TED Talks: Getting cars off the road and data into the skies
June 26, 2008
Here is an interesting TED Talk presentation that relates to technology being applied to the automotive industry.
So what is TED?
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.
This presentation is by Robin Chase the founder of Zipcar, the world’s biggest car-sharing business. That was one of her smaller ideas. Here she travels much farther, contemplating road-pricing schemes that will shake up our driving habits and a mesh network vast as the Interstate.
When the Ignorance of Technology Can Go Very Wrong
April 5, 2008
So how could the ignorance of technology cause a problem? Here is a clip taken from the Julie Amero page on Wikipedia.
On October 19, 2004 Julie Amero was substituting for a seventh-grade language class at Kelly Middle School in Norwich, Connecticut. The teacher’s computer was accessed by pupils while the regular teacher, Matthew Napp, was out of the room. When Julie took charge, the computer started showing pornographic images.
On January 5, 2007 Amero was convicted in Norwich Superior Court on four counts of risk of injury to a minor, or impairing the morals of a child. Her sentencing was delayed four times after her conviction, with both the prosecution and judge not satisfied that all aspects of the case had been assessed. The felony charges for which she was originally convicted carry a maximum prison sentence of 40 years.
On June 6, 2007, a New London superior court judge threw out the conviction of Amero, she was granted a new trial and entered a plea of not guilty. The new trial date has not yet been set; it is unclear at this time if the State’s Attorney of Connecticut will pursue a second trial.
Since I too am a school teacher, this really got my attention. I could see this scenario playing out in many other situations. Imagine if malware popped up a porn advertisement in the middle of a presentation and a female from the audience wanted to make it a case of sexual harassment?
Leo Laporte provided some on-the-air commentary about this case during his “The Tech Guy” radio show. A clip of that is included below.
Leo Laporte On Julie Amero’s Case
Technology… Its the Work of the Devil!
April 4, 2008
Many in today’s culture have embraced technology; however, some think it is the works of some evil force. Perhaps you know of someone who thinks computers are sinister and evil. My wife’s parents are always talking about the nonsense of technology. Her mother saw some kids with wires stuck in their ears at the mall and this concerned her. I didn’t even try to explain to her that they were likely listening to an audio file on a portable audio player. Or that it is even possible (but not likely) that they were listening to educational content and not music from a singer who would bite the head off a bat!
Unfortunately those that have a warped opinion of technology are not just the older (and basically uninformed) but are “educated” and teaching in our school system. Take a listen to this clip for an interesting opinion from an 8th grade writing teacher. It is really sad…
Clip From a David Warlick Technology in Education Presentation
Shift Happens
April 3, 2008
I have given several presentations about technology over the years and I usually set the mood by playing a presentation called “Shift Happens”. This presentation was originally authored by Karl Fisch, who is the the Director of Technology for Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. You can learn more about this presentation and Karl at his blog, The Fischbowl.
Karl graciously allowed his presentation to be distributed and modified so the original presentation has taken on a life of its own. You will find several updated versions of the original presentation on the Internet. One of the best places to find additional information and downloadable versions of Shift Happens is at http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com
This is one of the more recent versions of Shift Happens.
Brake Lights Going High Tech
March 27, 2008
Below is a press release from Virginia Tech:
BLACKSBURG, Va., March 26, 2008 — You are driving in heavy traffic. The brake lights on the car in front of you come on. Is the car slowing or is it going to stop? It slows to 25 mph and the lights go off. You drop back. The car in front of you stops suddenly! You stop just in time. The car behind you collects your rear bumper.
“The problem is that brake lights are yes and no – on and off,” according to John Hennage of Montross, Va., a Ph.D. mechanical engineering student in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering. “The driver behind does not know the speed at which the car in front is slowing or stopping. The only other signal would be the smoke off the tires.”
The solution is an intelligent brake light system that communicates slowing and urgent stopping – rather than simply that the brake pedal is being touched. “A driver could be tapping his foot in time to music and the brake lights would blink. Or, a driver can rest her foot on the pedal and the lights would glow. It’s not enough information for the following driver,” said Hennage.
With the support of Manassas, Va., businessman Meade Gwinn, Hennage and Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Professor Mehdi Ahmadian have invented an intelligent brake light system, which they will show off at the Mid-America Trucking Show at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville on March 27-29, 2008.
Gwinn came up with the idea for communicating braking speed after being rear ended on Rt. 66 in Northern Virginia. “It was part of a chain reaction accident,” he said. Afterward, he walked down the line of cars to make sure others were okay. “Two cars back was a young woman with a child in the car. They were okay but she kept saying, ‘I couldn’t tell how fast he was stopping.’ I thought, wouldn’t it be a good idea if rear tail lights communicated better and the following driver knew how fast you were stopping so they could take appropriate action?”
Years later, his youngest daughter, a student at Virginia Tech, suggested Gwinn try and get in touch with one of the engineering departments at the university. In 2000, Gwinn wrote to the university president, which led to a meeting with Walter O’Brien, professor and then head of the mechanical engineering department. “He was very helpful and encouraging, saying that this concept had the potential of great application at a very low cost,” Gwinn said. “He subsequently introduced me to Dr. Mehdi Ahmadian, who was able to develop this project into a teaching/research curriculum over the next several years.”
Ahmadian contacted Hennage to help the group of students who were assigned the problem. “I know electricity and had experience programming microcontrollers,” said Hennage, who had previously developed LED lights for commercial trucks, which Ahmadian knew.
The students developed a horizontal light bar. Lights in the middle glow amber for slowing. When stopping speed crosses a threshold to urgent, red lights flash on either side of the amber lights. If deceleration is rapid, all of the lights flash red.
“The draw backs are that the light bar would be an additional brake light because the law forbids altering original equipment,” said John Talerico, a licensing associate with Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Inc. (VTIP). But the biggest obstacle is that the light bars cost $50 each to produce.”
So in fall of 2007, Ahmadian and Talerico approached Hennage about developing a cheaper unit that does the same thing by tapping into existing lights. “It would be for commercial trucks rather than private cars because commercial vehicles typically have redundant lights,” Hennage said. “Private cars are 10 to 15 years behind commercial vehicles in terms of LED lighting.”
Hennage developed a gravity or deceleration sensor control. Under normal braking – to slow or to stop slowly – the tail lights work in the normal fashion. But under heavy braking, extra lights flash.
“We also have the ability to connect other sensors to the microcontroller, such as from the automatic braking system, the automatic traction control, and the collision avoidance system,” said Hennage. “If any of these systems are activated, lights could flash to alert drivers of nearby vehicles.”
“There are various ways for this invention to work and we have a working prototype,” said Talerico. “A manufacturer can take the specifications and produce this circuit in mass quantities.”
Gwinn said, “Not only is this concept approaching potential commercialization, which will be most gratifying; but the educational benefit derived by numerous mechanical engineering students over the years is very heartwarming to me as well. I have met so many talented and enthusiastic students to have made significant contributions to the concept.
“The real reward to all of us, however, is to know that if this venture works out, millions of drivers will find the roads a much safer place to drive,” Gwinn said. “In the end, we are all winners!”
For more information, contact Talerico jtalerico@vtip.org at (540) 951-9376.
PHOTO INFORMATION: Students in Virginia Tech mechanical engineering Professor Mehdi Ahmadian’s senior design class developed a horizontal light bar to communicate slowing and stopping actions to a driver in a following vehicle. It had several drawbacks, including cost of production. A sensor circuit that will do the same job using the extra lights usually mounted on commercial vehicles has now been developed.
Contact Susan Trulove at strulove@vt.edu or (540) 231-5646.
