Category Technology/Electronics

Researchers develop Superman-Inspired Imager Chip for Mobile Devices

Researchers make big strides with Superman-inspired imager chip
Researchers, including electrical engineering graduate student Walter Sosa Portillo BS’21 (left) and Dr. Kenneth K. O, have made advances to miniaturize an imager chip inspired by Superman’s X-ray vision for handheld mobile devices. Credit: University of Texas at Dallas

Researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas and Seoul National University have developed an imager chip inspired by Superman’s X-ray vision that could be used in mobile devices to make it possible to detect objects inside packages or behind walls.

Chip-enabled cellphones might be used to find studs, wooden beams or wiring behind walls, cracks in pipes, or outlines of contents in envelopes and packages. The technology also could have medical applications.

The researchers first demonstrated the imaging te...

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Researchers demonstrate the First Chip-based 3D Printer

Graphic of hand holding a glowing chip-based 3D printer
The tiny device could enable a user to rapidly create customized, low-cost objects on the go, like a fastener to repair a wobbly bicycle wheel or a component for a critical medical operation.
Credits: Sampson Wilcox, RLE

Smaller than a coin, this optical device could enable rapid prototyping on the go. Researchers have demonstrated the first chip-based 3D printer, a tiny device that emits reconfigurable beams of visible light into a well of resin that rapidly cures into a solid shape. The advance could enable a 3D printer small enough to fit in the palm of a person’s hand.

Imagine a portable 3D printer you could hold in the palm of your hand...

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Cutting-Edge Vision Chip brings Human Eye-like Perception to Machines

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, unmanned systems such as autonomous driving and embodied intelligence are continuously being promoted and applied in real-world scenarios, leading to a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation. Visual perception, a core means of information acquisition, plays a crucial role in these intelligent systems. However, achieving efficient, precise, and robust visual perception in dynamic, diverse, and unpredictable environments remains an open challenge.

In open-world scenarios, intelligent systems must not only process vast amounts of data but also handle various extreme events, such as sudden dangers, drastic light changes at tunnel entrances, and strong flash interference at night in driving scenarios.

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Some Countries could meet their Total Electricity Needs from Floating Solar Panels

Floating solar photovoltaic panels could supply all the electricity needs of some countries, new research has shown.

The study, by researchers from Bangor and Lancaster Universities and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, aimed to calculate the global potential for deploying low-carbon floating solar arrays. The researchers calculated the daily electrical output for floating photovoltaics (FPV) on nearly 68,000 lakes and reservoirs around the world, using available climate data for each location.

The researchers’ calculations included lakes and reservoirs where floating solar technology is most likely to be installed. They were no more than 10km from a population centre, not in a protected area, didn’t dry up and didn’t freeze for more than six months each year...

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