TECHNOLOGY&TECH.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Newly Developed Wide-Area Traffic Simulator by Fujitsu

5:52 PM Unknown

With an aim to create a comfortable and safer transportation system, Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a wide-area traffic simulator offering its users virtual driving experience, where the user can evaluate the effectiveness of traffic policies and discover problem areas from the actual driver’s perspective, helping to design appropriate traffic policies which are more in tune with traffic conditions. Through this development Fujitsu’s new system is able to simulate in real-time the detail behavior of tens of thousands of vehicles located across a wide area of roadway. The newly developed system generates 60 frames per second of video displaying the road from driver’s viewpoint. The new system splits up the wide region into multiple areas and calculates each of these areas in parallel. The system also performs the real-time calculation of on migration of vehicles across area of boundaries, as well as interaction between vehicles. The system is capable of computing driver behavior, route planning, driving operations and physical movement of vehicles all in real-time. This calculation is done based on a layered vehicle behavior computational model and changes the volume and frequency of calculations for each layer.
The company is planning to use the newly developed simulator for evaluating traffic guidance and other systems that employ traffic status sensing and telematic technologies. With all the available technologies such as Vehicle Information and Communication System (VICS), Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) and such measures as adjustments to highway toll fees and advanced notification of signal information and road pricing has yet to provide a sound solution in addressing road and driving safety. With nearly all major routes in Japan’s metropolitan cities facing around the clock congestion, changing traffic policies in accordance to the traffic behavior in designated areas is a step in a right direction. I hope the newly developed system can provide to traffic authorities sufficient insights that some of the policies that are being enforced are not effective. Having said this we the driving community can not simply close our eyes and expect the laws of the road will magically improve or ensure our driving safety. This is an individual effort based on common courtesy and sound judgment given the situation.

Release of New HIT Solar Cell with Industry’s Highest Cell Conversion Efficiency by Sanyo

5:49 PM Unknown

Solar Power generating system is still a long way from finding its place among the mass, suffering from high cost and low cell conversion efficiency, but announcement by Sanyo in an ongoing effort to achieve higher cell conversion efficiency is certainly a step in a right direction. Sanyo a world leader in photovoltaic technology has announced the mass production of a new HIT solar cell featuring the industry’s highest cell conversion efficiency of 21.6%, beating its previous record by 0.5% as a result of optimizing the HIT joint region.
In addition to this Sanyo has come up with another version of HIT with conversion efficiency of 19% through use of new tab design and anti reflection coated glass, ideal for areas with limited space such as on the roof of a house. In addition to higher conversion efficiency the new HITs feature excellent temperature characteristics. The predicated electricity generated per year for installation space is approximately 44% more than of regular crystalline silicon solar cell, due to reduction in output caused by temperature increase is less. The new HIT has a bifacial generation structure allowing electricity to be generated from both sides of the cells. The HIT with conversion efficiency of19% will go on sale in Europe in February, 2011

Introduction of a New Coverless Switch for Smart Phone Application by SMK

5:46 PM Unknown

SMK has introduced into Japanese market a “Coverless type” switch which has been designed for Smart Phone market. The new addition to SMK’s 1-Dome Switches contains mounting height by employing a coverless structure. The new device will be incorporated in mobile phones, portable audio devices, IC recorders, as well as other portable electronic equipment. It comes with rating voltage of DC12V and 10mA.
The device has an external dimension of 8mm (W) x 0.9mm (D) x 4.5mm (H). The company is aiming for a monthly production of 30,000,000 units per month by January, 2011