Teleportation? Beam me up Scotty! Not quite there yet, but would you settle for a tractor beam?

Well, Ok - we're not quite there yet with teleportation, but tractor beam technology might be making some advancements in the very near future.

As we've all seen in Star Trek, tractor beams capture and can move objects using laser light.

Paul Stysley is one of three NASA scientists who just recently were awarded funding to study methods for capturing particles and transporting them using a laser light to a robotic rover or orbiting spacecraft for analysis.

Goddard laser experts (from left to right)
Barry Coyle, Paul Stysley, and Demetrios Poulios
have won NASA funding to study advanced technologies
for collecting extraterrestrial particle samples.
(Photo Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Debora McCallum)

Stysley said, “The original thought was that we could use tractor beams for cleaning up orbital debris, but to pull something that huge would be almost impossible — at least now. That’s when it bubbled up that perhaps we could use the same approach for sample collection.”

The scientists have identified three different approaches for transporting particles, as well as single molecules, viruses, ribonucleic acid, and fully functioning cells, using the power of light. Take a look at the posted article to see what the three different approaches are.. 


http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/tractor-beam.html

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/emergingtech/nasa-aiming-to-make-tractor-beams-a-reality/2952?tag=mantle_skin;content

The Navy has a LASER GUN!

The Navy has been testing a new laser gun since 2010 in partnership with Northrop Grumman. Look at this site and see the posted video.
This new laser weapon is called the "Maritime Laser Demonstrator". It focused 15 kilowatts of energy by concentrating it through a solid medium. The typical medium used is crystal. The demonstation of the new laser technology used a smaller boat.

A more powerful gun that will be able to target a cruise missile threat was tested in February 2011. This laser gun is call The FEL. This gun doesn't use a gain medium and consumes 500 kilovolts of energy, which produces a supercharged electron beam that can burn through 20 FEET OF STEEL PER SECOND.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/08/navy-showboats-destructive-new-laser-gun/

New Laser Technology Could Kill Viruses and Improve DVDs

Information found at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110705150932.htm

Team from University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering made a discovery in semiconductor nanowire laser technology that could POTENTIALLY do everything from kill viruses to increase storage capacity of DVDs.

Take a look at the article and see how the group was able to make a breakthrough in zinc oxide nanowire waveguide lasers, lower costs, higher powers and shorter wavelenghts.

Just a few applications for this advancement in Laser technology includes: denser DVDs, living cells could be penetrated to turn bad cells to good, purify drinking water, and drastically improve data processing and transmission.

SixthSense Technology

http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html

http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/#PICTURES

Yes, this TED talk was given back in November 2009! The TED Talk was given by Pranav Mistry who is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab.

SixthSense is comprised of several well established technologies. It includes: a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera contained in a pendant like, wearable device.  

   

Components of SixthSense



Both the projector and the camera are connected to a mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects images of information allowing any surface to be used as the interface. The camera recognizes and tracks user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers which are on the tips of your fingers. The movements and arrangements are these markers are interpreted into gestures that act as instructions for the projected application interfaces. SixthSense supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.

Take time to watch the TED talk. You'll find it really amazing!

  

Camera recognizes book, looks up information on the internet, and then
the projector displays the book was awarded 4 Stars!







Camera recognizes your ticket information, looks up the information on the internet, and then
displays the status of your flight. Delayed: 20 Minutes





Cars that park themselves is old technology - - How about a car that can drive itself?

We have cars that tell us if the air pressure is low in the tires using a technology called the Tire Pressure Monitoring System(TPMS). I know, the name isn’t very original, but it is easy to remember. Then we had cars that could park themselves using a technology called Intelligent Parking Assist System (IPAS) or a.k.a. Advanced Parking Guidance System (APGS), which was brought to the US in 2004 by Toyota. There are several other new innovations that have enhanced our driving experience over the past decade, but none will come close to what’s just around the corner…

How about having a car that can drive itself?

This cutting edge technology consists of a variety of well-established technologies including: lasers, radar and GPS. Companies have been developing and tuning the technologies to create an autonomous vehicle for years and based on some of the latest road tests, the technology doesn't have far to go before it starts to makes it way to the open market. 

General Motors:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C6JRIQmPsg&noredirect=1

Audi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEL1B6VpQ8k&feature=relmfu

Google: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atmk07Otu9U

There's more to know in that Double Helix of yours... Would you want to know?

There is an effort underway at the National Institutes of Health to decrease the cost of producing a report of your DNA sequence to $1,000 by the year 2014. Imagine a DNA report that could help Doctor's predict a patient’s diseases years before symptoms occur. There are definitely positives to be had with this type of emerging technology, but what about the negatives?

Health Insurance companies might start requiring DNA sequencing reports from all applicants, even newborns before they are covered under your family plan. The Health Insurance Companies could still cover you, but identify all findings from the DNA sequence report as "pre-existing conditions" that are not covered on your plan. Preventive medicine would become the norm and from the overuse of medications, who can know what mutations/resistances will develop from the disease's we face today.

Use the below provided link to read more details.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0307_060307_dna.html

Wow - 3D phones without the glasses. What's Next? 3D TV Without The Glasses?? Sure, why not..

Like we didn't have enough to consider when we wanted to go and see a movie at the theater.. Sure, I feel like going to see a movie tonight, but do I want to see an IMAX 3D movie, 3D, or just the old cheaper 2D? Hmm... Let me think, which one sounds more entertaining...

Now we have 3D televisions, of course with glasses, but before you know it there will be 3D TV's available that do not require the glasses. This shouldn't come as a surprise to those of us that have already seen the 3D phones that have hit the street here recently. The technology behind 3D phones is called Autostereoscopic Parallax Barrier (APB). For APB there's a mask that lays over the LCD display and the display directs light from alternate pixel columns to each eye. "Parallax barrier displays allow instant switching between 2D and 3D modes as the light barrier is constructed from a layer of liquid crystal which can become completely transparent when current is passed across, allowing the LCD to function as a conventional 2D display."
APB 3D Forum. For additional details on this technology clike the APB link.

So, I'm sure you're asking yourself, "Why is she going on and on about the 3D phones when I want to know about the technology behind 3D TV's without the glasses." Well, no big surprise here, 3D TV's without the glasses use the same technology as the 3D phones. :-)  You can find more detailed information by accessing this link - 3D TV Without The Glasses

Stay Tuned for more emerging technologies on the horizon to watch out for... Are you ready to strap a flight suit on and fly to work?? Sure, why not.