In the last few decades, electronic measurement and analysis has been increasingly deployed to improve agricultural productivity. This use of precision agriculture enables farmers to determine the amount of water, fertilizer, pesticides and weed killers re...

By Mark Patrick | 16-05-2018

If there is anyone in the developed world for whom the word ‘building’ still conjures up an image of a structure comprising just four walls, a roof, a couple of doors and a few windows then the latest ‘smart building’ developments are likely to come as quite a...

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 11-05-2018

Iceberg monitoring robot marine vessels that work together to overcome extreme weather and damage are one vision of scientists developing biologically inspired swarming machines. The behaviour of ants and bees and other swarming animals and how they adapt t...

By Rob Coppinger | 10-05-2018

This year may well be the year that augmented reality (AR) comes into its own. Unlike virtual reality (VR), which tends to require very specialized gear, even regular smartphones can use AR technology to enhance what is seen through the handset’s camera. And t...

By Mark Patrick | 08-05-2018

The data storage technologies market is growing strongly on the back of the emergence of the new storage services that have emerged to deliver access to increasingly larger and more valuable data sets. This increase in big data is the result of, among other th...

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 04-05-2018

Optical computing where circuits are replaced by light beams is a step closer with nanoantennaes that can be tuned to emit and receive particular wavelengths and manufactured without complex methods. Optical computing could be faster than today’s computers,...

By Rob Coppinger | 02-05-2018

Wireless charging is becoming increasingly popular as a smartphone feature, but the technology has wider implications that will one day have a massive impact on industry at all levels. You spot the battery indicator on your phone is low, so you place the d...

By Christian Cawley | 30-04-2018

The clothes people wear will one day identify them to retailers as potential loyal shoppers with the help of video camera feeds, machine vision and biometric identification. The detection of clothing styles, the colour and type of jacket or blouse or trousers,...

By Rob Coppinger | 27-04-2018

For decades, Sub-Saharan Africa's largest economy, Nigeria, has been plagued by a lack of power generating capacity that has handicapped its development efforts. Now, a pioneering local start-up claims to have developed a solution in the form of its A2 300 and...

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 25-04-2018

According to many of the automotive and battery industry cognoscenti, all of us will be driving around in electric vehicles by the year 2030. Whether you believe that and whether you think there will be sufficient public charging points and electricity on nati...

Semiconductors | By Paul Whytock | 23-04-2018

As the UK agriculture and horticultural sector ponders its post-Brexit future and with the likely concomitant loss of Eastern European seasonal farm labour, the deployment of precision farming techniques and smart technologies now underway in the UK industry i...

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 19-04-2018

A humanoid robot with a skin that can detect its environment or a soldier with smart armour that harvests energy for anti-chemical weapon sensors are two possible applications for stretchable electronics. The stretchable electronics consist of a thin polymer p...

By Rob Coppinger | 18-04-2018