Posts tagged Body
Stretchable Batteries Could Power Devices Embedded In The Body [Video]
Mar 1st
Two years ago, Nokia made waves when it displayed a concept phone using a flexible OLED display. Samsung and Ericsson have shown similar prototypes. So flexible devices and displays are on the market horizon. But they’re still just a first step toward a new class of future devices that can not just flex, but actually stretch – so they can be safely and comfortably implanted in the body, for example.
So what is the prognosis for these “stretchable” devices? One piece of the puzzle has recently been developed in a partnership between Northwestern University and the University of Illinois: a stretchable lithium-ion battery.
The “Stretch Armstrong” of Batteries
It took Yonggang Huang and John A. Rogers, from Northwestern and University of Illinois, respectively, six years to develop a cordless power supply that was versatile enough to be used in stretchable electronics, particularly devices used inside the human body.
Finally, they were able to come up with “pop-up” technology that allows the circuits to bend and twist. Typically, circuits inside of batteries are rigid, but creating bridges using metal wiring to connect the elements gives the circuits the ability to stretch and flex along with any device. The power in the metal bridges works its way through the circuits to power the battery.
In a video (below), Huang and Rogers demo the battery by hooking it up to an LED light and slowly stretching it out. The battery was able to reach about 300% of its original size and still provide power. Once stretched, the battery can regain its original size without damage to the circuits.
Its life span is about 20 charging cycles – and it can be recycled just like any other lithium-ion battery. Due to its small size, it can hold a charge for only eight to nine hours, but the battery charges wirelessly using coils that induce charging through an external source. This makes it ideal for use in medical devices embedded in the body.
‘Flexible’ And ‘Stretchable’ Are Distant Cousins
It seems like a stretchable battery would be attractive for the flexible device market, but Huang says the two aren’t as alike as one would think. In an email to ReadWrite, Huang said that while the OLED displays from Nokia and Samsung are flexible, they aren’t stretchable.
“Flexible means the device could be bent or twisted, which essentially requires the device to be very thin. Stretchable represents a more challenging type of mechanics, which requires that the device must accommodate a large strain deformation, including not only bending, twisting, but also stretching and compressing.”
The two could possibly go hand in hand, say in a nifty new watch design from a well known tech giant, but successful flexible devices will require more than mere flexibility. As mobile devices become more and more like physical attachments, they will have to move like our own skin, stretchy and flexible.
A report from Bloomberg News about the possible Apple iWatch says that it may take about three years to be able to develop glass flexible enough to curve or even wrap around someone’s wrist. While Apple and others work on making flexible mobile devices a reality, they may also want to take a look at adding some stretchiness to the product development.
Image courtesy of Northwestern University.
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Oh Yeon Seo reveals her glamorous body for the ’2012 MBC Drama Awards’ – allkpop
Dec 31st
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Oh Yeon Seo reveals her glamorous body for the '2012 MBC Drama Awards'
allkpop On December 31st, Oh Yeon Seo posted on her me2day, “You guys, thank you. I love you. Jenny House family who always make me pretty. And always very thankful to Moojin unnie! Thank you, everyone wrap up 2012 well and fighting for 2013 with me too! |
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‘We Got Married’ Oh Yeon Seo, Beach Fashion, Confident Revealing of Body – KpopStarz
Dec 25th
 KpopStarz |
'We Got Married' Oh Yeon Seo, Beach Fashion, Confident Revealing of Body
KpopStarz Lee Joon and Oh Yeon Seo had couple fashion, but their outfits were rather plain compared to the other couples. But when they arrived at Hawaii, they stood out more than others. Oh Yeon Seo's bold revealing especially shocked her own husband, Lee Joon. |
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‘Big’ Gong Yoo’s Million Dollar Body Proportions – KpopStarz
Jun 13th
 KpopStarz |
'Big' Gong Yoo's Million Dollar Body Proportions
KpopStarz The fourth episode of KBS drama 'Big' that aired on the 13th of June, featured Kang Kyung Joon in Seo Yoon Jae's body (Gong Yoo) spending over $700000 USD of Seo Yoon Jae's money to save his house. Although Gil Da Ran (Lee Min Jung) was upset with the … Gong Yoo Pecks Lee Min Jung with Two Surprise Kisses |
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Take My Facebook Password? Over My Dead Body
Mar 26th
Not to beat a dead horse, but there are a lot of people out there who are very, very upset at the idea of sharing their social media logins with employers or potential employers. I’m not talking about the ACLU, and a couple of senators asking the Justice Department to look into the matter. I’m talking about real people worried about being asked to give up their personal information and privacy. The only way you’re going to get their Facebook password is to pry it from their cold, dead hands.
At least that’s the impression I got from the 24 comments on my earlier post (When Your Boss DOES Have the Right to Your Facebook Password) as well as dozens more culled from lively discussions on a number of LinkedIn groups.
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Admittedly, the comments on LInked in groups like SMB IT Connection and Publishing and Editing Professionals are most likely coming from a self-selected group of Web leaders and technology and content professionals. That’s who reads ReadWriteWeb, and that’s also who belongs to the LinkedIn groups where I posted my original story. I don’t disagree, but it’s ironic that the most sophisticated techies, the ones most involved in pursuing their business and personal lives online, are the most adamant that the two never, ever get mixed.
Comments range from “NO!!!” to “only when they give me theirs.” Others wonder where the privacy invasion will stop: at personal email accounts, rifling though your snail mail, PIN numbers, house keys, phone records and so on.
Many folks worry that giving employers access to your social media accounts also exposes your friends. A common compromise was to let employers “friend” you for access to your accounts, while others simply refuse to use Facebook in the first place.
On the other hand, these folks know that employers of writers, marketers and other “influencers” increasingly make hiring decisions based on the power of the applicant’s social media networks, and services like Klout exist to help them measure that.
And that’s the real issue here. For a variety of reasons, increasing numbers of people mix their personal and business identities online. Compartmentalizing your life is getting more difficult all the time. And in that environment, employers asking for social media passwords is only one of many unforeseen consequences. Companies, individuals and government agencies are still trying to figure out where the lines should be drawn — even as the social networks and how people use them continue to evolve. That’s why the Internet is having this moment of angst.
Finally, there’s another element to consider. From a security perspective, it’s a bad idea to share your password with anyone. For any reason.
Even if the person you share with is legitimate, once the password is out, you can never put it back in the bottle or know exactly who else will get access.
And as Mike Loukides notes on O’Reilly Radar, phishing techniques are all about convincing people to give up their passwords. And from the employer’s perspective, if someone gives you a password, it has to raise the question of who else are they giving their passwords to? Can you really trust that person to maintain your company’s security protocols?
Turnabout is fair play, of course. Do you really want to work for a company that would ask for your passwords?
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Why Google Didn’t Build Search, Plus Your Body
Feb 15th
This week, Google improved search results for health-related queries. When it detects that you’re searching for symptoms of illness, it displays a list of new search queries for health conditions that might be related. Google now crawls the Web and gathers health information from articles, producing this list algorithmically.
Clicking an item in this list sends you to a new search for that health condition with the Web results below. Google used to keep its own Google Health database for users to track their health and medical records, but it shuttered that program last year. Google has rolled up many types of searches into its own properties, but in the case of health, it has decided to do things the old Google way and let the Web handle it.
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Universal Search Is Not For Everything
Google is the go-to place for most people to find answers online. As that trend became clear, Google introduced Universal Search in 2007, so its search results could display multiple kinds of results. Instead of just showing its text list of websites, Google’s main search started to incorporate images and videos. More recent additions include travel searches. But in the area of health, Google tried to roll its own service and then decided against it.
Google also used to offer a service called Google Body, which was a 3D browser of the human body. How cool would that have been as an interface for health searches? But this year, it decided to dump that as well, passing it off to Zygote Media Group, the company that provided the 3D body imagery. It’s now an open-source project, so you can use it build whatever kind of crazy health app you want.
The World Wasn’t Ready For Google Health
Google Health was around for three years, but it was ahead of its time. It was a long-term effort to make a patient-centered cloud database of medical history upon which health care providers could build. Clearly, one reason it wasn’t widely adopted was that the health care industry wasn’t ready. But this required substantial buy-in and trust from patients, i.e. Google users, as well.
Google couldn’t make good health recommendations on its own without health data on its users. Google Health required people to maintain their own health records on a hosted Google service. That’s sensitive information. Can you imagine today’s Google maintaining health records on its users? In the eyes of the press, Google can’t even get away with its existing privacy policy. Imagine the terms and conditions if Google had access to your medical records!
But the trade-off of giving Google access to your data is that its services can be better tailored toward you. That might not be so interesting for social search with Google+, but the effects are magnified if you think about health. If Google had your personal medical history in its database, your health searches could be specific to your condition. But if Search, plus Your World is too much, don’t hold your breath for Search, plus Your Body.
Google-Patient Confidentiality
So how does Google’s new symptom search handle privacy? Even if it doesn’t have your medical history, health searches can be quite sensitive. A study found that “Chlamydia” was the most common health search term on mobile devices last year. People probably don’t want Google snooping on those queries.
Google’s symptom search FAQ says that health searches are logged like any search, but ads and search results won’t be personalized based on them. Remember, you can always clear your Google search history at google.com/history.
And hopefully this goes without saying, but don’t rely on an Internet search for a diagnosis. The new Google symptom search is very handy, but if you’re concerned about your health, your best bet is to go to the doctor.
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Feed Your Body Like You Feed Your Brain: SEO Recipe Collection
Jan 24th
I know that recipes are totally off-topic and abnormal for SEJ. But I put this post together for 3 reasons: SEO’s and Internet marketers can get lost in data and often realize late in the day that there is no dinner. Several people in the SEO industry are known for their fantastic cooking skills and [...]
Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal
View full post on Search Engine Journal
Feed Your Body Like Your Feed Your Brain: SEO Recipe Collection
Jan 24th
I know that recipes are totally off-topic and abnormal for SEJ. But I put this post together for 3 reasons: SEO’s and Internet marketers can get lost in data and often realize late in the day that there is no dinner. Several people in the SEO industry are known for their fantastic cooking skills and [...]
Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal
View full post on Search Engine Journal
Google’s 3D Human Body Browser Is Now Open-Source
Jan 10th
Google announced yesterday that its layered 3D browser of the human body has become an open-source project. Google Body was built by Google engineers in their “20% time” – the 1/5th of Googlers’ time and energy they can devote to creative projects – of which all other human beings are jealous.
Zygote Media Group, which provided the imagery for Google’s modeling, has built Zygote Body with the code. It offers the same navigation and features. To support this launch, the Google Body team has built a new, open-source 3D viewer at open-3d-viewer.googlecode.com. Thanks to the work of Google engineers, any developer can now use the same kind of 3D model browser for her or his own project.
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Google has tried out lots of neat-o knowledge projects in the name of “organizing the world’s information,” only to find that they aren’t tenable parts of Google’s for-profit plans. As Sergey Brin told us at Web 2.0 last year, Google has long embraced the “letting 1,000 flowers bloom” strategy. While it’s now gathering a select few of those flowers into “a nice bouquet” called Google+, some great Google projects have gone open-source.
In November, Google did the same thing to Knol, its Wikipedia-like collaborative knowledge database. It relaunched as a service called Annotum, powered by WordPress.
What kinds of projects can you imagine building with Google Body or the 3D viewer?
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