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Engineering Innovation Podcast and Radio Series (Print This)
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The National Academy of Engineering works with the Washington, D.C. region's only all-news radio station— WTOP Radio— and the nation's only all-news radio station for federal employees— WFED 1500 AM— to provide weekly features highlighting engineering innovations and stories that add technical context to issues in the news. |  |
These features are now available as podcasts. Find out how to subscribe. Your comments and ideas are welcome. Please share them with Randy Atkins at atkins@nae.edu. |
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| Right Step |  Listen | If you have an unbalanced walking stride, it can cause injury…or prevent proper recovery. So engineers are developing a system to help you adjust, and train, your stride. 08/29/2010 | | | Randy Atkins: A treadmill reacts to
your movements, using more or less electricity depending upon the way you
step.
Daryl Cox: If there’s a difference
between the load placed on it from your left foot versus your right foot
or as your body changes from left to right, there will be changes in the
loading on the treadmill.
Randy Atkins: Daryl
Cox, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory
engineer, says even the tiniest differences in current can be detected…and
that can be especially useful for those recovering from injury.
Daryl Cox: You can put a monitor in
front of a person and they can very quickly see the difference between
left and right so now they can actively participate in retraining themselves
to bring symmetry back in play.
Randy Atkins: Another use might be to
help athletes perfect their motions. With the National Academy of
Engineering, Randy Atkins, WTOP News.
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| | Solar Power Booster |  Listen | In Colorado, they’re herding more than cattle these days. A company there is engineering ways to herd light…with the hope of increasing solar power generation. 08/22/2010 | | | Randy Atkins: Melissa
Grossman, president of Genie
Lens Technologies, says solar
power can be boosted more than ten-percent by inexpensive micro lenses…either
embedded on solar panel glass or applied with a sticker-like film. It’s
not a magnifying glass.
Melissa Grossman: We work by bending
and manipulating the light so that more of the light that hits a photovoltaic
panel actually stays within the panel and has a greater chance of being
absorbed by the underlying absorber technology.
Randy Atkins: The micro lenses change
the angle that light comes in so that less is reflected away, and…
Melissa Grossman: …it’s going almost
horizontally through that absorber material and gives it a much better
opportunity to be absorbed.
Randy Atkins: Internal reflectors also
keep the light trapped inside to do its work. With the National Academy
of Engineering, Randy Atkins, WTOP News.
ANCHOR TAG
The technology, which actually works
best on cloudy days, could be ready in about a year.
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- SolOptics
- the technology behind the lenses.
| | The Anti Camera |  Listen | It’s a paparazzi’s nightmare…technologies that can prevent digital cameras from taking useable pictures. 08/15/2010 | | |
Randy Atkins: Engineers are exploring several potential anti-digital camera
techniques. Some shield films from bootleggers.
Edward Delp: You can actually insert certain patterns in the movie that
you can’t see, but the camera would have a hard time recording.
Randy Atkins: Edward
Delp, of Purdue University,
says other technologies use light rays to both find and disable cameras
without damaging them.
Edward Delp: They interfere with the way the camera makes the image…so
it distorts or doesn’t record the picture.
Randy Atkins: Delp says such camera jamming isn’t quite ready for primetime,
but...
Edward Delp: It’s coming, there’s no doubt about it.
Randy Atkins: So paparazzi beware. With the National Academy of Engineering,
Randy Atkins, WTOP News.
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