Motherboard reporter Caroline Haskins writes that Media Lab researchers have developed a new plant-robot hybrid that uses electrodes, a robot and wheels so that it can move itself towards light. Haskins explains that “bioelectrochemical signals from the plant that respond to light…are routed to a robot underneath the plant, and wheels take the plant to a spot best-suited for its survival.”
MIT researchers have developed a new system to detect contaminated food by scanning a product’s RFID tags, reports Devin Coldewey for TechCrunch. The system can “tell the difference between pure and melamine-contaminated baby formula, and between various adulterations of pure ethyl alcohol,” Coldewey explains.
This Quartz video highlights how MIT researchers are developing a self-driving boat system that can navigate waterways and can transform into different structures to move cargo, trash or build a temporary bridge. “The boats find the best path between preprogrammed locations, while using GPS, laser sensors, and cameras to avoid hitting anything,” explains Michael Tabb.
Researchers from MIT are using the brittle nature of graphene to mass produce cell-sized robots, writes David Grossman of Popular Mechanics. Called “syncells” or synthetic cells, the researchers hope they can be used in biomedical testing. “Inject hundreds into the bloodstreams and let the data fly back into sensors,” explains Grossman.
Prof. John Leonard speaks with Bloomberg News about his work with the Toyota Research Institute on developing a system that combines machine learning technologies and sensors to make vehicles safer. “Imagine if you had the most vigilant and capably trained driver in the world that could take over in a situation where a teenager took a curve too fast,” says Leonard of the inspiration for the system.
Boston Globe reporter Martin Finucane writes that MIT researchers have developed sensors that can track dopamine levels in the brain. The sensors could eventually be used to monitor “Parkinson’s patients who receive a treatment called deep brain stimulation,” Finucane explains, adding that the sensors could “help deliver the stimulation only when it’s needed.”
Wired reporter Jack Stewart explores the technology behind Boston-based startup WaveSense, which applies ground-penetrating radar developed at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory to give self-driving cars a way to map where they are without relying on visual clues or GPS. The technology, writes Stewart, was “first deployed in 2013 to help troops navigate in Afghanistan, where staying on path and avoiding landmines is a matter of life and death.”
The Economist highlights Prof. Michael Triantafyllou’s work studying how seals employ their whiskers to detect their surroundings. Triantafyllou is using the seal whisker as a model for developing an underwater sensor that would, “detect the wakes of natural objects, such as fish and marine mammals, and artificial ones, such as other robots, surface ships and submarines.”
In this video, Prof. Canan Dagdeviren speaks with STAT about her group’s work developing a new, self-powered implantable device that can be used to relay information about the human body. “The physical patterns of human beings contain information in coded ways, and we would like to decode and understand what these patterns are telling us,” Dagdeviren explains.
Fast Company reporter Steven Melendez writes that CSAIL researchers have created a new system that allows a robot to detect human brainwave patterns so it knows when it made a mistake. Melendez explains that, “Teaching robots to understand human nonverbal cues and signals could make them safer and more efficient at working with people.”
NBC Mach reporter Tom Metcalfe writes that MIT researchers are developing autonomous boats that could be used to ferry goods and people and could help ease traffic congestion. “We believe that with fleets of very agile autonomous boats we can offload some street traffic onto the waterways,” explains Prof. Daniela Rus.
Boston Herald reporter Lindsay Kalter writes that MIT researchers have developed a wireless ingestible sensor that could one day be used to diagnose and treat disease. “The most exciting thing is that we can wirelessly control tiny implants even though they have no batteries at all,” says Prof. Fadel Adib.
Researchers at MIT have developed a device “that can receive power and communicate wirelessly from inside the body,” which could eventually be used for drug delivery, to treat disease or to monitor overall health, reports Allen Cone for UPI. "Having the capacity to communicate with these systems without the need for a battery would be a significant advance," said research affiliate Gio Traverso.
Researchers from MIT's CSAIL and Senseable City Lab “have designed a fleet of 3-D printed autonomous boats [that] could eventually taxi people and deliver goods,” reports CNBC’s Erin Black. The boats “can also be equipped to monitor a city's water quality,” Black explains.
In this video, Mashable spotlights AlterEgo, a wearable device that allows for silent communication between human and machine. The video notes that graduate student Arnav Kapur’s goal in developing the device was to, “create something to let people communicate silently and without being obtrusive to each other.”