Eye implant contains 'world's first' millimeter-scale computing system

Researchers from the University of Michigan have created what they claim is the world's first millimeter-scale complete computing system, designed as an implantable eye pressure monitor for glaucoma patients. Incorporating a microprocessor, pressure sensor, memory, thin-film battery, solar cell and wireless radio with an antenna that can transmit data to an external reader device, the device is just over one cubic millimeter in size. The scientists see it as the next step in the evolution of ever-smaller and more efficient computers.

"When you get smaller than hand-held devices, you turn to these monitoring devices," said U Michigan's Prof. David Blaauw. "The next big challenge is to achieve millimeter-scale systems, which have a host of new applications for monitoring our bodies, our environment and our buildings. Because they're so small, you could manufacture hundreds of thousands on one wafer. There could be 10s to 100s of them per person and it's this per capita increase that fuels the semiconductor industry's growth."

The lilliputian computer uses the third generation of the university's Phoenix chip, which utilizes a unique power gating architecture and an extreme sleep mode to achieve ultra-low power consumption. The system wakes itself up every 15 minutes to take readings, consuming an average of 5.3 nanowatts. In order to stay charged, the battery requires exposure to ten hours of indoor light per day, or 1.5 hours of sunlight. Up to a week's worth of data can be stored at one time.

While the device can send data to an external reader, it is so far not able to communicate with other systems like it – something that's imperative if such computers are ever to make up a wireless sensor network. To that end, U Michigan's David Wentzloff and Kuo-Ken Huang have been developing a tiny on-chip antenna that will allow for node-to-node communication.

Part of what allows the sub-cubic-millimeter antenna to keep its size down is the elimination of the crystal. Usually, crystals are required for keeping time, and selecting a radio frequency when two devices are communicating. Instead, the tiny new antenna acts as its own reference, thanks to a size and shape that precisely dictates how it will respond to electrical signals. This reportedly means that a radio equipped with such an antenna would not need to be externally tuned, and that a network of such radios would automatically align themselves at a common frequency. Wentzloff and Huang are now working on reducing the power consumption of their antenna.

The millimeter-scale implantable computer is not expected to be commercially available for several more years.

The research on both technologies was presented this week at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco.

New type of light-emitting material could rival existing OLEDs

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are a technology that shows great promise, as they are thinner, lighter, and less expensive to manufacture than their non-organic LED counterparts. Despite their name, however, they are not fully organic, as small amounts of precious metals are required to make them glow. A completely organic and even cheaper alternative could be on its way, though ... researchers from the University of Michigan have created metal-free organic crystals that shine with phosphorescence – until now, only non- or semi-organic compounds have displayed this property.

The crystals – or phosphors – glow white in visible light, while radiating blue, green, yellow and orange in ultraviolet light. Different colors can be obtained by altering their chemical composition.

The light itself comes from molecules of oxygen and carbon called “aromatic carbonyls.” Typically, they only produce a weak phosphorescence, and only under special conditions such as very low temperatures. In the U Michigan material, however, the carbonyls bond with halogens in the crystal, packing the molecules tightly. This suppresses vibration, minimizing energy lost as heat, and maximizing energy that produces phosphorescence under practical conditions. The result is a brightness comparable to that of OLEDs, which are themselves brighter than LEDs.

“This is in the beginning stage, but we expect that it will not be long before our simple materials will be available commercially for device applications,” said lead researcher Jinsang Kim. “We expect they will bring a big change in the LED and solid-state lighting industries because our compounds are very cheap and easy to synthesize and tune the chemical structure to achieve different colors and properties.”

The university is currently looking into patenting the technology, and seeking partners for commercialization.

The research was recently published in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Samsung announces slimmed down Galaxy S II smartphone and upsized Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet

Ahead of Mobile World Congress 2011, which officially kicks off today,Samsung has unveiled the successors to its Galaxy S smartphone andGalaxy Tab tablet at its Unpacked event in Barcelona. At just 8.49 mm thick, Samsung is touting the Galaxy S II as “the world’s thinnest smartphone,” while thanks to its larger 10.1-inch TFT display, the next iteration of the Galaxy Tab will be known as the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Galaxy S II

Running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), the Galaxy S II packs a 1 GHz dual-core processor, 4.27-inch Super AMOLED Plus display and 8-megapixel rear camera, along with a 2-megapixel front facing camera for video calls. The 480 x 800 Super AMOLED Plus display increases the number of sub-pixels by 50 percent for improved image sharpness, contrast ratio and color gamut. It also provides a wider viewing angle and increased outdoor visibility than first-generation Super AMOLED displays.

The device’s dual-core processor enables multitasking capabilities, while its improved 3D hardware capabilities are designed to deliver fast and smooth 3D games and video. Its video credentials include the ability to play and capture 1080p Full HD video using the 8-megapixel rear-facing camera. The grunt under the hood also enables a new custom TouchWiz 4.0 user interface and the inclusion of Samsung Hubs, which are integrated mobile applications categorized by Social, Readers, Game and Music.

Samsung is also pushing the business credentials of the phone with the inclusion of enhanced conferencing and connectivity services from Cisco, what it calls “the most comprehensive mobile implementation of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync,” and secure remote device management from Sybase.

In addition to UBS 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, and DLNA, the Galaxy S II also features support for Bluetooth v 3.0 + HS, boasts optional NFC connectivity and supports HSPA+ 21.1 Mbps. There’s also an accelerometer, A-GPS, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, digital compass, proximity sensor and gyroscope and choice of 16 or 32 GB capacities, expandable via microSD cards of up to 32 GB.

The Samsung Galaxy S II measures 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.49mm and weighs 116g. It is expected to be available in Q2 2011.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

The other device to get an update is Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. Also powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor, the device will be one of the first running the tablet-centric Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). It will sport the same widescreen aspect ratio of its predecessor, but upsized to 10.1-inches with a higher 1280 x 800 pixel resolution.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 shares a few features in common with the Galaxy S II smartphone. There’s the 2-megapixel front-facing camera (up from the 1.3-megapixel camera found on the original Galaxy Tab) and an 8-megaipixel rear-facing camera (up from 3.2-megapixels), which again provides the ability to record 1080p Full HD video.

There’s also W-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, USB 2.0, gyroscope, accelerometer, digital compass, proximity sensor, HSPA+ 21.1 Mbps support and choice of 16 or 32GB storage capacities. Bluetooth support is of the 2.1 + EDR variety and there’s no microSD card support. It measures 246.2 x 170.4 x 10.9mm and weighs 599g.

Unlike the Galaxy S II, Samsung has signed a deal with Vodafone to exclusively sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Asia and Europe from March. The company hasn’t yet released details of when the Tab 10.1 will be available in the U.S.

Get some virtual culture with the Google Art Project

Google has announced a collaboration with 17 of the world’s most acclaimed art museums that lets people view over 1,000 high res artwork images and 17 "gigapixel" images while taking a virtual stroll through their galleries using “Street View” technology. While nothing can beat seeing a work of art in person, the Google Art Project could be the next best thing for those without the time and money to pop on a plane and trade elbows with crowds of tourists looking to catch a glimpse of what some of the best museums have on offer.

Google has spent the last 18 months working with museums including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA in New York, the National Gallery and Tate in London, The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and Uffizi Gallery in Florence to capture super high resolution images of famous artworks. While many art museums already provide access to some of their collections online, Google Art Project is the first that allows virtual tourists to walk through the museum’s halls using Street View technology to see how the works are arranged.

To capture the 360 degree Street View images a specially designed trolley was taken through over 385 rooms within the museums. In addition to being viewed through the Google Art Project website, the gallery interiors can also be accessed directly within Street View in Google Maps.

As the user moves around the virtual galleries they can choose to go for a closer look on any of the 1,061 works of art captured in high resolution with the use of a custom built zoom viewer that Google says, “allows art-lovers to discover minute aspects of paintings they may never have seen up close before, such as the miniaturized people in the river of El Greco’s ‘View of Toledo’, or individual dots in Seurat’s ‘Grandcamp, Evening’.

Additionally, each of the 17 museums taking part in the project was asked to select one artwork to be photographed in super high "gigapixel" resolution. The resultant images each contain around 7 billion pixels, which enables viewers to study details fine details, such as the brushwork and patina, that can’t even be seen with the naked eye.

The site allows visitors to create their own personalized collection by saving specific views of any of the artworks. They can also add their own critiques to each painting, which can then be shared with friends and family. Google also sees this as an ideal tool for students or groups working on collaborative projects or collections.

“This initiative started as ‘20% project’ by a group of Googlers passionate about making art more accessible online. Together with our museum partners around the world we have created what we will hope will be a fascinating resource for art-lovers, students and casual museum goers alike - inspiring them to one day visit the real thing,” said Amit Sood, head of the project.

So if you’re looking to inject a touch of culture into your day, you can head on over to the Google Art Project to view artworks from the following museums:

• Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin - Germany
• Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, Washington DC - USA
• The Frick Collection, NYC - USA
• Gemäldegalerie, Berlin - Germany
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC - USA
• MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art, NYC - USA
• Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid - Spain
• Museo Thyssen - Bornemisza, Madrid - Spain
• Museum Kampa, Prague - Czech Republic
• National Gallery, London - UK
• Palace of Versailles - France
• Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam - The Netherlands
• The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg - Russia
• State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow - Russia
• Tate, London - UK
• Uffizi Gallery, Florence - Italy
• Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam - The Netherlands

Robonaut 2- the first humanoid robot to space

Robonaut 2 will become the first humanoid robot to head into space next month when the space shuttle Discovery blasts-off. R2 has been waiting for this trip for a while, but will have to wait a little longer to get its “space-legs” since only its torso, head and arms are making the initial journey. Because R2’s legs are still being tested, they’ll be sent up on a later launch, as will a few other upgrades that are designed to ultimately allow the robot to help astronauts with extra-vehicular activities (EVAs).

Even without its legs, R2 will be kept busy getting up to speed on various tasks. Initially the legless R2 will be attached to a fixed pedestal and learn to use a task board, which contains various switches, knobs and connectors like the ones astronauts operate. To familiarize itself with the task board, the astronauts will mock up various chores for R2 to master.

But it’s when R2 is fitted with its legs that it will really start pulling its weight. They will allow the robot to move around inside the space station to perform mundane tasks such as wiping handrails and vacuuming air filters, freeing the astronauts up for more important tasks.

As R2’s hands need to be free to carry cleaning supplies and tools, its legs have special toes that plug into the space station walls so it can learn to climb without using its hands. It is also important for R2 to master its hands-free climbing skills before it graduates to performing EVAs.

"R2 will practice indoors first because if it falls off inside an astronaut can pick it back up for another try. With a misstep outside, R2 could end up dangling helplessly out in space on a tether," says Rob Ambrose of NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Once R2 gets its climbing badge, it will “level up” as it were, with a new computer and software enhancements to be sent to the station and exchanged for the one currently in the robot's chest. Currently R2 has to be plugged in to receive its power, but the ground crew is also working on a battery to give R2 more freedom.

Once R2 receives all these upgrades it will be used to set up EVA worksites before the crew heads out. Much like a nurse prepping the operating theater for a surgeon, R2 can identify what needs to be done and lay out the tools needed by the astronauts so they can get the job done more quickly.

NASA says R2 can also act as a first responder in the case of an emergency. If a problem arises outside, the astronauts must suit up and depressurize in the airlock for hours before heading out. R2 will be able to head out immediately and the astronauts can use its eyes – two video cameras that give it three-dimensional vision – to view the problem and determine the steps and tools needed to address it.

The beauty of R2 is that, even once it has received all its currently planned upgrades, it can still “evolve.”

"There are so many possibilities for the future," says Ambrose. "For instance, we could add wheels so R2 could scout a potential landing site on a planet or an asteroid or set up a workstation or habitat there. Someday R2 may even get a jetpack! But we have to crawl before we can fly."

NASA is targeting a February 24 launch for the space shuttle Discovery that will see it carrying, in addition to R2, six astronauts and new tools and spare supplies to the International Space Station. It will be the final mission for Discovery and the third-to-last space shuttle mission planned before NASA retires the three current space shuttles

Molybdenite outshines silicon and graphene for electronic applications

Researchers have uncovered a material that they say has distinct advantages over traditional silicon and even graphene for use in electronics. Called molybdenite (MoS2), this mineral is abundant in nature and is commonly used as an element in steel alloys or, thanks to its similarity in appearance and feel to graphite, as an additive in lubricant. But the mineral hadn’t been studied for use in electronics, which appears to have been an oversight with new research showing that molybdenite is a very effective semiconductor that could enable smaller and more energy efficient transistors, computer chips and solar cells.

Researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) say one of molybdenite’s advantages over silicon is its thinness. With an atomic structure consisting of a sheet of molybdenite atoms sandwiched between sheets of sulfur atoms, molybdenite is less voluminous than silicon.

“It’s a two-dimensional material, very thin and easy to use in nanotechnology. It has real potential in the fabrication of very small transistors, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and solar cells,” says EPFL Professor Andras Kis. “In a 0.65-nanometer-thick sheet of MoS2, the electrons can move around as easily as in a 2-nanometer-thick sheet of silicon,” adds Kis, “but it’s not currently possible to fabricate a sheet of silicon as thin as a monolayer sheet of MoS2.”

Additionally, to turn a transistor on and off, a semi-conductor with a “gap” must be used and molybdenite’s 1.8 electron-volt gap is ideal for this purpose. It would allow transistors to be made that consume 100,000 times less energy in standby state than traditional silicon transistors.

But it’s not just silicon that is humbled by molybdenite. Everyone’s favorite wonder material graphene also gets a going over. In semi-conductors, electron-free spaces exist between bands of energy. These so-called “band gaps” allow certain electrons to hop across the gap if it is not too small or too large. This results in a greater level of control over the electrical behavior of the material as it can easily be turned on or off. The existence of such a gap in molybdenite gives it a distinct advantage over graphene, which has no such gap and it is difficult to artificially produce one in the material.

The EPFL team’s study showing molybdenite’s potential for use in electronics applications appears in the journal Nanotechnology Nature.

Molybdenite outshines silicon and graphene for electronic applications

Researchers have uncovered a material that they say has distinct advantages over traditional silicon and even graphene for use in electronics. Called molybdenite (MoS2), this mineral is abundant in nature and is commonly used as an element in steel alloys or, thanks to its similarity in appearance and feel to graphite, as an additive in lubricant. But the mineral hadn’t been studied for use in electronics, which appears to have been an oversight with new research showing that molybdenite is a very effective semiconductor that could enable smaller and more energy efficient transistors, computer chips and solar cells.

Researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) say one of molybdenite’s advantages over silicon is its thinness. With an atomic structure consisting of a sheet of molybdenite atoms sandwiched between sheets of sulfur atoms, molybdenite is less voluminous than silicon.

“It’s a two-dimensional material, very thin and easy to use in nanotechnology. It has real potential in the fabrication of very small transistors, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and solar cells,” says EPFL Professor Andras Kis. “In a 0.65-nanometer-thick sheet of MoS2, the electrons can move around as easily as in a 2-nanometer-thick sheet of silicon,” adds Kis, “but it’s not currently possible to fabricate a sheet of silicon as thin as a monolayer sheet of MoS2.”

Additionally, to turn a transistor on and off, a semi-conductor with a “gap” must be used and molybdenite’s 1.8 electron-volt gap is ideal for this purpose. It would allow transistors to be made that consume 100,000 times less energy in standby state than traditional silicon transistors.

But it’s not just silicon that is humbled by molybdenite. Everyone’s favorite wonder material graphene also gets a going over. In semi-conductors, electron-free spaces exist between bands of energy. These so-called “band gaps” allow certain electrons to hop across the gap if it is not too small or too large. This results in a greater level of control over the electrical behavior of the material as it can easily be turned on or off. The existence of such a gap in molybdenite gives it a distinct advantage over graphene, which has no such gap and it is difficult to artificially produce one in the material.

The EPFL team’s study showing molybdenite’s potential for use in electronics applications appears in the journal Nanotechnology Nature.

Floating-Gate Device may revolutionize computer memory

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University claim to have created a memory device that could give computer users the speed advantages of DRAM system memory and the data retention capabilities of flash memory, in one unit. The new device could lead to genuine instant-on computing and machines with improved resiliency. The development may even lead to power-hungry server farms making considerable energy savings by allowing parts of the system to be shut down during periods of inactivity without fear of data loss.

The new scalable, dual-metal device is called a double floating-gate field effect transistor (FET) and is said to combine the advantages offered by two forms of computer memory currently in common usage. Nonvolatile memory, like that used in USB flash drives, allows data to be retained after the power is turned off while the volatile variety, like the memory modules slotted into a mainboard, offers faster read and write access but needs constant power for the retention of stored data.

Currently in the testing phase of development, the new FET device stores data as electric charge and uses a special control gate to quickly get to the stored data. Whereas modern nonvolatile flash memory uses a single floating gate to store the charge for long term data retention, the new device utilizes a second gate which is said to give the device transfer speeds comparable to current volatile DRAM memory. The researchers also believe that the new technology could "have a very long lifetime, when it comes to storing data in the volatile mode."

Unifying volatile and nonvolatile memory

The device's state is determined by its threshold voltage, and can be switched between the volatile and nonvolatile states quickly on a row-by-row basis. In bulk form, the device is said to be scalable to at least the 16nm node and can be three-dimensionally stacked using deposited layers of indium-gallium-zinc-oxide amorphous semiconductors, which have the potential to achieve better performance than amorphous silicon transistors. A stack of four devices could have similar densities to an 8nm node.

The research team believes that the new double floating gate FET device could potentially offer instant-on functionality, as the computer would not need to retrieve startup information from a hard drive. It should also lead to improvements in a computer's ability to withstand and recover from faults and could solve energy-proportional computing problems.

For instance, when a computer or server is just performing background tasks, the double gate allows portions of the memory to be powered down and reactivated as necessary without losing data. This could lead to enormous power savings at server farms, which currently need to maintain constant power throughout the whole system, even at times of low usage.

Authored by Daniel Schinke, Neil Di Spigna, Mihir Shiveshwarkar and Paul Franzon from North Carolina State University, the paper entitledComputing with Novel Floating-Gate Devices has been published in IEEE's journal Computer.

LiquidKeyboard said to make tablet touch-typing a might easier

If you've ever tried to transfer your touch-typing skills onto a touchscreen tablet's virtual keyboard, you'll know what an impossible task that can be. Apart from the fact that there's no tactile guide to tell you where keys are in relation to each other, placing all of your fingers onto the screen almost always causes accidental activation of unwanted keys. Researchers from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) claim to have overcome such issues with the development of a QWERTY keyboard interface that should allow touch typists to tap away without needing visual prompts.

Early versions of the LiquidKeyboard system were developed using HTML and JavaScript, and are said to have been inspired by a virtual keyboard from Microsoft that used a split keyboard approach. Creators Christian Sax and Hannes Lau went on to develop the system for Apple's iOS operating system for the iPad, but say that the software could be adapted for use on other operating platforms. They chose the iPad believing it to have superior multi-touch capability, and because the cost of the hardware met their strict budget criteria.

Touch typing on a physical keyboard is more than just having a mental map of key location, it's also about getting some sort of tactile feedback from pressed keys, and about getting a sense of where keys are relative to others. While LiquidKeyboard can't do much about the physical typing sensation, it splits the QWERTY keys into allocatable groups and assigns sets to individual fingers – the upshot being that when the software detects four fingers being placed onto the surface of the display, it creates a fluid keyboard underneath the fingers.

When a finger is moved, the assigned group of virtual keys moves with it. The system is said to be capable of automatically adapting to a user's hand physiology (such as different hand sizes and finger positioning), and also responds to pressure. Keys are rotated based on wrist position and the system is said to offer the same sort of key familiarity allowed by a physical keyboard, but, according to Sax, "tries to create an input method that is adapted to the platform rather than recycling an old paradigm from the physical world."

The researchers from the Engineering and Information Technology department at UTS are currently working on refining the prototype.

I think that this has obvious potential for touch-typers like me, who find themselves craving a physical keyboard when typing on tablet devices. However, it could also open up new and interesting usage possibilities for note-takers in the business and student world, designers and modelers and, of course, gamers.