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THE MAGAZINE OF TECHNOLOGY INSIDERS 4.10

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UPDATE 11 LOFTING A FLYING TWINKIE The military’s stubby space plane will test tantalizingly secret technologies. By James Oberg

12 A ROBOT IN THE KITCHEN

13 TOO BIG TO HACK

14 CHIPMAKERS STACK THE DECK

16 HOW TO CURE RANGE ANXIETY

18 WETA MODELS THE HUMAN FACE

20 THE BIG PICTURE LEDs light up a stately pleasure dome.

28 OPINION 8 SPECTRAL LINES Silicon Valley’s grief after a tragic plane crash shows how much engineers matter. By Tekla S. Perry

10 FORUM Readers discuss off-grid charging, the market realities of medical-device development, and giving credit where credit is due.

27 TECHNICALLY SPEAKING We think we’re paragons of polyattentiveness, but mostly we’re just interrupt driven. By Paul McFedries

DEPARTMENTS 4 BACK STORY 48 44 IEEE Spectrum journalism intern Anne-Marie Corley test-drives an START IT UP: COVER STORY electric-powered sedan. Sleek lines hide even sleeker 6 CONTRIBUTORS engineering 28 TOP 10 TECH CARS 22 TOOLS & TOYS inside this year’s The industry-wide drive toward electric propulsion is making technol- With no mirror box or viewfinder, Micro crop of high-tech ogy more important than ever. Edited by Philip E. Ross & David Schneider Four Thirds cameras are faster, simpler, cars [top]; Amor and smaller. By Mark Anderson Nadji is helping build a particle 38 SPACE INVADERS 23 BOOKS Martin Gardner’s Mathematical accelerator Tiny meteoroids can cause catastrophic failures in satellites and in Jordan Games are being reprised—all 25 years’ worth. Review by Clive Feather [bottom left]; spacecraft, but we don’t understand them nearly as well as we should. Hiroshi Ishiguro By Sigrid Close 24 HANDS ON watches over his Why stop at breadboarding when robot replica. 44 THE MAN WHO MADE custom PCBs are easy to design and cheap to get made? By James Turner COVER: MERCEDES-BENZ A COPY OF HIMSELF THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE 26 GEEK LIFE FROM TOP: AUDI; MAKOTO To decipher what makes us human, Hiroshi Ishiguro has created The astronauts who repaired the ISHIDA; JOSEPH ZAKARIAN android copies of a child, a woman—and now, himself. By Erico Guizzo Hubble last May also wielded a 200-kilogram IMAX camera. 48 OPEN SESAME? Film preview by Susan Karlin 68 THE DATA Engineers hope to foster science and peace with the Middle East’s first Maybe Apple should stop making synchrotron. But first they have to build it. By Sandra Upson computers. By Steven Cherry

______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG APRIL 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 1

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______IEEE.ORG/ BE QUIET! THEINSTITUTE______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG Android teacher AVAILABLE 6 APRIL Saya, developed AVAILABLE 1 APRIL CYBER VULNERABILITIES at the Tokyo ODE TO THE UNCANNY VALLEY University of IN INDUSTRY Are humanlike robots creepy? In 1970, Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori Science, can The systems most vulnerable to a cyber- proposed that although we may feel more comfortable with robots that call roll, conduct attack aren’t those that house your resemble humans, when lifelike appearance is approached but not attained a lecture, and identity or passwords; they’re the in- our reaction shifts from empathy to revulsion. This supposed descent into scold, too. dustrial control systems that run power creepiness became known as the “uncanny valley,” and despite the notoriety of PHOTOS: TOP: ITSUO plants, manufacturing facilities, and INOUYE/AP PHOTO; the idea in popular culture, it remains a controversial notion in robotics circles. BOTTOM: FRANCESCO oil reﬁneries. That’s according to cyber- FERORELLI Is it a valid scientiﬁc conjecture or just pseudoscience? Watch our slideshow, security expert Joseph Weiss, author of which features some of the most striking anthropomorphic robots, lifelike two IEEE Expert Now tutorials on how mannequins, and computer-generated characters ever created, and decide for to protect these systems. yourself: http://spectrum.ieee.org/uncannyvalley. IEEE.TV GETS REDESIGN, NEW FEATURES ONLINE FEATURE The IEEE.tv site has had a makeover, with a new look, more features, and HOMEMADE SYNTHESIZER a better viewer interface. Read about AVAILABLE 1 APRIL these improvements and more. When Jay Dilisio, a musician PHOTOVOLTAIC SPECIALISTS and artist from Baltimore, CONFERENCE became interested in Environmental concerns, climate ______synthesizer-based music change, and energy security are from the 1970s, he realized he among today’s most pressing issues. couldn’t afford actual vintage Solar cells can help address many analog synths. So he built his of these challenges. Learn about own. See and hear Dilisio’s these and other topics at the IEEE creations at http://spectrum. Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, Contains over 25% Renewable Resources ieee.org/synthesizer. to be held 20 to 25 June in Honolulu.

IEEE SPECTRUM (ISSN 0018-9235) is published monthly by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2010 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 3 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5997, U.S.A. The editorial content of IEEE Spectrum magazine does not represent official positions of the IEEE or its organizational units. Canadian Post International Publications Mail (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 40013087. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Department, IEEE Spectrum, Box 1051, Fort Erie, ON L2A 6C7. Cable address: ITRIPLEE. Fax: +1 212 419 7570. INTERNET: [email protected]. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: IEEE Members: $21.40 included in dues. Libraries/institutions: $399. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to IEEE Spectrum, c/o Coding Department, IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Canadian GST #125634188. Printed at W224-N3322 Duplainville Rd., Pewaukee, WI 53072-4195, U.S.A. IEEE Spectrum circulation is audited by BPA Worldwide. IEEE Spectrum is a member of American Business Media, the Magazine Publishers of America, and Association Media & Publishing. IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment, and bullying. For more information, visit http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/whatis/policies/p9-26.html.

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back story

EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Susan Hassler, [email protected] EXECUTIVE EDITOR Glenn Zorpette, [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Elizabeth A. Bretz, [email protected] SENIOR EDITORS Harry Goldstein (Online), [email protected]; Jean Kumagai,[email protected]; Samuel K. Moore (News), [email protected]; Tekla S. Perry, [email protected]______; Philip E. Ross, [email protected]; David Schneider, [email protected] SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR Steven Cherry (Resources), [email protected] ASSOCIATE EDITORS Sally Adee, [email protected]; Erico Guizzo, [email protected]; Joshua J. Romero (Online), [email protected]; Sandra Upson, [email protected] ASSISTANT EDITOR Willie D. Jones, [email protected] SENIOR COPY EDITOR Joseph N. Levine,[email protected] COPY EDITOR Michele Kogon, [email protected] EDITORIAL RESEARCHER Alan Gardner, [email protected]

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, SPECTRUM RADIO Sharon Basco

ASSISTANT PRODUCER, SPECTRUM RADIO Francesco Ferorelli, [email protected] ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS Ramona Gordon, [email protected]; Nancy T. Hantman, [email protected] sneaking back to the track to try IEEE SPECTRUM JOURNALISM INTERN Anne-Marie Corley, [email protected] for a fourth spin, he greeted her Gone in CONTRIBUTING EDITORS John Blau, Robert N. Charette, with a shake of the head and said, Peter Fairley, David Kushner, Robert W. Lucky, “Oh, you again?” Paul McFedries, Prachi Patel, Carl Selinger, Seema Singh, William Sweet, John Voelcker 22 Hours Having piloted a Toyota Prius across the southwestern United ART & PRODUCTION rriving on a snowy States and sped a pint-size Daimler SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Mark Montgomery ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Michael Solita winter’s day in gray Smart car down the German A ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Brandon Palacio Vancouver, IEEE Spectrum autobahn, Corley had felt the PHOTO EDITOR Randi Silberman Klett

journalism intern Anne-Marie difference between those cars and DIRECTOR, PERIODICALS PRODUCTION SERVICES Peter Tuohy

Corley was nonetheless full of regular sedans. So it surprised her EDITORIAL & WEB PRODUCTION MANAGER Roy Carubia anticipation. She had jetted across that the Leaf “felt just like driving SENIOR ELECTRONIC LAYOUT SPECIALIST Bonnie Nani the continent to be among the ﬁrst a normal car.” WEB PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Jacqueline L. Parker journalists to drive Nissan’s highly Unfortunately, because the MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION SPECIALIST Michael Spector anticipated pure-electric car, the car wasn’t complete on the inside, EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Leaf. She was on assignment for she didn’t get to try out the space- Susan Hassler, Chair; Marc T. Apter, Francine D. Berman, Jan Brown, Raffaello D’Andrea, Hiromichi Fujisawa, Kenneth our “Top 10 Tech Cars” (in this age controller that replaces the Y. Goldberg, Susan Hackwood, Bin He, Erik Heijne, Charles H. issue), and she’d be in Vancouver gearshift. And although she got to House, Christopher J. James, Ronald G. Jensen, Ruby B. Lee, for a grand total of 22 hours. drive the car into the garage for its Tak Ming Mak, David A. Mindell, C. Mohan, Fritz Morgan, Andrew M. Odlyzko, Barry L. Shoop, Curtis A. Siller Jr., Larry L. Smarr, Then she got a look at the car. lunch break (sandwiches for press, Harry L. Tredennick III, Sergio Verdú, William Weihl, Bas¸ak Yüksel

It wasn’t the sleek e-speedster electrons for the Leaf), no amount EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE that will go on sale later this year of finagling kept Nissan engineers IEEE Spectrum, 3 Park Ave., 17th Floor, New York, NY 10016-5997 in Japan, the United States, and from shooing her away before they Attn: Editorial Dept. Tel: +1 212 419 7555 Fax: +1 212 419 7570 Bureau: Palo Alto, Calif.; Tekla S. Perry +1 650 328 7570 Europe, but rather a “test mule,” plugged in the EV. “It’s not the real Responsibility for the substance of articles rests upon the with the guts of a Leaf and the one anyway,” they told her. So she’ll authors, not IEEE or its members. Articles published do not represent official positions of IEEE. Letters to the editor may be body of a dowdy Versa. But that have to wait with the rest of us to excerpted for publication. didn’t take away from the fun take a peek at its charging hardware. ADVERTISING CORRESPONDENCE of driving it. A Nissan observer She did manage to squeeze in IEEE Spectrum, 3 Park Ave., 17th Floor, New York, NY 10016-5997 riding shotgun didn’t flinch as a few more test runs before being Attn: Advertising Dept. +1 212 419 7760 Corley stomped on the gas (whoops, left behind by the press van. Then The publisher reserves the right to reject any advertising. electricity!) and slammed on the she got out of town just in time REPRINT PERMISSION brakes while zipping around the for her flight—and just before the LIBRARIES: Articles may be photocopied for private use of patrons. A per-copy fee must be paid to the Copyright test course. But when he saw her snow hit. O Clearance Center, 29 Congress St., Salem, MA 01970. For other copying or republication, contact Business Manager, IEEE Spectrum.

CITING ARTICLES IN IEEE SPECTRUM COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS: IEEE Spectrum is a registered IEEE Spectrum publishes two editions. In the international edition, the abbreviation INT appears at the trademark owned by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics foot of each page. The North American edition is identified with the letters NA. Both have the same Engineers Inc. Careers, EEs’ Tools & Toys, EV Watch, Progress, editorial content, but because of differences in advertising, page numbers may differ. In citations, you Reflections, Spectral Lines, and Technically Speaking are should include the issue designation. For example, the first Update page is in IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 47, trademarks of IEEE. IEEE Spectrum no. 4 (INT), April 2010, p. 9, or in , Vol. 47, no. 4 (NA), April 2010, p. 11. OF ANNE-MARIE CORLEY COURTESY

4 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

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IEEE MEDIA STAFF DIRECTOR; PUBLISHER, IEEE SPECTRUM James A. Vick,[email protected] ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, SALES & ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Marion Delaney,[email protected] SIGRID CLOSE they were coming straight out into RECRUITMENT SALES DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Michael Buryk, [email protected] first agreed to write the theater, she recalls, and there BUSINESS MANAGER Robert T. Ross “Space Invaders” was “an audible gasp” in the IEEE MEDIA/SPECTRUM GROUP MARKETING MANAGER Blanche McGurr, [email protected] [p. 38] nearly three audience. “I remember thinking, INTERACTIVE MARKETING MANAGER Ruchika Anand,[email protected] years ago, when, as a ‘That’s the movie I want to LIST SALES & RECRUITMENT SERVICES PRODUCT/MARKETING MANAGER Ilia Rodriguez, [email protected] Los Alamos National Laboratory see,’” Karlin says. She’s a self- REPRINT SALES +1 212 221 9595, EXT. 319 researcher, she was profiled for proclaimed space geek—as a kid, MARKETING & PROMOTION SPECIALIST Faith H. Jeanty, [email protected] ADVERTISING SALES +1 212 419 7760 our 2008 Dream Jobs issue. But she had a poster of the Apollo 11 SALES ADVISOR John Restchack +1 212 419 7578 after that issue hit the stands, her crew on her wall. ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER Felicia Spagnoli career went nuclear: She got a SENIOR ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Nicole Evans ADVERTISING PRODUCTION +1 732 562 6334 tenure-track position at Stanford JAMES TURNER IEEE STAFF EXECUTIVE, PUBLICATIONS Anthony Durniak and starred in a forthcoming TV designed his own IEEE BOARD OF DIRECTORS reality show called “Asteroid printed circuit PRESIDENT & CEO Pedro A. Ray +1 732 562 3928 FAX: +1 732 465 6444 [email protected] Hunter,” among other things. board and then had PRESIDENT-ELECT Moshe Kam Once the dust settled, Close finally it custom-fabricated TREASURER Peter W. Staecker had time to write about her for less than US $20, a project he SECRETARY David G. Green PAST PRESIDENT John R. Vig passion: the space dust that can describes in “Board Certified” VICE PRESIDENTS demolish entire satellites. [p. 24]. His 15-year-old son, Daniel, Tariq S. Durrani, Educational Activities; Jon G. Rokne, has also caught the DIY bug and Publication Services & Products; Barry L. Shoop, Member & Geographic Activities; W. Charlton Adams, President, Standards MAKOTO ISHIDA occasionally assists Turner in Association; Roger D. Pollard, Technical Activities; Evelyn H. Hirt, President, IEEE-USA did the featured brainstorming his designs. photography for DIVISION DIRECTORS Hiroshi Iwai (I); Robert E. Hebner Jr. (II); “The Man Who LAWRENCE Nim K. Cheung (III); Roger W. Sudbury (IV); Michael R. Williams (V); Mark I. Montrose (VI); Made a Copy of ULRICH, who test- Enrique A. Tejera M. (VII); Stephen L. Diamond (VIII); Himself” [p. 44]. He intended to drove two cars for Alfred O. Hero III (IX); Richard A. Volz (X) make the robot look alive, but the “Top 10 Tech Cars” REGION DIRECTORS Charles P. Rubenstein (1); William P. Walsh Jr. (2); Clarence moment he walked into Hiroshi [p. 28], came to auto L. Stogner (3); Don C. Bramlett (4); Sandra L. Robinson (5); Leonard J. Bond (6); Om P. Malik (7); Jozef W. Modelski (8); Ishiguro’s lab, he realized that journalism by an unorthodox Tania L. Quiel (9); Yong Jin Park (10)

wouldn’t be an issue. “I thought Dr. route: rock music. The native DIRECTORS EMERITUS Ishiguro himself was sitting in the Detroiter worked in the 1980s as Eric Herz, Theodore W. Hissey

chair, but it turned out to be the a rock musician, playing IEEE STAFF twin robot. It’s that real from a keyboard as far afield as Europe EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & COO James Prendergast +1 732 502 5400, [email protected] distance,” Ishida says. The shoot before becoming a business HUMAN RESOURCES Betsy Davis, SPHR was still challenging, because the writer in the early 1990s, then +1 732 465 6434, [email protected] PUBLICATIONS Anthony Durniak two men had to manually pose the a car writer. He lives in Brooklyn, +1 732 562 3998, [email protected] robot joint by joint, and because its N.Y., and regularly writes for The EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES Douglas Gorham +1 732 562 5483, [email protected] gaze couldn’t follow the camera, New York Times and Automobile. STANDARDS ACTIVITIES Judith Gorman they had to adjust their positions +1 732 562 3820, [email protected] MEMBER & GEOGRAPHIC ACTIVITIES Cecelia Jankowski while the robot sat still. Ishida JOHN VOELCKER, +1 732 562 5504, [email protected] CORPORATE STRATEGY & COMMUNICATIONS Matthew Loeb, CAE noted that Ishiguro had lost some an IEEE Spectrum +1 732 562 5320, [email protected] weight in the two years since he contributing editor, CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Alexander J. Pasik, Ph.D. +1 732 562 6017, [email protected] created his twin, but the robot, of went to Vista, Calif., BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Richard D. Schwartz course, hadn’t changed a bit. to try out the all- +1 732 562 5311, [email protected] TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES Mary Ward-Callan electric, egg-shaped Aptera 2e +1 732 562 3850, [email protected] SUSAN KARLIN for “Top 10 Tech Cars” [p. 28]. MANAGING DIRECTOR, IEEE-USA Chris Brantley +1 202 530 8349, [email protected]______ﬁrst saw a preview A connoisseur of vintage British IEEE PUBLICATION SERVICES & PRODUCTS BOARD of the Hubble 3D cars such as the Morris Minor and Jon G. Rokne, Chair; Tayfun Akgul, John Baillieul, Silvio E. Barbin, Deborah M. Cooper, Celia L. Desmond, Tariq S. Durrani, movie, covered in the Riley One-Point-Five, Voelcker Mohamed E. El-Hawary, Gerald L. Engel, David A. Grier, Geek Life [p. 26], at sold his ﬁrst automotive article at Jens Hannemann, Lajos Hanzo, Hirohisa Kawamoto, Russell J. Lefevre, Michael R. Lightner, Steve M. Mills, an IMAX Avatar screening in LA. age 14. He has also written for Pradeep Misra, Saifur Rahman, Edward A. Rezek, Curtis A. Siller Jr., W. Ross Stone, Ravi M. Todi, Robert J. Trew, The astronauts’ feet looked like Popular Science and Wired. Karl R. Varian, Timothy T. Wong, Jacek Zurada

IEEE OPERATIONS CENTER 445 Hoes Lane, Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08854-1331 U.S.A. Tel: +1 732 981 0060 Fax: +1 732 981 1721 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: STANFORD UNIVERSITY; JAMES TURNER; RANDI SILBERMAN (2); CARIN BAER; MAKOTO ISHIDA ISHIDA MAKOTO BAER; CARIN SILBERMAN (2); TURNER; RANDI JAMES UNIVERSITY; STANFORD LEFT: TOP FROM CLOCKWISE

6 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

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spectral lines

Tesla Tragedy: How Much Engineers Matter

t’s a small valley,” I heard peo- I ple saying over and over as, like other Palo Altans, I took to the streets, ostensibly looking for power, Internet access, and hot coffee, but really just wanting to be out among people. It was too strange to be home alone in a cold, silent, and dark office. Just before 8 a.m. on Wednesday, 17 February, the entire town—except a few random traffic lights—lost power when a small airplane crashed into a transmission tower. At first, while we’d heard there’d been a plane crash, we didn’t feel particularly connected to the crash itself; we were more concerned about the massive power outage and how we could possibly get through the day without the Internet. From left, Doug Bourn, Andrew Ingram, and Brian Finn. Then we heard that the plane was carrying three Tesla Motors A version of this article generation car. An IEEE member, Finn previously worked employees. Whoa. Tesla is one of appeared in IEEE Spectrum at the Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratory in Palo our own, a Silicon Valley start-up Online’s Tech Talk blog on Alto; he loved skiing and playing the guitar. launched with some of the fortune 19 February. Ingram, who celebrated his 31st birthday two days before the created by Internet company crash, worked at Tesla as an electrical engineering generalist. PayPal—and a company that IEEE Spectrum has followed very Coming off his previous post at Dolby Laboratories, he was pas- closely from the very beginning. And if we didn’t know the Tesla sionate about audio, but according to Tesla’s blog, he was “eager employees on board that plane, we certainly all knew at least to lend a hand wherever it was needed, from marketing to man- one person who did. Forget six degrees of separation—the valley ufacturing.” In his free time he rowed with a local crew team. is a lot smaller than that. And the silent day without power no The night before the crash, Bourn worked with the girls at longer felt like a sudden holiday. It was a day of mourning. Castilleja in a final push to complete their robot; they had only a Doug Bourn, Brian Finn, and Andrew Ingram died in few days before it had to be shipped to a competition in Oregon. the crash. Bourn, 56, was piloting the plane. He was a senior The team worked on after the crash, spending the day fixing a electrical engineer at Tesla and an important part of the few things and soldering. One team member posted in a blog: team that developed the power train for the Tesla Roadster. “I remember when [Doug] taught me how to solder. I’m an excel- He liked to explain things—whether it was the ins and outs lent solderer now—I learned from the best. I think it’s appropri- of the Roadster to a local group of engineers or how to solve ate that I spent today soldering, and even better, teaching other a robotics problem to a group of high school girls. Bourn, people how to solder. We all wore our safety glasses, and our an IEEE member, spoke regularly at IEEE and American soldering was wonderful.” Their season continues, but, their Society of Mechanical Engineers events and was a volunteer Web site notes, Bourn’s loss will be felt: “Doug was a calming coach for the robotics team at Castilleja High School, in Palo force for the team through all of their ups and downs and was Alto. He also taught flying. Before joining Tesla, Bourn spent always present at local competitions to cheer the team on.”

JOSEPH ADOLPHE 10 years at Ideo, the independent design ﬁrm behind the There’s an engineering stereotype—engineers just do original Apple mouse and the Palm Treo. their work, oblivious to the rest of the world around them— Finn, 42, was senior interactive electronics manager at but if you think about what’s been lost with the deaths of Tesla, working on an interactive touch screen for the next- these three men, you will know it’s not true. —Tekla S. Perry

8 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

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simple, win-win solution ______for-inventing-the-ccd.] ! $ $! ! #"!&! ! ! to this problem: Use off - Shift registers made in

! grid charging. A small various technologies had natural-gas- powered been around since the engine spinning a beginning of computers.

3.2 5$ 3'$ '$12(34 3(.-'$%1($-#(-5(3$#'$13.".,$3. 22 "'42$332 6- kilowatt generator with It was well known that 6.1+#.1 3+$ 23 /($"$.%(3432'$ $-$1 +.2/(3 +3.6 3"'2.,$241&$1($2(-5.+5(-&$7/$1(,$- 3 +,$#(" +#$5("$2 )4236 2-3241$'.63.&. !.43(3 '$.!2$15$#3'$3$23.% -$6#$5("$ - .13("23$-33' 3".4+# 3 &$ 2'$' #6' 3,.23$-&( !$(-2$13$#3'1.4&'3'$!+..#5$22$+2+(*$ " 3'$3$1'$ 33$,/3 % (+$# -#3'$241&$.-2' #3.1$5$133.31 #(3(.- +./$-'$ 13241 both 115- and 240-volt shift registers required -$$126.4+#".-2(#$1 #1$ ,).! &$18433' 3% (+41$6 2 1$5$+ 3(.-3..'1 /1.#4"3$-&(-$$1(-&, - &$1 3 :32$$,$#3.,$3' 3(%3'$$-&(-$$12' #!$$- 2(-3(, 3$+8 $1.(1.-,$-3 !.43(04$%(1,(- % ,(+( 16(3'3'$!.#8 23'$241&$.-26$1$3'$1$6.4+#' 5$ .-1.5( +(%3' 3#$2(&-2 -#!4(+#22.,$.%3'$ !$$- !$33$1"' -"$3' 33'$23$-36.4+#' 5$6.1*$#=.'1 2 82'$+(23$-$#3.3'$$-&(-$$12 -#3'$241&$.-2(-3'$./$1 output could be used to the use of a three-phase 6.1+#2,.23 #5 -"$#+ -# -# (15$'("+$2'$# 3(-&1..,:'$8)423#(#-32/$ *$ "'.3'$12+ -&4 &$2= '$+/$#!4(+#" 12%.16(39$1+ -#2.41#$.+ -# 2'$2 82-.3(-&3' 33'$241&$.-26.4+#/1./.2$% -3 23(" + 2.+43(.-23' 3(-5.+5$#!1$ *(-&3'$+ 62.%/'82("2 -#3'$ 4231 +( 2;123.1+#.+ 1' ++$-&$6.1*$#.- $-&(-$$126.4+#3183.!1(-&3'.2$2.+43(.-2(-3.3'$1$ +,.% /.6$131 (-2%.1'8!1(#" 1224/$15(2$#".-2314" 1$ +(386(3'.43%4++84-#$123 -#(-&3'$%4-# ,$-3 +/1.!+$, charge an electric vehicle clock to move charge in 3(.-.% '8!1(#.?1. #,(+(3 181$".-- (22 -"$ 3'$#$5("$6 2,$ -33.2.+5$ .'11$ +(9$#3' 3(%2'$6 -3$#3.#$2(&-1$ ++81$5.+43(.- 18 5$'("+$ -#23 13$# + !.1 3.183.#$5$+./%4$+ ,$#(" +#$5("$22'$-$$#$# !$33$14-#$123 -#(-&.%3'$$-5(1.- "$++2823$,2%.1 (1"1 %3#$2(&-$#3.23 8 ,$-3(-6'("'3'$86.4+#!$#$/+.8$#>3'$'4, - !.#8'$!$236 83.&$33' 34-#$123 -#(-&2'$ with no connection what- one direction. A vague +.%3%.1,.-3'2 3 3(,$ 3'.4&'36.4+#!$3.&.3.,$#(" +2"'..+ :',8=6 2'$1-$733'.4&'3:,1$ ++8 :36 2 &+.1(;$#3.8% "3.18=.'11$" ++2:3 &.(-&3.#. = 6 2)4233'$*(-#.%3'(-&6 -3$#3.!$#.(-&= .'1+..*$#(-3. " #$,(" +3$1- 3(5$2> 43(-3'$+ 3$ 22'$23 13$#3.3(1$.%, *(-& : -83'(-&!43,$#(" +2"'..+= 22'$/432(343 soever to the grid. Such suggestion that such (-"1$#(!+8"..+5$'("+$2(-+.32.%.-$.136.:$# 2'$!$" ,$".-5(-"$#3' 3 33$-#(-& ,$#(" + !$$-6.1*(-&6(3'$ "'.-$.%3'$(&'1$$ 2"'..+6(3' 241&(" +/1.&1 ,3' 3+$3'$1/ 1 6(3'3'$ 22."( 3(.-.%41&(" +#4" 3(.- -#2/$-3$5$18%1$$ %.1"$ +3$1- 3(5$23.241&$1824"' 2+ 2$122#(1$"3.1.%,$#(" + " 1".,/ -($2%.18$ 12$' #!4(+3$+$"31("/1.3. 3("(/ 3$(-./$1 3(.-26 23'$.-+86 82'$".4+# ,.,$-331.++(-&3'$'.2/(3 +%.1241&$.-26'.6.4+#+$3'$1 1$2$ 1"'2'$2 +2.(-5$23(& 3(-& //+(" 3(.-2%.1.3'$1-$6241 38/$2'8!1(#/1.3.38/$2=433'$" 1".,/ &$33'$#$$/4-#$123 -#(-&.%3'$'4, -!.#8 2"14! (-.-./$1 3(.-2'$!$" ,$ 1$&4+ 1241&(" + 22(23 -33. &(" +3$"'-.+.&($2-$(2%." +3'$1 /86'("'(-5.+5$2(-2$13(-& -($26$1$-3".,,$1"( +(9(-&3'$2$#$2(&-2 # # 3' 32'$2.4&'3 36.241&$.-26'.2/$"( +(9$#(-+ / 1.2"./($26'("' 1$241&( " 3'$3$1(-3. 34,.1 -#3'$-#$231.8(-&3'$34,.1%1.,3'$ engines already exist for shift registers might be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emergency power backup useful in an imaging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but are pricey; a mass- chip is a far cry from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produced unit specifi cally inventing the CCD. "' -&$6'$-2'$3 +*$#3. 241&$.-%1($-# !.43 .%3'$22."( 3(.-.%.,$-41&$.-26.1*$# (-&241&$18!8"433(-& -#24341(-& -#(2-.6 //+8(-&+.6$1 (-3./ 3($-32= designed for vehicle Does technology charging might bring the have a place in physics? price down. Technology has always LETTERS do not DREAM ON Conversely, medical William C. Blackwell been the basis for experi- represent opinions can relate to devices have been very mental science: Galileo’s of IEEE. Short, I IEEE Life Member concise letters are Catherine Mohr’s satis- heavily subsidized by Richardson, Texas telescope and Hooke’s preferred. They fying career in medical the U.S. government, in microscope depended may be edited device design [“Robodoc,” the form of Medicare, EYES ON on glass technology. for space and Dream Jobs, February], Medicaid, tax-deductible THE PRIZE Giving the Nobel Prize clarity. To post having worked in this insurance premiums, urprisingly, the in Physics to the modern your comments S online, go to fi eld for 35 years. I can and so on. The consumer controversy over successors of the optical spectrum.ieee.org. also appreciate the value is usually isolated from this year’s Nobel Prize technologists makes all Or write to Forum, of her work, having the economic decisions in Physics goes on the sense in the world. IEEE Spectrum , had da Vinci robotic by insurance and so [“The Nobel Prize Was it wrong for the 3 Park Ave., 17th Floor, New York, surgery. However, Mohr’s doesn’t have to consider and Its Discontents,” Nobel committee to refer NY 10016-5997, motivation to move from economic value. I have Update, December]: Was to the CCD’s imaging U.S.A.; fax, green automotive design no idea how much my Eugene Gordon the real applications in the +1 212 419 7570; to medical products robotic prostate surgery inventor of the charge- awards citation? I was a e-mail, n.hantman ______needs a reality check. really cost. coupled device? Why member of Nobel Prize– [email protected]. I have made a good At some point the give the physics prize winner Willard Boyle’s living riding the medical- nation’s health-care costs to new technology? Did division at Bell Labs device- development will force policies under the committee get the when the CCD work was gravy train, but a train which medical-device citation wrong? being done, so I can tes- wreck is fast approaching. and drug developers Gordon’s own tify that it was obvious at Mohr says she was will have to recognize testimony makes it the outset that the CCD frustrated by the “huge the market realities that clear that he did not could support imag- entrenched political, phil- car manufacturers have invent the CCD. In his ing. Its greatest impact osophical problems lined always had to face. account, posted on has been on that fi eld, up” against the commer- Peter Staats IEEE Spectrum Online so it would have been cialization of electric cars. IEEE Member six months ago, he wrote, ridiculous not to refer to But she fails to consider Loveland, Ohio “I handed [George] Smith it in the citation. Mike that a wonderful green the idea of a silicon Tompsett quite rightly automotive design must POWER YOUR WAY shift register run by a got the fi rst patent on also be one that makes lectric vehicles 3-phase clock, i.e., the an imaging application economic sense to the E will indeed add addi- initial CCD invention.” of the CCD, but it was a consumer. Otherwise it tional load to the power [See http://spectrum. derivative idea, not part won’t be produced, even grid [“Speed Bumps ieee.org/tech-talk/ of the seminal invention. if it might save the world Ahead for Electric-Vehicle ______semiconductors/devices/ Bernard T. Murphy from the mythical carbon Charging,” Update, nobel- controversy- IEEE Life Fellow dioxide threat. January]. But there is a who-deserves-credit-______Mertztown, Penn.

10 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

more online at spectrum.ieee.org

trick in such self-protection is SHORT AND determining whether you are SQUAT: The U.S. Air Force Launches X-37B is a under attack at all. A clever space plane of enemy will want the attack to perhaps unlovely Secret Flying Twinkie seem to be a mere accident. That stubbiness. It is designed to test Military’s new space plane tests unnamed powers way he’d leave no return address. The official description of the technologies, including some mission talks of demonstrating the military “a rapid-turnaround airborne test declines to he liftoff of an Atlas V flying Twinkie because of its bed.” That makes sense, but there discuss. IMAGE: BOEING T rocket from Cape Canaveral stubby-winged shape. It was built is no sign that anyone plans to PHANTOM WORKS this month will mark one of in the Boeing Phantom Works fly the vehicle ever again. Official the most secretive U.S. Air Force high-security facility in Seal explanations also mention putting spaceflights in decades. Guessing Beach, Calif. In the flight test, the the space plane through all its the nature of the secret has become craft is supposed to orbit Earth steps in orbital flight—including a sport among aficionados. for several weeks, maneuver in-orbit maneuvering, descent and “This is one odd bird,” military in orbit, and glide its way to a landing—while demonstrating space historian Dwayne Day landing strip at Vandenberg or testing 30-odd technologies, told IEEE Spectrum. “They’re Air Force Base, in California. including guidance and navigation, spending an awful lot of money The smart money is betting thermal protection and power- for a test program that seems that the flight will put to the test distribution systems, and to have no real end user.” systems that enable satellites to streamlined flight, all of potential The 6000-kilogram, 8-meter protect themselves from enemy use on future vehicles. The new X-37B OTV-1 is often called a attack. The most important technologies pave the way for a

______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG APRIL 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 11

A recently proposed prefix denoting the number 1027, which is three orders of magnitude larger than yotta, HELLA the next-biggest numerical prefix accepted by the International System of Units.

tech in sight

new White House policy ing it the chance to detect A Robot in under which NASA is clues to their presence. to turn over much of its The X-37B has a pickup- the Kitchen ground-to-orbit transport bed-size payload bay that to commercial providers. could carry such instru- osie, the robot who kept house for the title fam- Most of these ments and subsatellites. R ily in “The Jetsons,” a 1960s animated television show, technologies can be seen Observers suspect has at last come alive—sort of. Before you’ll see a robot as refinements of ideas that the test flight may slicing cucumbers in your kitchen, researchers will need to dating back to the 1960s, involve observations of make these mechanical servants smarter. Here’s how three but one, unmentioned idea— another space vehicle. This teams are tackling this challenge. —Erico Guizzo autonomous approach— suspicion was fanned by would be truly new, if the announcement in late speculations are correct, February that a Mach-5 and it’s indeed part of hypersonic glider would be this spaceflight. This is launched from California the ability to identify an toward a Pacific tracking site during the X-37B’s first week in orbit. “That is a pretty interesting coincidence,” noted Brian Weeden, a Montreal-based space and missile advisor for the Secure World Foundation, a private group in Superior, Colo., that monitors space technology. “Once we get more details about when they will be on orbit and can glean info RESKINNED BIRD: A about trajectories, it might technician adjusts panels on get really interesting.” an early version of the X-37B. Probably the best insight PHOTO: R. DAVIS/BOEING into the project’s purpose will come after launch, attacker by electromagnetic as amateur (but well- range finding and perhaps equipped) satellite watchers by chemical “sniffing” for around the world attempt effluents that an attacker to follow its orbital flight might leak while trying path and course changes. to match up its orbit (You can follow their efforts with that of the target. at http://satobs.org.) Advanced Telecommunications To test such capabilities The degree to which the Research Institute International (ATR), properly, the mission amateurs are successful, Kansai Science City, Japan might conceivably deploy and the effort that the X-37B WHAT: Robovie-II can help customers locate and carry products at a subsatellites to imper- managers take to evade Kyoto supermarket. sonate enemy craft, or such observation, may HOW: ATR researchers say that a stand-alone robot is not suited for bogies. They’d stalk the provide a significant clue many real-world tasks. A better approach is to use “ubiquitous network robot technology”—a mix of robots, sensors, and virtual robots. Says mother ship using autono- as to just how secret—and Hiroshi Ishiguro, an ATR Fellow, Robovie-II is eager to offer suggestions: mous approach techniques important—this mission “If you’re making a broccoli salad, you might want to get some lettuce as tested in recent years, giv- really is. —James Oberg well.” If you know what’s good for you. PHOTO: STR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

12 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

digging into and getting the Too Big source code for Google’s intellectual property.” The problem goes far beyond the Chinese market, to Hack Payne says. The hack undercut the trust necessary To keep c yberspace for the adoption of all of secure, must Google’s applications, notably governments e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, and now regulate mighty social networking. One large Google? financial service organization, the name of which Payne declined to provide, had ARLY THIS YEAR, when been planning to shift more the search giant Google of its IT infrastructure over E fell victim to hackers to Google apps. But “when in China, a lot of wild-eyed this [Google hack] happened, speculation began. Will they immediately started Google carry out its threat reevaluating,” he says. University of Tokyo’s Jouhou System to pull out of China? Could Mark Kadrich, CEO of Kougaku Laboratory Google, like Microsoft before consulting firm The Security it, face crippling antitrust Consortium, in San Jose, WHAT: An HRP-2 humanoid robot learns to wash dishes. lawsuits? Might the company Calif., says he thinks the HOW: The researchers are using a combination of human motion- end up a semiregulated attack was at its core about capture and video-game-style simulations to teach the robot how to public utility? And, given the market share. handle different dishware and deal with uncertainties. “We’re focusing monopoly status of such a “My hunch is this attack on failure detection,” says Kei Okada, a University of Tokyo professor. utility, would Google quietly directly targeted intellectual “So if you move a cup while the robot is trying to grasp it, the robot enjoy such a future? property Google has—to help just recomputes its actions.” That is, it won’t try to grab the cup from Probably not, maybe, no, Baidu be more competitive,” your hands—and then vaporize you. PHOTO: ERICO GUIZZO and no, say cybersecurity says Kadrich. Baidu is a and antitrust experts. search engine based in China. It all began in January, Google has turned to spy when Google said it had agencies like the National recently detected hacks Security Agency, not as on its Gmail system from part of some Big Brother China. The New York Times conspiracy but rather because later reported that the countering cyberattacks is the attacks originated at two agency’s specialty. educational institutions. And what of the argument On 23 February, the Chinese for regulation, which government labeled the claims that information is allegations “groundless.” a public resource like water The attack involved a or electricity and that its security breach that released management and flow malicious code inside therefore need to be treated one of Google’s firewalls. as a public utility? Such attacks, called spear The analogy doesn’t work, phishing, may arrive as spam says Payne, because using or blog links that lure users water and electricity requires inside—in this case, Google’s installing and maintaining secure networks—to visit the pipes and wires coming seemingly innocent Web into every home. Such Korea Institute of Science and sites that off-load viruses service requires government or other malware onto the assistance to function. Technology (KIST), Seoul user’s computer. “We don’t have that WHAT: Mahru, a biped humanoid, can pop a snack into the “No one knows the payload problem on the Internet,” microwave and bring it to you. of what that malicious code Payne says. “Google HOW: A human wearing a sensor suit performs tasks while a motion- was supposed to do, other doesn’t own the standards tracking system records the action. The robot is programmed to than access Gmail records— for the Internet or for how reproduce the tasks while adapting to changes in the space, such as and figure out who was a information is transferred.” a displaced chair. “Robots that operate in human environments need threat to the government,” However, he adds, “they to move like humans,” says Bum-Jae You, head of KIST’s Cognitive says Jeffery Payne, CEO of will come under antitrust Robotics Center. Mahru also performs some dance moves like a pro. Fairfax, Va.–based computer scrutiny. They’re just too big PHOTO: YURIKO NAKAO/REUTERS security firm Coveros. “But and too successful not to.” they also seemed to be —Mark Anderson

______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG APRIL 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 13

The time by which the length of a day is estimated 1.26 MILLISECONDS to have been shortened by the recent earthquake in Chile, which at 8.8 on the Richter scale ranks as the seventh strongest quake ever recorded.

VERTICALLY CHALLENGED: Copper “vias” connect silicon 300 μm, or about 3 or 4 tiers, dies stacked in a deck. Marchal says. Stacks could IMAGE: IMEC grow to 16 tiers before hitting reliability barriers or delivering power unevenly The first challenge is size. throughout the stack. The handful of products that Also, the proximity of now contain TSVs—such TSVs to transistors on the as some image sensors and chip can alter performance dynamic RAM stacks—use values, such as threshold relatively hefty chunks of voltage and drive current. metal, typically about 100 μm Designers will therefore wide. But that’s not good for have to introduce “keep out” integrating disparate devices, areas where there are no such as logic and memory, devices. For instance, in a because the TSVs themselves digital-to-analog converter take up too much real estate. made using the common However, Imec’s work has 65-nanometer lithography demonstrated that you process, each analog can make TSVs 5 μm wide, component must sit tens of which allows for squeezing micrometers from a via to Chipmakers Bet on more TSVs—and more avoid reducing performance transistors—on each layer. more than 0.05 percent, a Stacked Deck Another challenge is the which is essential in a mechanical stress you get highly accurate converter. Three-dimensional packaging promises during the cooling stage So 3-D chip designers will smaller, smarter gadgets of processing, when the have to carefully balance the copper TSVs contract faster cost of the altered architecture than their silicon bedding that TSVs require with the magine that your favorite (TSVs), might be said to does. That stress can hinder benefit of tighter integration. I aunt lies sick on the other resemble elevator shafts. transistor performance. Otherwise, chips with TSVs side of town. Rather than The hope is that TSVs Depending on a device’s might turn out to be just as brave the highways to visit will enable the industry application, designers will costly in terms of wasted her, you move her into your to keep increasing the have to take into account space or poor performance apartment building and just capabilities of smartphones how much stress a system as the multiple 2-D chips ride the elevator up. and other gadgets while can handle and how far they are about to replace. Chipmakers are applying making them tinier, even apart the TSVs should be Nevertheless, Marchal the same strategy to get as transistor densities rise to reduce the stress in the says, “the industry pull for around the biggest speed at ever more sluggish rates, silicon, Marchal says. this technology is big,” and bump in microelectronics— says Pol Marchal, a principal One problem in buildings TSVs should be common the distance between dies. scientist of 3-D integration at is that as they get taller, they in chips by 2012 or 2013. Instead of wiring chips to one European microelectronics require so many elevator In the meantime, Imec is another in two dimensions, R&D center Imec. shafts that there’s no more working with electronic in which the input/output To be sure, there are still a interior room for anything design automation firms plugs are spaced some few problems. At February’s else. For stacked chips, to model trade-offs among 200 micrometers apart, IEEE International Solid- too, there are height limits, performance, efficiency, and a engineers plan to link them State Circuits Conference, particularly for consumer compact 3-D floor plan. in a 3-D stack, using copper Imec engineers presented devices where the whole —Anne-Marie Corley interconnects 10 μm apart— some key design challenges package must be minute. vertically. The interconnects, that must be overcome before For these applications, the A version of this article ran called through-silicon vias TSVs can be widely used. stack height is limited to online in February 2010.

14 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

______

ENOUGH TO LIMP HOME: The Daimler Smart ForTwo electric car lets you get below the red line. PHOTOS: DAIMLER

NXR subcompact to be released later this year in India and Europe. The car comes with an already substantial 160-km range, double that of the carmaker’s EVs powered by traditional lead-acid batteries. Reva’s solution has merit, according to Andrew Burke, a research engineer and battery expert at the Institute of Transportation Systems, at the Good to the Last Volt University of California, Davis. He says An Indian EV manufacturer may just have the cure that although deep discharges are in for range anxiety general bad for battery life, they can be allowed once in a while without causing real damage, given that the extra range ank cards let you overdraw “This is really a very complex is profoundly reassuring to customers. B your account when you must on problem,” says Chetan Maini, Reva’s Burke was himself reassured a the understanding that you’ll chief technology officer. “This is not decade ago, when he drove an electric pay it back when you can. If you could something that you could ﬁx in an car that Honda marketed brieﬂy under do the same for your electric car by algorithm that meets all situations.” California’s zero-emissions vehicle overdrawing the battery, it’d sure When REVive receives a text or voice program. On three or four occasions alleviate range anxiety—the fear that message from the driver, it remotely he miscalculated how far he’d be you might get stranded far from an accesses the vehicle’s three-year store driving but nevertheless made it home, electric plug. of data on such crucial parameters as thanks to the car’s limp mode. Inching Overdrawing your battery simply the battery’s age, the number of charge along was no fun, recalls Burke, but means taking advantage of a power “I was happy to get home any way.” reserve that today’s control systems Limp mode is a feature on the deliberately build in to preserve the updated electric-drive version of the electrodes and thus extend battery Smart ForTwo, which Daimler began life. The reserve can amount to test-leasing in December, according to 30 percent of the battery’s capacity. In Pitt Moos, the vehicle’s product manager. the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid But Moos sees no need to proceed that will use a gasoline engine as a further to the “hassle” of a system such range extender—and thus can afford as REVive, betting instead that time and to protect the battery’s life very DOUBLY GREEN: The Reva consumer experience will dispel range carefully—the pure-electric reserve NXR runs on volts alone. anxiety. “People who are very scared of will reportedly come to 40 percent. PHOTO: REVA ELECTRIC CAR CO. getting stopped by zero percent [state of Reva Electric Car Co., based in charge] won’t buy or lease battery EVs,” Bangalore, India, and the world’s cycles, whether it’s been scorching in says Moos. “Those who [do] will learn leader in electric vehicle (EV) sales, is Mumbai or freeze-thawing in Oslo, and the cars and feel perfectly safe after a parlaying data from the 135 million how aggressively the car has been driven. while. They will pass their experience kilometers (84 million miles) logged REVive feeds that data to algorithms, along, and the market will grow.” by its EVs into an expert system that resets the range gauge, and puts the Still, if REVive can assuage range can give drivers an extra 10 km. The car in a “limp mode” akin to that of anxiety, it will boost the sales of the Reva, system, called REVive, uses remote a laptop on a power-saving regime. push other manufacturers into similar communications to enable the system REVive will be a standard feature battery-management schemes, and to determine how much extra charge in future Reva EVs, starting with expand the EV market that much faster. can be accessed without doing harm. a lithium-ion-battery version of its —Peter Fairley

16 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

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Reverse Engineering the Human Face Weta Digital lifts the veil on FURIOUS FACE: Avatar actress Zoe its digital special effects Saldana playing Neytiri, using Weta’s motion-capture technology. IMAGES: TOP: WETA; BOTTOM: MARK FELLMAN f Avatar is the bright future of I cinema, a great deal of that dazzle is going to come from Weta Digital, the The most complicated software firm that created most of the movie’s challenge was coping with the Oscar-winning visual effects. essentially unlimited variety of This past January, IEEE Spectrum expressions that a human face can visited the company’s headquarters in convey. The solution, according to Weta a homey suburb of Wellington, New specialist Luca Fascione, depended area at Weta, animation specialists Zealand, where key officials spoke on identifying several hundred “key peered at screens showing the face of at length about cinema after Avatar. poses”—fundamental facial expressions. either Thomson or Thompson, one of There were also a few tantalizing “The computer says, ‘I want the bumbling doppelgänger detectives insights into Weta’s work for its 30 percent of this one expression and from the Tintin comics. As the lips next blockbuster, The Adventures 50 percent of this other expression,’ ” and chin of the animated head moved, of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. Fascione explains. “And then the bulges appeared and disappeared in Weta’s specialty is motion capture, rigging and the machinery behind the the skin around the mouth and cheeks, which relies on sophisticated software puppeteering [character animation] mimicking a face with startling realism. and hardware to transfer an actor’s system is able to make the face The Tintin ﬁlm is a joint effort between body movements and facial expressions express that particular emotion.” Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson to an animated character. The Meanwhile, as part of a push to (Jackson cofounded Weta in 1993), actor wears a black suit with light- advance the state of the art for the with a budget rumored to be around colored dots; to detect his movement, highly anticipated Tintin movie, a US $135 million, well under Avatar’s optical systems track those dots. team at Weta is helping to devise a reported $300 million to $400 million. For Avatar, Weta pushed the state of new generation of motion-capture Tintin is already the subject of sporadic the art. First, it employed head-mounted software built on a foundation of movieland buzz because it’s understood cameras, worn by the actors, that physiological principles. The group is to be a labor of love for Spielberg and tracked dots on their faces. The use of working on software that incorporates Jackson. Both have professed deep the camera greatly increased the range the underlying anatomy of the face. affection for the comic-book series of emotions that could be transferred “What I’m trying to do,” says team about a globe-trotting boy reporter, his to the faces of the animated characters, leader Mark Sagar, “is reverse engineer wirehaired fox terrier, and his choleric enabling audiences to relate more closely all the expressions in the human face seafaring friend. The movie, which is to the computer-generated creatures. so we can understand the mechanical to be the ﬁrst of a three-movie series, Second, the Weta system enabled basis of, say, what makes a smile have is scheduled for release in late 2011. director James Cameron to see the a dimple. What makes the creases in a “Working with such directors as results of motion capture essentially face when it smiles? It all depends on James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, or in real time. As the actors performed, the anatomical structure of the face, the Peter Jackson, there is never a known Cameron was able to look at a screen substructures beneath the facial tissue: path that we’re going to go through,” says near his camera and see, in place of the ligaments, the fat, the muscles, how Weta R&D director Sebastian Sylwan. actors in black suits, a slightly cruder the muscles are laid out in 3-D space.” “It’s always trying to push the boundaries version of the blue computer-generated On a Tuesday morning this past of what can be delivered and how a better space aliens that audiences would see. January, in an open, darkened work story can be told.” —Glenn Zorpette

18 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

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20 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG______

the big picture

NIGHT LIGHT From 7:00 to 9:30 each evening from 30 January through 18 March, visitors to Xuanwu Lake Park in Nanjing, China, were able to see this and other breathtaking works of art. The ornate structure, which looks like it’s composed of painstakingly wrought stained- glass panes, is actually one of 75 exquisitely detailed replicas of Italian landmarks, made up of a total of 560 000 LEDs. They’re all part of the Italian International Light Sculpture Art Festival, which was timed to coincide with the Chinese New Year. PHOTO: IMAGINECHINA/ AP IMAGES

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tools & toys

Olympus E-P2 US $1100 http://www.olympusamerica.com

LITTLE BIG CAMERAS consumer, “pro-sumer” identifies what focal lengths and thus smaller lenses: manufacturers fervently hope is a Their 25-mm lenses are equivalent Your next digital camera growing category of more feature-laden to 50-mm lenses on a standard may adhere to a standard (and pricey) cameras and interchangeable SLR. According to the Four Thirds you’ve never heard of: lenses in a postfilm world. consortium’s Web site (http://www. Micro Four Thirds According to a spokesman for the four-thirds.org),______there are more than Consumer Electronics Association, 40 different lenses on the market, from aunching a new consumer only 6 percent of the 32 million Olympus’s 8-mm fish-eye to Sigma’s 50- L electronics category is a risky cameras sold last year were DSLRs, to 500-mm supertelephoto 10x zoom. business, and it doesn’t help when and Micro Four Thirds sales were so Micro Four Thirds eliminates the it’s squeezed into the no-man’s-land low that the association didn’t even SLR mirror box, viewfinder, and, says between two other categories. Tablet bother to track them. Pelkowski, “a lot of internal components computers, for example, are awkwardly If the new category lacks consumer that are from analog days.” Losing situated north of smartphones in size and acceptance, at least it has a standard the mirror box is a big step: Without a south of notebooks in performance. to lean on. In the late 1990s, Olympus, separate through-the-lens viewfinder, With November’s launch of the Panasonic, and five other camera simpler, faster, smaller cameras are Olympus E-P2, the population of the and lens companies created a digital possible. Micro Four Thirds cameras are no-man’s-land between the top end of photo standard called Four Thirds, between three-quarters and two-thirds point-and-shooters and the low end of around which both camera bodies and the size of DSLRs but retain much of digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras detachable lenses could be created. their higher-end cousins’ image quality reached five models. But there’s little “A lot of manufacturers were and low-light capability—or at least that’s indication that the public understands morphing 35-mm cameras into digital the idea. And some of the pros find the the new category any better than it did designs,” says Richard Pelkowski, a format promising. in August 2008, when Panasonic and digital-camera product manager at Consider J. Dennis Thomas, a Olympus launched their first Micro Four Olympus. “We felt that we really needed professional photographer in Austin, Thirds cameras. a clean slate. We wanted to go with Texas. He uses DSLRs for his in-studio That’s the cumbersome name designs that are smaller and more work but grabs a 12-megapixel the industry uses for these so-called compact.” He says the Four Thirds’ Olympus E-P1 Micro Four Thirds pro-sumer cameras: Micro represents charge-coupled-device footprint was shooter when he heads out for a hike their smaller footprint compared to designed to maximize image quality, or a walk downtown. “You can stick that of DSLRs, and the digits stand minimize size, and remove any 35-mm it right in your pocket,” he says, and for the 4:3 aspect ratio of their midsize film legacy from digital photography. despite the E-P1’s smaller footprint, detectors. A blend of professional and Four Thirds cameras also have shorter “it does have a much larger sensor

22 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

than your basic compact camera. Micro Four Thirds model, the books That’s going to give it a higher Lumix GH1, has also found signal-to-noise ratio and a little a niche among independent more control over depth of fi eld.” fi lmmakers, who have praised it A Garden The smaller footprint allows for its full 1080p high-defi nition of Mathematical Delights Thomas’s street shooting to be video. And, like any Micro Four more candid. When he aims Thirds camera, the GH1 is one Martin Gardner’s Mathematical his DSLR, people often ask him small adapter away from the Games columns collected which newspaper their pictures cornucopia of Four Thirds lenses. in book form will be appearing in. But with his I spent three weeks Micro Four Thirds, he says, “my shooting with the Olympus “If Martin Gardner wrote a cookbook,” my editor eyeball’s not up to the camera. It EP-1 instead of a regular point- said, “we’d review it.” Sphere Packing, Lewis Carroll, just looks like I’m pointing it in a and-shoot camera. I liked the and Reversi isn’t a cookbook, but it does include recipes for a couple of tricks with crackers. general direction.” better picture quality, but the For 25 years Gardner wrote the Mathematical Jay Kinghorn, a Salt Lake general sluggishness and noisy Games column in Scientifi c American. Now Cambridge City professional photographer autofocus in HD video mode University Press is republishing (who’s sponsored, in part, by made its US $800 retail price them in their entirety. It will take Olympus) says that Micro Four a deal breaker. (According to 15 volumes. This, the third, includes 20 columns dating from 1959 to 1961, Thirds cameras have image Thomas, pros don’t really use not limited to the topics of the title. sensors about the size of your autofocus: “You set up the scene, Most chapters contain the original thumb. By contrast, point-and- focus, and shoot.”) Other Micro column; solutions to the problems it shoot and smartphone cameras Four Thirds cameras get better posed; new material, much of it up to date; and a bibliography. have sensors no larger than a reviews, such as the GH1, but its Three of the columns are fingernail and “a usable range $1500 price tag seems a lot more collections of puzzles, while the rest that’s limited to bright daylight “pro” than “sumer.” concentrate on single topics, such for optimum results.” When I’d give this product category as the binary system, pi, the four- Sphere you step up to Micro Four a little more time. As prices color theorem, and board games. The chapter on sphere packing Packing, Thirds, he says, “you have drop and performance improves, discusses not only the obvious— Lewis Carroll, smaller camera size, and now Micro Four Thirds could soon how densely they can be packed and Reversi you’re looking at very good fi ll the gap between the camera and how this relates to subjects like By Martin Gardner; Cambridge shots in an indoor situation.” on your cellphone and the DSLR crystallography—but also the less well-known question of how sparse University Press, A spokesperson from you don’t really need. a rigid packing can be. Lewis Carroll 2009; 296 pp.; Panasonic adds that its high-end —Mark Anderson gets a chapter to himself, not just US $14.99, ISBN about his interest in mathematics 978-0-521-74701-1 and logic but also his word games; (paperback); the additional material includes $50.00, ISBN 978- some results found by computer 0-521-75607-5 that would not have been possible (hardback) when the column was fi rst published. A chapter on group theory and braiding ends with the intriguing assertion that a game involving shield shapes joined by strings proves that subatomic particles can have only half or whole quanta of spin. Pure mathematicians will love a chapter on ellipses and the theorems of H.S.M. Coxeter. A discussion of the game reversi is preceded by a brief mention of the ancient Greek game of rithmomachy, which by all accounts seems the most unplayable board game ever. A chapter on mathemagic (mathematical-based magic tricks) includes the cracker tricks. Those of us who eagerly awaited our monthly fi x of Mathematical Games the fi rst time around FOCAL POINT: will welcome this update, and those who missed There are already more it will enjoy a wonderful stroll through recreational than 40 lenses for Micro mathematics. Both sorts will surely read with pencil Four Thirds cameras. and paper near at hand. —Clive Feather

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hands on

readboarding a new circuit is a key B skill and an important step in many projects—especially early on, when you need to move wires around and substitute components. But that very ﬂexibility also makes it easy to knock wires out. Eventually, if your project is a keeper, you’re going to want something with a bit more permanence. Printed circuit boards (PCBs) solve all those shortcomings. But most people don’t even consider translating a one-off project into a PCB design. For one thing, PCB fabrication has traditionally been expensive, viable only in commercial quantities. (One alternative is to do it yourself with etches and silk screens, a messy and time-consuming process.) Also, there are technical constraints involved with PCB designs that are daunting to the casual hobbyist. But it turns out that nowadays you can produce a professional PCB very inexpensively. I only recently delved into the mysteries of PCB fabrication, for an upcoming IEEE Spectrum article on building a robotic digital microscope. Part of the project BOARD CERTIFIED is a variable LED illumination system, and to dim LEDs A custom-printed circuit board needn’t you need to design a pulse-wide-modulation circuit. break the bank With a little research, I found a design based around a 555 timer chip, a power transistor, a couple of diodes, two resistors, and three capacitors. Not a huge number of components, but enough that I was dreading getting them all hooked up on a breadboard. Since I already had the design in hand, I was pretty conﬁdent it would work out of the box. That made it a perfect candidate for doing it as a PCB. I had looked into custom PCBs a while back. I had even downloaded Eagle, a PCB design program from CadSoft Computer (http://www.cadsoftusa.com). I liked Eagle (and eventually returned to it for this project), but back then the cost of a single board— US $75 and up—stopped me. This time I discovered BatchPCB (http://batchpcb.com). BatchPCB consolidates a bunch of individual projects onto a single large board and then cuts them apart when they come back from the factory. Small boards can be fabricated for under $20 this way. There’s a three-week turnaround, but I wasn’t in a hurry. I dove into designing my LED dimmer board. A basic review of PCBs is in order here. A PCB consists of a thick, rigid insulating layer with conductive traces on the top and bottom. Because the middle

ALL ABOARD: The circuit board before [top] and after [bottom] it is populated with parts. PHOTOS: JAMES TURNER

24 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

BOARD ROOM: First lay out the components [left], then organize them and route the traces [right]. PHOTOS: JAMES TURNER

insulates, the traces on the top big, clunky DIPs and SIPs over to the board layout view. The lingua franca of PCB and bottom can run over each (system-in-packages), because When you first do this in fabrication is the Gerber file, other. To get a signal from one they’re easily found at hobby Eagle, the components are named for Gerber Systems, side to the other, you drill a venues and are easier to scattered randomly, with the the original creators of the hole called a via, which is like solder than surface-mounted wires directly connecting format. Each board will a trace running through the devices, which are meant between the pins. You should have multiple files. There’s board vertically. You also drill for commercial applications. move around components one for each layer and the holes for ICs, resistors, diodes, Although the various in a way that makes sense locations of solder pads. and other discrete pieces. The packaging options may look (connectors at the edges, for A separate “drill file” defines traces lead to the holes, and the same in the schematic example). You’ll still be left where the holes will be the components have solder view, they will appear very with a rat’s nest, however. drilled in the board. pads, allowing them to be different when you go into the In order to produce the board, When you upload these soldered in place. layout view to actually design you must assign signals to a files to BatchPCB (following Some components may be the board. layer, and different signals on some fairly complete connectors to bring signals to In addition to your the same layer can’t touch. walkthroughs available on the board, and you can also components and inter- With Eagle, you have the site), BatchPCB runs its leave larger holes with solder connections, you’ll also to do this by hand unless own DRC and also produces pad rings around them to have to place any needed you pay for the professional image files showing what the solder external wires directly. power or ground signals. version, which has auto-layout finished layers will look like. You can even add layers with The Eagle library includes capabilities that route your You can print these out and traces in between the top and such components as VCC, signals with the press of a make sure your components the bottom, although this VDD, and GND, for just this button. Some PCB vendors will fit in the holes. Finally, can get pricey. At BatchPCB, purpose. You also have to offer their own design tools just give BatchPCB your a two-layer board costs remember to place connectors that can also do this for you. payment info and sit back for $2.50 per square inch (about on the board to bring in power With the signals laid a few weeks. $0.40 per square centimeter), and ground, as well as to out, you can finally run a When my boards arrived, while a four-layer board costs connect the board to exterior design rule check, or DRC. I couldn’t have been more $8 for the same area (about devices such as LEDs or a This makes sure you won’t pleased. They looked so $1.24/cm2). potentiometer. have drill holes too close professional, down to the The first step in creating a When you have everything to signal lines or traces too silk-screened component custom PCB is laying out the where it needs to be, you close to each other or the end symbols. Better still, they schematic view. Place your can run an electrical rule of the board. The rules are worked perfectly. I had components (which usually check, or ERC, to make sure customizable, and BatchPCB ordered two boards, and come from a component there are no glaring errors. offers a file that will set up paid $20 (of which $14 went library included with your Common problems include Eagle with its preferred DRC toward setup and shipping). design software) onto a wires that look like they’re values. If your design passes So I got my boards for canvas, and then connect the connected but aren’t (in Eagle, the DRC, you’re ready to effectively $10 apiece. At pins with lines representing connected wires have little upload the design files. higher quantities the pricing electrical connections. You dots at the intersections) and You can (and should) works out even better. may find yourself faced with power or ground connections also add silk-screen If you’ve never designed multiple choices for the same you forgot to hook up. lettering on the top using a PCB, I highly encourage part number. That’s because Remember that the ERC a special layer. This it. For $20, you’re risking a many components come in validates only the design’s printing indicates where bunch of time but hardly any different packages, such as electrical properties, not that components should go with money. And the pride you’ll a DIP (dual in-line package) the board will actually do outlines and part numbers, feel holding a commercial- chip or a surface-mount chip. what you want! so you won’t put that 100K quality board of your own For hobby PCBs, you almost Once you’re happy with resistor where the 1K one making? Priceless. always want to go with the the schematic, you can switch should go. —James Turner

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geek life FILM PREVIEW: HUBBLE 3D Hubble 3D is as close to a space walk as most of us will ever get

t was like “brain surgery I performed in boxing gloves,” according to one of the seven astronauts who repaired delicate instruments on the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope last May. The story is recounted in a 3-D documentary that opened in IMAX movie theaters worldwide 19 March. A non-IMAX 3-D version will be released 23 April. field that shows the farthest Narrated by Leonardo and earliest galaxies ever,” DiCaprio and directed by says NASA spokesman J.D. IMAX veteran Toni Myers, Harrington, in one segment. Hubble 3D is a loving celebra- IMAX 3-D filming tion of the 20th anniversary of involves two cameras filming the world’s most famous tele- images concurrently on scope. From a breathtaking 70-mm film from right and close-up of the liftoff of the left angles, which is akin to space shuttle Atlantis, which how our eyes perceive images. envelops the camera in smoke, Audience members wear to the successful instrument glasses that put the images repair in bulky spacesuits, together. An IMAX screen the 40-minute film chronicles normally has a 1.43:1 width- the efforts involved in both to-height aspect ratio and is the STS-125 mission and the SPACE GRACE: Astronaut John Grunsfeld [top] passes a slightly concave and tilted filmmaking itself. It’s a self- replacement cover to Drew Feustel during the repair work seen down so that the images in the new IMAX 3-D film Hubble 3D. The crew members initially referential technique that trained on a mock-up of the Hubble [bottom] at NASA’s Neutral appear to envelop the viewer. IMAX documentaries have Buoyancy Lab at the Johnson Space Center, in Houston. PHOTOS: NASA Hubble 3D is IMAX’s used before, for instance in eighth space-themed film describing an ill-fated ascent Each IMAX camera was it would look,” says Greg and the first in partnership of Mount Everest. customized to its particular Foster, IMAX’s chairman with NASA, which gave The team used a combina- shooting demands. The and president of filmed the filmmakers complete tion of 149-kilogram IMAX camera aboard the shuttle had entertainment. artistic control and didn’t 3-D cameras on the ground, a to be encased in an airtight, NASA had good reason to charge them payload costs. larger, 204-kg version aboard pressurized enclosure. release the footage—the mis- “NASA insiders always con- the shuttle—operated by two After the shuttle landed, sion has already led to further sider the Hubble the crown specially trained astronauts— filmmakers had to wait a nail- astronomical achievements. jewel of the space program,” and, affixed to astronaut biting month until NASA “The most important discov- says Foster. “So they were helmets, 2-D digital cameras released the 30 minutes of ery thus far from Hubble’s thrilled when we asked to whose images were converted space footage to them. “Until repair came with the suc- make a documentary.” to 3-D in postproduction. then, we didn’t know how cessful ultradeep infrared —Susan Karlin

26 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

technically speaking BY PAUL McFEDRIES

Your Attention, Please!

You never expect 100 percent of people’s attention. You learn to take 80 percent.—rapper Ice Cube

hen the cardi- out for incoming e-mails Wologists Meyer and tweets while working Friedman and Ray on a multipage memo. We Rosenman were researching think we’re paragons of personality types in the polyattentiveness, the 1950s, they coined the term ability to watch or listen hurry sickness to describe the carefully to more than one tendency to perform tasks thing at a time. But we’re quickly and to get flustered actually more like those old when encountering delays. microprocessors that just By 1959 they had refined this switched from one process to to the now-classic term type A another at lightning speed— personality, a key element of we’re getting good at rapidly another and expend only the economics, an economic which was a “harrying sense shifting our attention from minimum effort to complete model that posits an of time urgency.” one task to another. Of course, a task; to provisionalism, attention economy, based Nowadays, this has a this implies that we have some where you never commit fully on the static amount of familiar ring to all of us. control over what we attend to what you’re doing; and to attention consumers can That’s why some folks say to. Increasingly, however, our what the philosopher and devote to an ever-expanding we live in a type A culture, lives are interrupt driven, critic Raymond Tallis calls pool of available information. or an accelerated culture. characterized by constant the e-ttenuation of work In fact, the competition for our This acceleration has also or frequent interruptions, and relationships, as when, eyeballs and earballs (people affected the adjectives we use especially at work. (This for example, you answer an listening to music, podcasts, to describe the world. The rat term comes from computer e-mail or two while on the radio, and so on), is so intense race is no longer merely fast science to describe a system phone. There’s a verb for that some companies are paced; it’s amphetamine- that operates via interrupt that—to background, as now engaged in full-blown paced or even meth-paced requests, instructions that in “Ever rung a colleague attention warfare. (meth is short for the stimulant halt processing temporarily or client and found that Is there anything we methamphetamine). so that another operation can the only response your can do to stave off these How do we keep take place.) questions are soliciting is the attentional assaults? One up? We try to do several Of course these attention occasional ‘Hmmm’? You’ve recent suggestion is the things at once. A New York shifts and interruptions come just been ‘backgrounded’!” digital cleanse: the minimal Times Magazine profile of with their own problems, (The Guardian). use of digital technologies entrepreneur Mark Cuban one of which is continuous Similarly, rather than sit for a set period of time. reported that Cuban writes partial attention, or CPA, down to read a long magazine Unthinkable, you say? up to a thousand e-mails a day a term coined by Microsoft article or a good book, Then how about practicing and didn’t stop composing researcher Linda Stone. This people infosnack, grabbing disattention? This is the messages even while being is a state in which most of your information in brief snippets. deliberate refusal to pay interviewed. “Go ahead,” attention is on a primary task, The goal seems to be to attention to certain things. he told journalist Randall but you’re also monitoring avoid the microboredom of (For me it’s celebrity gossip Patterson, “I can multitask.” several background tasks having nothing to do over a and Balloon Boy–like stunts.) Many of us think we can in case something more very short period of time. While it may not help us BRIAN STAUFFER multitask, and it really does important or more interesting That our attention has win the war of attention, it look like we’re doing several comes along. This leads to the become such a precious just might help us reset our things at the same time when just-in-time lifestyle, where commodity is no surprise to attention rheostats to a we listen to music and watch you rush from one thing to those who study attention more comfortable level. O

______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG APRIL 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 27

TOP 10 TECH CARS+++ 2010

FOR AT LEAST A DECADE, carmakers have been professing their deep and abiding interest in electric-drive vehicles whenever possible. But until recently, it wasn’t always clear which of them were really sincere. Today every last one of them seems sincere. As this year’s “Top 10 Tech Cars” package shows, ever more varied hybrids are going into mass production, along with—you betcha—a few all-electric cars. Some of the electric-drive machines aspire beyond mere greenness to heart-pounding performance, an aspiration that may seem strange to those taught to view electric cars as spacious, all-weather golf carts. But performance is indeed a logical goal, given the instant-on torque that electric motors provide. While electrons may now be a recurrent theme of our annual Top 10 automotive reports, we do not slight the internal-combustion engine, which has lots of life—and technological enhancements— to come. And for those who don’t spend a whole lot of time worrying about whether they’re treading lightly enough on the planet’s roads, we include two ultraperformance German sports cars that run purely on gasoline and adrenaline. One can easily be yours. If you’re willing to trade in your 1house0 for it. —Philip E. Ross & David Schneider

28 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

MERCEDES-BENZ SLS AMG+++P. 30 PORSCHE PANAMERA+++P. 30 FORD TAURUS SHO+++P. 31 AUDI E-TRON+++P. 32 VW UP LITE+++P. 33 FIAT NUOVA 500+++P. 34 BMW X6 M+++P. 35 APTERA 2E+++P. 36 NISSAN LEAF+++P. 36 HONDA CR-Z+++P. 37

MERCEDES-BENZ SLS AMG

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TOP 10 TECH CARS+++ 2010

MERCEDES-BENZ SLS AMG Mercedes-Benz builds a modern supercar with classic styling Porsche A tried-and-true trick in the auto industry is to resuscitate an old but elegant design while stuffing it with new technology. Daimler has pushed the concept to a whole new level with Panamera the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. It’s a deliberate Porsche’s Panamera lacks only an ejection seat evocation of the most stunning design of all time, the 1954 300SL “Gullwing,” whose doors opened AS MY PORSCHE PANAMERA TURBO hits its stride on the German like the wings of a bird (or an insect, if you want autobahn, there’s plenty to focus on, both inside and out. A V-8 to get technical about it). Throw on another engine is cranking 368 kilowatts (493 horsepower) to four churn- winglike structure that pops up at the back, pasting the wheels to the ground at speed and ing wheels. The dual-clutch automated manual transmission during braking and you’re definitely in supercar fires off fast-twitch gear changes. A rear deck lid spoiler rises and territory. Indeed, reports say the SLS AMG will be widens at 90 kilometers per hour (56 miles per hour) to reduce priced at around €175 000 in Europe, where it’ll aerodynamic drag, and then, as we cross the 200-km/h threshold, be introduced this year, and somewhere north of US $200 000 in the United States, in 2011. repositions like an airplane flap to boost downforce and stability. The car’s list of tech features is long: But despite the mechanical marvels on display—and the voice in a lightweight aluminum chassis and body; my head telling me to concentrate on the bends along this no-limit a 6.3-liter V-8 engine generating 420 kilowatts stretch of pavement—the most astonishing action is taking place (563 horsepower); a seven-speed, dual-clutch in the backseat. There my driving partner remains blissfully asleep transmission; a carbon-fiber driveshaft that rotates at engine speed to power the as I spur the Panamera to 300 km/h (186 mph to this Yank). That’s transmission directly; ceramic composite brakes; more than enough to show a pesky BMW M3 and a Mercedes-Benz and a dry-sump oil system that uses special diesel wagon—which had been ankle-biting my Porsche for the pumps to scavenge oil, which allows for a smaller past 10 km—where they rank in the autobahn’s cruel pecking order. oil pan and lets Mercedes give the car a superlow Go ahead—call the Panamera ugly, ungainly, or just plain center of gravity. That feature, plus a front-to- rear weight distribution of 48:52, means the odd. You won’t be the first to take issue with Porsche’s fastback- 1620-kilogram car handles like a fighter jet. roofed sedan, the first four-door car in the company’s storied The ultimate tech feature, though, will come history. A traditional sports sedan, says chief designer Michael later, in an all-electric iteration pegged to debut Mauer, would have been too easy. Instead, his team imagined sometime between 2011 and 2013. That model will have an electric motor for each wheel, a four-door sports car mit hatchback, penciling backseat generating a combined 392 kW (525 hp). dimensions to fit the lanky frame of then-CEO Wendelin —Philip E. Ross Wiedeking, who is 188 centimeters tall (6 feet 2 inches).

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the car’s center of gravity to enhance handling, an FORD arrangement made possible by a lateral driveshaft that TAURUS SHO runs directly through the Ford gets its radar engine’s crankcase, rather from a fi ghter plane than being positioned below it. Dry-sump The top of this year’s Ford lubrication, common in Taurus range is the powerful race cars, ensures that the and jazzy Taurus SHO (for Panamera gets a steady “super high output”), a sport serving of oil, even when sedan. Chief among the the car is undergoing technical bragging points is an extreme g forces that can optional safety feature known starve an ordinary engine as electronically scanning radar. of lubrication. European This guardian angel scans the models get a fuel-saving highway far enough ahead to engine stop-start function, save you from rear-ending a similar to that of hybrids, yet fog-shrouded forerunner while Porsche nixed the system going wide enough to catch any for American owners. There, would-be lane changer that the Porsche still dodges a may be lurking in your blind gas-guzzler tax, with the spot. Because its microwaves Turbo estimated at 15 miles penetrate fog, it beats the older, per gallon in the city and laser-based systems. 23 mpg on the highway Ford crows that the device, (15.7 and 10.2 L/100 km). supplied by Delphi, is derived The Panamera from a radar used in the F-22 adopts the new Porsche- Raptor fi ghter jet. Of course this Doppelkupplung transmis- sort of thing can also be done “The Panamera does take ENGINE: V-8, at 368 kW sion, or PDK, a slick dual- by mechanical scanning—like some getting used to,” Mauer (493 hp) clutch unit that’s far faster to a dish antenna sweeping the says, even as he vigorously BASE PRICE: US $90 000; shift than it is to pronounce. sky—but by steering the beam Turbo: $133 000 defends the beauty that A driver can cruise in comfy electronically you get not only derives from pure function. the all- important Sport automatic mode or shift better performance but also a far Internal trickery runs the Plus mode to the car’s manually over a range of more compact package that’s gamut: Adaptive Bi-Xenon myriad computerized selectable performance a mere 5 by 8 by 18 centimeters headlights monitor vehicle performance systems. programs, using paddle long. That makes it easy to fi t speed and other parameters Even the 294-kW shifters or the console lever. the radar’s forward-looking part in order to swivel when (394-hp) Panamera S and One clutch handles gears into the car’s sleek front end. going around curves; the all-wheel-drive 4S models 1, 3, 5, and 7, the other gears Other car companies off er such lamps also automatically squirt to 96 km/h in less 2, 4, 6, and reverse, with one radars, but Ford gets our plaudit adjust their range and than 5 seconds. That clutch releasing a gear as the because it charges just US $1195, width to handle robust power stems other simultaneously grabs far less than any competitor. potentially dan- from a 4.8-liter, the next successive speed, In practice, the radar gerous situations, Road direct-injection V-8 up or down. Other carmakers functions as part of a larger including two-lane TESTED with dual turbo- have implemented such system of adaptive cruise back roads and chargers and exten- a scheme, but Porsche’s control—a baby step along foul-weather driving. sive weight-saving refi nements permit near- the road to automated driving. A high-resolution materials, including instantaneous gear shifts, When the radar senses the hint screen holds a navigation magnesium valve covers and along with a transmission of a threat of an impending system with 3-D renderings aluminum camshaft adjust- that can downshift multiple collision, it alerts the driver and of buildings in major cities. ers. Crankshaft and con- gears (for example, from precharges the brakes, so they’ll The Burmester audiophile necting rods trim a remark- fi fth to second) the instant react that much faster to the system has 16 speakers and able 2.3 kg (5 pounds) from you fl oor the gas pedal. driver’s foot. —Philip E. Ross more than 1000 watts. those on the Cayenne S’s An adaptive air suspen- The Panamera also raises same-size V-8, reducing sion features what Porsche the large-car performance critical reciprocating mass calls a world fi rst: air springs bar to insane heights: for swifter engine response. that adjust by adding or Toggle up the electronic The Panamera S retails for subtracting air volume. The launch-control func- about $90 000 and the all- feature relies on two things: ALL PHOTOS PROVIDED BY MANUFACTURERS tion and the US $133 000 wheel-drive 4S adds another a road-sensing calculator, Turbo catapults from 0 to $4000 to that sticker price. called the Porsche Active 96 km/h (60 mph) in A less costly, 220-kW Suspension Management 3.8 seconds—as quick as (roughly 300-hp) V-6 (PASM) system, and per- the 911 Turbo, which weighs Panamera will go on sale formance maps selected about 400 kilograms less— this year. A Panamera hybrid by the driver. In Comfort and covers a quarter mile will follow in 2011, mating mode, each spring holds in 11.7 seconds at 190 km/h a V-6 with an electric 2.2 L of air for a gentler ride. (118 mph). That launch con- motor that together should In Sport mode, valves close ENGINE: 3.5-L turbo V-6, with 272 kW (365 hp) and 474 Nm trol requires getting the approach 298 kW (400 hp). and reduce the volume to (350 ft-lb) of torque Sport Chrono option, which In the V-8 models, the 1.1 L, fi rming the suspension BASE PRICE: US $37 700; add-on adds a fi ddly lap timer and low-mounted engine drops Continued on page 58 adaptive cruise control: $1195

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TOP 10 TECH CARS+++ 2010 Audi e-Tron Audi’s electric concept car is an all-wheel-drive shape-shifter

THE AUDI E-TRON ALL-ELECTRIC sports car—a direct number. The result is still enough to kick you challenge to the much ballyhooed Tesla Roadster— from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) in under 6 seconds. Audi estimates is chock-full of gadgetry, including a heat it can go 240 km (150 miles) on a charge of pump (rather than a heater), an ultralight its lithium-ion battery pack, the usable por- aluminum and composite body, and tion of which is rated at 43 kilowatt -hours. Electric Clearly, Audi wouldn’t have made this a shape-shifting exterior that deploys Concept movable grilles and the like to reduce drag concept car so immediately drivable if CAR it weren’t planning on turning it into a and to channel cooling air past the battery. production car. So is electricity the future And, unlike most concept cars, the e-Tron of supercars? Perhaps. Everyone presumes actually goes. At least, that’s the word from auto- that an electric car is good mainly for the motive writers who’ve driven one. The machine packs plenty environment, or for reducing an auto company’s average ﬂ eet fuel-economy rating. of motive power in the form of four motors, one for each In fact, an electric car—with its stupendous wheel. Some automotive engineers would cringe at having torque—has the potential to beat many a gas to suspend and shock absorb all that unsprung, rotating burner in a sprint. It’s a natural technology mass, but this arrangement allows for a precise, fourfold, for a supercar. —Philip E. Ross moment-by-moment split of torque among the four wheels. And quite a bit of torque it is. Gearing in the front and back lets the motors, 230 kilowatts (312 horsepower) in all, churn out the equivalent of 2650 newton meters (3320 foot-pounds), more than the frame could bear if automatic controls didn’t set a limit way, way below that

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the company will begin an automated VW UP LITE off ering buyers by 2012. manual VW’s concept The Up Lite is, as you transmission— might expect, quite light: which is said to car marries 695 kilograms (1532 accelerate the electricity pounds). VW shaved car from 0 to 100 to diesel its weight by keeping kilometers per How do Hybrid it small (the car is hour (62 miles you build a Concept just 3.84 meters ENGINE: 38-kW (51-hp) per hour) in 12.5 seconds, diesel engine combined with practical car CAR long) and making 10-kW (13-hp) electric motor to provide a top speed of that’s highly many of its parts 160 km/h (about 100 mph), fuel effi cient? out of aluminum and from its diesel engine and and achieve 3.4 liters per Easy: Make it small carbon composites. Some another 10 kW (13 hp) 100 kilometers (70 miles and light, give it a diesel axle components are even from an integrated electric per gallon) on the highway. engine, and make that made from magnesium. motor, which, in addition to The Up Lite sports engine part of a hybrid Small and light? Check. powering the vehicle and plenty of other eco bells power train. Strangely, no The Up Lite’s engine is a providing for regenerative and whistles, including such creature has yet hit two-cylinder, turbocharged, charging of the car’s rear-facing video cameras the road. Several auto- direct-injection diesel of lithium-ion battery, instead of drag-inducing makers are, however, ﬁ xing just 0.8 liter displacement— replaces the usual starter side mirrors, a front grille to correct that oversight. In a truncated version of the and alternator. Hybrid that automatically adjusts particular, Volkswagen is larger turbo direct- injection power train? Check. to engine-cooling needs, testing the waters with its diesels Volkswagen is This engine-motor and power-train settings Up Lite concept car, which well known for. Diesel combination is connected that can be altered using shares many components engine? Check. to the wheels through a a touch screen mounted with VW’s “New Small The Up Lite gains 38 seven-speed “direct shift near the center console. Family” of cars, which kilowatts (51 horsepower) gearbox”—think of it as —David Schneider

AUDI E-TRON POWER PLANT: Four electric motors, totaling 230 kW (312 hp)

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TOP 10 TECH CARS+++ 2010

Fiat Nuova 500 Fiat’s retro car runs on gas—and soon on natural gas

IN JULY 2007, exactly 50 years after the original Fiat 500 valves, to let the engine deliver more power rolled off the assembly line, Fiat unveiled its Nuova 500. The at high revs without sacrificing torque or drivability at low engine speeds. company was following what BMW and Volkswagen had Variable valve timing has been around already done for the Mini and Beetle—creating a modern for years. What distinguishes the MultiAir vehicle styled after one of the iconic cars of postwar Europe. system is that it gives fine control of But Fiat is now taking a big technological step forward by the intake valves using a solenoid and putting an advanced new engine into its cute little retro car. hydraulic pressure generated by the camshaft. It has two other slick features: Later this year, Fiat will offer the Nuova 500 with its new It allows exhaust gases to be recirculated Small Gasoline Engine, or SGE. Like the little putter in the merely by opening the input valves during original Fiat 500, the SGE has only two the exhaust stroke, and it eliminates the ENGINE: Two-cylinder, need for a throttle mechanism to reduce cylinders, giving a displacement of just 900-cc gasoline 900 cubic centimeters, about the size of (or natural gas) airflow into the cylinders. In July 2009, Fiat said it would introduce what you might find powering a Ducati. BASE PRICE: Likely around US $15 000 the car to the U.S. market by early 2011. But this is no ordinary motorcycle Adding to ecodrivers’ excitement, Fiat plans engine. It’s got a start-stop system to to follow up with a hybrid SGE along with a shut down the engine when the car is stationary, and some version that can burn compressed natural versions will include turbochargers, providing as much as gas. So Fiat’s Nuova 500 combined this year with the company’s new SGE power 78 kilowatts (105 horsepower). And the engine will include plants will surely help to illustrate how, with Fiat’s new MultiAir variable valve timing, an electromechanical the right technology, downsizing can be system that independently actuates each cylinder’s two intake downright exhilarating. —David Schneider

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drive system adds BMW X6 M a feature called BMW stuff s a big Dynamic Performance engine into a small Control—the active rear diff erential that helps package maintain stability and As engineering achievements even nudge the vehicle go, the world’s fastest SUV around turns. Dubbed might seem on a par with a Vector Drive by its hydroelectric stapler or a self- maker, Germany’s ZF buttoning cardigan: interesting, Friedrichshafen, this but pointless. Ignoring the complex arrangement howls of automotive purists and of multidisc clutches Sierra Club donors, BMW has and planetary gear bestowed on us the X6 M. Like sets act on speed and BMW’s M3 and M5 sedans, this g-force information THE BEAST WITHIN: off shoot of the standard X6 The V-8 engine, with gathered from sensors crossover wears the “M” badge twin turbochargers, at all four wheels. that denotes the company’s packs plenty of power Combining that explosive high- performance in a petite package. data with complex division. And while the X6 M algorithms from the looks more like Batman’s assault electronic stability vehicle than a traditional sports control system, the unit sedan, there’s no disputing grappled by shockingly road surface to adjust catalytic converters, can vector full engine the engineering heroics that large brake rotors— shocks at up to 400 meaning less wasted torque from one rear let this 2380-kilogram the ones up front times per second (really, energy and superior wheel to the other—a (5247-pound), measure 39.6 couldn’t 350 have suf- emissions performance. diff erential of up to 408-kilowatt centimeters fi ced?). Amenities The crossover manifold 1800 Nm (1328 ft-lb)— (547- horsepower) Road (15.6 inches)— include a head-up dis- is another BMW fi rst: in as little as 100 milli- beast thumb its whose two- play and a 16-speaker Spent gases are routed seconds. During a Bavarian nose at the TESTED piece com- audio system. through four pairs of right-hand corner, for laws of physics. posite design The engine is a 7000- cylinders on opposite example, the left rear The BMW imperils trims about a revolution-per- minute banks, with each pair’s wheel speeds up, and highway laws as well, kilogram of critical masterwork. Dual turbo- ignition separated by the right rear wheel rap- which made track testing both unsprung weight from chargers and their 360 degrees of crank- idly slows down, cre- welcome and enlightening. each wheel, boosting catalytic converters shaft revolution. Each ating a pivoting force Over two separate weeks with ride and handling. The are actually nestled pair then feeds into called a yaw torque. the X6 M, I was impressed with body gets its own M between the V-shaped an individual exhaust Those lightning-quick the BMW’s Jekyll-and-Hyde runner and turbo- adjustments also keep personality: one part fl eet, charger scroll; essen- the vehicle on the driv- serene cruiser with room for tially, the engine er’s intended path, neu- four adults and decent cargo works like a four-turbo tralizing both under- space, despite its slope-roofed design. Four exhaust steer—the tendency of styling; one part roadway runners of identi- a vehicle’s front wheels killer that needs the curves at cal length mean that to skid—and oversteer, Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway the turbines receive when a car fi shtails or New York’s Monticello Motor perfectly consistent from the rear. Club to achieve complete and pulses of exhaust gas, The system may blissful self-actualization. boosting gas velocity sound arcane, but the Detailing the BMW’s myriad and virtually eliminat- results are noticeable technologies would require ing dreaded “turbo lag,” on road and track alike. a dissertation, but let’s start JEKYLL—OR HYDE? Part family car, part roadway killer, the brief lapse between On a damp track at the X6 M occasionally needs to stretch its limbs on a with the Cliff s Notes: Using the racetrack’s curves. stomping the gas pedal Monticello, I could feel 300-kW (402-hp), all-wheel- and feeling the love the active diff erential drive X6 as a starting point, the additions to boost style, cylinder banks; BMW’s when the turbos kick in. help pivot the BMW’s mad scientists at the M division aerodynamics, and ingeniously compact For drivers, the rear through fast drew up a new, direct-injection cooling, including front layout has been used result is a delightfully corners, like a helpful V-8 with pricey twin-scroll air inlets whose gaping on no other production broad and ferocious football coach twisting turbochargers and a patented, nostrils seem straight V-8 in history. The power curve, with all a lineman’s hips to world’s-fi rst “crossover” off a Lamborghini. challenging design 680 newton meters improve his footwork. exhaust manifold. A raft of The cabin of this required exhaust valves (501 foot-pounds) The unfairness of computerized handling aids— “sports activity coupe,” mounted inboard and of torque fully on the situation, in both including a sophisticated active as BMW calls it, is intake valves outboard, tap between 1500 accelerative force rear diff erential—work magic in equally chockablock the opposite of the tens and 5650 rpm. The and tech-enhanced extreme cornering maneuvers. with features. Driver- of millions of standard engine’s unusual traction, wasn’t lost An automated launch control selectable performance V-8 engines produced architecture also on a colleague driv- unit catapults the BMW to 100 settings adjust the over the last century. produces a one-of-a- ing a 217-kW (291-hp) kilometers per hour (62 miles engine, throttle, six- That reverse layout kind sound, a mellow, Mitsubishi Evolution per hour) in 4.7 seconds, keeping speed paddle-shifted isn’t just for show: baritone blat as all-wheel-drive sedan up with a standard Corvette that automatic gearbox, Power-boosting opposed to the chesty on Monticello’s snak- weighs a ton less. and electronic suspen- exhaust gases travel a roar of a typical V-8. ing course. That col- Twenty-inch wheels with sion—the latter reading much shorter route to Next, the BMW’s league saw the usually ultrahigh-performance tires are information from the the turbochargers and xDrive all-wheel- Continued on page 58

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TOP 10 TECH CARS BUG, ALIGHTING: Those swoopy looks do more than dazzle; they resist the air less than the skin of any other car. PHOTO: GREGG SEGAL

Road TESTED

I took it through the curvy, roll- ably level cornering and less body ing hills of the industrial park that roll than most mass- market cars. houses the Aptera Motors head- That may be due to the extra- quarters, in Vista, Calif. The vis- wide distance between the proto- ibility through the car’s pan- type’s front tires, which will be Aptera 2e oramic windshield was great, narrowed to make the production enhanced by a driver’s seat that car easier to park. The ride, how- Aptera unveils its all-electric, sits higher than the car’s shape ever, was quite fi rm, with distinct three-wheeled two-seater would suggest. Rearward vis- clunking as the car went over ibility is another story. Reversing ridges and heaves. Aptera elec- THE APTERA 2E IS A CESSNA CABIN without wings— an Aptera is something between trical engineering project man- a teardrop with a sharply tapered tail slung between two an adventure and a blind stab in ager Brian Gallagher said the pro- the dark. With tiny side mirrors, duction car’s suspension will be outrigger front wheels. It’s a three-wheeled, two-seater, an almost horizontal rear hatch, considerably more refi ned. [See all-electric bug that slips through the air more easily than and high taillights, the view out Gallagher’s profi le in “Dream Jobs any other production car in the world. back is likely to remain a chal- 2010,” IEEE Spectrum, February.] So perhaps the most unusual thing of all about the Aptera lenge no matter how much glass The car’s 75-kilowatt elec- is how normal it feels when you’re behind the wheel. The is used. Aptera says a rear-vision tric motor is powered by a 20- video system will be off ered as an kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery prototype I drove last year was far from the production option. My advice is, take it. pack. Performance feels brisk, model that’s scheduled to be unveiled in April. Still, it gave The car holds the road as well especially in accelerating from me a good sense of how the fi nal car will handle on the road. as any four-wheeler, with remark- a standstill to 50 kilometers per

of. The car is actually a mushroom-shaped NISSAN LEAF what engineers call a test controller (video gamers The experience mule: It’s got the guts of rejoice!). As a bonus, the a Leaf, Nissan’s fi rst pure- car will be able to tell you electrifi es—until electric vehicle, but the where nearby charging the battery dies body of a Versa sedan, stations are. It’ll even tell First a left turn, Nissan’s plain-Jane your smartphone when then a speedy budgetmobile. Due it’s fi nished juicing up. stretch, and out in parts of But it’s the Leaf’s then a gentle, Road Japan, the United zero-emissions potential swishing zigzag TESTED States, and LOOK, BUT DON’T TOUCH: The fi nal version of the Leaf that has some of the [above] looks sleeker than the test mule we drove. through a Europe late this attendees in Vancouver parade of orange year, the Leaf will respectable 280 newton Leaf tops out at 145 kilo- salivating. “This will take cones. The drive is be the world’s fi rst meters (207 foot- meters per hour (90 miles my carbon footprint nothing to report on, and aff ordable, mass-market, pounds) of torque. per hour). almost to zero,” one that’s the story, because all- electric car, Nissan Under the hood, the In Vancouver, Nissan crows. Another declares, I’m running not on gas but says. And it’ll also be one Leaf’s 80-kilowatt syn- also provided a look-but- “If you have two cars, this on electrons. of the fi rst electric vehi- chronous AC motor drives don’t-touch model of the should be one of them.” I’m in an old train- cles from a mainstream the wheels directly, with- real Leaf. It looks a lot The Leaf is a big station parking lot on maker with state-of-the- out a gearbox, delivering like a Toyota Prius, with a gamble for Nissan. Unlike a wintry morning in art lithium-ion batteries. maximum torque start- sloped front and a boxier other major automakers, Vancouver, and I’m behind Nissan says it will have a ing at zero revolutions per back end. The interior Nissan has bypassed the wheel of one of this range of 160 kilometers minute. Though Nissan has a futuristic feel, with hybrids in favor of pure- year’s most eagerly antic- (100 miles) on a charge declines to specify the a glowing blue console electric cars. President ipated cars. Well, sort and will deliver a acceleration, it claims the and, in place of a shifter, and CEO Carlos Ghosn’s

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hour (31 miles per hour). I was even the production 2e will be about 10 able to spin the inside front wheel percent larger than the one I drove HONDA accelerating out of a curve. With and will be fully rechargeable in electric motors developing peak less than 10 hours on standard CR-Z torque starting at zero revolutions North American 110-volt current. Honda tunes per minute, all-electric cars like the The development prototype had its hybrid for Aptera and the 2011 Chevrolet Volt its share of creaks and groans, along promise to bring new smoothness with a largely unfinished interior. Its power and performance to everyday stop- hand-laid composite body shell To wealthy environmen- light sprints. was smoothly finished, although talists, hybrid cars have ENGINE: 1.5-L, 81-kW Aptera projects a maximum lights, wipers, and mirrors will all be always been more than (109-hp) gasoline engine speed higher than any U.S. speed modified before production. transportation: They are a with 10-kW (13-hp) limit, and high-speed performance Aptera will test the 2e to roving statement of their integrated motor assist will clearly be helped by the 2e’s ensure it meets all U.S. fed- convictions. Sadly for such BASE PRICE: Expected to be jaw-droppingly low drag coeffi- eral motor vehicle safety stan- drivers, though, the only about US $20 000 cient of 0.15. If the company pulls dards, including front, side, and mainstream hybrids avail- it off, that will be the lowest ever rear impact tests. Indeed, its egg- able in North America are seen what kind of mileage achieved on a production vehi- shaped body is probably closer dowdy family cars and careful drivers will be able cle. By comparison, GM’s legend- to the perfect shape for a strong boxy SUVs. Anyone want- to eke out with a CR-Z in ary EV1 electric vehicle, also a monocoque than any other car on ing a hybrid with more piz- the real world. two-seater, had a drag coefficient the road. But features requested zazz has been out of luck. Opting for the of 0.19, and the two-seat Honda by consumers have required some That’s about to change. continuously variable Insight is rated at 0.25. changes that were not reflected For the 2011 model year, transmission would help The shape of the 2e prototype in the prototype I drove, includ- Honda will be offering a in that regard, because it will carry over into the final pro- ing the addition of roll-down door hybrid sports car, the CR-Z. is expected to provide an duction version, but the door win- windows to make it possible for The car is modeled in both EPA-estimated 36 city and dows will be deeper and the trian- drivers of Apteras to use the drive- name and styling after 38 highway mpg (6.5 and gular rear windows will be larger, through windows at fast-food Honda’s diminutive sports 6.2 L/100 km). But, come Gallagher says, letting more light joints and banks. That meant coupe of two decades on now, what sports-car into the cabin. The fairing that reengineering its curved doors to ago, the CR-X, which was enthusiast is going to buy covers the rear wheel (or wheels, accommodate both strengthen- celebrated for phenomenal an automatic? because one prototype I saw had a ing beams and movable windows. fuel economy. With the CR-Z, the pair of closely spaced wheels) will The Aptera has two kinds Naysayers disparage the driver selects one of three be longer, as will the rear window. of braking: Friction brakes on Environmental Protection modes: sport, normal, Entering an Aptera requires all three wheels serve in short- Agency’s disappointing or economy. The choice a bit of practice, because the distance stops and emergen- mileage projections for affects the setting of the car’s doors pivot up and out, gull- cies, and a motor, when reversed, the CR-Z—31 city and 37 car’s electric power steer- wing style, and the openings are serves as a regenerative brake. highway miles per gallon ing, engine responsive- smaller than a standard vehi- That is, the resistance the motor (7.6 and 6.4 liters per 100 ness, electric power assist, cle’s. Closing the door requires offers to forward motion gets kilometers, respectively) and air-conditioning a reach for shorter drivers. Once turned into electricity that for the standard- compressor, managing inside, I found interior space to recharges the batteries. transmission version. them so as to save gas to be perfectly adequate for two Aptera says it will provide own- But they should note a greater or lesser degree. people. The tail contains a lot of ers with the most complete and that drivers of Honda’s So the economy mode empty space behind the seats, flexible platform available for “info- new Insight hybrid can may provide very respect- though the long, tapering shape tainment” and the display of oper- easily beat the EPA’s fuel able fuel efficiency—and of the space makes it unclear how ational data, letting drivers analyze economy rating around in a car that should have Aptera will design this storage their energy usage in gory detail. town by about a factor of no problem impressing a area to make it useful. Aptera says The company Continued on page 58 two. So it remains to be date. —David Schneider

plan is to move fast to oline in a comparable, the size of a manila enve- you can’t easily recharge stations, which could capture a sizable share of conventional car. lope. Four of these cells them. As with other charge the battery up to the market for pure EVs, And it’s smooth. In get packed into a box the electric cars, the biggest 80 percent in just under which Nissan expects to a Prius, there’s a slight size of a textbook. Nissan challenge for the Leaf is 30 minutes to support account for 10 percent of thump when the engine managed to fit 48 such the charging infrastruc- long-distance driving. global car sales by 2020. kicks in. Not so in the Leaf, boxes beneath the seat ture. “If it’s not easy for Here in Vancouver, with Nissan will say only because there’s no engine. and under the floor. customers, it’s not going snow threatening to fall that the Leaf will cost There’s just a satisfying Simple airflow is enough to work,” acknowledges any minute, I return to the about as much as a punch when you stomp to cool them. The battery Nissan Canada’s market- test track one last time. conventional gasoline- on the accelerator. can deliver 90 kW of ing director, Mark McDade. I want to check a feature powered five-person The car’s biggest power and has an energy So the company is I’d forgotten to pay sedan, such as its Sentra novelty—the battery— capacity of 24 kWh, about working hard to make attention to: noise—or the or Altima. That puts lies beneath the back seat. twice that of Nissan’s pre- it easy. Nissan recently lack thereof. All I can hear the car somewhere Conventional lithium-ion vious lithium-ion batteries announced that if you is a cool electric whine of between US $15 000 and packs consist of cylindri- of the same size. And buy a Leaf, it will have the motor as I accelerate. $25 000, although the cal cells encased side by Nissan’s already working a contractor install a When I stop, it’s totally company hasn’t made side, creating air pockets on a version with a lithium charging station in your quiet. So one last bit of clear whether that price that trap heat and require nickel manganese cobalt garage before the car advice for future Leaf range will include the full auxiliary cooling, which oxide cathode, which arrives. With a 220-volt owners: After parking the cost of the battery. Nissan saps efficiency. might double again the charger, you can replenish car, double-check that also says there won’t be a Nissan’s new batteries battery’s capacity. a fully depleted battery you’ve hit the “off” button “green premium”: Average consist instead of sheets A big pothole, though, in 8 hours. Nissan is also before walking away. You drivers will spend much of lithium manganese may lie ahead for Nissan. prodding governments don’t want those precious less on electricity than and graphite, stacked in It doesn’t matter how and electric utilities to electrons to trickle out. they would spend on gas- waferlike cells, each about good the batteries are if deploy public charging — Anne-Marie Corley

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STAR TRACK: The author with the Los Alamos Portable Pulser, which beams VHF signals that satellites can detect. PHOTO: CHIP SIMONS

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SHOOTING STARS CAN SHOOT DOWN SATELLITES By Sigrid Close

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100 micrometers

n August 1993, the European Space Agency’s Olympus 1 experimental satellite was in trouble. The annual Perseid I meteor shower, especially ﬁerce that year, was just getting started. Usually, given sufficient warning of intense meteor activity, satellites can engage their defenses: They might,

for example, protect themselves against satellite with barely enough to propel itself incoming projectiles by orienting their solar into a graveyard orbit, where it could neither panels against attacks, like shields. But hit other satellites nor do much of anything Olympus 1 was at a disadvantage. A previ- useful. Olympus 1 will likely remain there ous mishap had disabled the satellite’s ability forever, cold and dead before its time. to shift its solar arrays, leaving it defenseless. In 2009, Landsat 5, a satellite jointly In short order, an incoming Perseid particle operated by NASA and the U.S. Geological knocked out Olympus’s gyroscope stabil- Service, also began to spin out of control, ity, which sent the satellite spinning wildly. again during an August peak of the Perseid Attempts to regain control used up most of meteor shower. Far below, satellite trackers the craft’s fuel, leaving the US $850 million scrambled to ﬁnd out what had happened.

SHOOTING STAR: This meteorite was found in the snows of Antarctica. Millions like it pelt Earth’s atmosphere every day; few survive the trip. Meteoroids burn up before they hit the ground.

ABOVE: SNSM-ORSAV-CNRS/IPEV; PREVIOUS PAGE: DON FARRALL/GETTY IMAGES

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Had the satellite been hit by a stray rock from space? Was the In the United States, the Air Force and NASA bankroll most culprit a solar storm or an impact with one of the thousands of of the fundamental research on reducing the threat of collision pieces of orbiting debris shed from other spacecraft or booster in space. Both organizations have obvious interests in being rockets? Or was the cause more alarming: an attack from a able to travel in space or to place useful objects into orbit. hostile nation? Satellite failures such as these have cost the governments have worked with Bill Cooke at NASA’s Marshall Space of the world billions of dollars. So it might appear strange that Flight Center and with researchers at the Air Force’s Office of there are still huge gaps in our understanding of what can go IScientific Research throughout my career, first while I con- wrong in space. Space agencies all over the world often struggle ducted studies at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and later at Los Alamos to figure out what has happened when some piece of hardware National Laboratory, where my team searched for ground-based in orbit goes haywire. How can they differentiate between a mal- electromagnetic pulses using LANL’s radio frequency sensors, function caused by a tiny rock hurtling in from interplanetary and now as an assistant professor at Stanford University. All space and an errant screw left in orbit decades ago? And more the while, my job has been to learn about the dangers to space- important: How can engineers properly protect spacecraft from craft. I try to understand the many complications that can make such projectiles—whatever their provenance? a satellite mission go awry, including run-ins with orbital debris, We live in a time when sending people to Mars is begin- lightning, and solar flares. My primary focus, however, is mete- ning to look like a real possibility, China has announced its oroids, which are solid extraterrestrial bodies smaller than a plans to set up a moon base by 2030, and soldiers in the field boulder but larger than a dust grain. depend on GPS satellites. And that’s not to mention regular Satellite engineers have done much to mitigate space haz- citizens, who are finding it hard to live without the things sat- ards, creating among other things the Whipple bumper, a ellites provide: long-distance communications, much of their kind of hypervelocity impact shield that’s designed to be as entertainment, and help navigating around town. Therefore, light as possible. You might guess that the biggest threats many of us in the space sciences community are renewing our are the relatively bulky objects that make up space debris, efforts to understand the myriad natural and artificial dan- which in low Earth orbit are bigger and more numerous than gers that spacecraft constantly face. typical meteoroids. But meteoroids make up for their small size with high velocities. They tend to travel in the neighbor- fter 53 years of sending equipment into space, planet hood of 12 to 72 kilometers per second when entering Earth’s Earth has accumulated a thick mantle of space debris. atmosphere and can penetrate shielding more easily than a AWe are able to track about 20 000 objects—although the comparatively sluggish piece of space debris can. A Whipple estimates that account for objects under 10 centimeters in diam- shield can protect a satellite from space junk hitting at speeds eter put the total number closer to 600 000. When a satellite up to 18 km/s, but it’s no match for faster meteoroids. hits an object in this belt, the collision may cause the satellite to Given the danger they represent, it’s downright shocking splinter into many fragments, which then add to the accumu- how much remains unknown about meteoroids. Ironically lating debris. And because the satellite has been destroyed or enough, what’s best understood about them is how they act crippled, it becomes necessary to send a replacement, increas- once they plunge into the atmosphere and become visible, ing the potential for more debris later on. when they are no longer a threat to spacecraft. Satellite designers can fashion shields that guard rea- sonably well against impacts with small pieces of space very day, more than 100 billion meteoroids larger debris. And satellite operators can usually track and avoid than one microgram enter Earth’s atmosphere, traveling the larger chunks, although sometimes that process doesn’t E at more than 11 km/s. By the time these have made their go so smoothly. Within the past year, both the space shut- way through the ionosphere (a plasma that extends between tle Discovery and the International Space Station had to 70 and 1000 km above Earth’s surface, its height depending on take rapid evasive action to dodge one especially treacher- factors like solar cycle and time of day), the vast majority of mete- ous object. And in February 2009, Russia’s defunct Cosmos oroids have been scoured away to nothing by the friction of the 2251 satellite collided with an Iridium Communications sat- thickening atmosphere around them. As the mass is removed, ellite, unlikely to be the last accident of its kind. Such inci- it fans out behind the nucleus, forming a long glowing tail of dents have prompted spaceflight operators to coin the term plasma. These quick-moving flashes of light are commonly called “space situational awareness.” It’s an acknowledgment that shooting stars, although the correct term is meteor. you need to see and understand what’s going on in space. The Meteor showers take place when Earth passes through growing focus on space situational awareness comes partly the orbit of cometary particles. A shower is named after the from the sheer number of satellites now in orbit and partly constellation from which it appears to come. The Perseids from the vulnerabilities inherent in the crowded, busy lanes seem to emanate from the constellation Perseus, the Leonids of near-Earth space. from the constellation Leo. Satellite operators are very famil- Adding to these concerns, a 2007 Chinese antisatellite test iar with these periodic barrages, and for the most part, they showed that even this newcomer to the space race is capable know how to protect their valuable space-borne assets. of destroying a target in low orbit using a ground-based mis- Although it would be impossible to shield a satellite from sile. Another worry is the growing popularity of small satellites, a good-size cobble speeding along at many kilometers per often dubbed microsats or nanosats—names that don’t reflect second, such things are too rare to cause significant con- their real size—which typically measure a few centimeters. cern. The threats are the really small meteoroids—under Because these objects are hard to track and maintain in their 0.05 millimeter in diameter—which exist in much greater proper orbits, they pose headaches for the people whose job it numbers. These interplanetary flyspecks aren’t big enough is to catalog everything circling Earth. to make flashes in the atmosphere visible to the naked eye;

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Sizing Up the Space-Debris Hazard

Diameter Impact energy Event (meters) (megatons) Frequency

Shooting star 0.00006 5 x 10-16 1 second

Brilliant ﬁ reball 0.1 0.01 1 year

Aerial burst with modest damage 25 1 200 years

Local (10-km) devastation 50 10 2000 years

Regional-scale devastation 140 300 30 000 years

Continental-scale devastation 300 2000 100 000 years

Possible global catastrophe 1000 100 000 700 000 years

Global extinction 10 000 100 million 100 million years

they’re so tiny that spacecraft designers have not generally have recently done work that challenges this long-held belief. considered them much of a threat. But for satellites, they can Although our conclusion courts controversy, we think that be lethal. The damage these tiny grains infl ict comes in part at least 4 percent may come from interstellar space, from directly from the holes they make. Although they have little the exploding stars that create pulsars and from other mass, they can travel extraordinarily fast. So even infi nitesi- exotic locales, like the dust-enshrouded star Beta Pictoris, mal meteoroids can pack quite a punch. 63.4 light-years from our solar system. These are impressively Exactly how fast these meteoroids travel has been a bit distant origins for a little nub of matter that could easily blow of a mystery. For a long time, scientists simply assumed a hole in a billion-dollar satellite. Interstellar meteoroids are that the dominant population of submilligram meteoroids faster than the fastest meteoroids from inside the solar sys- travel at around 20 km/s. But recent data gathered at high- tem, entering Earth’s atmosphere at speeds far greater than power, large-aperture radar facilities (such as the Arecibo even the 72.8 km/s that most scientists currently defi ne as the Observatory, EISCAT Scientific Association, Jicamarca limit for a meteoroid originating outside our solar system. Radio Observatory, and ARPA Long-Range Tracking and Instrumentation Radar, or ALTAIR) suggest the typical y now you’re probably wondering why satellite design- speed for meteoroids smaller than 50 micrometers is closer ers can’t just build better shielding and be done with it. to 60 km/s. That’s a pretty large correction. BBetter physical shielding would help, of course. But it We’ve also learned that the mass of a meteoroid, as well wouldn’t do anything to protect spacecraft from a more sub- as its composition, depends in part on where it comes from. tle problem: the electrostatic discharges and electromagnetic The prevailing wisdom has been that none of this material pulses that accompany many impacts. The physics of these

hails from beyond our own solar system, but I and others electrical eff ects is complicated. Even the notion that electro- MCKIBILLO ILLUSTRATIONS:

Kill Your Satellite when you touch something after you’ve been walking across a carpeted ﬂ oor. The satellite builds up ETEOROIDS HAVE TAKEN out more than a charge simply by traveling in its orbit. Then, when few spacecraft. In addition to Olympus and the meteoroid smacks into the charged-up satellite, MLandsat 5, other possible victims were the it acts as a ﬂ int to generate the spark. Small Expendable Deployer System (March 1994) An ESD is a serious problem for the many inte- and the Miniature Sensor Technology Integration grated circuits on board a satellite. These devices (also March 1994). are made from semiconductors like silicon and Two types of electrical eff ects are associated with gallium arsenide, materials that can sustain per- an impacting meteoroid: electrostatic discharges (ESD) and manent damage from high voltages. The result of an impact electromagnetic pulses (EMPs). An ESD—you’ll know it as could be a localized ESD, or a more serious problem such as the garden-variety spark—occurs on a satellite when accu- a discharge of the whole satellite, depending on the mate- mulated electric charge is suddenly discharged. It’s the same rial of the spacecraft. Some antistatic devices can help pre- principle by which you experience a mild electrical shock vent static buildup, but no one knows how much buildup

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magnetic radiation from meteoroid impacts—tiny versions of to try to gauge the size and speed of all this space flotsam and the electromagnetic pulses given off by nuclear bombs—could jetsam by looking carefully at the plasma trails these objects be sufficiently energetic to destroy circuitry is controversial. create when they hit the atmosphere. With ALTAIR, that’s But some NASA engineers suspect that exactly such an event a fairly straightforward exercise because the plasma reflects led to the untimely demise of Landsat 5’s gyros last year. Those radio waves so well. Of course, you need to model the object’s who disagree think the culprit was the direct physical damage. motions as it burns up to calculate how fast it was going in the But one thing is clear: Space scientists need to learn a lot more first place. But if you do this right, you can also figure out its about meteoroids and the dangers they pose. mass, density, and radius. This method is certainly better than One way to study meteoroids is to observe how they shift just measuring the momentum transferred to satellites when the orientation of the satellites they strike. Scientists can they are struck. But the best strategy of all would be to observe use this simple method to detect meteoroid collisions, because the angular Deep Impact momentum of an object in orbit doesn’t change without a reason. If a satellite’s velocity shifts (and if other variables, like gravity, light pressure, and atmo- spheric drag are ruled out), the only logical conclusion is that something has hit it. It’s easy to apply this technique with ALTAIR, METEOROID DAMAGE: Pictured are the results of impacts on the Atlantis space shuttle payload bay door radiator, an insulation blanket on a module of the International Space Station, and the Hubble Space Telescope solar array. because this radar can determine velocities with ETWEEN 1992 and 2002, the space 98 sites—in which inspectors looked at trace extreme precision. But shuttles were assessed for mete- materials left on the collision site—revealed even so, it’s impossible to Boroid and debris damage 50 times. that orbital debris had caused 41 impacts. tell the difference between (Although the craft are assessed after each Eighteen were attributable to meteoroids; a satellite’s collision with mission, there are more in-depth examina- the causes of the other collisions are either a large piece of relatively tions if something is found to raise interest; unknown or left no samples in the impact slow-moving space debris think of it as the difference between regu- craters. In low Earth orbit, where the shuttle lar Transportation Security Administration operates, we expect human-made space and a collision with a screenings and being pulled over for inspec- debris to exceed the meteoroid population. small but speedy mete- tion.) After 62 missions, NASA inspectors But the space around satellites that lie far- oroid. Both could impart found that the shuttle windows alone ther out, in geosynchronous orbit, teems with exactly the same change had been struck 1578 times and that 98 of equally large populations of space debris in momentum. these incidents led to damage that required and meteoroids. By some estimates, in fact, A better way to differ- repairs. Spectroscopic analysis of these meteoroids are more prevalent. —S.C. entiate meteoroids from PHOTOS, FROM LEFT: NASA (2); ESA space debris—and to distinguish among the different kinds of meteoroids—is sorely meteoroid impacts up close from a vantage point in space. needed. A technique that could do that would also help solve To that end, I am collaborating with Andrew Kalman another, related problem: not being able to tell the difference at Stanford to develop a satellite called MEDUSSA, between naturally occurring phenomena in our own iono- which stands for Meteoroid and Energetics Detection for sphere and man-made artifacts like launch vehicles or missiles. Understanding Space Situational Awareness. If it is built A good approach, I and many other space scientists believe, is and flown as I hope, the MEDUSSA satellite will be able to study exactly what takes place when micrometeoroids and energetic particles slam into it. With this information, engineers should be better able to they need to prevent because these effects have not been design satellites to resist impact damage. Of course, there will thoroughly studied. still be run-ins with meteoroids and orbital debris that destroy Unlike ESDs, electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) occur when spacecraft in mysterious ways, just as there are disasters with a colliding meteoroid vaporizes on impact and forms a aircraft that defy explanation. But MEDUSSA would certainly plasma. In a collision, both the meteoroid and a fraction of help. And one day down the road, I anticipate that every sat- the satellite evaporate and ionize, instantaneously forming ellite that gets lofted will contain a stand-alone unit to sense a cloud of plasma. That plasma can then affect equipment impacts and report their effects—even if they are extreme such as the RF antenna on board. enough to disable the rest of the satellite. Think of it as a sat- The theory that meteoroid-induced EMPs cause catastrophic satellite failures is controversial and, at this writing, unconfirmed. ellite “black box.” Maybe then, we’ll get a good picture of just However, researchers have been studying the plasma produc- all the unexpected things that can go wrong in space. O tion associated with hypervelocity impacts for over 30 years. Enough unsolved satellite anomalies have taken place to make This article would not have been possible without the invaluable the case for EMPs as a damage mechanism. —S.C. contributions of Stan Green.

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The Man Who Made

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HIROSHI ISHIGURO IS BUILDING ANDROIDS TO UNDERSTAND HUMANS— STARTING WITH HIMSELF

By ERICO GUIZZO e a Copy of Himself

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I A S Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page BEF MaGS I I S S walk outwalk of the lab and go When Ishiguro speaks, the android repro- android the speaks, Ishiguro When using silicone rubber, pneu- to do: mimic a person. the verge laser of emitting the original, has a thin frame, hasathin the original, in asittingin posture, soit can’t in Japan,in has,asyou might when Ishiguro lights up a cigarette, the the cigarette, up lights a when Ishiguro which is as much a study of people as it as people of astudy much as is which his ownhis scalp. The robot, like matic actuators, powerful mechanical doppelgänger normal people. One isan recent creations look like mill automatons. Ishiguro’s latesthis aren’t run-of-the- roboticist at University, Osaka fetch groceries. But it does a The mechanical Ishiguro also blinks, beams.” The android isfixed fine job of what it’s intended large head, furrowed brows, a and piercing eyes that, as aged family man—himself. android version of amiddle- help people with a multitude oftasks— amultitude with people help life. The hope is that robots will one day hypotheses”—hypotheses about human humanlike robots as test for beds my electronics, and hair from builtexpect, many robots. But one observer put it, “seem on phone to capture his voice and a camera camera a voice and his phone to capture poised to move from factories into daily behavior. and intelligence, nature, is of robots. question “My is research HIROSHI ISHIGURO, HIROSHI the elderly, assist with physical ther- physical elderly,the with assist for care chores, dohousehold they’ll to know whatme hetells ahuman,” is tobreathing, be appears and twitches, follows suit. android the head, his tilts movements. head and face his to track computer, his amicro- using through between spoonfuls of black sesame ice sesame ofblack spoonfuls between cream at an Osaka diner. “I use very of research: human-robot interaction, android abstains. are behaviors human some although duces his intonations;duces his when Ishiguro deliberately suppressed. In particular, 46 Ishiguro constructedIshiguro his It’s the perfect tool for field Ishiguro’s It’s perfect the Ishiguro controls this robot remotely, robot controls this Ishiguro Robots, Ishiguro and others say, others and are Ishiguro Robots, NA•IEEESPECTRUM •APRIL2010 rvosPg otns|Zo n|Zo u rn oe erhIse|Nx Page Next | Issue Search | Cover Front | out Zoom | in Zoom | Contents | Page Previous rvosPg otns|Zo n|Zo u rn oe erhIse|Nx Page Next | Issue Search | Cover Front | out Zoom | in Zoom | Contents | Page Previous a Waseda University’s Wabot, MIT’s Cog, you name it. But to be accepted in these these you it. But in to accepted name be HRP series, Sony’s Qrio, and perhaps perhaps and Sony’s Qrio, series, HRP Sarcoman, Sarcos’s NASA’s Robonaut, most famous of all, Honda’s Asimo. Honda’s Asimo. ofall, famous most us. morelike and machines like less behave to have may robots roles, the Toyota partner robots, Japan’s METI Japan’s METI robots, Toyotathe partner are regard this in notable efforts most the been interested in making robots look classes, serve cappuccinos at Starbucks, apy, monitor the sick at hospitals, teach teach apy, at hospitals, sick monitor the and act more like human beings. Among Among beings. human morelike act and Researchers have, long ofcourse, Researchers Ishiguro says, but our brains are wired to wired are says, but brains our Ishiguro Research Institute International, known Latin for twin. He named his mechanical mechanical his He named for twin. Latin leader. To describe an android copyof android an leader. To describe interaction. That’s why he builds robots relate to other humans—we’re optimized that look like people, as part of his work ofhis part as people, like look that human-Asimo, not human-human, for em“geminoid,”term after brother Geminoid HI-1. a particular individual, he coined the group he’s where ATR, avisiting as at the Advanced Telecommunications These robots are all mechanical looking, SEEING DOUBLE: and hisrobot twin [above andon previous pages] take abreak. geminus ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG Hiroshi Ishiguro , which is is , which A A B B E E F F M M a a

By building humanlike robots “Why do you change your clothes?” taining hardware. Yet none of it matches Ishiguro hopes to decipher what the he says. “Do you change your name? the robots that science fiction prom- Japanese call sonzaikan—the feeling of So why do you change your clothes? ised the future would bring—Astro Boy, being in the presence of a human being. Name is identity. Face is identity. But C-3PO, Data, Rosie, David, Number Six. Where does the sense of humanness the majority of your [appearance] Today’s robots are closer to other appli- come from? And can you convey those comes from your clothes. You should not ances in appearance. And even the best of qualities with a robot? change your clothes. Do you agree?” them aren’t very good company. The idea of connecting a person’s brain I meekly suggest that all-black attire Many roboticists believe this is going so intimately with a remotely controlled might get a bit hot in the summer. to change. They have visions of robots body seems straight out of science fiction. “We have air conditioners,” he says. that will assist us, talk to us, even care In The Matrix, humans control virtual “Next question.” about us. Social robots are coming to life selves. In Avatar, the controlled bodies are For an academic, Ishiguro lives a fran- in labs at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia alien-human hybrids. In the recent Bruce tic existence. He works at four labs, over- Tech, and elsewhere. Though nobody Willis movie Surrogates, people control sees some 50 students, is a cofounder of knows yet what types of robots will robot proxies sent into the world in their a robotics start-up, and constantly trav- become major applications (roboticists places. Attentive viewers will notice that els to conferences around the world. No avoid the term “killer app,” understand- Ishiguro and the Geminoid have cameo wonder he needs a copy of himself. ably), they may soon be among us. roles, appearing in a TV news report on Ishiguro, who is 46, started build- But do they have to look like us? the rapid progress of “robotic surrogacy.” ing robots more than a decade ago, after Some roboticists I spoke to question Ishiguro’s surrogate doesn’t have sens- abandoning the idea of becoming an oil whether humanlike androids are a good ing and actuation capabilities as sophis- painter. One of the first robots he helped idea, or even necessary. One researcher, ticated as those in the movie. But even put together, Robovie, looked like a who asked not to be named because he this relatively simple android is giving trash can with arms. Another robot he collaborates with institutions with which Ishiguro great insight into how our brains worked with, Wakamaru, developed by Ishiguro is affiliated, says the Geminoid work when we come face to face with a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, resembled is “not very convincing—and a bit creepy.” machine that looks like a person. He’s In some demonstrations, he notes, the also investigating, with assistance from android barely moves its eyes and lips, cognitive scientists, how the operator’s appearing catatonic. On YouTube, many brain behaves. Teleoperating the android commenters call videos of the Geminoid can be so immersive that strange things “scary” and “freaky.” The tech blog happen. Simply touching the android is Gizmodo included the android in its list of enough to trigger a physical sensation in “10 Creepy Machines From Robot Hell.” him, Ishiguro says, almost as though he Ishiguro is unfazed. He acknowledges were inhabiting the robot’s body. that in some situations you don’t need or “Like all Dr. Frankensteins of litera- want your robot to resemble a person. ture, he’s raising some deep, powerful You don’t need an android to vacuum questions about our humanity and our BEHIND THE CURTAIN: Ishiguro teleoperates your house if a saucer on wheels can do his android using a computer that captures his creations, and it’s scary, but it’s also impor- voice and facial expressions. a better job. And a robotic assistant that tant that we confront these questions, and PHOTO: ATR INTELLIGENT ROBOTICS AND COMMUNICATION helps an elderly person out of the tub he’s doing that not in the realm of fiction LABORATORIES probably shouldn’t sport a human face. but in the laboratory,” says IEEE Fellow an overgrown insect. People had mixed He’s also well aware that, although Ken Goldberg, a robotics professor at the reactions to those robots, and that got people might better connect with a robot University of California, Berkeley. “We’re him thinking about how crucial appear- when it resembles another human being, going to learn something about machines— ance is to communication. And yet, he when it gets the nuances wrong it may but even more about ourselves.” realized, the connection hadn’t been seem more like a zombie or an animated properly investigated. corpse. The Japanese roboticist Masahiro iroshi Ishiguro stomps on the Indeed, consider that the world pop- Mori called this descent into creepiness, Haccelerator. The black Mazda RX-8 ulation of industrial and service robots as lifelike appearance is approached but roars onto the highway, the heavy- is about 8.5 million, according to some not attained, the “uncanny valley.” metal Scorpions blasting from the speak- estimates. That includes manufactur- Ishiguro says the possibility that his ers. We’re driving to Osaka University’s ing robots, palletizing robots, surgical creations might result in revulsion won’t Toyonaka Campus. Ishiguro is wearing robots, bomb-disposal robots, milking stop him from “trying to build the robots aviator sunglasses, black polyester pants, robots, meat-handling robots, underwater of the future as I imagine them.” He is a black vest on top of a black shirt, along and aerial robots, some 4 million home convinced that human-looking robots with a black belt, socks, and shoes. vacuum cleaners, and one that cleans the are a natural interface for humans to “Give me question,” he says, his eyes Louvre’s glass pyramid. That’s to say noth- interact with and that the uncanny valley fixed on the road. ing about the vast assortment of robot dogs, idea may be too simplistic to explain peo- I ask whether he always dresses dinosaurs, seals, and other robot toys. It’s ple’s reactions to robots. We may simply in black. a fine bunch of helpful or at least enter- come to accept life- Continued on page 54

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open sesame? The Middle by sandra East’s ﬁ rst upson synchrotron is in peril

SIGNS OF LIGHT: Amor Nadji oversees the engineers striving to build a particle accelerator in Jordan. PHOTO: JOSEPH ZAKARIAN

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THREE YEARS AGO, Amor Nadji and three young engineers piled into a van in Amman, Jordan, and drove 30 kilometers northeast to the city of Zarqa. Their route took them past faded, sand-colored buildings and empty lots where sheep grazed on patches of grass and low brush. The shops and apartment buildings gradually thinned out, and the van entered an industrial ghetto of warehouses. Behind one set of padlocked doors, about 100 plywood boxes and metal equipment racks stood coated in a thick layer of dust. Carefully packed away in those boxes was the collected hardware of a vintage synchrotron. The engineers’ mission was to salvage the then-25-year-old particle accelerator and turn it into a ﬁrst-rate machine. This supermicroscope, called SESAME (for Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) would enable scientists from Jordan and nearby countries to investigate the atomic structure of different materials. The engineers’ hope was that SESAME would revitalize Middle Eastern science and encourage friendly encounters between otherwise factious neighbors.

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But first they had to navigate the plywood labyrinth of dust and Indeed, SESAME’s engineers, who hail from decay. A decade before, their particle accelerator had narrowly escaped Iran, Pakistan, and the Palestinian territories, being sent to a scrap yard in Germany. The machine, then called Bessy, as well as Jordan, have been handed an almost had had a research program in full swing. But after the Berlin Wall impossible task. The equipment has become seri- fell in 1989 and the country reunified, the German government found ously dated, outstripped by the march of techno- itself paying for one synchrotron light source too many. By the end of logical progress and aged by dust, heat, and time. the ’90s Bessy faced dismantlement. Somehow, these young recruits must transform Around that time, four physicists working in Europe got a wild idea. the mass of parts into a world-class laboratory CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, had been so alluring that scientists from across the Middle built to encourage basic science after World War II and to help heal East will set aside their grievances and build pro- Europe’s fractures. Maybe a defunct German synchrotron could do the fessional relationships at SESAME’s workstations. same for the Middle East, the physicists thought. They asked Germany The staff has had to do so in the face of apathy from to donate Bessy to the region. The machine could help spur collabora- their home governments and a mere trickle of fund- tions, they argued: Israeli scientists searching for new materials could ing for the new facility. run experiments next to Iranian biomedical researchers imaging pro- Nadji and his crew collected about 20 of the boxes teins while Palestinian environmental scientists analyzed rock sam- from the warehouse in Zarqa and brought them ples across the hall. The rest of the world, they pointed out, had built back to Allan, a small community in the rolling, tree- more than 60 such facilities, while the Middle East had none. covered hills outside Amman. A brand-new, empty The four physicists got their approval. “It was one of the best white building on a bare plot of land awaited them. [synchrotrons] in the world at the time,” says Herman Winick, who Despite the political and financial challenges, the was then on Bessy’s board. “They were going to call a junkyard dealer team was optimistic. The project seemed difficult and cut it up and sell it as scrap metal. I wanted to convince them that but straightforward—take a good, working machine we should offer it as a gift.” They set up a council to find Bessy a new and reconstruct it. None of them imagined that two home. Seven countries lobbied to get the machine, but Jordan won; its years later, they’d just be getting started. political regime was considered more stable and open to all visitors. The council recruited a fledgling staff, and the 13 young engineers were ON A SUNNY MORNING in May 2009, SESAME’s sent off to Europe for training. engineers settle into their labs to finish soldering cir- In 2002, a ship pulled into Aqaba’s harbor carrying the boxed-up cuit boards for the synchrotron’s new control system Bessy, and Jordan got the makings of a synchrotron. But rebuilding and power supply. a machine that was originally 64 meters in circumference is no sim- Outside, palm trees jut out of the tilled soil ple affair. There was no place to set up the machine, and nobody to like sentries, and a scraggly patch of chrysanthe- run it. Khaled Toukan, the chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy mums bake under the cloudless sky. Students at Commission and SESAME’s director, convinced King Abdullah II to the university next door peek through SESAME’s donate a plot of land and build a hall for the synchrotron. gated fence as they wait for the local bus to arrive. Two years passed before the team was ready to tackle the hardware. A rooster belts out its morning salute. Nadji, SESAME’s technical director, recalls facing the warehouse with Seadat Varnasseri, head of SESAME’s power trepidation. “This technology was completely new to this region, and supplies and diagnostics, walks through the cavern- my team was not very experienced,” he says. “I suddenly had to be a ous central hall and inspects a few boxes draped in specialist in everything.” Among his colleagues, he alone had helped plastic tarps. Rays of sun pour in through skylights build a synchrotron before—Soleil, a new machine outside Paris. There, and reflect off the shiny blue floor. The hall is clean pristine laboratories full of oscilloscopes and probes enabled him to and sleek, like a newly built Olympic arena. diagnose problems quickly and easily. Here, nothing of the sort existed. Along the side of the main hall, a dozen bright That didn’t faze SESAME’s staff. Arash Kaftoosian, an engineer from orange cabinets stand on pallets amid crumpled Iran, approached the project “like a puzzle,” he says. “We used our sheets of plastic. Bundles of gray cords and wires imaginations to figure out how it all might fit together. But sometimes droop from the cabinets, their ends cut off and dan- it seemed harder than if we were building it from scratch.” gling in midair. A vanilla-colored telephone receiver

SYNCHROTRON DREAMS: So far, SESAME’s microtron [right] is up and running. The booster ring [left] is still under construction. PHOTO: SESAME

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SESAME, SOMEDAY: If SESAME ﬁnds its funding, this giant microscope will generate beams of light for scientiﬁc experiments at 13 stations in SESAME’s main hall. For now, though, the synchrotron has just a working microtron and the hardware for the booster ring, both shown in red.

2» FAST AND FURIOUS The electrons enter a booster ring, where magnets force them to travel in a circular path and radio waves 1» FIRE STARTER accelerate the electrons to 800 MeV. An electron gun inside a 3» SAFE HAVEN microtron generates electrons. The electron beam travels to Radio waves then accelerate the a storage ring, where it races electrons to an energy level of around for hours, reaching 22 megaelectron volts. 2.5 gigaelectron volts.

3. STORAGE RING 2. BOOSTER RING

3A. BENDING MAGNETS 1. MICROTRON

3B. WIGGLER/ UNDULATOR 4. BEAM LINE/ 3C. RADIO- EXPERIMENTAL FREQUENCY STATION CAVITIES 3A» Bending magnets 4» DIVINING LIGHT adjust the path of the electron beam to keep it The light travels down a beam inside the storage ring. line, which sends the beam to an experimental station, where optics focus or ﬁlter 3B» Magnets called the light to allow scientists to wigglers and undula- investigate their samples. tors force the electrons 3C» Radio-frequency to emit a concentrated cavities add energy to beam of light. the circulating electrons to replace the energy that was lost as light.

perches on the side of one control center, and the stout 10-6 meters, a synchrotron can easily image a virus, and at 10-11 meters, bulge of a CRT screen protrudes from another. researchers can see atoms. Varnasseri sometimes comes here to scavenge a The engineers have spent a year and a half trying to coax the micro- spare knob for a new diagnostic tool he’s building. tron into producing an electron beam. It’s a tricky process. First, an He admires the rows of square buttons lining a con- electron gun must fire: A 2-microsecond microwave pulse bombards a trol panel, each with a label printed neatly in German. cathode, causing its surface to emit some electrons. These electrons must “I guess this could be a nice museum,” says Varnasseri then enter a cavity that will be fed with 3-gigahertz radio waves to speed as he sizes up the racks, each one a carrot-colored relic up the electrons. An electromagnet should generate a magnetic field that that only the late 1970s could have produced. repels the electrons and causes them to spiral outward. The electrons The light streaming into the hall casts a soft should then race around inside the microtron, passing through the ini- gleam on the lone object in the center of the room: tial cavity and collecting more energy each time. After completing 42 laps, a maroon disc anchored upright like the face of a the electrons should emerge from the microtron as a 22-megaelectron- clock. The disc, 2.3 meters across, is the microtron, volt beam. (A megaelectron volt, by the way, is the unit of energy com- the ignition system for a synchrotron. The micro- monly used in particle physics, equivalent to 1.6 x 10-13 joules.) tron’s job is to inject a burst of electrons into the But the microtron has problems. For one, the device must be kept synchrotron’s two nested, doughnut-shaped rings. under a 10-3 pascal vacuum, but every cable and O-ring seal in the vac- Electrons will accelerate inside the first ring before uum system has corroded with age. In addition, every circuit board in

EMILY COOPER entering the second one, where they will give off the control system contains obsolete transistors, so the crew has had photons. These photons will have wavelengths far to rebuild the control system from scratch. “Think about it—we had a smaller than what ordinary microscopes can pro- 20-year-old computer control system. Computers change every week!” duce. By generating light with wavelengths of about Varnasseri says with a grin, pointing at the dusty racks.

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a large refrigerator, hold the beam lines that will eventually deliver light to experimental stations. Top-notch synchrotron facilities donated the equipment in anticipation of the day when SESAME’s brilliant rays will be aimed at samples brought in by biologists, archaeologists, and other investigators from across the Middle East. What’s missing is everything in between. The engineers have the electron source and the infrastructure to deliver photons to the experimenters. But they don’t have a storage ring, the crucial apparatus needed to generate photons in the proper portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, a million times as bright as sunlight. Without a storage ring, SESAME is like a race car without an engine. But the engineers keep working. The microtron is almost ready to be switched on. For the moment, the excitement of nearing that milestone overshadows the staff’s deep uncertainty about the machine’s ultimate fate.

AT 5 O’CLOCK ON 13 JULY, Nadji asks most of his staff to go home for the evening. It’s time to test the microtron, and only the five people he needs to run the machine stay behind. Nadji is nervous. They are about to find out whether their cautious reconstruction mimics Bessy closely enough to work. Maher Attal, an accelerator physicist from the Palestinian territories, sets up the BEAM TEAM: Bessy, the machine that was to become SESAME, bustled with activity and microtron using the parameters they experiments in Germany before it was dismantled and sent to Jordan. PHOTO: HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM BERLIN/BESSY II have on file. He triggers the electron gun. Nothing happens. Perhaps something went wrong To get even this far, the engineers had to decode the clues contained with the electromagnet, they think, so they turn its in the boxes they’d received from Germany. “At first we were in the dark,” power supply off and back on again. They adjust the Varnasseri says. The staff had all the original paperwork for the hard- frequency of the radio waves entering the acceler- ware, but later changes and upgrades had been documented in stacks ating cavity—up, down, up some more, down some. of handwritten notebooks—in German. They spent weeks sitting in Each adjustment changes the amount of energy trans- a small, unheated warehouse next to SESAME’s main hall, poring ferred to the electrons and alters their orbits. They over the boxes. Nadji recalls their fingers stiffening with cold as they take a closer look at the deflection tube, which shields searched for clues to Bessy’s last working configuration. “I had to con- the electrons from the magnetic field to temporarily vince myself that it was worth it to move the equipment to the main straighten out their path. They move the tube inside building,” Nadji says. To put it more bluntly, he wasn’t confident that the microtron. By about 7 o’clock, the team decides the microtron could ever get built. that the electron gun isn’t sending electrons hurtling A picture of the original machine started to emerge from the electronics, through the deflection tube. Why not? magnets, and girders that surrounded them, and soon the assembly began Two more hours go by. Darweesh Foudeh, a for real. The engineers set up the microtron on a wooden bench in the main radio-frequency engineer from Jordan, swaps out a hall. They ran exhaustive tests on its vacuum pumps, radio-frequency few burned-out transistors. Then Nadji realizes that generator, and electromagnets; all seemed to be in working order. the electromagnets have probably warped over time, The staff now awaits a few missing pieces—new transistors for so the settings used by Bessy’s last operators won’t the electron gun and the diagnostic systems and a radiation moni- work. Deviations in the magnetic field inside the tor to help ensure that once the machine fires, the staff will be safe. microtron are probably causing electrons to fly off Across the wide, sun-dappled hall, plywood boxes, each the size of their intended path. So Attal adjusts the trim mag-

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nets, which are corrective coils that can compensate Since then, the synchrotron’s directors have coaxed about $2 million for small irregularities in the main magnetic field. out of its members for an operating budget that pays salaries for 22 people, “At the end of the microtron, we put a fluores- keeps the building running, and allows small equipment purchases. But cent screen and a camera,” Nadji recalls. The cam- Nadji needs another $30 million to build the storage ring and finish the era, sitting outside the microtron, points directly at project. Bessy came with a storage ring, of course, but SESAME’s team the screen. At 12:34 a.m., a splotch materializes on envisioned something far better. In order to court prospective users, in it. The first electrons have emerged. Nadji remem- particular Middle Eastern biologists, the staff had agreed to upgrade the bers the moment vividly: “We could see on our mon- synchrotron to run at a higher energy of 2.5 gigaelectron volts, instead itors the shape of the beam. We finally knew. We of Bessy’s 0.8 GeV. The larger the circumference of the storage ring, the created the beam, circulated it, and extracted it from higher the energy it can accommodate—which means greater resolution the microtron.” for the images the synchrotron can produce. At 133 meters, SESAME’s They test it a few more times, to check that they planned circumference is twice that of Bessy’s. can repeat the miracle. By 3 a.m. they have their With a ring that large, SESAME could generate hard X-rays and proof. The microtron is producing a rectangular compete with other synchrotrons around the world. But generating beam, approximately 2 by 4 millimeters, neat and such intense energy levels requires expensive and complex equip- clean and with no distortion. ment: To control the electrons in that storage ring, specialized mag- The moment validates all the time and energy nets must force the charged particles to maintain a circular path in a they’ve sunk into the touchy old machine. “To be tight, compact beam. Other magnets, called wigglers and undulators, honest, we wanted to show we were able to do it,” must deflect the electrons and cause them to lose energy, which they says Kaftoosian, who is in charge of the radio- emit as light. The electrons should then pass through radio-frequency frequency group at SESAME. “I’m doing something cavities to replace the energy they just lost. new for my community. If I go to the United States So far, the members haven’t paid. “I’m coming from Soleil, where the and work on a synchrotron, okay, then you’re work- machine itself was maybe €150 million. Here we’re talking €20 million,” ing there. But you’re not contributing to new things Nadji says, a note of frustration creeping into his voice. To him, the case like SESAME, which is willing to go for peace and for the storage ring is obvious. “Every year the demand at synchrotrons for solving political problems.” is always twice the opportunities,” he explains, and so only half of the That day in July may well be the most exciting at research teams that apply for time on a beam line actually get it. Many SESAME so far. But they take no time to celebrate. The countries, including Brazil, India, Taiwan, and Thailand, have addressed political infighting that the synchrotron was intended the access problem by building their own synchrotrons. to help solve is now threatening to unravel its prog- But there’s a bigger issue at work here, says Hafeez Hoorani, ress—and to undermine its very existence. SESAME’s scientific director and a research director at the National Centre for Physics at Quaid-i-Azam University, in Pakistan. “The SESAME HAD NEVER BEEN AN EASY SELL. more fundamental problem is how much Middle Eastern countries Back in the late ’90s, when the European physicists are investing in science,” Hoorani says. According to data from Herman Winick, Gustaf-Adolf Voss, Sergio Fubini, UNESCO, Arab states spend, on average, 0.2 percent of their gross and Herwig Schopper first dreamed up the idea of domestic product on research and development, while the world’s SESAME, they immediately faced obstacles. The gift average is 1.7 percent. (Israel is the exception in the Middle East, with they wanted Germany to make was valued at around 4.7 percent of GDP dedicated to R&D.) $6 million or $7 million—but packing it up carefully, Nadji estimates that SESAME’s engineers have about a year of work with the help of Russian specialists from Novosibirsk, left before they run out of things to do. They’re now testing the booster would cost about $600 000. Schopper had less than ring, which accepts the electron beam from the microtron and accel- four months to come up with the cash. erates it before transferring it into the storage ring. They hope to pro- Schopper, formerly a director general of CERN, duce a beam that travels from the microtron out through the booster approached UNESCO first. After World War II, ring by the end of the year. UNESCO had set up the framework for CERN, and Reaching that landmark may be a mixed blessing. Without the stor- Schopper believed the organization could also bro- age ring, the talented young engineers will have nothing left to do, and ker the initial talks between the Middle Eastern Nadji fears that his dedicated, hardworking team will start to defect. countries he hoped to bring on board. Together, They would be departing just as the first signs emerge that SESAME Schopper and UNESCO’s then assistant direc- is indeed becoming a worthy descendant of CERN. “For me the nic- tor-general for the natural sciences, Maurizio est thing is seeing people coming together through SESAME and see- Iaccarino, quickly pulled together a coalition to ing Palestinians and Israelis sitting and talking together,” Hoorani sponsor SESAME. The group included Bahrain, reflects. Eliezer Rabinovici, a physics professor at Hebrew University, in Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, the Jerusalem, concurs. “As a string theorist, I work on parallel universes,” Palestinian Authority, and Turkey. he says. “I was always curious what a parallel universe was like, and Getting the members to contribute their share of now I know. I’m living in one when I go to SESAME meetings.” expenses proved harder. Schopper recalls collecting SESAME’s situation may be about to change. Last month, Rabinovici a mere $200 000. He pleaded with his German con- talked Israel into pledging $1 million a year for five years—but only if tacts to lower the tab, he says, “but the government four other members also do so. Two members have signed on already, had given me a hard condition. I had to come up with and Sir Christopher Llewellyn-Smith, president of the SESAME coun- the money.” In the end, UNESCO stepped in with cil, is optimistic that others will also join in soon. Nadji says he’ll con- the remaining $400 000. “The project would have tinue to push his team to finish the job. “We’ve come this far,” he says. collapsed without their support,” Schopper says. “I have to believe we’ll get there.” O

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that only the mouth moved, so the robot’s movements like breathing and subtle The Man Who Made facial expressions couldn’t change much. head twitches. When the neck turned, a lack of stiff ness “All humans have these,” Ishiguro a Copy of Himself in the body would cause the robot to shake. says, “unless they’re dead.” Continued from page 47 People told him that it gave them a strange, For the 2005 World Exposition in eerie feeling. That includes the robot’s Aichi, Ishiguro replaced the face, copy- like androids as we’re exposed to more of master template—Ishiguro’s daughter. ing that of a famous Japanese newscaster, them and, in the future, rely on them for “She was scared very much,” he says, Ayako Fujii. Visitors lined up to talk to our care and other needs. “and almost cried.” It took several meet- the robotic impersonator. Or as he puts it in Phie Ambo’s 2007 ings until she warmed up to her double. “An elderly gentleman came over and documentary Mechanical Love, “If we’re Surely Ishiguro must have been star- asked, ‘Where’s the android?’ and he short on people, why not make some?” ing into the abyss of the uncanny valley. was standing right next to it,” says Karl His response was to attempt a fl ying leap MacDorman, a former Ishiguro collab- e’re standing outside Osaka over the chasm—to build a markedly bet- orator and now director of the Android WUniversity’s Intelligent Robotics ter android. This time he modeled it after Science Center at Indiana University– Laboratory, which Ishiguro an adult. Ishiguro shows me the result. Purdue University, in Indianapolis. directs. It’s a Sunday, the lab is empty, and “This is Repliee Q2,” he tells me, “Androids can press our Darwinian we’re locked out. Ishiguro can’t recall the almost as if introducing a friend. The buttons—they are perfect tools to study code of the entry lock and is on the phone android has long golden-brown hair, how our brains work.” with a colleague. When the door finally glossy lips, perfect skin, and 42 pneu- Despite its success in many regards, opens, robotic creatures great and small matic actuators embedded in her petite this android revealed a serious problem. are everywhere—and they appear to be body. Perched on a stool, she—er, the The techniques of artifi cial intelligence staring right at me. I ask about a diminu- android—can talk about itself and sing remain too primitive to reproduce every- tive android standing in a corner. Disney tunes. Ishiguro built it with help day human behavior, like the ability to “That is my daughter’s copy,” Ishiguro from the robotics firm Kokoro, which sustain a conversation. So the robot’s life- says. He explains that the robot, built in has considerable experience with anima- like appearance proved deceiving: People 2001 and called Repliee R1, was based on tronics. Kokoro engineers and Ishiguro’s expected more than it could deliver. his then 4-year-old daughter. It has nine team worked particularly hard to dupli- After some careful refl ection on the DC motors in its head, prosthetic eye- cate a woman’s facial expressions, blink- problem, Ishiguro decided to shift his balls, and silicone skin. Ishiguro says ing, and hand movements. And they focus from autonomous androids to tele- that the eyelids looked unnatural and wrote software to simulate involuntary operated ones. For that, he fi gured he’d

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start with a copy of a real person, some- android using dozens of volunteers, col- ple who know him, Ishiguro says, could one he could trust and who’d be willing leagues, and students, as well as his wife experience his personality and authority: to become a guinea pig in long, tedious and daughter. In controlled experiments, The android, though not perfect, was experiments. He’d reproduce himself. he observed that people may feel uneasy able to convey sonzaikan—his presence. Building on what he had done with at ﬁ rst, but they quickly adapt, and most “To look back at the trajectory of Repliee Q2, Ishiguro added even more are capable of having a natural conver- androids in his lab, the progress is strik- actuators to the Geminoid: 13 in the face, sation with his replica. No one ran away ing,” says Andrea Thomaz, a robotics 15 in the torso, and 22 in the arms and from the android screaming in horror. professor at Georgia Tech who is familiar with Ishiguro’s work. The exciting part about his and others’ work on androids, she adds, “is that it forces us to more fully understand human behavior at every level.” For Ishiguro, having a robot clone has practical uses as well—such as being in two places at once. Most of the time the Geminoid resides at ATR, in

REPLICANTS: Ishiguro’s lifelike androids Kyoto, an hour’s drive from Osaka, so include a copy of his daughter [left] Ishiguro uses the robot to attend meet- and a TV newscaster [above]. ings there. PHOTOS: LEFT, ATR INTELLIGENT ROBOTICS AND COMMUNICATION LABORATORIES; RIGHT: YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES “Very convenient,” he says with a smile. “The problem is I can’t get sal- legs. His team used a cast to make a per- He also showed that the Geminoid could ary from ATR if I use the Geminoid. fect copy of his physique. They improved act as a good salesman, that children Therefore they still make me go there.” the body-control software to generate were eager to play games with it, and that even ﬁ ner motions and developed a com- pet owners were particularly skilled at t’s late at night, and Ishiguro sits in puter vision system to synchronize the detecting its nonverbal cues. I his Osaka University lab. He’s teleoper- Geminoid’s lips to the operator’s. His main conclusion is that in ating the Geminoid, which is lounging So how did people react? many situations people respond to the 9000 kilometers away at a café in Linz, In the three years since completing Geminoid in much the same way they do Austria. The android is there as part of the Geminoid, Ishiguro has tested the to other individuals. What’s more, peo- the Ars Electronica festival. Ishiguro is

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chatting with a group of kids who’d taken notice of the robot. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Then a boy pokes the android’s face. “Yahh, don’t touch to my face,” Ishiguro yells. The kids laugh. PUT MIT TO WORK FOR YOU But what just happened was quite profound. Ishiguro says that when the kid poked the robot’s face, he felt a tingle on his cheek— even though nothing was attached to his face. For an instant, ADVANCED STUDY PROGRAM Ishiguro’s brain mistook his body for another—in Austria. Enroll in MIT classes over one or more Ishiguro has experienced this many times in different set- semesters, full or part time. tings, all with the same result: He feels as though the touch were real. He believes the phenomenon stems in part from As an ASP Fellow, you will: observing the synchronization of the android’s head and lips with his own. When Ishiguro uses the Geminoid, he sees video › investigate the latest advances in your field from external cameras that show the robot’s field of view and › design a curriculum to meet individual also its face. Because he is watching the robot’s lips move as and company goals he speaks and seeing its head move when he turns his own › access the full range of MIT courses neck, Ishiguro’s brain starts to treat the robot as an extension and resources of his own body. › build a lifelong network of colleagues Even more surprising, Ishiguro says that when other people teleoperate the Geminoid, after a while they, too, may experience Accepting applications for Fall 2010 the “phantom poke.” This means that an android doesn’t even Classes begin September 7 have to look like you for you to think of its body as your own! Peter W. Halligan, a psychology professor at Cardiff http://advancedstudy.mit.edu/fall | [email protected] ______University, in Wales, who is not involved in the Geminoid proj- 617.253.6128 ect, says the phenomenon “sounds fascinating.” He notes that a Information Session: May 18 possible explanation is that humans have mirror neurons that See web site for details. fire both when a subject is touched and when the same subject observes another being touched, in this case on the face. In normal situations, the sensation is suppressed. Is the act of teleoperating a robot tricking the brain? Indeed, the brain fills in many gaps in the signals our sensing organs send to it, and our sense of embodiment is more mal- leable than most people think. Recently, Swedish researchers Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that when presented with certain visual cues, subjects wearing head-mounted displays could experience other people’s PUT MIT TO WORK FOR YOU bodies—or a mannequin’s—as their own. Ishiguro is collaborating with cognitive scientists to investigate the phenomenon. He’s planning to use brain scans to 2010 SUMMER COURSES find out what happens inside the operator’s head when the in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, computing, Geminoid gets poked. He believes his results will show humans networks, mechanical design, innovation, energy, can easily adapt to robotic bodies. transportation, nanotechnology, imaging, tribology, lean enterprise, technology policy, Whether each of us will have a geminoid in the future remains lean healthcare, systems engineering, data to be seen. But lifelike androids are already helping Ishiguro and analysis, and other topics of vital interest to others explore some of the pressing questions in human-robot today’s engineers and scientists. interaction. What do people expect from robots? What social behaviors should they exhibit? And how do we get their look right? In the coming years, researchers will have to answer these INTENSIVE PROGRAMS OF 2-5 DAYS questions to come up with design principles for building the next generation of social robots. › led by renowned MIT pioneers Ishiguro, for his part, believes that robotic telepresence will › taught on the MIT campus with MIT resources become a major communication medium over the next decade. › geared for busy professionals Eventually, he speculates, humanlike robots will become › designed for in-depth learning truly integrated into society—not just for factory automation › grant MIT certificates and CEUs CONTACT or as labor-saving devices but as replacements for someone’s physical presence. A future where androids may become so 617.253.2101 [email protected] advanced that we’re unable to distinguish them from ourselves http://shortprograms.mit.edu/summer doesn’t frighten Ishiguro. “Humankind is always trying to replace human abilities with machines. That’s our history,” he says. “I’m doing the same thing. Nothing special.” O

SLIDESHOW For more photos of Ishiguro’s robots, go to http://spectrum.ieee.org/geminoid.

56 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

Think you know about the latest technology? You haven’t even scratched the surface. #%!)$ % !!)&#&$! '# #%$% $$&$$ %$%%!"$ From new uses for existing UPCOMING APRIL WEBINARS: technology to cutting-edge Build a Better Prototype – 22 April 2010 innovations in a variety This first webinar in a series of four will provide useful tips about how to create a prototype for your next project and what tools you can use to save money and get a high-quality of disciplines—see all the product to market fast. ______((($"%#& !#( # layers of technology with Understanding 2D Bar Codes and Their Applications Proceedings of the IEEE. – 20 April 2010 This webinar will provide the latest uses of 2D barcodes, how they operate and how it’s possible for your organization to leverage this technology to its fullest advantage across a variety of industrial verticals. ______((($"%#& !#( # AVAILABLE ON DEMAND WEBINARS: The New World of Digital Image Forensics This webinar is an overview of recent developments in the field, focusing on three problems — source, discriminating synthetic from real, forgery. ______((($"%#& !#( # Model-based Design & HIL Testing for MechatronicSystems This webinar presents new ways to simplify the development of high fidelity multi-domain models and quickly deploy the model in Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing. ______((($"%#& !#( # Multiphysics Simulations for Low & High Frequency Electromagnetics This webinar introduces the use of COMSOL Multiphysics for solving problems involving the couplings between electromagnetic field simulations and other physics. ______((($"%#& !#( # Calibre DRC Automated Waiver Technology Proceedings of the IEEE. In this webinar, the Auto-Waiver approach for Calibre DRC is presented. ______((($"%#& !#( # Subscribe today. www.ieee.org/proceedings

WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG______APRIL 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 57

diff erential divvies power among the wheels according to their Porsche relative traction and accelerative forces. In steady cruising, the roll Panamera bars are decoupled, boosting Continued from page 31 ride smoothness by allowing each wheel to respond more for sharper control. That air sensitively to bumps. suspension also lets the driver All a driver needs to know raise or lower the car’s body, is that the Panamera makes including a maximum height to the term four-door sports clear steep driveways or curbs car a reality, not a marketing or ultralow for high performance. gimmick. About as wide as a The acronym soup continues Mercedes S-Class and topping with a sophisticated active all- 1900 kg, the Panamera Turbo is wheel-drive system (Porsche no Lotus lightweight. Yet crank Traction Management, or PTM) up the Sport Plus setting and and Porsche Dynamic Chassis the Panamera boggles mind Control (PDCC), which combines and body alike, cracking the 1 g active antiroll bars with an barrier of lateral acceleration, electronic rear diff erential to among other feats. It’s also a keep the Panamera’s body license shredder, so luxurious amazingly ﬂ at when cornering and accommodating that it’s at high speed. The antiroll bars forever sneaking past 100 mph feature hydraulic swivel motors when you meant (honestly, that send pressurized oil to offi cer) to go 75, making this either side of the car, creating Porsche the ultimate carpooling counterresistance on the body as machine. For the autobahn, cornering forces build. The rear anyway. —Lawrence Ulrich

ton Bimmer slurped premium unleaded at 1.6 liters per BMW X6 M 100 kilometers (14 miles per Continued from page 35 gallon) during my testing, with formidable Evo get eaten alive the Environmental Protection ______by the hulking Bimmer—to the Agency pegging offi cial mileage shocking tune of 10 seconds at 12 and 17 mpg in city and per lap. BMW engineers have highway use, respectively. also seen their most powerful M Yet ultimately, type A drivers model confound expectations: At with the means to buy this the legendary Nurbürgring course US $89 000 mildly sociopathic in Germany—for decades a test- monster will also be the type ing benchmark for the world’s to brush off social critics, production and racing cars— preferably by tromping on the the X6 M covers the 20.8-km gas. Questions of relevance (12.9-mile) circuit faster than the aside, those owners will be previous-generation M3 sedan. rewarded with an SUV of which The X6 M’s downside, as NASA might be proud—for both you might expect, is pitiful velocity and technology. fuel economy. This 2.4- metric- —Lawrence Ulrich

ness plan. If deliveries of the 2e Aptera 2e do launch on schedule, Aptera plans to start work on a plug-in Continued from page 37 hybrid model that will have a is also pledging to make it pos- smaller battery pack combined sible for third parties to develop with a small, highly effi cient apps that add functions beyond combustion engine to serve as a those that come with the car, and range extender for trips beyond Aptera expects drivers to coop- the 2e’s guaranteed range of erate by swapping tips and even 160 km (100 miles). to compete for the best energy- But that’s still in the future; effi ciency ratings. Regrettably, for now, all hands are concen- my test car had almost none of trated on fi nishing develop- those features, with its onboard ment of the 2e. If the company computer simply sending data to can deliver production vehicles ______ test equipment. to the fi rst of more than 4000 It must be said that the com- customers who’ve put down pany has had fi nancial problems deposits, it will have beaten the and that it has deferred the car’s odds and created a car that fl ies launch several times. But this is down the road like an airplane, a review of a technical achieve- powered by the swift silence of ment, not an appraisal of a busi- electricity. —John Voelcker

58 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 ______SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

"!! !!# " ! # ! ! "! This Webinar series will provide useful tips about how to create a prototype for your next project and what tools can save money and get a high-quality product to market fast. Build a Better Prototype • 22 April 2010 Creating a functional prototype will keep your engineering project on time and on budget, allowing you to demonstrate your idea to investors, customers and management and get feedback early in the process. Moderator: Todd Dobberstein, Group Manager, Embedded Hardware, National Instruments Upcoming Webinars: June 2010: Build a Better Prototype for Your Next Green Project September 2010: Build a Better Prototype for Your Next Robotics Project November 2010: Build a Better Prototype for Your Next Medical Project ! Register today at www.spectrum.ieee.org/webevents ______

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WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG______APRIL 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 59

Program Director, Modeling and Analysis

The Department of Electrical to a tenure-track or tenured faculty and Computer Engineering at the position at the University of Alberta and University of Alberta and the Institute to iRSM. Faculty member responsibilities for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine will include teaching, graduate student (iRSM) invite applications for Program supervision and administrative Director of Modeling and Analysis. involvement. The Department of Electrical and Candidates must have earned (or Computer Engineering is undergoing expect shortly) a PhD in electrical and a major expansion and is committed to computer engineering or a closely securing a position among the leading related area with relevant application schools in North America (www.ece. to medical reconstructive sciences; ualberta.ca).______iRSM is an internationally demonstrate a solid publication record; recognized clinical and research and have a strong commitment to and centre; clinical activity is focused on record of success in research and reconstruction of the head and neck teaching. Demonstrated ability to work and its research activity is directed to in a collaborative, interdisciplinary ______a broad base of reconstructive science environment is also required. ______and technology (www.irsm-canada.com). Experience with product development The collaboration between iRSM and the and technology commercialization is Department of Electrical and Computer highly desired. The successful candidate Engineering creates an exceptional will, regardless of their educational opportunity for biomedical engineering background, be required, in due course, research that has direct application for to become a licensed professional and access to the clinical environment. engineer in the Province of Alberta. The Program Director for Modeling Applicants are invited to submit their and Analysis will be based at iRSM’s curriculum vitae including employment Medical Modeling Research Laboratory history, a statement outlining research (MMRL). The MMRL is a state of the art and teaching interests, a brief rapid prototyping research laboratory, description of major contributions, providing opportunities for research reprints of at least two representative in prototype technology development, research papers, and the names of at digital signal processing, diagnostic least three referees. imaging, predictive virtual reality models Applications can be sent electronically for treatment planning, development in PDF format only. The review of of haptic devices for simulation and applications will begin on November surgical robotic tools. These facilities 30, 2009; however, the competition will are complemented by two new electrical remain open until the position is filled. and computer engineering research and teaching buildings at the University of Alberta. Dr. H. J. Marquez The Program Director will be Department of Electrical and responsible for building a competitive Computer Engineering program for iRSM and the University University of Alberta of Alberta in the area of modeling and W2-023 ECERF Bldg. analysis for medical applications. The Edmonton, AB T6G 2V4 Canada successful candidate will be appointed E-mail: [email protected]

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority. If suitable Canadian citizens and permanent residents cannot be found, other individuals will be considered. The University of Alberta hires on the basis of merit. We are committed to ______the principle of equity in employment. We welcome diversity and encourage applications from all qualified women and men, including persons with disabilities, members of visible minorities, and Aboriginal persons.

60 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG______

NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY NSA

In one year there are about 3,600 serious cybercrime attacks on U.S. government agencies. That’s why the National Security Agency needs you to help protect classified and sensitive information stored on or sent through U.S. government equipment.

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) #$!"'#(&'" '% "%,,&'!&

DTU Electrical Engineering & & Associate/Assistant Professor: ') &'%('#" &,&'!& " ,' "'$$ "'&'#$#&'#"& 1. Wind Power Integration "*!% '&&# ('#"& %''#(%'%) #$#(% "'% . *" $#*% $ "' $%#%!" 4. Numeric Modeling of Electric #% '%"# #, '#*% " #"'%# #/&#% *" $#*% Energy Systems ""'%"'#" "'%"'1 %&%#""'#"#*"$#*% ."(!%!# ""&!( '#" # "' "' '% $#*% &,&'!& "$#*%&,&'!&*'*" #"%,&,&'!&(&#% '! " " &% # %"* $#*%$"'%'#" ' &!( '#" "%, !&'%&%('#" 2. Electricity Markets 5. Electric Power System Stability " ""#)'#" *'" "%'#" . !% '& #% %"* "%, and Control '%"&!&&#" &'%('#" " (& # &#(%& " &'%(' "%, . &' ', &&&&!"' # $#*% '%',") #$!"'#!#% %&#(%& % '! !% '& " &,&'!&# '#""" ,&&# "' "' 0+ " ('#!' !% '&&'%('#"&,&'!& '%#!% $#*%%&) #$ '%$#*%&,&'!''"" #$'!-'#" !"' # % '! #!$(''#" ('(%+$"&#"#%"* "%, 3. ICT for Electric Power Systems "" ,&&!'#& &#(%& " #" '%! )&#" # . "#%!'#" " #!!("'#" #&& %&#', '"# #, #%0+ !" $$ '#" " 18 April 2010

DTU is a leading technical university rooted in Denmark but international in scope and trained to address the technological challenges of the future. While safeguarding standard. Our total staff of 4,500 is dedicated to create value and to promote welfare for academic freedom and scientifi c independence we collaborate with business, industry, the benefi t of society through science and technology; and our 6,000 students are being government, public agencies as well as other universities around the world.

Further details: dtu.dk/vacancy______

MCCI DIRECTOR Technology Leader Programme Microelectronics Competence Centre Ireland (MCCI) Competence Centres are collaborative entities established and led by industry. Supported by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, these centres are empowered to undertake market-focused strategic R&D for the beneﬁ t of industry. The Microelectronics Competence Centre Ireland (MCCI) has been established by Enterprise Ireland and IDA to achieve competitive advantage for industry in Ireland through the exploitation of microelectronic circuits and technology. MCCI will be hosted by the Tyndall National Institute (Tyndall) at University College Cork in collaboration with the University of Limerick. The Centre will nurture cooperation and teamwork between research providers and industry to create market-driven IP for use by its members. This strategic collaboration will result in the transfer of knowledge between industry and academic research and vice versa resulting in much improved and more relevant technology development in support of the Irish Semiconductor Industry. Applicants are invited for this new appointment at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork. Reporting to the Board of MCCI and to the Tyndall CEO, the successful candidate will direct the Centre activities to deliver the requirements of the Competence Cen- tre Industry Steering Board appointed by the funding agencies. Amongst other requirements and qualiﬁ cations he/she will need to have a strong background in semiconductor IC design R&D management at senior levels with a minimum of 10 years experience, including product tape-out and silicon validation. Full details of the job description for this new appointment (Ref. No. MPK - 01) can be viewed at http://www.tyndall.ie/careers/ For further information, please contact Professor Peter Kennedy, VP for Research, Policy and Support, UCC at +353 (0)21 4903500 or email [email protected]. ______

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62 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG______

Test Engineer #4505: Work w/ devpt. & product mktg. to define test strategy, write test plan & test cases to ensure product meets objectives. Software Engineer #13136: Design, implement & maint. networking platform SW on next gen. highly Juniper Networks, Inc. Functional Systems Analyst Staff Software Engineer scalable networking platforms. is recruiting for our #10253: Manage CRM applications for #4488: Work with prod. mgmt & SW dev. Product Manager Sunnyvale, CA office: requirement gathering, design, develop, to ensure the quality of network security #1135: Work w/ marketing, product integrate (EAI), data conversion (EIM), products by designing, automating & engineering/devpt., sales, partners, Software Engineer configuration, testing, cutover & deployment executing test suites & reporting defects. manufacturing, & finance to define the product #13577: Dev. diagnostic SW to support of CRM applications. Software Engineer strategy for network security & routing SW & design verification, manufacturing & online Software Engineer #12840: Work w/ Prod. Mgmnt, Devpt., QA, execute on it. diagnostics for next generation products. #11391: Develop SW functional & design Tech. Publications, partners & customers to Software Engineer Software Engineer specifications for features. test & validate new features & functionalities #8229: Design & develop JUNOS SW on #13343: Architect, design & develop high QA Engineer to meet Juniper product roadmap. network routing platforms. performance data plane forwarding for Switch/ #4384: Develop tests for complex Layer 7 QA Engineer Software Engineer Router platforms. features involving HTTPS, SSL, XML, & Java #3355: Evaluate prod. design docs, prep. test #8230: Develop embedded SW for company’s Technical Systems Analyst technologies. plans, perform feature testing of all Release network device. #5245: Develop, implement & manage Engineering Services Engineer Line Items assigned. Software Engineer internal & external web resources for #8633: Perform simulations for on-chip Technical Support Engineer #5344: Work as a SW developer implementing Enterprise Content Management. signal integrity incl. noise modeling, on-chip #12971: Analyze complex networks & IKE, IPSec, PKI protocols as part of IPSec crosstalk, I/O selection & clock distribution. Software Engineer troubleshoot company’s networking products based VPN. #8233: Develop JUNOS SW on network Software Engineer for customers worldwide. routing platforms & in data & control plane. #3928: Design, architect & implement network Technical Systems Analyst security components. Juniper Networks, Inc. Software Engineer Staff #15539: Develop tech. specs for approved Regression Test Engineer Staff is recruiting for our #4404: Review detector source code for functional specs, design reporting universe & Westford, MA office: reliability & security issues, produce #5724: Develop & maintain Juniper’s existing solution ETL. signature based protection mechanisms, & & future high-performance security products. Software Engineer Staff QA Engineer research security vulnerabilities. Software Engineer #5677: Design, dev. & test complex SW #4122: Work with PLM, SW/Hardware teams to #11872: Design & develop enterprise features. Write SW specification, code & ASIC Engineer ensure quality of products by developing test switching products. execute test plans. #12101: Create simulation plan & environment plans & executing & automating test suites. Software Engineer Technical Support Engineer for testing ASIC designs. Software Engineer #14891: Develop system & network SW for #9045: Supporting & troubleshoot Juniper’s Software Engineer #8317: Work with prod. mgmt & SW dev. next gen. Data Center Products. router product line & resolve network issues. #11616: SW sustenance & feature dev. for to ensure the quality of network security Regression Test Engineer Junos & dev. SW running on company routers. Technical Support Engineer products by designing, automating & #4275: Complete test documents in #6244: Troubleshoot customer problems & executing test suites & reporting defects. ASIC Engineer create tech. content for Knowledge Base Sys. compliance w/ TL 9000 standards & complete #8977: Develop unit-level RTL models using Strategy & Planning Director manual & functional testing. Verilog. Write test benches for ASICs using Functional Systems Analyst #16148: Lead & support strategy projects #10310: Identify business requirements, Asic Engineer SystemC, C++, & Verilog. including integrated strategy & planning provide potential solutions & coordinate #13827: Design verification from concept to company-wide initiatives, CEO staffing of Software Engineer devpt. process. production. Dev. detailed test plans. activities, & internal mgmt consulting to supp. #5448: Develop & maintain IP routing & Software Engineer decision making of senior execs. Engineering Program Manager, MPLS signaling SW. #6253: Provide & maintain engineering Staff Senior ASIC Engineer Software Engineer systems (build servers, tools servers, etc.). #4259: Identify bus. opportunities in new #13076: Use the Verilog hardware Description #13157: Develop & maint. highly available areas/markets/disruptions that increase Test Engineer Language to design digital logic based on network infrastructure & applications. company’s competitive position. #13553: Test L2 switching & L3 routing protocols. architectural specification. ASIC Engineer, Staff Software Engineer Staff Software Engineer #9105: Write block level RTL design code. #4426: Work w/ development engineers #11638: Develop & maintain system SW in the Juniper Networks, Inc. Software Engineer to create/define test suites for developers area of multicast protocols. is recruiting for our #8552: Work on embedded platform & OS SW (whitebox, blackbox tests). Cambridge, MA office: Software Engineer layers for company router platforms. Software Engineer #13780: Design, document, dev. & debug SW Technical Support Engineer #6643: Develop networking SW, debug Technical Systems Analyst Staff for complex scalable networking platforms #7669: Troubleshoot & resolve complex problems & implement SW for multi-core cpu #11157: Prov. tech. leadership to SW dev. involving processors &/or specialized chips network issues on WAN acceleration/ architecture in embedded SW environ. projects & design enterprise applications that are interconnected. compression & related IP networking using Java technology & framework. Software Engineer devices, network protocols & application/ Software Engineer #13456: Develop SW for & maint. quality data transfer protocols. Software Engineer #12930: Design & dev. embedded system SW of company products, & debug internal & #14896: Dev. packet forwarding SW for high customer issues. for networking products. performance next gen. data center switches Regression Test Engineer Juniper Networks, Inc. family of products. Regression Test Engineer is recruiting for our #5265: Verify Ethernet L2/L3 switch network #12225: Design, dev & document system level ASIC Engineer protocols behaviors, including features verification tests for routers & switches & Herndon, VA office: #14968: Perform physical design for large, scaling & functionality. security products. Advanced Services Engineer complex high speed Integrated Circuits. Regression Test Engineer Software Engineer #8479: Troubleshoot equipment & network Manufacturing Engineer #7700: Work with PLM, SW/HW teams to #8385: Design, dev. & maint. network device problems & open & track TAC cases. #12470: Design & develop processes & test ensure quality of products by developing test drivers, kernel SW & SW infrastructure. tools that facilitate the manufacturing of plans & executing & automating test suites Business Operations Specialist Mail resume with job code # to configure to order systems. Regression Test Engineer #12386: Support internal customers in the Attn: MS A3.1.1.101. QA Engineer #4102: Verify Ethernet L2/L3 switch network Customer Service (CS) org. in developing Juniper Networks #2954: Quality assurance for secure remote protocols behaviors, including features reports & dashboards to provide the analytics 1194 N. Mathilda Avenue access line of products. scaling & functionality. for monitoring & improving the CS business. Sunnyvale, CA 94089

IEEE Standards Online Your Direct Connection to IEEE Standards

______

From Imagination to Market

Continuous access to the Requirements Electrical Engineer comprehensive and growing Cause & Origin Failure Analysis and Benefits: collection of IEEE Standards. Louisville, Kentucky t Must be registered Electrical Access tomorrow’s draft Professional Engineer or eligible standards fi rst and get a jump for P.E. license in Kentucky Are you a problem solver? Do you enjoy getting dirty on the job? on the competition Have you ever taken something apart just to t&OKPZTIBOETPO'BJMVSF understand how it functions? Analysis Find a standard quickly with Do you have excellent writing skills? t"QQMJBODFTFYQFSJFODFBQMVT fast and comprehensive Are you motivated when working on your own? t$PNQFOTBUJPOJTDPNNFOTVSBUF search and retrieval features Would you prefer working for a small family-owned company XJUIFYQFSJFODFBOEJODMVEFTB Immediate updates and coNQFUJUJWFTBMBSZ DPNQUJNF rather than an impersonal giant? automatic email alerts Do you have integrity? CPOVTTUSVDUVSF BOEGVMMCFOFGJUT Do you demand personal excellence from yourself? t5PMFBSONPSFBCPVU%POBO Substantial savings over &OHJOFFSJOH$P *ODWJTJUPVS purchasing individually If you can honestly answer yes to all of the above questions you website: www.donan.com may have what it takes to embark upon an exciting and personally satisfying career opportunity at Donan Engineering Co., Inc. WE DEMAND A LOT Free Trial! Donan Engineering is a 60+ year established firm that sets the CVUXFPOMZIJSFUIPTFXIPEFNBOE standard for excellence in forensic engineering throughout and FWFONPSFPGUIFNTFMWFT Experience IEEE – beyond our thirteen-state region. We site visit, analyze and report *GUIJTJTZPVBOEZPVIBWFUIF request a trial for your company. on thousands of small and large failure related projects each year FYQFSJFODFBOEFEVDBUJPOUPCBDL www.ieee.org/standardsonline and no two are identical. Our engineers’ and fire investigators’ JUVQ QMFBTFTFOEVT decisions often have huge monetary and legal implications for ZPVSSFTVNFBOEDPWFSMFUUFSUP our clients. These clients choose us again and again because [email protected] they know we will provide them with sound, well reasoned, IEEE Information Driving Innovation insightful and most importantly honest opinions about the cause or 5IJTPQQPSUVOJUZJTCBTFEJO-PVJTWJMMF ,: causes of a defect, accident, or other failure related problem. Our clients expect and we deliver, lightning fast response along with efficient

and concise reporting. It is because of the caliber of the employees ENGINEERING we hire that we have been able to do this and grow year after year.

64 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG______

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN Established in collaboration with MIT

SUTD will matriculate its first intake of students in 2011. The University’s programmes will be based on four pillars leading to separate degree programmes in Architecture and Sustainable Design, Engineering Product Development, Engineering Systems and Design, and Information Systems Technology and BE PART OF THE FOUNDING FACULTY Design. Design, as an academic discipline, cuts across the curriculum and will be OF LEADERS AND INVENTORS the framework for novel research and educational programmes. The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), established in FACULTY MEMBERS collaboration with MIT, has a mission to advance knowledge and nurture The qualifications for the faculty position include: an earned doctorate in technically grounded leaders and innovators to serve societal needs. This Architecture, any field in Engineering, or Basic Sciences and Social Sciences, a will be accomplished, with a focus on Design, through an integrated strong commitment to teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, a multi-disciplinary curriculum and multi-disciplinary research. demonstrated record of or potential for scholarly research, and excellent communication skills. MIT’s involvement is multi-faceted and includes developing new courses and We invite applications for interdisciplinary faculty appointments at all levels, with curricula, helping with early deployment of courses in Singapore, assisting many opportunities available in particular at the Assistant and Associate Professor with faculty and student recruiting, mentoring and career development, levels. Duties include teaching of graduate and undergraduate students, research, collaborating on major joint research projects including a major international supervision of student research, advising undergraduate student projects, and new design centre, and student exchanges. Many of the newly hired SUTD service to SUTD and the community. Faculty will be expected to develop and faculty will spend up to a year at MIT in a specially tailored programme for sustain a strong research programme. Attractive research grant opportunities are collaboration and professional development. also available. Successful candidates can look forward to internationally competitive SUTD plans to be a centre for learning, knowledge creation and dissemination, remuneration, and assistance for relocation to Singapore. and like MIT be a melting pot for scholarship and practice. SUTD aspires to do what MIT has done for its locale and the US economy; be an engine of growth If you share SUTD’s vision on multi-disciplinary curricula and research with a for Singapore, the region and the world. In collaboration with MIT, SUTD will focus on Design in the broadest sense, please contact us. bring together the best minds and ideas to create and sustain enormous Enquiries for the above mentioned position can be addressed to Anthony Keh at technological, financial and social impacts for a better future. [email protected] To learn more about SUTD, please visit www.sutd.edu.sg.

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WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG______APRIL 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 65

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66 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • APRIL 2010 WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG______

Post-CMOS Nanodevices and Systems The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst invites applications from candidates for a tenure-track position in experimental Post-CMOS Nanodevices and Systems at the Assistant Professor level starting September 2010. The department seeks to complement existing work in nanodevice simulation, information processing in nanosystems, nanocircuit manufacturing, and nanocomputing architectures with experimental nanodevice research that will contribute to the ultimate realization of nanocomputing systems. Candidates must have an earned doctorate in ECE or related field at the time of appointment, demonstrated research expertise in the fabrication and characterization of emerging nanoelectronic devices for post-CMOS device technology and computing, and interest in cross-cutting issues related to the realization of nanocomputing platforms using scalable nanomanufacturing techniques. The candidate will be expected to develop a strong externally-funded research program, must be committed to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in electronic and nanoelectronic device physics and fabrication, and should have an understanding of diversity issues and their educational importance. Interest in contributing to the development of multidisciplinary nanotechnology education programs is desirable. The search committee will begin reviewing applications on April 16, 2010. The search will continue until the position is filled. Appointment is contingent upon funding. Interested applicants should send a CV, statement of research and teaching interests, and the names and addresses of at least four references to: [email protected]. ______The University of Massachusetts is an Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and members of minority groups are encouraged to apply.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering anticipates multiple faculty openings for tenure-track, assistant professor positions in Computer Engineering areas. Outstanding applicants with relevant experience may also be considered at the associate or full professor level. Core areas of interests include computer architecture (focus on energy effi cient architectures); computer systems (focus on massive data sets and data-intensive computing); computational science and engineering (focus on cloud/ grid computing); pervasive computation (focus on networked cyber-physical systems); human-machine interfaces (focus on real-time multi-modal interac- tions); internet architecture (focus on next-generation network protocols and testbeds/cyber-infrastructure). In addition, the School of Engineering is anticipating signifi cant growth in other important areas including health, energy, transportation,andmaterials and devices. The ECE Department encourages excellent candidates in these interdisciplinary thrusts to apply for possible consideration as the positions become available. A Ph.D. in EE, CE, CS or a related fi eld is required. Responsibilities include teaching undergraduate and graduate courses and establishing independent research programs. Excellent facilities are available with opportunities for research affi li- ation with various university centers such as Center for Autonomic Computing (CAC), Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB), etc., as well as with local industry. Qualifi ed candidates should submit a CV, statements on teaching and research, and names of three references to the URL: http://faculty.engr.rutgers.edu. Applications may also be submitted by mail to: Chairman, Department of Elec- trical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers University, 94 Brett Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8058. The review process will begin immediately and will continue until the positions are fi lled. Information about the department can be found at http://www.ece.rutgers.edu. Rutgers is an Equal Opportunity/Affi rmative Action Employer.

WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG______APRIL 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 67

the data

2009 SALES US $13.86 billion 2009 SALES US $13.03 billion 2009 SALES US $12.13 billion

4Q 2009 MOBILE PHONE SHIPMENTS WORLDWIDE (PERCENT)

Apple Other 2.6 21.2 Nokia Motorola 37.7 3.6 Sony- LG Ericsson 10.1 4.3 Samsung 20.5

4Q 2009 SMARTPHONE SHIPMENTS Q4 SALES WORLDWIDE (MILLIONS) US $4.61 billion Nokia 20.8 Q4 SALES RIM 10.7 US $3.98 billion Apple 8.7 HTC 3.4 Motorola 2.1 Q4 SALES Palm 0.9 Other 5.7 US $2.58 billion SOURCE: ABI RESEARCH

COMPUTERS iPHONES LAPTOPS & DESKTOPS PRODUCTS & SERVICES iPODS PRODUCTS & SERVICES SOURCE: APPLE (APPLE’S FISCAL YEA R ENDS 30 SEPTEMBER)

iPods and iPads: Better Than Diamonds

S THE Apple iPad a computer or an entertainment device? Bay, N.Y., says that of the 336.5 million phones he estimates If Apple’s recent history is a guide, it’s the latter. After all, were sold in the fourth quarter of 2009, only 8.7 million were IApple is no longer mainly a computer manufacturer. iPhones. Even looking only at smartphones, Apple’s share Last year, computer sales accounted for less than a was about 17 percent. third of Apple’s total revenues, while more than half came How far has Apple come from its computer origins? from iPhones, iPods, and sales of music-related products Consider its stores, at nearly 300 strong by the end of and services. 2009. No other computer maker has a similar chain. Then Apple is better off as a phone and entertainment again, neither does anyone else: By some measures Apple company anyway—that’s where it has room to grow. As Joe is the most successful retailer in the world. According to a Wilcox of Betanews reported in February, Apple already has story on Bloomberg.com last year, the company’s famous 90 percent of the retail market for premium PCs (defined glass cube store on Fifth Avenue in New York City has twice as costing more than US $1000), according to NPD Group, the sales per square foot of diamond retailer Tiffany’s a market research firm in Port Washington, N.Y. By contrast, flagship just down the street. Of course, the cube is open Apple has only a tiny share of the phone market. 24 hours a day, so you can buy an iPod—and now an iPad— Michael Morgan, an analyst at ABI Research, in Oyster well before breakfast. —Steven Cherry ILLUSTRATION: EMILY COOPER EMILY ILLUSTRATION:

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