Perfect gift for the neighbors - Mute-Mic, the noiseless USB karaoke microphone

The popularity of karaoke on home gaming consoles might have been a godsend to those frequenting bars and clubs, but the flipside is that the tone deaf are now free to belt out numbers of questionable taste and with even more questionable talent at all hours of the day or night. If there’s a shared wall between you and such noise-polluting offenders you might want to consider gifting them this USB microphone that provides a veritable cone-of-silence around it.

Compatible with Wii and Windows PCs, the USB Karaoke Mute-Mic features a soundproofing cup around the head of the microphone to keep those unwelcome decibels cupped between the singer’s mouth and the microphone. There’s no indication of just how much sound the cup will cancel out, but it is lined with foam to help keep any escaping sound to a minimum.

The neighbor-friendly microphone connects via a 2.7m (106.3-inch) cable and is available from Japan Trend Shop for US$84 not including the US$20 shipping cost. A little pricey perhaps, but money well spent for people who have trouble drifting off to the dulcet tones of a neighbor belting out My Way at two in the morning.

Via technabob

GE sheds light on 40W replacement LED bulb

With many countries planning or having already implemented the phase out of incandescent bulbs, lighting company GE has unveiled a 40W equivalent Energy Smart LED bulb that consumes 9W, hence providing a 77 percent energy saving over its old-fashioned technological incandescent cousin. GE says the Energy Smart LED will produce nearly the same light output as a 40W bulb but will last 25 times longer. It is expected to be available to consumers later this year or early 2011.

While 40W doesn’t sound like a very bright light, the new LEDs have been designed by GE scientists and engineers to better direct light downward, and not just for use in lampshades and other low-light devices. The company hinted that many consumers are unimpressed with current LED bulbs that produce around 350 lumens. These LEDs will deliver 450 lumens, the equivalent of a 40W globe, which is the threshold to achieve the Energy Star rating the company has applied for.

“This is a bulb that can virtually light your kid's bedroom desk lamp from birth through high school graduation,” says John Strainic, global product general manager, GE Lighting. “It's an incredible advancement that's emblematic of the imagination and innovation that GE's applying to solve some of the world's biggest challenges.”

GE Energy Smart LED bulb is expected to consume just 9W - compared with 40W incandescent/halogen or 10W CFL, while delivering nearly the same light output. It’s also expected to last 25,000 hours, or 17 years if used for four hours per day.

The bulbs are manufactured with a durable solid-state design and no filament to break, they contain no mercury and will be RoHS compliant; and are cooler to the touch than CFLs and far cooler than incandescent bulbs.

“The introduction of high-quality retrofit light bulbs, like the GE Energy Smart LED bulb, is a key next step in the LED lighting revolution,” notes Norbert Hiller, Cree vice president and general manager, LED Components.

The bad news … the bulbs are expected to retail for between US$40-50, but that initial cost is more than offset by their long life.

US lighting facts/legislation

Starting in 2012 and continuing through 2014, standard incandescent light bulbs are being removed from sale as a result of US federal lighting efficiency standards. Also, 100W bulbs can no longer be made after January 2012; 75W bulbs cease in January 2013; and wave goodbye to 60W and 40W bulbs from January 2014.

Nanoparticle vaccine cures type 1 diabetes in mice

According to the American Diabetes Association around one in every 400 to 600 children and adolescents has type 1 diabetes – also known as IDDM, or juvenile diabetes. Currently there is no known way to prevent the disease which requires sufferers to administer insulin usually via injection or a pump. Using a nanotechnology-based "vaccine," researchers were able to successfully cure mice with type 1 diabetes and slow the onset of the disease.

Type 1 diabetes is caused when certain white blood cells (called T cells) mistakenly attack and destroy the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The subsequent lack of insulin leads to increased blood and urine glucose and is fatal unless treated with insulin.

"Essentially there is an internal tug-of-war between aggressive T-cells that want to cause the disease and weaker T cells that want to stop it from occurring," said Dr. Santamaria from the Julia McFarlane Diabetes Researchers Center at the University of Calgary, Alberta, who is a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Scholar.

The researchers were looking to specifically stop the autoimmune response that causes type 1 diabetes without damaging the immune cells that provide protection against infections – what is called an "antigen-specific" immunotherapy. They developed a unique vaccine comprised of nanoparticles, which are thousands of times smaller than the size of a cell. These nanoparticles are coated with protein fragments – peptides – specific to type 1 diabetes that are bound to molecules (MHC molecules) that play a critical role in presenting peptides to T cells.

The nanoparticle vaccine worked by expanding the number of peptide-specific regulatory T cells that suppressed the aggressive immune attack that destroys beta cells. The expanded peptide-specific regulatory cells shut down the autoimmune attack by preventing aggressive autoimmune cells from being stimulated by either the peptide contained in the vaccine or by any other type 1 diabetes autoantigen presented simultaneously on the same antigen presenting cell.

The research also provided an important insight into the ability to translate these findings in mice into therapeutics for people with diabetes: nanoparticles that contained human diabetes-related molecules were able to restore normal blood sugar levels in a humanized mouse model of diabetes.

According to Teodora Staeva, Ph.D., JDRF Program Director of Immune Therapies, a key finding from the Alberta study is that only the immune cells specifically focused on aggressively destroying beta cells (or, alternatively, regulating these cells) responded to the antigen-specific nanoparticle vaccine. That means the treatment did not compromise the rest of the immune system – a key consideration for the treatment to be safe and effective in an otherwise healthy person with type 1 diabetes.

"The potential that nanoparticle vaccine therapy holds in reversing the immune attack without generally suppressing the immune system is significant," said Dr. Staeva. "Dr. Santamaria's research has provided both insight into pathways for developing new immunotherapies and proof-of-concept of a specific therapy that exploits these pathways for preventing and reversing type 1 diabetes."

Dr. Santamaria noted that the study had implications for other autoimmune diseases beyond type 1 diabetes. "If the paradigm on which this nanovaccine is based holds true in other chronic autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and others, nanovaccines might find general applicability in autoimmunity," he said.

The nanoparticle vaccine technology used in the study has been licensed by Parvus Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company that is focused on the development and commercialization of the technology for the potential treatment of type 1 diabetes.

The study, conducted at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, appears in the online edition of the scientific journal Immunity.

(Image: aldenchadwick via Flickr)

First robotic underwater vehicle to be powered entirely by natural, renewable, ocean thermal energy

We’ve covered a few underwater autonomous robots designed to make exploring the murky depths easier here on Gizmag, such as Snookie and the Talisman, but none that can generate its own power – until now. NASA, US Navy and university researchers have successfully demonstrated the first underwater vehicle to be powered entirely by natural, renewable, ocean thermal energy. Scalable for use on most robotic oceanographic vehicles, this technological breakthrough could usher in a new generation of autonomous underwater vehicles capable of virtually indefinite ocean monitoring for climate and marine animal studies, exploration and surveillance.

The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging (SOLO-TREC) autonomous underwater vehicle uses a novel thermal recharging engine powered by the natural temperature differences found at different ocean depths.
How it works

SOLO-TREC draws upon the ocean's thermal energy as it alternately encounters warm surface water and colder conditions at depth. Keys to its operation are the carefully selected waxy substances known as phase-change materials that are contained in ten external tubes, which house enough material to allow net power generation. As the vehicle surfaces and encounters warm temperatures, the material melts and expands; when it dives and enters cooler waters, the material solidifies and contracts.

The expansion of the wax pressurizes oil stored inside the float. This oil periodically drives a hydraulic motor that generates electricity and recharges the vehicle's batteries. Energy from the rechargeable batteries powers the float's hydraulic system, which changes the float's volume (and hence buoyancy), allowing it to move vertically.
Ocean Testing

The 84kg (183lbs) SOLO-TREC prototype was tested and deployed by researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California; and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego on November 30, 2009, about 161km (100 miles) southwest of Honolulu. They completed the first three months of an ocean endurance test of the prototype vehicle off the coast of Hawaii in March.

So far, SOLO-TREC has completed more than 300 dives from the ocean surface to a depth of 500m (1,640ft). Its thermal recharging engine produced about 1.7 watt-hours, or 6,100 joules, of energy per dive, enough electricity to operate the vehicle's science instruments, GPS receiver, communications device and buoyancy-control pump.

"People have long dreamed of a machine that produces more energy than it consumes and runs indefinitely," said Jack Jones, a JPL principal engineer and SOLO-TREC co-principal investigator. "While not a true perpetual motion machine, since we actually consume some environmental energy, the prototype system demonstrated by JPL and its partners can continuously monitor the ocean without a limit on its lifetime imposed by energy supply."

"Energy harvesting from the natural environment opens the door for a tremendous expansion in the use of autonomous systems for naval and civilian applications," said Thomas Swean, the Office of Naval Research program manager for SOLO-TREC. "This is particularly true for systems that spend most of their time submerged below the sea surface, where mechanisms for converting energy are not as readily available. The JPL/Scripps concept is unique in that its stored energy gets renewed naturally as the platform traverses ocean thermal gradients, so, in theory, the system has unlimited range and endurance. This is a very significant advance."

SOLO-TREC is now in an extended mission with the JPL/Scripps team planning to operate SOLO-TREC for many more months, if not years. The public can even keep tabs on SOLO-TREC's travels via an online map.

"The present thermal engine shows great promise in harvesting ocean thermal energy," said Russ Davis, a Scripps oceanographer. "With further engineering refinement, SOLO-TREC has the potential to augment ocean monitoring currently done by the 3,200 battery-powered Argo floats."

The international Argo array measures temperature, salinity and velocity across the world's ocean. NASA and the US Navy also plans to apply this thermal recharging technology to the next generation of submersible vehicles.

IBM's solar-powered desalination plant to hydrate the Saudi desert

In spite of the technological age we live in it is reported that one-in-five people on this planet still don’t have access to clean drinking water. To help correct this imbalance, a new, energy-efficient desalination plant with an expected production capacity of 30,000 cubic meters per day will be built in the city of Al Khafji, Saudi Arabia, to serve its 100,000 people. Known more for its computers, IBM has joined forces with KACST (King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology) to build the plant that will be powered by ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic (UHCPV) technology - a system with a concentration greater than 1,500 suns.

According to KACST scientists, the two most commonly used methods for seawater desalination are thermal technology and reverse osmosis. Both methods are high energy users with costs ranging from 2.5 to 5.5 Saudi Riyals per cubic meter (around US$1.50). So the IBM-KACST team is also working to improve nanomembrane technology that filters out salts as well as potentially harmful toxins in water while using less energy than other forms of water purification. The organizations say that by combining solar power with the new nanomembrane, they will be able to significantly reduce the cost of desalinating seawater at these plants.

Chlorine used in reverse osmosis to remove salt and other harmful chemicals from sea water breaks down the membranes that are used for filtration and, over time, the membranes are fouled by unwanted organic and biological molecules and particles. So researchers from IBM and KACST developed chlorine-resistant and fouling-resistant polymers that increase the permeability of the membranes without sacrificing selectivity.

IBM and KACST are also working together to develop a solar concentrator system by adapting IBM’s microprocessor cooling technology that, when combined with other initiatives, will hopefully bring down the cost of photovoltaics for producing solar energy.

“Currently, Saudi Arabia is the largest producer of desalinated water in the world, and we continue to invest in new ways of making access to fresh water more affordable,” said Dr Turki Al Saud, vice president for research institutes, KACST. “Water has the first priority in the Science, Technology and Innovation Plan of the Kingdom, overseen by KACST.”

IBM says that the Saudi's goal is to ramp up the number of desalination plants in order to provide fresh water for one million people in the coming years.

The team says that because more than 97 percent of the world’s water is in the oceans, turning salt water into fresh water cost effectively and energy efficiently offers tremendous potential for addressing the growing worldwide demand for clean water, which is growing faster than the population rate.

“Our collaborative research with KACST has led to innovative technologies in the areas of solar power and of water desalination,” said Sharon Nunes, vice president, IBM Big Green Innovations. “Using these new technologies, we will create energy-efficient systems we believe can be implemented across Saudi Arabia and around the world.”

In February 2008, IBM and KACST signed a multi-year collaborative research agreement, under which scientists from IBM and KACST work side by side at IBM Research labs in New York and California as well as at the KACST/IBM Nanotechnology Center of Excellence in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The IBM and Saudi researchers plan to start work on a pilot plant utilizing the technology later this year with a view to eventually providing an economical means of producing clean water in parts of the world where it is needed.

Via inhabitat

Turning image noise into a good thing

Noise in images is generally held to be a bad thing, but engineers from Princeton University have used a nonlinear material to steal energy from image noise to reveal hidden or obscured objects. The engineers see the technology as potentially paving the way for improvements to radar systems, sonograms and stenography offering the possibility of allowing pilots to see through fog and doctors to look inside the human body without surgery

Jason Fleischer, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Princeton University, explained: "sometimes noise and signal can interact, and the energy from the noise can be used to amplify the signal. For weak signals, such as distant or dark images, actually adding noise can improve their quality."

In experiments, the engineers first passed a laser beam through a small piece of engraved glass to carry an image of lines and numbers to a receiver connected to a video monitor. Then a piece of translucent plastic was placed between the glass and the receiver to scatter the laser's light, making the received image so noisy as to be indecipherable. Finally, the engineers mounted a crystal of strontium barium niobate just in front of the receiver.

The nonlinear crystal mixed up the different parts of the received beam and allowed the signal and the noise to interact. Altering the electric current across the crystal allowed the engineers to fine tune the received image and clear up the scattered mess of light so that the lines and numbers reappeared.

"We used noise to feed signals. It's as if you took a picture of a person in the dark, and we made the person brighter and the background darker so you could see them. The contrast makes the person stand out," said co-author Dmitry Dylov.

Already known in various fields (from neuroscience to energy harvesting), stochastic resonance has not previously been used to bring clarity to images in this way. The engineers have developed a new theory for how noisy signals move through nonlinear materials which could provide the starting point for future developments that may allow pilots to see through fog and doctors to look inside the human body without surgery.

The research findings were published online last month in Nature Photonics.

First green LED means a lighting revolution is fast approaching

When scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) tried to apply their expertise in solar cell technology to build a green LED light from the ground up, they surprisingly centered the objective at their very first try. In doing so they solved a long-standing technological problem and paved the way for the large-scale employment of white LEDs for public and domestic illumination over the course of the next few years.

What's wrong with your good ol' tungsten bulbs, you may ask? The problem is that they produce light by incandescence, which is about the least efficient way to produce light — it wastes the majority of energy to produce useless heat, which inevitably ends up inflating your electrical bill. To a lesser extent, compact-fluorescent lights also share this inefficiency problem, which has led the U.S. Department of Energy to predict that both kinds will be phased out in the space of only four and ten years respectively, leaving LEDs virtually the only player in the market.

LED lights are unanimously regarded as a vast improvement over previous light bulbs because of their much longer lifespan and higher efficiency, which ends up saving us money in the long run, even when the higher initial cost is taken into account.

But to create a white LED, red, blue and green light need to be combined. While the first two colors have been relatively easy to manufacture, researchers have struggled to produce a green LED. The LED-based lights available today circumvent the problem by aiming the blue light at a phosphor, which then emits green light. This does produce white light, but it is still wasteful compared to a white light that makes use of three distinct, all-LED components.

NREL researcher Angelo Mascarenhas, who holds patents in solar cell technology, realized that a LED can be thought of as the reverse of a solar panel, since one takes electricity and turns it into light, while the other takes (sun)light and turns it into electricity.

Mascarenhas used the knowledge gathered by NREL when they created a world-record inverted metamorphic solar cell by combining layers of different lattice sizes to optimally capture solar energy across the visible spectrum. The researchers had already tackled the problem of how to absorb sunlight in the green spectral region, and Mascarenhas built on this knowledge to reverse the process in order to manufacture a green LED.

Absorbing green light is technically challenging because of the way the different layers of lattice that should absorb it are manufactured: if the layers don't match up with the layer below, leaving too big a gap, the efficiency plummets to next to zero. NREL's solution was essentially to insert extra layers of lattice that gradually bridge the gap, improving the cell's efficiency.

Mascarenhas's idea was to reverse the process — that is, making a current flow between appropriately spaced layers of lattice to obtain green light - and reportedly managed to produce a radiant deep green light on the very first try.

NREL is now trying to produce a fourth color to make the white light even whiter. They plan to arrange the four colors in a beehive structure, each cell being an LED of a specific color, so that the light will look white when seen from a distance.

The researchers also plan to make their LED light "intelligent," dynamically matching the percentage of the four colors to the time of the day - for instance, increasing the blue component during daylight, or the reddish-yellow during the night.

Further predictions from the Department of Energy estimate that the move toward LEDs for both public and domestic lighting could save the U.S. as much as US$120 billion over the course of the next 20 years, as well as 246 million metric tons of carbon (approx. 5 percent of U.S. total emissions during the period 1850 through 2000) that would otherwise be released into the Earth's atmosphere.