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 For decades, event cameras, which emulate the biological retina by continuously monitoring changes in light intensity, have promised to revolutionize how robots perceive the world by allowing them to react faster and operate more reliably than conventional cameras permit. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-fast-feature-field-link-event.html Robotics Fri, 30 Oct 2026 11:20:10 EDT news712577402 In recent years, sodium-metal batteries (SMBs) have gained increasing attention for next-generation energy storage technologies due to the abundance and low cost of sodium (Na) reserves, making them cost-effective alternatives to current commercial lithium-ion batteries. However, the practical applications of SMBs are still limited by critical safety and stability issues. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-nonflammable-durable-electrolyte-sodium-metal.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 30 Oct 2026 10:00:15 EDT news712573095 Many buildings and sites tied to national security rely on cameras and sensor networks to detect people and other objects nearby, but weather conditions can quickly obscure their view. To understand how these systems perform, Sandia National Laboratories researchers are deliberately recreating thick fog and heavy rain in a controlled chamber. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-bad-weather-purpose-camera-sensor.html Engineering Thu, 29 Oct 2026 16:40:09 EDT news712510141 When electronics need to stretch, bend or flex, like a wearable sensor or a shape-changing robot, liquid metal often carries the electricity that makes them work. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-current-liquid-metal-electrical-pathways.html Engineering Thu, 29 Oct 2026 11:20:13 EDT news712491361 Curtin University researchers may have found a new way to help police trace 3D-printed firearms, after developing a new method of analyzing the plastic used to make them. Homemade plastic weapons present a growing challenge for law enforcement globally, due to being privately manufactured without the serial numbers and registration used to trace conventional firearms. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-police-3d-ghost-guns.html Hi Tech & Innovation Thu, 29 Oct 2026 09:40:06 EDT news712484461 A joint research team has developed self-powered fibers using a simple spray-coating process that blends two different polymers, eliminating the need for high-voltage equipment. The paper is published in the journal Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials. The technology is expected to simplify complex conventional fiber fabrication processes and facilitate the manufacturing of smart sensors and wearable electronic devices based on triboelectricity. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-spray-coating-power-generating-fibers.html Electronics & Semiconductors Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:40:10 EDT news712407421 Nuclear power plants are designed to produce electricity steadily for 24 hours a day. But now that nuclear power plants share the electric grid with renewable energy sources that fluctuate based on the weather and time of day, their design is mismatched with modern operational needs. Rather than running constantly, nuclear power plants need to have greater flexibility in when they produce energy and when they pause. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-explore-thermal-energy-storage-nuclear.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:20:01 EDT news712314458 MIT researchers have developed a new type of origami-based construction method that could be used to build complex structures that are cheaper and easier to assemble and use less material than those built with some conventional techniques. This scalable system simplifies the process of designing lightweight, rigid structural shells from modular components that can be fabricated from flat sheets of material and then folded into shape. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-origami-based-method-yields-lightweight.html Engineering Tue, 27 Oct 2026 09:40:08 EDT news712312381 Researchers have covered robotic fingers with a new artificial skin that allows the hand to grasp fragile pencil lead and pull away from a needle before it punctures the covering. Both actions depend on more than sensitive sensors. The robot must also receive and interpret their signals quickly enough to respond. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-artificial-skin-robots-grasp-pencil.html Robotics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 07:10:02 EDT news712216487 Smartphones and computers process information by switching the current that flows inside semiconductors on and off. The gate electrode delivers the signal that controls this switching. Until now, gate electrodes have typically been made from metals whose electronic properties are fixed. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-tunable-gate-electrodes-semiconductors-voltages.html Electronics & Semiconductors Mon, 26 Oct 2026 15:40:16 EDT news712247941 Researchers from China have developed a new 3D-printing process capable of building titanium-alloy rods more than a meter (3.3 feet) tall composed entirely of a single crystal. The new method, described in the team's recently published study in Nature, eliminates some of the constraints associated with conventional crystal-growing methods and opens up new opportunities for technical applications, ranging from reactor components to laser mirrors. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-pulsed-3d-resistant-crystals-meter.html Engineering Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:40:13 EDT news712234833 Florida International University researchers have developed a new way to detect incoming drones using the unique magnetic signatures generated by their motors—offering a detection method that is stealthier, safer and cheaper than traditional radar. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-stealthy-tech-drones.html Engineering Sun, 25 Oct 2026 10:20:01 EDT news711981849 Almost every sensor in a digital photography device, from a smartphone to a digital camera, relies on color filters to separate incoming light into red, green and blue before it reaches the sensor. Substantial light is lost through the process, however, and in dim conditions, this results in images with higher noise, longer exposures and more motion blur. The most conventional configuration, a Bayer filter array, transmits only about a third of the light striking it. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-tiny-3d-routers-enable-sharper.html Engineering Thu, 22 Oct 2026 16:20:16 EDT news711902641 Lab-grown skeletal muscle tissue can contract, but the movement is often so slight that it is barely visible. This poses a problem for biohybrid robots designed to move using living muscles. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now demonstrated that it is not just the amount of muscle tissue that matters, but above all how the muscle and the artificial scaffold interact. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-lab-grown-mouse-muscles-enable.html Robotics Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:40:19 EDT news711901442 One day, you may be able to easily smell what you are looking at when browsing online. Sending smells over the internet has long been a dream, and while it may seem far-fetched, researchers have now taken a major step toward making it a reality. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-scientists-aromas-internet.html Internet Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:33:22 EDT news711898331 In the future, quantum computers could solve complex problems where today's computers fall short, for example, in the development of new materials or supply-chain planning. To date, however, the systems have been prone to errors and their use is mainly limited to research labs. Moreover, software development standards are still lacking. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-blueprint-future-quantum-software.html Software Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:20:21 EDT news711889802 Researchers at the National University of Singapore's College of Design and Engineering (CDE) have developed a fiber that functions as pixels and senses touch at the same time, integrating 54 of them into a sleeve to create the world's first touchscreen built into a garment. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-thread-world-touchscreen-garment.html Consumer & Gadgets Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:00:08 EDT news711887822 Engineering students at the University of Cincinnati are developing an easy-to-use system to deploy autonomous drones in warehouses to take inventory and alert workers about leaks from containers. UC College of Engineering and Applied Science doctoral students Deepak Antony David and Luke Busse are working with Valvoline to use drones to log inventory and detect leaks that could damage entire pallets. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-drone-vr-warehouse.html Engineering Thu, 22 Oct 2026 07:28:23 EDT news711872724 Engineers at the University of Cincinnati are using sound to help NASA detect if a drone's motors or propellers are damaged to prevent a crash. UC College of Engineering and Applied Science doctoral student Prissha Chawla and her research partners recorded the various sounds that drones make when their propellers get chipped or cracked or their motor becomes damaged or begins to fail. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-potential-catastrophic-drone-failures.html Engineering Thu, 22 Oct 2026 07:00:01 EDT news711862517 As artificial intelligence moves increasingly toward edge devices, researchers are exploring electronic components that can combine memory and information processing. Memristive and synaptic devices are of particular interest because their electrical conductance can retain information about previous inputs, providing a physical basis for brain-inspired computing. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-transistor-combines-memory-brain.html Electronics & Semiconductors Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:00:01 EDT news711725581 A battery system installed in a Buffalo, New York, apartment building will store excess energy when it's plentiful and power the building when the grid is strained and electricity is costly. The manufacturer and state officials hope it will show that larger batteries can safely operate where people live and work. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-larger-batteries-safely-power-residential.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 20 Oct 2026 14:00:06 EDT news711722899 Smart glasses need compact, efficient displays that can produce detailed images without drawing too much power. Laser beam scanning is one approach to meeting these requirements. Rather than using a fixed array of pixels, these displays steer a laser beam across the field of view, building an image point by point. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-voltage-photonic-chip-smart-glasses.html Hardware Tue, 20 Oct 2026 12:00:06 EDT news711713575 A small stream of liquid flows quietly in midair, horizontally, as if inside an invisible tube. Nothing touches it. About 5 centimeters (2 inches) away, a cylinder lined with hundreds of tiny speakers surrounds the stream, yet there is no sound. The liquid simply keeps flowing. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-ultrasound-tube-air.html Engineering Tue, 20 Oct 2026 09:40:08 EDT news711707485 An audiovisual convergence display technology has been developed that allows sound to be heard from the exact location of a person or object shown on the screen. Without separate speakers, the technology vibrates the display panel itself to generate sound from a selected area of the screen. It can also move the sound-emitting location in real time as the sound source moves across the screen. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-display-technology-screen.html Engineering Mon, 19 Oct 2026 10:20:12 EDT news711621245 Scientists have found a way to use defects in crystals to engineer stronger materials, according to a new study. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-flaws-crystal-defects-metals-chemistry.html Engineering Sun, 18 Oct 2026 07:40:01 EDT news711366428 Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled what he described as a "flying" car, equipped with thrusters, during a livestreamed event at his SpaceX rocket company's facility on Thursday. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-elon-musk-unveils-tesla-flying.html Engineering Fri, 16 Oct 2026 12:20:11 EDT news711366192 A research team led by professor Seong Kyun Kim of the Department of Physics and Chemistry at DGIST has developed a "passive cooling film material" that uses moisture in the air to cool electronic devices—no water or electricity is required. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-cooling-thermal-ai-era-electronic.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 16 Oct 2026 11:00:01 EDT news711366607 Could computers include tiny brain organoids one day? The human brain is an incredibly energy-efficient computer, and silicon processors that try to imitate it achieve huge energy savings over traditional processors. Now scientists are experimenting with using organoids modeled on the human forebrain to develop energy-efficient biohybrid computing. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-mini-brain-organoids-braille-key.html Hi Tech & Innovation Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:01 EDT news711273661 A research team has developed a new biometric authentication technology that can identify users without storing their fingerprint information as digital data. The study is published in Nature Sensors. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-fingerprint-authentication-ultrasound-biometric-digital.html Hi Tech & Innovation Thu, 15 Oct 2026 16:00:11 EDT news711295501 Bubbles can be useful tools for microscopic robots, helping them move, steer, create flows of liquid and perform other functions. But designs based on trapping a bubble, a common approach, are unwieldy and unpredictable because bubbles can be hard to catch and control. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-tiny-chip-ultrasound-powered-microbubbles.html Hardware Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:40:15 EDT news711294541