Tech Briefs Magazine - June 2021 - 62

Facility Focus
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An instrument captures carbon dioxide from the
air and converts it to useful organic products. At
left is the chamber containing the nanowire/bacteria
hybrid that reduces CO2 to form acetate; at
right is the chamber where oxygen is produced.
(UC Berkeley photo by Peidong Yang)
More than 75 million people worldwide
suffer from glaucoma - the leading
cause of irreversible blindness. The
majority of these patients lack a proper
and consistent medication routine. The
UC Berkeley team developed a smart
device to track patients' eye drop medication
adherence. The smart eye drop
bottle holder incorporates multiple
onboard sensors paired with an algorithm
to actively monitor the timing of
medication administration. The data is
collected via an integrated patient-physician
smartphone application.
Scientists developed a CRISPR-based
COVID-19 diagnostic test that, with a
smartphone camera, provides a positive
or negative result in 15 to 30 minutes.
Unlike many other available tests, this test
also gives an estimate of viral load, or the
number of virus particles in a sample,
which can help doctors monitor the progression
of a COVID-19 infection and estimate
how contagious a patient might be.
Concrete is cheap, abundant, and
strong under compression but notoriously
weak under tension. To address concrete's
brittleness, a team developed a
way to reinforce concrete with a polymer
lattice, which could both improve concrete's
ductility and reduce the material's
carbon emissions. The team used a
3D printer to construct octet lattices from
polymer, then filled them with ultra-highperformance
concrete (UHPC). The re -
sult is a material that is four times
stronger than conventional concrete.
A research team created a new flexible
armband that combines wearable bio -
sensors with artificial intelligence software
to help recognize what hand gesture
a person intends to make based on
electrical signal patterns in the forearm.
The device can read the electrical signals
at 64 different points on the forearm.
These signals are then fed into an electrical
chip programmed with an AI algorithm
capable of associating these signal
patterns in the forearm with 21 specific
hand gestures including a thumbs-up, a
fist, a flat hand, holding up individual
fingers, and counting numbers. The
device paves the way for better prosthetic
control and seamless interaction with
electronic devices.
An ultrathin, compact, flat optical lens
spans wavelengths from the visible to the
infrared with record-breaking efficiencies.
The photonic system with the entire
rainbow has been proposed and demonstrated
with efficiencies greater than 70%
in the visible-infrared region of the spectrum.
The Fishnet-Achromatic-Metalens
(FAM) utilizes a complex " fishnet " of tiny,
connected waveguides with a gradient in
dimensions, which focuses light on a single
point on the other side of the lens,
regardless of the incident wavelength. It
has use in applications like solar energy,
medical imaging, and virtual reality.
Technology Transfer
The Office of Intellectual Property and
Industry Research Alliances (IPIRA)
establishes multifaceted collaborations
An ultrathin metalens uses an array of tiny, connected
titanium waveguides that resembles a
fishnet to focus light at wavelengths spanning
from the visible to the infrared with recordbreaking
efficiencies. On the right is a schematic
of a single waveguide. (UC Berkeley graphic
courtesy Boubacar Kanté)
62
Cov
with companies. The Office of Tech -
nology Licensing (OTL) maximizes the
commercialization of UC Berkeley innovations
by establishing relationships and
contractual agreements. More than 600
products and 240 startup companies
have been born out of technology li -
censed by the OTL.
To license UC Berkeley technologies,
contact Laleh Shayestech, Senior Li -
censing Officer, at lalehs@berkeley.edu;
510-642-4537. Learn more at https://
ipira.berkeley.edu/.
www.techbriefs.com
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Tech Briefs, June 2021
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Tech Briefs Magazine - June 2021

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