IBM, is developing CIMON (Crew Interactive MObile CompanioN), an AI-based assistant for astronauts for the DLR Space Administration. The technology demonstrator, which is the size of a medicine ball and weighs around 5 kg, will be tested on the ISS by Alexander Gerst during the European Space Agency’s Horizons mission between June and October 2018. “In short, CIMON will be the first AI-based mission and flight assistance system,” said Manfred Jaumann, Head of Microgravity Payloads from Airbus. “We are the first company in Europe to carry a free flyer, a kind of flying brain, to the ISS and to develop artificial intelligence for the crew on board the space station.” Pioneering work was also being done in the area of manufacturing, Jaumann continued, with the entire structure of CIMON, which is made up of plastic and metal, created using 3D printing. CIMON is designed to support astronauts in performing routine work, for example by displaying procedures or – thanks to its ‘neural’ AI network and its ability to learn – offering solutions to problems. It uses Watson AI technology from the IBM cloud and, with its face, voice and artificial intelligence, becomes a genuine ‘colleague’ on board." [...]

MICROCHIP Technology to acquire MICROSEMI

"Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ: MCHP), a leading provider of microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and Flash-IP solutions, and Microsemi Corporation (NASDAQ: MSCC), a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today announced that the two companies have signed a definitive agreement pursuant to which Microchip will acquire Microsemi for $68.78 per share in cash. The acquisition price represents a total equity value of about $8.35 billion, and a total enterprise value of about $10.15 billion, after accounting for Microsemi’s cash and investments, net of debt, on its balance sheet at December 31, 2017. “We are delighted to welcome Microsemi to become part of the Microchip team and look forward to closing the transaction and working together to realize the benefits of a combined team pursuing a unified strategy. Even as we execute a very successful Microchip 2.0 strategy that is enabling organic revenue growth in the mid to high single digits, Microchip continues to view accretive acquisitions as a key strategy to deliver incremental growth and stockholder value. The Microsemi acquisition is the latest chapter of this strategy and will add further operational and customer scale to Microchip,” said Steve Sanghi, Chairman and CEO of Microchip. “Microchip and Microsemi have a strong tradition of delivering innovative solutions to demanding customers and markets, thus creating highly valued and long-lasting revenue streams." [...]

NASA Finds a Large Amount of Water in an Exoplanet's Atmosphere

"Much like detectives who study fingerprints to identify the culprit, scientists used NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to find the "fingerprints" of water in the atmosphere of a hot, bloated, Saturn-mass exoplanet some 700 light-years away. And, they found a lot of water. In fact, the planet, known as WASP-39b, has three times as much water as Saturn does. Though no planet like this resides in our solar system, WASP-39b can provide new insights into how and where planets form around a star, say researchers. This exoplanet is so unique, it underscores the fact that the more astronomers learn about the complexity of other worlds, the more there is to learn about their origins. This latest observation is a significant step toward characterizing these worlds." [...]

Two for the Price of One: Towards Quantum Entanglement with a Single Nanoplate

"Control over light-emitting properties of tiny semiconductor platelets may yield new opportunities for innovative optics utilizing quantum phenomena. The Science Ultrapowerful computers and sensors need entangled packets of light. Entangled means the packets, or photons, can be in one of two states but are not meaningfully assigned to either state. Scientists found a way to create entangled photons with biexcitons. A biexciton is two pairs of bound electrons and holes. The team showed that ultrathin, extremely small semiconductor plates can support a biexciton." [...]

Scientists pave the way for resilient robot swarms

"Researchers from Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton will use bio-inspired algorithms and machine learning to develop fault-tolerant robotic swarms in a new scheme funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Assistant Professor Dr Danesh Tarapore from ECS’s Agents, Interaction and Complexity research group will lead the New Investigator Award project that will create groups that can rapidly detect faults and adapt to environmental changes, paving the way for real-world applications such as the monitoring of pollutants in large bodies of water. Through close collaboration with project partners, the research will lead to the next generation of robot swarms, capable of sustained operation for extended periods of time without human intervention. “Robots are increasingly becoming an important part of our day-to-day lives, automating tasks like keeping our homes clean and packing parcels at large warehouses,” Danesh explains. “Our aging population and the need to substitute human workers in dangerous and repetitive tasks mean that new tasks are emerging on the horizon, such as automation in agriculture and environmental monitoring. This will require robots to do more and work in large-numbers as part of a swarm, acting over vast areas and efficiently performing their mission." [...]

Scientists deliver high-resolution glimpse of enzyme structure

"New finding suggests differences in how humans and bacteria control production of DNA’s building blocks. Using a state-of-the-art type of electron microscopy, an MIT-led team has discovered the structure of an enzyme that is crucial for maintaining an adequate supply of DNA building blocks in human cells. Their new structure also reveals the likely mechanism for how cells regulate the enzyme, known as ribonucleotide reductase (RNR). Significantly, the mechanism appears to differ from that of the bacterial version of the enzyme, suggesting that it could be possible to design antibiotics that selectively block the bacterial enzyme. “People have been trying to figure out whether there is something different enough that you could inhibit bacterial enzymes and not the human version,” says Catherine Drennan, an MIT professor of chemistry and biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. “By considering these key enzymes and figuring out what are the differences and similarities, we can see if there’s anything in the bacterial enzyme that could be targeted with small-molecule drugs.” Drennan is one of the senior authors of the study, which appears in the Feb. 20 issue of the journal eLife." [...]

IBM Reveals a Novel Energy-saving Optical Receiver with a new Record of Rapid Power-on/off Time

"New NRZ optical receiver opens doors for the next-generation green, larger-capacity optical interconnect systems SAN DIEGO — With the increasing popularization of datacenters and other bandwidth hungry interconnect applications, today’s bandwidth growth of short-distance optical networks demands data transmission speeds of more than 100 Gb/s, calling for the development of energy-efficient, multi-channel optical links with fast data transfer rates. Based on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (COMS) technology — a standard low-cost, high-volume chip manufacturing technique used for most processors and chips today — a group of researchers from IBM Research in Zurich, Switzerland, together with a consortium working under the EU-funded project “ADDAPT,” have demonstrated a novel optical receiver (RX) that can achieve an aggregate bandwidth of 160 Gb/s through four optical fibers. This is not only the fastest data transmission speed to date, but the newly developed optical receiver also features the link power-on/off functionality and can wake-up and achieve phase-lock in eight nanoseconds, the shortest switch time in record. They will present their innovation at OFC 2018, 11-15 March, San Diego, California, USA. According to the researchers, the rapid power-on/off feature will enhance link utilization and greatly reduce energy consumption on a chip or in an optical interconnect system. Unlike many commercial optical transceivers that are always powered on regardless of transmission activity, the power here would only be used when data packets are transmitted through the optical link." [...]

Supercomputers aid discovery of new, inexpensive material to make LEDs with excellent color quality

"A team led by engineers at the University of California San Diego has used data mining and computational tools to discover a new phosphor material for white LEDs that is inexpensive and easy to make. Researchers built prototype white LED light bulbs using the new phosphor. The prototypes exhibited better color quality than many commercial LEDs currently on the market. Researchers published the new phosphor on Feb. 19 in the journal Joule. Phosphors, which are substances that emit light, are one of the key ingredients to make white LEDs. They are crystalline powders that absorb energy from blue or near-UV light and emit light in the visible spectrum." [...]

Great potential as soft robotic material of the future

"Scientists at Waseda University may have come a step closer to innovating soft robots to care for people. Its material, however, is something you may have never expected. They have developed robotic crystals that walk slowly like an inchworm and roll 20,000 times faster than its walking speed. These autonomously moving, organic crystals have great potential as material for soft robots in the future, especially in the medical field. “The crystals are flexible, durable and lightweight,” says Hideko Koshima, a visiting professor at Waseda’s Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation. “They could possibly be used as material for microrobots which transport substances in the microscopic region, for instance, carrying egg cells for infertility treatment or conducting invasive surgery.” Their study was published in Nature Communications on February 7, 2018." [...]

Remembering Really Fast

"Colossal magnetoresistance at terahertz frequencies in thin composites boosts novel memory devices operated at extremely high speed. Electronics could work faster if they could read and write data at terahertz frequency, rather than at a few gigahertz. Creating such devices would be eased with materials that can undergo a huge change in how easily they conducted electricity in response to a magnetic field at room temperature. Scientists believe thin films of perovskite oxides hold promise for such uses. However, such behavior has never been seen at these frequencies in these films. Until now." [...]

Atomic Structure of Ultrasound Material Not What Anyone Expected

"Lead magnesium niobate (PMN) is a prototypical “relaxor” material, used in a wide variety of applications, from ultrasound to sonar. Researchers have now used state-of-the-art microscopy techniques to see exactly how atoms are arranged in PMN – and it’s not what anyone expected. “This work gives us information we can use to better understand how and why PMN behaves the way it does – and possibly other relaxor materials as well,” says James LeBeau, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University and corresponding author of a paper on the work. “What we’ve found is that the arrangement of atoms in PMN gradually shift along a gradient, from areas of high order to areas of low order; this happens throughout the material,” LeBeau says. “That’s substantially different than what conventional wisdom predicted, which was there would be alternating areas of high order and no order, right next to each other.” This information can be fed into computational models to provide new insights into how PMN’s atomic structure influences its characteristics. “This won’t happen overnight, but we’re optimistic that this may be a step toward the development of processes that create PMN materials with microstructures tailored to emphasize the most desirable characteristics for ultrasound, sonar or other applications,” LeBeau says." [...]

Clinging on to the memory

"Immune cells hold their memory of how to respond to allergens in a surprising way. Understanding how the immune system remembers allergy-causing antigens could help prevent severe reactions. When a predisposed person is initially exposed to an allergy-causing antigen, specific antibodies, called immunoglobulin E (IgE), are produced without leading to an allergic reaction. But if exposed to the allergen a second time, the person may become ill. “But no-one has found the memory IgE cells believed to be responsible for the illness,” says bioinformatics researcher and molecular viral epidemiologist Michael Poidinger from A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network (SigN). Jin-Shu He and colleagues at SigN collaborated with researchers in Singapore and the US to decipher the function of IgE memory. Instead of finding IgE memory cells, they discovered that the memory cells of immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1), another antibody, held the memory of IgE responses." [...]

Tuning Quantum Light Sources

"First known material capable of emitting single photons at room temperature and telecom wavelengths. The Science Knowing the details of the quantum world—electrons and packets of light called photons—could radically improve computers and sensors. A critical component to making devices that harness the quantum world is a source that emits a regular stream of single photons. Scientists at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies and their colleagues chemically modified tiny tubes of carbon atoms. These tubes are the first material to emit single photons at room temperature and telecom wavelengths. No other material system has been able to meet these two critical operational conditions simultaneously." [...]

New WALK-MAN Robot Is Slimmer, Quicker, Better at Quenching Your Flames

"Since the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals in June of 2015, roboticists at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) have been working to improve the capabilities of their custom made humanoid disaster robot, WALK-MAN. WALK-MAN is part of a much larger European Commission-funded project, which involves a variety of research institutes and universities all contributing to the development of different aspects of the robot, from simulation to perception to locomotion to manipulation. After a solid five years of work, the WALK-MAN project is now at its final validation phase, and it’s gotten one last major upgrade to help it prepare to be helpful in the disasters we’re certain to have in the future. For background on WALK-MAN, make sure and check out this in-depth article that we posted in 2015, just before the DRC. The version that IIT is announcing today has a number of hardware improvements, starting with a redesigned frame made of aluminum, magnesium alloys, and titanium. These lightweight materials shaved 31 kilograms off of WALK-MAN, bringing its down from 133 kg to just 102 kg." [...]

'Memtransistor' Brings World Closer to Brain-like Computing

"Combined memristor and transistor can process information and store memory with one device Computer algorithms might be performing brain-like functions, such as facial recognition and language translation, but the computers themselves have yet to operate like brains. “Computers have separate processing and memory storage units, whereas the brain uses neurons to perform both functions,” said Northwestern Engineering’s Mark C. Hersam. “Neural networks can achieve complicated computation with significantly lower energy consumption compared to a digital computer.” In recent years, researchers have searched for ways to make computers more neuromorphic, or brain-like, in order to perform increasingly complicated tasks with high efficiency. Now Hersam, a Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering, and his team are bringing the world closer to realizing this goal. The research team has developed a novel device called a “memtransistor,” which operates much like a neuron by performing both memory and information processing. With combined characteristics of a memristor and transistor, the memtransistor also encompasses multiple terminals that operate more similarly to a neural network." [...]

Using a laser to wirelessly charge a smartphone safely across a room

"Although mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones let us communicate, work and access information wirelessly, their batteries must still be charged by plugging them in to an outlet. But engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time developed a method to safely charge a smartphone wirelessly using a laser. As the team reports in a paper published online in December in the Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable & Ubiquitous Technologies, a narrow, invisible beam from a laser emitter can deliver charge to a smartphone sitting across a room — and can potentially charge a smartphone as quickly as a standard USB cable. To accomplish this, the team mounted a thin power cell to the back of a smartphone, which charges the smartphone using power from the laser. In addition, the team custom-designed safety features — including a metal, flat-plate heatsink on the smartphone to dissipate excess heat from the laser, as well as a reflector-based mechanism to shut off the laser if a person tries to move in the charging beam’s path. “Safety was our focus in designing this system,” said co-author Shyam Gollakota, an associate professor in the UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering." [...]

Snake-inspired robot uses kirigami to move

"Bioinspired soft actuator crawls without rigid parts Now, a team of researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has developed a soft robot that uses those same principles of locomotion to crawl without any rigid components. The soft robotic scales are made using kirigami — an ancient Japanese paper craft that relies on cuts, rather than origami folds, to change the properties of a material. As the robot stretches, the flat kirigami surface is transformed into a 3D-textured surface, which grips the ground just like snake skin. The research is published in Science Robotics. “There has been a lot of research in recent years into how to fabricate these kinds of morphable, stretchable structures,” said Ahmad Rafsanjani, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and first author of the paper. “We have shown that kirigami principles can be integrated into soft robots to achieve locomotion in a way that is simpler, faster and cheaper than most previous techniques.” The researchers started with a simple, flat plastic sheet." [...]

Atomic design by water

"Scientists at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung show how geometric structures at surfaces can be formed with atomic precision by water A central element in such diverse technological problems as corrosion protection, battery materials or hydrogen production via electrolysis or fuel cells is the contact between two conducting elements – the electrolyte and the solid electrode at which a voltage is applied. Despite its importance for a multitude of key technologies hardly anything is known about the atomistic structure of the interface between the electrode and the electrolyte. In particular the atomic structure of the solid electrode has a decisive impact on the chemical reactions taking place at the interface. The ability to selectively modify the structure of the surface at the scale of individual atoms would open completely new possibilities target and influence central chemical reactions. Scientist from the Computational Materials Design department of the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung have come a great deal closer to achieving this goal. Within the framework of the Excellence-cluster RESOLV, a joint research initiative of seven research institutions in the Ruhr area, an unexpected phenomenon was found with the help of highly accurate quantum mechanical methods and powerful supercomputers." [...]

UBC engineers advance the capability of wearable tech

"A new low-cost ultra-stretchable sensor can do more with less Creating the perfect wearable device to monitor muscle movement, heart rate and other tiny bio-signals without breaking the bank has inspired scientists to look for a simpler and more affordable tool. Now, a team of researchers at UBC’s Okanagan campus have developed a practical way to monitor and interpret human motion, in what may be the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to wearable technology. What started as research to create an ultra-stretchable sensor transformed into a sophisticated inter-disciplinary project resulting in a smart wearable device that is capable of sensing and understanding complex human motion, explains School of Engineering Professor Homayoun Najjaran. The sensor is made by infusing graphene nano-flakes (GNF) into a rubber-like adhesive pad. Najjaran says they then tested the durability of the tiny sensor by stretching it to see if it can maintain accuracy under strains of up to 350 per cent of its original state. The device went through more than 10,000 cycles of stretching and relaxing while maintaining its electrical stability." [...]

CIOMP researchers developed an ultrasensitive label-free microfiber coupler biosensor

"Recently, an ultrasensitive label-free microfiber coupler biosensor was developed by Prof.’s Yihui Wu’s group in State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, CIOMP. Such immunosensors have huge application potential for the detection of cardiac or cancer biomarkers due to simple detection scheme, quick response time, ease of handling and miniaturation. Myocardial infarction (MI), known as heart attack, is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Sensitive detection of cardiac biomarkers is critical for clinical diagnostics of MI while such detection is quite challenging due to the ultra-low concentration of cardiac biomarkers. Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is considered as ‘gold standard’ biomarker for the detection of acute MI due to its remarkable specificity and sensitivity. The levels of cTnI became a predominant diagnosis index for MI since it is usually produced only in the myocardium and shows high specificity to cardiac injury." [...]

Exotic State of Matter: An Atom Full of Atoms

"Scientists from TU Wien (Vienna, Austria) and the USA have provided proof for a new state of matter: an electron orbits a nucleus at a great distance, while many other atoms are bound inside the orbit. What is inside an atom, between the nucleus and the electron? Usually there is nothing, but why could there not be other particles too? If the electron orbits the nucleus at a great distance, there is plenty of space in between for other atoms. A “giant atom” can be created, filled with ordinary atoms. All these atoms form a weak bond, creating a new, exotic state of matter at cold temperatures, referred to as “Rydberg polarons”." [...]

Researchers combine metalens with an artificial muscle

"Inspired by the human eye, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed an adaptive metalens, that is essentially a flat, electronically controlled artificial eye. The adaptive metalens simultaneously controls for three of the major contributors to blurry images: focus, astigmatism, and image shift. The research is published in Science Advances. “This research combines breakthroughs in artificial muscle technology with metalens technology to create a tunable metalens that can change its focus in real time, just like the human eye,” said Alan She, a graduate student at SEAS and first author of the paper. “We go one step further to build the capability of dynamically correcting for aberrations such as astigmatism and image shift, which the human eye cannot naturally do.” “This demonstrates the feasibility of embedded optical zoom and autofocus for a wide range of applications including cell phone cameras, eyeglasses and virtual and augmented reality hardware,” said Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at SEAS and senior author of the paper. “It also shows the possibility of future optical microscopes, which operate fully electronically and can correct many aberrations simultaneously.” The Harvard Office of Technology Development has protected the intellectual property relating to this project and is exploring commercialization opportunities." [...]

New Technique Allows Printing of Flexible, Stretchable Silver Nanowire Circuits

"Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that allows them to print circuits on flexible, stretchable substrates using silver nanowires. The advance makes it possible to integrate the material into a wide array of electronic devices. Silver nanowires have drawn significant interest in recent years for use in many applications, ranging from prosthetic devices to wearable health sensors, due to their flexibility, stretchability and conductive properties. While proof-of-concept experiments have been promising, there have been significant challenges to printing highly integrated circuits using silver nanowires. Silver nanoparticles can be used to print circuits, but the nanoparticles produce circuits that are more brittle and less conductive than silver nanowires. But conventional techniques for printing circuits don’t work well with silver nanowires; the nanowires often clog the printing nozzles." [...]

Quantum Control: Scientists Develop Metamaterial from Complex Twin Qubits

"An international team consisting of Russian and German scientists has made a breakthrough in the creation of seemingly impossible materials. They have managed to create the worlds first quantum metamaterial which can be used as a control element in superconducting electrical circuits. Metamaterials are substances whose properties are determined not so much by the atoms they consist of, but by the atoms’ structural arrangement. Each structure is hundreds of nanometers, and has its own set of properties that disappear when scientists try to separate the material into its components. That is why such a structure is called a meta-atom (not to be confused with the common atoms of Mendeleevs Periodic Table). Any substance consisting of meta-atoms is called a meta-material." [...]

Do you see what I see? Researchers harness brain waves to reconstruct images of what we perceive

"A new technique developed by neuroscientists at U of T Scarborough can, for the first time, reconstruct images of what people perceive based on their brain activity gathered by EEG. The technique developed by Dan Nemrodov, a postdoctoral fellow in Assistant Professor Adrian Nestor’s lab at U of T Scarborough, is able to digitally reconstruct images seen by test subjects based on electroencephalography (EEG) data. “When we see something, our brain creates a mental percept, which is essentially a mental impression of that thing. We were able to capture this percept using EEG to get a direct illustration of what’s happening in the brain during this process,” says Nemrodov. For the study, test subjects hooked up to EEG equipment were shown images of faces. Their brain activity was recorded and then used to digitally recreate the image in the subject’s mind using a technique based on machine learning algorithms." [...]

Stretchable electronics a 'game changer' for stroke recovery treatment

"A groundbreaking new wearable designed to be worn on the throat could be a game changer in the field of stroke rehabilitation. Developed in the lab of Northwestern University engineering professor John A. Rogers, in partnership with Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, the sensor is the latest in Rogers’ growing portfolio of stretchable electronics that are precise enough for use in advanced medical care and portable enough to be worn outside the hospital, even during extreme exercise. Related: Interactive press kit Rogers presented research on the implications of stretchable electronics for stroke recovery treatment Saturday, Feb. 17, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Austin, Texas. Rogers’ sensors stick directly to the skin, moving with the body and providing detailed health metrics including heart function, muscle activity and quality of sleep. “Stretchable electronics allow us to see what is going on inside patients’ bodies at a level traditional wearables simply cannot achieve,” Rogers said. “The key is to make them as integrated as possible with the human body.” Rogers’ new bandage-like throat sensor measures patients’ swallowing ability and patterns of speech." [...]

Edible Electronics Are Here Thanks to Researchers at Rice University

"Researchers at Rice University say they have produced edible graphene, which could serve as the basis of an entirely new class of edible electronics. Rice chemists have found a way to print graphene onto common items such as bread or potatoes, as well as certain fabric and paper. Rice professor James Tour notes the material is not ink, but a process of "taking the material [i.e., food items, paper, clothes, etc.] itself and converting it into graphene." Tour thinks an early market for this newly-discovered method could be flexible wearable electronics. "Very often, we don't see the advantage of something until we make it available," he says." [...]

Computer scientists and materials researchers collaborate to optimize steel classification

"Using machine learning techniques, computer scientists and materials scientists in Saarbrücken have now developed a method that is much more accurate and objective than conventional quality control procedures. Their results have just been published in Scientific Reports, the open-access mega-journal associated with the highly respected scientific journal Nature. When scientists from two different disciplines collaborate on a research project, they first need to learn to speak the same language. 'It took a fair amount of time before the computer scientists had understood why the internal structures of a material and their representation in image form play such an important role for materials scientists,' says Dominik Britz, a PhD student in the Department of Functional Materials at Saarland University. These internal structures are importance because they are very closely linked with the properties exhibited by the material. 'As modern steels are being supplied in ever greater varieties and because they exhibit increasingly complex internal structures, error tolerances are becoming ever tighter." [...]

Custom carpentry with help from robots

"CSAIL’s robotic system minimizes dangerous sawing, helps users customize furniture. Every year thousands of carpenters injure their hands and fingers doing dangerous tasks such as sawing. In an effort to minimize injury and let carpenters focus on design and other bigger-picture tasks, a team from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has created AutoSaw, a system that lets nonexperts customize different items that can then be constructed with the help of robots. Users can choose from a range of carpenter-designed templates for chairs, desks, and other furniture. The team says that AutoSaw could eventually be used for projects as large as a deck or a porch. “If you’re building a deck, you have to cut large sections of lumber to length, and that’s often done on site,” says CSAIL postdoc Jeffrey Lipton, who was a lead author on a related paper about the system." [...]

Alternative to traditional batteries moves a step closer to reality after exciting progress in supercapacitor technology

"Lithium-ion batteries could be under threat after the development of polymer materials by the Universities of Surrey and Bristol, along with Superdielectrics Ltd, that could challenge the dominance of these traditional batteries. Only one year ago, the partners announced scientific results for novel polymer materials that have dielectric properties 1,000 to 10,000 times greater than existing electrolytes (electrical conductors). These stunning scientific findings have now been converted into ‘device’ scale technical demonstrations. Researchers from the universities achieved practical capacitance values of up to 4F/cm2 on smooth low-cost metal foil electrodes. Existing supercapacitors on the market typically reach 0.3F/cm2 depending upon complex extended surface electrodes. More significantly, the researchers managed to achieve results of 11-20F/cm2 when the polymers were used with specially treated stainless-steel electrodes – the details of which are being kept private pending a patent application." [...]

Scientists find 'frustration' in battery materials

"Adding carbon atoms to a new type of solid lithium ion battery could make it charge faster and more safely. Solid-state lithium-ion batteries can provide dramatically improved safety, voltage and energy density compared with today’s batteries, which use liquid components. They could be used in electric vehicles, as well as in power electronics. However, they are still in an early stage of development, with very few commercialized to date. In new research by an international collaboration jointly led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist Brandon Wood and Mirjana Dimitrievska of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST (link is external)), the team discovered why substituting one boron atom for one carbon atom in a key battery electrolyte material made lithium ions move even faster, which is attractive for a more robust solid-state battery. This is an example of what scientists refer to as “frustration”: the dynamics of the system ensure that lithium is never satisfied with its current position, so it’s always moving around." [...]

Layered oxides for rechargeable zinc batteries

"A technique of microwave synthesis of layered oxides enables high-capacity aqueous zinc-ion batteries. Layered oxides can form the basis of high-performance materials for battery electrodes. A KAUST team has developed a cheap and simple technique that creates this crucial element for rechargeable zinc-ion cells. Lithium-ion batteries power most of our everyday electronic devices, such as cell phones and laptop computers. But there is a growing need to store energy on much larger scales, such as retaining the electricity generated by solar cells for use at night. Scaling lithium-ion battery technology up to such an industrial-level application is expensive and presents serious safety issues, including toxicity and the flammability of the electrolytes." [...]

Nanomushroom Sensors: One Material, Many Applications

"A small rectangle of pink glass, about the size of a postage stamp, sits on Professor Amy Shen’s desk. Despite its outwardly modest appearance, this little glass slide has the potential to revolutionize a wide range of processes, from monitoring food quality to diagnosing diseases. The slide is made of a ‘nanoplasmonic’ material — its surface is coated in millions of gold nanostructures, each just a few billionths of a square meter in size. Plasmonic materials absorb and scatter light in interesting ways, giving them unique sensing properties. Nanoplasmonic materials have attracted the attention of biologists, chemists, physicists and material scientists, with possible uses in a diverse array of fields, such as biosensing, data storage, light generation and solar cells. In several recent papers, Prof. Shen and colleagues at the Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), described their creation of a new biosensing material that can be used to monitor processes in living cells." [...]

Teaching quantum physics to a computer

"An international collaboration led by ETH physicists has used machine learning to teach a computer how to predict the outcomes of quantum experiments. The results could prove to be essential for testing future quantum computers. Physics students spend many years learning to master the often counterintuitive laws and effects of quantum mechanics. For instance, the quantum state of a physical system may be undetermined until a measurement is made, and a measurement on one part of the system can influence the state of a distant part without any exchange of information. It is enough to make the mind boggle. Once the students graduate and start doing research, the problems continue: to exactly determine the state of some quantum system in an experiment, one has to carefully prepare it and make lots of measurements, over and over again." [...]

Hydrogen extraction breakthrough could be game-changer

"Researchers at KTH have successfully tested a new material that can be used for cheap and large-scale production of hydrogen – a promising alternative to fossil fuel. Precious metals are the standard catalyst material used for extracting hydrogen from water. The problem is these materials - such as platinum, ruthenium and iridium - are too costly to make the process viable. A team from KTH Royal Institute of Technology recently announced a breakthrough that could change the economics of a hydrogen economy. Led by Licheng Sun, professor of molecular electronics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the researchers concluded that precious metals can be replaced by a much cheaper combination of nickel, iron and copper (NiFeCu). "The new alloy can be used to split water into hydrogen,” says researcher Peili Zhang." [...]

Cars could find their own parking space and drive themselves there, thanks to new technology being developed at Surrey

"Cars in the near future could drive themselves to a multi-storey car park, find a space and return to their owners at a push of a button, thanks to new technology being developed at the University of Surrey. Innovate UK has awarded a multi-million grant to the Autonomous Valet Parking project which will be led by Surrey’s Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP), Parkopedia (the world’s leading parking services provider) and Transport Systems Catapult. The project will start in April 2018 – with a target to produce a live demonstration within two and a half years. Many self-driving cars use LiDAR technology that is currently too expensive for mass market use. CVSSP will only be using standard cameras and its computer vision techniques to get around many of the challenges autonomous cars face today – and they will be presenting their work at the prestigious International Conference on Robotic and Automation in Brisbane, Australia, in May. Professor Richard Bowden, Professor of Computer Vision and Machine Learning, said: “We are delighted to have received this support from Innovate UK to pursue this ambitious project that could have a considerable impact on people’s lives." [...]

USTC Realizes Small-Packet-and-Long-Distance Quantum Key Distribution

"The round-robin-differential-phase-shift (RRDPS) is a new quantum key distribution protocol proposed by Japanese and American scientists in 2014. This protocol can estimate the information leakage without monitoring signal disturbance parameters, which breaks through the design of quantum key distribution protocol. In practical applications, free of monitoring channel disturbance also brings the advantages of simplified system and high error rate tolerance. However, there are still some key problems not solved in the protocol. Quantum Cryptographic Research Group of University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of Chinese Academy of Sciences perfected the security proof of RRDPS quantum key distribution theoretically. The RRDPS protocol with the lowest number of packet and the longest achievable distance was realized in the world for the first time." [...]

A laser focus on super water-repellent metals

"In a laboratory at the University of Rochester, researchers are using lasers to change the surface of metals in incredible ways, such as making them super water-repellent without the use of special coatings, paints, or solvents. The commercial applications of the technology range from de-icing of commercial airplanes and large trucks, to rust and corrosion prevention of exposed metal surfaces, to cleaner, anti-microbial surfaces for surgical and medical facilities. But to make the technology commercially viable, the lasers must become much more powerful. A venture capital-backed technology company, FemtoRoc Corp., is undertaking a joint research project with John Marciante, an associate professor of optics, and the University’s Institute of Optics to develop those more powerful lasers. The project, expected to take six years, has a research budget estimated at $10 million. “What they [FemtoRoc] need is a high-powered, ultra-fast, femtosecond-class laser system with average power measured in kilowatts, rather than the 10’s of watts now commercially available,” says Marciante." [...]

Novel 3D printing method embeds sensing capabilities within robotic actuators

"Soft robots that can sense touch, pressure, movement and temperature Researchers at Harvard University have built soft robots inspired by nature that can crawl, swim, grasp delicate objects and even assist a beating heart, but none of these devices has been able to sense and respond to the world around them. That’s about to change. Inspired by our bodies’ sensory capabilities, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed a platform for creating soft robots with embedded sensors that can sense movement, pressure, touch, and even temperature. The research is published in Advanced Materials. “Our research represents a foundational advance in soft robotics,” said Ryan Truby, first author of the paper and recent Ph.D. graduate at SEAS. “Our manufacturing platform enables complex sensing motifs to be easily integrated into soft robotic systems.” Integrating sensors within soft robots has been difficult in part because most sensors, such as those used in traditional electronics, are rigid." [...]

Personalizing wearable devices

"When it comes to soft, assistive devices — like the exosuit being designed by the Harvard Biodesign Lab — the wearer and the robot need to be in sync. But every human moves a bit differently and tailoring the robot’s parameters for an individual user is a time-consuming and inefficient process. Now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied and Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed an efficient machine learning algorithm that can quickly tailor personalized control strategies for soft, wearable exosuits. The research is described in Science Robotics. “This new method is an effective and fast way to optimize control parameter settings for assistive wearable devices,” said Ye Ding, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and co-first author of the research. “Using this method, we achieved a huge improvement in metabolic performance for the wearers of a hip extension assistive device.” When humans walk, we constantly tweak how we move to save energy (also known as metabolic cost)." [...]

Experimentally Demonstrated a Toffoli Gate in a Semiconductor Three-Qubit System

"A new progress in the scaling of semiconductor quantum dot based qubit has been achieved at Key Laboratory of Quantum Information and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information & Quantum Physics of USTC. Professor GUO Guoping with his co-workers, XIAO Ming, LI Haiou and CAO Gang, designed and fabricated a quantum processor with six quantum dots, and experimentally demonstrated quantum control of the Toffoli gate. This is the first time for the realization of the Toffoli gate in the semiconductor quantum dot system, which motivates further research on larger scale semiconductor quantum processor. The result was published as 'Controlled Quantum Operations of a Semiconductor Three-Qubit System ' (Physical Review Applied 9, 024015 (2018)). Developing the scalable semiconductor quantum chip that is compatible with modern semiconductor-techniques is an important research area. In this area, the fabrication, manipulation and scaling of semiconductor quantum dot based qubits are the most important core technologies." [...]

Inspired by nature: Design for new electrode could boost supercapacitors' performance

"Engineers from UCLA, 4 other universities produce nanoscale device that mimics the structure of tree branches Mechanical engineers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and four other institutions have designed a super-efficient and long-lasting electrode for supercapacitors. The device’s design was inspired by the structure and function of leaves on tree branches, and it is more than 10 times more efficient than other designs. The electrode design provides the same amount of energy storage, and delivers as much power, as similar electrodes, despite being much smaller and lighter. In experiments it produced 30 percent better capacitance — a device’s ability to store an electric charge — for its mass compared to the best available electrode made from similar carbon materials, and 30 times better capacitance per area. It also produced 10 times more power than other designs and retained 95 percent of its initial capacitance after more than 10,000 charging cycles. Their work is described in the journal Nature Communications." [...]

Alternative to traditional batteries moves a step closer after exciting progress in supercapacitor technology

"Lithium-ion batteries could be under threat after the development of polymer materials by the Universities of Bristol and Surrey, along with Superdielectrics Ltd, that could challenge the dominance of these traditional batteries - and they are ready to demonstrate their results. Only one year ago, the partners announced scientific results for novel polymer materials that have dielectric properties 1,000 to 10,000 times greater than existing electrolytes (electrical conductors). These stunning scientific findings have now been converted into ‘device’ scale technical demonstrations. Researchers from the universities achieved practical capacitance values of up to 4F/cm2 on smooth low-cost metal foil electrodes. Existing supercapacitors on the market typically reach 0.3F/cm2 depending upon complex extended surface electrodes. More significantly, the researchers managed to achieve results of 11-20F/cm2 when the polymers were used with specially treated stainless-steel electrodes – the details of which are being kept private pending a patent application." [...]

Mouth Operated Mouse

"About This project was intended to prove if it is possible to build a pointing device (mouse) for people with disabilities for under 20 USD, using only components which are widely available as well as a 3D printer. The result is a basic mouth operated mouse which can be connected via USB to nearly every PC. The case allows to mount it on standard tripods using a 1/4 inch screw. Functionality The user moves the cursor by using a mouthpiece which basically works like a joystick. The right mouse button is operated by pushing the mouthpiece towards the case. The left mouse button is emulated by a sensor that recognizes if the user sucks air trough it." [...]

newelectronics 27 fevereiro 2018

"New Electronics is a fortnightly magazine focusing on technological innovation, news and the latest developments in the electronics sector. Downloadable as a digital page turner or pdf file, or offered as a hard copy, the New Electronics magazine is available in a format to suit you. " [...]

Making Electronic Sound With Conductive Plaster

"Following blorgggg's project on conductive silicone circuit, I decided to venture on my own experiment with carbon fiber. Turns out, a shape cast out of carbon-fiber-infused plaster can also be used as a variable resistor! With a few copper rod and the a few quick programming, you will be able to use your conductive plaster form as a sensor which, in this particular example, will be used to generate sound. The application of this experimental form goes well beyond making electronic sound itself. I share this project in the hope of expanding the possibility of circuitry. Electronics do not always have to live within a neat and sleek container; they can also be thought of to be within sculptures, materials, forms, and everyday objects--and we will enter this project with the mindset of creating an alternative forms to knobs, inlets, or buttons." [...]

How To Make Long Range Remote For Rc Car+Wireless Home Appliances Diy

"Hello everyone, I will show you how you can make a two in one circuit..the circuit is two one because...you can control your rc car wirelessly also you can control your home appliances wirelessly..... In this project I use a 433 Mhz rf module for wireless communication.....& for rc car driver I use a L298N motor Driver module....So let's start this...." [...]

Atmega328P Companion

"ATMEGA328P Companion: The Bootloader and Programmer Module If you're like me, you're addicted to projects and Arduino. However, if you've done a number of projects with an Arduino as the brain, you've probably started to get sick of looking at the Arduino board as a whole, cluttering your project and overall just looking bad. As such, I decided that I wanted to move from the Arduino boards to using just the IC. Enter the atmega328p. The atmega328p is probably the most prolific Arduino compatible IC on the market. It's by no means the cheapest or most powerful, however, when taking both of these into account, it is in my opinion the best performance per dollar." [...]

Breathalyzer With Arduino

"The objective of this project is to build a functional breathalyzer using an Arduino. " [...]

Grapper Arduino Robot

"hello guys... this is our grapper robo..this robo can pick a small weight object to one place to another place.. its actually works using bluetooth technology communication thats controlled by your any android smartphone app this app is created by MIT app inventor...." [...]

Real-Time Face Recognition: An End-To-End Project

"On my last tutorial exploring OpenCV, we learned AUTOMATIC VISION OBJECT TRACKING. Now we will use our PiCam to recognize faces in real-time, as you can see below: This project was done with this fantastic "Open Source Computer Vision Library", the OpenCV. On this tutorial, we will be focusing on Raspberry Pi (so, Raspbian as OS) and Python, but I also tested the code on My Mac and it also works fine. OpenCV was designed for computational efficiency and with a strong focus on real-time applications. So, it's perfect for real-time face recognition using a camera. To create a complete project on Face Recognition, we must work on 3 very distinct phases: - Face Detection and Data Gathering - Train the Recognizer - Face Recognition" [...]

Self-Sustaining Solar Tracker

"The following project was made as part of the Science 0 class 2018 in UTEC. We took the idea and the main design from another instructable but we added an extra feature to it. https://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Dual-Axis-... We were given the task to build a project which followed one of the following characteristics; it could be an electric project, a mechanical project or a chemical project. With this in mind, we started searching for different projects and we encounter many which used solar panels. The idea of using solar energy caught our interest due to the fact it is an environmentally friendly way to generate energy and it could be implemented in a country like Peru in which infrastructure is not the best. So when we encounter the "simple dual axis solar panel" we realized it covered all the criteria we were looking for in our project." [...]

Personal Health Dashboard

"A giant display to motivate oneself to stay active. This project was created out of a need to motivate oneself to be physically active. When we tracked our physical activity, we noticed that there is very minimal/lack of physical activity during the weekends, especially during the winter season. We decided to build something that would act as a source of motivation to stay physically active. "Sitting is the new smoking" Our jobs involve sitting at our desks for most of the day and it is quite natural to not move from our desks for hours. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a minimum physical activity of 150 minutes in a week is required to stay healthy." [...]

Particle Weather VFD

"A retro VFD weather display project powered by Weather Underground and Particle. This project displays weather from Weather Underground on a serial vacuum fluorescent display (VFD). " [...]

Using Wemos D1 mini to control a brushless motor with ESC and servo signals

"I’ve recently become interested in making “machines” of various sorts. I was sorting through some of my RC (radio control) plane “stash” the other day and came across various brushless motors and electronic speed controllers (ESC) like these. In RC, Brushless ESCs are usually connected to a radio receiver which generates servo control pulses. So this morning I thought it would be fun to try and get a Wemos D1 mini controlling a brushless motor. I’ve done similar before. I can remember, back in the dark ages of 2013, using a Guzunty Pi to generate servo control signals to drive a brushless ESC." [...]

Get started with IoT: How to build a DIY Blynk Board

"The SparkFun Blynk Board is based on the ESP8266 and comes with 10+ preloaded projects. This tutorial is for those with some DIY hardware experience, though advanced beginners may find it a fun challenge. Also, experienced users might find it fun to set this up for beginners to learn from. To make this board without the SparkFun IoT Starter Kit with Blynk Board, you'll need sensors and other components to complete the built-in projects. For instance, the SparkFun Blynk Board comes with onboard WS2812 RGB LED, so you'll need a similar module to make projects using the device. You can purchase the components individually from Sparkfun." [...]

Ball Balancer And Pid Fiddler

"This project is presented for people who have experience with using an Arduino. Prior knowledge of using servos, OLED displays, pots, buttons, soldering, will be helpful. This project uses 3D printed parts. Ball Balancer is a PID test rig for experimenting with PID tuning. PID Fiddler is a remote for adjusting PID tuning. A PID is used when you need more control of movement." [...]

RC522 RFID Tag Reading with the Raspberry Pi

"RC522 RFID modules are a simple add-on you can connect to a Raspberry Pi to read MIFARE tags and cards. This is potentially a great feature to include in a security system or any application where you need to identify an object or person without them pressing buttons, operating switches or other sensors. The contactless tags can be carried on a key-ring and the cards fit nicely in a wallet. Both of them can be hidden inside other objects to give them a unique ID that can be read by the Pi. " [...]

Openeyetap: 3D Printed & Programmable Smart Glass

"Welcome to the Open EyeTap's Instructables page! We are a few enthusiastic makers with a big ambition to build the world's most active Smart Glasses and Wearable Augmented Reality Community. We wish to make accessible a framework on which augmented reality can thrive. We wish to share our EyeTap with the tinkerers of the world. Together, as a community, we can improve this open-sourced technology. Our primary goal in this Instructable is to simplify the construction of the EyeTap." [...]

Arduino based RPM meter

"In this project we will use the basics of an IR senosr to measure the speed of rotation of a shaft. The idea is to dectect or not the infrared light. Having some sort of reflecting material on the rotating shaft we cold detect a peak of the sensed light and measure the time between those peaks. The measured time is the time that the shaft take to make one full rotation. " [...]

One-Bit Textile Eye

"I saw Irene Posch's 1-Bit Textile and Kobakant's Flip-Dot swatch and wanted to have a play with the idea. And it was Christmas, and there were steampunks to adorn. " [...]

Braingame

"Hi in this instruct I will show how to build a small game used for practice mathematics, with an Arduino Uno and an Oled display. It all started when I was helping my son with his schoolwork. I came up with the Idea to make a device use to practice the analog clock and the basic arithmetics. If you have read my other instruct, "OLEDDICE you probably recognize the box and other things from that project. When I did the design for the dice project I bought several custom-made PCB s and designed them for a specific box, therefore I will reuse it for many portable projects. Because of the above the video showing the final custom brain-game and how to use it, but in this instruct I will describe how to build it on a breadboard." [...]

ESP32 LoRa Changing Frequency

"What would you think about a program, made in the C language of the Arduino IDE, that makes the LoRa radio change frequency? This is what you will learn about in my video today, where you will learn about the differences between LoRa radio, LoRaWAN protocol, and encryption. We will then create a project featuring two LMAOs communicating. Each time we will press a button connected to the ISSUER, and the communication frequency will change. This will notify, through the packet to the RECEIVER, to also change the frequency. Thus, this will keep the communication between them." [...]

PC-XT Emulator on a ESP8266

"Can you run a 8086 PC-XT emulation with 640K RAM, 80×25 CGA composite video and a 1.44MB MS-DOS disk on a ESP12E without additional components? Yes, you can and I did. The CPU emulator is a port of Mike Chambers FAKE86. And the composite video is based on the work of Cnlohr and Hrvoje Cavrak" [...]

Joule-Thief der "Energie-Dieb"

"For those who have never heard the term, make it easy for me here and quote Wikipedia : "As Joule thief (German Joule-thief or energy thief) refers to a discrete electronic circuit in electronics, the electrical DC voltage in a higher electrical The name Joule thief is a Kalauer of the English expression jewel thief (German jewel thief) and is intended to make clear that the circuit squeezes out the ("steals") from a battery that is already unusable for other purposes the name Joule stands for the name of the unit of energy. "" [...]

MC33035 Brushless motor driver breakout board

"The board shown here is a breakout board for MC33035 brushless motor controller. It requires an output buffer IPM module or Mosfets to complete the closed loop brushless motor driver. MC33035 IC is the heart of the project; the project provides 6 PWM pulses as well 6 Inverse pulses outputs. On board Jumpers helps to change the Direction, Enable, Brake, and 60/120 phasing Header connector provided to connect the Hall sensors and supply, on board LED for Power and fault, P1 potentiometer helps to change the speed. The MC33035 is a high performance second generation monolithic brushless DC motor controller containing all of the active functions required to implement a full featured open loop, three or four phase motor control system. This device consists of a rotor position decoder for proper commutation sequencing, temperature compensated reference capable of supplying sensor power, frequency programmable saw tooth oscillator, three open collector top drivers, and three high current totem pole bottom drivers ideally suited for driving power MOSFETs." [...]

Alexa BBQ/Kitchen Thermometer with IoT Arduino and e-Paper

""Alexa, ask my thermometer to make yogurt." No fiddling with thermometer settings, Alexa can do it for you. Why did I make this? My wife and I make cheese and yogurt at home. Both require multiple steps, a thermometer, and a bit of waiting. I had made a thermometer with an Adafruit Trinket Pro." [...]

ESP - Remote Ambiance Notifier

"The prototype is based on the popular IOT chip ESP8266. ESP8266 This is a low-cost Wi-Fi microchip with full TCP/IP stack and microcontroller capability produced by Shanghai-based Chinese manufacturer, Espressif Systems. - Processor: L106 32-bit RISC microprocessor core based on the Tensilica Xtensa Diamond Standard 106Micro running at 80 MHz - Memory: - 32 KiB instruction RAM - 32 KiB instruction cache RAM - 80 KiB user data RAM - 16 KiB ETS system data RAM - External QSPI flash: up to 16 MiB is supported (512 KiB to 4 MiB typically included) - IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi - Integrated TR switch, balun, LNA, power amplifier and matching network - WEP or WPA/WPA2 authentication, or open networks - 16 GPIO pins - SPI IC (software implementation)[5] - IS interfaces with DMA (sharing pins with GPIO) - UART on dedicated pins, plus a transmit-only UART can be enabled on GPIO2 - 10-bit ADC (successive approximation ADC)" [...]

BabyTV

"BabyTV running on Atmega328p and using WS2812B display Overview Display a nice looking pixel grafic on a 16x16 matrix. Both static images and animations are possible and implemented. Let your child switch between images/animations with a remote. Control brightness and switch between "channels" with two knobs. You can watch a demo on youtube This project is inspired by others which are using Neopixel matrix and developed already stable and fast working frameworks for arduino. Hardware A 16x16 neopixel matrix with a WS2812B controller is being used as a display." [...]

Ultrasonic Rainwater Tank Capacity Meter

"If you are anything like me and have a little bit of an environmental conscience (or are just skinflints eager to save a few bucks - which is also me...), you may have a rainwater tank. I have a tank to harvest the rather infrequent rain we get in Australia - but boy oh boy, when it does rain here, it REALLY rains! My tank stands about 1.5m high and is on a plinth, meaning I need to get out steps to check the water level (or - because I am so lazy, balance precariously on top of an old gas bottle from the BBQ that has now taken up permanent residence as a 'step' beside the tank). I wanted some way to be able to check the water level in the tank, without all the climbing and hanging onto the drainpipe with one hand (while worrying about what spiders might be behind it - you've heard about Australian spiders - right?)... So, with a renewed late in life interest in electronics, and cheap Arduino clones from China on ebay, I decided to have a go at building a 'widget' to do the job for me. Now, my 'dream' widget was to be permanently installed in the tank, use a solar charged power source, with a remote readout in my garage, or maybe a wireless transmitter using Bluetooth that I could check from my phone, or perhaps even an ESP type device hosting an automatically updated webpage, so that I could check the level of water in my tank from anywhere in the world over the internet... but really - why do I need all that?" [...]

ESP8266: Monitoring Power Consumption

"In this post I’m going to show you how you can monitor the power consumption of your battery driven (ESP8266/ ESP32) device. Measuring the power consumption over a full activity/ sleep cycle is the precondition to optimize your code for a longer battery runtime. Only with a reliable tool you can decide which code changes lead to less consumption. In a later post we’ll look at some tweaks we can apply to the code to get a few more days out of the battery. As a long time professional Java developer I’m used to write applications that run on servers with lots of resources: RAM, disk space and energy consumption are rarely a limiting factor for the software we write. Developing software for embedded devices is a totally different story: memory both for flash and heap is very limited." [...]

PIC Arduino with RS485

"This board created for makers, who wants to use various Arduino UNO shields using PIC microcontrollers from Microchip. Board facilitates the use of any 28 PIN SMD SO PIC microcontrollers without crystal (internal oscillator). Project also can be used to develop RS485 application with the help of on board SN75176 IC. Two regulators provide 3.3V and 5V DC outputs. ICSP connector provided to program the PIC IC using PICKIT2/PICKIT3 programmer. On board DC jack connector and additional CN2 Header connector helps to power up the board." [...]

Low Pass Filter For Subwoofer With 4558D Ic

"In this project I will show you how you can make a Low Pass Filter with 4558D IC for Subwoofer. Let's get started! " [...]

RFID Dropbox Logger

"Log data to a text file on Dropbox whenever an RFID card is scanned. Have you ever wanted a system that keeps track of the time at which your employees arrive to work, have you ever wanted to check the time at which a person enters your room (I have), this device aims to make all of that as simple as possible. RFIDDropboxLogger will keep track of everyone scanning an RFID card using an RFID module and will write to Dropbox whenever it happens to keep you updated with all the information. Thanks to IFTTT, this is all possible and easy to do. " [...]

Rendering OpenGL shaders to a LED-Cube

"Last December, I attended the 34th Chaos Communication Congress in Leipzig, Germany. This is a large tech-conference with attendees bringing all kinds of awesome projects they have been working on. It’s awesome and I just had to get one of my own. I showed the video to some friends, telling them I wanted to build this. Sebastius and Boekenwuurm were as impressed as I was and wanted to join in on building one each. And that’s how a new project was started!" [...]

PiTextReader - An Easy-To-Use Document Reader For Impaired Vision

"Overview PiTextReader allows someone with impaired vision to read text from envelopes, letters and other items. It snapshots an image of the item, converts to plain text using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and then speaks the text using text-to-speech. The Reader is designed to be as absolutely simple to use as possible. No Internet needed, no graphical interface, only one button. Just place the item to be read onto the stand and press a button. After a few moments, the text will be read back to them." [...]

DIY IR Proximity Sensor

"Hello guys In this post I will show how to make a simple IR proximity sensor IR Proximity have one IR LED & one Photodiode LM358 IC is used in this project Basically IR LED will transmitte Infrared light when this light fall on reflecting surface (white surface) it will fall back on Photodiode so in proportion of IR light fall on Photodiode the internal resistance of photodiode change LM358 get input from this photodiode and gives output" [...]

Animatronic Hand

"Hey Guys, I am Nuts and Bolts. I made a Project; I call it as an Animatronic Hand. Animatronics is the cross between the animation and the electronics. Basically, Animatronics is the mechanized puppet. It can be remotely controlled or preprogrammed. Animatronics refers to the use of robotic devices to emulate a human or an animal, or bring lifelike characteristics to an otherwise inanimate object." [...]

Pipecam: Low-Cost Underwater Camera

"Low cost autonomous underwater camera for long term deployments This projects aims to build low-cost in situ underwater cameras for shallow deployments, from relatively off-the-shelf materials. The goal of the this project is to prove that "It can't be that hard, surely?" Project constitution: - Must be made as cheap as functionality allows - Must be made of materials and off-shelf parts as far as possible - Must be easily replicated. There will be three components to this projects: - Mechanical hardware - Electronic components - Software Possible applications: - Biodiversity studies - Visibility indicator for recreational diving - Long term time lapses" [...]

Self Snoozing Alarm Clock

"Getting up in the morning is hard. Who hasn't placed an alarm clock on the other side of the room to try to make themselves get out of bed to turn it off? What if we could make that easier? What if we could automate something to snooze the alarm for us? You're going to need just a few parts: 1 Alarm clock 1 Picture of a hammer 1 servo 1 LCD display 1 step down transformer 1 breadboard 1 relay 2 resistors, at 2.2 k some wires, some solder, some patience, and some tunes. I built a wooden box for this project to live inside of/on top of, but cardboard (or nothing at all) would work just as well." [...]

Arduino Laser Turret

"This is a servo laser turret controlled by two potentiometers for x and y planes. It has two playing modes. Manual mode lets you control the laser and hit the targets within a time limit. When you hit the target, a photoresistor, a small video game controller vibrator vibrates the box and an LED simulates an explosion by flashing a couple times. Automatic mode lets you move the laser to the targets and save their locations, and afterwards, moves independently to the different targets and hits them with the laser. " [...]

Arduino Clock With DS3231 And LCD1602

"This project is part of a bigger one but it can be a standalone project. It's basically a clock with two buttons for setting the time and date. It doesn't look that great on the breadboard with all those wires but it does the job and it can be simplified by using a I2C display, but I'll cover that subject in a future instructable. " [...]

Create A Laser Driver From An Arduino Board.

"This instructable is to build up a laser driver from an Arduino based board for a 5 mW Adafruit laser. I chose an Arduino board as I might want to control the laser remotely from my computer in the future. I'll also use the sample Arduino code to show how someone with little programming experience can get up and running quickly. For this example, I have an Intel Galileo Gen2 board based around the Arduino Uno chip. " [...]

Arduino Cyclone Reaction Time Game

"In this instructable, we walk through how I made a "Cyclone" - type arcade game using an Arduino. This game also includes a reaction timer mode. Let's get started! A list of things you will need: Arduino Uno LCD Screen MCP23017 serial port expander 2 pushbuttons LEDs of differing colors (I used 3mm and 5mm LEDs in red, green, and yellow) Resistors 100 and 150 ohm for LEDs 10k ohm for port expander and buttonsLots of jumper wires A willing contestant" [...]