Technology Trends

If you enjoy fishing, I have some good news for you. According to New Scientist in “Light-emitting line reels in the big fish,” American chemists have designed a blend of polymers which changes color if it has been exposed to a previous excessive stress. Before going to fight with a 300-pound marlin, you’ll have to put your fishing line under ultraviolet light. If some parts of the line appear green, it should break soon, so it’s time to switch to a new one before jumping in your boat. But these new fishing lines will not be on sale for a while. First, the changes of colors should be visible under normal light conditions, not only under UV. And real fishing lines are much stronger than the ones fabricated today in the lab. Read more…

Here is the somewhat ‘teasing’ introduction from the New Scientist article.

The big ones might not get away quite so often if an experimental fishing line finds its way to market. The new line changes colour when it has been subjected to too much stress, warning the angler that it is in danger of breaking.

Nylon fishing line is designed to have some stretch. But pull on it too hard — when fighting a large fish, for example, or trying to get loose from a snag — and it can reach the point of “non-recoverable deformation” at which it becomes seriously weakened.

So how did the chemists solve this problem?

The new line has been developed by Christoph Weder, Brent Crenshaw and Jill Kunzelman at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, US. It contains a type of polymer called a phenylene vinylene oligomer, which fluoresces under ultraviolet light. Crucially, the colour of the light it gives off changes depending on the mechanical stress the molecule has been subjected to.

To make the fishing line, a small amount of the polymer is mixed into standard low-density polyethylene, making up 0.2% of the blend. When the line is not under stress, the polymer molecules are close together and emit reddish-brown visible light when illuminated by UV radiation. But when the material stretches and the polymer molecules pull apart, they fluoresce green. So an angler who feared that a section of line had been under excessive stress could examine it under UV light, and discard it if it glowed green.

As I said above, there are still some hurdles to overcome before you could buy these fishing lines at your local fishing store.

Even more useful would be a polymer whose colour change is visible in normal light, says Crenshaw, who is a graduate student at Case Western’s Functional Polymer Laboratory. He says the team is evaluating possible materials.

The polyethylene fishing line is for demonstration only: it would not be strong enough to stand up to even a 4-kilogram bass, Crenshaw says. But there is no reason the same could not be done with standard nylon fishing line.

For more information, please check the Functional Polymers group site at Case Western Reserve University, and in particular this page about functional polymer blends, where the researchers describe their projects.

Rather than designing and synthesizing new, complex functional macromolecules, minor fractions of a “functional additive” are blended with an “inert matrix polymer” in order to create (often after rather specific processing protocols) a new material with a unique or unusual property matrix.

One key project is focused on the design, synthesis, processing, and characterization of polymer materials with integrated mechanical deformation sensors. Materials with self-assessing capabilities are being investigated, in which photoluminescence is employed as the general sensing principle. The approach is based on the incorporation of small amounts of fluorescent dyes into conventional polymers and relies on the formation of nanoscale aggregates of these sensor molecules in the polymer matrix.

The equilibrium phase behavior of these systems can be influenced via the dye’s chemical structure and the material’s composition. The kinetic aspects of aggregate formation can primarily be manipulated via the processing protocol. Therefore the supramolecular architecture of the targeted polymer/dye nanocomposites can be very well controlled. The approach further exploits that mechanical deformation of these materials leads to shear-induced mixing, which transforms the nanophase-separated systems into molecular mixtures.

As you can see, fishing is not really a major concern for these researchers.

Sources: Kurt Kleiner, New Scientist, February 12, 2005; and various pages at Case Western Reserve University

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Chemistry
  


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• Sensors

At Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), researcher Jonathan Weiss, nicknamed the “light wizard,” uses inexpensive soda-straw-like glass tubes for solving a variety of sensing problems. His twelve patents cover areas such as detecting if a car battery is about to die or if dangerous chemical materials are about to escape from a landfill into groundwater. He also developed a sensor which can tell the difference between two liquids in a container. This could be used by oil companies which need to safely determine when to stop pumping oil from the ground before water invades a tank. This market represents about $750 million per year and these sensors should be available in two years according to an interesting story from the Albuquerque Tribune, “Bright Idea: Random chat leads to sensor pact.” Apparently, Weiss found an industrial partner for SNL on a flight between Albuquerque and New York. Read more…

Please read the SNL news release for details about the dead battery problem and the waste detection device through landfills. And let’s focus here on Weiss’s fiber optic sensor that uses light to tell the difference between two liquids in a container.

Imagine you’re in the oil business and you’ve pumped oil and water (just the way it increasingly comes out of the ground) into a holding tank. You want to retrieve only the oil floating atop the water so you can transport the least possible weight from the oil field to a refinery. How do you know — accurately, safely, and simply — when to stop pumping?

Here is the description of Weiss’s solution.

Take two five-foot-long optical fibers made of plastic. Mount them vertically in a tank that holds water with oil on top. Send light down one fiber, and then detect light carried back up by the second fiber. The strength of the detector’s signal depends on the height of the oil/water interface. If the tank is all water, the signal is very strong, and the pumping machine is instructed to stop pumping fluid; there is no oil left.

The Albuquerque Tribune gives more details on why this sensor will be built by Custom Electronics, a New York state company.

When physicists Jonathan Weiss and Allen Anderson, [from Custom Electronics,] met on an airplane, a business opportunity popped out of the quantum mist.

The two didn’t know each other before that flight a year ago, but now Weiss is a Sandia-employed consultant for Anderson’s company, which is working with the lab to license Weiss’ technology.

“My co-worker and I ended up getting separated, and I ended up sitting next to Jonathan and his wife. He told me he was a physicist and I said, hey, I’m a physicist, too,” [said Anderson, the company's director of product development.]

The product could be ready in the next two years according to Anderson. He added that SNL found found a market potential between $250 million and $750 million for the device.

Weiss received a patent in February 2004 for this sensor. You can find technical details on this patent by visiting the United States Patent and Trademark Office and search for patent number 6,693,285.

Here is a direct link to this patent named “Fluorescent fluid interface position sensor.” And here is the abstract.

A new fluid interface position sensor has been developed, which is capable of optically determining the location of an interface between an upper fluid and a lower fluid, the upper fluid having a larger refractive index than a lower fluid. The sensor functions by measurement, of fluorescence excited by an optical pump beam which is confined within a fluorescent waveguide where that waveguide is in optical contact with the lower fluid, but escapes from the fluorescent waveguide where that waveguide is in optical contact with the upper fluid.

Sources: Sandia National Laboratories news release, January 11, 2005; Sue Vorenberg, The Albuquerque Tribune, January 24, 2005; and various websites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Energy
  


• Environment
  


• Optics
  


• Sensors
  

Rotundus is a spherical robot which was designed in Sweden to explore the planets of our solar system. But now, it found other occupations right on Earth. According to New Scientist, it could be used for surveillance and detection in rough environments and help security personnel. This rolling robot is very robust because it has no moving parts. It’s also very fast — up to 20 mph or 32 km/h — because its shape limits friction with the ground. It looks like a good candidate for outdoor environments because it can easily move on sand, mud or snow. But it might be less well-adapted for looking inside buildings: it’s hard for a sphere to climb stairs. Read more…

Here is the introduction from New Scientist.

The design was first developed with planetary exploration in mind, at the Ångström Space Technology Center, part of Uppsala University, Sweden. But Rotundus, formed in December 2004 plan to market the ball-shaped bot as an automated security guard.

“We knew it would have applications on Earth,” says company CEO Nils Hulth. “It is very robust when compared to robots that use wheels or tracks and can travel through mud or even snow.”

As I said above, the Rotundus robot has no moving parts.

It is propelled by a pendulum suspended from an axis inside the casing, controlled by a motor. Moving the pendulum forwards causes the robot roll along, but the pendulum can also swing from side to side, giving the robot the ability to steer left and right.

Below are two pictures of this spherical robot, one where it’s “running” in snow, and the other one in an industrial environment. You’ll find larger versions of these pictures, as well as additional movies on this page at Rotundus.

The New Scientist article also tells us about future features of this robot.

The finished version of the robot will follow a patrol route using an internal GPS sensor, Hulth says. Wide angle cameras fitted to the sides of the robot should allow it to record and transmit video footage back to a controller. And the next version will also have enough power to propel itself up slopes, he says.

Ultimately, the company hopes to make the robot virtually autonomous. It is currently developing a radar sensor to allow it to navigate around obstacles and motion-sensing software to automatically detect an intruder. “It will sound the alarm, allowing a remote controller to take over and get even better pictures,” Hulth says.

Right now, this robot can detect intruders and send alarms to security personnel patrolling around a factory during cold winters of Sweden and elsewhere. But it will be more difficult inside them, and even the company acknowledges it.

Hulth concedes that the robot is not well suited to navigating inside a building, where it would face steps, stairs and other obstacles.

Still the start-up company thinks this robot can be used in a great variety of applications, such as inspection of fires and gas leaks.

As this robot is still a prototype, I can’t tell you when it is available and how much it will cost.

For more information, you can read this flyer (PDF format, 1 page) or watch this animation showing the Rotundus on Mars — if it ever goes there.

But as far I know, you can’t buy this rolling robot today.

Sources: Will Knight, New Scientist.com, January 28, 2005; Rotundus website

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Robotics
  
  
• Security
  
  
• Sensors
  
  
• Wireless
  

It’s not the first time I choose to tell you about wireless sensor-network technology (check below for previous references). But this article from InformationWeek gives me the opportunity to revisit the subject. The story describes several current projects, from the Department of Homeland Security that wants to secure the U.S. borders, to British Petroleum (BP) monitoring its plants and chips. Hewlett-Packard and Intel also are experimenting with wireless networked sensors in some warehouses and factories. As the market is growing, research companies are trying to figure its size. For example, Harbor Research says that the number of wireless sensors in use will grow from 200,000 today to 100 million in three years, adding that this will be a $1 billion market by 2009. I don’t know if these numbers will be reached, but it’s true that wireless sensor-networks, especially mesh networks, are really attractive because of their low costs of deployment. Read more…

As InformationWeek describes various applications, let’s select BP’s experiments.

The potential for cost savings over traditional wired sensors is enormous. BP installed five wireless sensors over Christmas at its Cherry Point refinery in Washington to monitor the temperature inside giant on-site fans. Using the motes will probably cost about $1,000 per measurement point — and maybe $500 within a year or two, says Harry Cassar, technology director in BP’s emerging-tech group. Each connection measured the old way cost $10,000. BP achieved the $500-per-point measurement in a test last summer to measure conditions in the engine room of an oil tanker.

And BP envisions using wireless networks of sensors to monitor industrial plants and ships, remotely adjust lighting and heat in office buildings, test soil for pollutants, and detect whether chemicals are stored properly. “Wireless mote technology has got applications in almost every part of our business,” Cassar says. “We’re not going to be putting in tens of these devices, or even hundreds. Ultimately, it’s going to be thousands.”

Now, let’s look back at the technology itself.

Wireless sensor devices, or “motes,” package together a circuit board with networking and application software; interfaces to sensors that can detect changes in temperature, pressure, moisture, light, sound, or magnetism; and a wireless radio that can report on their findings–all powered by a pair of AA batteries. Enabled by the fusion of small, low-cost chips, low-powered radios, and the spread of wireless networking, motes are a giant leap ahead of traditional sensors that for decades have measured everything from temperature in buildings to factory machines’ vibrations.

Those sensors require wiring to electrical systems, which can cost $200 to $400 per sensor, and are expensive to service. Motes cost about $100 each, and are much cheaper to install. That price could drop to less than $10 in a few years, as mote components follow computing’s march toward higher volumes, better performance, and lower prices.

If this kind of network is attractive, some challenges remain, especially for software. More standards need to be defined to ensure a perfect interoperability between different sensors and “motes.” And software needs to be embedded within these sensors to ensure better reporting. Finally, there are currently no software tools to manage entire wireless networks.

Here are some short quotes from specialists in the field.

“Sensors are just a part of an ecosystem of wireless devices,” says Feng Zhao, a senior researcher at Microsoft who joined the company last year from PARC to head up a new sensor nets research group on Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., campus. [...] “We need to figure out how to organize these systems and develop interesting applications for them” for real-world use, adds Zhao. “For all these apps, writing software is very challenging. That will probably be a stumbling block between sensors and killer apps.”

“It’s kind of like the beginning of the Arpanet days for this sensor-net technology, where there’s no killer app yet,” says Teresa Lunt, manager of the computer-science lab at PARC.

For more information, you also can read these two interviews of Teresa Lunt and Hans Mulder, associate director, Intel Research.

Sources: Aaron Ricadela, InformationWeek, January 24, 2005; and sidebar stories from InformationWeek

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Economy
  
  
• Networking
  
  
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Cars able to sense our emotions and to take corrective actions if we feel too angry, frustrated or sleepy, could be on the market in two years. These cars will probably not be named HAL-9000, so we should be able to stop them if they’re bothering us. But according to this article from the Scotsman, “So are you in the mood for a drive?” such cars could be built by Toyota with the help of Affective Media, a Scottish company. Many modern cars already have voice-animated systems allowing the driver to control a CD-player, fans or heaters. With the addition of this new voice recognition software, our cars will detect when we’re too quiet and try to wake us up. If we start to be too excited, for any reason, like because we’re stuck in a traffic jam or listening to great rock music, the car will automatically switch the stereo to ‘calming’ music. Would you like to drive such a car, or do you hate the concept?

Here are the opening paragraphs from the Scotsman article.

Machines which respond to their owners’ emotions may seem like science fiction fantasy

But, while the ‘living’ androids portrayed in the blockbuster film I, Robot may never be built, one Lothians firm has developed an “emotion sensor” which could help cars of the future make better drivers out of us.

The computer software — which could soon be used in Toyota cars — can take steps to tackle potential road rage and drowsiness. The system works by monitoring the driver’s speech for signs of certain types of behaviour and taking appropriate action.

If it detects drowsiness, for instance, through signs such as quiet, flat speech, it can trigger an alarm or bring up another suitable prompt to rouse the driver. Alternatively, if the voice shows signs of stress, it can take steps to calm the driver down, by over-riding the car’s air-conditioning or playing soothing music.

But why putting such systems in a car? A prime reason appears to be safety.

Vehicles using it could hit the road within two years. Affective Media chief executive Christian Jones said prototypes were being fitted to trial vehicles and claimed the system could be a life-saver. “Studies show unhappy or angry drivers are more prone to accidents than drivers who are relaxed,” he said.

[And] a spokesman for the AA said that, while the organisation had some reservations, any technology which improved safety on the road was to be welcomed.

The Scottish company which developed the technology is also looking at other markets.

The in-car system is just one of the applications the company is exploring. Call-centre operators are also working with Affective Media on a system to monitor the emotions of callers and Mr Jones says a system that is 100 per cent accurate could be used to help emergency services screen bogus callers.

You can try by yourself Affective Media’s technology by loading this emotion recognition demo. It analyses a 4-second sample of your voice and tells you what is your mood. I repeated the test half a dozen times, whispering, yelling or laughing. I always got the same answer: your voice expresses 100% sadness. Needless to say, I’m not impressed with this demo. But it doesn’t mean that the real technology is not working fine.

Of course, the real technology can run just fine. Anyway, an in-car system which would start to change the music I’m listening to without asking me would probably have a limited life span.

Sources: Gareth Edwards, The Scotsman, January 17, 2005; and Affective Media website

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• PervasiveComputing
  


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A flexible image scanner that you could roll up and carry in your pocket along with your cell phone will soon help you to capture an accurate image of a curved surface such as the label on the wine bottle you just shared with friends. In “Flexible scanner works on curved surfaces,” New Scientist writes that a recently introduced prototype weighs less than 1 gram. Its dimensions are 50 by 50 millimeters and it’s only 0.4 millimeter thick. You connect it to your phone, which acts both as a power provider and as a display. So far, this flexible scanner can only capture images of its own size and has only a resolution of 36 dots per inch. But more advanced scanners should be on the market within three years, with better resolutions and in various sizes. The Japanese inventors say that a 7-centimeter-square scanner should cost about $10. Read more…

Here is the description of this flexible scanner by New Scientist.

The new device, developed in Japan by electrical engineer Takao Someya and colleagues at the University of Tokyo, comprises a polymer matrix in which thousands of light-sensitive plastic photodiodes have been deposited 700 micrometres apart beneath a grid of plastic transistors.

Each photodiode produces a current in response to light input, which its accompanying transistor stores as a charge. This can then be read into the memory of a mobile phone and converted into an image.

To use the sheet image scanner, it has to be placed on the area of interest, such as a bottle or an open book. It can only capture the image it covers; it cannot be swiped across it like an office hand scanner.

The above images were also shown in “Flexible image scanner,” published by ElectronicsWeekly.com, which adds a few details about the resolution of the device.

Each pixel in the device consists of an organic transistor and organic photodetector with an effective sensing area of 50×50µm and the 0.4mm thick imager has a 50×50mm sensing area and resolution of 36 dots per inch (dpi) “with the potential to go up to 250 dpi”, said Someya.

In this other article, “Image scanner fits in a pocket,” optics.org brings additional information.

The device consists of a polymer laminate sheet containing a two-dimensional array of light sensor cells, each featuring an organic transistor and an organic photodiode.

Unlike conventional image scanners which mechanically scan a linear array of photodetectors over an object, the new Japanese design does not require any moving parts or internal optics to capture an image. Instead, the sheet is simply placed over the target object in ambient light conditions and the transistors are probed to reveal to the light intensity of each photodetector. Each sensor cell is also covered with an opaque light shield to prevent incident light from above distorting the signal generated by the object below.

Someya’s current prototype has an effective sensing area of 2×2 inches and is just 0.4 mm thick and 1 g in weight. It features an array of 72×72 (5184) sensor cells, each 700 µm in size, giving a scan resolution of 36 dpi.

This flexible scanner was recently introduced during a presentation at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM 2004), which was held in December in San Francisco. Here is a link to the press kit for this organic sheet-image scanner.

For more information, you can visit the Takao Someya Group website, which contains an abstract of the IEDM presentation.

A large-area, flexible, and lightweight sheet image scanner has been successfully manufactured on a plastic film, for the first time, integrating high-quality organic transistors and organic photodetectors. Since this area-type image-capturing device does not require any optics or any mechanical scanning devices, it is innovatively light to carry, shock-resistant and potentially inexpensive to manufacture.

Finally, I already mentioned here a previous work from the Takao Someya Group, “Flexible Sensors Make Robot Skin.”

Sources: Celeste Biever, New Scientist, December 23, 2004; Steve Bush, ElectronicsWeekly.com, December 14, 2004; Oliver Graydon, optics.org, December 22, 2004; and various websites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Displays
  
  
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• Handhelds
  
  
• Optics
  
  
• Sensors
  

In this must-read article, MIS, from Australia, asserts than in 10 to 15 years, we’ll be unable to use today’s technologies to build electronic devices always smaller and more powerful. Instead, three disruptive technologies will converge and deeply change our lives: nanotechnology, sensors and wireless technology. The author explains how this will influence molecular computing or quantum information processing. She also describes future advances in robotics, including nanobots. And the transportation industry will welcome the arrival of skycars, which are under development today. But will we travel anymore when holographic videoconferencing tools will be available? Please take a moment to check this fascinating article or read more below…

If nanobots and skycars sound more like sci-fi than a sane view of the future, then you may need to reprogram your mindset. Helene Zampetakis reports on the technology that will shape our lives in the decades to come.

A trio of disruptive technologies will converge over the next five to 15 years to overtake our incumbent systems and create new competencies that will profoundly change the way we organise our lives and the way we do business.

The driving principles behind modern technology are running out of steam: it is becoming prohibitively costly to continue to shrink technology, while Moore’s Law, which postulates the doubling of computer power every 18 months, is reaching its physical limits under current processes.

Luckily, help is coming with the convergence of three technologies.

But research that is underway today is expected to usher in a new technological era. Dubbed ‘embedded connectivity’ by Bob Hayward, vice-president and research fellow at Gartner, it will draw strength from nanotechnology, sensors and wireless technology.

The embedded world of the future will harness the power of billions of microprocessors on a single device, wirelessly connected to others, that can read the environment and react accordingly. Scientists portray a future in which we attach these devices to our bodies to communicate, set them loose on our streets to do menial tasks, and embed them in the commonplace objects of our lives to address our daily requirements.

The underlying foundation for this new era of embedded connectivity is nanotechnology, which is based on the manipulation of molecules less than 100 nanometres in size. “Nanotechnology means that rather than taking a chunk of silicon and carving it down to size, we build from the bottom up by assembling single molecules and atoms,” says Dr Terry Turney, director of CSIRO’s nanotechnology centre.

Zampetakis then looks at electronic circuitry and how it will be transformed by molecular self-assembly technology. She also describes future quantum information processing and wireless networks of sensors.

Now, let’s look at what she says about robotics.

It will be at least 20 years before we see microscopic ‘nanobots’, the much-hyped molecular manufacturing systems that have generated sci-fi like fears of mutating swarms running amok. But miniature robots are in fact under serious investigation.

In 2000, for example, MIT’s Bioinstrumentation Laboratory unveiled the Nanowalker, a sugar-cube sized prototype of the first autonomous nanorobot. The Nanowalker is able to move with great precision at a speed of about 4,000 steps a second and communicate wirelessly to a central computer.

Nanorobots will eventually construct materials atom by atom to create products that do anything from surveillance to in vitro navigation.

Larger robots will also be present and will become more independent.

Currently robots operate in controlled environments designed around them, such as car assembly plants, but the next generation of machines will be designed to function in a less structured world and to cope with unexpected changes to their environment.

Robotics research today centres around embedding these devices with fuzzy logic skills using sensors that will allow them to perceive and respond. Dr Peter Corke, autonomous systems team leader at CSIRO, says we could expect to see this class of machine delivering mail or medication or stacking store shelves at low cost to replace human labour in five to 10 years from now. Larger versions could be used down mines; and indeed this research is principally funded by the mining industry, along with organisations interested in flying robots that can inspect assets such as power lines.

And after decades of science-fiction stories, skycars will finally be there.

These will let us travel “when and where but especially how we wish”, according to Mark Moore, personal air vehicle sector manager for NASA’s Vehicle Systems Program.

NASA’s area of focus is a skycar (or personal air vehicle — PAV) designed not for getting about the city, but for travelling at high speeds for distances of between 160kms to 800kms. That would allow people to live in regional areas and commute into urban airfields for work.

Over the next decade Moore expects to see flying cars priced at less than US$100,000 using automated functionality based on NASA’s EquiPT (Easy-to-use, quiet Personal Transportation) technology set.

Moore says an obstacle to PAVs has been the intensity of training required to fly them, so automation is critical. The goal is to have the vehicle controlled by a computerised brain that senses and responds to weather conditions or other crafts in the vicinity, and compensates for technical failures.

And did you know you could order a skycar today? Moller International, based in California, is developing the M400 Skycar and hopes it will be certified by 2006. And you can purchase a 4-passenger Skycar today for a cool $995,000!

But will we travel with the arrival of the next generation of videoconferencing tools?

The synergy of vastly increased bandwidth, three-dimensional video projection and interactive holography systems is expected to change the way we collectively communicate, according to James Anderson, country manager of Polycom.

Videophones as a standard business tool are a decade away but it will be more like 20 years before research from bodies such as MIT’s Spatial Imaging Group or 3D visualisation company, Actuality Systems, yields practicable holographic videoconferencing. By then, however, “we’ll be looking at life-size holograms in 3D that can move around the room in full motion”, says Anderson.

Finally, Zampetakis looks at changes in information technology likely to happen in the next five to ten years.

Now, I have a question for you. Is this message from the future a one you like? Personally, I do.

Source: Helene Zampetakis, Managing Information Strategies, Australia, December 17, 2004; Moller International

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Chips
  


• Future
  


• Materials
  


• Nanotechnology
  


• Quantum World
  


• Robotics
  


• Self-Assembling Structures
  


• Sensors
  


• Technology
  


• Wireless
  

If you’re like me, I bet you hate moments when you’re in a hurry and all the traffic lights seem to intentionally switch to red just in front of your car. Now, according to Nature, a Belgian traffic researcher thinks that traffic lights that respond to local conditions could ease congestion and reduce your frustration. His method would not give you the individual power to switch the light to green. But if you were part of a group of cars approaching a red light, inexpensive traffic-flow sensors would detect your group in advance and turn the light to green. His simulations show that such adaptive traffic control is 30% more efficient than traditional ways of regulating traffic. However, his system has not been adopted by any large city. So you’ll continue to be frustrated by these ?%&$!§ traffic lights for a while. Read more…

Here is a description of the problem.

Carlos Gershenson at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, says his system of traffic lights would be able to adapt to changing traffic conditions, allowing it to find a better switching sequence than one imposed rigidly on all situations.

There have been some attempts to make traffic signals more flexible, responding to the state of the traffic. These intelligent ‘advanced traffic management systems’ generally connect the lights to a centralized computer that is constantly seeking an optimal switching sequence.

Such approaches are costly to implement, however, and can be computationally very challenging. In Gershenson’s method, by contrast, traffic lights at a junction act on their own, responding simply to the local conditions.

Gershenson used computer simulations to estimate traffic conditions under four systems, traditional ones and his proposed adaptive ones.

Gershenson also tries two adaptive schemes. In the first, called ‘request’ control, a traffic light switches from red to green if the number of vehicles approaching it, or the time vehicles have spent waiting, exceeds a certain threshold. Under such conditions, a large convoy of cars can force a red light to go green as it approaches a junction, opening up a ‘green corridor’ as the convoy progresses across the grid.

Alternatively, in so-called ‘phase’ control, the same rules apply except that there is a minimum time for switching from stop to go or vice versa. Gershenson finds that, in his simulations, adaptive request control is the most efficient for low traffic densities, but works poorly for dense traffic. Adaptive phase control also works well at low densities, and doesn’t clog up at high densities either; so on average, it is the best method overall. Both schemes are typically around 30% more efficient than the non-adaptive ones.

Gershenson admits that the benefits wouldn’t be as large in a big city where the situation is much more complex than in his simulations. But as the method involves only low costs for its implementation, maybe it will be used one of these days.

The research work has been published by arXiv. Here is the abstract of the paper named “Self-Organizing Traffic Lights.”

Steering traffic in cities is a very complex task, since improving efficiency involves the coordination of many actors. Traditional approaches attempt to optimize traffic lights for a particular configuration. of traffic and density. The disadvantage of this lies in the fact that traffic configurations change constantly. Traffic seems to be an adaptation problem rather than an optimization problem. We propose a simple and feasible alternative, in which traffic lights self-organize to improve traffic flow. We use a multi-agent simulation to study two self-organizing methods, which are able to outperform two traditional rigid methods. Using simple rules, traffic lights are able to self-organize and adapt to changing traffic conditions, reducing waiting times, stopped cars, and increasing average speeds. Even when the scenario simplifies real traffic, results are very promising, and encourage further research in more realistic environments.

And here is a direct link to a draft of the full paper (PDF format, 16 pages, 426 KB).

And if you want to know more about traffic lights, here is an article from HowStuffWorks, “How does a traffic light detect that a car has pulled up and is waiting for the light to change?”.

Sources: Philip Ball, Nature, December 3, 2004; arXiv, November 30, 2004; HowStuffWorks website

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Artificial Intelligence
  
  
• Sensors
  
  
• Transportation
  

If you ever came to France, you probably tested (and tasted) some — very good — cheeses that you were unable to buy back at home because of some European or other international regulations. If you have been one of these daring travelers, you surely noticed that some of these cheeses smell strong. The Cranfield University in the UK decided to find what was the world’s whiffiest cheese. They used both human testers and an electronic nose consisting of a sensor array linked to a computer with specialized software. And the French cheese with the strongest smell is the ‘Vieux Boulogne,’ a relatively recent cheese from North of France, similar in taste with Boulette d’Avesnes or Maroilles. You can find this cheese — and smell it — in France or in London, but if you live elsewhere, forget about it. Read more…

Let’s start with a basic introduction about the study.

Dr Stephen White, senior research officer Cranfield University led the study by using an electronic nose as well as a human olfactory panel to sniff out those with the strongest scent.

Fifteen cheeses were selected with the help of cheese experts in France and the UK and put through the smelly stakes. Dr Stephen White said: “The results suggest that electronic nose technology could be a useful tool for cheese characterisation, quality control and authenticity testing in the future. The smelliest cheeses were washed rind cheeses. There was no obvious correlation between the age of the selected cheeses and smelliness, nor type of milk origin, although cows’ milk cheeses did dominate the smell chart.”

Before going further, here are some images of the brave testers.

I don’t want to bother you with the whole list. so here are the top three stinkiest French cheeses.

Tops was Vieux Boulogne followed by Pont l’Evêque — both washed rind cheeses, produced from the milk of cows raised on the lush, coastal pastures of Normandy.

Camembert de Normandie, the most widely imitated cheese in the world, was rated third. It has a natural rind and is best known for its creamy texture and mushroomy aroma.

The only shop selling the Vieux Boulogne in the UK is La Fromagerie in London. Here is what says the owner about this cheese.

Vieux Boulogne is a young, modern cheese with a surprisingly mellow and gentle taste that’s perfect served with some crusty bread and a beer. It’s a great cheese to try, as it doesn’t have the earthy, farmyardy flavours that some people find overpowering.

By the way, it’s not the most expensive cheese in the world. It costs around £11 or €11 per kilogram.

But now, it’s time to look in more details about the tests were held.

The cheeses were blind tested under controlled conditions. They were stored at 4°C overnight, then brought out of the fridge two hours before testing to be brought up to room temperature of 20°C.

The human olfactory group were given two hours (no conferring) to complete the test so that they could ‘rest their noses’. They were asked to rate each cheese on a scale of smelly to least smelly and could smell the cheeses as many times as they wanted to, in any order, during the test period.

The electronic nose comprises a sensor array linked to a computer with sophisticated software. Each of the sensors responds to ‘smell’ chemicals in a slightly different way. This response is interpreted by the machine’s software to provide a unique ‘fingerprint’ aroma signal of the test item.

Let me finish by something very personal. The favorite cheese of my wife’s mother, Mitzi, who lives in Monona, Wisconsin, is the ‘Boulette d’Avesnes.’ So here are my last words for today: Mitzi, I love you!

Sources: Cranfield University press release, November 26, 2004; 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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Researchers at Nanomix, a 20-person Californian company, have developed a nanoelectronic sensor which combines carbon nanotubes, carbon dioxide-detecting polymers and silicon to become a human breathing monitor. The device can determine carbon dioxide concentrations in exhaled air, according to “Monitoring Life, One Breath At A Time,” a news release from the National Science Foundation. It could be used as early as 2005 to monitor patients’ breathing during surgery. Even more importantly, it will be used in the field for emergency care by helping to verify proper breathing tube placement or to provide feedback about adequacy of ventilation. Read more…

Here is the introduction of the NSF news release.

Researchers have created a tiny device that can monitor a victim’s breathing in emergency situations by effectively shrinking an operating room machine into a small, disposable tool that can be carried to a disaster site.

NSF-supported researchers at Nanomix, Inc., in Emeryville, Calif., have created a transistor that fuses carbon nanotubes, polymers and silicon into a capnography sensor — a human breathing monitor.

What will the uses for such a nanoelectronic sensor?

Capnography sensors detect subtle changes in the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in a person’s breath, revealing respiratory diseases in children and adults, and allowing anesthesiologists to monitor a patient’s breathing during surgery.

In the field, emergency responders may be able to use the new sensor to verify proper breathing tube placement, monitor the patient’s respiratory patterns and assess the effect of life support measures.

Here is a link to a larger version of this illustration. You also can visit this photo gallery at Nanomix.

The research work will appear as the cover article of the November 15, 2004 issue of Advanced Materials under the title “Nanoelectronic Carbon Dioxide Sensors.” Here is a link to the abstract.

And for more information, you also can check the site of one of the co-authors of the paper, George Grüner, professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) — and also Chief Scientist at Nanomix. Here is a link to G. Gruner Nano-Biophysics Group at UCLA.

Finally, I was curious to know how such a small company was able to be pick such a simple and valuable domain name, nano.com. I found the information with the help of Allwhois. Nanomix registered this domain name more than seven years ago, on June 8, 1997 to be precise.

Sources: National Science Foundation news release, November 10, 2004; and various websites

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