In the 100th running of a classic race up one of Colorado’s most iconic mountains, student engineers from Ohio State University enter their handmade battery-powered bike in hopes of beating all other entries and setting a record for the course.
Forget the currency; it’s the protocol behind it that matters. Blockchains will mutate and take over everything we do on the Web. Trusting strangers with your digital information may sound silly, but it’s actually a revolution in distributed computing. And one day, systems like Bitcoin could be the future of all secure digital transactions.
A team of researchers have found a way to meld bioinspiration with robotics and cybernetics with the creation of a fully controllable robotic ray that uses light-activated rat muscle cells to swim. The research has just been published in Science, and it’s impressive. And also adorable.
Surgically implanted bioelectronic devices may one day treat inflammatory conditions with electrical nerve stimulation.
At the 2016 National Drone Racing Championships in NYC, engineering chops meet first person view flying for an exhilarating new mixed reality sport.
A robotic tackling dummy created by Dartmouth College engineering students could turn out to be the most valuable player on the field this football season. Short for Mobile Virtual Player, the MVP robot is designed to take a beating during football drills, sparing players from an accumulation of the kinds of impacts known to result in concussions and long-term brain damage.
The phrase “desktop fabrication” has for the most part meant 3D printers and laser cutters. There are also small computer-numerical-control (CNC) mills and routers to be had, but until now you’d be hard pressed to find a small computerized machine hefty enough and flexible enough to cut complicated patterns in, say, steel. And you’d be totally out of luck if your material of choice was glass or ceramic.
IEEE Spectrum’s own Stephen Cass has been on a several-month-long quest to make groovy electronic music—in spite of a complete and utter lack of any musical talent whatsoever. So when he stumbled across the TeraRanger One range finding sensor, the wheels in his head started spinning. The sensor uses reflected infrared pulses to determine distances of up to several meters. Cass quickly realized that with the help of an Arduino Mega, he could translate different distances into musical notes on his 1980s vintage Casio SK-5 keyboard, creating an instrument you can play with your whole body. The result is…
Ohio State University’s Buckeye Current Electric Motorcycle Team is no ordinary after school club. Unless, of course, your version of ordinary includes breaking land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats and taking home racing trophies from the Isle of Man. In about six years, this all-student team has gone from cobbling motorcycles together from whatever they had on hand to competing against professional motorcycle racing teams on some of the world’s toughest courses. The challenge of building an entirely new electric motorcycle from scratch has turned out to be a fantastic testing ground for these soon-to-be minted electrical engineers….
Robotics engineers at SRI International in Silicon Valley have developed the first new rotary transmission design since the invention of the Harmonic Drive gear.
KAIST’s PIBOT can convert an aircraft from manned to unmanned just by sitting in the pilot’s seat.
How a band of techie volunteers electrified Lingshed monastery and school
Steve Roberts turned his yacht into an ever-evolving electronics laboratory. Datawake was 10 years in the making. She’s outfitted with endless gadgets: including a ham radio, a milling machine, a 3D printer, Raspberry Pi and Arduino based systems for data collection, and endless tools for tinkering. She even has a kitty litter box equipped with a carbon filter air cleaner and a security camera for wireless monitoring.
No Skills Required: Kniterate’s software allows anyone to create pro-knit garments with the click of a button
All the cool kids are coaxing crazy sounds from old electronic toys and synthesizers via the process of “circuit bending,” so we thought we’d give it a try.
Festo’s chief pilot gives Spectrum a private demo of a few of its incredible robotic animals: eMotion Butterfly, AirJelly, and AirPenguin
How a Japanese and Indian team of sonar engineers came together to help the endangered Ganges River dolphin
AxonVR’s HaptX system is an enormous metal box with some buttons and blinking lights. It’s very much a prototype. You put on a HTC Vive headset, stick your left hand into the box, and then experience the magic of a tiny virtual deer taking a warm and fluffy nap on your outstretched palm.
Millimeter waves, massive MIMO, full duplex, beamforming, and small cells are just a few of the technologies that could enable ultrafast 5G networks. Today’s mobile users want faster data speeds and more reliable service. The next generation of wireless networks—5G—promises to deliver that, and much more. With 5G, users should be able to download a high-definition film in under a second (a task that could take 10 minutes on 4G LTE). And wireless engineers say these networks will boost the development of other new technologies, too, such as autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things. If…
Flexible lenses and piezoelectric pistons in these smart glasses keep the world in focus.