ELEKTRO

Using 3-D printing and novel semiconductors, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a power inverter that could make electric vehicles lighter, more powerful and more efficient. At the core of this development is wide bandgap material made of silicon carbide with qualities superior to standard semiconductor materials. Power inverters convert direct current into the alternating current that powers the vehicle. The Oak Ridge inverter achieves much…

Cree, Inc. introduced the New Cree® LED Bulb, delivering superior light performance while looking just like an incandescent light bulb at an even more affordable price. Featuring a new innovative design, the New Cree LED Bulb provides the same cost savings and 25,000-hour lifetime that made the original Cree LED Bulb America’s best-selling LED bulb. Available as 40- and 60-watt replacements, the New Cree LED Bulb is available at The Home Depot® for as low as $7.97. “Since the launch of the…

In January 2014, company called Sen.se introduced Mother, like you have never seen her before. Mother is a caring, adaptable and programmable device that turns objects into smart and understanding things that truly enrich your life. You could meet Mother, named an Honoree of the 2014 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards in the “Technology for a Better World” category, at the 2014 International CES. As with your real mother, Mother cares about you and loves you. Yet this…

For years now industrial designers have been using 3D printers and laser cutters to build their prototypes in a matter of hours. Conversely, Electrical Engineers are stuck with traditional methods for circuit prototyping. Such methods are expensive, lengthy and require messy and complex processes. “Squink”—BotFactory’s desktop circuit factory—promises electrical engineers, hobbyists and hackers the ability to quickly build and test a circuit, lowering the manufacturing time from 10 days to 30…

Exhaust fumes, noise and traffic jams: given population growth and urbanization, the central challenge in urban development is inner-city traffic. BFFT, the automotive engineering developer from Ingolstadt, Germany, is working with the “E-Bus-Pro” network on the development of a fully electric bus for everyday use that can provide regular transport services in the city. It has the potential to revolutionize local public transport in cities worldwide: a fully electric bus for line traffic. It…

Google is leading a huge $542 million round of funding for the secretive startup Magic Leap, which is said to be working on augmented reality glasses that can create digital objects that appear to exist in the world around you. Though little is known about what Magic Leap is working on, Google is placing a big bet on it: in addition to the funding, Android and Chrome leader Sundar Pichai will join Magic Leap's board, as will Google's corporate development vice-president Don Harrison. The…

It started with a frustration we all have — a dead smartphone at the worst time. AMPY's co-founders -- Tejas Shastry, Alex Smith, and Mike Geier -- met in an entrepreneurship class at Northwestern University during their engineering PhDs. As active urbanites, they wanted to capture the energy from our daily activities to charge their phones. They engineered a solution to do just that, creating the technology that powers AMPY (formerly known as myPowr). AMPY is a wearable device that…

DHL Parcel will soon launch a unique pilot project on the North Sea island of Juist: For the first time worldwide, medications and other urgently needed goods will be delivered to the island at certain times of the day by DHL parcelcopter. This research project represents the first and only time in Europe that a flight by an unmanned aircraft will be operated outside of the pilot's field of vision in a real-life mission. By taking this step, DHL Parcel has moved to the next phase of the…

Excellent scientists are invited to apply for the ERA Chair position established at the University Science Park of the University of Zilina within the prestigious European grant awarded to only 11 European research institutions within the Seventh Framework Programme. The project aims to enhance research and innovation aspects of the University Science Park and the University of Zilina in the field of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). The ERA Chair holder…

Stanley Electric developed the ADB (Adaptive Driving Beam) headlamp that improves night-time driving safety and security. More people are killed when crossing the road at night-time compared to the daytime. By using ADB, no dazzle which would disturb the eyes of the driver in an oncoming car or a car ahead would be generated. Drivers would also recognize pedestrians and signs earlier.Therefore, this system would provide a safe night visual range to drivers. We expect the traffice…

Transport for London and design studio PriestmanGoode, we now can, after they unveiled designs for a new fleet of driverless Tube trains due to be rolled out in 2022. The "New Tube for London" features a futuristic design that abandons the traditional multi-carriage layout for a walk-through car, which will provide passengers with air-cooling and onboard WiFi for the first time. TfL plans to deploy 250 of these next-generation Tube trains on the Piccadilly, Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo &…

At Ceatec 2014, Japan’s biggest tech event, Toshiba has unveiled its contribution to the Japanese robot canon - an android that can talk and sign. Aiko Chihira is an example of what Toshiba hopes will be a new line in humanoid communication robots that can “man” receptions and also help with nursing people, a chronic problem as Japan’s population ages. Aiko Chihira has silicone skin and was jointed developed by aLab Inc., Osaka University, Shibaura Institute of Technology and Shonan…

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2014 to Isamu Akasaki Meijo University, Nagoya, Japan and Nagoya University, Japan Hiroshi Amano Nagoya University, Japan and Shuji Nakamura University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”. This year’s Nobel Laureates are rewarded for having invented a new energy-efficient and…

Spaxels are quadcopters equipped with a programmable LED system. They comprise a swarm that’s able to fly in formation and “draw” dynamic three-dimensional figures in the night sky. The Ars Electronica Futurelab is the sole player in this field, the only one capable of working with aesthetic forms of expression that were previously possible only on a computer and, via spaxels, translating them into the real world of a three-dimensional airspace. The source of inspiration for the spaxels is the…

Sometime in early 2013, one of the delivery operations engineers at Tesla leaned back in his chair and took a look around the Silicon Valley office. “It was a sunny day, and I looked up and I thought, ‘Why are these lights on with full power, when full sunlight is coming through the window?’” says Neil Joseph. An online search for a better, responsive bulb only yielded a few expensive commercial products. That October, Joseph (who says even as a kid, his two fascinations were lights and cars)…