Communications
New lab working on security shoe sole to ID people
July 23, 2012 4:48 am | by Kevin Begos, Associated Press | News | CommentsCarnegie Mellon University's new Pedo-Biometrics Lab is working to perfect special shoe insoles that can help monitor access to high-security areas, like nuclear power plants or special military bases. The concept is based on research that shows each person has unique feet, and ways of walking. Sensors check on the pressure of feet and the gait, using a computer to compare patterns.
Carbon-based transistors ramp up speed, memory for mobile devices
July 17, 2012 4:05 am | News | CommentsThough smartphones and tablets are hailed as the hardware of the future, their present-day incarnations have some flaws. Most notoriously, low RAM memory limits the number of applications that can be run at one time and quickly consumes battery power. Now, a Tel Aviv University researcher has found a creative solution to these well-known problems.
3D app gives public ability to experience robotic space travel
July 12, 2012 6:49 am | News | CommentsA NASA-created application that brings some of the agency's robotic spacecraft to life in 3D now is available for free on the iPhone and iPad. Called Spacecraft 3D, the app uses animation to show how spacecraft can maneuver and manipulate their outside components.
Naval sensor and software suite hunts down hundreds of boats
July 11, 2012 4:23 am | News | CommentsA vessel hunting system called “Rough Rhino,” sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and deployed aboard U.S. aircraft, ships and partner nation ships operating in waters off the coast of Senegal and Cape Verde, has helped track more than 600 targets since it’s been in operation. The effort has culminated in 24 boardings.
New chip captures power from multiple sources
July 9, 2012 3:56 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsResearchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have taken a step toward battery-free monitoring systems. Previous work focused on the development of computer and wireless-communication chips that operate at extremely low power levels, and on a variety of devices that can harness power from natural light, heat, and vibrations in the environment. The latest development is a chip that could harness all three of these ambient power sources at once.
Communication scheme makes applications 'gracefully mobile'
June 28, 2012 3:35 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsThe Secure Shell, or SSH, is a popular program that lets computer users log onto remote machines. First release in 1995, SSH was designed for an Internet consisting of stationary machines, and it hasn't evolved with the mobile Internet. It also can't handle roaming. Now, a team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchs have developed a new remote-login program called Mosh, for mobile shell, which solves many of SSH's problems.
First single photon source made from silicon
June 27, 2012 10:22 am | News | CommentsIn an important step towards more practical quantum information processing, researchers have demonstrated the first heralded single photon source made from silicon. This source complements two other recently developed silicon-based technologies—interferometers for manipulating the entanglement of photons and single photon detectors—needed to build a quantum optical circuit or a secure quantum communication system.
Dancing robot does more than just “shimi” to the beat
June 26, 2012 12:15 pm | by Jason Maderer and Liz Klipp | News | CommentsShimi, a musical companion developed by Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, recommends songs, dances to the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listener feedback. Powered by an Android phone, the robot is also app-based, meaning it can perform other functions, such as face recognition, based on the type of software programmed for it.
Sifting through a trillion electrons
June 26, 2012 11:36 am | by Linda Vu | News | CommentsModern research tools like supercomputers, particle colliders, and telescopes are generating so much data, so quickly, many scientists fear that soon they will not be able to keep up with the deluge. A team of computer researchers from universities and national laboratories are fighting to keep up, and have recently developed a tool that is able to query a massive 32 TB dataset in just 3 secs.
Researchers develop technique to focus light inside biological tissue
June 26, 2012 8:48 am | News | CommentsImagine if doctors could perform surgery without ever having to cut through your skin. Or if they could diagnose cancer by seeing tumors inside the body with a procedure that is as simple as an ultrasound. Thanks to a technique developed by engineers at the California Institute of Technology, all of that may be possible in the not-so-distant future.
Team develops world's most powerful nanoscale microwave oscillators
June 26, 2012 4:02 am | News | CommentsA team of University of California, Los Angeles researchers has created the most powerful high-performance nanoscale microwave oscillators in the world, a development that could lead to cheaper, more energy-efficient mobile communication devices that deliver much better signal quality.
You are where you email
June 25, 2012 9:16 am | News | CommentsAlthough comparable migration data is available for almost every country of the world, until recently records were incompatible between nations. Information about gender and age was nonexistent. Researchers have now compiled the global flow of millions of e-mails and have discovered global migration trends contained in the data.
SwRI to build eight NASA nanosatellites
June 21, 2012 11:25 am | News | CommentsNASA has selected a team including Southwest Research Institute to develop the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), which will provide better prediction capabilities for extreme weather events, particularly the intensification of hurricanes.
'No-sleep energy bugs' drain smartphone batteries
June 14, 2012 4:20 am | News | CommentsResearchers have proposed a method to automatically detect a new class of software glitches in smartphones called "no-sleep energy bugs," which can entirely drain batteries while the phones are not in use.
Study: Wi-Fi will soon reach its limits
June 11, 2012 6:32 am | News | CommentsWi-Fi is reaching its technical limits. Its efficiency drops significantly in busy surroundings where many different networks and numerous wireless Internet-enabled devices are operating. In some cases, it may even drop to less than 20%.
Mobile technology to fix hand pumps in Africa
June 11, 2012 6:24 am | News | CommentsThousands of families affected by the ongoing drought in East Africa are set to benefit from improved water supplies thanks to innovative mobile technology designed by Oxford University.
Cars to avoid crashes by talking to each other
June 10, 2012 12:32 pm | by Joan Lowy, Associated Press | News | CommentsVehicle-to-vehicle communication, or V2V, will hit roads in the United States this summer. THe government is launching a yearlong, real-world test involving nearly 3,000 cars, trucks, and buses in Ann Arbor, Mich. The vehicles will be equipped to continuously communicate over wireless networks, exchanging information on location, direction and speed 10 times a second. Eventually, more advanced versions of the systems may take control of a car to prevent an accident.
Complex networks, animal or computer, share similar skeletons
June 4, 2012 3:48 am | News | CommentsNorthwestern University researchers are the first to discover that very different complex networks—ranging from global air traffic to neural networks—share very similar backbones. By stripping each network down to its essential nodes and links, they found each network possesses a skeleton and these skeletons share common features, much like vertebrates do.
Students develop prototype device that translates sign language
June 1, 2012 9:12 am | News | CommentsToo often, communication barriers exist between those who can hear and those who cannot. Sign language has helped bridge such gaps, but many people are still not fluent in its motions and hand shapes. Thanks to a group of University of Houston students, the hearing impaired may soon have an easier time communicating with those who do not understand sign language.
BLE RF test solution speeds development of devices
May 31, 2012 9:59 am | News | CommentsAgilent Technologies Inc. announced its Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) test solution on the N4010A wireless connectivity test set was verified by Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) for use with TI's integrated circuits in Bluetooth Smart and Smart-Ready devices.
Unique approach to materials allows temperature-stable circuits
May 31, 2012 4:16 am | News | CommentsSandia National Laboratories has developed a unique materials approach to multilayered, ceramic-based, 3D microelectronics circuits, such as those used in cell phones. The approach compensates for how changes due to temperature fluctuations affect something called the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency, a critical property of materials used in radio and microwave frequency applications.
New telescope to be in South Africa, Australia
May 30, 2012 2:26 pm | by Donna Bryson, Associated Press | News | CommentsSouth Africa and Australia had competed fiercely against each other for the Square Kilometer Array telescope project, which will become the world’s biggest instrument when built. Recently, the consortium overseeing the effort decided to award it to both countries, with South Africa getting the lion’s share of the radio dishes.
Fighting tuberculosis using a modified drink coolery
May 30, 2012 3:49 am | by David Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsTuberculosis (TB), now largely controlled in the industrialized world, remains a stubbornly persistent killer in most of Africa, as well as parts of Asia and South America. The spread of multidrug-resistant strains of TB has slowed progress against the devastating disease, which is estimated to strike more than 10 million people annually. Now a modified soft drink cooler, developed by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's D-Lab, could make a dent in the disease's impact.
U.K. virtual orchestra puts you in conductor's stand
May 23, 2012 7:19 am | by Raphael Satter, Associated Press | News | CommentsSome 37 cameras shot 132 musicians running through the score of Gustav Holst's "The Planets” on the specially-blacked out stage at Watford Colosseum, just outside London, early this year. That footage has been used by a London museum to put the conductor's baton in visitors' hands, allowing guests to direct a virtual orchestra using 3D motion sensors.
Cell network security holes revealed
May 21, 2012 7:59 am | News | CommentsPopular firewall technology designed to boost security on cellular networks can backfire, unwittingly revealing data that could help a hacker break into Facebook and Twitter accounts, a new study from the University of Michigan shows. The researchers also developed an Android app that tells phone users when they're on a vulnerable network.
