Tag Archives: electromagnetic

Navy awards weaponized railgun manufacturing contract to BAE Systems

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DNP Navy awards electromagnetic railgun manufacturing contract, proves we're living in the future

Just over 18 months after making its video debut, the Navy's electromagnetic railgun has a manufacturer. BAE Systems -- known for e-ink-powered tank camouflage, autonomous spiderbots and machine-gun-mounted lasers -- won the government contract and hopes to have phase-two prototypes ready "as early as next year." While the current design is capable of firing one shot, the Office of Navy Research hopes for six to ten shots per minute. If that doesn't scare you, consider this: The pulse-driven projectiles travel at Mach 6 and can hit targets over 100 nautical miles away. Don't worry, it's not too late to rethink that career of sailing the high seas as a pirate and get to work on that accounting degree instead.

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Via: Defense Tech

Source: BAE Systems

Electromagnetic Harvester Uses Ambient Energy to Charge Batteries

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Aside from generating heat, most electronic devices also emit electromagnetic fields. A rapid prototyping enthusiast named Dennis Siegel has found a way to tap into those fields and store them as usable energy by way of AA batteries. Think of his harvesters as the real life equivalent of the mutant Bishop.

electromagnetic harvester by dennis siegel

Siegel wrote about his project on his website but he didn’t go into detail about his build process, only that he used “coils and high frequency diodes” to capture the electromagnetic fields. He also said that he made two different types of harvesters that convert electromagnetic fields of different frequencies. Using the harvesters couldn’t be simpler. They’ll automatically gather and store energy as long as there’s an electromagnetic field nearby. The harvesters also have an LED that glow in proportion to the strength of nearby electromagnetic fields. If you still can’t follow that, watch this creepy dude:

Siegel didn’t mention if he’s interested in making a commercial version of his project. But even if he is he still has a long way to go – his current prototypes need literally an entire day to charge one AA battery. Still, it’s nice to imagine that someday our gadgets will be powering each other and even themselves.

[via Dennis Siegel & Fast Co. Design via Visual News]

Mr. Ghost EMF Detector Lets You Go on a Ghost Hunt with Your iPhone

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Depending on the accessory, you can transform your iPhone into a video game console, a bottle opener, a wallet, a pepper spray, and now a ghost detector. Yes, all of these accessories except for the latter function are already available in the market today. The last one will soon be available as well, since the gizmo that will make it possible is still currently up for funding on Kickstarter.

mr ghost emf radiation detectorBasically, the EMF detector, dubbed as “Mr. Ghost,” works with an app to help you detect and track the source of invisible electromagnetic radiation in your house, at your office, at school, and in virtually any place where you suspect that there might be ghosts. Yes, I know that EM radiation isn’t actually left behind by ghosts, but it still might come in handy for detecting actual sources of electromagnetic interference.

The accessory plugs right into your iPhone’s headphone jack, so no set-up required. Just fire up the app and point your device any which way you want it to and you’re good to go.

Mr. Ghost is currently up for funding on Kickstarter, where a minimum pledge of $20(USD) will get you one of your very own.

Medicine Jet Injector Less Painful, More Awesome than Needles

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If Ian Hunter and his team at MIT have their way, the serial killers and torturers of the future will have one less tool to brandish and freak out their victims. Hunter and his colleagues have engineered a jet-injection system that can administer drugs with less pain and more accuracy compared to syringes and hypodermic needles. Hunter also engineered a formidable mustache.

mit drug jet injector ian hunter

The prototype injector uses an electromagnetic actuator to propel fluids at up to the speed of sound. I know that that actually sounds like more pain, but actually the injector’s nozzle is only about as wide as a mosquito’s proboscis, and mosquito bites are far lower in the pain scale compared to needle injections.

Another advantage of this device is that the velocity of the delivery of a drug can be adjusted by controlling the current applied to the actuator. Meaning it can be turned into a weapon be adjusted depending on a patient’s skin.

Head to MIT News to inject more data into your brain.

[via DVICE]


DataKiller Obliterates Hard Drive Data in a Second

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If you’ve got a bunch of data lying around on old hard drives, and want to make sure that nobody gets their hands on it, you could try reformatting the drives, but there’s always a chance that a data recovery service could pull the data off. You could also smash or melt the platters, but that would be messy. On the other hand, you could just expose the drives to a massive electromagnetic field to wipe out the data without harming the hardware.

data killer hard drive eraser

That’s exactly what the DataKiller promises to do. Created by Platform of Japan, this large metal contraption is said to instantly kill the data on magnetic media by realigning all of the magnetic particles in the same orientation.

In addition to wiping hard drives clean, the DataKiller can also clear off magnetic tapes just as quickly. After they’ve been through the DataKiller, all erased media can be reused like new. While the idea behind using magnetic fields to erase hard drives is nothing new, this is the first time I’ve seen such an imposing and serious looking data security device. As a matter of fact, the largest of these devices can wipe 14 hard drives at the same time.

Just remember not to put your credit cards inside of the DataKiller when you switch it on.

[via DigInfo]


ZeroN slips surly bonds, re-runs your 3D gestures in mid-air

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zeron-levitation-mit-media-labs

Playback of 3D motion capture with a computer is nothing new, but how about with a solid levitating object? MIT's Media Lab has developed ZeroN, a large magnet and 3D actuator, which can fly an "interaction element" (aka ball bearing) and control its position in space. You can also bump it to and fro yourself, with everything scanned and recorded, and then have real-life, gravity-defying playback showing planetary motion or virtual cameras, for example. It might be impractical right now as a Minority Report-type object-based input device, but check the video after the break to see its awesome potential for 3D visualization.

Continue reading ZeroN slips surly bonds, re-runs your 3D gestures in mid-air

ZeroN slips surly bonds, re-runs your 3D gestures in mid-air originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Quarters Shrunken Down to Size Through Electromagnetism

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When I was growing up, I remember seeing a native tribe somewhere on TV or the movies who had a bunch of shrunken heads hanging around their huts. I seem to remember that they looked like dried up apples that had been carved out. Maybe that’s what they really were and they didn’t actually shrink any human heads.

If you’d like to get your hands on a shrunken head without harming a hair on anyone’s head, then check out this oddity – a shrunken head U.S. Quarter.

ecfb electromagnetically shrunken quarter

These quarters have been zapped with 6,000 volts and 100,000 amps using a high energy electromagnetic field.  The intense energy forces whatever is used as a conductor between its repelling magnetic fields to be compressed in about 1/100th of a second. The result of placing a quarter in this evil contraption is a smooshed coin like the ones shown in the pics here. While the center details are somewhat distorted, the edge, letters and numbers are pretty much intact, making of one weird looking coin.

ecfb electromagnetically shrunken quarter 2

You can get your hands on one of these shrunken quarters over at ThinkGeek for $24.99(USD). That’s right, it may be about 1/3rd smaller, but it costs 100 times as much – and you can’t use it in any vending machine.