News by Subject Technology & Engineering

SUTD develops novel approach that enables fabrication of complex and customized soft robot components, reducing time, effort and errors.

Researchers have developed a new state-of-the-art method for controlling how artificial intelligence (AI) systems create images. The work has applications for fields from autonomous robotics to AI training.

In the modern day, our interactions with voice-based devices and services continue to increase. In this light, researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology and RIKEN, Japan, have performed a meta-synthesis to understand how we perceive and interact with the voice (and the body) of various machines. Their findings have generated insights into human preferences, and can be used by engineers and designers to develop future vocal technologies.

YouTube is a treasure trove of virtual reality fails: users tripping, colliding into walls and smacking inanimate and animate objects. By investigating these "VR Fails" on YouTube, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have sought to learn more about when and why things go sideways for users and how to improve VR design and experiences so as to avoid accidents.

A major challenge for fully autonomous vehicles is navigating bad weather. Snow especially confounds crucial sensor data that helps a vehicle gauge depth, find obstacles and keep on the correct side of the yellow line, assuming it is visible. Averaging more than 200 inches of snow every winter, Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula is the perfect place to push autonomous vehicle tech to its limits.

A new class of membranes promises highly interesting applications in material separation, whether in biotechnology or water purification. The theoretical understanding of these polymer membranes is, however, still incomplete. Two researchers from Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon and the University of Göttingen now present a study, published in the renowned science journal Chemical Reviews, that identifies these gaps in knowledge and shows promising approaches toward solving them.