MEMS lidar.

"Five years ago, Eric Aguilar was fed up."

"He had worked on lidar and other sensors for years at Tesla and Google X, but the technology always seemed too expensive and, more importantly, unreliable. He replaced the lidar sensors when they broke -- which was all too often, and seemingly at random -- and developed complex calibration methods and maintenance routines just to keep them functioning and the cars drivable."

"So, when he reached the end of his rope, he invented a more robust technology -- what he calls the 'most powerful micromachine ever made.'"

"Aguilar and his team at startup Omnitron Sensors developed new micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology that he claims can produce more force per unit area than any other."

Allegedly replacing conventional lidar with this MEMS technology, it will be more robust to road vibrations, thermal cycles, and rain.

Muscle-bound micromirrors could bring lidar to more cars

#solidstatelife #lidar #mems

Omnitron's MEMS Tech Boosts Lidar Reliability

This startup says it's invented the most powerful MEMS micromirrors yet.

^{Perri Thaler (IEEE Spectrum)}

Did you know smartphones, with the right apps, can turn into physics experiments? Smartphones have accelerometers, barometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes, microphones, and light sensors. This fun app can graph out the raw sensor data, and also has a set of physics experiments you can do with it, such as determining the speed of an elevator. I've tried out the graphs of the sensor data and it's fascinating. I haven't tried any of the physics experiments. I just installed the app today. The app was produced by RWTH Aachen University in Aachen, Germany. (RWTH stands for Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule, in case you want to know.)

phyphox: physical phone experiments

#solidstatelife #smartphones #science #physics

Your smartphone is a mobile lab.

Download for free: Follow us: Features Sensors Phyphox allows you to use the sensors in your phone for your experiments. For example, detect the frequency of a pendulum using the accelerometer or measure the Doppler effect using its microphone.

^phyphox