Indian student builds shoe to charge mobile phone while walking

A class 12 Indian student hailing from Nainital, Rajesh Adhikari, has created a pair of shoes which lets users charge their phone while walking. The charger works on an ingenious spring and dynamo mechanism that powers the device connected to it via a simple cable. But you’ll need to walk for it to be of any use.

Or get someone to walk in your shoes. Each time you lift a foot, the spring on the underside of the shoe stretches and relaxes, and when you apply pressure on the heel while taking a step, the mechanism kicks into play. The energy generated by the setup is also capable of providing enough juice to light up a small room.

An Indian-American teenager had won a $50,000 Young Scientist Award at the Intel ISEF 2013 Grand Awards Ceremony last year for working on a technology which would allow people to juice up their mobile devices within 20 seconds. The magic lies in high-performance super capacitors which suck up power in a jiffy and these can be hidden inside the concerned gadget’s battery itself.

The Genneo project on Kickstarter requires users to simply shake the charger, if not move around with it in tow in order to get enough energy to power up their phones. The OnBeat solar headphones, as the name clearly suggests, harnesses the might of the sun and passes it on to your thirsty handset. And then there were those charging shorts, of course.

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Can AMT shift past Manual?

t’s been about two decades since automatic transmissions started trickling into India through the likes of the Daewoo Cielo, Opel Astra and the Maruti Esteem AX. Today, most of the high-end cars are 100 percent automatic, but in the mainstream market, this transmission system hasn’t really gained traction with Indian buyers. In fact, despite a proliferation of automatics by premium brands, the total sales of cars with automatic transmission still accounts for less than five percent. However, that scenario may soon change.

The Auto Expo 2014 played host to the launch of the Maruti Celerio, which comes with an Automated Manual Transmission (AMT). And, more importantly, it’s the cheapest auto car you can buy in India today.
 

According to market sources, there has been an overwhelming response to the Maruti Celerio. Some dealerships claim that the Celerio EZ Drive or AMT version accounts for 70-80 percent of enquiries in certain dealerships.

 
Predictably, other mainstream carmakers are now embracing AMT tech. Though passed on in Europe for newer transmission technology, it is set to see a resurgence in India. Tata showcased the Nano Twist Active that, apart from the recently fitted power steering, also features an AMT ’box. This should help the Nano unlock its true potential as a city runabout. Tata also showcased the new Zest saloon AMT that, interestingly, is mated to the diesel engine. Mahindra too showcased an AMT-equipped Quanto ‘auto shift’, indigenously developed with help from Ricardo.
 

AMT technology was pioneered by Magneti Marelli (MM), the component arm of Italian carmaker Fiat. Unsurprisingly then, Fiat too is mulling the introduction of an AMT-equipped Grande Punto hatchback and Linea saloon. However, this won’t be the first time it uses this tech – it had featured on the old Punto (not the Grande Punto) previously.
 

So why the sudden renewed interest in a relatively old technology? It’s primarily down to the economics AMTs offer that makes them difficult to resist. They appear to have addressed the two main hurdles that stunt the demand for automatic cars: price and fuel efficiency.
 

The Celerio EZ Drive, just around Rs 38,000 more than the equivalent manual version, is a breakthrough in terms of price. To prove the point, the cheapest manual Honda Brio costs Rs 3.99 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) while the automatic ’box is available only on the top VX trim and starts at Rs 5.99 lakh. This means the consumer has to essentially fork out an additional Rs 2 lakh just for the automatic box – an uncomfortably high percentage of the car’s price.
 

By offering the AMT ’box on even the base LXi Celerio, Maruti has made the automatic transmission an affordable option, rather than a luxury feature. The manufacturer has unequivocally addressed fuel consumption concerns by claiming that the AMT Celerio delivers identical fuel efficiency as its manual counterpart – the ARAI fuel economy figures for the Celerio manual and automatic are identical at 23.1kpl!

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Emotion detector to make you a safe driver

Researchers have developed an emotion detector that can analyse facial expressions and identify which of the seven universal emotions a person is feeling.

What about a device that can read and fix your emotions while you navigate your way in heavy traffic? Researchers have developed an emotion detector that can analyse facial expressions and identify which of the seven universal emotions a person is feeling.


This technology can be useful in the fields of video gaming, medicine, marketing and also in driver safety as in addition to fatigue, the emotional state of the driver is also a risk factor.

It is not easy to measure emotions within the confines of a car. The solution thus explored by scientists at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne - who specialise in facial detection, monitoring and analysis - was to get drivers' faces do the job.

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Sugar to power your smartphone

Heard of a battery that consumes sugar and can run your smartphone for 10 days? This bio-battery may soon become a reality.

Researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech, have designed a new bio-battery with a greater output per weight than the typical lithium-ion batteries used in most electronics.


A bio-battery converts sugar into energy - much like our metabolism - decomposing sugar into carbon dioxide and water while releasing electrons.


"By using the lithium-ion battery, for example, your phone can only last for one day. In the future, it would use sugar as the fuel. Then the phone could last 10 days," explained Zhiguang Zhu, a researcher at Virginia Tech.

The new bio-battery fully converts sugar into energy, which means more power output than previous bio-batteries and a greater battery charge than common lithium-ion batteries.


The new bio-battery gets its efficiency by using a novel system of enzymes which are proteins that help the reaction to take place.

The system uses two active enzymes that liberate two pairs of electrons from the sugar while 10 other enzymes help to reset the reaction inside the bio-battery.

Once the reaction is reset, the active enzymes release another quartet of electrons.


After six cycles, the bio-battery extracts all of the energy bound in the sugar molecule along with carbon dioxide and water.

However, scientists would have to overcome a few more challenges on the engineering side before bio-batteries are put into commercial use, said a paper published online in the journal Nature Communications.

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Motorola planning to launch a smartwatch later this year

 

Motorola's senior vice president, Rick Osteloh, revealed that the company would compete in the wearables market again.

Speaking at a panel discussion at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Motorola's senior vice president has revealed that Motorola will launch a smartwatch later this year.


The smartwatch will address "consumer issues like style and battery life" which had badly affected the prior attempts that Motorola made in the wearables segment.


Without providing any further details about the products, Osterloh's revelations make it clear that Motorola is ready to compete with other manufacturers like Samsung, Sony and LG which have already revealed their own chunks of smartwatches.


The vice president did not reveal any exact release dates or price of the smartwatches.

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New wristband uses your pulse as password

A new hi-tech wristband reportedly uses the wearer's pulse as a password to authenticate a number of devices and applications.

Startup Bionym has developed Nymi, a wristband that uses wearer's pulse to authenticate devices and applications that require iron-clad security.


According to TechHive, Bionym has been developing iOS and Android apps for things like password management, car and computer access, and even a Bitcoin wallet and using pulse authentication could make using all these things a lot easier.


The Nymi bracelet uses dual electrodes, integrated into the clasp, to take the wearer's pulse when they touch the clasp for a few seconds.

The device also includes an accelerometer and a gyroscope , and fitness apps are in the works too.

D'Souza noted that the sensors could also be used for gesture recognition, so one could incorporate movement triggers into the authentication process, the report added.

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Wear backpack, walk and charge mobile phone!

To address growing demands to recharge electrical devices in a world that is constantly facing power outages, researchers developing a new, portable charging source that relies on human walk.

Led by material scientist Zhong Lin Wang, the team of US researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology has created a backpack that captures mechanical energy from the natural vibration of human walking and converts it into electrical energy.


This technology could revolutionise the way we charge small electronic devices.

The backpack contains a device made from thin, lightweight plastic sheets, interlocked in a rhombic grid.

As we walk, the rhythmic movement that occurs as weight shifts from side to side causes the inside surfaces of the plastic sheets to touch and then separate, touch and then separate.

The periodic contact and separation drives electrons back and forth, producing an alternating electric current.


This process, known as the triboelectrification effect, also underlies static electricity.

Wang added highly-charged nanomaterials that maximise the contact between the two surfaces - pumping up the energy output of what Wang called the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG).


“The TENG is as efficient as the best electromagnetic generator and is lighter and smaller than any other electric generators for mechanical energy conversion,” explained Wang.


In the lab, the team showed that natural human walking with a two-kg load generated enough power to simultaneously light more than 40 commercial LEDs.


“The backpack would be able to generate between 2 and 5 watts of energy as the wearer walks - enough to charge a cell phone,” noted researchers in a study published in the journal ACS Nano.

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Indiagames’ founder Vishal Gondal’s new venture GOQii adds human touch to fitness devices

Vishal Gondal, who had resigned from his post as the managing director of the digital arm of Disney UTV in April last year has launched his new venture. Gondal, who is the founder and CEO of Indiagames, the country’s largest digital gaming firm (which was acquired by UTV and is now part of Walt Disney), had decided to leave the company to pursue entrepreneurship.

The new venture, called GOQii basically offers a combination of advanced wearable technology, expert-led personalised coaching and elements of social philanthropy (karma) to enable its users to make a permanent shift to a healthier and more fulfilling lifestyle. For the same, it focuses on sustained engagement and goal reinforcement, and offers a complete ecosystem as a single integrated solution, which is a combination of technology and human connection.


“The GOQii philosophy is driven by the passion for healthy and meaningful living. Having used many other wearable tech products, I felt that something was missing – they were just a bunch of gadgets, apps and online data-crunching solutions, which lacked sustained engagement, motivation, customised advice or a human connection. I needed something more than data; I was looking for a complete solution for a more fulfilling way of life,” said Gondal.


According to him, the differentiating factor for GOQii lies in the fact that while existing apps, wearable gadgets and online solutions only provide simple data collection tools or diet logging apps, leading to short-term results, the company integrates the ‘human factor’ via a GOQii personal coach, who works with the user’s data to provide customised advice on a regular basis, to keep the user motivated and on track to success by goal reinforcement.

What’s it about? : With a goal to enable millions of people across the world to ‘be the force’, GOQii’s offerings include:


GOQii Band: An advanced fitness tracker that has a number of features, including a full touch display, a vibrating alarm, ultra-lightweight water resistant construction with skin sensitive materials, and automatic wireless syncing via Bluetooth LE. Its key functions include a watch, a motion sensor that can track steps, calories, distance, active time as well as ‘Karma Points’, which is basically a virtual currency for philanthropy.

The human connection is also provided in the band since it enables the user’s GOQii coach to remotely vibrate the band to motivate the user.


GOQii Experts: An array of health, fitness and habit experts responsible for designing GOQii Life. They also help users in making sense of their data along with training the coaches on the methodology and techniques related to motivation, nutrition, fitness and habit development.


GOQii Coach: Consists of leaders from the fields of fitness, sports, nutrition and behavioural science, who are trained to apply scientific methods to enable users to make sustainable and incremental changes towards a more healthy and active lifestyle. Users are seamlessly connected to their personal GOQii coach via an app and pre-scheduled monthly video/audio calls. This system is minimally intrusive, while simultaneously giving users flexibility for on-demand access as well as regular communication with their coach.

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Wear backpack, walk and charge mobile phone!

To address growing demands to recharge electrical devices in a world that is constantly facing power outages, researchers developing a new, portable charging source that relies on human walk.

Led by material scientist Zhong Lin Wang, the team of US researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology has created a backpack that captures mechanical energy from the natural vibration of human walking and converts it into electrical energy.


This technology could revolutionise the way we charge small electronic devices.

The backpack contains a device made from thin, lightweight plastic sheets, interlocked in a rhombic grid.

As we walk, the rhythmic movement that occurs as weight shifts from side to side causes the inside surfaces of the plastic sheets to touch and then separate, touch and then separate.

The periodic contact and separation drives electrons back and forth, producing an alternating electric current.


This process, known as the triboelectrification effect, also underlies static electricity.

Wang added highly-charged nanomaterials that maximise the contact between the two surfaces - pumping up the energy output of what Wang called the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG).


“The TENG is as efficient as the best electromagnetic generator and is lighter and smaller than any other electric generators for mechanical energy conversion,” explained Wang.


In the lab, the team showed that natural human walking with a two-kg load generated enough power to simultaneously light more than 40 commercial LEDs.


“The backpack would be able to generate between 2 and 5 watts of energy as the wearer walks - enough to charge a cell phone,” noted researchers in a study published in the journal ACS Nano.

Read More »

Soon, unlock your car with your NFC-enabled smartphone

Keep misplacing your car keys? Just wave your smartphone to unlock the door!

Engineers at South Korean automobile major Hyundai have invented a new system that will allow your smartphone to double as your car keys, and the technology will be made available to buyers within two years.


Rather than using Bluetooth, the system by Hyundai uses wireless Near Field Communication ( NFC), allowing you to lock and unlock the car by waving your phone over a small tag on the car window.


Inside the car, you place the phone on a pad in the centre console that wirelessly charges it while the content is synced and streamed to the car's infotainment system and touchscreen.


The system can also store in-car preferences, including radio stations, seating positions and even mirror adjustment - with multiple profiles able to be saved for different drivers.


The system was demonstrated on a concept version of Hyundai's popular i30 in Germany.


Hyundai said developing the system was part of the carmaker's aim of producing technology for the mainstream consumer, website carsguide.com.au reported.


"The Connectivity Concept showcases Hyundai's philosophy of making tomorrow's technology accessible to a wide range of customers," Hyundai Motor Europe chief operating officer Allan Rushforth said.

"With this technology, Hyundai is able to harness the all-in-one functionality of existing smartphone technology and integrating it into everyday driving in a seamless fashion," Rushforth said.

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