The Toilet You Only Clean Once a Year

The Neorest 750H - Intelligent Toilet

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Toto, the most popular bathroom and sanitary ware maker showcased its intelligent toilet which tends to open when one approaches it and self-cleans it with every flush. According to spokeswomen it also tends to clean the user with an aerated want that provides warm water as well as warm air from a seated position. Being priced at $9,800, over 40 million earlier versions of the Neorest toilets have been retailed.

Though it is expensive, it comes with plenty of features to justify its price. The Neorest 750H seems to be a smart toilet which tends to sense your presence, controls the odour around it and cleans it. According to Bathroom firm Toto, the new prototype was still in the development stage.

 The self-cleaning procedure tends to utilise a mixture of disinfectant and a glaze which is made from zirconium and titanium dioxide that tends to coat the bowl. Toto spokeswoman Lenora Campos explains that when it flushes, it sprays the interior of the bowl with electrolysed water. She states that the proprietary process essentially turns the water into weak bleach and this tends to bleach the interior, killing anything in the bowl.

Actilight Technology

In the meanwhile, an ultraviolet light in the lid tends to charge the surface which makes it super-hydrophilic or water loving, where nothing can stick to it. Moreover, photocatalytic permits oxygen ions to eliminate the bacteria and viruses.

As per Ms Campos, there is no need to clean the toilet bowl for over a year. Toto has been successful with this by a combination of technologies. The toilet tends to use Actilight technology that makes use of UV light in tandem with a photocatalytic coating to get rid of visible as well as invisible wastes. With the use of a special electrolysis process it utilises electrolysed water which tends to work as weak bleach.

 Besides this, there are two powerful water nozzles and the bowl has a smooth surface which is called CeFiONtect by Toto. The features extend to auto lid open/close function with flush-on close. There are three washing modes with oscillating and pulsing water spray for easy washing and comes with adjustable heated seat together with adaptable spray position.

Multifunctional Remote Control

Besides this it also comes with a Multifunctional Remote Control. According to Toto, it tends to work on a new prototype and there is a possibility of having more customisable functionalities.BBC had asked most of the hotels in Las Vegas if they would be interested in such a product.

However they refrained in passing their comments. But one smart home expert stated that the device still has scope for innovation beyond hooking things up to the internet. Frank Gillette from the tech consultancy Forrester Research commented that `it illustrates the notion that tech breakthroughs involve rethinking things. It is not necessarily about adding anything new’.

Prospective buyers need to be cautious though the device does not seem to completely liberate them of toilet cleaning duties since the cleaning procedures does not extend to spills beyond the bowls.

Three Technological Strategies That Can Help Optimize Your Business

Business owners who want to dominate their industry need to maintain a cutting edge perspective. This means many things, one of which is that utilizing contemporary technological strategies is important. In so doing, you can optimize client/consumer connectivity while retaining the up-to-date image that makes you relevant to contemporary audiences. Here are three technological strategies that you can use to optimize your business:

1. Use Technologically Advanced Time Clocks.

The biometric time clocks sold by companies like Carpenter's Time Systems are a wonderful way to optimize and update your business's time-keeping process. Biometric clocks are effective in expediting the process of clocking in and out because they enable employees to quickly enter in a number, place their hand on the machine, and thereby verify their personhood. These time clocks are also effective in precluding one employee from clocking in for another.

2. Make Your Marketing Campaign Digital. 

To really send your business's conversion rates and level of visibility through the roof, you need to take your advertising endeavors online. All over the world, millions and millions of people utilize the Internet to buy the products and services they want. Your company should take advantage of this market trend by developing a top notch ecommerce presence. You can realize the objective by hiring a team of skilled digital developers to run your online advertising campaign. Some of the brand-building digital services provided by these industry professionals include:

-web design and development
-search engine optimization
-pay per click advertising
-social media optimization
-content marketing
-online reputation management

3. Use eSignature Technology.

One final technological strategy that you should consider making use of is eSignature technology. This technology enables people to sign for the completion of contracts or purchases without being physically present. In addition to saving time, eSignature technology is eco-friendly because it precludes excessive use of paper. It can also free up some of the storage space that would have otherwise been occupied by the paper used for hard copy contracts and receipts.

Conclusion 

If you want your company to become increasingly successful with each passing year, it's important to remain cognizant of technological devices and methodologies that can help accelerate the process. By using some or all of the technological strategies outlined above, you'll likely find that your company grows with power and prestige!

Drone Lands on Moving Car in Germany

Drone Trained to Land on Moving Vehicle

Roboticists in Germany have trained a drone to land itself on a moving vehicle. Researchers from German Aerospace Centre – DLR have established their safely landing aircraft on a car which had been fitted with a net travelling at around 75 km/h. They have recommended that the technology can be adapted to enable unmanned aircraft to be built without wheels to permit them to stay airborne for a longer time. The team were capable of programming the drone in identifying a QR code located on the roof of the car and land itself by utilising the QR code as an anchor.

Though remarkable as a visual display, the team are anticipating that by developing a simple as well as an effective piece of software, they could help the next-generation of drone which would not need conventional runways.

The system has been designed for civil application in the field of remote sensing and communication and can be applied to ultra-light solar-powered aircraft which tends to match conventional satellite system at the time of flying in the stratosphere. In case of a disaster, it could support crisis management via live situations reports, replace failed communications networks or provide data on climate change.

No Landing Gear – Increase Cargo Ability

Excluding the landing gear tends to increase the cargo ability of a solar powered aircraft which in turn develops more space for scientific instruments. Moreover, the system also makes landing easy in adverse weather conditions inclusive of crosswinds or wind gusts.

The system could offer a new means of recovering drone aircraft when on the run and without the need of bulky landing gear. To pull off the stunt they had fitted an Audi with a specially adapted roof rack which tends to feature an elastic net of 13 by 16 feet passed through it wherein the net had been designed to accommodate the 44llbs drone with a 10 feet wingspan, to stop it from banging and damaging the roof of the car.

For the purpose of safe landing of the drone on the moving car, the engineers had designed a tracking system which enabled the drone to read the optical markets on the landing platform which enabled the drone to synchronise automatically, its speed with that of the car.

Set of Computer Algorithms Used

Moreover it also supported the aircraft to target the appropriate landing spot with an accuracy of 20 inches. To help in landing gently on the bouncy platform, a set of computer algorithms was used. The experiment carried out at Mindelheim-Mattsies airfield in Bavaria had utilised a human driver to control the car, with instructions delivered by the computer in charge of the landing process.

In the near future, an autonomous drone with self-driving car can communicate with each other for landing without human involvement. However, the system had originally been developed to enable the aircraft to touch down without the need of landing gear.

This could be convenient in space wherein the solar planes soaring between stratosphere and satellites, around 12 miles above Earth could carry additional scientific instruments together with communication gear. This could probably lead to new means of landing helicopters for instance in stormy conditions.

Your Next Smartwatch Might be Controlled with Your Eyes

Smartwatch Controlled by Eye Movement

Things like turning the lights on and off, changing the volume of a song or flicking between TV channels can now be done on smartphone without the need of touching the screen. Eye tracking software researchers have come with an innovative latest `smooth’ scrolling system which according to them is identical to the movement of the eye.

Eye tracking on smartphone seems to be advantageous for hand-free use as well as for accessibility when it is not possible for the fingers or the hand to control the device. However it may not be quick enough in daily situations to be the only system of interaction. Researchers from the University of Lancaster have adapted a smartwatch which can be controlled by circular movement of the eye.

Observing a small dot move around a screen tend to activate an option, the same way as pressing a physical button or a tap on a screen could change a setting. Hans Gellersen working on the project had stated that `for smartwatches, this is significant because the watch is designed to be operated by the eyes and that is the whole point of why it is moved from a pocket watch to a watch which one can look at without the use of hands.

Eye Tracking Works through Head Mounted Camera

The mechanism of activating functions on following motions could be used in other settings, for instance TV controls. One could look at the screen from a distance and utilise motions to select functions. Each screen could have several functions with its own spinning dots which can be used in changing various sections. To make sure that the wrong dots are not selected, each one tends to move at different speed.

 The eye-tracking method tends to work utilising a head mounted camera which monitors the movement of the eye and is an off-the-shelf Pupil Labs Pro device. But Gellersen states that when the smartwatches seem to have inbuilt camera of a high quality they have the ability of monitoring the eyes’ movement.

Eye tracking is being established across various fields inclusive by advertisers monitoring browsing practices for the purpose of marketing, predicative tracking, in tracking to control cars as well as in future versions of the Oculus Rift. Gellersen mentioned that eye tracking has become cheap though it is not clear what the big application would be. He informs that the circular selection system tends to work in a way which is more natural than the prevailing eye tracking method.

Wonderful Technology

He further added that we rather show moving elements on the screen, then it could be more natural for the eye to follow the motion and it is how the eye already tends to work. The team had used a custom control system known as Orbits in navigating through a missed call menu, notifications and music app.

 The name comes from target which orbits a circular watch face where one tends to concentrate the gaze to trigger a function. Following the moving objects smoothly around the display, accuracy is developed and the eye tracking adjustment process is simplified.

Earlier for the purpose of activating a button, one had to look at it for long, staring at it, which is an unnatural thing for the eye to do and is also tiring. This could be an amazing watch since it has wonderful technology which can be controlled through eye movement.

Plastic Grass Could Cover Buildings to Produce Energy from Wind

We have been living in such a time where energy consumption is growing by each passing day and the reliance on conventional source of energy doesn’t seem to die down. Non conventional sources of energy offers greater benefits in terms of keeping the planet clean but their usage happens to be limited as it requires most investment than conventional sources. Now a relatively new product has come into focus which aims to offers energy from the wind in a clean and efficient manner.

It is a relatively new kind of generator for harnessing wind power, which works on the carpet surface covered with extraordinary plastic strips. As these strips sways like the natural grass a great scope of producing wind energy comes into the view. It is not just renewable but also quite affordable and clean as it can be.

Researchers behind this awesome wind power generator

Currently this particular new kind of wind power generator is in action. It covers rooftop area of 300 sq. m. filled with strips in China. Researchers have asserted that it is capable of delivering electrical energy equivalent to 7.11 kW. This much of electrical is more than enough to power a usual household. Weiquing Yang has been working on this project in collaboration with the Zhong Lin Wang’s group from Georgia Institute of Technology.

The main aim of this project was to tap energy from the steady winds along with the help of choosy guts. This particular wind energy harvesting system is extremely simple to develop and install. It can even be scaled as per the needs of the larger systems. Till now this wind energy generator has been gone through the lab tests where electric fan was placed at a rooftop model covering an area with 60 strips. This happens to generate electricity which was enough to provide energy to 60 LEDs.

Future prospects of this research

Results might be in the favor of the wind energy generator but not all the renewable energy enthusiasts and experts are happy with it. Fernando Galembeck who is widely known to investigate the energy harvesting methods has concluded that this particular system cannot be made easily available and it doesn’t happen to be desirable. He further elaborates that the amount of power, which can be harnessed from this system, is not quite enough to install these devices either on the rooftops or the building walls.

Galembeck also offered some smart ways to increase the efficiency of this device and make it most desirable for the targeted users in order to become a successful energy harvesting system. He states that energy storage happens to be a crucial factor in determining the overall success of the harvesting system. Hence, researchers should bring in smart ways to store the power generated by the generator for use at varying times. Even Yang has stressed that they are currently working on bringing some smart storage solution which will be done by merging the nanogenerator in solar panels and it will help in boosting the overall output of the wind energy harvesting system.