Designing Technology for the World

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

2. Thinking about technology… © 2003 Rich Fletcher

3. What is “High-Tech”? © 2003 Rich Fletcher

4. What is High-Tech? Objective Metrics Cultural Metrics • Moore’s Law • More powerful • Faster, Femto • Smaller, Nano • More complex • Publication/Journals • Academia/Tenure • Funding • “Commercial” Apps • Aesthetics/Style © 2003 Rich Fletcher

5. Real World Limitations • Cost • Manufacturability • Scalability • Availability of Materials • Energy/Electric Power • Sustainability/Maintenance  Not emphasized in technical education ! © 2003 Rich Fletcher

6. 1990 1990 1995 1995 2000 2000 Practical Limitations MS Word install file size Number of useful features Mb 250 40 200 30 150 20 100 10 50 © 2003 Rich Fletcher

7. Practical Limitations FEATURE SIZE WAFER COST Fabrication and handling of small chips is a new challenge © 2003 Rich Fletcher

8. Human Limitations © 2003 Rich Fletcher

9. How can we improve technology design ? © 2003 Rich Fletcher

10. Technology Development • faster, smaller • more power • more components • human-size, speed • less power • fewer parts  Sustainable development ! 1800 1900 2000 2100 © 2003 Rich Fletcher

11. Inspiration from J.C. Bose J. C. Bose Calcutta, India 1897. © 2003 Rich Fletcher

12. Wisdom from the Toy Market World Technology must be: • Low-Cost (affordable) • Robust, durable • Easy to Use (Interface) • Low Power • Scalable to high volume  New Design principles? © 2003 Rich Fletcher

13. Wisdom from Paul MacCready 1979 96,863 ft – Aug 2001 Extreme “simplicity” “Make everything as simple as possible but not simpler” - Albert Einstein © 2003 Rich Fletcher

14. Academic Challenge Difficulty Level Amount of components and resources  Simple is hard, too! © 2003 Rich Fletcher

15. A New Approach to Design “High-Tech” “Smart-Tech” • Moore’s Law • More powerful • Faster,Smaller • More complex • Modularity and Abstraction • Murphy’s Law • Low Power • Human Scale • More simple • Integration and Interdependence • Environmentally Friendly © 2003 Rich Fletcher

16. 3 Examples(from our work) © 2003 Rich Fletcher

17. Example #1:Car Safety Sensor © 2003 Rich Fletcher

18. Side-Mount Collision Warning Sensor for Vehicles We have built a low-cost ($10) 2.4 GHz Wireless safety sensor for vehicles. This transceiver and antenna mounted to the driver-side car door could prevent dangerous and costly traffic accidents or personal injury to bicyclists and other motor vehicles. Sensor detects bicyclists and other nearby vehicles in a user-specified zone. © 2003 Rich Fletcher

19. Vehicle Safety Sensor • low-cost wireless safety sensor for vehicles. • 2.4 GHz microwave doppler radar • Helical antenna, 15°beam width enables focused detection zone. • Analog filters and log amp provides 100 ft detection range. • Sensor unit to the driver-side car door could prevent traffic accidents or personal injury to bicyclists and other motor vehicles. © 2003 Rich Fletcher

20. (front) Car Antenna Design Bike Lane CURB 1 2 © Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory http://kepler.lbl.gov/ Radar Beam Figure 1: With a helical antenna, the sensor will detect Object 2, but not be fooled by Object 1. Radiation pattern of the helical antenna. Most of the power is directed straight ahead. © 2003 Rich Fletcher

21. Car Sensor Pilot Test • US Postal Service • with Prof Ted Selker (optical sensor) • Tennessee, US • Jan-Feb 2004 © 2003 Rich Fletcher

22. Example #2:Plants As Sensors © 2003 Rich Fletcher

23. $1,000,000 Supercomputer $100,000 Mainframe $10,000 Workstation $1,000 Personal Computer $100 PDA $10 Watch $1 Smart Card $0.1 RFID Chip $0.01 materials Rich’s PhD Thesis Materials as Information Technology: “Chipless RFID” © 2003 Rich Fletcher

24. Low-Cost RFID Tags and Readers © 2003 Rich Fletcher

25. $1,000,000 Supercomputer $100,000 Mainframe $10,000 Workstation $1,000 Personal Computer $100 PDA $10 Watch $1 Smart Card $0.1 RFID Chip $0.01 biology Present Work Make use of intrinsic biological functionality © 2003 Rich Fletcher

26. Plant Sensors Low-Cost Chemical/Bio Sensing !  Exploit plant’s intrinsic ability Applications: • Environmental Sensing • Military chemical/bio field sensors • Smart plants in the home • Educational tool light air quality water chemicals © 2003 Rich Fletcher

27. Chlorophyll Fluorescence Secondary radiation associated with transition of excited electrons from metastable levels to ground state: Emission Absorption Environmental factors (light, air, soil) © 2003 Rich Fletcher

28. Electron Flow in PSI and PSII P680* P700* Ph NADPH Qa-Qb LIGHT Cytochrome bf LIGHT P680 Pc P700 H+ to the thilacoid lumen © 2003 Rich Fletcher

29. Chlorophyll Fluorescence © 2003 Rich Fletcher

30. Chlorophyll Fluorescence © 2003 Rich Fletcher

31. Plant Cam IR Camera and light Monitor Visualization method for spatial variation in photosynthesis. © 2003 Rich Fletcher

32. Plant Sensor Demo Plant Sensor Demonstration: Motor-car motion is controlled by plant photosynthesis. TI MSP430 Microcontroller Improve plant’s performance by 10X © 2003 Rich Fletcher

33. Plant Sensor Ongoing Work • Correlate plant response with separate environmental stimuli • Collect long-term data, circadian rhythm • Outdoor + indoor applications • Publish results © 2003 Rich Fletcher

34. Example #3:Solar Printer © 2003 Rich Fletcher

35. Solar printer Goal: To create the world’s first printer that uses no consumables Reusable photochromic paper: No sunlight With sunlight © 2003 Rich Fletcher

36. Designing Technology Conclusions • Important to consider multiple metrics for technology development • Strive for appropriate technology – “smart tech” not just “high tech” • Simple is hard, too! • MIT and other tech schools need to lead reform in technology education • Best leadership is by example • “Smart tech” is not just for developing countries – everyone benefits! © 2003 Rich Fletcher