Hi Tech & Innovation news

Engineering

Helmholtz resonance powers miniature boats and ultrasonic flying robots

When air is blown across the neck of a bottle, it doesn't just produce a pleasant tone: it also demonstrates a phenomenon called Helmholtz resonance. This occurs when airflow passing across an opening causes air trapped inside ...

Energy & Green Tech

Hybrid energy system: One roof for electricity, heating and cooling

Photovoltaic panels generate electricity, solar thermal collectors provide heat, while cooling is usually supplied by air conditioning systems that themselves consume electricity. As a result, buildings require different ...

Telecom

AI gives tomorrow's wireless networks a clearer voice

Anyone who has struggled through a poor phone call knows the frustration of missing half a conversation. Now researchers at Queen Mary University of London, led by Paul Anthony Haigh, have developed an artificial intelligence ...

Engineering

Three holographic layers steer red, green and blue light for brighter AR displays

Researchers have developed a full-color near-eye display that uses three stacked holographic gratings, each engineered to direct red, green or blue light. The new design could help advance compact, energy-efficient augmented ...

Hi Tech & Innovation

When human knowledge has been exhausted, where will AI get its data?

As AI-powered large language models, or LLMs, grow in power and sophistication, where will their architects turn when someday—as experts predict—algorithms outgrow the limits of general human knowledge and begin craving information ...

Hi Tech & Innovation

AI-powered system can predict how modern house fires behave

A team of researchers is harnessing artificial intelligence (AI), data science and advanced mathematics to better predict how fires behave in modern homes, work that could ultimately help save lives during emergencies.

Electronics & Semiconductors

Innovative design unlocks resilient semiconductor materials

Semiconductors such as silicon are the cornerstone of today's essential technologies, but the variety of materials available to power devices is limited. While metal oxides are durable, only a small subset are semiconducting ...

Energy & Green Tech

ZiaCore microreactor successfully achieves criticality

The emerging technology of advanced nuclear microreactors offers solutions to many modern energy challenges. The ZiaCore design, a low-enriched uranium dioxide-fueled microreactor developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Prototype glasses can turn infrared into color vision

The human eye, as good as it is, misses out on so much of the world because it is limited in what it can perceive. It can't see X-rays, ultraviolet rays or infrared light. While X-ray goggles are still the stuff of science ...

Energy & Green Tech

Energy-efficient electric drying with superheated steam

Drying is widely used across many sectors, including the paper, cement and chemical industries. It is a key step in the production, processing and treatment of minerals, food or detergents, for example.

Hi Tech & Innovation

AI reduces sensory hallucinations, even at night or in smoke

Multimodal large language models (MLLMs), which process multiple types of sensory information, such as text, images and audio, at the same time, are rapidly expanding the range of applications for artificial intelligence ...

Robotics

Muscle radar unlocks potential for future robotic limbs

University of Queensland researchers have developed new noninvasive sensors that measure muscle forces, unlocking new possibilities for wearable robotic mobility devices. Ultra-wideband radar sensors measure electromagnetic ...

Robotics

This robot can snuff out wildfires with a cryogenic spray

About 20 years ago, Yiannis Levendis, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at Northeastern University, was working on an experiment to find an alternative to coal—grinding up old car and truck tires and burning ...

Engineering

Charging drones mid-flight with lasers

Wireless charging is nothing new for our phones, watches, earbuds and other tech. Now, researchers want to bring wireless power to the skies—recharging drones in flight by beaming a laser under their wings.

Hi Tech & Innovation

An AI-powered Braille learning system

In an increasingly audio-driven world, the University of Houston's Product Experience Design (PXD) Lab is creating new pathways to Braille literacy for blind and low-vision learners. With a new two-device learning system ...

Software

'Appy marriages: AI helps hundreds of Japanese wed

A total of 265 couples have married after meeting on an AI-powered dating app launched by the Tokyo government in 2024 to lift Japan's low birth rate, according to official data.

Electronics & Semiconductors

Low-temperature technique grows crystal-aligned semiconductor films

Building next-generation semiconductors and low-power electronic devices requires precisely stacking materials with different functions. In this process, it is essential to preserve each material's intrinsic properties, as ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Large-scale crystals could revolutionize future OLED displays

Since the first practical organic light-emitting diode (OLED) was developed in 1987 by Ching W. Tang and Steven A. VanSlyke at Eastman Kodak Company in the U.S., OLED technology has come a long way. The original device used ...