Page 38 - Technology Internet
Vehicle location-tracking devices with panic buttons unveiled
: Vehicle location- tracking devices with panic buttons were launched in Kerala Thursday by Indian Auto Company (IAC). The device comes with a panic button which can be pressed in case of any emergency and a notification would be directly sent to the government authorities who would be able to take immediate action, a press release said. The gadget would be installed also in trucks as well as buses enabling fleet owners to monitor driver behaviour such as speeding above limits, harsh acceleration, braking, cornering, night driving and other important parameters, the release said. This in turn ensures correct driving practice thereby reducing wear and tear of the vehicle, improving fuel efficiency while also helps in overall safety of the driver, the passengers and other road-users, it said. The gadget helps in minimising turnaround time, ensuring route adherence and checking malpractices such as unauthorised use of vehicle and misuse of fuel, the release said. The ...
Microsoft AI programme to upskill Indian developers
Microsoft on Thursday announced a specially-curated online Artificial Intelligence (AI) programme aimed at enabling the developer community and workforce across organizations in the country to harness the power of AI.
Cleartrip enhances 'Multi-city' search
Cleartrip recently upgraded its 'Multi-city' feature to solve for the traveller challenge of booking a complex multi-city itinerary.The leading online travel and leisure aggregator has made several enhancements in the product logic which will now help its users get highly optimized results in terms of flight options and better pricing. This enhancement is particularly useful for business travellers and those planning to visit multiple cities on a single itinerary and makes the planning significantly faster while reducing the cost of the trip.For a multi-city search, many online travel aggregators fetch results for the sectors by accessing a global distribution system, hence limiting the results to only those fights listed there. Cleartrip has invested in adding a large number of airlines on its platform including Low-Cost Airlines, and, Cleartrip users will be provided with a significantly better and more comprehensive search result with a wider set of flight combinations that are ...
OYO launches app for Android users globally
SoftBank-backed OYO Hotels & Homes Thursday said it has launched OYO Lite app, which occupies less space on phone and consumes lesser data for Android users globally. The new app has been designed to work in low-connectivity areas or low networks to enhance user experience, a statement said. With a size of less than 800 KB, the app consumes less space while offering an optimised user interaction time and a seamless experience, it added. "The Lite app...would be ideal for travellers who are remotely connected to the internet as well as those with basic smartphones," OYO Hotels & Homes chief technology officer Anil Goel said. OYO Lite occupies less than seven per cent of the size of the current OYO app. The app is currently live and available to consumers across the globe on Android, the statement said. Over the last few years, various online platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Ola and LinkedIn have introduced lighter versions of their apps which minimise data usage, load ...
Simple device may help protect your online data, privacy
A simple device that functions like exercise and fitness apps may nudge people to change their passwords and better protect their online privacy and data, scientists say. Over the last five years, the cost of cyberattacks is reported to have risen by 67 per cent, with the majority of these data breaches being traced back to human error, said researchers from the University of Bath in the UK. Taking inspiration from exercise and fitness apps that successfully nudge people to make behavioural change, researchers are investigating whether a simple device that plugs in to a PC and signals when action is needed with gentle sound, lights or vibration could make the difference. "Humans are the weak link in cyber security," said Emily Collins, Research Associate at the University of Bath. "We know that people feel overloaded with data breaches reported in the news and overwhelmed about what they should be doing to protect themselves," Collins said. The researchers hope the project will help ..
SpaceX postpones launch of 60 Starlink Internet satellites
SpaceX on Wednesday postponed the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the first 60 Starlink Internet communications satellites due to high winds.
SHARP unveils printer line-up, LCD displays in India
The Indian subsidiary of Japanese company SHARP Corporation on Thursday launched a new line-up of seven mid-to-high-volume Mono Multifunction Printers (MFPs) with multi-layered security features to ensure data privacy.
WhatsApp warns clones to cease bogus operations in India
Companies in India claiming that they can help people send bulk messages on WhatsApp must cease operations, the Facebook-owned messaging app warned on Thursday.
itel launches 'A46' budget smartphone in India
China-based Transsion Holdings' itel Mobile on Thursday launched its "A46" smartphone with HD+ full screen display and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled dual camera setup for Rs 4,999 in India.
50% smartphones to have 3 cameras or more by 2021
As the "megapixel war" among smartphone companies heats up, 50 per cent of the smartphones sold globally will have three or more camera sensors by the end of 2021, a new report by Counterpoint Research has predicted.
Google develops speech-to-speech translation system
Google has announced its first direct speech-to-speech translation system called "Translatotron" that can convert verbal communication from one language to another while maintaining the speaker's voice and tempo.
Samsung brings improvements to Galaxy Fold: Report
Weeks after Samsung postponed the launch of the Galaxy Fold smartphone and recalled review units, the company has reportedly solved both of the main issues that plagued the devices.
Twitter posts could help identify users with depression, anxiety: Study
Twitter users with depression and anxiety tend to post pictures with lower aesthetic values and less vivid colours, particularly images in grayscale, recent findings suggest.As part of a recent study, researchers found that these users tend to suppress positive emotions rather than outwardly display more negative emotions, such as keeping a straight face instead of outright frowning, in their profile pictures.The study sought to utilise computer vision and artificial intelligence to determine what qualities of photos posted to and set as profile images on Twitter could be associated with depression and anxiety, with an eye toward using the platform as a method of screening for both.In 2018, Penn Medicine researchers found that depression could be predicted as many as three months before diagnosis by using artificial intelligence to identify keywords that flagged certain users.As social media is becoming increasingly image-focused--more than half of all tweets, 3,000-plus of them per ..
Novel AI-based system sees like humans do
Scientists have trained an artificial intelligence (AI) system to see things the way humans do, by inferring an environment with just a few quick glimpses around, that may pave the way for more effective search-and-rescue robots. Most AI tools are trained for very specific tasks, such as to recognise an object or estimate its volume in an environment they have experienced before. Scientists at University of Texas at Austin in the US wanted to develop an AI for general purpose, gathering visual information that can then be used for a wide range of tasks. "We want an agent that is generally equipped to enter environments and be ready for new perception tasks as they arise," said Kristen Grauman, a professor at University of Texas. "It behaves in a way that's versatile and able to succeed at different tasks because it has learned useful patterns about the visual world," Grauman said in a statement. The research, published their results today in the journal Science Robotics, used deep ...
Issuing 5G trial spectrum to telcos in DoT's 100-day agenda
India wants to keep her date with the global 5G roll out in 2020.
Apple 5G chip not to debut before 2025
Apple's plans of introducing its own iPhone 5G chip could take as long as six years, the media reported.
'Washable, wearable devices could be woven into clothes'
Cambridge scientists have developed wearable electronic components that can be incorporated directly into fabrics. The devices could be used for flexible circuits, healthcare monitoring, energy conversion, and other applications, according to the study published in the journal Nanoscale. Researchers have shown how graphene -- a two-dimensional form of carbon -- and other related materials can be directly incorporated into fabrics to produce charge storage elements such as capacitors. This paves the way for textile-based power supplies which are washable, flexible and comfortable to wear. The research demonstrates that graphene inks can be used in textiles able to store electrical charge and release it when required. The new textile electronic devices are based on low-cost, sustainable and scalable dyeing of polyester fabric. The inks are produced by standard solution processing techniques. Building on previous work by the same team, the researchers at the University of Cambridge in ...
IIIT-Hyderabad Conducts First Training of Teachers for Student Induction Programme by UGC
/ -- The Human Values Cell at IIIT-Hyderabad is conducting the first-of-its-kind Training of Teachers (ToT) for Student Induction Programme (SIP) from 16th-18th May under aegis of UGC Quality Mandate. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/600789/IIIT_Hyderabad_Logo.jpg) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/888249/IIIT_Hyderabad_ToT_SIP.jpg) Prof. Bhushan Patwardhan, Vice-Chairman, UGC, New Delhi was the chief guest at the inauguration of the programme at IIIT-H campus in Gachibowli. University Grants Commission (UGC)'s Student Induction Programme is a well-planned event to educate new entrants about the environment in a particular institution, and connect them with the people in it. It has been designed to help new students adjust and feel comfortable in their new environment, inculcate the ethos and culture of their institution, help them build bonds with other students and faculty, and expose them to a sense of larger purpose and self-exploration. Around 225 faculty and ...
Amazon Alexa suffered outage in US
Amazon's voice assistant Alexa suffered almost an hour-long outage in the US for reasons that remain undisclosed.
US, UK teams share $10M XPRIZE award for child literacy
A California company founded by game-developer parents who wanted to help their special-needs son is sharing a USD 10 million XPRIZE award with a London-based educational nonprofit for programs created to teach illiterate children how to teach themselves to read. The Berkeley-based Kitkit School and London's onebillion educational nonprofit were declared co-winners of the XPRIZE For Global Learning at a presentation Wednesday night. Nearly 200 teams from 40 countries entered the competition, jumping at the chance to become the latest winner of an XPRIZE, a coveted international award funded by future-looking entrepreneurs, billionaires and philanthropists who have banded together with the goal of making the world a better place through technology. Elon Musk announced the winners at Wednesday's event honoring all five of the finalists. The total XPRIZE For Global Learning, funded by Musk, was worth USD 15 million, with each finalist getting USD 1 million just for making the final ...
