Apple's Solar Powered Touch Screen

To survive in this competitive world you need to explore new realms of technology, and "Apple" knows it very well. Today one of the major requirement is to cut down power required by a device or to use renewable energy sources.

Engineers from Apple have come up with a concept of Solar powered touch screen and they have filled a patent for the same. Though they have not released a solar powered gadget but their engineers see a wide potential in multitouch devices and believe to embed it in iPhone and iPad. Above is a diagrammatic representation of this concept where a solar cell is placed under a touch screen of hand held devices. 

The patent describes to use the parabolic reflectors as light channels to direct light to the solar cells underneath the touch screen. The solar panel will be designed such that it will absorb light from the top and also from the glass covering the back. But embedding a solar cell into a device and keeping it significant to gadget's cost is more challenging than stating a theory. In theory the solar cell will be able to use indoor lights rather than only direct sunlight. 

Also read Generate Electricity With Every Move You Make, Every Step You Take.

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Smart Cars Communicating With Traffic Signal.

With the growing numbers of cars on the road, traffic is increasing at an enormous rate. Thus longer will be the time you will have to wait in the traffic signal. But consider a situation where your car need not have to wait, as every time you approach a signal it appears green. WOW! (that's what you will feel)

It's not a hypothetical thought, but with the blending between automotive and electronics industry many such smart cars are being produced. German car company AUDI has made a prototype named Travolution which can talk to traffic signals using LAN and UMTS links interrogating them about the color changing time.

The data sent by the signal is converted into graphics by the system. This then tells the driver what speed to adopt so that the next traffic changes to green before the car reaches it. In the same way if the car is waiting in the red signal the system will tell the driver how much time is left for light to turn green.

These Smart Cars Communicating With Traffic Signals will definitely help to save our time and most important, fuel consumption by 0.02 liter for every traffic signal stop. Though 0.02 may not look bigger but this small figure will help to reduce two million tons of CO2. A great life savior technology for our endangered Earth. What do you think about this technology? Do write to us.

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Get Inspired.

Dear friends; if you dream of exploring the unknown path of technology but you are scared whether it is feasible or not then here is something inspiring.

Vivek Anand a 3rd year Information Technology student from Govt. Engg Collage Bikaner, and his three other group members had deviced a multi-touch screen technology "Sparsh" which can take 10 commands in a single go. See this video below before you continue reading.....

Back in the year 2008 Anand, and his collage mates Anirudh Sharma, Rahul Motiar and Sudanshu Gautam thought of developing a system which can make computer interaction simpler. They weren't sure of the outcome. But with firm determination, and devotion towards their work, they started the project. And now after two years of persistence their project paper is being published at ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces 2010 which will held at Germany.

The team also won the first prize in open hardware and best hardware project in IIT Kanpur. There it was also observed by NASA's scientist David Hanson. But their was more glory awating. The project won 20 awards which includes first prize from IIT Delhi, IIT Mumbai, BITS. It was even recommended at  Google Summer of Code.

The technology has a vast area of application including locating landmark, up-link information on cellphone, providing an enhanced multimedia experience, gaming, mapping etc. Riding high with confidence; these boys were also offered by an entrepreneur to put the technology in railway stations.

So, isn't it inspiring! Don't be pushed by your problems, be led by your dream. Because dreams are like the paints of a great artist. Your dreams are your paints, the world is your canvas. Believing, is the brush that converts your dreams into a masterpiece of reality....

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Peering Into Reverse Engineering

Have you ever thought of buying an Ipad or Iphone and tear it down into pieces to peer inside its integrated circuits and processor. No! I know you are not that Einstein. But researchers form chipwork make it their business to find it out. They buy mobile phones, laptops and reverse engineer the hardware, ICs and derive the complete schematic diagram.

Actually the reverse engg. process has long been recognized in semiconductor industry. For example to get a piece of silicon from plastic package, is dipped into a beaker of acid. For ceramic and metal can packages different complicated process are followed. 

So what new reverse engineers found after tearing down Ipad was 16Gbyte memory powered by two Samsung K9LCG08U1M 8Gbyte flash Nand memories; and instead of  Texas Instrument's touch controller do all the touch screen controls as in Iphone 3G they used three- chips as their earlier version of Iphone 2G.

Image: Inside Apple Ipad a)Metal Layers b)Transistor details c)Circuit Layout.

But the most difficult portion is to peer into smaller and delicate designs. With the use of powerful electron microscopes like SEMs (scanning electron microscope) and TEMs (transmission electron microscope) magnification till atomic level is feasible. With the analysis of cross-section and planar section of the layers, images are merged in a software like ICwork and a schematic is obtained.

Image: Schematic obtained of Bootstrap Oscillator circuit from SmartMOS DC/DC converter

But a question still arises whether reverse engg. is legal. In US according to Semiconductor Chip protection act the technique is allowed for the purpose of teaching, analyzing and evaluating the concept. Similar law exists in European Union, Japan and other jurisdiction. But with the growing competitive intelligence people involved in patenting are evolving with new techniques and designs which are hard to debug and reverse engineer.

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Generate Electricity With Every Move You Make Every Step You Take.

Have you ever wondered generating electricity merely by walking over a distance. If not then you will be amazed to know that scientist from Georgia tech University has developed a device which can generate power from body movement.

They have used Piezoelectric materials and drawn them into nanowires that can be woven into cotton shirt or housed into shoe hill. Piezoelectric crystals have a special characteristic that when they are subjected to force or pressure they produce electric signals. Though this electric signals are very weak but by cramming 20,000 nanowires into three square cm area can produce power in millivolt range.

With every move and every step you take pressure is applied on the piezoelectric crystal and electric signal starts flowing through the electrodes. It may not be possible to turn on an electrical appliance but at least atleast cellphones and ipods can be easily charged.

Single nanowires are invisible to naked eyes. Prof Z.L.Wang and his team at Georgia tech are using Zinc Oxide nanowires to built this nano generators. This nanowires are 50 to 200 nanometers in diameter and 5 micron in length. 2 thin electrodes are used and place between this 20,000 nanowires to drive current from it.

This arrangement helps to maximize the electricity produced by piezoelectric crystals. But if the zinc oxide is replaced by Gallium Nitride the power output could increase by 10 times.

If the device is not in constant motion then the nanowires will shut off and no electricity will flow. To rectify this Prof. Wang will develop supercapacitors to store the charge generated by the nanowires. 

Till now only a prototype is made and lots of work is needed to be done. It is likely to take 3-4 years before you can actually get a cloth of nanowires and put the concept into action. Till the time hold on and wait...

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Parameters of Layout Check while Designing a PCB : 2 [ Grid System]

Grid system is basically required to get an accuracy while drawing the hole location of a component. The use of grid gives more convenience in placement of components and conductors on the PCB. It is a general practice to use grid system in layout designing.

By using the grid system in the artwork preparation stage the pads can be placed at exactly the center of the grid intersection. In the modern times the grid system is present in your PCB designing software itself. Using a grid of 100mil is adequate. But if you wanna shrink your PCB then grid of 50mil is also acceptable.

As the design becomes more and more complex finer and finer grids are required. Universal  grid system is based on the 0.05mm unit. For all shape and sizes and for every aspect of the PCB layout grid size should be incremented as the multiple of  5; else routing will be quite difficult.

Want to know more about grid system PCB design org >>

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Guide To Conquer Electronics [Resistors]

Resistors are the simplest components of electronics. There's nothing great that you may find difficult to understand. Moreover there are tons of sites on the net that are loaded with the of concept of resistors. But one thing which  I have found similar in all these sites are; they discuss about what the resistors actually are and how we can determine the color codes. But none of them discuss about the different types of resistors and which type of resistor should be used where. 

So I decided to come up with a Guide to Conquer Electronics with an idea to explore the applications of different components of electronics and their types.

While designing a circuit it is very important to maintain proper current and voltage level across different components for proper operation of the circuit. If excess of current is flowing then it can be brought down using resistors. Resistors are available in different ohm ratings and different wattage.

The guide covers all this subjects with a pictorial representation. Pictures will help you for the better identification of the component, its package type, and space required on the PCB.  I hope the Guide to Conquer Electronics will be advantageous  for you in better circuit designing.

If you are unable to understand the concepts of electronics like JFETs, voltage regulators, Ac modeling then we have electronic movies a fully animated program in store for you. Visit EMovies >>

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