Consumer Electronics
Prototype provides pedestrian power
May 8, 2013 7:44 am | News | CommentsA group of Rice University mechanical engineering students are getting a charge out of having the coolest new shoes on campus. As their capstone project that is required for graduation, four seniors created a way to extract and store energy with every step. Their PediPower shoes turn motion into juice for portable electronics and, perhaps someday, for life-preserving medical devices.
A text message a day keeps the asthma attack away
May 2, 2013 8:01 am | News | CommentsSimply sending children with asthma a text message each day asking about their symptoms and providing knowledge about their condition can lead to improved health outcomes. In a study, pediatric patients who were asked questions about their symptoms and provided information about asthma via SMS text messages showed improved pulmonary function and a better understanding of their condition within four months.
Physical by smartphone becoming real possibility
May 2, 2013 3:35 am | by LAURAN NEERGAARD - AP Medical Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsIt's not a "Star Trek" tricorder, but by hooking a variety of gadgets onto a smartphone you could almost get a complete physical—without the paper gown or even a visit to the doctor's office. Blood pressure? Just plug the arm cuff into the phone for a quick reading. Heart okay? Put your fingers in the right spot, and the squiggly rhythm of an EKG appears on the phone's screen.
Researchers create shape-shifting mobile devices
April 29, 2013 8:19 am | News | CommentsAt a conference this week in Europe on human-machine interfaces, a research team from the U.K. will introduce the concept of “shape resolution”, which it has used to compare the resolution of six prototypes built using new technologies in shape-changing material, such as shape memory alloy and electro active polymer. One example is the Morphees, a self-actuated flexible mobile device that can change shape on-demand.
Taiwan tech industry faces up to Samsung
April 17, 2013 4:54 am | by ANNIE HUANG - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsTaiwanese companies have long viewed tech giant Samsung as a major threat and the battle has recently appeared to tilt in favor of the South Korean rival as Taiwan's smartphone, memory chip, and display panel makers suffered sagging exports.
Nanoengineered plastic film is the future of 3D on-the-go
April 2, 2013 12:40 pm | News | CommentsDitch the 3D glasses. Thanks to a simple plastic filter, mobile device users can now view unprecedented, distortion-free, brilliant 3D content with the naked eye. This latest innovation from researchers in Singapore is the first ever glasses-free 3D accessory that can display content in both portrait and landscape mode, and measures less than 0.1 mm in thickness.
Apple patents iPhone with wraparound display
March 29, 2013 4:47 pm | by PETER SVENSSON - AP Technology Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsApple is seeking a patent for an iPhone that has a display that wraps around the edges of the device, expanding the viewable area and eliminating all physical buttons. The patent application reveals that Apple has put some thought into a device that takes advantage of a new generation of displays, which don't have to be flat and rigid like today's liquid-crystal displays, or LCDs.
White House: Cell phone unlocking should be legal
March 5, 2013 10:07 am | News | CommentsAn Obama administration adviser says the White House believes smartphone and tablet users should be allowed to unlock their phones and use the devices on the network of their choosing. The administration's opinion on the matter also goes for tablets, since they are becoming similar to smartphones.
Smart “stickers” let you find things by phone
March 1, 2013 10:43 am | by Peter Svensson, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsJimmy Buchheim's Davie, Fla.-based company, Stick-N-Find Technologies, wants to give people a way to find things, whether it's keys, wallets, TV remotes, or cat collars. There's no real trick to sending out a radio signal and having a phone pick it up. That's been done before. What makes Buchheim’s Stick-N-Find practical is a new radio technology known as Bluetooth Low Energy, which drastically reduces the battery power needed to send out a signal.
Companies struggle to popularize mobile money
March 1, 2013 10:25 am | by Peter Svensson, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsAt the world's largest cellphone trade show in Barcelona this week, the 70,000 attendees are encouraged to use their cellphones—instead their keycards—to get past the turnstiles at the door. But very few people took the chance to do that. The process of setting up the phone to act as a keycard proved too much of a hassle. It's a poor omen for an industry that's eager to have the cellphone replace both tickets and credit cards.
College tests fingerprint purchasing technology
February 22, 2013 10:28 am | by Amber Hunt, Associated Press | News | CommentsFuturists have long proclaimed the coming of a cashless society, where dollar bills and plastic cards are replaced by fingerprint and retina scanners. What they probably didn't see coming was its debut not in Silicon Valley but at a small state college in remote western South Dakota. Two shops on the campus are performing one of the world's first experiments in “biocryptology”, a mix of biometrics—using physical traits for identification—and cryptology—the study of encoding private information.
Corrosive behavior? There's an app for that
February 4, 2013 7:53 am | News | CommentsIt may not be as popular as Angry Birds, but the Corrosion iPhone app developed by University of Toronto engineering student Jason Tam is finding a grateful audience among professional engineers and engineering students.
Judge rejects Apple's patent award demands
January 30, 2013 12:58 am | by PAUL ELIAS - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsA federal judge rejected Apple Inc.'s demand to increase the $1.05 billion in damages a jury ordered Samsung Electronics Inc. to pay its fiercest rival in the smartphone market. Late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh also rejected demands from both companies to conduct another trial on different issues over claims that the South Korean company unfairly used technology controlled by Apple to build its iPads and iPhones to market knockoff products.
Cell phone data helps pinpoint source of traffic tie-ups
December 20, 2012 11:36 am | by Denise Brehm, Civil and Environmental Engineering | News | CommentsResearchers tracked traffic in Boston and San Francisco with cell tower and GPS data and analyzed bottlenecks. Their computer analysis suggested a possible strategy for relieving traffic tie-ups: Instead of asking all drivers to reduce their driving during commute hours, target those communities whose drivers contribute most to congestion.
Portable sensors allow smartphone monitoring of exposure to pollution
December 19, 2012 7:52 am | News | CommentsComputer scientists at the University of California, San Diego have built a small fleet of portable pollution sensors that allow users to monitor air quality in real time on their smartphones. The sensors could be particularly useful to people suffering from chronic conditions, such as asthma, who need to avoid exposure to pollutants.
Got food allergies? Test your meal on the spot
December 14, 2012 9:48 am | News | CommentsAre you allergic to peanuts and worried there might be some in that cookie? Now you can find out using a rather unlikely source: your cell phone. A team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles has developed a lightweight device called the iTube, which attaches to a common cell phone to detect allergens in food samples.
New fluorescent lighting won’t flicker, shatter, or burn out
December 3, 2012 8:49 am | News | CommentsA team at Wake Forest University has used a nano-engineered polymer matrix to convert electrical charge charge into light, creating an entirely new bulb based on field-induced polymer electroluminescent technology. Unlike conventional fluorescent bulbs, these new lights will not flicker, hum, or shatter, and they offer a soft, white light.
Home theater gets a boost from “Virtual Sound Ball”
November 6, 2012 11:28 am | News | CommentsA research team in Korea developed a powerful audio rendering technology that reproduces a desired sound field more clearly and accurately. The system, which they call a “Virtual Sound Ball”, establishes a virtual array of loudspeakers and a virtual sound source within that system. Application of acoustical mathematics and a “spatial equalizer” allows the user to more accurately reproduce 3D sound effects with an existing speaker setup.
Robots in the home: Will older adults roll out the welcome mat?
October 26, 2012 10:08 am | News | CommentsRobots have the potential to help older adults with daily activities that can become more challenging with age. But are people willing to use and accept the new technology? A study by the Georgia Institute of Technology indicates the answer is yes, unless the tasks involve personal care or social activities.
New 'ATM' takes old phones and gives back green
September 17, 2012 10:09 am | News | CommentsDeveloped by a company in San Diego, a new automated system that lets consumers trade in cell phones and mobile devices for reimbursement or recycling relies artificial intelliigence and sophisticated machine vision diagnostics. The building blocks for the ecoATM have existed for many years, but none, until now, have been applied to the particular problem of consumer recycling.
Nanoresonators might improve cell phone performance
August 30, 2012 12:56 pm | by Emil Venere | News | CommentsBecause of the proliferation of mobile wireless devices, there is not enough radio spectrum to account for everybody's needs. To counter the problem, industry is trying to build systems that operate with more sharply defined channels so that more of them can fit within the available bandwidth. At Purdue University, the recent invention of nanoelectromechanical resonators may provide the solution.
Liquid crystal film on gold produces ultra-compact color filter
August 29, 2012 7:49 am | News | CommentsFlat panel displays and mobile phones require thin, efficient, and low-cost light emitters, which are typically made from pixels wired to complex electronic circuits. Engineers in Singapore have now developed a display technology that requires a much simpler architecture: a thin perforated gold film with a liquid crystal layer.
3D theater breakthrough eliminates need for glasses
August 24, 2012 5:17 am | News | CommentsTo create modern 3D effects, movie theaters use linearly or circularly polarized light sourced from two projectors that simultaneously display two similar, slightly offset, images. This approach is cumbersome and still needs the help of glasses, so a team of South Korean investigators have refined a parallax barrier method that can be used to create a 3D effect with a single screen.
