(Credit:
Physorg.com)
The cell could be available in Japan around fiscal 2011, according to the interview with Panasonic President Fumio Otsubo, carried on Physorg.com. Fiscal 2011 in Japan begins April 1, 2010.
The electronics giant has been developing fuel cell home cogeneration systems. But it recently took majority control of Sanyo Electric and is expected to take advantage of Sanyo's rechargeable battery and solar-power know-how.
Panasonic and Sanyo have apparently already test-manufactured the storage cell and plan to sell it with a power-monitoring system that displays consumption on home TVs.
Via Physorg.com .
The original SheevaPlug computer
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)Six months ago, I had an exclusive First Look at Marvell's prototype plug-in computer, the SheevaPlug. Ever since, dozens of companies have contacted me about their applications. Most recently, CNET reviewed the Pogoplug from Cloud Engines.
That said, it didn't surprise me when Marvell announced Tuesday that 10,000 SheevaPlug units featuring Marvell CPU technology have shipped.
To celebrate this milestone, Marvell also announced Tuesday the launch of its worldwide Plug Computer developer competition, called "Free Your Imagination," to award the most innovative Plug Computing concept submitted.
You can participate or find out more about this competition at plugcomputer.org. This Web site is also the main Web resource for the plug application development community, where members can access software that facilitates the development of the SheevaPlug. Developers can also exchange ideas for free.
While the applications differ from one vendor to another, in a nutshell, Marvell's Plug Computer is a tiny unit, about the size of a small wall-plug power adapter. The little computer, despite its physical size, is equipped with Marvell's 1GHz processor and some 256MB of RAM. The computer also comes with a USB port and an Ethernet port to be best used as a network storage or an Internet-based cloud storage server.
One of the biggest selling points of the Plug Computer is the fact that it uses very little energy and therefore is the cheapest solution to offer users high-performance, always-on, always-connected, and environmentally friendly computing.
It's no secret that Portland, Ore., is one of the world's top biking towns. (Full disclosure: I live and bike here, and love both.) Thanks in part to a bike culture that has led to the development of hundreds of miles of bike lanes, ample signage, and rows of bright blue parking racks, Portland gets accolades for healthy people and air.
MIT's new take on storing and boosting power, keeping track of nearby friends, and monitoring traffic, fitness, and fog doesn't have everyone convinced.
(Credit: Senseable City Lab)But it is Copenhagen, Denmark, home to the 2009 climate summit, that tops pretty much every list you'll find as the world's best biking city, with a whopping 36 percent of commuters going by bike. So it is fitting that MIT's Senseable City Lab came up with The Copenhagen Wheel, which it unveiled this week in Copenhagen.
But to some, the wheel, whose several great features include storing kinetic energy for help up hills and monitoring traffic, fog, and nearby friends, is also a bit of a joke, something akin to rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
To environmentalists, there are far bigger mountains that need to be summitted (pun shamelessly intended), all the better if by bikes-without-batteries, as the saying may soon go.
To engineers, the storing of kinetic energy is nothing new at all. It's already used in hybrid vehicles, and the 1982 book Bicycling Science, put out by none other than, you guessed it, MIT Press, outlines various energy storage systems for bikes known three decades ago.
And to bike enthusiasts, who've tended toward lighter and simpler bicycles of late (Portland's hipster v. roadie "Performance" video sums up the culture well), adding weight and complexity to a bike, not to mention a hefty price tag estimated at $500 to $1,000, is downright counterintuitive.
And when it comes to one's health, of course, it's best to use your own body to get around. Pedaling a bike is better for your heart rate than, say, pushing buttons on an electric one. The Copenhagen Wheel is to someone who already bikes a lot what a diet fad is to someone who already eats well.
But at the end of the day, if the Copenhagen Wheel gets people who wouldn't otherwise bike to actually bike, it's a boon for personal and, at least to some extent, environmental health. As MIT project leader Christine Outram tells the New York Times, "It's a technology that can get more people on bikes."
The clever folks at MIT have developed a smart wheel that could give bicycle riders a 21st century boost.
Unveiled Tuesday at the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, MIT's new Copenhagen wheel is trying to do its part to help the environment by making bike riding easier and more enjoyable.
The wheel's battery can store energy as you step on the brakes and then return that power back to help you climb a hill or boost your speed. A sensor inside the hub measures your effort when you ride. As you pedal forward, the sensor tells the wheel's electric motor to give you a boost. When you hit the brakes, the motor regenerates, slowing you down and recharging the batteries. The goal behind this design is to encourage people to bike farther distances, relying less on gas-guzzling transportation.
"Over the past few years we have seen a kind of biking renaissance, which started in Copenhagen and has spread from Paris to Barcelona to Montreal," said Carlo Ratti, director of the MIT Senseable City Laboratory and the Copenhagen Wheel project, in a statement. "It's sort of like 'Biking 2.0'--whereby cheap electronics allow us to augment bikes and convert them into a more flexible, on-demand system."
(Credit:
Senseable City Lab)
Beyond giving you an energy boost, the wheel has other secrets in its bright red hub. Using sensors and a Bluetooth connection, the wheel can talk to an iPhone mounted on the handlebars. Through an iPhone app, you can check your speed, direction, and distance traveled. The wheel can also monitor traffic conditions and smog and even keep track of your bicycling buddies.
The Copenhagen wheel embeds all the required electronics inside the hub, so no other gadgets need to be added to the bike frame. A special spoking method devised by the team also lets you install the hub on any rim.
Any existing bike can be retrofitted with the wheel. In fact, the MIT team sees it as a plug-and play-device, one that any bike owner should be able to easily install as a back wheel.
... Read moreCan you imagine placing your cellphone on a Starbucks table and seeing it charge instantly?
Gainesville, Fla.-based WiPower (pronounced "y"-power) is manufacturing wireless-charging technology that could potentially facilitate just that.
WiPower's charging mat can power up to four devices at once, regardless of their position.
(Credit: JustinCumming.com)Ryan Tseng founded WiPower after he realized how burdening it is to travel with bundles of chargers.
His frustration resulted in WiPower's wireless power transmitter, a mouse pad-like device that connects to a wall with one cord. Devices with an integrated power receiver placed upon the mat start charging immediately.
The product uses inductive coupling, a technology electric toothbrushes have used for years now, mostly because it shields their components from water. Earlier this year, Palm introduced its Touchstone charger, which uses this technology.
WiPower's charging mat simultaneously powers multiple devices in any position with different power requirements. For example, a digital camera requires much more power than an iPod Shuffle, but both can be charged with a WiPower.
"WiPower realized that ... Read more
Osaka, Japan-based Eager Co. is developing recyclable cardboard robots to work as mannequins that show off clothing in retail display spaces.
Eager showed off the female D+ropop mannequins at the recent 2009 International Robot Exhibition (iRex) here in Tokyo. They're billed as the world's most environmentally friendly robots because they're made of corrugated cardboard.
The mannequin bots only have a few servomotors but can still move their arms and heads gracefully. Each weighs about 13 pounds and is nearly 6 feet tall. They can also be painted and printed with logos for other advertising purposes.
The dummy bots will go on sale this month in Japan, priced at $5,400 and up. They can be rented for about $1,800 per week.
Eager envisions them being used in storefronts, and at events and other venues to attract attention. The company apparently aims to capture 1 percent of the global retail mannequin market, not easy for an obscure start-up in this economy.
But who knows? If Old Navy can cause a stir ... Read more
The CMT-380 serial hybrid sports car is built on a Factory Five Racing kit car platform.
(Credit: Capstone)In an unlikely alliance, Capstone, manufacturer of electricity-generating microturbines, and Electronic Arts Chief Creative Director Richard Hilleman have built a hybrid sports car for the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show. The CMT-380 uses an electric power train with a range-extending diesel-fueled microturbine. A lithium polymer battery pack gives the CMT-380 80 miles of pure electric range, and the microturbine generates power for an additional 500 miles.
The car itself is built on a kit car platform, the Factory Five Racing GTM supercar. Capstone cites performance figures of 3.9 seconds to 60mph and a 150mph top speed. Impressively, the microturbine burns its fuel so cleanly that no catalytic converter or other exhaust treatment is needed for the car to meet California's Air Resources Board emissions requirements.
Not the first name that comes to mind in the automotive industry, Capstone has been making microturbines for stationary facilities and hybrid public transport vehicles since 1988. The microturbine in ... Read more
(Credit:
Novothink)
The greening of homes and gadgets is a growing consumer trend, and many exhibitors will debut their eco-friendly products at CES 2010. Last week, we highlighted the Electronic Houskeeper and the PICOwatt, two devices that monitor in-home energy use. Today allows us to highlight the Surge, an iPhone and iPod Touch case with solar panels.
Solar chargers like Solio are chunky and need to be carried around. But the Surge solar case is sleek, ergonomic, and certified by Apple. Two hours of sun exposure power 30-60 minutes of talk time. The Surge features an LED battery-level indicator.
The charger is manufactured by Novothink, a company that vies to pair solar technology and portable devices. The California-based company is focused on creating solar chargers for devices in high demand, as the mission is to allow consumers to live off the grid easily.
The Surge may seem like a gimmick on the face of it, but it might be a perfect solution for Apple iPhone and iPod owners on the go. Emergency chargers are available, ... Read more
Nissan's all electric Leaf goes into mass production next year.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)Automakers tend to agree that the electrification of the car is inevitable, but Nissan is leading the way by readying a mass-market, affordable electric car for production. The Leaf is a midsize hatchback with a range of a little more than 100 miles, according to Nissan. Although Nissan didn't let us drive it, the company brought the Leaf to CNET's headquarters so we could get a close look at what might be the future of driving.
When Nissan first released pictures of the car, commenters found it ugly, with its bulbous headlights giving it a frog-like appearance. But in person, the length of the car mitigates that criticism. And looking over those headlights, we could see that they are longer, and more fin-shape than bulbous. The lights are LEDs, used because of their low power draw. The shape of the headlight casings has an aerodynamic purpose, splitting airflow around the side mirrors.
A ... Read more
(Credit:
GoodGuide)
Just in time for the crazed holiday shopping season, San Francisco-based GoodGuide releases the first iPhone app that lets you scan bar codes for what the guide calls "impartial" health, environmental, and social responsibility ratings of not only the products you are scanning but their companies, too.
GoodGuide's free app lets you scan an item's bar code and instantly retrieve info on that product's health, environmental, and social responsibility ratings.
(Credit: GoodGuide)As our Webware staff wrote in August, "GoodGuide is the reason we have awards for tech services and products: it's a small and relatively unknown service that demonstrates real leadership on the Web." And as we report in Health Tech just this week, GoodGuide is an invaluable resource when shopping for toys, as it provides the levels of lead, mercury, chlorine, etc., that might be in the toys.
But GoodGuide's newest app is quite possibly the group's pinnacle achievement thus far. Now, instead of having to be organized enough to do your ... Read more
