Follow your feet! Scientists develop £2,700 ‘intelligent’ SHOE that helps blind people to avoid obstacles Austrian computer scientists created a shoe that pings vibrations to the wearer It warns blind and visually impaired people of obstacles using ultrasonic sensors They’re now working on an embedded AI camera for future versions of the shoe By Jonathan … Read more
Follow your feet! Scientists develop £2,700 ‘intelligent’ SHOE that helps blind people to avoid obstacles Austrian computer scientists created a shoe that pings vibrations to the wearer It warns blind and visually impaired people of obstacles using ultrasonic sensors They’re now working on an embedded AI camera for future versions of the shoe By Jonathan … Read more
The future of CCTV? Smartphones equipped with ‘bat-sense’ technology could soon generate images from SOUND alone Researchers were inspired by echolocation used by bats to hunt and navigate They sent blips of sound from a speaker to bounce around an indoor space A machine learning algorithm times how long the signal takes to come back … Read more
Street art has become a mainstream cultural phenomenon, thanks to artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Banksy and Kaws. But outdoor murals are vulnerable to vandals, who mar their beauty with unwanted graffiti. A group of chemists in Italy have developed a method to wipe away graffiti while keeping the art underneath intact. The process … Read more
A ‘forgotten’ African species of coffee that grows at higher temperatures could save the coffee industry, scientists believe. Coffea stenophylla from Sierra Leone can tolerate higher temperatures than Arabica, the world’s most popular coffee, according to climate change experts. But the species also has a superior flavour, with notes of peach, blackcurrant, mandarin, chocolate, caramel and elderflower … Read more
Woman, 76, gets her voice back after scientists used her appearance on TV game show as a guide to how she speaks Helen Whitelaw appeared on ITV’s Tipping Point in 2019, winning almost £3,000 Year later, she was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, affecting her speech But engineers have now used show footage to capture … Read more
Unchecked Covid hotspots could lead to a third wave of the virus if the country reopens too quickly, scientists warn. Ministers have been blasted for ignoring their pledge to follow ‘data not dates’ when lifting lockdown in line with Boris Johnson’s roadmap. As it stands, six groups – or two households – can meet outside. Outdoor … Read more
Experts have warned against a ‘dangerous’ trend circulating on TikTok of deep frying water, which they say could lead to fiery explosions. The pointless trend involves combining water with calcium alginate to form a sphere of water, before coating it in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and dropping it into a fryer. But if the alginate … Read more
As research involving transplanting lab-grown human ‘mini-brains’ into animals to study neurological diseases continues to expand, experts warn the work with these brain organoids could result in a ‘Planet of the Apes’ scenario. The concern is animals could develop humanized traits and behave similar to the intelligent apes of the popular science fiction story. The … Read more
Scientists have discovered two new species of burrowing animals that lived in northeastern China 120 million years ago. Skeletal remains of the species, called Fossiomanus sinensis and Jueconodon chenispiky, reveal they had claws designed for ‘scratch digging’ – a technique to create tunnels using the claws of the forelimbs. Experts at the American Museum of Natural … Read more