Sensors

PhD candidate Mohammad Ghassemi (left) and graduate student Tuka Alhanai's system can detect the tone of a conversation using a wearable device.

Wearable AI system can detect a conversation's tone

Coupled with audio and vital-sign data, deep-learning system could someday serve as a “social coach” for people with anxiety or Asperger’s.

February 1, 2017

Fadel Adib has joined the Media Lab faculty to head the new research group Signal Kinetics.

Fadel Adib joins Media Lab faculty

Adib is directing a new research group at the Media Lab, aiming to uncover, analyze, and engineer natural and human-made networks.

January 27, 2017

MIT Media Lab spinout Changing Environments is the brains behind the solar-powered Soofa Bench, which is equipped with an embedded charging station for mobile devices that also connects to wireless networks. Recently, the startup released the solar-powered Soofa Sign, which displays public transit times, weather, and events, among other city information.

Smart city fixtures

Startup brings solar-powered, phone-charging park benches and digital signs to cities worldwide.

January 27, 2017

MIT chemical engineers have developed arrays of carbon nanotube sensors that can detect single protein molecules as they are secreted from cells.

New sensors can detect single protein molecules

Modified carbon nanotubes could be used to track protein production by individual cells.

January 23, 2017

Neuroscientists at MIT have adapted their MRI scanner to make it easier to scan infants’ brains as the babies watch movies featuring different types of visual input.

A glimpse into the workings of the baby brain

MRI scans reveal surprising similarities in activity patterns of infant and adult visual cortex.

January 10, 2017

MIT chemical engineers discovered that they could force antibodies and other proteins to form layers by attaching each protein to a polymer tail. The proteins and polymers repel each other, so the molecules arrange themselves in a structure that minimizes the interactions between the protein and polymer segments.

3-D antibody arrays offer better sensing

New tool could help diagnose malaria and other diseases.

January 4, 2017

A light-trapping diamond waveguide developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory is one of the technologies honored with a 2016 R&D 100 Award. The waveguide is capable of efficiently guiding a green excitation laser beam along a meter-long optical path in a millimeter-scale diamond.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory garners six 2016 R&D 100 Awards

Innovations in air traffic safety, biomedical devices, and magnetic field detection earn accolades.

November 21, 2016

By embedding spinach leaves with carbon nanotubes, MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone.

Nanobionic spinach plants can detect explosives

After sensing dangerous chemicals, the carbon-nanotube-enhanced plants send an alert.

October 31, 2016

Left to right: PhD student Fadel Adib, PhD student Mingmin Zhao, and Professor Dina Katabi pose with their EQ-Radio device, which can detect emotion using wireless signals.

Detecting emotions with wireless signals

Measuring your heartbeat and breath, CSAIL device can tell if you’re excited, happy, angry, or sad.

September 20, 2016

ROBOAT, a new collaboration between researchers from MIT and partner institutions in the Netherlands, seeks to design and deploy a fleet of autonomous boats on the canals of Amsterdam.

An autonomous fleet for Amsterdam

MIT, AMS Institute will collaborate to solve complex urban problems for Amsterdam with the development of autonomous "roboats."

September 19, 2016

“There's a lot of role models here [at MIT], and sometimes, in Chile or in Mexico or in Costa Rica, [girls] don't know that there's a graduate student or an undergrad doing these cool things at MIT,” says grad student Alicia Chong Rodriguez. “I think it's a matter of just connecting the dots.”

Taking on gender gaps in health care and technology

Graduate student Alicia Chong Rodriguez uses her engineering skills to empower women.

August 18, 2016

Researchers designed and tested several types of optical sensors that could be placed at the tip of an epidural needle and determined that the best is one that relies on Raman spectroscopy. This technique, which uses light to measure energy shifts in molecular vibrations, offers detailed information about the chemical composition of tissue.

Needles that hit the right mark

New sensor could help anesthesiologists place needles for epidurals and other medical procedures.

August 11, 2016

To use the Nima sensor, a new device that can detect gluten, diners put a pea-sized sample of food or liquid into a disposable capsule, and insert the capsule into the device, which mixes the food into a solution that detects gluten. In two to three minutes, a digital display appears on the sensor, indicating if the food sample does or doesn’t contain gluten.

Is your meal really gluten free?

Portable sensor detects trace amounts of gluten in food at restaurants.

July 6, 2016

“The City of Tomorrow: Sensors, Networks, Hackers, and the Future of Urban Life” (Yale University Press), co-written by Carlo Ratti (pictured), director of the Senseable City Lab and a professor of the practice in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Cities of tomorrow

New book by Senseable City Lab researchers presents vision of data-driven urban design.

July 5, 2016

These fluorescent gels were synthesized by mixing a polymer (polyethylene glycol) and a ligand (terpyridine) with two lanthanides — europium and terbium — in varying ratios.

The promise of fluorescent polymer gels

Color-changing materials could be used to detect structural failure in energy-related equipment.

July 1, 2016

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