IPhone tracks blood glucose with a 'nano-tattoo'

Phone sensor: This modified iPhone case can be used to detect sodium levels via a nanosensor “tattoo.” Credit: Heather Clark and Matt Dubach


By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Researchers at Northeastern University in the US have developed a technique to track blood sugar via an iPhone, aiming at cyclists initially. The technique uses an injection of carefully chosen nanoparticles into the

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Soft memory for bioelectronic systems

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk


Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a memory device that is soft and functions well in wet environments, opening the door to a new generation of biocompatible electronic devices.
“We’ve created a memory device with the physical properties of Jell-O,” says Dr Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular

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Researchers make ferroelectric nanostructures directly on plastic

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk
Researchers have developed a new way to fabricate nanometre-scale ferroelectric structures that could lead to a new generation of low cost energy harvesting devices and micromachined structures The key is that they have been able to build ferroelectric structures directly on flexible plastic substrates that would be unable to withstand the processing

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Using blood glucose to power implants

Electricity from Blood SugarBy Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Reseachers at the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) of the University of Freiburg are developing biological fuel cells to provide power in the human body. Researchers have yet to find an optimal method for supplying implantable medical microsystems with electrical energy. The batteries of a pacemaker, for instance, need

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Leti Develops Ultra-Wideband Communications System for International Airports

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

French researchers at CEA-Leti have developed an ultra-wideband (UWB) radio chip and location software to help airport operators identify and control the continuous movements of ground crews and their vehicles.
The chip and software performance has been demonstrated at Portugal’s Faro Airport as part of the European Commission-funded LocON platform project to

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Industry's First NVIDIA Fermi GPU OpenVPX Engine

480 cores on a board for military digital signal rpocessing
By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Marking a key move of massively parallel graphics technology from the PC desktop to the embedded world, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing (CWCEC) has developed the industry's first openVPX board based on NVIDIA's Fermi graphics engine.
The VPX6-490 GPU Application Accelerator uses two NVIDIA

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Device captures ambient electromagnetic energy for power

Printed antennas and electronics capture energy to drive small electronic devices
By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.ukResearchers in the US have developed a low cost way to capture and harness energy transmitted by such sources as radio and television transmitters, cell phone networks and satellite communications systems. By scavenging this ambient energy with ink-jet printed antenna, the

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