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ICT

Robot co-workers could help out with repetitive jobs and heavy lifting by reacting to human actions. Image credit - Italian Institute of Technology

ict | industry

18 August 2017

Digital symbiosis lets robot co-workers predict human behaviour

Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk fear that the robotic revolution may already be underway, but automation isn’t going to take over just yet – first machines will work alongside us.

Users will be able to communicate easily with technology that translates any language instantly. Image credit - Pixabay/ terimakasih0

17 August 2017

Star Trek-style communicator hopes to break down cultural barriers

In Star Trek, the technology to instantly translate any language was first developed in the late 22nd century, but today researchers are already working on ways to take universal communication even further.

Blockchain technology is helping keep appliances in smart homes safe from hackers. Image credit - 'Blockchain' by deavmi is licenced under CC SA-4.0

16 August 2017

Blockchain making houses safer

Blockchain technology developed to guarantee the value of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is now being adopted by engineers as a way to fight off the risk of a hacker breaking into the connected appliances of today’s smart homes.

Plasmon particles can be used to reflect light and its colours can be altered on demand. Image credit - Professor Laura Na Liu

ict | frontier research

10 August 2017

Fireworks on a pinhead as electrons enable colours in 100 000 pixels per inch

The image is on a canvas as wide as a human hair, its colours never fade, and they can be edited and erased on demand.

Hackathons are events where people collaborate to develop new software. Image credit – Flickr/ Sebastiaaan ter Burg

ict | security | open innovation

25 July 2017

Police turn to hackathons as crime fighting goes digital

Police and law enforcement staff are turning to hackathons – collaborative events for developing technology – to come up with new ways of searching for clues within the terabytes of data that many people produce every year.

Police forces are testing hidden cameras to catch crimes in rural areas. Image credit – Jonathan Hutchins and licensed for reuse under CC BY-SA 2.0

ict | security

18 July 2017

Cameras with inbuilt detective skills to catch rural criminals

Smart cameras hidden in the countryside could soon help police fight back against rural crime and finally bring down secret smuggling routes.

Researchers are looking for ways to connect drones together in swarms to capture sports events. Image credit — Flickr/ Ville Hyvönen

ict | open innovation

11 July 2017

Swarms of smart drones to revolutionise how we watch sports

Drone innovators are transforming the way we watch events, from football matches and boat races to music festivals.

Extra layers of security, such as identifying users based on the way they swipe screens, could prevent strangers from getting into smartphones. Image credit — Pixabay/ smailox

10 July 2017

Your phone to ID you by the way you swipe

Fingerprint scanners are all the rage, yet new research shows that this is just the beginning of biometric identification.

A new robot under development can send information on the stiffness, look and feel of a patient to a doctor located kilometres away. Image credit: Accrea

health | ict

27 June 2017

A robotic doctor is gearing up for action

A robotic doctor that can be controlled hundreds of kilometres away by a human counterpart is gearing up for action.

Humanoid robots under development can be programmed to detect changes in an elderly person’s preferences and habits. Image credit: GrowMeUp

health | ict

20 June 2017

Robots offer the elderly a helping hand

Everybody needs a helping hand when they get older – but in years to come that helping hand may be attached to a robotic arm.

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