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Helsinki-headquartered Basemark has raised €22mn to bring its augmented reality (AR) “toolkit” to automakers across the globe. Basemark’s software, dubbed Rocksolid AR, is an AI-based computer vision system that enables carmakers to develop their own AR applications for Heads-up Displays (HUDs). Car companies are embracing AR HUDs as a means of relaying important information to the driver....
If, as a software developer, you want to know what the most popular or best-paid programming languages are in the industry right now, there’s always a constant stream of surveys and reports to let you know. And career advice for developers will typically recommend that constant learning on the job is essential. But if AI can produce code from a few plain-speaking prompts, has learning programming...
US pressure to block ASML from servicing the chip-making machines it has sold to China is increasing the Netherlands’ entanglement into an escalating geopolitical race for tech supremacy. Implementing a clear technological and economic decoupling strategy from China, the Biden Administration has introduced a series of thorough export rules aiming to restrict Beijing from obtaining key chip...
Spotify is further tapping AI to boost its services with a new feature that enables users to create playlists using text prompts. Dubbed AI Playlist, the feature is currently in beta and available on Android and iOS devices for premium subscribers in Australia and the UK. Interestingly, the new tool goes beyond standard playlist creation requests based on genre or artists. Instead, prompts can...
A UK startup has claimed a major breakthrough in its plans to beam solar energy from space to Earth. At a lab in Belfast, Oxford-based Space Solar managed to light up an LED sign by wirelessly beaming energy through the air, from all angles. This marks the world’s first 360-degree wireless power transmission, said the startup. “This steerable power beaming capability is the heart of our solar...
The World Literacy Foundation and Dutch marketing firm Media.Monks have teamed up to create a pen designed to help millions of people around the world grappling with illiteracy. The device, dubbed Literacy Pen, is compatible with any standard pen or pencil. Users slip the device onto the pen and then speak their desired words into the built-in microphone. Voice dictation technology then...
The unimaginably complex task of creating, containing, and commercialising fusion energy is undoubtedly one of the greatest scientific endeavours of our time. Since the 1950s, hoards of the world’s top scientists and engineers have toiled away trying to turn the process that powers the Sun into a clean, safe, and virtually limitless energy source for humanity. Despite huge progress, fusion...
When researchers revealed the results of a study on the prevalence of microplastics in human placentas earlier this year, the findings were profoundly disturbing. Researchers analysed 62 placental tissue samples — and found microplastics in all of them. In the words of the lead author of the study, “If we are seeing effects on placentas, then all mammalian life on this planet could be impacted...
Technology is often accused of causing loneliness. The US Surgeon General recently warned that tech can deepen isolation, increase fear of missing out, and reduce social interaction. Surveys frequently show that isolation among young people surges when their social media use grows. But what could possibly solve these problems caused by tech? Why, more tech of course! It’s a common response from (...
Last month, Finnish startup Polar Night Energy announced that it is building a giant sand battery capable of heating a town of 5,000 people for up to a month. That’s on a single charge. Polar Night is constructing the sand battery for the town of Pornainen in southern Finland. The system is expected to enable the town cut all oil use in its district heating network — slashing greenhouse gas...