Engineers, trained to be object problem solvers, need to look at sustainability in a different way than they would approach other subjects in order to fully understand it
If you say that you’re interested in sustainability, what that generally means is that you are a person who is inclined towards egalitarianism, both within and among generations; you’d be inclined toward the redistribution of wealth, and probably inclined toward restrictions on consumption; and you’d have a certain enlightenment conceptualization of nature and what’s appropriate for nature
The ideological aspect of sustainability makes it a particularly difficult concept to present to engineers, who are trained to look at the world objectively.
If a climate scientist insists on looking at the world with an egalitarian perspective, it wouldn’t necessarily affect their work
But an engineer needs to look at the world the way it is now in order to problem-solve within it
This year’s theme, "Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being," reflects the growing concern in the scientific community and among the general public about issues such as loss of biodiversity, unequal living standards throughout the world, weather-related disasters, proliferation of nuclear weapons and overdependence on petroleum.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Virtual reality at the world's highest resolution
You're high above the desert peaks. Your aircraft are approaching their targets. Information from instruments, cameras and radar is before your eyes. And with the help of 100 million pixels of bright and vivid virtual reality you're in control of a swarm of U.S. Air Force unmanned aerial vehicles.That virtual battlespace will be just one of the applications you could experience when Iowa State University's Virtual Reality Applications Center unveils its improved virtual reality room. The demonstrations will show off the room's new abilities to produce virtual reality at the world's highest resolution.
The public is invited to tour C6 -- Iowa State's 10-foot by 10-foot virtual reality cube that immerses users in computer-generated 3-D images and eight channels of audio -- from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in Howe Hall on the Iowa State campus. Reservations are required and can be made by calling (515) 294-3092. The tours will be part of the Emerging Technologies Conference 07.
Crews have recently completed nearly $5 million in equipment upgrades to C6 and the technology that operates it. Iowa State's C6 now projects more than twice the resolution produced by any other virtual reality room in the world. It also projects 16 times the pixels produced by the original C6.
Iowa State's C6 opened in June 2000 as the country's first six-sided virtual reality room designed to immerse users in images and sound. The graphics and projection technology that made such immersion possible hadn't been updated since the C6 opened.
The difference between the original equipment and the updated technology "is like putting on your glasses in the morning
The new equipment -- a Hewlett-Packard computer cluster featuring 96 graphics processing units, 24 Sony digital projectors, an eight-channel audio system and ultrasonic motion tracking technology -- were installed by the Mechdyne Corp. of Marshalltown. The project is supported by a U.S. Department of Defense appropriation through the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
The April 26 demonstration of the higher speeds, better pictures and improved realism in C6 will also show the technology's versatility. Featured applications will show how researchers are using C6 to visualize data from as many as 22,000 genes, train soldiers for urban combat, show students how plant photosynthesis works, display data from an atom probe microscope and help engineers visualize new products. A new demonstration application will also take you on a virtual trek to a tropical island, including a hovercraft trip over the sea and a dive to explore a shipwreck.
The researchers are building a virtual environment that allows operators to see the vehicles, the surrounding airspace, the terrain they're flying over as well as information from instruments, cameras, radar and weapons systems. The system would allow a single operator to control many vehicles.
The C6 upgrade will move that project forward
The idea is to get the right information to the right person at the right time," Oliver said. "There's a tsunami of information coming toward you and you have to convey it effectively. We think this kind of large-scale, immersive interface is the only way to develop sophisticated controls
So those 100 million pixels are going to make a difference
Seeing is going to be believing," he said. "This upgrade will enhance our ability to amplify the creativity and productivity of people. It will help us build on the center's record as a world leader in virtual reality. And it's one more way Iowa State can be the best at putting science and technology to work
Faster wireless communications using unexploited far-infrared light
Modern technology uses many frequencies of electromagnetic radiation for communication, including radio waves, TV signals, microwaves and visible light. The last unexploited part of the electromagnetic spectrum – could be harnessed to build much faster wireless communications and to detect concealed explosives and biological weapons.
feasibility of building devices that emit and detect specific frequencies of far-infrared light – also known as terahertz radiation – to spot chemical or biological warfare agents such as anthrax bacteria and to make images of packages or people to find concealed weapons and plastic explosives,
To visualize their discovery, imagine shining a flashlight through a kitchen colander, and that holes make up 20 percent of the colander's surface. Only 20 percent of the light will pass through the colander. But when the Utah researchers shined far-infrared radiation through holes punched in a thin steel foil or film, almost all of the radiation passed through the film if the holes were arranged in semi-regular patterns known as "quasicrystals" or "quasicrystal approximates."
Crystals have repeating patterns over a short distance, such as the ordered pattern of carbon atoms in diamond. Quasicrystals have less structure, but display a pattern over a larger area.
it also have patterns, but less so than quasicrystals. Crystals, quasicrystals and approximates all can bend or break up light or other electromagnetic waves.)
Until now, such efficient transmission of far-infrared light was achieved only when crystal patterns were used, but unwanted frequencies also were transmitted. In the new study, the researchers could select the wavelength of far-infrared light transmitted through the holes and, by tilting the films, they could switch the transmission on and off.
That shows high-frequency terahertz signals can be switched on and off to carry data in the digital code of ones and zeroes, and that it someday may be possible to build superfast switches to carry terahertz data at terahertz speeds. That is 1,000 times faster than gigahertz fiber optic lines that carry data as near-infrared and visible light, and 10,000 times faster than microwaves that carry cordless and cell phone conversations
The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation ranges from short to long wavelengths (or from high to low frequency): gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet rays, visible light (violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red), infrared rays (including radiant heat), microwaves, FM radio waves, television, short wave and AM radio.
Near-infrared radiation and some visible light now are used for fiber optic phone and data lines. But terahertz or far-infrared radiation – on the spectrum between microwaves and mid-infrared radiation – is not now used for communication.
Terahertz is a new region of the spectrum for communications" because the rest of the spectrum is crowded with communication and broadcasting signals
Vardeny adds: "Industry is starving for more electromagnetic frequencies," yet terahertz frequencies are unexplored. They are too high for electronics and there are technical obstacles in generating, manipulating and detecting terahertz radiation.
For electromagnetic radiation to transmit data, the signal must be turned on and off to rapidly create the binary code of ones and zeroes. Modern optical and electronic switches cannot do that fast enough to handle signals with terahertz frequencies (1,000 billion waves per second), but can handle gigahertz signals (1 billion waves per second).
No one has built terahertz switches, but Nahata says the new study shows it is possible to use terahertz radiation to carry data and thus may be possible to create terahertz-speed switches for superfast wireless communication over short distances, such as between a cellular phone and headsets, a wireless mouse and a computer, and a PDA (personal digital assistant) and a computer.
"Vibrational spectroscopy" uses emitters and detectors of terahertz radiation to detect materials – such as anthrax or other biological or chemical weapons – that resonate at a terahertz frequency when exposed to far-infrared light. Early terahertz devices emit numerous frequencies. The new study shows perforated films can serve as filters so future terahertz devices can use desired frequencies to zero in on specific chemical or biological weapons or concealed guns and explosives
Another method uses a terahertz emitter and a camera. "Since plastics and clothing are transparent to terahertz wavelengths, metal reflects terahertz, and certain chemicals – such as plastic explosives – strongly absorb terahertz radiation at specific frequencies, this approach is being pursued for package inspection and whole-body imaging to look for concealed weapons or explosives,"
(Recently publicized scanners use X-rays or microwaves. But scanners using terahertz radiation should lack the risk of X-rays and be more precise than microwave scanners, he adds.)
How the Study was Conducted?
Normally, any frequency of electromagnetic radiation or light cannot pass through holes smaller than the radiation's wavelength. A cook can see food in a microwave oven because visible light waves are smaller than the holes in the oven door's grating. But microwaves, with wavelengths larger than the holes, cannot escape to injure the cook.
The study used stainless steel film about three-quarters the thickness of a human hair. Different patterns of holes were punched in the film. The holes were one-quarter to one-half millimeter in diameter (about one-hundredth to one-fiftieth of an inch). That is smaller than the roughly 1-millimeter wavelength of far-infrared light.
Study co-author Agrawal used a computer to design patterns of holes that he expected would allow "resonance" or "anomalous transmission," meaning all the far-infrared light passes through the holes in the metal films. The researchers projected terahertz or far-infrared light onto the metal films with punched patterns. They found certain frequencies of the far-infrared radiation were completely transmitted through the films with crystal, quasicrystal and quasicrystal-approximate patterns – even though the terahertz radiation has wavelengths larger than the holes
Vardeny says such efficient transmission occurs because the far-infrared light not only goes through the holes, but also moves electrons in the metal film, generating "surface plasma waves" that launch all the far-infrared radiation through the holes.
feasibility of building devices that emit and detect specific frequencies of far-infrared light – also known as terahertz radiation – to spot chemical or biological warfare agents such as anthrax bacteria and to make images of packages or people to find concealed weapons and plastic explosives,
To visualize their discovery, imagine shining a flashlight through a kitchen colander, and that holes make up 20 percent of the colander's surface. Only 20 percent of the light will pass through the colander. But when the Utah researchers shined far-infrared radiation through holes punched in a thin steel foil or film, almost all of the radiation passed through the film if the holes were arranged in semi-regular patterns known as "quasicrystals" or "quasicrystal approximates."
Crystals have repeating patterns over a short distance, such as the ordered pattern of carbon atoms in diamond. Quasicrystals have less structure, but display a pattern over a larger area.
it also have patterns, but less so than quasicrystals. Crystals, quasicrystals and approximates all can bend or break up light or other electromagnetic waves.)
Until now, such efficient transmission of far-infrared light was achieved only when crystal patterns were used, but unwanted frequencies also were transmitted. In the new study, the researchers could select the wavelength of far-infrared light transmitted through the holes and, by tilting the films, they could switch the transmission on and off.
That shows high-frequency terahertz signals can be switched on and off to carry data in the digital code of ones and zeroes, and that it someday may be possible to build superfast switches to carry terahertz data at terahertz speeds. That is 1,000 times faster than gigahertz fiber optic lines that carry data as near-infrared and visible light, and 10,000 times faster than microwaves that carry cordless and cell phone conversations
The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation ranges from short to long wavelengths (or from high to low frequency): gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet rays, visible light (violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red), infrared rays (including radiant heat), microwaves, FM radio waves, television, short wave and AM radio.
Near-infrared radiation and some visible light now are used for fiber optic phone and data lines. But terahertz or far-infrared radiation – on the spectrum between microwaves and mid-infrared radiation – is not now used for communication.
Terahertz is a new region of the spectrum for communications" because the rest of the spectrum is crowded with communication and broadcasting signals
Vardeny adds: "Industry is starving for more electromagnetic frequencies," yet terahertz frequencies are unexplored. They are too high for electronics and there are technical obstacles in generating, manipulating and detecting terahertz radiation.
For electromagnetic radiation to transmit data, the signal must be turned on and off to rapidly create the binary code of ones and zeroes. Modern optical and electronic switches cannot do that fast enough to handle signals with terahertz frequencies (1,000 billion waves per second), but can handle gigahertz signals (1 billion waves per second).
No one has built terahertz switches, but Nahata says the new study shows it is possible to use terahertz radiation to carry data and thus may be possible to create terahertz-speed switches for superfast wireless communication over short distances, such as between a cellular phone and headsets, a wireless mouse and a computer, and a PDA (personal digital assistant) and a computer.
"Vibrational spectroscopy" uses emitters and detectors of terahertz radiation to detect materials – such as anthrax or other biological or chemical weapons – that resonate at a terahertz frequency when exposed to far-infrared light. Early terahertz devices emit numerous frequencies. The new study shows perforated films can serve as filters so future terahertz devices can use desired frequencies to zero in on specific chemical or biological weapons or concealed guns and explosives
Another method uses a terahertz emitter and a camera. "Since plastics and clothing are transparent to terahertz wavelengths, metal reflects terahertz, and certain chemicals – such as plastic explosives – strongly absorb terahertz radiation at specific frequencies, this approach is being pursued for package inspection and whole-body imaging to look for concealed weapons or explosives,"
(Recently publicized scanners use X-rays or microwaves. But scanners using terahertz radiation should lack the risk of X-rays and be more precise than microwave scanners, he adds.)
How the Study was Conducted?
Normally, any frequency of electromagnetic radiation or light cannot pass through holes smaller than the radiation's wavelength. A cook can see food in a microwave oven because visible light waves are smaller than the holes in the oven door's grating. But microwaves, with wavelengths larger than the holes, cannot escape to injure the cook.
The study used stainless steel film about three-quarters the thickness of a human hair. Different patterns of holes were punched in the film. The holes were one-quarter to one-half millimeter in diameter (about one-hundredth to one-fiftieth of an inch). That is smaller than the roughly 1-millimeter wavelength of far-infrared light.
Study co-author Agrawal used a computer to design patterns of holes that he expected would allow "resonance" or "anomalous transmission," meaning all the far-infrared light passes through the holes in the metal films. The researchers projected terahertz or far-infrared light onto the metal films with punched patterns. They found certain frequencies of the far-infrared radiation were completely transmitted through the films with crystal, quasicrystal and quasicrystal-approximate patterns – even though the terahertz radiation has wavelengths larger than the holes
Vardeny says such efficient transmission occurs because the far-infrared light not only goes through the holes, but also moves electrons in the metal film, generating "surface plasma waves" that launch all the far-infrared radiation through the holes.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
RoCo, the world’s first expressive computer
Inhabiting a back room in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, the robotic computer has a monitor for a head and a simple LCD screen for a face. It expresses itself using its double-jointed neck, which is equipped with actuators that shift the monitor up and down, tilt it forward and back and swivel it from side to side, rather like Pixar’s animated lamp. An attached camera can detect when its user moves, allowing RoCo to adjust its posture accordingly.
Among a growing number of researchers who are investigating how far a robot’s physical presence can influence people. Harnessing technology to manipulate someone or shape their mood is nothing new. Researchers at Stanford University in California have shown that virtual-reality characters are more likeable when they mimic our facial expressions (New Scientist, 11 June 2005, p 25), and that an in-car assistance system can make us drive more carefully if the voice matches our mood. But because robots share our physical space, they can have a greater impact. “If it can actually touch you, it is a lot more meaningful,” says Cynthia Breazeal of the Media Lab, who created RoCo with her colleague Rosalind Picard. “Robots can engage us like never before. They can really push our buttons,” she says.
teams has begun to explore how RoCo’s powers of expression might be harnessed. One aspect they are looking into is how the robot might affect our posture while working. Previous studies have shown that someone’s emotional state can dramatically affect their performance on analytical tasks and that posture can play a role in this. For example, one study showed that people who felt depressed were more persistent at carrying out a tracing task if they were able to slouch while they did it, while cheery souls tended to be more tenacious when they sat up straight – a response known as the “stoop to conquer” effect. “Emotion informs cognition, people whose emotion is inhibited don’t perform intelligently,”
However, people don’t necessarily always sit in the “right” position for their mood. Enter RoCo. By taking up different positions, RoCo can encourage people to change their posture too. To investigate whether this would be useful in a working environment, the team gave two groups of people either a simple or unsolvable task to carry out. Once primed with a feeling of success or failure, the volunteers were given a new set of puzzles, projected onto RoCo’s screen. They found that the successful people who sat in front of an upward-tilting RoCo were more persistent in attempting to complete the second, unsolvable puzzle than those given a slouching RoCo. In contrast, those primed for failure by the previous task performed better when given a slouching RoCo than those given a neutral or upward-tilting one.
RoCo could be programmed to adopt the right posture to foster greater attention and persistence in children, or simply to help improve people’s posture when sitting at a desk. In future the group also plans to investigate programming RoCo to mimic the posture and gestures of its users, just as it did with mine, to see if that builds rapport and enhances engagement with the computer, as such behaviour is known to do
Among a growing number of researchers who are investigating how far a robot’s physical presence can influence people. Harnessing technology to manipulate someone or shape their mood is nothing new. Researchers at Stanford University in California have shown that virtual-reality characters are more likeable when they mimic our facial expressions (New Scientist, 11 June 2005, p 25), and that an in-car assistance system can make us drive more carefully if the voice matches our mood. But because robots share our physical space, they can have a greater impact. “If it can actually touch you, it is a lot more meaningful,” says Cynthia Breazeal of the Media Lab, who created RoCo with her colleague Rosalind Picard. “Robots can engage us like never before. They can really push our buttons,” she says.
teams has begun to explore how RoCo’s powers of expression might be harnessed. One aspect they are looking into is how the robot might affect our posture while working. Previous studies have shown that someone’s emotional state can dramatically affect their performance on analytical tasks and that posture can play a role in this. For example, one study showed that people who felt depressed were more persistent at carrying out a tracing task if they were able to slouch while they did it, while cheery souls tended to be more tenacious when they sat up straight – a response known as the “stoop to conquer” effect. “Emotion informs cognition, people whose emotion is inhibited don’t perform intelligently,”
However, people don’t necessarily always sit in the “right” position for their mood. Enter RoCo. By taking up different positions, RoCo can encourage people to change their posture too. To investigate whether this would be useful in a working environment, the team gave two groups of people either a simple or unsolvable task to carry out. Once primed with a feeling of success or failure, the volunteers were given a new set of puzzles, projected onto RoCo’s screen. They found that the successful people who sat in front of an upward-tilting RoCo were more persistent in attempting to complete the second, unsolvable puzzle than those given a slouching RoCo. In contrast, those primed for failure by the previous task performed better when given a slouching RoCo than those given a neutral or upward-tilting one.
RoCo could be programmed to adopt the right posture to foster greater attention and persistence in children, or simply to help improve people’s posture when sitting at a desk. In future the group also plans to investigate programming RoCo to mimic the posture and gestures of its users, just as it did with mine, to see if that builds rapport and enhances engagement with the computer, as such behaviour is known to do
New technology allows faster computer chips to be cooled more efficiently
In today's computer chips, as the circuits on chips become increasingly smaller, chips generate more heat than ever before. To remove the heat from the chip, a cooling system is attached to the microprocessor using a special adhesive or glue. This glue is necessary to bind the two systems together, yet it poses a real barrier in heat transport.
To improve the glue's heat-conducting properties, it is enriched with micrometer-sized metal or ceramic particles. These particles form clusters that build "heat-evacuation bridges" from the chip to the cooler to compensate for the glue's shortcomings. However, even highly particle-filled pastes are still inefficient, consuming up to 40 percent of the overall thermal budget, i.e. the cooling capacity available to draw heat away from the chip
By observing how the glue spreads when a chip is attached to its cooling element, scientists noticed that a cross formed in the paste as large numbers of particles were piling up, inhibiting the layers of glue from spreading out. The scientists were able to trace the cause of this back to the flow behavior of the paste, which simply follows the path of least resistance. Along the diagonals, the particles are pulled in opposite directions and, as a result, they remain where they are. As the squeezing process continues, however, they begin to pile up, forming what scientists call the "magic cross".
To overcome this problem, the team designed a special layout of micrometer-sized channels — or trenches — in a tree-like branched structure consisting of larger and smaller channels. This structure functions like an irrigation system for the paste at exactly those spots where the particles would pile up. This allows the particles to spread more homogeneously and reduces the thickness of the resulting paste gap.
The results obtained are impressive: The paste thickness was reduced by a factor of 3, and the pressure needed to squeeze the paste to the same bondline thickness was reduced to a similar extent. These lower assembly pressures ensure that the delicate components and interconnects below the chip are not damaged as the chip package is created. The channels also allow pastes with higher fill factors and higher bulk thermal conductivity to be squeezed into thinner gaps, thereby reducing the thermal resistance of the paste interface considerably by more than a factor of 3. The new technology allows air-cooling systems to remove more heat and helps to improve the overall energy efficiency of computers
Together with other industry-leading suppliers, tools are being developed to define the surface channels through the same copper stamping process currently used to fabricate high-volume chip lids. This will define a full supply chain of low-cost parts to quickly integrate the new technique into products.
To improve the glue's heat-conducting properties, it is enriched with micrometer-sized metal or ceramic particles. These particles form clusters that build "heat-evacuation bridges" from the chip to the cooler to compensate for the glue's shortcomings. However, even highly particle-filled pastes are still inefficient, consuming up to 40 percent of the overall thermal budget, i.e. the cooling capacity available to draw heat away from the chip
By observing how the glue spreads when a chip is attached to its cooling element, scientists noticed that a cross formed in the paste as large numbers of particles were piling up, inhibiting the layers of glue from spreading out. The scientists were able to trace the cause of this back to the flow behavior of the paste, which simply follows the path of least resistance. Along the diagonals, the particles are pulled in opposite directions and, as a result, they remain where they are. As the squeezing process continues, however, they begin to pile up, forming what scientists call the "magic cross".
To overcome this problem, the team designed a special layout of micrometer-sized channels — or trenches — in a tree-like branched structure consisting of larger and smaller channels. This structure functions like an irrigation system for the paste at exactly those spots where the particles would pile up. This allows the particles to spread more homogeneously and reduces the thickness of the resulting paste gap.
The results obtained are impressive: The paste thickness was reduced by a factor of 3, and the pressure needed to squeeze the paste to the same bondline thickness was reduced to a similar extent. These lower assembly pressures ensure that the delicate components and interconnects below the chip are not damaged as the chip package is created. The channels also allow pastes with higher fill factors and higher bulk thermal conductivity to be squeezed into thinner gaps, thereby reducing the thermal resistance of the paste interface considerably by more than a factor of 3. The new technology allows air-cooling systems to remove more heat and helps to improve the overall energy efficiency of computers
Together with other industry-leading suppliers, tools are being developed to define the surface channels through the same copper stamping process currently used to fabricate high-volume chip lids. This will define a full supply chain of low-cost parts to quickly integrate the new technique into products.
New technology helps blind people experience streaming video and animation on Internet
The emergence of multimedia content has risen dramatically in the last two years yet people with low or no vision have not been able to enjoy the benefits of these advances. Screen-reading software and self-talking browsers cannot handle multimedia applications, which are designed for intuitive visual use. Visually impaired users cannot see multimedia control buttons appear on a screen. In addition, the audio of a streaming video -- which automatically starts playing after the page is loaded -- interferes with a synthesized assistive voice from screen-reading software, a vital assistant for visually impaired users. Furthermore, most multimedia content operates with a mouse rather than keyboard, making it impossible for visually impaired people to use it.
The new multimedia browsing accessibility tool offers people with visual impairment the same multimedia control features sighted people see and operate with a mouse. To enjoy a streaming video on video sharing websites, for example, visually impaired people can select the "play" button by simply pressing a predefined shortcut key to control the media instead of roaming the content to search for buttons to control the video. The tool also allows users to control video replay speed, volume and even speed up the sound since to people with visual impairment, listening to the sound streaming video offers is painfully slow.
The new multimedia browsing accessibility tool will enable persons with visual impairments the opportunity to access dynamic multimedia web content, quickly and easily
The new multimedia browsing accessibility tool can adjust the volume of an individual source, allowing users to identify and listen to different sound sources including screen-reading software and the sound of a video. If a content creator wants to offer a voice narrative to a video, the new accessibility tool provides the flexibility of utilizing the metadata, which contains a text script explaining what is happening on screen. The tool automatically makes adjustments to let voice guidance synchronize with the video, even with the speed control capability.
The new multimedia browsing accessibility tool offers people with visual impairment the same multimedia control features sighted people see and operate with a mouse. To enjoy a streaming video on video sharing websites, for example, visually impaired people can select the "play" button by simply pressing a predefined shortcut key to control the media instead of roaming the content to search for buttons to control the video. The tool also allows users to control video replay speed, volume and even speed up the sound since to people with visual impairment, listening to the sound streaming video offers is painfully slow.
The new multimedia browsing accessibility tool will enable persons with visual impairments the opportunity to access dynamic multimedia web content, quickly and easily
The new multimedia browsing accessibility tool can adjust the volume of an individual source, allowing users to identify and listen to different sound sources including screen-reading software and the sound of a video. If a content creator wants to offer a voice narrative to a video, the new accessibility tool provides the flexibility of utilizing the metadata, which contains a text script explaining what is happening on screen. The tool automatically makes adjustments to let voice guidance synchronize with the video, even with the speed control capability.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Future Developments In Computer Technology
In 1965 semiconductor pioneer Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors contained on a computer chip would double every year. This is now known as Moore's Law, and it has proven to be somewhat accurate. The number of transistors and the computational speed of microprocessors currently doubles approximately every 18 months. Components continue to shrink in size and are becoming faster, cheaper, and more versatile.With their increasing power and versatility, computers simplify day-to-day life. Unfortunately, as computer use becomes more widespread, so do the opportunities for misuse. Computer hackers-people who illegally gain access to computer systems-often violate privacy and can tamper with or destroy records. Programs called viruses or worms can replicate and spread from computer to computer, erasing information or causing computer malfunctions. Other individuals have used computers to electronically embezzle funds and alter credit histories. New ethical issues also have arisen, such as how to regulate material on the Internet and the World Wide Web. Individuals, companies, and governments are working to solve these problems by developing better computer security and enacting regulatory legislation.Computers will become more advanced and they will also become easier to use. Reliable speech recognition will make the operation of a computer easier. Virtual reality, the technology of interacting with a computer using all of the human senses, will also contribute to better human and computer interfaces. Standards for virtual-reality program languages, called Virtual Reality Modeling language (VRML), currently are being developed for the World Wide Web.
Breakthroughs occurred in the area of quantum computing in the late 1990s. Quantum computers under development use components of a chloroform molecule (a combination of chlorine and hydrogen atoms) and a variation of a medical procedure called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compute at a molecular level. Scientists used a branch of physics called quantum mechanics, which describes the activity of subatomic particles (particles that make up atoms), as the basis for quantum computing. Quantum computers may one day be thousands to millions of times faster than current computers, because they take advantage of the laws that govern the behavior of subatomic particles. These laws allow quantum computers to examine all possible answers to a query at one time. Future uses of quantum computers could include code breaking and large database queries.
Communications between computer users and networks will benefit from new technologies such as broadband communication systems that can carry significantly more data and carry it faster, to and from the vast interconnected databases that continue to grow in number and type.
Breakthroughs occurred in the area of quantum computing in the late 1990s. Quantum computers under development use components of a chloroform molecule (a combination of chlorine and hydrogen atoms) and a variation of a medical procedure called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compute at a molecular level. Scientists used a branch of physics called quantum mechanics, which describes the activity of subatomic particles (particles that make up atoms), as the basis for quantum computing. Quantum computers may one day be thousands to millions of times faster than current computers, because they take advantage of the laws that govern the behavior of subatomic particles. These laws allow quantum computers to examine all possible answers to a query at one time. Future uses of quantum computers could include code breaking and large database queries.
Communications between computer users and networks will benefit from new technologies such as broadband communication systems that can carry significantly more data and carry it faster, to and from the vast interconnected databases that continue to grow in number and type.
Recent Developments In Electronics
The development of integrated circuits has revolutionized the fields of communications, information handling, and computing. Integrated circuits reduce the size of devices and lower manufacturing and system costs, while at the same time providing high speed and increased reliability.Digital watches, hand-held computers, and electronic games are systems based on microprocessors.Other developments include the digitalization of audio signals, where the frequency and amplitude of an audio signal are coded digitally by appropriate sampling techniques, that is, techniques for measuring the amplitude of the signal at very short intervals. Digitally recorded music shows a fidelity that is not possible using direct-recording methods.Digital playback devices of this nature have already entered the home market. Digital storage could also form the basis of home video systems and may significantly alter library storage systems, because much more information can be stored on a disk for replay on a television screen than can be contained in a book.Medical electronics has progressed from computerized axial tomography, or the use of CAT or CT scanners (see X Ray), to systems that can discriminate more and more of the organs of the human body. Devices that can view blood vessels and the respiratory system have been developed as well. Ultrahigh definition television also promises to substitute for many photographic processes, because it eliminates the need for silver.Today's research to increase the speed and capacity of computers concentrates mainly on the improvement of integrated circuit technology and the development of even faster switching components.Very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits that contain several hundred thousand components on a single chip have been developed. Very-high-speed computers are being developed in which semiconductors may be replaced by superconducting circuits using Josephson junctions and operating at temperatures near absolute zero.
Northwestern chemists plot the next step in nanotechnology
Researchers at Northwestern University demonstrate a new technology that may be used to miniaturize electronic circuits, put thousands of different medical sensors on an area much tinier than the head of a pin and develop an understanding of the intrinsic behavior of ultrasmall structures -- ones comprised of a small collection of molecules patterned on a solid substrate. By miniaturizing existing writing and printing techniques,...a research team led by Chad Mirkin, Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry and director of Northwestern's Center for Nanotechnology, has paved the way for such possibilities. In their paper (Science, Oct 15 1999), the researchers detail how they have transformed their world's smallest pen (Science, Jan. 29, 1999) into the world's smallest plotter, a device capable of drawing multiple lines of molecules -- each line only 15 nanometers or 30 molecules wide -- with such precision that only five nanometers, or about 200 billionths of an inch, separate each line. By contrast, a human hair is about 10,000 nanometers wide....It is the nano-plotter's accuracy of registration when building nanostructures of different organic molecules that could dramatically impact molecule-based electronics, molecular diagnostics and catalysis, in addition to leading to new applications not yet imagined in nanotechnology...."
The Miracles of the Nanotechnological Future
Imagine pencil-thin tubules replacing a fat steel cable on a bridge, every 30 cm or so of it supercomputing at a level of all the planet's present combined resources
Imagine resurfacing existing roads with a coating of high-efficiency solar cells topped by a layer of tough diamond-like coating and generating 300 watts for every square meter
Imagine nail polish that once applied is able to changes colour at your spoken command, or for that matter are able to convert to flat screen colour monitor or video phone, and repair broken nails effortlessly....
Imagine boxes that can convert household waste into fresh food, diamond rings, or antique works of art accurate to the most minute detail....
Imagine microscopic robots prowling the bloodstream, eliminating cancer, aids, or the common cold, even reversing the aging process...
Imagine a nanotechnology that synthesizes self replicating carbon-nitrogen bots suspended in aqueous solution......it is life?
let us go further...
let us go further...
Imagine being able to change your physical appearance, even your gender, at will...
Imagine building starships out of ordinary dirt and rock....
let us go further still... ;-)
Test-drive for nanocopters
The first microscopic "helicopters", which could one day carry out medical tasks inside the body, have been built and test-driven by scientists at Cornell University. The devices are no bigger than a virus particle. They consist of metal propellers and a biological component attached to a metal post. The biological component converts the body's biochemical fuel, ATP, into energy. This is used to turn the propellers at a rate of eight rotations per second. In tests the nano-helicopters' propellers for up to 2 1/2 hours. This is an important first step towards producing miniature machines capable of functioning inside living cells. But at this stage the technology is still very inefficient. Only five of the first 400 biomotors worked properly, and it still has to be proved that the machines can function inside a living cell.
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