A battery-free, multi-detection radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensing platform that could enable a wide range of low cost wireless sensing products in healthcare, security, food packaging, water treatment and pollution prevention, has been developed by scientists at GE Global Research.

GE’s unique RFID sensors are built on traditional RFID tags.

The sensing platform, in which a single sensor can provide a highly selective response to multiple chemicals under variable conditions, operates without a battery. Without a battery, new sensors can be designed to be smaller than a penny and manufactured at very low cost.

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There are big changes ahead in social interactions, robotics and improvements in the ability of computer to sense the real world, according to Justin Rattner, chief technology officer at Intel Corporation.

Rattner explained: “The industry has taken much greater strides than anyone ever imagined 40 years ago. There is speculation that we may be approaching an inflection point where the rate of technology advancements is accelerating at an exponential rate, and machines could even overtake humans in their ability to reason in the not so distant future.”

In his keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Rattner looked at how technology is xpected to bring man an machine closer together by 2050.

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CSIRO is developing new wireless technologies for locating, tracking, sensing and communicating in areas where global positioning systems (GPS) do not work.

The new high-accuracy terrestrial localisation systems are suitable for applications as diverse as tracking workers in emergency situations to following cyclists racing around a track.

CSIRO has signed a $1 million collaboration to develop the technology for emergency purposes in conjunction with Emergency Management Australia (EMA), Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency and the National Security Science and Technology Branch within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

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Individuals with severe disabilities could lead more independent lives with the help of an assistive technology developed by engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

To operate the Tongue Drive system, potential users only need to be able to move their tongues.

Maysam Ghovanloo, an assistant professor at the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who helped develop the device, explained: “We chose the tongue to operate the system because unlike hands and feet, which are controlled by the brain through the spinal cord, the tongue is directly connected to the brain by a cranial nerve that generally escapes damage in severe spinal cord injuries or neuromuscular diseases.

“Tongue movements are also fast, accurate and do not require much thinking, concentration or effort.”

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Engineers in Northern Ireland have developed a ‘no-wires’ way for doctors to monitor their patients hearts and other vital signs.

The device developed by engineers from Ulster University’s Sensor Technology + Devices (ST+D) division, consists of a disposable adhesive electrode patch worn on the patient’s chest.

When the patient is hospitalised, information gathered by the device such as ECG, body temperature, respiration rate and the percentage of oxygen saturation in the blood, is transmitted to a doctor via the hospital’s wireless communications system from distances of up to 10m. Once discharged, the patient is given a small, portable handset which uses GPRS to pick up signals from the patch and transmit the data back to a doctor’s PC using a wireless internet connection.

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