After several weather-related delays, Japan’s moon lander mission, called SLIM, finally took off on the morning of September 7. Its successful landing would make Japan only the fifth country in the world to touch down safely on the lunar surface, and the first to do it with unusual precision. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) got its nickname, Sniper, from its ability to land within 100 metres of a specific target on the surface. The distance is much less than the usual range of several kilometres. The H-IIA rocket carrying Slim lifted off from the southern island of Tane
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
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. H2FL
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 wa
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
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
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 Ba
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) graduat
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
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 Aug