Tag: sensor

Fungi for healthy feet? No longer a paradox thanks to DIY insoles. Now a research team in Atlanta has invented a smart inner sole to support people with walking problems. Pressure data from each foot is collected thanks to 170 thin, flexible sensors spread across the soles underneath users’ feet. Meaning each step can be analysed to determine whether...

An armband concept detects and prevents hot flushes. Meanwhile, an Irish startup is focused on females of other species. The team’s sensor recognises the start of contractions in pregnant cows and heifers, denoted by specific movements of the tail. The sensor is registered in an app and connected with two telephone numbers. 3-4 days before calving it’s attached to...

Mini-robots could rid the ocean of microplastics. In Switzerland, a research team is turning to similar technology to analyse water quality, though the outer shell of its mini-robots is made from protein-rich, low-fat fish food. For movement, inspiration came from the so-called Marangoni effect: the robots move across the surface of the water by expelling gas. It is created internally...

Blind people can now navigate buildings more easily. Still, reading texts in braille requires training and a highly developed sense of touch. According to a Chinese research team, however, this role could soon be performed by a digital pen. The team developed a soft, thin film with an embedded fibre optic sensor, which uses light to feel. Like human...

Some solar panels follow the sun, while surplus energy can be stored in sand. Now a Boston-based research team has developed a battery-free, solar-powered desalination system for remote areas. The system utilises salt-heavy brackish groundwater and pumps it through a live membrane, meaning salt ions are drawn out as the water flows through. The novelty? An ingenious sensor system,...

In future, the Zika virus could be detected using mobile phone cameras. Meanwhile, an American research team has been banking on the phone’s magnetometer - not for navigation, but for reading blood sugar levels. First they created a small sensor containing a double-layered hydrogel embedded with tiny magnetic particles. Then they attached it to the smartphone above the magnetometer....

Some fish perceive their surroundings in the dark. Now, a Chinese-South Korean research team has developed a sensor that can recognise nearby objects without touching them. Key to the enterprise is a composite film made from two highly conductive materials. A polymer based on silicon (polydimethylsiloxane) and a few organic macromolecules (graphitic carbon nitride), which are mixed and then...