US Navy

Harvesting energy from natural motion

By taking advantage of the vagaries of the natural world, Duke University engineers have developed a novel approach that they believe can more efficiently harvest electricity from the motions of everyday life.

Breakthrough in industrial-scale nanotube processing

Rice University scientists have unveiled a method for the industrial-scale processing of pure carbon-nanotube fibers that could lead to revolutionary advances in materials science, power distribution and nanoelectronics.

End User Requirements Aired at Inaugural Energy Harvesting Event

Next week more than 300 attendees will converge in Denver at two co-located events: Energy Harvesting & Storage and Wireless Sensor Networks & RTLS. These events bring together the whole ecosystem from adopters of the technology to those making wireless sensors, ultra low power electronics, energy harvesting and energy storage devices.

Wireless Sensor Networks and RTLS: The Growth Areas

Active RFID will rise from 10% of the total RFID market this year to 24% in 2019, meaning a huge $6.74 billion market.

Robot jellyfish

The US Navy is developing robot surveillance jellyfish that employ energy harvesting in order to survive and navigate at sea for many years.

Energy harvesting industry in conflict

The ZigBee Alliance announced in July 2009 that it will draft a standard for energy harvesting devices.

Energy Harvesting & Storage Conference Covers End User Requirements

IDTechEx is hosting the world's largest event on Energy Harvesting & Storage on November 3-4 in Denver, CO, USA. Uniquely, the focus of the event is to address requirements from end users from a range of different vertical industries.

Sea buoys adopt energy harvesting

A minority of buoys at sea have energy harvesting and that usually means the largest, most mission critical buoys having solar power and occasionally small wind turbines.

Launch of IDTechEx Energy Harvesting & Storage US Event

Speakers already confirmed include The US Navy SPAWAR, GE, Savi Technology, University of Michigan, Fisk University, Structural Graphics, MicroStrain, Axcess Technologies, The Facility, NREL and many others.

Military thermoelectrics

Thermoelectric energy harvesting is used in many military applications. In addition, it is used in the related area of generating energy on space vehicles in deep space where thermoelectric are ineffective, this being done by converting the heat of a radioactive material - the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator RTG.

Photoluminescent nanocrystals with the potential for new lighting

"Non-blinking" nanocrystals that constantly emit light have the potential to be an incredibly cheap alternative for lighting applications or even an OLED successor.

Energy harvesting for robots

Robots need enduring motive power that is not usually associated with the term energy harvesting and power for sensors and so on that is more to do with energy harvesting. However, these needs merge as we progress to small robots.

'Smart fabrics' that monitor health

A carbon nanotube-coated "smart yarn" that conducts electricity could be woven into soft fabrics that detect blood and monitor health, engineers at the University of Michigan have demonstrated.

An invisible cloak may be 5 years away using transformation optics

An electromagnetic cloak as seen in the Harry Potter movies may be only 5 years away believe scientists at Purdue University.

Ruggedised and apparel RFID become popular

At Europe's largest RFID conference, RFID Europe, in Cambridge UK 30th September - 1 October, the most impressive users, developers and suppliers of ruggedised and apparel RFID will present their new advances and view of the future.

Ruggedised and Apparel RFID Become Popular

The IDTechEx Knowledgebase of over 3,500 RFID projects in 109 countries illustrates how this market of over $5 billion is rapidly diversifying.

Rapid Improvements in Real Time Locating Systems

One reason why the market for Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) is growing rapidly to pass the billion dollar mark well within ten years is technology. It is improving rapidly, with new variants for the many new sub sectors of the market that are emerging.

UK Chemical Sector Initiative - part two

It was noted in the Council for Science and Technology Review that Plastic Electronics is a high risk / high reward priority technology area. The academic structure is well established in OLED, PLED, OSC materials and deposition methods with £20M / yr funding from Research Councils (EPSRC).

Darpa selects Bioident for joint development project

Project demonstrates potential of biosensors with integrated printed detectors for point-of-use tests.

Carbon 60 transistors perform at higher levels than amorphous silicon

Using room-temperature processing, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have fabricated high-performance field effect transistors with thin films of Carbon 60, also known as fullerene.