Quantum CAD - Electronic and PCB Design Blog

The worlds first Invisibility Cloak is fast becoming reality

Becoming invisible is something that a lot of people dream of being able to do. The only person I know who can become invisible is the Invisible Women from the Fantastic Four comics. 

But now fiction is starting to become reality with the help of a group of scientists from Texas.

The group, led by Professor Andrea Alu, has successfully managed to hide a three-dimensional object. The group has successfully managed to make an 18cm-long cylinder completely invisible to incoming microwave light.

This project was successfully completed using metamaterials. Metamaterials is the process of modifying materials to have properties that cannot be found in nature. 

And by using the modified metamaterials, the metamaterials themselves would guide and channel light in unusual ways, to manipulate the light rays’ movement so when they arrive at their final destination they don’t look as though they have been reflected by a cloaked object.

But for now Professor Alu isn’t getting carried away with anything, as he was quoted saying that "There is still a lot of work to do, Our goal was just to show this metamaterial technique can reduce scattering from an object in free space”

But what do you think?

Could this really be the first step in developing a real life invisibility cloak?

Please leave a comment below.

 

Magnetic Soap

Soap has been in existence since ancient times. The earliest evidence ever found of a bar of soap dates back to the year 2800 BC and was found in the ancient city of Babylon. Soap is mainly used today as it was back then; for washing, bathing, and cleaning. In more recent times soap has been implemented in textile spinning.

And now the uses for soap are changing again. A group of scientists have just created the first bar of soap that reacts to magnets. 

From the outside this new magnetic soap appears to look the same as normal soap, but as The Mighty Boosh once said “It's what's inside that counts.” 

And when you do look inside the soap you discover why it’s like no other soap. Normal soap bars are made up of long molecules with ends that behave differently. One end of the molecule is attracted to water and the other end is repelled by it. But when you look inside this new soap you find that the soap not only contains molecules but also contains iron atoms.

One of the reasons this soap is exciting other groups of scientists is the potential that the soap has. Once the soap has gone under further development experts agree that it could be used in cleaning up oil spills and waste water.

But what do you think?

Good idea or bad idea?

Please comment below.

The end of traditional festival wristbands?

2012 has only just begun, but the buzz surrounding this year’s music festival has gone into overdrive.

But one of the hottest debated topics isn’t the acts who will be playing the festivals. Everyone is discussing which wristband they will be wearing when they go to their respective festival. 
Will they be the same entry wristbands as used in previous years or the new micro chipped wristbands?

The new micro chipped wristbands that have caught the attention of festival organisers worldwide were designed by Canadian company Intellitix. 

The wristbands designed by Intellitix appear normal but are fitted with a microchip. And the wristbands work in the same way as London's Oyster card public transport swipe cards. Festival-goers are registered in and out of venues with either turnstiles or hand-held devices scanning their wristbands, with organisers able to track the data.

But for all the positives of the microchip wristband, there are people who have doubts about the wristbands. One of those is Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis.

Eavis does not have concerns for the wristbands themselves. His concerns lie in the message that the micro chipped wristbands send out. Eavis is concerned that if these micro chipped wristbands are introduced that music festivals would become too commercial. In a recent interview he was quoted as saying that "I don't want to take people into a land they don't want to go into.”

But what do you think?

Are micro chipped wristbands the way forward?

Please leave a comment below.

 

Are hackers taking over?

Over the past 12 months the number of companies that have been hacked worldwide has gone dramatically up. One of the stand-out points is the companies who have been hacked, as most of the companies are known and renowned worldwide. The list of hacked companies includes Nintendo, Qriocity and the PlayStation Network, WordPress.com and Epsilon.

But with security measures and computer security being increased and updated year by year, surely the number of companies hacked would decrease. But unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be that case.

So why is it that more and more companies are falling to hackers? One of the reasons could be that hackers find it so easy and take the same pleasure out of hacking as a 100m sprinter would by winning a gold medal. 

A couple of hackers who would fit this description would be the lone figure of 16 year old Jonathan James and the group known as LulzSec.

Between them they have hacked into the Department of Defence, the CIA, the Pentagon, United States Senate website, the websites for the Bank of Portugal, and NASA. They have installed backdoor systems and have gained access to employee’s emails, usernames and passwords. Also between them they have managed to steal $1.7 million worth of software from NASA. 

But the difference between them is that LulzSec are trying to pioneer hacking as a spectator sport and are regularly taking requests as to who the group should target next. But on the other hand Jonathan isn’t, when he was brought to court and questioned about his actions. He simply claimed that he was just looking around, playing around, and said that “What was fun for me was a challenge to see what I could pull off.”

But what do you think?

Can anything be done to stop hackers?

Please leave a comment below.

Star Trek gadgets coming to life

On 8th September 1966 television programmes as we knew them changed forever, as this was the day that Star Trek was first broadcasted. Star Trek was a revolutionary show as it opened the viewer’s eyes to a world of gadgets that had never been seen or even imagined before. 

And now one of the gadgets from the show could become a reality. The gadget in question is the medical Tricorder device that was used by Dr McCoy in the show. 

The American company the X PRIZE Foundation have started a competition, with the eventual winner winning a cool $10million (£6.5million) prize fund. 

Now I’m guessing you are saying to yourself, “I want in on this, how do I win the $10million”? The answer is simple; just design a real life working Tricorder. 

But there are certain requirements that the contestants will have to follow. Firstly the Tricorder would have to weigh a maximum weight of 5lb (2.2kg), also it would have to be able to scan the human body and capture key health metrics and be able to diagnose up to 15 diseases.

What do you think?

Can a working Tricorder really be constructed?

Please leave a comment below.

The Future of TV

Televisions have changed a lot of over the past 50 years, and are still changing to this day. Perhaps the biggest development within televisions occurred in 2008 with the release of Smart TV’s, and now Samsung have taken the next step once again with the release of their new TV the ES8000.

The ES8000 has a lot of new features that a lot of people are going to appreciate, one of these being able to update its self year by year. The ES8000 has the capability of interacting with new software that can boost processing and performance. This then would reduce the chances of the ES8000 becoming outdated in the upcoming years.

Apart from all that technical mumbo jumbo, the ES8000 is still a revelation in itself thanks to all the gadgets it possesses. For instance the ES8000 has been loaded with the latest voice, face and gesture recognition software. 

The voice, face and gesture recognition software are all very easy to use and are all intertwined. For example searching the internet has just become even easier. By using the built in camera all you have to is wave to change between websites. And then the voice recognition system is very nifty too, the ES8000 is able to understand more than 20 languages, so to change channel all you have to do is speak into the camera and tell it what channel you want to watch.

And staying on the subject on TV channels’, the facial recognition software helps you out there too. The facial software recognizes different people and their favorites and saves them. So when you return to viewing the ES8000 knows exactly who you are and what you want to watch. 

But what do you think?

Should all TV’s be made like the ES8000?

Please leave a comment below. 

 

TV on the decline?

The first ever official broadcast to a British television set was sent out in 1929 and TV hasn’t stopped since. But now TV is under threat from a variety of devices, and could soon be gone for good. 

Some of TV’s major competitors are smartphones and tablets. 

One of the reasons for this is that smartphones and tablets are the two fastest growing technological devices available in the world today. 

More and more people are using smartphones and tablet computers to watch both movies and TV programs’. 

A recent report undertaken reveals that the number of people watching TV has fallen dramatically in the past two years. In 2009 the percentage of people watching TV every week was at 71% and that number has dropped right down to 48% as of 2011.

And furthermore, the number of people who were planning to buy a new TV has dropped as well. In 2010 35% of people were planning to buy new TV’s and that number dropped to 32% in 2011.

But what do you think?

Should television set makers be alarmed?

Please comment below.

 

Boldly going where no camera has gone before.

When a natural disaster strikes the first thing we all do is panic, but as soon as we know help is on the way we all tend to calm down a little bit. But what if that help was in the form of a talking dog. Would you calm down?

Yes rescue dogs are now being fitted with the latest in wireless technology to help victims of natural disasters. The system is called PAWS which stands for Portable, All-Terrain, Wireless System. The PAWS equipment can also be used 

The company responsible for this technology is the UK company Wood & Douglas who specialize in wireless technology. The PAWS technology can also be used in different circumstance such as drug raids and looking for fugitives.

During a recent exhibition of the PAWS system they explained how their equipment works. The rescue dog is fitted with a surveillance camera on its head that works both day and night and has infrared installed that turns on once the dog is in the dark. The camera then sends the videoed data to the surveillance station that has been set up in a rescue van, or to a small monitor that is strapped onto of the rescue team’s hands.

Then once the rescue dog has located the victim the dog begins to bark and doesn’t move until the rescue team arrives. Then a human voice begins to speak to the victim to establish if the victim is ok. Then the rescue team ventures into the building following the dogs barking to the location of the victim and then begins the procedure of retrieving the victim. 

What do you think?

Good idea or not?

Please leave a comment below. 

Connected Cars on the rise.

In today’s world the technology we are using is always changing and improving. Now it seems our cars and car makers are getting in on the act as the development of Connected Car’s is really beginning to take off. 

Connected cars may look normal on the outside but on the inside they are in a different league compared with other cars. Connected cars are fitted with the latest infotainment available and this includes speech recognition and internet connection with both Wi-Fi and 3G. 

In a recent survey taken by 200 car company executives, more than a third of those asked believe that infotainment in cars is nearly as important as car safety.

The reason that connected cars are becoming more apparent is because at the moment they are the third-fastest growing technological device available in the world today. As the first two fastest growing technological device spots in the world are smartphones and tablets.  

Some of the first big car companies to develop connected cars are Toyota and Audi. Toyota have recently signed a deal and entered a partnership with the chip making giant Intel to develop their connected car. 

But Audi have gone one step further and have developed a built-in 3G wireless capability in its new A7 range, which then they believe will be able to extend it to their other new models.

But what do you think?

Are connected cars the way forward?

Please leave a comment below.

 

A technological Religion.

When we look up the definition of religion we find it described in the dictionary as a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices. But now there is a new religion that is putting the definition of religion to the test. Its name is Kopimism. 

The Church of Kopimism believes that the act of kopyacting, (which is sharing information through copying), is Kopimisms equivalent of a religious service.

Kopimism was founded in 2010 by 19 year old Isak Gerson, who has now become the leader of the Kopimism faith. One of his main hopes is that file-sharing will now be given the same religious protection as any other religious practice. One of the ways Isak is looking to cement Kopimism as a major religion is by the induction of its sacred symbols which are CTRL+C and CTRL+V which are the shortcuts for copy and paste on a keyboard. 

Isak has outlined the beliefs of Kopimism which all of the members hold close to their hearts. In the Church of Kopimism information is valued very Holy and the art of copying is one of their sacraments.

So in the Church of Kopimism copying is central for the organization and its members.

But what do you think?

Should file copying be given the same rights to be a religion as Christianity or other religions?

Please leave a comment below.