MIT researchers have developed a new way to check our eyesight which is way cheaper and portable than the current solutions available. The technique dubbed as NETRA (near-eye tool for refractive assessment) uses a plastic that costs about $2 and a phone loaded with the NETRA software.

NETRA works by user placing its eye at a very close range where couple of patterns pass through different regions ultimately overlapping and computing the result with the help of software on the phone. The technique can show refreactive errors and displays a prescription of what a user can do.

Researchers claim their optometry solution could prove a boon in remote areas as the only major requirement to make it work is a cellphone.

[Via IBN Live]

Researchers at MIT have developed a new technique that would help the internet to be 100 or maybe 1,000 times faster than what is today.

Currently, optical fibers transmit heaps of data whereas router that receives the different wavelengths of light loaded with data converts those optical signals to electric ones and then sends back for transmission. Such an approach consumes time as well as power however, with the new approach developed by MIT researchers, the power consumption would be cut down and speed would increase dramatically.

The technique known as Flow Switching solves the problem by creating a dedicated path across the network, which means routers will accept signals from only one direction and send in one direction. This helps routers to transmit data quickly since it won’t receive different wavelengths of light with data.

You can delve into more technicality with the paper published at the link below or wait till they present it at the OptoElectronics and Communications Conference in Japan next month.

Flow Switching Paper [PDF Link]

[Via MIT]

MIT’s team headed by Gerbrand Ceder has developed aninnovative technique that could immensely reduce the Lithium-ion battery charging times from hours to mere seconds. Their Eureka movement comes with the coating of lithium phosphate that is applied to an existing battery. The coating works in a way which attracts ions faster to the tunnels leading to the battery terminal and charging faster. A normal mobile phone could get charged in just 10 seconds whereas a big electric car could go full in just a few minutes.

However, one problem I see here is faster the battery recharge; faster the discharge will be too. Now I wouldn’t want to carry my phone’s charger everywhere because it will potentially reduce the battery talk time even though it can back up again in few seconds.

The technology nonetheless looks promising and the implementation in the real world will be the key which will probably take more 2-3 years.

[Via Electronista]

UPDATE:Couple of videos have been added below. [via Wired]

Researchers at MIT have invented a great piece of gadget that can perform actions by simply using hand gestures. The Sixth Sense was shown at the TED 2009 which has been created out of commercially available products. The components used were a web camera, battery powered projector and a mobile phone that took the total components cost to around $350.

Sixth Sense is one of the good inventions I have seen in a long time. The researchers claim that the device can sense whatever is in front of them. For instance, it can take pictures if a user frames a scene, projects a watch if the user creates a circle with the finger, show the airplane ticket to the gadget and it will retrieve the flight timings and other details, recognize books in a book store to project reviews of the book and even identify articles from the newspaper to search for the related stories on the internet and project them. Everything it does is cool, but does it show me a girl’s Facebook profile when I point at her? Maybe it will!

All in all, the gadget seems to have a good potential and I hope it reaches the market in the near future.

[Via Yahoo|Image]