"Thin Is The New Fast": GE introduces Thin, Silent Cooling Jets For Mobile Products

General Electric's recently patented Dual Piezoelectric Cooling Jets (DCJ) looks rather crude upon first look at the released PR images.  Sort of a cross between a floppy disc and a mini-CD sleeve.

Don't let that fool you: this is just one more innovation to add to the growing potential of tablet technology becoming cheaper, more powerful, and especially more efficient as well.

The new cooling jet design, based on the human lungs, acts in a similar fashion by drawing in air to cool the insides of a working computer.  This not only results in heat transfer out of your laptop or tablet ten times more than natural convection, but the DCJ amounts wholly to 5mm in thickness; allowing for your device to be even 50 percent thinner than the average product on the market.  One other benefit: the new design is completely devoid of any resemblance to the traditional cooling fan, which generally accounts for all the noise your device makes.

GE originally intended for the DCJ model to augment the cooling systems in aircraft, but they then decided to shrink it down for mobile tech, perhaps serving as a valuable indicator to where American manufacturing is headed for the next decade.  You can see more about the product by watching a publicity film made by GE here.




Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip.

Stanford Lab Makes Peel-And-Stick Solar Cells, Campus Remarks "That's Nice" After Rose Bowl Win

What's a good way to tell that the Gen Y-Millenials are growing up?  They're re-inventing the statement sticker .  Well, that and solar panels...

Researchers at Stanford University may have completely turned that field on its head with a new technique that creates peel-and-stick solar cells.  The cells can be applied to nearly any surface (roofs, vehicles, the bottom of a suburban, disenfranchised teenager's skateboard) and have the same energy storage capacity as a standard industry cell.

The simple-but-elegant-process involves applying a solar cell onto a nanometer thick layer of Nickel and Silicon, and then applying a thermal tape on top of the cell and protecting it from treatment in plastic.  After the layers are heated, the cell is peeled off the Nickel very carefully in water.   The tape is now sticky enough that the cell can be patted carefully onto any flat surface.


In addition to weirding out surrounding people in a public place, what if this Joker sticker powered your Mac book as well?  

And if you take a close look above at the image published along with the full report, you'll notice what kind of surface the researchers had in mind.

Solar-powered cell phones and tablets/laptops would save a monumental amount of energy, to say nothing of the overall economic and environmental savings in eliminating the need for chargers.  And this is only one example dozens of potential applications for this breakthrough.

Personally, I think the real potential lies in pairing this research with another project conducted in summer of 2012 by a team at Rice University that involved painting the layers of a battery onto almost any surface, making it conductive.    Imagine: a painted battery on your home's inner walls, solar cells adhered to the outer walls.  Instead of worrying how our homes can use the grid more effectively, perhaps the answer lies in our homes becoming the grid itself....


Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company

Stuff We Should Make: Rise of The Wireless Wristwatch In 2013

Over the next few months, the tech world is going to be all abuzz over the beta release of the Google Glass prototype.  While the glasses-looking headset that give you hands-free access to the internet is truly exciting and potentially world-changing in the long run, if you're more interested in technology that has a more immediate chance of being part of day-to-day life, my money's on a wristwatch prototype made by an American start-up.

The Pebble- designed by Pebble Technology and co-founded by Eric Migicovsky of Silicon Valley, who happens to be all of 25 years old- is billed as "the first watch built for the 21st century".  The wristwatch serves as a bluetooth wireless extension for your iPhone or Android, designed to not just show the time, but access your smartphone's apps for things like music selection, GPS, and text messaging.  This is especially handy for us joggers and cyclists who really can't stand having to buy cumbersome arm straps and gloves in order to keep our phone on us.  The Pebble is also water-resistant and has a battery that lasts over a week, and may soon feature a "golf rangefinder" app as well (for when you can't find an area over six thousand yards wide, I guess).

Pebble Technology is a Kickstarter success story, with Eric and two other founders seeking $100,000 on the internet fundraising site and instead raising over $10 million as of August 2012, as reported in Huffington Post.  While there's always room for improvement (I'm a little wary of thick block frames but maybe that's just me) this is the kind of product that can easily integrate into an average American lifestyle yet, at least a little easier than Google's billon-dollar effort to turn us all into Xur from "The Last Starfighter".

And we all know what happened to that guy....


Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company

WARREN BUFFET BUYS CALIFORNIA SOLAR PLANTS

Warren Buffet, owner of billion-dollar Berkshire-Hathaway and possible visitor from an Ozzie and Harriet-alternate reality, has been lauded in the press lately for his folksy optimism.  Much of that is due to post-recession America wanting some optimism to feel better about its economy, but it goes without saying Buffet's folksy optimism is closely followed because it usually yields moves that show remarkably successful financial foresight.

That probably explains why the internet is on fire with the news that his MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company has just purchased two solar plant facility projects by the California-based SunPower, a solar panel manufacturing and solar development company.

The Antelope Valley Sun Projects were acquired for a price tag between $2 and $2.5 billion by MidAmerican's alternative energy division, MidAmerican Renewables.  Both plants are expected to be operational by 2015 in the Los Angeles and Kern Counties, and generate up to 579 megawatts of power for surrounding residents and SoCal Edison.

This is not just a big deal for the fact that the Antelope Valley Projects are projected to eventually rival a fossil fuel plant in energy output, a level unprecedented in solar energy. Buffet already owns a 550-megawatt plant project developed by First Solar in San Luis, CA, and this latest move now effectively makes him and MidAmerican the chief beneficiaries of the more than $2.5 billion California's Proposition 39 law will generate for the state's renewable energy projects.  Now that he's both feet in the US Solar industry, how many countless businesses will follow?

Time will tell, but it's probably safe to observe that once again, Mr. Buffett's old-fashioned foresight has somehow laid a pathway to the future for American industry.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

5 US Companies That Will Turn Your SmartPhone Into A Tricorder

Star Trek fans watched Leonard McCoy (of whose occupation escapes me at the moment) for years use a handy mobile device called a "tricorder" that could diagnose the symptoms of an ill shipmate, Klingon, or green-skinned-alien-native-girl.  Now, Qualcomm is speeding up the process to make the fictional gizmo a reality with the Tricorder X Prize Competition.  Rewarding $10 million to the firm that develops the most qualified product to successfully diagnose 15 diseases ranging from diabetes to to sleep apnea, Qualcomm's competition has already drawn 230 entries from over thirty countries around the world.

Among the entries from the US include:

AgaMatrix - Although funded by French-based pharmaceutical company Sanofi, AgaMatrix hails from Salem, NH and originated the WaveSense technology that Sanofi uses for its iBGStar, which monitors glucose levels for diabetics.  The iBGStar plugs into your iPhone and stores data from a blood sample into an app that can be transferred to a physician's software.

MobiSante - Based in Redmond, Washington, MobiSante has already created the first FDA-sanctioned ultrasound device that plugs into a smartphone.  The projected cost is$7000, which new parents already know pales in comparison to a standard ultrasound price.  

AliveCor - This San Francisco-based start-up has already cleared FDA hurdles with an iPhone case containing two electrode sensors in it, enabling it to be an effective tool for electrocardiograms (ECG's).  Qualcomm has a tangible interest in this firm because its already sunk venture capital into it.

CellScope - An idea of David Fletcher's at UC Berkeley labs in 2006, CellScope focuses on optical attachments to a smartphone and has recently designed a mobile otoscope (that thing the doctor has been torturing your ear with since you were a toddler).  CellScope is already on a trial basis with the Atlanta Pediatric Device Consortium and may be ready for the public as early as this upcoming year, with a price tag of around $200.

Scanadu - The California firm has already developed a wireless sensor called the Scout.  When pressed against a patient's temple, it lists a variety of biological functions like heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygenation, and temperature.  As if that weren't impressive enough, they're also in the works to release Scana-Flu, which collects cartridges of samples gargled by patients and analyzes them.  Scanadu hopes to combine the sample analysis of Scana-flu with the sensor tech of Scout.

With over $1 billion invested by venture firms in digital medical technology in the first nine months of 2012 alone, these are products you and I will definitely be seeing not just in our lifetimes, but in the next few years as well.  Most in the field expect the health community to resist any new tech that takes authority out of the professionals' hands and places it in that of the patients, but with a staggering shortage of health experts for a growing global population on the horizon, areas where the system can save time and money can use ideas, even (maybe especially) those from science fiction.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company

US WIND COMPANY INTRODUCES HYDRAULIC DESIGN

It's no secret the wind industry is taking an economic beating right now.
A new business  model and the looming specter of federal tax credits possibly expiring this year has slowed manufacturing in the sector and all but halted job growth.

While it's hard to sugar-coat the predicament US Wind finds itself in these days, it's important to remember the mantra of controlling what you can instead of wasting worry on what you can't.  This seems to be the underlying philosophy behind Windera Power System Inc's  newest turbine system model.

What can Windera and other companies control?  That would be the overall costs, not just of the product, but of maintenance and repair.  Out of the "fleet" of American wind turbines currently operational (50GW worth as of August), about a quarter of them are down at anytime, usually due to malfunctions.  Usually, repairs themselves can be expensive because the majority of the turbine's mechanical body is the gearbox in the nacelle (the piece of the turbine bearing the blades).

                              


With this in mind, Windera Systems has introduced a completely different design; a hydraulic drive train that uses blade rotation to feed hydraulic pressure, then converts said pressure into electricity. This overrides the need for a conventional gearbox, and according to Windera, produces less wear-and-tear on the overall turbine, resulting in longer usage.  While the nacelle still contains a hydraulic pump, the hydraulic motor is on ground level in a shipping container, along with the electrical generator (and in some cases a natural gas compressor.  Yes, these models are designed to phase into natural gas infrastructure).  This is a very crucial detail: any usual mechanical repairs now don't require the cost and use of a crane to get personnel to the nacelle.  All it requires is a key to unlock the container.

                          

Now is this going to solve all of the "windustry's" (I'm going to keep writing that till someone picks it up) problems in convincing the public- and more importantly, investors- that they're a real and profitable enterprise?  Probably not.  However, when I get pushback on defending wind as economically viable- and mind you, I get quite a lot of it- I try to point out to everyone the overlooked fact that since Nicephore Niepce built one in 1807, there have been at least   thirty-seven different manifestations of the internal combustion engine (thirty-eight if you put any faith in Stanley Meyer's conspiratorial water-powered engine).  Lots of those versions used tons of energy, had pitifully minimal output, and cost a fortune to ever be seriously considered for the market.  Yet each one was essential to get us to the conventional models in today's automobiles.  You can be sure wind turbines are just beginning to see these kinds of changes for the future.



Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

NYU Researchers Make A Tractor Beam: Sci-Fi Geeks Cheer, Almost Tell Hot Girl Sitting Next To Them In Library, Think Better Of It

I try not to waste this blog on stuff that wouldn't be considered "significant" relative to US manufacturing in its current state. After all, we all only have so much time to devote to interesting news in between the grind. If you're reading this, you decided to take a risk with that sparse time of yours. I know this and I try to respond in kind with stories having to do with the here and now, which tends to be pretty important to know.  

But every so often, I come across some weird story that may not be directly considered newsworthy now, but darned if I'm not rooting for it to be in the future. I'm referring to the recent bit of news coming out of New York University that should electrify all our inner geeks back to life.  From NewScientist:          

            "In 2011, researchers in China calculated that a type of laser called a Bessel beam, which puts out light in concentric rings, could be designed to make a particle inside the beam emit photons on the side facing away from the beam source. These photons should allow the particle to recoil towards the source. But nobody has so far managed to put the idea into practice.

            David Ruffner and David Grier of New York University instead projected two Bessel beams side by side and used a lens to angle them so that they overlapped, creating a pattern of alternating bright and dark regions along the length of the beam. Fine-tuning the beam causes photons in the bright regions, initially flowing past a chosen particle in the beam, to scatter backwards. When these photons hit the particle, they knock it to the next bright region. The particle is thus constantly pushed close to the beam's source."

                                                            -Jacob Aron, NewScientist.com , 10/23/12

Or perhaps more appropriately put by Ian Chant of Geekosystem:

            "You guys, hold the phone. Drop whatever it is you're doing now.      Is it  dropped? Yes? Good.  We have tractor beams now!"

                                              -Ian Chant, geekosystem.com, 10/22/12, 

Yep, though on a very, very small scale, researchers at NYU were able to create a straight-out-of-sci-fi tractor beam.   For those of you feeling too entitled to care about anything sci-fi because you were too busy scoring both in dating and on your Varsity fill-in-the-blank team back when you were a teenager, a tractor beam is a concentrated beam of light with enough energy to generate a force that pulls one object toward another.  While many works of fiction have imagined the concept being used in the future for large-scale scenarios like space-docking or construction, in reality, a tractor beam is seen as an ideal tool for industries and applications on a microscopic level. 

So how does it work? The key to all of this is the marvelous world of Bessel beams. Yes, the very ones you learned about in 5th grade science class (before you parrot that to your co-workers, please know that I'm kidding). Bessel beams basically send light in concentric circles, so they have the unique ability to reform after they pass an obstruction (of a relatively small size). they're used in optics a lot to view what an object obstructs by reassembling photons behind it. What Ruffner and Grier apparently did was add a second beam and alternated how each beam was phased together. The object caught in between was moved by the photons in the interacting beams with each alteration. You can attempt to read more on Grier's research page but be warned: there's math.  

Ow, my head...and sense of self-worth.

Granted, the beam itself is almost microscopic, as well as the tiny bits of silica used as test subjects, and it may literally be a "parsec"- or for you kindred spirits out there, one-twelfth of the Millenium Falcon's "Kessel Run" - before something like this can even get close to being demonstrated as a real-world prototype.

Still, this is pretty mind-blowing, and definitely unprecedented. It's not really a natural occurrence in the physical world to see light actually pulling matter. If research reveals new ways to mobilize objects with more mass, think of all the small-scale operations that could benefit from using light beams to move parts and targets instead of mechanics; computer chip data processing, brain surgery, and bio-cell research to name a few off the top of my head. Moreso, who's to say we can't develop large-scale tractor beam technology?  What if we build giant "Bessel Beam Projectors" a thousand times more concentrated- is it impossible to rule out pulling objects in space with only guided photons? Judging by NASA's recent exploration in the field, they're curious to know, themselves.

Time, lots and lots of it, will tell. (Oh, also money, money will probably be part of the conversation too). This idea has potential, though. In fact, many ideas derived from science fiction have proven their value beyond the imagination before, from hovercraft to quantum theory. A little investment and a lot of patience may make the tractor beam the next viable candidate.

 

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.