StoreDot-nanodot battery technology can charge your smartphone in a matter of seconds

What if charging your smartphone battery from empty to full just takes 30-40 seconds of your life. That would be such an awesome thing right?

An Israel based company by the name StoreDot demonstrated a new battery technology that could revolutionize the entire portable electronics and electric vehicle technology for the better at the Microsoft’s Think Next symposium in Tel Aviv on 7th April.

How it works 

In a traditional battery the voltage is developed by a chemical reaction. The time needed to charge the battery is basically the time required to reverse the chemical reaction.

The new battery technology utilizes electrodes made with new materials and are called MFE- Multi Function Electrode. The electrode basically acts as a super-capacitor on one side (with very fast charging), and on the other is like a lithium electrode (with slow discharge). The electrolyte is modified with what are called Nanodots in order to make the multifunction electrode more effective.

Spike puts laser range finder technology in the back of a smartphone

If you have ever worked in the GIS industry; accurate, easy and portable data acquisitions system devices are the key forces that drive the industry. ikeGPS is a New Zealand based company that's been developing some really great portable GIS data acquisition hardware and software for quite some time now. Their flagship device called the 'ike' integrates a laser range finder, a camera, GPS and a 3D compass into a small portable package which made possible to measure the length or height of any geographic feature, just a matter of taking a few photographs and you have all the measurements in the palm of you hand.

With the new device called 'Spike' short for "Smart Phone ike" , the company has taken its reach to a whole new level. On the hardware side, Spike is basically a small device that piggy backs on a smartphone and converts it into a full blown accurate laser measurement device and a 3D modelling device.

AirMule takes UAS technology to a new dimension

UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) technology comes in all shapes and sizes these days. Although the bigger ones are mostly used by the armed forces for international reconnaissance and in some cases attack, like the Predator B.

A system developed by the Tactical Robotics LTD a subsidiary of the the Urban Aeronautics LTD based in Israel have developed a unique UAS system which due to its VTOL and and high maneuverability, can perform a multitude of tasks and could possibly take the capability of UAS to a totally new level in terms of both civilian and military use.

At first glance it looks something straight from a SciFi action movie. The Aircraft is only slightly larger than the size of a standard Hummer. The biggest advantage for this aircraft are the internal lift rotors (Enclosed in the body) which gives it the benefit of flying in mountainous and urban environments, conventional helicopters or other multirotor platforms have a risk in such environments due to their exposed rotors.

Heat Sink technology used for efficient cookware.

If you have ever looked into the insides of a Desktop computer you might have noticed a prominent fan placed over finned metal block mostly made out of aluminium. That's called a heat sink and its designed to take away all  the heat generated by the microprocessor. Without a proper heat sink the processor might just burn up or melt away. The heat sink basically spreads out the heat over a larger area thus dissipates heats in lesser time.

Physicist Lee Huang though just the opposite, how about using a heat sink to absorb more heat from a gas stove flame more efficiently? A normal cooking pot as you know has a smooth surface at the bottom. A lot of heat from the burner flame escapes from the sides ending up being uselessly lost to the surrounding. A seemingly simple but effective idea is to attached fins at the bottom/base of the cooking pot. This results in more heat being utilized for heating the content in the pot compared to that of a normal pot with a smooth bottom. This results in lesser cooking time resulting in saving time and money. A great solution for commercial and house hold applications. The finned pots end up being 30-50% more energy efficient then their smooth counterparts.

Picture Courtesy http://www.sustainablefoodservice.com

DALER: A drone that's capable of flying and crawling on the ground

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have been doing some remarkable work when it comes to innovation in flying robots.

This time from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), researchers at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems have come up with an innovative concept of a flying platform that can not only fly but even crawl on the ground. The backronym 'DALER' stands for "Deployable Air Land Exploration Robot". Its actually named after the man behind the Project 'Ludovic Daler' a Ph.D candidate.

The project goes by the title 'Adaptive Morphology for Multi-Modal Locomotion' and is aimed at developing robots capable of multiple modes of locomotion. For task such as exploration, search-and-rescue, or monitoring of the environment autonomous or remotely operated robots are the obvious choice. But for these kind of tasks robots may have to deal with complex terrains, such as semi-collapsed buildings, deep caverns, or forests with a lot of vegetation. In general, flying robots are considered  most capable for the purpose. However for exploring areas close to the ground it is found that ground locomotion is more efficient than flying. Hence a robot with both capabilities is suited for the purpose.

Contour Crafting:The Future of Construction?

Hey guys your host Akib here, just been really busy these days, I haven't posted in a while. I will get back to posting about awesome stuff regularly in a couple of weeks. So this is just a quick post so you realize that the Blog is stills alive. I came across this awesome technology called "Counter Crafting". Though I would share with you guys.

So Counter Crafting is basically bringing 3D printing technology (Rapid Prototyping) to the Construction Industry. The brain child behind this technology is Mr. Behrokh Khoshnevis a professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering and Civil & Environmental Engineering, and is the Director of the Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT). He is also a Director of Manufacturing Engineering Graduate Program at the University of Southern California.

So getting back to Counter Crafting well, I would say is basically printing a house just like you would print a part with a 3D printer, only difference being the proportions of things and the materials used are big and its more complicated cause you have to install electrical, piping and stuff. The 3D Printer (Counter Crafting machine) can be assembled at site. It could be put on a truck and taken to any location and its not completely autonomous like a 3D printer. It  require assistance in building a complete residable home.
The concrete used for the process is different, its called fiber reinforced plastic.