John Edwards is a business technology journalist who lives near Phoenix, Ariz. He writes frequently on emerging devices and trends. Email address: jedwards@john-edwards.com Web site: www.john-edwards.com
43 results found for John Edwards , displaying items 1 - 20
June 19, 2008[Technology Report] The Rats, Snakes, Insects, And Lobsters Of War
They run, crawl, slither, fly, and jump. They’re also robots. Fueled by funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and other public and private organizations, researchers at labs nationwide are developing a new generation of military robots. Inspired by designs already perfected by nature, these robots are helping military units accomplish missions with less risk to soldiers and civilians. Joseph Ayers, principal...
September 1, 2007[Engineering Feature] Keeping Troops Out Of Harm's Way, Technically Speaking
In one memorable scene in the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, the giant robot Gort picks up the body of his companion Klaatu and cradles the alien visitor in his arms. The robot then carries Klaatu back to the safety of their flying saucer for life-restoring treatment. Now, life is imitating art. A giant mobile robot developed by Vecna Technologies is able to use its arms to rescue injured soldiers from the battlefield. "I am very excited about the...
August 10, 2007
[Web Exclusive] Atom-Sized Transistor Ready For Use In Chips
Measuring less than 50 atoms wide and one atom thick, Andre Geim's graphene transistor may represent the best hope yet for delaying the expiration of Moore's Law. "Silicon will run out of steam in about 20 years," predicts Geim, a professor of condensed matter physics at England's University of Manchester. "We have to meet the challenge of keeping up with Moore's Law."
August 2, 2007[TechView: The Industry] Nanowires Get Bent Out Of Shape For New Technology
While most electronics research has its twists and turns, a project currently under way at the Georgia Institute of Technology offers more than its share of new angles. That's because the research is entirely focused on bending things. Georgia Tech researchers are investigating how simple bends made in nanowires, using a kind of molecular origami, can lead to a completely new class of electronic parts. "We're utilizing the coupling of piezoelectric and...
July 19, 2007[TechView: The Industry] OLEDs Will Be Everywhere—Even The Shirt On Your Back
A self-powered display— thin, flexible, and durable enough to be incorporated into clothing—is one of the goals of a $1.7 million international research project that aims to bring organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) to the mass market. The research consortium, known as Modecom (for Modeling Electroactive Conjugated Materials at the Multiscale), includes 13 engineering teams from nine universities and two companies. Over the next three years,...
July 19, 2007[Engineering Feature] Building A Virtual Wall To Protect Our Borders
It will be situated on the nation's borders, designed to prevent people from illegally entering the U.S. But please, don't call it a wall. SBInet, part of the Department of Homeland Security's Secure Border Initiative, is an integrated surveillance system that aims to curb illegal immigration without the need to construct a politically controversial physical wall. SBInet's primary goal is to give U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) improved oversight of thousands...
June 29, 2007[Technology Report] In Today's Military, More Than Just Fatigues Are Green
Garbage is power. At least that's true for Jerry B. Warner, president of Defense Life Sciences, which is developing a trash-to-electricity generator. The fact that the company is working on a "green" energy technology isn't unusual. What's out of the ordinary is that Warner happens to be a retired U.S. Army colonel, and his prime customer is his former employer. The U.S. military is investigating green technologies—particularly environmentally friendly power-generation...
June 29, 2007[Technology Report] Robotic Cars Get Street Smart
This November, Mike Montemerlo's Volkswagen Passat wagon will drive a 60-mile trek through an urban landscape located somewhere in the western U.S. But Montemerlo won't be sitting behind the wheel, nor will anyone else. That's because Montemerlo's Passat happens to be a special robot model, custom-developed by the Stanford University Racing Team (...
June 29, 2007[Technology Report] When Small Gets Big
George Malliaras and his colleagues recently had a bright idea—literally. As director of the Cornell University NanoScale Facility, he is among several researchers working on nanolamps—light-emitting microfibers no larger than a virus. The technology promises a new generation of flexible displays that can be integrated into a variety of products and perhaps even woven into clothing. "Here we have devices made out of fiber," Malliaras said. "You talk about textile, and...
June 20, 2007
[Electronic Design UPDATE] Electronic Design Update: June 20, 2007
By adding a polymer acid to a common plastic, chemists at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a new kind of plastic material that features changeable conductivity. The "doped" plastic technology could be used to provide cheap, flexible wiring in future electronics products.
May 10, 2007[TechView: The Industry] Next-Generation Lithography Takes UV Light To The Extreme
As semiconductor processes head below 65 nm, scientists are scrambling to find a light source that will let fabs manufacture next-generation chips. Martin Richardson, an optics professor and director of the University of Central Florida's laser plasma laboratory, believes extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) light could replace the deep-ultraviolet lithography that's currently used to carve circuit patterns onto silicon wafers. "We must use a light source with a wavelength that's...
April 27, 2007[TechView: The Industry] Your Thought Is Its Command
What good is a robot if you can't order it around with your thoughts? Rajesh Rao, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, has answered this question with an input system that can be used to control the movement of a humanoid robot with signals from a human brain. Rao and his students have developed a system that lets people tell a robot where to go and what to pick up merely by thinking about these actions. Donning a skullcap...
April 27, 2007[Engineering Feature] Lip-Reading Technology Knows What You Said
Video surveillance systems incorporating intelligent analysis already do a good job of tracking people, recognizing faces, and even interpreting physical gestures. But if a British research team has its way, surveillance system operators will have yet another new tool to use in their fight against crime and terrorism: automatic lip recognition. Computer-based lip-reading technology would help video surveillance systems spot people planning a crime or terror attack by literally...
April 27, 2007[Engineering Feature] Intelligent Video Surveillance Goes Trainspotting
Like airports, municipal mass transit systems are on constant lookout for suspicious individuals. After the London tube and bus bombings in July 2005, recorded surveillance video allowed authorities to identify the perpetrators behind the attacks. But transit officials these days are primarily interested in defusing terrorist assaults before they can happen. When officials in Stockholm, Sweden, began planning video surveillance technology for the city's mass transit system,...
April 27, 2007[Engineering Feature] The Unblinking Eye
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is a hub for business travelers, vacationers, immigrants, stopover passengers, on-site workers—and a whole lot of suspicious-looking people. That's why it's not surprising to discover that the airport operates an extensive video surveillance system. What is surprising is how very smart the system is. When it comes to video surveillance, people tend to imagine banks of sharp-eyed human observers endlessly scanning video screens...
March 29, 2007[TechView: The Industry] Build A Color Printer For The Cost Of A B&W Model
Static electricity can destroy chips, but it may also lead to cheaper and smaller color printers. Lawrence Schein, a former IBM and Xerox researcher, believes that electrostatic technology pioneered by Ben Franklin over 200 years ago could be used to create color laser printers that cost less and are up to 70% smaller than current models. "This is the biggest innovation in laser printing in many years," he says. Harnessing static electricity for text and image reproduction is...
March 15, 2007[TechView: The Industry] Chip Rebuilds Neural Pathways
Jaideep Mavoori, a University of Washington researcher, spends a lot of time thinking about communications—not telephone or radio, but the sophisticated network that is the human body's nervous system. He's most interested in helping people, afflicted by injury or disease, rebuild their ability to control voluntary body movements. "We want to help people get back at least some of what they've lost," he says. The brain acts like a central processor for the body's...
January 31, 2007
[Electronic Design UPDATE] Electronic Design UPDATE: January 31, 2007
Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light shows significant promise as a replacement for the deep-ultraviolet lithography technique that's currently used to carve circuit patterns onto silicon wafers.
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