Underwater wi-fi given test run to create 'deep-sea internet' 16 October 2013Last updated at 07:08 ET The team dropped two 40lb (18kg) sensors into a lake near Buffalo Researchers have tested an "underwater wi-fi" network in a lake in an attempt to make a "deep-sea internet". The team, from the University of Buffalo, New York, said the technology could help detect tsunamis, offering more reliable warning systems. They aim to create an agreed standard for underwater communications, to make interaction and data-sharing easier. Unlike normal wi-fi, which uses radio waves, the submerged network technology utilises sound waves. Radio waves are able to penetrate water, but with severely limited range and stability. Wireless communication underwater has been possible for some time, but the problem lies in getting separate systems used by different organisations to communicate with each other. However due to infrastructure differences, this data cannot be shared quickly with other information gathered by the US Navy. 'Unprecedented ability'
Flutter: $20 Wireless Arduino with half mile (1km) range. by Flutter Wireless Flutter is a wireless electronics development platform based on Arduino. With over 3200ft (1km) of usable range, a powerful ARM processor, and integrated encryption, Flutter makes it easy for you to build projects that communicate across the house, across the neighborhood, and beyond. Whether you want to check the temperature of a beer-brewing setup, have your mailbox send you a text message when the mailman arrives, control a swarm of flying robots, or just turn on your lights with your phone, Flutter gives you the range, power, and flexibility to do it. We’re not just building circuit boards though. Our goal is simple: make it easier for engineers, makers, builders, and hackers to go farther with their projects than ever before. Even if it's their first time. Creating Flutter networks is easy, even if it’s just two boards. Multiple options Building wireless projects shouldn’t have to be expensive. Flutter Basic ($20)Still under development, the Flutter basic is tiny and simple. Range
These Skyscrapers Will Clean Pollution From The Surrounding Water And Air Two towers almost a kilometer high have been announced for Wuhan, China. But they won't just be special because of their height - the towers will actually clean the polluted lake next to which they will sit. At 830m high the Burj Khalifa has been the world's tallest building since 2010. However, these days that record seldom lasts long. UK architects Chetwoods are proposing to go for the full 1000m. Tall buildings require a lot of power, particularly for lifts, but Adele Peters of business magazine Fast Company reports “Wind turbines, lightweight solar cladding, and hydrogen fuel cells running on the buildings’ waste will generate all of the power used by the towers, plus a little extra for the rest of the neighbourhood.” Moreover, the designers propose to tackle Wuhan's notorious pollution. “The water goes up through a series of filters,” explains architect Laurie Chetwood.
The wireless network with a mile-wide range that the “internet of things” could be built on Robotics engineer Taylor Alexander needed to lift a nuclear cooling tower off its foundation using 19 high-strength steel cables, and the Android app that was supposed to accomplish it, for which he’d just paid a developer $20,000, was essentially worthless. Undaunted and on deadline—the tower needed a new foundation, and delays meant millions of dollars in losses—he re-wrote the app himself. That’s when he discovered just how hard it is to connect to sensors via the standard long-distance industrial wireless protocol, known as Zigbee. It took him months of hacking just to create a system that could send him a single number—which represented the strain on each of the cables—from the sensors he was using. The result is an in-the-works project called Flutter. Flutter’s range is 3,200 feet in open air, but multiple Flutters can also cover even larger areas in a “mesh” network. “We have Wi-Fi in our homes, but it’s not a good network for our things,” says Taylor.
WiSTiCK – Wireless Sensor Networks with Arduino | Sigalabs Following my last post about IoT and WSN networks, i would like to introduce you a new tool for your first open source WSN. The idea came from where most of my ideas come, a personal need. But i also wanted to make it easily available to all of you so i decided to make it open source and enthusiast friendly. So, i am proudly introducing The WiStick. What is WiStick? The WiStick is a microcontroller board based on ATMEGA32u4, runs at 3.3V and 8MHz. It has 14 digital input/output pins, 6 analog inputs, a hardware serial port (UART), a USB interface, working independent from the serial port (we use this for programming and debugging purposes), mounting holes for pin headers and screws. It has a Li-Po JST 2-pin battery connector that you can use to power the board and a very sophisticated charging IC with auto power source selector. Best of all, we will load it with Arduino bootloader so you can start working with it in a familiar way! Sophisticated charging circuit So great! Share inShare1
Magnesium Introduction See Consumer for easy-to-read facts about Magnesium. Magnesium, an abundant mineral in the body, is naturally present in many foods, added to other food products, available as a dietary supplement, and present in some medicines (such as antacids and laxatives). An adult body contains approximately 25 g magnesium, with 50% to 60% present in the bones and most of the rest in soft tissues [4]. Assessing magnesium status is difficult because most magnesium is inside cells or in bone [3]. Recommended Intakes Intake recommendations for magnesium and other nutrients are provided in the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) developed by the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (formerly National Academy of Sciences) [1]. Table 1 lists the current RDAs for magnesium [1]. *Adequate Intake (AI) Sources of Magnesium Food Magnesium is widely distributed in plant and animal foods and in beverages. *DV = Daily Value. The U.S. Dietary supplements
Thermal invisibility cloak in first demonstration 10 May 2013Last updated at 21:34 ET A flat region about 5cm wide at the "cloak's" centre was invisible to heat's passage Researchers have built and tested a form of invisibility cloak that can hide objects from heat. Similar cloaking efforts are underway to make objects invisible to light and even sound waves, but this is the first device to work with heat. The prototype, to be outlined in Physical Review Letters, contained a 5cm-wide flat region impervious to heat flowing around it. The technology could be put to use in thermal management in electronics. The theoretical ideas behind the prototype were outlined in a paper by French researchers in 2012 - now made real in copper and a silicone material called PDMS. It works by channelling heat flow around the central region, with carefully designed, alternating rings made of the two materials. The team took thermal images of the "cloak" as heat transferred across it
Speak Freely Why is the Serval Mesh important, how does it work? Mobile phones normally can't be used when cellular networks fail, for example during a disaster. This means that millions of vulnerable people around the world are deprived of the ability to communicate, when they need it most. We have spent the past three years working with the New Zealand Red Cross to create a solution. We call it the Serval Mesh, and it is free software that allows smart-phones to communicate, even in the face of catastrophic failure of cellular networks. An experimental version of the the Serval Mesh is already available on Google Play, and allows encrypted phone calls, encrypted text messaging, as well as general purpose file sharing, e.g., to easily share maps and other information during a disaster. You can also keep using your existing phone number on the mesh, which is really important in a disaster when people are trying to get back in contact with each other. You can see how it works in the following videos: