Home How Things Work

What Is a Laser Projector and How Is It Different from a Usual Projector

Projectors are great for watching a movie, delivering the latest figures to the board or PowerPoints in the classroom. They are capable of producing a bigger picture than TVs, and customizing the size of the image is quick and easy. Furthermore, projectors typically boast a lower cost-per-inch when compared to TVs. They also reflect light, whereas TVs emit light. As a result, watching an image produced by a projector is less straining on the eyes. Finally, projectors are compact in size. Therefore, projectors have a smaller footprint than TVs and are portable. Due to the advantages of projection, many folks… Read more

How Do Fingerprint Scanners Work?

Since fingerprint scanners first appeared on smartphones in 2011 they’ve become pretty much a standard feature. They’re fast, convenient, and relatively secure, since fingerprints are unique enough that the odds of anyone having a similar enough print to unlock your phone are very low, unless someone cares enough to design a convincing duplicate of your fingerprint. There’s not just one type, though: some scanners rely on light, others on electricity, and still others on sound to map the ridges and valleys of your fingers. Capacitive (electronic sensors) are popular in smartphones because they’re accurate, small, and fast, but optical and ultrasonic… Read more

Brain-Computer Interfaces: What Are They and Why Are We Hearing About them Now?

Feeding monkeys, watching movies with cats, playing video games – sounds like a nice day off, right? If you’re a neuroscientist, though, it sounds a lot like the last half-century of research into connecting human brains to computers. Elon Musk’s Neuralink, impressive as it is, has only been in the game since 2016, and it’s just part of an ever-building wave of neuroscientific accomplishments. Those monkeys? They’re feeding themselves with robot arms connected to their brains. The cats are watching videos, and we’re translating the resulting brain activity back into images. And the video games? You can play them with… Read more

What Does “4K” Mean for Televisions?

If you’ve been shopping around for a television recently, you may have seen the term “4K” thrown around. Unfortunately, the term doesn’t explain what it means all by itself; as such, many people may be confused as to why this is so important. So, what is 4K, and why is everyone talking about it? Related: Is a 4K TV Worth Buying in 2019? What Does “4K” Mean? If you stream videos online, you’ll probably see terms related to video quality. These will be numbers that end with a “p,” such as 360p or 720p. These represent… Read more

How Amazon Alexa Isolates Wake Words

When some people heard that employees of Amazon listen to what is recorded on Alexa, they assumed they can hear everything going on in their homes. This is not true. Alexa cannot record without using a wake word. The Amazon Echo and other voice assistants that use wake words are only able to record any voice commands made after the wake word. In Amazon’s case, that word is Alexa. But how does the device recognize the word Alexa amid the other voices and background noises in our homes? Related: How to Use Amazon Alexa Devices as an Intercom … Read more