The Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) developed the Smart Latch door latching sensor system to indicate whether or not a door is fully closed. The system, which attaches to a standard door, compares the audible signature of a door properly latching to every future instance of the door closing.
The system, developed by Bob Eakle, principal engineer for SRNL, uses a die-mounted VR Stamp speech recognition chip from Sensory Inc. to register the acoustic signature and a small transducer/microphone to pick up the sound. The housing, which according to Eakle is as small as a wrist watch, is constructed of polycarbonate material. When not in use, the Smart Latch “goes to sleep” to avoid draining its battery, and won’t “wake up” until initiated by the sound of the door.
The voice recognition chip is speaker dependent, which means it will ignore sounds that aren’t within the range of the acoustic signature. The chip was programmed with C. The Smart Latch is not available commercially yet, but the SRNL has made the license available through its technology transfer.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Designing and filling a new type of water bottle might take less engineering work, but the description will help kids understand how science, math, and engineering influence their lives even through things that seem mundane.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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