electrolytes
Latest
Artist runs an electronic sound exhibit using his own blood
Russian artist Vtol is no stranger to making sounds with unusual technology, but one of his latest projects might top them all. He recently created Until I Die, an electronic sound installation powered by himself -- namely, his blood. His creation uses vital fluid as an electrolyte that, when combined with metals like aluminum and copper, results in direct current batteries. The project isn't about to compete with the battery in your phone (five batteries manage a capacity of just 1,000mAh), but that's enough to power a synth module and speaker for roughly 8 hours.
Supercar concept runs on electrolyte fluids
Alternative fuel cars are rarely pulse pounding thrill rides, but NanoFlowcell might have created an exception to the rule. It's teasing the Quant 48Volt, a supercar concept that runs on a combination of positive and negative electrolyte fluids. No, this doesn't mean that you can run it on energy drinks, but it does promise an environmentally friendly vehicle that doesn't compromise on performance or range. Reportedly, the Quant 48Volt's 760HP engine can take it to 62MPH in 2.4 seconds, hit a top speed of 186MPH (arbitrarily limited) and a range of over 621 miles.
IBM turns metal oxides into non-volatile chips through liquid currents
IBM is worried that we're reaching the end of the road for CMOS technology -- that we need new materials beyond silicon to keep the power draw down in chips as their performance goes up. It may keep future circuitry extra-lean through a new technique that puts a metal oxide in silicon's place and allows for non-volatile processors and memory. By running ionized liquid electrolytes in currents through the oxide, the company can switch that oxide from an insulator to a conductor (and vice versa) that can reliably maintain its state, even when there's no power. The trick would let a logic gate or switch kick into action only when there's an event, rather than needing constant jolts of electricity -- and without the pressure or temperature changes that had ruled out metal oxides for chips in the past. We're still far from replacing silicon with more efficient oxides given the early state of IBM's work, but having a consistent method is an important first step.
Green House's lantern runs on salt and water, powers your gadgets via USB
Japanese company Green House Co Ltd has quite an eclectic product portfolio, what with its women-only camcorder and peripherals like a PCI Express interface card with USB 3.0 support. Its latest device falls under another category entirely: the rivetingly named GH-LED10WBW is an LED lantern that runs on just water and salt; no batteries required. The light source provides eight hours of electricity per dose of saline water, and the lantern comes with a dedicated water bag for mixing the solution. The salt / water combo acts as an electrolyte with the magnesium (negative electrode) and carbon (positive electrode) rods inside the lantern. Users can get about 120 hours of power with the Mg rod before they'll need to buy a replacement (the rod is sold separately to begin with). More than just supplying a battery-free source of light, though, the lantern can function as a charger, thanks to a USB port built into the casing. Pricing has yet to be announced, but the GH-LED10WBW will be available by mid-September.
Device warns of catastrophic failure in lithium-ion batteries, robots celebrate
"Catastrophic lithium-ion battery failure" are five words Malfunctioning Eddie never wants to hear, and may not have to, thanks to a new sensor developed by the folks at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Despite the popularity of lithium-ion batteries in everything from consumer electronics to hybrid and electric vehicles, they have been associated with a phenomenon called "thermal runaway" -- known to cause overheating and potentially, fire. The newly developed device measures the electrical parameter of the cell, which is an indicator of whether the internal layer temperatures are getting too toasty. The best part? The warning comes before the heat can reach the surface and cause catastrophic failure, perhaps saving our electronics from a fate like the one in the video after the break.
Charge an iPod with an onion
I think we somehow missed this at TUAW, but I have no idea how. Just in time for everyone to head home for the holidays (and forget their iPod chargers), here's a quick fix solution to get that battery back up and you back listening to The Cars' Greatest Hits. Household Hacker put this together, and unfortunately they say on the same page that you should not attempt this at home if you're not an expert, but all of you TUAW-reading iPod owners out there are experts, right? If you do try this, don't hurt yourselves or your iPods.How does it work? Beats us-- the electrolytes in the Gatorade might be breaking down the individual cells of the onion, and releasing excess energy as electricity of some kind, but obviously that's just a guess based on my many years of watching Bill Nye, Beakman's World, and more recently, Mythbusters (pop science for the win!).There is one major problem with this plan, however, and that is that as of right now, onions do not properly install updated firmware for any iPods of any generation. Hopefully, Apple will fix this oversight in the next Software Update.
