TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have developed a speech recognition chip that uses a fraction of the power of existing technologies. “The chip is essentially designed to be always on in a low-power mode, switching over when voice is detected, thus making it ideal for technologies like wearable devices,” Heater explains.
MIT researchers have found that water can stay frozen, even when heated to boiling temperatures, when molecules are placed inside tiny carbon nanotubes, reports Sam Lemonick for Forbes. The researchers hope to use the “ice-filled tubes as wires to move protons,” a key step in creating hydrogen fuel cells.
MIT researchers have developed a stretchy, biocompatible material that could be implanted in a patient’s body and used to stimulate cells or detect disease, according to FOX News. The hydrogel “could bend and twist in a patient’s body without breaking down.”
In this video, BBC World News reporter Adam Shaw learns about the stretchy, water-based hydrogel MIT researchers developed that could be used as a smart bandage to sense temperatures and deliver medication. “This is a new way to think about this interface between the human body and electronic devices,” explains Prof. Xuanhe Zhao.
The PBS NewsHour highlights how one organization used tracking technology developed by Prof. Carlo Ratti to learn what happens to recycled electronic waste. “Tracking is really the first step in order to design a better system,” Ratti said. “One of the surprising things we discovered is how far waste travels.”
In this video, Bloomberg News reporter Sam Grobart examines the new hydrogel developed by MIT researchers that can bend and twist without breaking, and could be used to deliver medicines and monitor our health. Grobart explains that the hydrogel “could be a building block of the medicine of the future.”
MIT researchers are developing a smart bandage that could monitor and help heal wounds, according to Reuters. Prof. Xuanhe Zhao explains that if sensors in the bandage detected “an abnormal increase in temperature, for example, it will send out a command. Then the controlled drug delivery system can deliver a specific drug to that specific location.”
Dana Guth reports for Boston Magazine on a new bandage developed by Prof. Xuanhe Zhao that can deliver medication directly to a wound. “The bandage is filled with tiny pathways, so that drugs can flow through its gel-like material, providing relief for burns and other minor skin conditions,” writes Guth.
MIT researchers have developed a new bandage that can detect infection and automatically release medication, reports Jordan Graham for The Boston Herald. “We are trying to design long-term, high-efficiency interfaces between the body and electronics,” explains Prof. Xunahe Zhao.
NBC News reporter Maggie Fox writes that MIT researchers have developed a stretchy, wet bandage that can deliver medications. The device could “carry a thermometer to continuously measure skin temperature, or tiny devices to keep an eye on blood sugar levels for someone with diabetes.”
Wired reporter Katie Collins writes about how a team of MIT scientists has discovered that the electricity produced by bouncing water droplets could be used to charge smart phones.
"Now researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Michigan have devised a way in which graphene can be grown directly onto an insulator like glass or silicon,” writes Dexter Johnson of IEEE Spectrum. The method could be used to manufacture interactive screens, said Professor A. John Hart.