It's official: Everybody loves the idea of roads that generate solar power | VentureBeat | Green | by Antony Ingram, GreenCarReports.com News In Your Inbox GreenCarReports Earlier this month, we asked whether solar roads could generate enough energy to serve some of the nation's power needs. With tens of thousands of miles of solar-power generating roads, parking lots, sidewalks and other open spaces--without needing to clear space in untouched, natural areas--it seems like an ideal, if expensive solution. It's one that's caught the public's imagination though. Now it's important to note: Widespread public support in no ways guarantees success. But the couple behind Solar Roadways, Scott and Julie Brusaw, have clearly struck a chord with their backers. They've also developed a product that, at the prototype stage, answers a whole lot of difficult questions that startup companies aren't always prepared to answer. Despite each panel being made of glass, for example, the Solar Roadways tiles meet traction, load testing and impact resistance testing without an issue. MORE: Solar Roads: Is The Future Of Energy Under Our Feet?
Google self-driving car has no steering wheel or brake If you're uneasy at the idea of riding in a vehicle that drives itself, just wait till you see Google's new car. It has no gas pedal, no brake and no steering wheel. Google has been demonstrating its driverless technology for several years by retrofitting Toyotas, Lexuses and other cars with cameras and sensors. "They won't have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal ... because they don't need them," Google said Tuesday in a blog post introducing the unnamed electric vehicles. Unlike previous models, these cars won't have human drivers monitoring them at all times. The cars' speed for now has been capped at 25 mph, allowing engineers to minimize the risk of crashes during testing. Inside, the spartan cars have few dashboard controls, no glove box and no stereo. "We've designed for learning, not luxury, so we're light on creature comforts," Google said. The company plans to build about 100 prototype vehicles and begin testing them later this summer.
How 3-D Printing Will Change Education Also known as rapid prototyping, 3-D printing is a technology that allows users to create three-dimensional physical products from a digital file. Each product is created one layer at a time, using an inkjet-like process that sprays a bonding agent onto a very thin layer of fixable powder. The bonding agent can be applied very accurately to build an object from the bottom up, layer by layer. The process even accommodates moving parts within the object. Using different powders and bonding agents, color can be applied, and prototype parts can be rendered in plastic, resin, or metal. In fact, this technology is commonly used in manufacturing to build prototypes of almost any object (scaled to fit the printer, of course)—models, plastic and metal parts, or any object that can be described in three dimensions. The first working 3-D printer was created in 1984 by Charles W. Developments in the Sciences Research Fellow Dr. 3-D Printing as an Artistic Medium 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Wait!
60 Excellent Free 3D Model Websites 3D printers have immensely revolutionized the art and manufacturing industry. With advancements in the 3D printer technology, it is now not very difficult to own one, even in your home or office. Moreover, you don’t have to be an AutoCAD engineer to design a 3D model for your needs, as this job is taken up by numerous 3D model websites. So, either you want to create 3D furniture, a mechanical component, or even human or animal figurines, here are 50 of the best free 3D model websites to cover up all your needs. 10 Cheap and Affordable 3D Printers to Buy 10 Cheap and Affordable 3D Printers to Buy There was a time when 3D printers were a novelty - but not anymore. Pikbest Pikbest offers thousands of 3D models that are presented under various categories like decoration, wedding, appliances, bathroom, kitchen, furniture. GrabCAD GrabCAD Community Library offers 2.8+ million designs and models including CADs, thanks to its largest community of designers, engineers, and students. CGTrader Clara.io
Des chercheurs américains mettent au point des panneaux solaires transparents Dans un article publié mardi 19 août sur le site de la Michigan State University, des chercheurs annonçaient avoir mis au point une solution novatrice en matière de production d’énergie solaire : un panneau transparent qui a l’allure d’un morceau de vitre. Si le prototype n’offre pas encore de rendements satisfaisants, à terme, les évolutions pourraient être considérables pour l’industrie photovoltaïque. Quel mode de fonctionnement ? Des chercheurs de la Michigan State University sont parvenus à convertir une surface transparente en accumulateur d’énergie électrique. Si, dans les grandes lignes, le principe demeure calqué sur celui des panneaux solaires traditionnels, quelques petits aspects rendent la solution novatrice. En effet, la panneau transparent est recouvert d’une couche de molécules organiques qui permettent de filtrer les rayons invisibles – comme les ultraviolets et les infrarouges – pour les rediriger vers des cellules photovoltaïques logées dans les bordures de sa surface.
AR week 3 Rawlemon’s Spherical Solar Energy-Generating Globes Can Even Harvest Energy from Moonlight Read more: Rawlemon’s Spherical Solar Energy-Generating Globes Can Even Harves... The solar energy designers at Rawlemon have created a spherical, sun-tracking glass globe that is able to concentrate sunlight (and moonlight) up to 10,000 times. The company claims that its ß.torics system is 35% more efficient than traditional dual-axis photovoltaic designs, and the fully rotational, weatherproof sphere is even capable of harvesting electricity from moonlight. The ß.torics system was invented by Barcelona-based German Architect André Broessel. He sought to create a solar system that could be embedded in the walls of buildings so that they may act as both windows and energy generators. The spheres are able to concentrate diffused moonlight into a steady source of energy. In 2012, Inhabitat featured an invention that promised to turn the world of solar power generation upside down. Read more: Rawlemon’s Spherical Solar Energy-Generating Globes Can Even Harves...
The Future Of Education Eliminates The Classroom, Because The World Is Your Class This probably sounds familiar: You are with a group of friends arguing about some piece of trivia or historical fact. Someone says, "Wait, let me look this up on Wikipedia," and proceeds to read the information out loud to the whole group, thus resolving the argument. Don’t dismiss this as a trivial occasion. Socialstructed learning is an aggregation of microlearning experiences drawn from a rich ecology of content and driven not by grades but by social and intrinsic rewards. Think of a simple augmented reality app on your iPhone such as Yelp Monocle. This is exactly what a project from USC and UCLA called HyperCities is doing: layering historical information on the actual city terrain. So look beyond MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) in thinking about the future education. MOOCs today are our equivalents of early TV, when TV personalities looked and sounded like radio announcers (or often were radio announcers).
APPY Geek Une équipe scientifique germano-française, incluant le groupe Soitec, a annoncé mardi avoir battu un nouveau "record" d'efficacité d'une cellule solaire, une "étape importante" pour une meilleure exploitation de l'énergie du soleil. Show captions Showing image 1 of 1 Tuesday, September 24, 2013 7:01 AM GMT Cette équipe --également constituée de l'Institut Fraunhofer pour les systèmes énergétiques solaires (ISE), du CEA-Leti et du Centre Helmholtz de Berlin-- a conçu une nouvelle structure de cellule solaire qui a atteint une efficacité "record" de 44,7%. "Cela signifie que 44,7% de l'énergie du spectre solaire, allant de l'ultraviolet jusqu'à l'infrarouge, est convertie en énergie électrique", ont expliqué les partenaires dans un communiqué commun. "Il s'agit d'une étape importante dans la poursuite de la réduction des coûts de l'électricité solaire et d'un nouveau pas vers l'obtention d'un taux de 50% d'efficacité", ont-ils relevé.