Tag: futuretech

MindRider: Brain Monitoring Systems for Mapping Mental Experience

Pooja Kashyap

Researchers at the MIT Media Lab are working towards creating a novel helmet system that would reflect bike rider’s mind in the real time. It will be able to mind map rider’s engagement level from relaxed state to focused level while navigating through the routes. Mapping Mental Experience Sensors are embedded within the foam of the helmet that would act as a bridge between the brain waves and translating those ripples into the display of level of engagement. The technique is based on EEG (electroencephalography) where the embedded sensors act…

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MagnetoSperm Microrobots for the Nanoworld: Biomimicry

Pooja Kashyap

Nature does not stop us marveling at its splendor be it at macro level or micro scale. There are limitless options to investigate and get inspired. Biomimicry is one such field in robotics, which is completely drenched with nature’s splash. Researchers do not leave any stone unturned when dealing with robos inspired from nature, lately a concept is put forward by experts at the University of Twente, Netherlands. They have taken inspiration from nature’s locomotion at microscale and have combined the process of two micro-scale entities like magnetotactic bacteria and…

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Thermometer for Ultrasensitive Measurements: Temperature Control

Pooja Kashyap

Physics researchers at the University of Adelaide have successfully created a rare thermometer, efficiency of which is thrice the existing best thermometers so far. Reporting further, the experts expatiated that they were able to gauge temperature with the ‘nano-Kelvin thermometer’, through an accuracy of thirty billionths of a degree. Researchers asserted that they have reached the highest level of precision in terms of measuring temperature at room temperature. Talking about the innovation, Professor Luiten one of the lead researcher said that temperature at subatomic level is not static rather fluctuating.…

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Sprinting Robot Raptor based on Velociraptor: Faster than Cheetah

Pooja Kashyap

Whenever we talk about speed and agility, first thing that comes to our mind is Boston Dynamics Cheetah, which runs at a speed to about 45.5 km/h. Until now, none of the bots have been able to give tough fight to the big cat, however, it seems, researchers at KAIST are preparing to stand tall with their new sprinter, Raptor. It has shown an impressive speed of 46 km/h, which happens to be slightly more than the big cat. Wow! Experts at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s…

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Neuroprosthetic Devices on Deep Brain Simulation Technology: Implants to Restore Memories

Pooja Kashyap

A new initiative by the US military program focuses around treating defense personals from the after effects of being into war. In majority of cases, soldiers who come back from battle zones develop adjustment problems or psychiatric disorders to be more specific. For instance, combatants were diagnosed with “shell shock” during the era of WW I, “battle fatigue” during WW II and in Vietnam War, it was PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Backed up by President Obama’s brain initiative, DARPA has received a funding of $70 million from the US to…

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Nano- Bots to Enter into the Arteries for Delivering Drugs: High-Performing Nanomotors

Pooja Kashyap

Very soon, we would be witnessing a 3D world on microchips. During the beginning of this year, researchers at Penn State University demonstrated the movement of nanomotors in controlled manner inside living cells. And now, experts at the University of Texas Austin have developed one of the fastest spinning and relatively longer shelf life nanomotor. The newly fabricated nanomotor has an ability of spinning continuously for nearly 15 hours with a speed of 18k rpm. This is an innovative product in the league where the existing nanomotors display an efficiency…

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Energy Storage into Structural Materials: No More Power Cords for Devices

Pooja Kashyap

Researchers at Vanderbilt University have come up with an intriguing prospect that has complete essence of futuretech in itself. Their current interest hovers around the likelihood of a more technologically enhanced capacity for storing electrical energy directly across applications including but not limited to EVs, laptops and home appliances. They have demonstrated this idea by fabricating small wafers that have the potential of storing and discharging considerable amount of electricity while they are put through static loads or moving forces like vibrations or impacts.

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Stanford-MIT System Aims at Harvesting Low-Grade Heat: New Battery Technology

Pooja Kashyap

It’s been more than a decade researchers across the globe are working towards harnessing waste energy into something useful. Most of the times, their energy focused around thermoelectric devices but efficiency of this approach was limited to the accessibility of materials Lately, researchers at Stanford University in collaboration with experts from Massachusetts Institute of Technology have come up with an innovative technology, which captures and morphs waste heat into electricity. The approach holds the low temperature waste heat, that is, less than 100 degrees Celsius.

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Innovative Supercapacitor Architecture: A Hybrid between a Supercapacitor and a Pseudocapacitor

Pooja Kashyap

Using the nanoparticles of hydrous ruthenium oxide (RuO2) by first modifying them via carbon nanotubes (CNT) and graphene foam as the electrode material for the supercapacitor, the researchers at the University of California Riverside have developed an innovative energy storage device. They have simply called it a supercapacitor, which technically is a hybrid between a supercapacitor and a pseudocapacitor. Once the electrodes were formed via the modification (mentioned above), they were then added in an aqueous electrolyte. The resultant combination provided higher energy with more power density supercapacitors than the…

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HAL Therapy: The Medical Service with Robot Suit

Pooja Kashyap

Team of researchers at the Centre for Neurorobotic Movement Training (ZNB) in Bochum is testing the HAL robot suit, which was initially fabricated by Japan in 2011. The robot suit was aimed at providing self-sufficiency to patients who have been paralyzed from the waist down. The condition, paraplegia causes impairment in both motor and sensory function of the lower limbs hence, the brain signals fail to co-ordinate within the limbs. And the weak signals are then lost within the system. It is here that the HAL robot suit comes into play.…

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Graphene Ushering the League of Viable Engine for Nanodevices: Lattice Mimics two-stroke Engine

Pooja Kashyap

Graphene is one of those rare gifts of nanotechnology that is still not unwrapped fully. Not long ago, we discovered that how sliding water over graphene generated electricity. Every time, researchers conduct an experiment, the lattice of carbon atoms pops up with different surprise. Lately, such revelation has brought to the fore by researchers at National University, Singapore. They have morphed a single layer of graphene along with certain amount of chlorine and fluorine atoms to create a two-stroke combustion engine. Similar mechanism although at a macro-scale is used for…

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Titan Arm: An Affordable, Streamlined and Wireless Upper Body Exoskeleton

Pooja Kashyap

Resemblance back to the normal lifestyle after getting an injury to either of the limbs is li’l difficult. Although there are physical therapies available but the process is quite lengthy plus there isn’t enough guarantee of making hundred percent recuperation. Robotics does offer an alternative solution in terms of prosthetics but the cost factor has always remained one of the biggest huddles. Research students from the University of Pennsylvania have come up with a robotic arm exoskeleton, which is portable, powerful and at the same time quite an affordable invention.…

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Lamborghini Huracán: The New Italian Exotic Supercar Replaces Gallardo

Pooja Kashyap

21st century heralds the supercars that not only give preference to speed but also give equal importance to safety, reliability and spaciousness where minimum fuel consumption and less carbon emissions comes in as default features of course. The new Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4 rolls in at the same time and earns full marks in all the set parameters. Huracán made its presence felt in the 2014 Geneva Auto Show, where it replaced Gallardo, the most sought after sports car from the same company. The exotic is expected to release somewhere…

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Magnetic Fields in Electric and Hybrid Cars Involve No Threat: Cars under Safety Margin

Pooja Kashyap

Majority welcomed the vehicular era when electric and hybrid automobiles took to the center stage. While there were still others who were doubtful regarding the dangers that might affect the passengers including drivers imposed by the possibly generated electromagnetic fields. However, the increasing number of electric car ownership has thwarted this idea. Seven various electric cars, including hydrogen, gasoline and diesel powered cars, were put under survey by SINTEF, Norway and they discovered that exposure of the electromagnetic radiation was less than 20%. A limit, which was suggested by ICNIRP,…

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Human Brain Simulated on Circuit Board: Mimicking Neurons and Synapses

Pooja Kashyap

Inspired by human brain, bioengineers at Stanford University have fabricated microchips that are relatively faster and energy-efficient where power consumption of PC is about 40k times more. Researchers envision that this would lead a novel way of understanding human brain as well as might take robotics especially prosthetics to the next level. Matching the Brain For an efficient mimicking of neurons and synapses, the team designed 16 Neurocore chips. Jointly these 16 chips were able to simulate about 1m neurons and billions of synaptic connections.

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