Category Archives: Gadgets and Tech
Imagine when you are lazing on the roads and streets of beautiful Italy, especially Peccioli, one cute little green thing will appear that will be cleaning the dust, picking up small bits of garbage from the streets and moving right along. That is the $3.9 million DustBot research program’s proof. It collects trash and measures atmospheric pollutants like sulfur oxide, benzene, ozone, and nitrogen oxide with its on-board sensors. The robot can even be summoned with a cell phone and can go door to door, identify residents with a personal ID number and sort their trash into organic, recyclable or waste.
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OLEDs are green but researchers from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada believe that there is room for more improvement. They have asserted that based on the colors chosen to make an image, OLEDs can be more energy-efficient. A well-balanced color palette can help to extend the battery life of cell phones and consume 40% less energy. Such a green tweaking is explained well – ‘One is based on a set of discrete user-named (categorical) colors, which are analyzed according to their energy consumption. The second is based on the constrained continuous optimization of color energy in the perceptually uniform CIELAB color space. The researchers quantitatively compare the two approaches with a traditional choice of colors, demonstrating that we typically save approximately 40 percent of the energy. The color sets are applied to examples from the 2D visualization of nominal data and volume rendering of 3D scalar fields.’ Since the pixels in OLED screens are a result of color emitting polymer spots, using the colors that use less energy will help to reduce power consumption. It is calculated that at the same brightness, yellow uses less energy than magenta.
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Osram Golden DRAGON Plus LEDs are used by Guangzhou Zhonglong Communications Technology for the Yangzi River tunnel luminaire project in mainland China. With an internal diameter of 12.7m, the tunnel is 8.9km long in a twin-tunnel complex and each of the bores with 3-lane of traffic. 5,886 tunnel luminaries with over 410,000 pieces of OSRAM Golden DRAGON Plus LEDs will be installed in two bores. The Yangzi River tunnel will be the longest in the world to have brilliant LED light. The average annual energy savings by using these LED-based tunnel lamps is over 35%.
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The sun-powered +ECO Clima Control weather station is equipped with a built-in solar panel and enables users to monitor the current temperature and humidity in up to four locations within the home and outdoors. The device has remote sensors and can operate upto 3 months with just an eight hour charge. It costs $119.99 and will be available this September.
[EPRNewswire]
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This bathroom is quiet touchy. You will understand what I mean as you read on. You step into the shower and your temperature controlled water will fall on your head but not everywhere, only the place where your body occupies. Additional controls are lit up in wall tiles. There is also a sink which recycles water for later use in the toilet. Below the sink are the feet panels which activate the water becoming temperatures undesirable for the foot upon reaching the “too much is being used” limit. So there goes your nice long bath time you had always dreamed of. The bathroom products are made from Roca but not the whole project. It is being undertaken by a group of students. Well it is an excellent way of minimizing water wastage and also recycling of water.
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We have mentioned about a few interesting green washing machines that promise to use less water and lesser energy. But most of them are still concepts. Here is your chance to buy one such eco-friendly washing machine off the shelf. Award-winning Zanussi washing machine ZWF16581 is the one that I am talking about. Using the Zanussi Jetsystem technology it saves the water and energy by adjusting both according to the amount of washing in each load. And a machine that can help to save water and energy is undoubtedly deserves the Greener BEST BUY status. Also it is programmed with a no spin Night Wash program with an extremely low noise level. Such a night time washing schedule will help to save money too as electricity costs are at the lowest at night. For £370 ($600), other features include electronic controls, 7kg load, 30 cm diameter porthole, inverter motor system, 1,600 rpm maximum spin speed and LED display too.
[Appliancist]
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Samsung joined the bandwagon of eco-friendly monitor makers like Acer, Nanao, Fujitsu Siemens and I-O Data. To keep up with the green trend, they have unveiled their highest performing monitor. Dubbed, SyncMaster XL2370, this 23″ LED monitor from Samsung boasts of 40% reduced power consumption. This slim monitor is shaped by eliminating hazardous materials like mercury and halogen. This makes it recycle-friendly. The Samsung SyncMaster XL2370 also packs in worthy techie features as it offers up Full HD (1080p) resolution, a response time of a mere 2ms and a reported dynamic contrast ratio topping out at 5,000,000:1. Paving way for LED monitors in the market, Samsung initially plans to release it in Korea followed by Europe.
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Save our forests is the most called out slogan in our times. So much paper is being wasted daily for no use at all. People however cannot really stop reading now, can we? Knowledge is wealth and reading is knowledge. So that’s why we have intelligent people coming up with such great alternatives like the eBooks. The Elonex eBook is now being retailed through Borders UK distribution network. It has a list of features particularly the Green Tick and RoHS that certifies it as an eco-friendly component resulting in a reduction of carbon-footprint. It is compatible with applications such as Adobe Digital Editions software and E-pub, preloaded with 100 eBooks, has SUDOKU, easy user interface, embedded with e-Ink technology with every page being electronically printed on the screen and comes with a longer battery life. The Elonex eBook costs only $311 and it comes with a 4GB expansion card.
[I-techtalk]
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A recent report said that Wi-Fi is slowed primarily by interference between devices rather than congestion in an area. The solution for this comes with the new ePlug series from Hercules which will connect users to the Internet without the potential for network interference by utilizing existing home electrical wiring and also saving some power in the process. The device features smart chipsets that power down to standby mode, lowering consumption by 50 percent, and the company claims that it uses 20 percent less energy overall than competing products.
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Who would have thought Sputnik could go solar? Well, we are not talking about the satellite that burned in the orbit; we are talking about a solar lamp created by IDEA, Japan that looks exactly like Sputnik. This solar light ball is 30Cm tall and has integrated sensors to turn on the lights. There are no buttons or cords on this lamp and its pretty self sufficient to do its own thing. A charge of 2-5 hours is enough for 8 hours of operation. The design is waterproof, which means you can place it in your lawn for charging during the day and use it to light the lawn or your house during the night. The quirky design of this lamp will certainly appeal to a lot of sci-fi geeks. This solar light ball is available for $16 in a variety of colors.
[Engadget]
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