Archive for the ‘electronics’ Category

Human-motion energy harvester

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
Magnetoelastic materials change their shape when zapped with a magnetic field and are widely thought of as a way to produce movement, for example in small robots. But they also work in reverse, producing a magnetic field when they are deformed.

Greg Hampikian and Peter Mullner, both at Boise State University in Idaho say this property can be used to harvest energy from human movement.

They connect the magnetoelastic material to a magnetic transducer that generates a current from changes in a magnetic field.

This approach can create energy from low-level vibrations. The inventors say that relatively small movements are needed to produce an effect, making their devices ideally suited to harvesting power from human movement. That could be useful to stretch the battery life of portable gadgets, or medical implants.

Read the full human-motion energy harvester patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

Posted in electronics, energy, engineering, physics | Comments Off

Copy-and-paste lighting

Friday, March 7th, 2008
Every computer user is familiar with the copy-and-paste function of word processors and other applications.

Now Philips wants to apply a similar idea to interior lighting. The company says that creating a particular lighting effect is difficult because most consumers cannot measure the colour and quality of light they like, let alone reproduce it.

As a solution the firm has come up with a light with an inbuilt sensor that can be pointed at a particular illuminated area to measure the intensity, color, hue and saturation. That information can be used to alter the output of a second lamp to reproduce the same lighting effect elsewhere.
The system also incorporates a database so that settings can be stored for later use.

Read the full copy-and-paste lighting patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

Posted in electronics, home | Comments Off

Wired wallpaper

Monday, February 11th, 2008

Adding a wall light to your living room is a complex affair, since the wiring has to be embedded beneath the surface of the wall and the wall has to be plastered over and repapered or painted. Change your mind about where the light fixture should be and you have a messy and costly problem on your hands.

Now Philips wants to change all that – the company has designed wallpaper with conducting strips running through it. Philips says that appliances such as lights and displays endowed with the right kind of conducting pins could be powered by just sticking them into the wall so that the pins make contact with the conducting strips.

You could experiment an infinite variety of lighting arrangements in your sitting room, with no expensive remedial work needed. It's a different matter if you decide you don't like your wallpaper, though.

Read the full conducting wallpaper patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist contributor

Posted in electronics | Comments Off