Nike's new shoes incorporate sensors that communicate with Apple's iPod to display time, distance, and pace, as well as calories burned. Runners can review workout stats by run, or by week or month.More>>

Cell phone providers promote location-based services (LBS) as a way to send custom messages to subscribers based on their location-as reported by GPS or radiolocation and triangulation. Now LBSs are beginning to incorporate sensors.More>>

The cry of man overboard! is second only to fire on shipboard! as a general alarm for all hands. But what if no one sees that fellow boater or shipmate (or pet) fall into the drink? The Raymarine (www.raymarine.com) LifeTag system, using Ember's ZigBee (www.zigbee.org) networking technology, does...More>>

In 1834 Jean Peltier discovered that running an electric current across a junction of two dissimilar metals caused heat to transfer across the junction, cooling one side while heating the other. Because of the low efficiency of this effect in metals, and their high thermal conductivity, which...More>>

The pressure is constantly increasing to bring ever-smarter products, including white goods, to market more and more quickly while keeping production costs down. New household appliances should have as small an effect on the environment as possible-reducing energy consumption is an excellent case...More>>

Fingerprint sensors are being improved and applied in new waysand in the future will be combined with other technologies to enhance security.More>>

Two recent market studies quantify the market for MEMS technology very differently. Both studies predict strong growth, but neither seems to touch on what I view as the true potential for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and micro-systems technology (MST).More>>

The technology can turn your PC into a highly deterministic distributed control platform.More>>