Topic description and stories

Artist's impression of touchscreen sensor

Smartphone screens effective sensors for soil or water contamination

22 Jul 2021

The touchscreen technology used in billions of smartphones and tablets could also be used as a powerful sensor, without the need for any...

Read more

Problematic smartphone use linked to poorer grades, alcohol misuse and more sexual partners

04 Jul 2019

A survey of more than 3,400 university students in the USA has found that one in five respondents reported problematic smartphone use. Female...

Read more

The doctor using smartphones to save lives in war zones

04 Feb 2019

Having survived the civil war in Afghanistan, alumnus Waheed Arian arrived alone in the UK aged 15. He went on to study medicine at Trinity Hall...

Read more

Walking

Physical activity, even in small amounts, benefits both physical and psychological well-being

05 Jan 2017

The largest-ever smartphone-based study examining the relationship between physical activity and happiness has found that even minimal levels of...

Read more

Remote takeover: How RealVNC conquered the world

30 Jul 2013

First released in 1998, RealVNC’s remote access and control software is today used in more than a billion devices. After winning the UK’s main award...

Read more
The Emotion Sense app asks users to record their feelings on a chart designed by psychologists, then surveys them further to assess their mood accurately. This is cross-referred with data about their behaviour, picked up by sensors within the phone itself

Mood-tracking app paves way for pocket therapy

08 May 2013

An Android app which keeps tabs on users’ mood swings and works out what might be causing them has been developed by researchers, with implications...

Read more

AIRS widgets on the Android home screen

Can your phone double up as your life-coach?

29 Dec 2012

Researchers are developing a smartphone platform that enables careful monitoring of lifestyle to pinpoint and help avert triggers for stress and...

Read more
Image taken in stratosphere using Android phone, from previous CUSF project ‘Squirrel 3’ which used smartphone to pilot high-altitude balloon

Your chance to ‘scream in space’ using smartphone technology

25 Oct 2012

Cambridge students will be loading human screams onto a smartphone that will be blasted into outer space later this year. The public are invited to...

Read more
Android

What is the price of free?

06 Mar 2012

Scientists from the Computer Laboratory at Cambridge University have designed a method to improve privacy control in the Android apps market. The...

Read more

Aligned carbon nanotubes, coated with a conducting polymer

Weaving electronics into the fabric of our physical world

24 Jan 2012

The integration of electronics with materials opens up a world of possibilities, the surface of which is just being scratched. Professor Arokia...

Read more
Android

Paranoid Android? Get connected to a new study…

17 Jun 2011

More than 1,000 people around the world have signed up to take part in the biggest ever public study of Android phone usage.

Read more