Skip to content

Better Frost Removal

  • by

Betterfrost Technologies developed a pulsed energy system that can remove ice from a variety of surfaces by just melting a thin layer of ice so the rest of the ice just falls away. This saves tremendous amounts of energy and time.

For electrically-powered vehicles, this means more battery power can be used for driving instead of heating glass to defrost and defog. A very compelling associated application of the Betterfrost system is in using it to heat the glass to help keep a compartment warm with a 10 to 20x energy reduction. Many vehicle glass panels already have an electrically conductive layer and can easily use the Betterfrost system.

Freezer systems can use the Betterfrost to defrost evaporator coils (the heat exchanger where the refrigerant changes from liquid to gas and becomes very cold) Besides saving energy, the Betterfrost system is also much faster so ideally the entire defrosting process can happen between cycles with no disruption/delay.

A wide variety of conductive surfaces can use their Smart Surface system to defrost. A critical example is for aircraft surfaces. A panel that is Smart Surface-enabled can detect when ice forms on it and then energy is pulsed only to the sections that need it. A thin layer of water is formed and the rest of the ice blows away.

Contact them via betterfrost.com

Rise of Machine-Mollusc Learning by molluSCAN

  • by

molluSCAN has developed a system that precisely monitors the shell movement of bivalve shellfish – oysters, mussels, etc to infer local water quality. They do this by attaching pairs of proprietary wired electro-magnetic sensors to up to 16 bivalves. Each wire pair is connected to a nearby submerged hub which provides power, data logging and wireless data transmission. Collected data is regularly uploaded wirelessly to a second unit that can be up to ~200 meters away.

This data can then be processed and evaluated. molluSCAN researchers have studied target species all over the world so when their behaviors are monitored, water quality levels and changes can be determined. And of course AI techniques are applied to data sets to provide even more information. Mollusc behavior can be altered by very small changes in water quality so very early notification is possible.

The molluSCAN system not only measures when and how fast the shells open and close, it can also measure daily growth rate as shell thickness and volume increase. molluSCAN developed both the sensors and the adhesive which is applied while submerged. It is important that the installation and monitoring is non-intrusive or the behavior monitoring quality will be distorted.

Contact them via molluSCAN-eye.com

Orioma LobX-2 self-powered IOT intelligent smart building thermal sensor

  • by

France-based Orioma showcased its LobX-2 IR sensor at CES Unveiled.

It uses a 128×128 pixel IR sensor to heatmap an area in the room and from this data stream it can infer the occupancy level of the room and adjust the temperature, airflow and lighting as appropriate. It can also detect unusual conditions ranging from an overheating electrical component, an intruder, and even an incapacitated, immobile person.

It will be interesting to see how many more features will arise as new use cases occur. It uses the LoRa communications protocol. Expected service life is 15 years. LobX-2 uses a 3-D printed, high efficiency in low light, photo-voltaic collector with integral energy storage produced by Dracula-Technologies. Installation is simplified because no external power is required.

LobX is available for outright purchase or on a subscription basis.

Contact them via orioma.com