Turning Bluetooth into Wi-Fi puts implanted devices online

University of Washington (UW) engineers have developed a new way to bring internet connectivity to low-power electronic devices such as brain implants and smart contact lenses. The interscatter communication system, which creates Wi-Fi transmissions from reflected Bluetooth signals using a fraction of the power normally required, has the potential to impact everything from blood sugar monitoring to splitting credit card bills.

Interscatter enables low-power devices to communicate by using technology already existing in common mobile devices, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or ZigBee radios, to act as the transmitters and receivers for the reflected signals. And, according to the researchers, it is able to create these Wi-Fi signals whilst consuming 10,000 times less energy to do so than standard methods.

Instead of generating Wi-Fi signals on your own, the technology claims to create Wi-Fi using by Bluetooth transmissions from nearby mobile devices such as smartwatches. The system relies on a communication technique known as radio wave backscatter (a diffuse reflection of radio waves back in the direction from which they originated), to enable devices to interchange data by manipulating and reflecting existing signals.

The small sizes and often difficult locations of implanted electronics in the human body often means that power supplies are limited, which puts conventional wireless communication out of play. As a result, medical devices such as smart contact lenses have been unable to send data using Wi-Fi to smartphones without bulky, clumsy external power supplies. These same limitations also restrict other nascent technologies such as brain implants that reanimate limbs or monitor internal organs.

The Interscatter technology can enable Wi-Fi for these implanted devices while consuming only tens of microwatts of power. Building on previous work in this area, the researchers in UW's Networks and Mobile Systems Lab and Sensor Systems Lab designed and created prototype devices that specifically target previously impractical applications, building interscatter communications systems for a smart contact lens and an implantable neural recording instrument which can directly communicate with smartphones and smartwatches. 

To demonstrate interconnectivity, the team used a smartwatch to send a Bluetooth signal to a smart contact lens fitted with an antenna. This transmission was then converted into a "single tone" signal by removing the randomizing applied to keep Bluetooth communications secure, then backscattered that signal so that the data coming from the contact lens could be encoded into a standard Wi-Fi packet easily readable by any Wi-Fi enabled device.

Bluetooth devices randomize data transmissions using a process called scrambling.The team figured out a way to reverse engineer this scrambling process to send out a single tone signal from Bluetooth-enabled devices such as smartphones and watches using a software app.

Developing the system was not all easy sailing, however. One of the major difficulties encountered when creating a backscatter signal is that there is a mirror image of the signal generated at the same time, which chews up bandwidth and plays havoc with networks that connect via the mirrored Wi-Fi channel. To solve this problem, the UW researchers used a radio technique known as single sideband, where one half of the modulated signal (in this case the mirror image) is filtered out. The UW team has also demonstrated that the techniques can be applied to more mundane technologies, such as credit cards. The researchers created smart credit card prototypes that are able to directly exchange data with one another by bouncing back Bluetooth signals transmitted by a smartphone. The team believes that this technology will provide opportunities for inbuilt applications to perform simple data exchange tasks (such as users splitting bills by just tapping their credit cards together) that would not normally be possible.

Providing the ability for everyday objects like credit cards – in addition to implanted devices – to communicate with mobile devices can potentially unleash the power of ubiquitous connectivity, feels the team.

This new technique will be presented in a paper on August 22 at the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM 2016) conference in Brazil.

The video below demonstrates the technology in action.

Source: University of Washington, New Atlas

Read More

Build to Boast: What your child should actually learn to brag about?

What is a toy? A rather silly question to ask. But to actually define it, one would require the help of a dictionary. An immediate scouring of the oxford english dictionary would reveal something of this kind. 

” A toy is an object for a child to play with, typically a model or miniature replica of something. ”

The definition in itself is fair enough and tries to fairly encapsulate what a toy is. But all the dictionaries in the whole wide world fail to reveal the true purpose behind why a toy exists in the first place and why these objects of non-emotivity appeal to children. Several studies into Toys and their associated psychology have revealed that Kids use toys and the whole activity of play to mimic adults and expose themselves to adult-ish behaviour. Kids tend to anthropomorphise toys and feel attached to them just like the way they would grow attached to their favourite cartoon characters. Despite the lack of any human emotion or communication, toys themselves manage to appeal to the primal instincts in humans. By this argument, it can be easily surmised that toys and the act of play are a major part of upbringing in children in their formative years. However, the supposed positive effects, toys can have on children are in themselves determined by the type of toys kids are given access to. Herein lies the gaffe created by us, the adults.

Bowing to our increased purchasing power and our crass consumerism attitudes, we have exposed our wards to a line of less than healthy choices in terms of toys and other consumables. The design of toys themselves have gone up in sophistication to keep up with our lifestyle choices. From being articles of leisure that were expendable after fair usage, toys have become something of a collectible that drives divide between the users. This wedge in itself has only made toys something of prestigious possessions for children rather than things that are meant to bring them closer to pals. 


With the advent of the smartphone revolution, a newer gadget has made it to the hands of our young ones. The smartphone and it’s sibling, the tablet PC, have now made it to the hands of children as opposed to the chalk and slate used by the previous generation not too long ago. These connected devices which put the internet with all its mystifying glory at the hands of young children do not much good in terms of making them good learners. Children are increasingly distracted from the true purpose of the internet- learning.

This means that the true purpose of learning in itself is defeated. The humility that can be learned from building something is lost when a child spends bragging about his possessions and spends time yearning for products that are increasingly out of his affordability and opulence. The true spirit of learning can be achieved only when children use their constructive energies in play and learn from play. This mindset can be cultivated in them only when they are exposed to toys and activities that promote learning through building. 

This form of constructive engagement is what we at Kidobotikz try to achieve through our kits. Our kits are aimed at making children appreciate the engineering behind every gadget they come across and understand the inner workings of every product they use. 

Happy Roboting ! !

Read More

Solid-state lithium battery knows when to keep its cool

One of the new frontiers in battery technology is creating safer versions of the ubiquitous lithium-ion battery, like those that power electric cars and the computers or phones you read these words on. These little suckers are great at packing large amounts of energy into tight spaces, but can run into trouble at high temperatures. Versions that replace combustible, liquid electrolytes with solid parts is one way this problem might be overcome and researchers have just thrown up one possible answer, building a solid-state lithium-ion battery that can be heated all the way up to 100° Celsius without bursting into flames.

If you've ever left your phone out in the sun on a summer's day, you may recall an on-screen temperature warning, advising you to let the phone cool down before using it again. This is because the liquid electrolyte within the battery can ignite or swell up under high temperatures. Improper charging, or overcharging, can be another cause for this type of malfunction.

Such instances of lithium battery failure are very rare, but a busted iPhone is one thing and an electric vehicle bursting into flames is another. The sheer amount of lithium batteries in use around the world every day means that there is plenty of opportunity for something, somewhere to go wrong at some point.

This has led researchers to explore how the safety of these batteries might be improved. Smart chips that can be embedded inside to monitor the battery's health is one possibility, and replacing the liquid electrolyte with solid components is another that is gaining some attention in laboratories around the world.

The electrolyte is the solution tasked with carrying the charge between the battery's positive and negative electrodes. The idea behind solid-state batteries is to replace this solution with something that can endure high temperatures. But this concept brings on another set of problems, among which is how to connect the solid electrolyte with the solid electrodes in a way that allows the charge to circulate with as little resistance as possible, maximizing its run time on a full charge.

Researchers at Switzerland's ETH Zurich have come up with a battery design they say addresses this problem. They liken the battery to a sandwich, with two electrodes as the bread and a layer of solid lithium garnet electrolyte as the meat inside. Garnet is a mineral that forms gemstones, is used as an abrasive material in waterjet cutting and also happens to be a material with one of the highest known conductivities for lithium ions.

The team crafted the solid garnet electrolyte in a way that gave it a porous surface. The negative electrode was then applied in a viscous form which allowed it to seep into these pores. This creates a larger contact area between the electrode and electrolytes, and means that the battery can be charged faster. The design also meant that it could withstand temperatures of up to 100° Celsius (212° F) when the team put it to the test.

"With a liquid or gel electrolyte, it would never be possible to heat a battery to such high temperatures," says Jan van den Broek, one of the authors of the study.

In its current form, the battery works best at 95° Celsius (203° F) and above, temperatures that better facilitate the movement of the lithium ions. This could see it put to use in battery storage power plants that save excess energy for a later date.

"Today, the waste heat that results from many industrial processes vanishes unused," says Semih Afyon, a former research scientist at ETH Zurich and now with the Izmir Institute of Technology in Turkey. "By coupling battery power plants with industrial facilities, you could use the waste heat to operate the storage power plant at optimal temperatures."

But with further development, the team says that the sandwich-like solid form of the device could be adapted to thin-film batteries. These could change the way things like phones and laptops are powered, and even be placed directly onto silicon chips.

The research was published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

Source: ETH Zurich

Read More

Geek Speak: Vishnu

For those of you who are reading this article, I’d rather say “Mark your calendars” because the countdown for KRG has commenced and we barely have five more days to go. We are all aware as to how the week can just whiz past when you are awaiting for the most important weekend of the trimester. Back at Kidobotikz, it’s business as usual. Being the fact that today is sunday and there’s no holiday in the week before KRG begins, it was a jam packed afternoon over here. “Jam packed” in the literal sense as there has only been standing room for every student with all of them racing against time to get their robots ready. The makerspace is infact so cramped that students have had to borrow spaces in the classrooms to work on their robots. Meanwhile, amidst all the beehive of activity, I manage to find my target for the day. I spot a reticent chap who’s hard at work on fixing his robot that bears an uncanny resemblance to an SUV. More than him, his robot’s dynamic design captivates me. I decide to engage him in a conversation to satiate my own curiosity.

Hey Sriram! Why don’t you temme a bit about yourself and your path to Kidobotikz?

I am T.K. Vishnu. I study in class 8 of Sri Krish International School, Kundrathur. Back here at Kidobotikz, I commenced my Advanced level recently and am now progressing through it with quite a bit of fervour. I joined here in when I was in class 7. I found Kidobotikz while I was scouring the internet for a robotics kit that I could use. Interestingly, I found more than what I was looking for. 

Interesting. So, how does it feel to be a robotics enthusiast here at Kidobotikz? 

Robotics for me is a highly passionate hobby. I grew up loving mechanics and mechanical designs, so robotics represents the next logical step for me to explore. So, I took it up here at Kidobotikz. One thing that stumped here was programming. I wasn’t expecting to see “programming” turn up in my courses. So, when that happened, I was quite baffled. You usually don’t see mid-schoolers learn programming. But, thanks to the Kidobotikz curriculum, I have been able to quite comfortably gain my foothold in the concepts of programming.

So, I take to it that you are here for KRG? Is this your first KRG or have you already participated in it before? 

This is infact my 3rd KRG. I participated in the two preceding editions and had a forgettable experience. I participated in a lot of events, but wasn’t quite able to stand out in performance. This time, I am participating with a resolve to win. 

That’s unfortunate! So, what were the events you participated in the previous editions?

I participated in several events. The ones that I can actually remember are Robo Race, Robo Sumo, Robo Kabbadi, Line Tracer. But this time, I have enrolled in events that I am confident of putting up a more than decent performance. 

Interesting! What are the events you are participating in this edition?

Well I have enrolled myself in AutoTransbot, Pick ‘n’ Place and a project expo. For the project expo I have developed an Automatic Air-filter that can be retrofitted atop street lamps and monitor the air quality of the street. But, the event that I am hoping to leave a lasting impact on is the Robo Sumo. I was sooo close the last time. This time I hope to win it. 

Could you let me know what went wrong for you the last time at Robo Sumo and how have you planned for it this time? 

Well, the last time my robot employed a Johnson gear motor. This let to the robot having a sub optimal torque and couldn’t exert its thrust quite well upon the opponent bots. I have made up for it this time by employing Square Geared motors which have a much better torque output. I also am going to employ powered forklifts on the forward section of my robots so that I can shock the opponent by toppling it over.

Impressive! My best wishes for you! To conclude our chat, I’d like to know your future plans and ambitions when you graduate from Kidobotikz and high school.

Well, I have no concrete plans yet. I don’t have any idea as to which college to join as well. But, if there’s one thing I can tell you with certainty, it’s that I will take up robotics. Most importantly bots that can take part in battles. It’s something I ponder on a lot about and I see myself working towards the same. Other than that, I plan to take up everything as it comes by.

Read More

Self-driving Ubers picking up passengers from later this month

If you're ready to welcome in the era of self-driving cars in person, you may want to head to Pittsburgh later this month, smartphone in hand. Uber and Volvo have signed a deal to team up on developing autonomous driving technology, beginning with ferrying Uber customers around the Pennsylvania city.

Beginning later in August, it will be possible to use the Uber app to hail a ride from a self-driving Volvo XC90 in Pittsburgh. This will mark a pretty big first – Google and some automakers have been testing self-driving cars for years, and Tesla's Autopilot can essentially take over for a driver on the highway, but no one has yet offered a full door-to-door ride in an autonomous car to regular consumers.

It won't be a lone robot car pulling up to pick you up, though. A human driver will be in the driver's seat ready to take the wheel if anything goes wrong, as is currently required by law. Rides in a self-driving Uber will also be free for the time being.

The ridesharing company has been testing the technology at its Advanced Technology Center in Pittsburgh for many months already and competitor Lyft is pursuing similar ambitions with General Motors.

So far Volvo has delivered just a few cars to Uber, which then outfits them with its own autonomous driving system, including a number of sensors, cameras, lasers, radar, GPS and Uber's own in-house self-driving software. Volvo is also developing self-driving vehicles using the same base vehicle and its owns autonomous navigation system. The project relies on Volvo's modular auto production platform, which it calls Scalable Product Architecture (SPA).

Uber plans to have a test fleet of 100 self-driving Volvos roaming Pittsburgh's streets by the end of the year. It's all a big field test, with the end goal being a fully autonomous car model that will hit the market by 2021. Together, Uber and Volvo say they'll pour US$300 million into the development process.

Uber's self-driving vision isn't exclusive to the Volvo deal, however. Much of its previous testing in Pittsburgh was actually done using a Ford Fusion. The company has also announced its acquisition of self-driving truck startup Otto. Otto has been in existence only since January and makes a kit that can outfit any big rig to drive itself.

Uber has no plans to make self-driving cars itself, but it clearly hopes to be operating plenty of them within the next five years, just in time to compete with other autonomous ride-sharing aspirants, including the likes of companies that will be making their own, such as Ford.

Sources: New Atlas, Volvo, Bloomberg, Uber

Read More

Geek Speak: Sai Sriram

The fact that today is Saturday seems to be ringing alarm bells for many a youngsters at Kidobotikz. It is the last weekend before KRg and everybody is busy on getting their robots ready. Every inch of the makerspace is crammed with students of all ages who are here with only one agenda on mind- KRG. Welcome to the KRG week blues. Between balancing homework and cranking out robots, the platter of these young gentlemen is filled for the whole week. We are back at where we left of yesterday. Yesterday was the turn of Thazeem getting interviewed by me when his “Partner-in-mischief” Sriram was caught up with their project. Now, Sriram has taken some time out of his day out at Kidobotikz to have a chat with me. He is a fun young chap who is by every meaning of the word “fiercely competitive“. Even as I meet him he is already brimming with energy and is not sure as to how to contain his immense energy. Assuming our chat could be of help, i engage him in a conversation.

Hey Sriram! Why don’t you temme a bit about yourself and your path to Kidobotikz?

I am Sai Sriram. I study in class 9 of Modern Senior Secondary School, Nanganallur. Back here at Kidobotikz, I finished my Advanced level recently and am now progressing through my expert level. I joined here in April after being introduced to Kidobotikz by a friend of mine named Siddharth who himself is in the Advanced level. Robotics was a relatively new interest for me and thanks to Kidobotikz it has now turned into a passion. 

Interesting. So, how does it feel to be a robotics enthusiast here at Kidobotikz? 

Well, robotics for me is a highly empowering experience. I get to feel like a grown up doing all kinds of grown up things. The whole aspect of learning through a having process appeals to me immensely. I have learnt concepts that are just mindblowing for a student of my age. Considering the fact that I’ve managed to learn them makes me feel great about myself.

I’ve asked this question to your partner and am asking you as well, why are you here this weekend? 

Well, like Thazeem put it so eloquently yesterday, My partner-in-mischief Thazeem and I are here to get our robot ready for the upcoming KRG event AutoTransbot .

Interesting! So, what events are you participating in this time?

Well, that’s a totally funny story! I am participating in all the events of KRG except Project Expo. 

I’m sorry, could you refresh my memory and temme the name of each event you are participating in?

The list is quite long. Here it goes- Line Tracer, AutoTransbot, Temple Run, Balloon Burster, Manual Pick ‘n’ Place and Manual Sumo. So, basically everything other than the Project Expo. I would’ve participated in it as well, if time wasn’t so scarce. Between schooling and robotics, this is the best I could manage.

That is a long list indeed! Phew! To even remember such a long list of events is quite a daunting task. My best wishes for you.

Moving on, why don’t you temme if there is a particular kind of robot that you have a fascination for? 

The ASIMO series of robots which Honda developed have always fascinated me. I intend to learn robotics to the extent that I am able to design one of these by myself one day.

You’ve read about ASIMO? That’s impressive! I’d be even more enchanted if you could elaborate it’s abbreviation!

Easy peasy! Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility…

I’m quite dumbfounded by your curiosity and acumen in the area of robotics! So, what do you plan to do when you graduate from high school? 

Well, I have always wanted to do science or robotics as a part of my career. I intend to join Cambridge when i become a graduate. It represents to me the best seat in science.

Read More

Spherical cells free up modular CellRobot design

Toy robots are pretty commonplace these days, whether they're playing games,teaching kids to code or being our best buds. Plenty of those are modular, too, like the EZ-Robot line or Wunderkind sets, but with its spherical "cells" the CellRobot from KEYi Tech looks more versatile than most, coming together as everything from an RC racer or home security guard, to a smart camera stand or mini robo-bartender.

The basic non-functional cell modules have eight joint faces with which they can connect to other cells, opening up an impressive range of possible body shapes and forms. They're also split into two hemispheres that gives them 360-degree rotation, meaning that robot constructions can be programmed to move in complex and precise ways.

No matter what you decide to build, the heart of all CellRobot designs will be, well, the Heart. Supplying power to the rest of the robot, the Heart cell connects to phones and tablets via Bluetooth, and relays the instructions input through a companion app (iOS and Android) to the rest of the robot. Around its surface lie eight joint connectors, where other cells snap on with a twisting action.

Functional cells include the Vision cell, which serves as the robot's eyes thanks to a wide-angle lens camera that shoots 640 x 480-pixel pictures or video at 30 fps, transmitting it to the connected smart device. There's also the Mount cell, which can clamp onto a desk or object, either to hold the robot in place or let it grasp and use objects. The Wheels cells, obviously, gives the CellRobot some much needed mobility at speeds of up to 5 in/s (12.7 cm/s), connecting with a hinge that grants three degrees of freedom.

There is plenty of freedom when it comes to combining all these pieces into a functioning whole. A Heart can run up to 20 modules, and a library of shapes in the app provides ideas for putting them together via detailed tutorials. For the more advanced and adventurous there's Custom mode, which lets users set parameters for each individual cell, or gently twist them into shape manually. From there, the design can be saved in the app to call back on later, or shared online.

The current cell options don't sound like the final lineup, either. The company plans to release its open-source hardware and software API, and judging by the promo videos and images, suction cups, more articulated claws and the like could be on the way.

You can check out a few of the possible CellRobot designs in the video below.

Source: KEYi Tech, NewAtlas

Read More