09/16, 8:25pm
E-MiLi may extend mobile power through Wi-Fi
University of Michigan doctoral student Xinyu Zhang and professor Kang Shin revealed Friday that they had developed a new power saving technique that could dramatically extend the battery life of smartphones and other mobile devices that use Wi-Fi. E-MiLi, or Energy-Minimizing Idle Listening, would dynamically drop the Wi-Fi chipset's clock speed down to a sixteenth of its normal speed and wakes up only when it can tell data is coming. While it had been thought of before and abandoned in the past, the new method would find a way to detect a header on an inbound message and wake the device without having to be fully aware of the incoming data.
more
02/22, 4:30pm
University of Michigan researchers make tiny CPU
A prototype computer system that measures just over one cubic millimeter has been created by researchers at the University of Michigan's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). The device is meant to measure eye pressure in glaucoma patients and be implanted in their body. It includes an ultra low-power microprocessor, a pressure sensor, memory, a thin-film battery, a solar cell, and a wireless radio with an antenna to transfer data to an external device near the eye.
more
08/27, 5:55pm
University of Michigan makes ultra-dense display
A team of engineers at the University of Michigan has created an ultra high-definition display that can display a logo of the school that is just nine microns tall. In comparison, the pixels on the iPhone 4's 3.5-inch, 960x640 resolution display are eight times larger. It was made possible by Jay Guo, an associate professor in U of M's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who developed a new color filter made of nano-level sheets of metal with precisely spaced gratings.
more
12/18, 3:35pm
Six students create two apps for Ford's SYNC
Ford has employed the help of six students from the University of Michigan to help it develop the first ever apps for its SYNC in-car, voice-activated multimedia user interface. To this end, it has developed an application programming interface (API) and had the students build two mobile apps that are totally compatible with SYNC. The automaker will open up its API to the developer community sometime next year pending successful beta testing.
more
