IBM To Build Next Generation Chips Using DNA

In future DNA wouldn’t just control human evolution but also computing evolution, if IBM succeeds to use DNA in development of next-generation microchips.

Scientists at IBM Research and the California Institute of Technology announced a scientific advancement that could be a major breakthrough in enabling the semiconductor industry to pack more power and speed into tiny computer chips, while making them more energy efficient and less expensive to manufacture.
Today, the semiconductor industry is faced with the challenges of developing lithographic technology for feature sizes smaller than 22 nm and exploring new classes of transistors that employ carbon nanotubes or silicon nanowires. IBM’s approach of using DNA molecules as scaffolding  – where millions of carbon nanotubes could be deposited and self-assembled into precise patterns by sticking to the DNA molecules – may provide a way to reach sub-22 nm lithography.

The utility of this approach lies in the fact that the positioned DNA nanostructures can serve as scaffolds, or miniature circuit boards, for the precise assembly of components – such as carbon nanotubes, nanowires and nanoparticles – at dimensions significantly smaller than possible with conventional semiconductor fabrication techniques. This opens up the possibility of creating functional devices that can be integrated into larger structures, as well as enabling studies of arrays of nanostructures with known coordinates.

“The cost involved in shrinking features to improve performance is a limiting factor in keeping pace with Moore’s Law and a concern across the semiconductor industry,” said Spike Narayan, manager, Science & Technology, IBM Research – Almaden. “The combination of this directed self-assembly with today’s fabrication technology eventually could lead to substantial savings in the most expensive and challenging part of the chip-making process.”

The lithographic templates were fabricated at IBM using traditional semiconductor techniques, the same used to make the chips found in today’s computers, to etch out patterns. Either electron beam or optical lithography were used to create arrays of binding sites of the proper size and shape to match those of individual origami structures. Key to the process were the discovery of the template material and deposition conditions to afford high selectivity so that origami binds only to the patterns of “sticky patches” and nowhere else.
The paper on this work, “Placement and orientation of DNA nano structures on lithographically patterned surfaces,” by scientists at IBM Research and the California Institute of Technology, will be published in the September issue of Nature Nanotechnology and is currently available at: http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nnano.2009.220.html.

Nokia Unveils Its First Linux Phone N900

Nokia unveiled N900, its first smart phone running on Linux software, aiming at improving its offering at the top end of the market.
The Nokia N900 runs on the Linux-based Maeme 5 software, featuring true multitasking with applications as well as Web browsing with Adobe Flash support.

Nokia’s workhorse Symbian operating system controls half of the smartphone market volume — more than its rivals Apple, Research in Motion and Google put together. Nokia said Linux would work well in parallel with Symbian in its high-end product range.

“As Nokia announces the software platform that will drive its future services aspirations it created a dedicated solutions unit — the challenge will be to ensure that all these elements work in harmony in the face of fierce competition from Apple and Google,” said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight.

The new N900 model, with cellular connection, touch screen and slide-out keyboard, will retail for around $712, excluding subsidies and taxes.
Nokia also unveiled a new Solutions business unit, which aims to better tie together its phone operations and new mobile Internet services offering.
Technical details of N900:
Display:
3.5 inch touch-sensitive widescreen display
800 × 480 pixel resolution

Web browsing:
Maemo browser powered by Mozilla technology
Adobe Flash™ 9.4 support
Full screen browsing

Camera:
5 megapixel camera (2584 × 1938 pixels)
Image formats: JPEG
CMOS sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar lens
3 × digital zoom
Autofocus with assist light and two-stage capture key
Dual LED flash
Full-screen viewfinder
Photo editor on device
TV out (PAL/NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, included in box) or WLAN/UPnP
Landscape (horizontal) orientation
Capture modes: Automatic, portrait, video, macro, landscape, action

Video:
Wide aspect ratio 16:9 (WVGA)
Video recording file format: .mp4; codec: MPEG-4
Video recording at up to 848 × 480 pixels (WVGA) and up to 25fps
Video playback file formats: .mp4, .avi, .wmv, .3gp; codecs: H.264, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, H.263

Music and audio playback:
Maemo media player
Music playback file formats: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
Built-in FM transmitter
Ring tones: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
FR, EFR, WCDMA, and GSM AMR
Digital stereo microphone
DLNA

The University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine scientists who proved it is possible to cultivate a network of brain cells that reconnect on a silicon chip—or the brain on a microchip—have developed new technology that monitors brain cell activity at a resolution never achieved before.
Developed with the National Research Council Canada (NRC), the new silicon chips are also simpler to use, which will help future understanding of how brain cells work under normal conditions and permit drug discoveries for a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Naweed Syed's lab cultivated brain cells on a microchip.

The new technology from the lab of Naweed Syed, in collaboration with the NRC, is published online this month in the journal, Biomedical Devices.
“This technical breakthrough means we can track subtle changes in brain activity at the level of ion channels and synaptic potentials, which are also the most suitable target sites for drug development in neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychological disorders,” says Syed, professor and head of the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and advisor to the Vice President Research on Biomedical Engineering Initiative of the U of C.
The new neurochips are also automated, meaning that anyone can learn to place individual brain cells on them. Previously it took years of training to learn how to record ion channel activity from brain cells, and it was only possible to monitor one or two cells simultaneously. Now, larger networks of cells can be placed on a chip and observed in minute detail, allowing the analysis of several brain cells networking and performing automatic, large-scale drug screening for various brain dysfunctions.
This new technology has the potential to help scientists in a variety of fields and on a variety of research projects. Gerald Zamponi, professor and head of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, and member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, says, “This technology can likely be scaled up such that it will become a novel tool for medium throughput drug screening, in addition to its usefulness for basic biomedical research”.

Read what you are hearing

There have been many advancements in speech-to-text in the last few years. I’m sure that I’ll probably speaking these posts instead of typing them in the next few years, provided I’m not disturbing others in the room.
I’m sure that the hearing impaired would most benefit from speech to text technology, and this is what the Babel Fisk is supposed to do.
Designed by Mads Hindhede, the Babel Fisk has microphones built into the frame in order to pick up the voice of a person in the line of sight, and then an embedded speech-to-text program will create the text that is projected inside of the lenses.
You can even program it to record the text to a flash memory card for later use. So you can literally record everything that you hear as a text file.

The name of Babel Fisk is clearly a tip of the hat to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In that classic science-fiction satire, the characters had this tiny fish that they stuck in their ear known as a babel fish that could somehow miraculously translate any language spoken. Fisk apparently means “fish” in Danish.
Of course, this just has to be concept technology, and I’m not certain how well this would work, honestly. I mean, if you are with someone who is talking to much, would you literally be blinded by words?

Inductive Charger from Energizer

The Inductive Charger only has power sleeves for the Blackberry Curve 8900 as well as the iPhone 3GS and 3G. At least, for now.

As it is, Energizer’s Inductive Charger is a Qi inductive charger, which is its strongest feature. Qi is the new universal standard for inductive charging as established by the Wireless Power Consortium.
Apparently, it won’t be long before Qi-enabled devices will be on handsets, so you can lay them on Qi-enabled Inductive Chargers without the power sleeves that you have purchase for them.
Another thing that sets the Energizer Inductive chargers apart from other wireless ones is that there is an extra USB port in case you want to recharge some USB-powered devices I can’t remember if Powermat or Wildcharger have this feature. What works against the Energizer Inductive Charger is that there is no magnetic lock like its competitors.
All in all, I would say that the Energizer Inductive Charger is an investment in your future as you might be able to say that you were the first to get a Qi-enabled wireless charger and can now charge any mobile device made after a certain time in the future. You can get the Energizer Inductive Charger now for about $89.

Cell Phone Design- "The Intruder "

The latest cell phone designed by Dennis Hopkins, “The Intruder” has a concept which some people can relate to a UFO, actually influences from that field is mentioned on his website to. But without the outer space resembling this cell phones design is pretty much targeted at women.
Its diameter is of only 2.5 inches and when closed it is just one third of an inch thick. When opened it measures 5 inches in length and the display holds 220 x 176 pixels. And last but not least, when someone calls you a ring of light appears from the sides of the phone.
The website of Dennis Hopkins doesn’t let you in to all the technology used so for now we just have to say good luck to women that now have at their disposal a phone looking like a powder compact.

Electro Hub universal wireless charger

We have reported on many supposedly wireless chargers before, such as the Powermat and Wildcharger. There was also that one from Energizer that is Q1 certified, so that someday, we will all just lay down our mobile devices on charging pads and we’ll say good-bye to our charging cords forever.
This is the ElectroHub, another wireless charging station to join the club, and is planned to make its shining debut at CES 2011. As someone who is thrilled to see that their invitation to CES has been accepted, I can’t wait to see it.

One thing that is promised to make the ElectroHub unique is that it occasionally doesn’t require the device to have a special case, but actually provides ElectroHub batteries, which come in both AA and AAA. That means that you can take any device that takes those aforementioned batteries, like a Wiimote, and swap it out for an ElectroHub one. As far as the devices with non-replaceable batteries, it does require a protective case that works as a converter to charge the device’s internal battery. I guess we aren’t to the Q1 case-less stage yet.
The ElectroHub is slated to be on sale during the first quarter 2011, and should cost $39. There are other battery sets that can be purchased separately for about $10.

World Lens Appplication(To read text content of an image )

I generally report on end-user consumer devices, and usually do not report on cool Apps on this site. Otherwise, I would constantly fill this blog with the cool Apps that come out everyday. Maybe we should have a separate blog known as Coolest Apps.

However, there are times when Apps show us how far we have gone with technology, and Word Lens from QuestVisual has exploded over the tech blogosphere with what it can do with its Optical Character Recognition technology.
Word Lens is the product of two and a half years of work from John DeWeese and Otavio Good. You can see a video of how it works after the jump, but I have no idea if it works as well as you see in the vid.

I mean, I have seen augmented reality apps do some pretty cool things before, but to translate English to Spanish (as well as Spanish to English) in realtime is pretty amazing. It doesn’t even require a Wi-Fi or mobile connection!
From what I hear, it doesn’t work this smoothly. The video makes it look like the guy in the movie who is reading something in a foreign language, and it suddenly turns English (in the same font) so the audience can understand what the character has read.
If you want to see this App for yourself, it costs about $4.99 on the iTunes store.

Solar Powered iPhone

So, I take my cell phone with me no matter where I go. I consider it a luxury, but I also like to think that I would have it with me in the case of an emergency, like when my brand new car broke down this morning, and I was stuck on the side of the highway. Oh I had my phone alright, but the battery was dead, and the charger was in my other (and I guess, better) car.

Well that wont ever happen to any of us again if Apple has it’s way. According to U.S. patent reports, Apple wants to be able to incorporate solar cells into some of their touch screen products. Can anyone say iPhone 5? Okay, can anyone say iPhone 6 then? Anyway, let’s imagine if you will, the premise of throwing your phone up on the dashboard and having it be ready to go anytime you need it. Awesome.

The Cupertino giants have a better idea for solar-charging than just sticking a whole bunch of ugly solar panels on the back of their iDevices, the plan seems to be to put energy collecting cells hidden underneath the ever popular touchscreen display. So the hope would be that the iPhone won’t look much different, but would be able to charge itself cord-free!
It’s not that solar powered cell phones haven’t been lurking around for a while. In fact, a couple of companies have already waved around some prototypes of solar powered phones quite a while ago, but they’re not here yet, and when a company like Apple starts talking solar, I say let the sun shine in. Of course I don’t know what you say when it rains, but I’ll let them figure that out too.
Source: patentlyapple.com

io-Jacket

Although all modern gadgets have the goal to combine good-looks with multifunctional technology and effectiveness, this is so much better then the others! Why? Because you can actually wear it! It has all the cool stuff in it like a Bluetooth and built-in MP3 player or touch sensitive control pads. But the ability through which its promoted is its compatibility with GPSoverIP. It uses a hybrid GPS technology which enables you to look for the person wearing the jacket even inside a building. The person who wears the io-Jacket can upload the information to a mobile phone or to the internet giving the watcher (probably a deranged parent) the opportunity of observing his/her every move. Londefrey, the company which produces it has sold one for humanitarian causes carrying out an auction in the purpose of saving money for the “Humans for Humans†foundation. It seems though that none other have been made for commercial purposes so we just have to sit and wait.

Pillete(Bluetooth headset)

Pillete, the new concept of Bluetooth headset is so tiny, it’s almost invisible to the untrained eye when you are wearing it. So you don’t have to worry anymore about looking like Robocop when walking down the street with it, but you have to consider the possibility of people starting to think you’ve lost your marbles and you’re talking to yourself.

The downside is the fact that people have different sized ears and the device might be too small and slip out or to big and not fit. People who often use earphones will tell you I’m right. But once they’ll figure out a way to make the Pillete adjustable, this design will be the future of all headsets.