Advancement of technologies

Color Picker Pen

Color Picker is an innovative design of a concept pen that can scan colors from anything around and instantly use the color for drawing. After placing the pen against an object, the user just presses the scan button. The color is being detected by the color sensor and the RGB cartridge of the pen mixes the required inks to create the target color. This superb device will help people to observe the changing colors of nature. With color picker, all range of artists will be able to create a more sensorial and visual insight of their surrounding nature’s colors.

Philips Luminaire Chandelier OLED Concept

Philips are continuing their assault on traditional bulbs with the launch of two concept OLED lights, the first a compact table lamp and the second a more impressive chandelier. Both systems use the company’s Lumiblade OLED panels, which offer cool-to-the-touch, pure white illumination.
The Philips Luminaire Chandelier consists of five OLED ‘blades’ balanced out from a thin central pole. Light from the Lumiblades increases as movement around the chandelier is recognized.
Meanwhile a touch-sensitive button on the base of the light fixture controls power, while a proximity sensor is used to control dimming. There’s no word on whether Philips will commercially release the Luminaire Chandelier concept.

Optimus Tactus Keyboard

Optimus Tactus does not have physical keys, which means there are no restrictions on their shape and size.
Any part of the keyboard surface can be programmed to perform any function or to display any images.

Zero Mouse

Made by Oliver Rosito, it’s one of the most beautiful, most thrilling visual mouse I have ever seen! The revolutionary design of the Zero Mouse combines state of the art design and lightweight materials.

Honda Cyborg Legs

Well, actually there are two different gadgets:

The first one is Robo-Legs

Honda’s first foray into robotizing old peoples’ haunches looked pretty tame, but this new one, on which geriatrics are supposed to mount like some sort of meat trophy, feels like a glimpse into a horrible, dystopian future where up is down, right is wrong and grandmas and grandpas amble through Sears on mechanized rectal steeds instead of walkers. The machine, which I’m 90% sure is just the missing half of this Battle Droid from Attack of the Clones, is more a passive support device than it is a set of active robot limbs, though it does have a small electric motor.
Details are a bit sparse for the time being, but Honda claims that the legs transparently reduce the strains of walking, standing and crouching, and should be “as easy to use as a bicycle.” The AP reporter who got to test the robo-legs had this to say about them:

The second one is Walking Assist Device

Honda has developed a gadget that they say could make walking easier for the elderly and others with weak leg muscles. The aptly named Walking Assist Device is a 6 lb. motorized belt with hip sensors that gauge how much help the wearer will need. The motor then gives the wearer an appropriate boost, lengthening his or her stride enough to make walking easier on the legs.
The device’s lithium-ion battery only last two hours on a charge, so don’t expect Grandma to run a full marathon, but some time moseying around the retirement village while looking all cyberpunk will surely make her coolest geriatric in Del Boca Vista.

Tria Wireless Sound System

Thought you have to throw the vinyl collection? Think again!
OK, to summarize, it was designed by Ricardo Baiao from Portugal and it comprises three elements: the vinyl player/ripper, the stereo loudspeakers, and the remote control center. The first one is an elite vinyl player loaded with no less than 4 cartridges, which allow the playback of both sides without having to take the disc out and turning it yourself. Even more, the self-contained cleaning system will ensure a dramatically longer life for both the cartridges and your discs, while the built-in DSP block sports an efficient noise reduction module, which will come in handy when you want to rip a vinyl record.

Philips Carousel UltraWidescreen Cinema 21:9 and Ambilight:

Or: what you’re missing without Cinema 21:9 and Ambilight

Check out the 2+ minute new Cinema “interactive movie” which takes you through a fictional movie setup with director, FX supervisor and director of photography chiming in on the importance of cinema widescreen. The interactive bit comes into play as the viewer can switch between 16:9 and turn Ambilight on and off on a simulated screen playing the flick. Cinema 21:9 launches this month in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Russia. 4000 Euros. If you’re ready to come out of pocket for this 2560×1080p beast.
Curiously, Philips doesn’t have any plans regarding a U.S. release of the UltraWidescreen 21:9.

MacBook Touch

Some people were born just for the sake of it. But others are born to create wonders of the world. This “thing” I’m gonna show you is so cool that they could easily named it OMFG.
Designed by Tommaso Gecchelin, MacBook (future – let’s all pray to God – to be released) Touch will be the reason for Apple to build a small but flexible fine piece of machinery. Flexible OLED technology may be the key because it can provide the rich color and resolution density needed for a smaller screen without being a power hog and resists damage by its malleable nature. The thinnest screens now are barely 8mm thick and can fold like a piece of paper.
The core of this concept is a technology he calls iSpine. Like the spine of a book, the tech avoid excessive compression on the screen, yet allows the laptop to sit in multiple viewing positions. Go from a normal laptop with screen and touchscreen board – to a large widescreen canvas for drawing, presentation or movie watching. To keep everything minimal, ports like power, the mini display, and additional USB are externalized on a “Magic Dock” to keep most of the laptop slim and clean of an array of holes and plugs.







Bottom line: I Love It!!! And I don’t have it

PSP Game Console

This game console was designed by a fan of PSP and you have to admit that it far more cooler than any existing PSP right now. It’s got a big beautiful screen and an iPhone-like home button on the front, but when it’s slid open it reveals all the necessary buttons for gaming bliss. I think it’s so cool that it makes any other portable game console blush.

4G iPhone

Though it’s not known if this is how it will look, this photo was recently released and I have to say that not only that it’s thinner but it has apparently a bigger screen and a silent toggle switch moved. As for the specs rumors … well it will be , probably, the best phone – again – on the market.
Anyway, we have to keep in mind that until it’s official release, all this are simply speculations.

Introduction to Diac-Operation and Construction

A diac is an important member of the thyristor family and is usually employed for triggering triacs. A diac is a two-electrode bidirectional avalanche diode which can be switched from off-state to the on-state for either polarity of the applied voltage. This is just like a triac without gate terminal, as shown in figure. Its equivalent circuit is a pair of inverted four layer diodes. Two schematic symbols are shown in figure. Again the terminal designations are arbitrary since the diac, like triac, is also a bilateral device. The switching from off-state to on-state is achieved by simply exceeding the avalanche break down voltage in either direction.

Construction of a Diac.

A diac is a P-N-P-N structured four-layer, two-terminal semicon ductor device, as shown in figure.A. MT₂ and MT_X are the two main terminals of the device. There is no control terminal in this de vice. From the diagram, a diac unlike a diode, resembles a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) but with the following exceptions.

• there is no terminal attached to the mid dle layer (base),
• the three regions are nearly identical in size,
• the doping level at the two end P-layers is the same so that the device gives sym metrical switching characteristics for ei ther polarity of the applied voltage.

DIAC Circuit Symbol

Operation of a Diac.

When the terminal MT₂ is positive, the current flow path is P₁-N₂-P₂-N₃ while for positive polarity of terminal MT₁ the current flow path is P₂-N₂-P₁-N₁. The operation of the diac can be explained by imagining it as two diodes connected in series. When applied voltage in either polarity is small (less than breakover voltage) a very small amount of current, called the leakage current, flows through the device. Leakage current caused due to the drift of electrons and holes in the depletion region, is not sufficient to cause conduction in the device. The device remains in non-conducting mode. However, when the magnitude of the applied voltage exeeds the avalanche breakdown voltage, breakdown takes place and the diac current rises sharply, as shown in the characteristics shown in figure.

Diac Characteristics

Characteristics of a Diac

Volt-ampere characteristic of a diac is shown in figure. It resembles the English letter Z because of the symmetrical switching characteristics for either polarity of the applied voltage.

The diac acts like an open-circuit until its switching or breakover voltage is exceeded. At that point the diac conducts until its current reduces toward zero (below the level of the holding current of the device). The diac, because of its peculiar construction, does not switch sharply into a low voltage condition at a low current level like the SCR or triac. Instead, once it goes into conduction, the diac maintains an almost continuous negative resistance characteristic, that is, voltage decreases with the increase in current. This means that, unlike the SCR and the triac, the diac cannot be expected to maintain a low (on) voltage drop until its current falls below a holding current level.

Worlds Most Wanted Phones

Ever wondered how the phone of the future will look like? We surely did. Phone producers show us every year some really superb concept phones and even if 99% of those phones never see the production line they give us a small glimpse of what the phones will look like in a not so distant future. We've made a list of what we think are the coolest concept phones presented in the last year. This is not a top, so the order is random. Oh, and one more thing, remember, these are concept phones, which means they are not in production and are not for sale, so please don't ask us where can you can get and what's the price. So, here it goes:

1. Nokia 888 Communicator




Nokia definitely has the most interesting concept phones. Nokia 888 Communicator is a striking futuristic concept phone. The phone, which uses liquid batteries, speech recognition, flexible touchscreen and touch-sensitive body cover,is designed by Tamer Nakisci and won the Nokia Design Award. We also have a video presentation made by Nokia.

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2. Nokia Aeon



Nokia Aeon was presented by Nokia on their website in the Research & Development section. What is so great about this phone is that it looks like it will actually go into production next February. Of course, its just a rumor, but still, makes us hope to actually see it someday in the GSM shop. All we know about it for now is that its a touchscreen phone and it looks fantastic.

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3. SKY "Sleek & Slim"



"Sleek & Slim" from SKY is another concept based on touchscreen technology. The phone has a discretely glowing touchpad, hideaway keys and generally utterly-fashionable minimalist design.




Click on thumbs to view larger images

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4. Benq-Siemens Snaked



Benq designers thought of women too and presented Snaked. This is a "reptile" looking phone, creepy somehow, but still is very cool. The Snaked is a fashion phone for sport loving women, because it also has body monitoring sensors to help the ladies keep those fine shapes.

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5. "What You See Is What You Get" Concept



One thing is for sure about this concept phone...they could've named it shorter. Designed by Pei-Hua Hang, the phone's name comes from the fact that this concept no longer uses an LCD as viewfinder for the digital camera, instead it uses a transparent frame. And of course, interaction is made through a touchscreen.

6. Retroxis by Dark Label



If most phones presented here will never be sold in store for sure, the Retroxis concept phone from Dark Label looks kinda human, and makes us hope we'll be able to get one of these one day. Designed by Lim Sze Tat the phone is encased in high polished polycarbonate renowned for its lightweight and toughness and has an invisible OLED display that silently hides away when inactive.

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7. Benq-Siemens Black Box



Black Box designed by Benq-Siemens uses a touch screen as its keypad and, depending on the functions you are using, the touch screen changes the control layout immediately.

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8. NEC Tag



Somehow similar to the Snaked concept, the NEC Tag is a flexible phone concept that can be , for example, hung from a belt or wrapped around the user’s arm. Interesting is that the phone has shape-memorizing material and sensors that allows the phone to change its shape according to the mode.

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9. TripleWatch



Though the idea of a cellphone watch is not so new, the TripleWatch designed by Manon Maneenawa has an interesting triple flip technique that allows the user to transform the watch into a normal cellphone. When used as a wrist watch, the phone has a speaker button that allows the user to answer the phone and hang up while driving.

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10. Asus Aura