Review Paper: Diffractive backlight technologies for mobile applications

Abstract— Liquid‐crystal‐display backlight units have developed in their conventional configuration into very efficient and uniform components that allow the display to present a high‐quality image to the user. Developing the backlight unit itself further faces a challenge of diminishing returns to the investment in innovation. A system‐level redesign is required for the entire display module, and diffractive alternatives to the backlight design can allow a more‐energy‐efficient design for the display. This review concentrates on small‐to‐medium displays because diffractive backlight studies have also centered in this class of displays. The state of the art of backlight design is summarized and the motivation for energy‐efficient system design is outlined. The theoretical basis of diffractive backlights is given, and key research studies in the area of diffractive backlights are reviewed. Finally, a discussion on the performance and future outlook of diffractive backlights completes the paper.     

Future Internet technologies for environmental applications

This paper investigates the usability of Future Internet technologies (aka “Generic Enablers of the Future Internet”) in the context of environmental applications. The paper incorporates the best aspects of the state-of-the-art in environmental informatics with geospatial solutions and scalable processing capabilities of Internet-based tools. It specifically targets the promotion of the “Environmental Observation Web” as an observation-centric paradigm for building the next generation of environmental applications. In the Environmental Observation Web, the great majority of data are considered as observations. These can be generated from sensors (hardware), numerical simulations (models), as well as by humans (human sensors). Independently from the observation provenance and application scope, data can be represented and processed in a standardised way in order to understand environmental processes and their interdependencies. The development of cross-domain applications is then leveraged by technologies such as Cloud Computing, Internet of Things, Big Data Processing and Analytics. For example, “the cloud” can satisfy the peak-performance needs of applications which may occasionally use large amounts of processing power at a fraction of the price of a dedicated server farm. The paper also addresses the need for Specific Enablers that connect mainstream Future Internet capabilities with sensor and geospatial technologies. Main categories of such Specific Enablers are described with an overall architectural approach for developing environmental applications and exemplar use cases.     

Engineering Web technologies for embedded applications

The founder of Agranat Systems examines the design issues involved in engineering effective Web technologies for embedded systems. Small embedded TCP/IP stacks and Web server software now make it possible to manufacture reliable, inexpensive Web-enabled devices across many industries and markets. Embedded systems require Web servers that are designed to minimize memory footprint and avoid interference with mission-critical and real-time applications. To guarantee a reliable user interface with minimal impact on system performance, the server software should utilize the latest HTTP 1.1 standards from the Internet Engineering Task Force. It won't be long before intelligent devices worldwide will be nodes on a network and managed from Web browsers     

Evolving technologies for new Internet applications

What will drive the Internet as new multimedia applications demand an infrastructure that enables greater network capacity and support for multicast and quality of service than the traditional TCP/IP and router-based structure? This article surveys seven key technologies that show promise     

Containerization technologies: taxonomies,applications and challenges

Modern scientific research challenges require new technologies, integrated tools, reusable and complex experiments in distributed computing infrastructures. But above all, computing power for efficient data processing and analyzing. Containers technologies have emerged as a new paradigm to address such intensive scientific applications problems. Their easy deployment in a reasonable amount of time and the few required computational resource make them more suitable. Containers are considered light virtualization solutions. They enable performance isolation and flexible deployment of complex, parallel, and high-performance systems. Moreover, they gained popularity to modernize and migrate scientific applications in computing infrastructure management. Additionally, they reduce computational time processing. In this paper, we first give an overview of virtualization and containerization technologies. We discuss the taxonomies of containerization technologies of the literature, and then we provide a new one that covers and completes those proposed in the literature. We identify the most important application domains of containerization and their technological progress. Furthermore, we discuss the performance metrics used in most containerization techniques. Finally, we point out research gaps in the related aspects of containerization technology that require more research.

     

Tactile interfaces: technologies,applications and challenges

Tactile interfaces are used to communicate information through the sense of touch, which is an area of growing interest in the research community. Potential applications include virtual training for surgeons, remotely touching materials via the Internet, automotive industry, active interfaces for blind persons, and sensory substitution devices.     

Industrial applications of agent technologies

This paper is aimed at summarizing the current state-of-the-art in the development of agent-based solutions in three areas connected with industrial production, namely in holonic control, production management and virtual enterprises. This paper shows how the results in these three sub-areas are converging and discusses how the agent-oriented technologies could provide a good background for developing a unifying approach. Two industrial applications of agent-based systems are described in some detail. The paper also presents both the positive and negative aspects of applying agent-based technologies in industry.     

微光电子机械系统技术及其应用

概述微光电子机械系统(MOEMS)技术发展历史,分析其现状.以美国陆军研究开发和工程指挥部的“战略研究规划”中的7个研究领域为例,分析MOEMS技术应用潜力和未来发展趋势.提出现在MOEMS工程遇到的技术挑战:MOEMS加工工艺,达到全反射的光学表面的加工工艺,可与电子线路和MOEMS集成兼容的CMOS半导体材料,MO...     

应用于MEMS的芯片倒装技术

通过对芯片倒装技术尤其是凸点加工工艺在MEMS设计中的作用进行实例分析,指出倒装芯片不仅是一种高性能的封装模式,还能为MEMS器件提供立体通道或是力热载体,并形成许多特殊的结构.在MEMS的加工过程中,可以充分考虑芯片倒装技术所带来的加工便利.     

Three‐dimensional printing technologies for terahertz applications: A review

Three‐dimensional (3D) printing technologies enables fast prototyping of complex 3D objects with ever improving printing qualities. To date, 3D printing has been found useful in areas such as manufacturing, industrial design, aerospace, dental and medical industries, and many others. In this article, we review recent advances of 3D printing technologies for terahertz (THz) applications. Different 3D printing technologies and printable materials are first discussed and compared. 3D‐printed THz components and devices, which are categorized as waveguides/fibers, antennas, and quasi‐optical components, are further demonstrated. It is found that the performances and functionalities of 3D‐printed THz devices have been greatly enhanced, while the operating frequencies have been increased from the lower end of THz range to over 1 THz region. With further development of novel materials and printing techniques, it is believed that 3D printing technologies will play an important role in the realization of THz components for efficient control and manipulation of THz waves.     

Indoor location identification technologies for real-time IoT-based applications: An inclusive survey

The advent of the Internet of Things has witnessed tremendous success in the application of wireless sensor networks and ubiquitous computing for diverse smart-based applications. The developed systems operate under different technologies using different methods to achieve their targeted goals. In this treatise, we carried out an inclusive survey on key indoor technologies and techniques, with to view to explore their various benefits, limitations, and areas for improvement. The mathematical formulation for simple localization problems is also presented. In addition, an empirical evaluation of the performance of these indoor technologies is carried out using a common generic metric of scalability, accuracy, complexity, robustness, energy-efficiency, cost and reliability. An empirical evaluation of performance of different RF-based technologies establishes the viability of Wi-Fi, RFID, UWB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and Light over other indoor technologies for reliable IoT-based applications. Furthermore, the survey advocates hybridization of technologies as an effective approach to achieve reliable IoT-based indoor systems. The findings of the survey could be useful in the selection of appropriate indoor technologies for the development of reliable real-time indoor applications. The study could also be used as a reliable source for literature referencing on the subject of indoor location identification.