Monthly Archives: September 2013

Sony Xperia Z

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Almost each one of us know someone who has a cellphone fell in water and does not work anymore. Sony uses a new way to solve this problem.Thanks to its totally innovative design, the Xperia Z which offers a level of durability never before seen in a smartphone. With full water and dust resistance alongside tempered glass front and back, this is a device that is ready to go wherever you need it to.

Sony states that,” How can we be certain? In order to get the high IP55 & IP57 rating, we submerge Xperia Z under water for 30 minutes – and make sure it’s good as new when it comes out. It’s also resistant to water jets!,” the Xperia Z boldly goes where no phone’s gone before: underwater. Forget living in constant fear of spills, splashes or even total submersion. Xperia Z’s revolutionary water resistant design stands up the wettest of conditions, even complete submersion in up to 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. So snap an underwater pic at the pool, catch up on your emails during a leisurely soak in the tub, or swipe through a recipe with wet fingers worry free.

Xperia Z’s frame is made from glass fiber polyamide, the same material that’s used as a metal substitute in automobile parts. The durable tempered glass on front and back is a lot stronger than conventional glass. And with anti-shatter film on the front and back, Xperia Z is anything but fragile.

The good thing about Sony Xperia Z is that it is not EXPENSIVE. You have to options to buy it. First, you can buy it unlocked through Sony.com which would cost you just $549.99.Or you can buy it with contract through T-Mobile $19.99 to buy the phone and $20 monthly payment for 24 moths.

Here are some waterproof tests and the commercial about Xperia Z:

Sony Xperia Z: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWysHOjl95E

Waterproof Test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMvu2ZDj5Js

Underwater video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJw_RLaha1o

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references:

Sony Xperia Z: http://goo.gl/1rUPqO

Sony Xperia Z: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWysHOjl95E

Waterproof Test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMvu2ZDj5Js

Underwater video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJw_RLaha1o

sony store Xperia Z: http://goo.gl/THb3CY

T-Mobile Sony Xperia Z: http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phones/sony-xperia-z.html

Blind can read:

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After a big evolution in the world of innovation, a great deal of products are found to help special needs people. This blog will focus on one of these disabilities which is Blindness.

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Braille is still the standard when it comes to helping the visually impaired read. Unfortunately translating text into braille is costly and time consuming thus the disproportionate number of braille books. Therefore, sung woo park, who is a Korean Designer, invented a new product called Voice Stick.Voice Stick is an advance optical character recognition scanner designed to make all books available to the visually impaired. As you pass the wand over a page, text in translated and read to you in a friendly voice. It can be used to convert any text from books, newspapers, contracts, mail, business cards, etc., into voice information.

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Park says the idea came to him in a mildly ironic moment, when he was reading a magazine and found himself wondering how he would handle so simple a task as this reading if he were blind.  Then he said “I wanted to incorporate scanning technology with voice-output technology.”

When asked what the hardest part of developing his Voice Stick design, Park says, “It’s very hard for someone with sight to understand fully the experience and needs of blind people. I covered my eyes for two days  to try to get a sense for the challenges, and I did a lot of exercises in touching things and trying to understand the world that  way. “This gave me a symbolic meeting point of factors in the work, too. Two senses are brought into play in the service of another.”

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References:

The voice stick: http://designtoimprovelife.dk/voice-stick/

Sung Woo Park- the voice stick: http://www.coroflot.com/sungwoopark/Voice-Stick

Regular book can be read by blind: http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/08/voice-stick-makes-regular-books.html

Islamic Architecture

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Islamic architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day.What today is known as Islamic architecture owes its origin to similar structures already existing in Roman,Byzantine and Persian lands which the Muslims conquered in the 7th and 8th centuries.

The Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century availed the Muslims with the vast wealth of architectural innovation developed over the centuries, from the great roads, aqueducts and arches of the Roman Empire, to the Byzantine basilicas and horseshoe and pointed arches  The Islamic architects first utilized these native architects to build mosques, and eventually developed their own adaptations. Islamic architecture thus is directly related to Persian and Byzantine architecture.

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In addition, Arabic calligraphy is associated with geometric Islamic art (the Arabesque) on the walls and ceilings of mosques as well as on the page. Instead of recalling something related to the reality, the Muslim use expression from their holy book ” Quran”.

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In fact, arabesque is an element of Islamic art usually found decorating the walls and window screens of mosques and Muslim homes and buildings. The arabesque is an elaborate application of repeating geometric forms that often echo the forms of plants, shapes and sometimes animals .  it is a way of decorating using beautiful, embellishing and repetitive Islamic art instead of using pictures of humans and animals which is forbidden in Islam.

 

Masjid al-Haram

Masjid Al-Haram (the Grand Mosque):

It is the largest mosque in the world and surrounds one of Islam’s holiest places, the Kaaba. Muslims face in the direction of the Kaaba 5 times a day while performing formal worship, salat.

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Al-Haram Mosque in Makkah

Mosque of Sultan Ahmed:

“The Mosque of Sultan Ahmed, Istanbul, on a prominent site on the Hippodrome complementary to that of Hagia Sophia, is distinguished by its six minarets. Four enormous piers dominate the interior and carry a dome which is buttressed, as in Shehzade Mosque, by four subsidiary half-domes… It is noted for its predominently blue Iznik tilework — whence it derives the name ‘The Blue Mosque”.— Sir Banister Fletcher

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Taj Mahal:

“A white marble tomb built in 1631-48 in Agra, seat of the Mugal Empire, by Shah Jehan for his wife,”—Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman.

 

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References:

Islamic architecture : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_architecture

Taj mahal : http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Taj_Mahal.html

Mosque of Sultan Ahmed: http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Mosque_of_Sultan_Ahmed.html

NXT Robot

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The NXT is a robotic kit that released by LEGO in 2006. The purpose of the NXT is to be educational base for the youth to understand the basic concept of engineering and design. In fact, it is also can be used in the higher education, According to Dr.Chen Yuan Chen, the NXT can help computer engineering student to learn programming cycle (link).

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The main component is the NXT intelligent Brick or the computer. This brick controls all the inputs and send orders to the other parts. This brick has a small LCD display and 4 buttons that can be used to navigate the user orders. It has a micro-controller with 256KB of flash memory and 64 Kb of RAM. And, power is supplied by 6 of 1.5 V battery.  It also has 4 numbered input ports which control the sensors, and has 3 lettered output ports to control motors. You can control sensors and motors by plugging in them into the ports on the brick, and then writing programs on the computer then download it through a USB cable to the brick.

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Another important components are sensors. There are more than 10 sensors such as color sensor, light sensor, touch sensor, compass sensor, accelerometer sensor, rotation sensor, Bluetooth communication sensor. Also, there is the rotation sensor, which is actually a motor. Each one of these sensors has a port, which can be connected to the main brick by special cable to send and receive information.

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It is very easy to program it. There are 2 ways to do that. First, create the program by using the menu on the NXT Intelligent Brick. Second, the more complicated programs and sound files can be downloaded from the computer by using a USB port or wirelessly using Bluetooth. NXT-G is the program that is using to program the brick. The NXT-g is a graphical programming environment that comes bundled with the NXT. Also, there are a lot of lessons on different websites, one of the best is http://www.nxtprograms.com/. it shows you how to do the robot from the level zero until you finish it.

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I have been using this kit since I was in the 10th grade. I like it because I can bring my ideas to reality. For example, I built a LED wand clock. The wand is carrying tiny lights (LEDs) at its top that creates the rare display. As the wand whips through space, the LEDs shimmer at megahertz speed so that you see their light but cannot see the wand. The result – you see a complete image magically suspended in midair.

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Another implication that I used it in is following a line. It sounds easy, but it is not. First, we had to design a car by using LEGO bricks. We had to create the best design for this task. We became with the most efficient mechanism design, which is making the robot has 3 wheels, two in the front and one in the back. Second, we had to program it in the smartest way. And that can be done by having a program connected to the design of the robot. We used the Zig-Zag motion, so the robot is moving forward such that the right wheel works while the left stops just for a moment. Then the left works while the right wheel stops, and so on.

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In Addition, I used the NXT to make a first model of Electronic checkpoint. It was a system that helps people who travels in boarder to have easy and fast document check. For example, the border between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain becoming too crowded in the holidays. Some people might wait about seven hours to finish the document check. The problem was that the officers are too slow. And from that I had an idea to make the whole system change to be electronically. Basically, the traveler would go to an electronic check point which will take the information of each passenger and the information of the vehicle. Then, he will be free to go.

Finally, a lot of people have a lot of interesting ideas that they use it in the NXT , and they some of them can be found here. Also, their interesting videos for some projects such as LEGO mobile bridg , LEGO 360° Milling Machine Robot Sumo Lego Gun and  LEGO Factory.

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References:

1- AN INNOVATIVE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT LEARNING CYCLE

BY LEGO NXT FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION- http://www.ijicic.org/ijicic-10-10001.pdf

2- Fun Projects for your LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT,  http://www.nxtprograms.com/

3- Awesome Projects for your Lego Mindstorm NXT & EV3 , http://www.onemindstorm.com/

4- LEGO mobile bridge,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pslLoNkiL0

5- LEGO 360° Milling Machine, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF0pMILT7_Y

6- Robot Sumo Is Real Sumo! , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIYMAymGzdI&list=TL4J3IT8IU6Uk .

7-Lego Gun,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoDPF_zMZF0

8- LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 Factory, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nehqrqN0c9o

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King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) is located in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. KAUST has a piece of art that rises 60 meters out of the Red Sea at the entry of the harbour. It is the “Al-Fanar beacon” which represents the university as the the beacon of the sciences.

KAUST beacon built in 2009 and designed by artist Daniel Tobin, Matthew Tobin and Jamie Perrow. They had their inspiration from ancient Arabic traditions, in-region artwork and architectural detailing, linking to the marine ecology of the Red Sea. They used the hexagonal sections, which represents the authenticity of the ancient Arabic tradition.

Also, they chose to make it amorphous because they wanted people who enter it feel like they are part KAUST goel, Which is reestablish the new “House of Wisdom,” the University shall be a beacon for peace, hope, and reconciliation and shall serve the people of the Kingdom and benefit all the peoples of the world in keeping with the teachings of the Holy Quran, which explains that God created mankind in order for us to come to know each other.

In addition, they made the surface of the beacon is almost the same as the surface of red sea coral. Therefore, Just by looking to this beacon, you will see the visions of KAUST on front of you

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