Category Technology/Electronics

MIT Media Lab spinout Ori is developing smart robotic furniture that transforms into a bedroom, working or storage area, or large closet — or slides back against the wall — to optimize space in small apartments. Credit: Ori

Imagine living in a cramped studio apartment in a large city—but being able to summon your bed or closet through a mobile app, call forth your desk using voice command, or have everything retract at the push of a button. MIT Media Lab spinout Ori aims to make that type of robotic living a reality. The Boston-based startup is selling smart robotic furniture that transforms into a bedroom, working or storage area, or large closet—or slides back against the wall—to optimize space in small apartments.

Based on years of Media Lab work, Ori’s system is an L-shaped u...

This diagram maps out atomic motion in separate phonon modes. At left (“LO” represents a longitudinal optical mode), selenium atoms exhibit a clockwise rotation while tungsten atoms stand still. At right (“LA” represents a longitudinal acoustic mode), tungsten atoms exhibit a clockwise rotation while selenium atoms rotate in a counterclockwise direction. Credit: Hanyu Zhu, et al.

Experiments confirm the first chiral phonon that could enable exotic forms of electronics. Berkeley Lab has found the first evidence that a shaking motion in the structure of an atomically thin (2D) material possesses a naturally occurring circular rotation...

Schematic of the structure and the fabrication process of a spine-like battery. (a) Schematic illustration of bio-inspired design, the vertebrae correspond to thick stacks of electrodes and soft marrow corresponds to unwound part that interconnects all the stacks. (b) the process to fabricate the spine-like battery, multilayers of electrodes were first cut into designed shape, then strips extending out were wound around the backbone to form spine-like structure. Credit: Yuan Yang/Columbia Engineering

Shaped like a spine, new design enables remarkable flexibility, high energy density, and stable voltage no matter how it is flexed or twisted...

Jean-Phillipe MacLean works in his lab. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Waterloo

Scientists at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo have captured the first images of ultrafast photons that are energy-time entangled. The new technique will have direct applications for quantum cryptography and communication protocols, including the possibility for establishing highly secure communication channels over long distances. “This technique will allow us to explore all sorts of quantum effects that were inaccessible because the detectors were simply too slow,” said Jean-Philippe MacLean, lead author of the study and a PhD candidate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Faculty of Science.

To capture one of the shortest quantum events possible, t...