Dubai Water Discus hotel will allow guests to sleep underwater

It seems the construction boom in bustling Dubai is far from over – already home to several world record-holding projects, including the tallest building (for just a little while longer), the largest shopping mall and biggest man-made island, plans are now afoot to construct what will likely be the world's largest underwater luxury hotel, the Water Discus. Several years ago, we reported on another such ambitious project, Hydropolis, which sadly never got past the blueprint stage. If Polish company Deep Ocean Technology's (DOT) plans come to fruition, however, guests could one day find themselves asleep beneath the waters of the Persian Gulf.



















To bring this fantasy complex into being, DOT, with the help of Swiss firm BIG InvestConsult AG, turned to local shipyard Drydocks World, which will be tasked with constructing the futuristic disc-shaped hotel. The underwater portion, with about 11,000 square feet (1,000 square meters) of usable area, will house 21 two-guest rooms, and sit about 33 feet (10 m) below the waves. Plans also call for a diving center complete with decompression chamber and air locks, a spa, a spacious garden, open terraces above the waterline, and even a helipad atop one of the surface discs for guests who wish to arrive by air.

To address the unpredictability that often comes with projects involving the sea, the entire structure can be moved should environmental (or economic) conditions change. For added safety, surface discs will be buoyant and detachable from the main structure to act as lifeboats should disaster strike. A large central shaft connects the submerged and surface discs and contains both an elevator and stairs for easy access between levels. Three adjustable columns add further support to the above-surface portion of the structure, the various discs of which are themselves interchangeable.

Bogdan Gutkowski, President of BIG, imagines the project will have an impact on numerous areas besides the region's tourism. “Water Discus Hotel project opens many new fields of development for the hotel and tourism sector, housing and city sector in the coastal off-shore areas, as well as new opportunities for ecology support by creation of new underwater ecosystems and activities on underwater world protection," he told World Architecture News. "Additionally we would like to create here in the UAE the International Environmental Program and Center of the Underwater World Protection – with Water Discus Hotel as a laboratory tool for oceans and seas environment protection and research.”
Grand plans, indeed.

While the idea of staying underwater is far from new, technology has greatly improved to meet the formidable challenges of sub-marine construction, so the likelihood of this and similar projects actually getting built is sure to increase. Famed explorer Jacques Cousteau once envisioned numerous manned underwater colonies to facilitate exploration and though that didn't come to pass, for fans of underwater living, projects like the Water Discus may prove to be the next best thing.

How to resque Electronics that fell in water

Today , a cup of water fell into my ipod.After took my ipod the sound was not working ,only silly voice.But when I plug earphones, I could hear sounds.Later then, I searched on internet and I found a really working method.

What You Need??

Electronic Device

Bowl

Sufficiently Rice

and Two Days 

If water feel into your electronics, you should put your device in a bowl of rise for two days.Yes simply but not common method for amatuers.

Technical Service offered me to fix my ipod for 35$ , but a bowl of rise fixed everything. Cheap , Easy and result is succesful..

What is the benefit of rice? I really suprised , rise absorbs moisture in devices and when the electronic dry works succesfully.Rice fixed my ipod,Thank You Rice :D

Hope to enyoj

Good Luck

How to - Extend Wi-Fi coverage and eliminate dead zones

Most users having a wireless router at home or office usually complain of dead zones and low wireless connectivity in certain areas. 

This usually happens when you have a large room or multiple rooms, where a single wireless router cannot serve the entire area effectively. Upgrading to Wi-Fi ‘n’ routers or installing high-gain antennas could solve the problem, but the chances are remote when it comes to accessing the signals in a larger area or if you have many walls in between you and your router, especially. Adding Wi-fi signal repeaters can help, but this increases the overall cost of the hardware. 

A simpler and slightly cheaper solution would be installing additional wireless routers in other rooms, which will solve the problem. In this workshop, we show you how to configure multiple routers on the same network. Using this trick, you can have one single SSID throughout the entire network and stay in the same subnet too. Before you proceed, make sure you have an extra router handy with you. Any basic router would do since the goal is to spread the Wi-Fi network to a specific part of the house and not the whole house. You can invest in a few cheap Wi-Fi ‘g’ or ‘n’ routers, depending on how big your house is.

Choosing the right channel is very important

Let’s begin with an example to make you understand the network a bit better. You have a large home, which spreads across two or more rooms or floors. You have one wireless router, which is connected to the Internet gateway (either a DSL modem or a direct connection through your cable guy) and is placed in your living room. You can access this wireless network in your living room with ease, but your bedroom, kitchen, terrace or garden area has a very weak signal or you are unable to even get the network there. All you need is an additional router or more routers, which will pick up the primary network from another room and extend it further into its area. We shall take an example of a scenario where three routers are required to cover the area in the living room, the bedroom and the garden. Let’s call the primary wireless router in the living room as LR1, BR1 for the wireless router in the bedroom and GR1 for the one in the garden. Now we assume that LR1 is configured by default with SSID ‘RAHUL’ and a secure WPA2 password.

Let’s assume IP address is 192.168.0.1 and the DHCP server is enabled.  All clients now connecting to this router will be given IP addresses by this DHCP server on LR1 from 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3, and so on. Log in to your router using that IP in a browser and open the settings page.  Here, set the wireless network channel to ‘Channel 1’. Now, dig around a bit till you find the option to increase the antenna gain, and set it to the highest possible strength. Save and restart the router. LR1 is now configured.

Configuring LR1

Now let’s configure the second router BR1, which is placed in the bedroom. Once again, connect the router to a PC via the Ethernet or Wi-Fi network for configuration. Open the setup page of the router and start the setup wizard. Configure the WAN IP (Internet gateway) settings as ‘Dynamic’. This will receive an IP address from the primary router automatically. Next move on to configure the wireless network details, such as SSID and security password. Now enter the SSID the same as the primary router LR1 (in this case ‘RAHUL’). Enter the security type (in this case WPA2) and password, which is again identical to LR1. Next, set the channel number as channel 6, so that there is no overlapping of the channels between LR1 and BR1. Increase the antennal signal strength to maximum. Next, move on to the LAN settings and disable the 

DHCP server. Save the settings and the router will restart. Now BR1 is also configured.

Now that both, LR1 and BR1 have been configured, GR1 also needs to be configured with the same settings as BR1, except for the channel number, which needs to be set as channel 11. If you want to configure more routers for additional coverage, you can follow the same settings procedure as that of BR1 and GR1, but keep in mind to decrease the channel overlapping as minimum as possible. A reference chart of the channel numbers and their overlapping range is given below.

Make sure to secure your network

Once all the wireless routers are configured, all you need is to daisy chain the routers with each other using an Ethernet cable. For our setup, simply connect the WAN port of GR1 to one of the LAN ports of BR1 using an Ethernet cable and connect the WAN port of BR1 to any LAN port of LR1 using another Ethernet cable. Now once the entire network is switched on, LR1 will serve an IP address to BR1 and GR1 and to everyone connected to any of the three routers connected either via an Ethernet cable or via the wireless network. In this whole network, there is only one DHCP server, which will keep all the clients connected in the same subnet and since the SSID is identical on all the routers, one can roam between any rooms without having to switch the wireless network while moving.

The final setup

You can increase or decrease the wireless antenna gain according to your choice, depending on the coverage area needed in the room. You can also keep the wireless channels set to automatic, if you wish and the router will automatically select the best suited channel by itself. But it is advised to keep the wireless channel numbers as specified in this article to decrease channel clutter and signal drops. The image here shows multiple routers used together with different channel numbers, so that they don’t overlap each other.

Yes, we know that wiring multiple routers with an Ethernet cable in different rooms can be a bit expensive and difficult, too. But this is the only way you can get maximum network speed and connectivity. If you want to compromise on expenses, then you could install DDWRT firmware (if your router is compatible) on the additional routers and set them up to connect to each other wirelessly. But since the wireless strength from LR1 would be weak, the signal would only degrade till you reached the last router in the chain.

How To: Enable Night Vision on a Webcam

Most digital cameras, still, video or webcams, can only capture images when there is sufficient light on the subject. 

Insufficient light creates hazy and bad quality images. So what do you do when you need to capture images or record videos when there is low or no light at all? Infrared (IR) light can illuminate the subject and you can capture images even in the dark. IR light is actually an electromagnetic radiation whose wavelength is higher than normal light visible to the human eye. This means, when a subject is illuminated with infrared light, humans cannot see it, but a digital camera can capture these images quite well.

A web camera, a screw driver, a knife or a needle, some IR LEDs, a solder iron, some solder wire, some regular wire, an AC-DC voltage adapter or batteries and veroboard/ general purpose PCB (optional)

The CCD or sensor
The main image capturing chip inside a digital camera is highly sensitive to infrared light. But there is an obstacle here—manufacturers of digital cameras implant an IR filter in the pathway of the lens and the sensor.  This filters out the IR rays so that only pure visible light can pass through. The reason—infrared light can agitate the image quality and produce overexposed pictures. This workshop helps you remove the IR filter in order to get the camera to capture images in the dark. Basically, all you need to do is remove the IR filter completely. We shall also show you how to make your own infrared light source so that you can use the webcam as a surveillance device at night. The best part is that nobody would even know that there is a camera as nothing is visible in the dark. Try out this workshop at your own risk.

Night Vision Webcam

Hacking the webcam
Unplug the camera from the computer and remove all the screws using a screw driver. You can do this trick with any still/video/mobile camera too. Open the camera case carefully to expose the internal circuit board. Remove the lens housing by unscrewing it anti-clockwise. Now carefully observe the rear section of the lens housing and you shall find a red-tinged glass—the IR filter. This filter needs to be carefully removed from its place. Pop out the seal to separate the IR filter from the housing carefully using the sharp, pointed edge of a knife or needle. Make sure you do not damage the filter or the seal in case you decide to place it back again. Mount the lens housing back and close the camera the same way you opened it. The camera is now ready for action.

Create a circular LED ring and mount it on your camera's lens directly. You can make the ring out of plastic/cardboard or design a custom PCB. Place the IR LEDs on the panel and solder them accordingly from behind. Using this trick will ensure that the subject in focus is
completely lit with IR light.

Stealth lighting
Now we show you how to make an Infrared LED array. IR LEDs are available in any electronic spare parts shop for around Rs 4 each. You can also rescue some from damaged, old or discarded IR remote controllers. The amount of LEDs to be used would purely depend on the amount of light you would require and the voltage you would be applying to the circuit.

 Follow the instructions carefully

Each LED runs on approximately 1.2 Volts DC (confirm the voltage ratings of the ones you buy). So ideally, if you plan on using 12 Volts to power the array, make sure you use at least 10 LEDs in series. Do your calculation and assign the number of LEDs to be deployed on the job. Once done, mount each LED on a veroboard or general purpose PCB and create your LED array. If you are not familiar with electronics and/or soldering, you could ask a friend for help or have the circuit assembled for you by an electronics technician. Solder all the LEDs in serial and finally solder some wires to connect it to the power adapter or battery. Alternatively you can design your own LED arrays. Assemble it on a cardboard or plastic ring and mount it around your camera lens, or create miniature spotlights to spread it around your house. Let your imagination run wild with ideas. If you hack your mobile phone camera, you can use a single IR LED to secretly take pictures at night.

 Next set of steps

All done
Now that your camera is hacked and the infrared array is ready, you need to try out your camera in the dark. Create a dark environment either by closing all windows and curtains in your room or wait till sunset. Start a webcam software and switch on the Infrared LEDs. Observe that what a human eye cannot see is being captured very easily by the webcam. Infrared pictures captured by the camera will be in black and white, so don’t panic about the absence of color detail in the images. You can use an array with a large number of IR LEDs for a more powerful light throw or use multiple smaller arrays in different areas to brighten up the whole room/area.

Caution: Continuous exposure to infrared light can be harmful to the human eye. Make sure you do not stare directly into the LED array when switched-on. You would not notice any light, but the eye pupil is wide open in the dark and Infrared light can blast through freely and cause damage too.

What next?
If you have a wireless/Wi-Fi camera, you can use it as a surveillance camera at night. Use applications such as ‘WebcamXP’, ‘HandiAVI’, etc, which support motion sensing or time scheduled image capturing and recording. You can mount it on your main door, in your garden, in the garage, on the stairway or any place to be monitored in the dark.

Note: Once the IR filter has been removed, pictures in broad daylight get highly overexposed.
 

Engineers produce multiple colors of lasers using a single material

Ordinarily, if you wanted to include blue, green and red laser light sources in the same device (such as a BluRay player), you would need to build in three separate lasers – each one incorporating different semiconductor materials. Now, however, engineers from Rhode Island’s Brown University have succeeded in creating different colors of lasers, all using the same nanocrystal-based semiconductor. Among other things, this opens the door to digital displays that could produce various colors of laser light simultaneously.

Working with engineers from tech company QD Vision, the Brown team created “nanometer-sized semiconductor particles called colloidal quantum dots or nanocrystals with an inner core of cadmium and selenium alloy and a coating of zinc, cadmium, and sulfur alloy and a proprietary organic molecular glue.”

The size of the nanocrystals/quantum dots, which can be precisely controlled in the production process, is what determines the color of laser beams produced using them – red light comes from crystals with cores measuring 4.2 nanometers across, green light comes from 3.2-nanometer models, while 2.5-nanometer cores result in blue light. Other colors can also be achieved, using core sizes between those points in the spectrum.

Cuong Dang manipulates a green beam that pumps Brown University's new nanocrystals with energy

While the size of the core is what dictates the color of the light, the crystals’ structure and outer coating also play an important role – they reduce the amount of crosstalk (a form of interference) that occurs in the lasing process, making the technology much more energy-efficient than it otherwise would be. Other researchers have attempted to overcome crosstalk problems simply by boosting the power input, although much of that power ends up being lost as heat.

In order to create lasers using the new nanocrystals, a nail polish-like solution containing the crystals is painted onto a piece of glass. Once the liquid carrier in that solution has evaporated, the glass is then sandwiched between two special mirrors, ultimately resulting in what is known as a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. The glass can be cut into a number of shapes, increasing the possible applications of the technology.

“We have managed to show that it’s possible to create not only light, but laser light,” said Arto Nurmikko, professor of engineering and leader of the project. “In principle, we now have some benefits: using the same chemistry for all colors, producing lasers in a very inexpensive way, relatively speaking, and the ability to apply them to all kinds of surfaces regardless of shape. That makes possible all kinds of device configurations for the future.”

A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.