Professor Robert E. Newnham will receive the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering. The award is made in recognition of Professor Newnham’s pioneer groundwork in understanding the properties of composite piezoelectric materials for use as transducers, sensors, and actuators. His early papers in this field demonstrated the importance of connectivity patterns and various strain amplification mechanisms within the composites, and provided a frame of reference for scientists and engineers working in underwater acoustics, bioengineering, and materials science.

Read more details about the Franklin Awards.

Researchers at Imperial College are investigating using thermosonics to detect cracks in materials. The technique involves vibrating parts with ultrasonic vibration in the 20-100kHz frequency range, which causes the surfaces of a crack to rub together and generate heat, which can be detected with a thermal imaging camera.

Read more about this on the Imperial College web site.

Japan Today has an article on a cell phone that uses bone conduction for the speaker. The user presses the phone against her jaw and the sound is transmitted into the ear using bone conduction. The phone is made by Tu-Ka Cellular