https://techxplore.com/rss-feed/hi-tech-news/ en-us The latest news on hi-tech, innovation and new inventions technology, computer news and information Can pure water store electrical energy? A research team led by Dr. Vasily Artemov within the Cluster of Excellence "BlueMat—Water-Driven Materials" at Hamburg University of Technology has now shown that it can. By confining water within nanometer-sized channels in clay minerals, the researchers created a supercapacitor capable of efficiently storing and transporting electrical charge. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-nanometer-channels-enable-safer-energy.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:40:01 EDT news700240141 Transistors, small devices that can amplify or switch electrical signals, are central components of all modern computer chips and digital devices. There are two main types of transistors, known as n-type and p-type transistors. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-monolayer-wse-high-p-transistors.html Electronics & Semiconductors Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:07:44 EDT news700225592 Although self-driving cars and sophisticated robots use advanced cameras, computer algorithms and artificial intelligence to perceive their surroundings, these artificial eyes struggle to remain reliable in mixed lighting conditions. A team of researchers, co-led by an engineer from Penn State, has proposed a solution that mimics the mechanics of the human eye to adapt from bright to dark light in seconds. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-artificial-eyes-human-sight-cars.html Engineering Tue, 09 Jun 2026 05:00:03 EDT news700126803 As artificial intelligence systems grow larger and more powerful, their energy demands are rising dramatically. But recent research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst published in Nature Communications suggests that advanced AI capabilities may be achievable with dramatically lower energy consumption. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-asynchronous-ai-energy-magnitude.html Hi Tech & Innovation Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:40:07 EDT news700157701 Seoul National University researchers have developed an ultra-low-voltage electrochemical organic light-emitting transistor that can simultaneously perform signal processing, memory and light emission within a single semiconductor device. By introducing an ion-transport enhancer into the light-emitting polymer semiconductor channel, the team enabled electric-double-layer formation at the drain electrode interface, allowing efficient electron injection without relying on the high voltages or unstable n-type doping used in conventional approaches. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-transistor-memory-emission.html Electronics & Semiconductors Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:00:05 EDT news700156561 Researchers from Skoltech—a VEB.RF group institution—have, for the first time, deposited a brass-based composite coating with reinforcing particles on a stainless steel part using low-pressure cold spraying. The technique is cheaper than currently used alternatives, less harmful to the environment, and uniquely adaptable for repair work at infrastructure facilities in the field by mobile maintenance teams. Brass coatings are used to extend the service life of bearings and other metal parts subjected to friction in manufacturing, aviation, marine and railroad engineering applications, and on drilling rigs and pipelines. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-cheaper-brass-coatings-aircraft-pipelines.html Engineering Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:00:03 EDT news700152421 Kirigami is a variation on the Japanese art of origami, or paper folding, in which cuts are used to create three-dimensional structures—for example, pop-up cards created from a sheet of paper. Kirigami also has applications in engineering design for creating materials with unique mechanical behaviors. However, most studies of kirigami materials have focused on structures with parallel and perpendicular cuts, limiting the applications of the final creations. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-inclined-kirigami-path-soft-robots.html Engineering Mon, 08 Jun 2026 15:20:03 EDT news700150091 Have you ever seen birds flying across the sky in shifting, mesmerizing patterns? Or ants using their own bodies to form a living bridge that other ants can walk across? https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-humanai-session-music-swarm-intelligence.html Hi Tech & Innovation Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:00:03 EDT news700141383 A University of Manchester student has developed a powerful new ultra-lightweight tool that can turn dark, noisy footage into clear, detailed and usable images. Multinex, a new model for low-light image enhancement (LLIE), was created by Computer Science undergraduate Alexandru Brateanu during his third-year project, working with academic supervisors. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-multinex-ultra-lightweight-ai-advancing.html Hi Tech & Innovation Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:00:01 EDT news700131489 The silicon that forms the foundation of most computer chips has fundamental limits to how much power it can manage, which constrains the speed and energy-efficiency of wireless communication systems. A promising solution is to build future wireless electronics out of transistors made from gallium nitride, an advanced material that can handle the speed and energy required for demanding wireless applications like 6G and satellite communications. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-ultrathin-diamond-layer-boosts-high.html Electronics & Semiconductors Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:40:01 EDT news700129382 By borrowing a trick from tiny jumping spiders, Northwestern University engineers have developed an extremely energy-efficient 3D camera. Called SpiderCam, the new device senses depth the same way that jumping spiders judge distances before making a high-precision hop. To estimate depth, the system captures two images of the same scene with slightly different focus settings and measures subtle differences in blurriness between the two images. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-spiders-ultra-efficient-3d-camera.html Engineering Sun, 07 Jun 2026 16:50:01 EDT news699810781 Self-driving taxis, already booming in the United States and China, are emerging in Europe, with major companies launching trials this year in several capitals and the European Union set to step on the accelerator Monday. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-europe-taxis.html Hi Tech & Innovation Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:25:02 EDT news700064676 Urging industry to make better use of wood that is wasted or burned for energy, researchers have released the first structural tests of non-straight, forked, and double-curved roundwood logs used as columns. In his mission to normalize the use of "misfit wood," Aalto University architect and researcher Jaakko Torvinen has shown how standard, business-as-usual calculation methods can predict load-bearing capacity for organically shaped logs. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-wood-feature-simple-misfit.html Engineering Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:00:01 EDT news699807121 A Yale-led research team has developed the first standalone device that produces the liquid fuel methanol using only sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide as the ingredients. The artificial "leaf," like its namesake in nature, is a chemistry marvel. It brings the scientific mimicry of photosynthesis—the process of converting sunlight and water into chemical energy—to a new level, converting sunlight to methanol 32 times more efficiently than the previous conversion record for artificial leaf technologies that generate alcohol products. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-standalone-leaf-liquid-fuel-sun.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:20:01 EDT news699797941 Like modern-day alchemists, metallurgists are constantly discovering and perfecting recipes for better alloys. A crucial step in those recipes is to get different metals to mix evenly. Unveiling a new utensil for the metallurgical kitchen, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have invented a way to whisk metal with a laser as it's 3D-printed, opening a new route for creating hard-to-make metal alloys. To verify their success, they also developed a way to watch changes in the metal using X-rays as they melted and solidified in a fraction of a second. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-looping-lasers-whisk-molten-metals.html Engineering Thu, 04 Jun 2026 12:20:07 EDT news699793802 In 2026, the hype for artificial intelligence agents is louder than ever before. These semi-autonomous programs can "think" and execute well-defined tasks in areas like customer service and software development, typically using language models (LMs). But fields like medical diagnosis and scientific discovery require them to inquire about a vast range of solutions in uncertain environments which LMs struggle with. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-battleship-ai-sharper-boosting.html Hi Tech & Innovation Thu, 04 Jun 2026 08:40:02 EDT news699780783 A pioneering technology capable of converting lignin, one of the world's most abundant organic compounds, into vanillin and biodegradable materials has been unveiled by the University of Alicante (UA), in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). The study, published in Nature Communications, offers a sustainable method for repurposing plant waste and identifies viable alternatives to the fossil fuels that currently drive the chemical industry. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-tough-everyday-products-powered-advance.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:20:04 EDT news699711482 The ability to develop extremely thin semiconductors is key to advancing the fields of electronics and computing. But so far, there's been a trade-off between the quality of these semiconductors and the ability to make them at industrial scale. Prof. Cong Su and his research team have found a solution that combines the best aspects of two methods to make high-quality materials at scale. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-generation-extremely-thin-semiconductors.html Electronics & Semiconductors Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:20:02 EDT news699710402 Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a new, entirely bio-based material from a somewhat unexpected ingredient: yeast. The material is 3D printed and customized for use in architectural and interior design elements that are currently made from non-renewable or fossil-based materials, such as plaster, plastic or synthetic textiles. These may be daylight modulating and sunlight protecting screens, room partitions or wall systems. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-yeast-based-materials-power-3d.html Engineering Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:40:06 EDT news699705541 Researchers led by Takaki Hatsui at the RIKEN SPring-8 Center (RSC) in Japan and collaborators have developed a new approach to compressing X-ray imaging data in real time, reducing the size of data files by more than 8,000 times, while at the same time preserving the detailed X-ray intensity information required for quantitative analysis. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-real-ray-compression-size.html Hardware Wed, 03 Jun 2026 09:00:01 EDT news699695943 As semiconductor chips become increasingly thinner, the components inside chips are locked in a fierce race to achieve the ultimate ultra-thin state. However, this has presented a structural limitation: the thinner the device, the harder it is for electricity to flow. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-ultra-thin-semiconductors-limits-localized.html Electronics & Semiconductors Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:00:09 EDT news699622374 A research group led by Prof. Sungjune Park from the Department of Chemical Engineering has developed an ultra-stretchable, anti-freezing hydrogel electrolyte using liquid metal particles. The material can stretch up to nine times its original length while maintaining stable electrochemical performance, even at −20 °C. This work provides a promising platform for energy storage devices that must operate reliably under extreme environmental conditions. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-liquid-metal-hydrogel-resists-electrolytes.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 02 Jun 2026 12:40:02 EDT news699622261 EPFL researchers are developing AI models that could one day enable vision prosthetics able to restore meaningful, object-level sight for the blind. The research, from the NeuroAI Lab of Martin Schrimpf, part of EPFL's Schools of Computer and Communication Sciences and Life Sciences, uses AI models to predict exactly where to stimulate the brain to evoke images of faces and specific objects in the users instead of simply evoking spots of light. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-ai-vision-prosthetics-closer-reality.html Hi Tech & Innovation Tue, 02 Jun 2026 09:40:03 EDT news699610999 The JC STEM Lab of Circular Bio-economy (the Lab) at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) has recently achieved a breakthrough in the field of sustainable development technologies. A research team led by Professor Lee Duu-Jong, Director of the Lab and Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has successfully developed a bio-inspired "all-weather building skin" that cools in sunlight and harvests energy from rain, alongside a "turbocharged" solar hydrogen system powered by low-cost copper ions. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-smart-skins-eco-friendly-hydrogen.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 01 Jun 2026 19:40:02 EDT news699537817 A peacock feather in sunlight shifts from blue to green to bronze as you turn it. Photograph it, and this shimmer collapses into one angle, one exposure, one compromise. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-screen-doesnt-range-human-eye.html Consumer & Gadgets Mon, 01 Jun 2026 18:20:04 EDT news699539883 Augmented reality (AR) devices like smart glasses may soon be able to predict where a user will look and provide an enhanced interactive experience. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-3d-ar-devices-scenes-users.html Hi Tech & Innovation Mon, 01 Jun 2026 16:20:01 EDT news699549183 In the COCOBIN project, coordinated by the University of Oulu, coating materials are being developed from suberin, a natural compound found, for example, in birch bark. In plants, suberin acts as a protective layer and prevents the loss of water. Up to 1,500 meters of a bio-based coating material prototype have been produced at semi-pilot scale. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-wood-bark-based-coating-paper.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:00:01 EDT news699544501 Space is a vacuum. Heat therefore cannot be transferred to the surroundings by thermal conduction. This poses a problem for any type of space-capable electronics, which can quickly overheat under these conditions. The only way to dissipate heat in space is through radiation into space. A radiator converts the heat into thermal radiation. The material used must emit as much thermal radiation as possible for the process to work efficiently. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-efficiently-cooling-satellite-components-space.html Engineering Mon, 01 Jun 2026 12:00:02 EDT news699531601 In its 2022 condition assessment, the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) classified 8,000 highway bridges as requiring rehabilitation. In other words, it is time to start continuously monitoring Germany's bridges. With the COMOBASE modular acoustic emission monitoring system, the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS presents an innovative solution for continuous infrastructure monitoring, specially customized for the respective requirements and significantly more economical than conventional technologies. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-bridges-clock-tracking-channel-acoustic.html Engineering Mon, 01 Jun 2026 11:20:04 EDT news699531421 A study in the International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology has developed an improved way to determine the underlying beat, or tempo, in recorded music. It addresses persistent issues in analyzing modern popular music where vocals, multiple instruments, and background noise overlap. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-method-music-identification-based-audio.html Hi Tech & Innovation Mon, 01 Jun 2026 09:11:29 EDT news699523816