August 2011
Hybrid Power -
First by Land and Now by Sea
The NY Hornblower is the first not classified vessel to spin its propellers and power its electrical systems using a hybrid system that combines hydrogen fuel cells, solar panels, and wind turbines. When this column went to press, the NY Hornblower was still in its construction dry-dock almost ready for its New York City debut. When it goes into service, perhaps this month, it will transport passengers to the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island immigration museum fromManhattan’s pier 40.
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
September 2011
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
A new GPS/Wi-Fi enabled system has recently been announced, and when it goes online it will allow location-based social networking systems to track enabled phones and tablets indoors. The system is called WIFISLAM.
WiFiSLAM can find your indoor location by fusing information from a number of sources. The starting point, of course, would be your last GPS location. When your GPS signal is lost, your phone will start to rely on the signals it receives from in-range Wi-Fi networks.
WIFISLAM =s Indoor GPS
Fake Tattoo Can Monitor a Person’s Vital Signs
This Fake Tattoo Can Monitor a Person’s Vital Signs
October 2011
Professor John Rogers and his team at the University of Illinois have developed a prototype temporary tattoo that contains microelectronic circuits on a clear rubber transfer medium. The team’s temporary body art tattoos can monitor a person's vital signs while they are up and about performing their normal daily activities.
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
A Tattoo
Medical Breakthrough
Microelectronic circuits inside the tattoo monitor vital signs of the patient.
Hi-Tech Flywheels Spin Kinetic Energy into Electricity
November 2011
Since their invention, flywheels have stayed relevant because of their amazing ability to function as an energy intensifier, energy equalizer, and storage medium for energy derived from intermittent resources. We find them in a seemingly infinite number of places, including automobile engines, industrial machines, earth satellites, and even children’s toys.
How are we now using them to spin kinetic energy into electricity?
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By Alan J. Pierce EdD
Hi-Tech Flywheels Spin Kinetic Energy into Electricity
Imagine Car Crash Survival Systems
Empowered by Car to Car Communication
December 2011
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By Alan J. Pierce EdD
When modern cars collide they are designed to absorb energy to protect the people inside the vehicle. Car Experts now believe that new car to car communication systems can be designed to keep vehicles from crashing into each other. If each car could tell every other car, “here I am,” a new accident avoidance systems could reduce car crashes, bodily injury, passenger deaths, and car insurance damage claims.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is now funding a major test to determine if accidents and driving times could be reduced if cars talked to each other. Data collection and evaluation will be performed by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute.
Cambridge Crude
The MIT Liquid Fuel in a New Battery Architecture
January 2012
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By Alan J. Pierce EdD
The future automobile will run on electricity not gasoline! This could quickly happen if you could pull up with your EV to a "gas" pump to recharge your car with a liquid electric fuel.
Cambridge Crude, the nickname of a new Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) liquid battery recharging system will let you do just that. This new liquid charge goes in as the old one goes out for re-charging by the fueling station; to be used over and over again.
MIT "Engine"
Turns a Liquid into Electricity
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Using Technology (Playlater and the Wi-Drive)
To Make Travel Time Fly
February 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
PlayLater is a PC DVR that is married to an Internet browser. It lets you record shows from all the channels shown in the photo. You need an Internet connection to record your shows, but you don’t need a connection to watch them.
The Wi-Drive establishes a private Wi-Fi network. It is about the same size as an iPod Touch and it lets you supersize the storage capacity of your handheld devices. It can broadcast different content to up to three different-brand handheld units at the same time.
Click an image to Watch
a Playlater or Wi-Drive Video
Click an image to Watch
a Playlater or Wi-Drive Video
The plasma brush is the new tool that can remove dental decay and prepare a tooth for a filling without any painful drilling. (See photo.) This technology not only removes the need for the drill, it also eliminates the need for most Novocain injections.
Your dentist might switch from a drill to the plasma brush sometime next year.
Painless Dentistry
March 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P89UOeN2Kcw&feature=player_embedded
Waterproofing Electronics
April 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
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The HzO process keeps electronics dry underwater without a waterproof case. This protective coating will be applied by the manufacturer. A phone with HzO WaterBlock on the inside and a LifeProof case on the outside would certainly be an interesting product to own.
This column explores waterproofing from the outside in and the inside out.
May 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
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The Friction-Stir Welding process welds metals without melting them. It works on metals including aluminum, a metal that cannot easily be joined using other metal fusion processes.
NASA engineers have recently reengineered this technology so that it can now be used on materials that vary in thickness and even weld objects with very complex shapes.
Friction-Stir Welding
August 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
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Imagine sports clothing, technology cases, bicycle helmets, and other things all made out of a material that can absorb up to 90% of the most intense force to protect whatever they encase. A material that can protect an already damaged body part, prevent personal injury during extreme sports, or even prevent electronic devices from being crushed.
Reactive Protection Technology
September 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
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The flowing water in your home can be turned into electricity. With funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Rentricity is starting to prove that you can turn flowing drinking water into electricity. Their engineers are now installing new valve/generators that will use wasted pressure to generate electricity.
Generating Electricity From Drinking Water
October 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
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From liftoff to landing,Curiosity flew 352 million miles in 245 days. Because of the
distance between planets, NASA Mission Control didn’t even know if the landing worked until Curiosity had been on the ground for seven minutes.
The computer controlled landing depended on a computer program that contained half a million lines of code. Why and how this landing succeeded is covered in this column.
The Curiosity Martian Landing
November 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
If you were ever bitten by a mosquito, and who hasn't, you will find the work of these doctors fascinating. Imagine a world without biting Mosquitos!!!!
Biotechnologists, at the laboratory level, have found a way to eliminate mosquito bites. They also have found a way to stop them from being able to carry Malaria. They are now working on preventing mosquitos from carrying other diseases.
Their solutions don't involve the use of insecticides. This column also explains why Mosquitos' bite and why some people are actually Mosquito magnets.
Bioengineering the Mosquito Bite
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Goodyear engineers have found a way to place an air pump, air gauge, and automatic air valve into truck and car tires. As you drive, these tires check their air pressure and active their internal pump to add air if the tire is low.
This entire system runs on the electrcity generated by the turning of the tire as your car or truck is in motion. Goodyear calls the new self-regulating system Air Maintenance Technology (AMT).
December 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
Goodyear's Self-Inflating Tire
January 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
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If you don't have electric heat in your home you can get your heating system running during a power blackout. This column can help you design an emergency system that lets you switch from your electric company to a home generator by just flicking some switches in a manual transfer switch box. If you lose utility power often you might want to look at a standby generator that is permanently mounted outside of your home. This type of system is also explained and it is usually installed with an automatic transfer switch.
Don't be Powerless During a Blackout
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Baxter the Unconventional Robot
February 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
Baxter the unconventional robot writes its own programming code. Baxter is a new type of robot, with toy-like features, that has been designed to work next to people.
Baxter was created by Rodney Brooks the former director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Before he established Rethink Robotics and created Baxter, he founded iRobot. A company that builds consumer robotic cleaning machines, military warrior bots, and rescue robots. Rodney Brooks is called the go-to guy for artificial intelligence, computer vision, and robotics.
Click to read over 100 other stories on new & emerging technologies.
March 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
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What is new and emerging in Keyless Entry just might amaze you!!! At CES I learned that residential, commercial, and automobile locks will soon allow you to use your smartphone to do everything from opening doors to adjusting internal environments to match your individual desires.
To get the big picture just click on the link below.
Click to Watch on YouTube
Advances in Remote Keyless Entry
April 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
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The basic science fiction concept of a
universal translator is simple. You speak into your smartphone in your native language and your words are changed on the fly so they exit the speaker on the other end of the wireless phone call in the language that your listener understands. (See photos.)
Microsoft is the current leader in the development of this technology. They can now almost instantly convert your telephone call statements into another language and have the person you are talking to hear your thoughts in their language in a voice that sounds just like you!
The Universal Translator Telephone
Click to Watch on YouTube 2012
Rick Rashid, Microsoft’s chief research officer demonstrates this technology
Click to Watch Microsoft 2010
Lead Researchers showing off an early version of this technology
May 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
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You learned in science that vulcanization is a process that changes the structure of rubber, making it indestructible. The Fraunhofer Institute of Germany and two American companies have demonstrated that they can turn old vulcanized rubber tires into a powder that can once again be bonded together by the heat and pressure of an extrusion machine or the injection molding process. The full story tells how they are now starting to turn old rubber particles into new high quality products.
Reversing the Vulcanization Process
Reversing the Rubber Vulcanization Process
August 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
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The vision of a “paperless office” dates back to 1975 and the “paperless society” has been around since 1978.The same technology breakthroughs that ushered in the predictions that paper would become irrelevant to communication are now about to guarantee that paper will continue to play a significant role in electronic communication.
In the future our society will depend on new paper products. The next generation of Electronic Circuits will be built on a paper substrate.
The Paperless Office
+ Time c
=s A Paperless Society?
or a shift to new Electronic circuits built on paper.
September 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
Today General Electric’s aviation division and NASA are both creating engine parts on a 3D-printer. Their industrial 3D-printing process is called Additive Manufacturing. It is a 3D printing machine on steroids. The parts that they are producing can handle 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Watch this NASA video.
On the do it yourself side of 3D printing you can make just about anything even if you don't own a 3D printer. Read the full story to learn how. This technology is now being used to create tools, weapons, machine parts, and food. In high tech medical laboratories it is actually being used to create human tissues and organs for transplantation.
3D Printing on Steroids
3D Printing
From the Simple to the Complex
NASA Testing 3D Printed Engine Combuster
Consumer Side of 3D Printing
October 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
The modern elevator story began in 1852 with Elisha Otis’s invention of a safety mechanism that stopped elevators from falling. To take passengers on a half mile- high elevator ride in the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, the Otis Elevator Company had to build a lift system with a 100-ton capacity.
Without a major breakthrough, elevators have reached their height limits because longer cables will break under their own weight. At this time, the construction industry is evaluating KONE Ultra-Rope™ which is a carbon fiber replacement for the steel elevator skyscraper cables.
A Vertical Transportation Breakthrough
A Vertical Transportation
Breakthrough
November 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
A new hybrid engine has just been developed that operates both as a jet engine and a rocket engine. This hybrid jet-rocket engine will provide the aerospace industry with the perfect power plant to propel a single stage spaceship from the ground directly into low earth orbit.
A spaceship powered by these hybrid rocket engines could take off from an airport runway and then directly fly cargo and people into low earth orbit. Initially SABRE powered spaceship flights would deliver cargo and people to the International Space Station. Eventually, if the technology proves to be as safe as current jet engines, these planes could carry passengers to any place in the world in just a few hours.
The Hybrid Jet-Rocket Engine
The Hybrid Jet-Rocket Engine
The Hybrid Jet-Rocket Engine
November 2013 TechDirections Magazine Cover Story
This new technology was developed by Disney engineers and it actually sounds impossible. They developed a way for you to feel the shape of 3D objects with your fingers as you touch a 2D image of the object on a new computer touch screen.
To create this magical display the Disney researchers created an electrical vibration display that creates a variety of surface tensions that you feel as the physical shape of the object that you see on the screen.
Touching 3D Objects
on a New Type of 2D Touch Screen
The Hybrid Jet-Rocket Engine
New Glue Can Replace Nails
in Building Construction
Today, the wood elements of a structure are generally held together by metal nails and staples. Gluing as a method of holding any part of the structure together is minimal because it takes too long for glues to dry and form a strong bond.
A new bonding material has recently been developed for use in the construction of prefabricated housing. It is an adhesive that, in 60 seconds, goes from a solid to a liquid and then on to form a full bond when it is activated by an electrical current.
Woodframe Construction without Nails?
January 2014
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
February 2014
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
Teaching a Bacterium to Fight Global Warming
Scientists have pegged Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as the most troublesome greenhouse gas because of how long it will remain in our atmosphere. Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide is now at the highest level ever recorded.
Researchers at MIT have genetically altered a soil bacterium (see photo) so it can eat CO2 and digest it into a gasoline substitute. This fuel can be used instead of gasoline in cars without engine modifications.
Teaching a Bacterium to Fight Global Warming
March 2014
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
The Birth of
Your Personal Digitally Connected World
The birth of the personal digitally connected world is at hand.
Imagine new products that perform tasks for you automatically after they learn your likes and dislikes. The future is here and new consumer products introduced at this year’s CES are ready to automatically control:
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Thermostats that automatically build a temperature schedule for your home. They know when you are home and reduce heating and cooling when you are away.
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Your doors, lights, appliances, security system, etc all ready to take your commands through Near Field Communications (NFC). When you are not home your smartphone can still automatically give commands or you can take command from anywhere in the world.
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Digitally empowered appliances that email to you shopping lists and let you call in what you want them to do..
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Wearable tech that helps you stay fit, take videos and photos, and will show you messages while your smartphone is safely tucked away from prying eyes. |
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Cars that will watch the road for you or never require you to stop at a gas station again. |
April 2014
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
The New Smartwatch Communicator
Can you shoot photos and video on your watch? Can the watch on your wrist serve as a hands free telephone? If it can’t perform the above tasks perhaps it can at least control what music is playing on your smartphone or let you read and answer text messages. At CES 2014 Samsung introduced their newest product the Galaxy Gear Smartwatch. The Galaxy Gear is a communication Swiss Army Knife that looks and acts like a working prop from a James Bond movie. If you want to know what else it can do read the full column.
Controlling Cybernetic Machines with the Human Mind
The first cybernetic people will only have a few mind controlled parts. These parts will replace amputated arms, hands, or legs. People with these kinds of replacements are now common in Sci-Fi movies. This column explores how close we are to almost human androids and mind controlled cybernetic replacement parts for people.
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Technology Today from TechDirections Magazine
May/June 2014
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
