BeagleBone Black: A Faster Raspberry Pi Alternative
The market of miniature computers seems to be growing at a fast pace. If you still can’t wrap your head around the Raspberry Pi or the Arduino, know that there is now a more powerful and slightly more expensive mini-computer board out there: the BeagleBone Black.
The original BeagleBone’s successor brings faster hardware and lower power requirements. Available for only $45, the Black is a credit card-sized board that has multiple pin headers, peripheral ports and network interfaces. This piece of open-source hardware has a powerful 1GHz ARM Cortex-AB processor able to run both Linux and Android. It is also equipped with 512 MB DDR3 RAM and 2GB of on-board storage.
The two 46 pin connectors make the board compatible with many devices, such as LCD touchscreens, printers and so on. Just like the Raspberry Pi, the BeagleBone Black is also provided with USB, Ethernet and HDMI interface, albeit the maximum resolution for the latter is 1280×1024, smaller than the Pi’s.
What is interesting is that even if it has additional hardware compared to its predecessor, the BeagleBone Black has increased power efficiency: manufacturers say the board can run all day using a USB recharging battery pack for smartphones. The miniature computer also comes with an USB cable for power and can be connected to an external DC supply of 5 volts.
The fact that it has significantly faster hardware and a pre-installed operating system which boots in 10 seconds allows developers to get the Black ready for use in as little as three minutes. Users can also visit the BeagleBoard.org website to join an active online community and get free access to sample code, documentation and kernel support for Linux Fedora and Ubuntu but also for Android.
Developers and programming fans should know that the BeagleBone Black is yet available in a limited supply and only from a list of selected distributors. BeagleBoard expects however to begin volume shipping by the end of May.
[Images via Gizmag]
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Artificial Smart Skin as Sensitive as the Real Thing
Scientists have developed an experimental array dubbed smart skin, which has the same touch sensitivity as real human skin. The technology could be used for the development of improved prosthetics and could also help give future robots a better sense of touch.
The array developed by a joint U.S. Chinese team at the Georgia Institute of technology is based on a technique called mechanical agitation. More specifically, the smart skin is equipped with about 8,000 touch-sensitive transistors also known as taxels. When mechanically agitated, the transistors generate a piezoelectric signal, meaning that they emit electricity when under mechanical strain.
Each of these taxels is made of around 1,500 zinc oxide nanowires. The nanowires are connected to electrodes through a thin gold layer, which allows the array to “feel” any changes in pressure. The arrays even have the level of sensitivity required to pick up on pressure changes as low as 10 kilopascals, the same value that human skin is able to detect as well.
The technology allows any motion to be translated to control signals, making artificial skin smarter and more similar to human skin, able to feel even lighter touch, lead researcher Zhong Lin Wang explained.
The Georgia Tech team’s discovery is a major breakthrough in this field of research, as scientists have been attempting to mimic the sense of touch electronically for quite some time. The new technology can have multiple applications in areas such as robotics, prosthetics development, human-computer interfaces and many others.
The discovery may even be used for defense purposes and to increase security, although it is yet unclear in what manner. The military is nonetheless interested, as some of the main funders of the project are the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the American Department of Defense and the U.S. Air Force. Other branches of government such as the U.S. Department of Energy are involved as well. The research was also backed by the National Science foundation and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
[Image via Georgia tech]
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Reason Behind Less Activities
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