THE TECH-LICIOUS

New water-based organic battery is cheap, rechargeable and eco-friendly

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<img alt="The USC organic redux flow battery (not pictured) replaces metals with water-soluble organ..." height="358" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/organic-redox-flow-battery-1.jpg" width="640" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Lithium-ion batteries have made portable, rechargeable electronics commonplace. Unfortunately, they do have some glaring drawbacks, including heat issues, being made with rare, toxic elements, and the fact the technology doesn't scale up very well, which limits applications. A team of scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) is working on an alternative in the form of a water-based organic battery that is not only cheaper and more environmentally friendly, but also holds the potential for scaling up for use in wind and solar power plants as a means to store large amounts of energy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The technology developed by the USC team is what’s called an organic redux flow battery. It’s a bit like a fuel cell, and a similar one was developed for NASA’s <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/go/1444/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Helios</a> electric-powered drones. It consists of two tanks containing solutions of electroactive chemicals. These are pumped into a cell, which is divided by a membrane. The solutions interact through the membrane and electricity is produced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">According to the team, the tanks can be of any size in comparison to the cells, so the total amount of energy that the system can store depends on how large the tanks are, which is one up on conventional batteries. The flow battery also has a better life span than lithium-ion batteries and its variants.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"The batteries last for about 5,000 recharge cycles, giving them an estimated 15-year lifespan," says Sri Narayan, professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “Lithium ion batteries degrade after around 1,000 cycles, and cost 10 times more to manufacture.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The key to the new flow battery is the electroactive materials used. Instead of metals or other toxic materials, the USC team used organic compounds. By trial and error, the researchers were able to develop materials based on oxidized organic compounds called quinones, which are found in plants, fungi, bacteria, and some animals and involved in photosynthesis and cellular respiration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Specifically, the quinones used in the new battery are anthraquinone-2-sulfonic acid or anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonic acid on the negative side, and 1,2-dihydrobenzoquinone- 3,5-disulfonic acid on the positive side of the cell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The team sees the technology as one day leading to large “mega-scale” battery banks that are cost-effective and environmentally friendly. The quinones used in the flow battery are currently produced from naturally occurring hydrocarbons, but the team hopes one day to derive them directly from carbon dioxide. However, the immediate goal of the team is to scale up the technology to make it more practical.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/organic-redox-flow-battery/32739/" target="_blank">gizmag</a></span></div>
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New water-based organic battery is cheap, rechargeable and eco-friendly

Lithium-ion batteries have made portable, rechargeable electronics commonplace. Unfortunately, they do have some glaring drawbacks, incl...

Google turns on the world’s first modular smartphone, reveals more juicy details about Project Ara

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">At I/O 2014, Google has publicly turned on its modular Project Ara smartphone for the first time. Considering Project Ara nothing more than some pretty concept art back in October 2013, it’s impressive how quickly Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group has produced a working prototype. If all goes to plan, Google hopes to sell the modular Ara smartphone in 2015, starting at $50 for a bare-bones endoskeleton that you plug other modules into. During the ATAP tech session at I/O 2014, Ara chief Paul Eremenko also gave us lots of technical details about how to actually build a modular phone — no mean feat, as you can probably imagine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Project Ara prototype, called Spiral 1, was given its first public outing at Google I/O yesterday. As you can see in the photos throughout this story, Spiral 1 actually looks surprisingly like a finished device — except, of course, for the fact that the power switch is a jumper that needs to be physically shorted. If you want to see the device being powered on, skip through to around the 26:10 mark in the video below. The manual jumper method is shown at around the 27:40 point. Sadly, the device actually crashes and fails to reach theAndroid desktop — but hey, it is just a prototype.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cV8JDSO1NS8?start=1410" width="640"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Eremenko also gave us lots of juicy technical details about Ara. The current prototype uses<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184828-intel-unveils-new-xeon-chip-with-integrated-fpga-touts-20x-performance-boost" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;">FPGAs</a> to implement the industry standard UniPro MIPI packet-switched network protocol to provide an interconnect between the modules. The antenna modules use the metal endoskeleton (phone chassis) to boost reception.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Android, which will power the Ara smartphone, will eventually be updated to support hotplugging of third-party modules — and later, Eremenko expounded on that theme with this interesting tidbit: “Think of [Ara] as an analog of the Android app ecosystem, but in hardware.” To kickstart development of these third-party modules, Google also announced<a href="http://www.projectara.com/prize/" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;">a competition to design and implement a novel module</a>, with the winner walking away with a grand prize of $100,000.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/project-ara-front.jpg" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Project Ara Spiral 1 prototype, front" class="size-large wp-image-185384" height="360" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/project-ara-front-640x360.jpg" style="border-style: none;" width="640" /></span></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #666666; line-height: 15px; padding: 10px 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Project Ara Spiral 1 prototype, front</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/project-ara-side.jpg" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Project Ara Spiral 1 prototype, side" class="size-large wp-image-185383" height="360" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/project-ara-side-640x360.jpg" style="border-style: none;" width="640" /></span></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #666666; line-height: 15px; padding: 10px 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Project Ara Spiral 1 prototype, side</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A lot of time was spent discussing Project Ara’s most significant barrier: Overhead. “The principle challenge to modularity is overhead,” Eremenko said. “What we found was that Moore’s law, the miniaturization of electromechanical components, and a modern data protocol, could get the modularity penalty at a system level down to around 25% across the board; PCB area, device weight, and overall power consumption.” Eremenko specifically discussed the electropermanent magnets that will keep the modules in place, and the socket connectors (they have to be small and thin, but still effective at carrying different signal frequencies).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Interestingly, Eremenko also discussed battery technology. He noted that there are now battery chemistries with three times the energy density of standard lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but with much reduced cycle life (i.e. they don’t last for 300+ recharges). To get around the power consumption overhead of a modular phone, you could use these high-energy batteries and switch them out more often. These batteries could also be smaller than current LIBs, giving you more space for other modules. [Read: There can only be one: Smartphones are the PCs of the future.]</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/project-ara-modular-phone-new-connectors.jpg" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Project Ara, modular smartphone concept art" class="size-large wp-image-185418" height="359" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/project-ara-modular-phone-new-connectors-640x359.jpg" style="border-style: none;" width="640" /></span></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #666666; line-height: 15px; padding: 10px 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Project Ara, modular smartphone concept art</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Back in August last year, I wrote about my vision of a utopian future where smartphones are upgradeable like a PC — and, while there’s clearly some way to go, I’m glad to see that Google has now proven that modular smartphones are technically possible. Maybe a commercial release date of 2015 is actually feasible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It’s well worth watching the entire Project Ara Google I/O presentation (embedded above); it’s only around 20 minutes long, and afterwards you’ll be filled with that special breed of warm fuzzies that only bleeding-edge tech can provide.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">SOURCE-<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185417-google-turns-on-the-worlds-first-modular-smartphone-reveals-more-juicy-details-about-project-ara" target="_blank">EXTREAM TECH</a></span></div>
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Google turns on the world’s first modular smartphone, reveals more juicy details about Project Ara

At I/O 2014, Google has publicly turned on its modular Project Ara smartphone for the first time. Considering Project Ara nothing more t...

This Wristband From MIT Could Replace Heat/Air Conditioning

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here in the United States, we spend a ton of money every year to heat and cool our homes. During the summer, our electric bills are off the charts due to using the air conditioner, whereas in the cooler months, they’re higher (unless you have gas heating) because of turning up the furnace. We constantly spend an awful lot of money just to feel comfortable in our homes out of the elements. And I have absolutely no problem with feeling comfortable in my home, but many are asking the question if it’s being “green” enough in this day and age.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A group of MIT students have come up with one of the smartest ideas I’ve read about in a long time. And, since they hail from MIT, that fact shouldn’t be all that surprising. <a href="http://www.wired.com/2013/10/an-ingenious-wristband-that-keeps-your-body-at-the-perfect-temperature-no-ac-required/" style="color: #0092dd;" target="_blank">They’ve figured out a way to make your body comfortable without ever turning on the heat or the air conditioning in your home</a> – all you really have to do is strap on their nifty little wristband, which they’re affectionately calling Wristify.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="This Wristband From MIT Could Replace Heat/Air Conditioning" class="lazy alignnone size-full wp-image-16797 data-lazy-ready" data-lazy-src="http://news.filehippo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/WRISTIFY2.jpg" data-lazy-type="image" height="347" src="http://news.filehippo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/WRISTIFY2.jpg" style="background: rgb(236, 240, 244); display: inline; float: none; max-width: 708px; padding: 10px;" width="640" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Wristify is a thermoelectric wristband that cools you off or warms you up depending on your circumstances. Using differing degrees of warm and cold bursts on a timed pulse, it’ll get your body to a comfortable temperature in no time at all, without your electric bill skyrocketing out of control.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A device like Wristify could make anyone comfortable in any environment, even if everyone disagreed on what the temperature of the room/vehicle should be. Why waste all kinds of money changing the temperature of our environment when all we really have to do is change our own temperature?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And this may be the best news of all – the working prototype only cost around $50 to create, and has already won first place at MIT’s MADMEC competition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What do you think of this? Please let us know your comments regarding this story in the comments section below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://news.filehippo.com/2014/06/wristband-mit-replace-heatair-conditioning/" target="_blank">TECH BEAT</a></span></div>
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This Wristband From MIT Could Replace Heat/Air Conditioning

Here in the United States, we spend a ton of money every year to heat and cool our homes. During the summer, our electric bills are off th...

moto 360 launched by google

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Nobody wants a shrunken smartphone stuck to their wrist, right? Of the three smartwatches in Google GOOGL +0.01%’s Android Wear debut, that’s what two of them—Samsung’s Gear Live and LG’s G Watch—look like. But the Moto 360 actually looks more like a watch.  With a stainless steel frame, edge-to-edge screen and leather band, the Moto 360 looks nicer and feels nicer. Sure, it’s big, and while Motorola says it was designed for both men and women, it certainly will fit on a larger wrist better. On my dainty wrist, it looked almost comically large, but I happen to like big-faced, chunky watches.  While my judgment is still out on the Google Android Wear platform, and how well it will perform, when it comes to style, the 360 is probably the first smartwatch hardware I’d consider wearing regularly. The Moto 360 in the video was running a software demo. We’ll have a deeper look at Android Wear, and those other two watches, soon.  Read This Next x Google I/O: Android L Sneak Peek Reveal</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">SOURCE- <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/personal-technology/2014/06/25/moto-360-first-look-an-android-wear-watch-you-might-actually-wear/?mod=WSJ_TechWSJD_productReviews" target="_blank">WALL STREET JOURNAL</a></span></div>
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moto 360 launched by google

Nobody wants a shrunken smartphone stuck to their wrist, right? Of the three smartwatches in Google GOOGL +0.01%’s Android Wear debut, th...

Sharp Creates Free Form Display: Now Screens Can Have Any Shape

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Sharp has just announced a new technology called Free-Form Display.  This brand new tech will have a dramatic impact on our live, whether we know it yet or not.  With Free-Form displays, companies are no longer constrained by a standard format of a rectangle.  A screen can become whatever the designer wants it to be.   With the reduced bezel size to almost zero, screens can be made to fit into any space.</span></div>
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<a href="http://news.filehippo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/macrumours.jpg" style="color: #0092dd;"><img alt="Free Form Display From Sharp" class="lazy alignnone size-full wp-image-16553 data-lazy-ready" data-lazy-src="http://news.filehippo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/macrumours.jpg" data-lazy-type="image" height="424" src="http://news.filehippo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/macrumours.jpg" style="background: rgb(236, 240, 244); border: 0px; display: inline; float: none; max-width: 708px; padding: 10px;" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">With a standard display, a lot of display circuitry in housed in the bezel of a screen.  This forces manufacturers to use conventional shapes like rectangles. The new solution from <a href="http://www.sharp-world.com/" style="color: #0092dd;" target="_blank" title="Sharp">Sharp</a> will spread the circuitry that is usually found at the edge across the whole display, thereby allowing both very slim bezels and almost any shape.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.sharp-world.com/corporate/news/140618.html" style="color: #0092dd;" target="_blank" title="Free Form Displays">Sharp</a> explains:</span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Conventional displays are rectangular because they require a minimal width for the bezel in order to accommodate the drive circuit, called the gate driver, around the perimeter of the screen’s display area. With the Free-Form Display, the gate driver’s function is dispersed throughout the pixels on the display area. This allows the bezel to be shrunk considerably, and it gives the freedom to design the LCD to match whatever shape the display area of the screen needs to be.</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Currently Sharp is showcasing a Free-Form display, which could find its way into cars: a sleek dash screen that needs no cowling above it, but display everything in three simple circular areas. Like I said, the possibilities are almost limitless.  The software for displays is typically designed for rectangular screens, so this new avenue of a Free-Form display brings much to the table.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">There is currently no word on where or when we may first see the new panels appear though, as no further information has come to light.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">SOURCE-<a href="http://news.filehippo.com/2014/06/sharp-creates-free-form-display-now-screens-can-shape/" target="_blank">TECH BEAT</a></span></div>
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Sharp Creates Free Form Display: Now Screens Can Have Any Shape

Sharp has just announced a new technology called Free-Form Display. This brand new tech will have a dramatic impact on our live, whether ...

Cardiac pacemaker powered by body's own muscles developed

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<img alt="A group of researchers has developed a pacemaker powered by an implantable flexible piezoe..." height="358" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/piezoelectric-pacemaker.png" width="640" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Over the past few decades, cardiac pacemaker technology has improved to the point that pacemakers have become a commonplace medical implant that have helped improve or save the lives of many millions of people around the world. Unfortunately, the battery technology used to power these devices has not kept pace and the batteries need to be replaced on average every seven years, which requires further surgery. To address this problem, a group of researchers from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has developed a cardiac pacemaker that is powered semi-permanently by harnessing energy from the body's own muscles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The research team, headed by Professor Keon Jae Lee of KAIST and Professor Boyoung Joung, M.D. at Severance Hospital of Yonsei University, has created a flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator that has been used to directly stimulate the heart of a live rat using electrical energy produced from small body movements of the animal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Based on <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/low-cost-large-area-piezoelectric-nanogenerator/22468/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">earlier experiments with this technology</a> used by KAIST to produce a low-cost, large area version, the team created their new high-performance flexible nanogenerator from a thin film semiconductor material. In this case, lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-PT) was used rather than the graphene oxide and carbon nanotubes of previous versions. As a result, the new device was able to harvest up to 8.2 V and 0.22 mA of electrical energy as a result of small flexing motions of the nanogenerator. The resultant voltage and current generated in this way were of sufficient levels to stimulate the rat's heart directly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The direct benefit of this experimental technology could be in the production and use of self-powered flexible energy generators that could increase the life of cardiac pacemakers, reduce the risks associated with repeated surgeries to replace pacemaker batteries, and even provide a way to power other implanted medical monitoring devices.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"For clinical purposes, the current achievement will benefit the development of self-powered cardiac pacemakers as well as prevent heart attacks via the real-time diagnosis of heart arrhythmia," said Professor Keon Jae Lee. "In addition, the flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator could also be utilized as an electrical source for various implantable medical devices."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Other self-powering experimental technologies for cardiac pacemakers have sought to <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/self-powered-cardiac-pacemaker-piezoelectric-nanogenerator/32685/Other%20self-powering%20experimental%20technologies%20for%20cardiac%20pacemakers%20have%20sought%20to%20provide%20energy%20from%20the%20beating%20of%20the%20heart%20itself,%20or%20even%20from%20external%20sources,%20such%20as%20in%20light-controlled%20non-viral%20optogenetics" style="background-color: transparent; color: #036eb5; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">provide energy from the beating of the heart itself</a>, or from external sources, such as in <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/light-controlled-pacemakers/19615/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">light-controlled non-viral optogenetics</a>. But the KAIST pacemaker appears to be the first practical version to demonstrate real promise in living laboratory animals and, with any luck, offer a significant improvement to cardiac pacemaker technology for human patients in the not-too-distant future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This team's research was published in the journal <em><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201400562/abstract)." style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Advanced Materials</a></em>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The video below shows the flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator in action.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Source: <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/self-powered-cardiac-pacemaker-piezoelectric-nanogenerator/32685/" target="_blank">GIZMAG</a></span></div>
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