The VCR marks one of the most important events in the history of TV because, for the first time, it gave people control of what they could watch on their TV sets. Prior to the VCR, there was no such thing as a video store, and when you consider that there is now a video […]
Mechanical engineers at the University of California, San Diego invented a robot designed to scoot along utility lines, searching for damage and other problems that require repairs. Made of off-the-shelf electronics and plastic parts printed on an inexpensive 3D printer, the SkySweeper prototype could be scaled up for less than $1,000, making it significantly more economical than the two models of robots currently used to inspect power lines.
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The Wii’s Interface and Specs If you look at the controllers for the Xbox 360, the Playstation 3 and the GameCube, you’ll notice that they’re nearly identical. You hold them in two hands and use your thumbs to control the in-game action with buttons, D-pads and joysticks. Your index fingers pull triggers that shoot guns
“Radio waves” transmit music, conversations, pictures and data invisibly through the air, often over millions of miles — it happens every day in thousands of different ways! Even though radio waves are invisible and completely undetectable to humans, they have totally changed society. Whether we are talking about a cell phone, a baby monitor, a
Automatic dialers, or autodialers, are an example of computer telephone integration (CTI). Using special software and a modem, a computer can be programmed to automatically dial a long list of phone numbers. Depending on the software’s sophistication, the computer can detect whether a live person answers the phone and then hand the call over to
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Mechanics of Hand-powered Generators The mechanics of hand-powered generators are not too complicated. They work like other generators, except the initial energy is provided by your arm rather than from steam by burning coal or a flowing river. A generator is basically an electric motor working in reverse. Both are based on principles of magnetism
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Mechanics of the SteriPEN If you break down the SteriPEN’s name, you basically have the concept in a nutshell. The SteriPEN has the physical appearance of a pen and it sterilizes water. That’s pretty straightforward, right? But what’s amazing is how the SteriPEN rids water of those pathogens we learned about earlier. The key is
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Lithium-ion batteries are popular because they have a number of important advantages over competing technologies: They’re generally much lighter than other types of rechargeable batteries of the same size. The electrodes of a lithium-ion battery are made of lightweight lithium and carbon. Lithium is also a highly reactive element, meaning that a lot of energy
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iPad Design Like the iPhone, the iPad is primarily a touch device. The front is dominated by a 9.7-inch (24.6-centimeter) touch screen, with a single button (the same Home button found on the iPhone) placed below it. Apple offers two different iPad colors: one with a black face bezel and one with a white face
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Inside the X In March 2000, rumors that Microsoft was developing a game console were confirmed when Gates took the wraps off the Xbox demo unit. In January 2001, the demo model, a big chrome “X” with a green-glowing light in the middle, was replaced by a more traditional black box. As analysts predicted, the
