Technology Trends

Here is an amazing story about how a technology initially developed by NASA for the shuttle program is now being used for something radically different. Back in 2001, NASA needed a tool to conduct quality control for critical aluminum alloy parts. And it worked with KeyMaster Technologies to develop a portable device, the TRACeR, using X-Ray fluorescent technology, or XRF. The TRACeR is approximately the size of a portable drill, and it weighs only 4 pounds. But now, according to “Carpet Cleaning or Rocket Science?,” published by ICS Cleaning Specialist, it’s also being used to quantify carpet cleanliness by the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) to give its Seal of Approval (SOA) to vacuum cleaners. Read more…

Here are the first paragraphs of the article.

I just returned from the Carpet and Rug Institute’s annual membership meeting in Dalton, Ga., where the latest news is that cleaning and maintenance is the No.1 consumer concern affecting carpet selection.

The buzz words that have everyone talking are X-Ray fluorescent technology, or XRF.

Professional Testing Laboratories of Dalton has partnered with KeyMaster Technologies of Kennewick, Wash., and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on an entirely new technology for evaluating cleaning equipment and methods. And the CRI intends to use this technology in building a body of science about cleaning and maintenance of carpet though their Carpet Cleaning Equipment Seal of Approval Program.

Now, let’s go back to the story as told by NASA about the development of the technology, described in one of its spinoff projects on August 31, 2004.

KeyMaster Technologies, Inc., develops and markets specialized, hand-held X-ray fluorescence (XRF) instruments and unique tagging technology used to identify and authenticate materials or processes. NASA first met with this Kennewick, Washington-based company as the Agency began seeking companies to develop a hand-held instrument that would detect data matrix symbols on parts covered by paint and other coatings.

In January 2002, KeyMaster representatives visited NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Technology Transfer department to demonstrate their standard XRF instrument. The NASA participants, including technical personnel from the Engineering Directorate and the Science Directorate, were particularly interested in the instrument’s portability and capability to quickly analyze the composition of most materials in the environment.

So NASA and KeyMaster Technologies decided to merge their technologies, deposit some patents, and finally sign an agreement giving Keymaster exclusive rights to produce and sell the resulting portable tool worldwide.

And on November 5, 2004, NASA announced its partnership with Keymaster and gave more details about the technology.

The newly developed vacuum X-ray fluorescent analyzer can identify and characterize a wide range of elements, and is capable of detecting chemical elements with low atomic numbers — such as sodium, aluminum and silicon. It is the only hand-held product on the market with that capability. Aluminum alloy verification is of particular interest to NASA because vast amounts of high-strength aluminum alloys are used in the Space Shuttle propulsion system — the External Tank, Main Engine and Solid Rocket Boosters.

“Being able to bring a full analytical chemical laboratory to something as large as a Solid Rocket Booster and determine alloy constituents to an accuracy of four decimal places is a major breakthrough,” said Fred Schramm, technology utilization manager in Marshall ’s Technology Transfer Department. Schramm worked closely with Keymaster to develop the hand-held scanner.

Now, let’s come back to 2005 and see how this XRF scanner is used to determine if a carpet has been correctly cleaned.

[Gary Asbury, president of Professional Testing Laboratories] and PTL already had the carpet-soiling process perfected, but they needed a “soil” mixture that was quantifiable. Working with KeyMaster scientists Lloyd Starks and Dr. Robert Shannon, the PTL staff created a “designer soil,” which mimics actual soil found in carpet.

And here is a last quote about how this XRF technology used to check carpets.

According to Dr. Michael Berry, former deputy director of the National Center of Environmental Assessment of the U.S. EPA, and a leading authority on indoor environmental quality issues, “In my 30 years’ experience, the XRF technology is the first scientific approach to quantifying carpet cleanliness that I will stand behind 100 percent,” he said.

So, what do you think about this arrival of such a high-tech device into a ‘down-to-earth’ domain? Post your comments below.

Sources: Jeff Bishop, for ICS Cleaning Specialist, March 8, 2005; and various websites

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I was quite intrigued by a recent brief article (8 lines) from New Scientist, “Robotic baby rocker to relieve tired parents.” It said that soon parents will be able to use an electromechanical device to rock their babies when they cry. Basically, the Robopax BabySitter is a device that sits on the floor and which supports almost all varieties of baby carriages. When a buggy is on the top of the BabySitter, it starts to balance it at about 66 rocks per minute. The Scottish company behind the Robopax opened its website only a couple of days ago. It hopes to sell 20,000 units per month starting this summer for a price of about £80 (around $150 or €115). Would you be interested? Read more…

Below are some images showing the device (Credit: Robopax website)

Here is the very brief article from New Scientist — in its entirety.

As every new parent quickly learns, one of the best ways to stop a baby crying is to rock him or her to sleep. But from May this year, an electromechanical rocker could relieve parents of the task of keeping a restive infant rocking for many hours on end. The Robopax BabySitter from Dream Technology in the UK is essentially a motorised plastic platform that moves back and forth a few centimetres on hidden wheels.

The BabySitter stands on the floor and is broad enough for a pram, buggy (stroller) or baby’s car seat to be placed on top. The device then reciprocates at about 66 rocks per minute, roughly in time with a resting heartbeat and the speed at which people instinctively rock their child. The launch commercialises an idea that was well received by parents when it was aired at an innovation exhibition in the UK in 2000.

Here are some more details picked on various pages of the site.

First, you’re not limited to use it inside your home.

The product is a worldwide first consumer product for the industry, as all other known baby rockers require to be manually operated, whereas the Robopax BabySitter operates via a DC power supply, similar to that used for a laptop computer — which means that it can be used indoors absolutely anytime, anywhere!

Is it really compatible with most of current buggies?

The Robopax BabySitter’s bed-size at 855mm long by 677 mm wide, has been developed to fit the majority of prams in the marketplace. We believe it works with virtually all four wheeler prams and the majority of three wheelers.

And is it really safe to use this BabySitter?

It has been safety-tested to meet all appropriate EU Electrical and Mechanical Directives. Designed to support a continuous weight-load of 35 kilograms, the BabySitter has been life-cycle tested and subjected to FE analysis at various loads and distributions.

And if I want one, when will it be available?

It is anticipated that 20,000 units will be available per month from the Summer of 2005 from major Department Stores, and directly from the Dream Technology website.

You can already preorder the device for £79.90 (about $150 or €115) from the company’s online store.

So what do you think? Would you buy such a ‘robotic baby rocker?

Sources: New Scientist magazine, January 8, 2005, Issue 2481, Page 20; Robopax website

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It’s Saturday and I’m sure you have some free time to visit an exhibit named “The Feminine Face of Fiber,” which is partially about robots. If you live in the Chicago area, you can see the “Female Cyborg Series,” a collection of robot-inspired quilts created by Kathy Weaver, a former teacher and painter. According to this article from Pioneer Press, in Glenview, Illinois, Kathy started to create quilts featuring robots about seven years ago, partially because “she is a longtime collector of ’50s sci-fi memorabilia.” Admission is free and details are here. As Chicago is far from Paris, France, I doubt I’ll see these quilts. But if you happen to see them, please let me know…

Below are two quilts made by Kathy Weaver. You’ll find other ones in this gallery of robot quilts.

Please read the Pioneer Press article for more details about the artist. Here are selected excerpts about why she started to design quilts featuring robots..

Robots began appearing in Weaver’s work about seven years ago.

“I was teaching at the time in an elementary school and we’d been playing around with paper robots,” she recalled. Weaver noted that when the children moved the robots’ arms and legs even slightly, the paper figures became very animated.

“I started thinking these could really talk to somebody about different emotions,” she said.

The robots additionally appealed to Weaver because she is a longtime collector of ’50s sci-fi memorabilia.

“And I also see the robot as sort of a hopeful figure. I don’t see them as threatening,” Weaver said. “My dad was in electronics and always kept up with the latest gadgets. They are definitely part of our future.”

The artist doesn’t view robots as male-dominated figures, but rather as “a kind of figure that would be parallel to the soothsayer or the shaman.”

The exhibit, which started on January 5, 2005, will end on February 13, 2005. This exhibit is open to the public and admission is free. You’ll find all the details on this page from the Dittmar Memorial Gallery at the Norris University Center of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Here is how Kathy Weaver’s works are introduced.

Kathy Weaver uses the quilt medium and the robot persona to invite the viewer into a complex and intriguing alter world in her Female Cyborg Series. As a child of the fifties living amidst today’s technological modernity, the robot for Weaver represents a potential ranging from an ambiguously “friendly future” to a literal integration of robot into the human body in the form of pacemakers and piecemakers. In seven stunningly handcrafted large-scale works, the viewer is invited into the picture plane to see the modality of the robot’s disposition as it reflects the delicious complexity of human nature. The environment of the robot raises important questions about the intersections between technology and nature, between our skinned, armored world and our interior, emotional selves.

As I wrote above, please let me know what you think if you see Weaver’s ‘robotic’ quilts.

Sources: Myrna Petlicki, Pioneer Press, Glenview, Illinois, January 6, 2005; and various websites

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In a brief story named “Anywhere Interface,” Technology Review writes that a small French company, Sensitive Object, has found a way to turn any rigid surface into an interface for all kinds of electronic devices. The technology involves only very cheap sensors and a process named “time reversal acoustics.” When you tap on a surface equipped with the technology, you can use up to 544 ‘virtual’ keys to start your heating system, type your e-mails or stop the DVD player. In retail stores, you could ‘click’ on a mannequin to find the price of the clothes. The Register (”Keyboards are old — tap tables to send email“) and the New York Times (”Knock 3 Times on the Ceiling (to Turn on the DVD Player)“) also published stories about this interesting technology. Read more…

Let’s start with Technology Review (it’s so short that I reproduce it in its entirety).

French physicists Ros Kiri Ing and Mathias Fink have figured out how to turn any rigid surface into an interface for electronic systems. The technology — which the pair hope to commercialize via their Paris-based startup, Sensitive Object — uses one or two inexpensive accelerometers to detect finger taps on, say, a storefront display window or a keyboard drawn on a blackboard.

A computer chip calculates the precise origin of each tap and translates that information into mouse clicks and keystrokes. Users might use the technology, for example, to ‘click’ on a storefront mannequin’s hat to learn its price. Ing says the technique has advantages over other user interfaces under development because it can work with a surface as large as four square meters, and the number of ‘keys’ can reach 544.

As it is often the case, The Register used a somewhat irreverent tone. Here are the two opening paragraphs.

A startup whose technology will allow you to turn virtually anything into an input device, so for example you could use a table to change channel or pick up the phone, or control your computer by banging your head on the wall, has received €2 million in financing from European VC outfit Sofinnova. French company Sensitive Object’s Reversys uses cheap sensors and a process it calls “time reversal acoustics” so that you can make the objects around you can come alive simply by tapping them.

Maybe we exaggerated when we said “virtually anything”, because as far as we can gather the object has to be sufficiently rigid for a tap in a specific area to have a specific effect. So hamburgers, soft fruit, most items of apparel probably won’t work. But still… According to Sensitive Object, low cost sensors can be fitted to rigid surfaces, and send input to the audio input of a computer. Time reversal acoustics analyses the sound and figures out where on the object they came from, so you could be turning a table or a window into a touchpad. Or a keyboard. Or something.

In its story, which apparently doesn’t need registration, the New York Times offered many more details.

The technology uses small inexpensive sensors attached to the table or window to pick up the vibrations, which are sent to the audio input of the computer for analysis to reveal the exact location of each tap.

“It’s like touching an A.T.M. screen,” said Alexander Sutin, a scientist at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., who does research in acoustics. “But it can be done at an ordinary desk or window.”

And here is how the system works and why it’s inexpensive.

The new system requires only one or two sensors, devices called accelerometers that detect the vibrations. The accelerometers cost bout $2 or $3 each, Dr. Ing said.

The technology takes advantage of the precision with which sound waves can be distinguished by computer software. “When you generate a sound from one location, the sound is unique,” Dr. Ing said. “If you generate another sound at another location, you can distinguish the two sounds.”

The New York Times also gives more details about the time-reversal acoustics process.

The system is based on a process known as time-reversal acoustics, in which computer programs use the information stored within sound waves to calculate their source.

In time-reversal acoustics, once sound waves are analyzed and their source determined, other sound waves can be generated to converge on the source. That’s one way kidney stones are treated: an ultrasound beam that scatters from a kidney stone is recorded, analyzed and time-reversed, and then more ultrasound waves are emitted to destroy the stone.

In Dr. Ing’s application, though, no new wave is physically generated. Instead the computer does all of the work, calculating the reverse path of the sound wave to reveal its place of origin.

“This is a very clever application of time-reversal acoustics,” said William Kuperman, a professor at the University of California at San Diego and president of the Acoustical Society of America.

I don’t know if this technology has a bright future, but it looks better than having a bunch of remote control boxes.

And imagine typing your e-mails on an area of four square meters: this would mean lots of exercise…

Sources: Prototype, Technology Review, December 2004; John Lettice, The Register, September 7, 2004; Anne Eisenberg, New York Times, July 1, 2004; Sensitive Object website

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