Science and Enterprise

Tag: computer science

  • Fiber Optic Sensors Help Steady Surgical Instruments

    Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University medical school and engineering department in Baltimore developed surgical tools with an optical fiber sensor system that measures and corrects for minute hand tremors of even the most skilled surgeons. Engineering postdoctoral fellow Cheol Song and two Johns Hopkins colleagues describe the technology in the new issue of the…

  • Visual Simulation Method Developed for Liquid Movements

    Computer scientists at University of Copenhagen and two other institutions in Denmark created a new and more precise method for visualizing the movement of liquids. The team led by Copenhagen computer graphics professor Kenny Erleben (pictured right), with colleagues from Technical University of Denmark and Alexandra Institute in Aarhus, Denmark presented their findings at this…

  • Grant to Fund Study of Cyber Crime Economics, Networks

    Computer scientists at University of California in San Diego, University of California in Berkeley, and George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia received a National Science Foundation grant to better understand the economics and network dynamics of cyber crime. The five-year, $10 million study will investigate economic motivations and social interactions among cyber criminals, as well…

  • Wearable Sensor System Creates Real-Time Environment Maps

    Computer scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a portable array of sensors that can create a digital map of a person’s environment, such as a building, while the person wearing the system walks around that environment. Maurice Fallon (pictured right), a research scientist in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and colleagues, will…

  • Tilted Screen Displays Developed for Mobile Devices

    Computer scientists at University of Bristol and Lancaster University in the U.K. and Nokia Research Center in Tampere, Finland created a display technology that can physically adjust parts of the screen at different angles to provide more dramatic 3-D effects. The developers of the Tilt Displays, as the screen is called, will discuss the technology…

  • Health IT Accelerator Formed, Seeks Entrepreneur Applicants

    Tigerlabs, a support center for start-up companies in Princeton, New Jersey, is forming an accelerator program for new companies in health care information technology. The program, known as Tigerlabs Health, is scheduled to begin in February 2013, and accepting applications through 15 November 2012. The accelerator program will provide $20,000 in seed funding, mentorship, Microsoft…

  • University to Build Toxic Gas Sensor for Firefighters

    Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts received a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a portable sensor that alerts firefighters to the presence of toxic gases in burning buildings. The $1 million award will support the work of researchers in WPI’s Fire Protection Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering departments. The project…

  • Purdue, Adobe Create Process to Strengthen 3-D Print Objects

    Computer scientists at Purdue University in Indiana and computer software company Adobe Systems devised an automated process to add more robustness to objects created through three-dimensional printing. The researchers discussed their methods in a presentation last month at the SIGGRAPH 2012 conference in Los Angeles. 3-D printers create shapes by adding various materials layer-by-layer, including…

  • Smartphone App Helps Monitor Lung Function

    Engineers at University of Washington in Seattle created a prototype smartphone app that can monitor lung functioning of patients with asthma and cystic fibrosis. A team from Washington’s electrical engineering department and Seattle Children’s Hospital presented the results of a test of the app earlier this month at the ACM International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing.…

  • Protections Added to Voice Authentication Systems

    Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh devised additional safeguards for voice authentication systems that produce coded identifiers from a voice print comparable to a password. Bhiksha Raj, a professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Language Technologies Institute, with Manas Pathak, a recent Ph.D. graduate, and Isabel Trancoso of INESC-ID in Lisbon, Portugal, will discuss the…