Sensors

Graphene, the electrically-conductive "wonder material" made up of a one-atom-thick sheet of linked carbon atoms, already has many uses. It now has another, however, as the active ingredient in a sensor that detects food spoilage.

Sony has shown off what it's calling "the world's first image sensors to be equipped with AI processing functionality." These new sensors handle AI image analysis on board, so only the necessary data can be sent for further cloud processing.

Engineers from North Carolina State University have developed a thin, stretchable electronic wearable sleeve that allows the user's skin to breathe, making for more comfortable long-term use as a biomedical sensor or human-machine interface.

Many of us now keep tabs on how we're doing by wearing health and fitness trackers, which run on batteries. Researchers from Caltech have developed an electronic skin that can be packed with sensors, and that's powered by the sweat of its wearer.

Imagine touching the armrest of your sofa to change the channel on your television, or pressing against a lightbulb stencil on the wall to turn on your smart light – these functions and many more like them are now possible thanks to new research.

Computers can already boast superhuman sensory abilities in sight and hearing, but smell has been much tougher. Even harder is learning to categorize and differentiate smells, but a new Intel chip that mimics the human brain is well on the way.

When we pick up an object, we can adjust our grip if that object proves to be a slippery customer. ETH researchers have developed a sensor that could help robot grippers to do the same.

There is a large disparity between the survival rates of prematurely born babies in the developing world and those in the developed world, but scientists at Northwestern University have developed of new kind of wireless sensor to help bridge the gap.

A new health tracker produced at North Carolina State University is an interesting glimpse of what the future of wearable tech could look like, packing an aray of health-tracking functionality into a familiar form you can wear on your wrist.

A new type of ultrasound technology promises to make a touch-sensitive surface out of just about any common material – metal, glass, wood, plastic – which could open up a number of new ways to interact with our gadgets.

A human-sized robot has been equipped with 1,260 cells to create what is claimed to be the first autonomous humanoid robot with artificial skin covering its entire body.

A new MIT system is designed for charging batteries to power a network of sensors that would transmit data from the sea floor.