Northwestern University engineers have unveiled an extremely energy-efficient 3D camera, called SpiderCam, inspired by how jumping spiders judge depth before making a calculated leap.

The research team behind the novel device said their technology could help engineers build wearable technologies, assistive devices, robots, drones, and other futuristic technologies that benefit from quickly and efficiently gauging their surroundings.

How Jumping Spiders Inspired Energy-Efficient SpiderCam

According to a statement announcing SpiderCam, 3D cameras typically estimate image depth in two ways. The first approach involves captured images from multiple viewpoints and comparing them, and the second involves projecting a light source, often an infrared (IR) laser, and then measuring the reflection.

Although both methods can produce realistic three-dimensional images, they can require significant computing power, additional operational energy, and often expensive hardware such as lasers.

Fortunately, millions of years of evolution have resulted in a creature that possesses a hyper-efficient way of estimating depth: the jumping spider.

“Jumping spiders jump to catch prey, to avoid predators and to get around, and that requires excellent vision,” said Northwestern’s Emma Alexander, the study’s corresponding author and an expert in bio-inspired computer vision. However, the researcher notes that their brains are extremely small, requiring the ability to calculate distances in an energy- and computationally efficient way.

According to Alexander, jumping spider eyes have multiple layers of retinas in each eye, rather than just one as in human eyes. When measuring distance, each retina focuses on an image at a slightly different distance, resulting in some images being blurrier than others.

“They see multiple levels of focus at all times,” Alexander explained. “So, they are always collecting pairs of images.”

After collecting these images in real time, the fly’s poppyseed-sized brain compares their sharpness, yielding a surprisingly accurate depth estimate, as evidenced by the creature’s ability to jump with precision.

Prototype Captures Images at Two Distances and Compares Their Blurriness

Inspired by nature’s hyper-efficient, extremely accurate depth estimation method, Alexander’s team decided to build a 3D camera using the same basic approach.

“We wanted to understand whether we could borrow some of the same principles to create an extremely energy-efficient depth sensor that could be used in resource-constrained situations where users don’t have unlimited access to power,” Alexander explained.

Instead of capturing images at multiple distances, as the jumping spider’s eye does, the Northwestern team’s initial design captures two images of the same scene at different focal lengths. Next, the system uses a custom algorithm to analyze the sharpness of the edges and textures captured in each image. The team said this analysis acts as a “translator between blur and distance” in the fly’s brain, resulting in “depth measurements in real time.”

To best approximate the naturally evolved energy efficiency of a jumping spider’s eye, Alexander’s team built the algorithm directly into a customizable computer chip specifically optimized for energy efficiency called a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

The final prototype integrating the team’s dual-lens system generates depth maps at 32.5 frames per second. Critically, it generates this level of accurate 3D maps while consuming 624 milliwatts of power. For comparison, the team notes that 624 milliwatts is “less energy than used by a standard nightlight.”

Future Versions Could be Even More Energy Efficient

Although the team said that the current version of the SpiderCam is the “first passive FPGA-based 3D camera system to operate below one watt,” they hope to improve its optics and expand its field of view. Once they have a commercial-grade version, the team hopes to integrate SpiderCam into wearable devices and small robots.

Beyond proposed applications, the Northwestern team said that they “envision” a future, ultra-energy-efficient version  of the chip capable of “bringing 3D vision to applications where conventional depth sensors are impractical.”

“I’m very interested in settings where you’re very resource constrained and can’t just plug a camera into a wall,” Alexander explained. “For example, it could be deployed in field settings with limited power.”

“Separately, I also think it’s particularly exciting for applications like augmented reality where you’re interfacing with the physical world and need to know the locations of objects around you,” the researcher added.

The study’s co-first authors, Marcos Ferreira and Tianao Li, presented this work at the Computer Vision Foundation’s Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) in Denver. Complimentary registration is available for members of the media.

Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

Electric vehicles and other clean energy devices rely on batteries that use a metal called lithium. The expanded use of lithium has made lithium mining a rapidly growing industry. Lithium is most often found in volcanic rocks called pegmatites. Researchers have studied how much carbon and water pegmatite mining uses, but they don’t know how it affects local water quality. 

Pegmatite mining releases not only lithium but also other metals commonly found in pegmatite, such as rubidium and cesium. These trace metals are under-researched in terms of their environmental effects and possible human toxicity, though the EPA has linked high levels of lithium to adverse health effects in kidney function, neurological development, and thyroid function. As such, there’s currently no established safe level for lithium in drinking water, but the U.S. Geological Survey suggests a preliminary safety level of 10 micrograms per liter (μg/L). 

Researchers at Duke University recently tested how much pegmatite mining increased lithium levels in local waters, and how long those effects lingered after mining processes ended. To do so, they measured metal concentrations in waters downstream from 2 lithium mines and adjacent processing plants. They hypothesized that mining activities would increase interactions between rocks and the surrounding surface water and groundwater, impacting their lithium concentrations.

The researchers collected 99 water samples from surface streams and 93 samples from groundwater wells surrounding the Kings Mountain and Hallman Beam lithium mines, in a zone of about 40 kilometers (25 miles) along the border of South Carolina and North Carolina. The researchers took 51 surface water samples upstream of the mines to evaluate natural metal levels, and compared these with 48 downstream samples showing the mining-impacted metal levels. 

The researchers measured lithium and other trace elements, like rubidium, cesium, arsenic, and strontium, in the waters using an instrument called an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. They found that lithium concentrations in the surface waters increased from a background of 0.2 to 79 μg/L to concentrations of 785 to 1,249 μg/L within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of the mines and processing facilities. The groundwater lithium levels were as high as 4,500 to 47,000 μg/L in the wells at the mines, but were not affected at downstream wells where lithium levels ranged from 0.5 to 890 μg/L. 

They suggested that lithium in the groundwater downstream from the mines came from natural interactions of the pegmatite rocks with the water, rather than from the mines themselves. This natural process was confirmed when the researchers noticed that lithium levels in the groundwater rose after rainfall, which caused more water-rock interaction.

The researchers also measured ions like calcium, sulfate, and chloride in the waters using a tool that can analyze compound molecules, called an ion chromatograph. They found that calcium and sulfate concentrations increased in surface waters within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) downstream of the processing facilities. These downstream waters had 50 to 120 milligrams per liter (mg/L) of calcium and 100 to 300 mg/L of sulfate, compared to 5 to 20 mg/L of calcium and 3 to 10 mg/L of sulfate in the background surface waters. These ions are also byproducts of pegmatite processing, produced from a waste product made up of calcium sulfate, called gypsum. 

The team explained that active mining has been discontinued at this site for approximately 3 decades, meaning that the lithium concentrations they measured reflect the long-term release of lithium from inactive mines and mining waste. Drawing from historical data, they estimated that while the mines were active, they likely released 10 to 30 times the amount of trace metals they measured at the same location today. 

The researchers concluded that hard-rock processing impacts downstream metal and ion concentrations more than the mining itself. As lithium mining operations expand, the researchers suggested that future researchers examine lithium toxicity as well as the potential effects of its co-occurring metals, like rubidium and cesium. They also emphasized the need to find solutions for removing the trace metals and dissolved gypsum from water systems, or preventing them from leaking into the water systems to begin with.

The post Lithium mining impacts local waters appeared first on Sciworthy.

Researchers are replacing rigid silicon-based AI hardware with stretchable, neuromorphic electronics that mimic how the brain processes information, opening new possibilities for long-term human-machine integration. Modern artificial intelligence can outperform humans in tasks ranging from image recognition to medical data analysis, but there is one environment where today’s hardware still struggles: the human body. The [...]

For more than a century, musicians have maintained that the way a pianist touches a key influences the sound that emerges. Many scientists, however, have argued that after the hammer strikes the string, the instrument itself determines the outcome, making the pianist’s touch irrelevant.

Now, a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides some of the strongest evidence yet in support of the musicians’ perspective.

A research team led by Dr. Shinichi Furuya of the NeuroPiano Institute and Sony Computer Science Laboratories developed a custom sensor system called HackKey. This system can record the movement of all 88 piano keys at 1,000 frames per second, with a spatial precision of 0.01 millimeters. The team invited 20 internationally recognized pianists to play notes while intentionally aiming for contrasting timbres, such as bright versus dark and light versus heavy. Listeners were able to distinguish among the different timbres, even individuals with no experience playing the piano.

The Movements Behind the Sound

The researchers identified a series of micro-movements beneath each keystroke. These movements are so subtle that they are almost impossible to see, but precise enough for listeners to perceive differences in sound.

Small changes in how quickly a key accelerates, slight overlaps between notes, and variations in the speed of initial contact with the key all influenced how listeners described the resulting sound. When each of these factors was adjusted individually, the perceived timbre changed. Adjusting a single movement feature was enough to reliably change how listeners perceived timbre. The results show that touch has a direct effect on sound, independent of factors such as volume or tempo.

The study describes these micro-movements as a motor skill developed through years of advanced training. The researchers call the emerging science of mapping movement to musical experience “dynaformics.”

A Debate as Old as the Modern Piano

The debate over whether touch can alter piano timbre dates back to at least the early 1900s, when music educators began discussing what distinguishes one performer’s sound from another. The piano’s mechanical action appeared to support the skeptics, since the hammer, once released, moves independently before striking the string and is not directly contacted by the pianist’s finger.

As a result of this mechanical process, many acousticians concluded that any reported differences in tone were psychological, influenced by context, volume, or timing rather than by touch. Musicians maintained their position but did not have the scientific tools to prove it.

To settle this debate, Furuya’s team developed a custom biometric contact-sensing system called HackKey, capable of recording the movement of all 88 piano keys at 1,000 frames per second with sub-millimeter precision. The system captured in-depth piano movement data that previous technology could not. For the first time, researchers could observe the specific actions of elite pianists and relate those movements to listeners’ descriptions of sound.

What It Means Beyond the Concert Hall

Piano teachers have often used general phrases like “play warmer” or “use a softer touch” because the specific movements that create certain sound qualities were not well understood. This study now offers a guide to those movements.

Future training tools may allow students to see precisely what their fingers are doing when a note is played successfully or not. Instead of relying on a teacher’s metaphor, students could compare their own keystrokes to a standard and work to improve their technique. The researchers suggest that this approach could make expressive technique easier to teach and visualize, especially for students who find it difficult to translate verbal instructions into physical actions.

The research may also apply to rehabilitation, robotics, and human-computer interaction. Discovering that small differences in movement can shape auditory perception offers new insight into how the brain links movement and sensory experience. Some researchers are exploring whether systems based on expressive musical movement could help patients recover dexterity and coordination after injury.

Most scientific research on music has focused on elements that are easier to measure, like pitch, loudness, and rhythm. Timbre, or the quality or “color” of a sound that makes one instrument or voice different from another, has been harder to measure. This study offers a new way to understand the mechanics behind this concept. The findings suggest that some of the most expressive parts of music come from movements too small to see, developed through years of practice.

Austin Burgess is a writer and researcher with a background in sales, marketing, and data analytics. He holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and a data analytics certification. His work focuses on breaking scientific developments, with an emphasis on emerging biology, cognitive neuroscience, and archaeological discoveries.

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Over 20 million tons of polystyrene plastic are produced annually, yet only a small fraction is recycled worldwide. Current recycling methods consume large amounts of energy and often rely on harsh and toxic chemicals to break the strong molecular chains that make up polystyrene. One possible solution is the use of sulfur, which is an inexpensive byproduct formed when refining crude oil. Its unique chemical structure allows it to break up strong chemical chains in long plastic molecules. Despite its abundance, sulfur has very limited applications, and converting it into more usable forms tends to require a lot of heat, rendering it unused for long periods of time. 

Researchers at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics hypothesized that sulfur could help break down polystyrene waste to form more valuable chemicals. To power this reaction, they converted sunlight into heat energy through a process called photothermal conversion. They used this heat to transform polystyrene and sulfur into valuable chemicals like 2,4-diphenylthiophene, or chemical D, and 1,3,5-triphenylbenzene, or chemical T, which are used to make semiconductors and chemical sensors. 

To test this, the team mixed ground polystyrene and sulfur at a molar ratio of 1:0.5 in a glass test tube. They sealed the tube with a balloon and secured it onto an iron stand. Then, they focused sunlight onto the bottom of the tube using a curved mirror. As the mixture heated up, the yellow-white solids gradually melted and transformed into a reddish-black liquid after 2 minutes. After heating, the researchers removed the mirror and allowed the system to cool before collecting the gaseous products from the balloon and dissolving the remaining solids for further purification and analysis. 

The researchers then adjusted the reaction conditions to understand what factors influenced their results. They tested the reaction without sulfur, varied the sulfur ratios from 0.2 to 0.8, and replaced elemental sulfur with other sulfur-containing compounds. They also explored adding known photothermal agents, specifically metal oxide additives, to the mixture. 

To compare the difference between sunlight and artificial light, the researchers repeated the experiment indoors using a 100 Watt LED bulb and monitored temperature changes with a thermal camera. They also ran a control experiment using only polystyrene to check how sulfur affected the yield under LED light. They also tested exposure times from 1 to 6 minutes in 1-minute increments to determine how long it took to achieve the highest yields under LED. The researchers used these tests to identify which conditions were necessary for the reaction to occur and how different factors influenced its outcome.

They found that without sulfur or with alternative sulfur-containing compounds, the reaction did not produce chemical D or T under sunlight. In contrast, reactions that included sulfur successfully produced these target products, with the highest yields of 34% for D and 16% for T at a sulfur ratio of 0.5. When they added metal oxides, the chemical yields decreased to 22% and 12%, respectively, suggesting that these additives interfered with the desired reactions. In addition, when the researchers switched from sunlight to LED, the reaction yields dropped to 26% for D and 13% for T. 

Next, they examined how reaction time influenced product formation. They found that yields increased gradually before reaching the maximum at 4 minutes and leveling off. They also noted that mixtures containing sulfur heated up from room temperature to 320°C (608°F), while the control setup only showed a slight temperature increase. The researchers interpreted these results as confirmation of sulfur’s dual role as a reactant and a light-to-heat converter that enables the conversion of polystyrene to useful chemicals.

Taking it a step further, the researchers tested their method on real-world polystyrene wastes, including food packaging, cup lids, and foamed plastics. They successfully produced chemicals D and T from these materials, demonstrating that their process works beyond laboratory samples.

The team concluded that their study presents a simple, fast, and solvent-free approach to converting 2 abundant waste materials into valuable chemicals using sunlight. By combining polystyrene waste and excess sulfur, the researchers offer a new pathway for sustainable polymer upcycling that uses clean energy and is broadly applicable to everyday plastics.

The post Upcycling polystyrene with sunlight and sulfur appeared first on Sciworthy.