Hasta La Gadget!

Metamaterials are proving to be quite useful for toying with the electromagnetic spectrum, whether for technology previously thought to be the stuff of science fiction, or for boring real-world applications. Engineers at Duke University have come up something that falls more into the latter category: a metamaterial imaging sensor that doesn’t require a lens to generate a picture. The sensor is a flexible copper-plated sheet patterned with small squares that capture various light frequencies all at once, functioning like one big aperture. Add a few circuits with a pinch of software and the sensor-only camera can produce up to ten images per second, but the catch is Duke’s only works at microwave frequencies. Microwave imaging is used plenty, however, and due to its flexibility and lack of moving parts, the sensor could be used to build better integrated, cheaper airport scanners and vehicle collision avoidance technology — making you safer however you choose to travel. Unless you take the train. Then you’re on your own.

Filed under: Misc, Transportation, Science, Alt

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Via: Phys.org

Source: Science, Duke University

Are you eagerly waiting for Disney’s mind-blowing touch technology to become mainstream? You might want to settle for this touch sensor for the meantime. It’s called the EveryTouchFX, a system that’s meant to replace mechanical switches with a hidden touch-based switch.

I think the picture above sums up the magic of EveryTouchFX. The sensor itself is hidden under the rock, but as you’ll see in the video below you can touch just the rock and the sensor will still detect the input. The inventors didn’t elaborate on their technology in their Indiegogo write-up, only that EveryTouchFX is designed to recognize only the electric potential of the human body. It can also detect touch from behind insulation that’s up to 4″ thick. Combine those two capabilities and you can hide the sensor pretty much anywhere.

While it certainly has a lot of decorative and security-related applications, EveryTouchFX has one big drawback: it’s expensive. As of this writing you have to pledge at least $119 (USD) on its Indiegogo fundraiser to get one unit. I wonder if it’s possible to use the MaKey MaKey for the same purpose.

When smartphones are encroaching on compact cameras’ turf, how does a company try to stay relevant making sensors for those cameras? By upping the resolution, of course. Toshiba has given a peek at the TCM5115CL, a 1/2.3-inch, backside-illuminated CMOS sensor that hits 20 megapixels — a big jump from the 16-megapixel sensors in many point-and-shoots and some smartphones. To combat the noise and sensitivity problems that usually come with a denser design, the electronics giant is using pixels that can absorb 15 percent more of a charge, and therefore more light. Toshiba has primed the sensor for high-speed shooting and video as well, with the potential for 1080p video at 60FPS and 30FPS burst shooting at full resolution, provided the processor can keep up. We’re not bracing ourselves for an imminent renaissance among dedicated cameras, however. Mass production doesn’t start until August, which suggests we’re unlikely to have 20-megapixel shooters in our pockets during summer vacation.

Continue reading Toshiba preps 20MP, backside-lit sensor for point-and-shoot cameras

Filed under: Cameras

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Via: Gizmodo

Source: Toshiba

We’re sure that most sniffer dogs would rather be playing fetch than hunting for bombs in luggage. If UC Santa Barbara has its way with a new sensor, those canines will have a lot more free time on their hands. The device manages a snout-like sensitivity by concentrating molecules in microfluidic channels whose nanoparticles boost any spectral signatures when they’re hit by a laser spectrometer. Although the main technology fits into a small chip, it can detect vapors from explosives and other materials at a level of one part per billion or better; that’s enough to put those pups out of work. To that end, the university is very much bent on commercializing its efforts and has already licensed the method to SpectraFluidics. We may see the technology first on the battlefield when the research involves funding from DARPA and the US Army, but it’s no big stretch to imagine the sensor checking for drugs and explosives at the airport — without ever needing a kibble break.

Continue reading UCSB sensor sniffs explosives through microfluidics, might replace Rover at the airport (video)

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: Gizmag

Source: UCSB

You wouldn’t immediately think of the ear’s cochlea as an energy source, but MIT knows that every mammal effectively has a pair of very small power plants because of the ionized environment. School researchers are trying to harness that energy through a new sensor that exploits the whole ear canal system. As eardrum vibrations naturally create a usable voltage from brain signals, the prototype can build enough charge in a capacitor to drive a very low-power wireless transmitter that relays the electrochemical properties of the ear and potentially diagnoses balance or hearing problems. The beauty of the system is its true self-sustainability: once the transmitter has been been jumpstarted with radio waves, it powers itself through the resulting transmissions. Energy use is also sufficiently miserly that the sensor doesn’t interrupt hearing. Work is still early enough that there’s a long way to go before such implants are part of any treatments, but there’s hope that future chip iterations could help fix inner ear maladies, not just report on them. Something tells us, however, that the doctor won’t ask us to take two dubstep tracks and call back in the morning.

Filed under: Wearables, Science, Alt

MIT ear-powered wireless sensor sustains its charge through sound originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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