You might be forgiven for thinking that the Apple Watch is the only smartwatch worth buying. But watches running Android Wear are alive, kicking, and getting better.

With the Apple Watch seeing better-than-expected sales and tons of media exposure, Google is trying to keep pace with upgrades for Android Wear, which powers watches from Motorola, LG, Sony, and others.

The most recent May update adds apps that are always on, they remain visible even when you drop your arm. The update also features quick access to apps by swiping, a new flick-of-the-wrist gesture to scroll between cards (snippets of information), as well as the ability to draw emojis as responses. There are also new heads-up notifications, like text messages that appear on screen even if you’re looking at something else.

The LG Watch Urbane ($350) was the first to get the update, while the Motorola Moto 360 ($250) is getting the update now. Both the LG Watch Urbane and the Moto 360 have been praised for their elegant round designs compared to the rectangular Apple Watch.

The Urbane is the Android Wear watch of the moment, though, because it’s new and boasts a classic fully-round look replete with a gorgeous OLED display. Also, thanks to an Android Wear update, it allows you to connect, via Wi-Fi, to your phone remotely. Theoretically, you can be very remote, but note that being too remote can be problematic in the “real world.”

The Apple Watch’s Wi-Fi, on the other hand, only works when connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the iPhone.

What else sets Android Wear apart from the Apple Watch experience? Android watches are more aware of what you’re doing at any given moment (thanks to Google’s cloud services) than Apple’s offering and Android Wear is more aggressive at trying to predict what you need based on your Google searches, Gmail, and calendar.

“Android Wear does have the edge over Apple Watch when it comes to context,” Ramon Llamas, research manager of wearables and mobile phones at market researcher IDC, wrote in an email to Foxnews.com.

“Understanding context is a function of how both Google Now and [Apple’s] Siri are set up. Siri is very good at ‘fetch and bring back to me’ while Google Now will provide just about everything under the sun, but also serves up information proactively before you need it,” he added.

Llamas wrote that Siri is getting an upgrade this year, and that users should “expect an improved contextual experience” that could come to the Apple Watch eventually.

But there can also be a downside to Google Wear’s contextual awareness. Some reviews point out that too much information can come in randomly, ultimately marring the user experience.

As for other areas where Android Wear excels, Llamas wrote that Android has more watch faces, lower price points, different watch styles.

“Let’s not forget the 4000 apps,” he added. “In short, right now you get more choice with Android Wear. With Apple, you get what Apple offers and controls … there are pluses and minuses to both.”

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/06/25/apple-watch-competition-android-wear-still-kicking/

You might be forgiven for thinking that the Apple Watch is the only smartwatch worth buying. But watches running Android Wear are alive, kicking, and getting better.

With the Apple Watch seeing better-than-expected sales and tons of media exposure, Google is trying to keep pace with upgrades for Android Wear, which powers watches from Motorola, LG, Sony, and others.

The most recent May update adds apps that are always on, they remain visible even when you drop your arm. The update also features quick access to apps by swiping, a new flick-of-the-wrist gesture to scroll between cards (snippets of information), as well as the ability to draw emojis as responses. There are also new heads-up notifications, like text messages that appear on screen even if you’re looking at something else.

The LG Watch Urbane ($350) was the first to get the update, while the Motorola Moto 360 ($250) is getting the update now. Both the LG Watch Urbane and the Moto 360 have been praised for their elegant round designs compared to the rectangular Apple Watch.

The Urbane is the Android Wear watch of the moment, though, because it’s new and boasts a classic fully-round look replete with a gorgeous OLED display. Also, thanks to an Android Wear update, it allows you to connect, via Wi-Fi, to your phone remotely. Theoretically, you can be very remote, but note that being too remote can be problematic in the “real world.”

The Apple Watch’s Wi-Fi, on the other hand, only works when connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the iPhone.

What else sets Android Wear apart from the Apple Watch experience? Android watches are more aware of what you’re doing at any given moment (thanks to Google’s cloud services) than Apple’s offering and Android Wear is more aggressive at trying to predict what you need based on your Google searches, Gmail, and calendar.

“Android Wear does have the edge over Apple Watch when it comes to context,” Ramon Llamas, research manager of wearables and mobile phones at market researcher IDC, wrote in an email to Foxnews.com.

“Understanding context is a function of how both Google Now and [Apple’s] Siri are set up. Siri is very good at ‘fetch and bring back to me’ while Google Now will provide just about everything under the sun, but also serves up information proactively before you need it,” he added.

Llamas wrote that Siri is getting an upgrade this year, and that users should “expect an improved contextual experience” that could come to the Apple Watch eventually.

But there can also be a downside to Google Wear’s contextual awareness. Some reviews point out that too much information can come in randomly, ultimately marring the user experience.

As for other areas where Android Wear excels, Llamas wrote that Android has more watch faces, lower price points, different watch styles.

“Let’s not forget the 4000 apps,” he added. “In short, right now you get more choice with Android Wear. With Apple, you get what Apple offers and controls … there are pluses and minuses to both.”

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/06/25/apple-watch-competition-android-wear-still-kicking/

Orwellian use of facial recognition technology alarms privacy campaigners as huge databases are compiled.

Facial recognition software can scan from a distance. Photo / Getty Images
Smartphones can track our movements, credit cards have a record of our purchases and now, thanks to advances in facial recognition technology, companies and governments have the potential to watch us wherever we go.

Facial recognition technology has become far more sophisticated in recent years. Software now exists that can scan people’s faces – even from a distance or an obscure angle – and “recognise” that person by matching their facial features with an image from a database of photos.

Who uses facial recognition technology?
Governments have started to compile extensive databases of images. The police in the UK have 18 million recorded mugshots and the FBI’s Next Generation Identification system is expected to have a database of 51 million photos by the end of this year.

But private companies are also able to recognise customers’ faces. For example, Facebook’s facial recognition technology means that users can be automatically tagged in uploaded photos.

The program is being enhanced to recognise people even when their faces are turned away from the camera, by identifying them from their clothing and posture.

How is it being used?
Last week, US government agency talks intended to create a code of conduct for the technology fell apart. Privacy campaigners walked out, claiming companies and government agencies were unwilling to accept they must always seek permission before using facial recognition technology to identify someone.

Alvaro Bedoya, from Georgetown University Law Centre in Washington DC, told New Scientist “not a single company would support [the principle]”.

Uses of the technology are becoming increasingly Orwellian. A US company called Face First offers retailers the ability to “build a database of good customers, recognise them when they come through the door, and make them feel more welcome” – in other words, schmooze the big spenders. The product also sends alerts whenever “known litigious individuals enter any of your locations”. Another company, Churchix, uses facial recognition technology to track church attendance.

Should we be excited or worried?
Facial recognition technology has the potential to make security measures, such as border control and law enforcement, far faster and more sophisticated. And companies can use the system to create personalised services, such as alerting customers to offers on products they regularly purchase when they enter a store, which some people may appreciate.

But Alessandro Acquisti, professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, argues this is also a threat to privacy. “Facial recognition makes it possible for third parties to identify people in the ‘offline’ world without their awareness, knowledge, and consent.”

Dr Anne-Marie Oostveen, from Oxford University’s Oxford Internet Institute, says focus groups show that people are uncomfortable about facial recognition technology being used without their knowledge.

Even in situations such as border control, people would much rather interact with a fingerprint scanner than have their face scanned from a distance. And once facial recognition becomes normal in one context, it’s far easier for companies to use it elsewhere.

“People are right to be worried,” says Dr Oostveen. Once your face is on the system, there’s little you can do. “If you have pin codes you can make new ones, but your face is yours. And you don’t know what the information is going to be used for.”

Can our images be sold? Dr Oostveen says the most serious concern comes from images being sold on to third parties who can match them with other data, such as health records – which could build a disconcertingly detailed picture of consumers.

– Daily Telegraph UK

By Olivia Goldhill EmailPrint

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11471148

For months, people have been debating the possible killer app for the Apple Watch. UBS analyst Steven Milunovich said Thursday that voice messaging could be it, at least for some users.
Moving voice messaging to Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) smartwatch from the iPhone seems like a logical move, he said in a research note. Voice memos on smartphones are very popular in countries like Argentina and China, he said.
Apple CEO Tim Cook told UBS that in China you see people walking down the street speaking into their phones and sending voice rather than text messages. Porting this capability to the watch makes sense as it is easier to send a voice message from a device already on the wrist than pulling out a phone, Milunovich said.

View Enlarged Image
Voice memos also are popular in Argentina, he said, noting an article on the Vice Media website Motherboard.
“On any given block in Buenos Aires, you are likely to see someone speaking into their phone but not on it; talking to someone, but not necessarily with anyone,” contributing writer Kari Paul wrote on Motherboard. “I recently visited the city, and was struck by the fact that it seemed like all the citizens were walking around expressively talking to themselves. In reality, most people are perpetually sending voice memos to one another.”
She said their voice messages are sent almost exclusively through Facebook (NASDAQ:FB)-owned WhatsApp. Facebook purchased WhatsApp for nearly $22 billion in October 2014, Reuters reported.
Making voice memos a central app on the Apple Watch could help boost sales of the wearable device, Milunovich said.
“Apple Watch is off to an OK but not fantastic start, with search volumes reflecting less interest than in previous Apple and consumer electronic product introductions,” Milunovich said. He forecasts sales of 11 million Apple Watch units in fiscal 2015 ending Sept. 26, and 31 million in fiscal 2016.
Milunovich rates Apple stock a buy with a 12-month price target of 150. Apple stock was down a fraction near 128 in afternoon trading on the stock market today.

Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/technology-click/062515-759012-apple-watch-killer-app-could-be-voice-memos.htm#ixzz3e8qt9KMl

June 25, 2015

(a) Sketch of an LED nanowire showing the onion-like structure of the layers; (b) Finite element method simulation of strain distribution (credit: Tomas Stankevic, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen)

LEDs made from nanowires with an inner core of gallium nitride (GaN) and a outer layer of indium-gallium-nitride (InGaN) — both semiconductors — use less energy and provide better light, according Robert Feidenhans’l, professor and head of the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen.

The studies were performed using nanoscale X-ray microscopy in the electron synchrotron at DESY in Hamburg, Germany. The results are published in the journal ACS Nano.

The nanowires could also be used as displays in smart phones, TVs and other forms of lighting within five years, according to the researchers.

A series of nanowires were scanned in a nanofocused X-ray while reflections from the different crystal planes of the nanowires were measured (credit: Tomas Stankevic, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen)

Abstract of Fast Strain Mapping of Nanowire Light-Emitting Diodes Using Nanofocused X-ray Beams

X-ray nanobeams are unique nondestructive probes that allow direct measurements of the nanoscale strain distribution and composition inside the micrometer thick layered structures that are found in most electronic device architectures. However, the method is usually extremely time-consuming, and as a result, data sets are often constrained to a few or even single objects. Here we demonstrate that by special design of a nanofocused X-ray beam diffraction experiment we can (in a single 2D scan with no sample rotation) measure the individual strain and composition profiles of many structures in an array of upright standing nanowires. We make use of the observation that in the generic nanowire device configuration, which is found in high-speed transistors, solar cells, and light-emitting diodes, each wire exhibits very small degrees of random tilts and twists toward the substrate. Although the tilt and twist are very small, they give a new contrast mechanism between different wires. In the present case, we image complex nanowires for nanoLED fabrication and compare to theoretical simulations, demonstrating that this fast method is suitable for real nanostructured devices.

references:
Tomaš Stankevič, Emelie Hilner, Frank Seiboth, Rafal Ciechonski, Giuliano Vescovi, Olga Kryliouk, Ulf Johansson, Lars Samuelson, Gerd Wellenreuther, Gerald Falkenberg, Robert Feidenhans’l, and Anders Mikkelsen. Fast Strain Mapping of Nanowire Light-Emitting Diodes Using Nanofocused X-ray Beams. ACS Nano, Article ASAP DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b01291
related:
Nanowires could be the LEDs of the future

http://www.kurzweilai.net/could-nanowires-be-the-leds-of-the-future

June 25, 2015

Light polarizes silicon nuclear spins within a silicon carbide chip. This image portrays the nuclear spin of one of the atoms from the full crystal lattice below. (credit: Peter Allen)

Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering have taken a crucial step toward nuclear spintronic technologies that use the “spin” — or magnetization — of atomic nuclei to store and process information. The new technologies could be used for ultra-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging, advanced gyroscopes, and quantum computers.

The researchers used infrared light to make nuclear spins line themselves up in a consistent, controllable way, using a high-performance semiconductor that is practical, convenient, and inexpensive.

The research was featured as the cover article of the June 17 issue of Physical Review Letters.

No cryogenic temperatures and high magnetic fields

Nuclear spins tend to be randomly oriented. Aligning them in a controllable fashion is usually a complicated and only marginally successful proposition. The reason, explains Paul Klimov, a co-author of the paper, is that “the magnetic moment of each nucleus is tiny, roughly 1,000 times smaller than that of an electron.”

This small magnetic moment means that little thermal kicks from surrounding atoms or electrons can easily randomize the direction of the nuclear spins. Extreme experimental conditions such as high magnetic fields and cryogenic temperatures (-238 degrees Fahrenehit and below) are usually required to get even a small number of spins to line up. In magnetic resonance imaging, for example, only one to 10 out of a million nuclear spins can be aligned and seen in the image, even with a high magnetic field applied.

Using their new technique, David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor in Spintronics and Quantum Information, and his associates aligned more than 99 percent of spins in certain nuclei in silicon carbide. Equally important, the technique works at room temperature — no cryogenics or intense magnetic fields needed. Instead, the research team used light to “cool” the nuclei.

While nuclei do not interact with light themselves, certain imperfections, or “color-centers,” in the silicon carbide crystals do. The electron spins in these color centers can be readily optically cooled and aligned, and this alignment can be transferred to nearby nuclei.

Getting spins to align in room-temperature silicon carbide brings practical spintronic devices a significant step closer, said Awschalom. The material is already an important semiconductor in the high-power electronics and opto-electronics industries. Sophisticated growth and processing capabilities are already mature. So prototypes of nuclear spintronic devices that exploit the IME researchers’ technique may be developed in the near future.

“Wafer-scale quantum technologies that harness nuclear spins as subatomic elements may appear more quickly than we anticipated,” Awschalom said.

Abstract of Optical Polarization of Nuclear Spins in Silicon Carbide

We demonstrate optically pumped dynamic nuclear polarization of Si29 nuclear spins that are strongly coupled to paramagnetic color centers in 4H- and 6H-SiC. The 99%±1% degree of polarization that we observe at room temperature corresponds to an effective nuclear temperature of 5 μK. By combining ab initio theory with the experimental identification of the color centers’ optically excited states, we quantitatively model how the polarization derives from hyperfine-mediated level anticrossings. These results lay a foundation for SiC-based quantum memories, nuclear gyroscopes, and hyperpolarized probes for magnetic resonance imaging.

references:
Abram L. Falk, Paul V. Klimov, Viktor Ivády, Krisztián Szász, David J. Christle, William F. Koehl, Ádám Gali, David D. Awschalom. Optical Polarization of Nuclear Spins in Silicon Carbide. Physical Review Letters, 2015; 114 (24) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.247603
related:
Spintronics advance brings wafer-scale quantum devices closer to reality

http://www.kurzweilai.net/spintronics-advance-brings-wafer-scale-quantum-devices-closer-to-reality

Could be used to create an inexpensive “lab-on-a-chip”
June 25, 2015

The illustration shows how maleimide compounds (top) bind to the graphene surface to hold detector molecules. The graphene monolayer lies on a thin film of silicon nitride (red) that in turn is on a quartz microbalance (blue) and the graphene can be subjected to voltage via a gold contact (yellow). (credit: Marc Gluba/HZB)

Scientists at the HZB Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics in Berlin have succeeded in precisely measuring and controlling the thickness of an organic compound that has been bound to a graphene layer. This could enable graphene to be used as a sensitive detector for biological molecules in the future.

It has long been known that graphene is useful for detecting traces of organic molecules, because the electrical conductivity of graphene drops as soon as foreign molecules bind to it. The problem: graphene is not very selective, making it difficult to differentiate molecules.

The scientists found a way to increase the selectivity by electrochemically connecting graphene to host molecules that act as detector molecules functioning as selective binding sites. To accomplish this, para-maleimidophenyl groups (maleimide) from an organic solution were grafted to the surface of the graphene. These organic molecules behave like mounting brackets to which the selective detector molecules can be attached in the next step.

“Thanks to these molecules, graphene can now be employed for detecting various substances, similar to how a key fits a lock,” explains researcher Marc Gluba. The “lock” molecules on the surface are highly selective and absorb only the matching “key” molecules, allowing for accurately measuring how many molecules actually were grafted to the surface of the graphene.

One use would be an inexpensive “lab-on-a-chip.” Using a single drop of blood could immediately provide data for medical diagnosis, says Prof. Norbert Nickel, head of the research team.

Abstract of Quantifying the electrochemical maleimidation of large area graphene

The covalent modification of large-area graphene sheets by p-(N-Maleimido)phenyl (p-MP) via electrochemical grafting of p-(N-Maleimido)benzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate (p-MBDT) is successfully demonstrated for the first time. The deposition process is monitored in-situ using the mass change of a graphene/SiNX:H/Au-coated quartz crystal microbalance(QCM) chip. The resulting mass increase correlates with a maleimide thickness of approximately 2.3 molecular layers. The presence of an infrared absorption band at 1726 cm-1 shows that maleimide groups were deposited on the substrates. Raman backscattering spectra reveal the presence of D and D′ modes of the graphene layer, indicating that p-MP forms covalent bonds to graphene. Using the mass change and charge transfer during the potential cycling the faradaic efficiency of the functionalisation process was deduced, which amounts to eta = 22%.

references:
F. Rösicke, M.A. Glubaa, K. Hinrichs, Guoguang Sun, N.H. Nickel, J. Rappich. Quantifying the electrochemical maleimidation of large area graphene. Electrochemistry Communications Volume 57, August 2015, Pages 52–55; DOI: 10.1016/j.elecom.2015.05.010
related:
Towards graphene biosensors

http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-use-graphene-as-a-biosensor-by-increasing-its-chemical-selectivity

June 25, 2015

An image of a field of polypyrrole nanowires captured by a scanning electron microscope is shown. A team of Purdue University researchers developed a new implantable drug-delivery system using the nanowires, which can be wirelessly controlled to release small amounts of a drug payload. (credit: Richard Borgens/Purdue University)

Purdue researchers have created a new implantable drug-delivery system using nanowires that can be wirelessly controlled. The nanowires respond to an electromagnetic field generated by a separate device, which can be used to control the release of a preloaded drug.

The system eliminates the tubes and wires required by other implantable devices that can lead to infection and other complications, said team leader Richard Borgens, Purdue University’s Mari Hulman George Professor of Applied Neuroscience and director of Purdue’s Center for Paralysis Research.

“This tool allows us to apply drugs as needed directly to the site of injury, which could have broad medical applications,” Borgens said. “The technology is in the early stages of testing, but it is our hope that this could one day be used to deliver drugs directly to spinal cord injuries, ulcerations, deep bone injuries or tumors, and avoid the terrible side effects of systemic treatment with steroids or chemotherapy.”

The team tested the drug-delivery system in mice with compression injuries to their spinal cords and administered the corticosteroid dexamethasone. The study measured a molecular marker of inflammation and scar formation in the central nervous system and found that it was reduced after one week of treatment.

Polypyrrole nanowires

The electromagnetic drug-delivery system (credit: Richard Borgens/Purdue University)

Wen Gao, a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Paralysis Research who worked on the project with Borgens, grew the nanowires vertically over a thin gold base, like tiny fibers making up a piece of shag carpet hundreds of times smaller than a human cell.

The nanowires are made of polypyrrole, a conductive polymer material that responds to electromagnetic fields. They were loaded with a drug and exposed to an approximately 25–40 Gauss pulsed magnetic field with 3000–5000 V/m electrical field at the injury sites for 2 hours daily, causing the nanowires to release small amounts of the payload. This process can be started and stopped at will, like flipping a switch, Borgens said.

As KurzweilAI reported earlier this month, polypyrrole nanowires were also used by ETH Zurich and Technion researchers in an elastic “nanoswimmer” that can move through biological fluid environments to deliver drugs, also controlled by a pulsed magnetic field.

The magnitude and wave form of the pulsed magnetic field must be tuned to obtain the optimum release of the drug, and the precise mechanisms that release the drug are not yet well understood, Borgens said.

“We think it is a combination of charge effects and the shape change of the polymer that allows it to store and release drugs,” he said. “It is a reversible process. Once the electromagnetic field is removed, the polymer snaps back to the initial architecture and retains the remaining drug molecules.” For each different drug the team would need to find the corresponding optimal electromagnetic field for its release.

Testing drug-delivery in mice

The team used mice that had been genetically modified such that the protein Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein, or GFAP, is luminescent. GFAP is expressed in cells called astrocytes that gather in high numbers at central nervous system injuries. Astrocytes are a part of the inflammatory process and form scar tissue, Borgens said.

A 1–2 millimeter patch of the nanowires doped with dexamethasone was placed onto spinal cord lesions that had been surgically exposed, Borgens said. The lesions were then closed and an electromagnetic field was applied for two hours a day for one week. By the end of the week the treated mice had a weaker GFAP signal than the control groups, which included mice that were not treated and those that received a nanowire patch but were not exposed to the electromagnetic field. In some cases, treated mice had no detectable GFAP signal.

Whether the reduction in astrocytes had any significant impact on spinal cord healing or functional outcomes was not studied. In addition, the concentration of drug maintained during treatment is not known because it is below the limits of systemic detection, Borgens said.

“This method allows a very, very small dose of a drug to effectively serve as a big dose right where you need it,” Borgens said. “By the time the drug diffuses from the site out into the rest of the body it is in amounts that are undetectable in the usual tests to monitor the concentration of drugs in the bloodstream.”

Polypyrrole is an inert and biocompatable material, but the team is working to create a biodegradeable form that would dissolve after the treatment period ended. The team also is trying to increase the depth at which the drug delivery device will work. The current system appears to be limited to a depth in tissue of less than 3 centimeters, Gao said.

The research is described in an online open-access paper in the Journal of Controlled Release.

The research was funded through the general funds of the Center for Paralysis Research and an endowment from Mrs. Mari Hulman George. Borgens has a dual appointment in Purdue’s College of Engineering and the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Abstract of Remote-controlled eradication of astrogliosis in spinal cord injury via electromagnetically-induced dexamethasone release from “smart” nanowires

We describe a system to deliver drugs to selected tissues continuously, if required, for weeks. Drugs can be released remotely inside the small animals using pre-implanted, novel vertically aligned electromagnetically-sensitive polypyrrole nanowires (PpyNWs). Approximately 1–2 mm2 dexamethasone (DEX) doped PpyNWs was lifted on a single drop of sterile water by surface tension, and deposited onto a spinal cord lesion in glial fibrillary acidic protein-luc transgenic mice (GFAP-luc mice). Overexpression of GFAP is an indicator of astrogliosis/neuroinflammation in CNS injury. The corticosteroid DEX, a powerful ameliorator of inflammation, was released from the polymer by external application of an electromagnetic field for 2 h/day for a week. The GFAP signal, revealed by bioluminescent imaging in the living animal, was significantly reduced in treated animals. At 1 week, GFAP was at the edge of detection, and in some experimental animals, completely eradicated. We conclude that the administration of drugs can be controlled locally and non-invasively, opening the door to many other known therapies, such as the cases that dexamethasone cannot be safely applied systemically in large concentrations.

references:
Wen Gao, Richard Ben Borgens. Remote-controlled eradication of astrogliosis in spinal cord injury via electromagnetically-induced dexamethasone release from “smart” nanowires. Journal of Controlled Release, 2015; 211: 22 DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2015.05.266 (open access)
related:
Nanowire implants offer remote-controlled drug delivery

http://www.kurzweilai.net/nanowire-implants-offer-remote-controlled-drug-delivery

June 24, 2015

Cross-sectional diagram shows how the new design for lithium-ion battery cells by 24M increases the thickness of electrode layers and greatly reduces the number of layers needed, reducing manufacturing costs (credit: 24M)

Researchers at MIT and spinoff company 24M have developed an advanced manufacturing approach for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The researchers claim the new process could cut the manufacturing and materials cost in half compared to existing lithium-ion batteries, while also improving their performance, making them easier to recycle as well as flexible and resistant to damage.

“We’ve reinvented the process,” says Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Ceramics at MIT and a co-founder of 24M (and previously a co-founder of battery company A123). The existing process for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries, he says, has hardly changed in the two decades since the technology was invented, and is inefficient, with more steps and components than are really needed.

By 2020, Chiang estimates, 24M will be able to produce batteries for less than $100 per kilowatt-hour of capacity — considered the threshold for mass adoption of electric vehicles, according to most analysts within the EV industry, Clean Technica notes, adding that the planned Tesla Gigafactory 1 also hopes to hit that figure by 2017.

Today, the estimates of battery costs range wildly between $300 per kilowatt-hour and $500 per kilowatt-hour, notes The Wall Street Journal. Because the battery is the most expensive part of an electric car, like the Tesla Model S or the forthcoming Chevrolet Bolt, lowering the cost of the battery significantly could have a big impact.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigafactory_1

A “semisolid” battery

The new process is a hybrid between a conventional solid battery and a “flow battery” design, in which the electrodes are actually suspensions of tiny particles carried by a liquid and pumped through various compartments of the battery. The flow battery was developed five years ago by Chiang and colleagues including W. Craig Carter, the MIT POSCO Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

In this new version, while the electrode material does not flow, it is composed of a similar semisolid, colloidal suspension of particles. Chiang and Carter refer to this as a “semisolid battery.”

This approach greatly simplifies manufacturing, and also makes batteries that are flexible and resistant to damage, says Chiang, who is senior author of a paper on the new battery design in the Journal of Power Sources. This analysis demonstrates that while a flow-battery system is appropriate for battery chemistries with a low energy density (those that can only store a limited amount of energy for a given weight), for high-energy-density devices such as lithium-ion batteries, the extra complexity and components of a flow system would add unnecessary extra cost.

Almost immediately after publishing the earlier research on the flow battery, Chiang says, “We realized that a better way to make use of this flowable electrode technology was to reinvent the [lithium ion] manufacturing process.”

Instead of the standard method of applying liquid coatings to a roll of backing material, and then having to wait for that material to dry before it can move to the next manufacturing step, the new process keeps the electrode material in a liquid state and requires no drying stage at all. Using fewer, thicker electrodes, the system reduces the conventional battery architecture’s number of distinct layers, as well as the amount of nonfunctional material in the structure, by 80 percent.

Having the electrode in the form of tiny suspended particles instead of consolidated slabs greatly reduces the path length for charged particles as they move through the material — a property known as “tortuosity.” A less tortuous path makes it possible to use thicker electrodes, which, in turn, simplifies production and lowers cost.

Bendable and foldable

Unlike conventional, solid lithium-ion batteries, the new semisolid cells are flexible enough to be bent and folded multiple times without affecting their performance, as shown by the constant voltage readings in this test (credit: 24M)

The new design also produces a battery that is more flexible and resilient. Conventional lithium-ion batteries are composed of brittle electrodes that can crack under stress; the new design produces battery cells that can be bent, folded, or even penetrated by bullets without failing. This should improve both safety and durability, he says.

The company has so far made about 10,000 batteries on its prototype assembly lines for testing. The process has received eight patents and has 75 additional patents under review; 24M has raised $50 million in financing from venture capital firms and a U.S. Department of Energy grant.

The company is initially focusing on grid-scale installations, used to help smooth out power loads and provide backup for renewable energy sources that produce intermittent output, such as wind and solar power. But Chiang says the technology is also well suited to applications where weight and volume are limited, such as in electric vehicles.

Another advantage of this approach, Chiang says, is that factories using the method can be scaled up by simply adding identical units. With traditional lithium-ion production, plants must be built at large scale from the beginning in order to keep down unit costs, so they require much larger initial capital expenditures.

Venkat Viswanathan, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University who was not involved in this work, says that 24M’s new battery design “could do the same sort of disruption to [lithium ion] batteries manufacturing as what mini-mills did to the integrated steel mills.”

A University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researcher was also involved in the study. The work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Center for Energy Storage Research, based at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.

Abstract of Component-cost and performance based comparison of flow and static batteries

Flow batteries are a promising grid-storage technology that is scalable, inherently flexible in power/energy ratio, and potentially low cost in comparison to conventional or “static” battery architectures. Recent advances in flow chemistries are enabling significantly higher energy density flow electrodes. When the same battery chemistry can arguably be used in either a flow or static electrode design, the relative merits of either design choice become of interest. Here, we analyze the costs of the electrochemically active stack for both architectures under the constraint of constant energy efficiency and charge and discharge rates, using as case studies the aqueous vanadium-redox chemistry, widely used in conventional flow batteries, and aqueous lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP)/lithium-titanium-phosphate (LTP) suspensions, an example of a higher energy density suspension-based electrode. It is found that although flow batteries always have a cost advantage ($ kWh−1) at the stack level modeled, the advantage is a strong function of flow electrode energy density. For the LFP/LTP case, the cost advantages decreases from ∼50% to ∼10% over experimentally reasonable ranges of suspension loading. Such results are important input for design choices when both battery architectures are viable options.

references:
Brandon J. Hopkins, Kyle C. Smith, Alexander H. Slocum, Yet-Ming Chiang. Component-cost and performance based comparison of flow and static batteries. Journal of Power Sources, 2015; 293: 1032 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.06.023
related:
New manufacturing approach slices lithium-ion battery cost in half

http://www.kurzweilai.net/new-manufacturing-process-cuts-lithium-ion-battery-cost-in-half

Patients using Argus II had improved visual function and quality of life
June 24, 2015

The external components of the Argus II System. Images in real time are captured by camera mounted on the glasses. The video processing unit down-samples and processes the image, converting it to retinal-stimulation patterns. Data and power are sent via radio frequency link from the transmitter antenna on the glasses to the receiver antenna around the eye (see illustration below). A removable, rechargeable battery powers the system. (credit: Second Sight Medical Products, Inc.)

Three-year clinical trial results of the Argus II retinal implant (“bionic eye”) have found that the device restored some visual function and quality of life for 30 people blinded by retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative eye disease. The findings, published in an open-access paper in the journal Ophthalmology, also showed long-term efficacy, safety and reliability for the device.

Retinitis pigmentosa is an incurable disease that affects about 1 in 4,000 Americans and causes slow vision loss that eventually leads to blindness.

Using the Argus II, patients are able to see patterns of light that the brain learns to interpret as an image. The system uses a miniature video camera connected to the glasses to send visual information to a small computerized video processing unit and battery that can be stored in a pocket. This computer turns the image to electronic signals that are sent wirelessly to an electronic device surgically implanted on the retina in the eye.

The Argus II received FDA approval as a Humanitarian Use Device (HUD) in 2013 and in Europe Argus II received the CE Mark in 2011 and was launched commercially in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Switzerland and England.

The implanted portions of the Argus II System (credit: Second Sight Medical Products, Inc.)

The clinical trial was conducted in the United States and Europe. All of the study participants had little or no light perception in both eyes.

Test results: a viable treatment option

The researchers conducted two visual-function tests using both a computer screen and real-world conditions: finding and touching a door and identifying and following a line on the ground. A Functional Low-vision Observer Rated Assessment (FLORA) was also performed by independent visual rehabilitation experts at the request of the FDA to assess the impact of the Argus II system on the subjects’ everyday lives, including extensive interviews and tasks performed around the home.

The visual function results indicated that up to 89 percent of the subjects performed significantly better with the device. The FLORA found that among the subjects, 80 percent received benefit from the system when considering both functional vision and patient-reported quality of life, and no subjects were affected negatively.

After one year, two-thirds of the subjects had not experienced device- or surgery-related serious adverse events. After three years, there were no device failures. Throughout the three years, 11 subjects experienced serious adverse events, most of which occurred soon after implantation and were successfully treated. One of these treatments, however, was to remove the device due to recurring erosion after the suture tab on the device became damaged.

“This study shows that the Argus II system is a viable treatment option for people profoundly blind due to retinitis pigmentosa – one that can make a meaningful difference in their lives and provides a benefit that can last over time,” said Allen C. Ho, M.D., lead author of the study and director of the clinical retina research unit at Wills Eye Hospital.

The Argus II has 60 electrodes (pixels), which limits it to relatively large objects. There are higher-resolution devices in development. Retina Implant’s Alpha IMS Subretinal Microchip is a 1,500-pixel chip (no external video camera required). And Stanford University photovoltaic subretinal prosthesis research project achieves 178 pixels per square millimeter, scalable to thousands of pixels. Silicon photodiodes in each pixel directly convert pulsed near-infrared (NIR) images projected from video goggles, eliminating a hard-wire connection.

Abstract of Long-Term Results from an Epiretinal Prosthesis to Restore Sight to the Blind

Purpose: Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of inherited retinal degenerations leading to blindness due to photoreceptor loss. Retinitis pigmentosa is a rare disease, affecting only approximately 100 000 people in the United States. There is no cure and no approved medical therapy to slow or reverse RP. The purpose of this clinical trial was to evaluate the safety, reliability, and benefit of the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System (Second Sight Medical Products, Inc, Sylmar, CA) in restoring some visual function to subjects completely blind from RP. We report clinical trial results at 1 and 3 years after implantation.

Design: The study is a multicenter, single-arm, prospective clinical trial.

Participants: There were 30 subjects in 10 centers in the United States and Europe. Subjects served as their own controls, that is, implanted eye versus fellow eye, and system on versus system off (native residual vision).

Methods: The Argus II System was implanted on and in a single eye (typically the worse-seeing eye) of blind subjects. Subjects wore glasses mounted with a small camera and a video processor that converted images into stimulation patterns sent to the electrode array on the retina.

Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measures were safety (the number, seriousness, and relatedness of adverse events) and visual function, as measured by 3 computer-based, objective tests.

Results: A total of 29 of 30 subjects had functioning Argus II Systems implants 3 years after implantation. Eleven subjects experienced a total of 23 serious device- or surgery-related adverse events. All were treated with standard ophthalmic care. As a group, subjects performed significantly better with the system on than off on all visual function tests and functional vision assessments.

Conclusions: The 3-year results of the Argus II trial support the long-term safety profile and benefit of the Argus II System for patients blind from RP. Earlier results from this trial were used to gain approval of the Argus II by the Food and Drug Administration and a CE mark in Europe. The Argus II System is the first and only retinal implant to have both approvals.

references:
Allen C. Ho, M.D. et al. Long-Term Results from an Epiretinal Prosthesis to Restore Sight to the Blind. Opthamology, June 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2015.04.032 (open access)
related:
“Bionic Eye” Three-Year Clinical Trial Results Prove Long-Term Safety, Efficacy of Implant that Restores Vision in the Blind
Software upgrades to bionic eye enable color recognition, improve resolution, image focus, zooming
‘First bionic eye’ retinal chip for blind to be available in 12 major markets in US later this year
How haptics can enhance bionic eyes
Artificial retina receives FDA approval
Blind patient reads words stimulated directly onto the retina
The laser-powered bionic eye that gives 576-pixel grayscale vision to the blind
A Bionic Eye Comes to Market
Researchers’ vision: restoring sight through artificial retinas
Scientists Set Sights on an Implantable Prosthetic for the Blind

http://www.kurzweilai.net/bionic-eye-clinical-trial-results-long-term-safety-efficacy