In computing, Moore’s law says the number of transistors on a circuit doubles every two years. That rate of growth, however, is likely to start slowing from as early as next year, according to some in the industry. Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest information technology corporation, has identified the importance of quantum approaches to help maintain the… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Engineering, Arch & IT
iPad app revolutionising therapy for autistic children
Australian researchers have harnessed tablet technology to develop an iPad app that is set to revolutionise the way parents around the world provide in-home therapy for their autistic children. Named the TOBY Playpad (Therapy Outcomes by You), the app enables parents to provide early intervention therapy for their children as soon as an autism spectrum disorder has… Continue Reading
Corridors the key to unlocking congestion
The commentary on the O’Farrell government’s transport master plan has focused almost exclusively on a lack of timelines for action and any detail on where the money is coming from to pay for the projects. While we might be nervous about the realisation of the plan, given the recent history of plans that are produced… Continue Reading
Endangered language thrown a digital lifeline
One of the world’s most endangered languages is to be brought into the digital age through the first phone app designed specifically for the documentation of an Australian Indigenous language. The Ma! Iwaidja (pronounced ‘ee-WHY-jah’) smartphone app has been developed as part of the Minjilang Endangered Languages Publication Project. The project team, based on Croker… Continue Reading
Aussies leaders in social networking
Well over half of Australia’s estimated 15 million adult internet users go on social networking sites, and a third of them now use one every day. The latest survey The Internet in Australia, part of the World Internet Project (WIP), reveals that Australia has the highest proportion of daily internet social networkers, compared to countries such… Continue Reading
Remotely Piloted Aircraft will help fight bushfires in the future
With much of Australia looking like reverting to a dry bushfire-prone weather pattern avionics engineers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) are pulling out all stops to develop the technology to enable remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) to become airborne. QUT Professor Duncan Campbell who heads the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA) said while… Continue Reading
“All of a sudden I could see a little flash of light”
In a major development, Bionic Vision Australia researchers have successfully performed the first implantation of an early prototype bionic eye with 24 electrodes. Ms Dianne Ashworth has profound vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition. She has now received what she calls a ‘pre-bionic eye’ implant that enables her to experience some vision.… Continue Reading
The energy efficiency gap
As everyday Australians battle to absorb the cost of electricity price rises, part of the answer to reducing energy costs may lie with business. UTS Business School PhD student Patrick Crittenden explains how better support for corporate energy efficiency programs may mean lower electricity bills for us all, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions along the… Continue Reading
Before the ink dries
Lorena Kanellopoulos tells KATHARINE PIERCE why getting published is no longer the expensive and lengthy process it used to be. Newspapers are undergoing a painful, and very public, reinvention. Around the world, including in Australia, they are struggling to find new business models as readership levels drop and people turn away from physical printed papers… Continue Reading
Pixel perfect
SARINA TALIP takes a journey into the not so distant future, where artificial intelligence makes life less of a chore and computers can recognise objects. A car drives along a road in downtown Nevada. It slows down for the pedestrians who run out in front of it, trying to make their bus on the other… Continue Reading
Australia’s satellite scarcity leaves us vulnerable
OPINION: Australia has long been something of a Blanche Dubois of satellite earth observation; keen to rub shoulders with the global space industry but ultimately dependent “on the kindness of strangers”. And like the protagonist in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, that dependency makes Australia vulnerable. Australia’s size and remote geography means we rely… Continue Reading
Artful algorithms
Money laundering and other suspicious behaviours will become more detectable with the refinement of a 2D graphic visualisation tool currently under development at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies. Super-fast algorithms that will allow IT security analysts to detect an eclectic range of abnormal behaviours are being created by Professor Seok-Hee… Continue Reading
