News: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Harness-Mounted Computer Improves Communication Between Dogs and Humans
North Carolina State University researchers have developed a suite of technologies that can be used to enhance communication between dogs and humans. The communication tool enables applications in search-and-rescue operations and pet training.
“We’ve developed a...
News: RF & Microwave Electronics
NASA Team Proposes Laser for Orbital Debris Tracking
Barry Coyle and Paul Stysley, laser researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, want to develop a method to define and track orbital debris using laser ranging — a promising approach that could overcome shortfalls with passive optical and radar techniques,...
News: Imaging
Ultra-Thin 3D Display Promises Greater Energy Efficiency
An ultra-thin LCD screen, developed by a group of researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, holds three-dimensional images without a power source, making the display technology a compact, energy-efficient way to display visual information.
In a traditional LCD,...
News: Aerospace
NASA to Launch Soil Moisture Mapper
A NASA spacecraft designed to track Earth's water in one of its most important, but least recognized forms — soil moisture — now is at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, to begin final preparations for launch in January.
The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft arrived Wednesday at its...
News: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Rice University researchers have created a CMOS-compatible, biomimetic color photodetector that directly responds to red, green, and blue light in much the same way the human eye does. The new...
News: Materials
Researchers Develop Thinnest Electric Generator
Researchers from Columbia Engineering and the Georgia Institute of Technology made the first experimental observation of piezoelectricity and the piezotronic effect in an atomically thin material, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), resulting in a unique electric generator and mechanosensation...
News: Manufacturing & Prototyping
3D-Printed Power Inverter Enables Lighter Electric Vehicles
Using 3D printing and novel semiconductors, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a power inverter that could make electric vehicles lighter, more powerful, and more efficient.
At the core of this development is wide bandgap material...
News: Imaging
Automated Imaging System Analyzes Underground Root Systems
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Penn State University have developed an automated imaging technique for measuring and analyzing the root systems of mature plants. The technique, believed to be the first of its kind, uses advanced computer technology to analyze...
News: Transportation
Fast-Charging Batteries Have 20-Year Lifespan
Scientists at Nanyang Technology University (NTU) have developed ultra-fast charging batteries that can be recharged up to 70 percent in only two minutes.
The new-generation batteries also have a long lifespan of over 20 years, more than 10 times compared to existing lithium-ion batteries.
In...
News: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Imaging System Obtains More Color Information than Human Eye
Researchers at the University of Granada have designed a new imaging system capable of obtaining up to twelve times more color information than the human eye and conventional cameras, which implies a total of 36 color channels. The important scientific development will facilitate the...
News: Energy
Robots Restore Electricity After Power Outages
A team led by Nina Mahmoudian of Michigan Technological University has developed a tabletop model of a robot team that can bring power to places that need it the most.
“If we can regain power in communication towers, then we can find the people we need to rescue,” says Mahmoudian, an assistant...
News: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Underwater Robot Skims for Port Security
MIT researchers unveiled an oval-shaped submersible robot, a little smaller than a football, with a flattened panel on one side that it can slide along an underwater surface to perform ultrasound scans.
Originally designed to look for cracks in nuclear reactors’ water tanks, the robot could also...
News: Semiconductors & ICs
'Solar Battery' Runs on Light and Air
Ohio State University researchers report that they have succeeded in combining a battery and a solar cell into one hybrid device.
Key to the innovation is a mesh solar panel, which allows air to enter the battery, and a special process for transferring electrons between the solar panel and the battery...
News: Electronics & Computers
University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have discovered a way to create a highly sensitive chemical sensor based on the crystalline flaws in graphene sheets. The...
News: Green Design & Manufacturing
The Megacities Carbon Project is an international, multi-agency pilot initiative to develop and test ways to monitor greenhouse gas emissions in megacities:...
News: Sensors/Data Acquisition
University of Washington researchers have developed a new form of low-power wireless sensing technology that could soon let users “train” their smartphones to...
News: Medical
New Material Steals and Stores Oxygen from Air
Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have synthesized crystalline materials that can bind and store oxygen in high concentrations.The stored oxygen can be released again when and where it is needed.
Depending on the atmospheric oxygen content, temperature, or pressure, it takes...
News: Green Design & Manufacturing
3D Printer That Could Build a Home in 24 Hours Wins Global Design Competition
New York, NY – Contour Crafting, a computerized construction method that rapidly 3D prints large-scale structures directly from architectural CAD models, has been awarded the grand prize of $20,000 in the 2014 "Create the Future" Design Contest.
Contour...
News: Photonics/Optics
'Cloaking' Device Uses Ordinary Lenses to Hide Objects
Inspired perhaps by Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, scientists have recently developed several ways to hide objects from view. The latest effort, begun at the University of Rochester, not only overcomes some of the limitations of previous devices, but also uses inexpensive, readily...
News: Aerospace
Robotic Fabric Moves and Contracts
Researchers are developing a robotic, sensor-embedded fabric that moves and contracts. Such an elastic technology could enable a new class of soft robots, stretchable garments, "g-suits" for pilots or astronauts to counteract acceleration effects, and lightweight, versatile robots to roam alien landscapes...
News: Test & Measurement
Objects in space tend to spin in a way that's totally different from the way they spin on Earth. Understanding how objects are spinning, where their centers of mass are,...
News: Imaging
If joints do no longer work as usual, humans tend to compensate this by unconsciously adapting their motions. In the case of knee arthrosis, or excessive joint wear, they shift the weight to the...
News: Manufacturing & Prototyping
3D Printer Heads to International Space Station
The first 3D printer is soon to fly into Earth orbit, finding a home aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The size of a small microwave, the unit is called Portal. The hardware serves as a testbed for evaluating how well 3D printing and the microgravity of space combine. The soon-to-fly 3D...
News: Photonics/Optics
Researchers Equip Robot with Novel Tactile Sensor
Researchers at MIT and Northeastern University have equipped a robot with a novel tactile sensor that lets it grasp a USB cable draped freely over a hook and insert it into a USB port.
The sensor is an adaptation of a technology called GelSight, which was developed by the lab of Edward Adelson,...
News: Materials
Researchers Control Surface Tension of Liquid Metals
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a technique for controlling the surface tension of liquid metals by applying very low voltages, opening the door to a new generation of reconfigurable electronic circuits, antennas and other technologies. The technique hinges on...
News: Energy
Engineers Prepare Battery Module Swapping Approach for Electric Cars
Imagine being able to switch out the batteries in electric cars just like you switch out batteries in a photo camera or flashlight. A team of engineers at the University of California, San Diego, are trying to accomplish just that, in partnership with a local San Diego...
News: Imaging
'Squid Skin' Metamaterial Yields Vivid Color Display
The quest to create artificial "squid skin" — camouflaging metamaterials that can "see" colors and automatically blend into the background — is one step closer to reality, thanks to a color-display technology by Rice University's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP).
The new full-color...
News: Motion Control
New Algorithm Lets Cheetah Robot Run
Speed and agility are hallmarks of the cheetah: The big predator is the fastest land animal on Earth, able to accelerate to 60 mph in just a few seconds. As it ramps up to top speed, a cheetah pumps its legs in tandem, bounding until it reaches a full gallop.
Now MIT researchers have developed an algorithm...
News: Materials
Untethered Soft Robot Walks Through Flames
Developers from Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have produced the first untethered soft robot — a quadruped that can stand up and walk away from its designers.
The researchers were able to scale up earlier...
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