Technology Trends

Surveying and measuring buildings don’t look like sexy occupations. However, with the current boom of real estate prices in many countries, it’s a good idea to hire a professional surveyor to measure a future property and to avoid to pay some extra square meters for several thousand dollars each. And now, an Israeli company, EZ2CAD, has developed a new system which can measure accurately an apartment inside a building, without the limitations of the current (and more expensive) systems. In this article, IsraCast says that the new device is composed of two units, a base station and a lightweight mobile unit called Rover. Besides being as accurate and cheaper as current systems, this device also creates a CAD model directly usable by a software such as AutoCAD to build a 3D model in real time. It should become available in about two years for a starting price of $3,000. Read more…

Before going further, here is what you can read about modern surveying technologies in this page at Wikipedia.

Modern surveying utilizes an instrument called a total station, a small telescope equipped with an electronic distance-measuring device (EDMD) and set up on a tripod, although the modern use of satellite positioning systems, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), is also well established, with the robotic total station becoming widely used. Though GPS systems have increased the speed of surveying, they are still only accurate to about 20 mm. It is because of this that EDMDs have not been completely phased out. Robotics allows surveyors to gather precise measurements without extra workers to look through and turn the telescope or record data.

So how does this new system work?

To overcome these limitations a team of Israeli professional surveyors and engineers set out to create a revolutionary new device called QuickSurveyor. The new system is composed of two units, a base station and a lightweight mobile unit called Rover. The Base station is essentially a 50cm high metallic pyramid with nine tiny RF and ultra sound transmitters / receivers built into it.

The Rover is a portable unit shaped like a telescopic rod 1meter in length, which can extend up to 3m to help measure high ceilings, and other hard to reach places. The rod includes 3 sensors triangular in shape and can be aided by laser distance meter to increase its range. The Rover unit can also include a handheld computer which shows the measurements’ progress in real time.

Below is a picture of the base station composed of its three base beacons and its nine radio transmitters (Credit: EZ2CAD).

Now, what about the performance of QuickSurveyor?

In the current prototype stage of development, the Rover can operate in a radius of approximately 30 m from the base station and create a 3D model of the measured area with an accuracy of about 2 cm within less than a second. In the finished product the accuracy level should improve to about 5 mm (almost the level of accuracy of the much more expensive TS system).

On its web site, EZ2CAD mentions a precision of 1 millimeter and a range of 200 meters, but these are probably of the future version of the product.

And by the way, when will this product be available?

The company plans to market its innovative system in about two years. [...] The estimated price of the commercial version should be between $3,000 and $10,000 depending on the system configuration.

Even if this system is not currently available, EZ2CAD is pretty optimistic about its potential market, and gives numbers I am unable to confirm from other sources.

EZ2CAD advisor Benny Marcus told Isracast that the market for surveying systems like the RTK-GPS and the QuickSurveyor is currently estimated to be more than $3 billion annually and should grow to more than $5 billion by 2008.

Finally, if you want more information about this system, including animations, please visit these two pages, QuickSurveyor Review and QS4AsBuilt.

Sources: Iddo Genuth, IsraCast, July 1, 2005; and various web sites

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According to this short article from Reuters, the U.S. is building the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX). The SBX is part of the Ballistic Missile Defense System, and will be used to track, discriminate and assess incoming target missiles. The platform, which is about 240 feet wide and 390 feet long, will measure more than 280 feet from its keel to the top of the radar dome. After extensive tests in the Gulf of New Mexico, this 2,000 tons radar will start its 7-month trip to Alaska after a detour around Cape Horn. And this radar will be manned by approximately 65 crew members. Read more…

Here are the opening paragraphs from Reuters.

The United States is readying an ultra-sophisticated radar system to float slowly around the world to Alaska where it will play a key role in a multibillion-dollar project to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles.

The 2,000-ton Sea-Based X-Band Radar is to be hoisted aboard a platform as large as two football fields this week or next, depending on wind and weather in Corpus Christi, Texas, where it has been under initial sea trials.

The information given by Reuters was mostly picked from a news release from the DoD’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA), “Sea-Based X-Band Radar Platform Completes Initial At-Sea Testing” (PDF format, 1 page, 217 KB).

Here are some more details coming from the MDA.

The Sea-Based X-Band Radar is being developed by the Missile Defense Agency to serve as a primary radar for the Ballistic Missile Defense System, and will be used to track ballistic missiles for both testing and actual defensive operations. The powerful X-band radar will also provide advanced discrimination of decoys and countermeasures that could be used by a hostile ballistic missile during an actual missile attack on the United States.

When completed, the radar and platform will be 282 feet high and displace nearly 50,000 tons when at operating draft. Its on-board propulsion system will allow it to operate throughout the world’s oceans if necessary. Near-term plans call for it to be home-ported at Adak Island in the Aleutian Island chain, but it will also have the capability to support both testing and operations throughout the entire Pacific Ocean missile defense testbed.

This SBX radar is manufactured by the Raytheon Company. For more images, you can visit two pages on its Missile Defense website, here (PDF format, 1 page, 221 KB) and there.

Sources: Jim Wolf, Reuters, March 30, 2005; and various websites

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The Korea Times reports that “science fiction becomes reality with a new holograph machine.” In fact, the devices developed by IO₂Technology look impressive. The Heliodisplay, which is about the size of a PC, is fed with images, swallows air and ‘modifies’ it. When the ‘altered’ — but harmless — air is ejected, it is illuminated to produce a continuous flow of 2D images. A first version, which can project floated images of 22 inches (55 centimeters) in the air, costs $18,600 — including $9,000 payable in advance. Even if I agree with the writer of the story that this is an interesting new technology with many possible applications, it’s interesting that the company itself says that “although the Heliodisplay uses lasers, the images are not holographic.” Read more…

Here are two short paragraphs from the Korea Times story.

Developed by Chad Dyner at IO2, the surprisingly compact Heliodisplay, which is about the size of an average PC case laid on its side (and only a bit noisier), is said to intake air, ‘alter’ it, then expel it and use lasers to project the image onto the ’still invisible’ conditioned air.

For obvious reasons, IO2 isn’t revealing how it modifies the air, but say that its perfectly safe. The machine could run all day in a sealed room and the air would still be breathable. Some have speculated that the secret may lie in ionization.

IO₂Technology describes how the Heliodisplay works on this page.

Air comes into the device, is modified then ejected and illuminated to produce the image. Nothing is added to the air so there isn`t any harmful gas or liquid emitted from the device, and nothing needs to be refilled. Operating the device will not change a room`s environment, air quality or other conditions. If a Heliodisplay were left running for a week in a hermetically sealed room, the only change to the room`s environment would be from the electricity used to run the device.

Floating images can easily be viewed in an office environment, for a presentation for example. As you can see below, the Heliodisplay is pretty small.

Here is a link to a larger version of this prototype. And you can see other images and videos on this page.

IO2 says it has built devices able to project images ranging from from 12 to 105 centimeters. You can check all the specifications for a model able to project 55 centimeters — and even buy one — on this page.

For almost $20K, it’s probably too expensive right now, except for uses in trade shows or museums. But if prices go down rapidly, which is almost a rule with this kind of technology, you might soon see one displaying a sales presentation in your company.

Sources: Peter Stephenson, The Korea Times, January 31, 2005; IO₂Technology website

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A few months back, in “Will Azul Reign on the Server Market?,” I wrote about Azul Systems and its new approach to computing named ‘network-attach processing,’ similar to the NAS approach for data storage. Now Shahin Khan, VP and CMO at the company, has written a rather provocative article for The Register, “Get ready to buy chips by the kilo.” He argues that we soon should be prepared to order CPUs by the thousands and be ready for some new language. “Do we say: 2.5 kilo CPUs? Do we call this kilo core, or mega core processing? And since it goes way past current multi-core technology, do we call it poly-core technology?” Jon Udell, from InfoWorld, also commented Khan’s views in “VM-enabled polycore computing.” Read more…

Basically, Shahin Khan says that we are now used to very large numbers when we talk about memory or disk space for servers, but that the vast majority of us is still counting processors using single digits.

But when it comes to CPUs, we still mostly dabble in single digits. An 8-way server feels like a pretty large system. The 32-way, 64-way, and 200-way systems feel just huge. Even when we scale out, anything beyond a couple of hundred CPUs begins to challenge our ability to manage and operate the systems. It’s no accident that they call these systems a “complex.”

A major shift is coming. Over the next few years, your ordinary applications will be able to tap into systems with, say, 7,000 CPUs, 50 tera bytes of memory, and 20 peta bytes of storage. In 2005, Azul Systems will ship compute pools with as many as 1,200 CPUs per a single standard rack (1.2 kilo cores! — I like the sound of that!)

Of course, these remarks are more valid for the commercial data centers. In the scientific and technical segments of computing, there are already many existing superclusters using thousands of processors.

Khan explains how this trend towards large numbers of processors will influence application design and offer new possibilities for managing a data center.

Deployment and administration of applications would also change dramatically. Do you ever worry about how much storage an individual user might need? Probably not. [...] Do you ever worry about the utilization level of an individual byte of memory? I hope not. You have so many bytes that you measure utilization at the aggregate level.

Logically, he doesn’t forget to mention his company.

If you had hundreds of CPUs in a miniaturized “big-iron” system that were available to your applications, you could adopt the same strategy for applications. No need to plan capacity for each individual application. Let all of your users share a huge compute pool and plan capacity across many applications. In the process, you also fundamentally change the economics of computing. Well, that’s exactly what Azul Systems is pioneering.

This is a whole new way of looking at the CPU, and therefore, the function of “compute.” This approach is gaining mainstream acceptance. The industry has reached 2 or 4 CPUs on a chip for large symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems; and for systems limited to one chip, tens of functional units in one CPU. Some companies have announced future chips with as many as 8 CPUs on a single chip. With 24 CPUs on a chip that can be used in an SMP system, Azul has already set the bar much higher. And that’s just the beginning!

And before wishing us the best for 2005, Khan imagines a possible title for a 2005 press release.

Poly-core Technology to Enable Kilo Core Processing. Happy Apps Hail Freedom!!

Like in September 2004, I still don’t know if Azul Systems will be successful. But at least, I admire them for their innovative approach to computing with the additional risk of using their own custom chips.

Sources: Shahin Khan, VP and CMO at Azul Systems, for The Register, January 11, 2005; and various websites

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