Mobile devices

The clock transmitter chip (pink) wired to a circuit board package. Connected is a metal gas cell (right), in which a 231.061 GHz signal generated from the chip excites the rotation of carbonyl sulfide molecules. Because the peak rotation of the molecules is constant, it can be used as a reference point to keep accurate time.

Molecular clock could greatly improve smartphone navigation

Novel chip keeps time using the constant, measurable rotation of molecules as a timing reference.

July 13, 2018

Measuring the economy with location data

Startup’s platform crunches anonymized smartphone GPS data to understand how people shop, work, and live.

March 27, 2018

Butterfly Network, a startup co-founded by MIT alumnus Nevada Sanchez ’10, SM ’11, has developed a low-cost, handheld scanner that generates clinical-quality ultrasounds on a smartphone. Ultrasounds are uploaded to the cloud, where any expert with permission can give second opinions or help analyze images.

Giving everyone a window into the human body

Startup’s low-cost, portable scanner generates clinical-quality ultrasounds on a smartphone.

February 6, 2018

A new theoretical analysis of wireless localization systems represents settings of a wireless network (yellow) and measurement error (purple) as three-dimensional spaces. The intersection of the two spaces defines the network’s optimal configuration.

Location detection when GPS doesn’t work

Theoretical study shows how to make wireless localization much more accurate.

January 22, 2018

CityScope Andorra is a 3-D augmented-reality platform that visualizes complex urban data on a small-scale model of the country. Users can interactively test scenarios on the model, such as how many parks to include in a city, adjust heights of buildings, calculate the optimal mix of residential and commercial real estate, and whether to allow private vehicles or only car-share services. The impact...

Small European nation becomes a “living lab” for urban innovation researchers

Andorra funds MIT Media Lab technologies that, in turn, help improve the nation’s cities.

October 13, 2017

A new system can automatically retouch images in the style of a professional photographer. It can run on a cellphone and display retouched images in real time.

Automatic image retouching on your phone

System can apply a range of styles in real-time, so that the viewfinder displays the enhanced image.

August 1, 2017

mSurvey uses text message-based surveys to gather purchasing behavior of people living in previously hard-to-reach communities in Kenya, the Philippines, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and other locations in Africa and the Caribbean. In return for their feedback, participants receive mobile money.

Illuminating the developing world’s “invisible” consumers

Texting-based surveys capture purchasing and behavior data from people living in remote areas.

June 21, 2017

Thomas Friedman delivered the keynote address at the ninth annual Kendall Square Association (KSA) meeting.

KSA meeting focuses on digital globalization, emerging technologies

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Friedman delivers keynote on how rising trends impact society.

March 30, 2017

MIT Media Lab spinout Cardiio has developed a mobile app that uses a smartphone camera to detect facial signs of a heart arrhythmia associated with strokes.

App screens for arrhythmia using smartphone camera

Startup develops app to detect irregular heartbeats that can cause strokes.

March 29, 2017

Modo Labs’ platform is being used by 200 universities and colleges, as well as Fortune 500 companies and hospitals worldwide, reaching millions of users.

Apps created for everyone, by anyone

Platform created to power MIT mobile app is being used widely by colleges, businesses, and hospitals.

March 21, 2017

In an effort to get ahead of the problem of counterfeit wireless chargers, MIT researchers have built a chip that blocks attempts to wirelessly charge a device’s battery unless the charger first provides cryptographic authentication.

Secure wireless chargers

New chip would thwart the counterfeiting that plagues the market for wired device chargers.

February 9, 2017

A new study estimates that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day).

Study: Mobile-money services lift Kenyans out of poverty

Greater access to services raises daily spending, especially among female-headed households.

December 8, 2016

“I have considered working in social entrepreneurship or academia — ultimately I think I will seek out a combination of both. I think they both have advantages to addressing these kinds of problems, and their own drawbacks. I think ultimately I’m going to draw fulfillment from working on a problem that really matters to people,” senior Charlie Andrews-Jubelt says.

Life lessons from the climbing wall

MIT senior Charlie Andrews-Jubelt encourages students to look out for each other and lend support.

November 9, 2016

Cambridge Mobile Telematics co-founders Hari Balakrishnan (left) and Samuel Madden (right).

Rewarding Boston’s safest driver

Mayor Martin Walsh announces a competition aimed at improving Boston driving with an app developed by an MIT spinout.

October 5, 2016

A study led by MIT researchers suggests that using mobile-phone data to track people’s movement provides a deeper picture of exposure to pollution in urban settings, compared to only studying air-quality levels in fixed places.

Measuring exposure to pollution

Mobile-phone data helps researchers study an urban problem in greater detail.

September 1, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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