The right paint can add appeal to your walls and now it can also make them smarter. Researchers recently transformed a wall into an outsize trackpad and motion sensor by using low-cost conductive paint to create a large grid of electrodes（电极）.

Such a smart wall can sense human touch and track gestures from a short distance. It can also detect where electrical equipment is and whether it is switched on. The technology could someday turn on lights when a person enters a room, track a player's motion in an interactive video game or monitor a child's television use. "Walls are everywhere, so why not turn them into sensors for smart homes?" says Yang Zhang, a computer science doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University. who helped to develop the concept.

To create the high-tech surface, Zhang and his colleagues applied painter's tape in a lattice（格子结构）pattern to a twelve-by-eight-foot wall, and then coated it with commercially available conductive paint. Removing the tape left a pattern of diamond-shaped electrodes, which the researchers connected using thin copper tape strips. Finally, they wired the strips to a custom-built circuit board and covered the wall with standard latex（胶乳） paint. The entire project took four hours and cot less than $200. In theory, Zhang says "Anyone can use the technique to make a wall smart. "

In the wall's appliance-detection mode, the power is turned off. The researchers detected iPads up to 6. 5 feet away from the wall; fans and floor lamps could be sensed from about 10 feet. Zhang and his colleagues presented the wall in April at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

"Engineers have long dreamed of technologies that blend into our surroundings, "says Christiar Holz, a research scientist at Microsoft Research in Redmond, who did not participate in the work. "It nicely questions our understanding of what a device might be and demonstrates how rich sensing technology can combine with everyday objects."

China has long been considered as a revolutionary (改革者) when it comes to wind power. Earlier this year, it was reported that the country had begun construction of a wind farm using what were then regarded as the largest turbines (涡轮) ever seen, each with a capacity of 16 megawatts (兆瓦). Now, a new important stage has been reached with the successful switch-on of a turbine.

China Three Gorges Corporation announced that the MySE 16-260 turbine had been successfully fixed at the company’s offshore wind farm near Fujian Province on July 19. Just one of these turbines should be able to produce enough electricity to power 36,000 families of three people each for one year. They claim that wind-powered domestic electricity could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 54,000 tons compared with using coal-fired power stations.

The Fuijian offshore wind farm sits in the Taiwan Strait. Winds of force 7 are a regular occurrence in these waters, which is obviously perfect for producing wind power. Mingyang Smart Energy, who designed the MySE 16-260, was up to the challenge, stating in a LinkedIn post that it could handle “extreme wind speeds of 79.8 meters per second”. Still, it wasn’t very long at all before these claims were put to the test, following the disastrous typhoon Talim that hit East Asia earlier this month. The typhoon threat is ever-present in this region, and the new giant turbine has stood up to the impact.

Buoyed by the success of this installation (安装), China Three Gorges Corporation is already looking to the future. “In the next step, the 16 megawatt unit will be applied in the second phase of the Zhangpu Liuao Offshore Wind Farm Project constructed by China Three Gorges Corporation,” said Lei Zengjuan.

After years of research and testing, the hybrid car was developed and put on the market. It’s an interesting and exciting new improvement in today’s world as we look for better ways to protect the quality of the air we breathe and conserve our natural resources.

The quality of our air is affected by many different things. But one of the largest sources of air pollution is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline which is used to power a car’s engine. The EPA has set national standards to help control the level of harmful pollutants sent off into the air, and the automobile industry has acted by producing a hybrid car that uses less gas and therefore causes less pollution.

A hybrid car is a combination of a regular car that runs on gasoline and an electric car that is battery powered. Some people tend to think that since the hybrid car is partially electric, you have to plug it in to charge it. But that’s not how it works. The 144-volt battery pack is actually recharged through the energy that is produced when the car’s brakes are used. This is referred to as “regenerative braking”, because it generates electricity.

Although the hybrid car still runs on gasoline most of the time, this helps it use less gas than a regular car. When the driver stops at a traffic light, the engine automatically shuts off to save fuel. Then, as soon as the driver puts the car in gear and touches the gas pedal, the engine starts back up.

Have you ever ridden in a car with someone who ran out of gas? That probably wouldn’t happen if you were riding in a hybrid car. It flashes a warning on its computer screen that says, “I am low on gas”. When it completely runs out, the warning reads, “YOU ARE NOW OUT OF GAS!” Then the electric power supply kicks in to let the driver travel a few more miles to a gas station.