Audi e-bike: A bicycle that runs at 80 kmph

The prototype cycle combining an electric drive and muscle power along with tech used on Audi cars was showcased at the Worthersee Tour in Austria.,

Audi e-bike :

1.     Audi e-bike is an extremely emotion-inspiring sports machine.The prototype cycle combines an electric drive and muscle power. Head of Design Wolfgang Egger comments: “As a high-performance e-bike for sports and trick cycling, it features the Audi core competences of design, ultra, e-tron and connect.” The Audi e-bike Wörthersee puts in its first major appearance at this year’s Wörthersee Tour, the 31st meet for Audi, VW, Seat and Skoda fans; trial biker Julien Dupont and downhill specialist Petra Bernhard will demonstrate their stunts and streetbike skills.less 

2.     The uncompromising dynamism of the bike prototype is fully visible at first sight. “When developing the Audi e-bike Wörthersee we drew on motor racing design principles for inspiration,” explains Hendrik Schaefers, one of the designers at Concept Design Studio Munich. “The e-bike appears incredibly precise, highly emotional and strictly functional. Indeed, the design effort focused on its function as a sports machine. All design elements are thus firmly aligned to the technical features.”less 

3.     The airy frame boasts a low center of gravity and a compact overall volume. In this way, the e- bike is superbly agile at the sporty handling limits. The lithium-ion battery is incorporated into the frame and needs 2.5 hours to freuteully charge. On long trial tours, only a few simple steps are required to remove the battery and replace it with a charged one.

The airy frame boasts a low center of gravity and a compact overall volume. In this way, the e- bike is superbly agile at the sporty handling limits. The lithium-ion battery is incorporated into the frame and needs 2.5 hours to freuteully charge. On long trial tours, only a few simple steps are required to remove the battery and replace it with a charged one.

4.     The frame and the swinging arm that holds the back wheel are made of carbon fiber- reinforced polymer (CFRP). The same material is used for the 26” wheels, which feature an innovative “Audi ultra blade” design with broad flat spokes for an optimized transmission of pedal power. “We were able to demonstrate with the choice of materials just how closely design goes hand in hand with expertise in ultra lightweight construction,” Hendrik Schaefers comments.less 

5.     Homogeneous LED light strips round out the frame and create the immediately recognizable Audi light signature. For extreme tricks and stunts the seat can be lowered to run flush with the frame itself. At the press of a button, the seat then rises up and the biker can adopt a comfortable position.

Homogeneous LED light strips round out the frame and create the immediately recognizable Audi light signature. For extreme tricks and stunts the seat can be lowered to run flush with the frame itself. At the press of a button, the seat then rises up and the biker can adopt a comfortable position.

6.     Cycling modes and countless other functions can be set using the touchscreen on-bike computer. The cyclist's smartphone hooks up by WLAN to the computer – when you start cycling, for example, the immobilizer is deactivated. Video images of the trial drive or of a trick, as recorded via the in-helmet camera, are uploaded to the Internet in real time via your smartphone.

Cycling modes and countless other functions can be set using the touchscreen on-bike computer. The cyclist's smartphone hooks up by WLAN to the computer – when you start cycling, for example, the immobilizer is deactivated. Video images of the trial drive or of a trick, as recorded via the in-helmet camera, are uploaded to the Internet in real time via your smartphone.

7.     Each trick performed successfully is then awarded success points, and as the number of points awarded grows, the cyclist receives awards and the challenge level rises, too. The rankings table in the Internet means you can measure yourself against other bikers and your friends. And where they happen to be comes to you via Facebook status reports that pop up on the Audi e-bike Wörthersee display.

Each trick performed successfully is then awarded success points, and as the number of points awarded grows, the cyclist receives awards and the challenge level rises, too. The rankings table in the Internet means you can measure yourself against other bikers and your friends. And where they happen to be comes to you via Facebook status reports that pop up on the Audi e-bike Wörthersee display.

8.     The cyclist can choose between a total of five cycling modes – pure muscle power, the electric motor alone, or pedaling supported by the electric motor. In the “Pure” mode, the drive power is purely the product of the cyclist’s legs, while in “Pedelec” mode you are supported by the electric motor that then makes speeds of up to 80 km/h (50 mph) possible and gives you a range of 50-70 kilometers (31-44 miles).

The cyclist can choose between a total of five cycling modes – pure muscle power, the electric motor alone, or pedaling supported by the electric motor. In the “Pure” mode, the drive power is purely the product of the cyclist’s legs, while in “Pedelec” mode you are supported by the electric motor that then makes speeds of up to 80 km/h (50 mph) possible and gives you a range of 50-70 kilometers (31-44 miles).

9.     If you select “eGrip”, the Audi e-bike Wörthersee runs solely on the electric motor and can reach a top speed of 50 km/h (31 mph). The cyclist then controls forward momentum using a gripshift and can configure the power as desired using the computer.

If you select “eGrip”, the Audi e-bike Wörthersee runs solely on the electric motor and can reach a top speed of 50 km/h (31 mph). The cyclist then controls forward momentum using a gripshift and can configure the power as desired using the computer.

10.   When performing wheelies, an electronic control system supports the rider when performing tricks and back-wheel biking. Different modes can be set using a smartphone or directly on the e-bike – either “Power Wheelie” mode, with adjustable wheelie angle for less skilled bikers or “Balanced Wheelie” mode for sporting challenges.

When performing wheelies, an electronic control system supports the rider when performing tricks and back-wheel biking. Different modes can be set using a smartphone or directly on the e-bike – either “Power Wheelie” mode, with adjustable wheelie angle for less skilled bikers or “Balanced Wheelie” mode for sporting challenges.

11.   In "Balanced Wheelie" mode, the electronic control system maintains the rider’s balance, by compensating the biker’s movements forwards or backwards via the electric motor.

In "Balanced Wheelie" mode, the electronic control system maintains the rider’s balance, by compensating the biker’s movements forwards or backwards via the electric motor.

12.   This means the rider can influence the bike’s speed by shifting weight: if you lean forwards the bike picks up speed, and if you lean back it slows. You select “Training” mode if you want to keep your performance constant for training purposes.

This means the rider can influence the bike’s speed by shifting weight: if you lean forwards the bike picks up speed, and if you lean back it slows. You select “Training” mode if you want to keep your performance constant for training purposes.

13.   The electric motor is located at the lowest point on the frame and drives the bottom bracket shaft directly. The maximum torque delivered to the rear wheel is 250 Nm (184.39 lb-ft).

14.   The electric motor generates a maximum output of 2.3 kW, a new world best for e-bikes. The complete bike excluding electrical components weighs in at 11 kg (24.25 lb), equivalent to a power-to-weight ratio of 9 kg (19.84 lb) per kilowatt, or 7 kg (15.43 lb) per horsepower – another record-breaking value.

 

Sony Xperia™ V comes with sensor-on-lens touch screen technology

A few weeks back we announced the new Xperia V, which is a smart, sleek and durable LTE smartphone. It also features Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2 and OptiContrast Panel, which delivers a superior viewing experience. But did you know that Xperia™ V includes innovativesensor-on-lens touch screen technology? This technology adds the same user benefits as in-cell and on-cell touch technology, which means you will get better image quality and a true direct touchexperience.

Read on to learn more about sensor-on-lens technology and its benefits.

Sensor-on-lens touch technology means that the number of physical layers in the touch panel (handset stackup) is reduced, as the sensor layer is actually part of the lens itself. This in turn means that you will get better image quality, as there is no interference from the touch sensor component.  There is one less layer of glass and one less layer of glue, compared to conventional touch panels. Typically, you will get less haze and about 5% better display luminance without those extra layers.

With the sensor-on-lens touch technology, the phone is also made lighter and thinner, as an extra glass layer is removed (as needed in conventional handset stackups using a discrete touch sensor). This technology also moves the image plane closer to you as a user, which makes it feel like you are actually touching the image itself. With this direct touch experience, you will get less parallax issuescompared to a conventional touch panel, as the image and the point of touch are closer together in the sensor-on-lens touch screen technology.

How to develop energy and network efficient apps

App developers, do you want to enhance the user experience, and reduce the power consumption & improve the network efficiency of your app?  We are happy to share our knowledge in the area, and one way to do this is by continuously contributing to initiatives like the guide called Smarter Apps for Smarter Phones. Published by the GSM Association (GSMA) earlier this year, this is the perfect guide for app developers interested in increasing the efficiency of their apps while enhancing the user experience.

In this tutorial, Håkan Jonsson from our Technology office has picked out some of the areas from the guide that he thinks are most important for increasing power efficiency and network usage in mobile devices. You will find useful and hands-on tips, as well as some brand new code examples that will help you improve your app. Read more after the jump!

Håkan Jonsson, research engineer at Sony.

Hi! I’m Håkan Jonsson, a research engineer at Sony Mobile’s Technology office. In my work, I have found that perhaps one of the most overlooked, but also most critical, areas of app development is to make your app power and network efficient. By doing so, you provide a clearly enhanced user experience, and while that might not directly translate in better reviews and increased sales, by not enhancing the user experience, you might get the opposite effect. According to the guidelines inSmarter Apps for Smarter Phones publication, there are five areas related to user experience improvements that are very important – scheduling, compression, asynchronous requests, caching, and push notifications. Let’s examine these areas in more detail in the sections below.

Remember to schedule background data syncAs part of scheduling tasks for your app, you can reduce the signalling load from background data. This is an important step to reduce power consumption and network traffic. To achieve this, you can synch your app’s network activity requests, such as HTTP requests, with network activities from other apps. By batching requests together, you reduce the network traffic and power consumption.

To begin with, you should use AlarmManager with setInexactRepeat and an interval constant provided in AlarmManager. For example, use INTERVAL_HALF_HOUR, which will make sure your intents are sent at least every half hour, without specifying when within that interval the intents are sent. For more info and guidance to how to implement this in your code, look in the Smarter Apps for Smarter Phonesguide, where a short code sample on scheduling is provided.

Another important note is to make sure you use AlarmManager.RTC and not AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP. This will ensure that the application won’t be woken up unless some other app is also to wake up. On Google services-equipped smartphones and tablets, schedulers run regularly and will make sure your app wakes up now and then.

Use compression to reduce the size of HTTP requestsAnother way to reduce the network traffic is to make sure that if your application is using HTTP, it should support compression. This will reduce the overall size of the HTTP entity bodies, which will potentially improve the user experience by making your app appear faster. For some data formats, such as XML and JSON, the average size reduction is as high as 80%. In Android™, there is support forqzip and DEFLATE compression of HTTP content. This means that it will take less time to download HTTP data to your app, which will then be faster and give the user a better experience.

To use these compressions, you need to add the “Accept-Encoding” header to the request your app sends. Then the received content needs to be handled according to its “Content-Encoding” header. In the Smarter Apps for Smarter Phones guide, you can actually download a code example that shows how you can implement compression using interceptors, with the Apache HTTPClient.

Improve the user experience by using asynchronous requestsWhen writing apps for smartphones, you should always consider the risk of having requests being sent over a mobile network to be delayed. Or that you might not even receive a response at all. To make sure the user experience is as smooth as possible in such an unstable network environment, you should aim to make your app ready to deliver some results to the user even if not all requested data has arrived. This can be ensured by using asynchronous requests.

To help you implement this, I have created some asynchronous request code examples for download, and that illustrate three different ways of downloading an image from Developer World. I have also included an example of bad practice. Just unzip the file at the link above to access the examples.

• The first example, the incorrect way of solving the task, blocks the UI during the download and result in a bad user experience. On Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) it actually results in an error message. This is obviously not a good way to use asynchronous requests, but is included to show what happens when poorly implemented.
• The second example uses an AsyncTask, and the third example handles a download in a separate thread, and uses the Handler mechanism to display progress in the UI. Both of these methods are good and easy ways to implement asynchronous requests, and can be used with most common file formats. These methods are described in the Android developers’ articlePainless Threading.
• The fourth example is using byte wise download, which can be used for cases where you have a file format that is not supported by the Android framework, or if the file format is unknown. For all other cases, byte wise download is not recommended since it is more complicated.

Make your app appear faster with cachingIf you use caching, it makes any network applications appear faster by using the most effective means of data storage or transfer. The purpose is to reduce the number of round-trips to a server through an expiration mechanism and to reduce network bandwidth through a validation mechanism. These mechanisms make it possible for both client and server to control and know when an application can use cached content, and when they need to download new content.

The cache is essential for network applications, especially when running in mobile networks. In the Android web browser, internal APIs are used to support HTTP caching. Since these APIs aren’t available to other applications, you will have to implement the support for caching yourself. In theSmarter Apps for Smarter Phones guide, there is a detailed description, including code examples, of how to implement caching.

Push notifications lets you save energy and network traffic
Many apps would benefit a lot from using push notifications more often, as it saves both energy and network traffic since data is pushed to the device when available, so that the device doesn’t have to poll the server regularly. To implement push notifications, Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is a really good method to use since it’s a service that provides a simple mechanism to handle all aspects of pushing data from a server to an application. It works for Android 2.2 and later.

To learn more about push notifications, check out Google’s API Guide and Demo Application.

Help us keep the guide updated
So, have I inspired you to make your app even smarter? Or have you already implemented any of the methods described in this article? The Smarter Apps for Smarter Phones guide is meant to be continuously updated, so any comments or feedback is welcome. I will bring your opinion to the work with the next revision, so drop us a comment below and let us know what you think!

For further information on this topic, you can also check out my previous tutorial about reducing power consumption.

Hottest gadgets at the CES 2012

Senior Vice President of Lenovo Liu Jun shows the new Lenovo television during a presentation by Qualcomm at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show at The Venetian on November  10, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

  The LG Z330 Ultrabook on display at the Intel booth at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center November10, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES,

  An HP Ultrabook on display at the Intel booth at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center November10, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

   The Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone is displayed at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center November10, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Motorola's Droid 4 on display at the Motorola booth at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center November10, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 Motorola's Droid Xyboard 10.1 on display at the Motorola booth at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center November10, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.The tablet device features a water resistant coating and is currently available in the market.

Senior vice president and president of Lenovo's Consumer Business Group Liu Jun shows the new Lenovo smartphone during Intel's presentation at the 2012 International Consumer

 A Toshiba Excite EX10 Android tablet running the Tablet Remote App Capable (TRAC) technology is displayed in front of a Toshiba 55-inch L7200 Series TV at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center November11, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. TRAC will be available in Spring 2012 and uses remote codes built into the television so you can wirelessly control anything connected to a TV with the tablet using infrared signals

    Samsung OLED televisons are on display the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center on November11, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

From the world's thinnest smartphone to Samsung OLED televisons, here are the hottest gadgets that were unveiled at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Would you buy an Apple iCar?

An Apple board member has revealed that Steve Jobs had dreamed of creating an iCar before his sad demise in October last year after a prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer.Speaking at a Fast Company conference, Mickey Drexler stated that the car industry is a tragedy in America and Steve's dream was to design an iCar which would give the automotive industry the shake-up it required.Italy based auto designer Liviu Tudoran has taken cues from the Apple products and designed a concept car called iMove for the year 2020.

An Apple board member has revealed that Steve Jobs had dreamed of creating an iCar before his sad demise in October last year after a prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer.Speaking at a Fast Company conference, Mickey Drexler stated that the car industry is a tragedy in America and Steve's dream was to design an iCar which would give the automotive industry the shake-up it required.

  Meanwhile, Italy based auto designer Liviu Tudoran has taken cues from the Apple products and designed a concept car called iMove for the year 2020.

Most of the car body is covered with transparent materials, so that even under the roof the driver get a cabriolet feeling.

Quite a fascinating insight, but don't start saving your coins just yet. Drexler, who is also CEO of fashion brand J. Crew, said that Jobs never did design it and it was just another great idea from the visionary, nevertheless reckoning if indeed it would had been a reality, the fantasy vehicle would've probably been 50 per cent of the total global market

   Steve's iCar would be loaded with features like uni-body aluminum presumably, with a touchscreen panel instead of a steering wheel. As long as sat-nav didn’t control it he added a bit cheekily.

  iMove will be electric and will feature the same design lines like all the latest Apple products.

    iMove will be able to acommodate three passengers and will have a ground-breaking luggage space.The concept offers various possibilities for customization, thus enabling the owners to change the car’s appliance according to its own preferences.

    Dexter also stated that he admires current Apple boss Tim Cook but if given an option he wouldn't want the Apple top honcho's job, and he made a good point stating that with visionary co-founder Jobs sadly no more the pressure on Cook to keep Apple trendy and profitable is a very huge task.

Continental ‘Simpify Your Drive India’

Earlier this year, we had tested Continental AG's Simplify Your Drive (SyD) technology and found it very intriguing. The company had then promised to come up with an Indianised version of Syd by mid this year. Staying true to their word, Continental has unveiled its concept SyD, customised specially for the Indian market.

Should you need a refresher on the Continental Simplify Your Drive technology, 

To my surprise, the same Volkswagen Passat has undergone a complete character change at Continental's Pune facility in couple of months. While the basics of SyD remain the same, the three drive profiles — Sport, Eco and Comfort — have been redesigned as Work Mode, Home Mode and Play Mode. Well, now let's find out what these three modes mean for Indian drivers.

Work Mode

Work Mode is designed with the business class in mind. The focal point is the rear of the car, assuming the car is chauffeur driven, with the owner seated in the back. On this mode, the car is tuned towards comfort, not performance. The instrument cluster displays very basic and chauffeur oriented information, while the rear seat multimedia screen provides news alerts, stock market quotes, flight details, calendar entries etc. thanks to high connectivity via Cloud technology. Most remarkably, the owner can send his exact location on the map to the car via SMS, thus helping the chauffeur reach the owner hassle freely. SyD also displays real-time flight details so that he can reach the pick-up point precisely when the owner walks out of the airport.

Home Mode

Based on key-identification, the 'home mode' is customised based on whether the car is owner or chauffer driven. The zones of the car change from a right-left conditioning of the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), to a front-rear focus, based on where the owner is seated. Audio focus and output are also adjusted accordingly. While the cluster screen shows important activities to be done in the city and at home, location based information such as places to dine and watch movies are displayed on secondary and rear screens.

Play Mode

Play Mode is virtually similar to the Sport Mode. The suspension and steering firm up, full power is released from the engine and transmission shifts later and closer to the upper end to the rev-range for extreme driving pleasure. Since this mode is solely developed for the owner of the car, the focus is on the front cabin. Joyful and vibrant colours on the screens create a fun and sporty ambiance in the cabin. Information regarding hobbies, parties and trips are displayed on secondary display and rear screens. Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Departure Warning systems are activated to aid the drive. Animated drift indicator shows G-forces on every turn. There's a kids' zone that keeps them engaged, too.

What I really liked about the Simplify Your Drive technology is the 'Affordable Smartphone Integration' that allows the owner of the car to control various functions of the car and get necessary information via his mobile phone. It's nothing but an App that makes your smartphone a remote control to your car. Suppose your chauffeur is trying to drive on the Play Mode without your knowledge; the car instantly sends you an alert, you tap the Work Mode icon on your phone and the car changes the mode to 'Work'- how cool is that!

According to Mr. Tejas Desai, Head of Interior Electronics Solutions (IES), the car informs the owner via text messages about its current position and technical condition. This allows the owner of the car to monitor the driving patterns of his or her chauffeur, bringing a sense of security.

When the concept is ready for volume production, car manufacturers will be able to store their own as well as customer-specific settings in the vehicle according to the driving profiles. Continental claims that the SyD can be integrated even into a Tata Nano, but make no mistakes, they are not going to throw in a Play Mode or adjustable suspension into a Nano. A scaled down format of SyD for the small cars in India will be unveiled by Summer next year and by now we know Continental doesn't make fake promises.

IT  IS TESTED IN CAR HERE IS THE PICTURE  :

Can you imagine your car changing its demeanour according to your driving moods? Weekdays a sedan for relaxing business trips, Saturdays a budget car to go shopping, Sundays a sports car for sheer driving fun - and all these at the tap of a button? Interesting; isn't it?

Continental AG has developed a technology that changes the driving dynamics of the car, out of a choice of three pre-configured modes - Comfort, Eco and Sport. The system called 'Simplify Your Drive' enables drivers to exploit their vehicles' full functional potential, rather buy one car and experience many different ones.

Continental has integrated the technology into a Volkswagen Passat. The car doesn't look any different, cosmetically. However, the motor, chassis and suspension settings can be configured to fit any situation on the road. Although many other carmakers offer sport, comfort and eco settings, I must say Continental has the most appealing system so far, thanks to simple yet appealing Human Machine Interface and reconfigurable displays.

These three buttons on the centre console help you swap between three modes — Eco, Comfort and Sport.

On the Eco mode, all functions are tuned for an eco-friendly driving. The speedometre and the ambiance become green. A green "magic eye" on the display grows larger, as an incentive for an eco-friendly driving style. There is an engine "inhibitor" that curbs power, shifts gears early and the suspension is lowered to improve aerodynamics. However, the most interesting feature is the accelerator pedal that generates counterpressure to alert driver to non-eco-friendly accelerating behavior. That cloverleaf you see on the screen in an incentive system that encourages eco-conscious driving.

The Comfort mode creates a soothing blue ambience inside the cabin. The display is slimmed down to its essential elements allowing the driver to relax and concentrate on driving. Convenient engine-transmission harmonization and pleasing damping coupled with maximum spring travel ensure you enjoy the optimum comfort level. Moreover, Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Departure Warning systems are activated so that you can relax and enjoy the drive.

Well, the real fun begins when you touch that horse on the centre console. The car turns into a horse, literally. Yes, you are in the Sport mode now; the suspension and steering have firmed up, full power is released from the engine and transmission shifts later and closer to the upper end to the rev-range. The display and the ambiance become sporty red and the animated drift indicator shows G-forces on every turn. To add to the whole fun, blip the throttle and the sound it emits is pure aural delight.

If you wonder how Simplify Your Drive would adapt to Indian driving conditions, wait for another couple of months, Continental AG is on the last stage of developing the technology to 'simplify our drive' in India.