smartphones tagged posts

Modern smartphones are packed with incredible technology, from high-resolution cameras and advanced graphics chips to AI processors. In premium models, this hardware includes LiDAR (light detection and ranging), which helps power augmented reality features and improve depth sensing.

Seeing around corners
And that capability could soon be in for a seriously impressive upgrade. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an algorithm that lets a phone’s LiDAR sensor detect objects hidden around corners. Details are in a paper published in the journal Nature.

Typically, this type of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) capability is found in labs and relies on bulky, expensive resear...

That ordinary smartphone in your pocket could be a powerful tool for investigating outer space. In a new study, researchers at Google and CU Boulder have transformed millions of Android phones across the globe into a fleet of nimble scientific instruments—generating one of the most detailed maps to date of the uppermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere.

The group’s findings, published Nov. 13 in the journal Nature, might help to improve the accuracy of GPS technology worldwide several-fold. The research was led by Brian Williams of Google Research and included Jade Morton, professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at CU Boulder.

“These phones can literally fit in your palm,” Morton said...