Hi Tech & Innovation news

Hi Tech & Innovation

AI agents debate more effectively when given personalities and the ability to interrupt

In a typical online meeting, humans don't always wait politely for their turn to speak. They interrupt to express strong agreement, stay silent when they are unsure, and let their personalities shape the flow of the discussion. ...

Hi Tech & Innovation

Virtual reality demonstrates the 'honey-pot effect' in pedestrian attention to public displays

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have used virtual reality (VR) to demonstrate that pedestrians' behaviors, such as stopping or turning their heads, can induce gaze following (the "honey-pot effect") among individuals ...

Energy & Green Tech

Fungi turn shredded mattress foam into lightweight building insulation

Swinburne researchers have turned old, unwanted mattresses into safe and sustainable building insulation materials using fungi. The team grew a common fungus together with shredded mattress foam to create a new material that ...

Hi Tech & Innovation

Musk vows to put data centers in space and run them on solar power but experts have their doubts

Elon Musk vowed this week to upend another industry just as he did with cars and rockets—and once again he's taking on long odds.

Engineering

Octopus-inspired 'smart skin' uses 4D printing to morph on cue

Despite the prevalence of synthetic materials across different industries and scientific fields, most are developed to serve a limited set of functions. To address this inflexibility, researchers at Penn State, led by Hongtao ...

Energy & Green Tech

Oxygen-modified graphene filters boost natural gas purification

As we shift toward more sustainable fuels, natural gas and biogas, which mainly contain methane (CH4), have become important sources of energy and raw materials for chemical production. However, these gases also contain impurities ...

Hi Tech & Innovation

New AI system fixes 3D printing defects in real time

Additive manufacturing has revolutionized manufacturing by enabling customized, cost-effective products with minimal waste. However, with the majority of 3D printers operating on open-loop systems, they are notoriously prone ...

Energy & Green Tech

Electric eel biology inspires powerful gel battery

Power sources used in devices found in or around biological tissue must be flexible and nontoxic, while still powerful enough to support demanding technologies such as medical devices or soft robotics. To achieve this balance, ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

3D-printed solutions shield electronics from electrostatic discharge

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection is a significant concern in the chemical and electronics industries. In electronics, ESD often causes integrated circuit failures due to rapid voltage and current discharges from charged ...

Engineering

Crowdsourcing system aims to map wildfires in seconds

The 2023 blaze in Lahaina, Hawaii, which claimed more than 100 lives and burned 6,500 acres of land across Maui, is a tragic example of how rapid wildfire spread can make effective response efforts impossible, resulting in ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Repurposed RFID tags allow for battery-free sensing and tracking

Data is power. According to Dinesh Bharadia, an associate professor at UC San Diego in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering ...

Robotics

Drone with its own 'nervous system' trialed by scientists

Scientists are testing a drone fitted with its own "nervous system" which they claim can keep it operating in the sky for longer. It was created by experts at the University of Southampton who say the system, made of optical ...

Energy & Green Tech

Static electricity could help run air conditioners

An invention made from waste polystyrene that generates static electricity from motion and wind could lower power usage by recycling waste energy in air conditioners and other applications.

Engineering

Machine learning enhances defect detection in metal 3D printing

Researchers from Northwestern University, University of Virginia, Carnegie Mellon University, and Argonne National Laboratory have made a significant advancement in defect detection and process monitoring for laser powder ...