Appliance Technology

Do you remember the scene from the Disney movie The Sword in the Stone where the kitchen cleaned itself? Wort (the future King Arthur) was supposed to scrub the pots and pans and clean the rest of the kitchen but Merlin wanted them to go out for a lesson in physics. The enterprising Merlin got the kitchen to go work for Wort.

That is how I feel when I make use of some of the technologies in my home. The washing machine is cleaning the clothes, the dishwasher is taking care of everything that had been piled high in the sink, and my robot vacuum cleaner is getting all the dog hair and dirt off the floors. I can sit back, relax, and blog for CR4!

I realize that with the exception of the robot vacuum (I have a Neato model) most of my tools are not that innovative compared to what's on the market today. Nevertheless, the vacuum is pretty cool. Her name is Rosie - remember The Jetsons? It senses objects in its path and goes around them - everything from the dog to furniture. It even knows when it's at the top of a staircase and avoids falling down the stairs. It can be scheduled to run at certain times or on demand.

Here's a glimpse of some other tools you may be interested in getting to help with the housework!

• A robot lawn mower (or several, if you've got a big lawn) can cut the grass without you lifting a finger. The Husqvarna robot works similarly to an invisible dog fence, staying inside a specific area.
• A robotic liter box for cats, like the Litter-Robot, scoops the box and stores waste in bags beneath the unit. The bags can be disposed of at the owner's convenience.
• Serving robots aren't widely used or available. As they become more popular they will help people with basic domestic tasks such as moving dishes to the dishwasher and dirty clothes to the washing machine.
• A simple helper is the Scrubbing Bubbles automated shower cleaner. At the touch of a button the unit sprays down the shower to help prevent mold and mildew from forming and spreading.
• Garduino, a precursor to grower-bot, waters plants based on soil wetness, adjusts the lights, and notifies the user of humidity levels and other conditions.
• There's a mop based on the robotic vacuum model. I'm not sure how well it cleans, for example, items that are really stuck to the floor and require a lot of scrubbing. Also, if this can happen with a robot vacuum, I'd hate to see a mishap caused by a robot mop.

Home automation systems and smart homes take care of a lot of everyday things for you. There are many types of these on the market - our local cable provider, Time Warner, offers such a service.

• Turn lights on or off
• Adjust temperature
• Play music or videos in different rooms
• Home security
• Reminders about garbage day
• View surveillance videos

Taking automation a futuristic step forward is the University of Florida's 500 square foot automated model home for "Matilda." Matilda symbolizes an 85-year-old woman who may not be safe living home alone. The smart home designed by UF can alert her that there's a water leak, show her who's at the door, and unlock the door remotely if she's unable to get to it.

The Gator Tech Smart House (GTSH) is an extension of Matilda's smart home. Also developed by UF, it's a 2,500 square foot home that can be lived in to test the environment.

Read more about robots and automation on CR4:

Paro, the robotic seal and other robotic animals

Automate your cell phone

Automate your computer

Do you have any gadgets that help out around the house? Anything you wish could be automated? (I vote for a robot pooper-scooper for the yard!)

Resources: UF Smart Home; Gator Tech Smart House

Being a native of upstate New York, Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. The trees always look so beautiful when they're all different colors and who can resist that crisp morning chill?

^{Image Credit: Brainerd.com}

The leaves change color due to the reduction of sunlight. Sunlight is used to turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and glucose (a process known as photosynthesis). The shortage of sunlight and water causes a reduction in the supply of chlorophyll--used in photosynthesis--and thus the green color caused by the chlorophyll fades away leaving the yellow and red colors.

Scientists at MIT have created an "artificial leaf" which is able to turn the energy of sunlight into chemical fuel that can be stored for later use. The artificial leaf is very thin and made of earth-abundant elements. The device resembles a silicon solar cell and is made of silicon, cobalt, and nickel. There are three layers to the 'artificial leaf'; the semiconducting silicon is bounded on one side by a layer of cobalt- based catalyst, which releases oxygen, and the other side is coated with a layer of nickel-molybdenum-zinc alloy, which releases hydrogen from the water molecules. The lightweight device has no external wires or control circuits for operation.

^{Image Credit: Daniel Nocera}

The 'leaf' works while submerged in water, and exposed to sunlight. The device quickly releases oxygen as a stream of bubbles from one side, and a stream of hydrogen bubbles from the other side. A barrier can be used to separate the two sides so the gases can be collected and stored. The gases can then be used to deliver power in fuel cells, which require water to deliver an electric current.

The applications for the 'artificial leaf' are still being explored, but one such application would be commercialization for individual homes to make energy simple and inexpensive enough to be widely adopted. There is still work being done to optimize the system but progress is being made to lower costs and improve the efficiency.

Currently, the artificial leaf can redirect about 2.5 percent of the energy from sunlight into hydrogen production in its wireless form. Adding wires increases efficiency to 4.7 percent, whereas commercial solar cells have 10 percent efficiency. Here is a video of the 'artificial leaf' working.

As our lives become increasingly busy, we rely on versatile and multi-functioning products to make our lives simpler. Or so we say…

Perhaps we have it backwards. Maybe sometimes we make our lives busier because we have these advanced tools at our fingertips. What do you think?

(Credit: McHenry County Blog -->)

Let's zero-in on smartphones:

Despite the impression I may have left on some of my co-workers, I have no gripes against smartphones. I think they're pretty powerful pieces of technology, and I'm still amazed at how much can be done within such a small package. Taking pictures, web-surfing, games, calculator, calendar, watch/alarm, mp3 player, texting, and email are just some of the features smartphones provide.

But, alas, I don't own one. In fact, last spring I started a new 2-year contract with Verizon for just a regular old flip-phone voice plan. In all honesty, this is partly just because I'm too cheap to be forced into a monthly data-plan which adds a pretty penny to my monthly bill. $Cha-ching$. But also, in the midst of some attempted conversion experiences (to the smartphone crowd) by my co-workers, I have come to the conclusion that (at this point) my life is simpler without one.

(<-- Credit: Media Online)

One thing I find particularly interesting is that when you mention a smartphone in conversation with someone, what comes to mind is all those things I mentioned above (taking pictures, web-surfing, etc.). What's missing here? Hmm… how about the primary feature: voice. That's the reason I got my cell phone - to call people.

Granted, this is hardly an argument against smartphones. The added features are the things we talk about. After all, a watch isn't distinguished by its ability to tell time, but by the extra alarms, the stopwatch and countdown timers, the design and materials, and other things that make it different and (in many cases) better.

But sometimes I question how much smartphones are adding complexity rather than reducing it in the name of convenience and versatility. I can't count the number of times I've heard people say "I can do that on my phone" only to watch them sift hopelessly through hundreds of apps while the time and need for its use has long since passed. And how many features seem to be incredibly useful until you realize a year down the road you've used them only once or twice? This to me is just unneeded fluff.

(Credit: B2BHebeisen -->)

Really though, most of this is due to a lack of "lean" principles. When dealing with multi-functional devices, the key to efficiency is better organization and easier access to the functions the user thinks are most important. I think this is one of the reasons why Apple has done so well in the past with their products. Their designs and interfaces seem to provide a clean, simple, and efficient user experience.

Certainly, the biggest advantage of these versatile devices is that they can replace many others that perform only one function. For example, I have a dedicated camera for photos; a dedicated watch for alarms, stopwatch, and countdown timer capabilities; a dedicated GPS for driving to new places; and a dedicated mp3 player for listening to music on the go. But all these can be replaced with a smartphone that incorporates all these capabilities. In this way, we are making life simpler by reducing the number of tools we need to get things done.

(Business multitasking - Credit: Dilbert by Scott Adams)

But how much is too much? Some smartphones can already function as physical credit and debit cards as a means to make purchases. While an interesting idea, it hardly seems like a convenient replacement. It also increases the potential consequences of losing or breaking the phone, which is another reason smartphones can be problematic. The more we rely on one tool for all our needs, the worse off we are during the times when that tool fails or is misplaced.

What are your thoughts on smartphones and other electronic multi-taskers? Is there such as thing as too many features? As you can tell, I have mixed feelings, and as such I'm content with my basic phone for voice and texting for now.

Really, though, I'm just trying to stay off the smartphone grid so when Big Brother comes I won't have to worry about being tracked.

The idea of a needle and thread being used to sew up a wound makes me queasy, but sutures are a very routine and simple method of treating open wounds from an injury, surgery, or small procedure. The method of closing a wound with a needle and thread is thousands of years old. Although little has changed in the process, there have been several iterations of the material used for the suture including gold, human hair, metal thread, silk, and catgut. At the beginning of the 21^st Century, synthetically manufactured, absorbable materials were introduced and quickly became the most popular material option.

^{Image Credit: Mountainside-medical.com}

New Suture Technology

The next generation of suture material was recently introduced in an article in the nanotechnology magazine called Small. The smart suture materials are electronic sutures, which contain ultrathin silicon sensors integrated on polymer or silk strips. The material can be threaded through needles, laced through skin and knotted without degrading the device. The sensors can measure temperature in the surrounding tissue. A higher temperature would indicate infection causing the micro-heaters to deliver heat to the wound, which is known to aid healing. A professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the inventor of the smart sutures. Professor John Rogers also imagines that the sutures could be laden with devices that provide electrical stimulation or release drugs in a programmed way to heal wounds.

^{Smart suture material. Image Credit: John Rogers}

How Smart Sutures Are Made

The smart sutures are made from silicon-based devices that flex and stretch. The silicon membranes and gold electrode wires are just a few hundred nanometers thick and are patterned in a serpentine shape. The researchers first use chemicals to slice off an ultrathin film of silicon from a silicon wafer. A rubber stamp is used to lift off and transfer the nanomembranes to polymer or silk strips. Then they deposit metal electrodes and wires on top and encapsulate the entire device in an epoxy coating. A similar technology is used to create inflatable catheters and medical tattoos.

The smart sutures have the ability to sense the temperature of the surrounding tissue. There are two types of temperature sensors on the sutures. One is a silicon diode that shifts its current output with temperature. The other sensor is a platinum nanomembrane resistor which changes its resistance with temperature. The microheaters are simply gold filaments that heat up when current passes through them. The addition of a drug release system could be accommodated by coating the electrical threads with drug-infused polymers, which would release the chemicals when triggered by heat or an electrical pulse.

^{Flexible design of electronic suture material. Image Credit: 1}

The materials used to make the sutures are safe for the body. Researchers said the most difficult part of creating this device was making the silicon flexible. Since silicon is brittle, the nanomembranes had to be made as thin as possible. The silicon needed to be laid out in a winding pattern for elasticity and placed in-between the top layer of epoxy and bottom polymer surface of the suture. "When you bend the entire construct, the top surface is in tension and the bottom is in compression, but at midpoint the strains are very small," said Rogers.

The new suture device may aid in the proper healing of open wounds by ensuring flexibility of the skin and preventing infection in the tissue.

Resources

The History of Suture Material

Smart Sutures That Detect Infections

1. Kim, D.-H., Wang, S., Keum, H., Ghaffari, R., Kim, Y.-S., Tao, H., Panilaitis, B., Li, M., Kang, Z., Omenetto, F., Huang, Y. and Rogers, J. A. (2012), Thin, Flexible Sensors and Actuators as 'Instrumented' Surgical Sutures for Targeted Wound Monitoring and Therapy. Small. doi: 10.1002/smll.201200933

Would you buy air-conditioned pants?

Not pants that use a more breathable fabric, but literally air condition? Me neither. Many people wear shorts to fight the heat during summer months. Others apparently need air-conditioned pants and shirts. But don't worry, these sweet stylish air-conditioned pants will only run you $206.

Image Credit : Gizmag

At first when I thought about over-engineering safety was on my mind. Modern transportation came to mind specifically. A modern car contains tons of features engineered with passenger safety in mind. But then I started to think about non-safety features over-engineered into cars. A good example is the 2013 BMW M5. The M5 has a beautiful twin-turbo V8 producing 560 hp. But when the accelerator is pressed the sounds that fill the cabin are not from the engine, but rather a recording. That's right, a lip-synching 560hp $100,000 luxury performance car.

Image Credit: BMW

Or how about the $150 Oral-B Triumph electronic toothbrush. Sure it takes a lot of effort out of brushing, but does it really do a better job than an old-fashioned manual toothbrush? Some dentists aren't so sure.

Image Credit: Oral-B

So in your opinion is there such a thing as over-engineering? Do you think products are still being designed that are overly complicated?

Except for emergencies, cellphone use by drivers should be banned, according to a U.S. National Transportation Safety Board recommendation. The logic behind the thought is that even hands-free conversations can distract drivers, causing accidents that result in preventable injuries and deaths. One big problem is enforcement — for instance, a driver singing along with a tune could be mistaken for a perpetrator making a hands-free call. What do you think?

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