sensors

Some tech just sounds too good to be true. A removable, wireless sensor that adheres to dental enamel and can detect trace amounts of harmful bacteria just might fall into the too-much-information category for the squeamish among us.

But the silk, gold, and graphene-based sensor that looks a bit like a temporary tattoo could play a key role in detecting and treating various diseases and conditions, the developers at Princeton University say.

"This is a real-time, wireless response from a sensor that can be directly interfaced with a variety of biomaterials," principal investigator Michael McAlpine, an assistant professor … Read more

Researchers are tapping into the brain's signals to ease the downsides of multitasking and information overload, a worsening problem in digital lifestyles.

A group of researchers at MIT, Indiana University, and Tufts University last week presented the Brainput computer interface device at last week's Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2012) which explores new human-machine interface designs.

Brainput seeks to address the problem of people getting overloaded when working on machines and to improve people's ability to multitask. It's geared primarily at complex control systems, but its makers say the technique could eventually spill … Read more

In yet another example of the amazing things possible with the Kinect gaming console, filmmakers have combined the depth camera of Kinect with a digital SLR to create a haunting new look in video.

Fellows at Carnegie Mellon University's Studio for Creative Inquiry this week posted video, spotted by The Verge, from a filmmaking workshop which shows some of the potential of this type of 3D imagery.

The sensor in the Kinect console controller scans objects in front of it and determines their distance, allowing it to recognize gestures for playing video games. Fellows James George and Jonathan Minard … Read more

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--An MIT Media Lab project called WristQue offers a way to interact with smart buildings and computers in an unobtrusive way.

Researchers at the Media Lab recently completed the first prototype of WristQue wearable sensor and described some of its potential uses yesterday here.

The first application of the wristband device is to automatically set heating and lighting controls to the wearer's preferences. It could also be used as an interface with public displays in buildings, showing the user personal information, such as a daily calendar, according to PhD student Brian Mayton who is working on the … Read more

An atom-based magnetic sensor the size of a sugar cube has successfully measured human brain activity, a milestone that could ultimately lead to advancing our understanding of a wide range of neurological conditions and diseases, according to researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

We first reported on an earlier iteration of the sensor, which has been in development since 2004, back when the team was first able to use the sensor to track a human heartbeat in 2010.

This week, the researchers report in the journal Biomedical Optics Express that their tiny sensor -- which consists … Read more

Like something out of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" where "Big Brother is watching you," Google is trying to patent technology that could pick up on background noise during mobile-phone calls and then promote related ads.

The title of the patent application is "Advertising Based on Environmental Conditions," and it was first reported today by tech-news site The Next Web. Apparently, the technology will be able to listen in on background noise, like rain, music, or a baseball game, and then serve related ads, such as a spot for an umbrella, a new album, … Read more

Affordable paper sensors aren't exactly new. Think home pregnancy tests. But researchers out of the University of Texas at Austin are pushing (or is it folding?) the envelope with their origami-inspired 3D paper sensor that, thanks to strategic folding, can identify more substances in more complex tests.

Able to be printed at less than a dime a sensor using an ordinary office printer and less than a minute of folding, the origami Paper Analytical Device (which they've dubbed oPAD) "is about medicine for everybody," said Richard Crooks, a chemistry professor who built the sensor with doctoral student Hong Liu, in a school news release.

Liu was first inspired to use origami when he read a paper by Harvard chemist George Whitesides, who is the first to build a 3D microfluidic paper sensor to target biological agents.… Read more

Sigma has radically repriced its SD1 camera, saying manufacturing improvements let it lower the unusual SLR's cost by two-thirds to $3,300.

Sigma introduced the SD1 in 2011 with a premium price of $9,700--chiefly for its Foveon sensor, given that other specifications were ordinary. Although the sensor is small, about the size of those on mainstream SLRs from Nikon and Canon, it has the unusual ability to capture red, green, and blue light values for each pixel, not just a single color as with conventional sensors.

The Foveon design therefore can produce better detail, at least theoretically, … Read more

The image sensor group that beleaguered photography company Eastman Kodak sold last November has been named Truesense Imaging.

Platinum Equity, which bought the Kodak image-sensor group shortly before Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection, announced the new name yesterday.

Getting a name is a cosmetic detail, but it's an important one for a former business group trying to set up shop as a business. The company sells image sensors for industrial and professional applications such as high-end medium-format cameras and video equipment with high frame rates.

"As an independent company, we now have a great opportunity to expand our … Read more