Smart necklace tracks detailed facial expressions

NeckFace, one of the first necklace-type wearable sensing technologies, was developed by researchers at Cornell University. The team, led by Cheng Zhang, assistant professor of information science in the Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, said the technology can continuously track full facial expressions by using infrared cameras to capture images of the chin and face from beneath the neck. NeckFace is the next generation of Zhang’s previous work, which resulted in C-Face, a similar device but in a headset format. According to Zhang, NeckFace provides significant improvement in performance and privacy, and gives the wearer the option of a less-obtrusive neck-mounted device.  Besides potential emotion-tracking, Zhang sees many applications for this technology. These…

Book review: ‘A Biography of the Pixel’ by Alvy Ray Smith

“We are now all aswim in an ocean of pixels,” says American computer scientist Alvy Ray Smith. “I carry billions of them on my person, and I suspect you do too.” Indeed, we have all been exposed to all kinds of digital imagery made up of pixels, from scrolling through social media platforms on our smartphones to the animated films we know and love. And this was sparked by the 'Great Digital Convergence' of 2000, whereby a single new digital medium replaced nearly all analogue media such as oil on canvas and ink on paper. ‘ A Biography of the Pixel ’ (MIT Press, £32, ISBN 9780262542456), written by Smith himself, points to that significant millennial event by celebrating ‘Digital Light’ – the vast realm that includes any pictures for any purpose, made from pixels. Smith is the ideal person…

Network Rail finds no trace of Covid-19 at four major stations

Places which passengers touch regularly, such as escalator handrails, ticket machines and benches were swabbed, and hour-long air samples taken on station concourses at London Euston, Birmingham New Street, Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly stations in January and June of this year. Between the testing dates, passenger numbers across all four stations rose by 287 per cent, but all lab tests by Imperial College London (ICL) showed no Covid-19 contamination of any surface tested or any airborne particles of the virus in station or on trains. The conclusions from the independent report, which was commissioned by Network Rail, suggests that the enhanced cleaning methods across the rail industry and widespread wearing of face coverings by passengers are key reasons for the negative…

£5bn gigabit broadband boost for rural areas

The plans fall under the government's 'Project Gigabit' fund, which aims to meet pledges originally announced in the 2019 Conservative manifesto to install full-fibre, gigabit-capable broadband in every home and business across the UK by 2025. This pledge was later downgraded to just 85 per cent of premises in the UK, although MPs have questioned whether even this target is plausible considering the current speed of the rollout. The government hopes that the infrastructure upgrades in hard-to-reach areas will accelerate the country’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and potentially fire up the tech sector and creative industries. Up to 1,850,000 additional premises will be connected to the new infrastructure, which should provide speeds that would allow an HD film to be downloaded…

AI mammogram reader approved for use in Irish healthcare system

The tool, which is called Mia (Mammography Intelligent Assessment), helps radiologists to read mammograms by acting as a 'second reader' that could pick up signs of cancer that would otherwise not be detected. The UK-based firm Kheiron Medical Technologies (KMT) developed the technology, which has now been made available across the whole of Ireland through medical supply company Hospital Services Limited (HSL). KMT said its system was the first of its kind to receive regulatory clearance in Europe after several clinical studies and testing showed that Mia has learnt to read mammograms to the same level of detail as a consulting radiologist. In double-reading mammography workflows where scans are reviewed by two radiologists, Mia can be deployed independently alongside a single human reader…

Plastic pollution creating ‘evolutionary trap’ for young sea turtles

A research team led by the University of Exeter has found plastic inside small juvenile turtles along both the east (Pacific Ocean) and west (Indian Ocean) coasts of Australia. After hatching on beaches, the animals then travel on currents and spend their early years in the open ocean. However, these currents accumulate vast quantities of plastic and because the young turtles primarily feed near the surface, many inadvertently swallow plastic as a result. The research team also involved scientists from Murdoch University, the Department of Environment and Science (Queensland) and the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions (Western Australia). Dr Emily Duncan, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall, said: “Juvenile turtles have…

Book review: ‘Railways - A history in drawings’ by Christopher Valkoinen

Author Christopher Valkoinen, who works in the museum’s library and archives, has chosen over 130 drawings from the collection, along with a similar number of photographs, for ‘Railways: A History in Drawings’ (Thames & Hudson, £50, published August 26 2021), and provides a fascinating commentary explaining their significance. It's not a book to read from cover to cover, but dipping in at random throws up all kinds of interesting snippets of technical and social history and is rewarding enough to make you want to return again and again and to share your new discoveries with your family and friends. However, if you want to be more systematic, the material is organised by theme, beginning with the timeline of ‘Two centuries of locomotion’, from the horse dandy to the British Rail High Speed…

View from Washington: Biden begins building

Context. It really can be an awkward so-and-so. Consider this. On one level, President Biden deserves praise for having finally squared the circle on a meaningful US infrastructure bill. Others have tried, others have failed (and, most recently, others have just talked bigly). Biden has – some upcoming congressional debate aside – secured bipartisan support for a programme worth $550bn over the next five years. However, it is only about a quarter of what Biden was originally seeking in his $2.25tr American Jobs Plan. Even allowing that the original proposal included some non-infrastructure elements (most notably around social care for the elderly), that’s quite a shortfall. The final number is also some way sort of the $2.6tr that will be needed over the next decade according to the most…

Spintronics research lays path for new type of memory

With demands for ever more powerful computing devices, researchers are pushing at the limits of physics to explore alternatives to conventional computing, such as with photonics, quantum simulators, and spintronics. “Quantum materials hold great promise for improving the capacities of today’s computers,” said Professor Andrew Kent, a senior investigator. “The work draws upon their properties in establishing a new structure for computation.” Kent worked alongside collaborators from the University of California-San Diego and the University of Paris-Saclay on the project. Professor Ivan Schuller, a San Diego physicist, explained: “Since conventional computing has reached its limits, new computational methods and devices are being developed. These have the potential of revolutionising computing…

Wirelessly powered drone achieves flight with microwave beam

Rockets typically use about 90 per cent of their fuel escaping the Earth’s atmosphere. Researchers at the University of Tsukuba in Japan believe this limitation could be overcome by wirelessly transmitting the necessary power to the rocket. Previous analyses of this kind were carried out decades ago and mostly considered microwaves of a frequency in the low gigahertz (GHz) range. Given that the power transmission efficiency increases as the operating frequency is raised, the team behind this latest research used microwaves with a relatively high frequency (28GHz). The team managed to get a drone weighing roughly 0.4kg to hover for 30 seconds at a height of 0.8m above the source of the microwave beam. “We used a sophisticated beam-tracking system to ensure that the drone received as much…

Non-experts could harness machine learning with new platform

“We don’t know much about how non-experts in machine learning come to learn algorithmic tools,” said Swati Mishra, the PhD candidate who led the study. “The reason is that there’s a hype that’s developed that suggests machine learning is for the ordained.” As machine learning has penetrated all sorts of industries populated by people without computing expertise, the need for effective tools to enable new users in leveraging AI is unprecedented, she argued. While existing research has mostly focused on understanding users and their challenges when navigating AI tools, this research approaches the challenge from the opposite direction: how can a system be designed such that users with limited algorithmic expertise but considerable domain expertise learn to integrate existing models into their…

British-made hybrid cars to travel on train powered by vegetable oil

The Department of Transport is working with rail freight operator DB Cargo to use the sustainable hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO) fuel in one of its locomotives to purportedly cut carbon emissions by up to 90 per cent compared to diesel. The train, named ‘I’m a climate hero’, is seen as a step in the transition towards the government’s legally binding goal of net zero by 2050. DB Cargo is the largest rail freight operating company in the country and has been trialling and expanding its use of HVO as a way to reduce carbon emissions in the short term. This new service using HVO will transport Toyotas built in Derby to continental Europe through the Channel Tunnel and import Toyotas on its return leg. Rail minister Chris Heaton-Harris said: “We are boosting British business while cutting…

AI system could help protect health of US Navy divers

The research team at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) was awarded a grant of $725,000 (£520,000) by the US Office of Naval Research to pursue the project. Sailors are sent into all kinds of water as part of their service in the US Navy, but they have limited resources to understand in real-time the health risks that may exist when they conduct underwater duties – from fleet maintenance and repairs to search and rescue and research missions. The most reliable water testing technologies typically rely on lab-based analysis of samples and scientists knowing which microbes to screen. But with dynamic weather, currents, water temperatures, and sewage and pollution factors, the exact condition of water, particularly of coastal water, at a specific time is hard to predict. “By the time…

Summer STEM Challenge: The Art of Heat

STEM Challenge #50: How do you create a masterpiece with heat? William Fox Talbot was one of the first people to take photographs, ‘painting with light’, although in the 1830s hours of full sunshine were needed. Thermal paper also needs a lot of energy to get a pic. But you won’t need to wait hours.  The simplest way to get a picture out of thermal paper is to rub it while it lies – sensitive side up – against an interesting, engraved surface. It’s that simple! The ‘magic’ is that the paper coating turns from clear to coloured when it gets to 100°C. The friction, of course, yields heat, and heat produces colour. It’s a bit like brass rubbing, where copies are made from artistic engravings by rubbing a stick of black wax over paper on the brass, but without the wax. Most thermal paper…

View from India: SUVs and EVs give new dimension to mobility

Tesla Inc has indicated that it plans to expand into the Indian market, which is among the biggest emerging car markets in the world. If the taxes on import duties are lowered, Tesla Inc may set up a factory in the country. Whether this will happen remains to be seen, but what needs to be noted is that the global auto maker has perceived India as a destination for electric vehicle (EV) investments. EVs have gained traction in India – leading companies such as Kia India, Tata Motors, Mercedes-Benz India, Audi India and Maruti Suzuki India have plugged in their EVs in the country. In retrospect, having an electric car was like trying to maintain a white elephant: EVs were priced high and hardly offered fuel efficiency. Given the proliferation of EVs, it’s obvious that this perception has changed…

Einstein’s theory confirmed after light seen emerging from ‘inside’ black hole

Bright X-ray flares were being observed emerging from a supermassive black hole which lies at the centre of a galaxy 800 million light-years away, an intriguing but not unique phenomenon. However, additional flashes of X-rays that were smaller, later and of different 'colours' than the bright flares were later detected that were much more unexpected by the scientists. These were dubbed “luminous echoes”, which according to theory are consistent with X-rays reflected from behind the black hole. “Any light that goes into that black hole doesn’t come out, so we shouldn’t be able to see anything that’s behind the black hole,” said Stanford University astrophysicist Dan Wilkins. “The reason we can see that is because that black hole is warping space, bending light and twisting magnetic fields…

UK car manufacturers show only partial recovery from Covid-19 slump

UK spaceflight regulations launched; government eyes 2022 for first flight

The Department for Transport has been consulting on and developing the rules for regulating the UK space industry, which it hopes to unlock “a potential £4bn of market opportunities” over the next decade while creating thousands of jobs. At present, there are no spaceports anywhere in Europe, with European companies and agencies using spaceports in Russia, the Americas, and elsewhere for their launches. However, the UK government is pinning hopes on the establishment of Europe’s first spaceport in a rural part of the country. Proposed locations include the Western Isles, Glasgow, Machrihanish, Sutherland, and Shetland (all in Scotland), Newquay in Cornwall, and Snowdonia in North Wales. It is hoped the UK space industry will launch satellites to improve satellite navigation systems, and…

UK faces regular bouts of 40°C heat even if climate change is tackled

The latest data from its State Of The UK Climate 2020 report shows that 2020 was the first year to have temperature, rain and sunshine rankings all in the top 10 since the beginning of weather data collection. All of the top-ten warmest years for the UK in records back to 1884 have occurred since 2002, and, for central England, the 21st century so far has been warmer than the previous three centuries. Furthermore, the last 30-year period (1991-2020) has been 0.9°C warmer than the preceding 30 years (1961-1990) and this warming trend is evident across all months and all countries in the UK. The greatest warming compared to 1961-1990 has been across the East Midlands and East Anglia where average annual temperatures have increased by more than 1°C, with the least warming around western…

Ministry of Defence invests £250m to advance Tempest combat aircraft project

The contract, signed by aerospace company and core partner BAE Systems, officially marks the start of the programme’s concept and assessment phase.  According to its developers, continued funding of Tempest underlines the government’s confidence in the progress and maturity of the programme, which will deliver the military, industrial and economic requirements of the nation’s combat air strategy. “Today marks a momentous step in the next phase of our future combat air system (FCAS), with a multi-million-pound investment that draws on the knowledge and skills of our UK industry experts,” said Ben Wallace, the UK’s secretary of state for defence. “Boosting our already world-leading air industry, the contract will sustain thousands of jobs across the UK and will ensure that the UK remains…

Social media companies should face consequences for misinformation spread

A poll by Morning Consult, a US data intelligence agency, has revealed that a significant majority of people believe that social media platforms are undoubtedly responsible for continuing to allow Covid-19 misinformation to circulate and that there should be consequences for the companies because of this. The poll of 2,201 US adults was conducted between July 23-25. 78 per cent of Democrats and 52 per cent of Republicans said they would support legislation holding internet companies responsible for misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines and other public health crises. 35 per cent of adults said social media companies are doing a “poor” job of curbing the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation, while just 27 per cent stated they consider their performance “fair.” While the public is predominantly…

UK government proposes trials of high-temperature gas reactors

The £170m AMR demonstration programme aims to explore the potential for AMRs to play a part in the UK’s energy future; it will be delivered by the early 2030s. it is part of a larger £385m package to accelerate the development of more flexible nuclear technologies. AMRs – of which there are six main categories – are smaller than typical nuclear reactors and designed such that sections can be fabricated in a factory environment and transported to site, significantly lowering risk and cost. Some AMRs could re-use spent nuclear materials as new fuel. The government hopes AMRs could, by the 2040s, produce hydrogen and heat for heavy industry in addition to low-carbon electricity for the grid. More than a third (37 per cent) of UK carbon emissions are derived from heat, with a significant…

Changing the range narrative around electric vehicle performance

Range is often considered one of the most important performance metrics for electric cars. Other than high price, so called ‘range anxiety’ was and still is considered by many to be the biggest turn-off when considering the switch to an electric vehicle (EV). Flip through any car magazine or blog and an EV’s range is typically shown as a defining factor in whether or not it’s recommended compared with its peers. Range mileages running into the hundreds are presented as the be all and end all, with editors suggesting potential buyers will only be able to sleep well at night knowing they can drive half-way across Europe on a single charge. This is despite many EVs being able to travel 300 miles or more on a single charge, while the average journey distance in the UK is estimated to be only…

UK urged to ramp up carbon capture tech by 2030

The technologies offer the most realistic way to mitigate the final slice of emissions expected to remain by the 2040s from sources that don’t currently have a decarbonisation solution, such as aviation and agriculture. Considering the scales needed, these technologies would represent a whole new infrastructure sector that could reach revenues matching that of the UK’s water sector by 2050. The carbon removal technologies most commonly used are the direct extraction of carbon dioxide from the air as well as using bioenergy with carbon capture technology to recapture carbon dioxide absorbed as the fuel grows. In both cases the captured carbon dioxide is then stored permanently out of the atmosphere, typically under the seabed. While various carbon capture projects have been implemented…