#TECH: "Brief Takes: Tech Stories You Should Know About"

#ROBOTS: "Co-Robots to Bring Jobs Back to U.S.)

#CURE "Intel, Microsoft and Autodesk Creating Life" #cancer #hybrid #semiconductor #medical #GMO

#SOLAR "Simple Paint-on Coating Doubles the Electrons Per Photon"

#GESTURES "3-D Gesture Control For Just $2 Per Device"

#IoT "World's 1st Internet of Things App Store for IoT and Wearables" #DRONE #ROBOT

The world's first Internet-of-Things (IoT) App Store opens today by the makers of the most popular version of Linux, Cananical's Ubuntu. The company is giving away the Ubuntu Core--a stripped down version of Linux with no graphical user interface (GUI)--for anyone making IoT or wearables, will handle auto-updating devices, guarantees bullet-proof security and will allow developers to use their cloud to test apps, list them in their store, or help IoT or wearable maker to put up their own cloud-based store: R.Colin Johnson @NextGenLog Google+ and EE Times

Robotic quadcopter produced using Canonical's Ubuntu Core.

Cheap $35 Odroid robot controller board wors with Ubuntu Core.

FULL STORY AT EE TIMES

#AUTOMOTIVE: "Ford Self-Driving Cars Will Be Cheap" #SELFDRIVING #CARS #GOOGLE

Ford funded researchers have found a way to make self driving cars that use a single camera. Google or Ford or someone with deep pockets will first have to send survey cars around to create 3-D maps, similar to the maps your Garmin already has produced. R.Colin Johnson @NextGenLog, Google+ and EE Times

Three Ford Fusions have been adapted to autonomous self driving by the University of Michigan.

FULL STORY ON
EE TIMES

#MEDICAL: "Electronic Spine Cures Paralysis"

Spinal injuries need not cause paralysis anymore with this electronic spine installed. It already works on rats and is being rushed through human trials to cure paralyzed people soon: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog and EE Times

Biocompanitble implant has a silicon substrate that is covered with cracked gold electric conducting tracks that can be pulled and stretched without damage.

FULL STORY AT EE TIMES

#CHIPS: "FeFET Extends Moore's Law Beyond end of Silicon Roadmap"

A transistor that is smaller than today's silicon transistors and yet has a built-in memory material in its gate oxide, called ferroelectric transistors, could change the face of computing by allowing instant-on operation as well as eliminate the need for RAM and flash by running faster than DRAM and denser than flash: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog and EE Times

The ferroelectric material pictured on a germanium channel above a silicon substrate retains its polarization indefinitely making any computers built from FeFETs instant-on

The measurement set-up using negative-biased conductive scanning probe to sense switching in ferroelectric layer.

FULL STORY AT EE TIMES

#MEMS Sparking Wearables / IoT Beyond Your Dreams

MEMS are enabling wearables that would be impossible without the tiny sensor technology and you won't believe some of the possibilities Intel and others have in the queue: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog and EE Times

From fashion that reflects your mood to robots making their own replacement parts, MEMS sensors are sparking a whole new generation of wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Source: Intel

FULL STORY AT EE TIMES

#CES "Ultra-High-Definition 4K TV Delivered Cheap Over Telephone Wires"

You used to have to subscribe to an expensive fiber optics or high speed cable service to bring 4K TV into the home, but now Sckipio is enabling twisted copper pairs, already installed in every home, to carry the ultra-high-defininition (UHD) signals for 4K TV: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog, Google+ and EE Times

Sckipio enables telcos to deliver ultra-high-definition (UHD)4K TV to houses over plain old twisted pair copper wires already installed in every household.

FULL STORY AT EE TIMES

#CES: "IoT Modules Quicken Innovation" #EETIMES #IoT

Weaved has leveled the playing field for small companies by allowing them to mix and match remade Internet of Things (IoT) devices that are pre-connected to Weaved's cloud infrastructure, leaving the innovator to build the app that controls it all.

Weaved's smart 360-degree camera module can be used to create Google-like neighborhood maps, watch activity everywhere in a room, parking lot, wherever.

FULL STORY ON EE TIMES

#CES: "Sony Chooses PNI Hub for SmartWatch 3" #MEMS #EETimes

Sony just revealed that it chose the PNI Sensor's SENtral sensor fusion coprocessor for Sony's SmartWatch 3. And now at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES, Las Vegas) PNI is showing its SENtrode design kit for others to quickly prototype a smartwatch that uses MEMS sensors to measure almost everything you can think of accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, pressure sensor, low-power Bluetootg, a heart rate monitor, humidity sensors and gas sensors for measuring the quality of air: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog and EE Times

Just add a display and OEMs have a ready made smartwatch to add to their IoT offerings.

FULL STORY AT EE TIMES

#MEMS: "Bosch Adds Air-Quality to its Combo Sensors" #EETimes

Bosch has combo sensors that measure temperature and humidity, temperature, humidity and pressure and now all the three plus the quality-of-the-air, which should be very popular in China where people wear masks when they know the air quality it poor: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog and EE Times

Bosch's latest environmental sensor combines temperature, pressure, humidity and indoor-air-quality (IAQ) all in the same 3x3x.93 millimeter package for smart-phones, -watches, -homes and -buildings.

FULL STORY ON EE TIMES

#ROBOTS "60 Top Ag Robots in 2014" #EETimes

Here we have a slideshow of the most popular agricultural robots in 2014, see them in action in-the-field: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog and EE Times

"BoniRob" is a lightweight field robot from Amazone being developed by Amazone-Werke Gmbh, Hasbergen, Germany with Robert Bosch GmbH. BoniRob is lightweight field robot capable of working in swarms with others like it for weeding, applying fertilizer and other ag tasks.CLICK to start slideshow.

FULL STORY ON EETIMES

#SMARTPHONES: "Russian Smartphone Sports Two Screens, but Is It Spying on Its User Too" #EETimes #Spying #NSA

The Russian smartphone called the YotaPhone will go on sale in the U.S. later in 2015. Its best feature is that it features an E-Ink e-reader on the back that extends its battery life to 100 hours. But will people buy it? We already know that the U.S. National Security Agency is listening to our phone calls for terrorist talk, but what might the Russian's have hidden inside their smartphone? Probably nothing, but it makes you wonder: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog and EE Times

The backside is always on showing time, weather, emails and messages arrived drawing almost zero power.

The backside also doubles as an e-reader which (if you turn-off the front color screen) extends the battery life to 100 hours.

FULL STORY AT EE TIMES

#MEMS: "Gas Sensors in Smartphones Measure Quality-of-Air" #EETimes

The use of gas sensors have been declining until 2014, but in 2015 will start skyrocketing, according to IHS, mostly because they will enable smartphones to measure the "quality of air" which is an increasing concern in China--the world's biggest market: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog and EE Times

Gas sensors will skyrocket starting in 2015 due to international concern over the quality of our air, especially in China.

FULL STORY AT EETIMES