Electronics

The memristor is as fundamental an electronic component as the resistor, the inductor, and the capacitor

The memristor can reversibly change its resistance depending on how much current flows through it. The researchers’ surprising new discovery is that a memristor can handle either data storage or logical computation depending on the amount and duration of the current sent through it. Three memristors can complete a NAND operation, the researchers report, so any Boolean function can be implemented if you string enough of the devices together.Read More

The "Squeeze" miniature track robot fits in tight spaces, and can be used for everything from running network cables - to security applications.Read More

An experimental lithium-air battery developed at MIT offer three times the energy density of standard batteries

Lithium-air battery technology looks to have a big future. With the potential of providing energy densities up to three times that of the conventional lithium-ion batteries found in just about every portable consumer electronics device going around (not to mention the incoming wave of electric vehicles), many companies, including IBM and General Motors are pursuing work on lithium-air batteries. Now researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough that could help make the commercial development of lightweight rechargeable batteries a reality.Read More

Sony's wireless chip connections say goodbye to wires

John Boyd

No matter how much circuitry engineers are able to cram into a semiconductor device, they can't make it work faster than the wires between such devices will allow. That's why Sony's recent development of a wireless alternative is so exciting. Products often employ as many as 1000 pins to connect devices, and those pins take up a lot of space. More than anything, they set the limit on how large an electronic device can be.Read More

Georgia Tech professor Zhong Lin Wang holds an improved nanogenerator containing 700 rows of nanowire arrays

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created the world's first self-powered sensors at the nanometric scale. Tiny generators embedding thousands of nanowires produce electricity whenever the wires are subjected to mechanical strain, and can be used to power microscopic sensors without the need for batteries.Read More

First 3-Axis Digital Gyroscope In A Single Sensor Package

A gyroscope senses any change in an object’s axis of rotation. Up until now, gyroscopes measured movement around the three axes with three sensors—one for pitch, one for yaw, and another for roll. At most, two of these sensors would be combined on a single die. STMicroelectronics unveiled a 4mm x 4mm x 1mm (slightly over 1/4" square) gyroscope whose single sensing structure tracks all three angular motions. It’s a triumph of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) engineering.Read More

CMU Biorobotics Lab Shows Off Its “Unified Snake” Robot Sidewiding, Climbing Up A Pole, and Rolling

Carnegie Mellon University’s Biorobotics Lab shows off their new modular snake robot, Unified Snake. It climbs up a pole, performs rolls, and sidewinds.Read More

Printable RFID tags could replace bar codes to make checking out of a store a snap

Newly developed radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology could usher in the era of checkout line-free shopping. The inexpensive, printable transmitter can be invisibly embedded in packaging offering the possibility of customers walking a cartload of groceries or other goods past a scanner that would read all the items at once, total them up and charge the customer’s account while adjusting the store’s inventory.Read More

GM uses the entire windshield as a heads-up display

GM’s latest heads-up display (HUD) project uses the entire windshield as a display. Small ultraviolet lasers project data gleaned from sensors and cameras onto the glass. General Motors techs are working with researchers from several universities to develop a system that integrates night vision, navigation and on-board cameras to improve our ability to see — and avoid — problems, particularly in adverse conditions like fog.Read More

Super listening device hears, identifies, and locates any sound by measuring 3D movement of air particles

A Dutch firm has developed a tiny device that listens for screams, gunshots, mortars and even warplanes. It doesn't listen in the conventional sense, but instead measures the 3D movement of individual air particles in order to determine the x, y and z coordinates of whatever made the noise in question.Read More