posted by admin on Jun 21

Dyson are at it again with something totally new to the world – and something stylish too!

Not only have they come up with the bag-less vacuum – and the vacuum that goes around corners; they are now breaking out from the floor and up onto our desks and tables!

Well, why only blow wind about inside a cute little vacuum cleaner when you could be cooling off busy office workers instead?  So, they gave it a go!

The result is the very stylish looking desk fan that blows cool air around – but without the blades.  It is basically a fancy looking basketball hoop on it’s end!

The Bladeless Wonder!
The theory of these new fans is the fact that they don’t have blades spinning around at top speed all the time – making rather a loud annoying noise.  And the blades are usually covered in dust and stuck in an equally dusty ‘cage’ around them making them virtually impossible to clean – however they are made safer by this.

What Dyson want to do is get rid of the dirty noisy fan blades and make the physics of air do all the moving you need!

Just as moving water sucks more water towards it – so does air – and this is one of the factors which makes the fan work – and also gives it it’s complete name: the Air Multiplier. 

Basically, a small motor in the base sucks in air from the surrounding space and then shoots it out of a thin slither at the rear of the ‘fan’ and shoots it over the curved surface (just like on a planes wing).  This action of faster moving air drags in more air behind it to replace that which has been blown over it in the first place!

Still with me?  Good.  Now we have already got the air from the fan itself shooting out towards you as well as the sucked in air around the edges – but there is more multiplying to come!  The rim of the fan gets wider, so therefore spreads out the air – and you guessed it: that sucks in more air through the centre of the hoop!

And yet more – as the air all rushes through it also draws in air from outside of the fan hoop and shoots it out towards you as well – basically multiplying up all the original little bit of air loads of times!

Your basic Air Multiplier!

Other Benefits?
Well apart from the cleaning part and the unbroken stream of air (that hasn’t been chopped up by the fans) – they also claim it is more environmentally friendly than air conditioning.

Although this isn’t a direct comparison, they aren’t lying as the amount of wattage to run these fans is so much less than a whole air conditioning system.

However, you would need an awful lot more of them to keep the whole office cool – and I’m not sure if the production, transport and production energy costs have been taken into account here.  I would imagine that you would need a fan for almost every desk, so about 200 for a large office – now imagine how much less energy would be used for a comprehensive air con system instead of 200 single electrical fans on site!

However – they do look pretty cool and come in all shapes and sizes too (at around £199 though!).

posted by admin on Jun 16

This edition is all about medical technology and advances – and there have been plenty sent in this month……

Lets start small with Peggy Stoppelmoor well researched article on 25 Ways Nanotechnology is Revolutionizing Medicine. and we can only get bigger from there, can’t we?

Just a short one from Glory Scott comes next with a few impressive links about How To Learn About Xray Technology for Free, and then another 2 quickies by Heather Sanders highlighting the technology needed for Everything You Need to Know About Radiology Technology and Top 50 Medical Technology Blogs.

Whoopie Patterson comes in here with her list of 10 Essential Web Tools for Research Scientists if you are already researching the next medical advances – and you might even be able to get yourself a grant from it!

And maybe the health-care professional out there may want some web tools too to help keep their CPD on the move – so take a peek at John Laugherton short piece on 10 Essential Webtools for Healthcare Professionals.

Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without some apps now would it?

So let’s join Elisha Knackwood with her Top 25 Android Apps for Your Health and Happiness -and Melissa Seyfried with hers: 5 Excellent iPhone Apps for Health & Medical Reference.

Feel Better Now?

posted by admin on Jun 12

Your searches may go up into space – but your local services and community can get the benefits.

I have used directory enquiries and service and product listings before on the Internet - but why not start using these to promote and recruit your local workers, friends and businesses – and maybe even yourself!

It’s all ‘eco’ this and ‘emissions’ that these days – so why not take advantage of the online services and websites that are trying to cater for these new lifestyles and get your business promoted closer to home – or find a great builder/plumber/handyman that you can trust!

Imagine if you could find a local builder down the road that everyone loves – or a babysitter around the corner that everyone trusts?  When you are new to an area, you can’t normally get your hands on this kind of information for months or even years.

Just Moved To Edinburgh?
I mean – say you just moved to a new city and needed a good car mechanic – you normally have 2 choices: 1) pick one at random that you live close to and hope for the best, or 2) trust a local you bump into in town to give you good advice!

However these days – you can check a website that has got years and years of recommendations on it – so you aren’t just down to guess work and good luck.  You can actually use a trusted source that has been regularly updated and improved over the years: so type in Edinburgh MOT into a website like TouchLocal.com (a local business online directory) for example, and it will come up with all the recommendations from past customers.

And of course you can have your say too.  Why not let everyone know that you received great service in a out-of-town restaurant?  Or that you got some great advice from a local shop owner in town.  Have your say and make sure other new residents get a fair deal too!

Is It All Listing After Listing?
No.  These days you can get information from all sorts of mobile sources – like the Twitter directory enquiry service that Touch Local also offer - to save you thumbing through giant yellow pages and the like. 

For example, you can just tweet something like Caterer In Chiswick or Edinburgh Accountant to their given Twitter account and instantly receive a contact name and number for what you want that second! No more searching for ages for 1 then finding 3!

Local doesn’t have to mean slow and old-fashioned these days.  Local means community spirit and loyalty.  And these great community supported sites are the way forward in today’s eco climate.

They also offer other services on their site to hold this all together like an ‘expert’ Q & A section where you can ask any questions to local ‘experts’ – or apply to become and expert yourself!  Also there is a messaging service and a sort of social networking area where you can stay in contact with other people in your community for advice or just chatting between friends and colleagues.

These types of sites could be great way to add eco credentials to your business as well as getting your services recommended to a wider audience of supporting and life long clients!

Think Business – Think Local

posted by admin on Jun 6

Imagine holding up a box of LEGO to a screen – and seeing a 3D image of the fully assembled model!

That is exactly what you can do right now, not just with that one ‘toy’ brand but with dozens of others – and the technology doesn’t just stop at games and gadgets – this new world of imaging could be appearing right in front of you in the street!

Soon, we won’t have to just guess what things will look like when made, we won’t have to guess where that repair store is on a busy high street – and you won’t even have to take your chances in a new restaurant without seeing the reviews of it’s past customers!

Augmented Reality (AG) – although first invented in 1968 by Ivan Sutherland – was truely brought to life in 1999 with the use of software that detected and reacted to ‘markers’ for image tracking.  Then it was developed the following year as a great way to bring text books to life with 3-dimensional images being more helpful than flat pictures – and basically – why stop there?

AG has been used for years on the TV – and watching the football teams pop up on screen as the players ‘warm up’ is a classic example; and showing the ’finish line’ over the river in a boat race is another ‘everyday’ use.  But we didn’t want an inanimate object – we wanted to be in charge of the images.

Initially driven by sales of merchandise, these AG software packages allowed consumers to ‘play’ with their gadget before buying it so to speak.  They could see images of their preferred product and even turn it around to see it from all angles before spending any money – even comparing the finished product to a similar one.

This is a huge step forward from the AG systems that need head mounted displays (HMD’s) to work.  Think back to when we thought that seeing computer information on the inside of your glasses was amazing – now it looks like you don’t even need the glasses!

The Future:
Well, think about films where computer screens seem to be on a whole table, the wall or even ‘floating’ in mid air and you can use your hands to move sections of it.  This could be coming very soon.

There are currently people working on whole room set-ups (spatial displays) that will allow you to overlay certain images into the space given – say for example looking at a new bathroom suite in your actual bathroom – try before you buy type of thing!  A new kitchen, lounge, office suite – the list is endless once you think about it.  But obviously it will have scientific uses first, like designing new hospitals, spaceships and whole environments maybe?

It is already being used in manufacturing – where the HMD’s contain step by step instructions that are triggered by the component parts and medical breakthroughs are also allowing layers of the human body to be seen simultaneously by surgeons to complete operations faster and safer.

So rather than a virtual reality – where you step into a computer generated world – this new reality is where the computers move into your world, and hopefully improve it!

However, I can imagine a hacker getting in to one of the programs and then a HMD AG fan could find New York City with wild animals or even aliens around every corner!

Source: BBC Focus Magazine.