Sensors

A small, wireless capsule has been developed by a team of doctors and engineers at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, that, they say, can restore the sense of touch that surgeons are losing as they shift increasingly from open to laparoscopy or minimally invasive surgery.

A team of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, have discovered a way to detect early-stage malarial infection of blood cells by measuring changes in the infected cells’ electrical properties. The researchers built an experimental microfluidic device that uses a single drop of...

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, are working to develop a tiny chip that could quickly determine whether someone has been exposed to dangerous levels of ionizing radiation. The first-of-its-kind chip has an array of nanosensors that can measure the concentrations of...

This innovation is a system that augments human vision through a technique called “Sensing Super-position” using a Visual Instrument Sensory Organ Replacement (VISOR) device. The VISOR device translates visual and other sensors (i.e., thermal) into sounds to enable very difficult sensing tasks.

Dr. Albert Chi, a 2003 graduate of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, and a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, is part of a team of engineers and surgeons developing a Modular Prosthetic Limb—a robotic arm and hand that a person can control using their thoughts....

A team of scientists from UCLA, Iowa State, and Princeton report that they have discovered a new technique of sculpting custom fluid flows by placing tiny pillars in microfluidic channels. By altering the speed of the fluid, and stacking pillars with different width, placements, and orientations,...

A team of scientists at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, say that using tiny gold particles and resin they have discovered how to make a new kind of flexible sensor that could some day be integrated into electronic skin (e-skin). They say that this e-skin, when attached to prosthetic...

Move over, “Fantastic Voyage”. Scientists at the University at Buffalo (UB), Buffalo, NY, are developing miniaturized sonar technology to be used inside the human body to treat diseases like diabetes and heart failure in real time, without shrinking scientists to enter a patient’s...

Chemical engineers at Stanford University, Stanford, CA, have discovered that they could combine layers of flexible electronics and pressure sensors to create a wearable heart monitor thinner than a dollar bill and no wider than a postage stamp. The flexible skin-like monitor, worn under an adhesive...

According to a new study conducted in controlled laboratory conditions, sensors that pick up the rhythm of a beating heart in implanted cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers are vulnerable to hacking. In experiments using simulated human models, an international team of researchers demonstrated that...

Artificial skins and new sensor technologies being developed by European scientists could help make robots more sensitive to tactile stimuli and improve their ability to communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans. The EU-funded project, “Skin-based technologies and capabilities for safe, autonomous...

Scientists at Princeton University in New Jersey used silk strands and tiny gold wires bundled with graphene to create a removable tattoo that adheres to dental enamel and could eventually be used to monitor a patient’s health with unprecedented sensitivity.

According to a recent report from ABI Research, a market intelligence company specializing in global technology markets, while the market for disposable wireless Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) sensors within professional healthcare is in its earliest stages, the foundations to support adoption are...

There are two parts to a blast created by an improvised explosive device: a shock wave traveling at supersonic speed, and compressed air, which travels in front of the shock wave. Both can cause considerable damage to the human body, but the exact effects are unclear. To prevent injuries to...