Graphene Photovoltaics
College of southern California experts indicate us a more economical use of graphene photovoltaics
Can you imagine people powering their mobile phone or music/video device while jogging under the sun?
A University of Southern California team has produced flexible transparent carbon atom films that may have great potential for a brand new breed of solar cells.
In a paper recently published by the journal ACS Nano, researchers stated that organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells have been proposed as a method to create low priced energy due to their ease of manufacture, lightweight, and compatibility with flexible substrates.
This work indicates that graphene, an extremely conductive and highly transparent kind of carbon composed of atoms-thick sheets of carbon atoms, has high possibility to fill this role.
While graphene’s existence has been known for many years, it has only been studied extensively since 2004 due to the impossibility of manufacturing it in high quality and quantity.
The University of southern California team has produced graphene/polymer sheets ranging in sizes nearly 150 square centimeters that in turn can be used to create dense arrays of flexible organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells.
These organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices convert solar radiation to electricity, but not as efficiently as silicon cells.
The energy provided by sunlight on a sunny day is around 1,000 watts per meter square, for every 1,000 watts of sunlight that hits a square meter part of the standard silicon solar cell, 14 watts of electricity will be generated, Organic solar cells are less efficient; their conversion rate for that same 1,000 watts of sunlight in the graphene-based solar cell could be only 1.3 watts.
But what graphene organic photovoltaic (OPV) lack in efficiency, can potentially be compensated by its lower price and, greater physical flexibility.
Researchers think it may eventually be possible to cover with inexpensive solar cell layers extensive areas like newspapers, magazines or power generating clothing.
In the meanwhile Prof. Ruoff and his colleagues of the mechanical engineering department at the University of Texas at Austin, are studying the basic science in the development of graphene-based ultracapacitors for usage in electronics and other fields.
Prof. Ruoff says batteries are relatively slow, they can store energy but require sometime to charge up, and then they distribute energy slowly, over time.
Ultracapacitors can be charged very quickly, in seconds, and discharge in a short time, but, today, they’re not able to store very much electrical energy.
The development of stable and less costly ultracapacitors is seen as a key step in using wind or solar-generated power, particularly if researchers will find methods to enable capacitors to store energy longer, that is not yet possible.
Even with their current storage capacity, the graphene devices could provide quick energy when needed in certain situations on the ecological way.
They could be used, for example, to absorb heat generated in braking an automobile or train, and store it for a short time, and then use it for the electrical needs of the vehicle (i.e. starting the vehicle or acceleration)
About the writer – Sophia H. Walker writes for the solar battery charger blog, her personal hobby weblog dedicated to tips to help people save electricity using solar power for small gadgets.
A Postage Stamp
This is something that has been bugging me more and more these days. It really came to a head when I was trying to view a sample video from a fairly major effects plugin provider. Unfortunately, the embedded video was so teensy, it wasn’t big enough to get any real impression of what the effect plugin was really doing. Yes, I could click the “fullscreen” button, but on my 28″ monitor, it looked like an 8 bit video game. And this is a company who should know better.
The fact is, the trend towards larger monitors has been with us for some time. The old 320X240 typical standard for embedded video is scarcely larger than a postage stamp at the resolution of a large monitor. There is no reason for video less than 640X480 in the case of a 4X3 example, or at the very minimum, 640X360 for a widescreen video. This is the bare minimum in my humble opinion. Another thing I can’t stress enough, is that you can always, and you should, upload higher resolution video clips, and then let your player, or Youtube, scale them down as needed.
Yes, I know there are some out there still using a 12 inch monitor at 640X480 total resolution, but no good ever came from catering to the least common denominator!
Hulu Plus
Hulu recently announced their upcomming “Hulu Plus” subscription service. Hulu is an online video portal, with a well designed interface. They also offer a stand alone application that give a somewhat “Tivo like” interface suitable for a media center. While the free portal will still carry on, subscribers can now watch entire seasons of current series, as well as more movies, and many vintage TV programs. For ten bucks a month, this beats the heck out of $1 or more per episode.
Is this the perfect transition from conventional television, to online video delivery? Well, in a word, no. There are a couple of problems. The first isn’t Hulu’s fault really. So far, CBS has refused to play, leaving three of the big four networks. Comedy central once supplied content to Hulu, but they childishly took their toys and stormed home months ago. Content from other cable networks is also conspicuously missing.
I think this is a pretty good step forward for what will inevitably be the way of the future. Unfortunately, Hulu Plus, and every other effort to deliver television programming online so far has fallen short. Seems content providers are obsessed with either driving you to their own website, or having you subscribe to an overpriced cable TV package. This is really a shame, as it drives viewers to uses dubious sources like Bittorrent to find the programs they seek. And this is exactly the same problem that drove illegal music sources like Napster, until legal music sources like iTunes offered easily available music downloads. Sure, illegal music downloads weren’t eliminated, but they dropped dramatically once legal alternatives were available.
Quite simply, what people want is a way to view content in one portal. I believe Hulu’s new service will show that people will pay for this. Many already pay for individual shows and series from sources like iTunes. Hopefully, the TV entertainment industry will get a clue. Time will tell.
An example video shot with an iPhone 4 that I just happened across on Vimeo. Sure, a low end camcorder could challenge it, but this is a phone. I can remember when you had to “dial” a phone! Now I ask you, where’s my rocket pack??
Iphone 4 video test from Jesse Power on Vimeo.
The iPhone 4
Supposedly, over 600,000 pre-orders have already been submitted for the new iPhone. So much so, that AT&T’s system took a fall as the result of
the huge traffic influx. I wasn’t one of them, as my contract has another six months or so. I will definitely get one as soon as it’s offered. The feature that interests me the most is the video camera. Claiming to be able to capture at 720P, the idea of having a decent video camera in my pocket all the time would be great!
I could only find a small video on the apple site as an example, and it looks pretty good. You can’t however expand it to full screen from the website. I look forward to seeing more examples. Inbuilt editing is also a pretty slick new feature.
Sure, it won’t compare to dedicated HD camcorders, but it makes phone calls too! Usually….
Zoom H1 Recorder
I’ve used the Zoom H2 recorder from Samson, and I currently own an H4. These things are amazing for the money. And this new model will sell for $99! Very cool indeed.
Step aside Boxee, move over Apple TV, and you too Media Center, here comes Google TV! It’ll be very interesting to see if they can pull it off well. No other set top solution has managed to sucessfully integrate all online content, much less tie it in with cable content. At least not without a clunky solution that requires multiple boxes. We shall see!
And it only weighs 900lbs!
Before there was TiVo, there were VCRs. Before that, there were reel-to-reel VTRs. Generally considered to be the first home video recorder is the stunningly large Ampex Signature V combination reel to reel video recorder, console television and hifi system. Circa 1963, and would have set you back $30,000. By the way, this was in 1963 dollars! This gem weighed in at over 900 lbs! It also included a bulky camera too!
If you enjoy checking out this sort of thing, rewindmuseum.com is a fun website. As the website originates from across the pond, much of the gear covered was available only in europe. Well worth a visit either way.
I was actually looking into video stabilization apps, and stumbled across this. It’s a free plugin that yields an effect very similar to some of the “rotoscope” type animated films and commercials. While those films were much more labor intensive, this free plugin from NewBlueFX called “Cartoonr” achieves something very similar, and with little effort.
I did try this out myself in Vegas Pro 7, and by golly, it works pretty darn well. A number of presets are included with various looks, and settings to various parameters can be easily dialed around to your taste. Sure, it does slow down the render time. Surprisingly, not as much as I thought it would.
The Canon 5D MK II
First of all, I should apologize for that title. Secondly, who expected this odd situation where a DSLR might be one of the best video cameras on the market. At least in the lower end range of event video gear. By “lower end” I do mean cameras that sell below $5000. In comparison to current television production, 5K is a drop in the bucket. 30 to 50 thousand dollars is much more the range you’d expect to pay for a camera in your TV studio. Seems now, we have this very strange phenomenon, where a DSLR has stepped to the plate. In fact, the season finale, of one of the most popular television shows in history, is shot entirely with this camera.
And what camera you ask? The Canon 5D MKII. I should note here that I’m a Nikon fan, and have been for years. I have also owned several Canons, including the venerable AE1. I have also spent much more on dedicated video cameras that this. Most all from Sony, and the most recent was just over a year ago at about $3500. Make no mistake, it’s a fine camera. I’ve yet to see an answer to this phenomenon from Sony.
Now folks, life is not perfect, and this is no exception. Swish pans with this camera are to be avoided. Sound will require some attachments to be sure. The form factor isn’t ideal for the work that we do. At least it will take some adjustment. Again, sorry about the pun. I will say from what I have seen so far, the results are stunning. I hear it takes some pretty good snap shots as well. Please forgive once again. I think it’s reasonable to say that if you seek a new camera in the sub 5000K us$ range, perhaps you should look at the new 5D.
I should add here that the “run and gun” video cameras from Sony, Panasonic and Canon in this range are well worth a look. These cams still have some features that are designed for event video shooters, and they do a great job. I might not take the latest 5D on the next event shoot, but I will darn sure be working it in asap.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/194158/season_finale_of_house_filmed_with_canon_dslr.html
