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Nanotech Pinball and Miniature Engines
glenmark writes "Researchers at the Solid State Electronics Laboratory at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed the world's smallest pinball game. The video is fascinating. The flippers are electrostatically-actuated monocrystalline silicon cantilevers. I hope Pat Lawlor and Steve Ritchie see this. I have a feeling they would get a kick out of it." And in another nanotech story, psmears writes "Three hundred times more powerful than ordinary batteries, but much lighter and smaller? Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a micro-engine that will allow people to charge mobile phones using lighter fluid. Further information at Research-TV including photos and a film."
Berkeley has been working on mini and micro rotary engines for a little while now. Rotaries are really better for this application as they have less moving parts. Their mini rotary engine is about the size of a penny while their micro rotary engine has a rotor of size 1mm! Rotaries have no valves which makes them much easier to produce at this size.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
I hate to break it to the mod's, but this is not offtopic. In fact, it's quite funny.
See, the micro-engine charges the cellphones. Combustion + ear = ear on fire. That was his joke. Even if you thought it unfunny, it was on-topic.
Posted with a bonus in hopes that someone will see this.
*everything* is Orwellian to cats.
Huh?
It is an MPEG codec. DivX is an implementation of MPEG-4. If you want source code for a decoder see the ffmpeg (as libavcodec) or xvid codecs. Between then, I've not see an OS with a POSIX layer that's not been able to compile a decoder engine. Granted, there are large bunches of optional parts that the various decoders don't all cover, but I've not yet see any problems with ffmpeg decoder.
If by MPEGS you mean MPEG-1, then yes - that is slightly more portable than MPEG-4 codecs, but not noticably (better support on embeded systems). They do however, have poorer picture quality, and larger bitrates. So, it's not really a good choice for internet distribution. MPEG-2 would also be better than MPEG-1, but it's also not quite as good as MPEG-4, interms of low bitrate quality. And for a web demo, the lower the bitrate, the better.
If you've got a particular platform in mind, then drop a line, and I'll see if I can find a pre-compiled setup for it.
VLC works just fine
"VLC works just fine"
Indeed it does.
I also have mplayer, but I find VLC far better.
I have "installed" the Divx-codec for mac, but Quicktime seems to disregard it.
I prefer that the Divx codec is used over all that MS-mediaplayer crap. Although Xvid would even be better.
Here is a mirror of the video if you want to check it out:
pinball_720x540_(divx).avi
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
The nanotech engine looks very far from production ready - two or three unclear images, and an interview, that's it. The video is mainly marketing for Birmingham Uni, AFAICS, and almost entirely void of technical details or facts.
.5 mm from the chamber wall, irrespective of the size of the chamber. The few miniature engines that have actually operated under their own power are nudging this limit and, not surprisingly, have very incomplete combustion resulting in very low efficiency and extremely polluting emissions.
Hear, Hear. Miniature engines are sexy projects for demonstrating micro-machining capabilities but they invariably disappear from the radar after the initial media flurry. The inventors are so excited about their projects that they overlook the inevitable effects of downscaling on IC engines. The most important effect is that of flame quenching at the relatively cool walls of the combustion chamber. This occurs at around
At least the folks at Berkeley did their homework. They list the following research issues:
Quenching Effect
Engine Sealing
Friction/Lubrication
Fuel Carburetion
Thermal Management
Engine Diagnostics
Ignition
Ancillary Equipment/Packaging for an Autonomous System
The first two effectively rule out anything with combustion chambers smaller than 1 mm. I'd be amazed if someone can make a working micro-engine, sadly it's just a pipe dream.