Imaging

Countering the New Threat from the Sky: Advanced IR Imaging Zoom Lenses for C-UAS Systems

This article highlights requirements for an IR imaging C-UAS platform and examines the design of one state-of-the-art lens system for this application. Read on to learn more.

2025 Holiday Gift Guide for Engineers: Tech, Tools, and Gadgets

We here at Tech Briefs want to remedy that toxic part of the holidays. So, we put together a list of terrific gift ideas for anyone — but especially the engineer — in your life.

Manufacturing the World's Tiniest Light-Emitting Diodes

Miniaturization ranks as the driving force behind the semiconductor industry. The tremendous gains in computer performance since the 1950s are largely due to the fact that ever smaller...

3D LiDAR for Improved Rover Traversal and Imagery

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a Space Qualified Rover LiDAR (SQRLi) system that will improve rover sensing capabilities in a small, lightweight package. The new SQRLi package is developed to survive the hazardous space environment and provide valuable image data during planetary and lunar rover exploration. Read on to learn more about it.

Color Filtering Software Enhances Material Strain Analysis

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a technology that can isolate a single direction of tensile strain in biaxially woven material. This is accomplished using traditional digital image correlation (DIC) techniques in combination with custom red-green-blue (RGB) color filtering software. Read on to learn more.

Robotic Skin Allows Tiny Robots to Navigate Complex, Fragile Environments

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a soft robotic skin that enables vine robots that are just a few millimeters wide to navigate convoluted paths and fragile environments. Read on to learn more.

Researchers Discover Breakthrough Materials to Enhance Light-Based Computers

Researchers have been developing computers that deploy light, or photons, rather than electricity to power storage and calculations. These light-based computers...

NASA Mission to Test Organic Electro-Optic Materials in Space

NLM Photonics has confirmed that its patented silicon organic hybrid (SOH) photonic chips, featuring Selerion-HTX™ and JRD1, have successfully arrived at the International...

An AI-Powered Wearable Device to Expedite Wound Healing

A wearable device, a-Heal, designed at the University of California, Santa Cruz, aims to expedite the entire healing process. It uses a tiny camera and AI to detect the stage of healing and deliver treatment in the form of medication or an electric field.

Robotic Skin Allows Tiny Robots to Navigate Complex, Fragile Environments

Researchers have developed a soft robotic skin that enables vine robots a few millimeters wide to navigate convoluted paths and fragile environments. To accomplish...

Product of the Month

See the product of the month: Optical Gaging Products' addition to their SmartScope® 3D Multisensor Metrology systems: SmartScope M130.

New on the Market

See what's new on the market, including Boker’s stamped metal components custom manufactured to fit into developed mold designs; the CRH03 tactical-grade gyroscope from Silicon Sensing Systems; Keysight Technologies' enhanced physical layer compliance test solution for high-definition multimedia interface; and more.

A High-Performance Mid-Infrared Imaging System Without Lenses

Researchers have used the centuries-old idea of pinhole imaging to create a high-performance mid-infrared imaging system without lenses. The new camera can capture extremely clear pictures over a large range of distances and in low light, making it useful for situations that are challenging for traditional cameras.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including a new type of 3D-printed titanium that’s about a third cheaper than commonly used titanium alloys; specially designed metasurfaces — flat devices etched with nanoscale light-manipulating patterns — to act as ultra-thin upgrades for quantum-optical chips and setups; and a handheld slide staining system designed to support medical, research, or environmental monitoring.

New on the Market

See what's new on the market, including the eddyNCDT 3005 from Micro-Epsilon; Instron's new iteration of its Bluehill® Central software platform; Novotechnik U.S.'s TE1 Series of absolute linear position sensors; Specialised Imaging's new high-intensity short duration flash designed to freeze motion in aeroballistic applications; and more.

Novel Flexible Terahertz Camera Can Inspect Objects with Diverse Shapes

A team of researchers from Tokyo Tech, led by Associate Professor Yukio Kawano, has designed a flexible and free-standing THz sensor array that can be used to image blind ends of irregularly shaped objects. Read on to learn more about it.

AI Boosts Super-Resolution Microscopy

Researchers have provided a new open-source algorithm called Conditional Variational Diffusion Model (CVDM). Based on generative AI, this model improves the quality of images by reconstructing them from randomness. In addition, the CVDM is computationally less expensive than established diffusion models — and it can be easily adapted for a variety of applications. Read on to learn more.

Meet SMSPDs: Superconducting Microwire Single-Photon Detectors

Plans are underway to create more powerful particle accelerators, whose collisions will unleash large subatomic storms. How will researchers sift through the chaos? Read on to find out.

Better Images for Humans and Computers

Maksym Kovalenko and his team have proposed a novel solution that allows them to utilize every photon of light for color recognition. For nearly a decade, they have been researching perovskite-based image sensors. In a new study published in Nature, they show that their new technology works. Read on to learn more.

New App Performs Real-Time, Full-Body Motion Capture With a Mobile Device

Northwestern engineers have developed a new system for full-body motion capture — and it doesn’t require specialized rooms, expensive equipment, bulky cameras, or an array of sensors. Instead, it requires a simple mobile device. Read on to learn more.

Meet RoboBall: A Robot with No Fixed Top or Bottom

Two decades after the original idea, RoboBall is rolling across Texas A&M University. The RAD Lab is intent on sending the novel spherical robot into uncharted terrain.

STARLight Project Launches European Value Chain for Silicon Photonics Production

The Silicon Technology for Applications Relying on Light with Photonics Devices (STARLight) project brings together a consortium of leading industrial and...

An AI-Powered Robodog Is Here to Save the Day!

While the average pampered pup at home may lounge on the couch and demand belly rubs, the robotic dogs being created at Arizona State University are stepping up to take on some of the world’s most dangerous tasks.

How Much Do You Know About the History of Television?

Television was king during the second half of the 20th century — what do you know about the history of the technology?

5Ws of the Mini Spectrometer

North Carolina State University engineers have built a tiny spectrometer that is orders of magnitude smaller than current technologies and can accurately measure wavelengths of light from ultraviolet to the near infrared.

A New Computer Vision Method Enables Faster Screening of Electronic Materials

A new computer vision technique developed by MIT engineers significantly speeds up the characterization of newly synthesized electronic materials. The technique automatically analyzes images of printed semiconducting samples and quickly estimates two key electronic properties for each sample. Read on to learn more.