BT powers a UK-first medical drone trial

BT is using its network to power a transformational medical delivery trial.

The UK’s largest telco by subscribers has partnered with drone specialists Skyfarer and Medical Logistics UK to conduct the country’s first over-land Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) trial.

BVLOS enables drones to travel longer distances, cut delivery times, and reduce the costs involved in ground transportation over often-congested roads.

The drone trial – completed in the...

3 April 2023 | Applications

Matter creator CSA announces healthcare working group

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has announced the creation of a working group focused on accelerating the adoption of Matter for healthcare purposes.

Matter was released by the CSA last year with the promise of providing an interoperable standard that will finally unlock the full potential of the smart home.

The CSA’s member list is nearing 600 organisations – including Apple, Google, Amazon, Huawei, Samsung, IKEA, Schneider Electric, Signify, Bosch,...

10 February 2023 | Applications

Japan wants to establish global standards for human-assisting robots

Japan has opened a consultation with the International Standards Organisation (ISO) in a bid to establish standards for human-assisting robots.

Part of the reason for Japan's huge investments into robotics is the country's ageing population. Robots designed to help the elderly are becoming increasingly commonplace.

Japan has already created a national standard for robot-to-human interactions across a large number of settings including medical, commercial, and...

3 September 2020 | AI

Bluetooth SIG wants to turn wearables into COVID-19 exposure detectors

The group behind the Bluetooth standard wants to add COVID-19 exposure detection to wearable devices.

In an announcement today, the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) said that it is working with over 130 member companies to add the potentially lifesaving feature to wearables.

Google and Apple have already developed a cross-platform, Bluetooth-based COVID-19 detection system for smartphones. The proposal by the Bluetooth SIG would extend that system to wearables (say...

18 August 2020 | Applications

Musk says Neuralink will solve a lot of brain and spine injuries

Elon Musk believes his ambitious computer-to-brain project, Neuralink, will solve a lot of brain and spine injuries.

Neuralink aims to achieve a symbiosis between AI and the human brain. First established in 2016, the project has been relatively quiet despite the company’s ~90 employees clearly working hard behind-the-scenes.

In a call-out on Twitter for engineers to join Neuralink, Musk highlighted what lifechanging results the work could...

22 July 2020 | AI