NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Web Page sponsor Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
20 Dec 05. Gel battery boost for radio tags. The new battery technology is expected to be married to radio tags. Japanese company NEC has developed a lightweight, flexible battery that is less than a millimetre thick and can be recharged in half a minute. It is called the Organic Radical Battery (ORB) and is based on a type of plastic that exists in a gel state. The gel allows the battery to be extremely pliant, with a thickness of 300 microns. ORBs could eventually be embedded into devices such as smart cards, wearable computers and intelligent paper. Currently the battery, when in card form, can be recharged with a card reader device in 30 seconds.
20 Dec 05. ICS (Interactive Circuits & Systems) – part of Radstone Embedded Computing – today announced that it will be exhibiting at West 2006 (San Diego Convention Center, January 10 – 12). West 2006 is co-sponsored by AFCEA (the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association) and by the U.S. Naval Institute, and will feature exhibits from over 350 companies who provide solutions for defense and military applications. Also featured will be presentations from leading military experts. “ICS is a leader in the field of Software Defined Radio modules for defense radio applications such as radar, signal intelligence, secure communications, and tactical receivers,” said Scott Hames, Director of Product Management at ICS. “During the show, ICS will feature an SDR demonstration – a small, rugged, COTS solution with all the hardware capabilities required for JTRS-type applications in a 3U cPCI slot. In addition, we will be demonstrating the ICS SignIFy demo – providing end-users with a low-cost, portable signal analysis system designed to monitor, record and playback broadband IF signals, plus much more.”
17 Dec 05. The first high resolution images of the Earth transmitted by TopSat, the micro-satellite designed and built by a QinetiQ-led consortium of British firms, have been received at QinetiQ’s West Freugh ground station. The low cost Earth observation satellite is six weeks into its mission following a successful launch from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Northern Russia on 27 October 2005. TopSat is a major step forward in the affordability of space missions, providing 2.8 metre resolution images at a much reduced cost compared to larger satellites. Typically, current generation imaging satellites with comparable performance cost over five times more than TopSat. TopSat also has the best resolution per mass of any imaging satellite currently available so has a wide range of applications. These include mineral and petroleum exploration, forestry, flood monitoring and combating maritime oil pollution.
12 Dec 05. DAP Technologies launched MICROFLEX Solutions Security (MS Security). This customized solution combines DAP’s rugged handheld mobile computer, the MICROFLEX CE3240, with an integrated Smart Card reader, fingerprint scanner and barcode reader. The result is a powerful handheld mobile computer fully loaded with all the tools required for identification validation at secured locations.
Weighing only one-pound, the ergonomic CE3240 handheld is FIPS 201 compliant and fully integrated with:
* Smart Card reader for both contact and contactless identity cards
* CCD-based barcode scanner to read one- or two-dimensional barcodes as found on driver’s licenses;
* Fingerprint scanner for remote biometric identification;
* Intel XScale PXA255 400 MHz processor for blazing performance;
* 128 MB NAND Flash and 64 MB RAM, providing ample memory to store and retrieve identification data and facial images;
* High-brightness TFT QVGA screen, allowing for visual authentication;
* Ergonomic 22-key keypad to enable Personal Identification Number (PIN) number entry.
20 Dec 2005. Hyundai to commercialise fuel cell by 2010. Hyundai Motor is planning to commercialise a fuel cell vehicle b