The next great telecom revolution phần 9 doc

“Folks are already at nine hours on a battery, so how muchbetter does it need to get?” Locker’s opinion of fuel cell technology: “It’s anonstarter.” per-Two notebook makers, however, are

retired mechanical engineer, says Dynaglass was developed in the mid-1990s,but some of the technology is based on research by the Soviet military and space programs He learned about the material while helping a friend ship medical supplies to Russia “Later on, we discovered that the materialcould be used to store energy,” says Baldwin, who then formed a company—Columbus, Ohio-based Dynelec—to explore the technology’s potential.Baldwin boasts that Dynaglass is a remarkable power source A Dynaglassbattery, he says, is infinitely rechargeable and might be able to generate up to

30 times more energy than a lead-acid battery of comparable size and weight.The device, which can be produced in a wide range of sizes, also contains noacids or other dangerous chemicals, making it pollution free “It just reacts likeglass,” Baldwin says But since Dynaglass isn’t brittle like ordinary glass, it’sdurable and won’t shatter when dropped

While a working Dynaglass battery would be warmly received by mobiledevice manufacturers and users, Keith Keefer, a scientist based in Richland,Washington, is skeptical that Baldwin’s technology is all that it’s purported to

be He notes that several inventors have created similar devices, and that none

of the devices has lived up to its promise “No one has ever really made itwork,” he says

Yet Baldwin is looking to interest manufacturers in his technology “A glassproducer could use this to enter the energy industry at practically no addi-tional cost,” he says

8.2.2 Ion Trek

Mobile phones, CD players, and flashlights all wear down batteries far fasterthan we might wish Researchers at the U.S Department of Energy’s IdahoNational Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, however, have over-come another barrier to building more powerful, longer-lasting lithium-basedbatteries The team, led by inorganic chemist Thomas Luther, has discoveredhow lithium ions move through the flexible membrane that powers theirpatented rechargeable lithium battery

Luther describes the translucent polymer membrane as an “inorganicversion of plastic kitchen wrap.” The team, including chemists Luther, MasonHarrup, and Fred Stewart, created it by adding a ceramic powder to a mate-rial called MEEP ([bis(methoxyethoxyethoxy)phosphazene]), an oozy, thickoil The resulting solid, pliable membrane lets positively charged lithium ionspass through to create the electrical circuit that powers the battery but rebuffsnegatively charged electrons This keeps the battery from running down while

it sits on the shelf—overcoming a major battery-life storage problem

For years, rechargeable lithium battery performance has been ing because the batteries needed recharging every few days After conqueringthe discharge challenge, the team attacked the need for greater battery power

disappoint-to be commercially competitive Their membrane didn’t allow sufficientpassage of lithium ions to produce enough power, so they needed to under-

SMALLER, LIGHTER POWER ADAPTER 181

stand exactly how the lithium ions move through the membrane on a ular level First, they analyzed the MEEP membrane using nuclear magneticresonance—the equivalent of a hospital MRI—to zero in on the best lithiumion travel routes The results supported the team’s suspicion that the lithiumions travel along the membrane’s “backbone.” The MEEP membrane has abackbone of alternating phosphorus and nitrogen molecules, with oxygen-laden “ribs” attached to the phosphorus molecules.

molec-Further analysis with infrared and raman spectroscopy (techniques thatmeasure vibrational frequencies and the bonds between different nuclei)helped confirm that the lithium ions are most mobile when interacting withnitrogen Lithium prefers to nestle into a “pocket” created by a nitrogen mol-ecule on the bottom with oxygen molecules from a MEEP rib on either side.Armed with this new understanding of how lithium moves through the solidMEEP membrane, the team starting making new membrane versions to opti-mize lithium ion flow This should make the team’s lithium batteries muchmore powerful The team’s research results are a major departure from theconventionally accepted explanation of lithium ion transport that proposedthe lithium/MEEP transport mechanism as jumping from one rib to the nextusing the oxygen molecules as stepping stones

Harrup, Stewart, and Luther are optimistic their battery design will mately change the battery industry The team projects that its polymer mem-brane will be so efficient at preventing battery run down, that batteries couldsit unused for up to 500 months between charges with no loss of charge.Because the membrane is a flexible solid, it can be molded into any shape,which could open up new applications for batteries The membrane is also verytemperature tolerant, which could potentially solve portable power need prob-lems in the frigid cold of space The team is already working with severalfederal agencies on applications for its lithium battery designs

ulti-8.3 FUEL CELLS

Although PC vendors are eager to breathe new life into their aging systems,particularly modestly equipped notebooks, at least one highly anticipatedtechnology may not make it into the mainstream as soon as many vendorswould like

Micro fuel cell technology has been aggressively touted as a convenient andeasily renewable power source The devices, which generate electricity through

a chemical reaction between oxygen and a fuel such as hydrogen or methanol,can power a notebook for up to 40 hours Yet, it’s unlikely that large numbers

of users will be “filling up” notebook PCs, PDAs, and other mobile devicesanytime soon Roadblocks for use include fuel cell size, the lack of a univer-sal standard, customer education issues, and safety and security concerns asusers bring devices containing volatile fluids into buildings and onto airplanesand other vehicles

182 ENERGY TO GO—POWER GENERATION

All of these drawbacks have made many notebook vendors skeptical aboutfuel cell technology “Fuel cells are not likely to be relevant for mainstreammobile devices for several years,” says Jay Parker, notebook products directorfor Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Computer He believes it will be hard tochange notebook users’ ingrained habits “Customers will need to becomeacclimated to refueling rather than recharging.” Parker notes, however, thatDell is continuing to evaluate various fuel cell technologies.

Howard Locker, chief architect of Armonk, New York-based IBM’s sonal computing division, says fuel cells will never become popular becauseusers will have to pay for each refill “Today, when you charge a battery,it’s free,” he says “Folks are already at nine hours on a battery, so how muchbetter does it need to get?” Locker’s opinion of fuel cell technology: “It’s anonstarter.”

per-Two notebook makers, however, are undeterred by the naysayers and plan

to push ahead with fuel cell technology Toshiba and NEC have eachannounced they will start selling fuel cell-equipped notebooks during 2004

8.4 MICROCOMBUSTION BATTERY

The search for a better battery is getting a push from the U.S DefenseAdvanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), which has given Yale Univer-sity’s engineering department $2.4 million to develop readily rechargeablemicrocombustion batteries

The Yale research is part of DARPA’s Palm Power program, whichaddresses the military’s need for lighter and more compact electrical powersources “DARPA is shooting for something that weighs as little as a fewounces to power the growing number of communications and weaponssystems that tomorrow’s soldiers will carry,” says Alessandro Gomez, director

of the Yale Center for Combustion Studies and a professor of mechanical engineering

Microcombustion technology generates heat by slowly burning tinyamounts of liquid hydrocarbons The heat is then converted into electricity byother energy conversion schemes such as thermoelectric and thermophoto-voltaic By taking advantage of the abundant power densities offered byhydrocarbon fuels, a microcombustion battery with millimeter-level dimen-sions could provide the same power and operating time as a conventionalbattery up to 10 times its size And microcombustion cells could be quicklyrefueled with an eyedropper

The Department of Defense plans to use microcombustion batteries ineverything from tactical bodyware computers to Micro Air Vehicles—six-inch-long unmanned reconnaissance aircraft The technology, once perfected,should spill over quickly into business and consumer products, Gomez says

“Laptop computers, cell phones, and a variety of other portable electronicsproducts could all benefit.”

MICROCOMBUSTION BATTERY 183

Yale scientists are concentrating on developing the most effective tion technology, while researchers at other institutions are working on tech-niques for converting thermal energy into electrical energy “Conventionalbattery technology has reached a dead end,” says Gomez “We’re looking todevelop a power source that’s every bit as innovative as the latest militarysystems.”

combus-8.5 POWER MONITOR

As people increasingly rely on sophisticated mobile phones and PDAs tohandle an array of tasks, knowing exactly how much battery power remainsinside a device becomes ever more critical, especially before accessing impor-tant information or initiating a wireless transaction

Texas Instruments is looking to help mobile device users accurately monitortheir power usage The company has developed the first fully integratedbattery fuel gauge for single-cell lithium ion and lithium polymer batterypacks The chip-based gauge is designed to help users observe remainingbattery capacity and system run time (time to empty)

The chip, named bqJunior, promises to help manufacturers reduce thedevelopment time and total cost of implementing a comprehensive batteryfuel gauge system in mobile devices “As battery-powered consumer devicesbecome more complicated and dynamic, designers of those products willrequire the right intelligent hardware to provide accurate information aboutthe battery and system run times to better manage available power,” says PeterFundaro, worldwide marketing manager for Texas Instrument’s battery man-agement products Fundaro notes that Texas Instrument’s product simplifiesthe design of a cost-effective accurate battery fuel gauge in single cell by

“offering a solution that performs all the necessary intelligent calculations on-chip, significantly reducing the amount of calculations performed by thehost-side microcontroller.”

Unlike a standard battery monitor, bqJunior incorporates an on-boardprocessor to calculate the remaining battery capacity and system run-time Thedevice measures the battery’s charge and discharge currents to within 1percent error using an integrated low-offset voltage-to-frequency converter

An analog-to-digital converter measures battery voltage and temperature.Using the measurement inputs, the bqJunior runs an algorithm to accuratelycalculate remaining battery capacity and system run time

bqJunior compensates remaining battery capacity and run times for batterydischarge rate and temperature variations Because the device performs thealgorithm and data set calculations, there’s no need to develop and incorpo-rate code to implement those tasks in the host system processor, which helpsreduce development time and total implementation cost The host systemprocessor simply reads the data set in bqJunior to retrieve remaining batterycapacity, run time, and other critical information that’s fundamental to com-prehensive battery and power management, including available power,

184 ENERGY TO GO—POWER GENERATION

average current, temperature, voltage, and time to empty and full charge.bqJunior includes a single wire communications port to communicate the dataset to the system host controller The fuel gauge operates directly from a singlelithium ion cell and operates at less than 100 microamps It features three low-power standby modes to minimize battery consumption during periods ofsystem inactivity.

Other bqJunior features include a low-offset voltage-to-frequency verter (VFC) for accurate charge and discharge counting Also provided are

con-an internal time base con-and con-an on-chip configuration EEPROM that allowsapplication-specific parameters bqJunior takes advantage of Texas Instru-ment’s new LBC4 copper CMOS process node, which helps achieve higherintegration, lower power, and enhanced performance

8.6 COOLING TECHNOLOGIES

Two new technologies developed at the Georgia Institute of Technologypromise to remove heat from electronic devices and could help future gener-ations of laptops, PDAs, mobile phones, telecom switches, and high-poweredmilitary equipment keep their cool in the face of growing power demands.The technologies—synthetic jet ejector arrays (SynJets) and vibration-induced droplet atomization (VIDA)—are designed to keep telecom devicescool despite relentless miniaturization “There is a lot of concern in the elec-tronics industry about thermal management,” says Raghav Mahalingam, aGeorgia Tech research engineer and the technology’s codeveloper “Newprocessors are consuming more power, circuit densities are getting higher, andthere is pressure to reduce the size of devices Unless there is a breakthrough

in low-power systems, conventional fan-driven cooling will no longer beenough.”

Processors, memory chips, graphics chips, batteries, radio frequency ponents, and other devices found in electronic equipment generate heat thatmust be dissipated to avoid damage Traditional cooling techniques use metal-lic heat sinks to conduct thermal energy away from the devices, then transfer

com-it to the air via fans However, cooling fans have a number of limcom-itations Forinstance, much of the circulated air bypasses the heat sinks and doesn’t mixwell with the thermal boundary layer that forms on the fins Fans placeddirectly over heat sinks have “dead areas” where their motor assemblies blockairflow Additionally, as designers boost airflow to increase cooling, fans usemore energy, create more audible noise, and take up more space

8.6.1 SynJets

Developed by Mahalingam and Ari Glezer, a professor at Georgia Tech’sSchool of Mechanical Engineering, SynJets are more efficient than fans, pro-ducing two to three times as much cooling with two-thirds less energy input.Simple and with no friction parts to wear out, a synthetic jet module in prin-

COOLING TECHNOLOGIES 185

ciple resembles a tiny stereo speaker in which a diaphragm is mounted within

a cavity that has one or more orifices Electromagnetic or piezoelectric driverscause the diaphragm to vibrate 100 to 200 times per second, sucking sur-rounding air into the cavity and then expelling it The rapid cycling of air intoand out of the module creates pulsating jets that can be directed to the preciselocations where cooling is needed

The jet cooling modules take up less space in cramped equipment housingsand can be flexibly conformed to components that need cooling—evenmounted directly within the cooling fins of heat sinks Arrays of jets wouldprovide cooling matched to component needs, and the devices could even beswitched on and off to meet changing thermal demands Although the jetsmove 70 percent less air than fans of comparable size, the airflow they producecontains tiny vortices that make the flow turbulent, encouraging efficientmixing with ambient air and breaking up thermal boundary layers

“You get a much higher heat transfer coefficient with synthetic jets, so you

do away with the major cooling bottleneck seen in conventional systems,” saysMahalingam The ability to scale the jet modules to suit specific applicationsand to integrate them into electronic equipment could provide cooling solu-tions over a broad range of electronic hardware ranging from desktop com-puters to PDAs, mobile phones, and other portable devices that are now toosmall or have too little power for active cooling

SynJets could be used by themselves to supplement fans or even in junction with cooling liquid atomization “We will fit in where there currently

con-is no solution or improve on an excon-isting solution,” says Jonathan Goldman, acommercialization catalyst with Georgia Tech’s VentureLab, a program thathelps faculty members commercialize the technology they develop Beyondthe diaphragm, the system requires an electronic driver and wiring Goldmanexpects the jets to be cost competitive with fans and easier to manufacture.Further energy savings could be realized by using piezoelectric actuators.One of the practical implications of this technology could be to forestall theneed to use costlier heat sinks made from copper “The industry could con-tinue to use aluminum and retain its advantages of design simplicity, lowercost, and lower weight,” says Goldman

8.6.2 VIDA

In applications like high-powered military electronics, automotive nents, radars, and lasers, power dissipation needs exceed 100 watts per squarecentimeter and may surpass 1,000 watts per square centimeter For such higherdemands, vibration-induced droplet atomization (VIDA) could be used Thissophisticated system uses atomized liquid coolants—such as water—to carryheat away from components Also developed at Georgia Tech by Glezer’sgroup, VIDA uses high-frequency vibration produced by piezoelectric actua-tors to create sprays of tiny cooling liquid droplets inside a closed cell attached

compo-to an electronic component in need of cooling

186 ENERGY TO GO—POWER GENERATION

The droplets form a thin film on the heated surface, allowing thermal energy

to be removed by evaporation The heated vapor then condenses, either onthe exterior walls of the cooling cell or on tubes carrying liquid coolantthrough the cell The liquid is then pumped back to the vibrating diaphragmfor reuse “A system like this could work in the avionics bay of an aircraft,”says Samuel Heffington, a Georgia Tech research engineer “We have so farbeen able to cool about 420 watts per square centimeter and ultimately expect

to increase that to 1,000 watts per square centimeter.”

SynJets and VIDA have both been licensed to Atlanta-based InnovativeFluidics, which will use them to develop products that will be designed to meet

a broad range of electronic device cooling needs

8.6.3 Wiggling Fans

Another promising approach to device cooling is based on tiny, quiet fans thatwiggle back and forth to help cool future laptop computers, mobile phones,and other portable electronic gear

The devices, developed by researchers at Purdue University, aim to removeheat by waving a small blade in alternate directions, like the motion of a classichand-held Chinese fan (Fig 8-1) They consume only about 1/150th as much

COOLING TECHNOLOGIES 187

Figure 8-1 Tiny, quiet fan that will help cool future laptop computers, mobile phones and

other portable electronic gear.

electricity as conventional fans, and they have no gears or bearings, whichproduce friction and heat Because the new fans work without motors thatcontain magnets, they do not produce electromagnetic “noise” that can inter-fere with electronic signals in computer circuits.

The cramped interiors of laptop computers and cell phones contain emptyspaces that are too small to house conventional fans but large enough toaccommodate the new fans, some of which have blades about an inch long.Placing the fans in these previously empty spaces has been shown to dramat-ically reduce the interior temperatures of laptop computers The wiggling fanswill not replace conventional fans Instead, they will be used to enhance thecooling now provided by conventional fans and passive design features, such

as heat-dissipating fins

In experiments on laptop computers, the Purdue researchers reduced theinterior temperatures by as much as 8 degrees Celsius “For a very small powerexpenditure, we are able to get a huge benefit,” says Suresh Garimella, an asso-ciate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue The fans run on 2 milli-watts of electricity, or 2 1/1,000ths of 1 watt, compared with 300 milliwatts forconventional fans

The fans are moved back and forth by a “piezoelectric” ceramic materialthat is attached to the blade As electricity is applied to the ceramic, it expands,causing the blade to move in one direction Then, electricity is applied in thealternate direction, causing the ceramic material to contract and move theblade back in the opposite direction This alternating current causes the fan tomove back and forth continuously The operating efficiency of a fan can beoptimized by carefully adjusting the frequency of alternating current until it

is just right for that particular fan

The piezoelectric fans can be made in a wide range of sizes The Purdueengineers are developing fans small enough to fit on a computer chip: theirblades will only be about 100 micrometers long, which is roughly the width of

a human hair

Piezoelectric fans were developed during the 1970s The first versions wereconsidered noisy, but the Purdue group has developed fans that are almostinaudible The fans are made by attaching a tiny “patch” of piezoelectricceramic to a metal or Mylar blade Two factors affecting the performance ofthe fans are how much the ceramic patch overlaps the blade and how thickthe patch is compared with the blade’s thickness Another critical factor is pre-cisely where to attach the blade to the patch Those factors dictate perform-ance characteristics such as how far the blade moves, how much airflow itproduces, and how that flow produces complicated circulation patterns Animproperly designed fan could actually make matters worse by recirculatinghot air back onto electronic components, notes Arvind Raman, an assistantprofessor of mechanical engineering at Purdue

The Purdue researchers have developed mathematical techniques that takethese factors into consideration when designing fans for specific purposes

“These fans typically have been novelty items,” says Raman “If you want to

188 ENERGY TO GO—POWER GENERATION

really be serious about putting them into any practical use, there are so manythings you need to understand about how they work and how to optimizethem.”

Mathematical models developed by Purdue researchers can be used toprovide design guidelines for engineers “What we bring to the table is aknowledge of the modeling of these fans,” says Garimella “How to analyzethe design, to figure out how large a patch should be for how long a blade,how thick the patch should be, and what happens if you modify all these quan-tities In short, it’s how to optimize the performance of these fans

Raman and his students developed relatively simple mathematical las that make it easier for engineers to begin designing fans for specific jobs.Engineers can use the formulas to do a quick, “back-of-the-envelope” design

formu-“And then you might want to do some fine tuning and tweaking with moredetailed analysis,” says Garimella

COOLING TECHNOLOGIES 189

Chapter 9

The Critical Last Inch—Input and Output Technologies

190

Telecosmos: The Next Great Telecom Revolution, edited by John Edwards

ISBN 0-471-65533-3 Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The telecom world spends a lot of time thinking about the “last mile”—thatcritical distance between the customer and the service provider’s equipment.Yet, for a growing number of telecom device manufacturers (and their cus-tomers), the really important factor limiting the use of telecom technology isthe “last inch”—the distance that separates the user’s finger from a keyboard

or keypad and the user’s eye from a display screen

As telecom devices shrink, “last inch” design issues are becoming ingly critical For example, how do you allow people to input alphanumericdata into a button-sized PDA? And, conversely, how does one mount a screenthat can display meaningful information on a device that’s no larger than athumbnail? Researchers around the world are pondering the growing input/output problem and are arriving at an array of potential solutions

increas-9.1 A FINGER PHONE

Mobile phone manufacturers are beginning to experiment with novel phoneform factors in an attempt to better address users’ daily needs Japan’s NTTDoCoMo, for instance, is developing a radically new type of mobile phone thatuses the human hand as an integral part of the receiver The FingerWhisper,which is being developed at NTT DoCoMo’s Yokosuka, Japan, R&D center,works by requiring its user to stick a finger into his or her ear

The watch-like terminal, which is worn on the wrist, converts voice to tion through an electromechanical actuator It then channels the vibrationsthrough the hand’s bones to the tip of the user’s index finger By inserting thisfinger into the ear canal, the vibration can be heard as sound Because themicrophone is located on the inner side of the wrist, the posture of the user’shand when using the terminal is the same as when using a mobile phone.Efforts toward developing the FingerWhisper began back in 1996, whenNTT DoCoMo realized that it was approaching the limits of mobile phoneminiaturization after 20 years of drastically shrinking devices In fact, makingphones smaller would require the distance between the speaker and micro-phone to become shorter than the actual distance between the ear and mouth,creating usability problems With FingerWhisper, this problem is not an issue.

vibra-FingerWhisper is also designed to present an elegant solution to anotherkey problem: providing practical input capabilities on a miniature device TheFingerWhisper eliminates the need for buttons by using an accelerometer todetect the tapping action of fingers Combinations of finger tapping sequencesserve as Morse code-like commands such as “talk” or “hang up.” Through afive-stroke tapping sequence, approximately 30 commands can be issued.NTT DoCoMo promises that FingerWhisper delivers received voicesclearly even in noisy environments and allows users to speak at a lower volumecompared with ordinary handsets The watch-like design makes the unit easy

to wear and, when not it use, frees the user’s hands for other tasks

The device also aims to solve a cultural problem Earphone-microphoneheadsets, popular with many U.S mobile phone users, have never caught on

in Japan, perhaps became many Japanese people may not want to be seen astalking to themselves Although no device is actually held, FingerWhisperusage conveys the impression of talking on a mobile phone and alleviates anypossible sense of discomfort On the other hand, NTT DoCoMo may havecreated another cultural barrier: the fact that many Western users may bereluctant to be seen sticking a finger in their ear

In any event, NTT DoCoMo isn’t the only company working on conduction mobile phone technology Sanyo recently introduced the TS41handset This device is equipped with a “Sonic Speaker” that, when placedagainst its user’s skull, cheekbone, or jaw, transmits sounds to the inner earthrough vibrations The product, which is now available in Japan, is designedfor use in crowds and other places where external noise can drown out phonesounds

body-9.2 VOICE INPUT

Certainly, the most natural way of interacting with a machine is by voice Afterall, it’s the primary method people use to exchange commands and informa-tion with other people That’s why researchers are working hard to develop

VOICE INPUT 191

voice recognition tools that will allow telecom device users to input tion simply by speaking.

informa-9.2.1 Saying It With Meaning

With devices growing smaller and users becoming increasingly dissatisfied withminiature keyboards and keypads, many researchers are turning their atten-tion toward creating voice input technologies If researchers succeed in theirefforts, pressing buttons to dial phone numbers, wielding bulky remote con-trols, and typing on computer keyboards will all seem quaint within a decade,

as effective and efficient voice input technology radically changes the wayspeople use telecommunications and computer products

“We are rapidly approaching the point where entering data to devices byvoice—regardless of language or accent—will be as accurate and efficient asentering it by keypad or mouse,” says Lawrence R Rabiner, associate direc-tor of the Center for Advanced Information Processing at New Jersey’sRutgers University When this happens, another wall between humans andmachines will fall “The idea of ‘going to work’ to get things done will change

to ‘getting things done’ no matter where you are,” notes Rabiner, a Rutgerselectrical and computer engineering professor, former vice president ofresearch at AT&T Labs and coauthor of four books in the fields of digitalsignal processing and speech processing

New technologies for compressing and transporting massive amounts ofcomputer code, without the need for excessive network capacity, will helpusher in this new age of voice control The shrinking size of equipment willalso drive the move away from hand-operated controls “There’s no room for

a keypad when the device you’re controlling is as small as a single key Voicecontrol has an advantage here because it requires virtually no physical spaceand we always carry our voices with us,” says Rabiner For security, new speechverification technologies will be able to analyze voices and restrict use ofdevices to intended users only

Rabiner says he expects that within the next 5 to 10 years telephone callswill be made by name and not by number Additionally, intelligent voice-controlled communications agents, essentially nonintrusive network-basedrobots, will place users’ phone calls, track down the people that users need toreach, and let callers know whether these people are willing to talk Voice-controlled agents will also help users find deals on merchandise, offerreminders about appointments and birthdays, and allow the control of house-hold and office appliances from virtually any location As a result, a wide range

of home and office devices—from coffee makers to security systems—will benetwork accessible and voice controllable

The distinction between work life and home life will blur as we can do ever we want from wherever we are at any time, says Rabiner “Work willbecome something we do, not someplace we go.”

what-192 THE CRITICAL LAST INCH—INPUT AND OUTPUT TECHNOLOGIES