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Tech Briefs writers and editors share their opinions and find the fun, interesting, and unexpected stories behind today's leading-edge inventions.

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Technology Business Brief
This device is available for use in a wide range of applications including advanced printing systems, patterning photoresist during IC manufacture, and creating masks or reticles for projection-type photolithography systems. More information here.
Blog
Device Tracks Ad Effectiveness By Monitoring Eye Movement
A device developed at Queen's University (Canada) provides a unique way for advertisers to track the effectiveness of their messages by measuring how many people are looking at their billboards and screens. Called eyebox2(TM), the portable device uses a camera that monitors eye movements in...
Blog
Less Than One Week Left to Submit Your NNEC Abstract!
The National Nano Engineering Conference (NNEC), being held November 14-15 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, is the premier event focused on current and future developments in engineering innovations at the nanoscale, as well as the commercialization of nanotechnology. Presentations on...
Blog
System Turns Medical Data into Interactive 3D Images
New data-display technology developed at Kent State University will provide doctors with an improved ability to evaluate commonly used medical images. The technology allows for interactive viewing of large image data sets from virtually any medical imaging device. The new system is compatible...
Blog
Tech Needs of the Week
An organization seeks new orthobiologic technologies (bone replacement materials and antibiotical carriers) that stimulate bone growth in spinal fusion repairs. They also are seeking FDA-approved materials with strength and stiffness close to cortical bone. To respond to this Tech Need, click here.
Blog
Fully Integrated Prosthetic Arm Provides Sensory Feedback
A research team led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has developed a prototype of the first fully integrated prosthetic arm that can be controlled naturally, provides sensory feedback, and allows for eight degrees of freedom. Proto 1 is a complete limb system that...
Blog
Raman Software Named PTB Product of the Month
The LS5 software from HORIBA Jobin Yvon (Edison, NJ) has been named Photonics Tech BriefsÂ’ (PTB) Product of the Month for May. Designed with a kernel-based modular structure, it operates all Raman products including the automated LabRAM ARAMIS, high-resolution LabRAM HR, and T64000 triple...
Blog
Current Attractions: Leslie Molzahn of NASAÂ’s Dryden Flight Research Center
Supersonic speed would allow travelers to cut significantly their travel time, but due to the resulting sonic booms, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and similar bodies restrict supersonic travel to transoceanic only. To solve this problem, Gulfstream Aerospace...
Blog
Techs of the Week: Fire-Retardant Technology
Technologies are available to improve fire-retardant effectiveness of melamine systems in nylon. More information here. A fire-retardant compound is available that is comprised of one fibrous layer and a layer comprised of a particulate fire-retardant material. More information here. The Technologies...
Blog
New Solar Cell Increases Efficiency and Lowers Cost
Scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW, Sydney, Australia) developed a process to boost the efficiency of solar cell technology that also lowers the total cost. The UNSW researchers deposited a thin film of silver onto a solar cellÂ’s surface and then heated it to 200 degrees...
Blog: Photonics/Optics
Current Attractions
As noted in the article "Mini CW Lasers Enable Next-Generation Bioinstrumentation" in May's edition of Photonics Tech Briefs (PTB), continuous-wave (CW) lasers have helped advance research in fields such as cell sorting and DNA sequencing. Written by Jurgen Niederhofer, product manager of Newport's Spectra-Physics Lasers...
Blog
Technology Business Need
A global 500 European company is seeking new piezoelectric materials. Esaote Biomedica is seeking high-performance, affordable, piezoelectric material plates for medical sonography applications. Direct financing is available. For more information, click here.
Blog
NASA News
On Thursday, May 3, Peter Homer of Southwest Harbor, ME, won $200,000 from NASA for his entry in the Astronaut Glove Challenge. Homer's glove design performed better overall than the competition in tests that rated the glove's strength, flexibility, and comfort. Homer's innovations in finger dexterity could enhance NASA's future astronaut...
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Event Alert
NASA Tech Briefs and the Voice of the Customer Institute recently announced a joint agreement to conduct a series of national seminars on the Voice of the Customer. This discipline helps businesses identify and prioritize customer needs, while training employees to conduct exercises to obtain this information independently. The results...
Blog
White Paper
Still using duct tape and cardboard to predict thermal gotchas? Got a PhD thermal specialist stashed in the backroom? That ain't gonna cut it anymore. Read this eight-page report and learn to build thermal management into your corporate DNA.
Blog
Current Attractions
Measure Foundry(R) 5.0 test and measurement software from Data Translation, (Marlboro, MA) was named NTB's Product of the Month for May. The software offers open support of all system standards, including VISA, SCPI, GPIB, USB, PCI, LXI, PXI/VXI, and RS-232. The application builder software enables users to graphically combine...
Blog: Photonics/Optics
Tech Needs of the Week
A high-birefringence optical material is needed suitable for implementation in optical systems. The material also should feature high hardness making it amenable to standard polishing and manufacturing processes, low CTE (coefficient of thermal expansion), low CTRI (coefficient of thermal refractive index), low absorption at...
Blog: Photonics/Optics
Laser System
MIT researchers have developed a new type of laser based on Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) for taking high-resolution, 3D images of the retina. OCT uses light to obtain high-resolution, cross-sectional images of the eye to visualize subtle changes that occur in retinal disease.
Blog
New ET Advertisers
This monthly review lets you "meet" the new advertisers appearing in Embedded Technology. Here's a sneak peek at the products, services, and offers available from May's first-time advertisers in ET. Evans Capacitor Co. (E. Providence, RI) offers capacitors for laser targeting, communications modules, controls, cockpit displays,...
Blog
Current Attractions
Embedded Technology (ET) magazine features board-level electronics and COTS solutions for design engineers, as well as a variety of product offerings. The May issue of Embedded Technology contains a feature article written by Julien Chouinard, managing director at ICS Triplex ISaGRAF (Montreal, Canada), entitled “Distributed...
Blog
Technologies of the Week
A process is available where dissolved silver or metal ions can be deposited on an electrode by sending an electrical current through an electrolysis cell containing the fluid from which the metal ions need to be recovered. View this technology here.
Blog
"Nonsense Mutation" Therapy
Medical scientists at PTC Therapeutics (S. Plainfield, NJ) have entered into trials an oral drug therapy aimed at treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy and other genetic conditions caused by “nonsense mutations.” Nonsense mutations inactivate gene function and are known to cause anywhere from five to 70% of the...
Blog
Nano Conference Call for Papers
The National Nano Engineering Conference (NNEC), being held November 14-15 at the Boston Marriott Copley place, is the premier event focused on current and future developments in engineering innovations at the nanoscale, as well as the commercialization of nanotechnology. Presentations on exciting new technologies...
Blog
Current Attractions
This monthly review lets you "meet" the new advertisers appearing in NTB and its supplements. Here's a sneak peek at the products, services, and offers available from May's first-time advertisers. Applied Image (Rochester, NY) manufactures a wide variety of standard products, including test targets, image evaluation arrays,...
Blog
Technology Business Brief
This technology creates a door closure system for a round pressurized vessel that requires no doorframe structure to maintain doorframe rigidity. Structurally, the door and opening can weigh almost the same as a similar section that does not have a door. For more information, click here.
Blog
White Papers
This technical publication from Breault Research Organization (BRO) describes the tissue phantom Realistic Skin Model(TM) (RSM) in ASAP BIO. It details the features inherent in the design of the RSM, including background information on the model, dialog options, and relevant default characteristics of the model.
Blog
CAD/CAE Products
Autodesk, Inc. (San Rafael, CA) now offers Autodesk Inventor 2008 software, the latest release of its 3D mechanical design application. The new release features DWG intero- perability, AliasStudio interoperability, sheet metal design tools, ribbon cable design tools, and sketch productivity tools. For more information, click...
Blog
Earth's Architecture
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently launched a new AIA layer in Google Earth called "America's Favorite Architecture." Google Earth users can now see many newly created 3D models of the ballparks, bridges, buildings, and memorials that characterize architecture for Americans. By clicking on America's Favorite...
Blog: Medical
3D Ultrasound
The same Duke University Pratt School of Engineering research team that first developed real-time, 3D ultrasound imaging has modified the commercial version of the scanner to produce an even more realistic perception of depth. The researchers created an updated version of the image-viewing software, making it possible to achieve a...

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