Smartpen: records everything you hear and write

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen: records everything you hear and write, so you never miss a word.

Capture everything: The Pulse smartpen records audio and links it to what you write. Missed something? Tap on your notes or drawings with the tip of your Pulse smartpen to hear what was said while you were writing. The Pulse smartpen automatically captures everything as you write and draw. Transfer your notes to your computer, organize them, and even search for words within your notes. Find what you want in seconds. Transform your notes and audio into interactive movies and upload your creations online for everyone to see, hear and play. The 1.3 oz. anodized aluminum Pulse smartpen records audio and links it what you write. The 2GB of memory can hold over 100 hours of recording.

To see the video and website go to: http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/index.html

Combination locks that use letters instead of number

Todd Basche created an innovation in an industry that hadn’t seen much change for 150 years.

For many years numbers were Todd Basche’s number one enemy. The former Vice President of Software Applications at Apple just couldn’t remember number combinations. His innovation was born out of necessity, a snagged pair of swimming trunks, and a red face. e came up with a stunningly simple solution for his memory lapses – use words instead of digits on combination locks. The modern combination lock was invented by Linus Yale Jr in 1862, but had remained virtually unchanged since then.

With all the random series of numbers we have to remember for bank cards, cell phones and computer passwords, Basche knew that words would be far easier to remember. He also discovered 100 year-old patents, but the locks were large and unwieldy with 26 characters on each wheel. he letters just replaced the numbers. No one had gone the extra mile to make the locks spell out words. His patented lock has ten characters per wheel and he developed a computer algorithm that told him which letters should be positioned where to get the maximum number of words. There are 10,000 different options. The algorithm also filtered out many of the main curse words.

“We hand crafted prototypes by taking wheels to an engraver and having him engrave the correct letters in. We took the sample to schools and the kids said 'well that’s so much better.'”

During the first year the Santa Clara, California-based company was self-funded and based at the couple’s home. But then they experienced astronomical growth in 2008 and had to move to business premises and take on employees. By the end of the first quarter of that year Wordlock was in 900 stores, by the end of the second quarter they were in 1,200 stores.

There are a range of Worldlock products such as cable locks, bike locks, luggage locks, and utility locks which are sold in Target, Sears, Ace, and online stores such as amazon.com. Basche’s simple and brilliant invention has unlocked a massive revenue stream.

Icon 3CS: breakthrough in the Jewellery space

Icon 3CS

Breakthrough:
A table top plug-in technology to melt and cast precious metals for the production of jewelry in a matter of minutes.

Inventor:
Ali Brey and Irshad Khan, South Africa

The innovation is a potential goldmine as it offers jewelry makers a revolutionary way of working with platinum. The precious metal is not the easiest to work with as it melts at around 2000 degrees Celsius and solidifies within two seconds of the heat being removed. In addition melting and casting typically involves large and very expensive furnaces which can only mass-produce pieces. What the Icon 3CS offers is a way of creating smaller batches or one-off pieces at relatively low-cost. The machine can also melt gold, palladium, silver, and stainless steel and plugs into a standard household electrical socket. It offers small jewelers the opportunity to cast and make their own pieces instead of using a blowtorch (which is a slow and potentially dangerous method).

Induction Heating Technology

At the core of the machine – which is a little bigger than a microwave oven - is an induction heating technology developed by Khan. It has a melting range from as little as 20 grams up to 250 grams of platinum and the casting process is initiated via a computer-controlled interface with an operator entering the metal temperature and casting speed.

The metal is placed in a crucible in an induction coil and is melted via a magnetic field that creates an electrical current that heats the metal quickly. A powerful solid-state high frequency generator creates the alternating current needed for the fast melting. The almost 2,000 degrees Celsius heat is reached within four minutes.

Read more at: http://free.financialmail.co.za/innovations/06/0303/ginn.htm

Motorized knee can make you run faster

The motorized knee comes in a 5 kg kit, part of which straps to your leg, and part of which (the control unit and battery) is worn as a backpack. The device is not designed to help people who are physically handicapped, but is designed to support the flex of the knee for people who just want to run more efficiently. The strap-on knee assistant allows runners to jog steadily at 7.5 km/h, but using 30% less muscle power than they would use for unassisted running. The researchers do not say how much of the saving in muscle power is offset by carrying the 5 kg weight of the gadget.

The research team who developed the device is confident it will be commercialized within the next three years, and that there is a market for it. There are similar devices that help the physically handicapped walk, but the new gadget will be much smaller and lighter by the time it comes to market, and is intended for healthy people who just want to run more efficiently.

Read more at: http://www.physorg.com/news180681294.html

Assembly line hydrophonics

Hydro Harvest production greenhouse---stuns the visitor with its nearly wall-to-wall contents of green. It's a rabbit's dreamland: three 9-foot-wide mats of densely planted lettuce, elevated waist-high and slightly aslant, running the length of the greenhouse with only narrow aisles between. Everything looks ready to eat, but closer inspection reveals that each house-long strip of plants starts with seedlings at the far end and offers mature heads only nearest the greenhouse entrance. The seemingly unbroken ribbons of planting actually consist of hundreds of nine-foot sections of white plastic rain gutter laid side by side like ties on a railroad, each filled with perlite and sporting eleven lettuce plants spaced along its length.

A section of seedlings, placed on the rails with gutters edge to edge, begins the process at the back end of the greenhouse. After one to two weeks of growth, depending on the season, the whole section is rolled forward. As the gutters are moved ahead, they are also spread apart on the skids, to make room for more growth. Then a new section of seedlings is added behind the section that has advanced. More moves follow after additional growth, until there are four sections on the tracks, and the initial planting has reached the other end of the house---by which time its gutters have been spaced several inches apart to correspond with the breadth of full-grown plants. After harvest, the liberated gutters in the lead section are topped off with new perlite and shifted to the rear to take on more seedlings, while the three remaining sections move ahead again.

The system makes optimum use of available space and ensures that plants are ready for harvesting when they arrive at the end of the greenhouse from which they will be shipped. The system also works well for feeding. The support rails under the gutters are designed so that the gutters slope for drainage. Long, black, four-inch vinyl pipes, suspended over the high edge of the gutters, act as reservoirs for the nutrient fluid. Hundreds of tubes project from the larger pipes, and the nutrient solution drips into the perlite and heads downslope. What the plants don't drink and the perlite doesn't absorb runs out the lower ends of the gutters into drain channels, which carry this unused solution to sumps, where pumps return it to the overhead pipes.

Read full article at: http://www.schundler.com/hydrofarm.htm

tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected and used

Glitter-sized solar photovoltaics produce competitive results

From 14 to 20 micrometers thick (a human hair is approximately 70 micrometers thick), they are 10 times thinner than conventional 6-inch-by-6-inch brick-sized cells, yet perform at about the same efficiency.

The tiny cells could turn a person into a walking solar battery charger if they were fastened to flexible substrates molded around unusual shapes, such as clothing.

The solar particles, fabricated of crystalline silicon, hold the potential for a variety of new applications. They are expected eventually to be less expensive and have greater efficiencies than current photovoltaic collectors that are pieced together with 6-inch- square solar wafers.

The cells are fabricated using microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques common to today's electronic foundries.

Sandia lead investigator Greg Nielson said the research team has identified more than 20 benefits of scale for its microphotovoltaic cells. These include new applications, improved performance, potential for reduced costs and higher efficiencies.

"Eventually units could be mass-produced and wrapped around unusual shapes for building-integrated solar, tents and maybe even clothing," he said. This would make it possible for hunters, hikers or military personnel in the field to recharge batteries for phones, cameras and other electronic devices as they walk or rest.

Even better, such microengineered panels could have circuits imprinted that would help perform other functions customarily left to large-scale construction with its attendant need for field construction design and permits.

Read more at: http://www.physorg.com/news180713660.html