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Blog
Tech Needs of the Week

A company is looking for a seasoning, in any form, that delivers the flavor and aroma of potato. This may be accomplished in a powder or a liquid, or in an encapsulation that releases when the right sensor is encountered. The delivery mechanism is open to discussion. The solution should be cost-effective and backed up by...

Blog
Knee Brace

Scientists at the University of Michigan have created a new energy-capturing knee brace that can generate enough electricity from walking to operate a portable GPS locator, cell phone, motorized prosthetic joint, or implanted neurotransmitter. The wearable mechanism works similarly to how regenerative braking charges a battery in...

Blog
Current Attractions

The DASYLab 10 graphical programming software from Measurement Computing (Norton, MA) was named NTB Product of the Month for February. Designed for test and measurement applications, the software is compatible with Microsoft Vista and can be configured as an enhanced Y/t chart, X/Y chart, or data chart recorder. It supports...

Blog
Tech Briefs

An electronics architecture has been developed to enable the rapid construction and testing of prototypes of robotic systems. A system employing this architecture can easily be reconfigured to satisfy various needs with respect to input, output, processing of data, sensing, actuation, and power.

Click here for more info.

Blog
Soils and Landmine Detection

Metal detectors are the most common technique used to search for landmines, many of which reside in the tropics where intensively weathered soils have properties that can limit the performance of metal detectors. To examine the problem, geoscientists at the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geosciences and the Federal...

Blog
Techs of the Week

The use of outdoor wireless access points for services such as Internet access is gaining popularity. At the same time, there is an opportunity for municipalities to improve city lighting operational costs by using lamp management systems. A technology enables the design of a system that achieves advanced lamp management, and...

Blog
Portable Electronics Chip Design

Researchers at MIT and Texas Instruments have unveiled a new chip design for portable electronics that is reportedly up to ten times more energy- efficient than present technology. The design could lead to cell phones, implantable medical devices, and sensors that last far longer on a battery charge.

The...

Blog
Whale Hearing

Researchers from San Diego State University and the University of California used computer models to mimic the effects of underwater noise on an unusual whale species, and discovered a new pathway for sound. Advances in Finite Element Modeling (FEM), computed tomography (CT) scanning, and computer processing have made it possible...

Blog
Current Attractions

Communications and telecommunications are needs that are deeply engrained in human history. These needs have significantly evolved over time, enabling today's content-rich (text, music, images and video), real-time, and multi-location exchanges through electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signals conveyed by different...

Blog
Technology Business Briefs

Seeking Large Diverse Patent Portfolios

500+ patents and ideally addressing different markets. Networking area: DSL, Cable modem, power over ethernet, broadband, audio/video, bandwidth expansion software. Mobile: Mobile infrastructure, applications (imaging, security, commerce). Memory: Flash/solid state....

Blog
Mucosal "Boosters"

Two novel proteins have the potential to enhance the production of antibodies against a multitude of infectious agents. Terry D. Connell, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University at Buffalo New York, developed and patented the LT-IIa and LT-IIb enterotoxins and their respective mutant proteins as new mucosal...

Blog
Tech Needs of the Week

A company wishes to buy US patents in the following general areas:

-Digital cameras and imaging, including CCD, low-light imaging, high-speed imaging, non-visible wavelengths, motion/lighting compensation, and automatic focusing.

-Display technology, including LCD, DLP, OLED, electronic ink, flexible...

Blog
Techs of the Week

A method to join and seal the flow field plate to the gas diffusion layer or the coolant plate of a fuel cell structure eliminates seals and gaskets in the fuel cell assembly. This design potentially achieves considerable cost reduction and simplifies assembly. Eliminating the seal reduces the chance of stack failure due to...

Blog: Physical Sciences
Intermediate-Mass Black Holes

A violent fate awaits a white dwarf star that wanders too close to a moderately massive black hole. According to a new study from the University of California at Santa Cruz, the black hole's gravitational pull on the white dwarf would cause tidal forces sufficient to disrupt the stellar remnant and reignite nuclear...

Blog
Tech Needs of the Week

A company is seeking enhancement to an existing consumer package that saves weight, money, shipping costs, and also preserves the product. Current packaging is cylindrical. The new consumer packaging should convey the qualities of freshness, taste, novelty, and differentiation from other products. It should be able to be...

Blog
Pill Predictions

Researchers at the University of Washington developed a tiny camera designed to take high-quality, color pictures in confined spaces. Such a device could find warning signs of esophageal cancer, the fastest growing cancer in the United States. The scanning endoscope developed at UW consists of just a single optical fiber for...

Blog
Simulating Heat Pump Performance

Air-source heat pumps typically deliver 1 1/2 to three times more heating energy to a home than the electric energy they consume. National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers are working to improve the performance of air-source heat pumps even further by providing engineers with...

Blog
Techs of the Week

A toolkit facilitates quick development of Honeywell Communications Interface (HCI) and OPC-compliant servers. The kit includes a time-out indicator (TOI) feature to overcome situations wherein real-time process control systems become suspended indefinitely or for long time periods. An intermediary object between the client and...

Blog
Computers and Cell Division

Computational biologists at Virginia Tech have mathematically modeled the process that regulates cell division in a common bacterium. The model was developed to confirm hypotheses, provide new insights, and identify gaps in the scientists' understanding of the molecular machinery that governs replication of DNA and...

Blog
Mighty Mouse

Using embryonic stem cells from mice, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center researchers have prompted the growth of healthy, functioning muscle cells in mice afflicted with a human model of muscular dystrophy. This is the first time transplanted embryonic stem cells have been shown to restore function to defective muscles...

Blog
NASA Briefs

The John H. Glenn Research Center has developed a process and benchtop-scale apparatus to detect proteins associated with specific microbes in water. Possible applications include testing of blood and other bodily fluids in medical laboratories, and testing for microbial contamination of liquids. A sample can be prepared and analyzed...

Blog
Tech Needs of the Week

An organization seeks to replace a portion of the starch currently used in its snack foods with protein. While proteins provide the same caloric load as carbohydrates, they are metabolized much more slowly. One potential difficulty is the protein's reaction to heat, which is used to bake or fry many foods. Heat can cause...

Blog
Taming Ebola

The Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever and during outbreaks kills 50 - 90 percent of its human victims. Due to its virulent nature, and lack of vaccines or treatments, scientists studying the agent have had to work under stringent biocontainment protocols, limiting research to a few highly specialized labs and hampering the...

Blog
Optical Fiber

Scientists from the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials in the Department of Physics at the University of Bath in England have discovered a method to cut the production cycle for hollow-core optical fibers from a week to a single day. Initial tests also show that the new optical fiber outperforms other fibers, making it a...

Blog
Carbon Nanopipettes

Engineers and physicians at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a carbon nanopipette thousands of times thinner than a human hair that measures electric current and delivers fluids into cells. The tiny carbon-based tool can probe cells with minimal intrusion and injects fluids without damaging or inhibiting cell...

Blog
Techs of the Week

A modular direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) cartridge and stack design offers flexible assembly, efficiency improvements, and higher performance in methanol fuel cell assemblies. Conductive polymer micro DMFC plates with different flow field designs were evaluated to determine their performance efficiencies. Higher power...

Blog
Silicon Nanowires

Energy lost as heat during the production of electricity could be harnessed through silicon nanowires synthesized via a technique developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley. Scientists believe the technology could produce massive savings on...

Blog
Mapping Tool

Tracking the location of resources such as hospitals, fire stations, transportation equipment, and water during an emergency situation can be life-saving. The Geographic Tool for Visualization and Collaboration (GTVC) was initially developed for military applications, and has recently been modified by the Georgia Tech Research...

Blog
Current Attractions

Each month, NTB highlights tech briefs related to a particular area of technology in a special section known as Technology Focus. Here's an Insider look at the January focus on Sensors.

Webcasts

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On-Demand Webinars: Defense

From Data to Decision: How AI Enhances Warfighter Readiness

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Upcoming Webinars: Aerospace

April Battery & Electrification Summit

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Upcoming Webinars: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Tech Update: 3D Printing for Transportation in 2024

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Upcoming Webinars: Materials

Unleashing Epoxy's Potential: Ensuring Hermetic Sealing in Modern...

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Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement

Building an Automotive EMC Test Plan

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Upcoming Webinars: Aerospace

The Moon and Beyond from a Thermal Perspective

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