New ‘Bottlebrush’ Electroactive Polymers Make Dielectric Elastomers Increasingly Viable for Use in Devices

Material can change shape and size when exposed to a relatively small electric field. A multi-institutional research team has...

Toward Visible-Light-Based Imaging for Medical Devices

MIT researchers have developed a technique for recovering visual information from light that has scattered because of interactions with the environment — such as passing through human...

Eye Tracking with a Cellphone Camera

Eye-tracking technology, which determines where in a visual scene people are directing their gaze, has been widely used in certain areas of medical and scientific research, but cost issues have kept it from...

‘Virtual’ Guide Dog for Visually Impaired Navigation

Wearable device miniaturized for easier use. A team of computer scientists at MIT has developed a low-power chip to process 3D camera data that, they say, could aid visually impaired...

Students Create Inexpensive Motorized Wheelchair

Creating a custom wheelchair for siblings with neuromuscular disease. Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a debilitating neuromuscular disease. It involves motor nerve cells in the spinal cord,...

X-Ray Detector Provides Medical Imaging Performance on Plastic

Holst Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and Imec, Leuven, Belgium http://www2.imec.be/be_en/home.html A team of researchers from the Holst Centre working with colleagues at Imec...

High-Resolution Ophthalmic Ultrasound System for Ocular Structures

An ophthalmic ultrasound system evaluates ocular structures more clearly by providing images of all aspects of the anterior segment. It provides images of the eye and tissues...

Experimental Walking Assist Device With Body Weight Support System

An experimental walking assist device has been developed to help support body weight and reduce the load on the user’s legs while walking, going up and down stairs, and in a...

Retractor System for Abdominal Surgery

Adjusting abdominal clamps to open up a larger operating field during surgery typically requires the use of two hands: one hand to unscrew the clamp, and the other hand to pull the clamp to increase the...

Exact Dose Dispensing Closure for Semi-Solids

A novel closure technology now makes it possible to consistently squeeze an exact dose of semi-solids from a tube by means of a 180-degree rotating closure. It has potential uses in pharmaceutical...