Nanowerk December 4, 2019 Researchers at Northwestern University designed the picoscale crystalline structure of molybdenum oxynitride (MoON), to host the phase transition. The researchers found the metal-insulator transition (MIT) occurred near 600 degrees Celsius, revealing its potential for applications in high-temperature sensors and power electronics. They noted multiple design parameters influenced MoON’s phase transition. The inclusion of multiple anions in the material activated the phase transition due to specific electron configurations related to the spatial orientation of electronic orbitals. The findings offer insight into how subtle changes on the nanoscale can be used to control macroscopic behavior, like conductivity, in […]
Tag Archives: Sensors
Scientists develop electrochemical platform for cell-free synthetic biology
Eurekalert November 25, 2019 To date, gene-circuit-based sensors have primarily used optical proteins as reporter outputs, which has limited the potential to measure multiple distinct signals. An international team of researchers (Canada, USA – Arizona State University) has engineered a scalable system of reporter enzymes that cleave specific DNA sequences in solution, which results in an electrochemical signal when these newly liberated strands are captured at the surface of a nanostructured microelectrode. They describe the development of this interface and show its utility using a ligand-inducible gene circuit and toehold switch-based sensors by demonstrating the detection of multiple antibiotic resistance […]
The Bioacoustic Signatures of Our Bodies Can Reveal Our Identities
IEEE Spectrum November 4, 2019 A team of researchers in South Korea is exploring whether the unique bioacoustic signatures created as sound waves pass through humans can be used to identify individuals. They developed a bioacoustic frequency spectroscopy system and applied it to the fingers to obtain information on the anatomy, biomechanics, and biomaterial properties of the tissues. The modulated microvibrations propagated through our body could capture a unique spectral trait of a person and the biomechanical transfer characteristics persisted for two months and resulted in 97.16% accuracy of identity authentication in 41 subjects. In the current version it does […]
Engineers develop new way to know liars’ intent
Science Daily November 1, 2019 Researchers at Dartmouth College present a detection model that captures a speaker’s intent by measuring his patterns of reasoning. Through empirical studies, these intent-driven reasoning patterns can identify as well as explain deceptive communications. They developed a unique approach and resulting algorithm that can tell deception apart from all benign communications by retrieving the universal features of deceptive reasoning. However, the framework is currently limited by the amount of data needed to measure a speaker’s deviation from their past arguments. The model which could be developed to extract opinion from “fake news,” among other uses, […]
New study describes conduction through proteins
Nanowerk October 31, 2019 A team of researchers at the Arizona State University describes techniques for affixing the DNA polymerase to electrodes to generate strong conductance signals by means of two specialized binding chemicals biotin and streptavidin. When one electrode was functionalized using this technique, small conductance spikes were generated as the DNA polymerase successively bound and released each nucleotide, like a grasping hand catching and releasing a baseball. When both electrodes were outfitted with streptavidin and biotin, much stronger conductance signals, measuring 3-5 times as large, were observed. The new method hopes to take a different approach, using the […]
Study shows ability to detect light from UV to the IR optical regimes using spin currents
EurekAlert October 29, 2019 The spin Seebek effect (SSE) is one of three known ways to generate spin current. The SSE occurs when a thermal gradient is created across a material and, depending on how it is measured, results in an electrical potential. As the spin Seebeck effect is based on creating a temperature difference, a team of researchers in the US (University of Wyoming, Colorado State University) is exploiting this property to produce a device that detects light through pure spin currents which are the magnetic analog of electrical currents. Oriented spin is the magnetic component of fundamental particles, […]
What Happens When a CBRN Agent is Released in an Urban Area? Ask HASP.
Global Biodefense June 26, 2019 The Hazard Assessment Simulation and Prediction Suite (HASP) software was developed by the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). It models how CBRN threats will disperse if released in urban or open areas. It provides hazard predictions in a matter of minutes, greatly improving upon previous models. It also takes into consideration the interactions between indoor and outdoor dispersion as well as estimates the source parameters, such as location, discharge time, and the amount of substance released. The HASP Suite will be available in a next generation CBRN information management system known as EuroSIM […]
A wearable vibration sensor for accurate voice recognition
Phys.org June 24, 2019 Conventional vibration sensors recognize a voice through air vibration and the sensitivity decreases due to mechanical resonance and the damping effect, therefore they are not capable of measuring voices quantitatively. Researchers in South Korea developed a device which consists of an ultrathin polymer film and a diaphragm with tiny holes that can sense voices quantitively by measuring the acceleration of skin vibration. They demonstrated that the voice pressure is proportional to the acceleration of neck skin vibration at various sound pressure levels from 40 to 70 dBSPL. This research can be further extended to various voice-recognition […]
DJI Promises to Add “AirSense” to Its New Drones
IEEE Spectrum May 22, 2019 DJI, a drone manufacturer in China, has announced that after January 1, 2020 all drones manufactured by the company that weigh more than 250 grams will include AirSense technology, which receives ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) signals from nearby airplanes and helicopters and warns drone pilots if they appear to be on a collision course. Until now AirSense was available only on some professional-grade DJI drones. The move sets a new standard by putting professional-grade aviation safety technology in drones available to everyone…read more. Video
Sound waves bypass visual limitations to recognize human activity
Phys.org May 28, 2019 For human activity recognition (HAR) one or a few ultrasonic sensors are used to receive signals, which require many feature quantities of extraction from the received data to improve recognition accuracy. An international team of researchers (China, Japan) has developed a device based on a two-dimensional acoustic array and convolutional neural networks which uses a single feature quantity to characterize the sound of human activities and identify them. They tested their approach using a two-dimensional acoustic array with 256 receivers and four ultrasonic transmitters to gather data related to four different human activities—sitting, standing, walking and […]