Controlled Manufacture of Porous Silicon Carbide

Extremely fine porous structures with tiny holes — resembling a kind of sponge at the nano level — can be generated in semiconductors. A method was developed for the controlled manufacture of...

The Expanding Role of Sensors in the IoT/IIoT

The increasing variety of applications for the Internet of Things is driving predictions that the sales volume for sensors will reach 75 billion units by 2025. Applications unforeseen just five...

Direct-Current Detector for Emergency Responder Safety

The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a direct-current detector technology to help emergency responders safely detect high voltages, which they have...

Realization of High-Performance Magnetic Sensors Using Magnetic Vortex Structures

Magnetic sensors play a key role in a variety of applications, such as speed and position sensing in the automotive industry and in biomedical applications. The...

Solar PV and Lithium-Ion Battery Hybrids for the IIoT — A User's Guide

Hybrid solutions that combine small photovoltaic (PV) panels with industrial grade rechargeable Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries provide long-term power for remote wireless...

How to Specify Intrinsically Safe Remote Monitoring Sensor Systems

Wireless sensor networks frequently operate in hazardous areas where explosive atmospheres pose a safety risk to equipment and operators. The design of these systems must follow...

New Products

Digital Variable Impedance Transducer With its user-friendly new graphical user interface (GUI) for easier setup and connectivity, and cloud-based data access/monitoring, the digiVIT digital variable impedance transducer from Kaman...

Keeping Data Fresh for Wireless Networks

For wireless networks that share time-sensitive information on the fly, it's not enough to transmit data quickly: that data also needs to be fresh. Consider the many sensors in your car. While it may...

The Ultimate ‘Smell Test’: Device Sends Rotten Food Warning to Smartphones

When it comes to the “smell test,” the nose isn't always the best judge of food quality. Now in a study appearing in ACS’ journal Nano Letters, scientists...

A Nanotech Sensor Turns Molecular Fingerprints into Bar Codes

Infrared spectroscopy is the benchmark method for detecting and analyzing organic compounds. However, that requires complicated procedures and large, expensive instruments, making...

NIST/NASA Study Shows One Detector Doesn't Fit All for Smoke in Spacecraft

What had been a peaceful and productive mission for the six men aboard the Russian space station Mir, including U.S. astronaut Jerry Linenger, nearly became a tragic...

An Artificial Nerve System Developed at Stanford Gives Prosthetic Devices and Robots a Sense of Touch

Stanford and Seoul National University researchers have developed an artificial sensory nerve system that can activate the twitch reflex in a...

Deep Learning Transforms Smartphone Microscopes into Laboratory-Grade Devices

Researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have demonstrated that deep learning, a powerful form of artificial intelligence, can discern and enhance...

What's Ahead for Machine Vision Cameras?

Throughout the history of the electronics industry, the old refrain that systems will continuously become faster, simpler, and cheaper has remained true. In the early days of computer vision, a frame...

Specifying Coatings for Military and Aerospace Applications

Optics are employed in virtually every area of military operations, from vision systems and target designators used by troops on the ground, through guidance systems utilized in both...

New Products

Embedded Imaging Platforms Critical Link LLC (Syracuse, NY) recently introduced an Embedded Vision Development Kit (VDK) that integrates Basler's dart BCON camera with Critical Link's most popular processor board, interfaces, and...

COSMIC Impact: Next-Gen X-Ray Microscopy Platform

A next-generation X-ray beamline now operating at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) brings together a unique set of capabilities to measure the...

Advanced Materials Help Lasers Beat the Heat

Laser diodes are one of a number of different types of electronic devices that generate heat during normal operation. Some power applied to such devices is lost as heat energy. To ensure stable...

A Paper-Like LCD — Thin, Flexible, Tough, and Cheap

Optoelectronic engineers in China and Hong Kong have manufactured a special type of liquid crystal display (LCD) that is paper-thin, flexible, light, and tough. With this, a daily newspaper...

Researchers Create Precision Optical Components with Inkjet Printing

Researchers have developed an inkjet printing technique that can be used to print optical components such as waveguides. Because the printing approach can also fabricate...

Three Popular Machine Vision Standards

Advancements in machine vision have augmented industrial automation and provided a platform to advance imaging-based automatic inspection and analysis applications. This technology, however, comes with its...

Product of the Month

Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, North Kingstown, RI, announced a new release of HxGN SMART Quality software that combines connectivity, statistical evaluation, and resource management tools to help manufacturers...

Intelligent Machines: Can You Build a Robot You Can Trust?

For social robots to become commonplace in clinical settings, engineers will need to build both technology improvements as well something slightly more complicated: Trust.

Cageless Bearing Design Reduces Friction

A cageless bearing with rolling separator elements was developed for applications including portable medical devices, toys, and robotic applications with medium force requirements. The normal...

“Actuated” Paper Bends, Folds, or Flattens on Command

A thin layer of conducting thermoplastic, applied to common paper with an inexpensive 3D printer or even painted by hand, serves as a low-cost, reversible actuator. When an...