PIEZOELECTRIC ENERGY HARVESTING

                       

In the last few years, there has been an increasing demand for low-power and portable-energy sources due to the development and mass consumption of portable electronic devices. Also, the portable-energy sources must be associated with environmental issues and imposed regulations. In this context, piezoelectric materials are becoming a better alternative for energy generation and storage in future applications.  In locations where traditional power sources may not be available and long periods of unattended operation are required, the power may become inadequate. In such cases, some source of vibrating energy may be present in operation of the machine.

                       

                         A piezoelectric source is used to generate power for the operation of a microcontroller and radio transmitter. Also, the use of piezoelectric polymers in order to harvest energy from people walking and the fabrication of a shoe capable of generating and accumulating the energy is a new trend. It can be used in wearable healthcare applications where the healthcare device can harvest its needed power, and sense vital signs from the human body. Ecological security is an important issue in the current scenario. Pollution and ecosystem degradation is often encountered with many energy sources. The method of generating eco-friendly electricity using piezoelectric material helps reducing global warming. The model with piezo material converts the scavenged mechanical energy-vibration and rotation to electrical energy for powering the various electric devices. This allows the material to function as a power harvesting medium. The significance of the proposed approach results in generation of electricity in hilly areas using natural resources and in rural areas through tube-well water pressure.

Read More

SKINPUT TECHNOLOGY : HUMAN BODY AS AN INPUT SURFACE

The widespread adoption of mobile electronic devices and the advent of wearable computing have encouraged the development of compact alternatives to the keyboard and mouse. This makes the emerging technology called Skinput a relevant one. Skinput is a technology that appropriates the human body for acoustic transmission, allowing the skin to be used as an input surface. We resolve the location of finger taps on the arm and hand by analyzing mechanical vibrations that propagate through the body. We collect these signals using a novel array of sensors worn as an armband. This approach provides an always available, naturally portable, and on-body finger input system. The skinput technology turns the human hand in to a virtual key board.

Skinput is a novel technique for physical communication or interaction, which is focused on mobile devices that utilize ‘skin’ as an info interface. This info interfacing method is an integration of some bio-acoustic sensors and machine learning languages, which helps people, to utilize their fingers, arms or any other part of their bodies as a track pad or touch pad to operate and control various devices. Skinput combines simple bio-acoustic sensors and some sophisticated machine learning to enable people to use their fingers or forearms as touch pads. Different types of finger taps on different parts of the hand and forearm produce unique acoustic signatures. A simple input device used here provides an acoustic signal, which the system decomposes into various unique features. Machine interpretation parses this  features into a unique identification  of the different taps. Skinput gives new meaning to the term “touch typing.”

Read More

PEROVSKITE- Brightening Solar Technology

                       PEROVSKITE,  a cheap material which can be used in making solar cells would cut the cost of a single Watt of solar generating capacity by three-quarters.

 

                       Perovskite, is a Calcium Titanium Oxide mineral species, composed of Calcium Titanate, with the chemical formula, CaTiO₃.  Also, it is available easy. While conventional Silicon Solar panels use materials that are about 180mm thick, the new solar cells use less than 1mm of material to capture the same amount of sunlight.

                          Solar cells made up of Perovskites have a simple architecture. It can easily be produced in large quantities because the vapour deposition process used to make them is compatible with the conventional processing methods for fabricating such solar cells. Prototype solar panels incorporating nanotechnology are more efficient than standard designs in converting sunlight to electricity, promising inexpensive solar power in the future. 

Read More

REVIEW- HALF GIRLFRIEND

                  Half Girlfriend is the story of Madhav and Riya. Chetan Bhagat, the author, also plays an important role in the story. To be simple, Half Girlfriend is a beautiful, yet thrilling love story.

   

            Madhav Jha is from a small village named Dumraon in Bihar. He is from a royal family which almost lost all its power and supremacy, but still counts as landlords for the village folks. He represents the non-English type Indians who are not much confident at speaking in English. But he was destined to be in the famous college of New Delhi, St.Stephens, where one could find only English speaking guys. Being desperate and suppressed, he lost all his confidence. However he was trying to get the admission through sports Quota. He was a very talented Basketball player. At trials, to showcase their performance, he finds a beautiful girl. Riya Somani, the tall, gorgeous girl, with attractive looks, from a high class Marwari family of New Delhi, was also there to prove her talent at the basketball court. Madhav, however took a chance to get acquainted with his dream girl. His coach introduced him to Riya, and they talked to each other for the first time.

           Later on, both of them started their life at St.Stephens, New Delhi. Madhav Jha, who was always inferior because of his ‘English’, finds himself much comfortable with Riya. He always needed her presence. Obviously, he fell in love with her. But Riya was a reserved character. She had a lot of friends, Madhav was just one among them. Maybe, we think he was more special, but definitely one cannot call it as ‘love’.  Madhav wanted her to be his girlfriend. But Riya was not ready for that. Still, she agreed to be his HALF GIRLFRIEND. Their relation gets more stronger. Riya sometimes shares some secrets with Madhav, however she was not ready to reveal herself at times. Madhav gets annoyed by her this kind of attitude sometimes, still he was not bothered much because he was deeply in love with her. Riya always considered Madhav as her “Basketball Friend”.

                   The story continues in Bihar as well as in New York. It brings out many twists and turns and even suspenses at some occasions. The relationship between them is well defined in the remaining part of the story. It is interesting as well as  worth reading. Whether Madhav’s love is succeeding or not is the main question that arises in the mind of the reader, which is depicted beautifully in the story, and ofcourse, the reader gets the answer at the climax of the story. Half Girlfriend is a simple, well said, romantic novel which makes us feel great.

Read More

AN INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE TALK!!

                    Today, me and my group members of the final main project had a discussion with an expert in the related industry. A professor who is an expert and conducting researches in the field of renewable energy came to our college for an expert talk. We had an opportunity to talk with him. He gave us lot of ideas and guided us by giving the most relevant information. I feel like we are  now one more step close to our project titled, "SOLAR GRID FEEDING SYSTEM".

Read More