Electronics

You have probably opened your smartphone using your face. If you have traveled internationally, you have used your face to exit and enter the country. You may have even scanned your face to "verify" your online dating profile. But are you willing to use your face to pay for your... Read more

In simulated life-or-death decisions, about two-thirds of people in a UC Merced study allowed a robot to change their minds when it disagreed with them—an alarming display of excessive trust in artificial intelligence, researchers said.... Read more

New phones are being launched with features enabled by artificial intelligence (AI). The latest of these was Google's flagship Google Pixel 9 phone. Samsung's Galaxy S24 phone, released at the beginning of 2024, also features a range of AI-enabled photo editing features.... Read more

A pen that can transform Braille into English text has been developed by experts at the University of Bristol.... Read more

Virtual reality (VR) video games that combine screen time with exercise are a great way to get fit, but game designers face a major challenge—like with regular exercise, adherence to "exergames" is low, with most users dropping out once they start to feel uncomfortable or bored.... Read more

Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology have found that while Australians generally trust retail technology, they remain hesitant to swiftly adopt new advancements, largely due to concerns over security and privacy.... Read more

Ten years ago I wrote a book titled "The End of Airports" about how digital technologies and commercial air travel were on a collision course. Earlier this summer, I was proved right.... Read more

A new study has found that intelligence, in the form of general cognitive abilities such as perception, thinking and remembering, is more important than hitherto thought at predicting a person's ability to complete common tasks with a PC. The study was published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies in... Read more

From Monday August 26, many employees in Australia get a new right, called the right to disconnect from work.... Read more

Facial recognition is a critical part of self-image and social interactions. In an era of advanced digital technology, we face intriguing questions about communication and identity. How does altering our facial identity affect our sense of "self" and our interactions with others?... Read more

US tourist David Madrigal is over the moon after paying $200 for a "vintage" console at a busy Tokyo store that is tapping into booming global demand for retro gaming kit.... Read more

Toniebox, Tiptoi, and Tamagotchi are smart toys, offering interactive play through software and internet access. However, many of these toys raise privacy concerns, and some even collect extensive behavioral data about children, report researchers at the University of Basel, Switzerland.... Read more

Many businesses are trapping Australian consumers in paid subscriptions by making them hard to cancel, hiding important details and offering "free" trials that auto-renew with hefty charges. We need law reform to tackle this continuing problem.... Read more

If asked to name the biggest video game company in the world, you might think of icons such as Nintendo—the famed creator of Mario, Pokémon and the Legend of Zelda—or maybe PlayStation, the brand associated with mega hits such as Final Fantasy and Uncharted.... Read more

Apple will allow iPhone and iPad users in the European Union delete the App Store or its Safari browser, the tech giant told developers on Thursday.... Read more

A Southern California woman fed up with her packages getting stolen out of her post office box sent an Apple AirTag to the address and cleverly tracked down the suspected thief, police said.... Read more

As the use of Facial Recognition Payment Technology (FRPT) grows, taken up by retailers, governments, hotels and others, some consumers do not completely trust its use say QUT researchers.... Read more

Armor-clad warriors mixed with cosplaying Super Marios and monster hunters on Thursday, as gamers braved hours of queuing at the sector's biggest trade show, Gamescom in Germany's Cologne.... Read more

A new national survey has found that most adult Australians use different types of digital media regularly, yet their overall confidence in their digital media abilities remains quite low, showing very little change since 2021.... Read more

Last week, the office of the San Francisco City Attorney issued a landmark lawsuit. It's accusing 16 "nudify" websites of violating United States laws in relation to non-consensual intimate images and child abuse material.... Read more

Smartwatches might be good for tracking steps and heart rates, but they can also offer hackers a wealth of personal information to exploit, according to a new Charles Darwin University (CDU) study.... Read more

Instead of channel surfing or browsing through a TV guide, Aussie kids today navigate complex streaming platforms and their algorithms to find shows, which is influencing their viewing habits, according to a new study of children aged 7 to 9.... Read more

Default privacy settings in popular mobile apps seem like a convenience, allowing you to use a single setting to control the level of privacy—who can see which actions you take—across all of the app's functions. But default privacy settings are also a potential risk to your privacy.... Read more

In an analysis of smartphones from 10 manufacturers, researchers at TU Graz have found that the Android kernels used are vulnerable to known attacks—so-called one-day exploits—despite existing protection mechanisms.... Read more

Google on Tuesday unveiled its next generation of Pixel phones, providing the maker of Android software a head start on the next iPhone in the race to bring more artificial-intelligence services to devices that have become people's constant companions.... Read more

Do you find yourself doom-scrolling, or spending more time than you should consuming negative news on the internet and social media and want to stop? Well, there's now an app for that.... Read more

Roblox is a hugely popular online gaming platform that contains its own little universe of games. It is primarily targeted at children. Users can create games themselves and play games built by others, and chat with other players. If you're a parent, you've likely heard of it. You might even... Read more

Days after Game Informer abruptly closed, former employee Ben Hanson recalled the joy he had working for the iconic Minneapolis-based video game magazine that was widely seen as a beacon for games coverage.... Read more

You're scrolling through your socials and an app for an online shopping site appears. You click the link but, before you can see any merchandise, a spinning wheel flashes up and invites you to press the button to spin. You do and you win 50% off any purchase. How good... Read more

When it comes to innovative technologies, inventors often find inspiration in the most unexpected places. A former salesman, Akeem Shannon, was inspired by his uncle, who worked as an engineer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to research the agency's published technologies. He came across a sticky... Read more

If you've seen an esports competition, chances are that there was a big stage with about 10 gaming PCs, each with a young person behind it wearing a look of intense concentration. They may have been competing for upward of a million dollars, and at the moment of victory, the... Read more

As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies become more embedded into our everyday lives and business operations, their high energy demands and environmental impacts call for a more sustainable approach to building algorithms—the sets of instructions used to inform this technology.... Read more

The Apple Vision Pro is the newest tool for Australians to access three-dimensional, immersive online environments, also known as the metaverse. Released in Australia earlier this month, it allows users to take a (virtual) walk in the savanna from their living room, watch sports matches in an immersive environment, or... Read more

Researchers have created an innovative system for generating personalized storybooks. This system utilizes generative artificial intelligence and home IoT technology to assist children in language learning. The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.... Read more

Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003.... Read more

When Hurricane Beryl swept across Texas in early July, it left more than 3 million homes and businesses without power for days or longer. Local hospitals reported a spike in heat-related illnesses amid the widespread power outages, and at least seven people died from extreme heat.... Read more

As the presence of mobile phones becomes increasingly widespread in Africa, digital services have allowed for more financial inclusion among low- and middle-income countries within the continent. Through a system known as mobile money (MoMo), users are able to make transactions through telephone companies, using their phone number as an... Read more

Today's athletes are always on the lookout for new techniques and equipment to help them train more effectively. Modern coaches and sports trainers use intelligent data monitoring through videos and wearable sensors to help enhance athletic conditioning. However, traditional video analysis and wearable sensor technologies often fall short when tasked... Read more

A study published in the journal PNAS Nexus reveals how social media algorithms favor politically sponsored content from certain parties given the same investment budget.... Read more

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers is reframing the discussion around autonomous vehicles. Though public trust in this technology has faltered due to high-profile testing accidents, researchers hope to rebuild public support for AVs by redirecting attention to their potential to improve social equity and help underserved communities.... Read more

Concern that social media is driving the teen mental health crisis has risen to such a pitch that the majority of states in the country have filed lawsuits against Meta (which owns Instagram and Facebook) and the U.S. surgeon general called last month for warning labels on platforms, similar to... Read more

With the rapid development of AI technology, voice-controlled smart speakers are becoming increasingly popular due to their convenience and ability to control compatible home devices. Despite the rise in use, smart speakers often do not have screens and little-to-none of the visual information feedback common to manually operated devices. This... Read more

A combined team of roboticists from MIT and the University of California, San Diego, has developed a new type of remote control for robots called Open-TeleVision that allows for VR-type control. The team has posted a paper describing their robot system on the arXiv preprint server. They also posted videos... Read more

A study published in the journal Science Advances finds that AI enhances creativity by boosting the novelty of story ideas as well as the 'usefulness' of stories—their ability to engage the target audience and potential for publication. The paper is titled "Generative AI enhances individual creativity but reduces the collective... Read more

Users of voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant know the frustration of being misunderstood by a machine.... Read more

The rabbit hole contains madness, according to author Lewis Carroll. Online, that madness manifests in the form of increasingly extreme content, often without users realizing it. A new study by Penn State researchers suggests that giving users control over the interface feature of autoplay can help them realize that they... Read more

Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have frequently shown signs of an "empathy gap" that puts young users at risk of distress or harm, raising the urgent need for "child-safe AI," according to a study.... Read more

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games are just around the corner and a global sports frenzy is underway. However, intense summer workouts often lead to sportswear absorbing excessive sweat, becoming clingy and cumbersome, causing discomfort and potentially impacting performance.... Read more

While the sports industry continually improves spectators' viewing experience at home, some problems remain unsolved. One such issue for soccer fans is cameramen accidentally appearing in each other's shots on live broadcasts. These occurrences not only detract from critical game moments but potentially lead to revenue losses for broadcasters due... Read more

Samsung is dressing up its wearable devices in technology's latest fashion—artificial intelligence.... Read more