Hasta La Gadget!

University of Michigan researchers have created a new material that detects infrared light. The super-thin material can be integrated with different devices such as cell phones or placed on top of contact lenses to allow users to see in the dark. The material, graphene, is a single layer of carbon atoms that can sense the whole infrared spectrum.

Zhaohui Zhong, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, is the lead researcher on the project said; ”Our work pioneered a new way to detect light. We envision that people will be able to adopt this same mechanism in other material and device platforms. If we integrate it with a contact lens or other wearable electronics, it expands your vision. It provides you another way of interacting with your environment.”

Most devices with “night vision” now require a  built in cooling unit in order for it to work properly. A huge advantage to this material is that it works at room temperature, no bulky cooling device needed. We can’t wait to see where this takes technology in the future. Rock on science.

The prevalence of head injuries is the dark side of football. Now a University of Michigan engineering lab is installing sensors inside helmets which can help measure impact and spot potential brain injuries that might go undetected.

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Photography is getting easier thanks to cameras that are able to better evaluate and automatically choose the best settings for a given scene. But photo editing, that’s still a bit of a mystery to most amateur photographers. So Adobe—the makers of Photoshop—are working with the University of Michigan to develop an extremely intelligent photo editing app that simply does what you tell it to do. More »

Systems such as the ColecoVision, TurboGrafx-16 and 3DO may have been ousted from most home entertainment centers long ago, but they still have shelf space at the University of Michigan’s Computer and Video Game Archive. Slashdot caught up with Engineering Librarian and Video Game Archivist Dave Carter and took a look inside the repository, which has curated around 35 classic and current-gen platforms and more than 3,000 different games. Having “one of everything” is the project’s ultimate goal, but the logistics of acquiring every new game make achieving that feat a stretch. “Our realistic goal is to be sort of representative of the history of video games, what was important — what was interesting,” Carter said. “And then, not only to preserve the games, but also to preserve the game playing experience.” As a “useable archive,” patrons of UM’s library can dig in and play at different stations with era-appropriate monitors and displays. While many visit for leisure, students have used the resource to research topics ranging from music composition to the effects of texting while driving (using an Xbox 360 racing title and steering wheel peripheral, of course). You can catch a glimpse of the collection in the video below or visit the archive’s blog at the more coverage link.

Continue reading University of Michigan’s Computer and Video Game Archive houses over 3,000 different games, roughly 35 unique consoles (video)

Filed under: Gaming, Alt

University of Michigan’s Computer and Video Game Archive houses over 3,000 different games, roughly 35 unique consoles (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 20:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Believe it or not, EV battery life is still something of a Pandora’s Box, even for automakers: they can tell you the battery pack’s current and voltage, but not how it’s really performing under pressure. Ford, GE and the University of Michigan are uniting to unlock that mystery through a new ARPA-E project. In its role, GE is developing a minuscule sensor array that will track the nuances of battery cells that existing technology misses; it will promptly hand the baton to researchers at the University of Michigan, who plan to both prove that GE’s data is on the mark as well as develop tricks for predicting behavior. Ford handles the last mile, almost literally: it’s planning to fit the GE sensor technology to one of its cars and test in a more realistic environment. Before you fantasize about knowing the lifespan of your Focus Electric’s battery down to the minute, however, the new alliance is stressing that it’s only just getting started — there’s another three years and $3.1 million to go before the project wraps up. If all goes according to plan, though, we’ll have electric cars and plug-in hybrids that can not only tell when they’ve seen better days but can eke out extra miles through smarter battery designs.

Continue reading Ford, GE and University of Michigan team up on sensor to track EV battery life, keep us on the road

Filed under: Transportation

Ford, GE and University of Michigan team up on sensor to track EV battery life, keep us on the road originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 12:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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