© 2003 Rich Fletcher Designing Technology for the World Dr. Rich Fletcher Visiting Scientist MIT...

© 2003 Rich Fletcher

Designing Technology for the World

Dr. Rich Fletcher

Visiting ScientistMIT Media Lab


Thinking about technology…


What is “High-Tech”?


What is High-Tech?

Objective Metrics

• Moore’s Law• More powerful• Faster, Femto• Smaller, Nano• More complex

Cultural Metrics

• Publication/Journals• Academia/Tenure

• Funding• “Commercial” Apps

• Aesthetics/Style


Real World Limitations

• Cost• Manufacturability

• Scalability• Availability of Materials• Energy/Electric Power

• Sustainability/Maintenance

Not emphasized in technical education !


Practical Limitations

1995 20001990

Mb

50

150

200

250

100

1995 20001990

10

20

30

40

MS Word install file size Number of useful features


Practical Limitations

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

0.20.40.60.811.2

FEATURE SIZE (um)

WA

FE

R C

OS

T (

$)

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1985 1991 1996

YEAR

FE

AT

UR

E S

IZE

(u

m)

Fabrication and handling of small chips is a new challenge

FEATURE SIZE WAFER COST


Human Limitations


How can we improve technology design ?

© 2003 Rich Fletcher 10

Technology Development

1800 1900 2000 2100

• faster, smaller• more power• more components

• human-size, speed• less power• fewer parts

Sustainable development !


J. C. BoseCalcutta, India 1897.

Inspiration from J.C. Bose


Wisdom from the Toy Market

• Low-Cost (affordable)• Robust, durable

• Easy to Use (Interface)• Low Power

• Scalable to high volume

New Design principles?

World Technology must be:


Wisdom from Paul MacCready

Extreme “simplicity”

“Make everything as simple as possible but not simpler”- Albert Einstein

1979 96,863 ft – Aug 2001

© 2003 Rich Fletcher 14

Academic Challenge

Amount of components and resources

Difficulty Level

Simple is hard, too!


A New Approach to Design

“High-Tech”

• Moore’s Law• More powerful• Faster,Smaller• More complex• Modularity and

Abstraction

“Smart-Tech”

• Murphy’s Law • Low Power

• Human Scale• More simple

• Integration and Interdependence

•Environmentally Friendly


3 Examples(from our work)


Example #1:Car Safety Sensor


Side-Mount Collision Warning Sensor for Vehicles

We have built a low-cost ($10) 2.4 GHz Wireless safety sensor for vehicles. This transceiver and antenna mounted to the driver-side car door could prevent dangerous and costly traffic accidents or personal injury to bicyclists and other motor vehicles.

Sensor detects bicyclists and other nearby vehicles in a user-specified zone.


Vehicle Safety Sensor

• low-cost wireless safety sensor for vehicles.

• 2.4 GHz microwave doppler radar• Helical antenna, 15°beam width

enables focused detection zone.• Analog filters and log amp

provides 100 ft detection range.• Sensor unit to the driver-side car

door could prevent traffic accidents or personal injury to bicyclists and other motor vehicles.


Radiation pattern of the helical antenna.Most of the power is directed straight ahead.

© Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory http://kepler.lbl.gov/

Radar Beam

Car

(front)

1 2

Figure 1: With a helical antenna, the sensor will detect Object 2, but not be fooled by Object 1.

CU

RB

BikeLane

Antenna Design


Car Sensor Pilot Test

• US Postal Service • with Prof Ted Selker (optical sensor) • Tennessee, US• Jan-Feb 2004


Example #2:Plants As Sensors


Rich’s PhD Thesis

$1,000,000$100,000$10,000$1,000$100

$10$1

$0.1$0.01

SupercomputerMainframeWorkstation

Personal ComputerPDA

WatchSmart Card

RFID Chipmaterials

Materials as Information Technology: “Chipless RFID”


Low-Cost RFID Tags and Readers


Present Work

$1,000,000$100,000$10,000$1,000$100

$10$1

$0.1$0.01

SupercomputerMainframeWorkstation

Personal ComputerPDA

WatchSmart Card

RFID Chipbiology

Make use of intrinsic biological functionality


Plant Sensors

Applications:

• Environmental Sensing

• Military chemical/bio field sensors

• Smart plants in the home

• Educational tool

Low-Cost Chemical/Bio Sensing ! Exploit plant’s intrinsic ability

light

air quality

water

chemicals


Chlorophyll Fluorescence

Secondary radiation associated with transition of excited electrons from metastable levels to ground state:

,...,, 321 xxxCAEF

Emission

Absorption

Environmental factors (light, air, soil)


Electron Flow in PSI and PSII

P680

P680*

Ph

Qa-Qb

Cytochrome bf

PcP700

P700*

NADPH

H+ to the thilacoid lumen

LIGHT

LIGHT


Chlorophyll Fluorescence


Plant Cam

Visualization method for spatial variation in photosynthesis.

IR Camera and light Monitor


Plant Sensor Demo

Motor-car motion is controlled by plant photosynthesis.

Plant Sensor Demonstration:

Improve plant’s performance by 10X

TI MSP430 Microcontroller


Plant Sensor Ongoing Work

• Correlate plant response with separate environmental stimuli • Collect long-term data, circadian rhythm • Outdoor + indoor applications• Publish results


Example #3:Solar Printer


Solar printer

Goal: To create the world’s first printer that uses no consumables

Reusable photochromicpaper:

No sunlight

With sunlight


Designing Technology Conclusions

• Important to consider multiple metrics for technology development • Strive for appropriate technology – “smart tech” not just “high tech” • Simple is hard, too!• MIT and other tech schools need to lead reform in technology education• Best leadership is by example

• “Smart tech” is not just for developing countries – everyone benefits!

© 2003 Rich Fletcher Designing Technology for the World Dr. Rich Fletcher Visiting Scientist MIT...

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