Researchers at Princeton University have created a flexible material that harvests record amounts of energy when stressed. The researchers say the material could be incorporated into the soles of shoes to power portable electronics, or even placed on a heart patient's lungs to recharge a pacemaker as he breathes.
Flex your power: A Princeton researcher holds a square of silicone embedded with a ribbon of a crystalline material that generates an electrical current when flexed.
The energy-harvesting rubber sandwiches ribbons of a piezoelectric material called PZT between pieces of silicone. When mechanically stressed, a piezoelectric material generates a voltage that can be used to produce electrical current; a current can also be converted back into mechanical movement.
PZT is the most efficient piezoelectric material known, but its crystalline structure means that it must be grown at high temperatures, which normally melt a flexible substrate. The Princeton researchers, led by mechanical engineering professor Michael McAlpine, got around this by making PZT at high temperatures and then transferring thin ribbons of the material onto silicone.
First, the researchers treat the PZT with a chemical etching bath that removes a thin ribbon from the surface of the crystal. They then use a polymer stamp to pick up the ribbon and place it on a silicone film before covering it with a second piece of silicone and sealing it. "All the processes we use to make flexible PZT ribbons are extremely simple and straightforward," says McAlpine. Crucially, the researchers found that the process doesn't compromise PZT's energy-conversion efficiency.
McAlpine is particularly focused on biomedical applications for the material and says it could cut down on the number of surgeries that patients with implants must undergo. For example, doctors could place a power-generating sheet against the lungs during the initial surgery; the constant movement of the organs could help recharge a battery, McAlpine says.
Jim Grotberg, professor of surgery and biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan, says wireless monitoring and drug delivery for patients with chronic medical problems are other potential applications. "If you have a sensor that monitors heart-rate, brain activity, or blood pressure, or an implantable insulin-injection system, you need a battery," he says.
PZT itself is not biocompatible--the "p" comes from the chemical symbol for lead, one of its components along with zirconium and titanium. But the crystal ribbons are completely encapsulated in silicone, a material that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for medical implants.
Even animal testing is still a ways off. But the Princeton researchers are now making prototype devices from the sheets to test how much electricity they can generate when they are built into shoes.
SOURCE : MIT Technology review
Tomorrow is a big day. 
The Panasonic Toughbook 08 was a tablet built for abuse. The magnesium alloy case is purportedly 20 times stronger than that of standard plastics used in tablet and laptop construction. The Toughbook 08 comes with a 10.4 inch LED touchscreen and only weighs 2.6 pounds. The device comes with wifi, bluetooth and an ethernet slot. This tablet has a SD expansion slot, which is necessary given its paltry 64MB of RAM. Turns out that while consumers want a rugged and sturdy alternative, aesthetically unpleasing products such as the Toughbook 08 will struggle. Who would have thought? As such, the Panasonic Toughbook 08 is no longer in production.
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One of the first slates to be produced by a big manufacturer was the Fujitsu Stylistic ST5010. Taking a page from Motion’s book, the Fujitsu Stylistic ST5010 came with a huge 12.1 inch screen. Weighing in at 3.4 pounds, the tablet was larger than most, but still light enough for extensive travel; however the four hour battery life was not conducive to this end. Boasting a 1 GHz Pentium M processor, the ST5010 was faster than most of its competitors in the space. Unfortunately, the larger screen led to smaller buttons which were hard to push. The ST5010 was also mysteriously missing a four-way navigation pad which made navigation quite a pain.
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The 
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The hype over the product has caused such a media frenzy that one can’t go to any news site without seeing the tablet mentioned in some form or another. No no one outside of Apple knows what the tablet 
