That fancy high-speed Phantom camera is pretty much a child’s toy when compared to MIT’s new hardware which can record at 1,000,000,000,000 frames per second. Fast enough to capture slow motion footage of light waves. More »
Yes, that awesome new 8-core chip in your PC is the fastest thing on the block, but it’s got your utility meter spinning accordingly. Fortunately, researchers from Penn State have come up with a new high performance transistor that may turn future chips from power hogs into current-sipping silicon. The group, in cooperation with semiconductor manufacturer IQE, has created a high-performance transistor capable of significantly reducing power demand whether it’s idle or switching. Doctoral candidate Dheeraj Mohata’s the one who made it happen by inventing an alternative to traditional MOSFET (metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors) technology capable of turning on and off using far less power. Mohata’s method uses a tunneling field effect transistor crafted from dissimilar semiconductor materials to provide instant on-off capability at 300 millivolts — compared to MOSFET’s one volt requirement — to provide a power savings of 70 percent. You can dig deeper into the technical transistor details at the source, but all you really need to know is that the ladies love a PC with paltry power consumption.
New quantum tunneling transistors to make PCs less power-hungry originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Continue reading Researchers build world’s smallest steam engine that could
Researchers build world’s smallest steam engine that could originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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NASA looks to send landers to Europa in 2020, wants to break the ice originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Fully functional LightSabre aside, a tractor beam has to be high on most geek wish-lists; lucky for you NASA has started working on one. Before you drop your sandwich (or whatever that object in your left hand is), this won’t be for sucking up star cruisers, but the more modest task of sample and space dust collection. The basic concept has already been proven, but now NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist has given boffins $100,000 to make the dream a reality. Three potential methods are already on the table, which in lay-terms resemble laser tweezers, a light vortex and a conceptual rippling beam. Once developed, it could signal the end of traditional mechanical sample collecting — and just plain luck — consigning robotic arms to the history books. Check the video after the break for science-tastic mock up of how it might work.
Continue reading NASA developing tractor beams, no plans for Death Star… yet (video)
NASA developing tractor beams, no plans for Death Star… yet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You have to hand it to the tireless folks toiling away within Microsoft’s Research department. They’re hard at the task of making tomorrowland today’s province. Perhaps spurred on by the rapturous response to their HoloDesk, the Cambridge gang’s previewing yet another virtual reality, and this time it’s a handheld trio. The palm-friendly devices, split up into camera, room and SLAM models, incorporate pico projectors, coaxial IR cameras, inertial measurement units (IMUs) and the company’s Kinect (for the latter two only) to project augmented visions onto surrounding surfaces. If you’ve been honing your shadow puppetry game over the years, that oft-used skill’s about to get very useful. The environmentally aware (no, not the Go Green! kind) systems allow for shadow- and touch-based interaction with the CG overlays, offering pinch functionality, icon selection and even painting — don’t worry, it’s definitely removable. This neat tech hat trick could one day soon spare you a trip to IKEA, letting you test out potential decorative pieces from the comfort of your home. Unfortunately, we can’t get handsy with the futuristic projectors just yet, so the video after the break will have to suffice.
[Thanks, Pradeep]
Trio of Microsoft projectors lets you get quasi-physical with AR interaction (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Continue reading Researchers use inkjet acumen to create wireless explosive sensor from paper
Researchers use inkjet acumen to create wireless explosive sensor from paper originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 08:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Get ready science nerds, you’re about to get a lifetime’s worth of reading material for free. The venerable Royal Society, the over 350-year-old British scientific organization, has just opened up its archives to the web-dwelling public. That’s over 60,000 scientific papers dating back to the first ever peer-reviewed research publication in 1665. Other highlights include Isaac Newton’s first ever published paper, research from Charles Darwin, and Ben Franklin’s famous kite experiment. Don’t waste any more time, go hit up the source link for all the old research papers you can handle.
Royal Society opens its archives to the web, is less elitist than the name suggests originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Transistors of all shapes and sizes form the foundation of just about every electronic gadget under the sun, and similarly, cotton clothing is a key component of a well-rounded wardrobe. It was only a matter of time before these two got together to form a fashion-forward future, and an international team of scientists have accomplished the trick by creating a transistor using fibers of cotton. Now, this isn’t the first organic transistor, but cotton’s plentiful, cheap, lightweight and sustainable nature make it a great choice for use as a substrate in carbon-based transistors. To get the fluffy white stuff ready to amplify and switch electric signals, it was conformally coated (to cover all the fiber’s irregularities) with gold nanoparticles, semiconductive and conductive polymers in a super thin layer to preserve its wearability flexibility. The result was an active transistor that can be used in integrated circuits sewn into your shirt, socks, or even pantaloons, if you like. The future of fashion is right around the corner, folks, and in that future your pants are the PC.
The touch, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our… transistors originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
On the company level, both Samsung and ZTE came away as the biggest winners this quarter; Sammy’s shipments increased by 23 percent over the year, good for second place, while ZTE’s shot up by a whopping 57.9 percent, launching the company into fourth place. Apple, meanwhile, saw 26.2 percent growth in its shipments and a slight bump in market share, but still couldn’t avoid getting leapfrogged by ZTE and dropping down to fifth place. And then there’s LG, which had by far the worst quarter, relative to Q3 2010. The manufacturer saw shipments decline by nearly 26 percent over the year, while its market share slipped to 5.4 percent. All these horses, however, are still chasing Nokia, which saw a small drop in shipments, but managed to hang on to the top spot, with over 106 million shipments during the quarter — good for 27 percent of the market. For more numbers and insight, check out the full PR after the break.
Continue reading IDC: Samsung, ZTE see jump in mobile shipments, Apple slides to fifth place
IDC: Samsung, ZTE see jump in mobile shipments, Apple slides to fifth place originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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