TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT:

is a development which has changed people's life.

Strictly speaking a technological development is, quite

simply, a development (improvement, alteration) of a

technology. It doesn't need to change peoples' lives

and doesn't even need to be put into service.

The Technological Innovation System is a concept

developed within the scientific field of innovation studies

which serves to explain the nature and rate of technological

change. A Technological Innovation System can be defined as

‘a dynamic network of agents interacting in a specific

economic/industrial area under a particular institutional

infrastructure and involved in the generation, diffusion, and

utilization of technology’.

MACHINES/ INVENTIONS

TV REMOTE CONTROL - 1955

it marks the official end of humanity's struggle for survival and the beginning of its quest for a really relaxing afternoon. The first wireless remote, designed by Zenith's Eugene Polley, is essentially a flashlight. When Zenith discovers that direct sunlight also can change channels on the remote-receptive TVs, the company comes out with a model that uses ultrasound; it lasts into the 1980s, to the chagrin of many a family dog. The industry then switches to infrared.

MICROWAVE OVEN - 1955

In 1945 Raytheon's Percy

Spencer stands in front of a

magnetron (the power tube of

radar) and feels a candy bar

start to melt in his pocket: He is

intrigued. When he places

popcorn kernels in front of the

magnetron, the kernels explode

all over the lab. Ten years later

Spencer patents a "radar

range" that cooks with high-

frequency radio waves; that

same year, the Tappan Stove

Co. introduces the first home

microwave model.

BIRTH-CONTROL PILL – 1957

Enovid, a drug the FDA approves for menstrual disorders, comes with a warning: The mixture of synthetic progesterone and estrogen also prevents

ovulation. Two years later, more than half a million American women are taking Enovid—and not all of them have cramps. In 1960 the FDA approves

Enovid for use as the first oral contraceptive.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOT –

1961

The Unimate, the first

programmable industrial

robot, is installed on a General

Motors assembly line in New

Jersey. Conceived by George

C. Devol Jr. to move and fetch

things, the invention gets a

lukewarm reception in the

United States. Japanese

manufacturers love it and,

after licensing the design in

1968, go on to dominate the

global market for industrial

robots.

COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - 1962

Telstar is launched as the first "active" communications satellite—active as in

amplifying and retransmitting incoming signals, rather than passively

bouncing them back to Earth. Telstar makes real a 1945 concept by science

fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who envisioned a global communications

network based on geosynchronous satellites. Two weeks after Telstar's debut,

President Kennedy holds a press conference in Washington, D.C., that is

broadcast live across the Atlantic.

GPS-1978

The first satellite in the modern

Navstar Global Positioning

System (GPS) is launched. (The

GPS's precursor, TRANSIT, was

developed in the early 1960s

to guide nuclear subs.) It is not

until the year 2000, though,

that President Clinton grants

nonmilitary users access to an

unscrambled GPS signal. Now,

cheap, handheld GPS units can

determine a person's location

to within 3 yards.

DNA FINGERPRINTING - 1984

Molecular biologist Alec Jeffreys devises a way to make the analysis of more

than 3 billion units in the human DNA sequence much more manageable by

comparing only the parts of the sequence that show the greatest variation

among people. His method quickly finds its way into the courts, where it is

used to exonerate people wrongly accused of crimes and to finger the true

culprits.

ROBOTSThe world's first android, DER 01, was

developed by a Japanese research group,

The Intelligent Robotics Lab, directed by

Hiroshi Ishiguro at Osaka University, and

Kokoro Co., Ltd. The Actroid is a humanoid

robot with strong visual human-likeness

developed by Osaka University and

manufactured by Kokoro Company Ltd. (the

animatronics division of Sanrio). It was first

unveiled at the 2003 International Robot

Exposition in Tokyo, Japan. The Actroid

woman is a pioneer example of a real

machine similar to imagined machines called

by the science fiction terms android or

gynoid, so far used only for fictional robots.

It can mimic such lifelike functions as

blinking, speaking, and breathing. The

"Repliee" models are interactive robots with

the ability to recognise and process speech

and respond in kind.

Ninja robot

Invented by Shigeo Hirose, it is

capable of climbing buildings and a

seven-ton robot capable of climbing

mountainous slopes with the aim of

installing bolts in the ground so as to

prevent landslides.

OTHER INVENTIO

N:

STORAGe

TECHNOLOGy

Compact Disc (also netherlands company Philips)

Sony first publicly demonstrated an optical digital audio disc in September 1976. In September 1978, they demonstrated an optical digital audio disc with a 150 minute playing time, and with specifications of 44,056 Hz sampling rate, 16-bit linear resolution, cross-interleaved error correction code, that were similar to those of the Compact Disc they introduced in 1982.

Flash memory

Flash memory (both NOR and NAND types) was invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka while working for Toshiba c. 1980.

Blu-ray Disc

After Shuji Nakamura's invention

of practical blue laser diodes,

Sony started two projects

applying the new diodes: UDO

(Ultra Density Optical) and DVR

Blue (together with Pioneer), a

format of rewritable discs which

would eventually become the

Blu-ray Disc.

TRANSPORTATION

Bullet train

The world's first high volume capable (initially 12 car

maximum) "high-speed train" was Japan's Tōkaidō Shinkansen,

that officially opened in October 1964, with construction

commencing in April 1959. The 0 Series Shinkansen, built by

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, achieved maximum passenger

service speeds of 210 km/h (130 mph) on the Tokyo–Nagoya–

Kyoto–Osaka route, with earlier test runs hitting top speeds in

1963 at 256 km/h.

Electronically-controlled continuously variable

transmission

In early 1987, Subaru launched the Justy in Tokyo with an

electronically-controlled continuously variable transmission

(ECVT) developed by Fuji Heavy Industries, which owns Subaru.

Kei car

A category of small automobiles, including passenger cars,

vans, and pickup trucks. They are designed to exploit local tax

and insurance relaxations, and in more rural areas are exempted

from the requirement to certify that adequate parking is

available for the vehicle.

Japan is a leading nation in scientific research, particularly technology, machinery and biomedical research. Some of Japan's more prominent technological contributions are in the fields of electronics, automobiles, machinery, earthquake engineering, industrial robotics, optics, chemicals, semiconductors and metals. Japan leads the world in robotics production and use, possessing more than half (402,200 of 742,500) of the world's industrial robots.

Prepared BY:

Bradley Von A. Seavilla

Almost everything that is great has been done by youth.

- Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)