Aspects of Technology Update - Coursework Example

Technology Up The internet of things, 3D printing, and cloud computing/big data have been the three technologies that are considered most likely to change the world in the next five years, as a market analyst had observed. According to him, these were the technologies that could be capable of changing the world greatly, from Gutenberg printing press to the steam engine and lastly to the microchip. Therefore, HIS Technology brought its experts who represented the supply chain of the technology from the components of making electronics to the finished products together across all the applications markets that range from media, consumer, and telecom; to medical, industrial, power and then requested them to nominate and cast their votes for the top ten technologies that will be impactful five years in the future. Surprisingly, the technologies that were voted to be on top were 3D being in the third place, second place being cloud computing/big data, and the little surprise is where internet of things scooped position one. However, innovation by the Human Media Lab of Queen’s University, in alliance with Plastic Logic has come up with one of the technologies that will completely transform the world in the future. This product is backed up by the Intel i5 where the research scientist at the Intel Company, Ryan Brotman says that they are actively exploring the user experiences that are disruptive. The project known as ‘PaperTab’, invented by Plastic Logic and the Human Media Lab of Queen’s University, shows the interactions that are interactive backed by Intel Core processors that could undoubtedly delight the users of tablets in the future (Aneesh, Tarun, Wang, Strohmeier, Girouard, Reilly, and Vertegaal 110). A paper computer that is flexible was developed at the Queen’s University in partnership with Intel Labs and Plastic Logic. This paper computer may one day lead to the revolution of the way people carry out their duties using computers and tablets. The technology of flexible electronic paper display was developed by Hewlett-Packard in collaboration with Arizona State University and uses a manufacturing process that was invented by HP Labs known as Self-Aligned Imprint Lithography, abbreviated as SAIL. The screens are made through the layering of stacks of materials and metals that are semi-conductors between plastic sheets that are pliable. The stacks require perfect alignment, and they have to stay that way. There may be some difficulties in the alignment during the time of manufacture since the heat used in the process of manufacture may end up deforming the materials and the manufactured screen also has to remain flexible (Rosato, Dominick, Donald, and Matthew 215). The process known as SAIL succeeds this difficulty by ‘printing’ the aligned pattern of the semiconductor on a completely composed substrate, in order to keep the layers in their perfect alignment always. However, the disadvantage of the material that is used in making the screen permits only limited number of full rolls, a factor that limits its application as a flexible commercial display. There are specifications availed concerning the resulting display, and they include unbreakable, flexible, and can be rolled up to six times. The PaperTab The PaperTab was first unveiled at an International Consumer Electronics Show held in 2013, by The Human Media Lab of Queen’s University and Plastic Logic, in Las Vegas on the 8th of January. The PaperTab tablet simply feels and looks like a sheet of paper though it is completely interactive with a high-resolution, flexible 10.7” display that is manufactured by Plastic Logic, a touchscreen that is flexible and supported by Intel Core i5 second generation processor. The users, rather than having numerous windows or apps on one display, they have ten or more displays that are interactive or “PaperTabs”, one for every app that is in use. According to Roel Vertegaal, who is the Director of Human Media Lab at Queen’s University, the usage of numerous PaperTabs reduces the difficulty of working with several documents (Duchowski 96). He also adds his vision that within the next five or ten years, many of the computers, from ultra-notebooks to the tablets, will simply feel and look like the sheets of color paper that are printed. For instance, the intuitive interface of PaperTab permits the user to send a picture just by tapping one PaperTab that shows a draft email with the PaperTab that is showing the picture. Automatically, the picture is afterward attached to the shown draft email. Finally, the email is sent either by the way of bending the top corner of the PaperTab’s display or placing the tablet in an out tray. Again, a larger display or drawing surface is availed by simply keeping two or more tablets (PaperTabs) side by side. The tablet, therefore, behaves like the normal handling of numerous paper sheets through the combination of a thin-film display, computing technologies, and thin-film input through spontaneous interaction design. A PaperTab capable of filing and displaying a lot of paper documents, an advantage that replaces the need for stacks of printouts or papers and computer monitor. PaperTabs, unlike the traditional tablets, maintain a track of their location relative to the other, and the user, availing a whole experience across all applications, just like physical computer windows. PaperTab, when placed outside of a reaching distance, for example, it alters its overview to a thumbnail of a document, as it is on the desktop of a computer. When touched or picked up, the PaperTab switches its view to a full-screen page, as it is when opening on a computer. The PaperTab is robust and lightweight, a characteristic that makes them be easy to be tossed around on the desk to provide the experience resembling reading a magazine. The users are also able to navigate through the pages as it is with magazines by just bending one edge of the display without the effort needed in pressing a button. The innovation was also pioneered by the nanowires discovered by some scientists. In Washington, scientists have come up with some of the minute nanowires ever made, with the use of focused beam of electrons, which is an improvement that allows for the manufacture of paper-thin tablets, and flexible computer displays. Junhao Lin, a visiting scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a Vanderbilt University student, created flexible metallic wires that were three atoms wide, using a finely focused beam of electrons. The flexible metallic wires were one thousandth the breadth of the microscopic wires that are used in connecting the transistors in the integrated circuits used currently (Human Media Lab, Queens University 84-87). According to Sokrates Pantelides, who is Lin’s advisor, a professor who is distinguished in the University for engineering and physics, together with his associates at ORNL, the method shows a new way that is exciting on a way regarding how to manipulate matter at a nanoscale and should provide support to the efforts to come up with electronic layers from atomic monolayers, the thinnest probable for factor for objects that are solid. About Plastic Logic Plastic Logic was started by Cavendish Laboratory researchers at Cambridge University. Since then, the company has been among the leading companies in research and investing in plastic electronics. The company has had many achievements in the technological firsts, considering the production of rugged plastic displays of high quality color, demonstrating animations on an electronic plastic display driven by OTFTs and the production results of the plastic displays compared to the Liquid Crystal Display industry. The company is supported by key investors including Rusnano and Oak Investment Partners. Paper Logic has asserted that the other applications are presently being worked on in collaboration with the partners and therefore it may be expected of more being in store for the consumers of their products, as it prepares to showcase them in the next few months (Duchowski 105). Though Plastic Logic may seem to have bowed out of manufacturing its own e-readers, it does not stop the company from making an impact at the Consumer Electronics Show. Currently, it has teamed up with Queen’s University and Intel to come up with the PaperTab, a concept of a 10.7-inch tablet built around an e-paper and flexible touchscreen. This product prototype runs the era of Sandy Bridge Coe i5 processor that enables it to be independent and also to stand on its own, but it is eventually meant to work as a section of the team in positioning its awareness. The innovation allows several PaperTabs to join together for the purpose of sharing a work area, and if one tablet is tapped with content, it can send the content to a waiting document in another tablet. The flexible nature of this product is not just meant for the paper-like feel and durability, either, since readers may flip through pages simply by bending the side that is relevant. A complete revelation was meant to be on the 8th of January though the consumers may get an original sense of the way this plastic slate works. Presently, it is hard to talk about the products when they are out, or about their cost. However, if the concept catches on, paper may never be expected to be the same again. About Human Media Lab The Human Media Lab at Queen’s University is among the premier Human-Computer Interaction laboratories in Canada. Their inventions comprise of eye tracking cellphones and TVs, PaperPhone (the first flexible phone in the world), eye tracking sensors, and TeleHuman (the first ever pseudo-holographic teleconferencing system in the world). The laboratory is under the leadership of Dr. Roel Vertegaal, who is a professor of Human Computer Interface at the School of Computing at Queen’s University. He works with various undergraduate and graduate students who have engineering, psychology, design and computing backgrounds. Peng Wang and Aneesh Tarun are the graduate students who are currently the architects in the production of the PaperTab system (Vertegaal 85-88). It is, therefore, evident that soon there will be a super cool technology originating from Plastic Logic formulated with the objective of removing the need for large computer monitors and paper in the future. The development of this product, being a joint venture with three partners, will avail the consumers with much thinner and lighter product when compared to the other tablets that are already in the markets and tough against drops as well. Currently, research on this kind of technology is at a very high demand. The great requirement for the use of paper in approximately all sectors, including offices, colleges, industries, libraries, and other private and public places leading to the great demand of paper. Meeting the need for this type of high demand is eventually resulting to heavy cutting of trees leaders to a quick loss of natural resources. According to resources, approximately 100 million Ton of paper is produced and consumed in the United States, a trend that may continue in the future also. Therefore, this is when there is a need to come up with the best alternatives to these gifts of nature, where ignoring this fact may result in a dark future. This therefore implies that embracing the idea of PaperTab will help save the resources of the world. The reason is that each tab will work for one app at a moment, just as one may have a single written note on paper. Again, the user will be capable of filing a lot of PaperTab in one document without much difficulty, and each paper will have a link to the relative pages. Thirdly, one will not be required to take a lot of printouts on papers that will offer great assistance in controlling wastage of paper. The fourth advantage will be for the engineers and artists since they will be enabled to make large sized architectural sketches and drawings. Work Cited: Aneesh, Tarun, Wang Peng, Strohmeier Paul, Girouard Audrey, Reilly Derek, and Vertegaal Roel. Papertab. ACM, 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, New York, NY 10121-0701, USA, 2013. Print. Duchowski, Andrew T. Eye Tracking Methodology: Theory and Practice. London: Springer, 2007. Print. "Human Media Lab, Queens University." Interactions New York. 19.6 (2012): 84-87. Print. Vertegaal, Roel. "Human Media Lab, Queens University." Interactions. 19.6 (2012): 84. Print. Rosato, Dominick V, Donald V. Rosato, and Matthew V. Rosato. Plastic Product Material and Process Selection Handbook. Kidlington, Oxford, UK: Elsevier, 2004. Read More