Briefs: Materials

Wool-Like Material Remembers and Changes Shape

The material could be used in smart textiles, medical devices, and tissue engineering.

5 Ws: Electronics & Computers

5 Ws of the Paper-Based Keypad

Users can take paper sheets from a notebook and turn them into a music player interface or make food packaging interactive.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Smart, Self-Powered Knee Implants

These implants can provide doctors with regular activity updates and are powered by the patient’s movement.

Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing

Smart Window Improves Energy Efficiency of Buildings

A customizable smart window harnesses and manipulates solar power to save energy and cut costs.

Briefs: Energy

Composite Material Increases Electrical Current Capacity of Copper Wires

The material can be scaled for use in ultra-efficient, power-dense, electric vehicle traction motors.

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Self-Assembling Robot Cubes Form Various Structures

The robot blocks jump, spin, flip, and identify each other.

Briefs: Materials

Method Turns Fruit Peels into New Batteries

Orange peels are used to extract and reuse metals from lithium-ion batteries to create new batteries.

Briefs: Internet of Things

Printable Light Sensors Can See Colors

Printable organic photodiodes can distinguish wavelengths and enable data transmission by light.

Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing

Faster-Degrading Plastic for Marine Uses

This material could reduce persistent plastic accumulation in the environment.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Biosensor Enables Real-Time Oxygen Monitoring for Organs-On-A-Chip

This sensor makes it possible to ensure that such systems more closely mimic the function of real organs.

Briefs: Energy

Robotic Assembly of Photovoltaic Arrays

Adaptable automation reduces manufacturing time and costs.

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Janus Particles Improve Paints and Coatings

Other applications include cosmetics, 3D printing, and drug formulations.

Briefs: Energy

Soft Magnetic Nanocomposite for High-Temperature Applications

The material can be used in power electronics and power converters for solar energy power systems.

Briefs: Energy

Electricity-Free Radiative Cooling System

The system is effective in urban environments where there are tall buildings on all sides.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Aerogel-Reinforced Composites

The flexible composites can be used as thermal insulation for environments of up to 1200 °C.

Q&A: Electronics & Computers

Q&A: Soft Electronics Treat Heart Arrythmias

A new class of medical instruments uses flexible electronics to improve patient outcomes in minimally invasive surgeries.

Briefs: Materials

Self-Healing, Recyclable, Shape Memory Polymers

This versatile new material family could build realistic prosthetics and futuristic Army platforms.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Radar Enables Cars to Spot Hazards Around Corners

Using radar commonly deployed to track speeders and fastballs, the automated system “sees” around corners to spot oncoming traffic and pedestrians.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Psychosensory Electronic Skin Technology for AI and Humanoid Development

This technology enables robots, electronic devices, and prosthetic devices to feel pain through sense of touch.

Facility Focus: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Facility Focus: Rochester Institute of Technology

Learn about RIT's achievements in cybersecurity, imaging science, and personalized healthcare tech.

Briefs: Transportation

Nature-Inspired Sensors Could Help Autonomous Machines See Better

The sensors can be built into the shells of aircraft, cars, or other machines.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Lab-On-Chip Flow and Temperature Sensor

The sensor provides accurate and real-time measurement of flow rates and temperature in next-generation microfluidic instruments.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Solid-State Sensor for Detection and Characterization of Electric Fields

The sensor enables detection of items for security screening, intrusion detection, forensics, and medical imaging.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Lenslet-Based Integral Field Spectrograph

Applications include biomedical imaging, remote sensing, and heliophysics research.

Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping

New on the Market: November 2020

VOC sensors, panel-mount connectors, 3D printing cloud software, and more.

Briefs: Wearables

Specialized Dye Enables Medical Information to be Stored Below the Skin

The dye, delivered along with a vaccine, could enable “on-patient” storage of vaccination history.

Articles: Data Acquisition

COVID-19 Drives Data Acquisition & Analytics Evolution

When deployed on edge devices, modern HMI and SCADA software can go beyond basic visualization to deliver advanced data acquisition and analytics.

Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs

E-Tongue Nanosensor Array

The technology detects the presence of one or more specific chemical components in a liquid.

Articles: Lighting

Products of Tomorrow: November 2020

A smartwatch that tracks medication levels, a flexible LED, and NASA's "Micro-Organ" device platform.

Application Briefs: Test & Measurement

Giant Telescope Construction Viewed Through an Industrial Lens

Once installed at Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean Andes, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will introduce incredible opportunities for astrophysics.

Briefs: Medical

Imaging Technology Could Improve Cancer Surgery

Cancer treatment could be dramatically improved by precisely locating the edges of tumors during surgery to remove them.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Long-Range Wireless Sensor Network

The network is designed for remote, low-resource locations where power and communications infrastructure are scarce.

Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Algorithm Improves Navigation of Autonomous Driving Robots

Future robots could be taught how to outperform humans.

Briefs: Data Acquisition

Ring Detects Finger Location to Track Hand Movements

The technology, which could be added to smart watches, could detect the onset of Parkinson’s disease or help with stroke rehabilitation.

Briefs: Motion Control

Octopus-Inspired Soft Robotic Arm

The Tentacle Bot can grip, move, and manipulate a wide range of objects.

NASA Spinoff: Aerospace

Balance Scale Predicts and Helps Prevent Falls

A technique to assess astronauts’ balance recovery helps people assess their risk of falling.

Briefs: Materials

Sunlight Converts Emissions into Useful Materials

An environmentally friendly method upcycles carbon dioxide emissions into polymers and other materials.

Briefs: Software

Virtual and Augmented Reality Device Simulates Vision Loss

VR/AR devices can simulate some of the key difficulties experienced due to glaucoma.

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

3D-Printed Sweating Robot Muscle

This form of thermal management can help enable untethered, high-powered robots to operate for long periods of time without overheating.

Briefs: Medical

Tiny, Magnetically Powered Neural Stimulator

Tests show magnetoelectric power is a viable option for clinical-grade implants.

Products: Imaging

New Products: November 2020 Photonics & Imaging Technology

Multi-sensor imaging systems, eyesafe laser finders, machine vision algorithms, and more.

Briefs: Materials

Continuous and Stable Lasing Achieved From Low-Cost Perovskites at Room Temperature

With low-cost materials called perovskites, stable, continuous lasing is achieved at room temperature for over an hour.

Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Megapixel Photon-Counting Camera Technology

See what kinds of applications are possible when you can literally see light propagating through space.

Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Material Advances for LED Quantum Dot Efficiency

Creating next-generation LEDs for novel efforts like COVID-19 decontamination requires LED manufacturers to reevaluate the materials that they’re using.

Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs

Ambient Light Alters Refraction in 2D Material

See how tantalum disulfide is supporting new kinds of optics, and potentially new kinds of application for VR and self-driving cars.

Briefs: AR/AI

“Alexa, Go to The Kitchen and Fetch Me a Snack”

MIT engineers are envisioning robots more like home helpers.

Articles: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Overcoming Pitfalls When Measuring Thin, Parallel Optics

A "TPSI" process makes it possible to distinguish between the front and back of optical surfaces, and to characterize the quality of both in a single measurement.

Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Measuring Layer Thickness Using a Microscope

With Nikon's Layer Thickness software module, comprehensive information about a specimen is obtained more quickly than if an operator is making all the measurements by hand.

Briefs: Data Acquisition

Recovering Data: NIST’s Neural Network Model Finds Small Objects in Dense Images

A NIST method employs a neural network to detect patterns like geometric objects in imaging data.

Products: Test & Measurement

Product of the Month: November 2020 Tech Briefs

The SHFQA Quantum Analyzer from Zurich Instruments operates at up to 8.5 GHz and can perform direct readout of superconducting and spin qubits.

On-Demand Webinars: Motion Control

Customizing Actuators Using COTS Drive Components for Martian Mission Mechanisms

Mars rover missions push the boundaries of technology while creating collaboration opportunities to meet the unique demands of space travel. One example...

Blog: Energy

'Soil Fuel Cells' Support Water Treatment in Brazil

The soil microbial fuel cells produce energy to filter enough water for a person’s daily needs, with potential to increase scale.

Blog: Motion Control

What Role Will Motors Play in Mars 2020 Missions?

The great tasks of retrieving samples and flying a helicopter on Mars requires a number of small parts — specifically motors and drives.

INSIDER: Energy

Turning Streetwear into Solar Concentrators

Researchers at Empa and ETH Zurich succeeded in developing a material that works like a luminescent solar concentrator and can even be applied to textiles. This opens up numerous possibilities...

INSIDER: Packaging & Sterilization

Navy Researchers Evaluate Ultraviolet Sources to Combat COVID-19

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory researchers evaluated commercial ultraviolet (UV) sources for viral disinfection to combat COVID-19 on land and at sea and established a...

INSIDER Product: Photonics/Optics

New Products: November 2020 Photonics & Imaging Insider

Spectrophotometer for a Microscope

CRAIC Technologies (San Dimas, CA) has introduced the 508 PV™ UV-visible-NIR spectrophotometer for your microscope. The 508 Perfect...

Webinars: Electronics & Computers

Watch Live at 11 am ET: The 2020 Create the Future Contest Awards

For the first time, the winners of the Create the Future Design Contest will be announced live! Join us for this special one-hour presentation as we honor our 2020 Grand Prize...

Podcasts: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Here's an Idea: A Bug-Inspired Building Material for Mars

We spoke with Javier Gomez Fernandez from the Singapore University of Technology and Design about how Mars explorers – and even those of us on Earth – can make the most out of chitin.

Blog: Materials

Bacteria-Fighting RepelWrap Wins 'Create the Future' Design Contest

The RepelWrap inventors explain why their product is especially valuable as the world confronts a pandemic like COVID-19.

News: Automotive

New Battery Electrolyte May Boost Performance of EVs

A new lithium-based electrolyte invented by Stanford University scientists could pave the way for the next generation of battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs). Their electrolyte...

News: Energy

New Composite Material Revs Up Pursuit of Advanced EVs

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have used new techniques to create a composite that increases the electrical current capacity of copper wires, providing a...

News: Unmanned Systems

Thin Layer Protects Battery and Allows Cold Charging

Researchers in the Battery and Energy Storage Technology Center at Penn State University are searching for a reliable, quick-charging, cold-weather battery for automobiles. They...

On-Demand Webinars: Automotive

How VCONN, a USB-C Feature, Changes the Car-to-Passenger Experience

As the automotive market changes from traditional standard A receptacles to the newer USB Type-C™ receptacles, many questions arise regarding which features to...

Blog: Energy

A Solar Alternative: How to Power Devices with Indoor Light

A new material is especially effective at absorbing indoor light and converting it into usable energy.

Blog: Data Acquisition

Stanford Computer Model Predicts How COVID-19 Spreads in Cities

The model analyzes three factors that drive infection risk: where people go in the course of a day; how long they linger; and how many other people are visiting the same place at the same time.

On-Demand Webinars: Automotive

Achieving Dimensional Stability of Lightweight Thermoplastic Automotive Parts

Use of thermoplastics can contribute to weight savings for exterior components such as body panels, spoilers, and exterior trim. Some applications present...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Robotic “Snake” Grips and Picks Up Objects

An invention similar to an elephant’s trunk has potential benefits for many industries where handling delicate objects is essential. UNSW Sydney developed a soft fabric robotic gripper...

INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Printing Paper Structures for Mechatronics

Natural motion in plants occurs because of cellulose fibers absorbing and releasing water. Scientists developed a simple method to produce self-folding origami structures based on this concept....

Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition

With a 50-Million-Electron Jolt, Sensors Power Themselves

By jumpstarting electrons, a team at Washington University in St. Louis has developed sensors that can power themselves for more than a year.

Blog: Aerospace

Will Electric Aircraft Reach the Speeds of Commercial Jets?

An Israel-based company called Eviation is working on an all-electric aircraft known as "Alice." Will it match the speeds of a jet?