| The
Future of Technology
Recent news of a new kind of world
- Philips is working on small video discs 3 cms in diameter
that will store 25,000 digital photos, 48 hours of MP3
music or 10 hours of movies. These disks are the same thickness
as DVDs, and use blue lasers. Called Small Form Factor Optical
or SFFO, the disks should be available in 2005 with players costing
$100. New Scientist October 2002
- Millipede nanodrive: IBM Research team promises several
gigabytes of storage on a device the size of a postage stamp
using nanotechnology. Thousands of tiny silicon cantilevers move
across microscopic areas of a polymer plate, making little pits
in the surface which can later be read like a phohograph or record
player. Each cantilever tip is the width of a couple of hundred
atoms, or 20 nanometers. The nanomechanical system is extremely
sensitive to movement and in best cases can detect bumps caused
by one or two atoms. Research by Peter Vettiger and Gerd Binnig
(winner of Nobel Prize for Physics) suggests that each pit can
be erased or rewritten up to 100,000 times. IEEE Transactions
on Nanotechnology March 2002 and Scientific American February
2003
- Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are being developed
to sort individual cells, entire laboratories compressed into
something a thousandth of the size. Next generation devices
are being made of silicone rather than silicon. Science vol 298,
p580
- An image has been stored in the atoms of a single molecule.
Electromagnetic pulses were used to alter the spins
of electrons in 19 hydrogen atoms contained in a liquid crystal.
These new trajectories encoded a 1024 bit black and white image
which was then read using nuclear magnetic resonance. Work by
Bing Fung at the University of Oklahoma. Journal of Chemical Physics
vol 117, p6903
- Machine control by thinking is now a reality - in monkeys.
First a monkey was taught to get food by pressing a lever in response
to a light. Then a brain monitoring device was placed on her head,
and the brain impulses she made when moving her arm were picked
up and converted into movements of a robottic arm in another room.
In another experiment a rat was trained to press a lever for water.
After a few days the lever mechanism was disconnected. For a while
the rat was puzzled, and then it happened. The rat just thought
about pressing the lever, and the brain pattern created was enough
to activate delivery of water. The rat realised that it jsut needed
to concentrate in the right way to make the machine work. Human
studies will carry risks from implantation of electrodes - which
may trigger epilepsy and other problems. Work by Miguel Nicolelis
and John Chapin, Duke University , US. Scientific American October
2002
The next techno-wave: RFID - 10 billion wireless tagging devices
Wal-Mart races ahead with Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFIDs): electronic barcodes for manufacturing, distribution and retail - major concerns about data leakage, privacy and civil rights
The Future of Outsourcing
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