Category: Other Tech

Call it the “X-ray vision” app: In several years, smartphones could come equipped with a microchip that lets users peer through boxes, walls and other objects. Rather than dangerous X-rays, however, the chip beams out waves in the harmless terahertz frequency, a little-used portion of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and far-infrared. Terahertz generators historically have been bulky, expensive affairs. But now Caltech researchers have succeeded in crafting terahertz-emitting silicon chips that are smaller than a dime using a standard, inexpensive electronics manufacturing technique. The researchers harnessed an array of…

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Google today announced Google Play store improvements focused on the size of updates. A new delta algorithm, bsdiff, has been rolled out to further reduce patches for apps and games. Mobile users are sensitive to the amount of data they use, especially when Wi-Fi is not available. Google is thus trying to reduce the data required for Google Play app installs and updates, as well as make data cost clearer to users. Google says that for approximately 98 percent of app updates from the Play Store, only deltas to APK files (the…

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A chance discovery in a physics lab at Rice University has turned up an ultra-hard material that could usurp the titanium commonly used in today’s knee and hip replacements. Scientists have found that by melting gold into the titanium mix they can produce a non-toxic metal that is four times harder than titanium itself, raising the prospect of more durable, longer lasting medical implants. Emilia Morosan, a professor of physics at Rice University, was carrying out experiments on a magnetic material made from nonmagnetic elements, more specifically, a titanium-gold mix with a…

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There have been some amazing breakthroughs that enable humans to control a single machine with their thoughts. The next step is figuring out how to operate an entire fleet of robots with mind control. A team of researchers at Arizona State University’s (ASU) Human-Oriented Robotics and Control Lab have developed a system for managing swarms of robots with brain power. ASU’s new system can be used to direct a group of small, inexpensive robots to complete a task. If one robot breaks down, it’s not a big loss, and the rest can…

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When you hear the name “Boeing,” chances are you think of aircraft. The fact is, however, the company has also been developing underwater vehicles since the 1960s. Its latest such creation, the Echo Voyager, is designed to operate autonomously for months at a time. The 51-foot (15.5-m)-long Voyager joins two other Boeing unmanned undersea vehicles, or UUVs: the 32-ft (9.8-m) Echo Seeker and the 18-ft (5.5-m) Echo Ranger. Like them, it’s designed to autonomously gather data underwater for scientific, military or other purposes. Unlike them, though, it’s not limited to missions lasting no…

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3D cinema might bring dinosaur jaws right up to your nose, but it’s a wonder the great beasts don’t just laugh when they see the oddball glasses on your head that makes the effect possible. A new advancement from MIT takes a well-known trick known as the parallax barrier and leverages it in a way particular to how we move our heads in movie theaters. A small prototype using 50 mirrors and lenses has been developed and, if researchers can advance upon the idea, glassless 3D viewing might just become…

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To our graduate student readers: As if constant emails from your boss weren’t enough,  soon you’ll have no excuse to avoid the “got any data?” question—even when you’re out in the field. A new mobile app now lets researchers collect and analyze data from anywhere in the world, using their cell phones. It’s not all bad: The software could help you unload some of your work by allowing citizen scientists to snap pictures from their own backyards, and contribute them to research projects. The software, called EpiCollect, is especially useful for…

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With the aid of one of the strongest materials on Earth, a researcher at Australia’s Swinburne University has created a battery that charges up super fast and can be used over and over and over again, without losing efficiency. Researcher Han Lin developed the battery using a form of carbon called graphene, which is commonly heralded as one of the strongest materials on the planet. The new supercapacitor addresses many of the shortcomings of traditional lithium ion batteries, beating them in charging time, lifespan, and also environmental impact. Researchers around the globe have…

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