Laptops keep getting thinner and lighter, but some concept
laptops take portable to a new level. Orkin Design's Rolltop
consists of an OLED display that can start as a rolled-up mat
and deploy as a multi-touch 17-inch laptop. My beastly HP
laptop just shed a tear of envy.
The Orkin laptop can also transform into a tablet PC operable
with a stylus, or become a standup flat screen display.
A power adapter and other features fit with the carrying
canister that comes with a convenient holding strap.
Sony has also gotten in on the action with concept laptops,
watches and MP3 players that take advantage of flexible OLED
technology. All those went on display at CEATEC 2009 in
Chiba, Japan.
This should get any ordinary laptop user excited. But people
wondering if a lightweight laptop can still pack in computing
power.
A tiny nuclear energy source could help power micro- and
nanomachines of the future.
Nuclear power has long provided steady energy sources for
everything from homes to deep space probes. Now researchers
have begun developing a tiny nuclear battery the size of
a penny that could provide power in a smaller, lighter, and
more efficient package.
Most people probably think of nuclear power that involves
fission and the splitting of atoms. But nuclear power can
also come from the natural radioactive decay of isotopes such
as plutonium-238 -- a much gentler process that has powered
nuclear generators aboard spacecraft such as NASA's Cassini
probe.
Nuclear batteries have also powered more familiar devices on
Earth, such as pacemakers. The higher cost of the batteries
represents the tradeoff for a long-lasting power source that
provides more energy for its size than chemical batteries.
"The radioisotope battery can provide power density that is
six orders of magnitude higher than chemical batteries,"
said Jae Kwon, an electrical and computer engineer at the
University of Missouri.
Kwon and colleagues want to miniaturize such batteries to
power micro-devices and nanotech systems. The batteries won't
pose any fission-related threats, but engineers do face
a challenge in preventing the radioactive decay from
damaging sensitive parts of the batteries.
"The critical part of using a radioactive battery is that
when you harvest the energy, part of the radiation energy can
damage the lattice structure of the solid semiconductor,"
The researchers hope to get around that problem by using
a liquid semiconductor rather than a solid semiconductor.
Eventually they also want to boost battery power, shrink its
size, and eventually end up with a battery thinner than
a human hair.
If you've shopped for an HDTV, a PlayStation 3, or an HD-DVD
or Blu-ray player, you've probably heard about HDMI. It can
seem like just one of many connections on televisions or
home-theater receivers. But HDMI is more than a port on the
back of a TV (and the often expensive cable that fits inside).
It's a set of rules for allowing high-definition electronic
devices to communicate.
Before the development of high-definition televisions, most
TVs displayed pictures in what is now known as standard
definition. The picture was roughly square -- its aspect
ratio was 4:3. Its resolution, or the number of dots that
make up the picture on the screen, was about 704 x 480 pixels.
The picture was interlaced -- each piece of the moving image
was really half a picture, but the pictures changed quickly
enough that the human brain didn't really notice. Finally,
older TVs relied on analog signals, which travel as
a constantly varying electrical current.
HDTVs, on the other hand, are digital. They use information
in the form of ones and zeros. This information travels
through cables as distinct electrical pulses. HDTVs have
an aspect ratio of 16:9, so the picture is rectangular. They
also have a higher resolution -- current HDTV standards allow
for resolutions of up to 1920 x 1080 pixels. HDTV signals can
also be progressive, meaning that the each frame of the
moving image is a whole picture rather than half of one.
So, compared to standard TVs, HDTVs have a wider screen, more
pixels and a faster refresh rate. Often, HDTVs can display
more colors than older sets. This means that HDTVs need more
data and need it a lot faster than standard-definition TVs
do. If an HDTV can receive this information digitally, it
also doesn't have to spend time or processing power
converting the signal from an analog format.
This leads us to HDMI. Created by a group of electronics
manufacturers, the HDMI standard is a set of guidelines for
creating high-bandwidth connections between digital devices.
With the right setup, HDMI can make a significant difference
in a home-theater system. The current standard can carry
1080p high-definition signals, and it supports eight channels
of uncompressed audio, enough for a 7.1 surround-sound
system. HDMI can cut down on the number of cables required to
connect components, and it can even reduce the number of
remote controls needed to watch a movie.
But there's a catch. In order to take advantage of
everything HDMI has to offer, all of the components of a home
theater have to be compatible with them. Some of the features
HDMI touts also don't yet exist in the consumer marketplace.
In addition, there's a limit to how long an HDMI cable can
be, and some users complain that the limit is too short to
support convenient setups.
