The Future of Computer Hardware Technology: Reuse

Smaller, cheaper, faster, efficient: all things we expect from new hardware.  New hardware is often compared to the technologies used to get us, keep us, and capture/relay information from space.  Technology processing power and storage capabilities are hundreds of times better than what was used in the ‘60s, the software is already available for this level of hardware technology and manufacturing processes are familiar (keeping costs down and production speeds up of processors and storage devices, etc.).  I feel as though the hardware industry will make its future successful by implementing new ways to use existing technologies.

A research team from the University of Texas Arlington has recently developed a micro-windmill that is so small 10 can fit on a single grain of rice using “conventional wafer-scale semiconductors.”  They achieve this by folding these conductors using origami: common technology applied with an ancient technic to form a new product.  These tiny turbines are suggested to be used on phone cases to charge the phone when sources of air movement are present.  The team is also planning on attaching them to panels that can be placed on buildings and homes.  

They combine durable materials with simple mechanical designs to build a product that was successfully tested in September 2013. 

Turbines have been around the block and back, but are still expensive and obtrusive in most cases.  Microscopic technologies that are still capable of harvesting wind and providing clean energy for buildings and electronic devices shows that, while hardware makes leaps forward over a decade, it does not mean existing technologies should be cast aside - they should be revisited.


Resources:

1. http://www.winmemstech.com/en/page/custom68/
2. http://www.uta.edu/news/releases/2014/01/microwindmill-rao-chiao.php