Top TechTop Tech #109: Head Cooling, Energy Storage, People Counting
Important innovations in science and technology, every day
By Paul Worthington
Monday’s Top Tech:
• Cool your head
• Super capacitor storage high energy
• Density device counts people
Density device counts people
Want to know how crowded is your gym, or favorite bar?
Density says its “people counter” sensor attaches to an entrance, measures anonymous movement as people come and go, and generates real-time and historical data that can be integrated anywhere.
The company says its installs sensors across locations, and “real-time movement data is collected, organized, and made available to your developers through the Density API.”
The hardware and installation are free — as it charges a monthly fee, starting at $25.
Super capacitor storage high energy
A new capacitor design “rivals thin-film lithium ion batteries in energy density,” Kurzweill AI reports, and its potential uses include electromagnetic propulsion, electric vehicles, and defibrillators.
Georgia Tech researchers have developed a new supercapacitor material — hybrid silica sol-gel material —that can provide large amounts of current quickly, unlike batteries, the report adds.
It’s also flexible.
Cool your head
Shoe-maker Nike is designing gear for the other end of your body, including a prototype cooling hood that helps athletes with thermoregulation.
In 2004 Nike designed the PreCool Vest “to cool core temperature,” the company says here.
The Nike Sports Research Lab “was exploring the performance benefits of cooling the face” and found it is two to five times more sensitive than other body surface areas.
The hood “concentrates a cold mass out of an icebox, covering the face, head and neck, and allows a gradual and effective cooling of the head.”
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