Hitachi iSee air conditioners use image sensors to directs cool air towards people, based on face detection:
Deep Learning Vision in USB Stick
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MarketWired: Movidius introduces the powerful deep learning vision processing accelerator that fits into a USB Stick. It connects to existing systems and increases the performance of neural networking tasks by 20-30X. It performs at over 150GFLOPS while consuming under 1.2W.
Called Fathom, it targets developers, researchers, hobbyists and anyone developing deep learning applications.
Facebook's Director of Artificial Intelligence Yann LeCunn has said this about Fathom: “The Fathom neural compute stick is a compact, low-power deep learning accelerator for embedded applications that is quite unique. As a researcher and builder of intelligent machines, I've been dreaming of getting my hands on something like the Fathom USB key for a long time”.
Movidius CEO, Remi El-Ouazzane says: “It’s going to mean that very soon, consumers are going to be introduced to surprisingly smart applications and products. It means the same level of surprise and delight we saw at the beginning of the smartphone revolution; we’re going to see again with the machine intelligence revolution. With more than 1 million units of Myriad 2 already ordered, we want to make our VPU the de-facto standard when it comes to embedded deep neural network.”
Movidius publishes a Youtube video presenting the new product:
Called Fathom, it targets developers, researchers, hobbyists and anyone developing deep learning applications.
Facebook's Director of Artificial Intelligence Yann LeCunn has said this about Fathom: “The Fathom neural compute stick is a compact, low-power deep learning accelerator for embedded applications that is quite unique. As a researcher and builder of intelligent machines, I've been dreaming of getting my hands on something like the Fathom USB key for a long time”.
Movidius CEO, Remi El-Ouazzane says: “It’s going to mean that very soon, consumers are going to be introduced to surprisingly smart applications and products. It means the same level of surprise and delight we saw at the beginning of the smartphone revolution; we’re going to see again with the machine intelligence revolution. With more than 1 million units of Myriad 2 already ordered, we want to make our VPU the de-facto standard when it comes to embedded deep neural network.”
Movidius publishes a Youtube video presenting the new product:
ST Expresses Optimism on its Imaging Business Future
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SeekingAlpha's ST Q1 2016 Earnings Call transcript has few words on its imaging business, primarily in Q&A section:
Günther Hollfelder - Baader Bank AG:
First question is on imaging systems, so what sort of sales level do you expect for imaging systems in 2016, and what sort of related loss this year for this business?
Carlo Bozotti - ST President & CEO:
I think we expect, first of all, the sequential improvement in the top line on our business, on imaging. And also an year-over-year improvement broad comparing Q2 2016 to Q2 2015, as I said before. And moving on during the course of 2016, we see additional opportunity for both sequential and year-over-year growth. As far as profitability performance, we do not provide the performance, we do not provide the quantification at the division level, but we see some good opportunities, and we see the evolution of this business also in terms of financial performance with a degree of optimism.
Günther Hollfelder - Baader Bank AG:
First question is on imaging systems, so what sort of sales level do you expect for imaging systems in 2016, and what sort of related loss this year for this business?
Carlo Bozotti - ST President & CEO:
I think we expect, first of all, the sequential improvement in the top line on our business, on imaging. And also an year-over-year improvement broad comparing Q2 2016 to Q2 2015, as I said before. And moving on during the course of 2016, we see additional opportunity for both sequential and year-over-year growth. As far as profitability performance, we do not provide the performance, we do not provide the quantification at the division level, but we see some good opportunities, and we see the evolution of this business also in terms of financial performance with a degree of optimism.
Sony 2015 Annual Report
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Sony announces annual results for its fiscal 2015 year ended on March 31, 2016.
Update: SeekingAlpha earnings call transcript gives some info about Kumamoto TEC smartphone products:
"Looking forward to fiscal year '16, our target is to record a profit. A portion of the image sensors used in our smartphones and a portion of camera modules used in our smartphones are made at Kumamoto TEC and there is a possibility that the status of these production lines might have an adverse impact on the results of this business."
On the image sensor and camera module business, Sony says:
"An operating loss of ¥28.6 billion was recorded in fiscal year '15, significant deterioration of ¥117.6 billion compared to the previous fiscal year. As we announced last week, we recorded ¥59.6 billion impairment charge against fixed assets in the camera module business in the fourth quarter.
We first entered the camera module business in the later part of fiscal year '13. However, our ramp in manufacturing has been slower than expected, and we recorded a large impairment charges as a result.
We thought that we could increase yields and profit margins through automation of the assembly process. But, precisely because we did increase automation, we have limited ability to adapt to changes in specifications and demand. Currently, we are re‐considering the optimal size of this business.
In the image sensor business, which account for the majority of sales and profit in the devices segment, we are currently expanding our sales efforts, primarily to Chinese smartphone manufacturers, and orders are strong, but demand is not expected to recover in earnest until the second half of the fiscal year '16."
Update: SeekingAlpha earnings call transcript gives some info about Kumamoto TEC smartphone products:
"Looking forward to fiscal year '16, our target is to record a profit. A portion of the image sensors used in our smartphones and a portion of camera modules used in our smartphones are made at Kumamoto TEC and there is a possibility that the status of these production lines might have an adverse impact on the results of this business."
On the image sensor and camera module business, Sony says:
"An operating loss of ¥28.6 billion was recorded in fiscal year '15, significant deterioration of ¥117.6 billion compared to the previous fiscal year. As we announced last week, we recorded ¥59.6 billion impairment charge against fixed assets in the camera module business in the fourth quarter.
We first entered the camera module business in the later part of fiscal year '13. However, our ramp in manufacturing has been slower than expected, and we recorded a large impairment charges as a result.
We thought that we could increase yields and profit margins through automation of the assembly process. But, precisely because we did increase automation, we have limited ability to adapt to changes in specifications and demand. Currently, we are re‐considering the optimal size of this business.
In the image sensor business, which account for the majority of sales and profit in the devices segment, we are currently expanding our sales efforts, primarily to Chinese smartphone manufacturers, and orders are strong, but demand is not expected to recover in earnest until the second half of the fiscal year '16."
3rd Sony's Update on Kumamoto Fab Starus
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Sony updates on the Kumamoto fab status today: Operations at Sony's Kumamoto Technology Center (located in Kikuchi Gun, Kumamoto Prefecture), which is the primary manufacturing site of image sensors for digital cameras and security cameras, were halted and currently remain suspended. With aftershocks continuing and employee safety the foremost priority, inspections of the facility and the development of a recovery plan remain ongoing. The current status of operations for the Kumamoto Technology Center is as follows:
In addition, due to the suspension of manufacturing operations at Kumamoto Technology Center and potential disruption to the supply of components to Sony from certain third-party suppliers that also have manufacturing facilities in the Kumamoto region, it is possible that business operations within the Mobile Communications, Game & Network Services and Home Entertainment & Sound segments also may be affected. This potential impact is currently being evaluated.
Update: SeekingAlpha earnings call transcript explains more on the fab structure:
"Kumamoto TEC is extremely close to the epicenter of the - the largest earthquake that happened on April 16. It is a primary manufacturing site for image sensors for digital cameras and security cameras, as well as for the micro displays that go into projectors.
Kumamoto TEC has a bilayer structure with clean rooms in each layer. The clean rooms in the lower layer contain our wafer processing equipment and the clean rooms in the upper layer contain our testing equipment, camera module production equipment and other equipment.
The clean rooms in the lower layer, and the production treatment inside these clean rooms have not sustained significant damage. Since yesterday we have begun to start‐up the equipment in those clean rooms, and we expect to resume production in these rooms around the end of May.
On the other hand, the upper layer clean rooms did sustain damage and we are not able to say yet when we will restart operations. Damage to Kumamoto TEC's finished goods inventory is limited, and we are currently inspecting the status of its work‐in‐ progress inventory.
In the Devices segment, we expect there to be direct physical damage to Kumamoto TEC, and we expect to incur expenses primarily for recovery and reinforcement work. In addition, there is a possibility that large opportunity losses will be incurred, mainly in the Devices and Imaging Products & Solutions segments due to suspension of production at Kumamoto for a certain period of time."
- Damage to the building itself has been confirmed to be primarily to the upper layer of the building, and reinforcement work will be carried out in this area.
- The clean rooms used for wafer processing and manufacturing equipment, both located on the lower layer of the building have not been significantly damaged, and preparations are now underway to resume production. Manufacturing operations are targeted to resume around the end of May 2016.
- Regarding back-end processes, such as assembly and measurement, as well as processing operations for components such as camera modules, which are carried out on the upper layer of the building, Sony has confirmed that there is damage to the clean rooms, manufacturing equipment and other equipment. Further analysis of the extent of this damage is currently underway.
- Damage to finished product inventory such as image sensors at Kumamoto Technology Center is limited, and shipments of these products have already resumed. The status of semi-finished and uncompleted products is currently being confirmed.
In addition, due to the suspension of manufacturing operations at Kumamoto Technology Center and potential disruption to the supply of components to Sony from certain third-party suppliers that also have manufacturing facilities in the Kumamoto region, it is possible that business operations within the Mobile Communications, Game & Network Services and Home Entertainment & Sound segments also may be affected. This potential impact is currently being evaluated.
Update: SeekingAlpha earnings call transcript explains more on the fab structure:
"Kumamoto TEC is extremely close to the epicenter of the - the largest earthquake that happened on April 16. It is a primary manufacturing site for image sensors for digital cameras and security cameras, as well as for the micro displays that go into projectors.
Kumamoto TEC has a bilayer structure with clean rooms in each layer. The clean rooms in the lower layer contain our wafer processing equipment and the clean rooms in the upper layer contain our testing equipment, camera module production equipment and other equipment.
The clean rooms in the lower layer, and the production treatment inside these clean rooms have not sustained significant damage. Since yesterday we have begun to start‐up the equipment in those clean rooms, and we expect to resume production in these rooms around the end of May.
On the other hand, the upper layer clean rooms did sustain damage and we are not able to say yet when we will restart operations. Damage to Kumamoto TEC's finished goods inventory is limited, and we are currently inspecting the status of its work‐in‐ progress inventory.
In the Devices segment, we expect there to be direct physical damage to Kumamoto TEC, and we expect to incur expenses primarily for recovery and reinforcement work. In addition, there is a possibility that large opportunity losses will be incurred, mainly in the Devices and Imaging Products & Solutions segments due to suspension of production at Kumamoto for a certain period of time."
GPixel Announces 95% QE Scientific Sensor
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BusinessWire: Tucsen and Gpixel launch the Dhyana 95, a 95% QE camera utilizing BSI sensor technology.
Gpixel has commenced sampling of GSENSE400BSI-TVISB, an upgrade of its existing BSI sensor. The new version of the sensor offers a high QE of 95% at 580nm.
The Dhyana 95 with 2K x 2K resolution, 11um square pixel and readout noise of only 1.3 electrons, represents a viable alternative to EMCCD based cameras.
With 100,000 electron full well capacity and 93dB dynamic range, the Dhyana 95 provides excellent image quality in high contrast applications, at up to 35fps full frame and greater than 100fps at 1K x 1K resolution. Dark noise is minimized through -25℃ cooling of the hermetic sensor chamber.
Tucsen plans to release both cooled and uncooled versions of Dhyana 95 to meet the diverse needs of a broad range of users.
Gpixel has commenced sampling of GSENSE400BSI-TVISB, an upgrade of its existing BSI sensor. The new version of the sensor offers a high QE of 95% at 580nm.
The Dhyana 95 with 2K x 2K resolution, 11um square pixel and readout noise of only 1.3 electrons, represents a viable alternative to EMCCD based cameras.
With 100,000 electron full well capacity and 93dB dynamic range, the Dhyana 95 provides excellent image quality in high contrast applications, at up to 35fps full frame and greater than 100fps at 1K x 1K resolution. Dark noise is minimized through -25℃ cooling of the hermetic sensor chamber.
Tucsen plans to release both cooled and uncooled versions of Dhyana 95 to meet the diverse needs of a broad range of users.
FLIR Presents Boson
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FLIR's VP Dan Walker presents Boson, an intelligent LWIR camera module with Movidius vision processor, in the Youtube video:
Digitimes: Car Image Sensor Market to Reach $900M in 2020
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Digitimes Research expects the car-use image sensor market to grow from US$440 million in 2015 to US$900 million in 2020. n the short term, from 2016-2018, most countries will include automatic emergency braking systems as an item for evaluating car safety, and in 2018 night sensor functions are expected to be included. As for the long term, by 2035, one in every four cars will feature semi-automatic or full-automatic driving technology and each of these cars will use up to 19 image sensors.
Sony's developments for car-use image sensor are focusing maintaining stable black level in high-temperature environments, reducing signal noise, developing high dynamic range imaging and enhancing image recognition in bad weather.
Sony's developments for car-use image sensor are focusing maintaining stable black level in high-temperature environments, reducing signal noise, developing high dynamic range imaging and enhancing image recognition in bad weather.
The Pemex Vinyl Chloride Plant Explosion
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Sources: I referred to a Reuters report on the accident at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-pemex-idUSKCN0XH2N2, an ABC News report at http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/death-toll-28-mexico-petrochemical-plant-explosion-38614458, a Fox News item at http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/04/21/blast-at-mexico-petrochemical-plant-kills-3-injures-more-than-100.html, and a CNN report at http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/23/americas/mexico-pemex-petrochemical-blast/. I also referred to statistics on PVC production at http://www.plasticstoday.com/study-global-pvc-demand-grow-32-annually-through-2021/196257501821043, a salary survey for Mexico at http://www.worldsalaries.org/mexico.shtml, and the Wikipedia articles on vinyl chloride and ethylene.
Unless you work in the petrochemical industry, you have probably never been near the substance called vinyl chloride. It is a chlorinated hydrocarbon that is made when one of the four hydrogen atoms in the compound called ethylene is replaced by a chlorine atom. On the other hand, unless you live in a house whose plumbing is all more than forty or so years old, you probably use products made with vinyl chloride every day. Polyvinylchloride (PVC) pipes are used in the plumbing of nearly all new residential and business construction, and about 40 million metric tons (units of 1,000 kg) of PVC plastic were made in 2013. But all PVC pipes were once the toxic, flammable liquid called vinyl chloride, and that is what may have got loose at the Pemex chlorinate 3 plant in the Gulf Coast city of Coatzacoalcos, Mexico last Wednesday, Apr. 20. The resulting explosion and fire killed at least 28 people and injured over a hundred, with more still missing as of today.
Besides the immediate human tragedy, this accident raises important questions about the safety record of the state-owned petroleum company Pemex.
At this writing, little is known about the cause of the blast. Coatzacoalcos is a town at the very southernmost tip of the Gulf of Mexico, in the Mexican state of Veracruz between central Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula. It is one of the main export terminals for Mexican oil and is a logical location for a vinyl-chloride plant, since its manufacture requires large quantities of the petrochemical ethylene. The chlorinate 3 plant is a joint venture between Pemex and a PVC-pipe manufacturer called Mexichem.
As with many petrochemicals, vinyl chloride is hazardous in several ways. If released into the air, it evaporates into a dense vapor and can catch fire if a source of ignition such as an automobile engine is nearby. Worse yet, the products of combustion are themselves hazardous: hydrogen chloride (which when dissolved in water makes hydrochloric acid), and phosgene, which was used as a poison gas in World War I. Besides the danger of explosion and fire, vinyl chloride is extremely toxic, and causes liver damage in animals at concentrations in air as low as 500 parts per million. Higher concentrations cause acute illness and even death. Because of these hazards, vinyl chloride is usually stored in double-walled containers under pressure, with leak monitors that detect low levels of leakage from the inner container before the outer wall is breached.
It may take months before we can learn exactly what happened at Coatzacoalcos, but it is obvious that a large amount of something flammable got loose. Some reports mention a strong odor of ammonia, which could be from refrigeration machinery used in process cooling operations in the plant. Whether or not vinyl chloride itself was released, the high death toll says several things about this accident.
First, one can ask why there were so many people in a hazardous area. The trend in modern petrochemical operations is to reduce staffing to the point that in emergencies or during strikes, an entire plant can be operated safely from one central control room. Although this is speculation, it is possible that Pemex, being owned by the Mexican government, has adopted a different policy and relies more on hands-on operators in its plants as a way of increasing government-paid employment. Whatever the reason, Pemex's safety record is not good. News reports of this accident relate that in 2012, 26 people were killed in a natural-gas facility owned by Pemex and in 2013, an explosion in Pemex's Mexico City facilities killed 37 people.
Next, what kind of safety culture does Pemex have? To run a complex petrochemical plant without accidents is a monumental task, and many safety priorities are expensive, in the sense that they take resources which otherwise could be used to enlarge the firm's bottom line. With the recent crash in oil prices, there are reports that Pemex is cutting expenses, and this latest accident raises the question of whether safety has been sacrificed to budget considerations.
Finally, there is Pemex's status as a state-owned enterprise. I am not familiar with Mexican law, but it is quite possible that it is either statutorily or practically difficult to sue Pemex. Also, Pemex may be self-insured rather than purchasing hazard insurance on the open market. Both of these factors, if true, remove two of the greatest incentives private firms have to run their operations safely: fear of lawsuits from injured parties and financial pressure from private insurers to run a safe and low-claims operation. Without such incentives, Pemex management has only its own integrity to rely on for worker safety, and the demands for sustaining profits in the face of falling oil prices may have overwhelmed safety concerns.
I hope that the investigative bodies in Mexico have all the competence and authority they need, not only to get to the bottom of this tragedy, but to publicize its causes and assign responsibility wherever it needs to be assigned. Again, the status of Pemex as a state-owned firm may lead to conflicts of interest between state officials who want to make workplaces safer, and other officials who do not want to see a state-owned enterprise called to account. The loser in such a conflict will be the workers who have the choice of being paid to put their lives on the line in a hazardous workplace, or to go somewhere else and earn even less than the $12,000 US annual salary that was the average in 2005 for Mexican chemical engineers.
If reports surface in English as to the cause of this accident, it will be interesting to learn whether poor safety practices contributed to it. In the meantime, my sympathy goes to all of those who lost loved ones or were injured. And I hope this latest incident leads to a re-evaluation of the entire safety culture of Pemex, which looks like it could use a lot of work.
More and more extreme weather
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The weather is getting more and more extreme. On April 23, 2016, temperatures in India were as high as 47.7°C or 117.9°F. At the same time, temperatures in California were as low as -12.6°C or 9.2°F, while temperatures in Greenland were as high as 3.6°C or 38.6°F. Meanwhile, Antarctica was as cold as -60°C or -76°F.
The situation in India is most worrying. Temperatures are very high in many locations. India has been experiencing heatwave conditions for some time now, as reported in this and in this earlier posts.
More extreme weather goes hand in hand with changes that are taking place to the jet stream, as also discussed in earlier posts (see further below).
As the Arctic warms up more rapidly than the rest of the world, the temperature difference between the Equator and the North Pole decreases, which in turn weakens the speed at which the north polar jet stream circumnavigates the globe. This is illustrated by the wavy patterns of the north polar jet stream in the image on the right.
The outlook for the next week shows the north polar jet stream move higher over the arctic, and to eventually disintegrate altogether, while merging with the subtropical jet stream over the Pacific Ocean.
The video below shows how a very wavy jet stream is projected to disintegrate over the Arctic Ocean over the coming week.
This makes it easier for warm air to move into the Arctic and for cold air to move out of the Arctic, in turn further decreasing the temperature difference between the Equator and the North Pole, in a self-reinforcing feedback loop: "It's like leaving the freezer door open."
Temperature forecasts for the Arctic Ocean are high, with anomalies projected to be above 4°C for the Arctic over the coming week.
The image on the right shows one such forecast, projecting a temperature anomaly of 5.31°C or 9.56°F for the Arctic on April 27, 2016, 1500 UTC, while an earlier forecast projected a 5.34°C or 9.61°F anomaly (hat tip to Mark Williams).
The danger is that the combined impact of high air temperatures and ocean heat will cause rapid demise of Arctic sea ice over the next few months.
On April 22, 2016, the sea surface was as much as 11.3°C or 20.3°F warmer than 1981-2011 (at the location off the coast of North America marked by the green circle).
High ocean heat is further accelerating Arctic sea ice demise, as the Gulf Stream keeps carrying ever warmer water into the Arctic Ocean. The image below, created with an image from the JAXA site, shows that Arctic sea ice extent was well under 13 million km2 on April 19, 2016, and about 1 million km2 less than the extent in the year 2012 around this time of year.
Demise of the sea ice will cause even more rapid warming of the Arctic Ocean, with the danger that more heat will penetrate sediments that contain huge amounts of methane in the form of hydrates and free gas, threatening to trigger huge methane releases and cause runaway warming.
Methane levels are increasing strongly. This may not be as noticeable when taking samples from ground stations, but the rise is dramatic at higher altitudes, as also discussed earlier in this post and in this post.
The conversion table below shows the altitude equivalents in feet, m and mb.
The situation is dire and calls for comprehensive and effective action, as described at the Climate Plan.
Related
- What's wrong with the weather?
The situation in India is most worrying. Temperatures are very high in many locations. India has been experiencing heatwave conditions for some time now, as reported in this and in this earlier posts.
 |
| [ click on images to enlarge ] |
As the Arctic warms up more rapidly than the rest of the world, the temperature difference between the Equator and the North Pole decreases, which in turn weakens the speed at which the north polar jet stream circumnavigates the globe. This is illustrated by the wavy patterns of the north polar jet stream in the image on the right.
The outlook for the next week shows the north polar jet stream move higher over the arctic, and to eventually disintegrate altogether, while merging with the subtropical jet stream over the Pacific Ocean.
The video below shows how a very wavy jet stream is projected to disintegrate over the Arctic Ocean over the coming week.
Temperature forecasts for the Arctic Ocean are high, with anomalies projected to be above 4°C for the Arctic over the coming week.
The image on the right shows one such forecast, projecting a temperature anomaly of 5.31°C or 9.56°F for the Arctic on April 27, 2016, 1500 UTC, while an earlier forecast projected a 5.34°C or 9.61°F anomaly (hat tip to Mark Williams).
The danger is that the combined impact of high air temperatures and ocean heat will cause rapid demise of Arctic sea ice over the next few months.
On April 22, 2016, the sea surface was as much as 11.3°C or 20.3°F warmer than 1981-2011 (at the location off the coast of North America marked by the green circle).
High ocean heat is further accelerating Arctic sea ice demise, as the Gulf Stream keeps carrying ever warmer water into the Arctic Ocean. The image below, created with an image from the JAXA site, shows that Arctic sea ice extent was well under 13 million km2 on April 19, 2016, and about 1 million km2 less than the extent in the year 2012 around this time of year.
Demise of the sea ice will cause even more rapid warming of the Arctic Ocean, with the danger that more heat will penetrate sediments that contain huge amounts of methane in the form of hydrates and free gas, threatening to trigger huge methane releases and cause runaway warming.
Methane levels are increasing strongly. This may not be as noticeable when taking samples from ground stations, but the rise is dramatic at higher altitudes, as also discussed earlier in this post and in this post.
 |
| Methane levels in ppb (parts per billion, at bottom of image) |
| 57016 feet | 44690 feet | 36850 feet | 30570 feet | 25544 feet | 19820 feet | 14385 feet | 8368 feet | 1916 feet |
| 17378 m | 13621 m | 11232 m | 9318 m | 7786 m | 6041 m | 4384 m | 2551 m | 584 m |
| 74 mb | 147 mb | 218 mb | 293 mb | 367 mb | 469 mb | 586 mb | 742 mb | 945 mb |
The situation is dire and calls for comprehensive and effective action, as described at the Climate Plan.
Related
- What's wrong with the weather?
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2014/07/whats-wrong-with-the-weather.html
- How melting Arctic ice is driving harsh winters - by Nick Breeze
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2014/11/how-melting-arctic-ice-is-driving-harsh.html
- Wild Weather Swings
- How melting Arctic ice is driving harsh winters - by Nick Breeze
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2014/11/how-melting-arctic-ice-is-driving-harsh.html
- Wild Weather Swings
Sony Adds Some Details on Kumamoto Fab Damage
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Sony publishes few more details on Kumamoto fab damage assessment after April 14, 2016 and subsequent earthquakes:
"Operations at Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation's Kumamoto Technology Center (located in Kikuchi Gun, Kumamoto Prefecture) were halted after the earthquakes and remain suspended. The extent of the damage caused by the earthquakes is being evaluated and preparations for the rehabilitation of the site are underway, with priority being placed on the safety of employees. Measures to minimize the impact on business operations are also under consideration.
The survey of damage to the Kumamoto Technology Center conducted so far has revealed damage to certain parts of the building, clean rooms and production equipment. The timeframe for resuming operations has yet to be determined. The Kumamoto Technology Center is the primary manufacturing site for image sensors for digital cameras and security cameras as well as for micro-display devices.
The impact of the earthquakes on Sony's consolidated results continues to be evaluated. The suspension of operations at the Kumamoto Technology Center may have an adverse impact on Sony's operating results, particularly in the Devices and Imaging Products & Solutions segments. In addition, the earthquakes have caused damage to the manufacturing facilities of certain third-party suppliers of components to Sony, the impact of which on Sony's business operations is currently being evaluated."
"Operations at Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation's Kumamoto Technology Center (located in Kikuchi Gun, Kumamoto Prefecture) were halted after the earthquakes and remain suspended. The extent of the damage caused by the earthquakes is being evaluated and preparations for the rehabilitation of the site are underway, with priority being placed on the safety of employees. Measures to minimize the impact on business operations are also under consideration.
The survey of damage to the Kumamoto Technology Center conducted so far has revealed damage to certain parts of the building, clean rooms and production equipment. The timeframe for resuming operations has yet to be determined. The Kumamoto Technology Center is the primary manufacturing site for image sensors for digital cameras and security cameras as well as for micro-display devices.
The impact of the earthquakes on Sony's consolidated results continues to be evaluated. The suspension of operations at the Kumamoto Technology Center may have an adverse impact on Sony's operating results, particularly in the Devices and Imaging Products & Solutions segments. In addition, the earthquakes have caused damage to the manufacturing facilities of certain third-party suppliers of components to Sony, the impact of which on Sony's business operations is currently being evaluated."
Sony Writes-Off its Camera Module Assets
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Sony records an impairment charge in operating income of 59.6 billion yen related to long-lived assets in its camera module business.
Due to a decrease in projected future demand, Sony has revised its Mid-Range Plan for the camera module business in the Devices segment from the period beginning with the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. Given the decrease in projected future demand, Sony performed an impairment analysis during the quarter ended March 31, 2016 and determined that future cash flows would not be sufficient to recover the entire carrying amount of the long-lived assets, leading to the recording of an impairment charge of 59.6 billion yen.
The earthquake of April 14, 2016 and subsequent earthquakes in the Kumamoto region have no impact on the consolidated financial results forecast for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016. The impact on the consolidated financial results forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017 is currently being evaluated.
Due to a decrease in projected future demand, Sony has revised its Mid-Range Plan for the camera module business in the Devices segment from the period beginning with the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. Given the decrease in projected future demand, Sony performed an impairment analysis during the quarter ended March 31, 2016 and determined that future cash flows would not be sufficient to recover the entire carrying amount of the long-lived assets, leading to the recording of an impairment charge of 59.6 billion yen.
The earthquake of April 14, 2016 and subsequent earthquakes in the Kumamoto region have no impact on the consolidated financial results forecast for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016. The impact on the consolidated financial results forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017 is currently being evaluated.
Adimec Compares CCD and CMOS Cameras
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Adimec demonstrated CCD camera and latest generation (Sony IMX250) CMOS based camera with and without color in low light.
On the left side of the company's Youtube video is the Adimec TMX7-DHD cameras (top is color and bottom is monochrome) using the Sony 2/3-inch ICX674 CCD image sensor with 4.54um pixel. On the right side is the Adimec TMX50 cameras (again top is color and bottom is monochrome) using the latest Sony 2/3-inch global shutter CMOS sensor IMX250 with 3.45um pixel. The TMX50 image is interpolated to match TMX7-DHD resolution of 1920x1080.
On the left side of the company's Youtube video is the Adimec TMX7-DHD cameras (top is color and bottom is monochrome) using the Sony 2/3-inch ICX674 CCD image sensor with 4.54um pixel. On the right side is the Adimec TMX50 cameras (again top is color and bottom is monochrome) using the latest Sony 2/3-inch global shutter CMOS sensor IMX250 with 3.45um pixel. The TMX50 image is interpolated to match TMX7-DHD resolution of 1920x1080.
Automotive Image Quality Standard Proposed
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Robert Stead, the founder of Sense Media organizing AutoSens conference, teams up with Patrick Denny of Valeo, Sven Fleck at SmartSurv, Benjamin May at AMX13, and a number of other professionals to submit IEEE Project Authorisation Request (PAR), Proposed Project 2020: Automotive System Image Quality.
From the submitted PAR:
5.2 Scope: This standard addresses the fundamental attributes that contribute to image and quality for automotive Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) applications, as well as identifying existing metrics and other useful information relating to these attributes. It defines a standardized suite of objective and subjective test methods for measuring automotive camera image quality attributes, and it specifies tools and test methods to facilitate standards-based communication and comparison among OEM and Tier 1 system integrators and component vendors regarding automotive ADAS image quality.
5.4 Purpose: This standard specifies methods and metrics for measuring and testing automotive image quality to ensure consistency and create cross-industry reference points.
From the submitted PAR:
5.2 Scope: This standard addresses the fundamental attributes that contribute to image and quality for automotive Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) applications, as well as identifying existing metrics and other useful information relating to these attributes. It defines a standardized suite of objective and subjective test methods for measuring automotive camera image quality attributes, and it specifies tools and test methods to facilitate standards-based communication and comparison among OEM and Tier 1 system integrators and component vendors regarding automotive ADAS image quality.
5.4 Purpose: This standard specifies methods and metrics for measuring and testing automotive image quality to ensure consistency and create cross-industry reference points.
Magic Leap Posts Another Video
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The mysterious $3.7b-valued AR startup Magic Leap publishes another Youtube video "A New Morning. Welcome to a new way to start your day. Shot directly through Magic Leap technology on April 8, 2016 without use of special effects or compositing:"
Global Shutter Pixel Comparison
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Point Grey publishes a nice comparison of Sony and Aptina global shutter sensor, including the latest Sony 3.45um pixel size IMX250 and IMX265. One can see them compared with 5.86um pixel in Sony IMX174 and IMX249 and Aptina's 3.75um pixel in AR0134:
PDAF Report Update
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Albert Theuwissen has updated the PDAF pixel report and included a figure-of-merit for PDAF. This FoM allows the reader to compare the efficiency of the PDAF pixels coming from different sensors, different technologies and different vendors. Also a couple of new references are added to list.
Sofradir Announces HD MWIR Imagers with 10um Pixels
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ALA: Sofradir announces that its cost effective 3-4.8um MWIR Daphnis HD imager will enter production. The 10-micron pixel pitch high-definition IR detector claims superior performance against recently launched competitive 10µm products.
“Thanks to the sharp square like profile of its Mercury Cadmium Telluride photodiode and enlarged MW band, DAPHNIS offers improved recognition range versus any competing 10µm pitch products we have recently seen introduced in the market” says Laurent Fullana, general manager at Sofradir. “This elevates DAPHNIS to the product of choice for applications like gimbals, high-end vehicles sights and Infrared search and track systems. Moreover, the ability to obtain an HD image format from a detector whose size fits previous platform generations is a real benefit as it facilitates customer system upgrades.”
The new imager features:
“Thanks to the sharp square like profile of its Mercury Cadmium Telluride photodiode and enlarged MW band, DAPHNIS offers improved recognition range versus any competing 10µm pitch products we have recently seen introduced in the market” says Laurent Fullana, general manager at Sofradir. “This elevates DAPHNIS to the product of choice for applications like gimbals, high-end vehicles sights and Infrared search and track systems. Moreover, the ability to obtain an HD image format from a detector whose size fits previous platform generations is a real benefit as it facilitates customer system upgrades.”
The new imager features:
- Higher resolution, 1280 x 720 pixels
- Longer range, achieves up to 55% DRI range improvement on the preceding generation of IR detectors
- Wider field of view, enables up to twice the field coverage of 15 micron pixel pitch MWIR detectors
- ROIC functionalities with digital output for easy integration
- Fully compatible with HD screen formats and visible or SWIR camera channels
Dual Camera Smartphone Market Forecast
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Daedal Research publishes "Global Dual Lens Smartphone Market: Trends & Opportunities (2016-2020)" research:
"For the span of next five years i.e. 2016-2020, projections are made that the market would rise tremendously at a significant CAGR. China is expected to lead the market accounting the significant share in the market.
The growth drivers for the global dual lens smartphone market are: expansion in fusion technology, production capacity expansion along with the rise in disposable income. Despite the market is governed by various growth drivers, there are certain challenges faced by the market such as: technological hurdles, stable sourcing of image sensor and migration to finer processes for image sensors, high-cost burdens, and algorithms."
"For the span of next five years i.e. 2016-2020, projections are made that the market would rise tremendously at a significant CAGR. China is expected to lead the market accounting the significant share in the market.
The growth drivers for the global dual lens smartphone market are: expansion in fusion technology, production capacity expansion along with the rise in disposable income. Despite the market is governed by various growth drivers, there are certain challenges faced by the market such as: technological hurdles, stable sourcing of image sensor and migration to finer processes for image sensors, high-cost burdens, and algorithms."
NIR Microlens Comparison
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OSA Optics Express publishes ISAE-SUPAERO and CNRS joint paper "Integration of nanostructured planar diffractive lenses dedicated to near infrared detection for CMOS image sensors" by Thomas Lopez, Sébastien Massenot, Magali Estribeau, Pierre Magnan, Fabrice Pardo, and Jean-Luc Pelouard. The paper compares pixel Plasmonic Lens, Phase-Fresnel Lens, and metallic diffractive lens technologies for a monochromatic application at 1.064µm:
"The first is a Plasmonic Lens, based on the phase delay through nanoslits, which has been found to be hardly compatible with current CMOS technology and exhibits a notable metallic absorption. The second is a dielectric Phase-Fresnel Lens integrated at the top of a pixel, it exhibits an Optical Efficiency (OE) improved by a few percent and an angle of view of 50°. The third one is a metallic diffractive lens integrated inside a pixel, which shows a better OE and an angle of view of 24°."
"The first is a Plasmonic Lens, based on the phase delay through nanoslits, which has been found to be hardly compatible with current CMOS technology and exhibits a notable metallic absorption. The second is a dielectric Phase-Fresnel Lens integrated at the top of a pixel, it exhibits an Optical Efficiency (OE) improved by a few percent and an angle of view of 50°. The third one is a metallic diffractive lens integrated inside a pixel, which shows a better OE and an angle of view of 24°."
Sony Reports on Kumamoto Fab Status
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Sony says that operations at its Kumamoto Technology Center, which manufactures image sensors for digital cameras and security cameras, were halted after the earthquake on April 14, and currently remain suspended. Damage to the site's building and manufacturing lines is currently being evaluated, and with aftershocks continuing, the timeframe for resuming operations has yet to be determined.
Although some of the manufacturing equipment at Nagasaki Technology Center, which is Sony's main facility for smartphone image sensor production, and Oita Technology Center, former Toshiba fab which commenced operations as a wholly-owned facility of Sony on April 1, had been temporarily halted, the affected equipment has been sequentially restarted from April 17, and production has resumed. Sony Kagoshima Technology Center (located in Kirishima City, Kagoshima Prefecture) has continued its production operations after the earthquakes, and there have been no major effects on its operations.
Sony has confirmed the safety of all of its and its group companies' employees in the region affected by the earthquakes.
The impact of these events on Sony's consolidated results is currently being evaluated.
Digitimes publishes its speculations of the possible impact of the earthquake on the image sensor industry: "Because of Sony CIS solutions are highly customized, clients may have difficulties shifting orders to other suppliers in the short term. Switching orders to other suppliers will cause 2-3 month delays before they receive products.
With Apple's smartphone shipments expected to be impacted, Taiwan component suppliers that rely heavily on Apple's orders are also expected to see their performances influenced.
Sony's CIS shortage issue may benefit the second-largest CIS supplier worldwide, Samsung Electronics."
Although some of the manufacturing equipment at Nagasaki Technology Center, which is Sony's main facility for smartphone image sensor production, and Oita Technology Center, former Toshiba fab which commenced operations as a wholly-owned facility of Sony on April 1, had been temporarily halted, the affected equipment has been sequentially restarted from April 17, and production has resumed. Sony Kagoshima Technology Center (located in Kirishima City, Kagoshima Prefecture) has continued its production operations after the earthquakes, and there have been no major effects on its operations.
Sony has confirmed the safety of all of its and its group companies' employees in the region affected by the earthquakes.
The impact of these events on Sony's consolidated results is currently being evaluated.
Digitimes publishes its speculations of the possible impact of the earthquake on the image sensor industry: "Because of Sony CIS solutions are highly customized, clients may have difficulties shifting orders to other suppliers in the short term. Switching orders to other suppliers will cause 2-3 month delays before they receive products.
With Apple's smartphone shipments expected to be impacted, Taiwan component suppliers that rely heavily on Apple's orders are also expected to see their performances influenced.
Sony's CIS shortage issue may benefit the second-largest CIS supplier worldwide, Samsung Electronics."
Movidius and FLIR Present Smart LWIR Camera Module
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Marketwired: Movidius announces a strategic collaboration with FLIR to bring advanced computer vision capabilities to Boson, FLIR’s latest LWIR camera core. FLIR integrates the Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU) into its thermal core, Boson, creating what is called the most intelligent thermal imaging solution on the market today.
“FLIR has developed the first-ever integrated solution that now allows customers to take advantage of these new advancements while continuing to leverage FLIR’s unique thermal imaging technology and support ecosystem. FLIR will be instrumental in deploying advanced computer vision in applications such as home security, personal vision systems, drones, law enforcement and defense,” said Movidius CEO, Remi El-Ouazzane.
“We’re pleased to work with Movidius to deliver this amount of compute power into the size, weight and power requirements of the product you see today,” said Andy Teich, President and CEO of FLIR Systems. “With system-on-a-chip interfaces and machine intelligence capability available through Movidius, we enable FLIR cores to make greater sense of the rich information being captured by our sensors.”
Boson LWIR core features:
Movidus Youtube video talks about the new product potential:
“FLIR has developed the first-ever integrated solution that now allows customers to take advantage of these new advancements while continuing to leverage FLIR’s unique thermal imaging technology and support ecosystem. FLIR will be instrumental in deploying advanced computer vision in applications such as home security, personal vision systems, drones, law enforcement and defense,” said Movidius CEO, Remi El-Ouazzane.
“We’re pleased to work with Movidius to deliver this amount of compute power into the size, weight and power requirements of the product you see today,” said Andy Teich, President and CEO of FLIR Systems. “With system-on-a-chip interfaces and machine intelligence capability available through Movidius, we enable FLIR cores to make greater sense of the rich information being captured by our sensors.”
Boson LWIR core features:
- Configurable VGA and QVGA thermal camera cores or sensor only with industry-leading SWaP
- 640 and 320 resolutions; 12 μm pixel pitch VOx microbolometer
- Multiple high performance FOV options; eight QVGA options and seven VGA options
- Multiple levels of sensitivity starting at 21 x 21 x 11 mm, 10gram camera body
- Low power consumption, starting at 500 mW
- Rugged construction and highest temperature rating 40°C to +80°C
- Integrated Myriad2 VPU for advanced image processing includes embedded algorithms for super resolution, noise filters, gain control, blending, and more
- Embedded video analytics bring highend intelligence out of the box
- Software customizable functionality for video processing and power dissipation requirements
- Builtin support for physical and protocol level interface standards such as Ethernet, USB, SD card, LCD interfaces, and wireless video
- Inputs and processing for auxiliary sensors such as visible sensors for FLIR’s image blending and third party GPS and IMU sensors
Movidus Youtube video talks about the new product potential:
Should We Mind Minecraft?
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If you've been around teenagers at all in the last few years, or if you are one yourself, you've probably run across someone who plays Minecraft, the computer game invented in Sweden in 2009. I first encountered it a few years ago when we were visiting my 13-year-old nephew in Kansas. I sat behind him in his father's car and watched over his shoulder as he constructed some kind of structure with what to me looked like amazing speed and skill. He showed me some of the elaborate buildings he'd made with it and explained how he played the game with friends who could send wild animal-like creatures his way. It all sounded rather weird, but at the same time I was fascinated by the basic premise of the game: unless you build it, it isn't there.
In this week's New York Times Magazine, Clive Thompson, author of the book Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds For the Better, describes the origin, popularity, and multifaceted nature of Minecraft. It appeals to both sexes and a wide range of ages, and in contrast to many slash-and-burn single-shooter-type games, parental attitudes toward it range mostly from the neutral to the favorable.
Some people even say that playing Minecraft teaches kids useful skills, ranging from programming and logic design to three-dimensional visualization and the ability to deal with computer-aided design programs. I suppose some education-psychology wonks will sooner or later divide a group of kids into Minecraft players and non-Minecraft players, and do a bunch of tests on them to see whether any of this is true. Whatever the results are, I'm willing to go with the idea that Minecraft appeals to the creative part of one's personality, rather than the destructive part. Although there can be plenty of destruction in Minecraft too—I've seen my nephew wipe out whole virtual city blocks and start over when things didn't go the way he wanted.
All the same, there's something about Minecraft that reminds me of an analogous trend from my own teenage years: the golden age of electronics tinkering in the 1960s. Transistors had just begun to replace the bulky, inefficient, and sometimes dangerous vacuum tubes, and for a few dollars spent at Radio Shack you could purchase hours of pleasant fiddling with amplifiers, oscillators, and logic circuits. And I did.
Thompson points out that one feature of Minecraft—"redstone"—acts basically like electric current, and you can build switches, relays, and highly complex logic circuits, all without ever having cracked a book on Boolean algebra. He cites the case of Natalie, a fifth-grade girl, who he observes as she busily debugs her logic circuit when it fails to do exactly what she wants.
This is good in some ways and not good in other ways, as I can explain from personal experience.
The childhood and teenage brain is never as plastic later as it is then. Things you learn when you're 16 or younger are going to stay with you in a powerful way the rest of your life. Depending on what you learn and how you learn it, this can be an unalloyed asset, a mixed asset and liability, or a liability. With me, tinkering with electronics when I was young has turned out to have mixed results, although the balance sheet turned out to be positive.
Yes, I taught myself to do some pretty impressive things, like building a taped-program robot that could pick up things off the carpet of my room. I also learned to use old junk as my supply depot instead of earning money to buy new stuff. And as a kind of lone wolf of the electronics world, I grew up with no connection between what I was interested in and what the rest of the world happened to want. As a result, my professional career in electronics had a firm technical foundation. But I have also been plagued by what I recognize now is a bad habit of scrimping and making do with old junk around the lab, rather than asking for project money up front to do the job properly with state-of-the-art equipment. And I have always had trouble making my own interests conform to what anybody else is interested in, which makes for problems when you try to get outside funding.
Yes, kids who devise what amounts to combinatorial logic circuits when they are ten years old will probably be able to do that pretty well in college, too. "So that's what it's called!" they may say in their first digital-logic class, and go on to become brilliant computer scientists and designers. On the other hand, when you reinvent the wheel on your own, you're not likely to approach the subject in a way that subsequent experience has shown to be the most efficient fashion. People who teach themselves coding often write what college-trained programmers call "spaghetti code"—so tangled and needlessly complicated that nobody else can figure out what's going on, not even the person who wrote it, at least after a while. So while learning system administration and coding and logic design when you're ten can be cool, you can also acquire some deeply ingrained habits that may turn out to be liabilities in the long run.
Alexander Woollcott, a radio personality of the 1940s, told the story of how the comedian Harpo Marx, after he became famous for his self-taught Broadway performances on the harp with his brothers' comedy team, decided one day he could finally afford harp lessons. So Harpo found a professional harpist willing to teach him at ten dollars a half hour. As Woollcott put it, ". . . the Maestro, having heard him play, swore there would be no way of his unlearning all the shockingly wrong things he knew about the harp." Then the Maestro got Harpo to show him how Harpo did some things with the harp that the Maestro thought were not possible. At the end of the half hour, Harpo paid his ten bucks, but as he'd been doing all the teaching, he never went back.
Not everybody who plays Minecraft is going to wind up as the Harpo of their techie generation. And some of them may learn habits that will cause future teachers some distress, as the Maestro felt when he watched Harpo play. But it's nice that at least one computer game out there invites you to get under the hood of the often opaque computer systems we live with so much and actually make something you can understand more or less completely, because you built it. And if it breaks, you can try to fix it instead of just cussing the anonymous developers who should know better than to ship defective software.
The inventor of Minecraft, Markus Persson, sold it for $2.4 billion to Microsoft in 2014 and washed his hands of the whole business after discovering that fielding thousands of inquiries from the millions of Minecraft fans wore him out. But the thing he invented lives on, and I hope its career in the future will be as benign and instructional as it has been so far.
Sources: The article "The Minecraft Generation" by Clive Thompson appeared in the online New York Times Magazine on Apr. 17, 2016 at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html. The story (possibly apocryphal) of Harpo's harp lessons appeared in the March 1926 issue of Vanity Fair magazine, the text of which is accessible at http://www.vanityfair.com/news/1926/03/harpo-marx-theater-music. And at last report, my nephew was running a YouTube channel with a microphone we bought him for Christmas, giving advice to other Minecraft players online.
Can we Design Hydrogen-Fuelled Aircraft?
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The collection of temperature measurements by David Travis following the 3-day grounding of all US civilian flights after 9/11 showed the astonishing effect of jet exhaust on the environment. If burning hydrocarbon fuel in the stratosphere ever becomes a criminal offence, the aviation industry will have an interesting problem. A possible solution is the use of hydrogen as a fuel. Is this technically possible?
The Airbus 380 carries 250 tonnes of fuel with a total calorific value of about 1013 joules. Fuel is stowed in wing tanks but this would be a volume of about one eighth of the fuselage. The calorific value per unit mass of hydrogen is about 3.5 times that of jet fuel and so the weight of hydrogen for the same range would be only about 70 tonnes. Unfortunately the ratio of density of jet fuel to un-pressurized hydrogen is about 9000, so the design problem is how to reduce the volume ratio by about 2500. If we compress hydrogen to reduce its volume by a factor of, say, 100 we still have a fuel volume of 25 times the liquid fuel one or 3.2 times the fuselage volume. The cube root of 3.2 is 1.47 so by increasing all three fuselage dimensions by this factor we could have an aircraft with enough volume for all fuel in the fuselage but no passenger space. An increase by a factor of about 1.6 in both diameter and fuselage length would give enough volume for passengers provided they did not feel unhappy about being close to so much hydrogen.
The immediate reaction against the proposal will be triggered by embedded folk memories of the Hindenburg. Any use of hydrogen will need careful public relations. The Hindenburg survival rate was 64%, much better than crashes of modern conventional aircraft. Deaths were caused by jumping not burning. People who stayed aboard until the wreck reached the ground were unharmed. It is likely that the fire started in the fabric dope rather than the hydrogen. Because spilt hydrogen moves rapidly upwards there is much less risk than from a liquid fuel or heavier-than-air gases like butane or propane which regularly cause devastating explosions in boats and buildings. Furthermore the heat radiated by the invisible hydrogen flame is much lower than that from carbon particles in hydrocarbon flames. We can argue that hydrogen is actually safer than jet fuel, petrol and hydrocarbon gases.
We can spend the 180 tonne fuel weight-saving on gas storage bottles in the form of a low-permeability skin surrounded by wound carbon fibres. A helical winding of aluminium sheet with a low diffusion coefficient for hydrogen looks good. It can be made with the linear equivalent of spot welding. The axial stress in a thin-wall tube under pressure is only half the hoop stress, so we can use the gas tubes as fuselage strength-members. Once the fuselage bending moments are known, we can choose the wrap angle of the windings to give the right balance of directional strength. One structure might be a bundle of nine tubes in a hexagonal array with six full of hydrogen and three containing passengers. A cross section is sketched in the figure. Other configurations are being studied.
The smooth stress paths of the gas bottles would be badly disrupted by the conventional design of landing gear. Can we get rid of it? The requirements for processing the variable energy flows from renewable-energy sources have led to the development of new high-pressure oil machines using digital rather than analogue control of machine displacement. These machines have very high conversion efficiencies and very easy interfaces to computers (see http://www.artemisip.com/ ) . The extremely accurate control of very large energy flows allows many new applications. One of these involves replacing the landing gear of large passenger aircraft with a ground vehicle. Please suspend disbelief until you have considered the following facts:
The contact between the landing vehicle and the aircraft would be provided by a nest of large air-filled tubes like very large, very soft V-block, running the full length of the fuselage. This would spread the weight evenly into the aircraft skin. The tube surfaces could have vacuum suckers, like an octopus, which could apply shear forces evenly to the aircraft skin. The bags could be on a frame which could have hydraulic actuators to give a much longer travel than the legs of the landing gear. Tilting this frame would remove the need for the angling of the rear underside of the fuselage required to prevent ground contact at V-Rotate. This would further reduce drag during flight. The absence of fuselage penetrations could allow safe water landings for emergency. Runways can have parallel lakes presenting a much lower fire hazard if fuel is spilt. The impact loading on the runway would be much reduced and it might even be possible to revert to grass runways with several parallel operations from any wind direction.
The ground vehicles could use Diesel engines with much higher efficiency at taxi speed than gas turbines. They could have higher acceleration during take off and higher deceleration during landing. The hydraulic transmission would also allow regenerative braking, so the kinetic energy from one landing could be used for the next take-off. All-wheel steering and the option of direct side movement would allow much better use of ground space. The ground vehicle could have many more tyres, which need have no weight or volume compromise to achieve high braking. It could have an air-knife to dry runway surfaces and remove snow. There would be plenty of time to inspect and exchange landing vehicles and they would be in use for a much higher fraction of the time. The landing vehicles could gently lower aircraft on to passive supports at each loading pier and be used for other movements while aircraft were being boarded or serviced.
The volume of most aircraft wings is much below that of the fuselage and so there is not a strong reason to use gas tubes as structural wing members. However they would offer a way to offset the extra drag of the larger frontal cross-section. From the original work by Prandtl, it has long been known that sucking air from the upper surface of an aerofoil section will reduce the drag by an amount which far offsets the power needed for a suction pump. Schlichting in figure 14.9 of Boundary Layer Theory gives a graph showing a factor of more than two. An objection to suction on wings, where the outer skin is a structural member, is that perforations and slits cause stress concentrations. This should not apply to wing spars made as gas tubes supporting an unstressed skin.
It is important that using fuel does not move the centre of gravity of the aircraft. This happens automatically with fuel stowed in wing tanks. If large quantities of fuel are to be stored in the fuselage it will be necessary to have the centre of pressure of the wings close to the centre of gravity of the fuselage-engine combination. The choice of a ground-based landing vehicle suggests high wings and engine placement above the wing. In theory at least, this will give some advantage from higher air-velocity over the upper wing surface and lower noise transmission to ground level. It is much easier to service and inspect equipment if you do not have to reach above your head. Cranes lifting an engine upwards are much more convenient than forklift trucks working from below. While some change in the architecture of maintenance hangers would be required, high engines accessed from above would by no means be unwelcome to ground crew.
Gas tubes may not be ideal for connections to a low-chord wing and so the longer attachment line of a delta wing, such as used in the Vulcan and Concord and many fighter designs, should be investigated. A flat underside will relax the requirement for precision in yaw during landing. Suction may be able to offset some of the disadvantages of the delta wing as applied to civilian aircraft provided always that they can land safely after a failure of the suction system. A delta wing with a deep thickness and a leading edge made from very strong but transparent material, perhaps poly carbonate, might even allow passengers to sit in the wing enjoying a splendid view if their vertigo allows.
The range of the A 380 is 15,000 kilometres. While this may have been chosen for passenger convenience with the properties of present fuels, it is larger than necessary for trans-Atlantic flights and could allow a further volume reduction. The San Francisco to Sydney distance is only 12000 km and stops in mid Pacific could be very attractive.
Before we waste time on radical new aircraft designs and ground-based landing systems, it is necessary to confirm that burning hydrogen in gas turbines at high altitudes will be a chemically appropriate solution. If we burn hydrogen in ambient air there will be no release of carbon dioxide but there will still be the formation of nitrogen–oxygen compounds collectively known as NOXes. If these are cooled very rapidly, as in the adiabatic expansion of an internal combustion engine, they can be ‘frozen’ at the high-temperature equilibrium state with lots of very nasty acids. The lower combustion pressure and slightly slower cooling of a jet exhaust should be less severe but we want to quantify the severity of the problem. There may even be problems from ice crystals formed from the exhaust. I have asked colleagues at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research at Boulder Colorado for an opinion.
There is one engine design in which the combustion products cool slowly enough for almost all the NOX production to revert to ambient values. This is the Stirling engine originating from 1815 but abandoned because of the absence of materials with good thermal conductivity and high hot strength. Much better materials are now available. By an extraordinary coincidence, the digital hydraulic systems needed for the speed and accuracy of the ground-based landing gear can also radically change the design of Stirling engines by using hydraulics to replace the crank and connecting rods of the conventional Stirling engine. A Stirling-engined aircraft would probably have to use a ducted fan or propeller propulsion but these could still allow civilian aviation to continue in a NOX-sensitive world.
The best way to do experiments on high-altitude engine-chemistry might be from a balloon. Do we know anyone with an interest in this area?
Can we Design Hydrogen-Fuelled Aircraft?
S H Salter, Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh.EH9 3JL.
The collection of temperature measurements by David Travis following the 3-day grounding of all US civilian flights after 9/11 showed the astonishing effect of jet exhaust on the environment. If burning hydrocarbon fuel in the stratosphere ever becomes a criminal offence, the aviation industry will have an interesting problem. A possible solution is the use of hydrogen as a fuel. Is this technically possible?
The Airbus 380 carries 250 tonnes of fuel with a total calorific value of about 1013 joules. Fuel is stowed in wing tanks but this would be a volume of about one eighth of the fuselage. The calorific value per unit mass of hydrogen is about 3.5 times that of jet fuel and so the weight of hydrogen for the same range would be only about 70 tonnes. Unfortunately the ratio of density of jet fuel to un-pressurized hydrogen is about 9000, so the design problem is how to reduce the volume ratio by about 2500. If we compress hydrogen to reduce its volume by a factor of, say, 100 we still have a fuel volume of 25 times the liquid fuel one or 3.2 times the fuselage volume. The cube root of 3.2 is 1.47 so by increasing all three fuselage dimensions by this factor we could have an aircraft with enough volume for all fuel in the fuselage but no passenger space. An increase by a factor of about 1.6 in both diameter and fuselage length would give enough volume for passengers provided they did not feel unhappy about being close to so much hydrogen.
The immediate reaction against the proposal will be triggered by embedded folk memories of the Hindenburg. Any use of hydrogen will need careful public relations. The Hindenburg survival rate was 64%, much better than crashes of modern conventional aircraft. Deaths were caused by jumping not burning. People who stayed aboard until the wreck reached the ground were unharmed. It is likely that the fire started in the fabric dope rather than the hydrogen. Because spilt hydrogen moves rapidly upwards there is much less risk than from a liquid fuel or heavier-than-air gases like butane or propane which regularly cause devastating explosions in boats and buildings. Furthermore the heat radiated by the invisible hydrogen flame is much lower than that from carbon particles in hydrocarbon flames. We can argue that hydrogen is actually safer than jet fuel, petrol and hydrocarbon gases.
We can spend the 180 tonne fuel weight-saving on gas storage bottles in the form of a low-permeability skin surrounded by wound carbon fibres. A helical winding of aluminium sheet with a low diffusion coefficient for hydrogen looks good. It can be made with the linear equivalent of spot welding. The axial stress in a thin-wall tube under pressure is only half the hoop stress, so we can use the gas tubes as fuselage strength-members. Once the fuselage bending moments are known, we can choose the wrap angle of the windings to give the right balance of directional strength. One structure might be a bundle of nine tubes in a hexagonal array with six full of hydrogen and three containing passengers. A cross section is sketched in the figure. Other configurations are being studied.
The smooth stress paths of the gas bottles would be badly disrupted by the conventional design of landing gear. Can we get rid of it? The requirements for processing the variable energy flows from renewable-energy sources have led to the development of new high-pressure oil machines using digital rather than analogue control of machine displacement. These machines have very high conversion efficiencies and very easy interfaces to computers (see http://www.artemisip.com/ ) . The extremely accurate control of very large energy flows allows many new applications. One of these involves replacing the landing gear of large passenger aircraft with a ground vehicle. Please suspend disbelief until you have considered the following facts:
- The landing gear of the A380 weighs 20 tonnes, say, 200 passengers. This weight is carried round the world for many hours and then used for only a few minutes on each flight.
- The landing gear occupies a substantial volume of the internal space. The volume restriction limits the travel of the landing gear and so increases acceleration forces.
- The requirement for openings compromises the structural integrity of the fuselage and adds weight, even more passengers.
- Landing gear must perform with very high reliability despite the weight penalty and extreme temperature cycling.
- The full weight of the aircraft must be passed to the ground through highly stressed points.
- Gas turbines are very inefficient for moving aircraft on the ground at slow speeds.
- On the A380 the shape of the landing gear doors and opening spoils the aerodynamic fairness.
- There is a severe design conflict between tyre weight, tyre life and braking performance.
The contact between the landing vehicle and the aircraft would be provided by a nest of large air-filled tubes like very large, very soft V-block, running the full length of the fuselage. This would spread the weight evenly into the aircraft skin. The tube surfaces could have vacuum suckers, like an octopus, which could apply shear forces evenly to the aircraft skin. The bags could be on a frame which could have hydraulic actuators to give a much longer travel than the legs of the landing gear. Tilting this frame would remove the need for the angling of the rear underside of the fuselage required to prevent ground contact at V-Rotate. This would further reduce drag during flight. The absence of fuselage penetrations could allow safe water landings for emergency. Runways can have parallel lakes presenting a much lower fire hazard if fuel is spilt. The impact loading on the runway would be much reduced and it might even be possible to revert to grass runways with several parallel operations from any wind direction.
The ground vehicles could use Diesel engines with much higher efficiency at taxi speed than gas turbines. They could have higher acceleration during take off and higher deceleration during landing. The hydraulic transmission would also allow regenerative braking, so the kinetic energy from one landing could be used for the next take-off. All-wheel steering and the option of direct side movement would allow much better use of ground space. The ground vehicle could have many more tyres, which need have no weight or volume compromise to achieve high braking. It could have an air-knife to dry runway surfaces and remove snow. There would be plenty of time to inspect and exchange landing vehicles and they would be in use for a much higher fraction of the time. The landing vehicles could gently lower aircraft on to passive supports at each loading pier and be used for other movements while aircraft were being boarded or serviced.
 |
| Images by S H Salter, University of Edinburgh. |
It is important that using fuel does not move the centre of gravity of the aircraft. This happens automatically with fuel stowed in wing tanks. If large quantities of fuel are to be stored in the fuselage it will be necessary to have the centre of pressure of the wings close to the centre of gravity of the fuselage-engine combination. The choice of a ground-based landing vehicle suggests high wings and engine placement above the wing. In theory at least, this will give some advantage from higher air-velocity over the upper wing surface and lower noise transmission to ground level. It is much easier to service and inspect equipment if you do not have to reach above your head. Cranes lifting an engine upwards are much more convenient than forklift trucks working from below. While some change in the architecture of maintenance hangers would be required, high engines accessed from above would by no means be unwelcome to ground crew.
Gas tubes may not be ideal for connections to a low-chord wing and so the longer attachment line of a delta wing, such as used in the Vulcan and Concord and many fighter designs, should be investigated. A flat underside will relax the requirement for precision in yaw during landing. Suction may be able to offset some of the disadvantages of the delta wing as applied to civilian aircraft provided always that they can land safely after a failure of the suction system. A delta wing with a deep thickness and a leading edge made from very strong but transparent material, perhaps poly carbonate, might even allow passengers to sit in the wing enjoying a splendid view if their vertigo allows.
The range of the A 380 is 15,000 kilometres. While this may have been chosen for passenger convenience with the properties of present fuels, it is larger than necessary for trans-Atlantic flights and could allow a further volume reduction. The San Francisco to Sydney distance is only 12000 km and stops in mid Pacific could be very attractive.
Before we waste time on radical new aircraft designs and ground-based landing systems, it is necessary to confirm that burning hydrogen in gas turbines at high altitudes will be a chemically appropriate solution. If we burn hydrogen in ambient air there will be no release of carbon dioxide but there will still be the formation of nitrogen–oxygen compounds collectively known as NOXes. If these are cooled very rapidly, as in the adiabatic expansion of an internal combustion engine, they can be ‘frozen’ at the high-temperature equilibrium state with lots of very nasty acids. The lower combustion pressure and slightly slower cooling of a jet exhaust should be less severe but we want to quantify the severity of the problem. There may even be problems from ice crystals formed from the exhaust. I have asked colleagues at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research at Boulder Colorado for an opinion.
There is one engine design in which the combustion products cool slowly enough for almost all the NOX production to revert to ambient values. This is the Stirling engine originating from 1815 but abandoned because of the absence of materials with good thermal conductivity and high hot strength. Much better materials are now available. By an extraordinary coincidence, the digital hydraulic systems needed for the speed and accuracy of the ground-based landing gear can also radically change the design of Stirling engines by using hydraulics to replace the crank and connecting rods of the conventional Stirling engine. A Stirling-engined aircraft would probably have to use a ducted fan or propeller propulsion but these could still allow civilian aviation to continue in a NOX-sensitive world.
The best way to do experiments on high-altitude engine-chemistry might be from a balloon. Do we know anyone with an interest in this area?
2016 Harvest Imaging Forum
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Albert Theuwissen announces his 4th Harvest Imaging Forum "Durability of CMOS Technology and Circuitry outside the Imaging Core: integrity, variability and reliability" to be held in Dec. 2016. More info will be posted in the coming weeks.
Compressive Sensing Camera with Pixel-wise Coded Exposure
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OSA Optics Express publishes Johns Hopkins University paper "Compact all-CMOS spatiotemporal compressive sensing video camera with pixel-wise coded exposure" by Jie Zhang, Tao Xiong, Trac Tran, Sang Chin, and Ralph Etienne-Cummings. The paper presents a prototype 127 × 90 pixels image sensor that can reconstruct 100 fps videos from coded images sampled at 5 fps. With 20× reduction in readout speed, the novel CMOS sensor only consumes 14μW to provide 100 fps videos.
"Figure 1 shows the difference between a conventional camera with global exposure and a PCE camera. In a conventional global exposure camera, all the pixels are exposed for a fixed amount of time (T v) to readout one image at readout frame rate of 1/T v. This is compared to a PCE camera, in which pixels are exposed through a random short “single-on” exposure of fixed duration (Te) within T v. The readout circuit only samples the pixel value at the end of T v with readout speed of 1/T v. PCE essentially compresses a spatiotemporal video into a single coded image. Upon on receiving the coded image, PCE reconstructs the entire video from the single coded image using sparse spatiotemporal reconstruction with an over-complete dictionary.
Since the reconstructed framerate is 1/(unit time o f Te), PCE provides a high frame rate using the same readout speed as a conventional image sensor. PCE is also different from traditional spatial CS approach, which recovers one frame using multiple random spatial samples. Thus, PCE is more optimal for video applications because the sparse samples include both spatial and temporal information."
"Figure 1 shows the difference between a conventional camera with global exposure and a PCE camera. In a conventional global exposure camera, all the pixels are exposed for a fixed amount of time (T v) to readout one image at readout frame rate of 1/T v. This is compared to a PCE camera, in which pixels are exposed through a random short “single-on” exposure of fixed duration (Te) within T v. The readout circuit only samples the pixel value at the end of T v with readout speed of 1/T v. PCE essentially compresses a spatiotemporal video into a single coded image. Upon on receiving the coded image, PCE reconstructs the entire video from the single coded image using sparse spatiotemporal reconstruction with an over-complete dictionary.
Since the reconstructed framerate is 1/(unit time o f Te), PCE provides a high frame rate using the same readout speed as a conventional image sensor. PCE is also different from traditional spatial CS approach, which recovers one frame using multiple random spatial samples. Thus, PCE is more optimal for video applications because the sparse samples include both spatial and temporal information."
