Also known as an OLED (organic - LED), these paper thin TV screens will be hitting the market big time in '09 and can be seen on YouTube. What's even more cool about these screens is the fact that they can be mounted on almost completely transparent materials. When produced properly, they can have a transparency of 85%, similar to a lightly shaded car window. This gives rise to the idea of car windshields being embedded with tv screens that can "highlight" the road and other objects at night.
Another application for this screen is in advertising. I don't mean billboards and mounted tv's though. I am talking about magazines with tv screen covers. Imagine next month's sports illustrated having a video of a baseball player hitting a ball rather than just a picture. This has a sort of Harry Potter newspaper feel to it.
But on a more practicle side, these tv screens use far less energy than normal LED screens. Since they are not backlight, only the pixels that need to be lighted are pulling energy. Couple this technology with the newer Lithium batteries that come in Laptops and you have a machine that can stay powered for days rather than just hours.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Salt Water Engine!!
That's right... an engine that runs solely on salt water is currently being developed by the US government. Apparently, a scientist looking to come up with a cure for cancer figured out a way to make salt water combustible. You can watch a report on this at Youtube.
I do have some questions / concerns about this engine, however. Anything that sounds this good usually has some problems that need to be resolved. My question is what kind of byproducts are produced by this reaction. Salt water is composed of very simple materials. Obviously, water is H2O, but salt is composed of Sodium (a material that explodes when it hits water) and Chloride (a lethally poisonous gas). Makes you wonder what kind of exhaust fumes we would be breathing in.
Also, if this development is achieved by the government, will we ever see it come to fruition? Imagine a world in which you can fill your car up at home, where boats don't have fuel tanks, where shipping costs are drastically reduced. I sincerely doubt that our current government would opt for that kind of a world. The fact that this natural resource is so easily obtainable leads to a government with less control of its populous.
I hope that before I die I can drive my car to the ocean and back for free.
I do have some questions / concerns about this engine, however. Anything that sounds this good usually has some problems that need to be resolved. My question is what kind of byproducts are produced by this reaction. Salt water is composed of very simple materials. Obviously, water is H2O, but salt is composed of Sodium (a material that explodes when it hits water) and Chloride (a lethally poisonous gas). Makes you wonder what kind of exhaust fumes we would be breathing in.
Also, if this development is achieved by the government, will we ever see it come to fruition? Imagine a world in which you can fill your car up at home, where boats don't have fuel tanks, where shipping costs are drastically reduced. I sincerely doubt that our current government would opt for that kind of a world. The fact that this natural resource is so easily obtainable leads to a government with less control of its populous.
I hope that before I die I can drive my car to the ocean and back for free.
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