New mobile app gives users anytime, anywhere access to Digi-Key components.

Whether you are at work, at home, or somewhere in between, doing business with Digi—Key Corporation is now easier than ever as the electronic components distributor announces the availability of its new Digi-Key application for iPhone.

This free application, available to iPhone and iPod touch users in the Apple App Store, is the passkey to one of the world’s largest...read more

        

World Cup champion Noelle Pickus-Pace turns to local metal shop - and her husband - for innovative new sled.

A Utah design team used its metalworking experience and Solidworks CAD software software to create a skeleton sled for an Olympic racer in a fraction of the time and for tens of thousands of dollars less typically required to produce one of the highly specialized sleds.

A skeleton sled is a compact racing vehicle that riders steer down high-speed ice tracks by flexing and shifting their bodies. Suddenly without a working...read more

        

We’ve received many comments on our motion-control story about Cirque du Soleil last month. One of the comments was from Stephen A. Sywak, PE Senior Mechanical Engineer at McLaren Engineering Group.

McLaren was responsible for the majority of the original design of the mechanical and structural stage elements for KA ( www.ka.com ) at the MGM Grand. Sywak figured greatly in the selection of the hydraulic and electric actuation and servo-control system.

The original motion-control system for KA was a closed-loop servo-controlled system,” says Sywak. “Not only was it closed loop with regard to position and velocity (as is common), but it also closed the loop on force—force measured by four specialty linear force transducers mounted to the ends of each of the four main hydraulic lift cylinders.” The sensors and their associated control electronics and logic, allowed balancing of forces between the close-coupled, adjacent lifting cylinder pairs stage left and stage right. They also served as secondary safety back-ups.

“Because of the high slenderness ratio of these cylinders, it is easy to understand that they can never be allowed to enter into a compressive condition,” explains Sywak. The cylinders normally carry about 75,000 pounds of tension, each. The control electronics were set to stop the movement of the “hammerhead” support structure carrying the Sand Cliff Deck if the tension in the sensors fell below a certain threshold. “They wouldn’t wait until the cylinders were at zero, or entering into compression; they would stop if they felt the trend towards zero was too great,” he says.

Other cool entertainment stories you might want to check out in this issue include a rapid prototyping story involving the popular video game Rock Band. We also have a story about Intel’s new processors, which are the first to include basic graphics capabilities that support high-definition, video playback, and casual 3D games. And don’t miss the Microsoft story about Natural User Interfaces and Project Natal, a code name for an Xbox 360 add-on that incorporates face, voice, gesture, and object recognition technology to give users a variety of ways to interact with the console, all without needing a controller.

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Green design saves on space, electric, and cooling costs.

The recent re-construction of the Moonlight Amphitheatre, a city-owned, city-run outdoor facility presenting Broadway musical productions, featured a new sound system powered by 34 Powersoft amplifiers. The sound system, designed by Acoustic Dimensions, covers the 900 permanent seats and the 1,200-capacity lawn area with separate vocal and music systems. The choice of Powersoft was based on sound quality, on-board DSP, and space considerations with resulting electric service and cooling equipment savings.

“We needed to power an extensive system, in terms of number of speakers and speaker locations, with a very minimal number of amplifiers that had to fit in a space constrained area,” says Jeff Miller, LEED accredited senior design consultant for Acoustic Dimensions. “As Powersoft amplifiers take up only...read more

        

Touch, face- and voice-recognition, movement sensors are changing the way we interact with computers.

Bill Buxton first used a computer in 1971. Even four decades ago, Buxton could picture a future enhanced by technology. Eventually he came to dream about humans and computers having close interaction – being able to operate a computer by gesturing at it or by touching it, or having a computer recognize your voice and face.

“I’m excited more now than I have been since I’ve been in the business because I can taste it now,” says Buxton, a principal researcher at Microsoft since 2005. “Stuff I’ve been working towards and thinking about and dreaming about for 20 or 30 years is now at the threshold of general usage.”

Touch, face- and voice-recognition, movement sensors – all are part of an emerging field of computing often called natural user interface, or NUI. Interacting with technology in these...read more

        

The multipurpose Foster Theater at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum host everything from live performances by rock royalty to intimate interviews.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc. exists to educate visitors, fans, and scholars about the history and significance of rock and roll music. It does this through its operation of a world-class museum that collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets this art form, and through its library and archives as well as its educational programs. When the whole world is watching, there are no do-overs. That’s why the Foster Theater chose Vaddio to capture every history-making moment.

During the recently completed renovation of the Museum’s fourth floor, the wall fabrics, lights, and seats weren’t the only components revamped. An upgrade to the 4th-floor theater now includes a...read more

        

Communications & Entertainment, Inc. uses processor for business sound quality.

Communications & Entertainment, Inc. (CEI) is an Atlanta-based design/build firm that specializes in a wide range of vertical markets within Georgia and throughout the nation. To turn the proverb on its head, CEI is both a jack and master of all trades through specialized divisions within the company and a unique and comprehensive network of contractors who are available to service client systems 24/7. In the hospitality division, veteran designer Troy Riner delivers a well-tuned, yet adaptable, template for clients such as the Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group and the Sporting News Grill that almost always relies on an Ashly ne24.24M matrix processor and the Ashly WR-5 wall panel. The ne24.24M provides ample horsepower behind the scenes to bend the system to Riner’s will, while the WR-5 presents a wonderfully simple...read more

        

While the rest of the world is scrambling to make real things digital, the best video games are making the digital real.

The wildly popular Rock Band 2 video game lets you parlay your boring workaday self into a virtual lead guitarist, drummer, bassist, or vocalist on an Xbox 360, PlayStation, or Wii. On the Xbox, you can fashion your “avatar” to look just as you wish, right down to haircut, physique, clothes, gear and tattoos.

Now go to www.rockband.com/merch. Upload your avatar, pick a pose, click purchase, and you’ll receive a 6-inch figurine made of hard composite material that...read more

        

A new world record for flight altitude in a hot-air balloon - set at 69,852 feet - used special plastic plain bearings in the balloon's pressurized capsule, which was vital to reach these heights.

A conventional hot-air balloon has a large overhead parachute valve, which the pilot opens with a cord if the balloon is required to descend. In this specially-design balloon, the mechanism was accommodated inside the pressurized capsule, where two hand wheels were installed on either side of the pilot’s seat.

The handles are linked to a drum outside the capsule through a shaft mounted with igus’s iglide® plastic plain bearings. The string to operate the parachute valve was wound onto the drum. By winding the hand wheels, the pilot easily...read more

        

Processors are the first to include basic graphics capabilities, which support high-definition video playback and casual 3D games.

The introduction of new Intel® Core™ i7, i5 and i3 chips coincides with the arrival of Intel’s new 32 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process – which for the first time in the company’s history – will be used to immediately produce and deliver processors and integrate high-definition graphics inside the processors.

Intel unveiled several platform products this month, including more than 25 processors, wireless adapters and chipsets, including new Intel Core i7, i5 and i3 processors, Intel® 5 Series Chipsets, and Intel® Centrino® Wi-Fi and WiMAX adapters that include new Intel® My WiFi features. More than 400 laptop and desktop PC platform designs are expected from...read more