October 2016 Issue No 008

WORLD’S FIRST ENGINEERING NEWS FOR YOUNG ENGINEERS

OCTOBER 2016 ISSUE NO. 008

FEATURE STORIES: • Engineering Innovation Cannot Prosper with Too Many Finance Managers • Engineers, It's Time For A 30-Hour Workweek • What if Chemical Engineers Didn’t Exist?

• To The Lazy Engineers: An Open Letter

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS: OTM Technologies M3D QuietOn

VERTU:

Creating Extraordinary Mobile Phones Exclusive Interview with the CEO of Vertu

OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

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Editor's

Note

No matter where I go, no matter what I do, I’ll always have a gadget with me. Wherever I look, I see everyone with phones on their hands and any kind of device near them. May it be the latest smartwatch on their wrist, the brand new notebook/laptop or the updated smart TV in front of them, today’s latest technologies have us hooked. Let’s admit it we’re living in a world of consumer electronics and we’d lose our minds if we lose them.

It’s amazing how in less than two decades, consumer electronics changed the way we live. From communicating with other people to entertaining ourselves in the comfort of our own homes, the devices and the handy gadgets we use today are making our lives better and more efficient. Differ-ent consumer electronics companies are competing with each other on bringing us the best quali-ties of different materials at the most affordable prices. What’s more amazing is how consumers easily buy whatever the market has to offer. People want what’s new, what’s innovative and what can be shown off to other people.

The public is even offered with different kinds of consumer electronic products through crowdfund-ing. If people see something that they like, they can help fund it. If they see potential in one prod-uct, they help make it happen. Events, trade shows, exhibitions and conventions are held to give the public a preview of what the future of consumer electronics has in store for us. One of these trade shows is the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX),

which will be held this month.

It’s considered one of the biggest consumer electronic events today.

In different parts of the world (like in Las Vegas and in Germany), there are numerous events that focuses on showcasing differ-ent types of technologies for the public. It’s amazing how people are captivated with what consum-er electronics can bring into our lives. It has made our lives easier and better. And companies and innovators are just getting started.

In this month’s issue, we will feature the best consumer electronics stories we’ve collected over the past few months. Stories about how one product can help people live more efficient lives will give our readers ideas how important today’s technology is in our society. We’re bringing you a special interview with the CEO of Vertu, a company known for its extraordinary luxury mobile phones. We’ve also featured startup companies with innovative products that are backed by the public through crowdfunding.

In a society where everyone depends on consumer electronics to go about their lives, it’s important for engineers to keep track of what can be improved on and what can be created to help different people around us. Engineers around the world have the capacity to change lives through the prod-ucts they can create and improvise. With so much creativity and innovation coming from different engineers from different places, we’re excited to see what they can bring to the market.

Are you?

CONTENTS PAGE

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TITLE COVER STORY

VERTU: DELIVERING THE WORLD’S BEST LUXURY MOBILE PHONES TO THE WORLD

MAKE YOUR OWN WIRELESS MOBILE PHONE CHARGER

THE IPHONE 7 IS WATER-RESISTANT, NOT WATERPROOF

WORLD’S FIRST SMARTPHONE

GOOGLE’S PROJECT ARA MODULAR SMARTPHONE TO LAUNCH NEXT YEAR THE ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY BEHIND POKEMON GO DESIGNER 3D PRINTS A POKÉMON CENTER CHARGING STATION

LOOK: A SINGLE-WHEELED ELECTRIC HOVERBOARD

M3D REVOLUTIONIZING THE FIELD OF 3D PRINTING FOREVER CHARGE YOUR PHONES USING THIS DIY WATERWHEEL GENERATOR 8 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR LAPTOPS LAST AS LONG AS POSSIBLE

PAGE

34 39 40 44 46 48 50 54 56 58 62

TITLE THIS BACKPACK BY HP CAN CHARGE YOUR LAPTOP

ZUCKERBERG'S GROWING ONLINE EMPIRE

HOW DOES MARK ZUCKERBERG THINK?

I AM AN OVERWORKED AND AN UNDERPAID ENGINEER ENGINEERS, IT'S TIME FOR A 30 HOUR WORKWEEK COMPLETE SILENCE FOR BUSY PEOPLE WITH QUIETON HOW OTM TECHNOLOGIES COULD CHANGE THE WORLD WITH PHREE ENGINEERING INNOVATION CANNOT PROSPER WITH TOO MANY FINANCE MANAGERS

TO THE LAZY ENGINEERS: AN OPEN LETTER

WHAT IF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS DIDN’T EXIST? WINDOWS PLANS TO TURN YOUR PC'S INTO HOLOGRAM VIEWERS

COVER STORY

VERTU:

DELIVERING THE WORLD’S BEST LUXURY MOBILE PHONES TO THE WORLD Creating the extraordinary by combining expert craftsmanship and innovative technology.

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OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

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COVER STORY

We offer our customers the opportunity to make their own Vertu"

Vertu, the Church Crookham, England-based luxury technology manufacturer, is an undeniable epitome of true extraordinary.

Infusing artistry, performance and exclusive benefits into each of its hand-crafted products, Vertu has become a brand of utmost aspiration.

Constructed with materials of stunning appearance and exceptional strength as ruby, sapphire and titanium, and endowed with market-leading power, reliability and technology, every Vertu mobile phone is a masterpiece that fits the palm of your hand. Made for the seekers of luxury, exclusivity and security, every Vertu product is a key to a world of invaluable experiences.

What makes a Vertu?

Every Vertu phone is a testimony to the company’s ambition to deliver the best luxury mobile phone experience, by combining expert craftsmanship, peerless materials, unique services, innovative technology and impeccable security.

The Craftsman Vertu’s immaculate quality and timeless elegance rise from the dexterity of the artisan.

In an exclusive interview with Gordon Watson, Chief Executive Officer of Vertu, he shared

that every Vertu product is, and always has been, handmade by a single craftsman at the company’s small factory in Church Crookham, England. From the company’s workshop, Vertu phones are made available to around 500 stores, including 70 boutiques, in 66 countries. “We have been in the business for 18 years, and in the last 12 years or so, we have shipped some 450,000 products.”

The Design Vertu phones are crafted to cater to each client’s unique desires.

“The Vertu range of mobile phones is made up of three distinct models – Signature, Signature Touch and Aster,” said Watson.

Signature is a voice-centric phone inspired by grand time pieces and fine Jewellery. “It is a ground-breaking design that is still popular with discerning customers today, more than a decade after the first model appeared. It has become an icon of the luxury mobile phone world,” he said.

Signature Touch is the exemplar of extraordinary performance.

“Signature Touch is hand-made in England by a single craftsman using only the finest materials, including a screen of virtually scratch-proof sapphire crystal

Gordon Watson is CEO at Vertu.

He joined the company in 2010 as the General Manager for EMEA, and was Vice President for Sales and Marketing. He has extensive experience in the luxury industry, having held key positions with watch and Jewellery manufacturers. Born in Scotland, Gordon now resides in Kew, and has a passion for rugby, travel and fine watches.

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OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

protecting full HD display. Its acoustics are perfectly tuned, and it provides unparalleled 4G connectivity, with a dedicated concierge wherever our customers may be in the world.”

Aster is the expression of Vertu’s sleek, cutting-edge design and trademark superior materials and hand-crafting expertise. “It is the embodiment of understated grace, with a slimmer, cleaner aesthetic; a fresh, modern color palette; and finished in refined calf leather.”

While most of Vertu’s customers are more than happy with the core range, some choose to celebrate their individuality.

Thus, Vertu created a MadeTo-Order service, where there is no limit to creativity. “We offer our customers the opportunity to make their own Vertu by choosing from a selection of colors, leathers, and designs, and by even adding their initials.”

He added that once a customer completes his design, a single master craftsman will faithfully and meticulously create the dedicated phone.

The Exclusive Services

Any brand that takes security seriously must stay on top of every development"

Vertu phones are more than the sum of their luxurious elements and exquisite finishes.

“Vertu is renowned for its curated services,” he said. “We provide a suite of carefully selected exclusive offers, content and assistance especially picked to enhance the Vertu customer’s lifestyle.” At the heart of these services, he said, is Vertu Concierge, which offers luxury lifestyle assistance and enrichment. Vertu Concierge is on-hand 24/7 to facilitate the customers’ every request. Then, there is Vertu Life, which offers personalized recommendations and privileged access to experiences and events. Vertu Certainty delivers unmatched security for customers, their data and their phones.

The Technology A marriage of elegance and innovation, high technology is woven into the fiber of every Vertu phone.

“Technology is a key component of the Vertu DNA,” he said, adding that smartphones make up approximately 80% of Vertu’s global sales, and that the technology expectations of its customers are extremely high. “Our customers want to be connected wherever they are, they shoot images and 4K videos, use social media and often have thousands of contacts stored on their phone. It is, therefore, vital that Vertu provides powerful technology that allows for all of this and more.”

In this light, Vertu invests millions into its R&D function to ensure that it stays at the forefront of luxury technology. “Beyond the expected technology,” he said, “we continue to look at and adapt this part of our business to provide apps and services that are relevant to affluent customers; a kind of luxury ecosystem that covers lifestyle events and shopping, entertainment, concierge and even across our e-commerce.”

The Security With Vertu’s exclusive clientele, security of its mobile phones is an ever-important feature that the company is relentlessly evolving.

“Security has been baked into the Vertu product proposition since Day One, and it continues to be an important element within our R&D.” Watson said that the company has a very close working relationship with Google to leverage the latter’s expertise and developments, and with partners like Kaspersky and Silent Circle to provide malware protection and encrypted communication for its clients.

“Our bespoke service also extends to security, and we have worked directly with clients, corporate and domestic alike, to set up multiple secure phones, as well as to integrate secure product into their broader systems.”

He emphasized that the most important aspect of security is an organization’s ability and agility to respond to attacks. “[Security issues] evolve constantly, and I therefore don’t believe anyone

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COVER STORY

Our ambition is to substantially grow the business in the next 24 months" that claims that they are un-hackable…. It is an evolving issue and any brand that takes security seriously must stay on top of every development.”

What will be of Vertu?

Casting a forward-looking gaze, Watson unraveled Vertu’s vision of the future.

“We are in the privileged position of being the leader in the luxury technology category, and we plan to stay in the number one spot.” He said that luxury technology is now more widely understood than ever before, and that there are many new customers looking for high-end technology products. “There is an enormous opportunity for us over the coming years, and our ambition is to substantially grow the business in the next 24 months. To do so, we will continue to bring products to the market that provide everything that the modern luxury customer is looking for.”

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OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

Photo by Popsci

THE HOLY BRAILLE: A REFRESHABLE TABLET MADE FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

Photo by FoxNews

Digital tablets are used nowadays by many to play, listen to music and to read.

It gives us access to endless information, but that’s not the case for the visually impaired.

There are current braille readers in the market, wherein you can attach to the bottom of a tablet. Unfortunately, it can only provide only one line of text at a time.

This is what gave a group of students at the University of Michigan an idea.

Students Brent Gillespie, Alex Russomanno, Mark Burns, and Sile O’Modhrain, hope to develop a tablet with a refreshable display to translate an entire page at once.

“Existing displays don’t allow you to access lots of braille code and graphical information,” O’Modhrain,

who is visually impaired says.

“Math and music codes, for example, are displayed spatially, so that they’re spread over multiple lines.”

A refreshable display must raise and lower braille dots, wherein a full page may include up to 10,000 to be able to create a pattern. In the team’s project, a microfluidic chip is the one that controls this process by moving small doses of fluid through tiny channels. Their prototype is small, around a couple of inches wide, but they hope to expand it to a full-page which will cost around $1,000 to $2,000 Their collaborator Noel Runyan named the genius device: Holy Braille.

OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

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THE WORLD'S SMARTEST AND SAFEST REALFLAME CANDLE

Photo by CNET LuDela, an American company, has created the world’s first real flame smart candle. This smart candle addresses different issues like "fire risk, wax mess, hassles with wicks, and the time it takes to light and extinguish multiple candles," according to the CEO Jamie Bianchini in a press statement.

This smart candle uses a real flame, and a multitude of them can be controlled

simultaneously via smartphone and the company’s partnering app. One of the most important features of this smart candle is that it is safe, since it has the ability to turn off its flame once it gets knocked around.

The LuDela candle utilizes ten sensors, to make sure that it’s safe. The candle comes with 10 embedded sensors, wherein four of them are located at the top of the candle and act as

motion and tilt detectors. Once these sensors detect motion from above the candle, like curtains, the candle instantly turns off its flame. The tit sensors within the body of the candle can detect motion as well. The LuDela comes with a fire sensor as well, so that if ever the candle fails to turn itself off, it creates a noise to alert the owners that there’s something wrong.

MAKE YOUR OWN WIRELESS MOBILE PHONE CHARGER Wireless charging has been popular for a while now but like most new gadgets that are in their early stages, it can be a bit expensive. But thanks to HouseholdHacker from YouTube, he showed us that it’s possible to make one yourself.

The YouTube DIYer, created a short video on how to make your own wireless charging pad.

You will need a phone case, a microUSB cord, a charging base (which can be an old Playstation 3 game case), a wireless receiver

and wireless printed circuit board assembly (which you can purchase on amazon or Ebay).

HouseHold Hacker included the links to where he bought the parts in the video’s description. Overall, the entire project will cost $1525, depending on where you buy the parts. This project will not only be cool, but you’ll have a sense of accomplishment for having finished a small and useful project. You can also modify it any way you can.

Photo by TechInsider 12

OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

Photo by Apple

THE IPHONE 7 IS WATER-RESISTANT, NOT WATERPROOF If you’ve been living under a rock, Apple already announced at its keynote event at San Francisco its latest flagships, which are the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus. Other than the absence of the headphone jacks, perhaps the biggest revelation of this new age of iPhone is that they are water-resistant. Finally. But take note, Apple said water-resistant – not waterproof. Before you take selfies underwater with the iPhone 7 Plus’ new dual-lens camera, it pays to know that it really is a bad

idea despite both iPhones being ‘water-resistant.’

The two releases have an IP67 water resistance rating, which means that they can technically withstand immersion up to one meter, or about 3.3 feet, for 30 minutes tops. Ideally, this gives Apple users a chance to take some quick snapchats underwater, but that is yet another bad idea.

What Apple has in mind is the safety of your latest iPhone over the clumsy spills of liquids and

the heavy downpour of the rain.

Include accidentally dropping it in the toilet, or changing the song when in the shower. More than that, you might just wreck the internal parts – the bad news is that Apple won’t cover liquid damage under warranty.

If the company did say the new iPhones are waterproof, then underwater photography is possible with the 7 and the 7 Plus. But they did not.

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GET THE WORLD’S CHEAPEST SMARTPHONE FOR ONLY £3!

Photo by IndiaTimes

Photo by Techdren

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OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

The world’s cheapest smartphone, Freedom 251, is finally here, and it only costs £3! This smartphone is set to begin shipping later this week to connect the poorer regions of India.

This smartphone was developed

by Ringing Bells, a technology firm based in Noida. The company aims to make internet access affordable to millions of people across their country. The Freedom 251 device will go on sale on June 30 and will only be available to pre-registered users in India. More than 200,000 units will be sold during the first phase of the delivery.

Earlier this year, the Freedom 251 was already available but the manufacturers were forced to refund over 30,000 pre-orders and delay shipping after their website crashed.

The gadget will come with a fourinch screen, an 8MP camera and 3.2 MP front-facing camera.

The gadget comes with a fourinch screen, an 8MP rear camera and 3.2MP front camera. It has 8GB of storage and 1GB RAM capacity available, with 1.3GHz quad-core processor. It will be running on Android Lollipop 5.1, and the gadget will be available in either black or white.

WORLD’S FIRST SMARTPHONE

Photo by Getty With all the fuzz about Samsung Note 7 phones catching fire and the iPhone 7 having no headphone jack, let’s take a step back and remember where all of smartphones began. Lo and behold, the world’s first smartphone.

Called the Simon Personal Communicator, it is widely considered as the first ever smartphone that merged the functions of a cell phone and a personal digital assistant. Other than being able to call, Simon can send and receive emails, faxes and pages, store notes in a collection, lets its user view the calendar and world clock, and even schedule appointments. The smartphone comes with a stylus and a monochrome LCD touchscreen that measures 4.5 inches by 1.4 inches.

Although the term “smartphone” was only used in 1995, IBM made the debut of Simon three years earlier in 1992. At the time it was released, the bulky smartphone had a price tag of $899 with a service contract, equivalent to $1,435 in today’s dollars. It was really ahead of its time and didn’t get the worldwide spread it deserved. But according to Bloomberg Businessweek, IBM was able to sell approximately 50,000 units of Simon.

Photo by Getty

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MOVE OVER, IPHONE: THE GOOGLE SMARTPHONE WILL BE HERE With so many brands already in the smartphone market, Google is about to bet on their release of a handset that houses their own mobile software. Google already has their Android operating system among four in five smartphones sold around the world.

Google, so far, only endorses a range of smartphones made by partners LG and Huawei under the Google Nexus brand, but is yet to produce their own hardware. According to a senior

source, the tech giant will release their new device by end of the year. The company will control design, manufacturing and software.

Despite Android the more dominant operating system among smartphones in the whole world, Apple still holds the highend of the market. Apple, with their iOS, has total control of updates with their phones as compared to Android which is applied differently among brands.

This, in a way, urged Google to

Photo by Recombu

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OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

have a platform that they can control a lot like Apple does.

This is the first time for Google to venture into their own smartphone hardware. The company, known for its internet software, has released its own tablet computer, laptops and other gadgets. It has hired the former president of Motorola, Rick Osterloh, earlier this year, to lead a new hardware division.

GOOGLE’S PROJECT ARA MODULAR SMARTPHONE TO LAUNCH NEXT YEAR What do we often do when our mobile phones have hardware issues? Most likely, if you can’t get your mobile phone repaired, you throw them away or sell it at a recycling center then buy yourself a new phone. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a phone where you could easily swap the busted phone parts with new ones and voila, your phone is fixed? Well, Google has made this possible with their Project Ara, a

modular smartphone.

On Friday, Google showcased a modular Android-powered smartphone which will be ready to be sold in the market next year.

With this mobile phone, you could easily swap speakers, hi-res cameras, 3G, Wifi and your batteries whenever you want. Let’s say your camera gets busted, instead of buying

a new smartphone, all you have to do is buy a new camera piece and attach it to the phone. This goes the same way for the other module pieces. It’s the same principle with phone upgrades, instead of buying a new handset, just swap the old pieces with new module pieces.

Photo by Honkiat

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Photo & Video by Youtube

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN PORTABLE LED LIGHT FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO PURPOSES If you’re the engineer who loves to take photos, then you already know that lighting is everything.

That’s why you should build this DIY light panel to improve your photos’ quality. Sure you can buy your own, but if you want to have a cheaper option and challenge your engineering skills, this project is perfect for you.

Poor lighting can ruin an awesome photo, so Linn from the Darbin Orvar YouTube channel showed us how to create our own portable LED panel lights that can help illuminate your subject. Here’s the video.

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This project will surely challenge your soldering skills! You will be needing four strips of 12-volt LED lights attached to a piece of flexiglass, four 3-volt button batteries (I recommend rechargeable ones), soldering materials, an on/off switch, spacers, and screws.

This LED light panel is easy to carry around and can either stand up horizontally or vertically. You can mount this on a tripod or onto your camera for versatility.

OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

Photo by Treehugger

Photo by IowaStateUniversity

THIS NEW SYSTEM CAN MONITOR THE POWER CONSUMED

BY YOUR HOME DEVICES

LASER PROCESS WITH GRAPHENE OPENS DOORS TO PAPER ELECTRONICS

MIT researchers have developed a device and software that can monitor and tell you exactly how much power is being used by every appliance, light, or device you have at home.

The device is not only accurate, it’s low cost as well.

There have been many groups that have created devices to monitor household electricity, but what sets this new MIT system from the others is that first, it’s easy to install. No wires need to be disconnected, and the placement of the large sensors the size of postage stamps over the incoming power lines don’t require precision, since the system is designed to be selfcalibrating.

There is so much potential with graphene as an engineering material. Apart from its unique structure and super-thin composition, it has the ability to conduct electricity and heat. Recently, an additional wonder has been made with graphene: by treating it with lasers, it opens doors to paper electronics.

Nanoengineers from the Iowa State University did not cease to stop looking for ways in using graphene for sensors and other technology. But they have been put to halt with their small-scale graphene study – until an undergoing project made them realize that it could be used for flexible, wearable and low-cost electronics.

Existing technology makes use of graphene by printing and treating them with using high temperatures or chemicals to improve electrical conductivity and device performance. But there a problem with this:

Second, this device can sample data very quickly.

The sensors are able to pick up enough detailed information about the voltage and current spikes and patterns. It is so detailed, that with the aid of its dedicated software, it is able to tell the difference between every appliance, device, or motor in your home, and can tell you which ones go on and off at the exact time.

the process could degrade flexible or disposable printing surfaces like plastic films or paper.

Jonathon Claussen, leader of the nanoengineers from Iowa State, and Suprem Das, an Iowa State postdoctoral research associate in mechanical engineering and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, have explored the use of layers to treat the graphene.

The pulsed-laser process was successful in treating inkjet-printed, multi-layer graphene electric circuits and electrodes – the electrical conductivity was improved more than a thousand times better without damaging paper, polymers or other fragile printing surfaces.

Applications of this new discovery include sensors with biological applications, energy-storage systems, electrical conducting components and paperbased electronics.

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NEW SMARTPHONE SCREEN TECH HAS A DIAMOND LAYER

Photo by CreativeApplications

Photo by KHAN

NIXIE: THE TINY WEARABLE SELFIE DRONE If you’ve been keeping in touch with Gorilla Glass updates to save your precious smartphones from breaking, you will like this update on screen technology: diamond may soon compose glass screens.

Using synthetic diamond is not a recent breakthrough, with the idea coming up as a potential replacement for the silicon MEMS or microelectromechanical systems more than a decade ago. But it is only now that the idea in putting such material in glass screens is refined by AKHAN Semiconductor.

Gorilla Glass can easily be replaced once this kind of glass screen, the first-ever diamond-reinforced glass, is materialized. Diamond is known to be the hardest

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material known to mankind, with its chemical inertness, thermal capabilities and high resistance to contaminants. What more if it is lab-grown, with no digging up required?

Adam Khan, CEO and founder of AKHAN Semiconductor defines this breakthrough synthetic material as “chemically more perfect than natural diamond.” Adding a film layer they called AKHAN Miraj NCD diamond, which is nanometers thin, to a standard UV glass poses greater strength than the latest Gorilla Glass 5.

In an independent study sponsored by AKHAN, the Miraj NCD Diamond covered glass is 3.5-times more crack resistant and 7-times more scratch resistant than Gorilla Glass.

OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

Meet Nixie, a wrist mounted drone that you can wear like a watch. It can launch itself and take selfies and videos for you using its onboard camera.

Nixie was founded by two people, Christoph Kohstal a former postdoctoral physics researcher at Stanford and Jelena Jovanovic a former tech lead and manager at Google.

The Nixie has been called “The first wearable camera that can fly,” with its small camera you can wear like a watch, and then unfolds and turns into a flying quadcopter.

Nixie’s creator Christoph Kohstal, was able to create a functioning drone that can wrap around your wrist like a watch and launch

itself into the sky with the use of flexible electronics.

Nixie uses a tiny processor called the Intel Edison chip. Its size is similar to that of an SD card. With the help of these tiny electronics, Kohstal was able to build the drones arms which can wrap around the wrist.

Nixie has two automatic modes offered: the boomerang mode and the “follow me” mode. In the Boomerang mode, the drone will automatically return to you after it shoots your video. In “follow me” mode, the drone will follow you as you move around, giving

NEW LITHIUM METAL BATTERY BY MIT COULD POWER OUR DEVICES TWICE AS LONG The smartphones we use have a relatively limited battery capacity. We always wish that we can use our devices much longer in the same charging time. But be careful what we should wish for because we just might get it: a new rechargeable lithium metal battery will give our devices twice its original power.

Developed by SolidEnergy Systems with its CEO Qichao Hu, the “anode-free” lithium metal battery is manufactured at MIT to be twice as energy-dense, but safe and long-lasting as the

Photo by Envirotect

lithium ion batteries used in smartphones, electric cars, wearables, drones, and other devices.

What sets this battery different from the novel lithium ion batteries is its usage of a very thin, highenergy, lithium-metal foil, apart from the common battery anode material which is graphite. The new system can hold more ions; hence provide more energy capacity. Tweaks on the electrolyte’s chemical composition were also done to make the typically

short-lived and volatile lithium metal batteries rechargeable and safer to use. Manufacturing this new battery can be done in existing lithium ion manufacturing equipment making them scalable.

“With two-times the energy density, we can make a battery half the size, but that still lasts the same amount of time, as a lithium ion battery. Or we can make a battery the same size as a lithium ion battery, but now it will last twice as long,” said Hu.

SolidEnergy gave a preview of this battery in October 2015 with its first-ever working prototype. It got the attention it deserved and acquired $12 million from investors.

The battery will be used in drones this November, which is its debut application. The company looks at bringing the batteries to smartphones and wearables in early 2017 and eventually to electric cars in 2018.

Photo by MIT

OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

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Photo by GuelphToday

Photo by HeightWeights

THE ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY BEHIND POKEMON GO Unless you’ve been hiding under several layers of rock for the past year, you’ve certainly heard of Pokemon Go. You or someone you know has probably veered off a road or two, chasing what you thought was a Pikachu, only to find it was a Pidgey (stupid Pidgeys). You’ve probably seen news stories about individuals who crashed their cars to chase after imaginary monsters.

Unlike any mobile game before it, people now consider “Pokemoning” an acceptable way to spend a Saturday night out with friends. If you’re like me, you’ve probably wondered about the engineering behind such a monumentally popular game. I took a look into the “evolution” of Pokemon Go, pun intended, to see the groundwork and the growth that made such a game possible.

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From the Ashes of Keyhole Keyhole, Inc., founded in 2001 by the visionary John Hanke, was a company that specializes in geospatial data visualization.

Geospatial data visualization, as it sounds, is a fancy way of saying they were one of the first companies to create 3D maps using data. Their initial backers included the likes of graphics card manufacturer nVidia and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Keyhole would be acquired by Google in 2004 for $35 million. Their flagship product, a suite of geospatial mapping technology called Earth Viewer, would evolve into the revolutionary application called Google Earth. Hanke spent his time afterward heading up Google’s Geo division, which also produced Google Maps, Streetview, and Sketchup.

In 2010, Hanke created another startup called Niantic Labs under Google’s evergrowing umbrella of smaller companies, and began work on a game that used the extensive geospatial knowledge of him and his team. This game would be called Ingress, released in 2012. Ingress was marketed as a massively-multiplayer online game (MMOG) that allowed players to find items in the real world and interact with them using their mobile devices. Users could seek out virtual “portals”, which were usually around realworld landmarks and local places of interest, and compete against opposing factions to accumulate power. Ingress’ popularity skyrocketed, reaching half-a-million active users around 2013. Players would take matters beyond what even Hanke had anticipated, forming communities of like-

Photo by TomsGuide

minded enthusiasts who would charter planes to reach portals in remote areas and would dedicate specific days out of the year to portal hunting.

Software Engineering If the description of Ingress sounds familiar—players seeking real world locations to collect exotic items and compete for dominance of a physical region—it’s because Pokemon Go was based off it. The software engineering component of Pokemon Go began with Google Earth itself, meaning Niantic’s developers aren’t just game designers who acquired a third-party mapping program and built a revolutionary game on top of it; they are map-makers who used an already uber-popular franchise to catapult their framework into the hands of everyone. A lot of companies may have had the idea to use the environment for an augmented reality game, but none had the resources of Google’s Geo division and Nintendo’s blessing (and investment).

Social Engineering Beyond the numerous records that Pokemon Go continues to set each day it exists, there is the genius behind it that exceeds the software engineering component and propels it into legend, and that is the social engineering part. Niantic had an idea of how the game would expand based on

public reaction to Ingress, so they pushed the envelope in marketing campaigns that were targeted toward promoting activity and interaction among users. Those who played games and interacted with other game players would handle their wordof-mouth marketing without provocation, and the demographics of these players expanded according to Pokemon’s unique ability to appeal to niche groups of adults.

Non-gamer adults latched on simply because the game provided them with something interesting to do while they went about mundane errands. The bridge between the young and the old would fuel the game’s momentum, which generated intrigue and bring even more players into the fray. Essentially, the game’s popularity became its hook; those who weren’t playing would hear about it from everyone who was, all the time, until eventually they felt left out and joined out of. This was all part of a genius plan, one that began with Google Earth and evolved into Ingress, which evolved into the phenomenon that is Pokemon Go.

Photo by Polygon

About the author: Emmanuel Stalling is software engineer, technical writer, online philosopher, aspiring novelist, part-time ninja, and fan of hard science fiction. Follow Emmanuel on Twitter @The_UnseenOne.

OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

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DESIGNER 3D PRINTS A POKÉMON CENTER CHARGING STATION

Photo by BusinessInsider

Photo by BusinessInsider

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OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

Designer Spencer Kern has created a pretty cool solution for Pokémon GO players whose smartphone batteries drain in the middle of Pokémon hunting. He created a “Pokémon Center” for Pokémon GO players so they could charge their drained phones.

On a Microsoft Sway presentation, Kern wrote, “After spending hours running around my local park with a few hundred people I knew this was a special moment in gaming history," "I thought it would be fun to re-create a Pokémon Center from the main games and use it as a charging station for trainers to hang out and heal their power drained phones," Kern wrote.

In the original Pokémon game, player can go to Pokémon Centers in each city to heal their Pokémon so they can be ready for the next battle. In Pokémon GO, however, we players need to “heal” our smartphone batteries, and so Kern created this Pokémon Center charging hub.

LOOK: A SINGLE-WHEELED ELECTRIC HOVERBOARD per mile. The sonar detection of the board helps the board to be parallel to the ground. On the other hand, the regenerative braking is incorporated to recover the energy and to charge up the board when it is going downhill or needs de-acceleration.

There are LED lighting and builtin speakers that play music while you are riding. These powers use up minute amount of power.

There is a LCD screen on top of the board that displays the respective information of the rider.

There is an app for Android and iOS phones which can be connected through a Bluetooth to the wheeler for activating and locking it, checking the level of charge of the battery and for setting speed limits. The riding data of a particular ride like the average speed or the top speed can also be viewed with the help of this app.

Photo by tumblr

Photo by tumblr

A company has been able to build a single-wheel vehicle that gives the feeling of a hoverboard, with a board placed on top of a wheel 10 inches in size. The user has to lean forward for acceleration and backwards for de-acceleration or for changing the direction.

When a hoverbaord is compared to a one wheeler, it can be seen that the single wheel vehicle is much faster than the other one and also charges within a very short period of time. The hover board uses sonar technology in order to maintain stability and has a connectivity of API. The weight of the hoverboard is 11kg and powered by a motor of 5000W. The motor is placed on the drive-unit that is in the middle of the wheel. This gives the vehicle a top speed of 16mph and a range measuring 12 miles. The hoverboard is known to charge at the rate of one and half minutes

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REVOLUTIONIZING THE FIELD OF 3D PRINTING FOREVER

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OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

3D printing is one of the most significant advancements in the field of technology. We can see this process being used in different industries— medical, automotive, toys, manufacturing, and many others. With this kind of tech, creativity is the only limitation to what can be produced. Unfortunately, many 3D printers are pricey and therefore, not everyone can easily afford it.

That’s why Michael Armani and his business partner David Jones founded a company in 2013 wherein they developed the Micro 3D Printer, which is ultra-affordable, portable, and gives high quality results.

This printer is ideal for artists, engineers, students, and hobbyists alike.

GineersNow conducted an exclusive interview with Michael Armani, the co-founder and president of M3D.

THE COMPANY

GineersNow: Tell us about your company. Describe your mission, vision, and values as well as your strategic goals.

Armani: M3D is a private company with 50 employees, headquartered in Fulton, MD. We made a splash with our

Kickstarter campaign for the Micro in 2014, which broke crowdfunding records. Our main company mission is to take complex technologies, innovate them, with the goal to lessen the barrier to entry for mainstream consumers.

We decided to first tackle 3D printing, launching the Micro 3D Printer in 2014 and currently developing a more advanced model, the M3D Pro. Our current track right now is to continue innovating the 3D printer space with a focus on design, accessibility and reliability.

INTRODUCTION GN: What is your company’s opinion on today’s consumer e l e c t r o n i c s / c o m p u te r / I T technology?

Armani: The emergence of accessible technology makes it an exciting time to be in the consumer tech space. Lots of companies, including M3D, are finding ways to break down complex technologies for everyday consumer use, delivering them at a cost that won’t break the bank.

Most developing countries, however, especially for everyday citizens, don’t have access to today’s forward-thinking consumer

electronics simply because they can’t afford it, focusing on other financial priorities.

These products can deliver life changing results, it’s just a matter of innovating the supply chain in order to reduce costs for greater access across the world.

THE MACRO LEVEL OF THE WORLD’S COMPUTER/ IT/CONSUMER ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY

GN: Where are we today?

What is the current situation of the Consumer Electronics/ IT and Computer technology locally?

Armani: Whether it’s in the form of wearables, chat bots or autonomous cars, technology has made its entrance into nearly every sector. We’re a world built on technology— it’s modern day magic.

And as these technologies become further advanced and the development process sees further innovation and progress, they’ll become more functional and widely accessible over the next 20 years. Costs generally decrease over time as efficiency increases for consumer electronics—and I think we’re well on our way, with our own products as a

strong example. Consumer 3D printers today already hover around the $1000+ mark, and we deliver ours at the fraction of the prize without a loss in quality.

THE MICRO LEVEL

GN: What are the initiatives / projects that you are doing (or have done) that will provide these advanced technologies to the public?

Armani: M3D believes that 3D printing is one of the most important innovations in recent years, so we’re doing our part to make it widely available with affordable and easily-operated printers. It’s clear that the public is ready for this kind of technology as evident in both of our Kickstarter campaigns. We’ve launched two, (one for the Micro and Pro) and they have been met with incredible support from consumers of all backgrounds.

GN: What impact have you delivered (social, economic and environmental)? Do you have metrics or statistics of your accomplishments?

Armani: Besides widening the pool of people that 3D printing can reach, M3D is working with a number of local organizations to widen the technology’s reach.

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For instance, we work with YouthQuest, a non-profit that supports the academic, vocational and life-enriching development of America’s youth. 3D printers can add a hands-on and visual element to learning, especially for STEM subjects. 3D printing models can “simplify” and serve as a strong entry point for STEM fields and spur long-lasting interest in them. Occupations in these related industries are steadily growing each year, making it absolutely worthwhile to make this kind of small investment in the classroom – it’s an investment in all of our futures, really.

THE CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS

GN: What are the greatest challenges in the CE/ IT/Computer industry?

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What do you think should the government, private companies and NGO of each country do to get rid of these?

How do we provide better access to these technologies to more than 7 billion people?

Armani: One of the greatest challenges for companies in this industry is keeping up with the quick product cycles and intricate international supply-chains. The companies that are equipped to adapt to varying international standards are more likely to succeed. Everything from raw materials to labor costs can act as enormous barriers to getting a business off the ground. The best way to lessen the impact of these challenges, and therefore encourage innovation, is to reduce and stabilize the costs involved in production— which can be accomplished

OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

by manufacturing entirely in-house. Our production facility is right next door to our headquarters and everything is built entirely in the United States. This degree of proximity allows us

to aptly monitor the quality of our printers and quickly implement changes in the manufacturing process.

That said, again, the number one challenge of getting consumer electronics to

people all over the world is cost. The consumer-facing prices of these devices can be reduced through an innovative approach to the design and manufacturing process, but governments could also work to introduce subsidies for certain devices if they’re to be applied in a certain way. For instance, 3D printers at their very core “make things,” and could be the missing link for a budding entrepreneur to bring an idea to life. Lessening the barrier to such products could go a long way in increasing access.

ADVICE TO THE YOUNG ENGINEERS

GN: Please give advice and words of wisdom about the campaign for using these technologies to improve lives to our young global audience.

What would you like to tell to

the millennials? Any inspiring words that you can share?

Armani: The current state of global connectedness not only gives young innovators access to experts—such as freelancers—who can help them realize proof of concept of their dreams affordably, it also gives them a platform where they can test the validity of their ideas, even make them go viral within a niche. In fact, today’s innovations seem to start at the individual and small company level, and then snapped up by larger companies. There has never been a better time to pursue a new idea because the barrier to entry is less than ever before. We expect to see less billionaires, but more millionaires, in the coming decades with big ideas.

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These 2 Insulators Turn Out to be Conductive When Together Photo by todayifoundout

Insulated materials aren’t supposed to conduct any electricity. But engineers from the University of Utah and the University of Minnesota can say otherwise.

In a research led by University of Utah electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Berardi SensaleRodriguez and University of Minnesota chemical engineering and materials science assistant professor Bharat Jalan, it was found out that two oxide compounds,

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strontium titanate (STO) and neodymium titanate (NTO), when meant to interact with each other can create many free electrons allowing electrical current to flow. Both STO and NTO are perceived to be insulators by themselves but not when together.

Not only that, the interaction between two compounds creates a much powerful conductivity. The number of electrons produced is a hundred times larger than what is possible in

OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

semiconductors, and is about five times more conductive than silicon.

This potential holds a lot of promise in replacing what electronics manufacturers currently use, which is gallium nitride for transistors in power supplies and electronics carrying large electrical currents. The authors say that this material can greatly improve power transistors that can be found in televisions, refrigerators and handheld devices.

CHARGE YOUR PHONES USING THIS DIY WATERWHEEL GENERATOR YouTuber Thomas Kim has built a DIY waterwheel generator that can power up your phone or other small gadgets if you’re outdoors by a flowing river. So if ever you want to do a bit of electronics in nature, this may be one of the projects that can be interesting to do outdoors.

Kim got some water bottles, disposable plastic plates, a 3 Phase stepping motor, and a rectifier circuit which stabilizes the generated voltage, and assembled them to create this badass hydro-powered waterwheel generator. In the video, he was also able to power up an

array of LED lights to test if his contraption was working, and he was also able to charge his smartphone.

Here’s the video.

While we already have portable power banks that can charge our gadgets when we’re outdoors, it’s still pretty interesting to try out electronic contraptions such as these and polish our electronics prowess within. Plus, it’s an awesome sight once you’ve put them together and see it working.

Photo by Youtube

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Photo by LifeHack

8 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR LAPTOPS LAST AS LONG AS POSSIBLE Nowadays, most engineering students and engineers have their own laptops. We can say that our laptops are one of the most important gadgets we own.

After all, it helps us with our reports, designs, simulations, presentations and many more.

Laptops can be pricey as well.

Once it crashes, it isn’t easy as 1-2-3 to get a replacement. So we have to learn to take care them.

Want to get the best out of your laptops? Here’s how you can prevent your working buddy from crashing before it’s due.

#1 Get a Solid State Drive If your laptop is an old model which doesn’t use a Solid State Drive, get one. Using an SSD will not only boost your laptops performance, it will make your laptop more durable as well if you ever drop it. However if you’re on a

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tight budget, and don’t care much about the speed and performance of your laptop, you can keep your HDD.

that offer bug fixes which can improve your laptop speed. The best time to do this is during your sleeping time, do it overnight.

them. So if you use them in really hot areas, you may fry some of your computer parts like your graphics card. If possible, invest in a laptop cooling pad.

#2 Don’t fill your laptop #5 Don’t leave your to its full capacity chargers on continuously #8 Don’t treat it like a Try to keep 5-10% of your drive Who’s guilty? *raises hand* Yes, light switch free. Once you fill it up to its maximum capacity, your laptop is sure to slow down.

#3 Restore your laptop to its original state/factory settings once every year Many of you might not be familiar with this, but this is important.

Before you do this though, make sure you’ve backed up all your important files in an external hard drive, so your computer will be good as “new”.

#4 Run Updates

Yep, I know you hate this—but do it anyway. There are some updates

OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

this is important too. If you keep your charger plugged eve when the battery is full, actually “kills” your battery. This is because electricity needs to flow, or keep moving. Only charge your laptops when your battery gets low.

Turn your computer on/off only once a day. Continuously powering your laptop on and off stresses out your laptops components since you are constantly changing the temperature inside the computer system. When you continuously vary the temperature of the components, they contract and #6 Keep them clean A clean laptop is a happy laptop. expand, thus stressing-out your system.

Keep them covered and clean.

#7 Keep them cool

Any electronic gadget, including laptops work their best in cool areas. You laptop already generates heat when you use

HOW TO STOP AI FROM BECOMING THE ‘BAD GUY’

Photo by techietonics As time goes by, we see how technology becomes an important part of our lives.

Without it, we probably have a hard time living anymore. Who would have imagined that we could easily talk to someone in just one press of a button? Who would have thought that one button could help us power our homes, light up dark areas and give us the most convenient way to live? AI has truly shaped

the way human beings operate now, what would happen if it goes rogue?

Superintelligence, a book written by the founder of The Future of Humanity Institute, Nick Bostrom, warns its readers that if AI is able to learn things on its own, humanity would lose to it. It might lead to the end of human beings as we know it. This is what mathematician Stanislaw Ulam refers to as the Singularity.

Now, Google believes that it is also a big red button that can stop artificial intelligence’s threat of doing us wrong. Google Deepmind, together with The Future of Humanity Institute, is looking for a way how to stop AI from going rogue (and possibly end humanity).

Photo by SEALSwimSafe

For this to work, scientists must install an “interruption policy” that would allow humans to alter the behavior of the machine.

This would lead the machine into thinking that it must stop itself from doing anything at all. This “interruption policy” can only be sent as a signal to the machine by the one who ones it. This would serve as the “big red button” of the machine.

Photo by pinterest

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THIS BACKPACK BY HP CAN CHARGE YOUR LAPTOP Most backpacks are made to contain your everyday stuff.

Then there’s this one from HP which can recharge your laptop.

Yup, the tech giant made a new Powerup Backpack that is like a normal backpack on the exterior, but is actually a huge power bank holding 22,400mAh battery.

It can charge a full-size laptop and a smartphone 10 times. To prevent from overheating while the device is charging, the bag has ventilated pockets and heat sensor monitors and regulators.

Federal Aviation Administration has regulations stating batteries over 100 watt-hours are

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OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

prohibited in checked or carryon luggage, but can be exempted upon the approval of the airline.

But need not fret, the HP Powerup Backpack is at 84 watthours.

The next time you bring an empty-battery laptop with you on a long ride or flight, this will allow you to charge your laptop while in a backpack, or your smartphone for that matter. A unit of this backpack has a price tag of $200 and is available for preorder on Amazon. But we will have to wait for October 1st for its release.

Photo by Amazon

NEW GORILLA GLASS CAN PROTECT YOUR DEVICE FROM A SHOULDER-HIGH FALL

It’s been a while since glassmaker Corning released the Gorilla Glass 4, which was in the fall of 2014. And now they are making a comeback with a much durable chemically strengthened super glass for your electronics.

The Gorilla Glass 5 is destined to save your smartphones from cracking from waist height to shoulder height, or 1.6 meters, with 80% survival rate. In contrast, its direct predecessor was said to be twice as tough as the previous version and twice as likely to survive drops onto uneven surfaces, and was manufactured to survive only at about a meter high.

But according to Corning, their glass covers do not entirely guarantee safety from falling.

The company says that the overall design of the phone also matters especially when it hits the ground through its edges.

Since 2007, Gorilla Glass is used by manufacturing giants like Samsung, HTC, Lenovo, Huawei, LG, HP and Asus, among others. It seeks to improve overall durability and scratch-resistance while also making it thinner.

Production of Gorilla Glass 5 is underway but the release is yet to be disclosed by Corning.

Photo by ExpressNewsAsia

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DROP DOCK: THE WORLD’S FIRST UNIVERSAL MAGNETIC CHARGER If you’ve ever encountered universal chargers for your mobile devices before, you may have noticed the hassle they pose. Older models require your battery removed while newer versions had you sorting through numerous cables. The time you spend on removing your device from charging is also a big issue. Well, time to say bye-bye to these charging hassles with this new charging dock in Kickstarter.

Drop Dock is a Universal “Magnetic” Charger that allows you to charge your Android and iOS device for as long as

they have a Micro USB or a Lightning charging port. The use of magnets provides stability as compared to regular wireless charging. Its sleek design also provides less hassle upon use; just plug the adapter on your phone’s charging port, place the phone on the dock and it’s ready to charge. If you’re ready to go, detaching your phone is as easy as lifting it off of the dock.

Photo by thenextweb

GET READY FOR THE AGE OF COMPUTERGENERATED HUMANS

Photo by Kickstarter

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Saya a Computer Graphics Interface school girl was created by Japanese artists Teruyuki Ishikawa and Yuka Ishikawa (Telyuka). Despite being a CGI, Saya looks very realistic—or a bit too realistic. It’s really difficult to tell the difference!

The Saya project was started

by Telyuka in 2015, and they have been continuously improving her to make her more life-like. Here are some photos of her back then and how she looks like now.

The 2015 version was already amazing, but the improvement is simply mind blowing. This technology,

once improved and mastered could revolutionize different fields like the gaming industry or movie industry.

Video games nowadays are already very realistic, imagine playing your favorite game with this kind of imaging technology. Also, if this technology would be applied in the movie industry, creating realistic CGI characters could be used in place of real actors or stunt men.

The possibilities are endless with this tech.

Photo by crunchbase

Locking your PC every time you step out might be the most unproductive part of your routine. That 1 minute you use to log back on your account every day is 30 minutes of lost productivity in a month. If you don’t want to waste that precious time then this little gadget might just be the answer to your problems.

Untethered Labs created a wireless key that will lock your computer if you step

Photo by Vocativ

Having an implantable memory is still so far from reality. A memory chip in the brain is a favorable feat though, a safe conclusion after a study by Pew Research Center found out that a third of U.S. adults would be “enthusiastic” about having one to improve thinking power.

The survey involved 4,726 adults which measured if they are in favor of three emerging technologies that could improve a person’s

THIS DEVICE LOCKS YOUR COMPUTER BASED ON YOUR PROXIMITY away and log you back on when you’re in range.

This device, known as Gatekeeper, has different security features which helps in protecting your work area.

It also connects to your phone which can double as a tracker if you misplace your dongle. Did we mention it has a keychain hole? No more unlocked computers, and no more lost keys.

Photo by linkedin

WOULD YOU WANT A BRAIN MICROCHIP? A THIRD OF U.S. ADULTS WOULD health, cognitive ability or physical capacity.

Majority of the respondents felt uneasy or worried; but in all three cases, at least one-third of them were enthusiastic.

Sixty-nine percent is worried about using implanted brain chips to boost our thinking power, with the rest enthusiastic. 68% is

worried about editing the genes of babies to eliminate hereditary flaws and disease; and 63% is worried about transfusing synthetic blood to give people much greater speed, strength and stamina.

Such technology fears 73%

of the respondents, saying that brain chips, when they become available, will only be obtained by the wealthy and thus would foster inequality.

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Zuckerberg's Dorm Room Success: From Facemash to Facebook How a young programmer became one of the richest men in the world today Photo by Imgur

Zuckerberg’s story is really inspiring.

At an early age, he already picked up programming and loved it. His love for the code even urged him to get a graduate course related to programming when he was still in high school. But what made his story so special is the story in between how he went from Facemash to creating the social media empire known as Facebook.

It all started at Harvard, where Zuckerberg released this “hot or not” website that pits two students together and you’d have to pick which one is better. Facemash was launched October 2002 and tapped into the images of each Harvard dorm house’s “facebook”—Harvard’s dormroom directory—which Zuckerberg admittedly hacked. It garnered a lot of attention until it was forced to shut down due to some serious privacy complaints to the school board. This almost got Zuckerberg expelled but the charges At 2004, Mark thought about the Facemash incident as a guiding light to create a universal facebook in which all Harvard students can access. He pushed on with this idea

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OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

and later on created the first website at “theFacebook.com” Dustin Moskovitz, who was Zuckerberg’s roommate at the time, said that after the site was built, one of Mark’s friends urged him to put it on his dorm house (Kirkland) mailing list.

While the list only contained around 300 names, registration on the site boomed to around 1200 – 1500 applicants in 24 hours.

Following the immediate in-house success was an immediate complaint against Zuckerberg’s work. Three of his seniors upped and complained to their school paper about Zuckerberg ripping of an idea to create a social media site specifically for Harvard, HarvardConnect.com. This led to a lawsuit which was settled by Facebook off-court. Aside from this, the growth of theFacebook.com was steady. It spread out to different Ivy League and Boston-area schools. In June 2004, they officially dropped ‘the’ from the name and thus Facebook.com was born, with a little $200,000 price tag on the domain, of course.

A series of events happened afterwards, numerous acquisitions

like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Oculus Rift became building blocks that brought Facebook’s name even higher. The only question left today is: “how high can it still go?” The point that everyone with internet access knows what the blue “f” stands for and the fact that this was all conceived in a dorm room of some guy who dropped out of Harvard makes it a story worth listening to. Facebook’s rise to success all started with a joke to see who’s hot and who’s not and what it became after that is no laughing matter. It grew ever steadily, expanding to numerous locations and opening offices worldwide. Facebook started acquiring companies for their tech and their people, well mostly their people, for the purpose of steady expansion that helps increase the armada of the growing online empire.

Tomorrow, people might forget about Facemash and the entire story behind it. But during this modern age of information, people will never forget how Facebook revolutionized the world of social media and the name Mark Zuckerberg which started it all.

ZUCKERBERG'S GROWING ONLINE EMPIRE IF YOU’RE WONDERING HOW BIG ZUCKERTOPIA REALLY IS, CHECK THIS OUT!

by Cielo Panda

Photo by FBnewsroom

Facebook is a very big name in the ever growing online civilization. Founded by Mark Zuckerberg in his Harvard dorm room February of 2004, just how big is the company now? More than a decade has passed and now, mostly anyone with internet access can immediately identify the Facebook logo. It has steadily, and rapidly, grown to where it is today, thanks to the ever increasing need of information.

But Facebook isn’t just a webpage, it’s an online empire built with a whole number of companies that Facebook has acquired over the years.

Here’s a few of the notable acquisitions that Facebook has had from its inception.

1. AboutFace, August 2005

Well, not really an acquisition but more on the domain name. ‘facebook.com’ had already belonged to AboutFace and was acquired by Facebook for a reported sum of $200,000.

2. Parakey, July 2007

This was Facebook’s first official acquisition which also got the company employees such as Blake Ross, co-creator of Firefox, and Joe Hewitt, developer of Firefox’s Firebug.

Hewitt later on developed Facebook for iOS.

3. FriendFeed, August 2009

Very much responsible for the ‘Feeds’ that you see right now, the acquisition of FriendFeed also got some very notable talents such as: Bret Taylor, former Facebook CTO, Paul Buchheit, Google’s 23rd employee and developer of Gmail, Jim Norris, and Sanjeev Singh.

4. Divvyshot, March 2010

Resources from this company was pushed into the direction of what is Facebook Photos today.

5. ShareGrove, May 2010

Many of the company’s existing research has been put towards creating Facebook Groups.

ShareGrove specialized in Private Conversations and Forums, thus Facebook’s interest in them grew.

6. Hot Potato, August 2010

This New York based startup is what used to be the Social Check-in app of that time. After Facebook acquisition, it was then turned into what we all know as Facebook Places.

7. Beluga, March 2011

Not only did Facebook want their employees, they were after the group messaging software as well. Beluga is the predecessor of Facebook

Messenger, the chat platform.

company’s

8. Instagram, April 2012

Who would forget this?

Facebook bought Instagram out for a whopping $1 billion last April of 2012. The connection between the two social media platforms became so tight that their user base just melded together in perfect harmony.

9. Karma, May 2012

You might be a fan of giving away some goodies to your friends using Facebook Gifts and you have Karma to thank for that. It was only a year old when Facebook acquired it and that was also the first day that Facebook was up as a publicly traded company at Wall Street.

10. Jibbigo, August 2013

Jibbigo is one of the famous developers of speech translation both in the iOS and Android. Facebook cheerfully announced the acquisition of this company which allowed the company to move from English to other platforms as well.

11. WhatsApp, February 2014 Not only was this acquisition very pricey at $19 billion, Zuckerberg also acquired

the talents of WhatsApp Cofounder and CEO Jan Koum.

12. Oculus VR, March 2014

Virtual reality started to pop-up from nowhere and Facebook wanted in. The company was purchased at $2 billion which started Facebook’s future into augmented reality.

13. Wit.ai, January 2015

Speech recognition startup was acquired by Facebook for an undisclosed amount. Lots of speculation was towards the Facebook M who was built to rival Apple’s Siri.

14. Two Big Ears, May 2016

The most recent among Facebook’s acquisitions is again leaning towards the entertainment industry. The company was acquired to add up to Oculus VR in creating a wonderful augmented experience that Facebook has yet to reveal about.

These are just a few of all the companies that Facebook has acquired over the years.

Tech advancements for both the website and the company seem to be what Zuckerberg’s plan every time he expands his ever growing online empire.

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HOW DOES MARK ZUCKERBERG THINK?

The success of the world’s largest social networking site Facebook is apparent.

There are about 1.71 billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2016, with the number still growing.

Approximately half of those users log in on a daily basis to update their status, post photos or upload videos.

But did its 5 founders – Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes – expect that their site launched in their college dorm room in 2004 would become this big?

I don’t think so.

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Since Mark Zuckerberg rose into the ranks of the wealthiest and most influential people in the world in 2010, it is now everyone’s curiosity how to become the extraordinary entrepreneur that he is. Does his closet full of H&M gray t-shirts and blue jeans help in Facebook’s unprecedented glory? Not really. Is it just pure luck that he emerged to become the frontrunner of the most celebrated social network? Not at all either.

Perhaps because of the genius that Zuckerberg is?

Well, maybe.

A website called Optimal

OCTOBER 2016 The Future of Consumer Electronics

Thinking has dissected and analyzed Zuckerberg’s thinking during Facebook’s 2013, 2014, and 2015 first quarter earning conference calls, and rated his commentary according to their own Hierarchy of Thinking Styles.

In the hierarchy, thinking is categorized as optimal, extraordinary positive, moderate positive, moderate negative, extraordinary negative and totally negative.

What primarily appeared in the analysis over the 3 conference calls is the dominance of Zuckerberg’s moderate positive thinking

and extraordinary positive thinking, with optimal thinking just behind.

Having the biggest slice of Zuckerberg’s thinking pie is the moderate positive, which relates to his organizational stability. Being a leader of a networking company, he demonstrates understanding of the language of connection, through appreciating the support and hardwork of his employees. This is evident in his speeches which are effective in presenting information with the right amount of selfconfidence minus the hint of arrogance. Zuckerberg blurts

Photo by: Quartz

out in his speeches words like “increasing”, “improvement”, “better”, and “normally”; phrases like “good sign”, “good quarter”, “pretty meaningful”, “building the knowledge economy”, “strategy of improving quality” and “improving the world through sharing”.

The next biggest slice in the pie of Zuckerberg’s thinking is attributed to extraordinary positive, which focuses on his ability to innovate and differentiate products. As the name of the thinking suggests, he does not let obstacles and roadblocks along the way ruin

his progress, and does what he can in order to overcome them – and the results are visible. From his conference calls speeches, the website noticed the use of Zuckerberg with words like “innovate”, “improvement”, “new”, and “amazing”; along with phrases such as “great progress”, “big fundamental believer”, “very big contributors”, “amazing journey”, “growing environmental consciousness”, and “talent management processes”.

While both of those thinking works well with Zuckerberg, he needs to have more

of optimal thinking to empower individuals, teams, departments, and entire organizations to be their best. This thinking is already visible on Facebook’s values, standards and directions, which in a speech, Zuckerberg said, “…Our core business is to focus on helping people to see the best ads and basically make the most money per moment that people are spending at the lowest cost in most efficiency in terms of serving people.” Moreover, optimal thinking can also be discerned in his personal and organizational maturity by

mentioning tests to quantify and quality optimization initiatives. In another speech he mentioned, “We just have to do it right… to get the right content to the right people.

That this is the right path going forward as well.” At the back of Zuckerberg’s mind, optimal thinking is already there; he just needs to display it more in his next speeches.

No matter, now we know how Zuckerberg’s mind works, and what kind of thinking he uses during his speeches. I guess his success secret is no longer a secret?

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Photo by PopularScience

THE DEFINITION OF TECHNOLOGY ACCORDING TO MARK ZUCKERBERG

by Dion Greg Reyes For most of us, our kneejerk definition of the word “technology” is likely to revolve around smartphones, gadgets, computers and robots that make our lives easier. This is correct, but of a limited perspective. Rather, “technology” as defined simply

by Merriam-Webster dictionary, is the use of science in industry, engineering, etc., to invent useful things or to solve problems; or a machine, piece of equipment, method, etc., that is created by technology. But this isn’t exactly what Mark Zuckerberg, one of the most famous tech entrepreneurs of our time and now Facebook

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CEO, has in mind.

Zuckerberg had a second live public Q&A in a public town hall in December 2014, following one conducted a month before. While the first one revealed almost nothing of particular significance except the notice on his wearing of the same type of t-shirt everyday, his take on the movie The Social Network, and Facebook losing its charm, the second one had more of Facebook CEO’s insight especially on the definition of the word “technology.”

One Brazilian user during the interview session asked via the comments section of the

chat about how Facebook could make users more social in real life. It is under his assumption that Facebook cuts more time actually socializing, and perhaps transforming how we interact we each other. And Zuckerberg gave a rather philosophical response: “What defines a technological tool — one historical definition — is something that takes a human’s sense or ability and augments it and makes it more powerful. So, for example, I wear contact lenses or glasses; that is a technology that enhances my human ability of vision and makes it better.”

He supported this statement

Photo by facebook

saying that the point of social network is to “extend the really fundamental human capacity for maintaining social relationships,” followed by a sociological research reference called the Dunbar’s Number. He said, “One of the things that I think that we can [do] through Facebook is make it so that you can maintain relationships with many more people.”

Dunbar’s Number is attributed to evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dubar, who said that we can only ever have 150 friends at most to be considered in a stable social relationship.

The same Q&A session also produced a discussion about how Facebook could be used as a medium in evil ways, like developing weapons and launching cyberattacks.

Zuckerberg is of course aware about these tendencies on the social networking site, to which he answered earlier in the talk about why the world’s biggest social networking site could help resolve the on-going issues of racial tension and police brutality.

He posted in his Facebook timeline, “A greater diversity of perspectives is also important for creating understanding. Before the Internet, we might have only gotten our news from a few TV stations or newspapers. Now we get updates from many more people and sources.”

Nevertheless, Zuckerberg’s answer as a whole is representative of what tech leaders are now thinking about – they are all crazily finding ways to put technology to transform the lives of the people, to the point that we are already superhuman: faster, stronger, and smarter. Their stereotypical optimism, like the one Zuckerberg displayed, is overreaching. But the common goal is to use technology, by whatever definition given, as a powerful tool in creating connections, solving problems of different scales and impacts, and ultimately making our daily lives easier.

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Photo by djtechtools

I AM AN OVERWORKED AND AN UNDERPAID ENGINEER

By Patricia Eldridge Engineers are people who solve complex problems, build highly intricate machinery and develop each to make all of them work in an effective way. To become an engineer, you work really hard through your high school so that you can get into a good college. Then after four years of hard work, perspiration, motivation and determination, you graduate with flying colors and look forward to develop solutions and commercial applications. But the reality provides us with an opposite scenario.

Working diligently through high school, Harry Robinson got admitted into a reputed engineering college and graduated with a good CGPA. After that, he looked forward to work in a well- known company and climb up to a higher position. Some years later after gaining extensive experience, he planned to start a company of his own. But instead, he got a job in a new startup company because not having any prior experience or expertise prevented him from taking up commendable jobs in successful and well-

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known companies. Today, it’s been four years, he is still working in the same company and same position. But the most appalling and alarming part: even though he is an engineer, he overworks and gets underpaid.

Ironically, many engineering firms ain't got a clue about project management or proper workload scheduling. As a result, most of them turn out to be overstretched and under-resourced. Even though hiring more employees does not solve the matter as each engineer must work 70-80 hours per week. Unfortunately, these engineers do not receive the appropriate reward for their work.

But the fault does not lie with the company either. Engineering is such a field where the industries and companies try to create something from scratch and develop various technology and management.

Many people from Business management or Accounting and Finance earn more than an average engineer earns. It’s more like what a Chartered accountant earns after seven to eight years of experience is what an

Photo by lifehacker engineer earns at nearly the end of his career.

Engineering is a path where one loves to do something he is passionate about such as inventing new technology, creating amazing mobile applications, building a complex structural building and much more.

One can argue that Engineers mostly work based on practical experience which is hardly taught in the college and the different sections such as applied sciences, networking, industrial applications, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and much more get completely erased from their minds. There are engineers who look for alternatives and end up taking up jobs in a bank as an executive or bank manager in order to earn more salary. As a result, all that he has learnt in his four years of college, his passion for inventing machines and creating various software remain forgotten. He becomes frustrated due to his nine to five job and has to give up all his creativity just to earn more.

Not being appreciated for your hard work and feeling like a “nobody” can be very demotivating. But there is a way to solve this problem. At first, recite this mantra, “I am an Engineer and I will always do something better in life”. If you want to climb up the ladder, you need to first stand up for yourself.

Change your perception towards things. It doesn’t matter if you are working a lowpaying job, you can keep on applying to different companies, and prepare yourself to

make an excellent impression at the job interviews. One of the most important parts is to mention the experiences you gained in your CV. No matter how minor your experience may seem, knowledge and experience have no bounds.

Meet and make contacts with important people, and let them know your passion and experience. You never know when the opportunity that you have been looking for all these years will come knocking at your door. Remember one thing, do not work for the money as money cannot bring you experience. But if you gain experience, you will receive your reward for the hard work.

Whether you are a graduate of civil, chemical, electrical, electronics, biomedical, mechanical, systems or design engineering, you must have studied somewhere that efficiency is a measure of the useful output as compared to the total input. For a higher efficiency, the machine needs to be in a superior condition. So work on improving yourself, and you will get more opportunities to climb up the ladder towards a rewarding career…or at least one that pays well!

About the author: Patricia took her MBA in London, UK. She's a model, actress, blogger and a copywriter. Her boyfriend is an overworked and underpaid engineer.

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Photo by hrinasia

ENGINEERS, IT'S TIME FOR A 30 HOUR WORKWEEK

by Randy Williams All engineers would like to work less. Well, all of the normal ones anyway. Of course there are those that live to work, rather than work to live. But the vast majority of engineers want to get the most done in the least amount of time.

It may seem counter intuitive, but engineers working less hours per week can actually benefit the employer as well. That’s why it’s time for engineering firms to offer the 30-¬hour workweek.

I propose individuals choose either a 3 day (10 hour per day) schedule or a 4 day (7.5 hour per day) schedule.

Here are five reasons why it’s time to work harder (and smarter) rather than longer:

1. Productivity We’ve all been there, staring at the clock, waiting for it to hit the end of the workday. As you

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watch the numbers slowly tick by wishing that you could magically fast¬forward them with Jedi mind powers, you’re not being very productive.

The easiest solution to getting more productivity out of each minute is actually having more to do. If we’re bogged down with a long to¬do list at the beginning of each day, we prioritize the important tasks that must get done first and work our way to the bottom of the list. With more actual work to do in a given day, we find ourselves no longer looking at the clock. We’re too busy getting things done!

With a shorter workweek, each day becomes more jam¬packed with what you actually need to get done. So your productivity increases during each workday.

I believe engineers could accomplish the same amount of work in 30-hours as they do

now in 40-hours. When time is shortened, engineers will rise up to the challenge.

2. Restfulness We all know how important a solid 8-hours of sleep per night is. We’ve read the studies, heard about it on the news, and we’ve experienced it firsthand. In addition to a good night’s sleep, days off of work are at least equally important.

Think about how refreshed you feel after Memorial Day weekend, Labor Day weekend, Eid, Diwali or any other national holiday weekend. This doesn’t have to be a country mandated, couple times per year thing. This could be the normal work schedule!

If employers find engineers to be equally productive at 30-hours per week, part of that productivity would be due to the additional days off. Even if the engineers

Photo by magazine.startus

aren’t actually ‘resting’, it’s still a time for them to take their mind off work and reset their batteries in order to maximize their productivity the following week.

3. Happiness In decades and centuries past, workers were forced to grind day in and day out with little thanks and given no time for ‘fun’. But today, with fierce competition to keep and retain top talent, companies are coming up with new ways for employees to enjoy the workday while remaining productive.

Case and point is Google. Simply watch the movie “The Internship” with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson to see how ‘cool’ it is to work for Google.

A 30-¬hour workweek would simply make employees happier.

They get to spend more time doing things that fulfill them outside of work. Whether it’s being with their family, being outside, or simply having some alone time. It would be much better to come in for 3 long, very busy days if you’re able to go on a 4 day vacation immediately afterward.

4. Connectivity It’s never been easier to connect in the workplace. With cell phones, laptops, tablets, etc. everyone is connected all the time. The employee must go into a 30-¬hour workweek with the understanding that questions may come up while he/she is not in the office; therefore, they must remain available.

Most engineers will not have a problem answering a question, clarifying some confusion, or inputting some data on their days off if it means they’re not physically at work all day. Most tasks do not require an engineer to sit behind a desk all day. Most things can be solved by a quick phone call while the engineer is at home sitting in their PJs.

5. Accountability This is the single most important reason to implement a shorter workweek. Engineers do not want to be babysat! The company is not paying us so that our boss can breathe down our neck and make sure we’re sitting in our desk chair for exactly 8 hours per day, 5 days per week.

With more freedom comes more responsibility. And this gives the

engineer the opportunity to take ownership of their projects. The company holds the engineer accountable for getting their work done in a timely and efficient manner. The engineer responds to the increased freedom by doing even better work in even less time.

By implementing a shorter workweek, the company is valuing the engineer’s time. I for one do my best work when I feel like I ‘own’ a project. I do even better work when I’m held accountable for the success or failure of that project. I do my absolute best work when I’m given a timeline, freedom, and accountability.

The 30-¬hour workweek helps to empower engineers in the workplace. Whether civil, chemical, electrical, electronics, mechanical, biomedical, materials, design, software or computer engineering firms, this should be accepted by employers and employee.

About the author: Randy Williams: Student of Life.

Professional Engineer. Skeptic.

Explorer. Reader. Listener.

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COMPLETE SILENCE FOR BUSY PEOPLE WITH QUIETON Most of us go through a lot of stress as we go about our lives each day. So it’s only natural for us to want to take a rest without too much noise in our surroundings.

As much as possible, we want to be in complete silence whenever we go to sleep, concentrate on our work or relax. With QuietOn, it gives us exactly what we need with its earplugs that uses noise canceling technology together with acoustic noise attenuation to create silence.

In this exclusive interview with the founder and product director

of QuietOn Ltd., Janne Kyllönen gives us an insight on today’s consumer electronics industry, a detailed look on the company’s product and where it’s headed in the next 10 years.

THE PERSON My name is Janne Kyllönen.

I’m the Founder and Product Director of the company QuietOn Ltd. QuietOn was established in Oulu, Finland in 2015. I’ve been working for the industry for 14 years at Nokia and Microsoft. There I was a project

and product manager typically leading innovation projects.

better with innovative and high quality products.

THE COMPANY

GN: Where is this company headed? What are your future expansion plans?

Kyllönen: Our business is global already. We are selling in over 100 countries. Our target is to be a world-known brand and product would be available in pharmacies, electronic stores and airports globally. I’m sure that in the perspective of ten years we will have several high quality product families and topnotch innovations that will help people and is a good business.

GN: Are you a social enterprise, non-profit or private company?

Kyllönen: QuietOn Ltd is a private company - an earlystage startup fully owned by staff. Currently, QuietOn has 8 employees. The company is located in Oulu, Northern Finland and manufacturing the products with partner company in Tallinn, Estonia.

GN: Describe your mission, vision and values.

Kyllönen: We offer people an opportunity to find silence in multiple situations so they can travel better, sleep better, work better, and relax easy.

We are building our own brand and our target is that QuietOn is a synonym for active noise canceling earplugs. We are the world’s first and only earplug with Active Noise Canceling capability.

We are aiming strongly to enter international markets. Our key value is to make people’s lives

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INTRODUCTION GN: What is your company’s opinion on today’s consumer electronics Kyllönen: Frankly speaking, I haven’t seen really any really innovative solutions for a long time. Industry is putting a lot of efforts to cars but I think that they are only implementing solutions that have been already for ten years.

GN: Which countries do you think have limited access to today’s advanced technologies?

Kyllönen: World is getting smaller through the internet. Our successful Indiegogo campaign is one clear proof of that. People who have problems with noise found us and we are able to deliver our solution everywhere. Literally we have orders eg. from Samoa, Grönland and Africa.

GN: How can they gain access to these technologies then?

Kyllönen: Information of the technologies is available so if the marketing isn’t targeted to a region it means that you need to be more active to find it. Logistics mechanics are global thanks to eBay and Amazon types of companies.

THE MACRO LEVEL OF TODAY’S CONSUMER ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY GN: Where are we today? What is the current situation of the Consumer Electronics technology locally?

Kyllönen: Locally in the city of Oulu, Microsoft and Nokia closed the mobile phone development site which freed thousands of highly skilled engineers. It means this is the area with lots of things happening. A lot of innovative startups and several big players are setting up the development sites.

GN: What are the latest Consumer Electronics technologies today?

Kyllönen: In this area, there are a

road map of the products in our minds and of course we are not telling it.

lot of innovations in health, IoT, car industry and modem areas.

GN: Where are these technologies heading 20 years from now? How fast are we progressing?

Kyllönen: In this area, biggest technology development effects will mostly happen from 5G development.

THE MICRO LEVEL GN: What are the initiatives / projects that you are doing (or have done) that will provide these advanced technologies to the public?

Kyllönen: Our initiative is to design, build and deliver our innovative products GN: Talk about the products you are currently offering to the public. What are they for? How are they doing in the market?

How are they useful to the consumer?

Kyllönen: QuietOn is a unique

earplug combining active noise cancellation and acoustic noise attenuation to create silence.

QuietOn can be used for sleeping, traveling, working and everyday noise attenuation. Technology is advanced and there aren't any similar products on the market.

QuietOn’s ANC performance is similar compared to the world’s best on-ear-headphones.

QuietOn's competitive advantage is that it has no wires or buttons, the earplugs are small, ergonomic and easy to use with 50 hours of battery life on a single charge.

QuietOn is the only ANC product enabling sleep with your head on a pillow. Our Indiegogo campaign has been a huge success. One million pre-sales with almost zero marketing budget.

GN: What are the future innovations that you or your company are pursuing?

Kyllönen: Of course we have a

GN: What impact have you delivered?

Do you have metrics or statistics of your accomplishments?

Kyllönen: We will change people’s life who are suffering from insomnia, noise sensitivity or stress. We increase the performance of the workers and make traveling more pleasant.

Only metrics we have are the results of the user study with airplane travelers. The results were really good. Travelers were pleased with both performance and comfort. 97% found that QuietOn improved their overall flying experience.

THE CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS GN: What are the greatest challenges in the CE industry?

Kyllönen: In the industry, I don’t really see challenges or blocking issues. I just see a lot of opportunities via new battery technologies and interesting IoT platforms.

GN: How do we provide better access to these technologies to more than 7 billion people?

Kyllönen: It all starts with the education. Technology is affordable and there are skills everywhere. I think that it is better to build local solution for local needs compared to the huge global companies having the technology monopoly.

ADVICE TO THE YOUNG ENGINEERS Kyllönen: Technology is easy and fun. Start building your own prototypes. It might be a silly idea but when it is working, you have learned a lot. Show the stuff to others and share your information, it will increase the creativity in your team and you will be surprised how many good ideas will follow. Typically all the ideas need opinions and iterations before they become good ones.

When you have a working prototype for an existing problem, the doors will open easily.

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HOW OTM TECHNOLOGIES COULD CHANGE THE WORLD WITH PHREE 50

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There is no doubt that much of our present technologies are already in digital form, especially among developed countries.

Such is the case in Israel where lies a company named OTM Technologies dedicated to bringing the natural user interface to all users through their innovative product.

Dr. Opher Kinrot, PhD. Co-Founder and Co-CEO of OTM Technologies, explains in firstperson the whereabouts of the company and its product, how the idea of the startup started, and their current challenges.

He has more than 20 years of experience in the field of optics and medical devices.

THE COMPANY OTM Technologies is a private start-up company based in Israel, with less than 10 workers at present. Phree is our first product. Our mission is to bring natural user interface to all users – in the form of a digital pen that works on any surface and with all devices. OTM Technologies will grow to be the component supplier of choice to OEM customers who will build their versions of digital pens and other devices that use OTM’s sensors.

HOW THE IDEA STARTED We see a future where communication with computers will be identical to communication among people. When we developed our optical tracking technology – OTM (Optical Translation Measurement) – one of the first ideas that came to mind

was using it to develop a digital pen that can be used anywhere.

We are using digital devices – computers, mobile phones, etc.

– all our lives. Making the user interface natural and intuitive is something that is on our minds constantly.

Today developing countries – mainly in Africa but also in rural regions in Asia – have limited access to information. Bringing natural and inexpensive user interfaces to these regions will enhance their ability to connect with each other and with the rest of the world. Phree is another step in this direction, both in education and communications.

PHREE: THE ULTIMATE STYLUS SOLUTION Consumers need to look at their usage scenarios – both 'where' and 'when' they want to use a stylus. If their main use is on the go or in the office, sitting near their table or in meetings, with a single device or using multiple devices, etc. Phree is the only solution that lets you use a stylus anywhere and with any device - not limited by the screen size or location.

Phree has the potential to become the preferred input method for VR/AR – the ‘mouse’ for virtual reality interaction.

In addition, there is a large potential in education and of course as a mobile input device turning the mobile phone into a work station. Future versions/ generations may be specifically geared to these markets.

What makes Phree stand out is having a set of unique features no other device is close to offering. With Phree, you

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What makes Phree stand out is having a set of unique features no other device is close to offering.

With Phree, you can work on all your devices anywhere

can work on all your devices anywhere. Phree will bring further usability with emerging virtual and augmented reality headsets, where touch input does not exist and there is no other accurate input device at present.

No other product on the market gives what Phree provides – writing anywhere and on any surface. The best styluses by Microsoft (Surface), Samsung (Note) and Apple (Pencil) all work only on screens. In addition, Phree works with multiple devices – you can switch from your mobile phone to tablet, laptop and TV.

THE CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS We see professionals as part of the first users of Phree – including architects, designers, lawyers, doctors – people who gain by the ability to easily and quickly markup documents. We also see Phree as being geared to the general user like students and creatives for annotating notes in class, jotting down an idea anywhere and free sketching on the go. General users especially benefit in countries where keyboard use is limiting the input with many characters in the alphabet.

Examples of languages that will greatly benefit from handwriting input with Phree

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are Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Arabic, etc.

Our present challenge is building our manufacturing capacity to deliver Phree to our 8000+ early backers and to go into mass production with strategic partners for general usage. Once Phree is on the market our challenge will be to lower its overall cost and move to mass manufacturing.

ADVICE TO THE YOUNG ENGINEERS Dr. Kinrot has this to say to the young engineers: spend time learning the basics, deepening your curiosity and applying your ideas to projects that interest you and working with people who you can advance with. Your innovation, a great team and the right timing in the market can change the world and make the next successful start-up.

For more details about Phree, please visit www.otmtech.com

ACER RELEASES BADASS GAMING LAPTOP WITH 21” CURVED SCREEN Acer has just redefined “portable” with their latest laptop Predator 21 X, being one of the heaviest laptops yet at 8 kilograms (17.6 pounds) – that’s more than seven times the weight of Acer’s Swift 7 laptop. The gaming monster boasts of a 21-inch curved-screen with two GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs. It is complete with five cooling fans, a 7th-generation Intel Core K-series processor, and 4 terabytes of SSD storage – a badass laptop for all the gamers.

That’s not it: it has a 4 DD4 slots having 64 GB of RAM, Tobii eye-

tracking, a mechanical keyboard, a 4.2 sound system, a window to show off one of the big fans, and a flipping numpad that doubles as a touchpad. Acer knows that what they produced is more than just a “big seller” retail product but a display of their engineering expertise.

The Predator 21 X displayed at IFA in Berlin is just a sneak peek demo unit, with its price still undisclosed.

But it can be pre-ordered starting in January next year.

All Photos by Acer

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ENGINEERING INNOVATION CANNOT PROSPER WITH TOO MANY FINANCE MANAGERS

Photo by IMBD

by Margaret Banford There is a saying: too many cooks spoil the broth. Yes, it is only a saying, but sayings do have some truth in them.

We all know the story of Apple – Steve Jobs founded it and led it through its first products – to great acclaim – and was then asked to leave due to his lack of respect for the budget.

Jobs made three major innovations for the company, and then was ousted for using up too much money in his inventions, which was a puzzling move considering that his latest invention at the time the Macintosh – had brought a new level of personal computer to the population at large.

His situation mirrored that of Nikola Tesla, who in 1901 found

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himself without a financial backer after Pierpont Morgan withdrew his support from the inventor, offended at the suggestion that his actions during the financial crisis of that year had in any way affected Tesla’s work.

The question of money becomes increasingly important when we look at the recent recession and the effects it has had on society and innovation – when does money matter more than innovation and imagination? When does it matter less? How do we strike a balance between these two positions? In all honesty, the thought occurs that we pay far too much attention to money.

We should have learned from the example of Tesla, Jobs, and countless others throughout

history: money and innovation do not mix in any great degree.

Having money does not mean that someone is inherently more knowledgeable about what is happening; if they knew how to come up new inventions, then they could simply get on with the process themselves, and leave the poor engineers to their own inventions.

Money has become something more than simply the means of financing new invention. Now it is something to be held out as a promise, as a reward for good behaviour; if the engineer does what they are told, they get the money. To some extent this has always been the case, as we saw with the Tesla example above (and also, more openly, in the possibly

apocryphal story about Tesla overhauling Edison’s motors with the promise of a huge sum of money waiting at the end if he succeeded), but it has never before been as blatant as it is today.

Engineers and innovators are essentially extorted – they are promised money in the form of grants and donations IF – and only if – what they do fulfils the requirements laid down by the people with the money. The money is essentially both stick and carrot at the same time, leading to innovators feeling pressured to do and make things that perhaps they don’t enjoy making, purely for the hope that eventually they will be given money and time to do what they love.

People who have money, but no

innovation skill, have no business telling people who do how they should innovate. If they want something done, they should offer money, not as a bribe or an extortion, but to the right person – the person who wants to make what they want made. Even more ideally, they could remove themselves from the process entirely; simply offer the money up to whoever needs and\or wants it, and that is that. They might never see their technological dream come to fruition, but then again, they just might. And even if they don’t, they could see that they have the satisfaction of allowing somebody’s (or somebodies’) creativity to thrive and to find an outlet.

Someone needs to be able to stand up and say that the current system

has to change, but so far no one appears to be brave enough to do it.

It’s easy to see why – they could end up like Tesla, alone, with no money and no backer. At least the way we do it they have the potential to receive some money.

So in the end, who do we look to for someone to blame in all this?

Do we blame the finance people?

Do we blame the owners? Or do we blame the engineer's dreams?

Who killed enginering innovation?

About the author: Margaret Banford, when not writing, spends her time reading and playing several musical instruments. She is also a fair baker and the CEO of C.M. Cornes, Birmingham UK.

Photo by migrationideas

Photo by en.iict-group

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Photo by billstainton Photo by The Quint

To The Lazy Engineers: An Open Letter

By Aaron Kesel

"Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't."

-Jerry Rice I’m at mile 24 during a trail marathon and the sun is in full heat now. Two hours earlier, the morning air was so crisp and I was fortunate enough to witness the sunrise over Lake Texoma (Texas or Oklahoma, depending on who you support as your college football team). However, that crisp morning air has now changed into stifling heat.

The silver lining is that the trees offer solace in the form of five degrees below 95 degrees. Each step sends a painful pulsing sensation through my legs and orders my mind to stop trudging up another hill, treading through another stream, or maybe just slowing down my pace and letting the younger man I passed back at mile 18 to fly by me. “It’s alright, it’s just a race, this will not place

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you into the hall of fame, just give up now, want an ice cream?” These are the thoughts racing through my head, but I refuse to let them in and allow it to dictate the end of this race.

The question I get from friends and family most often is “why?” This is among the ranks of my favorite things to hear, along with “you must be insane” or “you did what?!” However, the answer to this question of why is much more simplistic than you would think. From the outside looking in, it appears as though I am putting myself through physical challenges, numerous miles and bodily pain with no measurable reward. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Week after week, as a Chemical engineer, you’re faced with seemingly impossible obstacles and issues, not so different than a 28 mile run through the tough Texas (or Oklahoma) heat.

As engineers we consistently want to improve, make things more efficient, and drive to have the best and be the best. Is there a reason to not also strive for this in your personal life?

When you start to challenge yourself and push yourself to your limit, something surreal starts to take place. The stress that you carry all week seems like a mere moment in the face of a 28mile run around Lake Texoma or a mile high climb up the side of a mountain. That issue that other engineers have been losing sleep over is something you have been thinking about and formulating a solution to for the last two hours of running. The issue no one in the office can wrap their arms around, you’ve figured out a fix

by Monday morning.

It is counter-intuitive to think that running and exercising is inversely proportional to the amount of energy that we have to expend during the day. C’mon, we are engineers right?

“Simple math and chemistry proves that, by exercising, we should have less energy based on our bodies’ caloric consumption!” But perhaps this exercising bit has more to it than meets the eye. Maybe by exercising we unlock chambers in our minds that lay dormant in our bodies as we sit on the couch. Or maybe by exercising, we simply filter out all the confusion and a clear path of where to go presents itself.

Exercising is like a good virus--as you start, it will spread to all faucets of your life, personally and professionally. This will allow you to think better, be better, and do better as an engineer.

I leave you with this, a challenge, to get off the couch and go against the engineering status quo. What do you have to lose? You’re already living the other side of the coin by not challenging yourself to be the “best” version of yourself. For one month, get outside and run every day. Start with what you can do and gradually increase the distance. And be honest with yourself. Would you have passed chemical engineering if you stopped at .25 miles? Get out there and get after it. You have so much more to waste than just your physical health.

About the author: Aaron Kesel is a chemical engineer who works in semiconductor processing and manufacturing for one of the top 3 semiconductor companies. His specific area of expertise include Photolithography, diffusion, epitaxy, and metrology. Prior to this role, he has held positions in power distribution working around water purifiers and large scale industrial applications.

The mind and the body have a symbiotic relationship, when you step outside of your comfort zone to improve one, the other will pursue -Aaron Kesel

Photo by AaronKesel

Photo by playbuzz

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Photo by flicker

What if Chemical Engineers Didn’t Exist?

No food to feed the world!

Fritz Haber was the inventor of the allrenowned Haber Process, where nitrogen from the air is mixed with hydrogen under high temperature and pressure, to produce Ammonia. Now ammonia stinks, but, thanks to this process, more than half of the world’s population is being fed with good food. This process produces nitrogen fertilizers and is used by most of the food industries. Now, this process was invented

by Fritz Haber, but, it was Carl Bosch, who took it an industrial scale and then began mass production of the fertilizers. Imagine if the process wasn’t introduced on an

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industrial scale; we would probably be eating only fish now.

No clean water

We can drink clean water today, with the help of the cleaning process invented by Chemical Engineers. Purifying water has several steps to it and being able to change the sea water into something edible, wouldn’t have been possible without the thinking of Chemical Engineers. Today, even contaminated sewage waters can be turned into pure, drinkable water. Even, desalination, a process where salts and unwanted minerals are removed to purify

the water and make it suitable for drinking and other purposes. Desalination is a way that majorly contributes to purifying water and is being used in over 120 countries, including United Arab Emirates, India, Greece and Saudi Arabia.

Recycling wouldn’t have been possible!

Recycling things like aluminum, paper and plastics and reusing them have become possible, thanks to the innovators.

Recycling aluminum was developed in the 1960s and today, aluminum has become one of the most recycled materials. With

this, starting from cans to cars is being recycled today, and has mainly helped in reducing the consumption of bauxite and crude oil and has also contributed in reducing the air pollution.

Recycling paper and plastics has also become possible with the help of Chemical Engineers. Plastic is something we use in our everyday lives and is non-biodegradable. Therefore, to save energy and the environment, Engineers have come up with a process, which reprocesses the plastic to be reused again.

This not only saves energy, but, even helps environmentally.

Batteries? What are they?

This is something that every technology needs, especially the long-lasting ones.

Without it, you probably wouldn’t have been able to read this article. Lewis Urry, a Chemical Engineer, invented the alkaline and the lithium battery, while working for the all-known battery company, Eveready. Today, 80% of the dry-cell batteries are based on his invention. This is the technology era and it definitely wouldn’t have been possible without Urry’s work and methods. Eveready produced batteries since the 1800s, but, the batteries that were produced before Urry’s invention, wouldn’t have been able to power any of the gadgets that we use today. Urry’s invention brought long-lasting, cost-effective batteries and basically is one of the major inventions, which made portable electronics a reality.

Photo by New Indian Express

Ozone layer probably wouldn’t have been depleted.

CFCs, also knows as Chloro-Fluro Carbon, wouldn’t exist today. It’s a coolant used in refrigerators, air conditioners and as propellants in aerosol. This invention, however, has caused a lot of harm to the ozone layer, thereby exposing the earth to ultraviolet radiation. Thomas Midgley was a Mechanical Engineer and a Chemist, so if you combine the worst subjects of these two, one may get Chemical Engineer, which Midgley was arguably. Apparently, the first CFC was highly stable and had no harmful effects on animals, humans and plants. Due to its non-inflammability and volatility, the product was a huge success commercially and was used in refrigerators and air conditioners. However, people were too late to realize its long-term harmful effects and the fact that, it was due to CFCs that the ozone layer was being majorly affected. The damage became known in the 1980s and that’s when the Montreal Accord came into play, which eventually phased-out the use of CFCs.

We would be breathing lead!

Unfortunately, Midgley didn’t stop at CFCs. Before CFCs, Midgley produced

TEL, tetraethyl lead, which was used in early cars to reduce ‘engine knocking’.

TEL caused birth defects, polluted the environment and affected people in many ways physically and mentally. However, the use of it was soon to be outlawed and replaced by the great innovation of Vladimir Haensel. He invented the platforming process, which allowed oil to have a higher octane rating and at the same time caused less air pollution, unlike TEL. Haensel had the idea in mind, which is reforming the naphthas, but, the process required a catalyst. Then, he discovered the use of platinum as a catalyst, which was a stable and facilitated the process

accordingly. Although, the surface eventually gets piled up with coke, today’s refining processes, allows the platinum catalyst to regenerate up to 400 times before being recycled. This great invention, allowed petrol to have a higher octane rating, without any use of harmful chemicals and also benefitted the environment. It cuts off harmful emissions and produces hydrocarbon like benzene, which is mainly used in the production of plastics. Haensel contributed to the production of catalytic converters and thanks to that, we are breathing air instead of lead today!

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Photo by WindowsCentral

THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL GAMING LAPTOP You can now bring desktoplevel gaming performance to gaming laptops!

ASUS presents the new upgraded version of their GX700—the ASUS ROG GX800. It will be featuring better, more powerful specifications and will still include the removable watercooling solution which will help you get the most out of your gaming experience.

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The ASUS ROG GX800 uses a dual-GPU setup, unlocked Intel processor and a mechanical gaming keyboard, which is the best choice for gaming laptops since membrane keys won’t be able to withstand fast simultaneous taps like mechanical keyboards can.

Also, the keys have multicolour LED keys, which you can customize to your own style.

This makes it the fastest, most

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powerful gaming laptop in the world.

Some of the hardware specifications of the ASUS ROG GX800 is as follows: It will be using Intel Core i7-6820HK, with an operating system of either Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro and its chipset is Intel CM236 Express Chipset.

Photo by TechHive

Photo by IndianExpress

NEW LG TELEVISIONS HAVE MOSQUITOREPELLENT FEATURE While other television companies raise the bar in their technologies for better viewing experience and entertainment, LG has engineered a new television with a humanitarian purpose.

The company has produced a line of televisions called Mosquito Away, which is designed to repel mosquitoes. LG is targeting Indian consumers, since malaria has severely stricken India which affects hundreds of thousands of its natives in a year. This will be the first of its kind after a careful study of the Indian situation and market.

LG’s new TV will have an ultrasonic

device which uses sound waves to keep the mosquitos away.

The company secures that their exceptional TV will not emit harmful radiation or will use toxic chemicals. The 32-inch display will cost $400, the cheapest in the line. The 43-inch variant will be as much as $710.

This effort will somehow alleviate the increasing number of cases in India. In New Delhi alone last year, 10,500 cases of dengue are listed.

Only about 11 per cent of India’s population is free from malaria, as indicated in the 2014 World Malaria Report.

Photo by IndiaTvNews

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hoto by CambiarNews

WINDOWS PLANS TO TURN YOUR PC'S INTO HOLOGRAM VIEWERS Microsoft opened the HoloLens Experience Showcase at its flagship store in New York this week. Interested developers can schedule appointments to be able to get hands-on time with Microsoft’s new holographic augmented reality headset. Unfortunately, there still isn’t news when nondevelopers will be able to get the HoloLens experience.

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In line with this, Microsoft has announced Windows Holographic, a new “mixed reality” experience. You’ll soon be able to see holograms on your Windows PC! To be able to do so, you’ll be needing the latest version of Windows 10 and a Microsoft HoloLens headset. Windows Holographic will be featuring multitasking and the capability to rotate

3D models, it will also have Bluetooth mouse support.

The Windows Holographic platform is a collaboration with Intel and it will support Intel’s upcoming VR headset Project Alloy, and other PCs and laptops. It will also be compatible to work in tandem with Microsoft’s HoloLens and Intel NUCs with embedded Iris graphics.

Photo by MSPowerUser

Photo by youtube

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