Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been a while since we last heard about nanogenerators — you know, those insanely tiny fibers that could potentially be woven into your hoodie to juice up your smartphone. Dr. Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology has reported that he and his team of Einsteins constructed nanogenerators with enough energy to potentially power LCDs, LEDs and laser diodes by moving your various limbs. These micro-powerhouses — strands of piezoelectric zinc oxide, 1 / 500 the width of a single hair strand — can generate electrical charges when flexed or strained. Wang and his team of researchers shoved a collection of their nanogenerators into a chip 1 / 4 the size of a stamp, stacked five of them on top of one another and can pinch the stack between their fingers to generate the output of two standard AA batteries — around 3 volts. Although it’s not much, we’re super excited at this point in development — imagine how convenient to charge your phone in your pocket sans the bulky battery add-ons. And that’s only one application of this technology. Yea, we know.

Continue reading Nanogenerators produce electricity by squeezing your fingers together, while you dance

Nanogenerators produce electricity by squeezing your fingers together, while you dance originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading DIY business card displays your info via persistence of vision, fails to impress Patrick Bateman (video)

DIY business card displays your info via persistence of vision, fails to impress Patrick Bateman (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 10:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Add another to your list of new HDTVs to keep an eye out for, as Sharp has announced its new LE830 series LCDs are shipping this month from its 10th generation plant. This lineup doesn’t include any slick 3D features or the size of its 70-inch behemoth from CES, but they are embued with Quattron quad pixel tech, 120Hz refresh rates, edge LED lighting and built in WiFi. The jury’s still out about whether the extra yellow pixel is a positive influence, but included wireless internet access is unfortunately still not a given for all new HDTVs and it will come in handy if you plan to use the included Netflix, Vudu and CinemaNow movie streaming apps. The line ranges in size from 40- to 60-inches, and the MSRPs are between $1,299 and $2,799. Check after the break for the rest of the details and price breakdown, plus a video of their CES presentation.

Continue reading Sharp LE830 series HDTVs now shipping: edge-lit LED, WiFi, no 3D

Sharp LE830 series HDTVs now shipping: edge-lit LED, WiFi, no 3D originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 04:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No goofy active shutter glasses, no headache-inducing parallax barrier screens, no optical trickery here. This is a pure 3D display — unfortunately done at a resolution of just 8 x 8 x 8. It’s a hand-built LED cube created by Nick Schulze, powered by Arduino, and driven largely by Matlab. Yes, Matlab, an application you probably deleted less than three minutes after signing off on your calculus final. We can’t help you find that installation disc again, but we can encourage you to enjoy the video of this 3D matrix of blinkenlights after the break, and you can get the full details on how to build your own at the other end of that source link.

Continue reading Cube made of 512 LEDs does 3D with calculus, not glasses (video)

Cube made of 512 LEDs does 3D with calculus, not glasses (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LED bulbs are bright, have long lives, are energy efficient, but very expensive. But that may soon change. A new production breakthrough could see the costs of making the bulbs drop by as much as 75 percent.

A start-up company called Bridgelux has potentially discovered a way to make the bulbs much cheaper to produce, by substituting one of the most expensive components. Traditional LED bulbs use sapphire wafers, but Bridgelux has been able to successfully create equally as effective bulbs using much cheaper wafers made from silicone.

And the bulbs are still very bright, producing about 10 times the amount of light as an incandescent bulb, all for 1/10 of the energy consumption. So when you factor in the new dramatic price decrease, LED bulbs could become much more mainstream.

That is, once this technology is ready for mass production, which should be in around two or three years.

Via Fast Company