lidar

Optical Metasurfaces Shine a Light on Li-Fi, Lidar

August 15, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Metallurgy & Material Science

A new, tunable smart surface can transform a single pulse of light into multiple beams, each aimed in different directions. The proof-of-principle development opens the door to a range of innovations in communications, imaging, sensing, and medicine.The research comes out of the Caltech lab of Harry Atwater, a professor of…

20 Mar 24

The 5 Spacecraft Behind China’s Moon Rock Sample Mission

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

China launched a spacecraft today that is planned to be the first act in a complex, multi-step campaign to achieve an unprecedented feat: Collecting samples from the far side of the moon and delivering the precious cargo to Earth.Queqiao-2 (“Magpie Bridge-2”), a communications relay satellite, launched at 8:31 a.m. local…

12 Mar 24

Tiny Laser Opens Door to Chip-Size Sensors

Computer & Information Technology

A new ultra-energy-efficient tiny laser on a chip could enable powerful medical sensors to fit within a phone, new research finds.The new device is a kind of frequency comb—a specialized laser that generates multiple wavelengths of light, each at a regular frequency interval. On a spectrogram it would look a…

04 Feb 24

Compact Spinning Tech Makes Thermal Imaging Bright

Civil, Structural & Architecture

Seeing heat, as a cutting-edge field of research today, is getting hotter. Purdue University researchers have merged the power of advanced surfaces (including metamaterials) with thermal imaging algorithms to create technology that could open new frontiers in machine vision and autonomous systems.Previously, such advanced surfaces had been used for imaging…

30 Dec 23

The 8 Hot Consumer Electronics Stories of 2023

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Twenty-twenty-three was a transitional year for consumer electronics. It’s the year Twitter became X; the year Apple teased (but didn’t deliver) the next generation of augmented reality; the year drivers became both more aware and less optimistic of self-driving technology; the year COVID-19’s disruptions finally settled out; the year AI…

03 Oct 23

More Lidar With Less Data Crunching

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore.Thanks to its ability to depict environments with detailed precision, lidar has been used for everything from mapping out civilizations that have been long buried underground to ensuring safe autonomous driving. Lidar involves pointing a…

20 Aug 23

Lidar on a Chip Puts Self-Driving Cars in the Fast Lane

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Auto accidents are responsible for 1.3 million deaths annually, according to the World Health Organization. That’s like losing the city of Prague each year. A switch to self-driving cars and trucks with various types of electronic sensors and sophisticated computers at the helm could save countless lives. But getting this…

13 Jun 23

Lidar and thermal imaging fitted to Northern trains to detect track problems

Civil, Structural & Architecture, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The trains, which would still operate public services, will travel the network and feed information about the track and surrounding infrastructure to Network Rail. Horizon-scanning lidar cameras, thermal-imaging software and HD CCTV footage will be used to record infrastructure defects, environmental factors and maintenance issues. Once the train is stationary…

Optical Metasurfaces Shine a Light on Li-Fi, Lidar

The 5 Spacecraft Behind China’s Moon Rock Sample Mission

Tiny Laser Opens Door to Chip-Size Sensors

Compact Spinning Tech Makes Thermal Imaging Bright

The 8 Hot Consumer Electronics Stories of 2023

More Lidar With Less Data Crunching

Lidar on a Chip Puts Self-Driving Cars in the Fast Lane

Lidar and thermal imaging fitted to Northern trains to detect track problems

Google won two major awards at MWC Barcelona 2025.

Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode

This MRI Can Run on Batteries

The Tiny Star Explosions Powering Moore’s Law