https://techxplore.com/hi-tech-news/ en-us The latest news on hi-tech, innovation and new inventions technology, computer news and information Scientists at the Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), have developed a super flexible, composite semiconductor material that may have applications in next-generation flexible or curved displays, foldable phones and wearable electronics. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-super-flexible-composite-semiconductors-next-gen.html Electronics & Semiconductors Thu, 13 Jul 2023 08:58:27 EDT news608457503 Green screen technology has been around nearly a century. Some 45 million moviegoers were mesmerized by the special effects of "The Wizard of Oz" when it hit theaters in 1939. The magical scenes in Emerald City were the first to film actors in front of a green screen that later would be replaced with footage of fantastical scenes recorded at a different time and place. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-netflix-magenta-approach-green-screen.html Computer Sciences Mon, 10 Jul 2023 12:30:01 EDT news608210848 A Stanford team has developed Sophia, a new way to optimize the pretraining of large language models that's twice as fast as current approaches. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-team-faster-cheaper-large-language.html Hi Tech & Innovation Mon, 03 Jul 2023 11:57:42 EDT news607604257 Flexible displays that can change color, convey information and even send veiled messages via infrared radiation are now possible, thanks to new research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Engineers inspired by the morphing skins of animals like chameleons and octopuses have developed capillary-controlled robotic flapping fins to create switchable optical and infrared light multipixel displays that are 1,000 times more energy efficient than light-emitting devices. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-displays-flexible-fins-liquid-droplets.html Engineering Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:00:01 EDT news607335001 Imagine strapping on a virtual reality headset and "walking" through a long-gone neighborhood in your city—seeing the streets and buildings as they appeared decades ago. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-3d-digital-lost-neighborhoods.html Hi Tech & Innovation Wed, 28 Jun 2023 14:00:03 EDT news607166220 Vision depends on light entering the eyes through the transparent tissues of the cornea, pupil and lens. When the light reaches the retina, photoreceptors produce signals and transmit them via the optical nerve to the brain, where an image is formed. Some of that light entering the eye is reflected back into the world by a highly reflective thin film of fluid covering the cornea. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-three-dimensional-images-eye-nerf.html Hi Tech & Innovation Tue, 27 Jun 2023 11:00:05 EDT news607081507 Engineers have been trying to devise increasingly efficient and low-cost methods to fabricate electronic components and devices on a large-scale. Recently, some studies explored the possibilities of creating electronics using solution processing techniques, which involve the deposition of materials with electrical properties from a solution onto a surface. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-wafer-scale-transistor-arrays-slot-die.html Electronics & Semiconductors Tue, 27 Jun 2023 09:30:02 EDT news606990229 Every day, tens of thousands of songs are released. This constant stream of options makes it difficult for streaming services and radio stations to choose which songs to add to playlists. To find the ones that will resonate with a large audience, these services have used human listeners and artificial intelligence. This approach, however, lingering at a 50% accuracy rate, does not reliably predict if songs will become hits. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-machine-songs-accuracy.html Hi Tech & Innovation Tue, 20 Jun 2023 00:00:01 EDT news606383626 Superfast, subatomic-sized particles called muons have been used to wirelessly navigate underground for the first time. By using muon-detecting ground stations synchronized with an underground muon-detecting receiver, researchers at the University of Tokyo were able to calculate the receiver's position in the basement of a six-story building. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-underground-cosmic-ray-muons.html Telecom Thu, 15 Jun 2023 11:00:01 EDT news606041385 The performance and realism of virtual reality (VR) technology has significantly improved over the past decade, allowing users to immerse themselves in digital content in ways that were previously inaccessible. The technology will most likely continue to evolve over the next few years, introducing additional features and components that further engage the five senses. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-origami-based-haptic-device-virtual-reality.html Electronics & Semiconductors Wed, 14 Jun 2023 10:16:37 EDT news605956590 Researchers at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague have made progress in the field of assistive technology with the development of a novel auditory human–machine interface using black phosphorus–based tactile sensors. Research led by Prof. Martin Pumera and Dr. Jan Vyskočil has the potential to revolutionize communication for visually or speech-disabled individuals by providing an intuitive and efficient means of conveying information. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-black-phosphorusbased-humanmachine-communication-interface.html Engineering Tue, 13 Jun 2023 10:23:37 EDT news605870613 Like the brakes that stop cars, a molecular brake exists that can prevent semiconductor chains from slipping, enabling the creation of more groundbreaking devices. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-limits-stretchable-semiconductors-molecular-harness.html Electronics & Semiconductors Fri, 09 Jun 2023 13:55:49 EDT news605537743 A team of material scientists and electronic engineers at MIT, has developed a way to create magnetic soft robots by combining fiber-based fabrication systems with mechanical and magnetic programming methods to provide locomotion under unidirectional magnetic fields. In their paper published in the journal Advanced Materials, the group describes how they overcame problems faced by others attempting to create magnetically controlled soft robots and outline the design of the robots they created. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-magnetic-soft-robots-fiber-based-unidirectional.html Robotics Fri, 09 Jun 2023 11:17:57 EDT news605528270 Human skin is amazing. It senses temperature, pressure, and texture. It's able to stretch and spring back, time and again. And it provides a barrier between the body and external threats—bacteria, viruses, toxins, ultraviolet radiation and more. Engineers are, accordingly, keen to create synthetic skin. They imagine robots and prosthetic limbs that have skin-like qualities—not the least of which is skin's remarkable ability to heal. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-layers-self-healing-electronic-skin-autonomously.html Engineering Thu, 01 Jun 2023 14:00:03 EDT news604830613 A team of researchers in the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science aims to enable health care and extended reality—which encompasses virtual, augmented and mixed reality—with their smart sensing ring, OmniRing. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-smart-health-reality.html Engineering Thu, 01 Jun 2023 11:06:56 EDT news604836407 Advanced communication technologies, such as the fifth generation (5G) mobile network and the internet of things (IoT) can greatly benefit from devices that can support wireless communications while consuming a minimum amount of power. As most existing devices have separate components to perform computations and transmit data, reducing their energy consumption can be challenging. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-approach-parallel-in-memory-wireless.html Electronics & Semiconductors Thu, 01 Jun 2023 09:30:03 EDT news604662691 Scientists have developed an advanced technique for 3D printing that is set to revolutionize the manufacturing industry. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-3d-material-invisible-technique.html Engineering Tue, 30 May 2023 13:23:24 EDT news604671799 The qualities that make a knitted sweater comfortable and easy to wear are the same things that might allow robots to better interact with humans. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-sweater-wrapped-robots-react-human.html Robotics Thu, 25 May 2023 13:00:03 EDT news604226597 "Alexa, play back that dream I had about Kirsten last week." That's a command that may not be too far off in the future, as researchers close in on technology that can tap into our minds and retrieve the imagery of our thoughts. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-ai-tool-generates-video-brain.html Hi Tech & Innovation Thu, 25 May 2023 10:03:34 EDT news604227809 A team of engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has recently shown that nearly any material can be turned into a device that continuously harvests electricity from humidity in the air. The secret lies in being able to pepper the material with nanopores less than 100 nanometers in diameter. The research appeared in the journal Advanced Materials. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-harvest-abundant-energy-thin-air.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 24 May 2023 09:57:22 EDT news604141032 Researchers at Stanford University have developed digital skin that can convert sensations such as heat and pressure to electrical signals that can be read by electrodes implanted in the human brain. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-soft-e-skin-communicates-brain.html Robotics Fri, 19 May 2023 12:29:42 EDT news603718174 In recent years, material scientists have been creating new materials with a variety of advantageous properties that could enhance the performance of different technologies and devices. This includes hydrogel-based fibers and artificial skins, which could help to create soft humanoid robots, prosthetics, and even comfortable smart clothes or wearable devices. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-self-healable-crack-resistant-hydrogel-microfibers-spider.html Engineering Fri, 19 May 2023 09:30:01 EDT news603621751 Extreme environments in several critical industries—aerospace, energy, transportation and defense—require sensors to measure and monitor numerous factors under harsh conditions to ensure human safety and integrity of mechanical systems. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-sensors-high-temperatures-extreme-environments.html Engineering Thu, 18 May 2023 17:07:53 EDT news603648469 In recent years, material scientists have been trying to develop soft and flexible fibers that could be used to create new electronics. These fibers could, for example, be used to create smart sensing clothes, energy solutions, and wearable biometric devices. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-technique-soft-functional-fibers-smart.html Electronics & Semiconductors Thu, 18 May 2023 09:42:20 EDT news603621738 Soft robotics have several key advantages over rigid counterparts, including their inherent safety features—soft materials with motions powered by inflating and deflating air chambers can safely be used in fragile environments or in proximity with humans—as well as their flexibility that enables them to fit into tight spaces. Textiles have become a choice material for constructing many types of soft robots, especially wearables, but the traditional "cut and sew" methods of manufacturing have left much to be desired. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-additively-soft-robots.html Robotics Wed, 17 May 2023 09:20:41 EDT news603534035 Do you hate the camera bumps on the back of your smartphone? A new optical component called metalens—which was named one of the top 10 future technologies by the World Economic Forum in 2019—may be the answer. Composed of a nanostructured array, this incredibly thin and lightweight optical device is currently the focus of much attention in the scientific community, even featured in a special issue of Nature Photonics. However, the production of metalenses requires highly precise techniques and can be expensive, posing a challenge for their scalable manufacturing. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-world-mass-production-metalenses-visible.html Engineering Tue, 09 May 2023 09:58:07 EDT news602845084 It's time to roll up your sleeves for the next advance in wearable technology—a fabric armband that's actually a touch pad. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-touch-responsive-fabric-armband-flexible-keyboards.html Electronics & Semiconductors Tue, 02 May 2023 16:37:21 EDT news602264219 Couches, tables, sleeves and more can turn into a high-fidelity input device for computers using a new sensing system developed at the University of Michigan. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-sensor-enables-high-fidelity-everyday-human.html Engineering Mon, 01 May 2023 16:26:10 EDT news602177158 Through their fingertips, humans can touch and grip onto things in their surrounding environment, but they can also sense the tactile properties of objects and detect other atmospheric changes. Fingertips are incredibly sensitive parts of our skin, with unique fingerprint patterns embossed on them. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-04-ionic-skin-robots-tactile-sensation.html Robotics Fri, 28 Apr 2023 06:00:02 EDT news601811587 Emerging AI applications, like chatbots that generate natural human language, demand denser, more powerful computer chips. But semiconductor chips are traditionally made with bulk materials, which are boxy 3D structures, so stacking multiple layers of transistors to create denser integrations is very difficult. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-04-atomically-thin-transistors-chips.html Electronics & Semiconductors Thu, 27 Apr 2023 14:05:58 EDT news601823154