origami

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

We first covered the 4Moms Origami stroller way back in 2008. The $850 high-tech pram is finally set to arrive in January, with preorders currently under way.

The Origami isn't for parents who are into old-fashioned baby bonnets and bassinets. It's for parents who have purchased slobber-proof iPhone cases and Star Trek bibs for their little geeky angel. (The promo video features raunchy rock and roll music, in case you were still wondering about the target audience.)… Read more

DNA molecules are not merely carriers of information. They are also highly stable and programmable, which is why researchers have been working so feverishly on a design strategy called DNA origami.

And now a team at MIT is developing a program that makes the game playable by more than just a select few.

DNA origami--constructing specific 2D and 3D shapes out of DNA strands--could prove to be a highly effective means of developing nanoscale tools, such as synthetic photocells that perform artificial photosynthesis and highly targeted drugs (think of sending a cancer drug to hunt down a specific tumor).

But it's still young. Paul Rothemund of CalTech first introduced DNA origami in 2006 (thereby making the cover of Nature and delivering a TED Talk showing tiny DNA smiley faces), and William Shih's lab at Harvard Medical School was able to up the game from 2D to 3D a few years later.

The result is that today a small number of brilliant and highly specialized minds are bent over a nanoscale game of origami, playing with various sequences to try to build specific shapes for specific tasks. Imagine a room of highly sophisticated gamers playing with building blocks in a world without Tetris; if they had the game, they'd be able to work faster.… Read more

Even origami--that centuries-old art of folding paper into delicate shapes--isn't safe from the cold, metal hand of robotics. Thanks to scientists at Harvard and MIT, programmable electronic sheets can now fold themselves into a cute little boat or plane that virtually any origami aficionado could appreciate.

Why would the brilliant minds at two of the nation's top universities concern themselves with the likes of origami? The technology behind the self-folding sheets, they say, could lead to all sorts of shape-shifting devices, including "smart" cups that adjust themselves based on the amount of liquid needed, or Swiss Army knife-type devices that could transform themselves into tools like wrenches and tripods.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) helped fund the research, which suggests the multitasking material could hold promise for military applications where space--and free hands--are limited.

The researchers, who detail their work this week in an online issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, constructed the thin and flexible sheets from a composite of rigid tiles and elastomer joints.

Their material, which they call "programmable matter by folding," is studded with thin foil actuators. The sheets are made up of interconnected triangular sections with universal crease patterns; triggering the right actuator groups in sequence leads the sheets to fold themselves into a given shape. … Read more

The technology icon stands before a crowd, holding in his hands a prototype that embodies his vision for the future of computing. It's a touch-screen tablet that is thinner than a magazine, has all-day battery life, and sells for less than $800.

But the icon wasn't Steve Jobs and the tablet wasn't the iPad. It was Bill Gates, speaking in 2005 to a crowd of Windows hardware makers in Seattle. The technology enabling such a device was still a few years off, Gates said, but it was time to start working toward that vision.

A year later, … Read more

Surely, there are going to be some people beating their heads against a wall in Redmond today.

After a decade of pursuing the notion of a tablet computer for consumers, it now appears possible, if not likely, that Apple will be the one that gets credit--and the revenue--for making the product mainstream.

Although PC makers have been selling tablet-shaped computers for years, the idea has caught on mainly in niche business markets like health care and transportation, rather than as a device for the average Joe.

But that's not to say Microsoft hasn't been trying. Bill Gates first talked about the idea of a Tablet PC … Read more

Matthew T. Mason, director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, has won an award for his "pioneering contributions to the fundamental understanding of the mechanics of robotic manipulation and to graduate education in robotics."

The Robotics and Automation Society, which bestowed Mason with its annual Pioneer Award, is part of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE). So while the monetary prize for the lifetime achievement award is only $2,000, a lot of prestige comes with the plaque he was given over the weekend.

Mason's body of work includes robotic juggling, legless robotic … Read more

You may not need help determining if the beverage you are drinking is hot or cold, but some people might. Luckily, these coasters will tell you just what you need to know: red for hot, blue for cold. A light encapsulated inside the coaster changes to the appropriate color depending on the temperature of your drink.

Empirical evidence shows that there is a great need for temperature awareness in today's modern world. For example, we have specially designed beer packaging that tells us when the beer is cold (hint: it's when the mountains turn blue). And of course, … Read more

Amazon is quickly joining the FCC and U.S. Patent Office as a source for tech product leaks. Case in point: This morning the long-awaited HTC Shift showed up for preorder on the retail site, spoiling the company's plans to officially release the product Monday.

The device itself defies easy categorization; it could be described as either a larger OQO Model 02 or as a Samsung Q1 Ultra with a keyboard. Essentially, the HTC Shift is a small Vista tablet with built-in CDMA connectivity. About the size of a DVD case (though a tad thicker), the Shift weighs just … Read more