Sensors/​Data Acquisition

Smart Soft Sensor Improves Human-Robot Interaction

A new soft sensor developed by UBC and Honda researchers opens the door to a wide range of applications in robotics and prosthetics. When applied to the surface of a prosthetic arm or a robotic limb, the sensor skin provides touch sensitivity and dexterity, enabling tasks that can be difficult for machines such as picking up a piece of soft fruit.

Building More Dexterous Robots

MIT researchers have developed a camera-based touch sensor that is long, curved, and shaped like a human finger. Their device provides high-resolution tactile sensing over a large area. The sensor, called the GelSight Svelte, uses two mirrors to reflect and refract light.

Powerful Sensors for the Eye

An implantable sensor detects direct dynamic pressure in the eye and transmits high-fidelity data.

Use SLEAP to Track Sheep — or any Other Animal

The desire to understand how the brain generates and patterns behavior has driven rapid methodological innovation in tools to quantify natural animal behavior.

AI Yields ‘Athletically Intelligent’ Robotic Dog

Someday, when quakes, fires, and floods strike, the first responders might be packs of robotic rescue dogs rushing in to help stranded souls. These battery-powered quadrupeds would use...

Finger-Shaped Sensor Enables More Dexterous Robots

Imagine grasping a heavy object, like a pipe wrench, with one hand. You would likely grab the wrench using your entire fingers, not just your fingertips. Sensory receptors in your skin,...

An Ingestible Sensor for Diagnosing GI Motility Disorders

Engineers have demonstrated an ingestible sensor whose location can be monitored as it moves through the digestive tract, an advance that could help doctors more easily diagnose gastrointestinal motility disorders such as constipation, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and gastroparesis.

Quantum-Limit-Approaching Chemical Sensing Chip

Study shows improvements to chemical sensing chip that aims to quickly and accurately identify drugs and other trace chemicals.

Laser Attack Blinds Autonomous Vehicles, Deleting Pedestrians and Confusing Cars

Research reveals that expertly timed lasers shined at an approaching LIDAR system can create a blind spot in front of the vehicle.

This MEMS Scanning Mirror Could Solve LiDAR’s Expensive Autonomous Vehicle Challenges

Omnitron Sensors Co-founder and CEO Eric Aguilar has developed a key component for LiDARs featured in autonomous vehicles, based on his experience working with LiDAR in a variety of past roles with some of the world’s largest technology providers and manufacturers.

Robotic Prosthetic Ankles Improve ‘Natural’ Movement, Stability

Robotic prosthetic ankles that are controlled by nerve impulses allow amputees to move more “naturally,” improving their stability, according to a new study from North...

AI Copilot Enhances Human Precision for Safer Aviation

Imagine you're in an airplane with two pilots, one human and one computer. Both have their “hands” on the controllers, but they're always looking out for different things. If...

The Next Frontier in Neurology

A new technology offers a minimally invasive option for neurology while improving patient outcomes.

New Wearable Sensor Makes Continuous Analysis of Sweat Possible

Continuous monitoring of sweat can reveal valuable information about human health, such as the body’s glucose levels. However, wearable sensors previously developed for this...

Researchers Wire Up Individual Graphene Nanoribbons

Researchers have developed a method of “wiring up” graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), a class of one-dimensional materials that are of interest in the scaling of microelectronic devices....

Analog and Digital: Best of Both Worlds in One Energy-Efficient System

We live in an analog world of continuous information flow that is both processed and stored by our brains at the same time, but our electronic devices process...

NASA Engineers Help Create a Virtual World of Data

NASA engineers have been trying to improve data visualization for decades. Their research, experience, and patents lead to a new method of exploring and visualizing data in VR.

Air Monitor Can Detect COVID-19 Variants in Five Minutes

By combining recent advances in aerosol sampling technology and an ultrasensitive biosensing technique, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have created a real-time monitor that can detect any of the SARS-CoV-2 virus variants in a room in about five minutes.

Micro-Device Detects Bacteria and Viruses

Researchers were able to successfully isolate bacteria from various fluids with a microparticle-based matrix filter. The filter trapped particles in small voids in the device, providing a larger concentration of bacteria for analysis.

Easy, Accurate, Low-Cost Detection of Fluoride in Water

Researchers from Northwestern University have collaborated on the implementation of an accurate, low-cost, and easy-to-use test for detecting toxic levels of fluoride in water. The new biosensor device has been field tested in Kenya.

New Technology Offers Better Diagnosis of Dizziness

The vibrating device uses bone-conducted sounds to achieve better results.

Calculation of Unsteady Aerodynamic Loads Using Fast-Response Pressure-Sensitive Paint

NASA Ames has developed a new state-of-the-art method for measuring fluctuating aerodynamic-induced pressures on wind tunnel models using unsteady Pressure Sensitive Paint (uPSP).

New Products

See the new products, including Thine Electronics' serial transceiver, EBE Elektro-Bau-Elemente GmbH's level sensor, Melexis' ToF sensor, IQE's microLED display, and more.

Capturing the Movements of Dancers Has Wide Applications

Praneeth Namburi is a research scientist at the MIT.nano Immersion Lab. One project that bridges the physical and digital worlds uses VR simulations to train people to fabricate computer chips and semiconductors.

Silicon Nose: Small Sensor ‘Smells’ Incipient Seizures

In people with epilepsy, seizure-alert dogs can smell small changes in body chemistry and warn of an impending seizure an hour or more before it occurs. Inspired by this feat of nature, a team of researchers has developed a way to replicate that ability with technology.

Wireless Sensor Networking for the IIoT

The Industrial Internet of Things — sharing, collecting, and analyzing information across a complete manufacturing enterprise — can significantly enhance the bottom line. Not only in monetary terms but also in the quality and reliability of the products and the ability to deliver them on time.