Polymer solar cells that are used today to convert sunlight to electricity degrade over time because of ultraviolet light. Scientists at UCLA have found a solution to that problem.

They suggested coating solar cells with a material that converts photons of ultraviolet light into ones of visible light. Such a material would increase the efficiency of the solar cells and reduce damage to them from sunlight, making them last longer.

The material could be made of a liquid, a gel, nanoparticles, or a solid, the researchers claim. They have already performed some experiments which have confirmed their ideas. A patent has, of course, already been filed.

This is another great step toward renewable energy. With innovations like this we can finally start lowering our dependence on fossil fuels and switch to better sources of energy.

With pico projectors coming soon, Sony Ericsson has picked a perfect time to file a patent describing self-adjusting mobile phone projectors.

The phone’s camera would analyze the picture coming from the projector and could adjust it for color, brightness, and focus. This would ensure the best possible image coming from your phone every single time.

This is a great idea, and it would work perfectly in cell phones considering that you can move them just about anywhere to project an image. We’re excited to see a system like this in action.

Following on the heels of their ‘Advanced Multitouch’ patent application, Apple has filed a patent detailing a multi-touch device that would support a large number of gestures including typing, scrolling, pointing, and handwriting. The device would combine these gestures into a single mode-less ergonomic design.

From the filing:
“It should therefore appear modeless to the user in the sense that the user should not need to provide explicit mode switch signals such as buttonpresses, arm relocations, or stylus pickups before switching from one input activity to another. Epidemiological studies suggest that repetition and force multiply in causing repetitive strain injuries. Awkward postures, device activation force, wasted motion, and repetition should be minimized to improve ergonomics.”

The system would be able to detect a number of different hand configurations, allowing it to figure out what part of the users hand was interacting with it and reacting accordingly.

We think this advanced multi-touch system is really quite amazing. Devices like the iPhone and the Microsoft Surface have incredible possibilities for user interaction, and those devices only use a relatively simple form of multi-touch. This Apple patent gives light to a device with a much deeper level of gesturing than we have ever seen before, and we can’t wait to see what it looks like and how it works. Hurry up Apple, we want to get rid of our keyboards!