Top TechTop Tech #7: See for the blind, Memristor, Optical link
Spotlighting interesting or important innovations with long-term promise.
Today’s highlights:
• Transistor + memory = memristor
• Silicon bends light for “optical link”
• “A Network of Eyes”
Transistor + memory = memristor
A “new” electrical component could revolutionize electronics— new in that it was conceived in the 1970s — but may soon come to market.
HP built amemristor in 2008, and now, CNN reports, IBM is working with ETH Zurich on the idea. “Many researchers believe it could spark a revolution in computing.”
How so? By “paving the way for computers that will instantly turn on and off like a light bulb and never lose data… and “escape the boundaries of binary code.” A memristor can have multi-levels, several states: say, zero, one half, one quarter, one third, and so on, “and that gives us a very powerful new perspective on how our computers may develop in the future.”
CNN’s new overview of the innovation is here.
Scientific American examined the tech last Summer here.
Silicon bends light for “optical link”
Light-bending silicon strips are the key to super-fast computers, Stanford University reports.
Engineers there have “taken a big step toward using light instead of wires inside computers.” A prism-like silicon structure can bend light at right angles. The goal is to transmit data faster and more efficiently via optical rather than electrical signals. The silicon chips are etched with a pattern that resembles a bar code.
“A Network of Eyes” — help the blind to see with a phone app
An app connects blind people with volunteer helpers via a live video chat.
“Be My Eyes” lets a blind person request assistance for “anything from knowing the expiration date on the milk to navigating new surroundings,” the developer says. The sighted volunteer “receives a notification for help and a live video connection is established. From the live video, the volunteer can help the blind person by answering the question they need answered.”
Imaging Resource calls it “one of the most incredible uses of camera technology and crowdsourcing we’ve ever come across.” I agree. Check it out here.
