mit

MIT produces fibers that can speak, hear

The walls have ears, the saying goes--but at some point, so might people's clothes. With the help of fiber research at MIT, fabrics of the future could both hear and make noises.

Yoel Fink, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues developed fibers that are active where most are passive. Specifically, through a new application of widely used technology called piezoelectrics, fibers can convert sound waves into an electrical signal and vice versa, MIT announced Monday.

Piezoelectric speakers have been around for a long time--beeping digital watches and those musical greeting cards use them, … Read more

Borders launches its eBook store

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Borders launches its eBook store with reader programs for Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and AndroidTwitter launches @earlybird to help advertisers push out limited-time deals and discountsHollywood director Kevin Macdonald and producer Ridley Scott are accepting YouTube video submissions on July 24 to turn into a documentaryBest Buy now has its own broadband serviceA project out of MIT lets you mouse around your computer mouselessly

This mouse isn't just cordless, it's Mouseless

Mouseless is a project by Pranav Mistry of the MIT Fluid Interfaces Group. He calls it an "invisible computer mouse" that creates the feeling of using a mouse without actually having a physical device. This is achieved via an infrared beam and sensor, which will help detect the hand's position. So all that's left for the user to do is move a cupped hand as if it were holding a mouse and the system will detect its movement and clicks.

This is a research project, so we won't get to try it out unless it … Read more

Eye exams using a mobile phone

Researchers at the school for really smart people, MIT, have come up with a novel way to conduct eye exams--looking into your mobile phone screen. With some custom software and a small plastic device, this can be done very inexpensively, making it possible for people in poverty-stricken countries to get prescriptions quickly.

According to MIT News, the system could be implemented like this:

In its simplest form, the test can be carried out using a small, plastic device clipped onto the front of a cell phone's screen.

The patient looks into a small lens, and presses the phone's … Read more

Researchers hope to build autonomous 'Batmobile'

If you think the Batmobile is just something from the movies or comic books, researchers at MIT and Harvard University want to change your mind.

As part of a long-term project, the researchers are working on developing a computer that they hope could one day mimic the visualization systems of the human brain. And while there could be many practical applications for such research, one of the sexiest is a potential autonomous vehicle that could use its visualization acumen to navigate roadside dangers or impassable terrain.

According to Nicolas Pinto, a Ph.D. student specializing in brain visualization research at … Read more

Biochemist wins $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize

The 2010 Lemelson-MIT Prize has gone to a pioneer in something most Americans have likely never heard of but that might one day save their lives: glycobiology.

Carolyn Bertozzi, the T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California at Berkeley, has won the prestigious $500,000 award. Her biotechnology breakthroughs have applications in new types of anticancer drugs and in imaging nanotechnology used for detection and diagnosis of cancer cells, the Lemelson-MIT Program announced Wednesday.

Glycobiology is roughly the study of glycans, also known as complex … Read more

MIT plugs 'living lab' in energy efficiency

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is out to prove that green buildings don't have to be all that high tech.

MIT and utility Nstar on Wednesday announced an energy efficiency initiative to cut its electricity usage by 15 percent over the next three years. If met, the reduction will be 34 million kilowatt-hours, or about the same as 4,500 homes in Massachusetts in a year.

The efficiency push, which MIT hopes will be a model for other institutions, is an offshoot of the MIT Energy Initiative launched five years ago, which has helped make MIT a … Read more

MIT gestural gloves bring back the '80s

Somewhere in your closet there's a pair of gloves straight out of "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo." Well, if you dust them off and fire up your Webcam, you'll have the beginnings of a nifty gestural interface system, thanks to research at MIT.

Robert Wang of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory designed a gestural system that tracks a pair of rainbow-colored Lycra gloves to be used with a standard Webcam. The gloves, which cost only a dollar to manufacture, can be used to manipulate virtual objects such as blocks or even complex machinery models (… Read more

Airplane design could use 70 percent less fuel

Researchers at MIT say they have come up with designs for a new generation of commercial aircraft that could use as much as 70 percent less fuel than today's airliners.

As part of a $2.1 million NASA grant, the MIT-led team said that its designs for a so-called "N+3" airplane--meaning three generations beyond today's airplanes--could leverage new technologies like advanced airframe configurations and propulsion systems and could deliver the 70 percent fuel savings by around 2035.

In a release, Ed Greitzer, an aeronautics and astronautics professor at MIT, said that meeting NASA's criteria for new, highly-efficient aircraft designs would require a "radical change" from the current aviation paradigm. That's mainly because airplanes largely have the same design today as they've had for the last 50 years--an "easily recognizable 'tube and wing' structure of an aircraft's wings and fuselage."

But Greitzer's team crafted two designs that could upend the traditional airplane paradigm. One is a 180-passenger D "double bubble" series, which could eventually replace the Boeing 737 that is used for so much domestic travel; and the 350-passenger H "hybrid wing body" series, which could take the place of the popular Boeing 777 used for many international flights. … Read more

High-tech cement maker wins top MIT award

Nanoengineered cement beat out a handful of other technologies in this year's MIT Entrepreneurship Competition, earning its creators a $100,000 prize.

C-Crete Technologies, which created a new type of cement that cuts down on carbon dioxide emissions and yet is stronger than any current cement, took home the top prize Wednesday night from the awards ceremony on MIT's campus in Cambridge, Mass. A panel of judges composed of fellow entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and industry executives chose C-Crete as the winner based on the execution of its business plan and presentation.

"For many years, the world has … Read more