That may sound impossible, but it apparently works by concentrating the extra light-gathering area of a full-frame lens down to the smaller E-mount sensor area, turning an f4.0 lens into an f2.8 lens, for instance.

ENGADGET

The scanning sensor will provide a wide area surveillance of missile launches and natural phenomena across the earth, while the staring sensor will be used to observe smaller areas of interest with superior sensitivity.

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It also has details on touch controller ICs, the sensor market, and an area and multi-touch forecast through 2017.

ENGADGET: Report: Touchscreen demand to grow by 90-percent, led by mobile, tablet markets

For example, scientists can place a sensor over the Brocca's area, a part of the brain essential for language.

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The VG900 is compatible with E-mount lenses, and it's a fine stills shooter (like the A99, it's capable of 14-bit RAW captures), but it's best suited for high-end video production, where it offers 1080p recording at 24 or 60 frames-per-second through a sensor that features 45 times the area of a conventional camcorder.

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The 35mm full-frame sensor inside the RX1 camera more than doubles the area of APS-C sensors commonly found in much bulkier DSLR cameras, allowing it to take in significantly more light while capturing content.

ENGADGET: Sony's Cyber-shot RX1 compact camera packs a full-frame sensor, 'fits in your palm' (hands-on)

The Lighthouse will communicate with Roomba via an infrared sensor to contain it in one room until it vacuums the area completely (aka: completes its mission) and then it will move on to the next room and so forth.

ENGADGET: Roomba 790's Wireless Command Center lets you obliterate dirt from afar

This is done using tens of thousands of sensor nodes connected together over, say, a 100-square-kilometer area.

FORBES: Wireless

Researchers implant a small sensor -- about the size of a baby aspirin -- in the motor area of the brain.

CNN: Brain map seeks to unlock mysteries of the mind