Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists have invented a new type of liquid crystal that allows tv and computer manufacturers to pack three times as many pixels into the same area of screen, while reducing the amount of power required to run the device.

This new type of blue-phase liquid crystal is so effective because it bypasses the colour filters used in current screen technology. This change alone reduces the amount of energy lost during light transmission by more than 40 percent.

“Today’s Apple Retina displays have a resolution density of about 500 pixels per inch,” says one of the team, physicist Shin-Tson Wu from University of Central Florida.

Continue reading “This New Liquid Crystal Can Triple the Sharpness of Tv and Computer Screens” »

Luv this.

Researchers at The University of Manchester have developed a method of producing water-based and inkjet printable 2D material inks, which could bring 2D crystal heterostructures from the lab into real-world products.

Examples include efficient light detectors, and devices that are able to store information encoded in binary form which have been demonstrated, in collaboration with the University of Pisa.

Continue reading “Water-based and biocompatible 2D inks for printed electronics” »

Judging by the way some users handle portable consumer electronics, it’s fair to say that they can be considered harsh environment devices. Cell phones, MP3 players, tablets and other portable electronic devices have become ubiquitous personal and professional tools that are used constantly throughout the day and not with the gentlest of care. As a result, switch manufacturers must create new rugged miniature switches that combine significant space and weight reductions with ruggedness and long operating lives.

These miniature switches must function in the same reliable, consistent manner as the more substantially-sized industrial design, all the while maintaining optimum functionality, performance and extended lifespans. Switch manufacturers that offer value-added services, including manufacturing modules and custom assemblies, can deliver complete electromechanical solutions that not only meet the size and performance requirements, but can also withstand the elements like vibration and shock.

The devices we’re sending into space are getting smaller and lighter, which means there’s less room for bulky and static components. Flexibility and compactness are coming into vogue, and this prototype satellite radiator is inspired by that most compact and flexible of arts: origami.

An ordinary radiator would, of course, help dissipate heat generated by the sun or on-board electronics. But its shape and size, and therefore to a certain extent its capabilities, are set when it is manufactured.

Goddard Space Flight Center and Brigham Young University researchers are working on a radiator that can fold up or expand as needed to accelerate or slow the rate of heat dissipation as its operators see fit.

Continue reading “Origami-inspired radiator from NASA could change shape to warm or cool tiny satellites” »

For several years, Professor George Hanna from Imperial College London has been directing work toward the development of a test that can detect cancers of the esophagus and stomach by measuring the levels of five chemicals in a patient’s breath. These chemicals are butyric, pentanoic and hexanoic acids, butanal, and decanal, which previous research has identified as pointers to the presence of stomach or esophageal cancer.

In 2015, Professor Hanna announced the results of the first clinical study analyzing the breath samples of 210 patients. The patents exhaled into a breathalyzer-like device, which used a selected ion flow tube mass spectrometer to detect the presence of any of the five aforementioned chemicals in the breath sample. The 2015 study achieved a 90 percent accuracy rate in correctly identifying the two cancers, and a recently completed, broader study has also proven successful.

The new study collected samples from 335 people across four London hospitals. Around half of the group had been diagnosed with stomach or esophageal cancer and the other half had shown no evidence of cancer after having an endoscopy. After analyzing all the samples, the new breath test achieved an 85 percent accuracy rate, correctly identifying those both with and without cancer.

Austria’s Ams has released a pair of tiny spectral sensors for on-the-go analysis of foods or pharmaceuticals.

Nice.

Rugby teams and ambulance staff are the target for portable brain scanner.

For my many self driving fans. Here is an idea that they could look into as part of this infrastructure is to have the sensors in the pavement be able to sense a car broken down on the side of the road and notify nearby tow trucking company hired by the city or county as well as the same sensors able to pick up on vehicle impacts on the road to contact police/ hwy. patrol and emergency responders as cameras cannot be everywhere to monitor.

Press release — Persistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd — Smart Highway Market Explores New Growth Opportunities By 2026 — published on openPR.com.

The coming year promises to be a good one for those of us watching the augmented and mixed reality world. And the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), starting Jan. 5 in Las Vegas, Nevada, for its 50th year, is bringing 2017 in with a bang—we’re expecting a ton of great announcements on the horizon.

From the HoloLens developers edition release and ever-churning Magic Leap rumor mill, to Pokémon Go and the resurgence of the smart glasses movement, augmented, mixed, and virtual realities have been all over the place in 2016. So, it’s no surprise that for its second year, CES will dedicate an entire section of the floor to augmented reality called the Augmented Reality Marketplace.