MIT's Flying Car

Once again I come up with Massachusetts Technology

A Massachusetts company is one step closer to delivering its flying car after testing a production prototype. Terrafugia an aerospace company founded by pilots and engineers from MIT, has been working to get its Transition Street-Legal Airplane to market for the past few years. The company recently announced that the drivable plane completed its first flight at Plattsburgh International Airport in upstate New York in March.

"The successful first flight of this Production Prototype Transition marks a critical move toward initial production and first delivery," said Anna Mracek Dietrich, COO of Terrafugia, in a statement. "Terrafugia will continue its testing program in preparation for first delivery, which is expected to occur within the next year."

"With this flight, the team demonstrated an ability to accomplish what had been called an impossible dream," said Terrafugia CEO and CTO Carl Dietrich, in a statement. "We look forward to continuing to show that the challenges of bringing a practical street-legal airplane to market can be overcome. This is a very exciting time for Terrafugia." .The Transition's first flight reached an altitude of 1,400 feet above the ground and lasted eight minutes.

The Transition Prototype Production will be on display at the New York International Auto Show between April 6 and 15 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.
The two-seater vehicle, which is designed with foldable wings, falls into the light sport aircraft category and is expected to take off and land at small, local airports and to drive on virtually any road. According to the company's website, the Transition has an anticipated base price of $279,000. That's up from a 2010 company report that said the expected price then was $148,000. Specifications are available on Terrafugia's Website http://terrafugia.com/

The Transition®: Driven to Fly: Go Through this Video http://terrafugia.com/video_D2.html

Anyone flying the Transition will need a sport pilot certificate. The vehicle is designed to fit into a household garage.

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'X-Ray Vision' With Cellphone Cameras

X-ray vision won't just be limited to comic book superheroes in the future. A team at the University of Texas at Dallas led by Kenneth O, Ph.D., professor of electrical engineering, has made new scientific advances that could make it possible for cameras to see through solid walls.

Concept behind this advancement is using  a chip which researchers have succeed to design.
The chip would make it possible for the camera on a mobile device to see through walls, wood, plastic, paper and even into the human body.

This comes as the result of the linking up of two scientific advances: One taps into an unused range in the electromagnetic spectrum; the other is a new advance in microchip technology involving the terahertz band of the electromagnetic spectrum, which thus far has not been accessible via consumer devices.

 

"With focused effort, a product could be created within two years," said O.

Technology that will allow for non-superheroes to see through walls is thus seeing development in a number of sectors, including the military, with very different goals in mind.

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Instagram's Success Story

 Instagram :

 A free photo sharing application. Solely for the Apple people, is an application which helps you to capture cherished moments ,apply fresh effects on them using their inbuilt filters and then post, share it online on any social networking site like Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr etc.

Compatible with Iphones, Ipads, Ipod Touch

Instagram's initial version  was released on October 6, 2010.
At first site it came with some disadvantages. As every invention has some disadvantages Instagram came with its.

Each time a picture was clicked, a filter could be applied only after the picture is processed and if the effect due to the filter is not the right one for your picture, there is no way to get back your original picture. The only way is to start shooting it again, hence your moment would be lost forever.

 Instagram's next version 2.1 came with following star features:

•  The Lux:  A new feature given by the makers to bring out the inner nuances in your picture with nothing but a tap on the picture! Best part in using Lux is that it can be used even without a filter.

•  A new filter called the Sierra:

•  A simplified and an improved appearance. 

Because of its free API, Instagram can be improved and expanded. 

Team Instagram has certainly come a long way, to create a better World for all its users, and for all the Instagrammers out there, happy clicking ;)

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New Advancement In The Field Of Artificial Eyes

Scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University developed electronic-eye camera.

The 7th august publish of Nature – a journal – described that scientists have succeeded in preparing a superior, hemispherical “eye” camera. This camera is employing a number of single-crystalline silicon sensors and electronics. Those components are set up in a stretchable and interlinked mesh. These scientists were doing research work at University of Illinois and Northwestern University.
This study work unfolds a new future prospect for progressed camera structures. It also indicates signs for artificial retinas for artificial eyes. Such type of eye-concepts has been used in many popular science fiction movies like “Terminator”.

By enwrapping surfaces with stretchy sheets of optoelectronics we get a practical way for incorporating two-dimensional device technologies onto composite curvilinear objects. It is said by John Rogers who is the Flory-Founder Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Illinois.

He also said that this idea made it possible to set electronics in positions where it was difficult to place previously. He said that at present we are able to enhance device design beyond the flatland simplicities of formal wafer-based systems.

The design of this newly developed camera is derived from human eye. This design consists of simple, single-constituent lens and a hemispherical sensing element. The sensing element is incorporated with a hemispherical cap and imaging lens system by the camera. This arrangement brings in a system which is having the same size, shape and layout as human eye has.

The scientists doing research work on that created this camera by molding a thin rubber membrane in the form of a hemisphere. After this they elongated that membrane with especially designed mechanical stage to give it a shape of flat drumhead.

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MIT comes with a car: MIT car

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The MIT Car is a concept project conceived at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States, for the purpose of exploring the idea of urban mobility. This intensive study on advanced human traveling has been in progress since 2003. Designed for fluid movement in downtown cores, the concept car research is designed for passengers to navigate the city intelligently and ecologically. This project comprises the testing and making of a vehicle which re-invents the car as an object, and redefines the user's relationship to metropolitan patterns. The intention was to take the design process “out of the box," of automotive design alone. The prototype will be designed from a new perspective: that of architecture, energy, ecology, urban planning, and urban design.
The project was formally led by architect Frank Gehry. General Motors has been responsible for much of the support and resources as well as the MIT Design Lab, Smart Cities Group, and MIT Media Lab. Research developed for the concept vehicle is divided into four main groups: City Car, Athlete, Zero Car, and Transology.^[1]

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