Archive for February, 2010

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Application of Nanotechnology in Making the Clothes we Wear Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Nanotechnology goes to the basic building blocks of materials, molecules and atoms, and can theoretically help us develop products that are customized to our needs (or rather, dreams). Some possibilities in the field of textiles can illustrate what nanotechnology can deliver.

Textiles are made using fibres, such as cotton and nylon fibres. New types of fibres using nanotechnology, such as carbon nanofibres, can be:

* Tougher than the material Kevlar that is used in bulletproof jackets.

* Stronger than spider silk that has a tensile strength greater than high-grade steel.

Textiles made with nanofibres have numerous potential applications (other than making clothes for us). They can be used in space travel, computer chip manufacture, sensors and actuators and biomedical applications, for example.

Nanotechnology can help the textile industry not only with super strong fibres but also in other areas. For example, it can help provide textile finishing that can repel dust, stains and water, and can remain wrinkle free however roughly they are handled.

Read the highly informative article on nanotechnology in textiles for more information.

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Posted in nano textiles, nanotechnology | No Comments »

Webcam in School-Issue Laptops to Monitor Students at Home Sunday, February 21st, 2010

A couple in Pennsylvania has filed a suit against their local school district for privacy breach. The school had issued a laptop with a webcam to spy on their son, they allege. The suit alleges that the school stole private infomation about their son.

The documentation that came with the laptop had no mention about the webcam, according to the complainants. They became aware of it when the Assistant Principal of the school produced photographs taken with the webcam to show that their son had been “engaging in improper behavior in his home”.

Subsequent clarifications revealed that the school had the ability to remotely activate the webcams issued to students. It is alleged that this can intrude into the privacy of not only the student but also his or her family members, who would be quite unaware that they are being photographed.

The school has responded by insisting that the webcam was installed for security purposes. For example, a stolen laptop can be located and recovered with the aid of the webcam, they say. However, the remote activation facility has been removed, according to the school.

Privacy lawyers say that this action violates several laws.

Read more details at: Lawsuit Against School

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Posted in information technology, privacy | No Comments »

Atomic Scale Imaging and Analysis Systems Saturday, February 20th, 2010

FEI Company that provides electron and ion-beam microscopes and other scientific instruments for nanoscale applications has joined the Advanced Metrology Development Program at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at the University of Albany, USA. The program is organized by SEMATECH, the global consortium of chipmakers.

The research will seek to develop high-resolution capabilities of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and focused ion beam (FIB) technology. The aim is to provide tools for high resolution imaging and compositional data on the scale of a few nanometres. Such tools are invaluable for defect analysis in the increasingly dense computer chips.

SEMATECH and FEI researchers will have access to the critical laboratory analytical equipment at the CNSE.

Read the full story at: BusinessWire

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Posted in electron microscopy, nanotechnology | No Comments »

Largest Photovoltaic Plant in the World Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Sunovia Technologies of Florida, USA, is set to construct the world’s largest concentrated photovoltaic power generation plant in Dominican Republic of the Caribbean Islands. The island is blessed with an environment of extreme sunlight, and now this light is going to be turned into energy for the people and businesses of the island.

The $200 million facility will be 2.6 sq.km. in size and will use high-efficiency solar cells. The company claims that as against the normal solar cell efficiency of 10 to 20 percent, the company’s solar cells will have 40 percent efficiency. Sunovia develops the solar cells in partnership with Illinois-based EPR technologies.

Sunovia says that it will be a showcase facility and that already it has attracted the attention of several international companies. The concentrated facility will also be able to generate power at low cost according to the report.

Read this story and others at: World Reports

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Posted in emerging technologies, environment, renewable energy | No Comments »

Augmented Reality Enhances Value to User Friday, February 19th, 2010

If you are a job-seeker in Amsterdam with a cellphone that works with technologies like Google’s Android, you can download a free application called Layar and see available jobs displayed in front of the buildings that house them. Layar is an augmented reality application that overlays real world with virtual informaion.

The developer of the application receives a fee from companies that use it to promote their brand or service.

Another application, Wikitude.me draws content from sources like Wikipedia and displays information about 800,000 places of interest around the world. The developer of this application worked with IBM this year to display information about Wimbledon matches in progress on cellphones. The application also displayed dining and transportation options, that a typical Wimbledon fan finds valuable.

These appliations use the phone’s global positioning technology and built-in compass to determine what the user is seeing. It then pulls information about what is likely to be in the user’s sight-line and displays it on the screen. This is an imprecise approach, however.

To work, these location-based applications need massive amounts of data about each location. Google Maps, Garmin, TomTom and others maintain such location information databases. The applications might also enable users to add their own content to the database.

Wearable devices that can provide the above kinds of information are in prototype stages. Sometime in the future, you might be able to wear a contact lens that displays more than the reality of what you see! Or a doctor might be able to see a patient’s X-ray on that person’s body.

Read the story at: Kicking Reality Up…

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Posted in augmented reality, information technology | No Comments »

Atomic Force Microscopes Enables new Fingerprint Detection Technology Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM) have tips that are of nanometric scale (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter). By measuring and analyzing the deflection of the lever to which the tip is attached, information about the invisibly small measured object can be computed.

The scientific support unit of Northamptonshire Police, UK, has now found a way to lift fingerprints from bullets and other metal objects using AFMs. Fingerprint recovery from bullets is currently very low and even a small increase in the success rate is considered significant for forensics.

Earlier, fingerprints were being lifted by applying powder to the material, a method that can damage the evidence. Scientists at the police support unit now employs natural heat and humidity to let the fingerprint image be enhanced and uses AFM and other tools to recover the image.

When a finger touches a metal surface, it leaves a residue that interacts with the metal. Using temperature and humidity, the interaction results can be converted into a permanent image. Components of the sweat deposit can even survive washing and wiping.

Read the story at: Fingerprint Detection with Nano Device

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Posted in forensics, nanotechnology | No Comments »

Alcohol and Alzheimer’s: A Confusing Issue Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

There is no confusion on one issue: Excessive drinking is bad, period. However, opinion is not so definite about moderate drinking defined as 8 to 14 drinks a week. Observational studies (not controlled experiments) seem to indicate that moderate drinking can reduce incidence of such health problems as heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer’s.

A study presented at Alzheimer’s Association Conference confirms that moderate drinking can reduce the risk of dementia in ageing persons. The study observed over 3000 persons over a period of six years and found that moderate drinkers were 37% less likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s compared to non-drinkers.

The effect was similar to that observed earlier for exercising three times a week.

However, in persons already suffering from the mild cognitive impairment preceding Alzheimer’s, even moderate drinking accelerated the decline to dementia. It seems that once the disease has started, the benefits from alcohol are not strong enough to stop it.

Some factors add to the confusion about these findings. Even in small quanitities, alcohol is toxic to brain cells and some say it leads to shrinkage of the brain. Also, it is possible that it is not the alcohol but certain lifestyle factors of moderate drinkers that provide the real benefit. Observational studies cannot lead to definite conclusions on a cause-and-effect relationship.

Doctors have not yet started prescribing alcohol and might never will.

Read fuller details at: JSOnline

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Posted in cognitive impairment, cognitive science | No Comments »

Video Games for Improving Memory and Thinking Skills in the Elderly Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

National Science Foundation of USA has made a $1.2 million grant to Carolina State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology for a research study. The study will examine whether video games can improve memory and thinking skills in elderly people, and if they do, how it occurs.

The grant will also cover using the findings of the study to develop a prototype video game that will improve the cognitive functioning of this group. With an improved memory, for example, the elderly will better be able to go about their daily routines.
The study will focus on identifying the specific qualities of a video game that help improve cognitive functions.

A set of guidelines will then be formulated for developing a new class of video games for use by older adults. A prototype game will be developed following the guidelines. ccording to the spokesperson of the research group, previous studies have indicated that the three qualities of attention demand, novelty and social interaction of video games can help improve cognitive functions.

Video games demand focused attention for successful play and developing the attention habit can lead to successful completion of other tasks. The novelty of encountering tasks one has not faced before can act as a catalyst for learning. Social interaction can also make the players devote more attention and effort to the game.

The study will start with a test of the cognitive functioning of the participants, who will be persons aged 65 and above. The participants will then play one of the two video games, BOOM BLOX or BOOM BLOX Bash Party. The cognitive functioning of the participants will then be tested again.

BOOM BLOX is a Wii console based video game developed collaboratively by Electronic Arts and Steven Spielberg. According to researchers, it was chosen because its “novelty, attentional demand and social interaction may be manipulated by the researchers.” It would thus be possible to identify the particular factors that improve cognitive functioning.

If, say, the novelty and attentional demand qualities are found to improve cognitive functioning, a new game focusing on these two qualities will be developed. Testing the new game on the participants will help researchers see whether the greater benefits in cognitive functioning can be useful in the real world.

Read more at: Cam Video Games Improve Thinking Skills in Elderly?

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Posted in cognitive science, thinking skills | No Comments »

NEC’s Unified Communications is Integrated into IBM’s Lotus Foundations Monday, February 15th, 2010

NEC announced at the IBM Lotusphere show that its open, software-based Unified Communications (UC) platform, Sphericall, is now fully integrated with IBM’s Lotus Foundations platform.

The software will come as an integral component of the Lotus Foundations system, loading when the system loads. It exposes communication functions to any application on the Foundations platform. SMBs that want applications with integrated communications to optimize their business processes need to look at the IBM/NEC offer.

The full package will be available through both IBM and NEC channels. IBM channels tend to specialize on vertical markets such as retail, distribution, real estate, primary education, local government and such. NEC channels typically have proven telecom expertise.

IBM channel partners can now identify the integrated communication needs of their customers and easily meet these though the NEC package. NEC channels can add value to their offerings through application software, say by partnering with local IBM resellers.

Customers benefit from the synergy of the two technologies to improve their business processes. They can sense the availability of their customers or suppliers for communication, and use instant or plain messaging, video or audio conferences, or other appropriate means to communicate. This ability to communicate while working with different applications from anywhere (e.g. home, remote locations, customer sites, mobile devices) can significantly speed up business processes.

Read about the range of potential benefits at: Unified Communications with Lotus Foundations

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Posted in communications, information technology | No Comments »

Advancing Use of Healthcare Information Technology and Employment Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced on February 12 a total of nearly $1 billion in Recovery Act awards to help health care providers use health information technology (IT) and train workers for the health care jobs of the future.

The health department award of over $750 million is aimed at building capacity for widespread and meaninful use of IT in healthcare. It will assist healthcare providers to adopt and use electronic health records (EHR) in a meaningful way to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare for Americans. The goal of the awards is to help over 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014.

$386 million of the grant will help states to facilitate Health Information Exchange (HIE) and $375 million will go to non-profit organizations for developing regional extension centers (RECs) to aid health professionals implement and use health information technology.

The Department of Labor grant of over over $225 million will help train 15,000 people in healthcare, IT and other high-growth-potential job skills. Grant recipients have already identified roughly 10,000 job openings over the next two years in areas like nursing, pharmacy technology and information technology and the grants will fund training programs to equip people to tap such openings.

While training will be offered at local community colleges, employment services will be available through DOL’s career centers.

Read the full news release at: Recovery Act Announcement

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Posted in healthcare, information technology, training | No Comments »

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