Two MIT researchers have developed a simple method to use "organic solar concentrators" — colored glass — to create windows framed by solar cells that can "increase the electrical power obtained from each solar cell 'by a factor of over 40'". The concentrators not only make it possible to create windows (albeit colored ones) that let in some light while also harvesting solar power, but are also much less expensive than intricate mechanical systems used to rotate existing solar panels.

The MIT solar concentrator involves a mixture of two or more dyes that is essentially painted onto a pane of glass or plastic. The dyes work together to absorb light across a range of wavelengths, which is then re-emitted at a different wavelength and transported across the pane to waiting solar cells at the edges.

In the 1970s, similar solar concentrators were developed by impregnating dyes in plastic. But the idea was abandoned because, among other things, not enough of the collected light could reach the edges of the concentrator. Much of it was lost en route.

As "sixswitch" said in the MeFi thread: "I just can't believe it took this long for someone to go from 'Hey, this Space Lego piece is bright along the edge' to building this."

Dye-coated glass to channel energy into solar cells [ScienceCentric.com]

Lyndsay Williams of Girton Labs has built this prototype "SenseSurface" system which allows you to attach real, physical knobs to a flat-panel display. The magnetic knobs are measured by a sensor plate in the rear, letting you turn the knob itself to control the software dials. It's all a test project now, but I could see some people really getting into this. (Although not on laptops so much as dedicated displays.)

Below, a short clip of a prototype SenseSurface knob in action.

Project Page [GirtonLabs.GooglePages.com via Blogs.Guardian.co.uk via Music Thing]

October 19, 2011: a CIA operative under deep cover in the former United Kingdom is killed by the Lord Protector's agents, but in his dying moments manages to fire off a final warning with his 4G. It means the information — the assassin's identity and whereabouts — will arrive in only one place: President McCain's personal email account. It is his only hope.

President McCain, however, is blissfully unaware of the murderer's approach. When he tries to check his email, he ends up muttering angry verbal commands to the machine and waving the mouse around like a Nazi with mad cow disease. So he does not check his email. Fond of writing his own speeches, he is too busy oiling his Underwood Touchmaster 5 to notice that his secret service detail is curiously silent.

This is the exact scenario McCain is determined to avoid. Accordingly, he is learning to use computers. From the New York Times:

He said, ruefully, that he had not mastered how to use the Internet and relied on his wife and aides like Mark Salter, a senior adviser, and Brooke Buchanan, his press secretary, to get him online to read newspapers (though he prefers reading those the old-fashioned way) and political Web sites and blogs.

“They go on for me,” he said. “I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need.”

McCain, says aide Mark Soohoo, is now aware of the Internet: Sir Walsingham has no chance of getting to him.

McCain... [NYT via Threat Level]

Crunchgear's Peter Ha has a very quick video hands-on with a prototype pico projector from Texas Instruments. The little LED-lit projector has been stuffed into the case of a Blackberry Curve — sans the innards of the phone itself. That means we've got a ways to go before seeing these projectors in actual phones, but miniaturization being what it is, we can't be more than a year or two out from watching modestly sized videos beamed directly from our gadgets.

I'm very excited about this technology. It's not a game changer, but in certain circumstances — hotel room stays, sharing media with a small group of friends in a bar — it could be a great feature.

Video: Hands-on with the TI Pico projector [Crunchgear]

It's with not a little disappointment that we note New Scientist's write-up of an artificial tornado device; Turns out it's a giant "vortex engine" designed to harness waste heat from conventional power plants and turn it into additional energy. I think we can all agree that a shoulder-mounted air cannon that sends whirlwinds whipping through the tract housing of our enemies — some sort of Megaman villain meets urban rezoning commissioner — is a much better investment.

[Louis Michaud] latest design is a circular wall 200 meters across and 100 meters high without a roof. Air carrying the waste heat would be blown in from vents on the sides, spinning around the walls into a vortex that becomes just like a real tornado. Once started, the vortex would draw in more hot air from vents in the wall, pulling it past turbines and generating electricity.

Michaud calculates that a vortex engine of this size would create a tornado about 50 meters in diameter and generate between 50 and 500 MW of electricity.

Artificial tornado plan to generate electricity [New Scientist] (Thanks, Nathan!)

A team of Japanese boffins has invented leaf-thin solar panels that turn the idea of a "power plant" into a literal proposition. From Nikkei's Tech-On supplement:

A leaf-like module featuring bright green solar cells was developed by National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Mitsubishi Corp and Tokki Corp. The organic thin-film solar cell consists of a plastic substrate, phthalocyanine layer, fullerene layer and so forth. And eight 7.5cm2 solar cells connected in series constitute about 60cm2 solar cell module.

At some point in our lifetimes, we will witness the creation of a 1km high wind turbine in the shape of a palm tree.

AIST Makes Tree With Solar-cell Leaves [Nikkei]
Maybe it'll produce enough guff to power a single USB port.

Artificial Houseplant doubles as super efficient solar cell [DVICE]

One thing I love about Apple is that they have the clout to push ideas to market that might seem too niche or quirky from other vendors. (Wi-Fi in the first iBooks and USB in iMacs come to mind, although both of those products are from a younger Apple without nearly as much oomph as the company has today.) So when I see a patent coming down the pipe from Apple describing an attempt to integrate solar cells underneath LCD panels — allowing every iPhone, iPod, and open laptop to trickle charge its battery just by being left in the sun — I can't help but get excited. If Apple can make the technology work, it's likely that they'll push it into all their product lines — and hence the mainstream.

Of course, filing a patent doesn't mean that they've got the problems licked or that they'll be implementing the technology, either. But I can hope. Battery technology doesn't seem to be improving, but with the right power management techniques and a sunny day, some devices might not have to hit a charger for days at a time.

Solar LCD Powered iPods, iPhones and Laptops? [Mac Rumors]

Steve Mason's implementation of Atari's classic game runs on an 8x4' display and allows one to basketfuls of warheads at a time.

I wrote a Missile Command clone for the multi-touch wall at Obscura Digital. Just like the original, except you can fire by touching the wall with your fingers. Save the Golden Gate Bridge from ICBMs. Fun for the whole family!

It's incredible to watch, making the already-frenetic original look like a cakewalk. Missile Command meets bullet hell:

randomWarGamesQuotation();

Missile Command[Steve Mason via Gizmodo]

After reading the recent New Yorker article about the secret life of elevators clued me in to the fact that elevator close door buttons were nothing but scams, I began wondering what other non-functioning buttons I might be in the habit of maniacally thumbing in fruitless pursuit of a social myth. Astute BBG readers can fill in the punch line to that filthy joke in the comments, since I'm over my quota for the day, but Canada.com has an interesting article exposing the truth about another widely suspected placebo button: the pedestrian crossing button.

The amazing revelation? They actually work. At least in Canada.

Transportation planners around Victoria say there are no such "placebo" buttons here, but they add that the effectiveness of the button varies by intersection and region.

Brad Dellebuur, city transportation planner, says pushing the button sends a signal to the intersection's traffic controller that a pedestrian is present and enters the "walk" signal into the system's cycle.

"If you don't press it, some intersections won't give a walk signal," Dellebuur says. The traffic light timing is also determined by the amount of vehicular traffic, which is picked up by sensors imbedded in the road.

This does seem to vary quite a bit from city to city and country to country: in 2002, a reporter for the Honolulu Advertiser reported that 35% of Honolulu's walk buttons were placebos. But in Europe, most pedestrian crossings are fully automatic, and have no buttons. So who knows? Since you can't be sure, we suggest rapidly hammering the button with your fist while jumping up and down impatiently, which is probably what you were doing all along anyway.

A ritual crossing Canada.com via Museum of Hoaxes]

#boingboing regular Dean "Mustard Hamsters" Putney has built a robotic rig that frames his school's chalk board, invited his mates to come draw on it, and will now attempt to stitch together the world's largest image, projected at 40 gigapixels.

He's streaming the attempt live from his site, which will now break. Go Hamsters!

I chatted with him about it in IRC:

[joelev] what's the one line description?
[joelev] You're going to tak ea series of images?
[joelev] and then stitch them together?
[mustardhamsters] how about Largest Digital Image Process Video Stream
[mustardhamsters] yep
[mustardhamsters] i built a robot to do it
[joelev] how do you know it's the record image?
[mustardhamsters] current is 16 gigs
[mustardhamsters] ours is a projected 40
[mustardhamsters] gigapixels
[mustardhamsters] we're doubling it
[joelev] you have a machine with enough ram to do that? :)
[mustardhamsters] i'm buying a solaris sparc server
[mustardhamsters] 10 processors
[mustardhamsters] 20 gigs of ram
[mustardhamsters] two raid cases each with a dozen 18 gig scsis
[joelev] bitchun
[joelev] I have to leave soon
[mustardhamsters] i can tell you about the whole process in a minute or two, i'm setting up the camera now
[joelev] but I will make a post
[mustardhamsters] best part about it: $500
[joelev] Godspeed!

I've got to pop out for the evening, but you can join him in #boingboing on freenode.net if you want to chat back.

Giant Photo: Second Attempt [MustardHamsters.com]

From the most helpful suggestions in the "Help me get WiFi over 280 feet, through brick walls and the wandering meat of office workers" post, I selected the single cheapest and lowest-effort suggestion, from tp1024. Pictured here for your amusement is the resulting Cake Pantenna.

It is a cake pan scotch taped to a box, upon which rests the router. This results in a very discernible improvement: iStumbler reports a marginal increase in signal strenght, from about 25 to 30 percent, and a marked reduction in noise, from about 20 percent to about 10 percent. The connection is now actually usable, though still a giant pain in the ass to much done with.

It does at least tell me that a more, um, robust solution in the same vein will likely do the trick.

Looking again at the photo, I am struck by something—could the metal gauze of the bug screen, just outside the window, be the silent killer here?

Within a decade or two, we might all be wearing clothing with built-in USB ports capable of recharging our gadgets, according to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology:

The fiber-based nanogenerator would be a simple and economical way to harvest energy from physical movement,” said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “If we can combine many of these fibers in double or triple layers in clothing, we could provide a flexible, foldable and wearable power source that, for example, would allow people to generate their own electrical current while walking.”

That's all well and good, but my own personal evolutionary goal — a goal which I buy technology to help me facilitate — is to eventually live the life of a completely sedentary goo-back, my every bodily function automated. A shirt that recharges only when I move is going to soon result in a situation where I no longer have a single robotic drone available with enough juice left to clean out my suppurating bed sores.

No, what researchers need to be working on is a way to recharge devices not through motion, but by tapping my inner reserve of self-contempt and hate. That's an equally eco-friendly power source that's just going to keep exponentially growing... even as technology evolves and eventually gives me the luxury of ejaculating my skeleton in favor of an infrastructure made up of a series of interconnected bladders.

Power Shirt: Fiber-based Nanotechnology in Clothing Could Generate Electricity by Harvesting Energy from Physical Movement [Georgia Research Tech News]

I'm currently reading Paul Stamets Mycelium Running, a book about how mushrooms can be used to clean our environment, repel insects, and cure diseases. I tripped over this interesting bit of lore in Chapter 9:

Frank Herbert, the well-known author of the Dune books, told me his technique for using [mushroom] spores. When I met him in the early 1980s, Frank enjoyed collecting mushrooms on his property near Port Townsend, Washington.

...

Frank went on to tell me that much of the premise of Dune–the magic spice (spores) that allowed the bending of space (tripping), the giant worms (maggots digesting mushrooms), the eyes of the Fremen (the cerulean blue of the Psilocybe mushroom), the mysticism of the female spiritual warriors, the Bene Gesserits (influenced by tales of Maria Sabina and the sacred mushroom cults of Mexico)—came from his perception of the fungal life cycle, and his imagination was stimulated through the experience with the use of the magic mushroom.

For what it's worth, most of Mycelium Running has little to do with psychedelic mushrooms—not that there would be anything wrong with that—but instead focuses more on the technical details about the growth cycle and practical uses of a wide array of fungi.

Image: Nunavut

I've been at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, today shooting a piece for Planet Green. While I can't talk about that yet, I can show you these awesome pictures that Dr. Ray LaPierre of the Department of Engineering showed me. (This is the first time they've been online, to my knowledge.)

Dr. LaPierre's group Julia Huang used a focus ion beam microscope (FIB) to shoot a beam of gallium ions at the surface of a human hair, carving atoms off the of the surface of the hair to etch these McMaster University logos. When not tattooing hair, they'll use the FIB microscope to fabricate nanoscale devices.

(Click the images for a larger version.)

Faculty of Engineering page [eng.macmaster.ca]

From InfoWorld:

For the second time, a device submitted by Microsoft for U.S. Federal Communications Commission testing of wireless "white spaces" technology has stopped working and been taken out of the process.

The wireless prototype, which was not made by Microsoft, unexpectedly stopped working on Wednesday, Microsoft said Friday. In February, the FCC took another Microsoft-submitted device out of testing because it had power problems.

The White Spaces concept sounds pretty great, Microsoft, but maybe you could stop sending these janky prototypes to the FCC? You're just making the NAB's anti-White Space campaign too easy. Maybe if this initiative is so important you could hire some engineers who know how to design a power supply.

Microsoft 'white spaces' prototype shuts down, again [Infoworld.com via Tech Dirt]

INTRO: Friday, Google filed a google_ex_parte_white_spaces_proposal4.pdf">proposal [PDF] with the FCC to establish rules governing "white spaces," wireless spectrum available between traditional analog [?] television channels that may be used for wireless internet access. The company followed up the proposal with a conference call Monday. (Silicon Alley Insider has a transcript and overview.)

Google is just one of many companies that make up the Wireless Innovation Alliance, which also includes large corporate hardware and software manufacturers like Dell, HP, and Microsoft, as well as activist and community consortiums like Prometheus Radio and the Media Access Project.

HOW WHITE SPACES WORK: Like other modern wireless data radio networks such as Wi-Fi, the term "White Spaces" refers not to a specific frequency, but a collection of frequencies that currently comprise the analog television channels 2 and 51. [What frequencies are those?] Rather than operating on frequencies between existing channels, devices that communicate on White Spaces frequencies would operate on channels not currently used by local television markets. [I think that's right.] By using a GPS-like "geolocation" chip, each White Space device would be able to determine which channels were open in the physical areas in which it operated by consulting an open frequency database.

FUTURE PLANS: Furthermore, Google proposed Friday that the same sort of open frequency database could facilitate a "dynamic...real-time airwaves auction model," in which license holders of spectrum could sell access to various frequencies as they became available, utilized by smart wireless devices capable of discovering open frequencies throughout the entire usable spectrum range to assemble a multi-frequency wireless access at "gigabits-per-second ... in the not-to-distant future"—Google referred to this as a "Wi-Fi 2.0." [To me, this is the nut of the story: Google wants the FCC to rejigger the entire wireless spectrum provisioning system to allow a real-time allocation of free spectrum to the highest bidder. Some spectrum access would still be sold for billions of dollars to corporations, but all the available frequencies, whether corporate licensed or held open for the public, would be constantly available for access. You'd need devices with a software radio that could communicate on a huge range of frequencies and antenna design might be a pain. Am I parsing this correctly?]

TECH PROBLEMS: A White Space device submitted for testing last year failed to always recognize channels in which analog television stations were broadcasting. Google stated in its conference call Monday that the FCC was currently "testing several pieces of equipment" and that rules governing the White Space frequencies were anticipated from the FCC by the end of the year. [Okay, so if all the TV is going to digital next year...I need to figure out what frequencies we're talking about here. Looks like analog bands are between 54 and somewhere around 400 MHz 698 Mhz. Or just under 700MHz, which is the frequency Google did not license, but Verizon did. So the digital switchover uses the same frequencies, just digital signals instead of analog? I didn't realize that.]

OTHER HURDLES: While the frequencies used by television stations do have a long reach and easily penetrate walls, it is important to remember that these signals are one-way communications, often broadcast from giant antennas at megawatts of power. For gadgets and computers, a much lower transmission power would be used, greatly decreasing the range of the White Space devices. [So are we talking Wi-Fi-like ranges here or 3G-like ranges? Either way there would need to be lots of repeaters to establish coverage and that's not something that Google intends to do, I don't believe.] The National Association of Broadcasters has also questioned the ability of White Space devices to operate without interfering with television broadcasts. In addition, wireless microphones could be affected, although Google has proposed a "beacon" that could be utilized alongside existing wireless microphone equipment that would alert White Space devices not to operate on the same channel.

Update 11:30ET: Moved the first draft of this post after the jump. Am now going to start breaking out entire sections of the proposal here, with questions and commentary. Anything in [brackets] needs clarification.

Update 12:30ET: I'm going to take a break and look at some other stuff for a while. This is all starting to make sense, though, I think.

While some defense researchers work on creating tiny, insect-sized spy drones, others are working on turning insects into fluttering cyborgs. Georgia Tech professor Robert Michelson has modified a Manduca moth to carry and power on-board electronics, reports Flight Global:

In the latest work a Manduca moth had its thorax truncated to reduce its mass and had a MEMS component added where abdominal segments would have been, during the larval stage.

Images taken by x-ray of insects with these changes and others found that tissue growth around the inserted probes was good. One DARPA goal is to show that during locomotion the heat and mechanical power generated by the thorax could be harnessed to power the MEMS.

The goal is to create insects that can be remotely controlled to serve as remote sensing devices, giving the paranoid schizophrenic in us all one more excuse to start gibbering about "Project: Beelzebub."

Cyborg insects 'born' in DARPA project [FlightGlobal.com via Danger Room]

Image: UW-Madison

This prototype "Audeo" neckband by Ambient Corporation is capable of picking up nerve impulses sent to the vocal cords, which can then be machine-translated into speech. The processing delay is awfully slow right now, the vocabulary the computer understands is limited to about 150 words, and you have to wear a severe neck band full of sensors, but it all looks pretty fantastic to me. It'll be a while before we can have completely sub-vocal telephone conversations (and who wants to talk to a machine voice if you don't have to?) but I could see these being used as an ancillary input for a wide variety of devices, especially for the military.

Nerve-tapping neckband allows 'telepathic' chat [NewScientist.com via Gizmodo]

Image: PFly!

Oh, sea cucumbers! What can't you do? Besides accept my love, I mean?

Researchers have developed a two-compound polymer that goes from "rigid to floppy when soaked in water." They hope to use the material in brain implants. Another version, which switches between hard and floppy when hit with an electric shock—ahem—might be used to develop clothing that can turn into uncomfortably chafing armor.

From New Scientist:

Sea cucumber skin can become more than 10 times stiffer in this way, but the new material can go further – softening by more than 2500 times. Simply soaking the transparent material in warm water for 15 minutes is all it takes to complete the transformation. After drying out it is identical to its original rigid state.

Floppy when wet: Sea cucumber inspires new plastic [Technology.NewScientist.com] (Thanks, Nathan!)

Rob Beschizza got a hands-on with a prototype maglev haptic interface being developed at Carnegie Mellon which uses a pair of wildly expensive donut-shaped electromagnets to produce physical feedback and texture with a fidelity of up to 2 microns.

On the texture board's hard surface, the haptic feedback was so sharp and resolute that the metal grip clanged against it, much as it might on a solid surface. On the board's virtual vinyl record, each groove of the LP was individually distinguishable.

Based on this report, I predict the Nintendo Wii 2 will cost $24,900 dollars.

Hands-On With Maglev Haptic Control Technology [Gadget Lab]

Dave Eggers and crew have opened another faux store to support their non-profit tutoring and writing centers. This one's in LA and sells time-travel-related products, including delicious Mammoth Chunks in five gallon cans, packets of shade, and anti-barbarian spray.

Product Catalog [344Design.typepad.com via io9]

Phil Torrone uncovered this incredibly rad solid-state linear propulsion system that can send little cars or signs (or whatever) up and down a track by somehow pulsing in sequence underneath a shuttle's trio of magnets. Or at least that's how I suspect it works.

The toy guys showing this off at Toy Fair didn't have an actual product for sale but were just there trying to show it off to toy companies to see if anyone was interested. I am!

Amaing linear propulsion systems - no toy application (yet!) [MAKE]

This cute little digital microscope only goes up to 40x power, but displays its peerings on a built-in 3.5-inch LCD screen, which can also be used to snap photos and video. It doesn't have the charm of a traditional microscope, but I can see people getting a kick out of being able to easily share their discoveries on the web.

The 44340 model from Celestron will be available in February for $300.

Product Page [Celestron.com via I4U via Gizmodo]

The "Gomboc" is a mono-monostatic object, a three-dimensional thing that has only one way to stand up. Like a weeble, you might offer. (I'd be right there with you.) But apparently, no. While a Weeble could in theory be balanced on its opposite, egg-shaped side, the Gomboc is only stable at a single point. It is therefor always self-righting. (Plus, the Weeble rights itself because of extra weight in its ample bottom, while the Gomboc is the same density throughout.)

The scientists who discovered the Gomboc shape are now selling acrylic versions of the same online, each with a special serial number and certificate. Unfortunately, each one starts at €900, with an additional cost based on its serial number. Seems a bit over the top for what is ultimately just a lump of plastic.

Self-Righting Object, The [NYTimes.com]
Project/Product Page [Gomboc.eu via Metafilter]

Above, the "Bar of Soap" prototype device by Brandon Taylor, Stacie Slotnick, and Michael Bove, all working out of the MIT Media Lab. Its function is not to do anything, but to instead anticipate what you would want to do by dint of how it is held. Hold it like a phone? It guesses phone. Hold it like a TV remote? Its internal accelerometers indicate "TV remote." On its own it's useless, but as the ability to detect its user's intended use improves—earlier versions were in the 60-70% accuracy range if I'm reading the data correctly—it may find its way into a multi-purpose gadget in the future.

Is it just me or does the picture looks like it came out of an '80s-era copy of Omni?

Project Page [Media.MIT.edu via Oh Gizmo via Architechtradure]

The article itself isn't all that interesting—they were testing the effects of jet noise on farm animals—but pigs with electronics packages strapped to their fatback will always have a place here.

Pigantics (Jul, 1957) [Modern Mechanix]

The DARPA Urban Challenge, a competition for robotic cars that drive themselves, has finished, with a very impressive six cars completing the entire course. Carnegie Mellon's "Tartan Racing Team" took first prize. Danger Room notes that DARPA director Tony Tether is feeling the time for academics on the proving ground may be ending:

Tether couldn't have been more pleased with the race, calling it a "fantastic accomplishment," and saying that the technology for robotic vehicles was now just about ready for other companies and organizations to pick up the work in honing it further. "DARPA is an interesting organization," he said. "We really never finish anything. All we really do is show that it can be done. We take the technical excuse off the table, to the point where other people can no longer say 'Hey this is a very interesting idea, but you know that you can't do it.' I think that we're close to that point, that it's time for this technology to [be furthered] by somebody else."

Carnegie Takes First in DARPA's Urban Challenge [Danger Room]

Image: Number 9, Mark Gardner. (Photo: Dan Winters)

Nate writes:

This is a pretty fantastic article from this month's issue of "Portfolio" about the top 10 patent holders [by patents awarded] in the USPTO. The article is interesting because it really highlights the wackiness of the patent system (most of the patents are displays, chips & flower pot covers) while also celebrating these fellows (no ladies in the top 10) for being pretty smart mofos. The slideshow is also great. I am a sucker for collections like this!

Masters of Invention [Portfolio.com]