Technology Update August 10, 2015

Technology just keeps advancing. I would like to talk about some of the things which we have been discovering lately. The first thing I would like to mention is the new type of propulsion which seems to be amazing scientists and engineers everywhere. The reason for their amazement is the fact they are yet to figure out how it works, all they know is they are getting a small force from it. To make a very basic statement about how it works I can tell you it uses microwaves which bounce around in a closed area. Its effect while on earth would be practically nothing, but in space every little bit of force counts and some are now saying this engine would enable us to reach the moon in about 4 hours, which is a lot quicker than when we went there using the Saturn 5 rocket. That took about 4 days and about 7 hours. All is not a bed of roses however, because some scientists believe it could just be a matter of defective measurements, but I think these people are now in the minority.

I am puzzled by one advance however and it is the creation of a robot by Toyota. It is not the fact Toyota created a robot, because Honda has been doing this for years. It is the fact the robot has been designed for only one function and it is to pick up after people. The robot is named HSR which is short for “human support robot.” Since it only picks up things it comes with only one arm, but the arm can pick up almost anything and it also has a suction cup for picking up tiny objects. The robot does have a computer panel on its head, so it can be used like a computer to surf the internet or be accessed by another computer like a computer phone. Toyota has said people feel more comfortable asking a robot to pick up after them than a human. The robot may also advance to replacing service dogs by assisting people with various disabilities.

Laser weapons are advancing in both power and portability, yet they are nowhere as powerful as the ones we see in the science fiction movies, or are they? Japan has just figured out how to fire a laser which puts out the equivalent energy equal to 1,000 times the energy consumption of our entire planet and yet it takes only the energy used by a microwave oven which is on for 2 seconds. This is an incredible feat. The beam fires for only one trillionth of a second. A series of glass panels magnifies the power of the beam. They are placed along a 100 meter long device (328 feet). While the device is far too large and heavy to be portable, electronics are shrinking at an incredible rate and it is only a matter of time before this device becomes more manageable. Not many people know this, but during World War II Japan was trying to develop a death ray. Ultimately they failed, because it would have required more energy to operate than was available on the entire planet at the time.

Since we are on the subject of lasers, I want to mention the fact a breakthrough was made in lasers by a group at the Arizona State University. They demonstrated the first use of a white laser. This means the beam is emitting light over the full spectrum of colors. The reason this is so important is the fact it can revolutionize so many devices. It is far superior to the LEDs we use today and has the capability to create new generations of Wi-Fi, which will be known as Li-FI which are powered by lasers and are about ten times faster. The speed of communications keeps increasing on the consumer end, but we are going to have to figure out a way of communicating far faster than the speed of light as we wander out into space. Meanwhile the next generations of wireless communication in our homes and offices should be a great improvement.

I wonder how many of you have read about the new hotel which has opened in Japan. Opening a hotel in Japan is nothing to write about, except for the fact this hotel has no humans running it only robots. The hotel is named Henn-na which means Strange Hotel in English, which is very appropriate. When you first walk into the hotel you can be greeted by a nice lady robot or as it has been described a vile dinosaur robot. I wouldn’t suggest letting little children see the dinosaur, it does look scary. The greeters are multi lingual. There are robots that carry your bags and robots that take you to your room. There are no keys for the hotel room doors, they operate on face recognition. The hotel is very energy efficient. Lights turn off when no one is in a room. There are no televisions, but guests can watch television on a tablet. The air conditioning is cutting edge using a radiant panel.

Who would have ever thought bacteria could be changed so they could be used as computing elements? That is just what is about to happen. MIT has successfully programmed the bacteria inside our bodies to detect diseases like colon cancer and immune disorder and treat them. The have also developed sensors, circuits and memory switches they can encode into the bacteria. They are also talking about creating advanced genetic computing circuits.

Don’t have internet and live in Sri Lanka? Google says no problem. Google is going to put up balloons over the country which are able to broadcast a Wi-Fi signal. This is part of Google’s Project Loon, a project aimed at bringing the internet for free or at low cost to people in remote areas. Sri Lanka will be the first country to have universal internet coverage. The balloons are filled with helium and will float in the stratosphere. Sri Lanka has over 22 million mobile phones in use, but only 2.8 million are connected to the internet. This project will make a big difference in the lives of those without the internet. It would be nice if the United States had universal internet, but could you imagine what would happen if Google tried to give all of us free internet? It would never be allowed.