Dynamic Controls, an innovator of electronic solutions for people with disabilities, is investing millions in research and development to meet the growing demand for next-generation power wheelchair technology. [ + ]

Businesses in New South Wales have an opportunity to demonstrate how they are helping to build value and improve efficiency and productivity in mining at the 2013 NSW Mining Suppliers Awards in October. [ + ]

The BMW Group has debuted the series version of its electric vehicle BMW i3, simultaneously in New York, London and Beijing. The BMW i3, the group’s first pure electric series produced model, features a number of technological innovations, such as a carbon-fibre passenger cell and a chassis made of aluminium. [ + ]

UC Berkeley researchers have created new electronic skin, or e-skin, that responds to touch by instantly lighting up. The more intense the pressure, the brighter the light it emits. In addition to giving robots a finer sense of touch, the engineers believe the new e-skin technology could also be used to create things like wallpapers that double as touch-screen displays and dashboard laminates that allow drivers to adjust electronic controls with the wave of a hand. [ + ]

Romanian computer scientists have developed a new system that is said to boost phone battery life by booting power-consuming computational tasks to an on-the-fly ad hoc cloud in which smartphones are both clients and computing resources. [ + ]

The global spend of semiconductors by original equipment manufacturers is set to grow by 4.2% to $265.2bn in 2013 from $254.4bn in 2012, according to a Semiconductor Spend Analysis Market Tracker Report from information and analytics provider IHS. [ + ]

Researchers have announced a simple, low-cost and eco-friendly method of creating nitrogen-doped graphene nanoplatelets (NGnPs), which could be used in dye-sensitised solar cells and fuel cells.  [ + ]

Mouser Electronics and Intel have signed a global distribution agreement. Included in Mouser’s Intel portfolio are the latest 22 nm Core i7, i5, i3, Pentium, Celeron and Xeon processors - ranging from the most advanced 4th generation core through previous generation core and atom processors. [ + ]

Concentric hexagons of graphene grown in a furnace at Rice University represent the first time anyone has synthesised graphene nanoribbons on metal from the bottom up - atom by atom. [ + ]

Industry association SEMI forecasts semiconductor equipment sales to reach $43.98 billion in 2014, a 21% increase over estimated 2013 equipment spending, according to the mid-year edition of the SEMI Capital Equipment Forecast. [ + ]

An increasing demand for sources of alternative energy, environmental pollution caused by conventional batteries and the phasing out of nuclear energy in Germany has encouraged Bielefeld students to develop a bio-battery (microbial fuel cell - MFC), which directly transforms bacteria into energy. [ + ]

Networks of spherical nanoparticles embedded in elastic materials may make the best stretchy conductors yet, engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered. [ + ]

The HEARing Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has received confirmation that it has been awarded $662,115 by the NSW Government Medical Devices Fund (MDF) to develop a device that monitors brainwaves to determine how well people can hear. [ + ]

Researchers in Singapore have designed an electronic switch that responds to changes in a magnetic field. The device relies on graphene, a strong and flexible electricity-conducting layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern. [ + ]

Using carpets of aligned carbon nanotubes, researchers from Rice University and Sandia National Laboratories have created a solid-state electronic device that is hardwired to detect polarised light across a broad swathe of the visible and infrared spectrum. [ + ]