Every year thousands of carpenters injure their hands and fingers doing dangerous tasks such as sawing. In an effort to minimize injury and let carpenters focus on design and other bigger-picture tasks,…
Novel 3-D printing method embeds sensing capabilities within robotic actuators
Researchers at Harvard University have built soft robots inspired by nature that can crawl, swim, grasp delicate objects and even assist a beating heart, but none of these devices has been able…
Using a laser to wirelessly charge a smartphone safely across a room
Engineers at the University of Washington have, for the first time, come up with a way to safely charge a smartphone wirelessly using a laser. A narrow, invisible beam from a laser emitter…
Receiver ‘wakes’ phone from sleep mode when you need it
Stanford researchers develop new method for waking up small electronic devices. A device that’s turned off doesn’t suck battery life, but it also doesn’t work. Now a low-power system that’s always on…
Artificial eye: Researchers combine metalens with an artificial muscle
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed an adaptive metalens, that is essentially a flat, electronically controlled artificial eye. Artificial eye automatically stretches…