News Digest : 21 July 2014

News Digest : 21 July 2014

Magic of solar power : Thanks to rooftop solar electricity, it is possible to have excess supply and cheap power

Ahmedabad Mirror | 21 July 2014

The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is a `Maharatna', a jewel among public sector companies. It has an in stalled power generation capacity of 43000 MW, representing 18 per cent of total national capacity. It operates 17 coal-fired and 7 gas-fired power plants. Read More

વિદેશમાં ગ્રેજ્યુએશનને બદલે ઈકોનોમી બજેટમાં એક સેમેસ્ટરની સીસ્ટમ સુપરહિટ : ફોરેન એજ્યુકેશન નું ડ્રીમ પૂરું કરતા સેમેસ્ટર એબ્રોડ નો વધતો ક્રેઝ

નવગુજરાત સમય | ૨૧ જુલાઈ ૨૦૧૪ | Read More

ગુજરાતમાં ઇલેક્ટ્રિક બસ નો પાયલોટ પ્રોજેક્ટ શરુ કરશે : પર્યાવરણ ને સ્વચ્છ અને હરિત રાખવાનો આશય. નવગુજરાત સમય | ૧૫ જુલાઈ ૨૦૧૪ | Read More

સૌરઉર્જાથી ચાલતી કેટમરેન બોટ બનશે રીવરફ્રન્ટની શોભા

નવગુજરાત સમય | ૧૫ જુલાઈ ૨૦૧૪ | Read More

Material lets robots be both rigid and soft

Ahmedabad Mirror | 15 July 2014

New material from wax and foam can switch between soft and hard states and could be used in the future to build deformable surgical robots or even low-cost search and rescue robots… In the movie Terminator 2, the shapeshifting robot morphs into a liquid state to squeeze through tight spaces or to repair itself. A new phase-changing material built from wax and foam, and capable of switching between hard and soft states, could allow low-cost robots to perform the same. Read More

Solar power plan for capital hits a roadblock

The Times of India | 15 July 2014

The state government's plan to tap solar power as an alternative source of energy in the state capital has hit a roadblock as private house owners are unwilling to lease their terraces for long duration. The government had decided to go for rooftop solar panel installation in the state capital, but found it effective because of the high installation cost and the shorter duration for which the terraces were leased out by the owners. Read More

Electric buses to connect city to Gandhinagar

 The Times of India | 15 July 2014

The Gujarat government will soon introduce a pilot project to run `electric-buses' for public transport between Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad. State-run Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL) has invited expression of interest from companies interested in the project which has been flashed on its official website. Read More

17 More NASA Images of Beautiful Engineering

Forty-five years ago yesterday, Apollo 11 launched into space. Its success heralded a golden age of space exploration and engineering feats that continue to amaze us, decades later. NASA continues to push the frontiers of scientific innovation and build impressive machines. Along those lines, this slideshow is about beautiful machines, technology, and images of outer space from NASA.  Click Here to see the images. 

MIT Wrist-Robot Adds Extra Fingers : One hand is better than two

Ever try to get the lid off a jar with one hand, or open an envelope, or 1,000 other two-handed tasks? Well now you can, that is if you are wearing the new wrist-robot from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Still in the prototype stage, the wearable robot nevertheless offers a new paradigm in assistive robotics called "synergism." Read More

5G Calling: Asia Rising

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Research groups in China and Korea are heads down developing technologies for 5G cellular services expected to switch on in about 2020. They also have been heads up forming links with each other. In the fall, China and Japan aim to follow Korea to forge agreements with the 5GPPP, their counterpart in Europe. Read More

Connected Car: NXP's One-Chip Wireless Design

Supporting global car-to-X communication (C2X) and WiFi standards, the RF transceiver TEF510x from NXP Semiconductor is the second of NXP's RoadLink products in the rush to connect the car. The transceiver, announced in June, is billed as a way to add wireless to cars with a single chip. Read More

Make Way for Autonomous Cars

Google's recent announcement that it would produce approximately 100 self-driving cars came as a surprise to the general public, but it's hardly a new idea within the confines of the auto industry. Read More

Micro Sensor Monitors Properties of Liquids

The Vienna Technical University is developing sensors that can measure the quality of lubricants. The devices use a microchip aluminium nitride cantilever that vibrates. The mechanical resistance that the oil -- or any other liquid -- imposes to the cantilever is measured and provides insights to the oil viscosity. Read More

Solar Roadways – Sci-Fi or Future Reality?

A crowdfunding campaign to support the concept of "solar roadways" recently raised more than $2.2 million, surpassing its a $1 million goal (see video below). The concept, developed by electrical engineer Scott Brusaw, is based on specially engineered solar panels that are tough enough to be installed on roads and other surfaces -- like parking lots and sidewalks, etc. -- and that can theoretically pay for themselves through the generation of electricity. Read More

Cellular-wide temperature remote I/O for remote monitoring

Moxa's ioLogik W5340-HSPA is a wide temperature cellular remote I/O device for remote monitoring applications over mobile networks. With support for the advanced High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSPA) technology, the W5340-HSPA reduces the response time for I/O status acquisition and control communications. Read More

Thermal imaging used to detect hotspots

Dräger Marine & Offshore is helping to improve asset integrity management for offshore oil and gas operators with its thermal imaging technology. The company’s equipment is currently being used to detect ‘hotspots’ prior to maintenance and repair work offshore, providing oil operators with a quick and easy solution to check for potential problems before implementation of a repair or strengthening plan, leading to reduced downtime. Read More

PCI resistor solutions range expands

Pickering Interfaces, a leading provider of modular signal switching and instrumentation for use in electronic test and simulation, is expanding its range of PCI precision programmable resistor solutions with the introduction of two new PCI cards. Read More

Microcontrollers have integrated hardware encryption engine

Microchip’s eXtreme Low Power (XLP) PIC microcontrollers (MCUs) with the PIC24F GB2 family features an integrated hardware crypto engine, a Random Number Generator (RNG) and One-Time-Programmable (OTP) key storage for protecting data in embedded applications. Read More

All-in-one digital multi-meters

Amplicon has added to its range of combined digital multi-meters/DC power supplies the Agilent U3606B, further boosting the company’s portfolio of test and measurement equipment and solutions. The recently released U3606B is a fully compatible replacement to the U3606A. Read More