circuits
Latest
High tech smoke signals: a luddite's dream (or nightmare?)
"For Those Who Can See" is an art project by Daniel Schulze. Using smoke machines, speakers, and a 7 by 7 grid of concrete slabs, the speakers are programmed to pulse at specific intervals, triggering the smoke when they do. The slabs of concrete have been drilled with holes, resulting in 'modern smoke signals.' Schulze's project is not yet fully realized, and a complete installation is set to debut at DMY Berlin. Below is a video mockup of the project.
Self-assembling DNA circuits could power your next computer
Sick of silicon? It is getting a bit played, so maybe it's time to shift some paradigms, and Duke University engineer Chris Dwyer thinks that pure proteins deoxyribonucleic acids are where it's at. He's demonstrated a way to force DNA to create shapes all by itself, a process he likens to a puzzle that puts itself together: It's like taking pieces of a puzzle, throwing them in a box and as you shake the box, the pieces gradually find their neighbors to form the puzzle. What we did was to take billions of these puzzle pieces, throwing them together, to form billions of copies of the same puzzle. Right now the waffle-shaped structures he can form aren't particularly useful, but going forward the hope is that nearly any type of circuitry could be made to build itself in massive quantities at next to no cost. It sounds exciting, promising, almost utopian -- exactly the kind of research that we usually never hear of again. Update: We've had a few people commenting on the inaccuracy of the word "proteins" above, so it's been fixed and we hereby invite all you armchair molecular biologists to get back to curing cancer already.
IBM keeps light pulse bandwagon rolling, uses 'em for chip-to-chip communication
Lenovo loves its red mousing nipple, Apple digs its aluminum and IBM adores those light pulses. Nearly two full years after we heard this very company touting breakthroughs in science thanks to a nanophotonic switch, in flies a similar technique from Yorktown Heights that could "greatly further energy efficient computing." As the story goes, gurus at IBM have figured out how to replace electrical signals that communicate via copper wires between computer chips with tiny silicon circuits that chat using pulses of light. The device is called a nanophotonic avalanche photodetector, and according to Dr. T.C. Chen, this kind of embedded optical interconnection makes the "prospect of building power-efficient computer systems with performance at the Exaflop level" something that could be seen in the not-so-distant future. Reportedly, the avalanche photodetector demonstrated by IBM is the world's fastest device of its kind, able to receive optical information signals at 40Gbps and simultaneously multiply them tenfold. We know that's over some of your (read: our) heads, but there's a sufficiently nerdy video after the break that gets right down to the whos, whats, whys and wheres.
DIY sewable iPod remote takes just ten minutes, will absolutely warm your heart
Okay, so we fully anticipate that creating the downright adorable object you see above will take far longer than ten minutes if you a) don't have a stash of circuits and fabrics laying around and / or b) you've never done anything like this before, but for seasoned DIYers, this is about as easy as it gets. The "10-minute sewable iPod remote" can actually be any character or design you feel like making, as the crux of this project relies on the circuit chip that is actually fitted inside the dock connector. From there, you just connect a few strands of conductive fabric, attach your kitty cat (or dragon, as the case may be) and begin to enjoy your homegrown iPod remote. Hit the read link for the full how-to, but only if you're immune to cuteoverloaditus.
Movie Gadget Friday: Runaway
Ariel Waldman contributes Movie Gadget Friday, where she highlights the lovable and lame gadgets from the world of cinema. Previously on Movie Gadget Friday, we tapped into the near dystopian future of fear in Brazil. Keeping on that 1980's near-future vibe (but with a slightly more sentient twist), this week we check out Michael Crichton's Runaway, starring Tom Selleck, Gene Simmons, Cynthia Rhodes and Kirstie Alley. Filled with circuitry and hardwired chips, the movie reinforces wholesome family values by featuring warranty voids as the gateway hack to murder. Leaping Insect Robot Measuring in around the size of a human head, these six-legged, spider-like, autonomous robots are mechanical in movement but shockingly precise in killing prey. The autonomous insects have the ability to propel themselves up to seven feet in the air, allowing for attacks on unsuspecting victims. Dual-functioning, the legs are able to crawl and grasp a multitude of surfaces, albeit awkwardly and rather slowly. After programming targets into a mainframe, the robots are able to identify and kill victims by injecting them with acid via a probe before short circuiting and eventually exploding into a ball of flames. Sadly, the robots lack any sort of remote control, making human errors in target-programming unable to be edited.
Ex-Seagate CEO joins startup Vertical Circuits, learns secret of the silver, gadget-shrinking ooze
Bill Watkins, the oft-outspoken former CEO of Seagate, has thrown his support behind tech startup Vertical Circuits, who claim to have an uncanny knack for shrinking gadgets with the power of voodoo -- or rather, a patented silver ooze, but we prefer our theories. The goo works as a replacement for gold wires to connect vertically stacked chips, cleaning up the internal cable clutter and leaving more room for better processor, bigger batteries, larger displays, or just a tinier form factor. Right now the focus is on stacking flash memory, but the group says they can use the same technique for processors and other chips. At this stage, there's no product or partnership to show for it, but if they're as good as they say, we hopefully won't have to wait long to see the fruits of their labor.
Brauswitch gives you eyebrow control, that Karate Kid look
Forget controlling things with your mind, hands or feet -- how's about your completely underutilized eyebrows? Without any real output in mind, one Robert Carlsen designed the Brauswtich to give wearers the ability to control any number of things with just an eyebrow raise. Fully endorsed by The Rock, this apparatus contains a digital switch that can be activated when an eyebrow movement forces the tiny slit shut. Details behind the magic have yet to be revealed, but you can bet you'll see these infiltrating the likes of Spencer's Gifts, Hot Topic and Loose Lucy's when it's good and ready. Naturally, a demo video is after the break.[Via MAKE]
Flying plasmonic lens system could lead to denser chips / disks
Last we heard, IBM was busy extending optical lithography down to 30-nanometers in order to keep Moore's Law intact, and some two years later, the process is still being honed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley. Reportedly, gurus there with IQs far greater than ours have developed a new patterning technique (plasmonic nanolithography) that could make "current microprocessors more than 10 times smaller, but far more powerful." Additionally, professor Xiang Zhang asserts that this same technology could eventually "lead to ultra-high density disks that could hold 10 to 100 times more data than disks today." The secret to the madness is a flying plasmonic head, which is compared to the arm and stylus of an LP turntable; the setup enables researchers to "create line patterns only 80-nanometers wide at speeds up to 12-meters per second, with the potential for higher resolution detail in the near future." In layman's terms? That CPU you purchased last month will, in fact, be old hat in due time.[Via Slashdot]
Researchers get one step closer to all-nanowire sensors
The latest in nanowire research has a crew at the University of California, Berkeley creating the very first integrated circuit "that uses nanowires as both sensors and electronic components." By utilizing a so-called "simple" printing technique, the researchers were able to create a batch of uniform circuits that could one day serve as image sensors. According to Ali Javey, an electrical-engineering professor at the institution, the goal is to "develop all-nanowire sensors" which could be used in a wide array of applications, and the benefit of using 'em is their exceptionally high level of sensitivity. In due time, the gurus would like to make everything on the circuit printable, though we have this strange feeling we won't be seeing any actual results from all of this for years to come.
Networks of carbon nanotubes find use in flexible displays
Carbon nanotubes may very well kill you (okay, so that's very much a stretch), but you'll have a hard time convincing the dutiful scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to stop their promising research. Put simply (or as simply as possible), said researchers have discovered that "networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes printed onto bendable plastic perform well as semiconductors in integrated circuits." So well, in fact, that the nanotube networks could one day "replace organic semiconductors in applications such as flexible displays." Granted, there is still much to do before these networks are ready for product integration, but you can bet these folks aren't hitting the brakes after coming this far.
IBM uses nanotechnology to craft miniscule art
It's not like we haven't seen art on silicon before, nor is IBM any stranger to the more bizarre world of design, but the firm is nevertheless "touting one of the tiniest pieces of art ever made." The project, which consists of an "image of the sun made from 20,000 microscopic particles of gold," was reportedly "etched on a silicon chip wafer" with a process that managed particles some 60-nanometers in diameter. Of course, IBM isn't planning on entering the abstract art business anytime soon, but the achievement could purportedly pave the way for "high-performance transistors in molecular-scale chips" while "leading to a nanotech race inside IBM and rival companies."[Image courtesy of BBC, thanks ssuk]
Printed organic RFID circuits set to collect statistical data
In order to truly judge the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of a newfangled technology, we all know trial by fire is the only way to go. Hence, it follows logic that about 1,000 printed organic RFID tickets will be tested at the Organic Electronics Conference this September in Frankfurt, Germany. The badges will be converted by Bartsch and are "set to be used to monitor the flow of attendees during the two-day conference and exhibition." Deemed the "first ever printed, low-cost organic tickets," these devices will be trialed in order to judge their data collecting abilities and to show whether or not these would be good candidates for use in "public transportation and logistics" applications. So, for those of you heading over to this here event, make sure you're packin' some sort of RFID jammer when waltzing through the door -- you know, just to give these newb tags an unexpected challenge on their first day at work.
Researchers develop scalable circuit printing technique
As if there weren't enough "almost theres" in the world of printable circuits, now we've got yet another team developing their own iteration of a printing press for electronics. The group, which includes scientists from DuPont and Organic ID, has reportedly "fabricated a printing plate used to print the source-drain level of an array of thin-film transistors," essentially solving some of the low-resolution constraints seen on prior competition. The goal is to eventually posses the ability to "print large, flexible circuits using machines similar to printing presses," and while it seems to be a ways from commercialization, initial testing and comparisons to more traditionally-created transistors have produced glowing results.[Image courtesy of HowStuffWorks]
Wii circuitry changed to thwart modchips?
Reports are coming in from Taiwan and Germany that Nintendo has updated the Wii's motherboard with its latest shipments of the console. According to MaxConsole, one of the solder points has been removed from the altered board, shutting out quicksolder modification chips like WiiKey. Other similar tools that don't use the missing solder point should not be affected. DigiTimes suggests that these changes to the circuit layout were made with the sole intent of preventing piracy by blocking these warranty-voiding installations. If that's the case however, why did Nintendo only take steps to block just the WiiKey, a modchip that was released only several weeks ago?There were similar concerns in the past about Mario Kart DS updating the Nintendo DS' firmware as an anti-piracy measure, but it was quickly discovered that the handheld was only saving its WiFi settings. It seems far more likely that Nintendo has had the Wii's revised motherboard planned for months, and that locking out any modification methods was an unintended result.
Daring DIY'er devises homegrown heart monitoring device
While there's already a plethora of safe, proven methods to monitor your heart rate, there's just no satisfaction in buying an off the shelf BioShirt when you know you possess the skills (and spare time) to craft a system of your own. Interested in making his own mark in biomedical engineering, a crafty individual set out to build his own electrocardiograph for nothing more than fun, but rather than keeping his homegrown work all to himself, he busted out a set of instructions in order for us less inventive souls to replicate the process. Aside from creating an ECG board, reading results with LABView, and having the nerve to actually strap leads to your body and hope that you don't electrocute yourself, there's still a good bit of coding and behind the scenes work necessary to pull this off. So if you never got around to going to medical school, but you know you've got the DIY skills to operate a heart monitoring system in your home office, be sure to hit the read link and read that blurb about "destroying your nervous system" real carefully.[Via MAKE]
Sony's 1/1.8-inch high-speed CMOS sensor outputs 60fps
Thankfully, it looks like Sony has come through yet again, and while it wasn't exactly in the timeliest of manners, the high-speed CMOS sensor that it promised would deliver 60fps of video output is finally upon us. The 1/1.8-inch IMX017CQE sensor boasts 6.4-megapixels of resolution and the uncanny ability to "output this resolution at 60 frames per second (a data rate of around 384 megapixels per second)." In layman's terms, this chip has the ability to capture full motion video and grab high-quality stills without dropping a single frame, giving users a seamless transition between the two. Additionally, the 1/1.8-inch size and its ability to deliver 300 frames per second at lower resolutions moves it a bit further from the pack, not to mention the 12-bit A/D converter for each column. No word just yet on when these video-centric chips will hit Sony's CyberShot lineup, but it's an awful lot closer to reality than the last time we caught wind of it. [Warning: PDF read link][Via DPReview]
