Self-destruct options from the Mission: Impossible movies could become a reality for even the most common smartphones and laptops used by government officials or corporate employees. A new self-destruct mechanism can destroy electronics within 10 seconds through wireless commands or the triggering of certain sensors.
Just don't leave your computer sitting in the sun for long...
Direct Self-Assembly (DSA) is one of the competitors for the next-generation 'lithography' together with direct-write via electron beam and the more traditional extreme UV (EUV) lithography. Although there are huge benefits to use DSA, the technology does have some drawbacks when it comes to line edge roughness. It seems however particularly good for repetitive structures that are used in memory chips. As long as EUV is struggling to get it working, DSA definitely has a fighting chance to enter the market one day.
Nintendo did the same a few years ago with the Gameboy Advance and a FPGA module ... very easy to use, very instructive, and a lot of fun (i was a geek!)
A personal interest of mine that I want to explore a bit more in the future. I just bought a ZigBee electricity monitor and I am wondering whether from the signal of the mains one could detect (reliably) the oven turning on, lights, etc. Probably requires Neural Network training. The idea would be to make a simple device which basically saves you money by telling you how much electricity you are wasting.
Then again, its probably already done by Google...
Proximity to the transmitter impacts power delivery as follows:
4W delivered to 4 devices simultaneously within 0-5 feet
2W delivered to 4 devices simultaneously within 5-10 feet
1W delivered to 4 devices simultaneously within 10-15 feet
How to make a piecewise approximation of one inverse square law for commercial purposes
According to their Nature article, they can detect "a tunnel less than 1m across, buried 2m underground" just from its gravitational difference. Using a device that they predict could cost ~100 € in mass production.
UK researchers have built a small device that measures tiny fluctuations in gravity, and could be used to monitor volcanoes or search for oil. Such gravimeters already exist but compared to this postage stamp-sized gadget, they are bulky and pricy.
Absolutely :-) according to picture http://www.ufunk.net/gadgets/helmfon-casque-open-space/attachment/helmfon-casque-open-space-5/ we could squeeze three times as many researchers then :-)