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Really quite a long time has passed since we were informed that computers or other advanced devices could detect human’s brain activity. And to push that technology forward to a newer level, scientists now claim that they can use a computer to decipher brain activity too. In other words, a computer is now capable of “translating” brain signals into actual words. That means, people who have difficulty in speaking could communicate and interact with others again, simply by thinking in sentences.

With its concept and technology becoming more and more widely accepted and used, the augmented reality technology has already been adopted by designers and scientists to create something unique, just like this “Mirracle” project. Led by researchers from Technical University of Munich, the project is actually an updated version of the interactive mirror systems that display tomography images virtually on the body of the person who was scanned, and it now turns out “more intuitive and easy to use”.

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A new paint made of carbon nanotubes and fly ash is announced as a cheaper and easier way to monitor facilities like bridges, mines and wind turbines. The development is put forward by researchers from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, who explain that the nanotubes’ conductivity will change if they get bent, and wireless transmitters placed throughout the structure would receive the data and resend it to the system, using the conductivity change as a sign of defect in the structure to alert people of possible dangers. Also, the paint is said to be cheap too, allowing it to be used in a wide range of buildings, bridges, coal mines, etc.

The future of weapons is indeed quite unpredictable as scientists are developing and launching new devices with at a really fast pace. Recently the Sandia National Labs has just tested a prototype laser-guided bullet that can steer itself and home in on targets. It doesn’t look like a bullet, as you may have seen from the picture: it is four inches long, with fins, optical sensor, actuators and other devices built in and outside. The fins can correct the bullet’s trajectory 30 times every second, not only ensuring a more accurate shot, but indicating that the bullet can even strike moving targets.

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Undoubtedly everyone loves coffee – while most of us are used to enjoying a cup of coffee every day, the American company Virus is intended to produce comfortable base layer fabric that traps heat close to the skin, using recycled coffee grounds. The new fabric is announced capable of increasing skin surface temperature by 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and it features anti-UV and anti-odor properties as well.

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With a long 8 years’ development and improvement, the New Zealand-based Rex Company have finally come up with this robotic exoskeleton, which can help wheelchair users to stand and walk independently. The artificial exoskeleton is comprised of 29 on-board computer processors to control its movements and keep balance, thus to enable the Rex users to conveniently direct the device to sit, stand, walk and turn. Although the device is bit of heavier, measuring 38 Kg in total, it won’t become a burden to the users at all. Instead, the robotic exoskeleton may help to support up 60% of weight of its users, so that they could move with the Rex with minimum effort.

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“Secure Magnet” is one of Apple’s new patent applications. It works in quite a similar way as the fingerprint-recognized devices: each cellphone or tablet will be built with a magnet that operates a switch, and it will only be activated when a “correlated” magnet inside a key-fob touches it. Once this patent application is applied in producing new Apple devices, the company is intended to protect your private information in a more efficient way. But now, we may still need to wait for years to use the “Secure Magnet”, since Apple offers no information on when this application will be used.

MITI System’s micro-needle is a medical instrument that can function in both beauty and medical fields. It is perfect to make beauty instruments that are widely used by skin-care specialists with the micro-needle, which will not only ensure a better absorption of cosmetics into skin, but solve skin problems like age spots, blemish and others. On the other hand, the micro-needle would benefit to the medical fields too, where it can be used as a delivery system of things such as vaccine, hormone, insulin, protein treatment products.

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Researchers from the Purdue University have created a Bass-powered medical implant that can utilize sound waves as an energy source. This new pressure sensitive microelectromechanical system has a vibrating cantilever that’s receptive to sound within the 200Hz to 500Hz frequency spectrum. By applying such smart technology into producing medical implants, you can then get some better appliances that can convert the low-frequency vibrations into energy, so as to power themselves automatically.

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Traditional methods to make real-world objects invisible are usually based on materials that route incoming light around the hidden object, but researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have employed plasmonic materials that can affect the electric and magnetic fields the incoming light used to offer us a new way to make objects invisible. These new materials present a “photo negative” of the hidden object, which can cancel the disruption the object causes to the electric and magnetic fields.  That means, if you apply the material onto any object, the object would then become completely invisible from all angles- even the radars cannot detect it anymore.

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Quantum dots, tiny particles made of semiconductor crystals, have reached a new level of development since the Japan-based Photonic Network Research Institute of NICT has managed to make them more stable and with a higher optical frequency. By using these new quantum dots as the light source or amplifier in optical systems, the scientists can operate in optical frequency bands about 70 THz wide, which is approximately seven times wider than the 10 THz of frequency bands currently in use. Except for use in optical communication systems, the new wavelength band can effectively permeate human skins as well, making it a promising technology in bioimaging and medical sensing too.

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Scientists of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California have succeeded to create super-hot solid plasma burning at 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit (about two million degrees Celsius). That’s not only hotter than almost everything on the earth, but even hotter than the temperature of the Sun corona. That’s also something never created by humans, and you could only find the kind of matter in the heart of stars or giant planets before.

Researchers from Oxford University and Kyoto University have recently collaborated to develop the world’s smallest train, which is deemed as a new breakthrough in DNA nanotechnology. The discovery, a small autonomously functioning DNA motor is made using the method of DNA origami, a process where strands of DNA molecules act as molecular glue and structural material to build nanostructures in two and three-dimensions.

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Researchers from the University of Bristol have developed the Magnetic Soap by dissolving iron in a range of inert surfactant materials (composed of chloride and bromide) to create a substance that can be controlled by magnets. The new soap is claimed “highly effective” in cleaning up oil, and it can be easily removed after the “cleaning” process so as to leave behind no potentially harmful chemicals in the water.

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The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has collaborated with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory to develop batteries that can automatically heal themselves when damaged. These new types of batteries are all built with tiny liquid-metal filled microspheres, and the capsules will break out and release liquid-metal to fill the gaps of the batteries if there’re any damages on the batteries. This technology, claimed by scientist from the university, “would help electronics survive daily use—both the long-term damage caused by charging over and over again, and also the inevitable physical damage of everyday life”.

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