Thermoelectric materials, which can directly convert thermal energy into electrical energy (Seebeck effect), can be effectively used for the development of a clean and environmentally compatible power-generation technology. However, these materials are not commonly used for practical applications as they mostly include toxic and/or expensive elements.

Rechargeable all-solid-state lithium batteries are expected to be one of the next-gen energy storage devices because of their high energy density, safety, and excellent cycle stability. The materials used for the solid electrolyte must not only have a high lithium-ion conductivity above 1 mS/cm at room temperature, but also possess chemical stability. Oxide-based solid electrolyte materials have several advantages over sulfide-based ones, such as...

Vision-based face detection and recognition is one of the most rapidly growing research areas in computer vision and robotics and is widely used in several human related applications. However, vision-based face detection and recognition has been shown to be effective only under normal illumination conditions. In developing an algorithm for face detection and recognition, it is crucial to consider both normal and severe illumination conditions.

Calcium ion batteries (CIBs) have attracted much attention as next-generation batteries to replace lithium ion batteries (LIBs) because the theoretical capacity of CIBs is twice that of LIBs. This doubled capacity can be explained by the difference between monovalent and divalent ions. In addition, CIBs possess advantages such as a lower cost and higher safety because calcium is more abundant than lithium and because CIBs have a higher melting po...

A research team in the EIIRIS at Toyohashi University of Technology has developed 3D microneedle-based nanoscale-tipped electrodes (NTEs) that are longer than 100 µm. The needle length exceeds that of the conventional nanowire/nanotube-based intracellular devices, thus expanding the range of applications of nanodevices in intracellular recording, such as deep tissue penetration.

Professor Kazuaki Sawada and Dr. Takigawa of the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology and colleagues at Toyohashi University of Technology have established an easy to use, low-cost, rapid, and high sensitivity semiconductor-imaging based medical diagnostic biosensing system for analyzing blood and urine for early diagnosis of ailments including diabetes and Alzheimer’s diseas