Starship’s delivery robots now serve Purdue University

Starship's delivery robots have reached their largest school campus yet. Purdue students at the university's West Lafayette campus now have the option of ordering robot-delivered food that should arrive in "minutes." As at other schools, deliveries...

Gene-edited rice plants could boost the world’s food supply

Rice may be one of the most plentiful crops on Earth, but there are only so many grains you can naturally obtain from a given plant. Scientists may have a straightforward answer to that problem: edit the plants to make them produce more. They've us...

ICYMI: Submersible sticky situations and elongating elastomer electrodes

Today on In Case You Missed It: Researchers from Purdue University and the Office of Naval Research teamed up to develop a new kind of glue that even works underwater. The synthetic compound is derived from proteins used by muscles to keep themse...

Big Ten Network adds ‘League of Legends’ to its tournament lineup

The Big Ten Network announced on Thursday that it's adding a less conventional sport to its conference title coverage. Now, in addition to everything from baseball and basketball to football and field hockey, subscribers will be able to see their fav...

Big Ten Network adds ‘League of Legends’ to its tournament lineup

The Big Ten Network announced on Thursday that it's adding a less conventional sport to its conference title coverage. Now, in addition to everything from baseball and basketball to football and field hockey, subscribers will be able to see their fav...

Purdue researchers discover how Zika virus is structured

By now, you've probably heard of the Zika fever. You know, the mosquito-carried malady that's been declared an international health emergency and can trigger miscarriage for pregnant women or microcephaly in fetuses. Well, researchers from Purdue Uni...

Purdue University’s ReadingMate makes the classic reading-running combo a little easier

Purdue University's ReadingMate makes the classic reading-running combo a little easier

Universities aren't just places for students to cut classes and enjoy themselves before eventually embarking on careers. They are also places where problems get solved, like the one facing runners who find it hard to read on the jog. That bane is the focus of a group of researchers at Purdue University, who are working on a system called ReadingMate, which moves text on a display in reaction to the bobbing head of a runner to stabilize what's being seen. The screen is sent information from a pair of infrared LED-equipped glasses, but it's not as simple as shifting text in time with head movement -- your eyes are performing corrections of their own, so the words dance slightly out of sync with your noggin to take this into account. It's performed well in testing, and could have applications beyond the gym, such as in heavy machinery and aircraft, where vibration can hamper reading ability in important situations. Those uses make the most sense -- we don't often find ourselves eager to attack that next Twilight chapter during a near-death treadmill experience.

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Via: Gizmag

Source: Purdue University

Researchers build optical transistor out of silicon, provide path to all-optical computing

Researchers build optical transistor out of silicon, provide path to all-optical computing

The speed of light is the universal speed limit, so naturally, optical technologies appeal when trying to construct speedy computational devices. Fiber optics let us shoot data to and fro at top speed, but for the time being our CPUs still make their calculations using electronic transistors. Good news is, researchers from Purdue University have built an optical transistor out of silicon that can propagate logic signals -- meaning it can serve as an optical switch and push enough photons to drive two other transistors. It's constructed of a microring resonator situated next to one optical line that transmits the signal, and a second that heats the microring to change its resonant frequency. The microring then resonates at a specific frequency to interact with the light in the signal line in such a way that its output is drastically reduced and essentially shut off. Presto, an optical transistor is born. Before dreams of superfast photonic computers start dancing in your head, however, just know they won't be showing up anytime soon -- the power consumption of such transistors is far beyond their electronic counterparts due to the energy inefficient lasers that power them.

Researchers build optical transistor out of silicon, provide path to all-optical computing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 03:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Technology Review  |  sourceCornell University Library  | Email this | Comments