As a scientist practicing actual, bona fide science, I have often found myself in need of immediate g-force readings or barometric pressure analyses for my scientific problems. Whereas before I had to use my sextant and trident and thermowhozzit, I can instead use the Node. → Read More
Validity Sensors, the San Jose-based maker of fingerprint scanning sensors and authentication technology, announced today that it has closed $10 million of a $20 million series E financing round. (It will close the second half in the next month.) The investment was led by TeleSoft Partners, with participation from Validity’s previous investors, including Crossslink Capital, Panorama Capital… → Read More
After investments in digital health doubled from 2009 to 2011, the torrid pace of growth has continued in the first half of 2012. Rock Health’s founder Halle Tecco stated why they released a report at this time. “The impetus of this report was the notable growth in venture funding of digital health–so much so that we are seeing 65% more investments than the same time last year. As we strive to… → Read More
Sure, GPS helps us get from Point A to Point B, but what if you’re just trying to find the Cinnabon? A new system from Fraunhofer allows for in-store (or in-mall) navigation and uses very simple sensors to asses where you are in the building at any time.
The system works when you enter the edifice and scan a QR code. This identifies your current position. A built-in pedometer and compass assess… → Read More
Researchers at Disney and Carnegie Mellon University have created an interesting new technology using Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing that allows nearly any object to sense multiple points of contact on its complex service. This would allow, for example, doorknobs to understand when to lock and unlock based on your finger position and environmental controls based on the user’s current body… → Read More
The WristQue may look like one of those cloth bracelets worn by old soul Sophomores who spent a semester in Prague and came back with dredlocks and an absinthe fetish, but it’s not. It’s actually a personal climate control system. Let me explain.
The bracelet identifies you to the building and allows it to follow you from room to room. Is the meeting room too cold? Press a button and it starts… → Read More
Smartphone cameras have drastically improved in quality in recent years, but they’re still not good enough for you? Then Toshiba’s announcement [PDF] of a new CMOS image sensor, specifically designed for cell phones and other mobile devices, from today should be good news for you. → Read More
Japan’s biggest business daily The Nikkei, usually a very reliable source, reported yesterday in its evening edition that Sony succeeded in developing what appears to be a pretty powerful CMOS sensor. According to the report, Sony’s device can “convert multiple pixels into signals simultaneously”, which results in a reduction of the conversion time by up to 75% when compared to existing sensors. → Read More
If you needed one more piece of evidence that Japan is crazy about everything mobile, here it is: the country’s leading mobile carrier today announced [JP] a system that provides user-specific instructions to home gardeners via cell phones and special “garden sensors”. NEC is a partner in the pilot project, which actually began last Saturday in 30 selected households in Japan. → Read More
Get out the tinfoil hats boys, paranoia just got real. A recent article published in the “Journal Of Neural Engineering” revealed how scientists connected 16 microelectrodes to two different parts of a patients brain, allowing them to determine what word the person was thinking. The technology is being developed to help people that are paralyzed and unable to speak, and while the concept is still… → Read More
Exactly one week ago, Canon unveiled a pretty impressive 120 megapixel sensor, and today the company followed up with the announcement of “the world’s largest” CMOS sensor. Sized at 202 x 205 mm, the new sensor is 40 times bigger than the Canon CMOS sensors out there now. → Read More
HP Labs just announced the development of a new accelerometer sensor that is 1,000 more sensitive then the current mass-produced technology. → Read More
Toshiba just announced their latest advancement in CMOS technology, the BSI (back-side illumination) sensor. The BSI sensor is designed to improve high ISO (or low light) photography by decreasing the amount of noise that appears on images taken under these conditions. → Read More
Seeing that PC users on desktop and laptop are embracing both HD video and built-in webcams, Samsung has decided to put the two together in the obvious form of a HD webcam. Until now, webcams have been pretty much limited to VGA (640×480) resolution, which is fine if you’re playing Wolfenstein 3D, but it is the year 2008, we have flying cars and spinning skyscrapers, why not a nice… → Read More
Put this stuff on your “tech to watch” list along with magnetic batteries, liquid lenses, and all this stuff. This “black silicon” was ordinary until it was blasted by an incredibly high-powered laser. It’s kind of like a superhero origin story, only in this case he ends up covered in microscopic spikes that (I’m guessing) multiply the surface area exposable to… → Read More
Fujifilm has shown (will show, rather, if this technique works) that there’s still a lot of play on the lowest levels of sensor design. With all the new facilities cameras enjoy such as face detection and touchscreen interfaces, it’s easy to forget that we haven’t peaked in terms of the underlying technology, in many cases CCDs. The way photodiode arrays are laid out seems like… → Read More
It seems that only now are we beginning to really see decent image quality combine with truly small form factor in digital cameras. This new sensor from OmniVision solves one of the problems facing the tiny cameras in cell phones, webcams, and embedded electronics: low light sensitivity. Because of the nature of the sensors and their small size, every photon counts and more often than not, on… → Read More
Photo of the GX-20 Barney Britton of Amateur Photographer is reporting out of Seoul, Korea that Samsung is actively working on the development of a full-frame CMOS sensor to be implemented into DSLRs. This is amazing for two reasons: 1) A full-frame sensor is what, I think, old-school film photographers are waiting for so they can switch to digital 2) It will be a Pentax lens mount, which means my… → Read More
There are already some phones that take some decent, high-megapixel pictures; Sony-Ericsson comes to mind as a company at the forefront of mobile phone cams. Kodak’s new sensor is a 1.4 micron-per-pixel CMOS, which saves space over the 1.75 micron-per-pixel sensors that are common now but keeps the photo quality. For tiny cameras like these, however, I think megapixels are the least of their… → Read More
Kodak today unveiled its biggest load of crap by announcing that it has developed a way to eliminate flash use on a camera. Thanks to new imaging technology in its new camera sensors, you may not even need a flash the next time you go to take that award-losing night-shot. Only problem is, no matter how good your imaging sensor is, if it’s dark out, it’s dark out. Your pictures are… → Read More
When I was a kid, chicks were always making those little paper “fortune tellers” where you picked a few numbers then got told you had herpes. Now the same principle is being applied to TV remotes, or at least this one. You use the paper fortune teller to control things like changing channels or adjusting the volume. According to creator Hayeon Yoo, the remote is aimed at children to… → Read More
Sharp has announced that it now has an 8.28-megapixel senor measuring just 1/2.5-inches. That rings in at just 60-percent of the size of Sharp’s previous, tiny CCDs. The new sensors will likely be built into ultra-slim cameras and possibly (based completely on my irrelevant assertion) cell phones. Sharp will begin shipping samples of the CCD to manufacturers next week, but it won’t be… → Read More
Let me take a moment to say that I was wrong about the Wii. Joel Johnson and my buddy Paul brought all their Wii games to my house on Friday and we had a blast playing the titles — maybe everything except Madden. We were also discussing how to create a DIY sensor bar and it appears all you have to do is go to Ikea and get a candelabra because any regular light source, including candles, will… → Read More
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
Boston, MA
