Tech Briefs

Biomedical Skin-Like Bandage Is Stretchy, Durable, and Long Lasting

A skin-like biomedical technology that uses a mesh of conducting nanowires and a thin layer of elastic polymer might bring new electronic bandages that monitor biosignals for...

Glass Fibers with Potential Far Beyond Transmitting Light

Glass fibers do everything from connecting us to the Internet to enabling keyhole surgery by delivering light through an endoscope. But as versatile as today’s fiber optics are,...

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...

Fluorescent Sensor Provides Low-Cost Diagnosis of Cystic Fibrosis

New device provides a cheaper, easier way to detect levels of chloride in sweat. Scientists have developed a new diagnostic test for cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder currently...

Energy-Efficient Biomedical Sensor Hub for Wearable Health Applications

A new sensor hub integrated as a system-on-chip (SoC) has been designed for use in a broad range of wearable health devices and applications. The SoC was developed by imec,...

Creating a Slippery Slope on the Surface of Medical Implants

Implanted medical devices such as left ventricular-assist devices for patients with heart failure or other support systems for patients with respiratory, liver, or other end organ...

Motion Capture Technology Brings a New Age of Mobility to Veteran Amputees

For veterans who have lost a limb, a prosthesis is a lifeline. An artificial device not only provides mobility and enables routine activity, it can be life giving —...

The Helping Hand Project: Changing Lives One Hand at a Time

Swing a baseball bat, eat with a fork and knife, steer a bike with both handles — without two hands, a child can’t do any of these ordinary activities that most children take for...

Promising Biomaterial to Build Better Bones with 3D Printing

A Northwestern University research team has developed a 3D printable ink that produces a synthetic bone implant that rapidly induces bone regeneration and growth. This hyperelastic...

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...

DARPA Helps Paralyzed Man Feel Again Using a Brain-Controlled Robotic Arm

A DARPA-funded research team has demonstrated for the first time in a human a technology that allows an individual to experience the sensation of touch directly in the...

3D Graphene Shows Promise for Bone Implants

Flakes of graphene welded together into solid materials may be suitable for bone implants, according to a study led by Rice University scientists. The Rice lab of materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan...

Complex Nanomachines Could Carry Pharmaceuticals, Detect Disease

UCLA nanoscience researchers have determined that a fluid that behaves similarly to water in our day-to-day lives becomes as heavy as honey when trapped in a nanocage of a porous...

Killing Cancer Cells May Be Possible With “Hairy” Nanorods

Materials scientists from Georgia Tech have developed a new strategy for crafting one-dimensional nanorods from a wide range of precursor materials. Based on a cellulose backbone,...

Edible Battery Could Power Ingestible Medical Devices

Nontoxic, edible batteries could one day power ingestible devices for diagnosing and treating disease. One team reports new progress toward that goal with their batteries made with melanin...

New Device Could Improve Diagnosis of Ear Infections

A new device developed by researchers at MIT and a physician at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center could greatly improve doctors’ ability to accurately diagnose ear infections. That...

Implanted Devices Can Talk Through Wi-Fi

University of Washington (UW) engineers have introduced a new way of communicating that allows devices such as brain implants, contact lenses, and smaller wearable electronics to talk to everyday devices...

Tiny Solar Cells Deliver Big Power

Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created microscale solar cells that could power a multitude of personal devices, including wearable medical sensors, smartwatches, and autofocusing contact...

Biodegradable Polymer Is Stronger and Longer Lasting

Polylactic acid, or PLA, is a biodegradable polymer commonly used to make a variety of products, from disposable cups to medical implants to drug-delivery systems. A team of Brown University...

Gaming Camera Aids MS Treatment

A device commonly found in living rooms around the world could be an inexpensive and effective means of evaluating the walking difficulties of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The Microsoft Kinect is a 3D...

Dust-Sized Sensors Could Create “Electroceuticals”

University of California, Berkeley engineers have built the first dust-sized, wireless sensors that can be implanted in the body, bringing closer the day when a Fitbit-like device could...

NIST Illuminates Transfer of Nanoscale Motion Through Microscale Machine

As U.S. industry develops smaller mechanical systems, they face bigger challenges — microscopic parts are more likely to stick together and wear out when they make...

Electrochemical Etching Improves 3D printing of metals

Researchers at Arizona State University have made potentially game-changing progress in the emerging realms of 3D printing and additive manufacturing — an advance that could have a...

“Smart” Sutures Collect Diagnostic Data

Implantable diagnostic devices and smart wearable systems that are capable of in situ sample collection and integration with the complex 3D structure of biological tissues offer significant...

Ankle Exoskeleton Aids or Enhances Mobility

Clutches can be used to enhance the functionality of springs or actuators in robotic devices. A research team headed up by Steve Collins, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie...

Pulse Sensor Measures Artery Health

Checking the state of arterial health could become as simple as monitoring a patient’s blood pressure. New technology developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory...

Film Helps Implant Bond with Bone

Researchers have developed a technique for coating polymer implants with a bioactive film that significantly increases bonding between the implant and surrounding bone in an animal model. The advance could...

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...

Tiny Robot Chains Work Inside the Body

A group of Drexel University researchers used a rotating magnetic field to show how multiple chains of microscopic, magnetic bead-based robots can link up to reach impressive speeds swimming through a...