Science and Technology intertwine once again to create energy for the future. Scientists and engineers have tried to make use of energy of any source that can make the life of a particular object. They are getting one step closer with the Nuclear Batteries. Yes, it does sound daunting with the word “Nuclear” in it, but researchers claim that it is quite safe. How it the Nuclear Battery works is as the radioactive substance decay, it releases Beta (charged) particles and when collected properly, it can create electricity!

The size of the Nuclear Battery compared to a Penny!

            The Nuclear Battery is still being trialed, having made a small unit sample the size slightly larger than a penny. A team at the University of Missouri, lead by Jae Wan Kwon, is trying to have the battery even smaller, yet completely efficient, to be used with devices categorized in MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) or NEMS (nano- electromechanical systems). These are basically technology that combines computers with tiny mechanical devices such as sensors, valves, gears, mirrors, and actuators embedded in semiconductor chips.

            Nuclear Battery have been used in various technologies, including space satellites, underwater systems, and even pacemakers! I know what some of you are thinking, how can pacemakers have Nuclear Batteries if the radioactivity is extremely severe for the human body? First thing that pops out when one hears nuclear is the two elements of Uranium and Plutonium. First, pacemakers with radioactivity weren’t successful and discontinued in the late 80s. Second, even though radioactivity was used in mostly space devices (such as Plutonium-238, which is highly radioactive), strong radioactive elements weren’t used. Let’s get a bit nerdy and enter a realm of chemistry to understand how small devices emit radioactivity

            Nickel-63 is a radioactive element. Considering that this specific radioactive is weak and quite abundant, it is cheap to get and use. It has a half-life of 92 years (that’s less than 46 years of life) and emits beta particles with no problem. As it decays and creates electrons to generate electricity, it becomes Copper-63, a stable element, which is safe. There are other elements, such as Tritium, that can be used, which has a half-life of roughly 12 years and it less harmful than Nickel.

            To get back on topic, Nuclear Batteries uses the isotopes of the radioactive element to power devices for a long period of time. The only problem of this is that to use these isotopes, the conductor or semiconductor had to be built large or the isotopes would suffer damage. Professor Jae Wan Kwon created a liquid solution that will enable a small device as the battery to transfer the isotopes without causing any damage, making them safe under normal use.

            Now, using this to power future technology would be a great improvement, but a risky one at that. Now all technology today uses some sort of radioactivity when you use it (if you didn’t, well now you know!), and having a Nuclear Battery in something as an iphone is like walking with a mini nuke; atomic bomb, in your possession! Or I may be exaggerating. But the big question is, will this be successful or kill us in the long run?

A Taiwan based company Openmoko releasing a hand-held device that lets you take Wikipedia, the popular online collaborative encyclopedia, with you wherever you go. The WikiReader allows for searching through all of Wikipedia’s current entries, but nothing else. The WikiReader stores it’s information on a microSD card which can be updated with quarterly downloads free from the WikiReader website or the updated cards can be mailed out every few months for an annual fee of $29.

With so many people owning SmartPhones and other cell phones with online capabilities, it is really worth it to shell out $99 to get access to only Wikipeda? Notoriously known as having erroneous content thanks to it’s reliability on user created content, who needs to have a device that does nothing else than act as a pocket-size mildly unreliable encyclopedia?

With no Internet connection required, this might suit someone who needs quick access to information who might not have a computer handy. It is perfect for those who are unwilling to upgrade their cell phones or who have little working knowledge with computers. And to make life even simpler, the WikiReader doesn’t need to be charged as it runs on two AAA batteries. The WikiReader website promotes itself as “easy way to protect your child from adult-oriented content”.
For such a technology free device, it seems odd that the WikiReader has a Twitter page, and a Facebook page, and videos on YouTube.

photo courtesy of: CNET.com

The concept of the Livescribe Pulse sounds a little over the top at first.  Who would want to pay $130 to $170 for a smartpen?  What makes this pen so special?  Why would anyone need a pen that has a built in digital voice recorder that needs special paper?  The more I researched  the Livescribe Pulse, I became an enthusiast about the many uses for this helpful new technology! 

 Have you ever tried to transcribe your notes to a lecture and just don’t understand what you wrote?  When your professor is speaking rapidly and writing a diagram on the board, your notes can be incomplete and just a jumbled mess.  Some students bring a digital voice recorder to class and record the lecture.  Some students take notes.  Some students combine the two techniques – recording lectures and taking notes.  The special paper that interfaces with the Livescribe Pulse pen are called “dot” notebooks.  Recorded audio is indexed on the “dots” that were touched while you were taking notes.  By tapping on the handwritten note, you can call up the digital voice recording at that moment in the lecture.  The notes taken with the Livescribe Pulse pen can be uploaded to your PC or Mac and you can manipulate them and share them with your classmates.  This system is not cheap – about $130 for a 1 GB pen and $170 for a 2 GB pen.  The notebook paper is sold for around $13 to $25, depending on where you buy it and how much you buy at one time. 

The cost may be prohibitive to many college students, however it would  be a useful tool for the learning disabled student who struggles to make sense of his notes and recall the lectures.  There is a very detailed explanation on the functionality of the Livescribe Pulse at Gizmodo .  The Livescribe Pulse was named one of the top 3 of the 25  best back to school gadgets in Time.com.    At first glance, it seems frivolous, but the many uses and future applications of the Livescribe Pulse smartpen will help make it a useful tool in business and education.

watch?v=OU_RKv5zemM

For those of you who don’t remember the Laserdisc, it was first produced by MCA and Phillips in 1978. A big, 12” disc that was a superior technology to the VHS tapes that dominated the market in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Bulky and easily scratched, it was also vastly more expensive which lead to its ultimate demise. In the early 1980’s, the average Laserdisc player cost roughly around $1,000, with each movie commanding a price of $35. Each disc, despite it’s physical size was limited in playback time to 60 minutes per side. That means most movies would have to be  flipped manually to continue watching a film. Many players, especially ones built after the mid-1980s, could flip the discs automatically, but this was accompanied by a lengthy pause in the movie during the side change. If the movie went longer than what could be stored on 2 sides of a single disc, manually swapping to a second disc would be necessary at some point during the film.
The Laserdisc had a number of advantages over VHS. It featured a far sharper picture and it could handle analog and digital audio where VHS was mostly analog only. Laserdisc were largely chapter based, like DVDs, meaning that they could jump to any point on a disc. A VHS tape by comparison requires rewinding and fast-forwarding to get to specific points. Also, Laserdiscs were cheaper than videocassettes to manufacture but despite the fact that VCRs could record onto blank cassettes, manufacturers of the Laserdisc refused to market recordable discs. Despite its technological advantages, price and size are the main reasons the Laserdisc failed and had since become obsolete.
If Blu-Ray is not careful, they will become extinct for committing some of the same mistakes the as Laserdisc. Despite having better resolution and giving you the ability to watch movies in HD, a Blu-Ray disc is just a glorified, overpriced DVD. Unless you are willing to purchase a big new HDTV, the slightly higher picture quality will be lost on you. Not only that, but a Blu-ray player today can cost you anywhere from $200- $900. And each Blu-Ray movie costs about $30. Compared to a DVD, the lower-quality counterpart, which can be purchased for as low as $5; quite a price difference. And a DVD player can be found for around $35, as much as one Blu-Ray movie! Many people already have an extensive DVD collection, and with the economy today, it would not be surprising that they would not be willing to upgrade to a higher quality film just for slightly better video resolution. Although Blu-Ray is more widely accepted than the Laserdisc was in it’s time, it is perched on the edge of obscurity. Good luck, Blue-Ray, but watch your back for digital downloads!
Personally, I will keep the movies I have and upgrade only when and if the DVD becomes obsolete. But it doesn’t look like I’ll have to worry about that any time soon!!

Laserdisc, 1992

DEVO promotes the Laserdisc

Toshiba will be unveiling its first television based cell processor. This is the same chip that sits at the heart of the Playstation 3 game console. Each chip contains a single power PC core and eight co-processors.

The cell chip was designed and developed by Toshiba, IBM, and Sony. This chip makes heavy-duty processing of video easier and faster. The chip provides real-time up scaling of standard definition to a quality closer to that of high definition. It streams multiple chapters from recorded tv shows, similar to the multi-screen menu on some DVDs. Toshiba, however, has no intention of having Playstation be compatible with this cell based tv.

Toshiba has been showing prototypes of this cell technology in televisions for the past few years. The unveiling of this project for the public will be October 5^th at the upcoming Ceatec Electronic Show. With the launch date not yet announced, the unveil timing suggests it should be on sale in Japan by the end of this year.

BY Michael Grant
Playstation3 is a multimedia device that was released on May 15, 2005 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The Expo more commonly known as E3 is an annual video game convention presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). Many game developers use this trade show as a great way to promote upcoming games and related hardware. PS3 launched in Japan, North America, Europe and Australasia in November of 2006 several days apart from one another. The system originally came out on two platforms, one was a 20GB system for 499 dollars and the other was a 60GB system for 599 dollars.

The original PS3 components consisted of 4 USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet cable port, Optical audio port, HDMI output, and an AV multi-out connector (same style found in PS2). Higher end models came with a memory stick, SD and compact flash cards that could be found in the flip up door on the front of the device. WI-FI connectivity is built into this magnificent machine. The Sixaxis wireless controller that operates by use of Bluetooth 2.0 technology can control the different functions of the PS3. Although this new controller is structurally the same as the old PS2 version it does have new adjustments. The L2 and R2 buttons are now triggers (similar to Xbox360). Tilt technology is built into the controller and that allows the remote control to recognize any angle the controller is put in for full 3D control of an object on screen. Playstation3 also supports playback of MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/h.264 video files from USB, disc based media, and JPEG images.

Presently there is the Play-station Slim that dropped in North America on September 1, 2009. It is smaller, lighter, and more affordable than the earlier PS3s. Sony was able to meet production efficiency and cut the original price in half, the Slims sell for 299 dollars. The new slim version comes with 120GB of memory space but only has 2 USB ports and does not have the flip up door that comes with the original PS3 regardless a more than favorable tradeoff for the consumer.

Playstation3 is one of the latest video gaming systems out and is getting better and better. This system is awesome better graphics and innovative technological implements have been made, the controller has been modified to fit more comfortably in a person’s hand. The system can act as a digital media hub and can stream content from any DLNA-compatible network device.

(The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is a global collaboration of 245 of your most trusted brands, all working together to help you create the home entertainment environment you’ve always imagined (http://www.dlna.org/about_us/roster/).) Although this multi functioning product is state of the art the built in web browser could use some improvements it takes some time and practice to learn how to maneuver from one site to the next.  The rumble technology that was lost from PS2 to PS3 should also be brought back because it added another level of excitement to the gaming aspect. A couple of minor wrinkles in the system that will be ironed out in the near future. Sony’s Playstatin3 is unbelievably entertaining. Not only is one allowed to surf the Internet. This device plays standard DVDs to high quality Bluray discs. It can also play and store music, as well as display and store pictures. The built in power supply makes it less bulky and adds sex appeal for an added bonus. If you don’t have one you should invest in one because things are only going to improve. PS3 is not only a gaming device like the original PS1, it has developed into something that is much more than that, it is a multimedia device that doesn’t limit itself to competition within the gaming space but competes for entertainment in general.
PS3 Video