Next Generation Windows
One of the most important features in a building is also one that we tend to look right through—the window. Windows have been incorporated into structures since the 13th century BC, and just like everything else, they’ve evolved over the course of centuries to meet the needs of modern man....
Comparing Computing Architectures for ADAS and Autonomous Vehicles
Together with connected car technology and new energy vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle systems have moved to the forefront of innovation in the automobile industry. Research, development, and production activities are significantly increasing due to demand for greater traffic safety, enhanced passenger and driver comfort, and...
Space Tourism Now and in the Near Future
Excluding the non-professional astronauts/cosmonauts who were taken into space for political or business reasons over the years, space tourism got off the ground in April, 2001, when the American engineer Dennis Tito traveled to the International Space Station for an eight-day trip. Between then and 2016, a total of seven...
The Turbine-powered Firebirds
From 1949 to 1961, General Motors staged a series of shows which spotlighted their products from each of their varied divisions for a total of eight times. Those from 1953 to 1956 are the most remembered since those had a variety of what were then known as “dream cars.” Today,...
Continental brings Augmented Reality to Head-up Displays
Whenever you glance down to read an instrument cluster, look at a map, or check to see who just texted you, in that brief moment that your eyes are off the road, your vehicle may have traveled tens of meters. In those instances, you are, for all practical purposes, driving...
An Introduction to Automobile Aerodynamics
Sometime, early in the 20th century, motorized vehicles became a reality, and the race to improve road infrastructures and vehicle speed had begun. Transportation speeds rapidly increased, and when legislators observed an open field for imposing new restrictions, speed limits were invented. In most cases passenger safety, fuel saving, and environmental...
MOONSHOTS with Naveen Jain
Later this year, Naveen Jain, CEO of Moon Express, expects to launch the world’s first private commercial initiative to unlock the vast hidden resources on the moon—resources spanning magnesium to platinum to titanium to helium-3—and ultimately develop a space colony there to support mining operations, particularly for helium-3. What’s so...
The Path of Invention
Inventing is a great way to spend your time. Not only does it give you something intellectually exciting to do, it may result in a benefit to society and to you personally. Please know that I am not an attorney or a patent agent and I do not presume to...
A Brief Early History of Unmanned Systems
The past two decades have seen exponential growth in the burgeoning field of unmanned systems, foretelling what may one day be viewed as the biggest paradigm shift in the evolution of mankind. Military drones have forever changed the conduct of war, providing persistent surveillance, enhanced command and control, and precision...
Out of Thin Air
All this happens swiftly, in silence, at the temperature and pressure of the atmosphere, and gratis: dear colleagues, when we learn to do likewise we will be sicut Deus , and we will have also solved the problem of hunger in the world. — Primo Levi Ever since Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794), the father of modern...
