osing issue 4 - Nanyang Technological University

The Figure above depicts the longest flights made by various aircraft in the period 1890 to 1909. Green points 

represent the various Wright craft during this period. Blue points represent non-Wright craft made between 1890 and 

1905, while red points represent non-Wright craft made from 1906 to 1909. Lines on the graph are regression 

functions. The flat blue line indicates that the field as a whole was making NO sustained progress through the end of 

1905. This lack of progress is almost invariably true of individual inventors as well as the group as a whole. The 

positive slope of the Wright brothers indicates a steady progression in the ability of their heavier-than-air craft. Once 

details of the Wrights methods became public when their patent was issued in late 1905, other inventors quickly copied 

the important discoveries of the Wright brothers, and developed airplanes as capable as those of the Wrights. 

http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/WrBr/taleplane.html researched, written, and designed by Gary Bradshaw 

“I never did anything worth 

doing by accident, nor did any 

of my inventions come by 

accident; they came by work.” 

Thomas Alva Edison, Inventor 

OSING ISSUE 4 Page 1 4/17/2005 

CONTENT 

1. INVENTIONS PART ONE 

NEW AGE OF SPACE TRAVEL—3 

2. NEW OSA STUDENT CHAPTER(NTU)JERSEY----6 

3. CHRISTMAS DINNER 2004 —-- 7 

4. HOW OPTICAL MOUSE WORKS -- 8 

5. NEW OSA COMMITTEEE 2005 – 9 

6. CALL FOR ARTICLES FOR NEW OSING ISSUES 

BY STEVE LEE WOEI MING, BENJAMIN TAY CHIA MENG AND 

BACKGROUND IMAGE BY EDDIE TAN KHAY MENG 

Disclaimer: O-SING is published by the Student Chapter OSA(NTU), School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. 

Block S1, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the University. 

Copyright c 2003 Student Chapter OSA(NTU), All rights reserved. Material in this publication may not be reproduced without written permission. 

1

Excerpts from CNN online, reported by Michael Coren 

Monday, October 4, 2004 Posted: 7:59 PM EDT (2359 GMT) Source: 

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/10/04/spaceshipone.attempt.cnn/index.html 

MOJAVE DESERT, California (CNN) -- SpaceShipOne achieved its most spectacular flight yet, 

climbing to an altitude of 377,591 feet (71 1/2 miles) to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize on Monday. 

X Prize officials said it set an altitude record exceeding the military X-15's top altitude of 354,200 feet (67 miles) set on 

August 22, 1963. With a wish of "Good luck and Godspeed," mission control sent the privately funded craft toward space for 

the second time in a week, the requirements for winning the X Prize. "Today we have made history. Today we go to the stars," 

said Peter Diamandis, co-founder of the X Prize Foundation.The $10 million award is intended to spur civilian spaceflight. 

The craft left a near perfect dovetail of exhaust contrails with the White Knight turbo jet, which carried it aloft, as its 

rocket ignited for 84 seconds. The rocket burn sent SpaceShipOne on a trajectory that sent it climbing for almost a minute after 

the engine shut down……. 

Paul Allen, who financed the program, Richard Branson, who recently founded Virgin Galactic for space tourism, and Burt 

Rutan greeted the newly minted astronaut on the runway. Brinnie's family also joined him on the podium. 

Space ShipOne and White Knight, featured a new paint job promoting Virgin Galactic, Branson's new venture, which recently 

announced a deal to license the SpaceShipOne technology for a fleet of commercial spacecraft 

Winning the X Prize with SpaceShipOne is only the beginning for Rutan. 

"I have a hell of a lot bigger goal now (than NASA)," he said. 





2

How it works…………………… 

Images taken from http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/info.htm 





3

How it looks like…………………… 

Images taken from http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/info.htm 





4

SPACE…FOR EVERYONE………………… 





5

OSA Student Chapter T-Shirt design competition 

This new OSA (NTU) event is launched such as to give our student chapter a sense of identity. 

A number of suggestions and designed was proposed. The final design won majority of the members 

vote. We are please to present you 

The new OSA (NTU) Student Chapter………. 

More detail can be found @ 

http://www.ntu.edu.sg/studorgn/OSA/studentchapter/completed_activies.htm 





6

CHRISTMAS DINNER 2004 

This is the 2nd OSA (NTU) Student group Christmas gathering for our members. This 

gathering is to show our gratitude to all the members and committee members for their hard 

work put into the several activities since our formation last September 2003. The dinner was 

held at Pear River Restaurant in Suntec City on 9 th December. 

Remember to register ☺ 

The preparation before the feast 

The feast began……..the feast ended…..the satisfying feast 





7

How do optical mice work? 

Source: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question631.htm 

It appears that the venerable wheeled mouse is in danger of extinction. The now-preferred device for pointing and 

clicking is the optical mouse. 

This Microsoft Intellimouse uses optical 

technology. 

In this photo, you can see the LED on the bottom of the 

mouse. 

Developed by Agilent Technologies and introduced to the world in late 1999, the optical mouse actually uses a tiny 

camera to take 1,500 pictures every second. Able to work on almost any surface, the mouse has a small, red lightemitting 

diode (LED) that bounces light off that surface onto a complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) 

sensor. The CMOS sensor sends each image to a digital signal processor (DSP) for analysis. The DSP, operating at 

18 MIPS (million instructions per second), is able to detect patterns in the images and see how those patterns have 

moved since the previous image. Based on the change in patterns over a sequence of images, the DSP determines 

how far the mouse has moved and sends the corresponding coordinates to the computer. The computer moves the 

cursor on the screen based on the coordinates received from the mouse. This happens hundreds of times each second, 

making the cursor appear to move very smoothly. 

Optical mice have several benefits over wheeled mice: 

• No moving parts means less wear and a lower chance of failure. 

• There's no way for dirt to get inside the mouse and interfere with the tracking sensors. 

• Increased tracking resolution means smoother response. 

• They don't require a special surface, such as a mouse pad. 

Apple has transformed its optical mouse into 

a modern work of art. 

Although LED-based optical mice are fairly recent, another type of optical mouse has been around for over a decade. 

The original optical-mouse technology bounced a focused beam of light off a highly-reflective mouse pad onto a 

sensor. The mouse pad had a grid of dark lines. Each time the mouse was moved, the beam of light was interrupted 

by the grid. Whenever the light was interrupted, the sensor sent a signal to the computer and the cursor moved a 

corresponding amount. This kind of optical mouse was difficult to use, requiring that you hold it at precisely the right 

angle to ensure that the light beam and sensor aligned. Also, damage to or loss of the mouse pad rendered the mouse 

useless until a replacement pad was purchased. Today's LED-based optical mice are far more user-friendly and 

reliable. 





8

NEW OSA (NTU) committee 2005 

PRESIDENT 

1) Steve LEE Woei Ming,


Secretary 

4) Huang Shaoying, Joanne 

Status : 2nd year Meng. Student 

Address : NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 

S1-B2a-04, Integrated System Research Lab 

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering 

50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798 

Tel: +65 67906226, Fax: +65 67904161 

E-mail:p1465935914@ntu.edu.sg 

Website: N.A. 

Special Project Officer (Education) 

5) Jonathan Moh Ken Jin 

Status : 1st Year PhD Student, B.Eng 

Address :NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 

S1-B3a-08, Photonics Lab I, Photonics Research Centre 

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering/SIMTECH 


E-mail: ekjmoh@ntu.edu.sg 

Website: http://www.ntu.edu.sg/eee/eee6/cv/research/ekjmoh.html 

Special Project Officer (Social) 

6) Chong Mun Kit 

Status : 2nd Year PhD Student 





Tel: +65 67905615, Fax: +65 67904161 

E-mail: PA11746718@ntu.edu.sg 

Website: N.A. 





10


Special Project Officer (Social) 

7) ZHAO JINGHUA 

Status : 2nd Year PhD Student, B.Eng 





E-mail: ejhzhao@pmail.ntu.edu.sg 

Website: N.A. 

MEMBERS 

8) Ho Kin Fai, Charles 

Status : 3rd Year PhD Student B.Eng 





Tel: +65 67905615, Fax: +65 67904161 

E-mail: vie_charlie@pmail.ntu.edu.sg 

Website: N.A. 

9) Lin Jiao 

Status : Msc , B.Eng 





Tel: +65 67905615, Fax: +65 67904161 

E-mail: Lin_Jiao2002@hotmail.com 

Website: N.A. 





11


10) STEVANUS DARMAWAN 

Status : 1st Year PhD Student B.Eng 





E-mail: stevanus@pmail.ntu.edu.sg 

Website: N.A. 

11) LEE SHUH YING 

Status : 1st Year PhD StudentB.Eng 

Address :NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 




E-mail: shuhying@pmail.ntu.edu.sg 

Website: N.A. 

12) Sun Yuyang 

Status : 1st Year PhD Student 


School of Mechanical and Production Engineering 


E-mail: SUNY0004@ntu.edu.sg 

Website: N.A. 

13) Sun Jian 

Status : 1st Year PhD Student 


Network Technology Research Centre (NTRC) 


E-mail: SUNJ0002@ntu.edu.sg 

Website: N.A. 





12


Faculty Advisor 

Assoc Prof Yuan Xiaocong, Larry 

Director of MSc Photonics, Faculty Advisor OSA Chapter (NTU), OSA Member 

B.Eng, M.Eng Tianjin University, China 

Ph.D University of London, UK, 

Tel: (65) 6790 5635 

Office Location S2.1-B2-19 

E-mail: excyuan@ntu.edu.sg 

Website: http://www.ntu.edu.sg/eee/eee6/cv/excyuan.html 

Interest: Sol-gel fabrication, Diffractive Optics, Microbeam shaping, wavefront sensing and Optical t 

Congratulation to our Faculty Advisor 

Associate Professor Yuan Xiaocong, Larry on his new appointment as Deputy Director of 

PhRC 





13

CALL FOR ARTICLES FOR NEW OSING ISSUES 

IF YOU HAVE A ARTICLE EITHER TECHNICAL OR SOCIAL 

THAT YOU WISH TO PUBLISH ON OUR OSING ISSUE 

PLEASE SUBMITTED TO 

STEVE LEE WOEI MING @ 

LEENEWT2@YAHOO.COM.... 





14

osing issue 4 - Nanyang Technological University

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