Category: Tech

Simar Khurana, at 6 years and 335 days of age, has become the world’s youngest video game developer by creating an entertaining and educational game specifically designed for children. The young girl from Beamsville, Ontario, Canada has been featured in the Guinness World Records (GWR) for accomplishing the feat.

Simar started learning coding less than a year ago, taking three classes a week. She learnt math on her own by watching YouTube videos, and was able to do Grade 3 maths in kindergarten. She could also make crafts and games with whatever she had. Her father made her learn coding as she had an ideal combination of skills.

After a few months of classes, she decided she wanted to create a video game for children her age. The game, named Healthy Food Challenge, in a unique way, tells children to learn what is considered as healthy and unhealthy food, the impact of junk food on our health, and how important it is to have a balanced diet from a young age.

Simar has also launched her own YouTube channel, Simar’s World, to connect with fellow children and share her ideas for more innovative games.

The Stuttgart, Germany-based developer of hydrogen fuel and sustainable technologies for aviation, H2FLY has successfully completed the world’s first piloted flight of a liquid hydrogen-powered electric aircraft. The company conducted a series of test campaign flights to achieve the feat.

The flights were performed by H2FLY’s HY4 demonstrator aircraft, a piloted plane equipped with a hydrogen-electric fuel cell propulsion system.

Calling the successful flight a watershed moment, the company said it lays the foundation for long-range sustainable flights powered by liquid hydrogen. H2FLY has completed four test flights with the HY4 near Maribor, Slovenia, with one reportedly lasting longer than three hours. Following the test flight campaign, the team found that the usage of liquid hydrogen instead of gaseous hydrogen doubled the maximum range of the HY4 to approximately 932 miles (1,500 km) from approximately 435 miles (700 km). The feat marks a critical step towards emissions-free, medium to long-haul commercial flights, said the company.

The flight test campaign was the culmination of Project HEAVEN, a consortium assembled to demonstrate the feasibility of using liquid cryogenic hydrogen (LH2) to power aircraft. LH2 allows for lower tank weights and volume at a significant level in comparison to pressurised gaseous hydrogen (GH2), leading to an extended range for aircraft and a useful payload.

Google Cloud, in partnership with Google DeepMind and Google Research, has launched a new tool, SynthID to help identify artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images. SynthID puts a special code called a watermark into these images, but it is hidden so well that humans cannot see it. However, computers can detect this watermark, making it easier to spot these images.

Traditionally, watermarks were used to mark images, but they were easy to remove or change. SynthID’s watermark is different because it does not hurt the image’s quality. Even if the image’s colours or size is changed, the watermark stays hidden, and computers can still find it. SynthID uses two smart systems to do its job: one for adding the watermark and one for finding it.

The new technology is being made available to some special customers who use Vertex AI and a model called Imagen, a smart system that turns text into life-like pictures.

The AI-generated images that are becoming more and more realistic are created by computers and can sometimes be mistaken for real ones. The technology behind these AI-generated images, Generative AI is advancing quickly. While AI can be used for creative purposes, it can also be used to create fake images that spread false information.

Terrorist organisations are using technology for radicalisation and capitalising on emerging digital avenues such as the dark net, metaverse and cryptocurrency platforms, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 3, while seeking global cooperation to deal with cybercrimes.

In an interview, the PM said that the World Bank has estimated that cyber attacks could have caused losses of around $5.2 trillion to the world during 2019-2023, but their impact goes beyond just financial aspects into activities that can have social and geopolitical implications. He added cyberspace has introduced an entirely new dimension to the battle against illicit financial activities and terrorism.

“Terrorist organisations are using technology for radicalisation, moving money from money laundering and drugs into terror funding, and capitalising on emerging digital avenues such as the dark net, metaverse, and cryptocurrency platforms to fulfil their nefarious aims,” the Prime Minister said.

In case of news, PM Modi said that the spread of ‘deep fakes’ can cause chaos and loss of credibility of news sources. He said fake news and ‘deep fakes’ can be used to fuel social unrest.

The Prime Minister noted that India hosted a G20 Conference on Crime and Security in the Age of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), Artificial Intelligence and Metaverse in July in Gurugram. During this conference, concern was expressed over malicious cyber activities contrary to established norms, principles and rules of cyberspace and international law.

A woman who was severely paralysed for 18 years has been able to speak with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) through a digital avatar. The technology translated her brain signals into speech and facial expressions, allowing her to communicate.

Before AI, patients of paralysis relied on slow speech synthesisers that involved spelling out words using eye tracking or small facial movements, making natural conversation impossible.

In the new technology, a paper-thin rectangle of tiny 253 electrodes is implanted on the surface of the patient’s brain. The implant detects electrical activity in the part of the brain that controls speech and face movements. These signals are translated directly into a digital avatar’s speech and facial expressions such as smiling, frowning, or surprise.

After the implantation of the device, the 47-year-old patient worked with the team to train the system’s AI algorithm to detect her unique brain signals for various speech sounds by repeating different phrases. The computer learned 39 sounds, and a ChatGPT style model was created for making sentences from the signals. The avatar was then trained to sound like her based on her recording earlier than the injury.

During a test run, words were decoded incorrectly 28% of the time when more than 500 phrases were checked. The system generated brain-to-text at a rate of 78 words a minute, compared with the 110-150 words typically spoken in natural conversation.

Indian Army contingent comprising 137 personnel will participate in the multinational tri-services joint military exercise, BRIGHT STAR-23, from 31 August to 14 September 2023 at Mohammed Naguib Military Base in Egypt. The military exercise will be led by US CENTCOM and Egyptian Army.

In 2023, 34 countries will participate in BRIGHT STAR-23 with a total strength of 549 personnel. It will be the largest ever joint military exercise in the Middle East and North Africa region. Participating in the exercise for the first time, the Indian Army is being represented by a contingent from 23 JAT Battalion.

Exercise BRIGHT STAR-23 will include a large number of training activities focused on combating emerging unconventional threats and enhancing regional partnerships among participating nations aimed at maintaining world peace. In addition to these field and situational training exercises, BRIGHT STAR-23 will include a combined arms live firing exercise based on a tactical setting. A panel discussion on contemporary topics is also planned to be conducted on Cyber Security for which the Indian Armed Forces are the lead force.

The exercise was initially conceptualised as a bilateral biennial training exercise between the US and Egypt during the Camp David Accord of 1977. Its first edition was conducted in 1980 in Egypt. From 1995 onwards, the exercise was expanded for participation by other nations. The previous exercise BRIGHT STAR was conducted in 2021 wherein armed forces of 21 countries participated.

Intel’s talent in India is essential to all of its critical programs, including CPUs, GPUs, artificial intelligence, accelerators, and FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays), said its Executive Vice President and General Manager for the Data Center and AI Group Sandra Rivera. Speaking at a media roundtable in Bengaluru, Rivera said that India is at a critical juncture in the company’s semiconductor ambitions, as it seeks to attract manufacturing capabilities to the country.

For Intel, India is a huge market. The number of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) graduates produced in Indian universities, the workforce, the growth of the middle class, the knowledge workers, all position the country as a wonderful growth market and opportunity, said Rivera, and so, there is absolutely no reason why India cannot be a technology leader and a manufacturing leader in the world.

Intel sees an opportunity in the build-up of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), original design manufacturing (ODM) ecosystem, and the electronics manufacturing industry in India. Its partners also see an opportunity in the country.

The multinational corporation and technology company has so far invested $9 billion in India. According to Rivera, progress in India with regard to technology has been faster than in countries such as Israel and the US, as the country has learned from the experiences of more mature markets and skipped over generations of technology that is not at the leading edge.

A newly developed artificial intelligence (AI) model can estimate one’s age from their chest X-ray. The new research published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity journal said that the model can also signal chronic diseases such as hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from the difference between estimated and chronological age.

The findings of the research from Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan, have marked a leap in medical imaging and paved the way for improved early disease detection and intervention.

For age estimation, the AI model was trained using around 67,100 chest radiographs of 36,051 healthy individuals who underwent health check-ups between 2008 and 2021. It showed a strong correlation between the AI-estimated age and the chronological age of the individuals. The model was then trained to analyse the link between the AI-estimated age and each disease on additional 34,197 chest radiographs compiled from as many patients with known diseases. In all, it was trained on 1,01,300 chest X-rays from 70,248 participants across five institutions in Japan.

The difference between the individual’s AI-estimated age and chronological age was found to be associated with one’s chronic diseases, which meant that higher the age the AI estimated, higher the likelihood of these individuals to have these diseases.

The lander module (LM) of India’s Chandrayaan-3 has successfully touched down on the Moon’s South Pole on August 23, making India the first nation in the world to achieve the feat. The country is the fourth nation, after the United States, China and Russia to have landed on the Moon.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) third lunar mission was launched on July 14, leading to celebrations at the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

The lander touched the lunar surface at precisely 6.03 pm on August 23. The Pragyan Rover, which was carried by the lander, too rolled out on the same day, and is now exploring the lunar surface.

Pragyan will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility. The lander and the rover with a mission life of one lunar day (14 Earth days) have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface.

Upon the safe and successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation via video conferencing from South Africa, where he is attending the 15th BRICS Summit.

Congratulating the team of scientists at ISRO, he said, “India’s successful moon mission is not India’s alone…Our approach of One Earth, One Family, One Future is resonating across the globe…Moon mission is based on the same human-centric approach. So, this success belongs to all of humanity.”

Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw on August 18 dedicated to the nation India’s first 3D-printed post office located in Cambridge Layout, Bengaluru.

Built in only 43 days, the post office has been constructed by Larsen & Toubro Limited with technological support from IIT Madras under the guidance of Professor Manu Santhanam, Building Technology and Construction Management Division, Department of Civil Engineering.

The post office covers a built-up area of 1,021 sq ft. Its construction was carried out using 3D concrete printing technology. In this fully automated building construction technology, a robotic printer deposits the concrete layer by layer as per the approved design. A special grade concrete is used to ensure bonding between these layers for the purpose of printing the structure.

The construction of such a structure by conventional method takes about 6-8 months. The 3D technology has brought down the construction cost, which stood at Rs 23 lakh, about 30-40% less than the conventional method.

The project has no vertical joints. It involved continuous printing of the full perimeter. The 3D printing technology, which was imported from Denmark for the post office project, was also flexible to incorporate curved surfaces and adapt to site dimensions. It also enabled continuous reinforced concrete footing and three-layer walls with outer layers printed with concrete and the middle being reinforced concrete.