Technology and Safety

The Future of Bikes

2009-08-09T16:17:00.000-07:00

When you think of a bike the first picture that comes to mind does not look like this bike but that is why it is a bike of the future. This bike is not only a regular bike it is also a exercise bike, electric scooter and even folds into a seat to sit on if you are on the bus! It has solar panels inside the hub less wheels which while you are pedaling allows the bike to power charge a battery that makes the bike an electric scooter! This bike is safe for the environment because it is battery charged and it also is healthy because it is an exercise bike and it can also save people money because they don't have to pay bus fair because they can just ride it as the Electric Scooter!

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/07/bike-of-the-fut-1.php

The Refrigerator of the Future

2009-08-09T15:28:00.000-07:00

Imagine watching TV from your refrigerator while you are looking in your fridge deciding what you want to make for dinner? Well SlashGear is working on it this refrigerator will have interactive message boards, digital picture frames, satellite radio, CD and DVD players and much more! IT seems more like a home entertainment system rather than a refrigerator! It will also be able to charge your cell phone and other devices on it. So far there is no price on this refrigerator but i expect it will be really expensive and people will pay for it! I think that the message board would help with the safety of people with food allergies because they could display the allergies right on the front screen!

http://www.slashgear.com/the-refrigerator-of-the-future-293625/

The Future of the Inkless Printer

2009-08-09T14:59:00.000-07:00

Never did I ever imagine that one day there will be a printer that does not require any ink at all. Well Xerox is creating one and it requires no ink at all! It includes reusable paper which can be printed and erased lots of times and it also has potential to revolutionize printing! Although it is not completed yet this Xerox printer has the potential to cut printing costs dramatically and reduce the amount of paper offices have to use each day! This new printer will also be safer for the environment because it will cut the costs of ink and paper and it will help people recycle more which is a great way to help our country "Go Green".

http://thefutureofthings.com/

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The Future of Flying Cars

2009-08-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

Moller International is the first and only company to invent the M400 Skycar which can fly! Imagine being stuck in traffic on a highway and just being able to fly into the sky and go to where you need to go. Well Moller International hopes to accomplish this and develop a safe and reliable Car that can fly. The M400 Skycar can go 275 mph and achieve up to 20 miles per gallon on clean burning, ethanol fuel. You do not have to worry about traffic, red lights or getting speeding tickets! The Skycar seems like it will be a lot safer for people to avoid accidents!

http://www.moller.com/

The Future of the Toaster

2009-08-08T17:46:00.000-07:00

Imagine 20 years from now what it will be like to toast a bagel or piece of toast? Well a Chicago- based Design Company called Inventables are the creators of this "Transparent Toaster." It allows the customer to watch the bread or bagel being toasted so that you can get it out in time before it starts to burn! As of right now the transparent heating glass is not hot enough to toast the bread, which for safety reasons that might be a good thing to avoid people from being burnt!We will have to wait and see what happens in the Future!

http://thefutureofthings.com/pod/78/transparent-toaster.html

The Future of Truck Technology

2009-08-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

Relieving traffic congestion and improving vehicle safety are the common themes for a wide variety of advanced technologies on display and under discussion here at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems. Closing down one of Manhattan’s busy avenues for demonstrations of the latest vehicle safety and control systems, the four-day meeting has drawn thousands from international government agencies, suppliers and research facilities, including a significant number focusing on commercial vehicles or issues impacting the movement of freight.

Congestion pricing received a strong endorsement from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) during a congress session outlining activities by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. Talking about FHWA’s interest in “integrated corridor management” to address regional traffic problems, Jeffrey Lindley, the Assoc. Administrator for FHWA’s Office of Operations, said: “Congestion pricing is part of this and the only way we can make a significant reduction in congestion.”

While the of New York turned down federal funds for a congestion pricing project, Lindley said FHWA will spend $1 billion by 2010 to demonstrate the concept in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Looking specifically at the impact of congestion on freight movement, Lindley said the administration sees intelligent transportation systems playing a major role with advanced electronic freight management systems and initiatives to increase truck-parking access. “Freight issues, I believe, are not going away, and freight needs to be a major part of (federal highway fund) reauthorization,” he said.

A technology-based approach called Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety Systems (IVBSS) will be high on the list of priorities for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), according to Rose McMurray, Asst. Administrator and Chief Safety Officer for the federal regulator. The advanced safety technology combines lane departure warning, forward collision warning and blind-spot monitoring into a single system, eliminating distracting and competing warning signals for drivers. The administration will begin a field test of IVBSS in both heavy trucks and passenger vehicles next year, McMurray told the congress.

Volvo Group North America was on the show floor at the congress showing off its approach to IVBSS with the Volvo Integrated Safety Truck (IST). The truck, a European FH model tractor, uses active steering control to keep the vehicle in its lane and to help avoid blind-side collisions in lane changes, as well as providing object detection alerts and rollover warning.

Nissan Motor, which plans to introduce a mid-range commercial truck line to the U.S. early next year, gave ITS Congress attendees a look at its IVBSS development project. In addition to lane departure warning, the Nissan system – installed in an Infiniti SUV – included active braking tied to forward and rearward object detection as well as a variety of warning systems based on two-way “cooperative” communications between the vehicle, roadside signals and other nearby vehicles.

Volvo Looks to Locusts for Future Pedestrian Safety Technology

2009-08-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

You've most likely heard of nature inspiring useful technologies we use in our daily lives (i.e., Velcro, various cleaners, computer chips), but how about in car safety? Leave it to none other than the car-safety gurus over at Volvo to try to implement a unique natural phenomenon into future pedestrian safety systems.

As the story goes, upon hearing of Dr. Claire Rind's locust studies at Britain's Newcastle University back in 2002, Volvo engineers quickly picked up their pens and pads and began taking diligent notes. Rind's research was primarily on the interesting behavioral patterns the insects portray when traveling in swarms. While other animals hit and bounce off one another when too close, locusts have an innate ability to stay clear of each other even while traveling in massive heaps. Visual images in the locusts' eyes are almost instantly transmitted to the wings, thus bypassing the brain and avoiding collision. The behavior is called the Locust Principle.

Immediately after learning all they could from Dr. Rind, the engineers translated the locust behavior into an algorithm to be used in pedestrian-safety technologies. Unfortunately for them, 2002 computer technology wasn't capable of processing the complex formula. But according to Volvo officials, technology that can possibly transmit images into an immediate preventative action is almost upon us.

Until then, Volvo continues to develop its very effective City Safety low-speed collision-avoidance system. The current system is said to be able to completely stop an XC 60 should the driver ahead brake suddenly.

"Beyond City Safety, our next step will be our first pedestrian-avoidance feature," stated Volvo Preventive Safety leader Jonas Ekmark. "Although City Safety is not related to our Locust research, we are confident that our first pedestrian auto brake feature will be very good at taking actions to help avoid hitting pedestrians."

"While some interesting ideas came from this study, we still have many more years of research ahead to bring that small locust brain into our cars. We have found a lowly locust has man beat, at least for now. Still, the big question remains: How do groups of locusts keep from bumping into each other? Maybe there is more to be learned? We will continue to follow interesting paths in our efforts to reach our safety vision: to design cars that do not crash."

If the gurus over in Sweden happen to find a way to integrate the Locust Principle into their cars, the potential for it saving lives is pretty amazing. Not to mention it's likely viable for extensive use in other industries as well.

NTSB Chairman Describes Future of Automotive Safety Technology

2009-08-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

National Transportation Safety Board

Release date: January 22, 2008

Washington, DC - National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark V. Rosenker today said that the auto industry has recognized the limitations of improving the crashworthiness of vehicles as a way to reduce highway fatalities and are now developing innovative technologies to help prevent the accidents themselves.

Speaking at the 2008 Washington, D.C. Auto Show, Rosenker noted that there are nearly 250 million vehicles registered in the United States; their operation results in 6 million police-reported crashes and more than 42,000 fatalities annually. "For several decades, the number of fatalities has been dropping, and more importantly, the fatality rate has also been dropping. These improvements can be attributed to the use of seatbelts and child restraint systems; the development of airbags, antilock brakes, crash-absorbing vehicle frames; and campaigns to reduce drunk driving."

However, the decreases in fatalities and injury rates have leveled off in recent years. "So, while we have accomplished much in the past decade to improve the crashworthiness of automobiles, we have reached some practical limits in combating the physical forces involved in crashes. In recognition, the auto industry is moving beyond crash mitigation and into a new era where technology will help us prevent accidents."

Recently, the NTSB added the issue of preventing collisions using enhanced vehicle safety technology to its list of Most Wanted Safety Improvements.

Chairman Rosenker highlighted categories of crash avoidance technology.

-- Vehicle-based Crash Avoidance Systems: Rear-end crash warning systems, adaptive cruise control and automatic braking systems are designed to prevent or at least mitigate the most common type of crash - rear end collisions. Lane departure avoidance systems and curve-speed warning systems are being developed to target the most fatal type of events - run-off-the-road accidents.

-- Infrastructure Telematics: A DOT initiative that includes road-based systems to provide drivers with a sophisticated means for obtaining information about their vehicles and the road - information like location-specific weather conditions, route- specific road closures and work zone status. Adverse weather is associated with 800,000 injuries and more than 7,000 fatalities a year.

Rosenker noted that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is revising its New Car Assessment Program, which ranks automobiles on their crashworthiness using a 5-star rating system, because 95 percent of 2006 model year vehicles received 4 or 5 stars. The new system will reflect more modern crash avoidance technology.

Rosenker said the success of these technologies will depend on the public's readiness to accept them. "I am confident that highway automation will greatly improve safety, but I am not naive about what it will take to see these benefits. In the end, it is the public, and their ability and willingness to make use of these systems, that will determine how effective they will be - and how soon."

Wireless Technology Improving Safety in the Mining Industry

2009-08-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

VIPAC Engineers & Scientists has developed the first wireless condition monitoring system for mobile mining equipment fitted with variable speed drives, with funding assistance from the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP).

The system consists of four parts including a smart sensor, transceiver, PC and a communication module.

Before the advent of this wireless system, conditioning monitoring was a potentially dangerous and complicated task. Cable-based computer systems cannot be effectively installed on mobile equipment so the only alternative was to have employees monitor the machinery by foot.

However, this is often too dangerous for workers to effectively and accurately monitor the units, especially ones working at variable speeds.

According to the condition monitoring sensor system’s project manager and VIPAC representative Mingfei Luo, the system was trialled by an Xstrata mine in the Hunter Valley, NSW.

He says the trials demonstrated the system could work on any mobile machine, regardless of whether it operates at a constant or variable speed. It could determine when machine maintenance is needed, what parts need replacing and where the part is located in the system.

The smart sensor automatically detects a machine’s condition using comprehensive alarm ‘mask’ methodology. This data, such as alarms, spectra and sensor status, is regularly transferred to the transceiver without the need for cabling.

Machine fault severity software is used to save, analyze and review data on a PC and other devices, such as WAP enabled mobile phones, are then used to distribute the machine fault messages to technicians.

According to Luo, the multi-channel transceiver can support up to 50 sensors within a 50m radius and provides instruction and communication with each. The interval between each condition transmission is dependent on each particular drive’s activity.

He says, the software will classify and rank the severity of any faults and store them in a managed database which also incorporates details of the equipment being monitored as well as graphs and trends.

The fault messages sent out to the technicians include descriptions of the fault and its severity as well as the identity of the affected equipment.

According to the project manager, the system means workers need not be onsite to monitor the condition of their machines. This will go some way to reaching a nationwide goal for zero harm in mines.

Luo says his organization is currently looking for an investment partner to commercialize the technology. He says he and his team would like to see the product evolve into a widely-used machine, because they believe it will revolutionize the mining industry.

Nanoscale Technology: The Future of Food Safety

2009-08-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

Nanotechnology has the potential to dramatically improve the quality of food production at a time when consumer concerns over safety are increasingly influencing key business decisions, writes Anthony Fletcher. Indeed the technology, which involves the study and use of materials at an extremely small scale - at sizes of millionths of a millimetre - could provide some innovative answers to current problems of sanitation.

"There is a lot of work on nanosensors at the moment, for example in the use of nano-particulates of silver in the purification of water," Ottilia Saxl, chief executive of the Institute of Nanotechnology told FoodProductionDaily.com. "The Romans after all used to put silver coins in their water bags - it seems strange that it has taken us all these years to get back there."

In addition, scientists are working on dirt-repellent coatings at the nanoscale, a concept that could have important applications for the safety of food production sites.

"If you drop water onto a lotus leaf, it skites off," said Saxl. "This is because the leaf is coated by tiny wax pyramids, limiting the amount of surface area that a drop can land on. There is no surface area for the drop to stick to."

Saxl says that many companies are looking into applying this lotus effect, with a great deal of research going on at the University of Bonn in Germany. Abattoirs and meat processing plants in particular could benefit from such technology.

Nanotechnology also has the potential to address some of the big-picture issues. The threat of bioterrorism has made food safety along the supply chain a government as well as an industry priority - tight new customs regulations are coming into force in the US this month, and strict new rules governing traceability within the EU were introduced this year.

Although radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is being pushed hard by retailers as a viable means of automating traceability, it is nanotechnology that could ensure that the agricultural sector uses new traceability rules to their advantage. For example, nanoscale monitors could be linked to recording and tracking devices to monitor temperature changes, while other devices could be used to detect for pesticides and genetically modified crops (GMOs) within foodstuffs.

In addition the global livestock industry is desperate to install measures that would guarantee the safety of the food supply. Outbreaks of disease have resulted in export bans and collapsed markets. Japan for example banned US beef and beef products after a single case of BSE in an 8-year-old cow imported into the United States from Canada was detected in December 2003, and is showing resistance to fully reopening its borders.

The fortunes of this sector could therefore be transformed if supplies could be guaranteed to be completely safe. Scientists at the Kopelman Laboratory at the University of Michigan are developing non-invasive bioanalytical nanosensors that could perhaps be placed in, say, a cow's saliva gland in order to detect single virus particles long before they have had a chance to multiply and long before disease symptoms are evident.

"The beauty of nanotechnology is that these applications are interchangeable," said Saxl. "If a nanotech application is applicable in one sector, then it is often applicable in ten. Little start-up nanotech companies often find themselves with an embarrassment of riches, not knowing which sector to target first."

The food industry, which is under intense pressure to guarantee safety and at the same time achieve better profit margins, is just beginning to see the possibilities that nanotechnology offers right along the supply chain, from the field right through to the factory and onto the supermarket shelf.

Will safety be compromised in the future to go Green?

2009-08-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

Many future concept cars are being developed and sold in the wake of the going Green Era. Many manufacturers are looking at fuel mileage and dismissing the safety factor of small cars versus larger vehicles, even on low speed urban roads. The RiN concept from Toyota is a vehicle which focuses on making the lives of the driver and passengers, and actually everyone around it, more healthy and stress-free. The exterior design of the Toyota RiN is intended to blend into the natural environment. The green glass and organic forms of the headlights, taillights and rear side windows are influenced by a type of tall-growing Japanese tree, the Yakusugi.

The ANVIL from American ATV maker Tomberlin is an LSV (Low Speed Vehicle) legal for road use on low speed-limit urban roads.Powered by an all-electric drivetrain charged through a standard 110 volt outlet and regenerative braking, the ANVIL has a range of over 40 miles and a limited top speed of 25 mph.Tomberlin also claim that the economical and environmentally friendly ANVIL can go up to 50 miles for one dollars worth of power. Yet unlike many similar eco-friendly vehicles the ANVIL has a rather attractive and robust appearance which can only help potential sales.A multi-configuration seating layout allows for the rear bench seats to be folded flat giving the ANVIL a small truck-like cargo area behind the two front seats.
Check out other vehicles on this sight an judge for yourself if safety is being compromised.

http://www.diseno-art.com/encyclopedia/concept_cars/concept_cars.html

For all Gamers...

2009-08-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

First gaming system with Intel Core i7Asus launches their first system desktop with processor Intel Core i7, for Gamers. Taiwanese manufacturers have changed the Ares CG6150 with new processors from Intel, Core i7, by taking out the Core 2 Extreme processor and the result was the model ROG CG6190. The carcass remained the same from the previous model, being preserved reader prints in the front. Configuration has a motherboard with the X58 chipset being created for the fastest processors from Intel. This has 6 slots for DDR3 memory type, which can support 12 GB of RAM. Part graphics are the most advanced video boards, consisting of 3 video boards at the top of ATI or Nvidia. Everything is done with power and the cooling liquid is made of 2 sources 1,000 W each. Carcass you can add 4 HDD with 1 TB. Prices and launch date have not been announced by Asus, but the gamers should prepare several thousand euros for an extraordinary performance.

http://www.finesttech.com/computers/first-gaming-system-with-intel-core-i7.html

The future satisfaction for both Drivers and Passengers" SPLITVIEW"

2009-08-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

Imagine this: You’re driving down the highway, following the route guidance on the navigation screen, when the person sitting in the passenger seat decides he wants to watch Dark Knight on DVD. Mercedes-Benz and Bosch together devised a gizmo that can satisfy both viewing requests. It’s a dual-view LCD monitor system called Splitview.

Splitview is a LCD screen that is mounted on the dashboard that allows the driver and passenger to view two different images at the same time. How does it work you ask? The eight inch active matrix, backlit color monitor nests a second image feed on adjacent pixels and a masking filter divides the combined image so that only one set of the pixels can be seen depending on your seating position.

The EyeMove PC of the Future

2009-08-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

" With the wireless controller you can forget the old mouse, your keyboard, joystick, you have it all in one with a touch screen wireless controller".

The EyeMove PC combines the functionality of a digital projector and computer into one circular-shaped device. Simply hang it on your wall or place it flat on a desk and project games, movies, or applications. No word yet on on if this concept will go into production.

you can also visit http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/top-10-strangest-gadgets-of-the-future to check out some videos of future technology gadgets.

ASUS AIGuru SV1 First Mobile Skype Phone

2009-08-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

ASUS just can’t seem to stop its success lately. Not only do they have those hot netbooks, but they have just added to their success with the world’s first Skype Certified videophone called the AiGuru SV1.

The AiGuru SV1 allows the user to make unlimited phone calls with a webcam, speaker, and microphone, and to see the person he or she is calling with the seven inch screen.

Of course, Skype is a funny thing. There are those who cannot do without it, and there are those who have never tried it. If you are in the former category, then you probably work in some business that requires a lot of video conferencing with clients. If you are in the latter category, then you should also find the SV1 easy to use with an “icon-based interface and intuitive button layout”.

As for the Net connection, the AiGuru allows for an 802.11 b/g wireless or to Ethernet via router. As for the power, it has a rechargeable battery that can operate for about 20 minutes. That might be long enough for a full video conversation, but that might be enough to move the SV1 if need be.

check out http://hot-gadgets-today.blogspot.com/ for more hot future technological gadgets.

Future Comfortability!

2009-08-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

WOW.. Who would of ever thought that technology could be both, safe and relaxing? :) Well with the future predictions of tremendous use of technology it is said that in the near future bedroom sets of thousands and thousand of dollars will be in the market. With a clap of your hands your room is set, with the clap of your hands the lights are as you want them on/off. Take a look at these pictures of these Italian/ European bedroom sets to come. It may be ridiculously expensive but it is also ridiculously comfortable, it is shaped by the shape of your body. It is set to cost at least 5 to 8 thousand dollars. Look for portable/ comfortable bedroom sets in the near future! :)

Spacecraft fire safety

2009-08-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

Firefighting on spacecrafts is an ongoing research project. Smoke detectors that work on earth don't work well in zero gravity because dust particles float freely in the air. Fire extinguishers need to have extinguishing agents to suppress fire and not contaminate the enclosed environment inside a Shuttle or The Space Station. Astronauts can't just open a window to let the smoke out. If there is a fire on-board it must be detected and extinguished quickly. As new composite materials are developed and used to build spacecraft , new detection and extinguishing equipment must be developed to
safeguard the astronauts in future spacecraft.
As space travel forges
forward to far away uncharted regions, space
continues to be a research center for future fire
safety and new extinguishing technologies for
space age materials.

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/index.html

Future Thermal Imaging Cameras for the Fire Service

2009-08-06T13:38:00.001-07:00

Thermal Imaging Cameras (tic) have been in use by the fire service for many years. Early Thermal Imaging Cameras in the fire service were heavy and bulky, needed ample warm-up time, battery life was poor and units were very expensive.

Advancement in thermal imaging camera technology by NASA has benefited the fire service by producing smaller, lightweight, hand held, user friendly Thermal Imaging Cameras. Battery technology has advanced by supplying more power in smaller compact power packs. Research is underway to produce

Thermal Imaging Camera picture displays integrated inside the firefighters' Self Contained Breathing Apparatus face mask.

This future technology would be of great help to firefighters as it would allow them to find the fire and locate victims inside a smoke filled room. The display inside their mask would free up the firefighters hands to carry equipment and rescue victims. Future designs may make the integrated Thermal Imaging Cameras cost effective so each firefighters mask could be equipped with this new technology.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/jscfeatures/articles/000000278.html

Smart cars and roads of the future

2009-08-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

Researchers at the University of California, Berkley are experimenting with WiFi technology to make cars talk to each other and the road. The information systems in the cars interact with sensors in the road. Data about intersections and road conditions are transmitted via WiFi to cars within a localized area. Jim Misener a transportation safety researcher at UC Berkley says" the primary problem is the driver" of many road accidents and hopes to develop accident avoidance and information systems for cars of the future.

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration is researching this same type of communication which could lead to future Smart Roads. With future technological advancements in vehicles, the human factor could be taken out of the equation. Smart cars could receive information from the smart roads and avoid accidents, bad road conditions or inconvenient traffic jams . Read the complete article and see a video clip at the link below.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0103-smart_cars.htm

Pet Safety Technology

2009-08-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

Until your pet learns to use the phone,AVID will help him find his way home

Micro-electronic technology can be used to permanently identify animals and make it easier for animals to be returned to their rightful owners. Many pets are already being permanently identified with this amazing microchip technology by veterinary practices and humane societies. There have been news reports of microchip identification being used to return animals to owners thousands of miles away. One lucky kitten who decided to explore a moving van was reunited with his family after being discovered among the neighbor’s moving cargo in another state. Horses sold for slaughter are now routinely checked for microchip identification before being slaughtered after it was discovered that some valuable show and race horses were presented for slaughter after being stolen. This animal identification procedure will undoubtedly continue to evolve for future use. Future microchip technology might include GPS tracking capabilities to directly track lost or stolen animals. Please read the following article from Avid microchips that describes how this technology works:

“Advanced micro-electronic technology has enabled AVID to develop a system that provides precise, secure and permanent animal identification.
The AVID Animal Identification System utilizes its own unique and patented* technique, based on radiowave communications, to identify animals on demand.
The AVID Animal Identification System is comprised of the following two components:

AVID Microchip:Object shown not actual size.

PASSIVE
No power supply to replace or cause harm to animals.
SMALL
About the size of a grain of rice.
SIMPLE
Standard injection procedure implants the identity tag quickly and safely. No anesthesia is required or recommended.
SAFE
The micro-electronic device is encapsulated within a proven bio-compatible glass.
RELlABLE
Accident or injury to the animal will not prevent the reading of the identity tag.
UNIQUE
Each identity tag is manufactured and programmed under computer control to insure against duplication of I.D. codes. No two animals would have the same number.
UNALTERABLE
Once implanted, the identity tag is virtually impossible to retrieve. Surgical removal, using the most advanced radiograph techniques available, is extremely difficult. The number can never be altered.
AVID Microchip Reader

Generates a low energy radio signal that energizes the identity tag to transmit its unique number.
The received number is displayed on a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) in an easy to read format.
Reading time is measured in "Milliseconds".
Can transmit via a standard RS-232 interface to a computer supporting custom applications.*
Manual, Remote or Computer controlled operational capability.*
Battery powered. Standard 9V or rechargable.*
Compact and lightweight. Total unit weighs less than two pounds. AVlD's intelligent and thoughtful design has produced an identity tag reader that is practical for use in both field and clinic environment. “
* Depending on model and options selected.
AVID Holds U.S. Patent Numbers 4,333,072 - 321,069 - 318,658 - 5,214,409 and 5,235,326
http://www.avidid.com/pets/index.html

THE FUTURE STARTS HERE !

2009-07-31T20:57:00.000-07:00

This is the end of Sparks Present Safety and Technology Posts. Please join Sparks as we step into the future with our FUTURE SAFETY AND TECHNOLOGY BLOGS.

2009-07-31T15:03:00.000-07:00

The Chevy Volt

2009-07-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

The Chevy Volt is definitely a good choice in the steps being taken to make our country Go Green! The Chevy Volt has an electric motor with a battery that can provide up to 40 miles of range on a single charge! While you are driving a gas engine kicks in to recharge your battery. Since most people drive less than 40 miles a day this means unlike the Prius the Volt could get drivers completely off gas altogether. By having an electric motor with a battery to charge it is safer for the environment because their will be less fumes going into the air!

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854195_1854120,00.html

The World's Fastest Computer

2009-07-28T17:46:00.001-07:00

The World’s fastest Computer which is nicknamed the "Road Runner" was invented on May 26th at 3:30 in the morning. It is an $133 million dollar supercomputer and it broke the long sought after petaflop barrier; 1 quadrillion calculations per second. The "Roadrunner" was built by IBM for Los Alamos National Laboratory and its primary use will be to simulate the effects of aging on nuclear weapons! Imagine using this computer to do your homework!

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854195_1854123,00.html

Bionic Hand

2009-07-28T17:14:00.001-07:00

Touch Bionics have developed the first ever Bionic Hand which is probably greatly appreciated by people who have been born without a hand or lost their hand due to an accident. The Bionic Hand has a very strong grip to be able to grasp objects and hold them for long periods of time. Also, the hand actually has fingers that each have their own motor which is called the I Limb! Touch Bionics are now working on the invention of a prosthetic wrist and full Bionic Arm. Imagine the things a person could accomplish by having their entire arm back after losing it! Having a Bionic Hand is definitely a lot safer for a person because they are able to use their hand properly and not have to struggle to get things or do things on their own!

http://inventorspot.com/articles/top_ten_inventions_2008_21971

Camera for the Blind

2009-07-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

Never in my life did I think that the day would come that a blind person could have a camera and be able to look at pictures! Well that day has come and the camera is called the Touch Sight Camera. The photographer holds the camera up to their forehead, and a Braille-like screen makes a raised image of whatever the lens sees. It can also record up to three seconds of sound after each image is taken; this makes it possible for the impaired-vision user to search through libraries of their saved photos. This is an amazing invention and I think it is going to be used very often by Vision-impaired individuals. The Touch Sight Camera is very safe for impaired vision users because it allows them to use their braille to figure out what pictures they are looking at!

http://inventorspot.com/articles/top_ten_inventions_2008_21971

Preparing to be Safe in America

2009-07-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

The tragic events of September 11, 2001 made many Americans fear for their public safety. Americans, for perhaps the first time in their lives, felt threatened as they went about everyday tasks like going to work or school, riding a train, plane or subway or relaxing in their homes. Some citizens built bunkers and stock-piled food and supplies to survive potential future threats.
The United States Department of Homeland Security was established by the Federal Government for the purpose of protecting Americans from any large scale national disaster such as terrorist attacks or natural disasters (hurricanes, tornadoes, floods).
http://www.dhs.gov/files/prepresprecovery.shtm

Many varied technologies will be developed to fight the war on terrorism and safeguard American Citizens. Citivas Group, a security consulting firm, lists the the most critical areas that are seeing a surge in innovative technologies. HomelandSecurityTechnologieshttp://www.cfr.org/publication/14827/homeland_security_technologies.html

“Technology on the Front Lines
The array of homeland security technologies is as varied as the perceived threats to national security. Industry experts and market analysts generally agree that the following sectors will likely see an influx of technologies in the coming years. They are listed in order of spending projections (PDF) from the Civitas Group, a security consulting firm.
Domestic and Foreign Intelligence
Law Enforcement and Counterterrorism
Border and Physical Security
Biological, Radiological, and Chemical Agent Prevention
Emergency Preparedness and Response
Aviation Security
Port Security
Detection Devices
Biometric Identification
ID Cards
Surveillance
Data Storage
Behavioral Profiling”

The Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) developed a public education campaign called Ready America to urge Americans to be prepared for possible future terrorist attacks or natural disasters. The three steps emphasized by FEMA in their public education campaign are “prepare, plan and stay informed.” FEMA encourages citizens to take the first steps to prepare for possible emergencies by making a basic home emergency supply kit. Items to include are listed below from Ready America’s website:
http://www.ready.gov/america/npm09/getakit.html

"When preparing for a possible emergency situation, it's best to think first about the basics of survival: fresh water, food, clean air and warmth.
Recommended Items to Include in a Basic Emergency Supply Kit:
§ Water, one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation
§ Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
§ Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both
§ Flashlight and extra batteries
§ First aid kit
§ Whistle to signal for help
§ Dust mask, to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
§ Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
§ Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
§ Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)
§ Local maps
§ Cell phone with chargers
Additional Items to Consider Adding to an Emergency Supply Kit:
§ Prescription medications and glasses
§ Infant formula and diapers
§ Pet food and extra water for your pet
§ Important family documents such as copies of insurance policies, identification and bank account records in a waterproof, portable container
§ Cash or traveler's checks and change
§ Emergency reference material such as a first aid book or information from www.ready.gov
§ Sleeping bag or warm blanket for each person. Consider additional bedding if you live in a cold-weather climate.
§ Complete change of clothing including a long sleeved shirt, long pants and sturdy shoes. Consider additional clothing if you live in a cold-weather climate.
§ Household chlorine bleach and medicine dropper – When diluted nine parts water to one part bleach, bleach can be used as a disinfectant. Or in an emergency, you can use it to treat water by using 16 drops of regular household liquid bleach per gallon of water. Do not use scented, color safe or bleaches with added cleaners.
§ Fire Extinguisher
§ Matches in a waterproof container
§ Feminine supplies and personal hygiene items
§ Mess kits, paper cups, plates and plastic utensils, paper towels
§ Paper and pencil
§ Books, games, puzzles or other activities for children "

Additional information on how to prepare for national emergencies is also available on the Ready America website. http://www.ready.gov/america/npm09/getakit.html

Home Fire Sprinkler Systems Save Lives

2009-07-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

Modern Technology has given the world many developments that combat the devastating effects of fire. The further development of modern fire sprinkler systems has allowed us to adapt this remarkable technology previously used only in commercial buildings for home use. Many communities (including Buckingham Township in Bucks County, Pa.) now require the installation of home sprinkler systems in newly constructed homes.

This wonderful scientific invention protects society from the ravages of fire by safeguarding lives and property. The artistic design of modern sprinkler heads fits beautifully and discreetly into the architecture of homes. Insurance companies discount premiums for homeowner insurance for individuals who have sprinkler systems in their homes.

These facts from the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition emphasize the importance of fire sprinkler systems in homes:

http://www.homefiresprinkler.org/Consumer/ConsSprinklersmarts.html

"-more than 4,000 people die annually in fires.

-the combination of installing smoke detectors and a fire sprinkler system reduces home death risk from fire by 82%.

-home sprinklers can contain and/or extinguish a fire before the fire company arrives.

-only the sprinkler closeset to the fire activates and sprays the fire; 90% of fires in sprinklered homes are contained by the action of a single sprinkler head. "

Please watch Tim Carter of Ask the builder.com discuss the design and installation of life-saving home sprinkler systems. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Oopso3qudc

What is Reverse 911 ?

2009-07-25T14:23:00.001-07:00

Please watch this video on how Reverse 911 may have made a difference in saving a woman's life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMMv29ylvzM

Reverse 911 is exactly what it sounds like, 911 in reverse. Instead of citizens calling in, emergency personnel contact designated communities or individuals. The Reverse 911 Interactive Community Notification System is described by its service provider as “a communications solution that uses a patented combination of database and GIS mapping technologies to deliver outbound notifications.” The amazing communication system quickly reaches a specific demographic and provides rapid notification to communities or individuals for the purpose of general information or crisis notification. The current Reverse 911 system is in use by many local governments, police, emergency management agencies, universities, utilities, chemical and transportation companies to quickly inform citizens of impending emergencies. Reverse 911 has been instrumental in saving lives in the recent California wildfires. Authorities were able to rapidly notify residents to evacuate as fire raced toward unsuspecting homeowners. Reverse 911 could be vital to the safety of people living near nuclear power plants or chemical manufacturers when used to inform residents of toxic spills or radiation releases. As communication technologies continue to grow and improve, Reverse 911 will replace slower notifications systems like tornado sirens to warn communities of impending danger.

www.reverse911.com/

I Pod Breathalyzer

2009-07-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

When you turn on your TV nowadays and watch the news most likely there is always a story about someone being killed or hurt by a drunk driver. This device which is sold by David Steele Enterprises costs $79. It is compact and fits onto the bottom of an IPod and displays the logo "Made for iPod." While it is attached you can download your music by using your FM Radio. The I breath is charged by your IPod’s battery and lets you perform your own Breath test to determine if it is safe for you to drive yourself home. Maybe if more people use the I breath instead of just driving drunk less people will get killed or hurt by drunk drivers and more people will be safe on the road!

Technology and Safety Group Art Project

2009-07-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

Undergraduate Safety Technology Degee at Rochester Institute of Technology

2009-07-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

Virtually every organization today depends on safety experts to ensure a safe, smooth, and effective operation. These professionals address their organizations’ immediate safety needs, with work ranging from creating physically safer work places and modifying employee behaviors to implementing voluntary protection programs that go beyond legal standards.

Safety professionals protect resources such as workers, buildings, equipment, intellectual capital, and corporate reputations. They perform their functions in a variety of settings, including manufacturing, construction, engineering, insurance, risk management, consulting, corporate business, government, education, and health care. This program is available to students both on campus and in a distance-learning format.

The safety technology program is academically challenging and prepares graduates with the skills and knowledge to address their organization’s immediate and long-term safety needs, including protection and preservation of workers, buildings, equipment, and corporate reputations. The program prepares graduates to be:

qualified to practice as safety professionals in industry, government, or other related areas of employment;

able to progress toward safety management (leadership) positions; and

able to pursue appropriate advanced education or certification as safety professionals.

The curriculum is grounded in math, science, and the liberal arts, with specialized courses in a wide range of subjects, including occupational safety, fire protection, construction safety, incident investigation, and ergonomics. The safety technology curriculum emphasizes creative problem solving through challenging, application-based courses that provide the opportunity to solve actual safety problems provided by industry.

Your Cell Phone, Your Lifeline

2009-07-18T23:42:00.000-07:00

What I thought about at Meeting yesterday.
Posted on April 20, 2009 by QuakerDave
http://www.quakeragitator.wordpress.com/.../

The tragic shootings at Columbine High School and Virginia Polytechnic Institute have brought to the forefront the need for rapid, mass communication on college campuses. (see links for more information on Columbine and Virginia Tech. Warning: These videos may disturb some viewers): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7uEpHFhDS4&feature=email%20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OwK34ZD1TY&feature=email
College administrators need to be able to quickly communicate with faculty, students and employees in emergency circumstances (severe weather, fire, campus intruder or other emergency). During the Virginia Tech shootings, the university attempted to notify campus members about the ongoing emergency via campus email, the latest technology available at the time to communicate with large groups on campus.
A timeline pictured on Liveleak, shows that it took nearly two and a half hours after the shootings began at Virginia Tech for the university to attempt to notify the campus community about the impending danger.
http://cdnll-5.liveleak.com/s/8/media8/2007/Apr/17/LiveLeak-dot-com-43323-virginiatechshootingtimeline.jpg?h=c74deffe12ec169a7fec6663e13a822b&e=1248554435&rs=150

Where there is a need, technology responds. College campuses everywhere realized they needed a more rapid method of notifying the campus community of emergencies. According to PEW Internet and American Life Project, “nearly 90% of Americans age 18 to 29 years old own a cell phone” . Rave Mobile Safety corporation provides cell phone alerting systems to universities across the United States. In simple terms, students who wish to participate, provide a user profile and cell phone number to campus security. During a campus emergency, university security can contact and locate students via the cell phone’s GPS system. The use of cell phone technology allows the university to immediately contact campus personnel for security purposes. “In addition to responding faster to emergency situations, this service also allows students to request “electronic escorts.” Students can call a second preprogrammed number and record a message informing security that they are walking from the library to their residence hall, for example. The students set a timer and if they do not call back before the time has expired, security will call the cell phone number to check that the student is safe. If there is no verification, security will respond to the incident.” http://www.ravewireless.com/products/ravealert/beforeafter
The newest technology systems are looking not only to provide outgoing messages from the university to students and staff , but are also looking to provide inbound information from individuals requesting emergency help. Future upgrades may allow participants to add medical history (allergies, diabetic or epileptic) to their profile for use in case of emergency. This service may also be used to follow students anywhere off campus where they have a GPS signal.
Bucks County Community College has a cell phone notification system in place. The system of course is only available to students who chose to enroll. Members may enroll on the college website. http://www.e2campus.com/my/bucks/signup.htm
Consider enrolling today to safeguard your college experience.

Scanning Electron Microscopes

2009-07-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

Although these gadgets were published in 1993, today they have become more useful than ever.

In 1993, Charles Smithart was convicted of the murder of an 11-year-old girl in the town of Glennallen, Alaska. Prosecutors suspected Smithart after he was spotted at the scene of the crime, but they had no evidence directly linking him to the murder. That's where a scanning electron microscope (SEM) came in.

Using the X-ray spectroscopy detector of an SEM, a forensic scientist analyzed bits of iron found at the scene of the crime. He found that they had a globular shape that only welding or grinding produces. As it turned out, Smithart had a welding rig in his shop and would sometimes repair bicycles for the local children. Thanks to the tremendous capabilities of scanning electron microscopes, prosecutors had the evidence they needed to link Smithart to the crime.

Why was an SEM, rather than a regular light, or optical, microscope from the local high school, necessary to examine the evidence for Smithart's trial? For one thing, SEMs can magnify objects at upward of 300,000 times the size of the object studied. Scientists refer to this number as the magnification power and denote it, for example, as 300,000^x. In contrast, run-of-the-mill optical microscopes tend to have a magnification power of a few hundred times. SEMs also have tremendous depth of field compared to traditional microscopes, providing an almost 3-D image for researchers to analyze, as compared to the flatter image an optical microscope produces. Lastly, these advanced microscopes can look past the surface of an object, telling researchers information about its composition. All of these attributes proved essential in examining evidence from the Smithart case.

Of course, SEMs have their share of drawbacks as well, like cost. Even the cheapest among them cost tens of thousands of dollars. They're also bulky and complex instruments, requiring considerable expertise to operate. As a result, their use is typically limited to research and industrial applications, though recent breakthroughs have made SEMS more accessible in other applications.

To read more on Scanning Electron Microscopes and to view the whole article you can visit

http://science.howstuffworks.com/scanning-electron-microscope.htm

OnStar Technology

2009-07-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

At its most basic, OnStar consists of four different types of technology: cellular, voice recognition, GPS and vehicle telemetry. All of the services that OnStar provides are a result of one or more of these technologies working together.

OnStar's cellular service is voice-activated and hands-free. The console contains a built-in microphone and uses the car speakers. To make a call, you speak a phone number or a previously stored name associated with a phone number. The console is connected to a Vehicle Comm and Interface Module (VCIM), which uses a cellular antenna on top of the car to transmit signals to OnStar's cellular network. (For more information on cellular technology, see How Cell Phones Work.) OnStar's cellular service has a better range than most cell phones (although you can still lose service in remote areas), with a full three watts instead of a regular cell phone's 0.6 watts. With some OnStar plans, you can also use the cellular service just as you would a regular cell phone plan.

For calls to the advisor, OnStar uses voice recognition software similar to that already used in some hand-held cell phones. However, one of OnStar's unique features is the ability to "surf the Web" using the Virtual Advisor automated system. For this service, OnStar uses text-to-voice technology called VoiceXML. When you ask for information, such as "weather," the software translates your request into XML (Extensible Markup Language) and matches it to settings in your OnStar profile. Then it translates the information into VoiceXML and reads it to you. The GPS receiver is called OnCore, and it is part of the VCIM (older OnStar-equipped vehicles have separate modules for the cell phone and GPS system). A GPS receiver uses the amount of time that it takes for a radio signal to get from satellites to a specific location to calculate distance. (For more information on GPS, see How GPS Receivers Work). The OnStar Call Center uses four different satellites to pinpoint the car's location when either the driver or the car itself asks to be located.

Now this is what i call SMART and SAFE technology. To read more on how OnStar works click the link below.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/onstar2.htm

Fire Safety Technology

2009-07-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

COMPETENCE

"Fire safety technology produces fire safety design and assessment methods for the needs of industries and society. These methods can be used to describe the operation of products and systems in case of fire, as well as the related risks. VTT develops the simulation of fire development, evacuation and extinguishing, as well as other tools for the assessment of fire safety. The fire safety research conducted by VTT has an extensive field of application: the research subjects vary from the ignition and burning of materials to the overall fire safety of large objects and even social aspects. Modeling and simulation competence combined with experimental research and scientific and practical expertise makes holistic fire safety management possible".

CHALLENGES

"Climate change and energy efficiency goals induce changes to construction processes. New products, structures and building methods lead to new fire technology issues and fire risks. The overall functionality of products and buildings always requires consideration of fire performance. The production, storage, transfer and use of new forms of energy set new challenges for fire safety management. Minimizing the fire risks related to human behavior requires interdisciplinary research".

SOLUTIONS & BENEFITS

Simultaneous simulation of fire development and evacuation
Probability based fire risk analysis
Development of concepts for fire safety assessment for various premises
Experimental fire safety research in laboratory and in field conditions
Calculational and experimental methods in product development
Fire safety assessment and management of large objects using calculational methods
Performance-based fire safety design enables innovative construction solutions
Reasonable product development costs

Close cooperation with the authorities and the industry enhances safety, well-being and the smooth running of society.

www.vtt.fi/img/research/tic/liekki_230.jpg
http://www.vtt.fi/research/technology/fire_safety_technology.jsp?lang=en

Firefighter Personal Protective Equipment

2009-07-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

Firefighter Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) construction of today has come a long way since early firefighter gear that was made from wool and a rubber outer liner(1).Today’s PPE firefighting gear construction, performance and maintenance is governed by National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1971 Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, 2007 edition. The components must consist of a coat, pants, hood, gloves, boots, helmet and Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) The ensemble must protect the firefighter for fifteen minutes in an environment of 105-203 degrees F, five minutes in an environment of 204-482 degrees F and about 10 seconds in an environment of 483-1500 degrees F. Typical temperatures in a structure fire can reach 900 degrees F and
1500-2000 degrees F in a flashover condition. A flashover is when superheated gasses ignite as fresh air is introduced into a building. (2).
The PPE coat and pants consist of an outer shell, thermal liner and moisture barrier. The outer shell is water, cut, tear, flame, and puncture resistant. The outer shell is usually made from a blend of Polybenzimidaxazole (PBI™), Kevlar®, Aramid and Nomex® fabrics. The thermal liner is several layers of Nomex® and Kevlar® sandwiched between an inner and outer layer of woven Nomex®. Next to the firefighter is a moisture barrier made of GORTEX™ which keeps out water but allows the release of perspiration and body heat. Globe brand firefighting gear integrates webbing in the coat called a “Drag Rescue Device” (DRD) to easily pull a firefighter to safety. Webbing can also be installed in the pants so a firefighter can repel themselves safely out a window if egress from the fire building is blocked (3). A Nomex® hood is worn to protect the neck and head from fire and heat. The collar of the coat provides another layer of protection to the neck and ears. A helmet is worn to deflect any falling debris and acts as another layer of thermal protection to the top of the head. Nomex® gloves and waterproof rubber or leather boots complete the ensemble. Yearly inspections by a third party are conducted on the PPE to detect any defects. With proper cleaning and maintenance the gear can last up to eight years. After eight years the gear is retired from service.
Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) (not to be confused with Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus [SCUBA]) components such as air cylinder, hoses and face mask, must meet the same temperature requirements as the PPE clothing. The SCBA must also have a Personal Alert Safety System (PASS) device that signals if a firefighter stops moving for 15-20 seconds. The PASS device also allows the firefighter to manually activate the alert if he or she is in trouble. Bottles are hydro-tested yearly as are regulators and masks.
The cost to equip a firefighter with PPE is around $5500.00. Firefighting coat, pants, boots, helmet and gloves are around $2000.00 and SCBA is around $3500.00 depending on the manufacturer.

1) http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/print.html?id=331803&bPool=FE.pennnet.com%
Farticle_tool_bar

2) Cote, Arthur E. NFPA Fire Protection Handbook,pg 12, 143-160. 20th ed. Vol. II.
Quincy:National Fire Protection Association, 2008.

3) http://globefiresuits.com/globe/

Flight Safety Technology - SOCRATES™

2009-07-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

SOCRATES™ Sensor for Optically Characterizing Remote Atmospheric Turbulence Emanating SoundThe U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recognizes that a major problem in aviation today is airport congestion, caused by the inability to keep pace with the growth of air traffic. A major contributor to this problem is wake turbulence, also known as a wake vortex, which is strongest and most dangerous when planes take off and land. Our patented SOCRATES™ technology is being developed to identify the strength and location of wake turbulence by measuring changes in the speed of laser beam light waves. Upon completion of our development and test program, we believe the system will be trained to recognize the acoustic signatures of different air disturbances as far as two nautical miles away, and provide pilots and Air Traffic Control personnel with advanced warning of the nature and location of these potential hazards. Based on our prototype tests, we believe SOCRATES™ will be:

Reliable in most weather conditions
Highly accurate
Eye safe
Able to detect even small disturbances
Able to detect disturbances without the presence of large atmospheric particles such as rain or ice crystals

Due to wake turbulence, the FAA restricts take offs and landings behind heavier aircraft, expending precious minutes of runway time in each affected pair of aircraft. According to recent estimates, these delays are part of an estimated $5.2 billion per year in unnecessary costs. Other remedies, such as new runway construction, are costly and environmentally disruptive. Upon successful completion of development, the benefits of SOCRATES™ technology could include:

The ability for airports and airlines to streamline flight schedules using "adaptive spacing"
Substantial cost savings generated for airports, airlines and passengers
Improved flight safety for passengers and airline personnel

http://www.flysafetech.com/advancing_technologies/socrates.asp

Food Quality Monitoring Software - Automated Protection

2009-07-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

Food borne illness puts your customers and your business at risk. While most restaurant chains have HACCP programs, most are ineffective and time-consuming.
Take the worry out of food safety.
iQuality is a powerful web-based tool for managing HACCP and inspection programs for large food service organizations. Combining the best technology in PDAs (handheld computers), temperature data acquisition, and .NET web-based software, iQuality automates the monitoring of quality risk factors while dramatically lowering the potential for human error.
Critical information is centralized through web-based reporting, audit trails, and checklist-management tools. Corrective actions are provided when unsafe conditions are detected. Paperwork is eliminated. Through iQuality's efficient inventory recall alert system, any problem can be addressed before an outbreak occurs.

Inputs temperature probe data directly into the PDA

Ensures checkpoints are actually visited

Prompts with corrective actions whenever a critical limit is exceeded

Manages multi-step processes such as cooling

Makes reports instantly available via web-browser

Ensure critical food handling procedures are followed via automated checklists, action prompts, and audit trails

Streamline regulatory reporting with paperless data capture

Stay on top of the latest safety procedures with centralized configuration and automatic change distribution

Improve awareness of food safety with instant alerts and enterprise reports

Avoid initial acquisition costs with PAR hosting of the enterprise component

Simplify support with centralized configuration tool and easy-to-use hardware/and software

Deploys easily with .NET web-based architecture

http://www.partech.com/en/solutions/restaurant/food-safety-monitoring/haccp.html

Laser Technology & Tailgaiting Enforcement

2009-07-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

Tailgating, also known as a traffic violation for following too close, has historically relied upon the visual judgment of the traffic officer or has been the result of a rear-end crash. Laser Technology has developed a patented software code that offers a unique measurement calculation unlike any other laser on the market. It's called DBC (Distance Between Cars) and it calculates the time and distance between two moving vehicles when one is following the other in the same lane.

Just like in speed enforcement, traffic officers still need to first visually determine if a vehicle is following too close before they even attempt to validate it with the appropriate police equipment. The UltraLyte 100LR laser with DBC makes these measurements possible and instantly validates the visual determination of the officer.This technology can help law agencies around the world crack down on aggressive driving. Departments have used DBC to promote a public awareness campaign with the intent to remind drivers about the 2-second following rule. Take an active role in reducing crashes and fatalities in your community by integrating a program that promotes safety from the dangers in tailgating and aggressive driving.

According to NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, "Speeding reduces a driver's ability to steer safely around curves or objects in the roadway, extends the distance necessary to stop a vehicle, and increases the distance a vehicle travels while the driver reacts to a dangerous situation. The economic cost of speeding-related crashes is estimated to be $40.4 billion each year."

http://www.lasertech.com/Tailgating-Enforcement.aspx

Sensor Safety Technolgy

2009-07-02T05:45:00.000-07:00

Bircher America Inc.manufactures a complete line of presence and motion sensors. Electronic sensor technology enhances safety and comfort in industrial manufacturing facilities, shipping warehouses, commercial properties, medical treatment centers, hospitals, train stations, bus depots, and airports.

Machinery and Robot Safety
Automatic Door Safety
Industrial Door Safety

Public Transport SafetySafety in today's highly automated world. Our society has come to expect high levels of safety and comfort while moving about in public and the workplace. Companies take measures to avoid occupational hazard and ensure workplace safety, building owners and transit authorities need to ensure the safety of the general public entering or leaving buildings, buses or trains through an automatic door.

Products such as safety mats, door sensors, microwave sensors, infrared sensor and loop detector manufactured by Bircher can be used to meet those challenges. The integration of electronic sensor technology is easily achieved in these applications: automatic sliding door, revolving door, industrial door, industrial garage door, industrial safety equipment, motion control system and machine control.

http://www.bircheramerica.com/

Breakaway Saddle Stirrups

2009-07-01T11:38:00.000-07:00

Horse back riding can be a very dangerous sport. One of the most dangerous problems associated with horseback riding is getting a foot stuck in a stirrup while falling off your horse. A stirrup is the piece of the saddle that the riders foot goes in. Draggings are depicted on many western films, when the rider falls off and is drug behind the horse as the horse is running away.(The horse is spooked and runs because there is something following it ) A dragging can result in serious injury or death to the rider.

A company called "Saddle Technology Incorporated"(STI) has developed a modern stirrup system that breaks away from the saddle when the stirrup is rotated out of its normal downward position. CEO Mike McCoy has been in the cattle business all his life and rode in professional rodeos for sixteen years. Mike had witnessed a man die after being dragged behind a horse and was fearful this could happen to his children. Mike developed the breakaway stirrup system to protect his children. Others saw his invention and requested that Mike make them a pair for their saddle. Soon Mike formed the STI company and marketed his invention for the safety of other riders. Tim Feland, a Profession Rodeo calf roper endorses the STI breakaway stirrup and boasts its design enhances his performance in competition.

Author of the article Michael J. McCoy states that proper horsemanship and the correct equipment can help prevent riding accidents. Rider's attire such as tight fitting clothes or material that tears easily can help prevent the rider from becoming stuck on a fence post or tree branch and pulled from the saddle. Proper riding boots( also known as cowboy boots), can greatly reduce the chance that the riders foot will become stuck in the stirrup and the rider drug behind the horse. Check out the website for testimonials and more information on breakaway stirrups.

http://www.breakawaystirrups.com/

2008 APTERA ELECTRIC CAR

2009-06-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

You don't see many of these cars out in the market, or even in the streets just yet, but i have a feeling that it will be a very popular car very soon. It has already been placed in the market in California; before you know it, it'll be the most popular, inexpensive and efficient car. This new technological invention of 2008, is just amazing and is said to be between the price range of 20 to 25 thousand dollars.It is a three wheeled car reportedly gets 230MPG, it also has a cruising speed of 55MPH. Click the link below to watch a brief video of this new trendy car! I think you'll be as stunned as I was.

http://en.sevenload.com/videos/78pLqnq-090318-Apteras-Electric-Car

Microchip- Energy Consumption

2009-06-26T08:09:00.001-07:00

"Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Texas Instruments Company have discovered a way to significantly decrease microchip energy consumption to one tenth of the current rates. This reduction in power consumption translates into longer battery life for portable devices, such as mobile phones and hand held computers, and may enable devices to operate on electricity produced using relatively low power sources, such as body heat or movement".

Click the link below to read the full article.
http://thefutureofthings.com/news/1149/mit-team-develops-energy-efficient-microchip.html

The Present Technology

2009-06-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

I hope you all enjoyed this past portion of our technology research. Now we will post a massive ammount of blogs, researched by us, The Sparks, as we post more pictures, videos and articles of this present technology.

Amazaing how far technology has come, what it has done to our world and how it has affected our society in EVERY way! We hope you will enjoy this present portion of our blog as much as you enjoyed our past portion

Toilets Through Time

2009-06-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

The toilet is an invention that most of us could not live without. Imagine going back to the middle ages and using a chamber pot to relieve yourself and then dumping it into the streets when you filled the pot. Eww! The toilet was invented by Sir John Harrington for Queen Elizabeth I in 1596. It was a rudimentary design that has advanced greatly through the ages. In 1775 Alexander Cummings was given the first patent for the flushing toilet. The toilet really took off in the 1800's when people realized that poor sanitary conditions were causing many health and environmental problems. The Tremont Hotel of Boston was the first hotel to have indoor plumbing and eight water closets. This was tremendous seeing as only the wealthy could afford indoor plumbing. By 1910 the toilet was changed from the elevated water tank to the closed tank and bowl that we all know and love.

http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=inventors&cdn=money&tm=383&gps=139_30_1259_642&f=00&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.masterplumbers.com/plumbviews/1999/toilet_tribute.asp

http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Plumbing_3.htm

Car Safety

2009-06-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Airbags have become a requirement for all newer cars but this wasn't always the case. In simple terms the airbag is a gas-inflated cushion built into the steering wheel, dashboard, door, roof, or seat of a car that uses a crash sensor to trigger the release and expansion of the bag to protech you from the impact of an accident. Allen Breed was a major player in airbag technology. He was the patent holder to the only crash sensing technology available at the birth of the airbag industry in 1968. Early airbag patents go back to the early 1950s yet they couldn't seem to take off until Breed's "sensor and safety system" was introduced. In 1971, the Ford car company built an experimental airbag fleet and in 1973 GM tested airbags on the 1973 Chevrolet model. The Oldsmobile Toronado was the first car with a passanger airbag intended for sale to the public. From this point on airbags became an option for most cars and in 1998 became mandatory.

http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/air_bags.htm

Firearms in China

2009-06-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

Firearms are an important piece of machinery to most Americans. Throughout history guns have been a major part of warfare and day to day life. But where did they start? The first direct ancestor of the firearm is the fire-lance created by the Chinese. It was a tube filled with gunpowder and sometimes shrapnel, and attached to the end of a spear. This "gun" was used as a flamethrower during the siege of De'an in 1132. From this first gun improvements and adjustments were made as it traveled through the Middle East and finally landed in the West. Over the years they have changed shape and been improved yet the general idea has remained the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_firearms

The First Steam Engine

2009-06-24T07:19:00.000-07:00

Steam engines are a technological advancement that has made our lives indeffinately easier and it all started with one man. In 1698, Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine. He had been working on the problem of removing water out of coal mines. Savery's machine was a closed vessel filled with water into which steam under pressure was introduced. The steam forced that water upward and out of the mine shaft, and then a cold water sprinkler was introduced to condense the steam. This process created a vacuum which sucked more water out of the mine shaft through a bottom valve. This invention revolutionized the modern world with the introduction of the first locomotive and later the steam boat.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsteamengine.htm

The Hindenburg Disaster "Oh the humanity"

2009-06-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

Click on this link to watch and hear dramatic coverage of the Hindenburg crash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDU2MWJwJDc

The Hindenburg disaster in 1937 at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst New Jersey was a turning point in history for passenger travel and flight. The Hindenburg was one of the largest rigid framed luxury airships produced. It carried passengers across the ocean at 80 mph, much faster than traditional ocean liners. This marvel of technological engineering had 20 successful crossings of the North and South Atlantic Ocean before the horrific crash that etched its name in history.
The German -made Hindenburg was a sister ship to the Graf Zeppelin that had logged over one million safe flight miles. The company boasted that not one person had ever been injured while flying in a Zeppelin. Other U.S. and British Dirigibles (smaller blimps) had accidents mostly due to weather conditions.
Many theories were proposed to explain the reasons for the Hindenburg’s fiery crash (1). It is generally agreed that a spark from static electricity or lightning ignited the hydrogen gas on board and perpetuated the fireball that ensued. Other technology of the era including the use of highly flammable paint and the Hindenburg’s chemically treated cotton fabric skin contributed to the raging fire that consumed the airship in less than 37 seconds (1, 2).
The crash of the Hindenburg had a dramatic impact on society and the future of airship travel. Thirty -six people including thirteen passengers, twenty-two crew members and one ground crew member lost their lives in the fiery inferno. The dramatic motion pictures and newscaster Herbert Morrison’s moving recording of the crash destroyed the public’s trust in this type of air travel technology (1). Giant, hydrogen –filled passenger airships were no longer used to transport air passengers. The movie technology and recording artist’s vivid documentation of the tragic Hindenburg crash have captured and preserved this horrific, historic event for viewing by future generations (3).

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster
(2) http://www.vidicom-tv.com/tohiburg.htm
(3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDU2MWJwJDc

Effective But Potentially Deadly Safety Device

2009-06-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Not all technological developments for safety purposes are safe. A popular but potentially deadly fire extinguisher of the past was the Carbon tetrachloride (CTC) extinguisher. The CTC extinguisher was used primarily for flammable liquids and electrical fires. There were two methods to apply CTC to a fire; a pressurized brass or chrome canister or a round glass bottle, commonly known as a “CTC bomb”. The brass or chrome canister was pressurized by a hand pump mounted in the canister which pushed the CTC out of a hose toward a fire. The rounded glass bottle or “bomb” was thrown into a fire. The glass would break dispersing the CTC into the flames to extinguish the fire. The “CTC bomb” was also available as an automatic extinguisher. The ball of CTC was suspended from the ceiling or wall on a chain which had a fusible link. When the fusible link melted from the heat of a fire, the glass ball would drop and break, dispersing the CTC into the fire area.
These CTC extinguishers were a bomb in more than one sense. Carbon tetrachloride displaced oxygen that the fire needed to burn thus extinguishing the flames. The fumes were very toxic when heated or burned. A person in an enclosed area could be asphyxiated or overcome by the toxic fumes, and die. Despite the hazards of CTC, these extinguishers were very popular and were in use from 1912 until 1969, when its sale and use was banned. There are still some of these old extinguishers in dusty, dark confines of basements and store rooms. If you find one of these old extinguishers, don’t touch it. The integrity of the container could be questionable and could release CTC product. Contact your local fire officials for proper disposal of old extinguishers. Remember, please don’t attempt to fight a fire with a CTC extinguisher, you may extinguish more than the fire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_extinguisher

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/01/31/catapulted-bomb-puts-out-fire/

Safety Fuel Cells in NASCAR

2009-06-19T13:51:00.000-07:00

Safety fuel cells became mandatory in NASCAR racing due to an accident and fire that occurred during the 1964 World 600 race in Charlotte, NC. The driver, Fireball Roberts, died from complications of burns after his race car burst into flames when the stock fuel tank ruptured following an accident.

A safety fuel cell consists of a rugged outer metal shell, rigidly attached to the frame of the race car, with sturdy wide metal straps. Lining the inside of the metal shell is a gasoline resistant rubber bladder. A metal fill plate that is bolted to the top of the fuel cell has a large fill pipe and vent pipe to allow quick refuels during pit stops. The fill and vent pipes have a check ball in each tube that would close and keep the fuel contained in the fuel cell if a rollover were to occur. A special foam inside the rubber bladder keeps fuel from sloshing around inside the fuel cell, that could possibly upset the balance of the race car during high speed turns. If the outer shell were to be damaged during a crash the rubber bladder would keep the fuel contained, reducing the risk of a large fire.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/icons/news/story?id=3385906&campaign=rsssrch&source=nascar+icons

The First Microwave

2009-06-19T08:25:00.001-07:00

Imagine your life without a microwave. Scary thought isn't it. Well if it weren't for Dr. Percy Spencer, we would have a much harder time cooking just about anything. In 1946 while testing the magnetron, a new vacuum tube, Dr. Spencer noticed something odd. The candy bar in his pocket had melted. Intrigued he placed popcorn kernels next to the tube. He stood back and watched as the kernels began to pop and fly all over his lab. He began experimenting with different foods near the vacuum and noticed the same phenomena. Over the next few weeks he fashioned the boxed in look of our microwaves and trapped the microwave power, creating a high density electromagnetic field. He discovered that by placing food in the box he could raise the temperature of the food inside thus revolutionizing cooking!

http://www.gallawa.com/microtech/history.html

Lie Detectors

2009-06-17T20:22:00.000-07:00

Cesare Lombroso, in 1895, was the first to utilize such an instrument, but it was not until 1914 and 1915 that Vittorio Benussi, Harold Burtt, and, above all, William Marston produced devices establishing correlation of blood pressure and respiratory changes with lying. In 1921 an instrument capable of continuously recording blood pressure, respiration, and pulse rate was devised by John Larson. This was followed by the polygraph (1926) of Leonarde Keeler, a refinement of earlier devices, and by the psychogalvanometer (1936) of Walter Summers, a machine that measures electrical changes on the skin. A more recent innovation is a device, developed in 1970, called the psychological stress evaluator, which measures voice frequencies from tape recordings. Although the lie detector is used in police work, the similarity of physical changes caused by emotional factors such as feelings of guilt to those caused by lies has made its evidence for the most part legally unacceptable. An assessment of such devices by National Research Council (an arm of the National Academy of Sciences ) found that they also were too unreliable to be used in screening for national security purposes, but they are widely used for such purposes nonetheless, sometimes with inconsistent results from one government agency to another. The use of lie detectors to screen employees and job applicants is highly controversial.

"lie detector." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 17 Jun. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com/>.

History of 20th Century Dentistry

2009-06-17T05:26:00.000-07:00

Innovations in Dental Techniques and Technology—The 20th Century

A soldier awaits dental work out in the field soon after the U.S. Army Dental Corps was established in 1911.
1900—Fifty-seven dental schools exist by this year.
1900—Federation Dentaire Internationale (FDI) is formed.
1903—Charles Land devises the porcelain jacket crown.
1905—Alfred Einhorn, a German chemist, formulates the local anesthetic procain, later marketed under the trade name Novocain.
1907—William Taggart invents a “lost wax” casting machine, allowing dentists to make precision cast fillings.
1908—Greene Vardiman Black, the leading reformer and educator of American dentistry, publishes his monumental two-volume treatise Operative Dentistry, which remains the essential clinical dental text for fifty years. Black later develops techniques for filling teeth, standardizes operative procedures and instrumentation, develops an improved amalgam, and pioneers the use of visual aids for teaching dentistry.
1910—The first formal training program for dental nurses is established at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery by Cyrus M. Wright. The program is discontinued in 1914 mainly due to opposition by Ohio dentists.
1911—The U.S. Army Dental Corps is established as the first armed services dental corps in the U.S. The Navy institutes its Dental Corps in 1912.
1913—Alfred C. Fones opens the Fones Clinic For Dental Hygienists in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the world’s first oral hygiene school. Most of the twenty—seven women graduates of the first class are employed by the Bridgeport Board of Education to clean the teeth of school children. The greatly reduced incidence of caries among these children gives impetus to the dental hygienist movement. Dr. Fones, first to use the term “dental hygienist,” becomes known as the Father of Dental Hygiene.
1917—Irene Newman receives the world’s first dental hygiene license in Connecticut.
1923—American Association of Dental Schools is established.
1924—American Dental Assistants Association is founded by Juliette Southard and her female colleagues. Female dental assistants were first hired in the 19th century when “Lady in Attendance” signs were routinely seen in the windows of dental offices. Their duties included chair-side assistance, instrument cleaning, inventory, appointments, bookkeeping, and reception.
1926—The Carnegie Foundation-sponsored Gies Report, the first comprehensive report on the state of dental education, is published and has an immediate impact on the dental profession.
1928—National Board of Dental Examiners is established.
1930—The American Board of Orthodontics, the world’s first dental specialty board, is founded.
1930–1943—Frederick S. McKay, a Colorado dentist, is convinced that brown stains (mottling) on his patients’ teeth are related to their water supply. McKay’s research verifies that drinking water with high levels of naturally occurring fluoride is associated with low dental caries and a high degree of mottled enamel. By the early 1940s, H. Trendley Dean determines the ideal level of fluoride in drinking water to substantially reduce decay without mottling.
1933—The first National Board dental examinations are conducted. 83 candidates are examined in 4 cities.
1938—The nylon toothbrush, the first made with synthetic bristles, appears on the market.
1937—Alvin Strock inserts the first Vitallium dental screw implant. Vitallium, the first successful biocompatible implant metal, had been developed a year earlier by Charles Venable, an orthopedic surgeon.
1940s—22,000 dentists serve in World War II.
1945—The water fluoridation era begins when the cities of Newburgh, New York, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, add sodium fluoride to their public water systems.
1948—President Harry S. Truman signs the Congressional bill formally establishing the National Institute of Dental Research and initiating federal funding for dental research. The name changes to National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) in 1998.
1950s—The first fluoride toothpastes are marketed.
1949—Oskar Hagger, a Swiss chemist, develops the first system of bonding acrylic resin to dentin.
1955—Michael Buonocore describes the acid etch technique, a simple method of increasing the adhesion of acrylic fillings to enamel.
1957—John Borden introduces a high-speed air-driven contra-angle handpiece. The Airotor obtains speeds up to 300,000 rotations per minute and is an immediate commercial success, launching a new era of high-speed dentistry.
1957 —The Social Security Act is amended to include self-employed dentists.
1958—A fully reclining dental chair is introduced.
1960s—Sit down, four-handed dentistry becomes popular in the U.S. This technique improves productivity and shortens treatment time.
1960s—Lasers are developed and approved for soft tissue procedures.
1960—The first commercial electric toothbrush, developed in Switzerland after World War II, is introduced in the United States. A cordless, rechargeable model follows in 1961.
1962—Rafael Bowen develops Bis-GMA, the thermoset resin complex used in most modern composite resin restorative materials.
1980s—Per-Ingvar Branemark describes techniques for the osseointegration of dental implants.
1989—The first commercial home tooth bleaching product is marketed.
1990s—New tooth-colored restorative materials plus increased usage of bleaching, veneers, and implants inaugurate an era of esthetic dentistry.
1997—FDA approves the erbium YAG laser, the first for use on dentin, to treat tooth decay.

The First Ever Computer Mouse

2009-06-16T17:37:00.000-07:00

Check this out:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7772376.stm

Dr Engelbart introduced the first ever computer mouse on December 9th 1968 while he was demonstrating different ways of working with computers! Its funny to see something that was just created 40 years ago and now today in 2009 not used that much anymore, due to laptops.

The First Dishwasher

2009-06-16T17:18:00.001-07:00

The First Ever Dishwasher was created by Josephine Cochran in Shelbyville, Illinois in 1886. She was tired of her servants cracking her China so she decided to create the Dishwasher to do the dishes instead! She designed the dishwasher in her wooden shed there were wire holders for plates, cups or saucers which were then placed in a copper boiler. A motor turned the barrel as the hot soapy water splashed and cleaned the dishes. She was founded by a firm who eventually led her to Kitchen Aid and her updated machine was given plumbing in the late 1920's and drying elements in the 1940's. In the 1970's the dishwasher became a common household appliance. Today dishwashers are used all over the world and we have Mrs.Cochran to thank for not having to hand wash piles of dishes!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10363799

The First CellPhone

2009-06-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today you will not find many people who do not have cell phones, but before 1973 there were not any! Martin Cooper who is nick named the "father of the mobile phone". Martin was the CEO and the founder of a company called Array Comm, this company worked on researching smart antenna technology and improving wireless networks. Also, he was the corporate director for Motorola! Cooper is named the inventor of the first handheld cell phone and the first person to make a call on a handheld cellphone on April 23rd, 1973. It was that phone call that Cooper had made to Dr Joel S. Engel begin a fundamental technology and communications market shift toward making people be able to make a phone call to a person instead of just to a place. What would we do without Martin Cooper; nowadays you rarely here of people who do not own a cellphone. Also technology has definitely changed since the first cell phone because the cellphones today look nothing like the ones back in 1973!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper's_Law

SPAD S.XIII – WWI Fighter Plane

2009-06-12T19:22:00.001-07:00

Equipped with twin machine guns and a larger engine, the SPAD XIII was based upon the airframe of the smaller SPAD VII. Built in large numbers, it was fast and powerful but difficult to fly. The SPAD XIII was flown by many of the famous aces including Georges Guynemer and Eddie Rickenbacker. Guynemer's last victory was also the first victory scored by a SPAD XIII. With 18 victories, Irish ace William Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick scored more victories with the SPAD VII and SPAD XIII than any other ace.

Our First Thermometers

2009-06-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

What is a Thermometer? "Thermometers measure temperature, by using materials that change in some way when they are heated or cooled. In a mercury or alcohol thermometer the liquid expands as it is heated and contracts when it is cooled, so the length of the liquid column is longer or shorter depending on the temperature. Modern thermometers are calibrated in standard temperature units such as Fahrenheit or Celsius."

Early History of Thermometers: The first thermometers were called thermoscopes and while several inventors invented a version of the thermoscope at the same time, Italian inventor Santorio Santorio was the first inventor to put a numerical scale on the instrument. Galileo Galilei invented a rudimentary water thermometer in 1593 which, for the first time, allowed temperature variations to be measured. In 1714, Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury thermometer, the modern thermometer.

The Farenheight & Celsius Scales: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736) was the German physicist who invented the alcohol thermometer in 1709, and the mercury thermometer in 1714. In 1724, he introduced the temperature scale that bears his name - Fahrenheit Scale. -AND- The Celsius temperature scale is also referred to as the "centigrade" scale. Centigrade means "consisting of or divided into 100 degrees". The Celsius scale, invented by Swedish Astronomer Anders Celsius (1701-1744), has 100 degrees between the freezing point (0 C) and boiling point (100 C) of pure water at sea level air pressure. The term "Celsius" was adopted in 1948 by an international conference on weights and measures.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,157097,00.html

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070522203055AAanQ8k

1920's Hair Dryers

2009-06-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

Can you beleive that the first hair dryer was the VACUM CLEANER?! Around the turn of the century, women dried their hair by connecting a hose to the exhaust of their vacuum cleaners. In early models, the front of a vacuum cleaner sucked air in, the back blew air out, and the hose could be attached to either end.
In 1920, the first true hair dryer came on the market, but it was extremely large and heavy, and frequently overheated. Since then, thousands of patents have been issued for different hair dryer designs, but most of them only tweak the outside packaging of the hairdryer so that it looks more aesthetically appealing to you. Aside from the addition of some safety features, the inside of a hair dryer hasn't changed too much over the years. Not until 1951 was the first really workable dryer made. The device consisted of a hand-held dryer connected to a pink plastic bonnet fitted over the woman’s head.

You can always visit http://www.allenisd.org/facstaff2.nsf/Pages/3465526C7D5B41E48625706F00595D05
for a fuller understanding of the way these hair dryers worked!

Our First "Wireless Technology"

2009-06-09T18:09:00.000-07:00

"On a winter's night in 1894, a 20-year-old Italian inventor named Guglielmo Marconi invited his mother into his attic workshop. Leading her to a table, he pressed a switch connected to an elaborate apparatus that produced a spark and a snapping sound. Instantly a bell sounded across the room. Marconi had linked the switch to the distant bell, but by sending a wireless signal through the air. The technology was primitive by modern standards but also strangely precocious. More than a century after the first "spark gap" transmitters crackled into life, wireless technology is returning to its roots. The latest ultrawideband wireless devices, which are just starting to appear on the market, have much in common with the very first transmitters. History is repeating itself."

You may read the whole article at:

http://beta.technologyreview.com/computing/14074/

Or if you wish to watch a brief histori of Guglielmo Marconi at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcgzuDdlZUA&feature=related

The First X Ray

2009-06-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

The First X-Ray

Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen accidentally discovered an image cast from his cathode ray generator on November 8th 1895! After investigations it showed that the rays were generated at the point of contact of the cathode ray beam on the inside of the vacuum tube an d not deflected by magnetic fields, and they penetrated many kinds of matter.

One week after Wilhelm made the discovery he took an X ray of his wife’s hand and it clearly showed her wedding ring and all of the bones in her hand! The photo immediately caught the attention of scientists and this new form of radiation. Wilhelm named this new form of radiation X-Radiation with the X meaning the “unknown”. Imagine if Wilhelm never discovered this how would we be able to tell if someone broke a bone?

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blxray.htm

The History of TV

2009-06-06T05:12:00.000-07:00

1923 - Charles F. Jenkins on June 14 made his first experimental wireless television transmissions with a mechanical system from the Navy radio station in Anacostia to his Jenkins Laboratories office in Washington D.C.; Vladimir K. Zworykin applied for a patent on his iconoscope cathode ray tube.

1924 - John Logie Baird used a Nipkow disc to make experimental transmissions in London; he made his first public demonstration March 25, 1925, at the Selfridges department store on Oxford Street.

1925 - June 13 Jenkins made his "first public demonstration of radiovision" with 48 lines per inch and synchronized sound over a 5-mile distance from Anacostia to Washington DC to members of the Navy and Commerce Department. He would begin broadcasting on his first TV station W3xk five nights per week in July 1928.

1926 - In January, John Logie Baird in London made a second demonstration at the Selfridges department store on Oxford Street, and began operation of a 30-line TV system at 5 frames per second.

1927 - Jan. 7 Philo T. Farnsworth applied for his patent on the image dissector tube that used cesium to reproduce images electronically. On April 7, AT&T transmitted a long distance television image of Herbert Hoover from its experimental station 3XN in Whippany NJ using a 185-line system developed by Herbert E. Ives; also, Edna Mae Horner, an operator at the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, assisted the transmission of Hoover and became the first woman to appear on U.S. television. On Sept. 7, Farnsworth transmitted his first successful electronic TV images in San Francisco.

1928 - May 11 GE began regular TV broadcasting with a 24-line system from a station that would become WGY in Schenectady NY; by the end of the year, over 15 stations were licensed for TV broadcasting; Dr. Ernest Alexanderson developed the Octagon mechanical TV set with three-inch screen that was manufactured and sold by GE for home use. In Germany, Denes von Mihaly demonstrated a mechanical 30-line system called Telehor with a picture rate of 10 frames per second at the Berlin Radio Show.

1929 - June 27 Herbert E. Ives demonstrated a mechanical color TV system of 50-lines from AT&T in NY to Washington DC; Zworykin demonstrated Nov. 18 his 120-line system of electronic television with its Kinescope tube at 24 frames per second.

1928 - May 11 GE began regular TV broadcasting with a 24-line system from a station that would become WGY in Schenectady NY; by the end of the year, over 15 stations were licensed for TV broadcasting; William S. Paley in September took over the failing United Independent Broadcasters network with its 16 affiliate stations and reorganized it as the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) for radio broadcasting.

1929 - The BBC began test television broadcasting for 30 minutes per day using the 30-line mechanical system of John Baird.

1931 - July 21 CBS began regular TV broadcasting of 28 hours per week on W2XAB in NY

1932 - Aug. 22 the BBC began regular broadcasting using Baird's 30-line system until Nov. 2, 1936, when it changed to an electronic 405-line system.

1934 - RCA had improved Zworykin's electronic system to 343 lines of resolution at 60 cycles with 30 interlaced fields reducing flicker.

1936 - June 15 the Don Lee Broadcasting network in California exhibited an electronic television system developed by the network's director Harry Lubcke. On June 29 NBC made a broadcast from the Empire State Building of a 343-line system; Philco demonstrated a 345-line system on a TV screen 9 1/2 by 7 1/2 inches. In August the Philco company made a seven-mile television broadcast. Germany broadcast the Olympic Games in Berlin with a 180-line electronic system. On Nov. 30, Frank B. Jewett of AT&T used the first coaxial cable to speak by telephone with FCC officials in Washington.

http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/recording/television1.html

History of the Operating Room

2009-06-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

Before the Operating Room: Magicians, Priests and Physicians

The development of surgery occurred in different regions at different times, in China, India, South America, Mesopotamia, Persia, Arabia and finally Europe. The early surgeons were either priests, magicians, physicians or barber-tradesmen who understood anatomy and were comfortable with the common practices of amputation and trephination.
Trephination is perhaps the oldest of surgeries that we know of. Because it involved cutting or grinding a hole in the skull, remnants are plentiful, as human skull bones have lasted for as many as 12,000 years intact. Neolithic evidence of trephination has been found in many disparate civilizations, from the pre-Incas in South America (2000 BC), to the early Europeans in France (5100 BC), to the Egyptians extending back as far back as 8,000 BC. The practice was probably originally performed for spiritual and magical reasons, and was performed by kings, priests and magician-physicians. It later was used to relieve pressure for head injuries, seizures and mental disorders such as psychosis.

Greece: The first surgical training program

“A physician is worth more than several other men put together, for he can cut out arrows and spread healing herbs.” (Iliad, Book XI) Greek surgeons were trained in semi-formal schools called Asklpieia. The result of this training resulted in a uniformity of medical and surgical practices that laid the groundwork for the modern training programs that would follow many centuries later.

Greek surgical techniques were mostly learned on the battlefield, where arrows were removed, wounds covered, tourniquets and vasculature ligatures applied and amputated limb wounds were closed. There were surgical specialists in some areas of gynecology (abortions were preformed, children birthed, infections drained), but most other surgeries did not include opening any cavities in the body, a practice that would last until the 19th Century.

Rome: The birth of the operating tent

The modern operating room is descended from the Roman military tent and hospital system that was perfected to a degree not matched again until the time of Napoleon. The first Roman Medical Corps was formed by Emperor Augustus. Medical professionals were required to train at the new Army Medical School and could not practice unless they passed stringent examinations.

The Roman military surgeon was called the “medicus vulnerarius,” the “wound doctor.” Roman military surgeons and their counterparts, the specialist arena surgeons (who maintained the health of the valued gladiators) were extremely proficient not only with their surgical techniques, but also in the organization of their infrastructure.

The medicus vulnerarius was in the field with the soldiers during battle, and managed a system that included surgery in the field, an ambulance team, and 2 receiving battlefield hospital tent systems located on opposite sides of the field. The tent system moved with the army.

Germany, France, Austria, England, America 1800 – 1900

Large, city-based charitable hospitals arose out of the medieval monetary medical care system in Europe during the late 1700's to care for the poor and indigent. Leading cities in Europe developed the operating theater as the venue for both operating and teaching. These theaters were modeled after the dissection theaters that gained fame in Padua, Leiden and other largely Italian cities. In 1822 the St Thomas’ Hospital built its operating theater, and in 1824, in Boston, what was to become known as the Ether Dome was built. These theaters remained the standard until the full acceptance of Semmelweis’ and Lister’s antisepsis regimens lead to the inclosure of the operating room and the introduction of sterile technique.

World War II and the Korean War

By World War II, the military hospital tent system was expanded to include the peripheral-style design for operating rooms that allowed for multiple patients to be operated upon simultaneously. All necessary components could be powered and supported from any location within the tent, so that a single tent had the flexibility to allow for a variable number of casualties to be operated upon at any time.
This peripheral design reached its zenith during the Korean War, with the development of the MASH (mobile army surgical hospital) concept. This format was the basis of modern operating room design, with support systems coming into the room from the periphery.

Photos of Operating Rooms through the 1900's

1952 1960

1995

http://www.optimusise.com/history-operating-room.php by John R. Mangiadi, MD FACS

"Magic Lanterns" Early Stereopticons

2009-06-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

The stereopticon or "Magic Lantern" was a projector that used two lenses to blend picture slides together. Some early entrepreneures charged 10 cents to view slide shows. The use of the stereopticon and arranging slides to tell a story was the technology used before moving picture shows.1

Electricity was not always readily available. Some stereopticons used compressed hydrogen and oxygen gas to make a bright light to project the slide images onto a screen or wall. This type stereopticon was initially blamed for the Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pa. on January 13, 1908. 170 people died in this fire. Many fire and safety codes were written from findings from the investigation of this fire.2

1"stereopticon." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008
Encyclopedia.com. 5 June.2009 http://www.encyclopedia.com/

2"The Rhoads Operahouse Fire; The Legacy of a Tragedy/cd 2008Maranatha Broadcasting Co. Inc Allentown, PA USA webmaster@wfmz.com

The Evolution of Smoke Detectors

2009-06-03T23:49:00.000-07:00

Smoke detectors have evolved from a tool used to detect explosive gasses in mines. In 1939, Swiss Physicist Ermst Meili invented the ionization chamber detecting device used in smoke detectors today. Early smoke detectors of the 1950's were expensive and used only in commercial and public buildings. In the early 1970's, few smoke detectors were sold for installation in residential buildings. Improvements to batteries and electronics reduced the size and costs of smoke detectors in the mid 1970's. By 1977 more than 12 million smoke detectors were sold.

http://www.answers.com/topic/smokedetector

Telephones in 1951

2009-06-03T19:06:00.000-07:00

The First Direct-Dial Transcontinental Telephone Call

On November 10th 1951 the mayor of Englewood, NJ picked up a phone and dialed a ten digit number for the first time. Eighteen seconds later he was connected to the Mayor of Alameda, CA who was Mayor Frank Osborne. They made history that day because it was the first customer dialed long distance call and it also introduced area codes. The Direct Distance dialing was so great because it cut the costs of long distance calls because they no longer needed the operator to get them a number! Imagine today having to pick up a phone and ask the operator to put your best friend on the line; technology has come a long way since 1951!

http://www.corp.att.com/attlabs/reputation/timeline/51trans.html

Sparks of Geniuses

2009-06-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

Imagine living in a home with no light. Well 125 years ago not many had lights in their homes, their way through one room to another wasn't brighten up. Technology was way out off their leagues, their only thing to lighten their way were candles. Humphrey Davy, an English scientist experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery (in the 1800s). When he connected wires to his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing light. This is called an electric arc.This led him to create the first electric light bulb. Then, 60 years later, an English physicist, Joseph Wilson Swan, found that a carbon paper filament worked well, but burned up quickly. In 1878, he demonstrated his new electric lamps and determined to provide practical long-lasting electric light. Meanwhile, an American inventor was already working his way to creating "better-longer- lasting" light bulbs. Thomas Edison that was, discovered that these carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb glowed but did not burn up for 40 hours. Edison eventually produced a bulb that could glow for over 1500 hours. These bulbs lasted to a great minimum of time, but as technology improved in our world, than greater, better and much, much longer-lasting light bulbs were invented. That is why today even our nights are bright. What a difference..!

Read more at:

http://invsee.asu.edu/Modules/lightbulb/meathist.htm
http://www.articlesbase.com/accessories-articles/the-history-of-the-light-bulb-31355.html

The Colossus Codebreaking Computer

2009-06-02T11:42:00.001-07:00

Could you imagine trying to break a code through this , what is considered to be a "code breaking computer"(a 1940s computer that cracked Nazi war-time codes).? Well with our technology in the past this is what our WWII was based on. It was based on allegations and threats, all written in codes, by other countries to ours. In order to understand what the threats were, people had to work numerous hours and days trying to figure out what the codes meant. It was then considered to be a laborious process. "In spite of the destruction of the Colossus hardware and blueprints as part of the effort to maintain a project secrecy that was kept up into the 1970s—a secrecy that deprived some of the Colossus creators of credit for their pioneering advancements in electronic digital computing during their lifetimes—a functional replica of a Colossus computer was completed in 2007"! The newer version doesn't seem very much different, although it is said to be less confusing.. hm go figure..!
Technology is something that not many can live without in this world, it can do the undone!

To read more accurate information about the Colossus Codebreaking Computer you can visit the websites below:

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21840430/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer