Engineering

The performance of a device that can desalinate water using waste heat from solar cells, first developed by KAUST scientists in 2019, can be boosted by small changes in membrane design. Credit: KAUST Small changes in membrane design can have a large impact on the performance of a new technology...

A close-up of the NeckFace wearable sensing technology hardware, which includes an infrared camera, a near-infrared LED and an IR narrow band-pass filter. Credit: Sci-Fi Lab/Provided Human facial movements convey emotions, and help us communicate nonverbally and perform physical activities, such as eating and drinking. Tracking facial movements—and possibly their...

Credit: Cheng et al. In recent years, numerous roboticists worldwide have been trying to develop robotic systems that can artificially replicate the human sense of touch. In addition, they have been trying to create increasingly realistic and advanced bionic limbs and humanoid robots, using soft materials instead of rigid structures....

View of the corner of the test room with radiator. Credit: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Climate change is causing a persistent increase in the number of hot summer days. Offices and homes are getting hotter, and the nights bring little respite from the heat. Against this backdrop, a significant increase in new cooling...

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, voice and speech therapists halted in-person treatment evaluations, moving them to a virtual format. But until now, the accuracy of those evaluation procedures done online has never been examined. Credit: Charles Deluvio As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, people across the world...

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Researchers from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a monitoring system to ensure communication and operation safety in railway sections by sending early warnings using fiber detection technology. Rail transportation plays an increasingly important role in the...

Mirthe working on Optic. Since its invention in the 1980s, the tapping method has been used to guide visually impaired swimmers in the pool. This involves a coach or specially trained person warning a swimmer when they are close to the edge of the pool or when they need to...

Ashirase vibration device attached to shoes and Ashirase smartphone app screen. Credit: Honda Honda has announced on its News Room website the establishment of a startup called Ashirase, Inc.— the first new business venture to originate from the company's IGNITION program. Ashirase will produce an in-shoe navigation system to help people...

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Recently, using random forest regression models, scientists estimated an urban floor (building) area map with high accuracy for mainland China. This map, produced by Prof. Liu Miao and Associate Prof. Li Chunlin from the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in...

SERVITA. In 2017, while on holiday with his family in Cornwall, Loughborough University student Dominic Leatherland witnessed a teenager become detached from their bodyboard and pulled out to sea due to rough conditions. He watched as two off-duty lifeguards battled the waves to reach the struggling casualty, but the height...

Most metallic glass alloys form a hard, smooth surface. This gives metallic glass gears a long lifetime without the need for liquid lubricants, making them appealing for NASA robotics that operate in cold environments, where lubricants need to be warmed before operations. Credit: NASA Where are the robot assistants we...

Some of the worst damage from the EF-2 tornado that struck the Ontario city of Barrie on July 15. Credit: Northern Tornadoes Project, Author provided Many people think of a well-built house as one where the walls are strong enough to hold up the roof so it won't fall on...

Credit: Nuttawut Uttamaharad/Shutterstock The UK is planning to install 40 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030—enough to provide electricity to every home in the country. This would require 5,000 wind turbines—double the number installed offshore worldwide at the end of 2020. Current projections indicate 234 gigawatts of offshore wind...

The images show the device bending and snapping to dissipate energy. Credit: University at Buffalo University at Buffalo engineers are reporting a new energy dissipation device that they say could have far-reaching applications in transportation safety. Described in the International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, the device utilizes low-cost metallic materials...

During the opening speech of Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands (pictured centre, in orange). Credit: MX3D / Jande Groen The world's first 3D printed steel bridge has been installed and unveiled in Amsterdam—with the potential to revolutionize how urban infrastructure is designed, built and maintained. Project lead Professor...

Fig. 1. Adaptive thermal comfort thresholds, for sensitive and fragile people (Cat.I) persons with normal expectations (Cat.II) and persons with moderate expectations (Cat.III). The summer of 2018 saw temperatures far above the long-term average in the Northern Hemisphere. It was England's hottest ever summer, with four heat waves resulting in...

Credit: Montri Nipitvittaya/Shutterstock Sending a rocket into space typically requires about 90% of the rocket's initial weight to be fuel. This limitation could be overcome by wirelessly transmitting the needed power to the rocket through a beam of microwave radiation. A research team from Japan has investigated the viability of...

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Europe has found that swarms of tiny dumb vibrating robots are capable of carrying out sophisticated actions such as transporting objects or squeezing through tunnels. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes experiments they conducted with...

Credit: Shutterstock Solar power is already the cheapest form of electricity generation, and its cost will continue to fall as more improvements emerge in the technology and its global production. Now, new research is exploring what could be another major turning point in solar cell manufacturing. In Australia, more than...

Credit: Nanyang Technological University As cities worldwide expand their networks of cycling paths and more cyclists take to the streets, the chances of cycling accidents and potential collisions increase as well, underscoring the need for proper cycling safety in dense urban areas. According to a World Health Organisation report in...