Sensor

Skin plays a key role in our sense of touch, but its sensitivity is hard to replicate. Now, researchers have developed a new type of electronic skin (e-skin) containing tiny embedded hairs that can precisely perceive touch and the direction it moves.

Imagining a future where hundreds of sensors are placed around forests or farms for large-scale monitoring of the environment, scientists have developed platforms light enough to disperse like dandelion seeds in the breeze when dropped from a drone.

Blind corners have long troubled drivers, but researchers have now developed a holographic camera technology that can peer around corners by reconstructing scattered light waves, quickly enough to spot fast-moving objects like cars or pedestrians.

New research has used an in-ear sensor to monitor COVID-19 patients at home, transmitting vital signs in real-time to doctors who evaluated the need for hospital treatment, often admitting the patients before they even noticed their condition decline.

A team of engineers has given microchips a new ability – the power of flight. Inspired by wind-dispersed seeds, these “microfliers” are shaped like tiny propellers to catch the wind, and may be the smallest flying structures ever made by humans.

Engineers at MIT’s CSAIL have developed a smart carpet that can accurately estimate a person’s movements or body pose without needing cameras. The system could be useful for exercise feedback, monitoring falls, or tracking for VR and gaming.

A novel type of biosensor could help negate the risks of highly toxic arsenic as it makes its way from soil and into plants, by working with the plant tissues to monitor levels of the element in the underground environment in real time.

No matter how good we humans have made something, chances are nature did it better. Rather than compete, scientists have now tapped into a natural sensor with the Smellicopter, a drone that uses an antenna from a live moth to sniff out its targets.

Scientists have fashioned graphene into microscopic balloons they say can distinguish between different kinds of noble gases, by measuring how long the gas takes to escape through tiny perforations in the surface of the balloons.

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a tiny new sensor that can be carried around on a small drone or even the back of an insect – and then dropped on demand to track the environment for years at a time.

Scientists have developed what they claim is the smallest particle sensor in the world, designed specifically to detect harmful pollutants and offer a highly localized picture of air quality by being integrated into wearables and mobile devices.

To create a great smartphone camera, first you need a great mobile camera sensor, and Samsung just unveiled a new 50-megapixel, 1/1.31-inch Isocell GN1 sensor – a component that should find its way into future Samsung phones before too long.