Tech Suki

Source: http://www.tofugu.com/2007/08/02/studying-japanese-with-a-nintendo-ds/

Nintendo DS Kanji Dictionary:
???????????????? (sono mama raku hiku jiten / Kanji Sonomama). How many times have you looked at a kanji and had no idea what it was? More than you can count, most likely. Once you stop reading children’s books, you’ll probably start to notice that there is less and less furigana going on (that’s the hiragana next to the kanji telling you how to pronounce it). Furigana will only stick around for very difficult kanji, and that’s why you need this software. All you need to do is write your kanji into the box (as ugly and as poorly as you want to) and it will decipher it and give you its meaning. What makes this “game” so invaluable, however, is that it will translate it for you into English. You can also translate the other way around (English -> Japanese). Here is what happens when you look up a word:

Source: crunchgear

Today Olympus Japan announced [JP] the development of a 360° lens and camera prototype. The technology is a world first.

The company started working on the prototype last year. The camera covers a vertical angle of 180° now, while the old version only covered 45°. A special kind of glass is used for the lens, which has a diameter of 3cm.

Read the article at http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=174

Source: Dailytech

One approach to creating a cloaking device is using something called a superlens. A superlens has what’s called a negative refraction index. This allows it to bend electromagnetic waves back upon themselves, in effect, using interference to render an object invisible.

Graeme Milton, of the University of Utah, is working on mathematical models for superlenses. Thus far, the technology is not shaping up to be something that would be feasible for hiding something large, like naval destroyers. “We’ve seen it numerically — not in practice, but we’ve got a theoretical proof that collections of particles become invisible,” said Milton of their superlens work.

While superlensing may not be the answer for making warships invisible, work with metamaterials looks like it may hold more promise for large objects. A group at Duke University, led by David Smith, has used copper-based metamaterials to create something of a cloaking cylinder.

Similar to the University of Maryland’s plasmon-based cloaking device, the Duke team’s metamaterial cylinder causes microwaves to be bent around itself rather than reflected. The cylinder has microscopic patterns on its surface and these patterns act to redirect the waves striking it, rather than allowing them to bounce off.

Video about an older cloaking project:

Source: Dailytech

Quasiparticle based circuits could break down the electro-optical communication barrier.

One of the bottlenecks in current electro-optical communication systems is the need to convert electrons into photons. While optical interconnects maybe be amazingly fast and efficient, the conversion process still chews up precious time.

This May, Harvard researchers showed a new technology that could be used to build LEDs directly into an integrated circuit. Last week, University of California at San Diego scientists published work in the journal Science using a more direct approach at converting electricity to light on the fly.

Excitons are an interesting type of particle. They are created when photons enter a semiconductor, exciting the electrons it contains. An excited electron forms an electron-hole pair, which in this case, is called an exciton. What makes excitons useful for optical ICs is that when the electron-hole pair recombines, they emit a flash of light.

The key to creating an electro-optical IC in this case is the ability to control the exciton, preventing it from recombining too early. To accomplish this, the UCSD scientists used a special semiconductor made of gallium arsenide, very low temperatures (less than 40 degrees Kelvin), and a special type of exciton that separates the electron and hole pair by several nanometers, confining them to their own quantum wells.

Source: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8

Source: Dailytech

Light-powered microscopic mechanical switches could act as artificial muscle.

Research being done by collaboration between Penn State University and Rice University scientists may pave the way for switching state molecules. They could be used for anything from molecular driver units to artificial muscles or molecular electronics.

Though the function of the molecular switches is similar to that of memory metal, like the kind used to control the tiny mirrors that comprise the surface of a DLP (digital light processing) chip, they function without electrical stimulus. Rather than using an on-off state powered by charge, they react to ultraviolet and visible spectrum light.

These types of molecules, molecules that react and switch states of configurations to light, are not uncommon. The process is called photoisomerization. The molecules can either be in a trans or cis state. For their results, the trans state, which represented the “on” state of the switch, was the default state under normal visible light. The molecules, composed of two benzene rings joined by double bonded nitrogen atoms, “flipped” to a cis or “off” state when exposed to ultraviolet light instead.

Source: Dailytech

The first of the two new plants will be located in District No. 7-3, an industrial waste district.  When completed, it will pump out 10 MW of power to the region.  The second power plant is dubbed the “Sakai complex solar power generation facility”.  A location has yet to be decided but it will produce 18 MW, bringing the plants combined production to 28 MW.

The plants will produce enough electricity to power much of the city and will help cut its CO₂ emissions by 10,000 tons per year.  Production on the first plant will start soon, and both plants are expected to be online by 2010.

Sources: (click the 2nd one for more pics)

- Dannychoo

- http://alsoku.blog47.fc2.com/blog-entry-97.html

Source: Dannychoo

Source: Dailytech

Scientists gleefully report that the Martian soil is able to support life

NASA scientists working the Phoenix Mars Lander mission believe the soil in Mars could support life, but will continue to gather evidence to be entirely sure.

Using the lander, scientists discovered the Martian soil is more alkaline than they initially expected before landing on the Red Planet.  The discovery made them “flabbergasted,” with findings made after a wet chemistry experiment was made by Phoenix on Wednesday.

Phoenix’s robotic arm collected a cubic centimeter of Martian soil just one inch below the surface.  Once inside of Phoenix, it was mixed with Earth water and heated in an oven.

“We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life whether past present or future,” said Sam Kounaves, project lead chemist who works at the University of Arizona.

The soil is “very friendly” and “it is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline,” Kounaves said.  “You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well … It is very exciting for us.”

The preliminary results show the alkaline soil has a pH level of between eight and nine.  They reported magnesium, potassium, chloride and sodium were also found, with each mineral also found in soil here on Earth.  The soil could grow asparagus beans or turnips, but is too acidic for strawberries or blueberries.

Scientists now wonder what they’ll be able to find even further nutrients once they begin to dig deeper below the surface.

Source: Dailytech

New laser probe will enable surgeons to zap away cancer and other dangerous cells, leaving the healthy completely unharmed.

Femtosecond lasers are a relatively recent advance in laser technology, but they are advancing quickly. The University of Missouri’s UUL, or ultra-fast, ultra-intense laser is a femtosecond pulse laser. Some of the medical purposes the creators envisioned were zapping cancer cells without harming healthy tissue and treating tooth decay with the same type of results.

Adela Ben-Yakar at the University of Texas at Austin has taken the track seriously. Her work on a new probe-based laser system has been published in the June 23 issue of Optics Express. To get away from large, bulky lasers that are difficult to use in delicate situations, Ben-Yakar developed a flexible probe to deliver the femtosecond pulses her laser produces.

The probe itself is presently about 15mm in diameter, but Ben-Yakar hopes to further reduce the size to 5mm, allowing the laser to be used like endoscopes in laproscopic surgeries.

The magic in the probe is the specially developed fiber optic cable that carries the infrared pulses from the laser unit to its target. The cable itself is responsible for condensing slightly longer and weaker pulses into more powerful bursts at the emission end. This helps protect the fiber cable from the power of the laser’s full potential while letting the full potential reach the target. The laser focuses light so keenly that it is able to pinpoint cancer cells, destroy them, and leave the surrounding cells completely unharmed.