GE and Yves Behar Unveil Charge-Stations for Electric Cars

Today, GE has unveiled its long-awaited scheme for electric-car charging points, complete with a design by Yves Béhar's Fuseproject. The stations will drop the time required to charge a car down to as little as four hours.

Outwardly, the GE Wattstation charge point resembles the award winning work by FastCompany.com contributor Gadi Amit and NewDeal Design, for Better Place. And indeed, the Better Place design and the Wattstation are both usable by any city interested in building EV infrastructure.

The design, according to Béhar, is meant to be easily seen and used—An LED indicator ring around the top edge is green when the charging point is available, red when it's not, and blue when it's in use. In addition, the pillar is designed with a sloping top meant to shed rain and snow, and in the future, the design will be customizable, so that the charge points can blend in with a city's street furniture. What's more, the Wattstation is smart-grid enabled, so that it can respond to the loads on the power grid. It also has, potentially, a greater power output, able to charge a car in as little as 4-8 hours, rather than the 12-16 hours it takes with today's "Level 1" chargers.

But, from a design standpoint, perhaps the subtlest things are the proportions and orientation of the charge point—they're meant to tell you exactly how to approach them for use, with the forward slant of the interface; and they're also sized to be substantial but unobtrusive, so that they feel friendly and approachable.

The stations will be rolled out commercially in 2011, and a smaller, at-home version will be unveiled later this year.

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Sure Beats the Weather Channel

會聽會說 超先進衣服美國問世(Yahoo! News)

（法新社紐約12日電） 這可能給「權威穿著」（power dressing）這個詞全新的意義。

麻省理工學院（Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology）的科學家已經創造出一種能夠傾聽並釋放噪音的衣服。

MIT發表聲明說，這支由MIT教授芬克（Yoel Fink）領導的團隊已經在「研發機能性纖維的道路上創下里程碑：能夠偵測和產生聲音的纖維。」

8月號的期刊「自然材料」（Nature Materials）形容這項發展是將通常被動的紡織品，轉變為幾乎是多功能的紡織品。

根據MIT的說法，「應用方式包括本身就是高感度麥克風的衣服，用來捕捉講話的聲音或監控身體機能，還有可以量測毛細血管血壓或腦壓的細小纖維。」

MIT表示，這項長達10年的研究計畫目的在「研發精密度更高的纖維，讓纖維能與環境互動。」

MIT表示，這種非常先進的新衣服不只能夠聆聽，還能夠製造聲音。

參與這支實驗室團隊的喬凱特（Noemie Chocat）說：「其實你可以聽到他們的聲音，這些纖維的聲音。」

他說：「如果你將這些纖維連接到電源，並使用正弦電流，這些纖維就會顫動。而如果你讓這些纖維以可以聽到的頻率顫動，並拿它們靠近耳朵，你真的能夠聽到這些纖維發出不同的音調或聲音。」

這種新纖維與麥克風裡使用的塑膠相似。

然而，研究人員操縱氟含量，確保這些纖維分子維持不平衡狀態。這種不平衡讓這種塑膠產生壓電效應，這個的意思是，當施以電場時，這種纖維會改變形狀。

MIT說：「除了穿戴式麥克風與生化感應器，應用這種纖維做出來的產品包括可以監測海洋水流的大網眼網子與解析度更高的大範圍造影聲納系統。」

Super-Pressurized Material Could Lead to More Efficient Batteries

(This figure shows the xenon difluoride changing color and shape (from clear to red to black) as increasing pressure changes its molecular structure. Credit: Choong-Shik Yoo; Nature)

Using super-high pressures similar to those found deep in the Earth or on a giant planet, researchers have created a compact, never-before-seen material capable of storing vast amounts of energy.

To create this material, researchers crushed xenon difluoride – a white crystal used to etch silicon conductors – between two small diamond anvils. A so-called diamond anvil cell is a small device just a few inches in diameter capable of producing extremely high pressures in an even smaller space.

Though the research is just at a basic science level for now, the findings shows it is possible to infuse mechanical energy into a material via extremely strong chemical bonds.

"It is the most condensed form of energy storage outside of nuclear energy," says Choong-Shik Yoo, a professor of chemistry at Washington State University and lead author of the paper published in a recent issue of the journal Nature Chemistry.

Squeeze play

At normal atmospheric pressure, molecules of xenon difluoride stay relatively far apart from each other. As researchers increased the pressure on the xenon difluoride inside the diamond anvil cell chamber, the material became a two-dimensional graphite-like semiconductor.

The researchers eventually increased the pressure to more than a million atmospheres, which is comparable to the pressure found halfway to the center of the Earth. All this "squeezing," as Yoo called it, forces the molecules to make tightly bound three-dimensional metallic "network structures."

Ultimately, the huge amount of mechanical energy of compression was stored as chemical energy in the molecules' bonds.

Boom boom power

Releasing all this energy would be easy, though perhaps a bit dangerous on a large scale. As reported by Technology Review, perturbing a single atom in the compressed xenon difluoride would cause the whole metalized substance to explode. And xenon difluoride packs a punch, with about 20 percent of the energy density of HMX, a very powerful military and industrial explosive, according to Yoo.

Of course, before ever seeing service in useful quantities outside the lab, scientists will need to introduce impurities to make the squished xenon difluoride "metastable," rather like the ubiquitous, combustible fossil fuels we familiarly call plastics, according to Technology Review.

Once that is sorted out, possible future applications of pressurized xenon difluoride include creating a new class of energetic materials or fuels as well as an energy storage device akin to a battery. The new substance could also lead to super-oxidizing materials for destroying chemical and biological agents, and possibly high-temperature superconductors.

(technewsdaily)

Tec Hideoto portable cassette player time-travels from 1994, gets USB audio for its trouble

Of all the USB tape players we've seen in our day, this is certainly one of them! Available from a Japanese company called Tec, Hideoto is a Walkman-esque portable cassette player that features USB and stereo headphone outputs, powered by either the aforementioned Universal Serial Bus or two AA batteries. It also comes with Cassette Mate software for Windows, which presumably makes saving your audio to MP3, WAV, or WMA a figurative snap. Available next month in Japan for roughly $57, at which point we expect to see these pop up at our favorite import e-tailers here in the states. Get a closer look after the break.

(engadget)

Collapsible Input Pen Lets You Draw 3D Images On a 2D Surface

http://vimeo.com/11015834

It's difficult to create 3D images on a 2D surface because, well, you're missing a whole dimension. Enter Beyond, a collapsible input device that virtually extends the pen into the screen to create the 3D effect.

Beyond was created by the MIT Media Lab and is a pretty genius, glasses-less way to create 3D on a 2D surface. The 3D on 2D surface magic uses the collapsible pen, a tabletop display, an infrared position tracking system to track the pen, and a camera to track the user's face so it can tweak the angle of the 3D effect. The collapsible pen is actually rather simple, with only basic electronics and 2 infrared markers behind the magic.

The idea is that whatever you push in physically with the pen is rendered virtually on the screen, letting you draw all the crazy shapes, objects, and dongs you want. However, as 3D continues its takeover of the world, we're pretty sure tools like Beyond will find better uses than dong drawing. [DesignBoom]

NASA Offers Cash for Inflatable Space Shelters

NASA has kicked off a competition among university engineers to design an inflatable habitat that is "light-weight, safe, and reliable" to house future astronauts "in space and on other planetary bodies."

 (gizmodo)

出門在外旅行時，有時候不得不住在條件不好的小旅館，自然也不能太挑剔其中的衛生條件了。如果旅館裡的牙刷不小心掉在地上或是浴缸裡，或是您自己攜帶的牙刷在旅途中弄髒了，該如何處理呢？這款便捷的消毒小裝置可以幫上您的大忙。您只需將它與電腦的的USB接口連接，再將牙刷放置其中，它內置的紫外線消毒裝置就會輕鬆幫您殺滅各種常見細菌，非常方便。

耕地播種是非常辛苦的工作，時間過長很容易使人患上腰部疾病。兩位澳大利亞農場主人發明了這輛可以趴著工作的電動播種機。它的結構十分簡單，共分為上下兩層。下層是用躺椅改裝而成的“床”，並帶有柔軟的枕墊，讓您可以舒適地靠在上面。“床板”還可以根據不同的需求改變高度，適應各種作物的耕種。上層則安裝了太陽能板，一方面為播種機提供動力，另一方面還可以起到了遮陽擋雨的作用，可謂一舉多得。預計這輛車的售價為 9000澳幣。

設計師對自行車外形進行了修正，新產品中車輛的前後輪大小設計並不相同，如此便能將車輛重心前移。與此同時，座椅模樣也得到更改，增加了靠背，載物框則被放置到座椅下方而不是車把上。整體看來，這款新型自行車不論是乘騎舒適度，還是載物容量都得到了一定程度的改觀。

Bedazzled By The Charming Phone(設計款手機)

Smashing to look at, you’d be surprised to know what specs this beauty called Lightpool Phone posses. Designed by Hironao Tsuboi, the bedazzler features TFT Liquid Crystal display and 8.08 megapixels / CMOS camera. Crafted with a unique expressive edge, the phone comes to life with colorful lights that shimmer in sync with your tunes. The black and white version reminds me of the quaint cottages I saw on my last trip to Europe. If I were to pick, I’d go with the pink version…which one would you choose?

 Designer: Hironao Tsuboi for IIDA