oguzhan karaoglu

Video

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:54:15 +0300

Lockheed Martin is progressing with Ocean Thermal Energy...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:52:07 +0300

Lockheed Martin is progressing with Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion. Known as OTEC, this technology leverages the ocean’s natural thermal gradient to generate power.

In geographical areas with warm surface water and cold deep water, the temperature difference can be leveraged to drive a steam cycle that turns a turbine and produces power. Warm surface sea water passes through a heat exchanger, vaporizing a low boiling point working fluid to drive a turbine generator, producing electricity.

This process can serve as a baseload power generation system that produces a significant amount of renewable, non-polluting power, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Military shore-side bases and communities in the tropics, many of which are largely dependent on imported fossil fuels for power and transportation, are ideal candidates for such a system.

Additionally, OTEC power can be used to produce energy carriers such as hydrogen and ammonia, which can be shipped to areas not close to OTEC resources. The system can also include fresh-water production by flash evaporating the warm sea water and condensing the subsequent water vapor using cold sea water.

Lockheed Martin’s history with OTEC began in the 1970s, where the heritage Lockheed Martin Ocean Systems Division, based in Sunnyvale, California, developed a mini OTEC plant, which ran for three months and successfully generated 50 kilowatts of electricity.

Since 2009, the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command has awarded Lockheed Martin $12.5 million to develop critical OTEC system components and advance the design for an OTEC pilot plant, an essential step in developing large-scale utility plants.

Photo

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 06:00:37 +0300

This ship (it’s almost too advanced to just call it a...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 03:56:10 +0300

This ship (it’s almost too advanced to just call it a “ship”) is the Hydroptere, and it’s considered the fastest sailing vessel in the world. But it has yet to achieve one of the great feats of the sailingworld: a record-breaking voyage between Los Angeles and Honolulu.

It takes some breathtaking design to make a serious attempt at the transpacific record, and breathtaking design is something which the Hydroptere, sometimes dubbed “the flying boat”, has in spades. Hydroptere is a trimaran, forged from cutting-edge composites and designed to “fly” with her hull completely out of the water on hydrofoils, reducing drag. This puts incredible amounts of pressure against the ship’s foils: twice as much pressure as is endured by the wings of a jet fighter, to be exact.

And that’s really what the Hydroptere is: the high-tech jet of the sea. Sans actual jets, of course, since it’s a sailboat without any engines at all, making it all the more impressive that it can accelerate from 20 to 45 knots (or 23 to 52 MPH) in just 10 seconds. Pretty incredible for something that moves through a substance 784 times more dense than air. To see what theHydroptere can do, check out some video in the gallery below.

— the Chinese-made MK802 — is a complete “mini...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:10:25 +0300

— the Chinese-made MK802 — is a complete “mini PC” that’s about the size of a USB flash drive or card reader. It has a 1.5GHz Allwinner processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of onboard flash storage. You can get at these internals via two USB ports (which can also power the device,) and pump the result out to a display via HDMI. If that 4GB of memory isn’t enough, you can expand it via a microSD slot. All good and well, but what would you do with such a thing? Plenty is the answer. This not only makes any HDMI display a PC, it also ushers in a new type of portability. Bring your Netflix over to a friend’s house without needing your phone, or never worry about using public PCs again. All of these niche uses give the MK802, and its kind, lots of potential. But what is it like in real life? Shimmy past the break to find out.

Hardware-wise, there isn’t all that much to talk about that we haven’t already covered. Unsurprisingly, it is light and plasticky feeling. However, you can imagine that this would be quite safe, being thrown around in the bottom of a bag, or in a key- and coin-filled pocket. It seems a little unfair to say it feels cheap, but then, itis cheap ($74). In the best possible way of course. Set up was easy enough, just plug this little fella into an HDMI port (cable provided) and a USB slot for juice (we used one on the TV, there’s the option for a power pack too,) and you’re away. It takes a few moments to boot up, but once it does, you’re into good old Android (4.0.3). We used a wired mouse in the second USB port which worked straight away with no problems. Another option could be to explore some VNC or remote control applications, but this seemed more complicated than it was worth. A dongle-based wireless mouse might be better. What could also be nice, for later versions, would be Bluetooth support for additional HID options.

In use, the only difference to a tablet flavor of Android is the mouse part. In the main it’s no problem, and you soon get used to it, but apps where touch — especially of the “multi” variety — might not translate so well. All media tasks (HD video,Spotify, YouTube etc,) were handled pretty well. Sometimes there is a bit of a lag on the UI — especially with things like Google Maps, or busy webpages — but in general it keeps up nicely. We did have a few frustrating moments when taking power from some USB ports which caused the MK802 to keep restarting, but plug it in to one meant for power, and performance is solid.

Out of curiosity, and being the number fetishists that we are, we ran a few quick benchmarks on the wee chap. Now, we didn’t go quite as in-depth as we would, say, for a phone, but over all it gave modest, to lower-end results. Quadrant clocked in at around 1238, GL Bench 20fps, and Sun Spider 5075.8, which — if pushed to measure it against something — puts it in Panasonic Eluga territory.

Back in the real world, it’s fair to say that it didn’t take long before we got right into the whole Android-on-a-TV thing, and started to wonder about all the apps that might be well suited to this configuration. YouTube is an obvious example, and it worked much better on the MK802 than some native Smart TV apps we’ve seen. The same is true for things like BBC iPlayer, where the Android interface is sometimes snappier than the TV app. Of course, it’s even better when it brings apps to your TV that otherwise might not be available, like Netflix (which does have TV apps, but only certain models). The more time you spend with this, discovering suitable apps, the better it gets, and we could see some really unique uses for it going forward.

Right here and now, though, this is neat little solution that will really appeal tinkerers and Android fans. Of course, anything with a processor and some memory instantly has the Linux wolves circling, and this too would be ideal for your favorite install. As mentioned above, media playing works a charm, which is makes it a good light solution for dumb TVs, or those with poor app options. The general population might not have sufficient use for it just yet, but with a few tweaks like a small battery (so it doesn’t switch off with the TV,) Bluetooth, or an audio out, this could really gain a lot of fans. But hey, who wants to be part of the gen pop anyway? We’re quite taken with it as it is, and are curious to see how the Cotton Candystacks up against it. In the meantime, you can check the video below to see how it handles various tasks.

Video

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:06:00 +0300

Siemens has developed the world’s first electrically...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 04:12:17 +0300

Siemens has developed the world’s first electrically powered car ferry with the Norwegian shipyard Fjellstrand. The 80-meter vessel can carry 120 cars and 360 passengers. From 2015 onward, it will serve the route between Lavik and Oppedal, across the Sognefjord. The ship’s batteries will be recharged in the breaks between crossings, a procedure which only takes 10 minutes. The vessel currently serving this route uses approx one million liters of diesel a year and emits 2680 metric tons of carbon dioxide and 37 metric tons of nitrogen oxides. The electrically powered ferry was developed for submission to a competition organized by Norway’s Ministry of Transport. As a reward for winning the competition, the shipping company Norled has been granted the license to operate the route until 2025.

The ferry has been specially designed to accommodate the requirements of an electric drive system. As a catamaran with two slim hulls, it offers less resistance in the water than a conventional vessel. Furthermore, the hulls are made of aluminum instead of steel, which is conventionally used. Rather than a diesel engine, the ferry is equipped with electric motors to drive the ship’s two screws. These motors are powered by a battery weighing 10 metric tons. All in all, the new vessel weighs only half as much as a ferry of conventional design. This saving has a direct impact on the specifications of the drive system. Whereas the ferry currently serving the route has an engine with an output of 1,500 kilowatts (kW) or more than 2000 horsepower, the battery in the new vessel will have an output of 800 kW. In normal conditions, operating at a speed of 10 knots, battery power of 400 kW will suffice.

The crucial feature of the new ferry is that it only takes 10 minutes to recharge the batteries. In the two small villages linked by the ferry, however, the local grid is not equipped to deliver such a large amount of power in such a short space of time. To deal with this problem, batteries have been installed at each port. These serve to recharge the ferry’s battery during turnaround and are then themselves slowly recharged from the local grid.Hundreds of ferries link Norway’s mainland to the islands off its coast and provide routes across its many fjords. Using today’s battery and recharging technology, all crossings of up to 30 minutes in duration could be served by electrically powered vessels.

Pioneers 10 and 11, which preceded Voyager, both carried small...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:56:53 +0200

Pioneers 10 and 11, which preceded Voyager, both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the distant future. With this example before them, NASA placed a more ambitious message aboard Voyager 1 and 2-a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record-a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University, et. al. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim. Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle. Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record is to be played. The 115 images are encoded in analog form. The remainder of the record is in audio, designed to be played at 16-2/3 revolutions per minute. It contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 90-minute selection of music, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music. Once the Voyager spacecraft leave the solar system (by 1990, both will be beyond the orbit of Pluto), they will find themselves in empty space. It will be forty thousand years before they make a close approach to any other planetary system. As Carl Sagan has noted, “The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet.”

A spacecraft that took off from Cape Canaveral 35 years ago is...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:52:00 +0200

A spacecraft that took off from Cape Canaveral 35 years ago is continuing its journey out of the solar system, Nasa said today.

The Voyager 1 probe was fired into space to observe the outer planets and the mysterious interstellar medium that lies beyond the solar system on 5 September 1977, as Elvis was topping the UK chart with Way Down.

Sensors onboard the far-flung probe recorded a dramatic fall in radiation more than 11bn miles (18bn kilometres) from the sun, while the intensity of galactic cosmic rays soared.

The spacecraft passed what researcher Bill Webber called the “heliocliff” on 25 August last year, according to a report in the journal, Geophysical Research Letters.

“Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere,” said Webber, professor of astronomy at New Mexico State University. The heliosphere is the vast region of space that is dominated by the sun and the solar wind it produces. Surrounding the heliosphere is the interstellar gas and dust that spreads throughout the Milky Way.

Edward Stone, a Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, said: “It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called ‘the magnetic highway’ where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed.”

The Voyager probes – there is a twin that trails far behind Voyager 1 – have survived their journey despite relying on aged technology. Each has only 68kb of computer memory; the smallest iPod nano, at 16gb, has over 16,384,000kb capacity. They carry enough fuel to last until 2020. No other object has travelled so far from Earth.

Whether Voyager 1 has reached interstellar space or lurks in some undefined region beyond the solar system is still up for debate, said Webber. “It’s outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that. We’re in a new region. And everything we’re measuring is different and exciting.”

Webber’s report on Voyager was co-written by Frank McDonald, a scientist at the University of Maryland, who died a week after the probe appeared to leave the solar system. Paying tribute in the article, Webber wrote: “You wanted so badly to be able to finish this article that you had already started. Together we did it. Bon voyage!”

Another company is called Renewable Energy Holdings. Their idea...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:40:59 +0200

Another company is called Renewable Energy Holdings. Their idea for generating wave power (called “CETO”) uses underwater equipment on the sea bed near the coast. Waves passing across the top of the unit make a piston move, which pumps seawater to drive generators on land.
They’re also involved with wind power and biofuel.

A company called Pelamis Wave Power are developing a method of...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:39:25 +0200

A company called Pelamis Wave Power are developing a method of offshore wave energy collection, using a floating tube called “Pelamis”.

This long, hinged tube (about the size of 5 railway carriages) bobs up and down in the waves, as the hinges bend they pump hydraulic fluid which drives generators.

Ocean waves are caused by the wind as it blows across the sea....

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:36:00 +0200

Ocean waves are caused by the wind as it blows across the sea. Waves are a powerful source of energy.

The problem is that it’s not easy to harness this energy and convert it into electricity in large amounts. Thus, wave power stations are rare.

There are several methods of getting energy from waves.

One of them works like a swimming pool wave machine in reverse.

At a swimming pool, air is blown in and out of a chamber beside the pool, which makes the water outside bob up and down, causing waves.

At a wave power station, the waves arriving cause the water in the chamber to rise and fall, which means that air is forced in and out of the hole in the top of the chamber.

We place a turbine in this hole, which is turned by the air rushing in and out.

The turbine turns a generator.

A problem with this design is that the rushing air can be very noisy, unless a silencer is fitted to the turbine.

The noise is not a huge problem anyway, as the waves make quite a bit of noise themselves.

ADVANTAGES

The energy is free - no fuel needed, no waste produced.
Not expensive to operate and maintain.
Can produce a great deal of energy.

DISADVANTAGES

Depends on the waves - sometimes you’ll get loads of energy, sometimes almost nothing.
Needs a suitable site, where waves are consistently strong.
Some designs are noisy. But then again, so are waves, so any noise is unlikely to be a problem.
Must be able to withstand very rough weather.

What if a company redesigned the typically smooth blades on a...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 23:18:36 +0200

What if a company redesigned the typically smooth blades on a turbine by adding a series of ridges, based on whale tubercles – bumps on humpback whale fins? WhalePower says its new blade design could increase annual electrical production for existing wind farms by 20%.

The idea is this: Humpback whales tilt their fins at steep angles for better lift in the water. Too much tilt, however, has the opposite effect—a loss of lift called stalling. Tubercles prevent stalling, allowing for more aggressive fin tilts. WhalePower’s tubercle-like structures on the turbine blades let blades work at steeper angles without stalling or creating too much drag. In low wind, blades with steeper angles theoretically generate more power. Wind tunnel tests published by WhalePower president and founder Frank Fish and Duke University fluid-dynamics expert Laurens Howle showed that, in some cases, adding tubercle-like bumps to model fins pushed back the stall angle by as much as 40%.
Testing on the tubercle-enhanced blades began in 2007 at The Wind Energy Institute of Canada in Prince Edward Island. A Canadian ventilation company, Envira-North Systems, will be the first to use tubercles on industrial fans.

An OLED (organic light emitting diode) consists of an emissive...

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 23:07:44 +0200

An OLED (organic light emitting diode) consists of an emissive organic material, that when supplied with an electrical current, can produce a superior full-color flat panel display.

Several factors make OLED superior to LCD or CRT technology. The most obvious difference is that OLED is so ultra-thin it can even be placed on plastic film! This makes it much lighter than older technology and a great advantage for hand-held devices, laptops and notebooks. It even opens the door to flexible displays. OLED is also brighter and has better contrast than LCD, but does not require back-lighting. It consumes about 20% less power than LCD, and has a response time every bit as fast as CRT displays. Add to this favorable list that OLED displays can be clearly viewed at nearly any angle — a full 170 degrees. As if this wasn’t enough, they boast exceptional clarity and refresh at a rate 3x faster than is necessary for standard video applications!

An OLED display consists of very thin sandwiched layers of materials. When an electric current is supplied, the negatively charged electrons in the cathode layer move through the organic substances towards the positively charged anode layer. The reverse happens from the anode’s side, as positively charged electrons are drawn towards the cathode leaving holes in the conductive material. These positively charged holes jump to the organic material to recombine with electrons, which causes electroluminescent light. The chemical composition of the organic material dictates which colors of light are produced.

Eastman Kodak invented OLED technology in the early 1980s and has been improving upon it ever since, along with other companies. Sanyo Electric and Eastman Kodak united for a joint venture, SK display, to make the first OLEDs available commercially in a digital still camera introduced in 2003, the EasyShare LS633.

Another breakthrough occurred in October 2004, when AUO Technology Center announced the very first double-sided active matrix OLED. This display can show two separate images on a single panel, moving or still, using both the front and back of the panel. This is ideal for applications such as flip-phones that have external and internal screens.

Virtually every product that uses LCD or CRT technology is a candidate for OLED, including game devices, cellular phones, video cameras, DVD players, GPS, audio displays, PDAs, notebooks, monitors, and televisions. With the low power consumption, virtual weightlessness, clarity, brightness and wide viewing angle, OLED is the next generation display technology.

TimberTower

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:28:27 +0200

TimberTower

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:27:29 +0200

TimberTower

Timber towers specialise in the development, assembly and sale...

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:20:45 +0200

Timber towers specialise in the development, assembly and sale of timber towers and foundations for wind energy plants. They are the first company in the world to use the high-tech material wood to construct towers - an efficient and ecological masterstroke and groundbreaking concept.

This way, they are able to meet the current demands regarding efficiency and ecological rationality in the renewable energy industry. Their TimberTower is the perfect response to climate protection questions both now and in the future. Its benefits: consistent sustainability and avoidance of CO₂emissions, cost saving, and can be transported to anywhere in the world due to its unique method of construction.

Wood represents an attractive alternative for wind power. Dynamic loads, protection against corrosion, and price of material: Wood offers key advantages. The TimberTower represents the ecologically groundbreaking alternative to established tower concepts, as the increased size of the tower base makes greater hub heights economically viable. More electricity is produced from renewable energy sources - an important step for climate protection. The turbines are increasingly efficient, the returns are higher.

Up until now, special abnormal loads have been required to transport wind energy towers. However, these limit the diameter of conventional towers, as the tower base is restricted to a diameter of 4.20m to enable it to pass under bridges. In order to increase efficiency, however, higher towers with larger tower base diameters are required - a seemingly unsolvable transport problem.

Wood, on the other hand, is a cost-efficient material, which is also logistically easy to transport. The TimberTower components are transported to the site in 40ft containers. Unlike with tubular steel tower segments, there is no need for the abnormal loads that are such an economical and ecological strain. A logistical revolution.

Mission to the edge of Space - Red Bull Stratos 2012

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:52:28 +0300

Mission to the edge of Space - Red Bull Stratos 2012

The mission, Red Bull Stratos, will take renowned athlete Felix...

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:51:12 +0300

The mission, Red Bull Stratos, will take renowned athlete Felix Baumgartner to at least 120,000 feet above the earth, to the very edge of Space.

From there, he will attempt a stratospheric free fall jump - the longest in the history of man - and hopefully will become the first human to break the speed of sound with his own body.

This is a mission to overcome limits which have existed for almost fifty years, ever since the heroic achievement of the young US Air Force test pilot, Joe Kittinger, with his 1960 Excelsior mission.

Red Bull Stratos will attempt to make history and deliver valuable learnings for medical and scientific advancement that will aid the exploration of space in future years.

Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 16:12:59 +0300

Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging