Sensors

‘Impossible’ Millimeter Wave Sensor Has Wide Potential

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have developed a proof-of-concept sensor that may usher in a new era for millimeter wave radars. They call its design a “mission impossible” made possible. Read on to learn more.

Ultra-Sensitive Lead Detector Could Improve Water Quality Monitoring

Engineers have developed an ultra-sensitive sensor made with graphene that can detect extraordinarily low concentrations of lead ions in water. The device achieves a record limit of detection of lead down to the femtomolar range, which is one million times more sensitive than previous sensing technologies. Read on to learn more.

Smart Full-Body Fitness Tracking

With the new Smart Connected Sensors platform from Bosch Sensortec, you can track more than just steps. You can program complex whole-body movements and accurately track them during physical workouts or while you are going through a rehabilitation or physical therapy regimen. Read on to learn more.

Machine Monitoring Enables Control of Cutting Forces

Reliable machine monitoring yields valuable real-time insights into ongoing processes; it is the basis for dependable, productive, and reproducible manufacturing and it helps machine operators to reach well-founded decisions on both short- and long-term improvements. Read on to learn more about it.

Optimizing Fluid Sensors for Industrial Process Measurement

When processing pharmaceutical products, how do you tell if a fluid is of high quality? If you are working with crude oil, how do you know how much you are extracting? If you are transporting water, how do you know the flow rate? Such questions, which impact confidence and bottom lines for water, food, life sciences, and oil and gas companies, are addressed by the manufacturers of flowmeters that are installed in pipelines and other equipment. Read on to learn more.

A New System for Shape and Contact Detection of Continuum Robots

The sensing and control principles used in this framework could lead to new tactile sensors that can be attached to any existing robotics system, offering new sensing and control paradigms for safe human-robot interaction without altering the robot’s original design. Read on to learn more.

Butterfly-Inspired AI Technology

Professor Saptarshi Das and his team at Penn State University learned that when it comes to mating, two things matter for Heliconius butterflies: the look and the smell of their potential partner. This led them to think about how multiple sensory inputs could enable more efficient use of AI.

Autonomous Aerial Robots Prioritize Rooms in Multiroom Exploration

An estimated 100 earthquakes worldwide cause damage each year. This damage includes collapsed buildings, downed electrical lines and more. For first responders, assessing...

Unique Amplifier Could Change Optical Communication

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have developed an optical amplifier that they expect will revolutionize both space and fiber communication.

Smart Glove Can Boost Hand Mobility of Stroke Patients

A new groundbreaking “smart glove” is capable of tracking the hand and finger movements of stroke victims during rehabilitation exercises. The glove incorporates a sophisticated network of highly sensitive sensor yarns and pressure sensors that are woven into a comfortable stretchy fabric. Read on to learn more about the smart glove.

Modified VR Tech to Measure Brain Activity

A research team created a noninvasive electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor that was installed in a Meta VR headset that can be worn comfortably for long periods. The EEG measures the brain’s electrical activity during the immersive VR interactions. Read on to learn more.

Wearable Sensors Detect Pathogens, Toxins

Researchers have developed a method to detect bacteria, toxins, and dangerous chemicals in the environment with a biopolymer sensor that can be printed like ink on a wide range of materials — including wearables. Read on to learn more.

Rapidly Testing Stretchable Sensors

Engineers have developed a new technique for making wearable sensors that enables medical researchers to prototype and test new designs much faster and at a far lower cost than existing methods. Read on to learn more.

Videos of the Month

See the videos of the month, including one on ETH’s student-built drone, which will operate free of external and visible propellers; one on a soft robotic hand that combines vision, motor-based proprioception, and soft tactile sensors to identify, sort, and pack a stream of unknown objects; one on the Environmental Toolkit for Expeditionary Operations; and one on how integrating AI into robotic systems can enhance their capabilities and enable them to perform more complex tasks.

Analysis and Simulation of Low-Light INL in CMOS Image Sensors

Conventional sources of INL are well understood, but as pixel array resolution has increased and ADC pitch has consequently been reduced, additional array sources of nonlinearity have become prominent. Read on to learn more.

Researchers Develop New and Improved Camera Inspired by the Human Eye

The camera mimics the involuntary movements of the human eye to create sharper, more accurate images for robots, smartphones, and other image-capturing devices. Read on to learn more about it.

Researchers Use Inkjet Printing to Make a Portable Multispectral 3D Camera

The palm-sized light field camera could improve autonomous driving, classification of recycled materials, and remote sensing. Read on to learn more about it.

Ultra-Narrowband Optical Filters Pushing Boundaries from the UV to the LWIR

Developments in ultra-narrow manufacturing capabilities enable transformative, world-changing, technology. Read on to learn how boundaries are being pushed.

Robot Planning Tool Accounts for Human Carelessness

A new algorithm may make robots safer by making them more aware of human inattentiveness.

Rise of Robots in the Food Industry

From food packaging to preparation and delivery to serving in restaurants, robots are helping the food industry meet labor shortages and reduce costs. When did robots debut in the food industry and what’s their future? Take this quiz to find out.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including the Third Thumb, an extra robotic thumb aimed at increasing the wearer’s range of movement; a way to display full-color, 3D moving images over a direct view of the real world; and an adjustable filter that can successfully prevent interference, even in higher-frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Unique Datapath Architecture Yields Real-Time Computing

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed and successfully flight tested a high-performance computing platform, known as the Descent and Landing Computer (DLC), to suit the demands of safe, autonomous, extraterrestrial spacecraft landings for robotic and human exploration missions.

Event Sensors Are Changing the Paradigm in Machine Vision

Event-based vision is well on its way to establishing itself as a paradigm that will create a new standard in many markets requiring efficiency in how machines can see. Over the past several years, it has successfully evolved to meet a wider range of uses. And by continuing to adapt and address the requirements of many applications, we will see more event-based cameras all around us.

Tactile Sensing Strategy Enables Accurate Object Detection

Researchers from Tsinghua University worked to break through the difficulties of robotic recognition of various common, yet complex, items. Read on to learn more.

New Products

See the new products, including Asahi Kasei Microdevices Corporation's CZ39 series of coreless current sensors, Bourns, Inc.'s latest miniature resettable thermal cutoff device series, Orion S.A.'s range of high-performance conductive additives that improve Li-ion battery performance, and Littelfuse, Inc.'s newest member of its eFuse Protection IC lineup, the LS0502SCD33S.

The Impact of Fast Charging on the EV Charging Chain

With fast charging becoming more common, precise and reliable temperature sensing across the charging chain will remain critical even as battery technologies evolve. Read on to learn why.

New Technique Pinpoints Nanoscale ‘Hot Spots’ in Electronics

When electronic devices like laptops or smartphones overheat, they are fundamentally suffering from a nanoscale heat transfer problem. Pinpointing the source of that problem...