Beyond the Black Box
IEEE Spectrum MagazineInstead of storing flight data on board, aircraft should send the information in real time to the ground.
Instead of storing flight data on board, aircraft should send the information in real time to the ground.
Some companies are betting that functional magnetic resonance imaging could provide a new, high-tech form of lie detection.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Northeastern, MIT and Cornell using robot to determine how human strangers develop trust.
Rolling walkers – which help senior citizens maintain mobility and an active lifestyle – have just become safer and easier to use.
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.
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.
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.
Improved control of “neglected middle-child” frequency range offers potential benefits.
Inspired by the ease with which gecko lizards can move on almost any surface, researchers at Northeastern University, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology and Seoul National University hope to reproduce properties found in the gecko’s footpad for applications ranging from adhesives to robotic movement and navigation.
Ammono, a little company out of Warsaw, is beating the tech titans in a key technology of the 21st century: growing the crystals on which blue lasers are fabricated.
Inside a cellphone clutched in a murder victim's hand may be the clues that lead to her killer.
Personal computers in enterprise environments save energy and money by “sleep-working,” thanks to new software called SleepServer created by computer scientists from the University of California, San Diego.
Sixty years ago this week, NIST dedicated the first programmable computer in U.S. history.
Two new NIST-developed standards to counter bomb threats will allow managers of transit centers – and other venues as well – to know exactly how a given receptacle model has been tested against blasts and precisely what a passing grade means in terms of resistance.
High School Students are competing to develop applications for Google’s Android Mobile Platform Program. This FAU program combines arts, computer science and business to rapidly develop high technology products and services with potential for commercialization.
The University of Delaware Institute of Energy Conversion (IEC) is part of an industry-academic team that has been awarded $3.8 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research and development office of the U.S. Department of Defense, to demonstrate solar cells that can stand up to battle conditions and environmental extremes.
Four unmanned autonomous vehicles designed and built by a team of engineering students at Virginia Tech using the TORC Robotic Building Blocks product line, are headed to Hawaii to participate in the 2010 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) war games in July.
Superconductor cable prevents electric grid blackouts.
Iowa State's Song Zhang regularly hears from Hollywood, video game and music video producers. They're all interested in his unique 3-D imaging technology. With the help of some simple hardware and some powerful software, Zhang can make real-time, high-resolution, 3-D images.
A team of Georgia Tech students will be showing off their game, Vision by Proxy, at the IndieCade Showcase at E3 this week. To play the game visit Georgia Tech's Digital Lounge (details inside).
Now iPhone users who find oiled birds and marine life in the Gulf region can transmit the location and a photo to rescue networks using a new app, MoGO, or Mobile Gulf Observatory. It was developed to make it easier for the public to help save wildlife exposed to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A breakthrough external beam radiotherapy technology that is fast and has optimal dose delivery to targeted tumors is the latest radiotherapy weapon that specialists are using at Stony Brook University Medical Center.
How is it that some people who apparently freeze to death can be brought back to life with no long-term negative health consequences? New findings from the laboratory of Mark B. Roth, Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center may help explain the mechanics behind this phenomenon.
Paul M. Kintner, an expert on GPS and satellite communication and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University, comments on the impact of an upcoming period of increased solar flare activity on satellite communications, cell phones and global positioning systems.
As workers battle the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and officials attempt to decontaminate a clam boat that dredged up old munitions containing mustard gas, a Texas Tech University researcher said his product Fibertect® can handle both dirty jobs.
NIST has been designated by Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra to accelerate the federal government's secure adoption of cloud computing by leading efforts to develop standards and guidelines in close consultation and collaboration with standards bodies, the private sector, and other stakeholders.
In an advance that sounds almost Zen, researchers at NIST and JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder, have demonstrated a new type of pulsed laser that excels at not producing light.
Spectrum Dynamics announced it has begun clinical studies to show that its D-SPECT™ technology can accommodate significantly lower doses of radiopharmaceutical agents so the total radiation exposure to patients and staff is much lower compared to conventional cardiac imaging.
Wireless sensors that monitor your heart even though they do not actually touch your skin are at the center of UC San Diego electrical engineering PhD student Yu Mike Chi’s dissertation. This technology – and the plan for commercializing it – earned Chi and his Cognionics team the top spot in the UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge. The prize includes $25K in cash for the startup and $15K in legal services.
As part of the effort to reduce childhood lead poisoning, scientists at RTI International, under contract with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), have developed a new field method for measuring the amount of lead in paint that is faster and less expensive than current methods.
Developed expressly to assist passengers with special needs, the Mobile Transit Companion, a North American made mobile application, uses context-aware self-adaptive computing to deliver live, customized data to Paris Metro passengers en route. The inclusive application, complete with useful information for all passengers, was created through a partnership between Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone (DMZ) and Sweden’s Appear Networks.
Moore’s law marches on: In the quest for faster and cheaper computers, scientists have imaged pore structures in insulation material at sub-nanometer scale for the first time. Understanding these structures could substantially enhance computer performance and power usage of integrated circuits, say Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) and Cornell University scientists.
360° surveillance video promises high-res detail, multiple views, and DVR features.
360° surveillance video promises high-res detail, multiple views, and DVR features.
Technology developed by University of Virginia inventors involving adipose stem cells – adult stem cells found in fatty tissue – could one day be used to treat severe wounds and other conditions. The technology has just been licensed to the GID Group.
"Frustrated" systems -- those in which the interacting components cannot reach a single minimum-energy state -- are of enormous interest to fields from neural networks and protein folding to social structures and magnetism. But they have been difficult to study because even systems with small numbers of objects cannot be modeled on the best conventional computers. Now a research team has devised a scalable quantum-mechanical simulation.
Iowa State students are busy preparing to race the university's tenth solar-powered car. They'll attempt to prove and qualify their car during the June 12-18 Formula Sun Grand Prix in Texas. If that goes well, they'll enter the June 19-26 American Solar Challenge, a race from Tulsa, Okla., to Chicago.