CES, the huge annual conference, showcase, and deal-making venue for the international consumer electronics industry, is not just about shiny new gadgets. It’s also about what’s under the hood—or at least what researchers and developers hope will be inside a whole host of devices some day. Here, in no particular order, are four such enabling […]
The inspiration for computed tomography (CT) came from a chance conversation that research engineer Godfrey Hounsfield had with a doctor while on vacation in the 1960s. The physician complained that X-ray images of the brain were too grainy and only two-dimensional. Hounsfield worked at Electrical and Musical Industry in Hayes, England. Best known for producing […]
This sponsored article is brought to you by COMSOL. History teaches that the Industrial Revolution began in England in the mid-18th century. While that era of sooty foundries and mills is long past, manufacturing remains essential — and challenging. One promising way to meet modern industrial challenges is by using additive manufacturing (AM) processes, such […]
The consumer electronics world looks to CES for the next big new technology that’s going to change our daily lives. These, of course, are few and far between. We then seek out dramatic changes in existing technology, a new display, say, that will make our old televisions look dim and drab. Spoiler: there was nothing […]
I’m traveling today to Las Vegas for the in-person CES 2023. I’ll be joining with an expected 100,000 or so other retailers, journalists, and members of the consumer electronics industry. After two years of almost pointless virtual shows, I’m excited to get my eyes and hands on real devices. It’s hard to tell a useful […]
An electromagnetic actuator is a device that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy in the form of linear or rotational motion. The motion can be used, for example, to vibrate a speaker diaphragm, open and close an electromagnetic valve, or open and close an electromagnetic relay. A typical electromagnetic actuator consists of various components including […]
Starting a company to develop an energy technology that fights climate change is hard—a lot harder than starting a software company. But the opportunities are huge. Breakthroughs in battery technology, carbon sequestration, and other energy technologies that result in a five-fold improvement over current technology could literally change the world. That’s what John Hennessy, Stanford […]
The rays of the rising sun have barely reached the foothills of Silicon Valley, but Marcian E. (Ted) Hoff Jr. is already up to his elbows in electronic parts, digging through stacks of dusty circuit boards. This is the monthly flea market at Foothill College, and he rarely misses it. Ted Hoff is part of […]
For Evan Schneider, the family dinner table is a good place for invention. “I’m always, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if this or that,’” he says, “and people would humor me.” In 2012, with California in the midst of a severe drought, Schneider, then a mechanical engineering graduate student at Stanford University, once again tossed out […]
Driven finally into unprofitability in its traditional market by ever stiffer competition from abroad, harmed rather than helped by a decade of economizing cutbacks in research and development, Zenith Electronics Corp.—the sole surviving U.S. manufacturer of television receivers—reportedly plans to call it quits in the business it helped to create and nourish through some 40 […]