Design

In this CNN video, Maya Dangerfield highlights the team of students from MIT participating in the SpaceX Hyperloop competition. The MIT team finished among the top three teams, and was honored with the Safety and Reliability Award. 

Wired reporter Liz Stinson writes about Vespers, a series of 3-D printed death masks designed by researchers in the MIT Mediated Matter group. “The team used fluid dynamics modeling software, colorful, translucent resins, and a high-resolution, multi-material 3-D printer to produce hues, forms, and textures that look surprisingly organic—despite the masks’ association with death.”

In an article about food allergies for WBUR’s Bostonomix site, Rachel Zimmerman spotlights the Nima gluten tester, a portable device developed by two MIT graduates that can detect gluten in foods within minutes. The device “can detect gluten in concentrations as low as 20 parts per million,” Zimmerman explains. 

CBC reporter Nora Young explores how MIT researchers have developed a new material, inspired by beaver fur, that could help keep surfers warm. “In sports technology there's a great need for textiles that have great insulating properties in water, but still let you stay agile and nimble,” explains graduate student Alice Nasto. 

MIT researchers have developed a system that allows users to interact with video simulations, writes Joanna Goodman for The Guardian. The system “uses video to virtualize physical content so that it can interact with virtual content, so that when you see – on your smartphone – a Pokémon interact with a flexible object, you also see that object react.”

MIT has been named the top university in the world in the latest QS World University Rankings, reports Nick Morrison for Forbes. This is the fifth consecutive year that MIT has earned the number one spot in the QS rankings. 

Temporary tattoos created by MIT researchers that allow users to control their electronic devices could one day make remote controls obsolete, writes Thomas Tamblyn for The Huffington Post. Tamblyn explains that the tattoos are made “using gold metal leaf, which means that it’s cheap, skin-friendly and can support a range of different input options.” 

Fortune reporter David Morris writes that MIT researchers have developed a technique for producing temporary tattoos that can serve as computer interfaces. The researchers “used gold leaf to construct a range of sensing surfaces for capacitive touch input, conductors for heat-sensitive displays, and antennae for short-range wireless communications.”

A new imaging technique developed by MIT researchers creates video simulations that people can interact with, writes Charles Choi for Scientific American. “In addition to fueling game development, these advances could help simulate how real bridges and buildings might respond to potentially disastrous situations,” Choi explains. 

CSAIL researchers have created an algorithm that makes videos interactive, writes Andrew Freedman for Fox News. Freedman explains how this technology could transform games like Pokémon Go, “With interactive dynamic video, the Spearow could interact with the leaves rather than simply sit on top of them.”Reach in and touch objects in videos with “Interactive Dynamic Video”

BBC News reports that CSAIL researchers have created an algorithm that can manipulate still objects in photographs and videos. The technique doesn’t require any special cameras, which makes it great for improving the realism in augmented reality games like Pokémon Go.

Alyssa Newcomb writes for NBC News that MIT researchers have developed a system that allows users to interact with virtual objects. Newcomb explains that the “technology could be used to make movies or even by engineers wanting to find out how an old bridge may respond to inclement weather.”

CSAIL researchers have created a tool that allows people to interact with videos, writes Mary Beth Griggs for Popular Science. The technique could “make augmented reality animations integrate even more with the 'reality' part of augmented reality, help engineers model how structures will react when different forces are applied, or as a less expensive way to create special effects.”

By projecting images through multiple lenses and mirrors, CSAIL researchers have developed a new prototype movie screen that allows viewers to see 3-D images without glasses, reports Aaron Smith for CNN Money. 

CSAIL researchers have developed a way for people to watch 3-D movies without glasses, writes Kevin Slane for Boston.com. The new display the researchers developed “would use a series of lenses and mirrors to allow audiences to see the same three-dimensional image from any seat in a theater.”