Professor Andreas Schütze and his team of experts in measurement and sensor technology at Saarland University have released a free data processing tool called simply Dave—is a MATLAB toolbox that allows rapid evaluation of signals, pattern recognition and data visualization when processing huge datasets. The free software enables very large volumes of data, such as […]
Robot Arms with the Flexibility of an Elephant’s Trunk
Unlike conventional robot arms with hinged and swivel joints, new flexible arms being developed by Professor Stefan Seelecke and his research group at Saarland University are constructed using muscles made from shape-memory wires that have the ability to bend in almost any direction and to wind themselves around corners. The flexible arms are powered electrically […]
New Sensor System Safeguards Fuel Quality at Hydrogen Filling Stations
Fuel cell vehicles need hydrogen to operate, but that hydrogen has to be free of any contaminants that could damage the fuel cell. Professor Andreas Schütze and his research team at Saarland University are collaborating with research partners to develop a sensor system that can provide continuous in situ monitoring of hydrogen quality at hydrogen […]
Touchscreens Go 3-D with Buttons That Pulsate and Vibrate Under Your Fingertips
By pulsing or vibrating on demand, smartphone screens can help users navigate through a menu or can guide a user’s finger to virtual on-screen buttons that can be created or removed wherever and whenever needed. Professor Stefan Seelecke and his team at Saarland University have developed a film that gives touchscreens a third dimension. The […]
Robot-Mounted Vacuum Grippers Flex Their Artificial Muscles
A short electric pulse is all it takes to generate and release a powerful vacuum in the blink of an eye. The novel vacuum gripper developed by the research team led by Professor Stefan Seelecke at Saarland University enables robot arms to pick up objects and move them around freely in space. The system works […]
Operating Smart Devices from the Space On and Above the Back of Your Hand
It relies on a depth sensor that tracks movements of the thumb and index finger on and above the back of the hand. In this way, not only can smartwatches be controlled, but also smartphones, smart TVs, and devices for augmented and virtual reality. They’re called the “Apple Watch Series 2,” “LG Watch,” “Samsung GEAR […]
Sensor Warns When Oil In CHP Plants Is No Longer Up To The Job
Thanks to a new sensor system developed collaboratively by Professor Andreas Schütze and his research team at Saarland University and a group of industrial project partners, unnecessary oil changes could well be a thing of the past. The new system can provide operators of combined heat and power plants with reliable continuous feedback on the […]
Computer Scientists Work To Prevent Hackers From Remotely Controlling Cars
One of these has now been closed by computer scientists at the Center for IT Security and Privacy (CISPA) and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) — with the help of software that manufacturers can retrofit into any car. In order to remotely brake a car traveling at more than 100 kilometer per […]
Researchers Want to Achieve Machine Translation of EU’s 24 Languages
The aim of their collaboration is to achieve machine-based translation between the languages of the European Union so that comprehensible texts are achieved for as many language combinations as possible. Two of the EU-funded research projects are being led by the Saarbrücken computer linguist Josef van Genabith. Anyone who wants to learn Finnish has to […]
Big Data for Text: Next-Gen Text Understanding and Analysis
News portals and social media are rich information sources, for example for predicting stock market trends. Today, numerous service providers allow for searching large text collections by feeding their search engines with descriptive keywords. Keywords tend to be highly ambiguous, though, and quickly show the limits of current search technologies. Computer scientists from Saarbruecken developed […]