Feature Channels: Technology

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Anyone who has used an automated airline reservation system has experienced the promise – and the frustration – inherent in today’s automatic speech recognition technology. When it works, the computer “understands” that you want to book a flight to Austin rather than Boston, for example. Research conducted by Binghamton University’s Stephen Zahorian aims to improve the accuracy of such programs.

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Just as the path of photons of light can be directed by a mirror, atoms possessing a magnetic moment can be controlled using a magnetic mirror. Research reported in the Journal of Applied Physics investigates the feasibility of using magnetic domain walls to direct and ultimately trap individual atoms in a cloud of ultracold atoms.

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A new optical imaging technique described in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments holds the potential to greatly improve angioplasty, a surgery commonly performed to treat patients with a partially or completely blocked coronary artery that restricts blood flow to the heart.

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A physician or nurse making rounds can locate and page through a 200-page handbook listing possible adverse events that may occur to children in a clinical trial, or can instead store all the information in a 4-ounce iPhone.

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Researchers at the University of Cincinnati Nanoelectronics Laboratory are actively pursuing an alternative approach for low-power displays and hope to provide details about what's ahead for display technology. Their assessment appears in the American Institute of Physics' Applied Physics Letters.

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Today’s college students were raised with a digital mouse in their hands. So it should be no surprise that a majority of medical school students surveyed say video games and virtual reality environments could help them become better doctors.

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Researchers have demonstrated the first plastic computer memory device that utilizes the spin of electrons to read and write data. So-called “spintronics” could store more data in less space, process data faster, and consume less power.

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Researchers have taken one more step toward understanding the unique and often unexpected properties of graphene, a two-dimensional carbon material that has attracted interest because of its potential applications in future generations of electronic devices.

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Advances being made to explore outer space using solar sails were discussed by the more than 60 scientists from 12 nations who attended the Second International Symposium on Solar Sailing (ISSS 2010) held recently at New York City College of Technology (City Tech) in Downtown Brooklyn.

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Superconducting materials, which transmit power resistance-free, are found to perform optimally when high- and low-charge density varies on the nanoscale level, according to research performed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Wielding two claws, a motor and a swinging tail, a small robot scrambles up a carpeted, 8-foot wall in just over 15 seconds – the first such robot designed to climb efficiently and move like human rock climbers or apes swinging through trees.

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Biochemists and computer scientists at the University of Washington two years ago launched an ambitious project harnessing the brainpower of computer gamers to solve medical problems. Results published this week in the journal Nature show more than 55,000 players have played protein-folding Tetris, and beat the world's most powerful computers on problems that required radical moves, risks and long-term vision.

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A new draft report from NIST discusses the challenge of maintaining information system security throughout a system's life cycle, and provides an array of practices designed to help mitigate supply chain security risks.

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Green laser pointers have become a popular consumer item, delivering light that's brighter to the eye than red lasers, but stories have circulated on the Web about the potential hazards of inexpensive models. Now, a team at NIST has found that in some cases green laser pointers emit high levels of invisible and potentially dangerous infrared light.

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Researchers at JILA have demonstrated the use of infrared laser light to quickly and precisely heat the water in "nano bathtubs" -- tiny sample containers -- for microscopy studies of the biochemistry of single molecules and nanoparticles.

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For the past four years, NIST has been conducting detailed performance evaluations for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of two-way, real-time, voice-translation devices designed to improve communications between the U.S. military and non-English speakers in foreign countries.

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A team of scientists, middle-schoolers and software developer have partnered with Wake Forest University to create an educational video game that has gone toe-to-toe with some of the best shoot-‘em-up games out there, winning rave reviews from gamers worldwide.

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Tougher than a bullet-proof vest yet synonymous with beauty, silk is a masterpiece of nature so far unmatched in the lab. In the July 30, 2010, issue of Science, Tufts University biomedical engineers report that success unraveling silk's secrets is taking this material from textiles to high-tech, with advances in medicine, electronics and optics.

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Computer scientists from the University of California, San Diego broke “the terabyte barrier” – and a world record – when they sorted more than one terabyte of data (1,000 gigabytes or 1 million megabytes) in just 60 seconds.

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Imagine building cheaper electronics on a variety of substrates -- materials like plastic, paper, or fabric. Researchers at Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University have made a discovery that opens this door, allowing them to build electronic components like diodes on many different substrates.

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In recent years, the tragic story of mine accidents has been retold many times in international headlines. But thanks to the work of Ryerson University researcher Xavier Fernando, countless miners’ lives could be saved in the future with state-of-the-art technology that makes wireless communication possible deep within the Earth’s crust.

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Weizmann Institute scientists have invented a unique device, based on sniffing, that permits disabled persons to navigate wheelchairs and communicate. Sniffing technology is being investigated for other uses as well, such as a “third hand” for surgeons or pilots.

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Whether you’re heading back to school this September, or busy building a career as a videographer, graphic designer or IT specialist, or already in a top job in the computing field, one thing is clear: fast, robust storage solutions should be on the top of your want list.

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The annual study of the impact of the Internet on Americans by the Center for the Digital Future found that 49 percent of Internet users said they have used free micro-blogs such as Twitter. But when asked if they would be willing to pay for Twitter, zero percent said yes.

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To many big companies, you aren’t just a customer, but are described by multiple “dimensions” of information within a computer database. Now, a University of Utah computer scientist has devised a new method for simpler, faster “data mining,” or extracting and analyzing massive amounts of such data.

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From Star Trek's Romulans, who could cloak their warships, to Harry Potter's magical garment, the power to make someone or something invisible has intrigued mankind. Now a Michigan Technological University scientist is doing it for real, building a working invisibility cloak.

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In the journal Review of Scientific Instruments, researchers report on a new way to accurately synchronize clocks. The new method uses both GPS and the Internet to set clocks within 10 nanoseconds of a reference clock located anywhere on Earth.

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A new image-processing algorithm gives radiologists all of the information they need using as up to 20 times less radiation. The research will be presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) in Philadelphia.

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The loneliness of the long-distance robot: A Cornell University robot named Ranger walked 14.3 miles in about 11 hours, setting an unofficial world record at Cornell’s Barton Hall early on July 6.

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Instead of storing flight data on board, aircraft should send the information in real time to the ground.

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Some companies are betting that functional magnetic resonance imaging could provide a new, high-tech form of lie detection.

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ICSI researchers show how information about where videos and photos were captured can be quickly extracted, leaving those who post images online vulnerable to attacks in the real world.

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The world’s food system provides food for nearly seven billion people each day. But according to a new report from the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), more advances are critical for an adequate food supply, which must nearly double during the next several decades, for the future world population.

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Twenty years after the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, there is finally a “tool kit” for non-experts to measure whether public facilities are in compliance.

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A study presented today at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) shows that children with brain tumors who undergo radiation therapy (the application of X-rays to kill cancerous cells and shrink tumors) may benefit from a technique known as "intensity modulated arc therapy" or IMAT.

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If a new hi-tech “smart" metal could help cool your home 175 percent more efficiently, imagine the effect on your electric bills. University of Maryland researchers are testing a "thermally elastic" metal alloy for use in advanced refrigeration and a/c systems. The technology promises far greater efficiency and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

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Visualization of 3-D proteins opens up new research avenues for protein chemists, allowing them to walk inside, through or around a protein of interest to learn more about its structure.

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Researchers from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory say adding graphene to lithium-ion battery cells could enable electric vehicles, cell phones and even power tools to recharge in minutes instead of hours.

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Stony Brook University received a $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant to build what its creator described as the closest thing in the world to Star Trek's "holodeck."

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A major breakthrough in remote wave sensing by a team of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers opens the way for detecting hidden explosives, chemical or biological agents, and illegal drugs from a distance of 20 meters.

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University of Utah researchers are using eye-tracking technology to pioneer a promising alternative to the polygraph for lie detection. The university recently licensed the technology to Credibility Assessment Technologies, of Park City.

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Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst say consumers and marketers have different expectations for privacy boundaries when new technology is used, and consumers most often prefer an opt-in system for revealing personal information. The study is the first to directly compare consumer and marketer expectations for privacy limits.

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Physicists at NIST have demonstrated an ion trap with a built-in optical fiber that collects light emitted by single ions, allowing quantum information stored in the ions to be measured. The advance could simplify quantum computer design and serve as a step toward swapping information between matter and light in future quantum networks.

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New research finds that the further drivers can look ahead, generally in left-hand curves, wide curves and when leaving a curve, the less they have to look at the tangent point. Research team reports ultimate goal of the findings is to build a device into cars that warns drivers if they is in danger of unintentionally departing from the lane.

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Northeastern, MIT and Cornell using robot to determine how human strangers develop trust.

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Rolling walkers – which help senior citizens maintain mobility and an active lifestyle – have just become safer and easier to use.

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UW engineers have built an insectlike robot with hundreds of tiny legs. Compared to other such robots, the UW model excels in its ability to carry heavy loads -- more than seven times its own weight -- and move in any direction.

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Integrated circuits, which enable virtually every electronics gadget you use on a daily basis, are constantly being pushed by the semiconductor industry to become smaller, faster, and cheaper. As has happened many times in the past and will continue in the future, integrated circuit scaling is perpetually in danger of hitting a wall that must be maneuvered around.

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Since Richard Feynman's first envisioned the quantum computer in 1982, there have been many studies of potential candidates -- computers that use quantum bits, or qubits, capable of holding an more than one value at a time and computing at speeds far beyond existing silicon-based machines for certain problems. Most of these candidate systems, such as atoms and semiconducting quantum dots, work for quantum computing, but only at very low temperatures.

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Improved control of “neglected middle-child” frequency range offers potential benefits.