SeaSwarm autonomous oil absorbing robot for cleaning up oil spills

Oils spills have becomes a grave problem across the world in recent times. The major one being the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill which has posed a great threat to the surrounding ecosystem nearly destroying it. A lot of skimmers were deployed after the oil spill to clean up but they are not at all efficient as they can only collect 3% of the total oil spilled onto the sea. They are quite primitive in a sense in this high tech world of ours.

So address to such issues in future, Researchers at MIT from the Senseable City Lab have designed a system called the 'SeaSwarm'.

SeaSwarm is a fleet of autonomous vehicles/robot which makes it possible to clean future oil spills in a efficient and less expensive way than exiting skimming methods.

How it works?

The main thing that makes this prototype work so effectively is the use of a thin nanowire mesh fabric to absorb oil. This nano-material fabric selectively absorbs oil from water without collecting any water. The fabric can then be heated to get back oil absorbed by it. This nano fabric can be used over and over again. This fabric patented/ developed by MIT can absorb 20 times its weight in oil.

World's smallest Solid State Drive (iSSD) from SanDisk

Ultra small devices are all making their way into everyone's pockets. People now a days want more from their portable devices than ever before. The ultra portable device market is expected to grow tremendously in coming years. With that we will need more efficient larger and faster storage solutions.  The ordinary flash storage will not keep up to it.

This past week SanDisk announced the world's smallest integrated Solid State Drive (iSSD) which is the size of a postage stamp! The benefits of SSDs are just amazing, they are faster than any other storage solutions, have no moving parts and run cooler and quieter.The SanDisk iSSD drive is the first flash SSD device to support the industry standard SATA interface. Moreover it is an integrable solution package so it can be just soldered on to any mother-board. This makes it possible for OEMs to produce notebooks, tablets and other ultra portable devices with an amazing combination of thin, lightweight form factors with fast performance.

MobileASL to change the way Deaf and Dumb communicate through cell phones

Mobile Phones are used by almost everybody in the world. But there is a certain group of people for whom cell phones are just useless when it comes to talking, they can only send text messages and Emails, obviously they are the Deaf and Dumb. The only alternative is sign language for them, but that requires video telephony (Video Calling). It requires high speed 3G network connections which is not affordable  for everyone. So the only option is to come up with video compression technology which can be used on standard GPRS networks without a significant drop in video quality so the sign language is still understandable to the person on the other side and not just some random pixels moving on the screen.

That's what a team of engineers lead by Eve Riskin, professor of electrical engineering. at The University of Washington are trying to develop. It is the first device to transmit American Sign Language over U.S. cellular networks its named MobileASL. The whole idea behind this project is to Transmit sign language as efficiently as possible to increase affordability, improves reliability on slower networks and extends battery life, even on devices that might have the capacity to deliver higher quality video. 

TVS Gold Bharat is the first keyboard with Rupee symbol

Last month the New Rupee Symbol was announced to the world and now we even have a prototype keyboard with the rupee symbol etched on it from TVS electronics.

TVS electronics unveiled  the first prototype of the TVS Gold Bharat on the 15 August which will sport the new Rupee symbol placed on the left side button besides "1" or the first key in first line which has the  ~  symbol on it.

Unique Air Shutter Helps Chevrolet Cruze get Fuel economy of 40MPG

With growing fuel costs and problems of global warming that are being faced by our planet, automotive industry is trying its best to create cars and engines that are more fuel efficient. In a recent news release Chevrolet unveiled the working of The Air Shutter system which is going to be used in the much awaited Chevrolet Cruze Eco model giving it a decently good fuel economy of  40MPG or 17 kmpl.

Air Shutter System Working

Greg Fadler, aerodynamics engineering group manager at Chevrolet and his team developed The Air Shutter system to make 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco one of the most fuel efficient small cars on the market achieving almost hybrid like fuel economy without the Hybrid cost and maintenance.

This was achieved by using commonly used techniques of reducing overall weight and ride height to provide it the aerodynamic benefit.

Sharpie Liquid Pencil is a Pencil..no a Pen..no a Marker. What?

When it comes to stationary Pens and Pencils are the most basic things we need to write. Pens have their own advantage and  disadvantages so do Pencils. But how about having something to write with, that only has the advantages of both of them.

That's what popular stationary manufacturer Sharpie has recently come up with. 

Although we have similar products in the past, but Sharpie Liquid Pencil has a lot more to offer.

The Liquid Pencil works on what is called liquid graphite so you have the kind of fluidity and smoothness.