NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Pollution Levels At Your Fingertips

Pollution is invisible and knowing how much is around you is not always easy. But a new system called Citisense, which consists of a mobile air quality sensor and smartphone app, could one day give people real-time information about the air around them. 

"Asthmatics, who number in the millions, would find this valuable to their immediate health," said William Griswold, a computer science professor at UC San Diego, who lead the group that developed the system. "What we found is that people are very interested in their personal exposure, even if they are not asthmatic."

The system, which is still in the research stages, has a mobile sensor that a person wears while walking or biking around a city. The sensor detects the levels of pollutants in the air and sends the information to a server that uses machine learning to analyze the information for the app. Users with the app can see maps that display levels of pollutants, estimates of a user's exposure to those pollutants as well as a color-coded scale for air quality that uses EPA standards, i.e. green for good and purple for bad.

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The sensors were tested for four weeks by 30 people all over San Diego, most of them faculty at the university. According to the press release, one tester found that she was exposed the most to pollutants while she rode her bike to work. 

Griswold said in the release that, “The people who are doing the most to reduce emissions, by biking or taking the bus, were the people who experienced the highest levels of exposure to pollutants.” The field tests also found that pollution levels varied throughout the day, depending on variables like traffic.

For the most part, the sensors are mobile and proximity to them is necessary for the app to receive data. However, Griswold said in an email to Discovery News that if enough sensors were put out into an area, personal sensors wouldn't be necessary to receive feedback on the pollutants nearby. "With the machine-learning component in the backend," he said, "it will be possible to get an estimate of your exposure from the machine learning estimates, even if you don't have a sensor."

Toward the end of the testing phase, a few fixed sensors were tested, but Griswold said that they didn't affect the user experience enough to continue.

One of the hurdles facing the project now is battery life. The data exchanges between the sensors and mobile devices takes up a lot of power. When testing, users had to carry around two chargers, one for the sensor and one for the smartphone. Currently, the team is experimenting with replacing constant updates by spacing out times when data is transferred to every 15 minutes to save battery life, or making it a transfer that occurs on demand.

Griswold said in an email that sensors like this will be start appearing on mobile phones in about a decade or so.

via CleanTechnica

Credit: Jacobs School of Engineering

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The World's First Net-Zero Energy Stadium

The London 2012 Olympic games were probably the most eco-friendly games yet. But Brazil, whose hosting 2016, could have the world's first net-zero energy stadium.

What's net-zero? According to the U.S. Department of Energy, it's one that consumes no energy and emits no carbon on an annual basis. Upgrades to the existing Estádio Nacional de Brasília will help it achieve that goal, but the modifications are in places few visitors will see: the roof.

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A ring of rooftop photovoltaic panels will collect energy to power the stadium. A photocatalytic membrane will collect air pollution and break down the chemicals to remove toxins from the air. These and other upgrades like rainwater collection for landscaping and plumbing will earn the stadium a LEED Platinum status.

The construction will cost over $400 million, but the returns from investing in this kind of renewable energy should even out in about 10 to 12 years. The stadium should be finished by the end of the year, two years ahead of its first major event, the 2014 World Cup.

via CoExist

Credit: Blue Ant

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Fuel Cells Turns Waste Into Electricity

Waste not, want not...even when it comes to electricity.

Waste treatment plants may soon have a new way to treat wastewater that will also generate electricity. Oregon State University has developed a method using microbial fuel cells that can generate 10 to 50 times more electricity from waste treatment plants than methods that use similar cells. 

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Currently, waste treatment plants use a process called "activated sludge" to speed up the decomposition process of solids in waste water. This uses microbes to break down organic material. During this process, anaerobic organisms (that don't require oxygen) convert organic materials to methane.

It's effective but has environmental drawbacks because methane is a greenhouse gas.

OSU's microbial fuel cell uses microorganisms to break down the particles directly on an anode, which generates electrons and protons. These transfer from the anode to a cathode (terminals where electricity flows in and out) inside of the fuel cell which creates an electric current. 

Engineers on the project say the method was improved by reducing the space between the anode and cathode and using advanced microbes. This made it possible to produce more than two kilowatts per cubic meter of waste.

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So, why is this important? According to a press release from OSU, 3 percent of electrical energy in the United States and other countries is used to treat waste water. Most of that electricity comes from coal, oil or gas.

A fuel cell process could make it so that waste treatment plants can create their own electricity to power their facilities.

If this process is put into place, treatment plants could even sell the excess electricity. Now we can't just focus on the wonders of sewage, this process can also be used for breweries, animal waste, dairy byproducts and water treatment plants.

A full pilot study will be underway soon in the hopes of moving the concept towards commercial use.

via Engadget

Credit: Oregon State University 

 

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Geoengineering Soaring To New Heights

I come from a pasty Norwegian breed. In my younger, devil-may-care years, I used to scoff at wearing sunscreen with the belief that the quickest way to skin cancer a bronzed bod was roasting myself at the beach without a drop of SPF in sight.

Not any more. I've read the reports and even witnessed my dad, who has a similar complexion, receive skin test results that came back malignant. Now I'm a liberal sunscreen applier when I go out. Plus, sunscreen makes you smell like you just came from the beach, and I like that. It's my new cologne.

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In some ways, our planet is of a pasty breed and needs adequate protection from the sun, too. Many scientists say our planet is getting hotter, compliments of us industrious folks who call Earth home.

Here in Missouri, the grass is brown and the leaves on the trees are wilted. The USDA has declared every county in the state as disaster area because of the drought. Just a random old hot-and-dry summer or the consequences of human-induced climate change?

Well, a couple of Harvard engineers aren't waiting around for your opinion. David Keith and James Anderson are preparing to spray thousands of tons of sun-reflecting sulphate aerosols into the sky over Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Why? They believe the particles will reflect the sun's rays back into space and help lower the Earth's temperature.

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They plan to do so by using a balloon flying 80,000 feet above the Fort Sumner. The geoengineering project aims to mimic the effects of volcanoes spewing sulphuric ash into the air.

Keith says the project could be an inexpensive way to slow down climate change, however other scientists warn that his methods could have dire effects on the planet's weather systems and food supplies. Environmentalists fear Keith's method is merely a stopgap that undermines efforts to accurately fight climate change by reducing carbon emissions.

The experiment will take place in a year and see the release of tens or hundreds of kilograms of particles that, besides measuring impacts on ozone chemistry, will also find ways to make the sulphate aerosols the correct size.

"The objective is not to alter the climate, but simply to probe the processes at a micro scale," Keith told the Guardian. "The direct risk is very small.

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However, Pat Mooney, executive director of the technology watchdog ETC Group, begs to differ:

"Impacts include the potential for further damage to the ozone layer, and disruption of rainfall, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions – potentially threatening the food supplies of billions of people. It will do nothing to decrease levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or halt ocean acidification. And solar geoengineering is likely to increase the risk of climate-related international conflict -- given that the modelling to date shows it poses greater risks to the global south."

What say you? Let the balloon fly or pop it with a BB gun before lifts off?

via the Guardian

Credit: NASA/Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS

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PETA's 'Porn' Site Now Live

Now that we've got you here, let us turn you on to what we're really about.

So says the banner that greets you when you log on to PETA's new NSFW website. Back in September, we told you how the animal rights advocacy group was planning to launch a XXX domain in effort to lure people with risque images then confront them with graphic footage of animal cruelty. 

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Well all you lascivious lads and ladies, peta.xxx is live. Not only that, they've enlisted some of the biggest names in the porn adult entertainment industry to help them do so.

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"This site has some of the most explicit and jaw-dropping videos I have ever seen, and that says a lot," says iconic, harmonica-playing porn star Ron Jeremy in the site's welcome video. That's right, Ron Jeremy playing a harmonica.

"Peta.xxx is a lot more than just sex appeal," Jeremy continues against schmaltzy-saxophone background music. "You may get a little more than you bargin for. So sit back, relax and allow us to turn you on. You may get the ride of you life and you will never be the same again."

Other high-profile names baring themselves for the site include Jenna Jameson who invites you to "Discover the pleasure of pleather." Sasha Grey, now a serious actress, also reminds you that "too much sex can be a bad thing" and, oh yeah, "have your cats and dogs spayed and neutered."

Visitors to the site are given a variety of links to click on. The 'Sexy Photos' link includes various images of scantily clad vixens publicly stumping for PETA while the 'Sex Tips' link makes the case that vegetarians make better lovers.

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However, the 'Hardcore Videos' link is the most extreme. And by 'hardcore,' PETA means videos of animal cruelty that are "so 'offensive' that no TV stations have dared to run them." It's here where the site's bait-and-switch is best achieved. Those seeking videos of the primal act are instead given videos of what PETA considers the primal sin.

Videos include those of slaughter houses, abused circus animals and giggling lab rats, as well as lizards being decapitated in Indonesia.

Think PETA compromised their ethics by teaming up with the smut business? Here's their defense:

PETA's mission is to put an end to animal suffering, and we use every available opportunity to spread this message -- we always have, and we always will. Unfortunately, this is not always an easy task. Unlike our opposition, which is mostly made up of wealthy industries and corporations, PETA must rely on getting free "advertising" through media coverage. It's a safe bet that many visitors to PETA.xxx didn't set out to learn about how animals are mercilessly slaughtered on today's factory farms; understandably, such topics are convenient to ignore. That's why PETA must make our message impossible to forget -- and launching a website with a .xxx domain name is one way that we can achieve that goal.

via Gizmodo

Credit: PETA

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Smog-Eating Buildings Gobble Up Pollutants

I can only think of one instance where smog is a good thing and his name is Bill Callahan. Otherwise, smog is a nefarious, asthma-causing byproduct of industry that is poisoning our planet and tainting our skies, on top of our lungs.

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Fortunately, Alcoa just unveiled their first commercial building installations of smog-eating architectural panels they call Reynobond with EcoClean. The aluminum panels are coated with titanium dioxide. Its air-purifying properties have been widely used in other self-cleaning products such as air-purifying light bulbs.

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The panels were installed at the Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) facility in Badin, N.C.

"Sustainability is at the core of Alcoa’s practices and product design, and we’re excited about the completion of this unique installation in the Badin community," said Alcoa Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer Kevin Anton in a press release. "As one of the first installations of EcoClean in North America, the ERI facility in Badin represents an exciting step forward for sustainable building design, making this new electronics recycling facility even more eco-friendly.

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Alcoa claims that by adding 10,000 square feet of the EcoClean panels to a building is enough cleaning power to offset smog created by four cars everyday, which is the approximate cleaning power of 80 trees.

And because Bill has a thing for rivers and often "feels like the mother of the world," Mother Nature won't be the only one who is happy about this.

via Gizmag

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Around The World In Six Hours

You know those clear vacuum tubes at bank drive-thrus -- the ones that suck up deposit canisters at lightning speed? Sure you do, they're mesmerizing. Admit it, if there was a mode of transportation that allowed you to travel back and forth like those canisters do, you would be the first to hop aboard.

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Well, if Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT or ET3) can ever turn their patent into a reality, your totally tubular pipe dreams just might be plumb for picking.

How does zooming from New York to Beijing in just two hours sound, or a round-the-world trip in six hours? Did I mention you'll be traveling at the better-than-Botox speed of 4,000 miles per hour?

Ok, technically, the tubes work differently from the drive-up bank tubes, which are based on pneumatic tube transport. This is evacuated tube transport. It works by creating a tube where all of the air is removed. The passenger vehicle is, which is pressurized and has plenty of air and other amenities, moves through the airless environment levitating on a magnetic track. Its movement is controlled by manipulating the magnetic forces that are at play between the track and the capsule. (Think of how opposite ends of a magnetic attract each other and same ends repel.)

So-called Maglev trains are already in use in Europe and China for high-speed transportation. But this one, moving through the airless, frictionless environment of the tube, would glide way faster using far less energy those subjected to gravity. Airlocks at stations would allow people to get on and off the capsule without letting air into the sealed tube.

I know what you're thinking. This sounds like a lost exhibit from Disney's Epcot Center. Not such a stretch of the imagination, seeing this company is based in Florida.

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However, ETT says they aren't out to take you for a ride. They claim this method of travel provides 50 times more transportation per kilowatt-hour than electric cars or trains. They also make this claim on their website:

ET3 capsules weigh only 183 kg (400 lbs), yet like an automobile, can carry up to six people or 367 kg (800 lbs) of cargo. Compared to high speed rail, ET3 needs only 1/20th the material to build because the vehicles are so light. With automated passive switching, a pair of ET3 tubes can exceed the capacity of a 32 lane freeway. ET3 can be built for 1/10th the cost of High Speed Rail, or 1/4th the cost of a freeway.

ETT's patent was issued in 1999, which gives them seven more years to get this off the ground according to terms of the patent. The company says they've been working with interested parties in China, but still need more investors. A 3D virtual tour of the system was slated for release last year, yet it still hasn't materialized.

Hark the herald angels sing, are those the errant strands of the Simpsons' "Monorail" song I hear?

via Gizmag

Credit: Evacuated Tube Transport

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Ultimate Currency Exchange To Charge 20 Rock

When your God-given name is the same as one of the pillars of Romantic poetry, you had better make a name for yourself. Fortunately, for Jonathon Keats, it's go big or go home.

As creator of the nation's first Oujia voting booth and a photosynthetic restaurant for plants, the polymathic Keats is an experimental philosopher based in the United States and Italy. His bottomless well of creative thought inspired the New Yorker to christen him the "poet of ideas."

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Not to disappoint, Keats' next project is just as ambitious. In fact, this one is quite electric.

Starting April 12th, a data processing center in the basement of New York's Rockefeller Plaza will become the world's first computing hub powered entirely by international currency exchange. That energy will be produced on location by swapping ions between newly-minted US cents and Chinese fen.

"Money is inherently unstable," said Keats in a press release. "Currency traders have learned to play the market for their own financial gain. At Rockefeller Plaza, we're looking at currency fluctuation as more than a mere abstraction. We're actually putting money to work."

True, the market is a precarious beast, but Keats says the only "monetary instabilities" he exploits are "metallic." Pennies are made of copper while fen are composed of aluminum -- two metals susceptible to galvanic corrosion when submerged in seawater. So Keats is giving the coins a saltwater bath. As the pennies and fen exchange ions, they generate electricity that can be tapped.

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"You can think of it as electro-chemical arbitrage," said Keats. "And it works equally well in bull and bear markets. With our current setup, using several dozen cells filled with saltwater from the Pacific Ocean, we've generated as much as 18.7 volts."

That will be enough juice to power all three units of 20 Rock's data processing center, with a budget of just under three dollars.

So if you're in Manhattan next month, stop by the Engineer's Office Gallery and head to the basement hallway of 20 Rockefeller Plaza.

Unlike some historical landmarks in Texas would lead you to believe, who says you can't find what you're looking for in the basement?

Credit: Jonathon Keats

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Suds Ahoy! Bubble Boats Better Fuel Efficiency

Bubbles aren't just for bath time anymore -- turns out they can also be used to improve the fuel efficiency of cargo ships.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries calls their Air Lubrication System the first in the world to be applied to a newly built ship, resulting "in a substantial reduction in the ship's resistance."

An array of powerful air pumps on the ship's underbelly blows streams of small bubbles around the ships hull. This creates a pocket of air between the hull and the water, so that a good portion of the hull is not touching the water.

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The blanket of bubbles greatly reduces friction, allowing the ship to move faster and more efficiently through the water. Mitsubishi predicts that their air lubrication system can reduce CO2 emissions by 25 percent compared to conventional cargo ships.

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Grain conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland has already put their order in for three dry bulk carriers to be equipped with the MALS system. The bubble boats, to be completed by 2014, will be 131 feet wide and 777 feet long and be built by Oshima Shipbuilding.

[Via Dvice]

Credit: Mitsubishi

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Wristband Lets You Control Office Temperature

I had an old office mate who loved to crank up the heat whenever I went on lunch break. I'd return to find the office as hot as a Lakota sweat lodge. If only I had had WristQue, I could have just tapped a button on my wristband to adjust the temperature to a less-sweltering level.

WristQue is a project from a group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who are creating a low-power wristband equipped with sensors that monitors how comfortable wearers feel to adjust temperature and lighting.

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Each plastic wristband will be 3D-printed and have a microprocessor containing environmental sensors to detect fluctuations in temperature, humidity and light. The wristband will also be embedded with a chip that will be able to detect a user's location to communicate with the 'smart building' via wide band radio signals.

WristQue will only have three buttons. Two will let users indicate that they are too hot or too cold. A third will trigger gesture controls and allow users to interact with nearby devices such as televisions or computers.

Joe Paradiso, director of the Responsive Environments Group at MIT's Media Lab told New Scientist that he envisions WristQue as a key element in controlling "the immersive world of interactive media that will one day surround us."

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Paradiso's group has designed and tested their system in the Media Lab building where they found the system is also an energy saver. Using motion sensor data, WristQue system software was able to predict when rooms would be occupied so that temperature and lighting levels could be adjusted accordingly. After a three-week trial run, researchers saw a 24 percent drop in energy usage.  

[Via New Scientist]

Credit: ColorBlind Images/Blend Images/Corbis

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