The Unimaginable Future: Hitachi Announces Amazing Technology to Store Data

 

Hitachi has developed a way to store digital data that can last up to hundreds of millions of years and can withstand temperatures of up to one thousand degrees.

Announced Monday in Tokyo, the device is made out of glass quartz (the same stuff they make laboratory beakers out of) is only 2 millimetres thick and can store up to a CD’s worth of information. Hitachi’s amazing new technology holds the data in binary form by creating dots inside the thin sheet of virtually indestructible glass. By using binary, no matter how advanced computers become, the data will always be readable.

The chip, which looks like something you’d never want stuck in your shoe, is waterproof and fireproof protecting against possible natural calamities, such as fires and tsunamis. With the proliferation of digital media in the 20th century, Hitachi is addressing a major concern of how to better protect our precious files which in many CDS and hard drives will only last between 10 to 20 years. In other words, how else will a future generation of invading hybrid aliens be able to enjoy the sweet sounds of Kenny G or the cool beats of Jay Z?

The square currently has up to 4 layers of dots, which can hold 40 megabytes per square inch and they say that adding more layers and more dots is no big deal at all. The device currently has no retail plans, but hopes to by the year 2015. Hitachi says, in the meantime, museums and religious institutions may use the chip. This all reminds me of a quote by the writer and thinker Steward Brand that goes, “The present moment used to be the unimaginable future.” Imagine what they’ll think in a hundred million years.

Hitachi plans to give more information on the technology at the amazingly sci-fi sounding International Symposium on Optical Memory that will be held in Tokyo, Japan on September 30.

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Carbon- Answer To Future Tech?

                                         Over the past few years there has been an explosion of graphene-related news being reported throughout all avenues of media yet many people are unaware of what graphene is and why there is so much fuss over this mystery material. So, what is graphene?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Also referred to as two-dimensional (2D) graphite, graphene is a planar mono-layer of tightly-packed carbon atoms arrayed into a honeycomb lattice (think of an ultrathin sheet of chicken wire). Graphene also serves as the basic building block of graphitic materials by being wrapped up into 0D fullerenes (a ball), rolled into 1D nanotubes, or layered into 3D stacks. Aside from being one of the thinnest, lightest, and strongest materials known, graphene is attractive to materials scientists and electrical engineers because of its unique electrical properties as a semi-conductor. Researchers have already exploited the unusual but versatile properties of graphene to build electronic components such as Nano transistors and ultra capacitors that may soon replace the current larger silicon-based ones.
                                                    Discovery As it’s known today, the discovery of graphene is often attributed to Andre Geim and colleagues following their characterization of the material as a mono-layer in a 2004 ">Science publication. Historically, however, graphene was considered as “academic material” (i.e., it had no practical applications) and had been extensively studied since the 1960s but only in the multi-layer form. After the 2004 study in which Geim et al. were able to isolate mono-layer graphene by using adhesive tape to repeatedly exfoliate layers of a graphene crystal to a single atomic plane, the promising properties of 2D graphene has led to a research boom in the fields of materials science and condensed-matter physics. Although numerous methods (notably epitaxial growth on silicon carbide or metal substrates) for producing graphene have been developed albeit in small and/or “impure” quantities, it is expected that graphene production and application will take quantum leaps in a few short years.
                                                                                                                                         Applications The potential applications of graphene to electronic devices are seemingly limitless. Here are a few that have already been developed:

Transparent and flexible touch-screen organic LED (OLED) displays Researchers at Stanford University have successfully developed brand new concept of organic lighting-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with a few nanometer of graphene as transparent conductor. This paved the way for inexpensive mass production of OLEDs on large-area low-cost flexible plastic substrate, which could be rolled up like wallpaper and virtually applied to anywhere you want.

Anti-bacterial paper packaging Researchers from Shanghai University said it had developed two water-based dispersible graphene derivatives can “effectively inhibit the growth of E. coli” that have minimal toxic effects on harming cells – so-called cytotoxicity.

Higher-capacity and faster-charging batteries Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have created a graphene and tin Nano scale composite material for high-capacity energy storage in renewable lithium ion batteries. By encapsulating tin between sheets of graphene, the researchers constructed a new, lightweight "sandwich" structure that should bolster battery performance.

Memory devices Hailed as the new "wonder material," graphene is being tapped by an international research team to help overcome issues associated with increasing the storage density and speed of electronic memory devices.

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What Does The Future Hold For Mobile Phones?

Since the release of the first mobile phone in 1983, mobile technology has come a long way. Can you remember those enormous bricks you used to carry around in your pocket? I certainly do, I remember how primitive some of the earlier models of mobile phones were and how astounded we were by the ability to send an SMS message and phone our friends and family on a mobile device. We then went through a period of mobile phones getting smaller and smaller right up to the point where you could barely hit the correct buttons, the smaller the device you had the more status it gave you. Now we’ve seen an explosion in functionality since the arrival of smartphone technology. We now have small devices that manage to combine digital cameras, music players, internet connectivity and video recorders all in one handsets. We have now reached a point where our mobile phones are more like mini computers than phones.
The amazing rise in popularity of smartphones, which have now gone from a business domain to everyday use, has highlighted the importance of mobile technology in the modern age. People are no longer content with owning and carrying numerous different devices or only being able to perform functions in a certain place and time.Now more than ever, customers are demanding all-in-one devices that can be used anywhere and everywhere.As an owner of an Android device myself I am literally gobsmacked by the sheer number of functions my phone boasts. With companies such as Google, Apple (with the iPhone), HTC, Samsung, Nokia, Microsoft and many others developing smarter handsets at a rapidly increasing pace there is just one question to ask. What does the future hold for mobile phones?
We’ve compiled this guide to the directions the technology may take.
Phones dominating our lives
What could the phones of tomorrow possibly look like? What will we be able to do with the phones of the future? Predictions appear somewhat straight out of a sci-fi movie or imagination! Future technology will enable mobile phones to literally get under our skins, dominating our lives, thanks to skin implants. Unlike today’s phones, experts believe future mobiles will be broken into components, capable of operating as assistants to shield us from overloads of information.
Well one thing is for sure, we’ll continue to see this integration of online services and other hardware. How many of us now plug our phones into our stereos and TVs to access our music and video collections, and how many of us do most of our web browsing on our phones? The truth is we’re all spending more and more time on our phones because our phones enable us to complete more of our daily tasks. As we’re currently developing newer efficient screen technologies it makes sense that our mobile phones in the future will have even smarter screen capabilities. We may not even need to touch the screens in the future as cameras and sensors now have the ability to recognise a series of hand gestures. The phones in the future are also likely to have better voice recognition capabilities, who knows, your phone may even have a programmed personality and talk back to you, reading you the news, your messages and also the weather. We will probably begin to see holographic 3D technology being incorporated fairly soon providing us with a 3D experience without the need for glasses, and we’ll also no doubt see resolutions grow and grow. The iPhone 5 already has stunning resolution with the retina display so imagine a resolution 3 or 4 times bigger.
Unlike today, we will spend less time fidgeting with our phones, as smarter advanced technology takes over. Smarter phones will have the power to buy, sell and generally take decisions at our behest. As technology advances, humanity will spend less time on desktops, better manage time and save money. Phones may even help save lives in future.

Another development we’re likely to see in the next few years is the flexible screen. Sony has already developed this technology and as prices of production decrease we can expect to see a new wave of development in mobile telecommunications. Imagine being able to roll out the screen from your phone so it is closer to the size of a tablet but can be rolled back to fit in your pocket. This kind of technology really does have the potential to make our laptops and desktops obsolete. As screens become more flexible developers are provided with a whole new avenue of potential options. Physical designs of mobile phones will really evolve and we could start to see a whole range of weird and wonderful designs. We could even see phones become fashion accessories as the super flexible screens would be able to display any image you wish. Imagine a phone that could be wrapped around your wrist and used as either a bracelet or a watch that can be customised to look like whatever you want it to.
As technologies continue to develop I’m sure we’ll see the phones of the future incorporating new advanced technologies to enhance their design and usability. Some of the phones currently in development are being designed to incorporate projection technology, so in theory we could begin to see our TVs and projectors being replaced by mobile phones. As well as projection capabilities advances in infrared keyboard projection technology could provide mobile phone users the ability to project a light based keyboard onto a surface which could be used like a regular sized PC keyboard. The problems experienced by people with large fingers would be a thing of the past.
If we look a long way into the future it makes sense that our phones will incorporate highly advanced technologies such as nanotechnology allowing your phone to do tasks such as clean itself, or scan your food for harmful toxins. With nanotechnology the options would literally be endless in developing mobile phone technology. As well as nanotech another conceptual technology for the future of phones is translucent photonic circuitry. Imagine your phone being nothing more than a translucent block with a high resolution display taking all of the energy it needs to run from its surrounding environment. These technologies are being developed right now and I have no doubt we’ll see these in the future. There are an infinite number of potential avenues for the mobile telecommunications industry to explore. I have only covered a few in this article.
Control Interfaces

There are numerous different control systems proposed for the future and it will be a while before we discover which one will reign supreme. However, we have had a glimpse of the potential future with existing voice command technology. Being able to control your entire phone just by speaking to it may seem a little strange at first, but we may soon see everyone strolling around seemingly talking to themselves if the technology really takes off. If you don’t like that idea, then developments in touch screen technology may also point to a different future.
Phones that employ three dimensional screens, that can move and adjust to touch and what’s being displayed may be an option. This would also open the door for screens that could display texture; a picture of a rock would be rough, while silk incredibly smooth and so on. There is the potential for phones that are nothing but one big touch screen, on which you could move items anywhere.
Whatever the future of mobile phones, we can count on witnessing some extraordinary technological developments.
Mini gadgets
Future phones will be mini gadgets, the size of a candy bar. Tablets will be broken down into components and 3D, augmented reality glasses will offer quality display. As for the audio, your earring stud will effectively do! Future technology may seal the gap between real and virtual with a complete physical interface to the digital and virtual worlds.
Emerging technologies around mobile telephony already promise an interesting future, for instance the use of biometrics to monitor ailments, using mobile phones to monitor mood and provide countering alternatives etc.
Whereas such predictions may be hard to make, the fact that mobile telephony has experienced a boom like no other in less than a decade means more data is being mined that will lead to cutting edge technology to produce even smarter phones.
What do you think about the future of mobile phones? Do you think we’re going to see some significant developments in this industry or will it evolve into something completely different? Maybe you don’t see any point in advancing the technology any further. Whatever your thoughts are on this I’d love to hear them. Please feel free to leave a comment.
(Credits:inquid, thefuturist, technected)
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So What Is This Graphene Fuss All About?

      

                       Advances in delivering and storing electricity are crucial to the future of electric cars and otherwise reducing reliance on energy produced from burning fossil fuels. Yet a powerful means of running electronics that can charge and discharge quickly while also storing large amounts of energy has long eluded scientists.
This predicament could be changing, thanks to new research. A team from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Egypt’s Cairo University describe in the March 16 issue of Science a new laser-based technique for making flexible, durable and highly conductive electrochemical capacitors—also known as ultra capacitors or supercapacitors—out of graphene. Electrochemical capacitors handle frequent charge/discharge cycles well but have been unable to store lots of energy. (Lithium-ion and other conventional batteries can store large amounts of energy but have short life cycles and are filled with hazardous chemicals known to catch fire under certain conditions.)

                       Electrochemical capacitors made using graphene—a one-atom-thick sliver of graphite—began showing potential to boost storage capacity a few years ago. Individual graphene sheets create a larger surface area than when they are stacked together as a piece of graphite. This larger surface area increases energy storage capacity. Yet the strong electrostatic attraction between graphene sheets makes graphene a difficult material to work with because it tends to cause them to stack back together into their original graphite form.
The researchers, led by UCLA Ph.D. candidate and Cairo lecturer Maher El-Kady and Richard Kaner, a professor in UCLA’s Chemistry & Biochemistry and Material Sciences & Engineering departments, found a way to avoid this re-stacking. They covered an ordinary compact disk with a sheet of plastic, coated that plastic with graphite oxide and used a LightScribe DVD optical drive to locally heat the coating to turn it into a graphene film that can store energy in a highly-reversible electrical form important for many present and emerging applications.

                      Electrodes made from laser-scribed graphene can also be bent without any obvious change in their electrical properties, the researchers say. This holds promise not only for improved electrochemical capacitors but also for flexible gadgets, such as roll-up computer displays and keyboards as well as wearable electronics. Such thin, highly flexible energy storage devices could lead to fabric electrochemical capacitors that store harvested body movement energy, potentially useful for making garments or military uniforms with embedded electronics, observes John Miller, president of JME, Inc., a Beachwood, OH, firm that offers engineering, performance testing and other services to electrochemical capacitor makers, in a commentary accompanying the Science report. Imagine car seats that heat up without a driver needing to flip a switch or electronic wallpaper that could change patterns or alter its brightness depending upon lighting conditions, Miller adds.

Graphic demonstrating graphene’s ability to store electrical energy through the interaction with ions in an electrochemical capacitor courtesy of Science/AAAS

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A Robotic Relief…

 

Soon hospitals will be gifted with robotic workers who will have the strength to lift a disabled patient from bed. The robotic workers will be manufactured by Toyota. The mechanical health workers have been designed to meet the growing heal the related problems of aged population.
It is for the very first time when robotic health workers are being designed for providing care to elders. It has been informed that the workers thus designed will help elders in getting up from bed and walking. The thought of manufacturing health workers was sparked from the bitter truth of shortage of medical staff.
                                              

                                                The demonstration of the robotic worker was given by Eiichi Saitoh, a Professor at Rehabilitation Medicine. Eiichi Saitoh has a paralyzed leg. While demonstrating the usefulness of the robotic worker he showed as to how the worker can bring a change in the life of disabled patients.

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Sony Xperia Tipo Review

 
Here is the review of the Sony Xperia tipo. Sony announced it in June and we unboxed the device last week. It packs in a 3.2-inch (480 x 320 pixels) 262k colour TFT display and is powered by a 800 MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It is slightly larger than the Xperia mini and Sony has replaced the hardware buttons with the capacitive touch buttons. The Xperia tipo runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with Sony’s own UI on top.
Hardware 

The display is bright but the colours are not vibrant and has bad viewing angles since the colour depth is just 256k. You can see a large earpiece with a Sony branding below that. There is a proximity and LED indicator at the top right, which lights up when there is a notification, or when the phone is charging. But the phone lacks ambient light sensor.
 
Sony has replaced the hardware buttons from the 2011 Xperia devices with the capacitive touch buttons. Below the display there are capacitive touch buttons for back, home and menu. The bottom part is curved and has a Xperia branding.
 
The volume rocker is present at the left side of the phone. There is a small hole for the lanyard at the bottom.
The micro USB slot is at the right side of the phone.
At the top there is a power / lock button and 3.5mm audio jack.
 
At the back there is a 3.2MP fixed-focus camera without flash.
 
There is a Xperia logo at the bottom along with a loudspeaker grill next to it.
 
When you open the plastic back cover, you can see the 1500 mAh battery. You have to slide in the SIM card at the top in sideways. The micro SD card slot is below the SIM card slot.
Camera

The 3.2 Megapixel fixed focus camera is not impressive but takes some decent shots. There is no auto focus, there is a touch to capture feature, so that you can touch the screen to capture an image instead of clicking on-screen camera button. You can also launch the camera app quickly by swiping to left from the lock screen. These features are useful since the phone doesn’t have a physical camera button. There are different scene modes (Night scene, Beach and snow and Sports) and you can also adjust the exposure. Other camera options include, Self-timer, White Balance settings, Metering, Geotagging and option to turn off shutter sound.
Here are some camera samples

You can shoot videos at VGA (640 x 480 pixels) resolution. You can also reduce the video resolution to QVGA or MMS format.
Software

The Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is similar to the other Sony Xperia devices. There is a folder in the bottom tray for Media that lets you quickly access the Gallery, Music, FM Radio and Camera. You can remove and icon or drag any icon to the bottom items bar to create a folder.
You can press and hold to personalise the home screen by adding apps, widgets, shortcuts or to change wallpapers and themes. The drop-down notification bar shows notifications, which you can swipe to clear. You can also control the music player from it.
Apps

There are a range of utility apps such as Calendar, Calculator, Clock and News and Weather. There are the usual Google Apps such as Gmail, Play Store, Maps, Talk, YouTube and Google Search. There is an Office Suit app to view documents and a separate email app.
Music Player and FM Radio

The Music Player can play MP3, MP4, AAC,WAV, OTA, OGG and AMR audio formats. The music player lets you search music, view music by artist, albums and songs and create playlists. The loudspeaker is pretty loud. The Radio has RDS and auto tune function. You can mark the stations as favorites and jump between them easily. There is a track id feature that provides the name of the song that is playing by matching it to the online database. This is pretty useful to identify the songs played in the Radio. It can play videos at 3GP and MP4 formats.
Calls, Messaging, Browser

The calls went fine without any dropped calls. The SAR value in this phone is high at 1.62 Watts per kilogram, similar to the Xperia U. So it is recommended to use earphones if you are on a call for long time. The Messaging has simple UI. The keyboard is decent, but it is not comfortable for people with small fingers.
Browser

The Android webkit browser is fast. Since it has 2 finger multi-touch, you can pinch to zoom into the pages easily. It scored 295 points in the HTML5 test with 3 bonus points. The browser also supports Adobe flash.
Connectivity

The connectivity options include 3G (HSDPA 7.2 Mbps ; HSUPA 5.76 Mbps), WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth with A2DP and GPS. You can quickly toggle WiFi and Bluetooth on or off quickly. The data usage meter that comes with Android 4.0 lets you check the the data usage. In the advanced settings you can set the preferred networks, tethering options or WiFi hotspot.
Benchmarks
Here are some benchmarks to test the 800MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 MSM7225A processor.
Quadrant Benchmark

The 1GHz Honor leads but the Tipo overtakes Sol to reach the 2nd spot.
Vellamo

The Xperia tipo with Android ICS browser leads the Vellamo browser benchmark.
AnTuTu Benchmark

The Xperia U with the dual-core processor leads, but the tipo scores a decent score of 2863 in the AnTuTu benchmark.
SmartBench 2012 (Productivity)

It overtakes the Sol in just a few points to reach the 2nd spot.
SmartBench 2012 (Gaming)

The Xperia tipo tops the Smartbench gaming benchmark.
Conclusion

As an entry-level Android smartphone, the Sony Xperia tipo has better specs including 512MB of RAM, 2.5GB of user memory and performs better than most of the phones in the range such has HTC Explorer, LG Optimus L3 and Samsung Galaxy Y. The battery life is also good that lasts for a day with average use including few calls, messages and few hours of audio playback. It has a good build quality and comes with Android 4.0 out of the box, but the low resolution display and the fixed focus camera makes you think twice before opting for the device. But then, if you don’t care about lack of auto focus camera, low-resolution display and need a compact device, at a price of Rs. 9,500 this is a pretty good choice. Hope Sony reduces the price of the device in India soon to heat up the competition.
Pros

• Performance is smooth
• Android 4.0 out of the box
• Good build
• Good Loudspeaker

Cons

• Fixed focus camera
• Low resolution display

(Credit: fonearena)

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