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Imagine adding beautiful lighting to a photo after you took the picture.

A camera developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could get you there. But first, let's talk speed: This one-of-a-kind camera can track the movement of individual packets of light, or photons, by capturing 1 trillion frames per second.

The high-speed imaging system allows researchers to capture how light scatters across an object in very fine detail. It opens up the possibility of doing three-dimensional ultrasound scans with light, testing for defects during manufacturing, and giving consumer-grade cameras the ability to overlay light after a photo is … Read more

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--As robots seek to mimic humans' ability to see and hear, they have a secret weapon in Microsoft's Kinect game motion-sensing controller.

MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which I toured Friday, is piled high with all kinds of hardware, including laptops, unmanned submarines, and mechanical limbs. But when it comes to equipping robots with artificial eyes and ears, robotics hackers are clearly enamored with the Kinect motion-sensing controller and sensors like it.

The Kinect motion-sensing controller is attached to the head of the humanoid PR2 robot as it … Read more

The time has come for the U.S. government to focus a single agency's efforts on reinforcing the security of the electrical grid, MIT researchers said today in a wide-ranging report.

The issue, MIT's researchers say, is that the many stakeholders involved in maintaining the U.S. electrical grid aren't working together, even though "cybersecurity regulations for bulk power systems already exist in the form of the NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection reliability standards." For one, the researchers point out, those standards only apply to "the bulk power system and [do] not include the distribution … Read more

I am always of two minds about knowing what my neighbors are doing behind their closed doors. I know it must be something weird.

Why, one of my neighbors sits in his car--which is running and parked outside my house--for hours on end watching videos. Of course, he's married.

So I (or at least a part of me) is grateful that I might soon have the opportunity to see straight through their walls and spy on what kinds of videos they watch at home. You see, extremely clever people at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory have come up with a … Read more

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Don't write off American manufacturing just yet.

A panel of experts at the EmTech conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today sought to upend a few notions about the viability of manufacturing in the U.S., saying labor costs are less and less relevant in the global economy.

More provocatively, they argued that innovation in emerging technologies, such as energy and nanotech, depends on having nearby production. That's a change from the traditional model of the IT industry where hardware giants, such as Cisco Systems, Apple, and Hewlett-Packard, designed products and then contracted with Asian … Read more

Researchers at MIT and Harvard University have developed tiny gold-studded scaffolds that can be used to build tissue in which cells have a synchronous beat, a possible repair tool for treating heart-attack victims.

In a study reported in Nature Nanotechnology, Daniel Kohane, a professor in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), and colleagues improved the electrical conductivity of scaffolds used to grow cardiac cells.

They devised a new scaffold material but based it on alginate, an organic substance that's already used in tissue scaffolds. They combined the alginate with a solution containing gold nanowires, which are good conductors.

After cardiac cells were seeded on the composite scaffold, the researchers compared the conductivity of the gold-enhanced cells with cells grown on regular alginate. They checked each for the presence of calcium, which helps electrical signals travel in the tissue. … Read more

Everyone remembers Tetris. Students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have brought new life to the classic game game by attaching a pair of 6-foot colored LED arrays to Dance Dance Revolution mats.

The life-size game is displayed on the LED arrays instead of a television set. To rotate or change the position of the brick, you'll have to step on the preassigned pads on the DDR mats. Of course, instead of dancing, you'll just be hopping around trying to control your brick, making you look rather silly.

Watch the video to see the whole concept in action:

The students have also provided instructions here, so anyone with the right coding knowledge and equipment can build a setup like this too.

(Source: Crave Asia via Engadget) … Read more

A network of dashboard smartphones that monitors traffic lights and congestion can tell drivers when to slow down to avoid idling, cutting fuel use by 20 percent, according to researchers at Princeton University and MIT.

SignalGuru (PDF) collates traffic data from images captured by dashboard smartphones.

It also graphically shows drivers how fast to go to avoid stopping at the next light; a commercial version would have audio suggestions. The system could also be developed to advise motorists to take a side street to avoid congestion ahead.

The researchers deployed iPhones on car dashboards in Cambridge, Mass., and in Singapore. In the former, where traffic signals with fixed schedules are used, SignalGuru could predict when lights would change with an error margin of two-thirds of a second. In Singapore, which has signals that adapt to traffic volume, the error increased to one second up to just over two seconds. … Read more

Jose Gomez-Marquez is like the MacGyver of medical devices, hacking toys and turning them into gadgets that can be used to diagnose conditions such as diabetes and dengue fever. By taking everyday items like Legos and bike pumps and turning them into replacements for expensive medical devices, he's attempting to save lives on the cheap.

"Most of the devices that get donated to developing countries fail because they were not designed to be used in these environments," Gomez-Marquez said during a visit to CNET this week to show some of his creations. "We need to make the Land Rover version of medical devices for these countries. Right now we are sending the Ferrari versions and they fail."

Gomez-Marquez is program director for MIT's Innovations in International Health initiative, which aims to teach medical professionals in the developing world how to hack ordinary objects to make their own medical devices. With a degree in mechanical engineering and a love of design, Gomez-Marquez wants to level the playing field in health care.

"One of the ways to empower better designs is by empowering users who are everyday users of the devices," he said. "So we made these kits to do that."

… Read more