sensors

LAS VEGAS -- Along with announcing its new AirWave Bluetooth music receiver at CTIA this week, Cobra also launched the latest iteration of its iRadar sensor device.

We first saw this unit earlier this year at CES. Though both the Atom and the original iRadar detect local speed radars, the Atom is physically smaller and reportedly more accurate.

In addition, it works in conjunction with an app that's available on both iOS and Android platforms, to alert drivers where known speed traps are located. Launched on Tuesday, the iRadar Atom retails for $199.95.

Design The Atom is a … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- All of CNET's coverage of yesterday's Xbox One event.

- Here's what we know about Xbox One games.

- Microsoft talks Xbox One naming, privacy and more (Q&A).

- Sharon Vaknin and CNET Reviews' John Falcone at last night's Webby Awards.

- Courts turning to UrbanDictionary as an authoritative source on slang. And here's The 404's contribution to UrbanDictionary.… Read more

We're all used to the idea that Google tracks what we do online. But if you go to Google I/O, you'll find that the data-hungry company, in partnership with the O'Reilly Data Sensing Lab, is keeping tabs on the physical world, too.

At its developer conference, the company has a set up a network of 525 sensor motes. Each small electronics board monitors temperature, humidity, ambient light levels, air quality, audio noise, and radio-frequency noise. And with footstep detectors, some monitor where people are going at the conference, too. … Read more

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday granted Apple nearly three dozen patents, including one that covers how a device responds to acoustic signals such as scratching and tapping.

Patent No. 8,441,790, or "Electronic Device Housing as Acoustic Input Device," focuses on tech that would allow a device to detect and react to sound resulting from an impact with the housing, such as dragging a finger along the surface of the device. The sensors send information to a microprocessor, which can distinguish between different types of input as well as interpret what each input … Read more

With watches, glasses, and clothing that can double as tech devices, it seems like wearable inventions are only going to continue to proliferate.

How about wearable technology that can read a person's muscle movement and then use that data to control other devices?

This is something that Thalmic Labs has been working on for the past year. The company explained the project in detail in a video released Wednesday.

Dubbed the MYO, this one-size-fits-all armband is a remote control of sorts. When worn on the body, it instantaneously reads the electrical activity of the muscles to track the movement … Read more

As rumors swirl about Apple's manufacturing partners kicking into high gear to produce the next version of the iPhone, a new report adds some more detail on what could be inside the new device.

The latest comes from Vietnamese site Tinhte, which says Apple's next iPhone (expected to be called the 5S) will sport a 12-megapixel camera. That's as compared to the 8-megapixel sensor found on both the iPhone 5 and 4S.

Now it wouldn't be unusual for Apple to make improvements to its camera, which it's done with each successive iPhone model. But the … Read more

Canon has developed a video sensor that can capture images illuminated only by a glowing incense stick or the light of a crescent moon.

The sensor gathers light by using extremely large pixels -- 7.5 times the surface area of those in the 18MP EOS-1D X professional SLR, whose 35mm full-frame sensor is the same size. In conjunction with that approach, "the sensor's pixels and readout circuitry employ new technologies that reduce noise, which tends to increase as pixel size increases," Canon said in its announcement. Check the link to watch Canon's sample video.

Canon … Read more

Researchers from the Institute of Computer Graphics at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, have developed a way to capture images on a flexible sheet of plastic. Unlike traditional image sensors that use circuits and other internal structures to develop an image, this new solution is fully transparent.

This is no ordinary sheet of plastic though. The sensor is a polymer film (luminescent concentrator) containing a multitude of fluorescent particles that absorb a specific wavelength of light. It then transmits this light at a longer wavelength to optical sensors at the side of the sheet, which captures it all, reconstructing … Read more

Apple wants to make a network out of physical objects so you can keep track of your things -- like your iPhone, keys, wallet-- or yourself.

The Cupertino, Calif., company has filed a patent for a "personal items network," that relies on movement-monitoring devices, according to a U.S. patent application published today.

The system would link items -- like a wallet, purse, personal data assistant, personal computer, watch, credit card, keys, and cell phone -- using sensors that can track and record changes in environment and condition. … Read more