The research team chose Albert Einstein as the model for their emotionally intelligent robot "because he's an icon of creativity, intelligence and science; he's emotionally accessible; he's lovable and visually recognizable very easily around the world," says Hanson.
The so-called "Einstein Robot," which was designed by Hanson Robotics of Dallas, Texas, recognizes a number of human facial expressions and can respond accordingly. Scientists consider it an unparalleled tool for understanding how both robots and humans perceive emotion, as well as a potential platform for teaching, entertainment, fine arts and even cognitive therapy.

"When a robot interacts in a way we feel is human, we can't help but react. Developing a robot like this one teaches us how sensitive we are to biological movement and facial expressions, and when we get it right, it's really astonishing."
For Einstein to crack a smile, 17 of the robot's 31 motors must whir into action and subtly adjust multiple points of articulation around his mouth and piercing brown eyes.
The robot's internal facial recognition software is what provides that context. Developed by Movellan and a team of graduate students at Calit2, the software is based on a series of computational algorithms derived from an analysis of more than one million facial images. It allows Einstein to understand and respond to a number of "perceptual primitives," such as expressions of sadness, anger, fear, happiness and confusion, as well as facial cues suggesting age and gender (even whether the person interacting with the robot is wearing glasses). The robot's parallel facial action coding system can detect simple gestures like nods, and mimic those reactions.
Another important part of the robot's inner workings is its Character Engine Artificial Intelligence Control Software, which allows the programmer to author and define the persona of the character so it can hold a conversation.
"This isn't yet a real manufacturing business — these robots are still being built by engineers, so they're still very expensive," Hanson cautions. "Right now it costs $50,000 and up for a robot with very few degrees of freedom; something full-featured like Einstein will cost $75,000 and up. But our aspiration and our core discoveries are targeting mass production and trying to get the robots made for under $200."

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500GB OPTICAL DISC

The storage capacity of micro-holographic discs that the normal DVDs or the blue-ray discs because the micro-holographic discs store information in a 3D way rather than just putting it onto the surface of the disc.
G.E(General Electrics) has made dramatic changes in the material to increase the reflectivity of the surface.If the reflectivity of the surface increases then the amount of information that can stored automatically increases.

The hardwarre and software is so similar to the now existing ones so that these micro-holographic discs can be used with existing DVD players and Blue-ray players.
the day when you can store your entire high definition movie collection on one disc and support high resolution formats like 3D television is closer than you think.Micro-holographic technology is truly a breakthrough in the development of the materials that are so critical to ultimately bringing holographic storage to the everyday consumer.

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THE MOST SENSITIVE NEMS

The yale researchers have demonstrated silicon based nano-cantilevers smaller than the wavelength of the light that operate on the photonic principleseliminating the need for the expensive laser setups and eleectronic transducers.

The work reported in an April 26 advance online publication of Nature Nanotechnology ushers in a new generation of tools for ultra-sensitive measurements at the atomic level.

In nanoelectromechanical systems(NEMS) the cantilevers are used as nano-scale diving boards for the molecules and these cantilevers bend and registers the change that can be measured and calibrated.This paper demonstrates how NEMS can be improved by using integrated photonics to sense the cantilever motion.

"The system we developed is the most sensitive available that works at room temperature. Previously this level of sensitivity could only be achieved at extreme low temperatures" said senior author Hong Tang assisant professor in the yale school of engineering and applied sciences.

Their system can detect as little deflection in the nano-cantilever sensors as 0.0001 Angstroms — one ten thousandth of the size of an atom.

The above picture shows the array of nano-cantilevers

and the light being collected at the photonic chip.

The light is made to pass through a nano-cantilever.The excited light photons tunnels through a nanometer gap and these photons are collected on a chip."Detecting the lightwave after this evanescent tunneling," says Tang, "gives the unprecedented sensitivity."

Construction of sensor multiplex:

A parallel array of 10 photonic cantilevers are inegrated o a single photonic wire.Each cantilever is of different length and registers its own tone.

"A multiplex format lets us make more complex measurements of patterns simultaneously — like a tune with chords instead of single notes," said postdoctoral fellow Mo Li, the lead author of the paper.

We don't need a laser to operate these devices.Very cheap LEDs will suffice.The LED light sources used by the laptop screen can be scaled in size and can be usd as the photonic chip.

This development reinforces the practicality of the new field of nanooptomechanics and points to a future of compact, robust and scalable systems with high sensitivity that will find a wide range of future applications — from chemical and biological sensing to optical signal processing.

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Utilizing CMOS technology in digital cameras

By Ralf Kilguss Imaging Technical Marketing Section Manager STMicroelectronics end users, CMOS technology in digital cameras is almost similar to using a traditional camera. Taking pictures and constraints on how to put the object in the right environment are the same. The obvious difference is that traditional cameras have 35mm film for exposure and storage; while digital cameras use CMOS sensors for capturing images, and has an internal flash memory or removable device for storage. Apart from that, further complexity is in the details. The array of photodiodes in the CMOS sensor of a digital camera will get exposed and read out when a user takes a picture. The information captured by the sensor will then be transferred to the co-processor or the back-end controller. The co-processor is responsible for all the image processing. This is where the picture is compressed and stored in the type of memory used. It is important to note that the sensor and the lens are also vital aspects in imaging. The co-processor needs to perform complex image processing if the image data hasmuch distortion. For all these complexities in imaging, simple solutions exist. There are many solutions for complexities in imaging. One approach for the 2Mpixel and even higher resolutions is by using STv0684 co-processor and VC6700 (2Mpixel) CMOS image sensor. The kit is comprised of chipsets and key solutions, such as schematics, billof- materials, firmware, drivers, production tools as well as support and recommendations. The VC6700 employs an advanced photodiode technology in an H8i (0.18μm) process. This means that the sensor has an enhanced low-light CMOS process, which provides more performance compared to other CMOS sensors that have difficulties in a low-light environment. This technology is pushing CMOS sensors close to CCD low-light performance.

An advantage over CCD, CMOS includes an energy-saving power supply and logic built
into the same silicon, and hence needs only a few passive components. The VC6700 has a builtin 3.3V and 1.8V linear regulator that can be used with an external power transistor to regulate the power for the rest of the electronics through USB or rechargeable batteries. It also has a built-in audio preamplifier for audio recording that can be used by just connecting a microphone. One of the key features of the VC6700 sensor is the readout speed of 48MHz or 48Mpixels/s, which makes it possible to attain 25fps. This allows the use of this solution without an external mechanical shutter blade. This requires a co-processor that can handle this kind of speed; otherwise, results will end up with picture distortion called slicing. Slicing happens when the data is read out too slow, and fast moving objects are in the scene. The sensor is read out line-by-line from top to bottom in a rolling shutter principle. The STv0684 co-processor employs two separate processors in one system that improves the overall performance. The video processor is a combination of a hardware block and a high-speed 8051- like controller. The controller and the hardware blocks run independently from the system so the main controller will not have to control anything in terms of image quality like auto exposure, auto white balance, color processing and image filters. These highly extensive calculations and operations are Utilizing CMOS technology in digital cameras well-balanced in variable firmware- and speed-related operations in the hardware blocks. A new highlight in this video processor is the anti-vignetting feature, which can recalculate lens shading and fix pattern noise (FPN) reduction to remove the unexpected vertical lines. The processor also features a flexible defect pixel correction and advanced statistics processor for more reliable picture quality in difficult scenarios. The video processor firmware can be changed any time based on the general firmware of the main core. The main core is an ST20, 32bit RISC embedded controller, which is also built-in in other multimedia solutions. The core runs on 48MHz, giving enough power and flexibility to the system. The ST20 features an embedded RTOS OS20, which further improves system flexibility and stability. The STv0684 will first boot out from its boot ROM. Code storage can be in a small, package-sized SPI-flash. An external NOR flash is unnecessary and will save space on the PCB, which mostly reflects the form factor of the products. The code will then be loaded to the SDRAM where it gets executed.For this process, the system employs a DMA-powered NAND flash, SPI and SDRAM controller.
Other operational features of the chip which are necessary for the camera and camcorder functionalities are:
• Advanced power management features for longer battery life, which is important for handheld devices. It enables us to turn off at every stage of the system all the unnecessary hardware blocks. We can even slow down the CPU frequency if the performance is not needed. This will improve the consumption down to less than 6mA with the system still running. Standby and other USB necessary features are also supported.
• Built-in USB1.1 for downloading images and for PC-camera functions—The camera will support three modes in USB; Figure 1: The controller and the hardware blocks run independently from the system. one in ss storage class de-Sensor interf. Video processor Scaler 1 Scaler 2 Codec USB interface Advance power management SPI and CF interface TV interface LCD controller DRAM controller Audio codec HW ECC NAND and SMC interface STv0684 DMA block ST20 core Boot ROM 16KB SRAM 64KB vice, which needs no drivers
on the PC side. For the PCcam,we have two options.One will be proprietary driversand the other as compatible video class.

• Built-in TFT controller for direct support of controller-lessdisplay modules—The controller is flexible enough to support different vendors, types of mosaic and resolutions of up
to 1024 x 1024pixels.
• Built-in TV-out for PAL and NTSC which is changeable by software—Pictures can be
scaled from any resolutions into its right format.

More on this DOWNLOAD.

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Distance measuring with SRF04 sonic module

1. Introduction

This section describes how to measure distance to objects with the SRF04 sonic modul from Devantech. In this sample we use two sonic modules. MAM128 (Mini Application Modul) is used as controller unit.

2. Physical bases

Ultrasonic waves are sound vibrations outside of the human hearing area. The frequenzy is above 20kHz. Sound waves can only spread when they are in a suitable medium. In a vacuum no suitable medium is available, so it is impossible to hear something in the universe. The sound velocity is depending on it medium. Although the sound velocity is relatively small, it was measured first in the seventeenth century. Within the following centuries the people recognized that the sound velocity didn't depend on the frequency of the wave, but of his medium and the temperature. Sound waves are also reflected differently or even absorbed by objects.

Medium		Velocity in m/s
Carbon dioxide		268
Air 0°C		331.6
Air 20°C		344
Air 30°C		349.6
Hydrogen		1310
Water		1483
Glycerin		1923
Brass		3420
Glas		5000
Iron		5200

Sound waves go into all directions circularly, as far as they aren't absorbed or reflected limitedly by objects. The sound energy spreads out proportionally to the radius on an area getting bigger and bigger. The energy of a sound wave and the volume decreases with the distance to the acoustic source. Further the energy depends on the amplitude and frequency of the sound wave. By doubling of the frequency the speed of the air molecules also doubles. If a police car passes fast with siren, you can take acoustically truly, that the tone suddenly gets considerably lower. This fact is called Doppler effect. The dicoverer was the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who made the first theoretically and practical tests. In the picture below you can recognized how this effect come about. The stationary acoustic source is represented on the left. The wavelengths are equally big in all directions. On the rigth side the acoustic source is moving from left to rigth side. At point A a lower note can be heard because the wavelength was stretched. At point B a higher note than the original one can therefore be heard because the wavelength was compressed. If the start frequency is known, the speed of the object can be calculated.

3. SRF04 Sonic module

The ultrasound module is consisting of transmitter, receiver, control and analyze logic. The modul is working with TTL level. A defined trigger signal starts the measureing. The measurement result is distributed over the echo line. The signal length of the echo line reflect the distance of the object in the recording area. The distance can be calculated with the following formular:

Distance[µs*cm] = Time[µs] / Velocity of sound[µs/cm]

3.1 SRF04 Timing

3.2 SRF04 DC Electrical Charateristicts

Voltage		5V
Current		30mA Typ. 50mA Max.
Frequency		40kHz
Max Range		3 m
Min Range		3 cm
Sensitivity		Detect 3cm diameter broom handle at > 2 m
Input Trigger		10uS Min. TTL level pulse
Echo Pulse		Positive TTL level signal, width proportional to range.
PCB Size		43mm x 20mm x 17mm height

4. Hardware Diagram

The MAM (Mini-Application-Mudul is discribed.

5. Software

The software is written in Ansi-C and is optimized for the AVR-GCC cross compiler.

6. Download

sonicmain.c
sonic.c
sonic.h

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Build a 10$ X Y laser scanner

The goal is to build a very low cost X Y scanner for a laser pointer, this X Y scanner must be able, from a PC, to display fixed or animated simple pictures or some characters.The parts taken from an old CD player: the lens coil actuator is used to set the distance between focal lens and CD.When the actuator move in X or Y direction, laser beam is deflected.

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Laser Spirograph

A sure sign of a 1970s childhood is a fond memory of doodling with the Kenner Spirograph toy. In the back of my mind I’ve been thinking it would be fun to build something like it into a history appliance. You can already versions online, but I wanted something that could be used at the periphery, rather than the focus, of attention. On a recent trip to Active Surplus in Toronto I realized I could build a version quite cheaply. So here it is: a little too thrown together even to call a hack, this is really a kludge.

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Use a laser to etch PCBs

At the usual method is to use a laser print and transfer the image, then using etchant remove the unneeded copper. It's not exactly precise unless you're really good - so I thought it might be fun to try using a laser cutter.

We sprayed the copper board with black spray paint and then the laser simply removed the black portions away by burning it off.

At the usual method is to use a laser print and transfer the image, then using etchant remove the unneeded copper. It's not exactly precise unless you're really good - so I thought it might be fun to try using a laser cutter.

We sprayed the copper board with black spray paint and then the laser simply removed the black portions away by burning it off.

The results were "ok" - in fact, it worked and the board worked - but we're still going to experiment more. The black spray paint isn't ideal and we're going to seek out some type of brass marking spray or something (anyone have some ideas?). Regardless, after a quick web search this appears to be the first attempt - there's also photo resist with a laser we might try, but that's for another day.

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