Tag Archives: purdue
Gene-edited rice plants could boost the world’s food supply
ICYMI: Submersible sticky situations and elongating elastomer electrodes
Shellfish-inspired glue stays sticky underwater
Big Ten Network adds ‘League of Legends’ to its tournament lineup
Big Ten Network adds ‘League of Legends’ to its tournament lineup
Researchers could help cops tap into public surveillance cameras
Purdue researchers discover how Zika virus is structured
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: Displays, Misc, Wearables, Software
Via: Gizmag
Source: Purdue University
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 | | Email this | Comments