Analyst: iWatch Sensor to Protect You from Sunburn

Wearing a watch protects your wrist from sunburn, but if Barclay's analyst Blayne Curtis is right, Apple's iWatch will be able to protect your entire body. It doesn't cover your body or coat you in sunscreen; instead, he thinks the iWatch will include a UV Temperature Sensor that can help monitor your sun exposure to avoid sunburns.

Silicon Labs recently announced a family of products featuring the industry's first digital ultraviolet index gas sensor. These chips measure UV exposure to aid those with elevated risk of sunburn or just a general concern about excessive sun exposure, and we believe they may be of appealing to OEMs looking to differentiate in a crowded market. To that end, while these products have seen little public hype thus far, we believe SLAB has a win in Apple's upcoming iWatch.

The iWatch is Apple's rumored first entry into the wearable technology market. It's expected to offer health and fitness tracking features much like Fitbit and Nike Fuelband, but with a CO Sensor market changing design. Assuming Mr. Curtis is right, it'll help you avoid prolonged sun exposure, too.

He expects the iWatch will ship some time in late 2014 or early 2015. Assuming it hits store shelves this year, Mr. Curtis thinks it will expects consumers will buy somewhere between 5 million and ten million units.

Apple hasn't confirmed it is working on a smartwatch, but company CEO Tim Cook has expressed a strong interest in the market. Apple has also been on a health and fitness expert hiring spree over the past couple years, which adds a lot to the notion that wearable tech from the company is on the way.

Microsoft Offers Windows Phone 'For Free' To Lower Manufacturer's Costs and Increase Market Share

Let’s start with that phrase, because it’s about to get sliced and diced, it’s about to have a bundle of caveats,and  it’s not going to mean the bill of materials lie that says software will actually read $0.00. But that statement, coming out of Microsoft’s Build 2014 conference, is not only a clear in its intention, but it is also being repeated loudly around the tech reporting circles.

Of course the details count. While the licence will be free, that’s not the only software cost involved in a smartphone. There are patent fees to consider, there are the deals put in place with third party apps and services to have them bundled in the firmware, and there are countless ‘testing and certification’ systems that could easily add to the cost of a Windows Phone licence (and note this deal is any Windows Device with a screen under nine inches, so while Windows Phone is the big winner, smaller Windows 8 powered tablets will also benefitting).


Microsoft Build 2014 (image: Microsoft.com)

industrial product director will be looking at the small print in the contract, but the message is clear. Microsoft is moving towards a cloud-first approach, and their chief concern is to get people into the ecosystem and start using the cloud. That could be through MS Office for iPad, it could be through a new smartphone, or it could be through a cheap Windows 8 tablet.

Will this skew the marketplace for smartphones? Up until now, the choices were either a full licensing deal and the associated costs with Microsoft, or use the open choice of Android and deal with Google Play and the Open Handset Alliance. That choice has shifted now, and I suspect Microsoft will reap the benefit of this over the next year, and beyond.

Some will say it is too little, and too late, to compete with the rush of Android. That remains to be seen. While some territories are now at saturation levels with smartphones, and the easy profit and market-share of North America and Europe already divvyed up, there are huge tract of land and legions of users who have still to get their first smartphone.

That’s where Microsoft’s focus with Windows Phone should lie. Territories where a a $700 flagship handset is simply far too expensive , and the battle is all about the budget smartphones on sale in the $100-$200 range. That means a focus on lowering the bill of materials, and removing the cost of the operating system licence is going to have a significant impact on china Industry manufacturers.

As for Microsoft, they should finish up the purchase of Nokia’s Devices and Services division in the near future, and at that point the will be selling the vast majority of Windows Phone devices (over 92% at the end of 2013, reports AdDuplex). The licence would be part of the internal market, but not affect the bottom line coming out of Redmond.

By removing the licence fee, Microsoft level the playing field for manufacturers, they trade a relatively small short-term profit for a more attractive long-term position, and they create some good news and momentum around the Windows Phone platform.

New space sensor to track global air-quality

The European Space Agency (Esa) and Airbus will develop a new CO2 Sensor to improve air-pollution monitoring from space as part of the Copernicus programme.

The Sentinel-5 instrument to be installed aboard the MetOp Second Generation satellite as part of a €144m (£120m) undertaking will measure the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere globally on a daily basis and identify trace gases such as ozone, sulphur dioxide, methane and carbon monoxide.

A formal contract entrusting Airbus Defence and Space with leading the development of the ultraviolet to shortwave-infrared spectrometer has been signed last week.

“The Sentinel-5 instrument will be very important to continue the monitoring of our atmosphere by an operational system,” said Volker Liebig, Director of Earth Observation Programmes at the European Space Agency (Esa).

The instrument will also measure concentrations of aerosols that affect air quality and climate. The Humidity Sensor readings will not only help to monitor the atmospheric processes but also to differentiate between natural and men-made emissions, providing new insight into how human activity affects air quality, the ozone layer and climate.

The data will also facilitate Temperature Sensor predictions, ranging from near real-time, next-day air pollution forecasts to climate forecasts for the coming decades.

The new instrument will be part of the pan-European Copernicus programme designed to enhance environment monitoring from space.
The programme is about to achieve a major milestone this week with the launch of the first dedicated Sentinel-1A satellite scheduled for Thursday, 3 April.

Lens-Free Camera Sees Things Differently

Patrick Gill is excited to show me a small, fuzzy-looking picture of the Mona Lisa, printed in black and white on a piece of paper. It’s not much to look at, literally, but it’s unmistakably her, with long dark hair and that mysterious smile.

More intriguing than the low-resolution image of da Vinci’s masterpiece, though, is how the picture was created: with a lens-free camera that, at 200 micrometers across, is smaller than a pencil point.

While digital cameras with lenses can take great photos, it is difficult to get cameras into smaller devices. Miniaturizing lenses only works to a certain point: the smaller they get, the more difficult it is to make their precise curved surfaces. Gill, a senior research scientist at the technology licensing company Rambus, thinks one way to solve this problem is by replacing the curved camera lens with an itty-bitty Carbon Dioxide Sensor that uses a spiral shape to map light and relies on a computer to figure out what the resulting image should look like.

Eventually, he envisions the tiny camera being built into all kinds of things, from wearable gadgets to security systems to toys, without having to add to the cost or bulk of a camera with a lens. “Our aim is to add eyes to any digital device, no matter how small,” he says.

The point is not to build high-resolution cameras like you’d want on a smartphone but rather to build the smallest, cheapest, easiest-to-make optical sensor that can still capture enough information to show what’s going on.

Gordon Wetzstein, a research scientist at MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture Group, is optimistic about the technology, though he says it’s still not clear how well it will work. “Other than pixels getting smaller, we haven’t really seen much progress in CO2 Sensor for a while,” he says.


The top image shows what the sensor captures. The middle image is the computer’s reconstruction; it’s fuzzier than the original (bottom image) but still recognizable.

Gill shows me a prototype sensor at Rambus’s Sunnyvale office that has been etched with 28 different types of diffractive structures—spirals and other shapes like a cross and a pentagon. A tiny segment of the chip contains a spiral that has been used to capture a number of images, including the Mona Lisa picture Gill shows me as well as fuzzy depictions of John Lennon and Georges Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières.

When you take a picture of a painting on a wall with a regular digital camera, a lens focuses each point of light it captures on a sensor, generating a digital file that a computer can show you as an image. Rambus’s approach instead uses a grating etched with a spiral pattern through which light can enter from every orientation. The Humidity Sensor below the grating captures a jumble of spirals that a human wouldn’t see as a recognizable image, but software can translate into one.

Gill uses the Mona Lisa image to demonstrate. He shows me a regular black-and-white image of the painting, a blurred black-and-white form indicating the jumble of spirals the sensor would capture for the computer to interpret, and a blurry but still recognizable black-and-white image of the painting as reconstructed from this data by software.


Gill says Rambus’s algorithms let users ask the computer to produce images at various resolutions; the highest he’s done thus far with prototypes is 128 by 128 pixels, which he says represents the capabilities of the highest-resolution sensors Rambus would make if it commercializes the technology.

Volvo sensor technology reads drivers’ eyes and attention

Volvo is conducting a new research project into in-car driver monitoring aimed at improving safety and allowing cars to better know their drivers.

Conducted with involvement from Gothenburg’s Chalmers University of Technology, the Swedish car maker says the driver monitoring Humidity Sensor already installed into test vehicles can recognise and distinguish whether a driver is tired or inattentive.

Intended to help make cars of the future even safer, the dashboard-mounted Temperature Sensor can monitor where drivers are looking, how open their eyes are and their head position and angle.

Undertaken with an eye towards autonomous car incorporation, Volvo says the project could lead to the development of safety systems that detect the driver’s state and adjust the car accordingly, including being able to wake a driver falling asleep.

Volvo engineer and driver support functions project leader Per Landfors said the technology would enable drivers to be able to rely more on their car, and know that it will help them when needed.

“Since the car is able to detect if a driver is not paying attention, safety systems can be adapted more effectively,” Landfors said.

“For example, the car’s support systems can be activated later on if the driver is focused, and earlier if the driver’s attention is directed elsewhere.”

Able to team with existing safety systems such as lane keep assist, forward collision warning with automatic braking and adaptive cruise control with queue assist, Volvo says analysis of the driver’s state – known as driver state estimation – is a field that may be key to gas sensor cars of the future determining for themselves whether drivers are capable of taking control in certain conditions.

The research project and driver monitoring technology are part of the manufacturer’s broader 2008-launched ‘Vision 2020’ safety goal of having no one killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo by 2020.

In December last year, Volvo announced it will initiate an autonomous driving pilot project from this year, with 100 self-driving cars planned to reach public Gothenburg roads by 2017.

Japanese candy manufacturer finalizes Orange County purchase

Morinaga America Foods Inc., the American affiliate of the Japanese candy maker of Hi-Chew candies, has finalized its purchase of 21 acres of land in western Orange County where it plans to begin construction of a manufacturing plant that will employ 90 people.

The plant is expected to open by June 2015.

Morinaga had announced in September plans to build the 100,000-square-foot production plant in Mebane after reaching incentive grant agreements with both state and local officials.

The company could qualify for nearly $1 million in cash incentives from the state’s One North Carolina Fund and from Mebane if it meets all hiring and investment goals for the $48 million project.

Orange County will provide most of the water and sewer improvements to the site, which will be mostly reimbursed by a Community Development Block Grant from the state, says Steve Brantley, director of Orange County Economic Development.

N.C. Department of Transportation will help pay for much of the roadwork to the site, and the Hillsborough campus of Durham Technical Community College is expected to provide much of the training for Morinaga’s employees.

Morinaga paid $997,500 for the 21 acres of land in the Buckhorn Economic Development District, according to industrial product director records. It purchased the land, which is very near the Orange County and Alamance County line near I-40 and I-85, from W.H. Wilson Family Investment Group LLC.

InSpec Group has been hired as the construction manager for the facility, and work is expected to begin in the next two to three weeks.

The parent company, Morinaga & Co., Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan, has been in business for 115 years, and ranks as Japan’s largest candy and china Industry manufacturers.

Toshiaki Fukunaga has been appointed as the new local president of Morinaga America Foods Inc.

Parrot’s Flower Power Plant Sensor Gives You A Mobile Green Thumb

So I bought a plant. I named it Stan. I’ve never really been a plant guy. But maybe Parrot’s new wireless plant monitor can help. Stan’s life depends on it.

The Flower Power is a small Temperature Sensor. It runs on a AAA battery and simply sticks in the plant’s dirt. It’s cute and hardly noticeable. The device measures and tracks light intensity, air temperature, fertilizer level and soil moisture. These are things people with a green thumb understand, but the rest of us completely forget about. That’s why there’s an app for that.

Setup takes a few minutes. Select the type of plant in the smartphone app and stick the Flower Power in the dirt. After a couple of minutes, the Flower Power is connected to the app and sending live data. It needs to be partly exposed to track sunlight. The device is weatherproof.

The Flower Power app contains a database of 6,000 plants. Stan is a money tree and the app contained that listing. And yes, cannabis is in there, too.

This device takes a lot of the guesswork out of plants. Likewise it takes some of the magic out too. The Flower Power takes all the pseudoscience out of maintaining plants. That’s great! But it’s also a bit sad since it turns gardening into a chore dictated by push notifications.
Is it accurate? As far as I can tell, it works fine. The air temperature reading is dead-on and it knew when I forgot to water Stan, which was often.

A single Flower Power can be set to monitor a specific plant or easily reset to monitor different plants at different times. For instance, if selected to monitor green beans, it will not provide appropriate readings for the tomatoes planted in the neighboring bed. An owner can either buy another Flower Power for the tomatoes or use a single device to monitor both since they probably have different growing gas sensor anyway. At $59.99 each, it can be a bit pricey to outfit an entire garden. But Parrot does brag that it brings professional-level monitoring to the home consumer.

Parrot is on the forefront of an open market. There are several competitors including the Koubachi Wi-Fi CO Sensor and SoilIQ, a SF 2013 Startup Battlefield contestant that has yet to launch its product. Still, even with several other players, the Flower Power should flourish in the emerging Internet of Things market.

The Flower Power works. Stan is proof of that. So far, because of the push notifications, he’s lived longer than any of my previous plants and I don’t see him drying out anytime soon.

Nano-Sensor For Personalized Antibiotic Treatments

Researchers have developed a new method for rapidly measuring the level of antibiotic molecules in the blood and how they work against bacteria, paving the way for personalized treatments for bacterial diseases.

The researchers used nano-sized levers as gas sensor to measure the concentration of active antibiotics in blood.

“Some of our most effective antibiotics are like termites eating away at the walls of a wooden house – they attack bacterial cell walls so they eventually collapse,” said Professor Cooper, from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience. “But competing molecules in the blood can bind to antibiotics and prevent them from working, meaning there are less molecules free to exert force on bacterial cell walls.

According to Cooper, the CO Sensor they developed is one billionth of a meter in size, and can detect the bending that occurs in a cell wall in the presence of antibiotics. Using this measurement, the team can derive how many antibiotic molecules are free in the blood and adjust the dosage accordingly.

“Understanding the way antibiotics use physical force against bacteria could also provide researchers with a new angle on the Carbon Monoxide Sensor design of better drugs to fight superbugs, which often have thicker, stronger cell walls,” he said.

The researchers tested the method on two antibiotics: vancomycin, used to treat multi-drug resistant infections such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and oritavacin, a new antibiotic still in clinical trials designed to combat bacteria that are resistant to vancomycin.

Make Sweet Music With Any Object Using This Sensor

If you’re prone to drumming on your steering wheel, desk or whatever is in reach when listening to your jam, this device could up your percussive game.

To make a musical instrument out of the mundane, users attach the circular gas sensor at the end of the stethoscope-like device to the surface of any everyday object and it becomes imbued the power of music. Then, users plug Mogees into a mobile device's headphone jack and connect their headphones to the gadget to listen to the music they create.


Mogees works by employing a small, specialized CO Sensor called a "piezo-transducer" that converts a vibration produced by tapping any physical object into an electric signal. That signal is then sent to a mobile device running the Mogees app (available for both iOS and Android) which turns the signal into music.

Users can select different options that will determine how a particular object sounds once the vibrations are converted. They can also switch between free mode — where the user can change scales and keys and improvise pieces of music — and song mode, which lets the user tap along with their favorite songs.

Bruno Zamborlin, a musician who performs with British experimental dance group Plaid, designed and created Mogees to provide a fun, plug-and-play experience, but also as a tool for music education.

"I have done several workshops in primary schools in the UK, using Mogees to teach key aspects of sound and music in the national curriculum, and the results have been terrific," Zamborlin told Mashable. "Kids really learned concepts about vibrations and acoustic properties of Carbon Monoxide Sensor materials in a brand new, interactive and natural way. Mogees is not just an instrument for musicians — it's a tool for music discovery that everyone should have fun in using."

Zamborlin started Mogees’ Kickstarter campaign on Feb. 17, and has raised almost $20,000 of its $83,000 goal with 22 days left.

China-Based FJS Thermal Ribbon USA Adds Manufacturing And Distribution Center In Charlotte

China-based Fujisan Thermal Ribbon USA Ltd. plans to locate its thermal transfer bar code ribbon converting and distribution facility in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company expects to hire up to 30 employees within the first three years of operation.

Due to an increase in demand from U.S. based original china Industry manufacturers, FJS has decided to establish its own distribution, sales and customer service center in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Charlotte Chamber said.

FJS currently occupies a fulfillment center in Charlotte for product storage and processing orders. Headquartered in Dalian, FJS Thermal Ribbon USA Ltd. is a top leading thermal ribbon industrial product directory in China and the only approved supplier for Panasonic and Philips in the Chinese market. The firm’s product line includes a full range of high-quality thermal transfer ribbons for fax applications and barcode printing. The firm occupies a 200,000-square-foot facility over 10 acres with 200 employees.

“FJS has a tradition of being innovative and forward thinking. We believe that our U.S. operation will help us gain market share and increase profitability as well as support the North American and global business expansion in years to come,” said Paul Wills, Vice President of U.S. Sales & Operations with FJS Thermal Ribbon USA Ltd.

“Charlotte not only provides an excellent quality of life but also a logistical delivery advantage to more than 60 percent of our customer base,” said Wills. “We are grateful for all the assistance from the Charlotte Chamber. It definitely made the process a lot easier.”

The Charlotte Chamber assisted FJS during its evaluation of Charlotte and continues to provide support to the firm.

Researchers developed K-Glass with a built-in AR processor

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed K-Glass, a wearable, hands-free HMD that features a built-in augmented reality (AR) processor.


Unlike virtual reality which replaces the real world with a computer-simulated environment, AR incorporates digital data generated by the computer into the reality of a user. With the computer-made electronics  sensory inputs such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data, the user's real and physical world becomes live and interactive. Augmentation takes place in real-time and in semantic context with surrounding environments.

Most commonly, location-based or computer-vision services are used in order to generate AR effects. Location-based services activate motion sensors to identify the user's surroundings, whereas computer-vision uses algorithms such as facial, pattern, and optical character recognition, or object and motion tracking to distinguish images and integrated electronics objects. Many of the current HMDs deliver augmented reality experiences employing location-based services by scanning the markers or barcodes printed on the back of objects. The AR system tracks the codes or markers to identify objects and then align them with virtual reality. However, this AR algorithm is difficult to use for the objects or spaces which do not have barcodes, QR codes, or markers, particularly those in outdoor environments and thus cannot be recognized.

To solve this problem, Hoi-Jun Yoo, Professor of Electrical Engineering at KAIST and his team developed an AR chip that works just like human vision, claiming a world first.

This processor is based on the Visual Attention Model (VAM) that duplicates the ability of human brain to process visual data. VAM, almost unconsciously or automatically, disentangles the most salient and relevant information about the environment in which human vision operates, thereby eliminating unnecessary data unless they must be processed. In return, the processor can dramatically speed up the computation of complex AR algorithms.

The AR processor has a data processing network similar to that of a human brain's central nervous system. When the human brain perceives visual data, different sets of neurons, all connected, work concurrently on each fragment of a decision-making electronics international process; one group's work is relayed to other group of neurons for the next round of the process, which continues until a set of decider neurons determines the character of the data. Likewise, the artificial neural network allows parallel data processing, alleviating data congestion and reducing power consumption significantly.

KAIST's AR processor, which is produced using the 65 nm (nanometers) manufacturing process with the area of 32 mm2, delivers 1.22 TOPS (tera-operations per second) peak performance when running at 250 MHz and consumes 778 mW on a 1.2 V power supply. The ultra-low power processor shows 1.57 TOPS/W high efficiency rate of energy consumption under the real-time operation of 30fps/720p video camera, a 76% improvement in power conservation over other devices.
http://en.ofweek.com/news/Researchers-developed-K-Glass-with-a-built-in-AR-processor-8251

Nikon facing potential class action lawsuit due to D600 sensor oil issues

Shortly after Nikon's D600 hit the market as one of the most affordable full-frame DSLR options, users began complaining about issues with dust particles on the sensor. While each lens-change operation potentially allows dust to enter the camera and settle on the sensor, it usually takes a while until specs become visible in images taken at small apertures. And of course, with a brand new camera, there shouldn't be any issues at all. With the D600 there apparently were.

Nikon's initial reaction was to advise customers to visit their local Nikon service centers to deal with the spots. Usually when having a camera sensor professionally cleaned, dust spots should disappear. With the D600 though, they kept coming back. At some point, it became evident that the specs were in fact not dust, but oil that was spilled onto the auto parking sensor from the shutter mechanism, which pointed to a faulty shutter unit.

Oil spots decreased somewhat after a few thousand exposures, but professional photographers relying on the D600 were left in a lurch: though Nikon recognized the issue with a service advisory in February of 2013, the oil spots returned after service for some users. Eventually, rather than replace the shutter mechanism and continue manufacturing the D600, Nikon decided to simply introduce a new camera with a modified shutter: the D610.

This angered some D600 users, who felt betrayed by the company whose products they had invested in. In the wake of these events, US law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein is now preparing a class action lawsuit against Nikon, asking unhappy D600 users to participate. Over at the law firm's website there's a contact form that D600 users experiencing the issue can use to participate in the lawsuit.

Whether this lawsuit – should it ever be filed – will have any success is questionable, though. With the introduction of the D610 at least some D600 users were able to upgrade to the new model free of charge. It is still unclear whether this laser energy sensor option will be made available for all D600 users, but if so, it could make the suit a moot point. And it shows that Nikon is at least trying to solve the issue to its customers' satisfaction. Of course, even if the lawsuit does succeed, it is questionable whether the those D600 users who didn't participate will benefit from it at all.

Sensor system lights up wind turbines only when aircraft approaches

With aspirations to claim 80 percent of its power from renewable sources by the 2050, it follows that Germany is taking a proactive approach to its clean energy transformation. Wind farms, while set to play an important part in achieving this goal, often meet impassioned opposition from disgruntled neighbors piqued by their perpetually blinking beacons. In an effort to address this issue, researchers have developed a sensor system for wind turbines which detects nearby aircraft, switching on a beacon warning system only as they approach.

Dubbed Parasol, the project is a collaborative effort from the Fraunhofer Institute, commercial concern Industrial Electronics and wind farm engineers Dirkshof Wind GmbH. Citing complaints of the beacons' incessant blinking from residents, though hamstrung by their necessity in preventing collisions with low-flying aircraft, the collective set to work in devising a solution which catered to all concerned.

By using passive radar liquid level sensor, meaning that they don't emit a radar beam themselves, the system is able to use local radio station frequencies to determine not only if there is an airplane in the vicinity, but its distance, position and velocity. According to Fraunhofer, the format of typical digital signals used by radio stations, such as DAB+ (Digital Audio Broadcasting) and DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting -Terrestrial), are useful in discerning between different objects and therefore well suited to this project.

Each of the system's three sensors attached to the mast has an antenna unit. Signal processing is undertaken within the mast and a CPU at each wind farm evaluates the data.

As the radio station's transmitters send out signals, these reflect off airborne objects. The system uses mathematical algorithms to differentiate between the reflections and the signal they would usually receive.

"The collision warning lights only switch on when an airplane is within a radius of four kilometers (2.5 miles) and flying below an altitude of about 2,500 ft (700 m)," says Heiner Kuschel, department head at Fraunhofer's Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques. "We use the passive gas sensor to essentially extend a protective umbrella over the wind farm like a parasol."

The team has successfully tested a prototype at one of Dirkshof's wind farms at Reußen-Köge near Husum, and is currently optimizing the signal detection algorithms in anticipation of the system being fully operational by 2015.

"We hope that more local residents will agree to construction of wind farms through the installation of the collision warning lights," Kuschel continues. "The goal of Parasol is to advance the state of renewable energy and make Germany more competitive in the economic arena."

NNPC Blames Pipeline Vandalism For Shortage In Gas Supply For Power Generation

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Monday blamed the recent drop in gas supply for power generation on pipeline vandalism.
The Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, who stated this during a news conference in Abuja, said about N800 million had been spent on the ongoing repair of the pipelines.
Yakubu attributed the incident to outright sabotage of some crucial gas pipelines, which he said, had significantly eroded available gas supply to the power supply plants.
He said that as at last weekend, over 30 per cent (480 MMsf/d) of the installed gas supply capacity was out due mainly to vandalism.
The GMD said that the lost gas was equivalent to the gas requirement to generate about 1,600 MW of electricity.
He listed the pipelines involved to include the Escravos-Warri stretch of the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) which accounted for (190 mmcf/d) and the Trans-Forcados crude pipeline (230 mmcf/d).
``The remaining supply shortfall is due to maintenance issues at Utorogu gas plant (60 mmcf/d).
“The outage on the ELPS has been on for over six months due to willful acts of vandalism at various locations between Escravos and Egwa location,’’ the GMD said.
He said that an explosion rocked the ELPS and investigation revealed that a dynamite had been used on four ruptured points on June 25, 2013.
Yakubu said that engineers from the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) were mobilised immediately to commence repair works, but as repairs progressed, more points of rupture emerged.
``At the last count, 20 ruptured points have been identified, all due to deliberate dynamite explosion.
“NGC completed repairs in November and on commissioning in December, rapid pressure loss was experienced indicating further rupture in weakened locations.
“We have since effected repair on these new points and re-commenced commissioning activities,’’ he said.
The GMD, however, gave assurance that gas supply would be reinstated in the next three or five weeks at the completion of various repairs, which is expected to bring a major improvement in mean well power supply.
He said that the cumulative effect of the above interruptions was the degradation of power supply to Nigerians.
Yakubu said that the Ministry of Petroleum and NNPC would continue to make efforts to ensure gas supply in the difficult environment.
He also said there would be additional 450 mmcf/d supply from various ongoing projects to bridge the growing demand by the astec power supply sector between 2014 and 2016.
``By the end of Q2/Q3 2014, additional 200 mmcf/d of gas is expected from two NPDC projects at Utorogu and Oredo.
``In addition, with the planned completion of the Omoku and Alaoji NIPP power plants, further boost in generation is expected as both plants have gas supply available awaiting completion of the power plants,’’ the GMD assured.
http://en.ofweek.com

Ford teams up with Tencent to develop in-vehicle music system

Ford Motor Company displayed its new generation in-vehicle entertainment and communication system SYNCAppLink at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). In the meantime, Ford announced the cooperation with Tencent, one of China's largest Internet firms, on the integration of QQ Music and SYNCAppLink platform. "More and more people expect that they can hear their favorite music no matter when, so the integration of SYNCAppLink and QQ Music can make it come true, even when they are driving," said Bai Sizhe, Service Director of Ford in Asia-Pacific, Africa and Europe, "Also, the adding of QQ Music can better provide help for consumers in listening to the electronics music in the process of driving. Perfect function of products and special design for usage scenario can guarantee safety driving and amazing music enjoyment for consumers on their way."

At present, Ford has already cooperated with many companies, including China Unicom and Baidu, to launch different mobile applications. Yet, this is the first time that Ford brings music to the application finance electronics platform. QQ Music is China's leading platform for network music, which is widely used in people's life. Besides computers, it can also be downloaded to the mobile phones and many other consumer electronics devices, so that people can listen to their favorite songs whenever at home or on the way to office. This is the first time for QQ Music to represent the application product of Chinese music showing at the International CES in Las Vegas.
http://en.ofweek.com/news/Ford-teams-up-with-Tencent-to-develop-in-vehicle-music-system-6435

CES 2014: Audio roundup

Imagine the footsteps of thousands and thousands of people. Now add in hundreds of booths showing loud promo videos, playing music and giving demos over microphones. That is the literal sound of electronics CES. The theoretical sound of CES will come from some of the products you see below. We feel this selection of products gives you a pretty good feel for the trends we're likely to see in 2014. Enjoy.

Usually, this isn't a category that gets too much attention. Digital audio interfaces may come in all shapes and sizes, but they are ultimately fairly utilitarian devices. Korg, however, tried to spice the genre up a little with its AudioGate USB DAC line. What's different about these guys? Well the larger model certainly has an eye-catching design, but it's the companion software that offers high-resolution DSD audio output that we think will make it an appealing prospect.

The thing with audio is that it's often a feature of something else, rather than a gadget's dedicated chinese electronics function. Case in point? LG's new SoundPlate (LAB540W). Part soundbar, part Blu-ray player, the SoundPlate has 4.1 audio (and an external subwoofer) that cranks out your movie soundtrack at 320 watts. WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity only serve to add virtual cherries onto the metaphorical cake.

Sifting through the many, many new pairs of headphones on show at CES would be nigh on impossible. But, through all the noise, a few pairs do tend to bubble up into our consciousness. 50 Cent's new line of Star Wars-themed and sport-friendly cans is one such example. In particular, the water/sweat-proof wireless sync models that offer cable-free comfortable training look like a winner. DJs, on the other hand, might want to take a look at Sennheiser's new line of DJ headphones. Purpose built with spinners in mind, these things look and feel solid -- oh, and they sound great, too.

Audio accessories usually come in two categories: cheap and crazy expensive. B&O's Essence falls into the latter consumer electronics category, but we won't lie: We're curious about it. As far as we can tell, it's a fancy-pants physical audio controller for the audio lover that has everything. And that's OK. Why shouldn't these things exist? Essentially, you can place these around your home and seamlessly control your music as you saunter from room to room. Or just have one in your man/woman cave. You'll need some B&O gear for it to work with, of course, but if you're at all in the market for thing like this, we imagine you already have that covered.
http://en.ofweek.com/news/CES-2014-Audio-roundup-6202

9-Axis Sensor Stars in Movea Wearable

Movea, a company that specializes in motion processing software, has crafted a wearable wristband reference design for sports and wellness applications in collaboration with Texas Instruments and the contract design house Xm-Squared. The sensor, announced today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will be jointly marketed by Movea and Xm-Squared and features connectivity courtesy of TI's CC2541 Bluetooth low-energy system-on-chip.

As Movea's first reference design for wearables, the G-Series uses its Motionsport embedded software library, which includes all the normal activity monitoring algorithms for sports and wellness wearables plus functions for determine whether the wearer is standing, sitting, walking, or running. Original equipment manufacturers gain access to Movea's motion sensing algorithms from an application programmers interface that includes step count, energy expenditure, distance traveled, and sports performance metrics such as running speed, pedestrian cadency (steps per minute), and biking cadency (revolutions per minute).

Based on a InvenSense's nine-axis micro-electromechanical system chip (including a three-axis accelerometer, three-axis gyroscope, and three-axis magentometer), the G-Series utilizes only the accelerometer today.

"The reason we use a nine-axis chip in the reference design, but only utilize the three-axis accelerometer today, is to realize the other reference design applications in the future without having to redesign the board," Ava Pagneux, marketing communications manager at Movea, told us. The G-Series is also the world's most accurate and laser sensor solution for the always-on "quantified self" applications. "We ran benchmarks between the G-Series and the five most popular activity monitors and found it to outperform each in nearly every category."

For activity classification, for instance, Movea claims a success rate higher than 95%, along with the industry's lowest error score (less than 1.7%, versus an average of 6.3% for competitors). The reference design's always-on energy efficiency gives an estimated 10-day battery life between charges by consuming about five milliWatts while activity monitoring.

"Our design is also the first wearable to automatically detect sleep, performing sleep analysis every night with the accuracy of a PolySomnograph," Pagneux said.

Today, hospitals use PolySomnography -- based on EEG -- to detect wakefulness, sleep, and deep-sleep cycles, but Movea says its device can achieve pressure sensors comparable results by analyzing the data stream from an accelerometer alone.

"PolySomnography is the gold-standard for measuring sleep patterns in hospitals, but using our device achieves very similar results," Pagneux said. As for the partners' future plans, "the next generation of our reference design will couple with medical devices, such as heart rate and body-temperature monitors, to realize a new generation of e-health applications."

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