universityofmichigan
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3D-printed tracheal splint supports baby's airways, saves life
They say necessity is the mother of invention, and nowhere was it more necessary than in the case of Kaiba Gionfriddo's life. The infant was born with a condition called tracheobronchomalacia that results in weakened support for the trachea, and his fate seemed all but decided until researchers at the University of Michigan proffered an unlikely solution: a 3D-printed tracheal splint. The splint was custom-made just for the child and designed to hold the trachea in place as the bronchus builds around it, giving it strength. In two to three years, the trachea will be able to stand on its own, and the polycaprolactone biomaterial used to create the splint will be absorbed into the body. After a successful operation, Kaiba was taken off ventilator support -- and he hasn't needed it since. From 3D-printed skull prosthetics to this recent innovation, it's clear 3D printing has a far more noble future than just making pizza.
University of Michigan's GapSense may help WiFi harmonize with wireless neighbors
WiFi is an unintentional bully in the wireless world: as it has to be powerful and respond quickly, it tends to drown out less demanding protocols like Bluetooth and ZigBee. The University of Michigan's GapSense software could have the format finally learning to play well with others. By instituting a common set of alerts determined by pulses and gaps, researchers could have every wireless device giving a heads-up to others when data is on the way. The trick would force patience on WiFi devices and offer a higher priority to less aggressive standards. Along with giving every device a chance to breathe, GapSense could improve the performance of WiFi itself -- the technology could lower WiFi's power draw by as much as 44 percent through slowing down the receiver, which would sometimes only have to wait for notice from the transmitter. The university doesn't have a timetable for practical use of GapSense, but it does want to produce a shipping product. We just might see considerably less wireless gridlock should that research translate to reality.
Peacock feathers form basis for reflective displays, could bring color to e-readers soon
Structural color -- that's engineer speak for a reflective display that mimics iridescence. And tech of that very sort could be trickling down into future generations of e-readers, thanks to current research by the University of Michigan. Using the "refined hairline grooves" of a peacock as a template, a research team led by Professor Jay Guo has found success in creating a prototype of one such high-res display by crafting nanoscale metallic grooves on silver-plated glass. Using the CMY color model (cyan, magenta and yellow) as its basis, the team was able to produce blues with a groove measuring 170 x 40 nanometers, reds at 60 nanometers wide and yellows at a width of 90 nanometers -- all with reflected sunlight and unaffected by viewing angles. At the moment, only static images can be reproduced, but Guo and his crew hope to add moving images to the format soon. If and when this reflective display makes it to market, you can surely expect e-reader battery life to go even more of a distance.
University of Michigan makes silicon from liquid metal, aims for low-cost chips
Forming silicon normally requires extreme temperatures of more than 2,000F, with the expensive energy to match. The University of Michigan has developed a technique involving liquid metal that could shed most of the heat -- and cost. By coating a liquid gallium electrode with silicon tetrachloride, researchers can generate pure silicon crystals through the gallium's electrons at a comparatively cool 180F. While the crystals are currently small, bigger examples are at least theoretically possible with new metals or other refinements. Any eventual commercial success could lead to much easier, and likely cheaper, manufacturing for processors and solar cells; given that silicon still forms the backbone of most technology, real-world use can't come quickly enough.
University of Michigan's Computer and Video Game Archive houses over 3,000 different games, roughly 35 unique consoles (video)
Systems such as the ColecoVision, TurboGrafx-16 and 3DO may have been ousted from most home entertainment centers long ago, but they still have shelf space at the University of Michigan's Computer and Video Game Archive. Slashdot caught up with Engineering Librarian and Video Game Archivist Dave Carter and took a look inside the repository, which has curated around 35 classic and current-gen platforms and more than 3,000 different games. Having "one of everything" is the project's ultimate goal, but the logistics of acquiring every new game make achieving that feat a stretch. "Our realistic goal is to be sort of representative of the history of video games, what was important -- what was interesting," Carter said. "And then, not only to preserve the games, but also to preserve the game playing experience." As a "useable archive," patrons of UM's library can dig in and play at different stations with era-appropriate monitors and displays. While many visit for leisure, students have used the resource to research topics ranging from music composition to the effects of texting while driving (using an Xbox 360 racing title and steering wheel peripheral, of course). You can catch a glimpse of the collection in the video below or visit the archive's blog at the more coverage link.
University of Michigan connects 3,000 cars for year-long safety pilot
Road safety continues to be a major concern for both researchers and car makers alike. Yesterday saw yet another real-world trial kicking off, this time on a much grander scale. A total of 3,000 vehicles in Ann Arbor, Michigan are taking part in a 12-month project run by the state's Transportation Research Institute. The vehicles have Dedicated Short Range Communications and video recording facilities, which means the cars can communicate with each other, traffic signals, and share data to a central platform -- which in turn issues warnings when high risk situations, or if traffic problems occur. Of course, this trial will also create a massive data set, which researchers will be able to plunder, and help the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) better determine the viability of such systems. So while it's unlikely to lead to self driving cars just yet, it's a step in the right direction.
Ford, GE and University of Michigan team up on sensor to track EV battery life, keep us on the road
Believe it or not, EV battery life is still something of a Pandora's Box, even for automakers: they can tell you the battery pack's current and voltage, but not how it's really performing under pressure. Ford, GE and the University of Michigan are uniting to unlock that mystery through a new ARPA-E project. In its role, GE is developing a minuscule sensor array that will track the nuances of battery cells that existing technology misses; it will promptly hand the baton to researchers at the University of Michigan, who plan to both prove that GE's data is on the mark as well as develop tricks for predicting behavior. Ford handles the last mile, almost literally: it's planning to fit the GE sensor technology to one of its cars and test in a more realistic environment. Before you fantasize about knowing the lifespan of your Focus Electric's battery down to the minute, however, the new alliance is stressing that it's only just getting started -- there's another three years and $3.1 million to go before the project wraps up. If all goes according to plan, though, we'll have electric cars and plug-in hybrids that can not only tell when they've seen better days but can eke out extra miles through smarter battery designs.
Alt-week 7.28.12: social mathematics, Pluto's moons and humans-on-a-chip
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. It's a beautiful world we live in. And, while the sweet and romantic part is debatable, strange and fantastic is not. Our universe is one populated by non-planetary celestial bodies with their own non-planetary satellites, high school social hierarchies based on predictable mathematical formulas and military-funded "gut-on-a-chips." It's a weird place filled with weird stories, and we just can't get enough of it. So, what has the last seven days brought us from the fringes of science and tech? Keep reading after the break to find out. This is alt-week.
Exploit uses firewalls to hijack smartphones, turns friends into foes
Normally, firewalls at cellular carriers are your best friends, screening out malware before it ever touches your phone. University of Michigan computer science researchers have found that those first lines of defense could be your enemy through a new exploit. As long as a small piece of malware sits on a device, that handset can infer TCP data packet sequence numbers coming from the firewall and hijack a phone's internet traffic with phishing sites, fake messages or other rogue code. The trick works on at least 48 carriers that use firewalls from Check Point, Cisco, Juniper and other networking heavy hitters -- AT&T being one of those providers. Carriers can turn the sequences off, although there are consequences to that as well. The only surefire solution is to either run antivirus apps if you're on a mobile OS like Android or else to run a platform that doesn't allow running unsigned apps at all, like iOS or Windows Phone. Whether or not the exploit is a serious threat is still far from certain, but we'll get a better sense of the risk on May 22nd, when Z. Morley Mao and Zhiyun Qian step up to the podium at an IEEE security symposium and deliver their findings.
Texting: the truth serum of the 21st century
The University of Michigan and The New School for Social Research has found that if you want someone to tell you the truth, you should text them. Dispensing with the lie detector for job interviewees, academics found that people gave more honest and detailed answers via SMS than over the phone. The team believes it's due to the lack of time pressure and not having to produce a pleasing answer for your interrogator. If the findings continue to provide similar results, it looks like Steve Wilkos could be replaced with a smartphone.
Caltech sets 186Gbps Internet speed record, makes our 5Mbps look even more inadequate (video)
Did you know that the Large Hadron Collider at CERN has already produced 100 petabytes of data that needed to be sent out to labs across the world for analysis? Pushing that amount of information across the Internet is a gargantuan task, which is why Caltech teamed up with the Universities of Victoria, Michigan and Florida (International) amongst others to try and break the internet speed record. Using commercially available gear (including Dell servers with SSDs), it was able to push 98Gbps and pull 88Gbps down a single 100Gbps fibre-optic connection between the Washington State convention center in Seattle and the University of Victoria computing center in British Columbia. Head on past the break for a video that shows you how it was done and why it probably won't be commercially available in time to super-size your Netflix queue.
New 'subconscious mode' could improve smartphone battery life, supress your WiFi id
Researchers at the University of Michigan have figured out a way to drastically increase your cellphone's battery life, at least while using WiFi. By using what they're calling E-MiLi, or Energy-Minimizing Idle Listening, professor Kang Shin (right) and student Xinyu Zhang have developed a proof of concept that could extend battery life up to 54-percent with the WiFi radio on. Even when idle, a wireless radio is actively checking for incoming traffic. E-MiLi scales back the wireless card's clock to just 1/16th of its normal operating speed, and only kicks back into full gear when it senses incoming data. To be really useful though, we'd love to see the same trick employed on cellular data networks -- that LTE sure is fast, but it's not exactly battery-friendly. Check out the PR after the break.
DARPA harvests energy from cyborg beetles to keep them brainwashed
Beetles packing cybernetic implants that control their brains make a cheaper and more useful micro-air-vehicle than a fully robotic one -- but due to the weight of the battery packs required, development has been slow. Now a DARPA-funded team at the University of Michigan thinks it's eliminated that problem. By attaching piezoelectric generators to each wing, the researchers can harvest the energy generated in flight and use it to juice the mind-control circuits. At present, the system generates about half the energy the team thinks it can produce, as innovations in ceramic production of the miniature devices should solve that. An experimental robotics project in competition with a cyborg one? This all feels a bit too RoboCop for us.
MABEL running robot snags bipedal speed title, cue 'Rocky' theme (video)
MABEL the running robot has been training hard, grabbing the title of "fastest bipedal robot with knees." Like any great sports star, it's been plagued by many dream-crushing obstacles and injuries, but this time it's done it: running at a speed of 6.8 miles per hour on a track. Jessy Grizzle, professor at the University of Michigan's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, attributes this bot's success to its human-like weight distribution -- a heavier torso and flexible legs with springs similar to tendons for movement "like a real runner." This bipedal technology, which can mimic a human's ability to run and climb over obstacles, may be used to help the disabled walk again, in rescue situations or as the basis of future vehicles that don't require roads or wheels to drive. If MABEL doesn't make the SWAT team this year, it can most certainly snag a spot as an extra in the next Transformers movie. Check out the PR and video of this modern day robo-Flo-Jo after the break.
Telex anti-censorship system promises to leap over firewalls without getting burned
Human rights activists and free speech advocates have every reason to worry about the future of an open and uncensored internet, but researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Waterloo have come up with a new tool that may help put their fears to rest. Their system, called Telex, proposes to circumvent government censors by using some clever cryptographic techniques. Unlike similar schemes, which typically require users to deploy secret IP addresses and encryption keys, Telex would only ask that they download a piece of software. With the program onboard, users in firewalled countries would then be able to visit blacklisted sites by establishing a decoy connection to any unblocked address. The software would automatically recognize this connection as a Telex request and tag it with a secret code visible only to participating ISPs, which could then divert these requests to banned sites. By essentially creating a proxy server without an IP address, the concept could make verboten connections more difficult to trace, but it would still rely upon the cooperation of many ISPs stationed outside the country in question -- which could pose a significant obstacle to its realization. At this point, Telex is still in a proof-of-concept phase, but you can find out more in the full press release, after the break.
BioBolt brain implant could help the paralyzed walk again
Controlling a cursor with your brain? Yawn. Restoring movement to paralyzed mice? Color us unimpressed. Help a wheelchair-bound man walk again using only his thoughts? Now we're talking. That's the goal of researchers at the University of Michigan who have developed BioBolt, a (comparatively) noninvasive implant that rests on top of the cortex rather than penetrate it. The device is inserted through an easily-covered, dime-sized hole in the skull and feeds patterns from firing neurons to a computer using your epidermis (which is showing, by the way) as a conductor. The ultimate goal of helping the paralyzed walk again is still years away but, in the meantime, it could be used to suppress seizures or diagnose diseases like Parkinson's. Everyday this mind over matter thing sounds a little less like a load of bullpuckey.
Newly discovered properties of light promise better solar batteries, really great tans
Are you tired of waking up to the same old semiconductor-based solar array? Do you yearn for a change? We know you do and, thanks again to the wonder and mystery of magnetic fields (they're not just for stopping speech anymore), there's a new day dawning. University of Michigan scientists were shooting lasers at glass, as they do, and made a remarkable discovery: light passing through a non-conductive surface like glass generates impressive magnetic effects – up to 100 million times greater than expected. The resulting magnetic force could replace the electric effect exploited by current technology, paving the way for "optical batteries." Though different from the Wysips transparent photovoltaic cell, the technology could have similar applications and may render obsolete those massive solar farms. No need to worry, though -- your stylish solar backpack is as fly as it ever was.
Scientists improve blue OLED efficiency, don't promise everlasting light
Although this is not the first time we've seen an efficiency increase in blue OLEDs, it's worth noting that their proposed cap of productivity up to this point was a lowly five percent. It's exciting to learn, therefore, about a breakthrough by professor John Kieffer and graduate student Changgua Zhen from the University of Michigan, which has resulted in them successfully increasing azure diode power efficiency by 100 percent. The duo, accompanied by some bright minds in Singapore, manipulated performance controllers by rearranging OLED molecules in a computer model, improving material characteristics. In simple terms though, we're still looking at a measly ten percent efficiency, so we'll see where they take it from here.
Researchers debut one-cubic-millimeter computer, want to stick it in your eye
This as-of-yet-unnamed mini computer was fashioned as an implantable eye pressure monitor for glaucoma patients, but its creators envision a future where we're all crawling with the little buggers. Taking up just over one cubic millimeter of space, the thing stuffs a pressure sensor, memory, thin-film battery, solar cell, wireless radio, and low-power microprocessor all into one very small translucent container. The processor behind this little guy uses an "extreme" sleep mode to keep it napping at 15-minute intervals and sucking up 5.3 nanowatts while awake, and its battery runs off 10 hours of indoor light or one and a half hours of sun beams. Using the sensor to measure eye pressure and the radio to communicate with an external reader, the system will continuously track the progress of glaucoma, without those pesky contacts. Of course, the mad scientists behind it look forward to a day when the tiny device will do much more, with each of us toting hundreds of the computer implants all over our bodies -- looks like a bright future for cyborgdom.
UM students make cheap and portable solar charger / light source for developing nations
Solar power is the most egalitarian of all energy sources, yet residents in many parts of the world still lack access to electricity. Three University of Michigan engineering students have created an affordable solution to this problem -- to the delight of camping geeks everywhere -- with the Emerald, a portable solar panel that does double duty as both a cellphone charger and personal light source. We've seen the personal solar panel idea before, but the price of entry made it an untenable solution for developing nations. Solar-powered light bulbs have been around for a while too, but the Emerald's light lasts for eight hours on a charge (as opposed to the bulbs' two to six hours), and it's able to fully charge a phone in the same time it takes an outlet to do the job. They aim to sell the device for the low, low, price of under twenty bucks for customers in the developing world, which is 90 percent cheaper than other solutions and 100 percent more awesome.
