Most leading security standards (algorithm examples of which include Advanced Encryption Standard, or AES, and Rivest-Shamir-Adleman, or RSA, which are used in making online communications such as payments on shopping websites secure) used in secure communication methods do not take advantage of quantum technology. As a result, electronic transmission of personal identification numbers (PINs) or [..]

With increasing demand for miniaturization of optoelectronics, the microlens array has attracted significant attention and become an important micro-optics device widely used in compact imaging, sensing, optical communication and others. Typically, microlens array consists of multiple micron-sized lenses with optical surface smoothness and superior uniformity, which increases the requirement for machining precision. Now researchers from [..]

A new ultrasensitive nanoscale optical probe that can monitor the bioelectric activity of neurons (and other cells that generate electrical impulses) could help researchers better understand how neural circuits function at hitherto unexplored scales by measuring the activity of huge numbers of individual neurons at the same time. The device could also help in the [..]

A team of researchers in China—drawing inspiration from the kaleidoscope, a toy familiar to generations of novelty-shop visitors—has developed a new technique for tweaking and engineering the mirror symmetry of polarization in structured optical fields (APL Photon., doi: 10.1063/1.5117269). The researchers believe that the adjustable symmetries and geometries of these polarization states, which the team [..]

Researchers at Northwestern University have created a nanolaser that can be used in living tissues without harming them. Developed in conjunction with a team from Columbia University, the nanolaser can be 50 nm to 150 nm thick, which allows it to fit and fully function inside living tissues. “Our tiny lasers operate at powers that [..]

Researchers have created a silicon carbide (SiC) photonic integrated chip that can be thermally tuned by applying an electric signal. The approach could one day be used to create a large range of reconfigurable devices such as phase-shifters and tunable optical couplers needed for networking applications and quantum information processing. Although most optical and computer [..]

Lacings of stretchable optical fibers distributed throughout 3D-printed elastomer frameworks — could be used to create a linked sensory network similar to a biological nervous system that would enable soft robots to sense how they interact with their environment and adjust their motions accordingly. The synthetic material was developed at Cornell University by a research [..]

A team of researchers at the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden; Dresden, Germany) has developed a self-calibrating lensless endoscope that produces 3D images of objects smaller than a single cell. Without a lens or any optical, electrical, or mechanical components, the tip of the endoscope measures 200 µm across. As a minimally invasive tool [..]

It is now widely acknowledged that aggressive therapy within the first three months of symptom onset improves long-term outcomes for people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune disease in which the patient’s own immune system attacks the lining of their joints. But diagnosis is hampered by limitations of the technologies currently used to detect such [..]

A new two-photon microscope from scientists at Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus can record footage of brain activity 15 times faster than once believed possible, the team said, revealing voltage changes and neurotransmitter release over large areas and monitoring hundreds of synapses simultaneously. The new tool, called scanned line angular projection microscopy, or [..]

A novel bio-imaging technique uses a combination of ultrasound and optical processes to noninvasively image body organs through turbid biological tissues such as skin and muscle. This new method, developed at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa, has, say its developers, “the potential to eliminate the need for invasive visual exams using endoscopic cameras.” In other [..]

Self-assembling materials called block copolymers, which are known to form a variety of predictable, regular patterns, can now be made into much more complex patterns that may open up new areas of materials design, a team of MIT researchers say. The new findings appear in the journal Nature Communications, in a paper by postdoc Yi [..]

Researchers at the University of Michigan have detected microscopic twists in the internal structure of plant and animal tissue without using potentially harmful X-rays (terahertz imaging). The approach involves rotating terahertz radiation in real time, and is said to be the first successful implementation of this approach, potentially opening up new applications in medical imaging, [..]

In a June 24, 2019 article from Sally Ward-Foxton, EET Asia reports “The Current Reality of Facial Recognition,” emphasizing that while technology has advanced, it still has a long way to go. The article begins by stating that “The UK is one of the most surveilled countries in the world, with closed-circuit televisions (CCTV) cameras [..]

Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and physicians from the Rochester Regional Health System (RRHS) have developed a noninvasive, cost-effective method using IR imaging technology to locate hard-to-find breast cancer tumors. The system consists of an IR camera on a track mounted underneath a cushioned table. It is angled and can be adjusted as [..]

Microscopic glass blowing has been previously used to make microlenses, but it usually involves gas expansion from a single reservoir. Now researchers have developed an axicon fabrication method that combines gas expansion from multiple reservoirs to produce the optical component’s conical shape. The technique shapes the surface from underneath leaving a high-quality optical surface, unlike [..]

A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) and the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI; Seattle, WA) has combined a nanoscale microscopy method called expansion microscopy with virtual reality (VR) to enable enlarging, exploring, and analyzing cell structures beyond the capabilities of traditional light microscopy. The development aims to accelerate researchers’ [..]