Show Notes 1 November 2024
Story 1: Startup recycles plastic water bottles into remarkable 3D-printed homes — and it could help address the nation’s housing crisis
Source: The Cool Down Story by Rick Kazmer
See also: https://www.azureprintedhomes.com/
- California company Azure Printed Homes uses recycled plastic bottles to “print” homes.
- 3D-printed homes aren’t new. Azure’s process is different from most others because it prints complete housing modules in a factory instead of at the home’s location. The abodes can then be shipped anywhere in the country.
- The outer shell of one of the company’s home models uses about 150,000 plastic bottles. The plastic comes from a supplier that uses recycled material. It is then mixed with fiberglass and other additives as part of the 3D printing “ink,” and it’s treated for fire protection and with an ultraviolet light stabilizer, as well.
- Part of the efficiency of Azure Printed Homes’ process comes from a streamlined approach:
- First, customers choose and customize a design.
- The printer needs only one day to print the home.
- It is then prefabricated with all the fixings, including plumbing and electrical wiring, a four- to 15-day process.
- The home is then delivered by truck within a couple of days.
- Azure Printed Homes claims their technique is 30% less expensive than traditional construction and 70% faster.
Story 2: New Wi-Fi Tech Tested At 9.9 Miles, Setting A New Record
Source: WonderfulEngineering.com Story by Shaheer Shahzad
Link: https://wonderfulengineering.com/new-wi-fi-tech-tested-at-9-9-miles-setting-a-new-record/
See also: https://www.morsemicro.com/
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBMgZah2Z7g
- Australia’s Morse Micro’s HaLow Wi-Fi (802.11ah) access point system [pronounced “HAY-low”] recently set a new world record by achieving a 9.9-mile (15.9 kilometers) range.
- Side note, what is HaLow Wi-Fi? Wi-Fi HaLow is a wireless technology based on the IEEE 802.11ah protocol. It operates on sub-1GHz frequencies, which allows for longer signal range and lower power consumption compared to traditional Wi-Fi.
- Back in January, the company demonstrated HaLow’s potential with a 1.8-mile video call test in the high-interference environment of a San Francisco beach.
- Recently they extended that record by almost five times, conducting successful tests in the rural California Joshua Tree National Park.
- Here are some key features of Morse Micro’s Wi-Fi HaLow system :
- Extended Range: It can provide connectivity up to a kilometer, making it ideal for rural areas and large-scale IoT deployments.
- Low Power Consumption: This makes it suitable for battery-operated IoT [Internet of Things] devices.
- High Device Capacity: A single Wi-Fi HaLow access point can connect with over 8,000 devices.
- Better Penetration: The lower frequency allows it to penetrate barriers like walls more effectively.
- Wi-Fi HaLow is particularly beneficial for IoT applications, smart city projects, and mesh networking systems.
- Sources:
- What Is Wi-Fi HaLow, and Do I Need It? – How-To Geek. https://www.howtogeek.com/what-is-wi-fi-halow-and-do-i-need-it/
- IEEE 802.11ah – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11ah
- Wi-Fi Halow: Definition & How It Supports IoT – NinjaOne. https://www.ninjaone.com/it-hub/it-service-management/what-is-wi-fi-halow/
- What is Wi-Fi Halow? – Webopedia. https://www.webopedia.com/definitions/wi-fi-halow/
- Sources:
- In the San Francisco test, connection speeds ranged from 11 Megabits per second at 500 meters to 1 Megabit per second at the 1.8-mile range.
- In the new Joshua Tree test, throughput reached 2 Megabits per second over 9.9 miles. The rural environment’s low interference likely contributed to this impressive result, highlighting HaLow’s suitability for outdoor applications, such as farming, where cellular coverage is often lacking or too expensive.
- Since HaLow Wi-Fi is intended for low-power, long-range communication, it might not be as helpful in cities with lots of Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular networks. On the other hand, its long range and low interference make it perfect for rural applications.
- Morse Micro’s continued development of HaLow could lead to faster speeds and wider adoption, particularly in public Wi-Fi hotspots or rural connectivity solutions.
Story 3: Scientists grow blood stem cells in breakthrough that could end need for bone marrow donors
Source: The Telegraph via MSN Story by Sarah Knapton
- Blood stem cells have been grown in a laboratory for the first time in a breakthrough that could end the need for bone marrow donors.
- Currently, people suffering with conditions such as leukemia, bone marrow failure or aplastic anemia require donated bone marrow or stem cells to replenish their blood.
- Side note: Aplastic anemia is a condition that occurs when your body stops producing enough new blood cells. The condition leaves you fatigued and more prone to infections and uncontrolled bleeding.
- But it can be difficult to get an exact bone marrow or stem cells match, and mismatched donor immune cells can attack the patient’s own tissues, leading to severe illness or even death. There is also an ongoing shortage of donors.
- Now scientists at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, have shown it is possible to generate human blood stem cells in the lab.
- It opens the door to making a potentially unlimited supply of blood stem cells from a patient’s own skin or hair. Any genetic defect could also be edited out, leaving them with a perfect replacement.
- The team has shown that human stem cells work when transplanted into animals and want to move to human trials within five years.
- Scientists created the stem cells by placing blank stem cells in a chemical soup which mirrors conditions in the body where blood stem cells develop.
- The study’s lead researcher noted: “The ability to take any cell from a patient, reprogrammed it into a stem cell and then turn these into specifically matched blood cells for transplantation will have a massive impact on these vulnerable patients. The way we envisage this therapy working is we would take mature cells from a patient – so skin or hair – and reprogram them and grow pluripotent stem cells [stem cells that can become any cell] in a dish. We would then be able to differentiate those, and grow blood stem cells, and these blood stem cells would then become the therapy that we give back to the patient. And because they have originally come from the patient’s cells they are perfectly matched.”
Story 4: Raspberry Pi powered ‘third eye’ helps visually impaired people navigate the world with AI
Source: Tomshardware.com Story by Ash Hill
See also: https://www.hackster.io/taifur/third-eye-for-blind-82bcd5
- There are some Raspberry Pi projects that are made to make a difference in the world and this creation is definitely one of them. Maker and developer Doctor Khairul Alam has created a wearable headset out of a pair of glasses with a special camera system in place to help visually impaired persons less reliant on third parties to help when walking about.
- Side note – Khairul Alam is Developer, Maker & Hardware Hacker. Currently working as a faculty member at the University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
- Side note – what is Raspberry Pi? A Raspberry Pi is a series of small, affordable, single-board computers developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in the UK. These computers are about the size of a credit card and are designed to promote computer science education and hobbyist projects
- The Raspberry Pi-powered ‘third eye’ project relies heavily on AI to help interpret the surroundings for the wearer.
- It uses a Xiao ESP32S3 sense module for video input and scans each frame to evaluate the environment.
- Side note, what is XIAO ESP32S3 Sense? The XIAO ESP32S3 Sense is a compact and powerful development board from Seeed Studio. It integrates the ESP32-S3R8 processor, which is a dual-core Xtensa LX7 processor running at up to 240 MHz. Here are some key features:
- Wireless Connectivity: Supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 (including Bluetooth mesh).
- Built-in Sensors: Includes an OV2640 camera sensor for 1600×1200 resolution and a digital microphone.
- Memory: Comes with 8MB PSRAM and 8MB Flash memory.
- Interfaces: Offers a variety of interfaces including UART, IIC, IIS, SPI, GPIOs (PWM), ADC, and more.
- SD Card Support: Has an onboard SD card slot supporting up to 32GB.
- Low Power Consumption: Designed for low power consumption with various sleep modes.
- This board is particularly useful for projects involving **intelligent voice and vision AI, making it a great tool for TinyML (machine learning on microcontrollers) applications.
- Source: Conversation with Copilot
- Getting Started with Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 (Sense). https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/xiao_esp32s3_getting_started/
- Mini ESP-CAM Dev Board for Edge AI – XIAO ESP32S3 Sense – Seeed Studio. https://www.seeedstudio.com/XIAO-ESP32S3-Sense-p-5639.html
- Getting Started With Xiao Esp32 S3 Sense – Electromaker.io. https://www.electromaker.io/project/view/getting-started-with-xiao-esp32-s3-sense
- Seeed XIAO ESP32 S3 Sense | Edge Impulse Documentation. https://docs.edgeimpulse.com/docs/edge-ai-hardware/mcu/seeed-xiao-esp32s3-sense
- TinyML Made Easy: Image Classification w/ XIAO ESP32S3 Sense. https://www.hackster.io/mjrobot/tinyml-made-easy-image-classification-w-xiao-esp32s3-sense-cb42ae
- If you’re wondering how the person wearing the headset is supposed to receive input from the module, you’ll be delighted to know that a simple headphone is all that is required.
- The Xiao ESP32S3 Sense module sends information to a Raspberry Pi which then creates a text-based description of what it sees. This text is then converted to speech and played through the wearer’s earpiece.
- This Raspberry Pi-powered system is connected to the Xiao ESP32S3 Sense which has a built-in camera sensor and a digital microphone. It has 8MB of flash but also has a microSD card slot. The Xiao ESP32S3 receives power from the Pi which can be powered by a battery bank in your pocket.
Honorable Mentions:
Story: Novel light-based technique shows 90% accuracy in early prostate cancer detection
Source: MedicalXpress.com Story from Aston University
Link: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-based-technique-accuracy-early-prostate.html#google_vignette
- An Aston University researcher has used light to develop the first step towards a quicker, cheaper and less painful technique to detect cancer.
- Professor Igor Meglinski from the University’s Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies led the team that has developed a new method of analyzing the crystals in dehydrated blood. Their paper “Insights into polycrystalline microstructure of blood films with 3D Mueller matrix imaging approach” has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
- Professor Meglinski used a new polarization-based image reconstruction technique to analyze polycrystalline structures in dried blood samples. The proteins in blood change their shape and how they fit together during the early stages of diseases like cancer. Professor Meglinski and his team used changes in the proteins’ tertiary structure or unique 3D shape together with its quaternary structure—which is how multiple proteins join together—to detect and classify cells.
- This technique enabled the researchers to conduct a detailed layer-by-layer analysis of dry blood smears, which is crucial for identifying significant differences between healthy and cancerous samples.
- The researchers analyzed 108 blood film samples from three equal size groups: healthy volunteers, those who had prostate cancer and a third group who had the illness and had cells that were more likely to aggressively spread.
- Professor Meglinski said, “Our study introduces a pioneering technique to the liquid biopsy domain, aligning with the ongoing quest for non-invasive, reliable and efficient diagnostic methods. A key advancement in our study is the characterization of the mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis of distributions with the cells which is crucial for identifying significant differences between healthy and cancerous samples.
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Story: World’s strongest battery could enable lightweight, energy-efficient vehicles
Source: Space Daily Story by Robert Schreiber
- Building vehicles or electronics with materials that serve as both batteries and structural components could significantly reduce weight and energy consumption. A research group at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has introduced a significant development in massless energy storage. Their newly developed structural battery has the potential to cut the weight of devices like laptops by half, make mobile phones as thin as credit cards, and extend the driving range of electric cars by up to 70% on a single charge.
- “We have succeeded in creating a battery made of carbon fibre composite that is as stiff as aluminium and energy-dense enough to be used commercially. Just like a human skeleton, the battery has several functions at the same time,” explained Richa Chaudhary, a researcher at Chalmers and the lead author of a scientific article published in ‘Advanced Materials’.
- Research into structural batteries has been ongoing for several years at Chalmers, sometimes in collaboration with researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The breakthrough came in 2018 when Professor Leif Asp and his colleagues demonstrated how stiff, strong carbon fibres could store electrical energy chemically, attracting global attention. The discovery that carbon fibre can serve as electrodes in lithium-ion batteries was one of the top 10 scientific achievements of the year, according to ‘Physics World’.
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Story: Microscopic 2D Magnets Could Replace Transistors for Super-Fast Computing
Source: ExtremeTech.com Story by Ryan Whitwam
- Year after year, semiconductor manufacturers scale down the size of components, making processors faster and more efficient. However, we’re approaching the limits of atomic scale with silicon, leading some to wonder if Moore’s Law really is dead. A new computing revolution in the works may take us beyond transistors with atomic-scale magnets.
- Some computer science researchers have promoted quantum computing as the next logical step. These systems can go beyond binary computing with qubits representing 0, 1, or both. The proposed magnetic computing system can allegedly offer a similar generational increase in computation while still using the established binary states of 0 and 1.
- The technology proposed by the international team is based on a new type of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), but an MTJ is not new to computing. An MTJ is simply a pair of ferromagnetic layers separated by an insulator. We already see this mechanism in components like radio-frequency sensors, magnetic RAM, and hard drive read heads that control the spin states of magnetic materials, a technique known as spintronics.
- The paper, published in the journal Nature Communications, describes the construction of MTJs that act like tiny 2D magnets representing 0 or 1. That means they can be used as logic gates in a computer. The ultra-fast switching possible with spintronics means a processor utilizing this technology can be much faster and more efficient than the transistors used today, according to LiveScience.
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Story: Seeing like a butterfly: Optical invention enhances camera capabilities
Source: Penn State Story by Mariah Lucas
See also: https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.adp5192
- Butterflies can see more of the world than humans, including more colors and the field oscillation direction, or polarization, of light. This special ability enables them to navigate with precision, forage for food and communicate with one another. Other species, like the mantis shrimp, can sense an even wider spectrum of light, as well as the circular polarization, or spinning states, of light waves. They use this capability to signal a “love code,” which helps them find and be discovered by mates.
- Inspired by these abilities in the animal kingdom, a team of researchers in the Penn State College of Engineering developed an ultrathin optical element known as a metasurface, which can attach to a conventional camera and encode the spectral and polarization data of images captured in a snapshot or video through tiny, antenna-like nanostructures that tailor light properties. A machine learning framework, also developed by the team, then decodes this multi-dimensional visual information in real-time on a standard laptop.
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