Want A Superfast Computer? First Processor Is Here That Uses Light For Communication.

As data transfer or communication in electronic devices and its various systems involves dependence on bandwidth and power density, researchers at MIT have come up with the unique idea of electro-photonic system. This 3 mm by 6 mm system has a bandwidth density of 300 gigabits/sec/sq mm and is about 10-50 times greater than current packaged electrical-only microprocessors.

 

Microprocessors which can be simply defined as “CPU on a single chip “, finds large and diverse application in the market varying from digital watches, mobile phones, washing machines, computers, traffic control systems and so on. However, these circuits mostly make use of electrical circuits for the purpose of communication and transfer of information.We already know that! Shannon’s Theorem gives an upper bound to the capacity of a link, in bits per second (bps), as a function of the available bandwidth and the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) of the link.

 

The Theorem can be stated as:

C = B * log2(1+ S/N)

(Where, C is the achievable channel capacity, B is the bandwidth of the line, S is the average signal power and N is the average noise power)

The signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) is usually expressed in decibels (dB) given by the formula:

10 * log10(S/N)

Take a look at this graph showing relationship between C/B and S/N:

Having said this, due to the limitation in terms of  bandwidth and power density, replacement by an optical communication based on chip-scale electronic–photonic systems become absolutely necessary.

Popovic, whose team developed the technology in collaboration with a team led by Rajeev Ram, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said:

One advantage of light based communication is that multiple parallel data streams encoded on different colours of light can be sent over one and the same medium in this case, an optical wire waveguide on a chip, or an off-chip optical fibre of the same kind that as those that form the Internet backbone.

 Another advantage is that the infrared light that we use and that also TV remotes use has a physical wavelength shorter than 1 micron, about one hundredth of the thickness of a human hair.

Some of the wonderful features of this system being:

• It has a bandwidth density of 300 gigabits/sec/sq mm
• This accounts to be approximately about 10 to 50 times greater than current packaged electrical-only microprocessors
• Incorporates 850 optical input/output (I/O) components in order to create the first integrated, single-chip design of its kind
• Measures just 3 mm by 6 mm

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) provided support for this research. It’s the first processor that can use light to communicate with the external world. Scientists are optimistic of it being capable of meeting the needs of next-generation computing for chips with LSI or VLSI light circuits.

Source: Nature Journal

Disney Makes Robot Car Vertigo That Can Climb Up Walls.

Vertigo, a Disney made robot, can climb a wall on wheels with agility and again return to the ground to show its capability of running through urban as well as natural environment. Know more about the robot and watch the video below.

 

Believe me or not when I read this news, the first thing that came into my mind was Vertigo movie from 1950s by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart. Then, I saw Disney and another eye on Vertigo robot climbing the wall and that made my day.Well, Vertigo can literally transform into a robot just like seen in the Transformer movies from the ground when it comes to climbing the wall. Vertigo has been created in collaboration of Disney Research Zurich and ETH. No wonder, people from Switzerland rank number one on innovation chart.

 

Vertigo has two tiltable propellers that provide thrust onto the wall. Out of four wheels, one pair of wheels is steerable, and each propeller has two degrees of freedom for adjusting the direction of thrust.

The choice of two propellers rather than one enables a floor-to-wall transition – thrust is applied both towards the wall using the rear propeller and in an upward direction using the front propeller, resulting in a flip onto the wall.

By transitioning from the ground to a wall and back again. This whole capability makes Vertigo extend its capability to travel through urban and indoor environments.

Watch the video below:

Add your views about this amazing wall climbing video in the comments . below

The “Fi” In “Wi-Fi” Means NOTHING. It’s Just A Pun.

What does Wi-Fi mean in real life? Some say it’s ‘wireless fidelity’? But is that true? Know about the story behind Wi-Fi and what does ‘Wi’ and ‘Fi’ stand for in the whole story?

 

Wi-Fi doesn’t stand for anything. It is not even an acronym. There is no meaning behind it. Wi-Fi logo was invented by Interbrand. Well, the invention of Wi-Fi logo has its own interesting story.

Story behind Wi-Fi logo:

The sole purpose of the invention of the Wi-Fi logo was to create a sense of interoperability and which could help further marketing efforts. On the official basis, the Wi-Fi was actually called “IEEE 802.11b” and later its subsequence like IEEE 802.11 a/b/c/g were about to come. So there had to be a brand logo name which was catchy and very easy to remember and use otherwise.

What is Wireless fidelity?

The term wireless fidelity came into existence because of the apprehension of some of the colleagues that Wi-Fi should actually make sense. So the term ‘Wireless Fidelity’ came into existence. They didn’t understand branding or marketing without having some sort of literal explanation. So, the branding company compromised and they agree to include the tagline “The Standard for Wireless Fidelity”.

But this was the mistake which started confusing people. Later when Wi-Fi became successful and marketing and business people from larger companies started approaching the company, it was decided that the tagline should be dropped.

Add your views about this story in the comments below.

Apple’s Secret Design Lab Where It’s Working To Make iPhones Even Thinner.

Earlier this year, Apple began working on a secret design lab in Taiwan that focused on making the next-gen displays for its future devices. The latest media reports have suggested that the lab has at least 50 engineers and other employees who are working on new LCD and OLED screen technologies to make the devices even thinner.

 

Just like every other smartphone company, Apple is working hard to make its future smartphone thinners and more powerful. This never ending quest of the smartphone makers is motivated further by users’ fantasies to own thinner devices. To achieve this goal, Apple has opened a new production laboratory in northern Taiwan.

 

The secret design lab of Apple is rumored to work on the new LCD and OLED screen technologies for the future Apple devices. Exposed by Bloomberg, this lab has at least 50 engineers and other employees working upon the new screens for iPads and iPhones.

It’s being reported that Apple has recruited the manpower from the local company AU Optronics Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. This lab began its functions earlier this year to make more advanced liquid-crystal displays and adopt the use of organic LEDs which don’t even need backlight.

This move by Apple is expected to reduce Apple’s dependency on its long-time suppliers like Samsung, LG, Sharp, and Japan Display. This report about outsourcing this job to the local manufacturers was soon reflected in the stocks of the companies that recorded a big jump.

“Shares of AU Optronics surged 7 percent, the most in four months, in Taipei and Innolux jumped 2.6 percent. Japan Display dropped 3.9 percent in Tokyo to the lowest in more than two months, and Sharp fell 1.6 percent,” writes Bloomberg.

However, Apple is yet to release any official statement about this secret facility in Taiwan. The reports suggest that Apple won’t be making this transition until the iPhone 8.

Did you find this news about this secret lab interesting? Tell us your views in the comments below.

KickassTorrents Launches Its Own Latest Movie Release Group.

For the movie lovers…

Adding more to its legacy, KickassTorrents has published a movie release group online where internet users can download latest movies in high quality, even from the year 2015. The eyes are upon the copyright claim groups and their futuristic actions against KAT.

 

KickassTorrents, the world’s most famous Torrent site has launched its own release group which will cater the needs of movie buffs where they can download latest movies online.The movie release groups have been existing since a long time. However, they were never able to catch the limelight. Even though they caught the attention, they caught just the dim light attention because no big brand name was associated with them. They were just operating in silence, thus known to the lesser users.

 

But with a big name like KickassTorrents associated with a release group, it surely catches the headline and easily gets the public attention. The reason? Well, the history associated with the KickassTorrents, or also called as KAT, has been interesting as it has survived many takedowns attempts; almost as interesting as Piratebay.

Over the last few days, the group under the handle KATRG has been pushing a lot of BluRay rips and TV shows over the release group including some big releases of the year. The most daring part about the KAT is, it is putting up its name on some of the specific releases. We see that as an open resistance to the cyber authorities and those who stand by copyright claims.

The movie world has seen such pirated downloads before. Another noticeable thing which KAT did is that every new movie put over release group is coming with a hash-code. That means even if the movie has been taken down from a site, using the same hash code the same movie can be searched elsewhere over the another site.

Seems like a war of brands has taken place over the internet. KAT is a brand and it will do anything to defend its image. What do you think about all of this?

Here’s the link of the KAT release group we are talking about.

Update: It looks like the release group that went online a week ago, is no more. In a statement, KAT has said that it didn’t own the group on website and thus removed it.

WhatsApp Is Testing Video Calling Feature For iOS.

Top 10 Most Google Searched Tech Gadgets of 2015.

2015 has been a great year of tech gadgets launches. The world saw the launch of some of the most awaited devices from top companies like Apple and Samsung. In this article, we bring you the list of 10 most Google searched tech gadgets of 2015 from all around the world.

The year 2015 is just about to get over. Throughout the year, we saw a variety of gadgets making an appearance in the market. Some of these were received with open arms, while others were bashed big time.ere is a comprehensive list of most search tech gadgets in this year of 2015:Based upon the Google search data, here is a comprehensive list of most search tech gadgets in this year of 2015. Take a look:

 

iPhone 6s:

iPhone 6s tops the chart with 41 million searches just alone in September. Because of its scheduled launch in September 2015, Google search for iPhone 6s started picking up from August 2015. From around 8.8 million in August, the number of searches jumped to around 41.4 million in September 2015.

Also read: Here’s How Much it Costs Apple to Build New iPhone 6s

Apple watch:

If we see the chart of Google searches, Apple Watch was one of the most searched terms throughout the year of 2015. 17 million was the minimum searches that Apple Watch saw in the month February 2015. However, Apple Watch was able to remain afloat throughout the year, unlike other devices. It can be surely said that Apple Watch was the product people took interests in, throughout the year. The highest number of searches for Apple Watch was around 28 million in March 2015.

Samsung galaxy S6:

Samsung galaxy S6 was scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of the year. The Google search for Samsung Galaxy S6 starting picking up in February with around 8.1 million and around 21 million in March 2015. However, unlike iPhone 6s, people interest didn’t drop drastically and Samsung Galaxy S6 remained afloat for next two to three months in Google search.

Nexus 6:

Google’s Nexus devices are mostly launched with the newer version of Android operating system. This year saw the rollout of Android M (Android Marshmellow). There were two reasons behind Nexus 6 being searched more: 1. It’s a Google product and 2. It always comes out with the newer version of Android OS. Most numbers of searches for Nexus 6 was over 14 million in the month of October 2015.

Microsoft Surface:

After the Launch of Windows 10, Microsoft announced the launch of Microsoft surface laptops. Microsoft surface laptops remained afloat in Google search because it was company’s first ever laptop. Microsoft Surface was searched the most over 14 million in the month of October 2015.

iPad pro:

Launched with iPhone 6s in November, saw two surges in the search graph for iPad pro. Being remained almost constant searched throughout, Google searches for iPad pro suddenly rose in September because of its launch and then saw another bigger spike touching over 11 million in November 2015 for searches related to iPad pro.

LG G4:

LG G4 saw a complete change in user search pattern. While devices like iPhone 6s or Samsung Galaxy S6 saw bigger spikes in the month of their launches, LG G4 search was almost constant throughout the year. The average searches were around over 10 million from the month of April to November 2015. However, the largest searches for LG G4 were over 10 million in November 2015.

Samsung Galaxy J5:

Because of its low price, Samsung Galaxy J5 remained searched throughout the year just like LG G4. One common search pattern for Samsung devices was that the devices were searched using their model names. The highest search for Samsung Galaxy J5 was over 10 million in November 2015.

HTC One M9:

Like other devices, HTC One M9 was also launched in the month of March 2015. But it looks like that the launch of this device was overshadowed by other devices in the same month. HTC One M9 could not make it beyond 10 million in a single month search. I think, HTC should schedule their launch more wisely from next time. The highest number of searches was above 7 million in March 2015.

Samsung Galaxy Note 5:

Surprising fact about the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is that it was most searched using the term ‘Note 5’ over Google. While other devices were searched using their fully qualified names like iPhone 6s, LG G4. Anyway, even though Samsung Galaxy Note 5 was one among the most searched devices but it could not even cross 5 million searches in a single month in 2015. The highest number of searches of Note 5 was above 3.6 Million in August 2015.

So, what do you think who made out the most in the market? Apple, Google, Samsung or Microsoft?

For more technology updates and interesting stories, follow Tech News Nation by e-mail, facebook, twitter….

Transform Your Ordinary Laptop Into A Touchscreen Device.

For those who have a non-touchscreen laptop, a new device called AirBar has come into existence. Created by a Swedish company Neonode Inc., the device is capable enough to transform any ordinary laptop into a full-fledged touchscreen device. Neonode Inc. will demonstrate their creation at CES 2016.

 

Touchscreens have been prevalent in the digital market since almost a decade and they contribute towards a stupendous device experience. Almost every interactive device now boasts a touchscreen display so it can express its superiority against its outmoded counterparts.But now, these non-touchscreen devices can perceive solace about their existence, thanks to an awe-inspiring gadget developed by Neonode Inc., which has its expertise in Optical Interaction Sensing Technology. They call it AirBar and it is a simple plug-n-play device, which is like the fairy godmother for the laptops whose masters weren’t tender-hearted enough to favour them with a touch functionality in the age where most of the modern laptops do feature a touchscreen.

 

The sensor uses zForce Air™ technology developed and patented by Neonode Inc. and finds its place on the bottom bezel of your laptop by magnetically attaching itself. It then emits some invisible light waves over your laptop screen which help AirBar sense any sort of interaction between the user and the laptop screen.

Basically, you are interfering the field of light waves emitted by AirBar, helping it to sense the point where you touched the screen. The signals are then translated into a pertinent format which can be easily understood by your innocent laptop feeling proud that it can now compete with its rivals and provide you a better experience.

Once your laptop has transformed into a fully functional touchscreen, you can feel free to touch it with your bare hands or if you want to use a paintbrush or you have long nails, go for it without a second thought. It’ll surely work. AirBar will wholeheartedly assist your laptop to efficiently construe all the gestures like pinch-to-zoom, swipe, and scroll.

Imagine taking a non-touch PC, and within seconds making it a touch interactive device. Our sensor does not require installation of new drivers or lengthy instructions. The user simply connects AirBar and can then start to interact with the display immediately – it´s Plug and Touch. Compared with today’s PCs with built-in touchscreens the AirBar sensor keeps your high-quality matte display glare free and without greasy fingerprints.

— said Remo Behdasht, Neonode’s SVP Business Development.

AirBar uses the USB interface of your laptop to power itself and to transmit touch signals. As of now, it is available for Microsoft Windows and Google Chrome OS. Folks who are loyal to the Cupertino company, will have to wait for some time as the functionality is limited for their OS.

At an introductory price of $49, AirBar is only available for the 15.6-inch laptops. The Sweden-based company plans to showcase their creation at the Consumer Electronics Show 2016 in Las Vegas.

Have a look this video:

Write your views in the comments section below

Source: Air.Bar

Google Creating New Company With Ford To Make Self-Driving Cars.

A new venture of self-driving cars will soon be launched by joint efforts of Google and Ford. The details of the announcement will be made in upcoming CES in January 2016. Google has already hit the streets with the self-driving cars and this would be a new beginning for Ford. Let’s see where is the future of self-driving cars heading!

 

Google and Ford have teamed up to work on a joint venture which will create self-driving cars. But the car is not expected to carry the brand logo of Ford as the joint venture will be an independent company, according to the reports from Yahoo news.

 

It is expected that the name of the joint venture will be announced on the next CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in upcoming January. So, do not get surprised if at next CES instead of some laptop or mobile device, the name of an automobile venture comes up.

Google recently came under a parent organization called Alphabet. Last week Google hinted that self-driving car segment may move from Google to Alphabet giving a total autonomy to this automobile project.

Though Google has already been on the streets with the self-driving cars. However, Ford got the approval for these cars very recently. By teaming up with Google, Ford might get a massive boost from Google in self-driving software. Google already has 53 test vehicles on the road in California and Texas, with 1.3 million miles logged in autonomous driving.

“We have been and will continue working with many companies and discussing a variety of subjects related to our Ford Smart Mobility plan, We keep these discussions private for obvious competitive reasons, and we do not comment on speculation.”

– said a Ford spokesperson in a statement to The Verge.

Exact details of the partnership deals are not confirmed, but this is for sure that the deal made with Google will save Ford millions of Dollars which would have been used in funding autonomous car driving software development.

While on the other side, Google is looking forward to providing more safety to the car commuters through self-driving cars and decrease the number of deaths annually by a great margin in the US. This has been put forward as the major reason from Google why should you buy a self-driving car.

What are your views regarding this move by Google and Ford? Tell us in the comments below.

WhatsApp Flaw: Crash Anyone’s WhatsApp By Just Sending Lots Of Smileys.

 

A security researcher has uncovered a serious flaw in Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging app. This loophole exists in both the desktop and mobile apps. He found that by sending about 4,000 smileys to a target, the WhatApp app starts to slow down and ultimately crashes.

 

According to a security researcher Indrajeet Bhuyan, there is a simple way to crash the popular instant messaging app WhatsApp by just sending an insane amount of smileys. This serious WhatsApp flaw can crash the mobile app as well as the WhatsApp Web.In his discovery, Bhuyan found that by sending about 4,000 smileys to a target, the WhatApp app starts to slow down and crashes due to “buffer overflow”. This flaw targets both the desktop and mobile apps.

How WhatsApp smiley bug works?

In the WhatsApp Web app, you are allowed to send a message with about 6,500-6,600 characters. But, after typing about 4,000-4,200 smileys, the browser/app starts to slow down. As you type more and more smiley faces, WhatsApp crashes when you type and send.

“….so it crashes while we type and send and in mobile too when it receives it overflows the buffer and it crashes,” Bhuyan explains.

This WhatsApp smiley bug affects Firefox, Opera, and Chrome PC browsers, along with iPhone and multiple versions of Android OS.

Video demonstration of WhatsApp smiley bug:

Here’s the video demonstration of the bug showing how the attack crashes WhatsApp:

Here’s how to protect yourself from WhatsApp smiley flaw?

Bhuyan has reported the smiley bug to WhatsApp. “This can also be used to do a Denial of service in the browser and it freezes the browser and gives a ‘not responding’ error,” he adds.

Till the issue is fixed, here’s a simple way to save yourself from the attack.

Once you receive this full-of-tons-of-smiley message from someone, you’ll have to open the messenger and delete the entire chat with the attacker.

Have something to add to this WhatsApp bug story? Tell us in the comments below.