Optical sensor

Is your scarf really made from cashmere? Is that necktie truly silk? Such questions may soon have an easy answer via a pass with your cell phone's camera thanks to a tiny near-infrared spectroscopy system developed by researchers in Germany.

Raytheon has unveiled RAIVEN, its latest military optical sensor for aircraft that uses a multi-spectrum electro-optical system combined with artificial intelligence to give pilots a fivefold increase in clarity and range.

Princeton and the University of Washington researchers have developed a camera the size of a grain of salt that can snap sharp, full-color images. It’s made with a metasurface that captures light and could be scaled up to turn entire surfaces into sensors.

Have you ever wondered how many people walk past your shop? Or drive past your adverts? A new device is aimed at giving people that information, which might otherwise remain inaccessible. The Placemeter Sensor sticks to the inside of a window and counts people, vehicles, bicycles and more.

Most QR codes do the same thing – when a smartphone scans them with its camera, they trigger that phone's web browser to navigate to a given website. In the near future, however, they may be used to securely display 3D images on the user's phone, without even involving the internet.

The creators of the experimental Lumitrack motion-tracking system claim that it has much less lag time than existing systems, plus it's highly accurate and should be cheap to commercialize.

The ON-WINGS aircraft ice detection system can be integrated directly into aerofoil surfaces, unlike other systems.

Urwerk's next luxury watch, the EMC, will include an electronic mechanism that verifies its own precision and tells the wearer whether the timing needs to be adjusted.

Huey the Color Copying Chameleon Lamp identifies any color that it's placed on, then glows in that color.

Sharp Corporation plans to launch a new notebook with an innovative optical sensor built into an LCD touch pad.