Stories

Defying 30 mph gusts and temperatures down to -22 °F, NASA’s new polar rover recently demonstrated that it could operate completely autonomously in one of Earth’s harshest environments.

Under the leadership of the German Aerospace Center, a new system that will lead pilots into the digital world of the 21st century has been tested in flight trials. A single device transmits communications with the ground and via satellite, digitally at high speed. Detailed information, such...

Carnegie Mellon University has developed a method for tracking the locations of multiple individuals in complex, indoor settings using a network of video cameras. The method was able to automatically follow the movements of 13 people within a nursing home, even though individuals sometimes...

Researchers at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), within the framework of PROCODAC-GESMEY project, have participated in the construction of the prototype of a device to harness energy from ocean currents.

A University of Edinburgh study, supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, found that news agencies continue to have an edge over Twitter in breaking news first. Over an 11-week period, researchers compared millions of tweets to the output from major news websites. The study...

The Army is incorporating a new sensor capability into its Apache helicopters. The Apache Sensors Product Office has accepted delivery of the new Modernized Day Sensor Assembly (M-DSA) Laser Rangefinder Designator (LRFD), the first component to be fielded in the Modernized Day Sensor Assembly. The laser...

Fadel Adib and Dina Katabi of MIT have developed Wi-Vi, a new technology that can track moving people through walls and behind closed doors using Wi-Fi signals. It can determine with high accuracy up to three moving objects.

For the first time on the battlefield, maneuver and logistics forces will share situational awareness and messaging, forming a complete and seamless operational picture. The new capability, delivered by integrating the vehicle-based Movement Tracking System (MTS) into the Army's...

The U.S. Army is harnessing the elements to help reduce casualties from sniper attacks on forward operating bases. The U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command's research laboratory and aviation missile and communications-electronics RD&E centers - the Army Research Laboratory...

Exoskeletons often fail to allow the wearer to perform natural joint movements, and are also generally heavy, which causes fatigue. For applications where a person only needs partial gait assistance from a robot, researchers from Harvard University's Wyss Institute researchers are pursuing the use...

Many researchers around the world are seeking ways to “scrub” carbon dioxide from the emissions of fossil-fuel power plants, as a way of curbing the gas that is considered most responsible for global climate change. Most such systems, however, rely on complex plumbing to divert the steam used...

Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a new algorithm that can accurately measure the heart rates of people depicted in ordinary digital video by analyzing imperceptibly small head movements that accompany the rush of blood caused by the heart’s...

A new laser shows what objects are made of and could help military aircraft identify hidden dangers such as weapons arsenals far below. The system, which is made of off-the-shelf telecommunications technology, emits a broadband beam of infrared light. While most lasers emit light of one wavelength, or...

3D printing can now be used to print lithium-ion microbatteries the size of a grain of sand. The printed microbatteries could supply electricity to tiny devices in fields from medicine to communications, including many that have lingered on lab benches for lack of a battery small enough to fit the device, yet...

In 2013, Littelfuse is taking engineers behind the scenes at NASA for a truly unique Exploration & Discovery experience. Speed2Design TechTalk events will be hosted at...

A recent Gartner report suggests that by 2015, half of all computers purchased for children will implement touchscreens rather than the traditional keyboard. Despite their growing popularity, however, touchscreens have some drawbacks with users. Many who need to type, for example, prefer the feel of the...

A new study by Army researchers looks at inserting carbon nanotubes into the structural design of helicopter rotor blades to improve performance. The U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command's research laboratory hopes this approach could lead to the design and...

Tiny unmanned craft — some fly, others dart under the waves — are being developed at the University of Florida. They can spy on hurricanes at close range without getting blown willy-nilly, while sensors onboard collect and send in real time the data scientists need to predict the intensity and...

Thanks to its legs, whose design faithfully reproduces feline morphology, EPFL’s four-legged “cheetah-cub robot” has the same advantages as its model: It is small, light and fast. Still in its experimental stage, the robot will serve as a platform for research in locomotion and biomechanics.

Solar technologies must convert solar energy into electrochemical energy efficiently and on a massive scale. A key to meeting this challenge may lie in the ability to test such energy conversion schemes on the micro-scale.

While researchers have come up with hierarchical structures in the design of new materials, going from a computer model to the production of physical artifacts has been a persistent challenge. Hierarchical structures that give natural composites their strength are self-assembled through electrochemical reactions, a...

In the near future, a buzz in your belt or a pulse from your jacket may give you instructions on how to navigate your surroundings. Think of it as tactile Morse code: vibrations from a wearable, GPS-linked device that tell you to turn right or left, or stop, depending on the pattern of pulses you feel. Such a...

ESPN, which in 2010 announced that it would offer sporting events like World Cup soccer and the NCAA national championship football game in 3-D, now says it will stop doing so this year. Now that the sports giant, one of 3-D TV's initial champions, is abandoning the format, many are wondering if the 3D experiment is over,...

University of California, San Diego engineers have developed new image processing techniques for rapid exploration and characterization of fires by small, Segway-like robotic vehicles.

Reinforcement learning is a technique common in computer science in which a computer system learns how best to solve some problem through trial-and- error. Classic applications of reinforcement learning involve problems as diverse as robot navigation, network administration and automated...

In research that is helping to lay the groundwork for the electronics of the future, University of Delaware scientists have confirmed the presence of a magnetic field generated by electrons which scientists had theorized existed, but that had never been proven until now. The recent findings expand the...

Anyone who has flown in an airplane knows about turbulence, or when the flow of a fluid — in this case, the flow of air over the wings — becomes chaotic and unstable. For more than a century, the field of fluid mechanics has posited that turbulence scales with inertia, and so massive things,...

Today we are pleased to have a guest blog on embedded device security from Alan Grau, president of Icon Labs. In July of 2011, Bloomberg Business Week’s cover story was ”Cyber Weapons: The New Arms Race.” Media reports of cyber-attacks by China on military targets and military contractors are frequent and...