IEEE

Smart Textiles Sense How Their Users are Moving

Researchers develop a comfortable, form-fitting fabric that recognizes its wearer's activities, like walking, running, and jumping.

TITAN Haptics — Linear Magnetic Ram Haptic Motors

TITAN Haptics is headquartered in Canada, with locations in the United States, China, and Taiwan. The company primarily offers a novel kind of electromagnetic motor, the Linear Magnetic Ram (LMR) haptic motor. The motor provides high-definition wideband vibration and high G-force impact. In addition to its motor offerings, TITAN provides firmware, software, APIs, and reference designs for rapid integration built to the latest industry standards. TITAN contributes to standards and best practices in a variety of industry groups, including the IEEE and MPEG, and is a founding board member of the Haptics Industry Forum (HIF).

Robotic Rat Could Assist at Disaster Sites

Legged robots are very promising for use in real-world applications, but their operation in narrow spaces is still challenging. One solution for enhancing their environmental adaptability is to design a small-sized biomimetic robot capable of performing multiple motions and carrying payloads. In this case, rats that live in caves have attracted a great amount of attention owing to their unrivalled agility and adaptability. Lots of efforts have been made trying to mimic the morphology or motion characteristics of rats.

Advanced Electric Machines: Rare Earth-Free Motors

Advanced Electric Machines is a UK-based manufacturer of electric motors. Their unique selling point is the elimination of permanent magnets and copper windings. They have a motor design for commercial vehicles and another for the passenger car market. IDTechEx caught up with AEM to learn about their new progress and future plans.

Scintil Photonics

Scintil Photonics are a start-up company whose aim is to supply photonic integrated circuits, whereby III-V lasers are integrated at the wafer level onto silicon. IDTechEx spoke with Yannick Paillard, CCO.

Electrical Current Instead of Radiation in Diagnosing Breast Cancer

A safe, painless diagnostic tool for detecting breast cancer that uses a low electrical current instead of radiation. Mammograms are a safe, effective way to detect the presence of breast cancer in women. But doctors recommend most females should start getting mammograms after the age of 40 in part because the procedure involves small doses of ionizing radiation.

Tiny Robot Earns World Record

The creator hopes his robots can someday be used to solve tricky engineering problems by emulating talented creatures like squid or mice that can seamlessly squeeze themselves like liquid into tight places. Biology, particularly insects, still surpass their robotic counterparts in almost every aspect, but he hopes to develop robots in the next decade that are significantly better at mimicking natural systems.

Pacemaker-Like Devices Could Restore Lost Oral Function

Even the mundane act of swallowing requires a well-coordinated dance of more than 30 muscles of the mouth. The loss of function of even one of these due to disease or injury can be debilitating. For these people, nerve stimulation offers a ray of hope to regain some of their lost oral function.

Ankle Exoskeletons can Greatly Increase Walking Speed

Being unable to walk quickly can be frustrating and problematic, but it is a common issue, especially as people age. Noting the pervasiveness of slower-than-desired walking, engineers have tested how well a prototype exoskeleton system they have developed - which attaches around the shin and into a running shoe - increased the self-selected walking speed of people in an experimental setting.

First Human Use of High Bandwidth Wireless Brain Computer Interface

Brain-computer interfaces are an emerging assistive technology, enabling people with paralysis to type on computer screens or manipulate robotic prostheses just by thinking about moving their own bodies. For years, investigational BCIs used in clinical trials have required cables to connect the sensing array in the brain to computers that decode the signals and use them to drive external devices.

Screening for Skin Disease on Your Laptop

In artificial intelligence, deep learning organizes algorithms into layers (the artificial neural network) that can make its own intelligent decisions. To speed up the learning process, the new network was trained using the parameters of MobileNetV2, a mobile vision application, pre-trained on the ImageNet dataset with 1.4M images.

Algorithm Designs Soft Robots that Sense

There are some tasks that traditional robots — the rigid and metallic kind — simply aren't cut out for. Soft-bodied robots, on the other hand, may be able to interact with people more safely or slip into tight spaces with ease.

A New Generation of Tiny, Agile Drones

The technology could boost aerial robots' repertoire, allowing them to operate in cramped spaces and withstand collisions.

Textile Sensor Patch Could Detect Pressure Points for Amputees

A soft, flexible sensor system created with electrically conductive yarns could help map problematic pressure points in the socket of an amputee's prosthetic limb, researchers report in a new study.

Thermal Management Online Conference - IMAPS/IEEE-EPS

This IDTechEx Premium article covers some of the highlights from the presentations at the IMAPS-UK Thermal Management Online Conference event including presentations on electric vehicles, thermal interface materials and industrial power electronics.

Nanotech Energy Launches EMI Shielding Product Line

Advanced Graphene Technology Creates Highly Conductive Coating for EMI-RFI Shielding and Heat Management

Could Drones Deliver Packages More Efficiently by Hopping on the Bus?

One-click purchases and instant delivery have helped fuel the growth of e-commerce, but this convenience has come at the cost of increased traffic congestion, longer commute times, and strained urban communities.

Soft Robotic Exosuit for Stroke Survivors

To allow stroke patients to recover, many rehabilitation centers have looked to robotic exoskeletons. But although there are now a range of exciting devices that are enabling people to walk again who initially were utterly unable to do so, there remains significant active research trying to understand how to best apply wearable robotics for rehabilitation after stroke.

Aktiia Cuffless Blood Pressure Monitor Proven Accurate

Aktiia has developed a wrist-worn optical blood pressure monitor that can automatically take measurements around the clock without requiring a specific arm position.