Windowless planes, may take off in a decade

Imagining a plane without windows, horrible, right. But here we are not talking about really a plane without windows but a flexible large OLED screen instead of the conventional windows. Where the screen will show whatever the view outside the plane may be flying or on the runway. Passenger can change the view according to his wish, can surf net and check one's emails

A futuristic view of windowless planes.

The basic thought behind the replacement of windows with OLED screens is to reduce the fuselage weight which will automatically reduce fuel consumption and hence, the travelling cost. It has been found that for every 1% decrease in the fuselage weight there is 0.75% decrease in the fuel consumption.

The Centre For Process Innovation an organization of England that works on developing new products is working on this idea. The idea came about after discussions about how printable electronics in which the centre specialises , could be used. " We had been speaking to people in aerospace and we understood that there was this need to take weight out of aircraft." said Dr. Jon Helliwel of the CPI. 

Till now we are able to build curved transistors and curved screens. So, this thing is to be used in that idea's implementation. 
What you think about the idea comment below.
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Sweat-analyzing skin patch to replace blood sampling

It's on nerves when it comes to our blood sampling the thought is really haunting about this thing. It seems that scientists at the University of Cincinnati and the US Air Force Research Laboratory are developing a system in which a Band-Aid like skin patch is able to gather and transmit the medical data in real time by analyzing patient's sweat and we just need a smartphone to read it as I found over the internet.
  

Developed by Prof. Jason Heikenfeld and his team of Uni of Cincinnati. The flexible patch contains electronic circuit, communication antenna, controller chip and a microfluidic paper-based sweat-sampling system. That paper wicks minute amounts of sweat from the skin in a tree root-shaped pattern, in order to maximize the sampling area.

A superabsorbent hydrogel is also contained in that patch to keep sweat flowing through the paper mechanism and to draw and store the sampled sweat. The gel swells only 2-3 millimeters even after several hours of collecting sweat.

Interesting part here is that the chip does not has it's own power source, it operates on the power drawn from adjacent smartphone's signal, just like passive RFID tag. The current prototype patch can measure concentration of sodium and chloride. In future there will many improvements. 

The data is wirelessly transmitted to an app on the phone. The tech may some day be used for applications such as keeping athletes from cramping up monitoring their electrolyte levels, non-invasively keeping tabs on premature infant's vital sign's allowing, diabetics to watch their glucose levels, or for fine-tuning medication dosages by measuring drug metabolites in the patient's sweat.  

What you think about this new tech in medical world, comment below and share your views.

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My experience of MIUI on Sony Xperia Neo v ( MT11i )

MIUI one of the most popular UI these days in basically in Asia since a four year old company out sold Apple in China. MIUI also fascinated me. A week ago my friend bought Xiaomi Redmi 1S and he liked it so much that he ordered 2 more smartphones for his brother and uncle. I also operated that device and liked it's UI and other features of this smartphone. I decided to flash MIUI in my Sony Xperia Neo v.
I also posted about Xiaomi on my blog under the heading " Why XIAOMI is loved by people? " Click the link to read.

Finally I downloaded the Rom From this Link. The Rom version which I downloaded was MIUI 5_3.8.16 which is recommended for my device. You can also download other versions but they lag.

After flashing the Rom the first think that came to my  mind was like i bought a new phone. It was different from all other Roms which I flashed earlier on my device. I found the was fluent and I simply loved it. Very similar to Apple's iOS.

                                         

The shutter speed of my camera increased, the quick settings panel is very user friendly. I found it easier than operating Android devices and all things which made MIUI different from basic Android devices were really good. I found it more user friendly.

But, as my phones config is very low comparing to today's world smartphones I found the Rom a bit laggy but  the overall experience is good I personally liked the Rom. One having the phone rooted and unlocked bootloader must try this Different Rom once.

Got queries or suggestion about the blog post post a comment below 
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Google's Project Ara

From big walkie talkie like mobile phone to slim cellphones and from Nokia E series to Smartphones. But now what?
What if you could change the camera, screen or even processor of your mobile phones without even unscrewing! Fascinating right.

Here comes the Google's project Ara of modular style smartphones, where you can change your device's hardware i.e. screen, cameras, battery, processor, wifi module and add other hardware like pico projectors, night vision sensors, gaming controls and all the stuff you think your device should have.

Launch is planned next year. Google will sell a $50 starter kit including frame, wifi, screen, battery and a low-end CPU.

Google says the phone is designed to be used by "six billion people", including the one billion smartphone users and the five billion feature phone users. Seriously a revolution to our smartphone experience. Google wants to lower the entry barrier for phone hardware manufactures so that there could be " Hundreds of thousands of developers" instead of current handful of big manufactures. Anyone one will be able to build a module without requiring a license or paying fee.

 So, you can also build your own smartphone again a mesmerizing concept. This project will open doors for new innovations and new inventions also entrepreneurs.

The frame will be available in two sizes "mini" about a size of Nokia 3310 and medium of size of about  Nexus 5. In future a large frame of about size of Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will be available. Frames will have slot in fort for screen, front cam and other modules. On back some other slots for battery, camera and other modules. Modules are secured with electropermanent magnets. The cases of modules will be 3D-printed so coustomers can design their own individual cases and replace them.

This project surely will have good impact on everyone including the environment as it will reduce the electronic waste and plastics. So, when ever the user will find the phone outdated one can replace the outdated module with the latest module of one's requirement. Also opening doors to new innovations

What do you think about the project ara? Will it be a big hit or flop?
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Microsoft gets Heads Up with Windows 10

After the the failure of Windows 8 in the market Microsoft is back in the game with Windows 10 and is really liked by the critics till now. It also feels like déjà vu as some of the features of Windows 7 and vista are included in this Windows.

Back to Start 

Windows 10 is the mixture of best elements of Windows 7 with touch friendly features of Windows 8 as the  in general was poorly received, with Windows 10 Microsoft made some U-Turns.

The start button which was missing in 8 has came back. Clearly Start menu provides quick view of files and folders which are most frequently used, Users can personalize the space with Modern UI features that include favorite apps, programs, people and websites.

 Also users will be able to resize the apps on the title bar and can switch between desktops for different purposes.

"Offering multiple desktops to separate personal and professional uses is smart, as is the additional focus on snapping different applications to the screen at once," said Josh Crandall, principal analyst at NetPop Research

"It's exciting times again as we watch the tug-of-war between the browser and the OS. Whether your use is for pure productivity or procrastination, via mouse or touch, Windows 10 looks fresh and powerful," he said. "Now, the question is whether users will have the stamina to keep up with the content and applications that are vying for attention at every moment.

But Why not 9?

In this topic Crandall said "By skipping a version number and calling the next version Windows 10, Microsoft is highlighting the significance of this release to the company,"

"Let's face it, the rollout of Windows 8 was an enormous marketing faux pas, and the company is still reeling from it," he remarked.

Microsoft is ambitious about the reviews it has got from critics about the new OS, but what you think comment here below

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All Screen AQUOS CRYSTAL

I had a fantasy that a smartphone's design should be all screen I mean having no edges. Sharp's Aquos Crystal is some what like the phone which I wanted. 

This beautiful device is all screen and a sleek design. Basically a mid range phone but really a beautiful design I will again say. One drawback being that it supports only CDMA not GSM, which most of the countries uses. 

Getting to the specs, The device has 5 inches screen, with a pixel density of 294. 1.5 gb of RAM, 8 gigs of internal storage and expandable up to 128 gigs. The device comes with Android 4.4.2 (kitkat). A Quad core 1.2 GHz cortex A-7 processor.

The device is powered with 2040 mAh battery and talktime up to 13 hrs. 

The device has hit sprint and will cost around 150 dollars.But, you'll have to wait all the way until October 21st to drop your cash. 

Phone booths being turned into Smartphone charging stations - LONDON

There is nothing in this world which a Human being can't use for his innovative tasks. Like the picture below 

The red one is but obvious a telephone booth. But, how much time ago you really went to a phone booth to make a call. In my life, honestly speaking I have never been there.

But what's that green one, as the headline suggest yes, it's a smartphone charging station. Two students from London England hope to make use of the ailing infrastructure and convert them into solar-powered charging stations. Harold Craston and Kirsty Kenny won second place in the May of London’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur of the Year Award with Solarbox, and have converted six pre-existing phone booths into these new solar-powered charging stations.

The " Solar Boxes " have been painted green and their roof contains 86 cm's of solar panels. Inside the booth Various types of phone chargers are installed and have screen to display adverts.

According to Craston the boxes can charge up to 100 phones a day, offering 20% battery boost in 10 mins. Six people per house use the booth. Five more boxes will be rolled out by April 2015

Electronic Dice Simple Arduino Project - DIY

Wandering around I found an interesting project to do on your Arduino. It's a electronic dice so, next time you play ludo or monopoly you don't need any more the conventional dice. I made it myself too. I will give here the program also.

Simply getting to the project the things we will need are:-

1. (2) 330 ohms resistors or (1) 560 ohms

2. 6 LEDs

3. Arduino

4. Some Connecting wires

5. 9 volt battery

6. Battery Clip

7. Bread Board

So, here's the circuit diagram

Now we you can build this circuit as it is very simple. After making the connections the circuit will look like this

Here we have a nice simple circuit. Now come the programming part. Go to this page and you can download the code - Electronic dice
Your browser will not be able to preview this rather, download this or if you are using Google Chrome ( not sure about other browsers ) there will option of a third party app " Drive Notepad " which can give a preview or you can download it too.

I hope that you find this project fun and try it yourself. Any doubt about programming or circuit you can mail me or comment here below. All queries will be solved.

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Some people were not able to download the code so here I am writing the code:-

// electronic dice 
void setup()
{
  randomSeed(analogRead(0)); // seed a random number generator
  for( int z=1 ; z<7 ; z++) 
  { 
    pinMode(z , OUTPUT); // LEDs 1-6 are output
  }
}
void randomLED( int del )
{
  int r; 
  r = random(1,7); // get a random number from 1-6
  digitalWrite(r , HIGH); // output to the matching LED digital pin 1-6
  if (del > 0)
  {
    delay(del); // hold LED on for the delay recieved
  }
  else if ( del == 0)
  {
    do // the delay entered was zero, hold the LED on forever
    {}
    while (1);
  }
  digitalWrite( r , LOW);// turn LED off
}
void loop()
{
  int a;
  // cycle the LEDs around for effect
  for ( a=0 ; a<100 ; a++)
  {
    randomLED(50);
  }
  // slow down
  for ( a=1 ; a<=10 ; a++)
  {
    randomLED(a*100);
  }
  // and stop at the final random number and LED
  randomLED(0);

}


references (project/circuit diagram):- Project 

World's smallest microphone- Just one Molecule!!!

Yes, this has been made possible by Yuxi Tian of Lund University in Sweden and his colleagues. They took an idea to fix a Dibenzoterrylene inside a crystal.

When sound waves disturb the molecule, it vibrates and shifts the frequency of light it absorbs. So, by shining a laser into a crystal and changing absorption frequencies, we can listen in on the sound it picks up.

As every coin has two sides, one limitation is that it works only at very low temperatures as warm air can cause fluctuations in the molecule. The team hope that by refining the device, it could be used as an acoustic microscope to spot tiny motions in chemical and biological systems.

India and US to team up for Earth Observatory mission and Mars Exploration

First picture of mars send by Mangalyaan ( MOM ) after entering the orbit of Mars. 

After India reaching Mars on 24 - September - 2014, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) and NASA ( National Aeronautics and Space Administration ) made an agreement for greater cooperation on mars exploration and earth observation for a joint ISRO-NASA Earth observation later this decade. 

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

The agreement was signed at Toronto while attending International Astronautical Congress.
The first agreement sets up a ISRO-NASA working group which will meet once a year also, the sharing of MOM and MAVEN  and possibility of joint mars mission. 

The second agreement is about joint NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)  mission, which is scheduled 2020. This Earth exploration satellite will will be used to measure changes to Earth's land surface in order to study environment impacts and movements of the crust, ice caps and glaciers.

NISAR will be the first satellite to use two different radar frequencies in the L-band and S-band. This will provide resolutions of less than 1 cm. NASA will provide L-band SAR, communication system, GPS units, recorder and data subsystem. While ISRO will bring spacecraft bus and S-band SAR also ISRO will launch the satellite into Orbit.