Hydrogen vehicle won't be viable soon, study says

Even with aggressive research, the hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle will not be better than the diesel hybrid (a vehicle powered by a conventional engine supplemented by an electric motor) in terms of total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, says a study recently released by the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE).

And while hybrid vehicles are already appearing on the roads, adoption of the hydrogen-based vehicle will require major infrastructure changes to make compressed hydrogen available. If we need to curb greenhouse gases within the next 20 years, improving mainstream gasoline and diesel engines and transmissions and expanding the use of hybrids is the way to go.

These results come from a systematic and comprehensive assessment of a variety of engine and fuel technologies as they are likely to be in 2020 with intense research but no real "breakthroughs." The assessment was led by Malcolm A. Weiss, LFEE senior research staff member, and John B. Heywood, the Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of MIT's Laboratory for 21st-Century Energy.

Release of the study comes just a month after the Bush administration announced a billion-dollar initiative to develop commercially viable hydrogen fuel cells and a year after establishment of the government-industry program to develop the hydrogen fuel-cell-powered "FreedomCar."

The new assessment is an extension of a study done in 2000, which likewise concluded that the much-touted hydrogen fuel cell was not a clear winner. This time, the MIT researchers used optimistic fuel-cell performance assumptions cited by some fuel-cell advocates, and the conclusion remained the same.

The hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle has low emissions and energy use on the road--but converting a hydrocarbon fuel such as natural gas or gasoline into hydrogen to fuel this vehicle uses substantial energy and emits greenhouse gases.

"Ignoring the emissions and energy use involved in making and delivering the fuel and manufacturing the vehicle gives a misleading impression," said Weiss.

However, the researchers do not recommend stopping work on the hydrogen fuel cell. "If auto systems with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions are required in, say, 30 to 50 years, hydrogen is the only major fuel option identified to date," said Heywood. The hydrogen must, of course, be produced without making greenhouse gas emissions, hence from a non-carbon source such as solar energy or from conventional fuels while sequestering the carbon emissions.

The assessment highlights the advantages of the hybrid, a highly efficient approach that combines an engine (or a fuel cell) with a battery and an electric motor. Continuing to work on today's gasoline engine and its fuel will bring major improvements by 2020, cutting energy use and emissions by a third compared to today's vehicles. But aggressive research on a hybrid with a diesel engine could yield a 2020 vehicle that is twice as efficient and half as polluting as that "evolved" technology, and future gasoline engine hybrids will not be far behind, the study says.

Other researchers on the study were Andreas Schafer, principal research engineer in the Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development, and Vinod K. Natarajan (S.M. 2002). The new report and the original "On the Road in 2020" study from 2000 are available at under "Reports."

Source:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/hydrogen-0305.html

Principles of Memory

Memory is a complex mental activity. Under certain circumstances, parts of the activity may be made more efficient. Ability to retain increases until a person is about 20, after which it tends to decline. Illness, shock, or lack of sleep may impair memory.

Learning and memory are interrelated. Unless something is learned, whether intentionally or unintentionally, it cannot be retained. And unless mental material is retained for a measurable period of time, however brief, it has not been learned. Experiments have shown that the better the learning process, the longer and more completely the material is retained. For this reason, the principles of learning may be applied to memory.

A person learns more efficiently, and therefore retains better, when he understands the material, when it appeals to his interests, and when the material can be related to what he already knows. Practice is an aid to learning, especially if it is broken up with rest periods rather than massed into one “cramming” session.

Memory can be improved by the use of mnemonics, mental devices that relate material being memorized to something else—to previously learned material, a rhyme, or visual images, for example. A well-known mnemonic rhyme is the spelling rule “I before e, except after c, or when sounded as a as in neighbor and weigh.”

Remembering, or bringing memories to conscious thought, whether by recall or recognition, results from an appropriate stimulus. Hearing a certain song, for example, may stimulate a person to recall the first time he or she heard it, and under what circumstances. It is easier to recall a memory with many associations than one with a single association.

Forgetting is failure to retain stored mental material. The rate of forgetting is highest immediately after learning except for very young children. Psychologists believe that the most important cause of normal forgetting is the effect of new mental activity on what was previously learned. This effect is called retroactive inhibition. The more closely new mental activity resembles the old, the greater the influence of retroactive inhibition.

Some psychologists believe another cause of forgetting is repression. They maintain that if a person has emotional conflicts and is unaware of them, the person will tend to repress—that is, exclude from the conscious mind—memories that, if recalled, would produce anxiety by bringing the conflicts to consciousness.

Distortion is a kind of forgetting. If several persons witness an accident, each may recall it differently. This distortion may be in part because of false perception at the time of the accident. However, some distortion may occur later as wishes, fears, and prejudices affect the memory.

Source:

http://health.howstuffworks.com/memory-info2.htm

Can I convert my car to run on water?

As a result of rapidly increasing energy costs, alternative fuels look more appealing with each record-breaking day. In his 2006 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush declared his intent to alleviate the United States' problem of being "addicted to oil" [source: White House]. He issued a challenge to replace 75 percent of America's oil use with alternative fuels by 2025.


So which alternative fuel is the standout? There are plenty of contenders. Researchers are working feverishly to break through the challenges presented by each potential fuel source. For example, cellulosic ethanol has been shown to make a fine fuel, but the process of fermenting it from plants like switchgrass is expensive. Electricity can (and does) power cars, but hybrid vehicles still require gas to operate. And all-electric vehicles must be plugged into an electrical outlet to recharge the batteries after a couple hundred miles. What's more, most of the electricity used to juice up the car is being generated at power plants fueled by coal or natural gas, which emit pollutants.

It'll probably take a combination of all of these types of alternative energy to get America off its oil addiction. And it looks like hydrogen will play a major role as well. Hydrogen is the lightest and simplest element known to man, and it has a high energy yield. It's also all around us: Think water.

Source:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/fuel-consumption/water-fuel.htm

How Self-parking Cars Work?

Parallel parking is an ordeal for many drivers, but with parking space limited in big cities, squeezing your car into a tiny space is a vital skill. It's seldom an easy task, and it can lead to traffic tie-ups, frazzled nerves and bent fenders. Fortunately, technology has an answer - cars that park themselves. Imagine finding the perfect parking spot, but instead of struggling to maneuver your car back and forth, you simply press a button, sit back, and relax. The same technology used in self-parking cars can be used for collision avoidance systems and ultimately, self-driving cars.

Automakers are starting to market self-parking cars because they sense a consumer demand. Parallel parking is often the most feared part of the driver's test, and it's something almost everyone has to do at some point. People who live in big cities may have to do it every day. Removing the difficulty, stress and uncertainty of this chore is very appealing.

Self-parking cars can also help to solve some of the parking and traffic problems in dense urban areas. Sometimes parking a car in a space is restricted by the driver's skill at parallel parking. A self-parking car can fit into smaller spaces than most drivers can manage on their own. This makes it easier for people to find parking spaces, and allows the same number of cars to take up fewer spaces. When someone parallel parks, they often block a lane of traffic for at least a few seconds. If they have problems getting into the spot, this can last for several minutes and seriously disrupt traffic.

Finally, the difficulty of parallel parking leads to a lot of minor dents and scratches. Self-parking technology would prevent many of these mishaps. It can also save money, since you won't have to worry about insurance claims for parking-related damage.

Source:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-regulatory-devices/self-parking-car.htm

All About iPhones and How Does it Work

Definition:
The iPhone 3G is Apple’s second iPhone model. It builds on the success of the first-generation iPhone and adds a number of new features to the device. One key addition is 3G wireless connectivity, an improved data standard that makes downloads nearly twice as fast as on the original iPhone.

The iPhone 3G is also significantly less expensive than the original model, debuting at $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model, where the 16GB model of the original version cost $399.

Capacity:

8GB

16GB

Colors:

Black

White – 16GB

Battery Life:

5 hours talk on 3G/10 hours talk on 2G

300 hours standby

5 hours 3G Internet use/6 hours on WiFi

7 hours video playback

24 hours audio playback

Size and Weight:

4.5 inches tall x 2.4 inches wide x 0.48 inches deep
Weight: 4.7 ounces

Availability:

Released: July 2008

Discontinued – N/A (still being sold)

Also Known As: Second-Generation iPhone

Source:

http://ipod.about.com/od/understandingiphonemodels/g/iphone_3g_def.htm

What is a BlackBerry, and how does it work?

A BlackBerry is a handheld wireless device created by Research in Motion (RIM). BlackBerries read email and calendars from enterprise-class email systems, such as Indiana University's Exchange service, and most models also function as cell phones.



While a BlackBerry is a type of personal digital assistant (PDA), it is not meant to be used in the same way as a Palm Pilot or PocketPC. Those devices are literally miniature computers that in some cases happen to have email capabilities. A BlackBerry is an email/calendar reading device with some PDA abilities, and in some cases cell phone abilities. Also, BlackBerries come with complete alphanumeric keyboards; many PDAs do not.

At IU, BlackBerry service consists of the following:

The BlackBerry device
Email redirection, managed in one of two ways:

The BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), which works directly with the Exchange mail server. UITS recommends this option if you have an IU Exchange account.
The BlackBerry Desktop Redirector runs on your personal computer and redirects messages as they arrive in Outlook. You can use this option with any Outlook mail setup (i.e., POP, IMAP, HTTP).
A BlackBerry receives email through the following process:

The Exchange account receives the message.
The redirector looks in the email account, finds the message, and forwards it to the BlackBerry service provided by RIM.
RIM's BlackBerry service sends the message to the wireless data network (e.g., AT&T, Verizon).
The wireless data network provider sends the message in a wireless signal to the BlackBerry device. (You must be in a data coverage area to receive mail.)
The BlackBerry receives the signal and displays the message.
A BlackBerry sends mail in the reverse of this process. The BlackBerry device sends the message to the wireless data network provider. The provider forwards it to RIM's BlackBerry service, which in turn sends it over the Internet to the redirector (either the BES server or desktop software). The redirector then sends the message to your Exchange account, from which it is sent over the Internet to the recipient.

Source:

http://www.kb.iu.edu/data/aljq.html

Adaptive Cruise Control

According to Norman Martin:



" The first OEM application of adaptive cruise control - a radar-based system that looks ahead and automatically adjusts the speed of the vehicle according to traffic - is rolling off Mercedes-Benz's S-Class line in Sindelfingen, Germany, this month. But a number of companies are hot on the heels of the German automaker, targeting low-cost ACC, as it's called, for passenger cars. The competitors include Delphi's Delco Electronics group and Eaton Corp. And while the Mercedes system costs thousands of marks now, industry experts predict higher volume and dropping electronics hardware prices could put the tab for the ACC systems at a few hundred dollars within years.

More
Articles of Interest
Delphi Shows How Active Safety Can Help to Keep Vehicle Accident Rate Trend...
Adaptive Cruise Control Systems - Global Strategic Business Report Available Now
TRW To Show Adaptive Cruise Control System That Automatically Adjusts Vehicle...
Industry eyes blind-spot detection - products enhance field of vision
Fair warning: the Forewarn Side Detection System from Delco Electronics...

The Mercedes system, known by the catchy name Distronic intelligent autonomous cruise control, uses a radar sensor and microcomputer to maintain a safe distance. If the two cars get too close, the device automatically backs off the gas and applies limited braking, if necessary. Mercedes engineer Walter Klinkner stresses that ACC isn't an automatic emergency brake, and it isn't supposed to eliminate the driver.

'He (the driver) still has to pay attention to traffic,' Klinkner says. Mercedes tested ACC both on its massive simulator in Berlin, and on stretches of the German autobahn at speeds of up to 90 mph (145 kph).

The Mercedes ACC pulse-Doppler radar system was developed by Automotive Distance Control (ADC of Auburn Hills, Mich., a joint development effort of Contentinal Teves (formerly ITT), Daimler-Benz's Temic, and the optics company Leica. Leica has been developing infrared laser systems for years, while Temic has focused on radar-based systems. ITT was examining braking issues. The circular 3.2:inch (80mm)-radar sensor is located in the grille of the S-Class. ADC supplies both infrared and 76.5 GHz radar sensors."

Source:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3012/is_1998_Oct_1/ai_53179685/