by civil engineers !!
Amazing Concept of roads
Posted in futurism
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have created a new type of microchip that allows information to move in three dimensions, left to right, back to front and up and down.
Scientists from the University of Cambridge have created, for the first time, a new type of microchip which allows information to travel in three dimensions. Currently, microchips can only pass digital information in a very limited way – from either left to right or front to back. The research was published today, 31 January, in Nature.
Dr Reinoud Lavrijsen, an author on the paper from the University of Cambridge, said: “Today’s chips are like bungalows – everything happens on the same floor. We’ve created the stairways allowing information to pass between floors.”
Fortunately, that is changing because researchers such as Qiaoqiang Gan, University at Buffalo assistant professor of electrical engineering, are helping develop a new generation of photovoltaic cells that produce more power and cost less to manufacture than what’s available today.
One of the more promising efforts, which Gan is working on, involves the use of plasmonic-enhanced organic photovoltaic materials. These devices don’t match traditional solar cells in terms of energy production but they are less expensive and — because they are made (or processed) in liquid form — can be applied to a greater variety of surfaces.
Gan detailed the progress of plasmonic-enhanced organic photovoltaic materials in the May 7 edition of the journal Advanced Materials. Co-authors include Filbert J. Bartoli, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Lehigh University, and Zakya Kafafi of the National Science Foundation.
, cell phones and other electronic devices and allow chips to be reprogrammed, reducing the volume of circuitry required inside them.
http://www.nature.com/news/magnetic-logic-makes-for-mutable-chips-1.12321
Researcher says he has created living cells made of metal instead of carbon — and they may be evolving.
By: Bryan Nelson.
Iron mug ~Smart world
Posted in futurism
Microsoft demos English-to-Chinese universal translator that keeps your voice and accent.
Alternative World News Network.
At an event in China, Microsoft Research chief Rick Rashid has demonstrated a real-time English-to-Mandarin speech-to-speech translation engine. Not only is the translation very accurate, but the software also preserves the user’s accent and intonation. We’re not just talking about a digitized, robotic translator here — this is firmly within the realms of Doctor Who or Star Trek universal translation.
The best way to appreciate this technology is to watch the video below. The first six minutes or so is Rick Rashid explaining the fundamental difficulty of computer translation, and then the last few minutes actually demonstrate the software’s English-to-Mandarin speech-to-speech translation engine. Sadly I don’t speak Chinese, so I can’t attest to the veracity of the translation, but the audience — some 2,000 Chinese students — seems rather impressed. A professional English/Chinese interpreter also remarked to me that the computer translation is surprisingly good; not quite up to the level of human translation, but it’s getting close.
