New algorithms developed by Google and MIT engineers make it possible for smartphones to process and retouch photos in real-time, before you’ve even hit the shutter button – so they can fix your shoddy photography before it happens. Machine learning networks were set to work on a database of 5,000 sample images improved by five

As mobile phone users, all we want is enough battery life to last the day. Frustratingly, the older the device, the less power it seems to have. In fact, the amount of battery life our mobiles have on any given day depends on two key factors: how we use them on that particular day, and

As the Tesla Model 3 launch was imminent, Jack Stewart of Wired wrote, “The arrival of Tesla’s Model 3 signals a new chapter in automotive history, one that erases 100-plus years of the gas engine and replaces it with technology, design, and performance hot enough to make electric vehicles more than aspirational – to make

Robovacs like the Roomba may be awesomely convenient helpers around the home, but buying a robot to clean up after you could come at a hidden cost. Unguarded comments from the leader of iRobot – the maker of the Roomba – have lit a firestorm of controversy over this previously most uncontroversial of tech, after

Flying warehouses, robot receptionists, smart toilets… do such innovations sound like science fiction or part of a possible reality? Technology has been evolving at such a rapid pace that, in the near future, our world may well resemble that portrayed in futuristic movies, such as Blade Runner, with intelligent robots and technologies all around us.

Scientists have created an ultrathin energy harvesting device that generates electricity from human motion. The material could be placed in the fabric of clothing to charge your smartphone, fitness tracker and other personal electronics while you go about your daily life. “In the future, I expect that we will all become charging depots for our personal

Researchers have started developing artificial intelligence with imagination – AI that can reason through decisions and make plans for the future, without being bound by human instructions. Another way to put it would be imagining the consequences of actions before taking them, something we take for granted but which is much harder for robots to

When a battery runs low it usually needs to be manually recharged, but new approaches are being developed to help this energy source last indefinitely. Self-sustaining batteries are needed for activities that use sensors. These include long-term tracking of wildlife like flying foxes, multi-year biodiversity assessments in Australian rainforests and the Amazon, and studying the

How far away is a robot that could help you around the house with domestic tasks such as putting away the groceries, cleaning up messes and answering simple questions? Although self-driving cars are already here and now, roads are a lot more consistent to navigate than the average – and wildly variable – family home.

We’re always hearing how robots are going to take our jobs, but there might be a way of preventing that grim future from happening: by becoming workplace cyborgs first. A company in Wisconsin has become the first in the US to roll out microchip implants for all its employees, and says it’s expecting over 50

Finding time to stop, plug in and recharge could become history, with scientists developing a new electrode design that could charge batteries in seconds instead of hours. They say it could solve not only the pain of recharging phones, but also solve one of the primary issues holding back the electric vehicle market.   Previous

Elon Musk has announced via Twitter that he received verbal approval for this plan to build an underground Hyperloop between New York and Washington – which would also stop at Philadelphia and Baltimore. As a result, one could get from New York to D.C. in just 29 minutes.   It’s worth noting that the approval

Mister Fantastic might not be the hottest superhero in the extensive Marvel Universe roster right now. But there’s no denying the Fantastic Four leader’s power to stretch and contort his plasticky limbs into any nook or cranny has helped save the day (and the world) many times over. While Reed Richards is alas only fictional,

As a guest speaker at the 2017 National Governors Association Summer Meeting, entrepreneur and innovator Elon Musk covered a number of topics, including artificial intelligence (AI). During his talk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO and founder urged the US governors present on Saturday to set up regulations for the development of AI.   Musk is very familiar

Behold the FlatScope, an innovative implant scientists hope could one day beam sensory information straight to your brain – skipping the need to repair eyes or ears to restore vision or hearing. Not only that, the team behind the FlatScope says it has the potential to capture brain activity in much more detail than currently

As an artificial intelligence researcher, I often come across the idea that many people are afraid of what AI might bring. It’s perhaps unsurprising, given both history and the entertainment industry, that we might be afraid of a cybernetic takeover that forces us to live locked away, “Matrix”-like, as some sort of human battery.  

It may sound like something out of a sci-fi novel, but researchers have found a way to power micromotors with the help of swimming bacteria. For the first time, the team were able to make the tiny propeller-like structures spin in the same direction by adjusting the light conditions. The new micromotors can be produced

Things are about to speed up dramatically in genetic research, with scientists developing a new technique that can clone thousands of genes in a single reaction. The new technology, called a LASSO probe, could be used to create libraries of proteins from DNA samples, speeding up the search for new drugs by replacing the tedious

An instrument that emits notes according to a person’s brain signals is the latest example of mind-controlled technology helping those who have limited movement to engage with the world. The device neurologists dubbed the Encephalophone won’t be popping out Top 40 hits any time soon, but it could still eventually help those who have had

Climbing up and down flights of stairs is about to get a whole lot easier for people suffering from joint pain. Researchers have built energy-recycling steps that store energy as you walk down while giving you a boost when you walk up. The smart stairs lower the impact on knees and ankles thanks to built-in

The development of a new kind of ceramic capable of resisting insanely high temperatures would eliminate a major obstacle blocking the path to hypersonic air travel. There are plenty of potential uses for a material that can deal with temperatures of 3,000° Celsius (about 5,400° Fahrenheit), especially on military and space technology, but anything that

IBM researchers have announced a brand new way of manufacturing computer chips, one that will see 30 million transistors packed into a space the size of a fingernail, and give a serious boost to the processing power we need. Key to the innovation is halving the size of the transistor gates on current chips from

According to a survey of artificial intelligence experts, AI will probably be good enough to take on pretty much most of our jobs within half a century. While there’s plenty of room for debate on the details, the predicted applications of AI could serve as an alarm bell for us to consider how our economy

Artificial intelligence technology is accelerating forward at a blistering pace, and a trio of scientists are calling for more accountability and transparency in AI, before it’s too late. In their paper, the UK-based researchers say existing rules and regulations don’t go far enough in limiting what AI can do – and recommend that robots be

This year’s winning team in SpaceX’s Hyperloop competition comes from the Netherlands, and a Dutch tech startup has already built an initial testing site for the project. The goal is to have a Hyperloop system between Amsterdam and Paris by 2021. It looks like the Netherlands would soon join Slovakia, and the Czech Republic as

Headed on a trip? You may soon be able to ditch your boarding pass in favour of your fingers or face. On Wednesday, Delta announced a new biometric identification pilot program that will eventually let you use your fingerprints instead of a plane ticket. That followed a JetBlue announcement hours earlier that it is testing a

The initial construction of the massive airplane Paul Allen has been quietly building in the California desert is complete, and the vehicle, which would be the world’s largest airplane with a wingspan wider than Howard Hughes’s Spruce Goose, was wheeled out of its hangar for the first time on Wednesday. Called Stratolaunch, the plane has

Words like worm, trojan horse, and zombie may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but they’re part of the reality of life online. Now that we communicate, work and entertain ourselves on the internet, these familiar terms start to take on new meaning. They’re just a few of the cybersecurity threats we face.  

Researchers in Russia say they’ve developed and tested the world’s first blockchain that won’t be vulnerable to encryption-breaking attacks from future quantum computers. If the claims are verified, the technique could be a means of protecting the vast amounts of wealth invested in fast-growing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum – which are safe from today’s

First developed almost three decades ago, the MP3 format made large digital audio files relatively small and easy to pass across an internet that was largely accessed via a very slow (by today’s standards) phone dial-up connection. Now the companies behind the file compression format, Technicolor and Fraunhofer IIS, have decided to end their support

Still waiting patiently for quantum computing to bring about the next revolution in digital processing power? We might now be a little closer, with a discovery that could help us build quantum computers at mass scale. Scientists have refined a technique using diamond defects to store information, adding silicon to make the readouts more accurate

Scared of a future where you can no longer discern if you’re dealing with a human or a computer? A team of Australian researchers have come up with what they call the Anti-AI AI. The wearable prototype device is designed to identify synthetic speech and alert the user that the voice they’re listening doesn’t belong to

Knowledge is power, the old saying goes, but it isn’t much use if it’s hidden away – so we’re excited to learn that the US Library of Congress is making 25 million of its records available for free, for anyone to access online. The bibliographic data sets, like digital library cards, cover music, books, maps,

While the world marvels at the seemingly unstoppable growth of digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin, its closest rival, Ethereum, has enjoyed an even more unbelievable rise in 2017. Spurred on in part by investors’ unshakeable belief in Bitcoin, Ethereum – which currently ranks as the world’s second largest cryptocurrency in terms of market value – has actually

The rise of Bitcoin has become undeniable: while it was once notoriously relegated to the darkest corners of the web, its ascension to become one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrencies has been rapid. It’s become even more difficult to deny in the last few months. In 2016, Bitcoin surged past the value of all bank-issued currency. It’s

If we used DNA like we use magnetic tape to store data today, it’s theoretically possible to store all of the information humans have ever recorded in a space roughly the size of a double garage. Sharing their goals with MIT Technology Review this week, Microsoft Research computer architects say they want to start storing their data

We are closer than ever to producing holograms that’ll make your inner Star Wars nerd hyperventilate into a brown paper bag. In the latest iteration of holographic technology, scientists have developed the world’s thinnest holographic material. At 1,000 times thinner than a human hair, it’s tiny enough to be incorporated into everyday devices, such as

By the end of this week, it’s a good bet that the world’s best player of the ancient Chinese board game Go will no longer be a human being. The Chinese Go champion, 19-year-old Ke Jie – ranked number one in the world – was just narrowly beaten by Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo in the first of a

Wi-Fi can pass through walls. This fact is easy to take for granted, yet it’s the reason we can surf the web using a wireless router located in another room. However, not all of that microwave radiation makes it to or from our phones, tablets, and laptops. Routers scatter and bounce their signal off objects, illuminating

As well as beating us at board games, driving cars, and spotting cancer, artificial intelligence is now generating brand new sounds that have never been heard before, thanks to some advanced maths combined with samples from real instruments. Before long, you might hear some of these fresh sounds pumping out of your radio, as the

Engineers have created a nano-sized optical fibre that can sense impossibly small forces, from the turbulence generated by swimming bacteria to the sound waves made by the beating of heart cells. Sensing in biological systems could even allow us to monitor individual cells and alert us to the subtle process of a normal cell turning

Google has announced another big push into artificial intelligence, unveiling a new approach to machine learning where neural networks are used to build better neural networks – essentially teaching AI to teach itself. These artificial neural networks are designed to mimic the way the brain learns, and Google says its new technology, called AutoML, can

After a little more than a year of research and more than 20 attempts to get the right materials, an Air Force Academy cadet and professor have developed a kind of goo that can be used to enhance existing types of body armour. As part of a chemistry class project in 2014, Cadet 1st Class

Scientists just found a new way to split water into hydrogen and oxygen that’s cheap and effective – and it could mean we’re able to produce an abundance of clean hydrogen fuel in the future. Hydrogen is a fantastic source for clean energy, but the challenge is making enough of it to be efficient and

In classical computing, information is stored in bits that are read by physical phenomena such as electricity. You might recognise them as 1s and 0s, also called binary code. In quantum computing, it’s stored in quantum bits, or ‘qubits’. However, computers aren’t the only way we can store information: chemistry is also capable.    Scientists at the

Symbolically at least, the MP3 is now officially dead, after the German research institution that helped to develop the famous (and equally infamous) standard announced that all licensing for the file format had been terminated. While any MP3s in your possession will still play fine on any devices that support the audio format – no

An unprecedented ransomware attack spread across the globe on Friday and into the weekend, amounting to what may be the largest online extortion scam the internet has ever seen. So far, the ‘WannaCry’ ransomware worm has infected an estimated 230,000 computers in 150 countries, causing chaos and shutting down hospital systems, transport networks, manufacturing plants,

Confidential details of a top-secret encryption-breaking supercomputer were left completely exposed on an unsecured computer server belonging to New York University (NYU), according to a new report. While it’s not uncommon for even critical-level infrastructure to suffer potentially catastrophic security breaches, what makes this event different is that there was seemingly no foul-play or attempts