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The James Dyson Foundation announced today (Nov. 17) that Isis Shiffer is
the 2016 International Winner of the James Dyson Award for her EcoHelmet
design a collapsible, biodegradable bike helmet that can be dispensed
through vending machines at urban bike-share stations.

The contest awarded Shiffer $45,000, and provided an additional $7,500 to

the university department where she studied design and engineering.

Sir James Dyson, inventor and founder of the award, praised the EcoHelmet
for presenting a simple and "elegant" solution to the problem of providing
cheap, accessible helmets to users of urban bike-share programs.
The EcoHelmet, which is made entirely of cardboard, is compact enough to
fit in a laptop bag when folded. It cushions the wearer's head with
honeycomb-patterned paper that absorbs and distributes impacts, protecting
cyclists from injury.

"I look forward to seeing EcoHelmets used in bike shares across the world,"
Dyson said in a statement.

International runners-up include "Respia," an asthma management system

that uses a wearable patch to monitor respiratory health and detect distress
more quickly, and the "Smart Contact Lens Platform," which employs sensors
embedded in a contact lens to track glucose levels for diabetics.

Read more about the EcoHelmet and other designs recognized by the James
Dyson Foundation in 2016.
Bendable Battery May Power Future
Wearable Devices, Smartphones
By Kacey Deamer, Staff Writer | October 17, 2016 04:27pm ET
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The bendable battery could be used in wearable devices such as
smartwatches, fitness bands and smart clothing.
Credit: Courtesy of Panasonic
A new bendable lithium-ion battery that can flex and twist could power
wearable devices and one day be used to develop a flexible smartphone,
according to Panasonic, which is developing the new battery.

Although it's still in the early stages of development, the battery already has
been tested to withstand twists, bends and other deformations while
maintaining its ability to hold a charge, according to Panasonic. In contrast, a
regular lithium-ion battery, commonly used in smartphones and other
gadgets, can degrade when it is deformed, thus shortening the device's
operating time, the company said.
The battery was unveiled earlier this month during the annual Combined
Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC), a technology fair held from
Oct. 4 to Oct. 7 in Japan. [10 Technologies That Will Transform Your Life]
Lithium-ion batteries can be highly volatile if they malfunction, as was the
case with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which was plagued by battery
problems that caused them to overheat and sometimes explode. Faulty
batteries can catch fire when they are overcharged, because the lithium
ions can collect in one spot and be deposited as metallic lithium. If this
happens, the heat from the overcharging can cause oxygen bubbles to form,
which are highly reactive with metallic lithium. If they combine, this can lead
to an explosion.

Panasonic's bendable battery uses "a newly developed laminated outer body
and internal structure" that the company said makes it difficult for the
battery to leak or overheat. With this new casing and internal wiring, the
battery is both safer and more reliable for wearable tech devices, the
company said.

The bendable battery is just 0.02 inches (0.55 millimeters) thick, and was
able to withstand being bent so that the curve of the battery has a radius of
25mm, and being twisted up to 25 degrees in tests, according to Panasonic.
The company noted that the capacity of these batteries is still small they
can hold a charge between 17.5 mAh (for the smallest size) and 60 mAh (for
the largest). For comparison, the iPhone 7 has a 1,960-mAh battery. Though
further development is needed before the battery will be ready for use in
smartphones, the invention could be suitable for low-power devices such as
smart cards or smart clothing, Panasonic said.
"When used in card devices such as smart cards and card keys that work on
batteries, as well as body-worn devices and smart clothing, this battery can
retain its characteristics even if the device is frequently bent or twisted," the
company said in a statement.

Though samples of the battery were on display at the conference and sample
shipments are scheduled for the end of the month, Panasonic said mass
production will require further product development.

Original article on Live Science.

Send Passwords Securely Through Your Body Instead of Wi-Fi

Rather than rely on easy-to-hack Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signals, researchers have

developed a system that uses the human body to securely transmit passwords.

Computer scientists and electrical engineers have devised a way to relay the signal
from a fingerprint scanner or touchpad through the body to a receiving device that is
also in contact with the user. These "on-body" transmissions offer a secure option for
authentication that does not require a password, the researchers said.
"Lets say I want to open a door using an electronic smart lock," said study co-lead
author MerhdadHessar, an electrical engineering doctoral student at the University of
Washington. "I can touch the doorknob and touch the fingerprint sensor on my phone
and transmit my secret credentials through my body to open the door, without leaking
that personal information over the air." [Body Odor and Brain Waves: 5 Cool New
ID Technologies]

The system uses signals that are already generated by fingerprint sensors on
smartphones and laptop touchpads, which have thus far been used to receive input
about the physical characteristics of a user's finger.

"What is cool is that weve shown for the first time that fingerprint sensors can be re-
purposed to send out information that is confined to the body," study senior
author ShyamGollakota, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at
the University of Washington,said in a statement.
The researchers devised a way to use the signals that are generated by fingerprint
sensors and touchpads as output, corresponding to data like a password or access
code. Rather than transmitting sensitive data "over the air" to a receiving device, the
system allows that information to travel securely through the body to a receiver that's
embedded in a device that needs authentication.
In tests so far, the system worked with iPhones, Lenovo laptop trackpads and the
Adafruit touchpad (a trackpad that can be used with computers). The tests were
successful with 10 people who had different heights, weights and body types, and
worked when the subjects were in different postures or in motion. The on-body
transmissions reached bit rates of 50 bps for the touchpads and 25 bps for the phone
sensors fast enough for a simple password or numerical code. Bit rates measure the
amount of data that can be transmitted per second, with higher rates representing more
data (for instance, a small file rather than a simple password).
On-body transmissions could also be applied to medical devices, such as glucose
monitors or insulin pumps, which require secure data sharing to confirm the patient's
identity, according to the researchers.

Once they have more access to the software used by fingerprint sensor manufacturers,
the researchers aim to continue researching how to provide greater and faster
transmission options.

The technology is described in a study that was published online Sept. 12 in the
Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and
Ubiquitous Computing.
Original article on Live Science.
'Smart Textile' Turns Body Movements Into
Power Source
By Edd Gent, Live Science Contributor | September 19, 2016 07:28am ET
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A piece of fabric woven with special strands of material that harvest
electricity from the sun and motion.
Credit: Georgia Tech
A fabric designed to power wearable devices by harvesting energy from both
sunlight and body movements can be produced on a standard industrial
weaving machine, according to a new study.

Scientists in China and the United States have demonstrated how a glove-
size piece of the "smart textile" could continuously power an electronic
watch or charge a mobile phone using ambient sunlight and gentle body
movements.
The fabric is based on low-cost, lightweight polymer fibers coated withmetals
and semiconductors that allow the material to harvest energy. These fibers
are then woven together along with wool on high-throughput commercial
weaving equipment to create a textile just 0.01 inches (0.32 millimeters)
thick. [Top 10 Inventions that Changed the World]

"It is highly deformable, breathable and adaptive to human surface curves

and biomechanical movement," said Xing Fan, one of the fabric's inventors
and an associate professor of chemical engineering at Chongqing University
in China. "And this approach enables the power textile to be easily integrated
with other functional fibers or electronic devices to form a flexible, self-
powered system."

In a paper published online Sept. 12 in the journal Nature Energy, the

researchers described how they used a layer-by-layer process similar to
those employed in the semiconductor industry. Using this method, they
coated polymer fibers with various materials to create cable-like solar cells
that generate electricity from sunlight and also so-called triboelectric
nanogenerators (TENG).
The TENGs rely on the triboelectric effect, by which certain materialsbecome
electrically charged when rubbed against another type of material. When the
materials are in contact, electrons flow from one to the other, but when the
materials are separated, the one receiving electrons will hold a charge, Fan
said.

If these two materials are then connected by a circuit, a small current will
flow to equalize the charges. By continuously repeating the process, an
alternating electrical current can be produced to generate power, Fan added.

By tweaking the patterns and configurations of the textile, the researchers

found they could tune the power output and customize it for specific
applications by aligning the TENGs with the direction of body movements so
that they can capture as much energy as possible, or by using different
patterns for high-light and low-light environments.

"This is very important. Different applications have different requirements.

For example, the voltage requirement of a cellphone is different from that of
an electronic watch," Fan told Live Science. "Also, people walking between
buildings in London may have less sunshine than those running on the beach
in California." [Gallery: Futuristic 'Smart Textiles' Merge Fashion with Tech]

The team has yet to conduct long-term durability tests, but after 500 cycles
of bending, there was no drop in performance, Fan said. However, the study
noted that electrical output of the TENG did gradually drop to 73.5 percent of
its original performance when relative humidity was increased from 10
percent to 90 percent.

Still, the fabric's full performance can be recovered if the device is dried out,
Fan said. He added that encapsulating the textile in an inert material using a
common heat-wrapping process should counteract the issue.

Juan Hinestroza, an associate professor of fiber science at Cornell University

in Ithaca, New York, who was not involved in the research, said combining
two sources of electrical power in a single device was impressive. But even
more exciting was the researchers' use of traditional textile techniques to
fabricate the device, he said.
"I believe that this is a fantastic proof of concept that could eventually be
escalated to other forms of mass production for textile surfaces," he told Live
Science. "This amazing system approach taken by the research team
validates my personal belief that everything can be a textile and that
everything will eventually become a textile system from fiber-based
airplane structures and space station inflatable modules to wearable power
generators such as the one described in this article."

In addition to wearable devices, the material could be used to create larger

energy-generating structures, like curtains or tents, the researchers said. The
fabrication process should also allow the energy-generating materials to be
combined with other fiber-based functional devices, like sensors, Fan added.

Next, the researchers plan to focus on improving the efficiency, durability

and power management of the textile while optimizing the weaving and
encapsulation processes to enable industrial-scale production, they said.
Original article on Live Science.

New Tech Could Read Books Without Opening Them

Using technology akin to X-ray vision, scientists can read closed books, identifying
letters printed on stacks of paper up to nine sheets thick.

This finding could lead to office machines that can scan reams of paper at once, or help
researchers scan ancient books that are too fragile to open. The researchers also said it
could perhaps help spies read mail without opening envelopes.

The prototype device uses terahertz radiation, the band of electromagnetic radiation
between microwaves and infrared light. Previous research has found that terahertz rays,
or T-rays, possess a number of advantages over X-rays, ultrasound waves and other
kinds of radiation that can penetrate surfaces. For instance, terahertz rays can
distinguish between ink and blank paper in a way that X-rays cannot. They can also
scan across depths to yield higher-resolution images than ultrasound can accomplish,
according to the researchers. [6 Incredible Spy Technologies That Are Real]

The new system relies on how different chemicals absorb different frequencies of
terahertz radiation to varying degrees, the scientists said. As such, it can tell the
difference between paper that has ink on it versus paper that does not.

Moreover, the new system exploits the fact that air and paper each bend light to a
different degree, and that pages of a book trap air pockets between them. These
pockets may only be about 20 microns deep about one-fifth of the average width of a
human hair but this can be enough for the device to distinguish the signals from
different pages of a book, the researchers said.

The researchers used a terahertz camera to scan a stack of card-size, 300-micron-thick

sheets of paper. Each had a single letter about 0.3 inches (8 millimeters) wide written on
only one side in pencil or ink.
The algorithm can correctly deduce the distance from the camera to the top
20 pages in a stack, but past a depth of nine pages, the energy of the
reflected signal is so low that the differences between frequency signatures
are swamped by noise.
Credit: BarmakHeshmat

The scientists developed algorithms to interpret the often distorted or incomplete

images from the camera as individual letters. In experiments, the prototype correctly
read the nine letters T, H, Z, L, A, B, C, C and G from the front to the back of a nine-
page stack, the researchers said.

"The system we used was not necessarily a top-of-the-line system if the system was
improved further, we'd have a chance of reading even deeper,"study co-author
BarmakHeshmat, an electrical engineer at MIT, told Live Science.

One application of this work could involve reading ancient and fragile texts.

"The Metropolitan Museum [of Art] in New York showed a lot of interest in this, because
they want to, for example, look into some antique books that they don't even want to
touch," Heshmat said in a statement.

Another possibility of greater use in daily life may be "future scanners that can scan
through large amounts of documents without having to mechanically separate the
pages, which could be useful for libraries, banks and others," Heshmat said. "Such a
future scanner wouldn't use terahertz waves, but perhaps infrared light."

It might even be possible for spies to use this technology to peer through envelopes.
Still, "it could be possible to use ink that is not visible in the frequency ranges used,"
Heshmat said.

Other potential industrial applications may include analyzing any materials organized in
thin layers, such as layers of paint or coatings on machine parts or pharmaceuticals,
Heshmat said.

The scientists detailed their findings online today (Sept. 9) in the journal Nature
Communications.
Original article on Live Science.

This smart wristband

keeps track of your
drinking on a night out -
and tells you if you're safe
to drive
 The band comes complete with "time to sober" readings and
alerts




14SHARES

COMMENTS
BYLUKE EDWARDS
19:01, 6 JAN 2017

TECHNOLOGY

14SHARES

by Taboola
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If you like to keep track of your drinking but don't want the faff of counting drinks, the
Proof wearable is here to help.

This smart bracelet, unveiled at CES 2017, uses sensors to read the alcohol content in
your blood right through your skin.

The Proof, which lasts for four days on a charge, connects to an app on your
smartphone to tell you your exact blood alcohol levels.

READ MORE

Amazing 'bin bot' will add items to your shopping list as you throw them away

What's really cool is the personalisation, which allows it to tell you how long until you're
likely to be sober.

The app can also be set to alert you when your alcohol levels have reached low enough
to drive - or set it to let you know when you've hit a certain level to stop you getting too
drunk.
Proof can even predict how drunk you will be later in the night if you continue drinking at
the same pace. Or, if you want to track someone else, you can keep an eye on their
alcohol consumption via the app too.

The band uses disposable cartridges which are good for 12-hours of alcohol level
tracking.

Vehicle Movement Based Street Lights With External Light Sensing

Download Document/Synopsis
 This Project Kit is Available

Click on Buy Now For Kit Price &

Delivery Details
The main aim of this project is that it saves energy by putting on the lights of the
system only when the system detects movement of vehicle. The system switches on
the street light ahead of the vehicle and switches off the trailing lights
simultaneously. In order to detect movement of vehicles, sensors are used. The
system automatically puts on the lights that are ahead of the vehicle detected and
as soon as the vehicle moves ahead, the trailing lights are switched off. This is
better than the existing system where the street lights are kept on always unlike
this system where the street lights are put on only when movement of vehicle is
detected which helps in saving lot of energy. During day time these lights are dim as
this system has the capability to sense external lights. Thus this system senses the
external light and then accordingly switches ON or OFF the street lights. It uses
PWM to control the intensity through microcontroller. The IR sensors sense the
vehicle movements and send it to a 8051 family microcontroller that initiates
commands for switching the lights ON/OFF.

Hardware Specifications
Software Specifications
8051 series microcontroller
Keil Vision IDE
LEDs
MC Programming Language:
Transformer Embedded C

IR LEDs

Diodes

Light Sensor
 Transistors

Voltage Regulator

Photodiodes

Block Diagram
Gsm Based Weather Reporting (Temperature/Light/Humidity)

Download Document/Synopsis
This Project Kit is Available

Click on Buy Now For Kit Price &

 Delivery Details

Here we propose a Gsm based weather sensing and reporting project. The system
senses temperature, as well as light and humidity and conveys this to the user
wirelessly. Our system uses temperature sensor to detect and record current
temperature. It uses a light sensor in order to detect current lighting conditions.
Also a humidity sensor is used to detect current humidity conditions. All this data
from sensors is conveyed to the microcontroller. The microcontroller now processes
this data and passes is on to a gsm modem interfaced to it. The gsm modem now
encodes this data as sms message and sends this message to programmed user.
Thus this puts forward a wireless gsm based weather monitoring system where the
person does not need to be near the equipment to constantly monitor weather
reports. The data is automatically sent to the user via a sms.

Hardware Specifications

Temperature Sensor
Software Specifications
Humidity sensor
Arduino Compiler
Light sensor
MC Programming Language: C
Atmega 328 Microcontroller

GSM Modem
Alcohol Sensing Alert with Engine Locking Project

Download Document/Synopsis
 This Project Kit is Available

Click on Buy Now For Kit Price &

Delivery Details
We usually come across drink and driving cases where drunk drivers crash their cars
under the influence of alcohol causing damage to property and life. So here we
propose an innovative system to eliminate such cases. Our proposed system would
be constantly monitoring the driver breath by placing it on the driver wheel or
somewhere the drivers breath can be constantly monitored by it. So if a driver is
drunk and tries to drive the system detects alcohol presence in his/her breath and
locks the engine so that the vehicle fails to start. In another case if the driver is not
drunk while he starts the vehicle and engine is started but he/she drinks while
driving the sensor still detects alcohol in his breath and stops the engine so that the
car would not accelerate any further and driver can steer it to roadside. In this
system we use an AVR family microcontroller interfaced with an alcohol sensor
along with an LCD screen and a dc motor to demonstrate the concept. So here the
alcohol sensor is used to monitor users breath and constantly sends signals to the
microcontroller. The microcontroller on encountering high alcohol signal from the
alcohol sensor displays alcohol detection note on LCD screen and also stops the dc
motor to demonstrate as engine locking. The system needs a push button to start
the engine. If alcohol is detected at the time of starting the engine the engine does
not start at all. If alcohol is detected after engine starting, the system locks the
engine at that time.

Hardware Specifications
Software Specifications
Alcohol sensor
Arduino Compiler
DC Motor
MC Programming Language:
Microcontroller Embedded C

Lcd display
 Buzzer

LEDs

Resistors

Capacitors

Diodes

Block Diagram
SMS Voting System Project
Download Document/Synopsis
This Project Kit is Available

Click on Buy Now For Kit Price &

Delivery Details
We come across areas where we need to gather votes from a wide range of people through an
SMS. This system is widely used in large scale dance, singing as well as other type of public
voting competitions. Here we propose a system to handle this voting process using a
microcontroller. Our system is designed to get casted votes using a gsm modem and transfer the
data to a microcontroller for further processing. User casted votes are first received by the gsm
modem. This data along with votes is sent to the microcontroller. The microcontroller now
decodes the voting data. It considers only one vote from every unique phone number. Multiple
voting is not allowed. The microcontroller counts every unique vote and displays the results of
voting process on an LCD display.

Hardware Specifications
Software Specifications
8051 series Microcontroller
Keil Vision IDE
GSM modem
MC Programming Language:
LCD
Embedded C
Trafftrend Traffic Analysis Software based on Social Network
Data

Lets face it; youre on Facebook, and probably Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and a few other social media
platforms out there.

Why not get useful, traffic-related reports while on the go instead of getting stuck in the glut of Whos
getting Whatted notifications youre flooded with every day.

Real-time updated traffic reports at your fingertips which contain; date, time, location and cause of traffic
jams. No more tuning in to local FM reports at predetermined timings.

Javesh Garg, Arihant Kumar Jain and Prashant Jalan of IIT Kanpur have set out to enhance commuter
experience and provide government agencies with relevant insight into problems faced by the average
person on the go.

Screen Shot Route Options

They have developed a prototype application which provides real-time traffic updates and information on
traffic management trends using streaming data from social media sites. After cleaning through the white
noise, they feature each relevant post as a vector.
Besides traffic updates, the application provides info on traffic trends, maps based on high, medium or
low-risk traffic levels and a Safest Route Finder function