Blue ray

 

It seems like every couple of years there are new advances made and our technology springs forward. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with all of the incredibly fast paced advances made. Currently, blue ray technology has been brought into the mainstream and learning what this technology is can keep consumers up to date with the latest inventions in home entertainment.

Discovering What Is Blue Ray Technology
For many, home movies were originally played on the classic vcr tape. Then, the technology moved onto DVD players, and the look of the movies was sharper and of a much better quality. Now the next evolution has started with blue ray technology.
Finding out about what it is includes learning about the differences between this kind of technology and the current mass marketed DVD systems. This new kind of technology has been developing for years, since the mid 1990's when HDTV's were becoming more common for consumers to buy. A technology was needed that could record and play back the high definition recordings. Blue Ray technology was created to fill that void.
So what is so special with this technology and how is it different from the standard DVD? BR technology can store far more information that the traditional DVD, almost 5 times more storage is available on a blue ray disc. The blue ray discs use a blue ray laser to read the information where other DVD's use a red laser.
With a blue laser the wave length is shorter allowing for more storage to be used. This did cause some problems originally, as the discs were much easier to scratch. The case that held the disc had to be made more durable and was somewhat bulky. Advances in polymer coatings have advanced allowing for a better protective coating to be placed on the disc, alleviating the need for the bigger containers.
There are many companies that have a stake in the development of the next cutting edge technology and these companies are looking into both blue ray technology and a HD DVD. Some of the big companies are fighting over which technology should be used and this has caused a split in which companies support which format. Even companies that produce movies are split over which type of technology to use, which means depending on what movie a consumer wishes to purchase; they may need two different types of players.

   Both the blue ray and the hddvd players are continuing to improve. In the end, consumers may discover that they enjoy both types of players and they both may be successful with consumers. Learning about what is this technology exactly can help a consumer get a good idea of basic information in regards to this new technology.

By:- Amit Samantaray

Green laser pointers

Green laser pointers were first commercially sold in the year 2000. They operate at the wavelength of 532 nm. Laser diodes of this wavelength are not available so the green light is obtained by the use of "DPSSFD" laser technology.
The process:-
A very high-powered Infrared laser diode working at 808 nm pumps a tiny block of Nd: YVO4 that generates light at 1,064 nm. This feeds a potassium titanyl phosphate intracavity frequency doubler crystal that produces green light of a visible 532 nm wavelength. High-powered green lasers use lithium triborate instead of KTP.
Features:-
An infrared filter, which is behind the mirror completely, removes the radiation of infrared spectrum from the output beam. In order to reduce cooling problems and prolong battery life, some green lasers operate in pulse or quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) mode. The Class III a laser product gives an output power of 5mw. This is the one of highest-powered street legal laser. Some green lasers even have an output of 10 mw, which has a range of 20,000 feet in darkness. Some even have a 3-second delay feature as these are high-powered lasers and can blind a person. Some laser point extenders are also available. They work by using lenses to minimize the beam spread of a laser. Its price starts from 55$. Majority of them have a life of around 3000 hours.
Applications:-
Green lasers can be used for a variety of roles. They can be used as pointing devices. The ability to form a continuous line in the dark is an added advantage; this has lead to its usage as rescue lights as it can be seen from miles away. It as been used for laser light shows. It is also used for sky gazing as a person can pinpoint a star by using the green laser. It can also be as laser pointers for guns, rifles. In the movie Alien vs. Predator it was used as a pointing device on some G36k carbines.
Advantages:-
The green laser has many advantages. It is fifty times brighter than a red laser because of which it can be seen from miles away, this helps in being rescued if a person is lost. It can also be used in high-tech weapons for aiming purposes. Because of its high range, Green laser pointers can be equipped in different kinds of weapons. High and low temperatures do not affect the performance of Green laser pointers so in case a person is lost in a desert, he can still use Green laser pointers to call for help, in other case, even if a person is lost some where in mountains all covered with ice, he can still use it.
Disadvantages:-
Due to its high power it can permanently damage a person's eye. As it can form a continuous line of light that might reveal a person's position so it cannot be used in stealthy operations or by SWAT.
Green laser is quite awesome but it should be used carefully.

By:- Amit Samantaray

Guns that can stop cars

EM pulse gun that can stop cars

People who have seen the film 2 fast 2 furious please recall the beginning scene where,the hero is being is chased by the cops and he is being stopped by them by using a weirdly looking gun.They fire at him and his car,which is state-of-the art, and it just dies at the next moment.

Very futuristic technology but cool right ? well that going to be true. but not exactly as you see in the film. its not going to be a “handy” gun, its going to be mounted on the top of a car.

The EM pulse gun assembly is mounted on the top of the car and is powered by car’s alternator.It sends out high power pulses (high frequency radiations) which will kill the microprocessors of cars.The big deal with the microprocessors is that,they control the engine.They control the ignition control,fuel injector,fuel pump,etc. without the engine, the car is dead,motionless.

The EM pulse gun would be great help to the law enforcements,military bases,communication centres,oil platforms etc.

The EM pulse gun right now weighs 200 pounds.this is setup on the top of the car.It takes DC power and generates pulses with 50ns duration, and then it is amplified to 640kV using a 16 stage Marx generator.This is then transformed into microwave oscillations. These oscillations are then directed to an opposing vehicle through specially designed antennas.

The radiations from these antenna will damage the car as told before (ECU-engine control unit),etc.Actually this is not a quite new system,military had developed this long before.but the equipment was so bulky and heavy to use in a car.But the guys at Aerospace system made that thing smaller and integrated to a car.

The only drawback of the system is that it cant be used against old vehicles, old vehicles that don’t have an ECU and all those stuff. Common who is going to break the law in a 1970 “Chevrolet Nova”, so that wont be a problem.

Moving data using silicon chips

 

Using photons rather than electrons to move data in chips

Today the world is hungry for bandwidth and speed. But this is limited by the way we use to connect various points. If you think am speaking about two buildings or even two countries, you are wrong. Am speaking about interconnections in a single chip. At present the interconnects in an IC is made with copper. But what is happening is at luxurious speeds as 10 billion B/s (bits per seconds) these interconnects prove to be less efficient.

Continuous experiments have given many alternatives but at the cost of high price. The best one from the array is by using optical fibers and thus replacing photons instead of electrons. The advantage of this method is that the overall cost is less compared to other methods and the data rate you can achieve is far more than that achievable through copper connects.

What’s the big deal with these interconnects anyway huh? Imagine you can download movies with just a click rather than waiting for hours, simultaneous streaming of audio, video, teleconferencing, and you name it. Sounds cool, isn’t it? This is what is possible if we have optical fiber interconnects in the chip level.

The superiority of optical connection is best explained by the following example. Optical data can travel for long distances (say 10 km) without any attenuation. The data rate can be increased by a technique called WDM-wavelength division multiplexing.

Myself is a communication engineer, so I will elaborate on this. Distortion, interference these occurs when the wavelength/frequency of two signals in a single medium becomes equal or very close. So if you can transmit several distinct frequencies at the same time, then you can use the single medium to transmit all these at the same time. In short you are multiplying the capability of the medium’s data carrying capacity. Currently using WDM you can transmit over 40 different data signals into a thin hair strand size optical fiber, all running at the data rate of 10 GBps. wonderful isn’t it, copper connects can’t even dream about it.

So why isn’t this new technology not in your chips yet ? It isn’t simple as it sounds. Optical devices are made with materials such as lithium niobate, indium phosphide etc which are very exotic compared to silicon. So its very costly and expensive to fabricate these into a normal chips.

A normal optical fiber communication link requires the following parts. Modulator-to convert electrical data into light Transmitter-to transmit this light into the fiber Optical fiber-the medium Receiver-to receive the optical data Demodulator-to convert optical data back to electrical data

What we need to do is to manufacture all these devices onto a single chip. This is the ultimate goal. What this step exactly means is you make the modulator, source, medium, detector, demodulator etc on the same silicon substrate. Researches have now enabled silicon to have optical properties. An optical channel can be made in silicon by literally etching a channel in the substrate. For source, silicon laser has been developed by Intel’s state-of-the art facilities. As for all the other parts, researches are going on.

Although they encountered many problems, they are troubleshooting them one by one. In short, the time for a single chip that is half the size of a postage stamp which is able to handle all the operations of whole building won’t be too long in the future.

By Amit Samantaray

Being Wireless @ 60GHz

 

The new technology, being used in every field of human life has become indispensable and scientists are constantly working on improving the existing technology. The discovery of the use of blue tooth as early as 1990s lead to the development of Wi-Fi and IEEE 802.11, the latest of the series is ultra wideband systems. The most important use of having these technologies is the decreased need of cables and wires to connect electronic equipments, and the increased speed at which transmission can take place. Even with so much speed and bandwidth at hand, scientists are looking for options to utilize even more bandwidth.

Scientists are exploring all the available possibilities to acquire more bandwidth, now has turned their attention to infra red light. As of now, this new technology is used in electronic equipments requiring remote control. There have been not much research in this field till now, but situation has changed, with studies to utilize 60GHz is under way.

Along with this, study on semiconductors is also in progress. Use of silicon chips instead of the gallium-arsenide semiconductors which are used presently is being considered. This would be more cost effective and if the designs are successful, the electronic equipments would be working much faster.

In addition to the increased speed, the size of the chips and antennas also can be decreased, with the help of this new technology. The antennas and transceivers can be put together, as the size of the antennas decrease. This also would lead to the lack of need of cables to transfer the data from the antenna to the chips and from chip to chip. Also, the antistatic devices used during assembly to prevent the electrostatic discharge, can be avoided as there are no more open outputs or inputs.

With every new technology, difficulties also appear. The 60GHz wave gets obstructed by any object in its path, it also travels proportionately to the distance between the transmitter and the antenna. This would considerably decrease the power transmitted by the wave, as it reaches the antenna.

Scientists are working to solve these problems and some have come up. Some of the suggestions include using high power, use of multiple transceivers etc. The use of multiple transceivers is considered a good option, but to make it possible, the design of the transceiver would have to be changed. The transceiver which is used at present might be inadequate to meet the increased demands. And the cost of manufacturing these transceivers also has to be considered.

There are bipolar transmitters offering good speed, but at increased cost of production and there are CMOS chips with low speed and low manufacturing cost. Engineers are debating the use and disadvantages of both these. They aim at improving the CMOS chips.

Operating the technique might be difficult, but not impossible. Scientists are also considering the use of 40GHz along with 60GHz.

The use of adaptive antennas is also under evaluation. These would create a beam which would be directly received, considered a solution of the loss of power occurring at the present stage. In this new technology, a lot of emitters are to be used to reduce the loss of power. If this works out, more energy efficient antennas would be manufactured. At the same time, off chip antennas are also under consideration. This would decrease the amount of power lost after it is received at the antenna.

By Amit Samantaray

Terahertz Rays in Security

 

Terahertz rays aiding in the detection of security threats :

A lot of movies show a typical feature which aids the detectives to see through enemies’ camps. This is in the form of a goggle, which would not raise the concern of the adversary, and at the same time, the hero is able to see where the weapons are hidden and in several cases, disable the bombs. X-rays are used to provide this sort of a facility, which is purely fictional. The use of X-ray is limited and the machine cannot be contained to a small goggle.

But scientists are now developing a new technology which might help to an extent in this matter. By the use of terahertz rays, the scientists are hoping to detect all the security threats, like weapons and bombs which might go undetected in the present days. Terahertz rays extend from the upper limit of microwaves to the lower limit of infrared rays.

Now a days, X-rays are used to detect any fracture in the human body, and also in the security checks to check for any weapons. The use of X-rays are limited as they are harmful to the human body causing disintegration of DNA and hence cancers may be precipitated. Terahertz rays or T-rays are considered harmless, that is, they do not predispose the human body to cancers and hence can be used freely. This benefit also applies at the security checks at any airports or public places where T-rays would reflect on any weapons and can be detected easily. For that matter, T-rays have an additional benefit of detecting even plastic objects which often go undetected in X-ray. Scientists' also claim that T-rays can tell the material of the item which is reflected, as it uses a technique called spectroscopy. In this new technology, every item would be reflected in a different colour, so making out a particular item as harmful is easy.

T- rays are not required to be used close to the scanned item, as in the case of X-rays. It can be safely kept at a distance and scanning is done. A lot of research is going on to enhance the capacity of T-rays to use the spectroscopy at a distance.

The possibilities of T-rays are several. They can be used in the pharmacology industry to aid in detection of the contents of the medicines, used to detect tumors in a human body, aid in detecting any defect in the machines. These are just a few of the benefits.

With a lot of benefits under its collar, one wonders what these T-rays are?

They are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and one area which has been less studied till now. The band width of the T-rays can be between 500gigahertz and 10 terahertz.

Studies have been going on to analyze T-rays, recently particle accelerators have been used to break up the rays and study them.

New technology are being developed to contain the T-rays and direct them accordingly. Also a cost effective method of production need to be developed. The use of synchtron to bend the electrons and produce T-rays is under research. There are still concerns of cost and cooling of the rays, and the size which is important. In addition to these, creation of a continuous wave of T-rays is a challenge the scientists are facing as when T-rays were generated in pulses, it was seen that the bandwidth decreases with distance.

So, how can this be done? Experiments are going on to see whether using two infra red laser machines can be used. The rays produced by the two machines combine to produce a T-ray. A new machine with indium-gallium-arsenide is under consideration.

Also a new technology called Quantum Cascade laser was developed in 1994, which produced rays even in the terahertz range. The wavelengths produced were directly related to the thickness of the semiconductor, which was the reason for success of these lasers. The working of the laser is as follows. An electron is put into the machine which goes to a level and shake up the protons, then fall into another level, emitting phonons. This cycle is repeated and a ray of phonons are produced.

Once the item is detected, a reflection image has to be produced as well. Experiments are going on to produce a detector to create images which can be easily captured by a video camera and reproduced.

There are defects in this new technology as well. But the positive factors are more than the negative factors, so this new technology would be of real help in detecting a lot of security threats.

By Amit Samantaray

Variable Frequency Transformers

With Variable Frequency Transformer power transfer can be done smoothly without noise.

America cannot produce all the power it drinks. It has to get help from its neighbouring countries like Mexico to satisfy her. So power transfer between two grids must take place.

Circuits employing semi conductor devices were used for this purpose. But there is a problem. The power flowing in grid is in the form of AC-alternating current. This AC cannot be controlled using semiconductors. For that purpose we convert the AC to DC-Direct Current. Using the circuits we can alter any parameters of the power such as amplitude, frequency, phase etc. After that, DC is converted back to AC, ie we synthesize AC. But this AC is not as good as natural AC. The problem is harmonic distortions. As we change DC to AC a spike appears at each pulse, which is a noise and is undesired, but hard to eliminate.

With the help of new technology, VFT-Variable Frequency Transformers can do this. Variable Frequency Transformers can convert this power to and from grids without converting the power into DC thus eliminating the harmonic distortions. Another advantage with VFT is that we can have infinite phase shifts between the two powers where as in conventional devices we could have only few predefined phase shifts.

Even though VFTs employs latest technology, someone looking at the Variable Frequency Transformer will recognize it as a hydro generator. In fact AEP-American Electric Power, who has currently installed a VFT between Mexico-US grid, buys it from the same manufacturers who makes standard hydro generators.

Although Variable Frequency Transformers looks like a hydro generator, it seems like VFT has hydrophobia. There is not a drop of water involved here, although it is a hydro generator. The rotor of the Variable Frequency Transformer, is a big three phase electro-magnet which is connected to one grid and the stator, another three phase winding, a stationary winding which is connected to the other grid. When power starts to flow, the phase difference between stator and rotor cause the motor to rotate. The rotor shaft is connected to another motor, called a control motor. We apply torque on the shaft and can rotate the motor in any direction and the direction of the motor determines the direction of power flow. The Variable Frequency Transformer is like a phase shifter having infinitesimally small steps.

 By Amit Samantaray

What the World Will Look Like by 2050

A Brief History of the Future: A Brave and Controversial Look at the Twenty-First Century

By Jacques Attali

The Gist:
Imagine a world where pirates run amok, blowing themselves up in European city centres; where wars are ignited over lack of drinking water; where a global face-off between Islam and Christianity makes World War II look like a water-balloon fight. According to economist and political scientist Jacques Attali, that is what the future has in store for us by 2025. In the belief that past experiences are indicative future events, Attali combs through the history of human kind, all the way back to Homo Habilis, separating the past into nine distinct periods to isolate "what is possible, what changes and what is unvarying" and applies those trends to the coming century. Attali's predictions range from the future of journalism (completely paperless) to the end of the economic crisis (around 2011), offering a glimpse into the future that is both provocative and petrifying.

Highlight Reel:
On the future of the American empire: "After a very long struggle and in the midst of a serious ecological crisis, the still dominant empire- the United States- will finally be defeated around 2035 by the same globalization of the markets (particularly the financial ones), and by the power of corporations. Financially and politically exhausted, like all other empires before it, the United States will cease to run the world. But it will remain the planet's major power; no new empire or dominant nation will replace it. The world will temporarily become polycentric with a dozen or so regional powers managing its affairs."

On the future of the climate: "With the marked increase in temperature changes, very important alterations will take place in nature. Trees will grow faster and will become more fragile... Much more serious: many more coastlines could become uninhabitable. Seven of the worlds biggest cities are ports, and a third of the world's population lives on a coastline... Eco-exiles will become ten times more numerous by 2050."

On the future of weapons of mass destruction: "Now pointed at Japan, North Korea's missiles will one day target the United States and China. The missiles of Pakistan fallen into the hands of fundamentalists will threaten first India, then Europe. Those of Hezbollah — in other words, Iran — that now target Israel will one day be pointed at Cairo, Riyadh, Algiers, Tunis, Casablanca, Istanbul, then at Rome, Madrid, London and Paris. Should the battle lines harden and the country be threatened with annihilation, China's missiles could one day target Japan and the United States."

On the future of cloning: "After repairing diseased organs, they will want to produce them, then create replacement bodies. First they will produce lineages of stem cells without destroying the embryo, which will make genetic therapy ethically acceptable, and then reproductive cloning. Finally they will manufacture the human being like a made-to-measure artifact, in an artificial uterus, which will allow the brain to further develop with characteristics chosen in advance. The human being will thus have become a commercial object."

The Lowdown:
As the cofounder and first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Attali won fame for calling the U.S. financial collapse as early as 2006 — giving him more credibility than the average soothsayer. However, many of his predictions range from the absurd to the, well... predictable. His belief that Israel must keep its status as a regional power in order to survive is not exactly rocket science, while his belief that a utopia of altruistic "transhumans" will emerge from the ashes of mid-21st century planetary warfare is a bit hard to swallow.

His more outrageous predictions notwithstanding, Attali correctly notes that our future is not inevitable. Mankind must learn how to appropriately respond to the crises and opportunities that await us, and grow cognizant of the fact that large-scale violence can be so dangerous to humanity so that we become "aware of the need for a radical change in attitude." Whether his predictions are worth taking seriously or not, they all inevitably turn on the endless capacity of human resilience — a notion that appears to be the only true constant for the future, and the most reassuring.

Drag Tabs from Google Chrome to Firefox

You can drag any link directly from Chrome to a new tab in Firefox, or the other way around. You can drag tabs from Firefox directly into Chrome as a new tab, but you can't do the same from Chrome to Firefox—unless you drag the bookmark from the tab instead.

When you want to open a Firefox tab in Chrome, you can simply drag the tab right over to Chrome—but to open a Chrome tab in Firefox, you need to grab the star icon and drag instead. The same thing works for both bookmarks and links—in fact, you can grab the link from one browser and drop it on the bookmarks bar of the other.

 

It's not exactly rocket science, but it's a useful tip for anybody both browsers on a regular basis. If you want to take your Chrome skills to the next level, be sure and check out the power user's guide to Google Chrome.

The Pirate Bay Admins Found Guilty, Sentenced to a Year

Administrators at popular Bit Torrent site The Pirate Bay were found guilty of contributory copyright infringement by a Swedish court this morning and sentenced to a year in prison, according to Wired. The guilty gentlemen were also ordered to pay 3.6 million in damages to several entertainment companies—a big win for Hollywood.The folks at The Pirate Bay keep their spirits up, responding with the embedded video and their classic sense of humour:

But as in all good movies, the heroes lose in the beginning but have an epic victory in the end anyhow. That's the only thing Hollywood ever taught us.

 

$3.6 mil wow, i mean the prosecution didn't even know how torrents really worked and the bay didn't even host a byte of the actual copyrighted material just the torrent files and tracker info. I just don't see how that can get them a guilty verdict but maybe i don't understand "contributory copyright infringement".

Official Windows 7 Release Candidate Arrives on May 5

Microsoft's manufacturing Partners already have it, but the downloading masses will get a crack at the Windows 7 Release Candidate on May 5. That matches up with previous Microsoft leaks, so the download will likely be available through June 2009, and remain alive in activation through June 2010. As for the final-official-seriously-done Windows 7release? Mary Jo Foley at All about Microsoft hears October is a target.

3G

3G is the 3^rd generation wireless telecommunication

technology is an advanced radio communication technology which provides high speed internet access and high quality mobile telephony. The technology enables simultaneous voice and non-voice data transfer. High speed digital packet switching networks are the source of the high speed offered by 3G. Compare to traditional circuit switching technology, packet switching better transmission bandwidth utilisation and hence higher data transfer rate.

• Circuit switching involves dedicated link creation between two phones during a call leading to redundancies and high waiting time.
• Packet switching data transmitting in the form of encrypted digital data packets through the least congested route/nodes reducing redundancy in the process.

Benefits' of 3G :-

• Quality of text audio and video communication would improve through real-time supporting technology and real quality communication, enhance mobility and roaming, high quality email and internet.
• Its enables heavy broadcast and data intensive service.
• Its gives strong network security.

By : Amit Samantaray

Recession may continue:IMF

The international Monetary fund (IMF)  said that current global recession, the worst after “World War–II”, is likely to continue for a longer duration and the recovery would be sluggish. However, strong counter-cyclical policy action, combined with action to restore confidence in the financial sector, could improve prospects for recovery.

Mr. Bean does these 9 things in an elevator

1.When there is only one other person in the elevator, tap him on the shoulder and then pretend it wasn’t you.
2.Push the buttons and pretend they give you a shock. Smile, and go back for more
3.Ask if you can push the button for other people, but push the wrong ones.
4.Call the psychic hotline from your cell phone and ask if they know what floor you are on.
5.Drop a pen and wait until someone reaches to help pick it up, then scream, “that’s mine”
6.Leave a box in the corner and when someone gets on, ask them if they here something ticking.
7.Ask “did you feel that?”
8.Make explosion noise when anyone presses a button
9.Bring a camera and take pictures of everyone in the elevator