Tag Archives: Kyoto University

With an outer-body made from a wood-derived fiber, this car’s auto-parts can literally grow on trees

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https://youtu.be/48ZLgxbD8nE

Humans multiply… but metal doesn’t. The minute you start to realize that we have a finite supply of metal on this planet you begin looking for material alternatives, especially for the 1.3 billion cars that exist in the world (as of 2016). A consortium headed by the Kyoto University and supported by the Ministry of the Environment in Japan has developed the NCV, or the Nanocellulose Vehicle, which features a body made from cellulose nanofiber, or CNF. What’s remarkable about CNF is that it’s derived from wood-pulp, which can be grown, unlike metal which can only be recycled.

The beauty of CNF as a material is that it’s 80% lighter than steel, but 5 times stronger. It’s derived from wood pulp, a raw material produced using forestry and agricultural waste, essentially turning refuse into an incredibly capable material that can replace metal, plastic, and glass. The Nanocellulose Vehicle is a case-study for the CNF material. Scientists claim that the use of CNF in car-production can result in a stronger but lighter car, also making it more CO2-efficient. CNF’s nature-derived status makes it eco-friendly but also highly recyclable, giving the material a visible edge over carbon fiber and even plastics used in automotive trims like bumpers and spoilers, which can’t be recycled and eventually end up polluting our oceans and choking our environment. Now it’s important to remember that the CNF material is plant-based, but may not be entirely biodegradable, because the fibers are bound together with a resin… but researchers claim it has high recyclability, and the fact that you can literally derive a potentially endless source of wood-pulp from trees definitely makes it a win!

Designer: Nanocellulose Vehicle Project

Panasonic and Kyoto University Develop Remote Vital Signs Sensing Tech

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Panasonic & Kyoto University Remote Sensing Technology for Vital Signs

Kyoto University and Panasonic Corporation have revealed today a new technology they’ve been working on together, which enables remote detection of vital signs.

Heart rate, heartbeat intervals and other such vital signs will soon be measured without placing sensors on the body, fact that can be quite stressful, especially for young people. Arrhythmia resulting from such stress could be misinterpreted as a genuine heart problem, and patients could end up taking a treatment for a disorder they don’t actually have. Researchers at Panasonic and Kyoto University have created a technology based on a high sensitive spread-spectrum radar and feature-based heartbeat interval estimation algorithm that rivals electrocardiographs in accuracy.

“Taking measurements with sensors on the body can be stressful and troublesome, because you have to stop what you’re doing,” explained Hiroyuki Sakai, a researcher at Panasonic. “What we tried to make was something that would offer people a way to monitor their body in a casual and relaxed environment.”

Panasonic and Kyoto University are trying to promote casual sensing, which means that people who are at risk of heart conditions could have their vital signs checked in the safety of their home, without having to pay healthcare professionals a visit. In fact, the radar developed by the two institutions could be triggered each night before going to bed, or each morning, right after waking up, and the patients wouldn’t be the wisest.

“Heartbeats aren’t the only signals the radar catches. The body sends out all sorts of signals at once, including breathing and body movement. It’s a chaotic soup of information,” added Toru Sato, professor of communications and computer engineering at Kyoto University. “Our algorithm differentiates all of that. It focuses on the features of waves including heart beats from the radar signal and calculates their intervals.”

According to the researchers, the remote sensing system brings together millimeter-wave spread-spectrum radar technology and a unique signal analysis algorithm that can accurately identify signals from the body. Needless to say, the team who has developed this hopes that the system will be available in the near future.

“Now that we know that remote sensing is possible, we’ll need to make the measurement ability more robust so that the system can monitor subjects in various age ranges and in many different contexts,” concluded Sato.

This technology may not seem like a major advancement, but anything that helps patients be less stressed when their health needs to be assessed should be appreciated. It should be noted that Panasonic and Kyoto University are not the only ones interested in such a tech, as researchers at China’s Fourth Military Medical University and NASA have each expressed their interest on this matter. However, the radars developed by these two were built with rescue missions in mind, while Panasonic’s serves an entirely different purpose. That’s not to say that their radar couldn’t be repurposed.

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