Technology in sports: WaveJet Powered Surfboard

This year has been an epic year for the latest sport technology and gadgets and some of this stuff might even turn out to be revolutionary sports gear. Innovative sport technology and gadgets are constantly evolving as the athletes evolve themselves and these innovations will mostly all prove to make athletes more efficient, if they catch on that is.

For those who are craving for surfing at the beach, there is a cool gadget called WaveJet Powered Surfboard. This WaveJet Powered Surfboard is a personal water propulsion device which features technology that may blow the surfing industry out of the water, once they can make their boards affordable that is ($4500). 

As far as efficiency, WaveJet surfboards have got a good running start with their technology. They're powered by an integrated twin-lithium ion battery pack gadget, and are capable of pumping out 20 pounds of thrust which moves you 2 to 3 times faster than paddling a surfboard. Sounds good right? The boards are also safe, quiet and light, and useful in shallow water.  

A charge up through a standard wall socket provides a full battery or 30 minute of propulsion time. This is one place they can really work on, since most surfers spend 2-4 hours in the water on average (estimate). Wavejets will come out in 3-4 different board styles.

Palm Islands Dubai: The amazing man-made islands

The Dubai Palm Islands are man-made islands located off the coast of The United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf. The constructors are  Jan de Nul and Van Oord, famous marine constructor companies from Belgian and Germany. These artificial archipelago are named Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali, and Palm Deira. The construction of these island will add 520 kilometres of beaches to the city of Dubai. The purpose of the construction was to increase Dubai’s tourism by providing a one-of-a-kind tourist destination brimming with contemporary world-class hotels, upscale services and amenities and hundreds of more miles of Dubai beaches all in a world unique to anything anyone has ever seen before. These islands are built in a shape of a date palm tree and consist of a trunk, a crown with fronds, and are surrounded by a crescent island that acts as a breakwater. The Palm Jebel Ali island and the Palm Jumeirah island will each have a trunk and 17 leaves and the islands will both be surrounded by a crescent shaped island that will act as a reef to the Palm Island Dubai.

The constructions of the first two islands which are Palm Jumeirah and Palm Jebel Ali comprised approximately 100 million cubic meters of rock and sand. Palm Deira was composed of approximately 1 billion cubic meters of rock and sand. All materials to built these artificial archipelago was quarried in the UAE. Among the three islands there will be over 100 luxury hotels, exclusive residential beach side villas and apartments, marinas, water theme parks, restaurants, shopping malls, sports facilities and health spas.

Palm Jumeirah is the smallest island of the three Palm Islands. Its construction was started in 2001. It is located in the Jumeirah coastal area in Dubai. Palm Jumeirah is the first island which is built in a crown with 17 fronds, and a surrounding crescent island that will form a water-breaker. It has already been acclaimed a marvel of marine construction and engineering vision. Being one of newest tourism spot in United Arab Emirates, Palm Jumeirah has many shopping centre, recreation places, hotels, and spas. The heart of Palm Jumeirah is the trunk which is 2 km long living retail and tourism destination.

The Palm Jebel Ali Island is the middle sized island. It is located on the Jebel Ali coastal area in Dubai. The man-made palm-shaped island will consist of a trunk, a crown with 17 fronds, and a surrounding crescent island that will form a water-breaker. It is very famous for the caligraphic around the crowns. The construction of Palm Jebel Ali began in October 2002 and is finished at the end of 2006. The Palm Jebel Ali is more suitable for adults and children’s recreation or family to be specific.

The Palm Deira is the largest man-made island of The Dubai Palm Islands. It is located on the Deira coastal area of Dubai. It consists of a trunk, a crown with 41 fronds and a surrounding crescent island that will form a water breaker. The construction began on October 2004 and is expected to complete in 2015. Rumors has it that the construction will consume over a billion cubic meters of rock and sand. It will be 14 kilometers in length and 8.5 kilometers in width and have an area of 80 square kilometers.

The process of building these islands was not easy. The sand is sprayed by the dredging ships, which are guided by DGPS, onto the required area in a process known as rainbowing because of the arcs in the air when the sand is sprayed. The outer edge of each Palm’s encircling crescent is a large rock breakwater. The breakwater of the Palm Jumeirah has over seven million tons of rock. Each rock was placed individually by a crane, signed off by a diver and given a GPS coordinate.

The Palm Island Dubai will have around one thousand homes build along the water front as well as around four thousand deluxe Palm Island villas.

There are just over waterfront Palm Island apartments build and residents can enjoy such Palm island Dubai facilities such as water parks, a great selection of Palm Island Dubai international restaurants, Dubai shopping malls, movie theater and great boat marinas. The Palm Island Dubai project certainly is the most prestigious Dubai real estate project ever constructed. 

Turning waste streams into domestic energy

Klean Industries is one of the first companies worldwide to focus exclusively on economic development and industrial symbiosis using clean technologies (Cleantech) and renewable energies. Klean is rapidly developing projects using commercially proven technologies that produce the highest quality fuels, nano-carbons and green energy from waste materials and surface carbon feedstocks. Their primary applications convert petroleum based waste streams such as plastics and tires into valuable commodities for reuse - reinventing oil with conservation and energy efficiency.


This plant also provides a local community center with its heat and hot water; it also sequesters the CO2 emissions by providing food grade CO2 to local greenhouses for agricultural plant production and has an integrated waste water treatment facility that is so clean that it's used as a turtle habitat and breeding ground for a local university.

Amazingly all at the same time that this facility turns end-of-life tires to high grade commodities -such as CO2e Credits, Diesel Fuel, Nano Carbon Black Filler, it also provides the energy for an automotive recycling plant that re-smelt aluminum car engines for recycling.

Printing makes easy: Polaroid mini printer

 

Polaroid, a name once synonymous with photos, has been on a decline since before Instagram became popular. Still, the brand has been re-invigorated and now comes attached to a nifty little photo printer called the GL10. The GL10 is billed as ‘a slick, easy to use appliance that produces the Classic Polaroid 3 x 4 inch prints, with or without white border, in just 50 seconds’.

Launched in Australia a year ago, but largely unavailable due to high demand, the GL10 prints using an inkless printing technology called ‘Zink’ (Zero Ink). ‘Zink’ print technology relies on special photo paper that contains colour-forming chemistry which is activated during the printing process.

At only 425g, the GL10 is small and light enough to carry around when needed. The built-in Bluetooth is all but useless for iOS users, however Bluetooth printing can be used from your Mac. Android users are able to print wireless via Bluetooth using the Polaroid app, available for download in the Google Play store. Prints from the GL10 are very durable; the ZINK paper is both smudge-proof and comes with a water resistant coating. The rechargeable battery is good for about 40 prints, which is more than a standard pack of ZINK paper which will set you back $30.

 

Technology

Polaroid mini printers make use of patented ZINK technology, which it claims to be the digital version of instant film. ZINK stands for "Zero Ink." This implies that it doesn't make use of ink systems utilized by traditional printer models. Instead, it works by using heat to imprint an image on a special kind of photo paper. Thus, cartridges and ribbons are no longer necessary in order to produce the colors in a photograph. The Polaroid mini printer allows for printing in borderless images measuring 2 by 3 inches in less than a minute.

Paper

The backbone of ZINK technology lies within the special paper used. The paper is a material with dye crystals that come in yellow, magenta and cyan colors. These crystals are then activated by pulses of heat that can number up to 200 million within 30 seconds. The paper itself can have up to a billion dye crystals, which ensures that the images are clear and easily discerned. The paper used in the Polaroid mini printer is sturdy enough to withstand tearing as well as water damage.

Features

In the spirit of convenience, the Polaroid mini printer can be attached to the camera or phone using a USB or Bluetooth. This means that no cords or computer connections are required in order for the printer to receive the images and print them. The printer is equipped with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that allows it to produce 15 pictures when fully charged. Hence, the mini printer is named as a part of the Polaroid on the Go series.

Printing From a Phone

To print from a mobile phone, a Polaroid mini printer works by selecting the desired image from the gallery of the phone and going to the Options menu. From there, select "Send via Bluetooth" and search for the Polaroid printer to print. Note that the Bluetooth feature of the mobile phone must be turned on in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.

Printing From a Camera

For those who want to print directly from the camera, connect it to the printer and go to the menu to confirm that a connection has been established. If the settings still indicate USB, download the PictBridge, or program needed for the Polaroid printer to identify the camera. Once it's on, select the image to be printed and follow the instructions for printing. Don't disconnect the USB cord or turn off the printer while printing is ongoing.

New robotic exoskeleton from Japan

With gardening becoming increasingly popular, Japanese scientists have come up with a robot suit designed to help with tilling the soil. According to lead researcher Shigeki Toyama, a robotics professor at The Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, the suit which is worn as an external skeleton, is the latest technological advance designed to assist Japan's rapidly ageing farmers. He have been working on this for about 10 years because few young people want careers in agriculture now and older farmers need help to do their work. 

The suit is fitted with motors at the key joints - the lower back, knees, elbows and shoulders - that work in tandem with the wearer and provide additional strength. It is designed for a range of activities that farmers are required to do, such as carrying heavy bags of potatoes, pulling 'daikon' (Japanese radishes) from the ground, or pruning branches. Professor Toyama's robotic suit weights an unwieldy 25 kg, but he is aiming to reduce that by half and have it on the market within two years. Early versions are likely to cost as much as Y1 million (£7,370), but he hopes that mass production will reduce that to around Y300,000 (£2,210) per unit.

Japan's agricultural sector is in crisis as young people abandon the countryside for jobs in major cities. Nearly half of the nation's agricultural workers are aged over 60 and the amount of cultivated land here is shrinking. Becoming increasingly reliant on imported food has caused consternation in government circles here and efforts are under way to encourage more people to take up farming. At the same time, technology is being pressed into service to increase yields and efficiency.