Technology
Moths as Precursors for Future Bio-Inspired Noise Cancellation Devices
The technology has been undoubtedly evolving at a very fast pace. The evolution owes to the work of scientists and engineers who come up with innovative out-of-the-box ideas that efficiently solve many complex problems. As a main source of inspiration, nature consists of the main reference where God’s creations are meticulously studied to transfer their operational mechanisms into products which can be later used by individuals. Lately, bio-inspired approaches have been investigated to develop sound absorption paradigms that rely on a structure that absorbs sounds, in a similar fashion to the wings of moths. These tiny creatures have advanced innate mechanisms that could be precursors for future bio-inspired noise cancellation devices.
What is Noise Cancellation Technology?
Noise cancellation technology encompasses the group of approaches that aim at reducing outside noise that could interfere with the audio the users is listening to. These technologies have gaining further interest with the compulsory remote working that accompanied the coronavirus pandemic. To isolate the user from the outside world, two main approaches arise, passive and active noise cancellation. These techniques are in particular employed for headphone and earphone designs.
Passive Noise Cancellation
Passive noise cancellation includes designing ear cups with special material that will simply block outside noise signals from reaching the ears. The main problem with such systems is that the quality of the cancellation depends on the properties of the material itself, including its thickness. Moreover, the perceived experience highly depends on the user as human beings don’t share the same traits in terms of their ear’s responsiveness to different frequencies.
Active Noise Cancellation
Active noise cancellation tries to adapt to the surrounding noise characteristics by generating a signal that has opposing properties, in the aim of nullifying the unwanted disturbance. To achieve this feast, a set of microphones and speakers are used to listen to the environment then output the signal that is “hopefully” opposite to the noisy one. A good active cancellation is one that removes all the noise. The costly setup involves microphones inside and outside the earcup, a process known as hybrid active noise cancellation.
Other noise cancellation techniques exist. In its latest iPhone 13 lineup, calming background music are used to mask unwanted noise.
Moth Wings for a High-Quality Passive Noise Cancellation?
A recent article published in the proceedings of the Royal Society provides high hopes for the future of noise cancellation devices. The research team from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom has demonstrated the efficiency of moth as sound absorbers. In particular, 87 percent of sound waves can be absorbed as reported in the published article.
A New Metamaterial?
The secrets to the new discovery lie in the scales and their arrangement on the moth wings. These small insects have had their structure refined through millions of years of biological evolution. Moths have had to strengthen their defense against bats that use a radar-like system where they send high-frequency signals and wait for the reflection to locate their prey. As reported by one of the authors for a previous article in the Conversation journal, moths normally relied on their ears that are sensitive to the bats echolocation signals to take evasive actions. However, the interesting part is when these insects do not have ears. The answer is in the array of scales on their wings. These scales are sensitive to different frequencies of the sound waves. The synergy in the operation of all scales allows the moth to practically absorb frequencies up to 212 kilohertz. As a reminder, the human audible range is between 20 hertz and 20 kilohertz. Therefore, the operational mechanism of a moth’s wing can be used to eliminate most frequencies a human ear is sensitive to.
The paper also demonstrates the improvement in the addition of the wing structure to acoustic surfaces. What is promising is that the results are obtained for in-lab experiments with limited knowledge on how the sound absorption is actually taking place. However, the future proper understanding of the detailed mechanisms should allow the development of new improved metamaterials with notable sound absorption properties.
Towards Novel Passive Noise Cancellation Devices?
Noise cancellation is required for many applications including sound isolation in buildings, airplanes, cars, among others. The possibility of adding an extremely thin layer like the moth wings will allow to have a sound isolation layer than is not bulky to be noticeable. Such inventions, like solar skins which are similarly thin layers that can be used for renewable energy, represent the future trend in functional designs.
Passive noise cancellation headsets can re-emerge as the favorites compared to the popular active cancellation ones. The size reduction in the added material and the improved performance from a similar structure to the one seen on the moth wing should make it a cheaper alternative to the active mode of operation, yet with similar performance guarantees.
Summary
Biomimetics will continue to drive technology forward. When the problems become much more complex to solve, and when existing technologies have reached their end-of-line in terms of development, nature is here to reinvigorate the innovation path as fauna and flora has evolved throughout millions of years to adapt to different conditions that surrounded them. The bio-inspiration from the moth wings should drive sound isolation to new heights and disrupt several technologies including the widely used passive noise cancellation headsets.
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What is biometric identification? It is the process through which unique biological characteristics are used in biometric identification to recognize and validate a person. These characteristics can be found in facial traits, eye structures, DNA, fingerprint patterns, and even handwriting. All this data that can be gathered on an individual inevitably brings up the ethical issues in biometrics that need to be addressed.
Facial recognition and fingerprint scans were previously the domain of security, and they were utilized for identification and law enforcement. However, increasingly more business and civil applications are using biometrics authentication. Due to this increased use, it is crucial to address the moral and ethical issues in biometrics when used in the creation of new application and technology.
Applied biometrics and corporate ethics have received little empirical study despite the widespread use of biometric technologies. As a result, there is plenty of room for future study to help us better comprehend the moral consequences of adopting this technology.
This article examines the ethical concerns associated with the use of biometric technology on the use of biometrics for non-security applications as well as the moral ramifications for business.
Ethical Issues in Biometrics and Privacy
Biometric data takes privacy concerns to a whole new level that typical data gathering only touches on. Digital identities can be forged, and anonymity on the web can be maintained to a degree if you know how. Also, digital data can be deleted – if we forget that Meta (Facebook) has been revealed to store deleted data, which is an ethical concern in itself.
The problem with biometric data is that it is unforgeable, unconcealable, and permanent, You can’t change your eye structure, your fingerprint, or your facial features. Big tech companies already have your face, fingerprints, and your voice recorded and stored via current biometric authentication systems – mainly used for unlocking your phone. That data will be there forever, and there is little that people can do about it besides avoid it In the first place.
While many companies still give users the option of using a good old fashion passcode to unlock their phones, as technology as a whole tends to do, the biometric alternative is slowly gaining more traction, and will one day become the norm, as it is hard to argue its convenience and security. You can’t accidentally leave your eyeball at home or forget your fingerprint. But in the same sense, you can’t change it. If your childish curiosity while browsing the web put a black spot on your record, there’s no changing that.
Therein lies the question of who if anyone should have access to such data. Today’s tech giants have all our data in their hands, that won’t change with the spread of biometric verification methods. Indeed, it will only increase targeting capabilities.
While the collection of biometric data on its own does not necessarily mean it will be shared, monetized, or abused in any way, it never the less requires clear and strict guidelines and regulations to be implemented around it. There are too many things that can be abused by the wrong party when the ethical issues in biometrics are not taken seriously, and if such limitations are not applied stringently.
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The Reno line of smartphones has always had a fantastic camera and an attractive design. The Reno 8 and 8 Pro include a 120Hz AMOLED display, the newest Dimensity chipsets, 80W fast charging, a 32-megapixel front camera, and triple 50-megapixel back cameras, among other notable features that make the Oppo Reno 8 and Reno 8 Pro high-quality yet affordable option for anyone.
Here we compare the two latest Oppo phone series iterations and see what to expect from the flagship Oppo smartphone, and how the Oppo Reno 8 and the Oppo Reno Pro stack up against each other.
Oppo Reno 8 Specifications
The Oppo Reno 8 has a smaller 6.43-inch full-HD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 1,080 by 2,400 pixels, a 90Hz refresh rate, and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. It also runs Android 12 with ColorOS 12.1 on top. Additionally, the display has an 800 nits maximum brightness and a 20:09 aspect ratio. An octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 1300 SoC, up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM, and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage are all found within the Oppo smartphone.
The Reno 8 has a triple back camera configuration for pictures and movies, with a 50-megapixel main sensor and an f/1.8 lens as its focal point. Additionally, there is a 2-megapixel macro camera with a 112-degree field of view and an 8-megapixel sensor coupled with an f/2.2 ultra-wide angle lens.
The Reno 8 offers 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.3, GPS/A-GPS, NFC, and a USB Type-C connector as connection options. An accelerometer, light, gyroscope, magnetometer, and a proximity sensor are among the sensors on board. For biometric verification, the phone also has a fingerprint sensor hidden behind the display. A 4,500mAh battery inside the Oppo Reno 8 supports 80W Super Flash Charge quick charging. The phone weighs 179 grams and has dimensions of 160 x 73.4 x 7.67mm.
Oppo Reno 8 Pro Specifications
A 6.7-inch full-HD+ (1,080×2,412) AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection is included with the Oppo Reno 8 Pro. Running on top of Android 12 is ColorOS 12.1. Additionally, the display supports HDR10+ and is certified by Netflix HD, Amazon HDR, SGS Low Motion Blur, and SGS Low Blue Light. The MediaTek Dimensity 8100-Max SoC, which has eight cores, and up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM power the smartphone. Storage on the Oppo Reno 8 Pro is UFS 3.1 capable of up to 256GB.
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro boasts a triple rear camera arrangement with a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 main sensor and an f/1.8 lens, an 8-megapixel sensor and an ultra-wide lens with an f/2.2 aperture and a 112-degree field of view, and a 2-megapixel macro camera with an f/2.4 aperture. Along with the MariSilicon X NPU, the phone’s camera will offer generally better performance in both bright and dim light. It has a 32-megapixel front-facing camera sensor with an f/2.4 lens for taking selfies and making video calls.
The phone has 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.3, GPS/A-GPS, NFC, and a USB Type-C connector as connectivity options. An accelerometer, a light meter, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, and a proximity sensor are among the sensors built into the phone. For biometric authentication, the phone also contains a fingerprint sensor underneath the touchscreen. The smartphone has a 4,500mAh battery that supports rapid charging at 80W Super Flash Charge. The phone weighs 183 grams and has dimensions of 161 x 74.2 x 7.34mm.
Both the Oppo Reno 8 and Reno 8 Pro are prime smartphones that can fit any user’s preferences and can be considered premium smartphones on the cheaper side. If you like photography, you will be satisfied with the level of quality overall, but keep in mind that neither phone is particularly water resistant, so be careful where you take it.
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Many prefer the rumbling ‘vroom’ of a gasoline car to the soft hum of an electric vehicle, while others would rather just be satisfied in the knowledge that they are lessening their carbon footprint. Let’s look at the cold hard facts however, and compare electric cars vs gas cars
Electric Cars vs Gas Cars: Components
The amount of moving components is an important distinction between electric and gasoline-powered automobiles. While a gasoline-powered car contains hundreds of moving components, an electric vehicle just has one, the motor. Another significant distinction is that the electric car has fewer moving components. The electric car is more dependable and needs less routine maintenance. The maintenance needed for a gasoline-powered car ranges from routine oil changes, filter replacements, tune-ups, and exhaust system repairs to less frequent component replacements including water and fuel pumps, alternators, and so on.
Electric Cars vs Gas Cars: Maintenance
The expenses associated with maintaining an electric car are reduced since there are less maintenance requirements. The shaft, the only moving component of the electric motor, is extremely dependable and needs little to no maintenance. The controller and charger are electrical devices that require minimal to no maintenance because they have no moving components. Modern sealed lead acid batteries are maintenance free and utilized in electric cars nowadays. However, these batteries have a finite lifespan and will eventually need to be replaced. New batteries are being developed to increase the range of electric cars as well as the battery pack’s lifespan, perhaps eliminating the need to replace the battery pack throughout the course of the vehicle’s lifespan.
Electric Cars vs Gas Cars: Efficiency
In addition to being simpler and less expensive to repair than gasoline-powered vehicles, electric vehicles are also more cost-effective to run. The electric car will drive roughly 43 miles for $1 based on the efficiency of 3 miles/kwhr and the cost of power at 7 cents per kwhr. The gasoline-powered car will go roughly 18 miles based on the average gas mileage of 22 miles per gallon and the price of gasoline at $1.25 per gallon. As a result, an electric car may drive more than twice as far on a dollar’s worth of petrol.
Where Electric Falls Behind
There are still a number of difficulties for the owner of an electric car despite the fact that it will be less expensive to operate and maintain.
The primary issue is the restricted range offered by existing battery technology. The amount of driving distance possible utilizing the current batteries is between 50 and 150 miles. These ranges are being extended by new battery technologies, and prototypes of these batteries have shown ranges of up to 200 miles between recharging. Solar powered charging stations are being implemented in numerous places to decrease range anxiety towards electric vehicles
The lack of qualified service professionals to repair and maintain electric cars is another issue that faces their owners. A two-year associate degree program has been developed to train high school graduates to become proficient electric vehicle technicians, and training programs are being developed and made available to upgrade the conventional automotive technician with the skills needed to maintain an electric vehicle.
Infrastructure to recharge the batteries is also required. The most important component of the infrastructure for recharging already exists: electric power is accessible practically everywhere. To support the electric car, it is still necessary to guarantee that charging stations with the right sorts of service (i.e., maximum voltage and current) are placed in important areas. Plans must also be made.
Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Technology sections to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.
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Ian Terblanche, Global Strategic Sales & Channel Director at Sigfox
