Known Human Cortex Regions Doubled

by Bruce Brown | July 29, 2016 | Enabling Tech, General News

Brain mapping just made a huge leap forward. A group of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and from six other research centers have more than doubled the known number of distinct areas on the outer layer of the human brain, also known as the cortex or...

Cell Phone Transmissions Can Power Sensors

by Alfred Poor | July 29, 2016 | Enabling Tech, General News

Radio waves are all around us all the time. In most parts of developed countries (and many under-developed regions as well), cell phone base towers provide a steady source of broadcast signals. Scientists refer to this as “ambient power” — power that...

Valencell Licenses Hearable Sensor Patents to Samsung

by Bruce Brown | July 28, 2016 | Enabling Tech, General News

The hearables market is poised for rapid expansion. Hearable devices are more than just smart headphones or earbuds for enhanced entertainment or smartphone calls. The span of additional applications ranges from noise cancellation and programmable frequency...

Soft Actuator Mimics Muscle Motion

by Alfred Poor | July 28, 2016 | Enabling Tech, General News

“Give a kid a hammer, and the whole world looks like a nail.” It’s natural to try to solve problems using familiar tools, which explains why engineers turn to gears and pulleys and wheels and hinges when trying to create a robot that simulates human...

Apples for Replacement Body Parts [video]

by Alfred Poor | July 26, 2016 | Enabling Tech, General News, Medical

The human body comes with few spare parts, and unlike some other animals, we’re not generally able to regrow a part that has become damaged or lost. We’ve been working on creating functional replacements for centuries (think of George Washington’s...

Gold Nanoparticles in Printed Touch Sensor [video]

by Alfred Poor | July 13, 2016 | Enabling Tech, General News

The sense of touch is one of the most sensitive and critical systems for a human body. The same system that can detect a puff of air can also work under hundreds of pounds of pressure. And we can distinguish between points as close together as a single millimeter. If...