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Fonte Automotive NewsAnnouncement Extends BMW's Leadership Position Among Auto Manufacturers in the Rollout of Digital AM and FM Radio
DETROIT - BMW expands its pioneering position in providing high-quality audio systems by becoming the first automotive firm to offer a factory-installed digital HD Radio(TM) receiver as an option across its entire 2007 product line. This option, which now includes HD Radio multicast reception capability, will be available in the spring on all 2007 3, 5, 6, and 7 Series models, as well as X3, X5, and Z4.
HD Radio technology is one of the most significant advances in radio broadcasting history, providing listeners with enhanced digital audio quality and clear, noise-free reception, as well as multicasting and on-screen text information. The HD Radio multicasting feature allows FM stations to broadcast multiple channels of digital programming simultaneously on a single frequency.
Of the more than 1,100 stations across the country broadcasting with HD Radio technology, more than 500 FM stations are offering a second (HD2) and, in many cases, a third (HD3) multicast channel. For example, WAMU in Washington, DC, offers three channels: 88.5-1, a simulcast of its news/talk analog channel; 88.5-2, a simulcast of an innovative Baltimore music station not available in DC; and 88.5-3, bluegrass music. These channels are free but can only be found on HD Radio receivers. As with all HD Radio programming, there are no fees or additional costs associated with multicast channels.
The number of HD Radio stations is growing daily and expected to exceed 3,000 within the next few years. A current list of HD Radio stations and multicast stations can be found at www.hdradio.com.
Today's announcement continues BMW's history of groundbreaking premium audio offerings. In the fall of 2005, the company announced the first OEM availability of HD Radio technology in its 2006 7 and 6 Series models. In June 2006, the company announced that HD Radio receivers would be offered in its 2007 5 Series models and last month it announced the first factory- installed multicast capable HD Radio in the new 2007 3 Series Convertible.
The HD Radio option will have a Suggested Retail Price of $500.
About iBiquity Digital
iBiquity Digital Corporation is the developer of the HD Radio(TM) system, which is powering the AM/FM digital radio revolution. This transformational technology allows AM and FM stations to broadcast digital signals in tandem with their analog signals, providing broadcasters with a platform to offer multiple channels of programming on the same frequency (HD2 multicasting); crystal-clear, CD-quality sound; services such as real-time traffic updates; and scrolling text and graphics content. HD Radio technology is now being tested and adopted in many countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Switzerland, Thailand and Ukraine. iBiquity's investors are global leaders in the technology, broadcasting, manufacturing, media and financial industries.
Pressure me, please!
Boeing has deployed a high-tech paint that measures pressure on wind-tunnel models
It looks like paint you'd find in a hardware store. But it has properties that are helping Boeing aircraft designers to estimate closely the performance of airplanes in actual flight. Pressure-sensitive paint - a high-tech coating that allows surface pressures on wind-tunnel models to generate colorful images on a digital video screen - is proving valuable in the testing of the latest Boeing products.
"The process complements the conventional experimental and computational methods that aircraft designers have available to them," says Pressure Sensitive Paint program manager Mike Benne. "It increases the knowledge they have about a vehicle in flight and is a valuable addition to their toolbox. It's a good example of how Phantom Works has found and deployed an idea that has the potential to reduce the cycle time and cost of wind tunnel testing while improving the quality of the results and the performance of the ultimate design."
The technology has found wide acceptance within Boeing for current and future commercial and military products. Pressure Sensitive Paint has been used on the Joint Direct Attack Munition, the F-15E, the High Speed Civil Transport and the X-32 programs. The Phantom Works' pressure-sensitive paint team recently demonstrated the process to the Sonic Cruiser program. The Ford Motor Co. is even using it to test cars and vans.
When Pressure Sensitive Paint is used in wind tunnel testing, digital cameras record the brightness of the painted surface, and a computer calculates the distribution of surface pressure based on the brightness. The pressure over most of the surface of the model can be examined on an interactive, three-dimensional color-coded display. Color-coded images may also be printed, and the numerical pressure data used to compute forces and various aerodynamic coefficients.![]()
The conventional method of obtaining surface pressure is to drill a very small hole, called a pressure tap, into the model surface and connect the hole to a remote pressure transducer by a tube routed inside the model. A conventional "pressure model" contains hundreds, even thousands, of pressure taps. Pressure sensitive paint generally reduces the number of taps that must be hand crafted and connected individually in the model. Some taps are still used to calibrate the measured surface pressure.
Pressure taps are difficult to use in thin wing sections, highly curved areas, or on vehicle control surfaces. Pressure-sensitive paint, on the other hand, offers the potential for continuous measurement over all types of surfaces.
SIMPLY STATED
Pressure-sensitive coating is based on a phenomenon called "oxygen-quenched luminescence," which occurs in some chemical compounds. When "excited" by light, such compounds glow with an intensity that is inversely proportional to the amount of oxygen present - that is, the less oxygen, the greater the intensity. Such a compound is mixed with an oxygen-permeable binder to form pressuresensitive paint. The paint is applied to an aircraft model, which is then placed in a wind tunnel and illuminated during tests.
Futuristic Clothing May Be Medical Lifesaver
High-tech clothing may one day monitor your health and deliver medicine through the skin.
By Denise Mann
WebMD Feature
Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario
Most of us can relate to clothing that can make you look sexy or how "skinny" jeans can make you feel slim, but in the future clothing may do a whole lot more. It may even save our lives.
But the days when you will visit your doctor for "prescription" jeans may still be pretty far off, experts tell WebMD.
Based on the same technology used for nicotine and oral contraceptive patches, the medicine in the clothing will be absorbed directly through the skin. Such medicated clothing can be hand-washed repeatedly without affecting its technology.
Besides clothing that slowly releases medicine, other smart garments will monitor vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure via computerized chips and or electrodes. This may allow some chronically ill or elderly people to live independently at home for longer periods of time.
"This is an outgrowth of the fact that some of the patches being used today are so effective and as a result, I think people are accepting the idea that the skin is a really a good way to deliver some drugs," says Stephen Webster, MD, a staff dermatologist at Gunderson Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, Wis. Webster is also a clinical associate professor of dermatology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
"Eons ago, syphilis was treated by applying mercury ointment to the skin and getting absorption, so it's not a new idea, but it's being perfected," he says.
How 'Smart' Clothing Works
Today, the technology responsible for medicated clothing is broadly known as micro-encapsulation. It involves implanting tiny pellets designed to hold the chemicals and "bond" them within the fibers of fabric. As the wearer's body heats the fabric, the chemicals are released on to the skin. The clothing may one day treat everything from eczema to depression.
Besides treating existing ailments, such medicated clothing may stave off future illness by supplying vitamins, nutrients, moisturizers and anticellulite potions. Other medicated clothing may one day be pollen resistant, making it harder for potential allergens to take hold.
There's also a technology which incorporates pleasant scents into fabrics. Say you are looking to catch more zzz's naturally. Bed sheets and duvets can be treated with fragrances such as lavender and chamomile to help promote a soothing effect that may help the restless sleep. What's more, many athletic apparel companies are also looking into fabrics that repel odor and/or include aromas to pep you up during that postwork spinning class.
Hot flashes or chills may be a thing of the past, too. Researchers from England's University of Bath's Centre for Biomimetics are now creating a new fabric that may adjust automatically to changing body temperatures. Its design is based on the mechanism used by pine cones to shed their seeds.
'Buyer Beware'
But buyer beware, cautions Linda K. Frank, MD, an associate clinical professor of dermatology at New York University School of Medicine and the director of Gramercy Park Dermatology, both in New York City. Frank and other dermatologists contacted by WebMD for this story say that while this all sounds well and good, they have yet to see any studies to corroborate such claims.
"The ideas all have some credence, but it's asking a lot of a molecule to remain stable and to be smart enough to disengage from a textile and onto the skin. And then there's the washing problem," Frank says.
"Studies are necessary to prove the molecules remain stable on the clothing, can transfer effectively to the skin, penetrate the skin and stay in its active form before anyone can even think about making the claim of clothing being used as a route of medication delivery," she says.
"Like any of the cosmeceuticals, the first thing you have to prove is that the active ingredient is getting into the skin and getting into the skin in stable form," says Frank, noting that this is no easy or inexpensive task.
"If there were clothing that could deliver an anti-inflammatory to the skin of a small child with eczema in the crooks of her arms and behind the knees, that would be exciting," says Frank.
Webster, too, has concerns. "I think delivery can be irregular," he says. "On clothing, delivery depends on how tight the item is, how active an individual is, and the weather, so I think it is rather variable," he says.
At age 69, he tells WebMD that "I don't think I will live long enough to see doctors prescribing new outfits."
Sun-Protection Clothing Is Already Here
While many of these are far off, several clothing lines already have built-in sun protection factor (SPF) to protect wearers from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation and potentially lower the risk of skin cancer. And many "normal' clothing items can become smarter by adding an ingredient to your laundry which increases their SPF.
"RIT sun guard can easily change the SPF of a T-shirt from a four to 30," says Frank. "We also have clothing that has sunscreen built in that I frequently suggest to all my patients, especially those with a history of skin cancer," she says. Clothing with built-in insect repellent is also available, Webster points out.
High-Tech Haberdasheries
Computerized clothing currently being developed seamlessly incorporates wires and computer chips that can perform a host of functions. For example, VivoMetrics is studying a shirt that can monitor breathing patterns in children with cystic fibrosis for a study done in conjunction with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. When a child wears this shirt, his or her breathing patterns can be measured via wires embedded in the garment that surround the rib cage and abdomen. The data are then transferred to a card for analysis.
Desde Funções medicinais (ministrar medicamentos) e monotorização de sinais vitais ou funções do corpo humano, isto pode permitir a pessoas com doenças crónicas afastarem-se de casa por períodos de tempo mais alargados, com a preocupação da monitorização constante.
Fonte: Medicine Net