A team of US scientists have developed a prototype portable microscope that would allow a cellphone camera to help diagnose potentially fatal diseases in blood and sputum samples. The University of California team strapped a DIY microscope to a 3.2-megapixel Nokia N73, using cheap off-the-shelf parts that can nonetheless make out objects 1.2 micrometers across; a red blood cell is usually 6-8 micrometers in width.
Wireless power isn’t new – Palm Pre owners have the option of it with the Touchstone accessory, but it’s also used in electric toothbrushes and various other applications – but the devices in question usually have to be very close or touching. Showa Aircraft Industry Co Ltd, however, have developed a contactless power supply system that can bridge up to a 1m gap.
The Fraunhofer Institute has been demonstrating a bi-directional OLED microdisplay, squeezing not only display pixels but camera photodiodes into the array. Currently a 320 x 240 prototype panel capable of 8-bit color, the Fraunhofer AMOLED could be used for heads-up displays, integrated into eyeglasses or used to track eye movement and perception in drivers.
Basically, the photodiodes each fit into a 12.4 micrometer gap between the 38.7 micometer OLED pixels. That allows the panel to both display information and capture an image of whatever is looking at it.
What you see here, plus a woman, could revolutionize pregnancy healthcare. A team at Washington University in St. Louis have developed software [pdf link] that can run on a Windows Mobile smartphone and display ultrasound data from a USB probe, rather than requiring a large, expensive piece of hospital-bound equipment.
Video demo after the cut
Researchers have developed a stretchable OLED display that can be bent and deformed without breaking. The rubber-like OLEDs are currently monochrome and each have just 256 pixel resolution; however the University of Tokyo team responsible for their development are now working on adding color and increasing resolution.
If you’re looking to grab headlines, why not compare your new web-app to Google, that always works. According to Nova Spivak, founder of Twine, a new “computational knowledge engine” known as Wolfram Alpha “could be as important as Google“, with its natural language processing used to understand plain-language queries and fathom an expert answer.
The same research group responsible for the Android e-ink prototype have returned with a scalable multitouch system, offering the accuracy of the iPhone on a potential scale more akin to Microsoft’s Surface. Moto Labs’ multitouch display uses capacitive touch, via a grid of tiny wires that recognize points of contact from any number of fingers.
Video demo after the cut
Japanese OLED researchers have developed a green phosphor-based panel with twice the efficiency of existing OLEDs. The green OLED has light-extraction efficiency boosted to 56.9-percent, up to 210lm/W, and could be used in OLED displays and lighting.
After parading Bluetooth handsfree kits before us last month, Tokyoflash are back with a selection of concept clock designs that they’d like your opinion on. Nine designs are on offer, ranging from the melted to the high-rise, and the most-favored concepts will reach production.
NTT have developed a variable focus lens that they claim is 1,000x faster than existing technology. The lens is based on KTN (potassium tantalate niobate), an “electro-optic crystal” the refractive indices of which varies depending on how much voltage is applied across its surface. By adjusting the voltage, the focal length varies.
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