Georgia Tech researchers have discovered how to use a mobile phone to track what is being typed on a nearby computer keyboard. They used a smartphone accelerometer — the internal device that detects when and how the phone is tilted — to sense keyboard vibrations and decipher complete sentences with up to 80 percent accuracy....

Smartphone and tablet computer owners have become adept at using finger taps and and drags to control their touchscreens. Carnegie Mellon University researchers have found that this interaction can be enhanced by taking greater advantage of the finger's anatomy and dexterity. By...

Under Jewish law, religious texts cannot simply be thrown away once they're worn out. While many texts were buried, many synagogues also operated genizahs, or storerooms, to store disused holy texts. The Cairo Genizah is one of the most valuable sources of primary documents for medieval historians...

dSPACE (Wixom, MI) has added the ADASIS v2 Horizon Reconstructor Blockset (ADASIS v2 HR Blockset) to its range of products for developing advanced driver assistance systems. The Simulink blockset provides access to data on the road ahead. Such data, for example, comes from a navigation system or a special ECU, and...

Symtavision (Braunschweig, Germany) has launched SymTA/S 3.0 and TraceAnalyzer 3.0, the first fully integrated versions of these system-level tools for model-based design and trace-based verification. Targeted at automotive, aerospace, automation, and other performance- and safety-critical systems, the...

Open-front refrigerated display cases, which make up roughly 60 percent of the refrigerated cases in grocery stores, provide quick access to chilled products – but they’re hardly energy-efficient. Engineers at the University of Washington and Kettering University are working to cut the...

Using carbon nanotubes bent to act like springs, Stanford researchers have developed a stretchable, transparent skin-like sensor that can be stretched to more than twice its original length and bounce back perfectly to its original shape. It can sense pressure from a firm pinch to...

Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have developed a new concept for rechargeable batteries, based on a fluoride shuttle – the transfer of fluoride anions between electrodes – which could allow high energy densities up to ten times as high as those of conventional...

A new system, dubbed “Designing With Vision,” incorporates eye-tracking technology that could help release constraints on creativity imposed by computer-aided design (CAD) tools. Developed by researchers at The Open University and the University of Leeds, the system is devised to break down rigid distinctions between human...

MathWorks (Natick, MA) introduces AUTOSAR Target Production Package, a flexible support package available to automotive engineers requiring advanced AUTOSAR capabilities with Simulink and Embedded Coder. The AUTOSAR Target Production Package helps engineers use more features of the AUTOSAR standard with simplified...

Synopsys, Inc. (Mountain View, CA) offers enhancements to its CODE V® optical design and analysis software, acquired as part of Synopsys' acquisition of Optical Research Associates. CODE V 10.4 delivers enhancements to its Beam Synthesis Propagation (BSP) tool that enable optical designers to model and analyze...

D2S, Inc. (San Jose, CA) has introduced TrueMaskTM DS, the industry’s first mask‐wafer double simulation accelerated workstation for R&D exploration, bit‐cell design, hot‐spot analysis, and mask‐defect categorization that comprehends overlapping eBeam shots and dose modulation. TrueMask DS is an...

Altair Engineering, Inc. (Troy, MI) has released the HyperWorks 11.0 Student Edition, a personal academic version of the popular suite of computer-aided engineering (CAE) software used by manufacturers around the world. The Student Edition offers affordable opportunities for engineering and design students...

Noise barriers are often used to shield sensitive community areas from roadway, railway, and industrial racket. These structures are built based on the careful measurement of noise levels and environmental conditions. Did you know that there are over 100 miles of barrier in the state of Maryland? In our...

This week's Question: Google has been testing its autonomous cars on public roads. The search giant's fleet of robotic Toyota Priuses has now logged more than 190,000 miles, driving in city traffic, busy highways, and mountainous roads, with only occasional human intervention. The...

Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a new nanomaterial that can “steer” electrical currents. The development could lead to a computer that can simply reconfigure its internal wiring and become an entirely different device, based on changing...

The ability to see through walls is no longer the stuff of science fiction, thanks to new radar technology developed at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory.The researchers’ device is an unassuming array of antenna arranged into two rows — eight receiving elements on top, 13 transmitting ones below —...

Rice University physicists have created a tiny “electron superhighway” that could one day be useful for building a quantum computer — a type of computer that uses quantum particles in place of the digital transistors found in today’s microchips. Quantum computers may...

For the first time, University of Illinois physicists have experimentally demonstrated how three-dimensional conduction is affected by the defects that plague materials. An understanding of these effects is important for many electronics applications, including ultrasonic waves in medical imaging, lasers for...

Using robot models could play a useful role in studying the origins of flight, particularly since fossil evidence is so limited, noted engineers at the University of California, Berkeley. Researchers outfitted a six-legged robotic bug with wings in an effort to improve its mobility. Even though the wings...