Robots can already cook for us. But what about helping us eat? Engineers at the University of Washington have developed a robot that can feed people who struggle to feed themselves. Powered by an artificial intelligence algorithm, the system detects pieces of food on a plate, stabs them with a fork, and transports the morsels to a person’s mouth. The […]

A German research team has prototyped an extraordinary heating/cooling system that stresses and unloads nickel-titanium “muscle wires” to create heated and cooled air at twice the efficiency of a heat pump or three times the efficiency of an air conditioner. Crucially, the device also uses no refrigerant gases, meaning it’s a much more environmentally friendly way to heat or cool […]

In our increasingly noisy world, it can be hard to find some quiet time. Now, a team of mechanical engineers at Boston University has developed a new device that is specially designed to block up to 94 percent of incoming sound waves, while still letting air pass through. Current technology can be pretty effective at blocking sound. The walls of […]

Wireless charging is increasingly common in phones and other devices, but it’s still held back by a very short range – usually the device needs to sit on top of a charging pad, which cancels out some of the benefits of going wireless. In a new step towards truly wireless charging, engineers have developed an ultra-thin device that captures Wi-Fi […]

If you live in one of those enigmatic places with pure spring water or public bubblers of mountain water, then you’ve probably never had to worry about filtering water as a person who is zero-waste. But for those of us who don’t have the luxury of simply sipping our tap water (or want to take extra precautions to make sure […]

How much more fun could drones be if you got fiddly hand controllers out of the way and flew them with your mind? That’s the question EEGSmart poses with its UDrone mini-quad, which responds to brainwaves and head movements instead of thumbsticks. It’s not perfect, but it does give a glimpse of a mind-controlled future. The Udrone itself is fairly […]

Traditionally, welding has been limited to materials that share similar properties, so it’s tough to make even aluminum and steel join forces. But now, scientists from Heriot-Watt University are claiming a breakthrough method that can weld together materials as different as glass and metal, thanks to ultrafast laser pulses. Currently metals can be welded to metals and glass to glass, […]

While some businesses or research facilities have a constant need for a cleanroom, there are others that only require one once in a while – or perhaps they sometimes need to set one up in the field. It was with such scenarios in mind that the CAPE portable cleanroom was created.’ Developed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and […]

Companies around the world are quickly discovering that the cloud is allowing them to serve their customers better than ever before — and saving them big money in the process. While there are countless mega-corporations leading the charge, smaller players are also finding their niche by “targeting enterprise companies seeking reliable places to host high-end software tools and startups looking […]

Nottingham University researchers have received £902,524 funding from the Medical Research Council to develop the smart wound dressing that uses the sensors to assess whether affected tissue is healing well or is infected. The dressing could have a significant impact on patient care and healthcare costs for wound management, which stand at £4.5-£5.1bn a year, which is over four per […]