TechWire

Tag - Innovation

හිරු එලිය අල්ලන Tesla උළු කැට

tesla-solar

වර්තමානය යනු  බලශක්ති අර්බුදය මිනිසාට තදින්ම දැනී ඇති කාල වකවානුවකි. බලශක්ති ප්‍රභවයන් හීන වීමත් සමඟ විකල්ප සෙවීමට බොහෝ දෙනා පර්යේෂණ අරඹා ඇති අතර එසේ සාර්ථක වී ඇති එක් විකල්ප ක්‍රමයක් ලෙස සුර්ය බලශක්ති භාවිතය පෙන්වා දිය  හැක. කෙසේ වුවද මෙම ක්‍රමය යම් යම් කරුණු කාරණා ගණනාවක්‌ නිසාවෙන් සාමාන්‍ය ජනයා අතර ප්‍රචලිත වීමේ වේගයේ යම් අඩුවක් ඇති බව අප සැවොම දන්නා කරුණකි. Read More

ඔරිගාමී ආභාෂයෙන් යුත් PUFFER රොබෝවරු අඟහරු ජයගනීද ?

Robot on Mars

වැස්ස වෙලාවට එලියට පැනලා කඩදාසි බෝට්ටුවක් යවන්න, කඩදාසි රොකට් එකක් අහසේ පාකරලා යවන්න, ඕන පොඩි කෙනෙක් කැමතියි.මේ ලිපිය කියවන ඔබටත් නිසැකවම මේ අත්දැකීම් ඇති. කඩදාසි විවිධ ආකාරයට නවමින් විසිතුරු නිර්මාණ සාදන මෙම “ඔරිගාමී” කලාවේ උපත 17 වන ශතකය වෙත දිවෙනවා. ඉතින් වසර 400ක් පමණ පැරණි මෙම “ඔරිගාමී” සංකල්පය නාසා ආයතනය විසින් තම නව අඟහරු ගවේෂණ PUFFER රොබෝව තැනීමට භාවිතාකරන බව ඔබ විශ්වාස කරනවාද? මාස කීපයකට පෙර නාසා ආයතනයේ මේ විප්ලවකාරී පියවර ගැන තොරතුරැ මාධ්‍යයට නිරාවරණය වෙනවා. Read More

iHelmet වෙනුවෙන් ගනිඳු හට ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් 500,000ක ජයක්!

ගනිඳු නානායක්කාර යනු නව නිර්මාණ ශිල්පියෙකු සහ මෘදුකාංග ඉංජිනේරුවරයෙකි. SLIIT ආයතනයේ ඉගෙනුම ලබා ඇති මහු ආදි ආනන්දීයයෙකු ද වේ. මෙම වසරේ Verizon ආයතනය මගින් පැවැත්වූ Powerful Answers තරඟයේ ප්‍රවාහන අංශයේ දෙවන ස්ථානය ලබාගැනීමට ගනිඳුගේ iHelmet නිර්මාණයට හැකිවූ අතර, ඔහුට හිමිවූ ජයග්‍රාහී ත්‍යාග මුදල ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් 500,000ක් විය.

Powerful Answers යනු Verizon ආයතනය විසින් සංවිධානය කරනු ලබන තරඟාවලියකි. මෙය ප්‍රධාන අංශ තුනක් (Transportation, Emergency Response සහ Internet of Things) යටතේ පැවැත්වෙන අතර එක් අංශයකින් ජයග්‍රාහකයින් 4 දෙනෙක් තෝරාගනු ලැබේ. ප්‍රථමයාට ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් 1,000,000ක් ද, දෙවැනියාට ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් 500,000ක් ද, ඉතිරි දෙදෙනාට ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් 250,000 බැගින් ද ත්‍යාග මුදල් හිමිවේ. මෙවර මෙම තරඟය සඳහා 1,400කට අධික තරඟකරුවන් සහභාගී වූ අතර අවසන් සම්මාන ප්‍රදානය පසුගිය දෙසැම්බර් 9 වන දා සැන් ෆ්‍රැන්සිස්කෝ නුවරදී පැවැත්වුණි.

iHelmet (intelligentHelmet) සතුව විශේෂාංග ගණනාවක් ඇත. මෙම විශේෂිත හිස්වැස්ම පාලනය කිරීමට ගනිඳු ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ Android අයදුමකි. හිස්වැස්මේ ඇති උපාංගය නිරතුරුව සංවේදනය කරගන්නා දත්ත ජංගම දුරකථනයට සම්ප්‍රේෂණය වන්නේ බ්ලූටූත් සංඥා ඇසුරෙනි. ඊට අමතරව හුරුබුහුටි දුරස්ථ-පාලකයක් ද මේ සමග ලැබෙන අතර ස්මාට්ෆෝන් භාවිතය නුපුරුදු අයට එය පහසුවක් වනු ඇත. iPhone පරිශීලකයින් හට ද iHelmet භාවිත කිරීමේ පහසුකම නුදුරු දිනෙකම හඳුන්වාදෙනු ඇතැයි අපි උදක්ම අපේක්‍ෂා කරමු.

iHelmet

සේයාරුව: http://recode.net

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”20″ bg_color=”#000000″ txt_color=”#ffffff”]මේ උපකරණය හා Android අයදුම සමඟ හිස්වැස්මක මිල $115ක් පමණ වන අතර උපකරණය හා Android අයදුම පමණක් $75ක මුදලකට අලෙවි කිරීමට නියමිතයි.[/mks_pullquote]යතුරුපැදි අනතුරු වලින් නිමක් නැති රටක් වන අපට මෙය ඉතාමත් ප්‍රයෝජනවත් උපාංගයක් වනු ඇත. මෙවන් නව නිර්මාණ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව කොතෙකුත් බිහිවුවද අපගේ අවාසනාවට මෙන් එයින් වෙළඳපලට එක්වන්නේ ඉතාම අතළොස්සකි. මෙයට විවිධ හේතු තිබුණද, රජය සහ මහජනයා මෙම නිමැවුම් වෙත යොමන අඩු අවධානය එයට ප්‍රධාන හේතුවකි. TechWire අපගේ පැතුම කිසියම් අනුග්‍රාහක භවතෙකුගේ මැදිහත්වීමකින් මෙම ප්‍රයෝජනවත් හිස්වැස්ම, සාමාන්‍ය ජනයාට ආර්ථිකමයව පහසුදායක අයුරකින්, වෙළඳ භාණ්ඩයක් ලෙස ඉක්මණින්ම අප අතරට පැමිණේවා කියා ය.

Powerful Answers Awards 2015 තරඟයේ ජයග්‍රාහකයන් පහත පරිදිය.

[mks_tabs nav=”horizontal”]
[mks_tab_item title=”ආපදා කළමණාකරණය”]

$1,000,000 – Bounce Imaging

$500,000 – EmergenSee®

$250,000 – Disaster Mesh, Lifeguard Drone
[/mks_tab_item]
[mks_tab_item title=”අන්තර්ජාල සේවා”]

$1,000,000 – Zizmos Technology

$500,000 – CityTaps

$250,000 – Owlet, Smart Barn
[/mks_tab_item]
[mks_tab_item title=”ප්‍රවාහන”]

$1,000,000 – Pogo

$500,000 – iHelmet

$250,000 – i4drive, Swiftmile
[/mks_tab_item]
[/mks_tabs]

‘RIYADISI’— Intelligent driver monitoring system

Road accidents cause large number of deaths, injuries and disabilities of people around the world and it has been found that 10%-20% of fatal road accidents are due to driver’s negligence. Further from the researches it has been identified that main causes for this inattention are drowsiness and distraction.

The aim of RIYADISI is to assist drivers to maintain their attention throughout the journey by monitoring and alerting them throughout the journey. RIYADISI is a real time, automated and noninvasive (not involving the introduction of instruments into the body) system which uses computer vision and machine learning techniques to detect driver drowsiness and distraction and alerts the driver. The main distinguishing feature of RIYADISI when compared with other related products in the market that it does not have any instruments attached to the body of the driver.

The monitoring video camera (Height-2 cm X Width-5 cm approx.) is placed on the dashboard near steering wheel which uploads a live video stream of the driver to a central server. The video stream is analyzed from the central server software and it identifies the status of the driver, whether he is sleepy or not concentrating on driving.

RIYADISI system uses decreased eye blinking rate, yawning and nodding off to detect drowsiness whereas it uses eye-gaze movement and head movements to detect distraction. If the central server detects that the driver is drowsy or distracted, the system has the capability to alert the driver on the same. Furthermore the video camera used here is an Infra-Red (IR) camera which facilitates to use the system in the night as well.

The next phase of this invention is to integrate the whole system into a mobile app where the mobile phone will be able to alert the driver by continuously monitoring him.

RIYADISI is an invention by a team of final year undergraduates of Department of Computer Science and Engineering of University of Moratuwa under the guidance of Dr. Chathura Perera. Team members are Dileepa Fernando, Sandareka Wickramanayake, Sadari jayawardena and Sanka Darshana.

DSC_0098

While congratulating the team of inventors on RIYADISI product, we wish them all the best for the next phases of the product and looking forward to see this novel product in the market in near future.

Refer following video for more details – Video credits to live@8

Displair : You are looking at the future

If you can remember Tom Cruise using a 3D holographic system in the film Minority Report back in 2002, you might have thought how cool it would be to have it real life. Well it has arrived!

Minority Report Display

A 24 year old entrepreneur from Russia has successfully invented such a device which can show interactive display right in the air. Not yet to the clarity of the one in Minority Report, but through this device you can control a screen in midair with almost real time responsiveness. Check it out in the below video

Technology

Displair treats the air and disengage the smallest moisture particles, and then add them up again to the refined air. Because of this, the air seems to be kind of pale or bleached. This state is called “fog”, but it is absolutely dry. Also by having the particles very small, they are stable even when they collided with physical objects, thus not leaving any wet traces. When an image is projected on to this air layer, it creates a screen in mid air.

The specific software and the set of sensors (Infrared cameras) make it possible to manipulate the image. Users feel it entirely. All the fingers can be used to control the image. Several people can use it at the same time, simultaneously as well.

There is a 0.2 second lag between the action and the actual motion. Displair can detect smaller finger movements up to 1500 contact points with the accuracy of 1cm. This depends on the screen size which varies between 40 and 140 inches.

The Creator

The inventor of Displair is Russian Maksim Kamanin, who was a network engineer who ultimately pursued his dreams to create a futuristic device.

“I was working as a network engineer, when we were fastening a motherboard, it seemed so dull, that my friend and I were dreaming about the future and how everything would look like then and this talk somehow caught me and I thought ‘Why not start doing it right now?’

I started to search for the information and data, learning more and more. At last I came up to the effects of mirages, clouds. Once I was in a church, I noticed that the space above the candle was diffluent and at that particular moment I realized that a special physical effect will definitely take place and we’ll be able to create and image right in the air”

Founder Displair

Maxim with the help of other people interested in the project were able to develop a working model in their dormitory. He explained how things went on from there when he got a call from Moscow:

“You’ve got and interesting project. If you have a functional prototype, you’ll have a chance to meet the President of the Russian Federation”

Maxim with his Displair project went on to win many of the innovation competitions and prizes in Russia, including the top on “Zvorykin Prize 2011”.

Investments 

Adrien Henni became one of the first of the foreign partners. He gave Displair the understanding of how to attract investments, how the company should develop at this point. He introduced Maxim to most of the great companies we cooperate with at the moment.

Goal

Once they come through in Russia, Displair thinks they have a good chance to expand abroad. They have already got $1M investments from Silicon Valley giants. Pretty soon they will be entering the second round of investments. Once they expand the pilot production, they are planning to increase the company headcount and entering foreign markets. Maxim said “At some point we will become self-supporting”. That’s our goal as a company.

Displair has already taken the path of the patent war. A company called Fogscreen who develop a similar type of screen insist that that Displair should stop doing the development of this project, otherwise they will fight Displair.

The Future of Displair

Work needs to be done on the clarity of the image and also the required fine tuning  for it to appeal to consumer masses. However Displair is an amazing innovation and seems that it is well on course to be the next big thing in displays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVyIN3Q7B9E

Gravity Light – An effective replacement to kerosene lamps

 

Out of the 7 billion people who live on earth, 1.5 billion people are still using alternative biomass fuels (mostly kerosene) to generate light as they have no reliable access to electricity.

burns

 

Yearly, 2.5 million in India alone suffer from severe burns due to overturned kerosene lamps. In Sri Lanka also there are many burn cases due to kerosene lamps. According to World Bank reports 780 million women and children are vulnerable to inhaling of kerosene smoke which is equivalent to 2 packets of cigarettes a day. Although not seen obvious, kerosene used only for lighting can consume a 10% to 20% of the entire income of a family. With ever rising fuel prices, the overhead expenditure on kerosene has created a burden which keeps them in a permanent state of subsistence living.


What is the Gravity Light?

There are many solutions found for low power off grid energy generation. Solar powered electricity in rural areas is a well-known example. Gravity light is a device that converts potential energy to light by the use of a dynamo. Someone needs to lift the weight (bag full of earth or sand weighing about 10kg) to the top position where from that point onwards the weight will slowly move down with the help of gears that cause the dynamo to rotate longer generating electricity which is transformed to disseminating light through a LED.

Gravity light in work

 

 

It takes only 3 seconds to lift the weight, but it can power up to 30 minutes. There is no recurring costs; No batteries; its fully clean and green energy.

 

 

 

 

It takes only 3 seconds to lift the weight, but it can power up to 30 minutes. There is no recurring costs; No batteries; its fully clean and green energy. Gravity light illumination strength is better than typical kerosene lamps. Light output is adjustable; depending on what is filled in the weight bag and the brightness of the light, it may light between 18 minutes to 30 minutes. The Dynamo and the LED lights are designed to be very efficient, so that it can last up to long time. Although you can listen to a small radio or charge batteries, you won’t be able to charge your high end phone or do fancy things with that. It’s simple and basic.

Gravity light kit

LED bulbs do not attract insects like mosquitos which is another plus point. The goal is to build a commercial version for $5. In a typical target household, the initial cost will be covered within first 2-3 months and then onwards it’s an advantage for them. Saving the money burnt as kerosene for lighting.

Who is behind Gravity Light Project?
Therefore is a UK based design company which started the project Deciwatt which is behind the Gravity light. Therefore has vast experience over 20 years in development handheld, communication and computing households for leading companies like Toshiba, NEC, Psion and Tom Tom. London-based designers Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves of Therefore spent four years developing the light.

Gravity light team

Do I need one at home?
I don’t want it. I have mains electricity! You might say. But if you are creative, here are few ideas where you want to place the gravity light at your home. Hang the gravity light in your shed, or you can use it as a porch light. You can attach a hanging basket as the weight.

Where to use the gravity light

Video

Want to help?
Please visit this link to help funding of the manufacturing and distribution of 1000 gravity lights as a follow up research in India and Africa.