Apple patent paves way for projector powered mobile collaboration

Apple is looking to integrate pico projectors and gesture control tech into future iOS devices according to reports from the company’s blog, Patently Apple. The development will allow users with Apple devices to create projected shared workspaces that can be manipulated by gestures from a number of participants. The developments suggest that Apple is determined to push its already popular iPad further into the enterprise space. The company also details gesture technology that can interpret shadow and silhouette gesturing associated with presentations in darkened environments. The revelation came as the technology giant was granted a patent for an invention that “relates to electronic devices with projected displays that may be in communication with one another to form a shared workspace”. Anthony Fai is credited as the sole inventor of the granted patent which was originally filed in the first quarter of 2010 and published this month by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Source: InAVat...

Read More........→July 26, 2013

Scientists change the colour of gold

In a breakthrough, scientists have for the first time found a way to change the colour of the world's most iconic precious metal – gold. Researchers from the University of Southampton have discovered that by embossing tiny raised or indented patterns onto the metal's surface, they can change the way it absorbs and reflects light - ensuring our eyes don't see it as 'golden' in colour at all. Equally applicable to other metals such as silver and aluminium, this breakthrough opens up the prospect of colouring metals without having to coat or chemically treat them. This could deliver valuable economic, environmental and other benefits. The technique could be harnessed in a wide range of industries for anything from manufacturing jewellery to making banknotes and documents harder to forge. "This is the first time the visible colour of metal has been changed in this way," said Professor Nikolay Zheludev, Deputy Director of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre, who led the project. "The colours of the objects we see all around us are determined by the way light interacts with those objects. For instance, an object that reflects red light but absorbs other wavelengths will appear red to the human eye," Zheludev said in a statement. "This is the fundamental principle we have exploited in this project. By...

Read More........→July 14, 2013

Energy-dense biofuel from cellulose close to being economical

A new Purdue University-developed process for creating biofuels has shown potential to be cost-effective for production scale, opening the door for moving beyond the laboratory setting. A Purdue economic analysis shows that the cost of the thermo-chemical H2Bioil method is competitive when crude oil is about $100 per barrel when using certain energy methods to create hydrogen needed for the process. If a federal carbon tax were implemented, the biofuel would become even more economical. H2Bioil is created when biomass, such as switchgrass or corn stover, is heated rapidly to about 500 degrees Celcius in the presence of pressurized hydrogen. Resulting gases are passed over catalysts, causing reactions that separate oxygen from carbon molecules, making the carbon molecules high in energy content, similar to gasoline molecules. The conversion process was created in the lab of Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue's Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering. He said H2Bioil has significant advantages over traditional standalone methods used to create fuels from biomass. "The process is quite fast and converts entire biomass to liquid fuel," Agrawal said. "As a result, the yields are substantially higher. Once the process is fully developed, due to the use of external hydrogen, the yield is expected to...

Read More........→June 19, 2013