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Interesting engineering news and general interest to get you through the week.

Electrical & Process Control

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Electrical & Process Control
As things get bigger and more complex inevitably there is a greater need to monitor and control everything.  Get up to speed on the latest in how engineers are tackling these problems in electrical and process control.

Stopping Cars with Radiation

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Dave Ellery  

Engineers and researchers at Eureka Aerospace are turning a fictional concept from the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious into reality: they're creating an electromagnetic system that can quickly bring a vehicle to a stop

The system, which can be attached to an automobile or aircraft carrier, sends out pulses of microwave radiation to disable the microprocessors that control the central engine functions in a car. Such a device could be used by law enforcement to stop fleeing and noncooperative vehicles at security checkpoints, or as perimeter protection for military bases, communication centers, and oil platforms in the open seas.

The system has been tested on a variety of stationary vehicles and could be ready for deployment in automobiles within 18 months, says James Tatoian, the chief executive officer of Eureka Aerospace and the project's leader.

Thursday 15 November, 2007 08:05 AM
 

Meeting the man behind Moore's Law

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Barot Casha  

In April 1965 a 36-year old electronics buff jotted down his thoughts on the future of the juvenile silicon chip industry.

Writing in a "throw-away" journal, Gordon Moore accurately imagined a future filled with mobile phones, home computers, engineering and even intelligent cars.

But it was a much more prosaic prediction that has come to dominate his life and the industry that he helped found.

"I could see a change coming that the electronics were going to get significantly cheaper," says the co-founder of Intel, the largest maker of computer chips.
Wednesday 14 November, 2007 10:09 PM
 

'Pioneering' RFID Systems Take On The Oil Field

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Susan Decker  

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are everywhere. In passports, libraries, toll-road payment systems, inventories; even in some humans and animals

And now a new RFID system is making its way into the oil field products industry. Closed-loop RFID systems allow automated and transparent record keeping, which aims to help engineers and  users minimize mistakes while speeding up the typically tedious tracking process.
Wednesday 14 November, 2007 12:03 PM
 

Scientist programs robot to hit humans

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Yan Chu  

Isaac Asimov will undoubtedly be turning in his grave --

A scientist programs a robot to hit humans

Asimov’s first law of robotics says a robot may not injure human beings

German engineer Sami Haddadin has built a robot that he regularly allows to punch him in the head.

 

Friday 9 November, 2007 02:06 AM
 

Better than rocket science

Clipped to the Drawing Board by David Singh  

 Ve have vays of making you see the light - but not in 1941 ====

A brilliant German invented the digital computer but the Nazi engineers never realised its potential.

 

Thursday 8 November, 2007 04:07 PM
 

Bioloid robot kit

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Sean  

 Science and engineering educational (and I hate to use the word toys) products ,  just don't get any better - hours of educational fun ------

If you are looking for a cool robot kit for Christmas and have a few hundred dollars to spend, then you should check out the Bioloid robot kits and especially the expert package

 

Sunday 4 November, 2007 08:08 AM
 

Lunar clock could be “best landmark on earth”

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Barot Casha  

 A challenging engineering feat -will it be a success? - only "time " will tell

Remarkable plans for the world’s first tidal-powered lunar clock have been showcased at an exhibition in London. It is set to become one of the most recognised landmarks on the planet and the globe’s first public artwork to power homes.

 

Sunday 4 November, 2007 12:01 AM
 

Centralised control over a plant-wide safety

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Rose Shah  

Engineering Safety for a better plant environment - and keeping it all under control

ICS Triplex’s new of safety and critical control systems (SCCS) is AADvance.

 

Wednesday 31 October, 2007 04:06 AM
 

Online mapmakers get down to earth

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Yan Chu  

 Being told to "get lost" might not be the same with this device in your hand - the engineers have brought some cute stuff together with this one --

Using home-grown technology, a Chinese firm has upstaged the likes of Google and Microsoft with a mapping service featuring 360-degree street-level imaging of extraordinarily high resolution.

 

Wednesday 31 October, 2007 12:07 AM
 

An illuminating yarn

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Rose Shah  

 On reflection,  this product may have an illuminating tale to tell - and many safety engineering opportunities

A team from Manchester University’s William Lee Innovation Centre (WLIC) has developed prototype electroluminescent textile yarns that illuminate clothing in the dark.

 

 

Monday 29 October, 2007 01:05 PM
 

Testing Bluetooth's flexibility

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ali Hamoud  

 All that glistens is not gold - so do your homework - is the message for integrated engineering solutions

More and more of us are using Bluetooth , the wireless technology which lets us link up our mobile devices using low powered radio waves.

 

Monday 29 October, 2007 07:06 AM
 

Researchers Develop Wireless Bridge Sensors Without Batteries

Clipped to the Drawing Board by George Tan  

 So does a wobbly bridge gives better signals ??

Clarkson University researchers have developed technology that uses the vibrations caused by passing traffic to power wireless bridge monitoring sensors.

 

Sunday 28 October, 2007 05:05 PM
 

Slower growth for industrial device networks

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator  
According to new research from ARC Advisory Group, the prospects for non-Ethernet industrial device networks look increasingly narrow, as industrial Ethernet continues its migration into lower levels of the industrial automation hierarchy.
Sunday 28 October, 2007 10:53 AM
 

839 trillion calculations per second. Beat that IBM

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Pat Sheen  
Thats a lot of serious engineering computer power.......
Japan's NEC Corp has announced the launch of what it called the world's most powerful supercomputer on the market, meant for advanced use in the sciences.
Saturday 27 October, 2007 01:06 PM
 

Android acquires nonverbal communication skills

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Sean  

 We should all have our own tame robot - engineering expertise is getting it closer all the time

As Japan’s population continues to age and shrink, more and more people are looking at robots as a way to improve productivity and support the nation’s changing lifestyles

 

Saturday 27 October, 2007 03:00 AM
 

Microsoft Patents Mind Reading Method

Clipped to the Drawing Board by jackson Browne  

 Don't try to resist - don't even think about it - the machines will do it all for you

Not content with running your computer, Microsoft now wants to read your mind too.

 

Friday 26 October, 2007 07:11 AM
 

New Piezoelectric Materials

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ali Hamoud  

 Another development to promote innovation and design in engineering

Polymer-based piezoelectric materials are currently the object of great interest in the world of industry because they enable their use in new applications in sectors such as transport and aeronautics, amongst others.

 

Thursday 25 October, 2007 09:06 PM
 

'World's smallest radio' unveiled

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ali Hamoud  

 Absolutely amazing that these units can be engineered so small

The world's tiniest radio is a step closer to reality.

 

Wednesday 24 October, 2007 09:08 PM
 

Virtualisation could pose a real threat to Microsoft

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Peter Wu  

The IT engineers will be watching this one very closely - as will everyone else

A couple of weeks ago we saw the most successful tech stock market float of recent years. The company's name is VMware. It was spun off from storage vendor EMC.
Wednesday 24 October, 2007 03:09 PM
 

Better Energy Management

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ryan  

This is yet another article about how we should be turning off all those electrical devices in our homes rather than leaving them in standby mode.  It also argues that they should be unplugged as a lot of devices don't actually offer a truly 'off' state.

Personally I would find this very inconvenient with the number of electronic devices in my home and also the general placement of powerpoints in relation to furniture making it hard to access them easily.  So,  as engineers,  should we be thinking of better ways to approch this?  Should we be designing products with true 'off' states.  Alternatively are there better ways to allow products to be turned on and off via remote? (eg,  a central remote controller device that also manages power to your devices.  This could be cool as it would also made designing a single central remote control easier too)

Wednesday 17 October, 2007 07:01 AM
 

Robotics aids unlikely to bring safer driving

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Adam Crighton  

 I'm not sure if I'm relieved or if I feel insulted - either way,  I'll still be driving my car tomorrow

Robotic aids are very unlikely to help prevent human drivers having accidents in the near term, despite all the research that has gone into them.

 

Thursday 11 October, 2007 05:03 PM
 
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"A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible" - Freeman Dyson