Announcing the Release Candidate for Ubuntu 9.10

The more stable, heavily bug-fixed Release Candidate of Ubuntu 9.10 is available for Download.

Waver is a Compact Google Wave Client

(Adobe AIR): Waver allows you to keep a single-column view of Google Wave open on your desktop at all times from which you can read, compose, and keep an eye on what's happening in your Wave inbox.

Waver is a free download for all platforms, and requires Adobe AIR.

Download : Waver

Shrink and Affix Tabs with "Pin Tab" Option

Finally, a tiny little tab feature that everyone seems to love is available in the dev build of Chrome

» Right-click on any tab and choose "Pin tab" from the context menu to try it out” «

The Most Popular Hotmail Password Edition

A researcher took a look at the 10,000 leaked Hotmail accounts and pulled out the most popular password

Most Common Hotmail Password Revealed!

Surprise!! Surprise!! It's

123456!

This awful password appeared 64 times out of the 10,000 leaked passwords. [Wired]

10,000 Hotmail Passwords Leaked Online

An anonymous user posted usernames and passwords for over 10,000 Windows Live Hotmail accounts to web site PasteBin, including accounts on email domains like @hotmail.com, @msn.com, and @live.com.

Microsoft has confirmed the leak, so if you're a Live Hotmail user and you suspect you may have been affected, now's the time to change that password.

For the rest of us—well, this may serve as a reminder that it might be a good time to do a password refresh

Give Out and Receive Your Google Wave Invitations Here

Google just started handing out Wave invites, and they're planning to dish out more all day. The door is open to 100,000 new users; if you're one of the lucky ones, you can share the love (and your invites) here.

They are sending out those invitations by hand (that is, it's not an automated push to every single user), so it will probably take some time.

If you were lucky enough to get an invite, you'll also score eight invitations of your own that you can hand out to your friends and colleagues. If you're interested in sharing the love with your fellow Technophilia readers post a comment and let others know you've got an invitation to share.

Good luck, Everybody!

Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, and Talk Leave Beta

Google today will finally remove the long-standing“beta tag” from some of its most popular web applications, most notably its wildly popular email application, Gmail.

Does the beta-less Gmail, Calendar, Docs, or Talk mean anything special to you? Will it inspire you to use Google apps more confidently? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments.

Google Wave

Explain it in 60 characters…

Gmail on crack.  Imagine Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Docs in one big inbox.

 

Google Wave Questions and Answers [Smarterware]

Chrome Dual View Lets You Split Chrome in Two

Whether you want to split the screen to compare two things side by side or to take advantage of your expansive widescreen monitor, the dual view bookmarklet splits your web browser in two. We've covered a few ways you can split up your screen real estate and make the most of it, including Firefox extension Split Browser and the Windows app WinSplitRevolution. Chrome Dual View is a simple bookmarklet which lets you split the browsing window of any modern browser with Java script support into two panes. When you run the bookmarklet, it prompts you for the URL you want to appear on each side, and then loads them side by side. Chrome Dual View works with—thanks for the extra testing, readers!—IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari among other browsers with Java script support. Chrome Dual View :-Drag this link to  your Crome Bookmark area.

Email 'n Walk Lets You Multitask Without Getting Hit By a Car

 

iPhone iPhone only: Email n' Walk overlays an email composition window on top of the view from your iPhone's camera, so you can type out an email and watch where you're going. Insane? Ridiculous? Of course. It also kind of works. And while we don't recommend putting your life in the hands of your iPhone's camera, it's a clever idea. Though I can't imagine actually using it for its intended purpose, I can imagine using it to do a little spying while I'm sitting down and typing out an email. When you finish composing an email in Email 'n Walk, hitting send will open up a proper email window in Mail so you can choose your recipient and send it. Email 'n Walk is a free, iPhone-only download for a limited time from the iTunes App Store.

A "Mood Lamp " That Can Read Minds

Amit Samantaray

A technology called “functional MRI” or fMRI can see what is happening inside someone’s brain when they are thinking specific thoughts. The Psyleron Mind Lamp is a fun way that explores an application of this technology.
Researchers at Princeton University developed the Lamp, and claim that the Mind Lamp changes color due to “electron tunneling”, a quantum-level phenomenon that directs the lamp to change the lamp color.
The lamp has a microprocessor that checks for statistical patterns that adjust the red, green, blue and white color balances on the body of the unit.

Liquid Solar Array Power Generator

Amit Samantaray

This new solar technology (LSA) promises to produce electricity at a comparable cost to fossil fuel generators.
Each LSA panel has a tiny area of silicon photovoltaic cells on the water’s surface with a large rotating plastic focusing-lens above, which tracks the sun. According to the technology’s developers, Sunengy, the water plays an important role in cooling the silicon cells.
The lens can also be submerged when rotated fully to protect it during stormy weather and high winds, in particular. At 2mm thick, the lens may appear flimsy but is robust enough to survive winds of more than 100mph due to its unique method of using water, as part of the structure, to protect it.
The water has another use, too. Coated in a special self-cleaning surface, the lens can be washed of dust or salt simply by dunking it, via its sun-tracking mechanism, into the drink.

The Springtail Exoskeleton Flying Vehicle

Amit Samantaray

A company called Trek Aerospace has developed the Springtail Exoskeleton Flying Vehicle, a single pilot, vertical take-off-and-landing helicopter-type aircraft.
The craft supports the pilot in a standing position and is powered by a 118 hp rotary engine which drives two counter-rotating fans.
The Springtail is controlled by a computer system that can tilt each fan individually to control pitch and yaw. It has a top speed of 113 mph and a range of 184 miles. The retail price is $1.25 million USD.

Storing a Lightning Bolt in a Piece of Glass

Amit Samantaray

Penn State University Researchers have discovered glass with the highest ability to store energy ever developed. This type of glass would make an ideal candidate for high energy density storage capacitors to power more efficient electric vehicles.

The glass is a barium boroaluminosilicate glass, which is produced in large quantities for flat panel displays and electronics packaging. One of the factors that makes this glass ideal is its nearly defect-free quality. This discovery opens a potentially new market for glass. Ideally, manufacturing processes will get to a point where they can make any size sheet they need for any size capacitor.
Engineering challenges still remain as they scale up from the small sizes to those ready for commercial production.

Flexible, Extremely Thin Loudspeakers

Extremely flat, flexible loudspeakers have been designed by Warwick Audio Technologies. They bend easily, they could adapt to whatever space they're being installed in.
Conventional stereo speakers use vibrating electromagnetic drivers to produce sound, whereas these speakers operate using a flexible laminate composed of a series of conducting and insulating materials. The laminate vibrates when an electrical audio signal is introduced and the speakers create a directional sound wave based on the audio signal.
Warwick also says that the technology is easy and inexpensive to manufacture.

By:- Amit Samantaray

Two-Seater Folding Helicopter

Amit Samantaray

The Hummel is a two passenger lightweight helicopter that has a fully enclosed cabin and tandem rotors which offer the same stability as a conventional helicopter.
When you're done flying it folds into a box shape for easy storage and transportation.
This new helicopter design has many potential applications including air taxi, emergency services, coast guard, police, army and personal transport and recreation.

Air-Conditioned Bed

Amit Samantaray

Kuchofuku and Itochu have developed a mattress with a built-in air conditioning system.
A fan located at the foot of the mattress pulls in air from behind the sleeper's head drawing off body heat, and transporting it out of the bed.
According to the makers, operating the mattress for eight hours results in about 13 cents in monthly electricity costs, which is way less than using an air conditioner that cools an entire room. The best part is that the mattress can be used in winter as well, as buyers get a heater with the mattress.
Running eight hours a day, the system will generate only about 13 yen in — much cheaper than using an air conditioner to cool an entire bedroom. The mattress goes on sale in May in Japan in May and costs $300.

Fast Color-Changing Liquid May Lead to Better Sunglasses

Amit Samantaray

Researchers in Japan have developed a "photochromic" material that changes color thousands of times faster than conventional materials when exposed to light.
This development could lead to a wide range of new products including improved sunglasses, more powerful computers, dynamic holograms, and better medicines.
The unique photochromic material shows instantaneous coloration upon exposure to ultraviolet light and its disappearance happens within the same short period when the light is turned off. The material is also more stable and longer-lasting.

World's Fastest Camera To Diagnose Disease

Amit Samantaray

A team of engineers from UCLA has announced the development of a continuously running imaging technology that can operate 1,000 times faster than the fastest cameras available today.
Unlike traditional cameras, the new technology does not use CCD or CMOS devices to capture the image, but uses a novel fiber optic approach.
An ultrafast camera such as this could have applications in the medical domains, as they can reveal how biological processes work on a cellular level, as well as allow development of new diagnostic cellular analysis techniques.

2Sibling Vehicle

Amit Samantaray

The 2Sibling is a vehicle that is able to become two. This innovative idea attaches the two siblings to each other in a back to back position in a way the allows only one of them to move ahead, while the other one remains neutralized and being pulled by the previous one. In this way, the 2Sibling can be used as a vehicle for 2 persons or as two tiny vehicles for city use, or as a vehicle of all-terrain. This 2Sibling vehicle will provide sheer fun to the riders of the city car and give a multipurpose solution for many people efficiently. 

Futuristic eMX Car Concept by RSM Design

Amit Samantaray

Renault Samsung Motors (RSM) has exposed their futuristic eMX car concept. eMX stands for eco Motoring eXperience, which is based on the platform of Renault Mégane and is powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine along with some other solutions to improve the fuel efficiency. The main feature of the design includes detailed soft curves and graphics which is inspired by the nature and are intended at expressing an eco-friendly sense and cutting-edge technology. The organic and smooth curves of this concept car explores a new design technology that may adopt the company’s other small cars in future.

Fuel Cell Scooter Concept by Chengli Hung

Amit Samantaray

This scooter bike powered with fuel-cell has the potential to present a better future private transportation vehicle which features better usage, less pollution, more fun and more freedom. This is a small scooter but have a large integrated storage area and an optional storage compartment in the mid-section of the scooter. The flexible steering handlebar allows the scooter to transform into a more potent motorbike for higher speeds which improves the aerodynamics of this vehicle and brings more pleasure of riding. The front wheel is bigger than the rear one and features high performance hydraulic breaks and heavy duty suspensions.   

Green laser pointers

Amit Samantaray

Green laser pointers were first commercially sold in the year 2000. They operate at the wavelength of 532 nm. Laser diodes of this wavelength are not available so the green light is obtained by the use of "DPSSFD" laser technology.
The process:-
A very high-powered Infrared laser diode working at 808 nm pumps a tiny block of Nd: YVO4 that generates light at 1,064 nm. This feeds a potassium titanyl phosphate intracavity frequency doubler crystal that produces green light of a visible 532 nm wavelength. High-powered green lasers use lithium triborate instead of KTP.
Features:-
An infrared filter, which is behind the mirror completely, removes the radiation of infrared spectrum from the output beam. In order to reduce cooling problems and prolong battery life, some green lasers operate in pulse or quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) mode. The Class III a laser product gives an output power of 5mw. This is the one of highest-powered street legal laser. Some green lasers even have an output of 10 mw, which has a range of 20,000 feet in darkness. Some even have a 3-second delay feature as these are high-powered lasers and can blind a person. Some laser point extenders are also available. They work by using lenses to minimize the beam spread of a laser. Its price starts from 55$. Majority of them have a life of around 3000 hours.
Applications:-
Green lasers can be used for a variety of roles. They can be used as pointing devices. The ability to form a continuous line in the dark is an added advantage; this has lead to its usage as rescue lights as it can be seen from miles away. It as been used for laser light shows. It is also used for sky gazing as a person can pinpoint a star by using the green laser. It can also be as laser pointers for guns, rifles. In the movie Alien vs. Predator it was used as a pointing device on some G36k carbines.
Advantages:-
The green laser has many advantages. It is fifty times brighter than a red laser because of which it can be seen from miles away, this helps in being rescued if a person is lost. It can also be used in high-tech weapons for aiming purposes. Because of its high range, Green laser pointers can be equipped in different kinds of weapons. High and low temperatures do not affect the performance of Green laser pointers so in case a person is lost in a desert, he can still use Green laser pointers to call for help, in other case, even if a person is lost some where in mountains all covered with ice, he can still use it.
Disadvantages:-
Due to its high power it can permanently damage a person's eye. As it can form a continuous line of light that might reveal a person's position so it cannot be used in stealthy operations or by SWAT.
Green laser is quite awesome but it should be used carefully.

Blue ray

Amit Samantaray

It seems like every couple of years there are new advances made and our technology springs forward. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with all of the incredibly fast paced advances made. Currently, blue ray technology has been brought into the mainstream and learning what this technology is can keep consumers up to date with the latest inventions in home entertainment.

Discovering What Is Blue Ray Technology
For many, home movies were originally played on the classic vcr tape. Then, the technology moved onto DVD players, and the look of the movies was sharper and of a much better quality. Now the next evolution has started with blue ray technology.
Finding out about what it is includes learning about the differences between this kind of technology and the current mass marketed DVD systems. This new kind of technology has been developing for years, since the mid 1990's when HDTV's were becoming more common for consumers to buy. A technology was needed that could record and play back the high definition recordings. Blue Ray technology was created to fill that void.
So what is so special with this technology and how is it different from the standard DVD? BR technology can store far more information that the traditional DVD, almost 5 times more storage is available on a blue ray disc. The blue ray discs use a blue ray laser to read the information where other DVD's use a red laser.
With a blue laser the wave length is shorter allowing for more storage to be used. This did cause some problems originally, as the discs were much easier to scratch. The case that held the disc had to be made more durable and was somewhat bulky. Advances in polymer coatings have advanced allowing for a better protective coating to be placed on the disc, alleviating the need for the bigger containers.
There are many companies that have a stake in the development of the next cutting edge technology and these companies are looking into both blue ray technology and a HD DVD. Some of the big companies are fighting over which technology should be used and this has caused a split in which companies support which format. Even companies that produce movies are split over which type of technology to use, which means depending on what movie a consumer wishes to purchase; they may need two different types of players.
Both the blue ray and the hddvd players are continuing to improve. In the end, consumers may discover that they enjoy both types of players and they both may be successful with consumers. Learning about what is this technology exactly can help a consumer get a good idea of basic information in regards to this new technology.

Guns that can stop cars

Amit Samantaray

EM pulse gun that can stop cars

People who have seen the film 2 fast 2 furious please recall the beginning scene where,the hero is being is chased by the cops and he is being stopped by them by using a weirdly looking gun.They fire at him and his car,which is state-of-the art, and it just dies at the next moment.

Very futuristic technology but cool right ? well thats going to be true. but not exactly as you see in the film. its not going to be a “handy” gun, its going to be mounted on the top of a car.

The EM pulse gun assembly is mounted on the top of the car and is powered by car’s alternator.It sends out high power pulses (high frequency radiations) which will kill the microprocessors of cars.The big deal with the microprocessors is that,they control the engine.They control the ignition control,fuel injector,fuel pump,etc. without the engine, the car is dead,motionless.

The EM pulse gun would be great help to the law enforcements,military bases,communication centers,oil platforms etc.

The EM pulse gun right now weighs 200 pounds.this is setup on the top of the car.It takes DC power and generates pulses with 50ns duration, and then it is amplified to 640kV using a 16 stage Marx generator.This is then transformed into microwave oscillations. These oscillations are then directed to an opposing vehicle through specially designed antennas.

The radiations from these antenna will damage the car as told before (ECU-engine control unit),etc.Actually this is not a quite new system,military had developed this long before.but the equipment was so bulky and heavy to use in a car.But the guys at Aerospace system made that thing smaller and integrated to a car.

The only drawback of the system is that it cant be used against old vehicles, old vehicles that don’t have an ECU and all those stuff. Common who is going to break the law in a 1970 “Chevrolet Nova”, so that wont be a problem.

Moving data using silicon chips

Amit Samantaray

Using photons rather than electrons to move data in chips

Today the world is hungry for bandwidth and speed. But this is limited by the way we use to connect various points. If you think am speaking about two buildings or even two countries, you are wrong. Am speaking about interconnections in a single chip. At present the interconnects in an IC is made with copper. But what is happening is at luxurious speeds as 10 billion B/s (bits per seconds) these interconnects prove to be less efficient.

Continuous experiments have given many alternatives but at the cost of high price. The best one from the array is by using optical fibers and thus replacing photons instead of electrons. The advantage of this method is that the overall cost is less compared to other methods and the data rate you can achieve is far more than that achievable through copper connects.

What’s the big deal with these interconnects anyway huh? Imagine you can download movies with just a click rather than waiting for hours, simultaneous streaming of audio, video, teleconferencing, and you name it. Sounds cool, isn’t it? This is what is possible if we have optical fiber interconnects in the chip level.

The superiority of optical connection is best explained by the following example. Optical data can travel for long distances (say 10 km) without any attenuation. The data rate can be increased by a technique called WDM-wavelength division multiplexing.

Myself is a communication engineer, so I will elaborate on this. Distortion, interference these occurs when the wavelength/frequency of two signals in a single medium becomes equal or very close. So if you can transmit several distinct frequencies at the same time, then you can use the single medium to transmit all these at the same time. In short you are multiplying the capability of the medium’s data carrying capacity. Currently using WDM you can transmit over 40 different data signals into a thin hair strand size optical fiber, all running at the data rate of 10 GBps. wonderful isn’t it, copper connects can’t even dream about it.

So why isn’t this new technology not in your chips yet ? It isn’t simple as it sounds. Optical devices are made with materials such as lithium niobate, indium phosphide etc which are very exotic compared to silicon. So its very costly and expensive to fabricate these into a normal chips.

A normal optical fiber communication link requires the following parts. Modulator-to convert electrical data into light Transmitter-to transmit this light into the fiber Optical fiber-the medium Receiver-to receive the optical data Demodulator-to convert optical data back to electrical data

What we need to do is to manufacture all these devices onto a single chip. This is the ultimate goal. What this step exactly means is you make the modulator, source, medium, detector, demodulator etc on the same silicon substrate. Researches have now enabled silicon to have optical properties. An optical channel can be made in silicon by literally etching a channel in the substrate. For source, silicon laser has been developed by Intel’s state-of-the art facilities. As for all the other parts, researches are going on.

Although they encountered many problems, they are troubleshooting them one by one. In short, the time for a single chip that is half the size of a postage stamp which is able to handle all the operations of whole building won’t be too long in the future.

Being Wireless @ 60GHz

Amit Samantaray

The new technology, being used in every field of human life has become indispensable and scientists are constantly working on improving the existing technology. The discovery of the use of blue tooth as early as 1990s lead to the development of Wi-Fi and IEEE 802.11, the latest of the series is ultrawideband systems. The most important use of having these technologies is the decreased need of cables and wires to connect electronic equipments, and the increased speed at which transmission can take place. Even with so much speed and bandwidth at hand, scientists are looking for options to utilize even more bandwidth.

Scientists are exploring all the available possibilities to acquire more bandwidth, now has turned their attention to infra red light. As of now, this new technology is used in electronic equipments requiring remote control. There have been not much research in this field till now, but situation has changed, with studies to utilize 60GHz is under way.

Along with this, study on semiconductors is also in progress. Use of silicon chips instead of the gallium-arsenide semiconductors which are used presently is being considered. This would be more cost effective and if the designs are successful, the electronic equipments would be working much faster.

In addition to the increased speed, the size of the chips and antennas also can be decreased, with the help of this new technology. The antennas and transceivers can be put together, as the size of the antennas decrease. This also would lead to the lack of need of cables to transfer the data from the antenna to the chips and from chip to chip. Also, the antistatic devices used during assembly to prevent the electrostatic discharge, can be avoided as there are no more open outputs or inputs.

With every new technology, difficulties also appear. The 60GHz wave gets obstructed by any object in its path, it also travels proportionately to the distance between the transmitter and the antenna. This would considerably decrease the power transmitted by the wave, as it reaches the antenna.

Scientists are working to solve these problems and some have come up. Some of the suggestions include using high power, use of multiple transceivers etc. The use of multiple transceivers is considered a good option, but to make it possible, the design of the transceiver would have to be changed. The transceiver which is used at present might be inadequate to meet the increased demands. And the cost of manufacturing these transceivers also has to be considered.

There are bipolar transmitters offering good speed, but at increased cost of production and there are CMOS chips with low speed and low manufacturing cost. Engineers are debating the use and disadvantages of both these. They aim at improving the CMOS chips.

Operating the technique might be difficult, but not impossible. Scientists are also considering the use of 40GHz along with 60GHz.

The use of adaptive antennas is also under evaluation. These would create a beam which would be directly received, considered a solution of the loss of power occurring at the present stage. In this new technology, a lot of emitters are to be used to reduce the loss of power. If this works out, more energy efficient antennas would be manufactured. At the same time, off chip antennas are also under consideration. This would decrease the amount of power lost after it is received at the antenna.

Terahertz Rays in Security

 

Terahertz rays aiding in the detection of security threats :

A lot of movies show a typical feature which aids the detectives to see through enemies’ camps. This is in the form of a goggle, which would not raise the concern of the adversary, and at the same time, the hero is able to see where the weapons are hidden and in several cases, disable the bombs. X-rays are used to provide this sort of a facility, which is purely fictional. The use of X-ray is limited and the machine cannot be contained to a small goggle.

But scientists are now developing a new technology which might help to an extent in this matter. By the use of terahertz rays, the scientists are hoping to detect all the security threats, like weapons and bombs which might go undetected in the present days. Terahertz rays extend from the upper limit of microwaves to the lower limit of infrared rays.

Now a days, X-rays are used to detect any fracture in the human body, and also in the security checks to check for any weapons. The use of X-rays are limited as they are harmful to the human body causing disintegration of DNA and hence cancers may be precipitated. Terahertz rays or T-rays are considered harmless, that is, they do not predispose the human body to cancers and hence can be used freely. This benefit also applies at the security checks at any airports or public places where T-rays would reflect on any weapons and can be detected easily. For that matter, T-rays have an additional benefit of detecting even plastic objects which often go undetected in X-ray. Scientists' also claim that T-rays can tell the material of the item which is reflected, as it uses a technique called spectroscopy. In this new technology, every item would be reflected in a different colour, so making out a particular item as harmful is easy.

T- rays are not required to be used close to the scanned item, as in the case of X-rays. It can be safely kept at a distance and scanning is done. A lot of research is going on to enhance the capacity of T-rays to use the spectroscopy at a distance.

The possibilities of T-rays are several. They can be used in the pharmacology industry to aid in detection of the contents of the medicines, used to detect tumors in a human body, aid in detecting any defect in the machines. These are just a few of the benefits.

With a lot of benefits under its collar, one wonders what these T-rays are?

They are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and one area which has been less studied till now. The band width of the T-rays can be between 500gigahertz and 10 terahertz.

Studies have been going on to analyze T-rays, recently particle accelerators have been used to break up the rays and study them.

New technology are being developed to contain the T-rays and direct them accordingly. Also a cost effective method of production need to be developed. The use of synchtron to bend the electrons and produce T-rays is under research. There are still concerns of cost and cooling of the rays, and the size which is important. In addition to these, creation of a continuous wave of T-rays is a challenge the scientists are facing as when T-rays were generated in pulses, it was seen that the bandwidth decreases with distance.

So, how can this be done? Experiments are going on to see whether using two infra red laser machines can be used. The rays produced by the two machines combine to produce a T-ray. A new machine with indium-gallium-arsenide is under consideration.

Also a new technology called Quantum Cascade laser was developed in 1994, which produced rays even in the terahertz range. The wavelengths produced were directly related to the thickness of the semiconductor, which was the reason for success of these lasers. The working of the laser is as follows. An electron is put into the machine which goes to a level and shake up the protons, then fall into another level, emitting phonons. This cycle is repeated and a ray of phonons are produced.

Once the item is detected, a reflection image has to be produced as well. Experiments are going on to produce a detector to create images which can be easily captured by a video camera and reproduced.

There are defects in this new technology as well. But the positive factors are more than the negative factors, so this new technology would be of real help in detecting a lot of security threats.

By Amit Samantaray

Variable Frequency Transformers

With Variable Frequency Transformer power transfer can be done smoothly without noise.

America cannot produce all the power it drinks. It has to get help from its neighboring countries like Mexico to satisfy her. So power transfer between two grids must take place.

Circuits employing semi conductor devices were used for this purpose. But there is a problem. The power flowing in grid is in the form of AC-alternating current. This AC cannot be controlled using semiconductors. For that purpose we convert the AC to DC-Direct Current. Using the circuits we can alter any parameters of the power such as amplitude, frequency, phase etc. After that, DC is converted back to AC, ie we synthesize AC. But this AC is not as good as natural AC. The problem is harmonic distortions. As we change DC to AC a spike appears at each pulse, which is a noise and is undesired, but hard to eliminate.

With the help of new technology, VFT-Variable Frequency Transformers can do this. Variable Frequency Transformers can convert this power to and from grids without converting the power into DC thus eliminating the harmonic distortions. Another advantage with VFT is that we can have infinite phase shifts between the two powers where as in conventional devices we could have only few predefined phase shifts.

Even though VFTs employs latest technology, someone looking at the Variable Frequency Transformer will recognize it as a hydro generator. In fact AEP-American Electric Power, who has currently installed a VFT between Mexico-US grid, buys it from the same manufacturers who makes standard hydro generators.

Although Variable Frequency Transformers looks like a hydro generator, it seems like VFT has hydrophobia. There is not a drop of water involved here, although it is a hydro generator. The rotor of the Variable Frequency Transformer, is a big three phase electro-magnet which is connected to one grid and the stator, another three phase winding, a stationary winding which is connected to the other grid. When power starts to flow, the phase difference between stator and rotor cause the motor to rotate. The rotor shaft is connected to another motor, called a control motor. We apply torque on the shaft and can rotate the motor in any direction and the direction of the motor determines the direction of power flow. The Variable Frequency Transformer is like a phase shifter having infinitesimally small steps.