emerging technology - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Future tech: NZ government digital lab charts 20-year landscape

  ​The emerging technology team in the Department of Internal Affairs’ service innovation lab has created a 20-year ​chart​ of new and emerging technologies

• How Microsoft's HoloLens mega-deal could boost enterprise adoption

  As many as 100,000 devices could be sold to the US Army, highlighting Microsoft efforts to target augmented reality at the enterprise level.

• ANZ bank latest company to employ ‘digital human’

  Jamie has a human face, voice and expressions, and can answer questions on the most frequently searched for topics on the bank’s online help section.

• Google buys eye-tracking VR firm Eyefluence

  Google has acquired a 3-year-old eye-tracking company focused on virtual and augmented reality, signaling the tech giant's interest in the immersive technologies.

• Panasonic has a technology for transmitting data by human touch

  Panasonic has developed a data transmission system that can exchange information through human touch.

• HPE shows off a computer intended to emulate the human brain

  Intelligent computers that can make decisions like humans are on the roadmap for Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

• Sales of wearables to jump, as Android starts to catch up to Apple

  Makers of wearable computing devices will ship 110 million products in 2016, a big increase from 2015, with smartwatches accounting for about a quarter of those sales, IDC predicted.

• Five things you need to know about AI: Cognitive and neural and deep, oh my!

  There's never any shortage of buzzwords in the IT world, but when it comes to AI, they can be hard to tell apart.

• Mobile World Congress: VR just got serious and why you should be paying attention

  If you haven't been paying much attention to virtual reality, now might be a good time to start. In a series of announcements at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, some of the biggest names in smartphones, consumer electronics and social media have given the technology a major boost.

• The eyes have it: How one startup aims to change the future of VR

  A startup called Eyefluence aims to improve virtual and augmented reality with its eye-tracking technology. After an early glimpse at what the company's tech can do, it seems like a must-have for future headsets.

• Now that AI has mastered 'Go', are all our jobs next?

  One by one, artificial intelligence has overcome the obstacles set before it. Is this all part of an inevitable trend leading to humanity's obsolescence -- or, at least, unemployment?

• VR headset shipments are about to skyrocket

  This will be the year millions of gearheads put on VR/AR headsets to explore their alter-egos, play games or watch 3D content.

• 'Big bets' cost Google parent, Alphabet, US$3.6 billion in losses last year

  Alphabet, the parent company of Google, racked up US$3.6 billion in losses last year on investments in "big bets" such as self-driving cars and Internet balloons.

• Deep learning is coming to your phone through a new Google partnership

  Android phones may soon get a whole lot smarter thanks to a new partnership between Google and chip maker Movidius that promises to bring machine intelligence directly into mobile devices.

• An iPhone that can 'feel' your pain? Apple's latest acquisition could make it happen

  Apple has reportedly acquired artificial-intelligence startup Emotient, giving it access to technology that could one day imbue its devices with the ability to "read" people's emotions through their facial expressions.