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Big Plans to Save the Planet Depend on Nanoscopic Materials Improving Energy Storage
The challenge of building an energy future that preserves and improves the planet is a massive undertaking. Scientists and politicians have recognized the need for an urgent and sizable shift in ...
Highly Sensitive Diode, Converts Microwaves to Usable Electricity
A highly sensitive rectifying element in the form of a nanowire backward diode can convert low-power 100 nanowatt microwaves into usable electricity. The newly developed diode has achieved a leve...
5 Ws of EarEcho
WHO Anyone who uses a smartphone with in-ear earphones.
Innovators Recognized for Creating the Future 2019
The Create the Future Design Contest was launched in 2002 to help stimulate and reward engineering innovation. In the past 17 years, the annual contest has drawn more than 14,000 product design i...
Device Creates Electricity from Snowfall
Researchers have designed a device that creates electricity from falling snow. The device is inexpensive, small, thin, and flexible like a sheet of plastic. It can work in remote areas because it...
Method Speeds 3D Printing of Millimeter-Sized Imaging Lenses
A new method was developed to make a low-cost, high-quality lens quickly using a 3D printer. The technology could be used to create optical imaging lenses, customized contact lenses for correctin...
Photonic Switch Increases Speed and Efficiency of Light Through Optical Fibers
A photonic switch was developed that can control the direction of light passing through optical fibers faster and more efficiently than ever. This optical “traffic cop” could improve how info...
Technique Uses X-Rays to Detect Defective Computer Chips
Guaranteeing that computer chips — which can consist of billions of interconnected transistors — are manufactured without defects is a challenge. It’s also a challenge to determine if a chi...
Carbon Capture Process Makes Sustainable Oil
Spinoff is NASA's annual publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. This commercialization has contributed to the development of products and services in the fields of hea...
Metallization for SiC Semiconductors
Scientists at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have developed and patented improved ohmic contacts, and a fabrication method for them, that will speed the production of silicon carbide (SiC) sensor...
Continuous Fiber Composite for Use in Gears
NASA's Glenn Research Center has developed a breakthrough means of adapting strong but lightweight carbon fiber composite material to fabricate structures of complex shape such as specialized com...
Shape Memory Alloy Art (SMArt)
Innovators at NASA's Glenn Research Center have developed an educational device and method for creating letters, numbers, characters, symbols, or a combination, using shape memory alloy (SMA) wir...
New on the Market: December 2019
POWER PROTECTION Transtector Systems, an Infinite Electronics brand, Irvine, CA, introduced AC power protection cabinets engineered for small cell sites that combine a field-configurable branch ...
Self-Contained Wheel Unit
Researchers have developed a self-contained wheel unit that combines a wheel and an electric motor with braking, suspension, steering, and a control system in a single module designed to be bolte...
WiFi-Based Technique Measures Speed and Distance of Indoor Movement
A technique was developed that uses a combination of WiFi signals and accelerometer technology to track devices in near-real-time. The WiFi-assisted Inertial Odometry (WIO) technique uses WiFi as...
The Role of Sensors in the Evolution of Robotics
At one time, robotics was considered more science fiction than reality. That's changing. Today, robots are increasingly playing a role in our everyday lives. They're zooming around our homes to p...
Collaborative Automation: It's More Than Just the Cobot
Collaborative robots, often called “cobots,” offer opportunities for companies of almost any size to cost-effectively automate processes that were previously out of reach. Cobots are availabl...
Will Self-Assembling 'M-Blocks' Catch On?
A team at MIT created self-assembling robotic cubes that can climb and roll over each other into set formations.
3D-Printed Plastics with High Performance Electrical Circuits
Rutgers engineers have embedded high performance electrical circuits inside 3D-printed plastics, which could lead to smaller and versatile drones and better-performing small satellites, biomedica...
Metal 3D Printing
Having proven its capability and future potential in producing plastic-based parts, 3D printing has also been progressing steadily in metal. Recent market analysis reports stake material and prin...