Category: Tech

The X-ray spectrometer, HEL1OS, onboard ISRO’s Aditya-L1 spacecraft on its maiden solar mission, has captured the first high-energy X-ray glimpse of solar flares, said the space agency on November 7.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) have provided continuous imagery and data on space weather conditions and solar activity since the 1970s.

According to ISRO, the HEL1OS instrument is currently undergoing fine-tuning of thresholds and calibration operations. It is set to monitor the Sun’s high-energy X-ray activity with fast timing and high-resolution spectra. The HEL1OS data enables researchers to study explosive energy release and electron acceleration during impulsive phases of solar flares.

A solar flare is a sudden brightening of the solar atmosphere. These flares are intense bursts of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots. Flares produce enhanced emission in all wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum – radio, optical, UV, soft X-rays, hard X-rays and gamma-rays. According to US space agency Nasa, these flares can last anywhere between minutes to hours.

HEL1OS was commissioned on October 27, 2023 and it has been monitoring the Sun for hard X-ray activities ever since.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and its regional counterparts have begun collaboration on a framework for safety rules and standards to regulate air taxi and drone operations. The authorities of the region met on November 9 to develop a set of regulatory reference materials by 2025 that each country can adapt and adopt to govern the emerging sectors.

The inaugural meeting, organised by CAAS, was attended by representatives from 17 civil aviation authorities in the Asia-Pacific region, including delegates from China and Japan, 24 private-sector institutes, and companies such as Skyports Infrastructure and Vertical Aerospace.

The civil aviation authorities agreed that the two priority areas for drones are technical guidance and personnel training.

For air taxis, the authorities agreed on six priority areas, including certification, collaboration between a country’s national agencies, and public education to promote this new form of air transport.

Collaboration among the regulators will allow CAAS to understand how risks are mitigated for air taxi operations, and to apply this information to regulatory requirements for Singapore.

India is developing its own long-range air defence system, similar to Israel’s Iron Dome, under Project Kusha. This system, with a range of up to 350 kilometres, aims to protect the country against various threats and provide strategic and tactical coverage.

Initially believed to be nearly impenetrable, Israel’s Iron Dome is a state-of-the-art rocket defence system that faced a stern test on October 7 when Palestinian militant group Hamas launched about 5,000 rockets in just 20 minutes. Despite the attacks, this defence system provided a considerable level of protection for the country.

India’s own long-range air defence system, similar to the Iron Dome, aims to equip India with a robust air defence system capable of detecting and neutralising incoming threats. Led by the Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Project Kusha has received approval for funding amounting to approximately Rs 21,700 crore and is scheduled for deployment by 2028-2029.

India’s LR-SAM (Long-Range Surface-to-Air Missile) system is designed to perform tasks akin to the Iron Dome. It will be equipped to detect and destroy a range of threats, including stealth fighters, aircraft, drones, cruise missiles, and precision-guided munitions. Reports say that it will feature interception capabilities comparable to the Russian S-400 Triumf air defence system.

Boston Dynamics has harnessed the power of ChatGPT to train its robot dog to communicate like a seasoned tour guide, combining scripted dialogue and visual question-answering models for a captivating interactive experience.

In an effort to give its robot, Spot the ability to “speak,” Boston Dynamics leveraged OpenAI’s ChatGPT API and incorporated open-source large language models (LLMs) to meticulously fine-tune its responses. It also equipped the robot with a speaker, integrated text-to-speech capabilities, and enabled it to mimic human speech.

For each room within their facilities, the company team provided Spot with a concise script to follow. Spot then fused this script with the visual data captured by its cameras, mounted on its gripper and body. This innovative combination enabled the robot to gather more context about its surroundings before generating responses. Moreover, it adopted different personas, including a 1920s archaeologist, a teenager, and even a Shakespearean time traveller, adding a delightful and immersive touch to its tour-guiding abilities.

During their experimentation with Spot as a tour guide, Boston Dynamics encountered a few surprises. For instance, when asked about its “parents,” it intelligently moved towards the older Spot models on display in the company’s office. The company also noted that the use of LLMs occasionally led to amusing inaccuracies, such as the suggestion that Stretch, its box-moving robot, was originally designed for yoga.

Motorola has showcased a new smartphone form factor that’s built around a flexible adaptive display that can bend backwards and wrap around a wrist like a large digital wristband or a smartwatch.

The concept phone was unveiled at the Lenovo Tech World 2023, held on October 24-25, 2023, in Austin, Texas, US. It is said to be an improved version of Lenovo’s wrist phone concept, which was showcased almost seven years ago. The Motorola phone can also be used in tent mode, where it can rest elegantly on a table.

The year 2023 marked the ninth consecutive year of the annual event, Lenovo Tech World. It was the first time since 2019 that it was hosted in person. This year’s theme, ‘AI for All’ focused on the era of artificial intelligence (AI) and explored how the company is designing, powering, and re-defining the next generation of AI products, solutions, and services to accelerate real AI-driven outcomes.  

At the annual tech event, Motorola showcased innovations that redefine the possibilities of flexible hardware, besides introducing new AI features, which range from generative theming to a sophisticated personal assistant. At the MWC Barcelona, 2023, the company had displayed the rollable smartphone, Rizr.

Pfizer on October 26 said that its two-in-one vaccine for Covid-19 and flu will enter the final-stage trial soon after its early to mid-stage study showed positive results. The development has helped the biopharmaceutical company and its German partner BioNTech come a step closer to potentially getting regulatory approval for the combination shot.

The companies carried out initial trials among healthy adults, aged 18 to 64, who showed robust immune responses against influenza A, influenza B and Sars-CoV-2 strains after receiving the combined shot. Trial participants were compared with those administered a licensed influenza vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent Covid-19 vaccine at the same visit.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during an investor call in October said that he believes the convenience offered by combination vaccines will “unlock a significant potential by improving the vaccination rates.”

The company is also finalising the phase-three trial of its mRNA vaccine against influenza for adults. The trial aims to evaluate the efficacy, safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the mRNA influenza vaccine. A benefit of the mRNA technology is that it allows the concept of combination (with other vaccines), helping one target different viruses in a single injection with mRNA, such as influenza.

Amidst the ongoing efforts by telecommunications service providers to extend their 5G networks across the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that India is also actively striving to establish itself as a global leader in 6G technology.

The Prime Minister officially launched a significant initiative, unveiling 100 “5G use case labs” throughout India at the 7th Edition of the India Mobile Congress 2023 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on October 27.

The ‘100 5G labs initiative’ is designed to harness the potential of 5G technology by promoting the development of 5G applications tailored to address both India’s specific requirements and those of the global community. It will foster innovation across various socioeconomic sectors such as education, agriculture, health, power, and transportation, and propel the country into the forefront of usage of 5G technology.

In discussing the expansion of the 5G network within the country, the Prime Minister highlighted that India now boasts 4,00,000 5G base stations, effectively covering over 97% of its cities and 80% of the population. This extensive network expansion has also resulted in a significant enhancement of internet speeds throughout the nation.

PM Modi noted that the introduction of 5G technology has tripled internet speeds in India, elevating the country from the 118th position to the 43rd position worldwide in terms of broadband speed.

Researchers at Google have demonstrated how regular earbuds with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) can transform into heart rate monitors without the need for additional hardware or sensors.

Google researchers showcased this technology at Mobicom 2023, held in Madrid from October 2-6, 2023. They also shared their research paper on the technology, titled “APG: Audioplethysmography for Cardiac Monitoring in Hearables.”

The study was conducted over eight months with 153 participants to test APG in various scenarios.

This technology employs a pulse-like signal to monitor heart rate. The headphones emit a sound into one’s ear and then listen for the echoes. When blood vessels change, they induce tiny variations in the ear, causing corresponding changes in the echoes, thus displaying the individual’s heartbeat.

Using the collected data, Google developed algorithms to interpret these echoes and devised a method to determine heart rate and its fluctuations through sound. This new approach can monitor heart rate using regular noise-canceling headphones, even while a person is in motion or listening to music. The researchers added that this technology can be integrated into existing earbuds through a simple software update.

Google’s study demonstrates that APG is effective in measuring heart rate (with a 3.21% margin of error) and tracking changes in the heartbeat (with a 2.70% margin of error) for most individuals. Furthermore, they claim that this technology surpasses existing light-based photoplethysmograph (PPG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors, which typically add extra weight, cost, and drain the device’s battery life.

Britain will set up the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) safety institute, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on October 26, ahead of a global summit on November 1-2 convened to examine the risks of the technology.

The institute “will advance the world’s knowledge of AI safety and it will carefully examine, evaluate and test new types of AI so that we understand what each new model is capable of, exploring all the risks from social harms like bias and misinformation through to the most extreme risks of all,” the leader said in a speech in London.

Sunak wants Britain to be a global leader in AI safety, carving out a role after Brexit between the competing economic blocs of the United States, China and the European Union. The institute will “examine, evaluate and test new types of AI so that we understand what each new model is capable of, exploring all the risks from social harms like bias and misinformation through to the most extreme risks,” he said.

The country is bringing together AI companies, political leaders and experts at Bletchley Park on November 1-2 to discuss what some see as an existential danger posed by AI, with an aim of building an international consensus on its safe development.

The Government of India will launch the world’s first software to detect dark patterns on e-Commerce platforms, to provide protection to consumers from all types of unfair trade practices.

The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University, on October 26, launched a four-stage hackathon, Dark Patterns Buster, to build an open-source software that will be available as a freely downloadable browser extension and a mobile app, to alert users to the presence of dark patterns on websites.

The ministry has identified over 10 such dark patterns commonly used by websites that constitute “malpractices” and “unfair trade practices in contravention of section 2(47) of the Consumer Protection Act 2019.”

Some identified patterns that violate the consumer protection law include trick questions, which are vaguely worded, recurrent surreptitious software-as-a-service payments, rogue malware, subscription traps, and interface interference, or making cancellation of a subscription difficult for the user.

Currently, there are no tools available in India or abroad to detect dark patterns on online platforms. The main aim of the initiative is to alert people and prevent them from falling for the trap.