Technology  

While it is not ideal to go through the day unable to hear the sounds all around you, that is exactly the reality for countless millions of people around the world. It used to be that there was little that could be done to combat this situation and make life a bit easier for those who have lost their hearing, but that is quickly changing.

Take a look at these four technological advances that are effectively creating a better quality of life for the deaf.

MotionSavvy UNI Software

This is a handy invention created by students at the Rochester Institute of Technology National Technical Institute for the Deaf. This is believed to be the first two-way communication software program designed exclusively for the deaf. The UNI system will translate American Sign Language directly in speech. That speech can then be transferred into text form. This is made possible by a social camera that is used to track both hands and all fingers in order to read the sign language and the gestures that are created. There is even a dictionary within the software program that can be customized, so users can add some unique signs that they have developed for their own use.

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Solar Ear Hearing Aids

With the cost of hearings aids and their batteries becoming out of reach of many individuals in America and around the world, solar ear has been developed to make use of the power of the sun. The batteries cost much less and they will last for two to three years, which pales in comparison to the one week that most traditional hearing aid batteries last. The quality of these hearing aids are rather impressive, and they have brought tremendous assistance to those that are hearing impaired throughout many regions of the world.

Online Communication Disorders Programs

Many universities and colleges around the country are now offering online communication disorders programs. This is a great way for the deaf and those interested in helping them alike to learn more about the technological advances that are being made in this area. In addition, it is these communicative disorders degree programs that are continuing to further provide new resources and tools that will continue to push forward the progress that has been realized in recent years. Any interested individual can take an online course and learn more about communications based disorders and how modern technology is enhancing the quality of life for those affected. One simply needs to conduct an Internet search to find a program in their area.

Smartphone Text Conversation Software

Smartphones and tablets are a great invention, and this platform is now showing great promise for the deaf and hearing impaired. One great application that has recently been developed in aptly named ISEEWHATYOUSAY. The deaf can use this program to capture spoken language and have it converted directly into text. This set is then sent over Bluetooth to the user’s device. The device can be as small as a flash drive, and wearable devices are also able to make use of the program. This application is particularly useful to the elderly population, as they might have lost their ability to hear but they can still speak.

These are just four of the many technological advances that have been made in this area in recent years. The deaf continue to see their quality of life being enhanced as they are able to better interact throughout society via the use of these devices and resources. The future is bright in this area, with many more inventions in the works that are showing great promise in the area of providing assistance to the hearing impaired.

By  Rachelle Wilber

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Batteries  

Hitachi has announced that it has developed a new lithium-ion rechargeable battery with an energy density twice as high as that of the company's existing product.

I think we can all agree modern smartphones are incredibly convenient. They allow us to remain connected to the Internet no matter where we are, and that brings a whole host of features and options. Of course, there’s one significant drawback to this. The more powerful and connected our phones get, the shorter the battery life gets.

It makes sense, after all, because even with larger-capacity batteries in a smartphone, it won’t last any longer if you’re constantly using your device. Sure, when in standby mode most phones can last for days, but let’s be realistic. How many of us actually leave our phones alone for that long?

We need better battery technology, that much is certain.

That’s why new technology from Hitachi Maxell could revolutionize the mobile industry. It developed a new type of lithium-ion battery that has twice the capacity of current tech, and yet it’s no thicker. In short, it means the new tech could double the life of the average smartphone without any significant drawbacks, such as making a device thicker in size.

Introducing Hitachi Maxell’s ULSiON Battery Tech

The new technology has been coined ULSiON, and it will allow Hitachi to create mobile batteries that are small and thin yet offer exceptional capacity.

“We will realize compact lithium-ion batteries that have a width of 13mm or less and an energy density twice as high as that of the existing product of the same size,” says Hitachi.

How does it work?

The new technology employs a composite material, which is generated when the silicon-based layer of an electrode is coated with carbon. Usually negative electrode layers made of silicon materials will expand and contract, which is what causes the overall size of the battery to grow or swell. The new technology from Hitachi, however, reduces that pattern by employing much finer silicon particles that are less likely to expand or contract.

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No Impact on Design

The result is that smartphone manufacturers could create devices that have much longer battery lives, without sacrificing minimal design. This is good news indeed, as batteries for high-drain devices tend to be larger in size, which is why you often see more powerful smartphones with less battery life. This is because manufacturers opted to keep the form factor smaller and thinner, instead of equipping a higher-capacity battery.

Where this technology could benefit most is the wearable tech market, where devices need to be ultra-thin and reasonable in size. No one wants to wear a brick on their wrist or around their neck, so manufacturers are struggling to offer wearables with decent battery life.

Hitachi’s new technology could allow it to offer smartwatches and fitness trackers that stay charged a week or more at a time. This is one of the biggest hurdles with wearable tech currently, as most smartwatches require you to charge them every night or every other night, which can definitely get ridiculous.

Bigger Phones, Bigger Drains

Plus, smartphone manufacturers have been slowly increasing display sizes over the years. These days, it’s not uncommon to see a 5-inch or larger display on new smartphones, which can certainly increase the load on the battery. It seems crazy that while devices are growing in size — phablets are incredibly popular these days — the general battery life tends to be decreasing.

Hitachi’s new technology will certainly change the market for the better, provided it can mass produce it. The company is set to demo the new technology to the public at the 2nd Wearable Expo in Tokyo, Japan, taking place from January 13 to 15.

By Kayla Matthews

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Author Bio - Kayla Matthews is a technology journalist and blogger, as well as editor of ProductivityBytes.com. Follow Kayla on Facebook and Twitter to read all of her latest posts. 

 Elon Musk  

Elon Musk has big plans for the Tesla brand, and the battery Gigafactory under construction in Nevada. The company has announced its foray into zero emission energy generation for homes and businesses.

Elon Musk recently announced "Tesla Energy," described by the founder of Tesla Motors as "a suite of batteries for homes, businesses, and utilities fostering a clean energy ecosystem and helping wean the world off fossil fuels."

Musk made the official announcement onstage at the company's design studio in Hawthorne, California (see video above).

"We have this handy fusion reactor in the sky, called the Sun," he said, stressing that solar power is the best way to end the world's addiction to fossil fuels and head off a disastrous future in which we are overwhelmed by CO2 in the atmosphere.

Powerwall is a home battery that charges using electricity generated from solar panels, or when utility rates are low, and powers your home in the evening. It also fortifies your home against power outages by providing a backup electricity supply. Automated, compact and simple to install, according to Tesla, Powerwall offers independence from the utility grid and the security of an emergency backup.

"We have this handy fusion reactor in the sky, called the Sun."

It looks "like a beautiful piece of sculpture," Musk said. You can order it now, it's wall-mounted, and it comes in different colors.

"The Tesla Powerwall is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery designed to store energy at a residential level for load shifting, backup power and self-consumption of solar power generation," Tesla said.

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"The Powerwall consists of Tesla’s lithium-ion battery pack, liquid thermal control system and software that receives dispatch commands from a solar inverter. The unit mounts seamlessly on a wall and is integrated with the local grid to harness excess power and give customers the flexibility to draw energy from their own reserve."

The Powerwall is available in 10kWh, optimized for backup applications or 7kWh optimized for daily use applications. Both can be connected with solar or grid and both can provide backup power. The 10kWh Powerwall is optimized to provide backup when the grid goes down, providing power for your home when you need it most. When paired with solar power, the 7kWh Powerwall can be used in daily cycling to extend the environmental and cost benefits of solar into the night when sunlight is unavailable.

Tesla’s selling price to installers is $3500 for 10kWh and $3000 for 7kWh. (Price excludes inverter and installation.) Deliveries begin in late summer.

There will also be a battery application for businesses and one for utilities. Both will operate on a larger scale than the "Powerwall" home battery. They will be called "Powerpacks."

Partnering with Tesla on this technology are Amazon, Target, and Southern California Edison, among others. Musk said that with 160 million Powerpacks, the entire United States could be transitioned to renewable energy.

To demonstrate his point, he revealed that Tesla's entire event was being powered by solar energy stored in Tesla batteries.

Musk said that initially the Powerwall and Powerpack will be made in Tesla's Fremont factory, but as the product line scales, it will be made in the massive $5-billion Gigafactory that the company is building in Nevada.

Like all of Tesla's technology, the patents for the Powerwall, have also been open-sourced.

By 33rd Square

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 Elon Musk  

Tesla Motors may be more about batteries than electric cars in the next few years.  The company is soon to announce a pair of new battery technologies: the Tesla home battery and a very large utility scale battery.

Tesla Motors will announce a home battery and a “very large” utility-scale battery by the end of the month, according to an e-mail sent to investors and analysts.

The e-mail Tuesday from Jeffrey Evanson, Tesla’s head of investor relations, said the company “will explain the advantages of our solutions and why past battery options were not compelling.” Khobi Brooklyn, a Tesla spokeswoman, said that “we’ll share more information next week,” without confirming the e-mail.

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Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO tweeted recently that Tesla would announce a “major new product line -- not a car -- will be unveiled” on April 30 at the company’s design studio in Hawthorne, California.

Major new Tesla product line -- not a car -- will be unveiled at our Hawthorne Design Studio on Thurs 8pm, April 30
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 30, 2015

"We are going to unveil the Tesla home battery, the consumer battery that would be for usein people’s houses or businesses."

“We are going to unveil the Tesla home battery, the consumer battery that would be for use in people’s houses or businesses fairly soon,” Musk said during an earnings conference call in February.

The electric car company is using its lithium-ion battery technology to position itself as a front-runner in the emerging market for energy storage that supplements, and may ultimately threaten, the traditional electric grid.

The company strategy was also outlined by Jeremy Welch, cofounder and CEO at Chrg, who claims Telsa Motors is really a battery company in aluminum clothing.

The move into energy storage ties in with Tesla's planned five billion dollar 'Gigafactory' being constructed in Nevada.

SolarCity where Musk is chairman, has installed Tesla batteries at 13 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. outlets in California recently.



SOURCE  Bloomberg

By 33rd Square

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 Batteries  

Researchers have synthesized a new material that they say could more than double the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries, allowing for longer-lasting rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and mobile devices.

Researchers from Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) of A*A*STAR and Quebec’s IREQ (Hydro-Québec’s research institute) have synthesized silicate-based nanoboxes that could more than double the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries as compared to conventional phosphate-based cathodes. This breakthrough could hold the key to longer-lasting rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and mobile devices.

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The research has been published in the journal Nano Energy.

“IBN researchers have successfully achieved simultaneous control of the phase purity and nanostructure of Li2MnSiO4 for the first time,” said Professor Jackie Y. Ying, IBN Executive Director. “This novel synthetic approach would allow us to move closer to attaining the ultrahigh theoretical capacity of silicate-based cathodes for battery applications.”

“We are delighted to collaborate with IBN on this project. IBN’s expertise in synthetic chemistry and nanotechnology allows us to explore new synthetic approaches and nanostructure design to achieve complex materials that pave the way for breakthroughs in battery technology, especially regarding transportation electrification,” said Dr. Karim Zaghib, Director – Energy Storage and Conservation at Hydro-Québec.

"This novel synthetic approach would allow us to move closer to attaining the ultrahigh theoretical capacity of silicate-based cathodes for battery applications."

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used to power many electronic devices, including smart phones, medical devices and electric vehicles. Their high energy density, excellent durability and lightness make them a popular choice for energy storage. Due to a growing demand for long-lasting, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for various applications, significant efforts have been devoted to improving the capacity of these batteries. In particular, there is great interest in developing new compounds that may increase energy storage capacity, stability and lifespan compared to conventional lithium phosphate batteries.

The five-year research collaboration between IBN and Hydro-Québec was established in 2011. The researchers plan to further enhance their new cathode materials to create high-capacity lithium-ion batteries for commercialization.


SOURCE  Hydro-Québec

By 33rd Square

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 Graphene  

Researchers have created a supercapacitor film that could replace the need for a battery altogether within the next five years. Consisting of two layers of graphene with an electrolyte layer in the middle the supercapacitor is strong, thin, and is able to release a large amount of energy in a short amount of time.

Cars powered by their own body panels could soon be driving on our roads after a breakthrough in nanotechnology research by a Queensland University of Technology (QUT) team.

The researchers have developed lightweight "supercapacitors" that can be combined with regular batteries to dramatically boost the power of an electric car.

The discovery was made by Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Jinzhang Liu, Professor Nunzio Motta and PhD researcher Marco Notarianni, from QUT's Science and Engineering Faculty - Institute for Future Environments, and PhD researcher Francesca Mirri and Professor Matteo Pasquali, from Rice University in Houston, in the United States.

The supercapacitors which are made of a "sandwich" by solution processing and filtering electrochemically-exfoliated graphene sheets mixed with clusters of spontaneously entangled multiwall carbon nanotubes.

The film could be embedded in a car's body panels, roof, doors, hood and floor - storing enough energy to turbocharge an electric car's battery in just a few minutes.

The findings, published in the Journal of Power Sources and the Nanotechnology journal, mean a car partly powered by its own body panels could be a reality within five years, Notarianni said.

"Vehicles need an extra energy spurt for acceleration, and this is where supercapacitors come in. They hold a limited amount of charge, but they are able to deliver it very quickly, making them the perfect complement to mass-storage batteries," he said.

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"Supercapacitors offer a high power output in a short time, meaning a faster acceleration rate of the car and a charging time of just a few minutes, compared to several hours for a standard electric car battery."

"Supercapacitors offer a high power output in a short time, meaning a faster acceleration rate of the car and a charging time of just a few minutes, compared to several hours for a standard electric car battery."

Dr Liu said currently the "energy density" of a supercapacitor is lower than a standard lithium ion (Li-Ion) battery, but its "high power density", or ability to release power in a short time, is "far beyond" a conventional battery. "Supercapacitors are presently combined with standard Li-Ion batteries to power electric cars, with a substantial weight reduction and increase in performance," he said.

"In the future, it is hoped the supercapacitor will be developed to store more energy than a Li-Ion battery while retaining the ability to release its energy up to 10 times faster - meaning the car could be entirely powered by the supercapacitors in its body panels.

"After one full charge this car should be able to run up to 500km - similar to a petrol-powered car and more than double the current limit of an electric car."

Dr Liu said the technology would also potentially be used for rapid charges of other battery-powered devices. "For example, by putting the film on the back of a smart phone to charge it extremely quickly," he said.

The discovery may be a game-changer for the automotive industry, with significant impacts on financial, as well as environmental, factors. "We are using cheap carbon materials to make supercapacitors and the price of industry scale production will be low," Professor Motta said.

"The price of Li-Ion batteries cannot decrease a lot because the price of Lithium remains high. This technique does not rely on metals and other toxic materials either, so it is environmentally friendly if it needs to be disposed of."

The researchers are part of QUT's Battery Interest Group, a cross-faculty group that aims to engage industry with battery-related research.


SOURCE  Queensland University of Technology

By 33rd Square

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 Solar Power  

An Israeli company, Brenmiller Energy has devised a new energy storage system that it says is an alternative to other solar technologies and will help provide clean electricity at a competitive price.

Israeli firm, Brenmiller Energy claims that it has overcome one of the biggest obstacles to widespread adoption of solar power systems—that of storage.

The company was founded in 2012, by Avi Brenmiller, former CEO of Siemens CSP and Solel. The company is focused on developing groundbreaking solar technologies and has over 100 people working for it in research and development.

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Brenmiller Energy has developed the bCell™ System – a modular solar steam generation product that is a new concept providing real dispatchable energy.

The system enables the production of stable and continuous steam, regardless of the sunlight available, and even works at night. The steam is then used to power a steam turbine, which transforms the energy into usable electricity.

Unlike other solar cell technology, Brenmiller's system introduces the step of capturing and storing heat produced superheating their proprietary material with the sun.

"Storage is the name of the game. We will have this technology at conventional fuel's numbers, with the same availability around the clock."

"Storage is the name of the game," says Brenmiller. "We will have this technology at conventional fuel's numbers, with the same availability around the clock."

The company claims their system operates at grid parity.

According to the company, the bCell™ System is designed for high availability, rapid deployment and easy maintenance. It is scalable and can provide customized solutions to various energy demands.

SOURCE  Business Insider

By 33rd Square

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 Gadgets  

New technology behind better smartphone batteries is on the way and developers are making more and more adjustments to improve batteries for longer use.

There's nothing worse than having one of the flashiest, sleekest smartphones on the market today only to discover that it has the battery life of a New York minute. If you're in the market for a new smartphone, or if you want to know what makes some smartphone batteries last longer than others, arm yourself with knowledge so that you aren't blinded by all of the cool apps and features of the newest smartphones. Keep reading to learn about the latest battery technology that could give your phone a few extra hours.

The Power Amplifier

One of the main reasons that smartphone suck up so much power throughout the day is because of the power amplifier. Not only do power amplifiers suck up roughly 65 percent of a smartphone's power, they also cause it to heat up. New technology known as asymmetrical multilevel out-phasing selects the lowest voltage necessary to build a connection and refreshes itself roughly 20 million times every second in order to operate more efficiently. Currently, the innovative power amplifier is being created in a single chip that's intended to be the new face of an energy efficiency revolution.

Self-Healing and Full Terabyte Batteries

Another technological breakthrough that can greatly improve the battery life of a smartphone is the self-healing battery. The way this particular battery works is that it actually repairs the damage done throughout the day to cells while a battery is operating. There's even talk of brand new technology that could be available as soon as 2015 that allows up to a full terabyte of memory, which is said to consume 20 percent less power and last ten times longer than normal smartphone batteries. If successful, the breakthroughs could mean having a smartphone with a battery that lasts several days or even weeks on one charge.

Current Smartphones with Powerful Batteries

While you're waiting for new smartphone battery technology to be released and implemented, there are a few

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smartphones that are currently available that have great battery life. Thanks to the ultra-power-saving mode, the Samsung Galaxy S5 can potentially last 24 hours even with ten percent power left. The LG G Flex touts a 3,500mAh curved battery that allows it to perform better and last as long as 18 hours on a single charge. The OnePlus One phone is one that's currently only available by invitation, but its long battery life is thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 as the CPU. While users might not like the fact that they can't remove the battery, it's one of the reasons that the phone can last an entire day on a single charge. No matter what smartphone you have currently, you can easily improve the battery life by limiting apps, colors, brightness, and activities.

Now that developers are providing users with stronger batteries, every smartphone brand is after the latest technology to make the longest-lasting battery. Having to charge your phone multiple times a day is inconvenient, hence, developers and marketers are trying to beat out the competition when it comes to battery life. The good news is that as this technology develops, all smartphone batteries will be improved somewhat—making everyone’s user experience a little better. The information for this article was provided by the smartphone professionals at Apple Shark who provide an Apple iPhone trade in program for those with older models, or even damaged devices.

By Dixie Somers

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 Batteries  

Researchers are harnessing the power of sugar to fuel electronics. They project their technique could power a number of devices in the not-to-distant future.

Researchers are charged up about biobatteries, devices able to harness common biological processes to generate electricity. Most biobatteries are unable to generate large amounts of power, but researchers recently developed a prototype version that has the potential to be lighter and more powerful than the batteries typically found in today's portable electronic devices, including smartphones.

In the body, sugar is converted into energy via metabolism, which decomposes it into carbon dioxide and water while releasing electrons. Biobatteries produce energy though the same conversion process by capturing the electrons that are generated in the decomposition of sugar with the same tools that the body uses. Because biobatteries use materials that are biologically based, they are renewable and non-toxic, making them an attractive alternative to traditional batteries that need metals and chemicals to operate.

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Percival Zhang and Zhiguang Zhu, researchers at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, designed a new biobattery with a greater output per weight than the typical lithium-ion batteries used in most electronics. They described the research online last month in the journal Nature Communications.

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

“By using the lithium-ion battery, for example, your phone can only last for one day, but in the future it will use sugar as the fuel...then the phone could last 10 days,” said Zhu.

The new biobattery 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 biobattery. Once the reaction is reset, the active enzymes release another quartet of electrons. After six cycles, the biobattery extracts all of the energy bound in the sugar molecule, along with carbon dioxide and water.

Previous biobatteries could only extract one-sixth the energy of the new biobattery, because they didn't use the non-active enzymes for recycling. By extracting more electrons per weight of sugar, the effective “energy density” of the sugar has increased.

One of the major advantages of this biobattery is that, while the cycle can fully convert sugar to energy, it uses fewer enzymes than the body, making it more robust.

Shelley Minteer, a biobattery expert from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City who was not involved with the work, likes that the team was able to develop an enzyme cycle, also known as an enzyme pathway, which uses fewer enzymes than the body.

“It’s really important to get all the electrons out, but not just to get all of the electrons out,” said Minteer. She added that it’s important to extract all of the electrons using the fewest enzymes.

With their new recycling enzyme system, Zhang and his team have done just that. “I think it's a great [enzyme] pathway,” noted Minteer.

While the new enzyme system marks a major step forward for biobatteries, the technology still has some hurdles to surmount before it is market-ready.

“So far there are two more challenges in front of us,” Zhu explained.

He said that, in the current, non-optimized form of the battery, the power output is still too low for many devices and the lifetime of the cell is still too short, as it cannot yet be recharged.

However, as Minteer noted, these challenges are more “on the engineering side of things.” Zhu and Zhang agree and expect to solve these problems at Zhang’s start-up company, Cell-Free Bioinnovations.


SOURCE  Inside Science Top Image via mattwalker69 via flickr | http://bit.ly/1dK8srs

By Emily Lewis

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 Disruptive Tech  

Tesla Motors is set to detail plans for its lithium ion battery Gigafactory, soon. Elon Musk says the factory may be the biggest of its kind in the world, and some analysts suggest it will extend Tesla beyond being just a car company.

Soon Elon Musk's Tesla Motors is expected to announce detailed plans for its Gigafactory, where it will produce the lithium-ion batteries needed for its next line of vehicles. This won’t be just any factory. It could be the biggest battery-making facility in the world. It will be “heavily powered” by renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar, Musk said on Tesla’s earnings call, and will have the capability to recycle old battery packs.

The company is already buying three times more cells than it did in the previous contract with Panasonic. Tesla plans to get a minimum of 1.8 billion cells from Japanese companies over four years.

Musk wrote in a recent shareholder letter:

Very shortly, we will be ready to share more information about the Tesla Gigafactory. This will allow us to achieve a major reduction in the cost of our battery packs and accelerate the pace of battery innovation. Working in partnership with our suppliers, we plan to integrate precursor material, cell, module and pack production into one facility. With this facility, we feel highly confident of being able to create a compelling and affordable electric car in approximately three years. This will also allow us to address the solar power industry’s need for a massive volume of stationary battery packs.

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Tesla has much to gain by building its own facility. It will help speed up car production, and it should also help sales. It will lead to a “major reduction” in the cost of Tesla’s battery packs and enable the company to build an affordable, mass-market electric car within three years, Musk said.

A major impediment Tesla’s skyrocketing sales is the supply of battery cells. Musk has repeatedly talked about the trouble of getting enough cells and how that has caused the company to not market its cars as aggressively as it would like.

John McDulling at Quartz suggests that mass production of Tesla’s lithium-ion batteries could enable their use to power all sorts of activities beyond cars. For instance Telsa’s batteries have been used to store electricity from rooftop solar panels in California, and this might suggest an attractive link between Tesla and another Musk company, Solar City.

“We are witnessing the most disruptive intersection of manufacturing, innovation and capital experienced by the auto industry in more than a century,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas in a note. “Tesla may be in position to disrupt industries well beyond the realm of traditional auto manufacturing. It’s not just cars.”

The battery factory may be behind recent talks between Tesla and Apple, causing rumors of another major corporate merger between the companies.



SOURCE  Quartz

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