Information & Communication

Mobile phones have really taken off since the mid-1990. The first phones were large and expensive with small, non-colored displays. Their construction was about function, not aesthetics. Their durability and weight were often compared to bricks. This was far from the imagined future of communications seen in popular sci-fi films and shows, but they were practical. Keeping in touch was so much easier.

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) has been evolving for the last 30 years in respect to achieving a natural feeling, by mimicking the human-to-human interaction and by involving various means: movements, vision, and speech.

Recently, scientists from the Media Lab of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new imaging device that consists of a loose bundle of optical fibres, with no need for lenses or a protective housing.

“As the Internet of things advances, the very notion of a clear dividing line between reality and virtual reality becomes blurred, sometimes in creative ways.” - Geoff Mulgan Wouldn’t it be impressive if your cellular phone, an important digital appliance operated everyday, gave you a better, say smarter and a more tactile, experience?

Most of us recall the use of stereoscopic photographs to see depth using either the anaglyphic red and green filters, or the polarized filters to separate the left and right images. For electronic displays, the separation was done by electronic fast shutters hardly visible to the eye. Then we had holograms on flat film for reconstructing the actual light waves reflected from an object illuminated by a laser sufficient for viewing from almost any angle.

An ongoing debate into whether digital or analogue reproduction sounds better was supposed to be resolved, when we made the transition from vinyl records to CDs. In terms of size, storage and durability, CDs also had the upper hand.

If you’ve ever experienced an earthquake you’ll know that they can rapidly create a vast amount of damage, with effects lasting years. The US Geological Survey estimated that the economic losses resulting from the 7.9 magnitude quake that struck Nepal in April 2016 to be as much as $10billion.

Google Glasses was the first attempt at ‘smart glasses’, but the glasses weren’t warmly accepted. Despite the exciting new possibilities for connectivity, they also presented serious problems. The most serious among them was their appearance, which made them look very different to regular glasses.

Biometrics have recently gained significant attention, and have already moved from the lab to commercial applications, mainly in the field of access control and authentication. Traditional biometrics, including iris, face, speech and fingerprints have proven their recognition (determining the identity) and authentication (confirming the identity) potential and are now widely used.

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has entered our everyday lives within mobile phones, tablets, car driving assistants, and much more. A wide range and large number of applications rely on the GPS system to retrieve real-time precise position and velocity information.

Mobile communications are already in their fourth generation, known as 4G, whilst according to The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, 5G should be rolled out by 2020. The continuing growth in the number of mobile devices and the increasing amount of wireless data they consume requires new technologies and approaches to address this mounting demand.

Cable TV companies are prohibited by law, from selling information about the viewing habits of their customers.