A new technology that uses ambient light and pigments used in commercial printing promises to make thin electronic displays that are as bright and vibrant as the pages of a glossy magazine, according to research reported this week in Nature Photonics.
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati’s Novel Devices Laboratory have developed what they call electrofluidic display technology over the past two years in collaboration with color experts from ink and pigments manufacturer Sun Chemical Corp. Sun Chemical also funded the work and has applied for a patent on the technology with the university.
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Friday, May 1, 2009
Microsoft Offers Secure Windows … But Only to the Government
It’s the most secure distribution version of Windows XP ever produced by Microsoft: More than 600 settings are locked down tight, and critical security patches can be installed in an average of 72 hours instead of 57 days. The only problem is, you have to join the Air Force to get it.
The Air Force persuaded Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to provide it with a secure Windows configuration that saved the service about $100 million in contract costs and countless hours of maintenance. At a congressional hearing this week on cybersecurity, Alan Paller, research director of the Sans Institute, shared the story as a template for how the government could use its massive purchasing power to get companies to produce more secure products. And those could eventually be available to the rest of us.
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The Air Force persuaded Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to provide it with a secure Windows configuration that saved the service about $100 million in contract costs and countless hours of maintenance. At a congressional hearing this week on cybersecurity, Alan Paller, research director of the Sans Institute, shared the story as a template for how the government could use its massive purchasing power to get companies to produce more secure products. And those could eventually be available to the rest of us.
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SpectraFluidics to develop detector tech
California-based SpectraFluidics has received a contract to work on a hand-held explosive detection development project.
SpectraFluidics announced its team that includes the University of California Santa Barbara's Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies and the U.S. Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center has received a three-year development contract.
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SpectraFluidics announced its team that includes the University of California Santa Barbara's Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies and the U.S. Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center has received a three-year development contract.
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How a "smart charger" could ease transition to electric cars
Imagine all the folks on the waiting list for the Chevy Volt or a plug-in Toyota Prius plugged in their cars at once. The result? Blackout, as the world's largest machine (otherwise known as the electric grid) is overloaded.
What's needed is a device that can sense when there's sufficient capacity to juice up an electric car and when there's not—a so-called "smart charger" (which would, of course, be a key component of a "smart" grid).
And that's exactly what engineers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. have created. "If a million owners plug in their vehicles to recharge after work, it could cause a major strain on the grid," said PNNL engineer Michael Kintner-Meyer in a statement. "The Smart Charger Controller could prevent those peaks in demand from plug-in vehicles and enable our existing grid to be used more evenly."
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What's needed is a device that can sense when there's sufficient capacity to juice up an electric car and when there's not—a so-called "smart charger" (which would, of course, be a key component of a "smart" grid).
And that's exactly what engineers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. have created. "If a million owners plug in their vehicles to recharge after work, it could cause a major strain on the grid," said PNNL engineer Michael Kintner-Meyer in a statement. "The Smart Charger Controller could prevent those peaks in demand from plug-in vehicles and enable our existing grid to be used more evenly."
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7 Military Tech Winners and Losers Under Gates's Proposed Defense Budget
Defense Secretary Robert Gates proposed a budget that would be the first Defense Department overhaul by the Obama administration. The plan has winners and losers as Gates tries to streamline defense procurement, focus on asymmetric and guerrilla threats around the globe and cut costs wherever possible. Here are some of the winners and losers under Gates's proposed budget.
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UAV Helicopter Brings Finesse to Airstrikes
In modern warfare, the advantage often goes to guerrillas who can attack, then quickly hide among the population or disappear into the hills. To counter those tactics, the Pentagon since 2001 has been arming unmanned aerial vehicles to identify and destroy targets with missiles.
The Defense Department is seeking weapons for UAVs that can strike enemies but limit collateral damage, especially in cities. The Army’s solution is the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS), a small, unmanned helicopter equipped with a powerful .338-caliber rifle. An autopilot system handles the tricky business of flying while the operator lines up the kill shot on a remote monitor.
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The Defense Department is seeking weapons for UAVs that can strike enemies but limit collateral damage, especially in cities. The Army’s solution is the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS), a small, unmanned helicopter equipped with a powerful .338-caliber rifle. An autopilot system handles the tricky business of flying while the operator lines up the kill shot on a remote monitor.
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DARPA’s ISIS Project Seeks Slow, Soaring Surveillance Superiority (updated)
DARPA’s ISIS program is developing a stratospheric airship with sensor antennas that will include a radar nearly as large as the airship. This would create a battlefield surveillance platform with extreme endurance, and equally extreme resolution for its air and battlefield scans via radar and other carried sensors. This project is associated with Lockheed’s High Altitude Airship program, which is intended to soar at over 65,000 feet for over a month at a time, and could also play a significant role in ballistic missile and cruise missile defense.
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Raytheon Restarts Production of Laser Maverick Missiles
Raytheon is restarting its production line for AGM-65E laser-guided Maverick missiles, and will also upgrade existing stocks, in response to demand from the front lines.
The AGM-65 Maverick was the first general purpose fire-and-forget tactical air-to-ground missile in service with the U.S. Air Force. The Joint Common Missile proposes to replace it, but until then, it remains the default option for jet fighters that need to make precision-guided missile strikes. The AGM-65 rose to its greatest prominence during Desert Storm, when many of TV’s missile-eye views of air strikes came from Mavericks. In truth, it was produced in 3 versions: TV-guided, Imaging Infared (IIR) guided, and laser-guided. Production continues for the TV and IIR variants, but the Marines’ AGM-65E laser-guided version had gone put of production.
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The AGM-65 Maverick was the first general purpose fire-and-forget tactical air-to-ground missile in service with the U.S. Air Force. The Joint Common Missile proposes to replace it, but until then, it remains the default option for jet fighters that need to make precision-guided missile strikes. The AGM-65 rose to its greatest prominence during Desert Storm, when many of TV’s missile-eye views of air strikes came from Mavericks. In truth, it was produced in 3 versions: TV-guided, Imaging Infared (IIR) guided, and laser-guided. Production continues for the TV and IIR variants, but the Marines’ AGM-65E laser-guided version had gone put of production.
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Thursday, April 30, 2009
Next-Gen Ultrasound
Whereas the signal-processing and image-reconstruction techniques used in medical ultrasonography have made huge advances since this type of imaging became commonplace three decades ago, the business end of the apparatus—the transducer, which converts electrical impulses to sound waves and vice versa—has remained largely unchanged. So we found fertile ground when we began digging for ways to improve those transducers using tools from the microelectronics industry. You will soon find the fruits of those efforts at your local hospital. Indeed, this strategy promises to revolutionize ultrasound imaging within the next few years.
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25 Microchips That Shook the World
In microchip design, as in life, small things sometimes add up to big things. Dream up a clever microcircuit, get it sculpted in a sliver of silicon, and your little creation may unleash a technological revolution. It happened with the Intel 8088 microprocessor. And the Mostek MK4096 4-kilobit DRAM. And the Texas Instruments TMS32010 digital signal processor.
Among the many great chips that have emerged from fabs during the half-century reign of the integrated circuit, a small group stands out. Their designs proved so cutting-edge, so out of the box, so ahead of their time, that we are left groping for more technology clichés to describe them. Suffice it to say that they gave us the technology that made our brief, otherwise tedious existence in this universe worth living.
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Among the many great chips that have emerged from fabs during the half-century reign of the integrated circuit, a small group stands out. Their designs proved so cutting-edge, so out of the box, so ahead of their time, that we are left groping for more technology clichés to describe them. Suffice it to say that they gave us the technology that made our brief, otherwise tedious existence in this universe worth living.
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U.S. May Monitor Pirates From Space
The U.S. is exploring the use of commercial satellites to enhance ship identification and communication for the battle against piracy.
Long before the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama was attacked by Somali pirates this month, a sister vessel, the Maersk Iowa, was plying the sea lanes between the U.S. East Coast and the Indian Ocean, testing a device that combines the information obtained from shipboard radar and identification transponders to give authorities a better overview of who is on the water and what they are up to.
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Long before the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama was attacked by Somali pirates this month, a sister vessel, the Maersk Iowa, was plying the sea lanes between the U.S. East Coast and the Indian Ocean, testing a device that combines the information obtained from shipboard radar and identification transponders to give authorities a better overview of who is on the water and what they are up to.
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CCUVS Deploys Robonic Unmanned Air Systems Launcher On First Operational Mission
The Canadian Centre for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (CCUVS) has announced it will be deploying the Robonic MC2555LLR unmanned air systems (UAS) launcher on its first operational mission since acquiring the launcher earlier this year.
The Robonic MC2555LLR launcher will be transported to Victoria, British Columbia, on 28 April and will be used to support the Canadian navy during exercise Trident Fury at the beginning of May. CCUVS is working closely with Meggitt Training Systems Canada (MTSC), the prime for providing the targets and control systems that the navy will use for ship defence training.
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The Robonic MC2555LLR launcher will be transported to Victoria, British Columbia, on 28 April and will be used to support the Canadian navy during exercise Trident Fury at the beginning of May. CCUVS is working closely with Meggitt Training Systems Canada (MTSC), the prime for providing the targets and control systems that the navy will use for ship defence training.
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Generating Energy From the Deep
LOCKHEED MARTIN is best known for building stealth fighters, satellites and other military equipment. But since late 2006 the company has taken on a different kind of enterprise — generating renewable power from the ocean.
The technology is still being developed in the laboratory, but if it succeeds on a large scale, it
could eventually become an important tool in the nation’s battle against global warming and dependency on foreign oil.
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The technology is still being developed in the laboratory, but if it succeeds on a large scale, it
could eventually become an important tool in the nation’s battle against global warming and dependency on foreign oil.
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Hypersonic ‘WaveRider’ poised for test flight
Hoping to bridge the gap between airplanes and rocketships, the U.S. military is preparing to test an experimental aircraft that can fly more than six times faster than the speed of sound on ordinary jet fuel.
Officially, it's known as the X-51, but folks like to call it the WaveRider because it stays airborne, in part, with lift generated by the shock waves of its own flight. The design stems from the goal of the program — to demonstrate an air-breathing, hypersonic, combustion ramjet engine, known as a scramjet.
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Officially, it's known as the X-51, but folks like to call it the WaveRider because it stays airborne, in part, with lift generated by the shock waves of its own flight. The design stems from the goal of the program — to demonstrate an air-breathing, hypersonic, combustion ramjet engine, known as a scramjet.
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Raytheon affirms plans to launch family of Killer Bee UAVs
Raytheon says today it will continue to develop and sell new versions of the Killer Bee blended wing body unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) even after the design has been acquired and renamed by Northrop Grumman.
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JHMCS: Fighter Pilot “Look & Shoot” Helmets’ Upgrade, Ups & Downs
The Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) projects visual targeting and aircraft performance information on the back of the helmet’s visor, including aircraft altitude, airspeed, gravitational pull, angle of attack, and weapons sighting, enabling the pilot to monitor this information without interrupting the field of view through the cockpit canopy. The system uses a magnetic transmitter unit fixed to the pilot’s seat and a magnetic field probe mounted on the helmet to define helmet pointing positioning. A Helmet Vehicle Interface (HVI) interacts with the aircraft system bus to provide signal generation for the helmet display. This provides significant improvement for close combat targeting and engagement.
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thales’s Liberty multiband radio receives FCC approval
Thales Communications, Inc., a pioneer and global leader in the development, manufacture, and support of multiband, software-defined radio (SDR) equipment, announces that its Liberty multiband land mobile radio (LMR) has received U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certification. Having successfully passed all required tests, the Liberty radio is the first FCC-approved multiband radio covering the entire public safety spectrum.
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NG delivers first operational B-2 bomber with new radar
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has delivered to the U.S. Air Force the first operational B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to be equipped with a newly modernized radar. The aircraft was officially handed off to the Air Force on March 17 at Whiteman Air Force Base, the operational home of the B-2 fleet and the 509th Bomb Wing.
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Fastest Camera Ever Built Uses Lasers
cientists have made the fastest camera ever. It can take 6.1 million pictures in a single second, at a shutter speed of 440 trillionths of a second. Light itself moves just a fraction of a centimeter in that time.
The camera works by illuminating objects with a laser that emits a different infrared frequency for every single pixel, allowing them to custom-amplify a signal that would otherwise be too dim to see.
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The camera works by illuminating objects with a laser that emits a different infrared frequency for every single pixel, allowing them to custom-amplify a signal that would otherwise be too dim to see.
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
G.E.’s Breakthrough Can Put 100 DVDs on a Disc
General Electric says it has achieved a breakthrough in digital storage technology that will allow standard-size discs to hold the equivalent of 100 DVDs.
The storage advance, which G.E. is announcing on Monday, is just a laboratory success at this stage. The new technology must be made to work in products that can be mass-produced at affordable prices.
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The storage advance, which G.E. is announcing on Monday, is just a laboratory success at this stage. The new technology must be made to work in products that can be mass-produced at affordable prices.
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U.S. Steps Up Effort on Digital Defenses
When American forces in Iraq wanted to lure members of Al Qaeda into a trap, they hacked into one of the group’s computers and altered information that drove them into American gun sights.
When President George W. Bush ordered new ways to slow Iran’s progress toward a nuclear bomb last year, he approved a plan for an experimental covert program — its results still unclear — to bore into their computers and undermine the project.
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When President George W. Bush ordered new ways to slow Iran’s progress toward a nuclear bomb last year, he approved a plan for an experimental covert program — its results still unclear — to bore into their computers and undermine the project.
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Canadians demonstrate brownout vision aid
AE and Neptec Design Group have successfully demonstrated a synthetic vision system that fuses real-time landscape captured by a Neptec-built light detection and ranging (Lidar) sensor with a CAE-built terrain database.
According to the companies, pilots flying a UH-1 test helicopter equipped with a prototype system were able to “see through” brownout conditions to “easily differentiate between rocks, bushes, sloping terrain, utility poles, ground vehicles and wires at distances greater than 200m.
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According to the companies, pilots flying a UH-1 test helicopter equipped with a prototype system were able to “see through” brownout conditions to “easily differentiate between rocks, bushes, sloping terrain, utility poles, ground vehicles and wires at distances greater than 200m.
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Boeing ponders “variably” manned aircraft
Boeing has filed for a US patent on an aircraft control system that could be configured for two, one or zero pilots. The no-pilot mode would receive input from a remotely located operator by way of wireless signals, patent application 20090105891 states.
The development echoes similar work that Sikorsky has said it is performing. Sikorsky president Jeff Pino has said the company will increasingly turn to fly-by-wire designs in part to allow the military to use helicopters for missions too dangerous for pilots or for situations where pilots are injured. "We envision a switch in the cockpit of all of our helicopters with indicators for 'No pilot', 'One pilot' and 'Two pilots'," Pino stated at the February 2008 Helicopter Association International Expo.
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The development echoes similar work that Sikorsky has said it is performing. Sikorsky president Jeff Pino has said the company will increasingly turn to fly-by-wire designs in part to allow the military to use helicopters for missions too dangerous for pilots or for situations where pilots are injured. "We envision a switch in the cockpit of all of our helicopters with indicators for 'No pilot', 'One pilot' and 'Two pilots'," Pino stated at the February 2008 Helicopter Association International Expo.
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Photron debuts world's-fastest camera
April 21, 2009--High-speed imaging systems manufacturer Photron (San Diego, CA) will demonstrate the newest member of its high-speed technology, the Fastcam SA5, at the 2009 NAB show (www.nabshow.com) in Las Vegas, April 18-23. This camera achieves an unprecedented 7500 frames per second with its megapixel resolution (1024 x 1000) CMOS sensor, with reduced resolution available at a speed of over 1 million frames per second. See the Laser Focus World VIDEO player or click this link for the latest video from Photron: Popcorn popping at 10,000 frames per second .
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Army ‘Multimode’ Raygun Tech Zaps, Crackles, Pops
The Army’s new ray gun research project combines the zap of a laser with the crackle of an electric shock and the pop of a high-power microwave pulse. Known as the Multimode Directed Energy Armament System, it offers a wide range of different effects against different targets. Defensively, it could knock out everything from improvised explosive devices to incoming rockets. As a weapon, its effects might range from Taser-like effects to a lethal lightning bolt — and it should be able to stop vehicles in their tracks.
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Monday, April 27, 2009
General Atomics unwraps new, Stealth(y) robot war-jet
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI), maker of the famous Predator and Reaper unmanned warplanes, has taken the wraps off a new and still more powerful kill-robot - the "Avenger". The company says that first flights have been conducted successfully this month.
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INTEGRATED SENSOR IS STRUCTURE PROGRAM BEGINS
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Palmdale, Calif., to develop the Integrated Sensor Is Structure (ISIS) phase 3 demonstration system. Raytheon Co., El Segundo, Calif., is a key team member.
DARPA’s ISIS program is developing a sensor of unprecedented proportions that is fully integrated into a stratospheric airship. ISIS will revolutionize theater-wide surveillance, tracking and fire-control, and enable engagement of hundreds of time-critical air and ground targets simultaneously in both urban and rural environments.
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DARPA’s ISIS program is developing a sensor of unprecedented proportions that is fully integrated into a stratospheric airship. ISIS will revolutionize theater-wide surveillance, tracking and fire-control, and enable engagement of hundreds of time-critical air and ground targets simultaneously in both urban and rural environments.
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Integrated Sensor is Structure (ISIS)
The goal of the ISIS program is to develop a stratospheric airship based autonomous unmanned sensor with years of persistence in surveillance and tracking of air and ground targets. It will have the capability to track the most advanced cruise missiles at 600 km and dismounted enemy combatants at 300 km.
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Raven Small UAV Demonstrates Persistent Surveillance Capability on a 30 Hour Mission
Attached to the forward echelons and operated by the troops, Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (SUAV) have become a common element of support to the fighting units, providing a broad range of services to the warfighter, from intelligence gathering and target acquisition to battle damage assessment and force protection. Indispensable as they are, SUAV have one clear drawback – short range and mission endurance. System developers are aiming at extending their mission endurance, by energy saving and use of more efficient power sources. A new concept utilizing multiple SUAVs on a single mission enables a unit to maintain persistent monitoring of a mission area over a long time.
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Tracking Internet Chatter Helps Spot Swine Flu Outbreak
Tech tools for tracking disease outbreaks have been useful for following the spread of swine flu and one startup even claims to have recognized the severity of the outbreak in Mexico before government public health officials.
Veratect, a Seattle-based biosurveillance startup, claims they alerted the Centers for Disease Control to the situation in Mexico — where health officials suspect swine flu has killed up to 149 people — on April 16, before even the Mexican health authorities declared a problem.
How’d they get ahead of the outbreak? By monitoring and analyzing the flow of social media traffic along with more official reports, the company’s CEO said.
“We started picking up the early indicators of social disruption, whether it shows up on blogs or Twitter,” said Bob Hart, the CEO of Veratect. “We can pick up the first indicators of behavioral changes.”
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Veratect, a Seattle-based biosurveillance startup, claims they alerted the Centers for Disease Control to the situation in Mexico — where health officials suspect swine flu has killed up to 149 people — on April 16, before even the Mexican health authorities declared a problem.
How’d they get ahead of the outbreak? By monitoring and analyzing the flow of social media traffic along with more official reports, the company’s CEO said.
“We started picking up the early indicators of social disruption, whether it shows up on blogs or Twitter,” said Bob Hart, the CEO of Veratect. “We can pick up the first indicators of behavioral changes.”
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