Daily Archives: January 17, 2022

17-01-2022 | Micron | Semiconductors

Micron Technology has started volume shipments of its 176-layer QLC NAND SSD. Produced with the most advanced NAND architecture, this solution provides the industrys highest storage density and optimised performance for a wide variety of data-rich applications. Intended for use cases spanning client and data centre environments, its transformative new NAND technology is now offered with the launch of this 2400 SSD, a 176-layer PCIe Gen4 QLC SSD for client applications. The new device will also be included into select Micron Crucial consumer SSDs and offered as a component for system designers.

This device provides 33% higher I/O speed and 24% lower read latency than the company's prior generation solution. Its replacement-gate architecture is claimed to be the only mass production QLC flash storage that unites charge trap with a CMOS-under-array design.

"Microns 2400 SSD builds upon our 176-layer NAND industry leadership to drive the transition to QLC-based storage for the client market, said Jeremy Werner, corporate vice president and general manager of Microns Storage Business Unit. Furthering our market leadership, we expect the new 2400 PCIe Gen4 SSD will significantly accelerate the adoption of QLC in client devices as it enables broader design options and more affordable capacity."

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Ground-breaking technology enables first 2TB SSD for client applications - Electropages

COVID-19 has immensely changed the way we do things in almost every sector, healthcare included.

Humans are social beings and so it is understandably difficult to be isolated from others. Since the beginning of the pandemic, one of the biggest challenges faced by families is the inability to visit loved ones who are ill in hospital. It can be a very lonely journey if one is ill with little or no familial support, which could negatively affect recovery. There have been reports of mental health issues increasing during lockdown.

The United States-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regards loneliness and social isolation as public health threats that can put especially adults at risk of dementia and other serious medical conditions. The agency defines loneliness as the feeling of being alone, regardless of the amount of social contact and social isolation as a lack of social connections.

Some of the health risks associated with loneliness and social isolation include premature death, dementia, heart disease, stroke, depression, anxiety and suicide, according to the CDC. Within the wider society, there are several organisations with which persons can connect to get a feeling of community and reduce their risk of loneliness and social isolation. However, when one has to be admitted to hospital in a time when visits are restricted, more creative methods have to be used to combat these issues.

Most patients in a hospital setting look forward to visiting hours when their family and friends can see them. Now, our hospitals are either close to capacity or completely at capacity with the number of patients they can accommodate because of COVID-19. Given the extent to which COVID is contagious, limited contact has to be established to reduce the likelihood of spread.

This is where technology can help. There are several ways in which technology can be used, depending on the circumstances, to reduce feelings of loneliness and social isolation in adults, in a hospital setting.

Robotics have been long used in healthcare to assist with certain tasks. One of the highlighted uses of robotics during the pandemic has been for infection control. However, robots have also been used as companions for persons as a way to combat loneliness and social isolation. An Israeli start-up called Intuition Robotics used artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a robot it calls ElliQ and describes it as an empathetic care companion that establishes long-term relationships with older adult users.

Another company out of Japan called AIST has developed a therapeutic robot called PARO, which is a biofeedback device that looks like a baby seal. The robot is able to perceive the users environment and recognise voices and words. The company says it has been in use in Japan and throughout Europe since 2003 and has successfully reduced patient stress and improved socialisation, relaxation and motivation, among other things.

Using virtual reality devices is another way in which families and friends can connect to loved ones who have been hospitalised. Virtual reality offers a 3D visual representation of a process or event, allowing the user complete immersion while locking out the real world. The virtual reality market is large and growing. Fortune Business Insights, in a report titled Virtual Reality in Healthcare Market, indicated that the global virtual reality in healthcare market size stood at USD 1.56 Billion in 2018 and is expected to reach US$30.4 billion by 2026, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate of 42.4 per cent.

In the context of reducing social isolation and loneliness, virtual reality can enable families to connect by using these devices from several locations. An app called Alcove dubbed the first family-oriented virtual reality app is a virtual home that allows families to be together in the virtual environment from any location. This can be customised to their needs.

Another simple and easily implementable method is to outfit each patient bed with an Internet connected tablet device so that patients are easily able to navigate social sites, have video calls with family and friends, and access entertainment while they are admitted. They could also use it for services within the hospital. This, along with other similar technology, could go a far way in combating loneliness and social isolation and, therefore, improve patients overall health.

Doug Halsall is chairman and CEO of Advanced Integrated Systems. Send feedback to doug.halsall@gmail.com.

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Health + Tech | Using technology to cope with isolation, loneliness - Jamaica Gleaner

The eco-system in India for self-driving technology is flourishing, with innovation occurring at every level including sensor technology.

The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) is an influential tech event held annually in January. In this years edition (CES 2022), General Motors announced its plans to introduce a personal autonomous vehicle by 2025. MobilEye, a leader in autonomous driving, presented its technology roadmap with an emphasis on robustness and safety. These companies are not alone. Waymo has been operating driverless cabs in Phoenix since 2019. Apple reportedly has plans to build an autonomous car in the next few years. At the heart of this technology are three sensors: camera, radar and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), all of which help the vehicle accurately perceive its surroundings. Surprisingly, much of this sensor technology is already present in cars on the roads today. Cameras and radar sensors routinely provide driver-assist features such as: ensuring that cars stay within lane markings, warning of approaching vehicles during lane changes and maintaining a safe distance to the vehicle in front.

THE GIST

A camera system operates much like a human eye it can discern colours, shapes, recognise traffic signage, lane markings etc. Most cars have stereo cameras i.e., two cameras separated by a short distance. This enables it to perceive depth (like humans). However, a camera does have its limitations. It does not transmit any sensing signals and relies on ambient light that is reflected from objects. So, the absence of adequate ambient light (at night) limits its ability, as can other environmental conditions like fog and blinding sunlight.

A radar sensor transmits its own signals, which bounce off targets and reflect back to the radar. Thus, unlike a camera, a radar is not dependent on ambient light. Further, a radar transmits radio waves which can penetrate fog. The radar measures the time between the transmission of the signal and arrival of a reflected signal from a target to estimate the distance to the target. A moving target induces a frequency shift in the signal (Doppler shift) which enables the radar to instantaneously and accurately measure target speed. Thus, radars can accurately measure the range and velocity of targets largely independent of environmental conditions such as fog, rain and bright sunlight. However, unlike a camera, a radar cannot discern colour nor recognise street signs. A radar also has poor spatial resolution. So, an approaching car would be visible as a blob and individual features (such as the wheels, body contour etc.) would not be discernible like they would in a camera. Thus, the capabilities of a camera and a radar sensor complement each other, which is why many cars come equipped with both cameras and radars.

LIDAR is another sensor which is used in autonomous vehicles. A LIDAR scans the environment with a laser beam. In many respects, LIDAR combines the best features of both radar and camera. Like a radar, it generates its own transmit signal (thus does not depend on daylight), and can accurately determine distances by measuring the time difference between the transmitted and the reflected signal. The narrow laser beam that is used for sensing ensures that it has a spatial resolution that is similar to a camera. However, LIDAR does have its disadvantages LIDAR signals cannot penetrate fog, discern colour or read traffic signs. The technology is also significantly costlier than radar or camera.

Given the market potential, there has been a lot of effort both in reducing cost and addressing performance gaps of each of these sensors. While radar companies are developing imaging radars that significantly improve the spatial resolution of radar, there is new technology being explored that can bring down the cost of LIDAR. At the same time, the capabilities of camera-based vision perception continue to be enhanced with the application of Deep Learning. However, each sensor has its limitations based on physics and technology. While only a camera can recognise traffic signs, it cannot match the performance of radar in adverse weather conditions. Likewise, a radar cannot match the spatial resolution of a camera or a LIDAR. Experts agree that the technology for driverless vehicles cannot be based on a single type of sensor. There is however, some debate on an optimal sensor suite that is both safe and cost effective. Some researchers believe that camera and radar with a good deep learning back-end can eliminate the need for LIDAR.

The eco-system in India for self-driving technology is flourishing, with innovation occurring at every level including sensor technology. Most of the R&D for Texas Instruments Automotive Radar is happening in its India development centre. Velodyne, a pioneer in LIDAR technology, recently started a development centre in Bangalore. Steredian Semiconductors a start-up based in India has developed an imaging radar solution. Many of the leading semiconductor companies (NXP, TI, Qualcomm) are developing, in their R&D centres in India, the hardware and software for the perception algorithms that feed on these sensors.

Sandeep Rao is with Texas Instruments

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Sense and Sensitivity in self-driving cars - The Hindu

Our brains were not actually designed to work that way: How online learning harms kids well-being and what parents can do to help, Jan. 12

Psychiatrist Marjorie Robb avers that Our brains were not actually designed to work that way, to learn things through two-dimensional screens for hours on end.

But our brains arose as a result of adaptation, not design.

For instance, we were not designed to live in inimical environments, such as that beneath the ocean surface or above the atmosphere.

Many things that were once thought physically or psychologically impossible are now commonplace. In 1934, Albert Einstein said that, There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. Five years later, Fermi created the first artificial nuclear fission reaction.

Let us be pragmatic! Online learning is here to stay. At times, it may be the major source of education. There is no need to limit it to two-dimensional interaction. There is much development being done with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), as well as haptic feedback (transmitting information through simulated touch).

We should heed Platos dictum: Our need will be the real creator.

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Humans can adapt to learning online and technology will help - Toronto Star

New satellite technology is to be used to tag more offenders instead of sending them to jail.

The move is part of a raft of reforms aimed at cutting the number of people locked up in Scotlands prisons.

The Scottish Government has signed a deal with a tech firm which will provide the new system.

A high-end GPS tracker will allow law enforcement officials to keep better tabs on offenders who have been spared jail.

Justice Secretary Keith Brown revealed the move yesterday to the Record.

Last week he revealed the Scottish Government planned to cut the number of people being sent to prison in a bid to tackle overcrowded jails.

About 7750 are currently in prison in Scotland one of the largest incarceration rates in Europe.

Electronic tagging is managed in Scotland by security firm G4S. There are more than 1000 people tagged as an alternative to prison.

Brown said: The reforms were consulting on are part of a much wider community justice agenda.

This includes changes to how electronic monitoring can be used as part of a community order, providing additional safeguards.

As part of this, we have secured a national contract to allow us to introduce GPS technology which could allow monitoring across wider geographical areas, including exclusion zones.

There are complex issues to work through with this but I am committed to moving as quickly as we can so this technology can be used here.

He added: We are matching our ambition with investment. We already provide about 119million every year to drive real improvements.

The Scottish Government also wants courts to make more use of Community Payback Orders (CPOs).

Research revealed those imposed with CPOs were less likely to reoffend than offenders who were locked up.

A criminologist has backed government plans to reduce Scotlands prison population claiming packed jails damage society and tear apart families. Dr Cara Jardines book Families, Imprisonment and Legitimacy exposes how jail also punishes prisoners families and exacerbates social deprivation in communities, especially for women.

Dr Jardine said: By overrelying on imprisonment to solve what are often social problems such as poverty, trauma or addiction we place an extremely heavy burden on families and risk making social inequalities worse.

Families affected by imprisonment not only have to cope with disruption to their finances, housing, mental health, child care arrangements and relationships but they also often spend considerable amounts of time, money and effort supporting the person in prison.

The families of people in prison are very often ignored or overlooked in discussions of criminal justice policy.

Unfortunately this means we only have a partial picture of the true consequences of our very high prison numbers.

Even a short prison sentence can be very damaging to families, as many are already experiencing poverty.

We should be seriously concerned that our use of imprisonment can deepen social marginality.

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Satellite technology to be used to tag more Scots offenders rather than sending them to jail - Daily Record

A medical privacy campaigner says technology developed to track the spread of COVID-19 is a new form of surveillance that could be abused.

Phil Booth, coordinator at MedConfidential, warned that increased monitoring of wastewater from sinks, drains and toilets, which can reveal infections and drug use, needs to be properly regulated.

"The concerns will be raised more by the mission creep, the feature creep, the ways in which these miniaturised technologies might get used and abused beyond the pandemic," he said.

"There needs to be regulation of every sort of technology that can have an effect on people's lives and on individual people."

His claims follow the launch by a biotech company in York of what it calls a "mobile surveillance platform" to detect COVID in sewage from individual buildings.

The suitcase-sized equipment can be connected to any drain to send data remotely to a computer where it is interpreted using artificial intelligence.

The firm, Modern Water, says it has static monitors installed at 3,000 sites in 60 countries and can detect "medicines, pesticides, personal care, [and] hormones" in wastewater.

It began testing its Microtox PD mobile COVID monitoring system in UK municipal sewage treatment works last year.

Paul Ryan, chief business development officer at the firm's parent company, Deepverge, told Sky News he expects the new device to be available for hire within months to monitor COVID in buildings including schools, hospitals and hotels.

"This is about surveillance, this is about identifying the presence of COVID and other pathogens ahead of time," he said.

"I think there's a growing consensus that wastewater based epidemiology offers a whole new layer of information which allows national health surveillance."

The testing of raw sewage has been dramatically increased since the discovery in 2020 that it contains remnants of the COVID-19 virus.

Last year the UK government's Joint Biosecurity Centre opened a new laboratory near Exeter which is now testing thousands of samples taken from sewage treatment works and individual drains every week.

A report published in September 2021 said the centre's Environmental Monitoring for Health Protection programme was covering approximately 40 million people in England.

The increased monitoring comes as the identification of illegal drug use from sewage analysis is growing, according to an EU report published last year into monitoring between 2011 and 2020.

The report ranked 80 European towns and cities, none of which are in the UK, for consumption of codeine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and MDMA, based on drug residues found in sewage.

"The results provide a valuable snapshot of the drug flow through the cities involved," it said.

The UK Health Security Agency, which oversees the national wastewater monitoring programme, told Sky News its wastewater programme follows government data protection standards.

"The data provided to local and national decision-makers relating to COVID-19 is not considered personal data," the agency said in an emailed response.

"It cannot identify infected individuals or homes as it is designed to provide insights at a community level."

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COVID-19: Technology developed to track spread of coronavirus could be abused, privacy campaigner warns - Sky News

Law enforcement with AI should adopt AI cops for protecting law and order

Law enforcement is in charge of public safety and police officers these days rely on technology for many parts of their job. Artificial Intelligence in law enforcement has become a vital aspect of police work across the globe. AI-based police technology is increasingly becoming essential as people are witnessing a public outrage over systemic racism and biases in society. In this case, according to the survey research by Analytics Insight, 44.9% responded saying that the AI cops can make a difference in this aspect, whereas 38.8% answered no, and another 16.3% stated it maybe. This shows that the highest number of respondents think that it can change the system to an extent when it comes to eradicating biases.

As womens safety is the utmost priority these days as the number of crimes against women is increasing day by day in such situations AI cops can step in and look for potential possibilities to ensure their safety. The survey with regard to this stated that 57.1% of respondents felt that AI cops may be helpful in ensuring womens safety, whereas 32.7% stated that AI cops are better than the actual police in this safety aspect, and in contrast to this the other 10.2% voted for no. It shows that there are mixed opinions of people with regard to this, but people seem to be open that it can make a potential difference in ensuring safety.

The law enforcement agencies are already unveiling the potentials of AI in various ways such as police officers using facial recognition to identify criminals on the run and missing persons using image data. AI can help in collecting data from the cameras, it is capable of predicting where crimes will occur and it can also be adept at spotting anomalies in patterns in detecting non-violent crimes too. In this context, the survey shows that 52.1% voted to say the AI cops may be helpful to end problems faced by police forces in carrying out their daily activities. While 35.4% stated AI cops can be helpful and another 12.5% said they are not helpful. A high number of respondents feel that AI cops are helpful in this way.

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Analytics Insight is an influential platform dedicated to insights, trends, and opinions from the world of data-driven technologies. It monitors developments, recognition, and achievements made by Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Analytics companies across the globe.

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AI Cops: Protecting Law and Order with Police Technology - Analytics Insight

US retail giant Walmart is the latest company to step into the cryptocurrency bandwagon. Based on trademark documents the retail giant filed in December 2021 with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Walmart appears to be venturing into the metaverse with plans to create its own collection of non fungible tokens (NFTs).

An NFT is a digital asset that uses blockchain technology to record who owns a digital object such as an image, video, or in-game item. While anyone can view the asset in question, only the buyer can say they are the official owner.

According to a report by CNBC, Walmart filed at least seven trademarks in late December 2021 that indicates the retailers intent to both create and sell virtual goods while a separate filing indicated that the company would be offering users cryptocurrency and NFTs. The documentation states that Walmart may launch financial services, namely, providing a digital currency and a digital token of value for use by members of an online community via a global computer network.

In a statement, Walmart said it is continuously exploring how emerging technologies may shape future shopping experiences. We are testing new ideas all the time, the company said, adding that some ideas become products or services that make it to customers. And some we test, iterate, and learn from.

This development comes after Meta (formerly Facebook) signaled its intention to foster metaverses, since then there has been a rush among major brands to enter the space with currencies, NFTs or both.

Adidas, Nike, Gap and many other well-known names have started selling NFTs and hinted at intentions to create virtual spaces. Just few weeks ago, sportswear giant Adidas Originals earned $23.5 million by selling 30,000 of Adidas Into the Metaverse NFTs within a matter of hours of going on sale.

Meanwhile, people are bidding thousands to own these collectibles, and some are even selling for millions. A recent report by Cointelegraph revealed that people have spent over $9 billion in NFT sales so far.

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Walmart could soon begin offering NFTs and cryptocurrency: Report - The Indian Express

RateGain Travel Technologies, a global provider of SaaS solutions for the hospitality and travel industry, today announced that it has been awarded in four categories at the recently concluded 2022 Hotel Tech awards organized by Hotel Tech Report.

In Hotel Tech Awards' most competitive year yet, RateGain continues to maintain the #1 position on social media with BCV, while its rate parity product Parity+ and rate intelligence product OPTIMA finished as first runners' up in their respective category by a very thin margin. RateGain's channel manager, RezGain, ended up as second runner up in one of the most competitive product categories in the competition.

The Hotel Tech Awards selects winners from more than 1000 of the top hotel technology products around the world. This year 513,609 hoteliers across 127 countries visited Hotel Tech Report and contributed 11,622 verified hotel software product reviews to decide the winner.

Winners are decided based on usability, customer support, likelihood to recommend, partner network strength, and integration compatibility. In addition, winners of the Hotel Tech Awards are determined based on verified client feedback and highlight best-of-breed companies across key categories of the hotel tech stack.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, hoteliers are now more than ever looking at adopting digital solutions that can help them deliver a perfect guest experience and optimize their processes to improve profitability. However, to evaluate products and processes, most hoteliers require an independent authority to provide them with the right metrics to compare, and that is where Hotel Tech Report fills a critical gap for the industry.

"Winning a Hotel Tech Award is the highest achievement in the hospitality industry because it's based on actual customer inputs. The authentic voice of the customer decides the winners of the annual HotelTechAwards - ranking hotel software solutions based on users' experience in buying, implementing, and using those solutions," said Jordan Hollander, CEO of Hotel Tech Report.

Thanking RateGain's customers, Bhanu Chopra, CMD, RateGain, added, "This recognition is a true validation of the value we add every day to the thousands of hotels that use our products and also reflects on our commitment to our customers, investors, and employees to build bestin-class SaaS products for the industry."

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RateGain Amongst The Best Technology Products At 2022 Annual Hotel Tech Awards - Travel Trends Today

By Tanimola Oyewole

Citizens involvement and active participation in civic and political matters are cardinal to democracy. It, therefore, means that citizens involvement in governance and decision-making at all levels is a necessary tool to sustain a democracy. But this is not the case in Nigeria.

Since its return to democracy in 1999, Nigerias elections have been characterised by voter apathy. A small percentage of the population actually votes, in negation of the ideals of majority rule; one of the basic tenets of democracy. The voter apathy situation becomes awful when one considers the declining numbers that vote with each elections.

This appalling situation has thrown a challenge to the Nigerian technology community. It is indeed time to address voter apathy by adopting a mobile voting app that allows registered voters to vote with their National Identification Number-registered phone from the comfort of their homes including foreign based Nigerians.

The effort would start off by engaging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to get the requirements that the app must meet in order to qualify for the intended use. With those requirements in hand, an open invitation would be thrown out to the technology community for the development of the app and a panel of judges, including INEC, set up to assess the submissions.

The developers of the winning app would be allowed to run limited in-app advertising to recover their cost of development. The winning app would be presented to INEC and the National Assembly for legislation enabling its usage for the 2023 election. Every step taken in the process should be accompanied with massive publicity to build an all- inclusive support.

The ability of the internet to create new participative spaces as well as expand existing ones suggests it has the capacity to improve accessibility to voting for many electors. Besides, its influence on other aspects of elections and government in other climes, such as campaigning, fund raising, membership recruitment, lobbying and access to information for media and citizens, suggests that it has a progressively important relationship with electoral politics and will likely continue to have a considerable impact on the character of democracy. The newly emergent concept of electronic democracy suggests it may be useful to further explore the potential of the internet to improve the electoral process for parties, groups, election administration, and of course, citizens.

The app, when fully deployed, has the potential to make the voting process easier and more accessible for electors. This is especially true for remote internet voting and telephone voting given that ballots can be cast from any computer with internet connectivity or telephone. These latter methods substantially lower the cost of voting for many electors by creating many more access points from which they are able to vote. There is the potential to eliminate long queues at polling stations and better address accessibility issues for persons with disabilities, those suffering from illness, those serving in the military or living abroad, those away on personal travel, snowbirds and other groups of citizens such as single parents who may find it difficult to visit a traditional polling station.

Additionally, remote methods of internet voting, and in some cases kiosk internet voting, afford electors the opportunity of being able to vote at any time, a feature that further encourages an elector to cast a ballot. With regard to special populations of electors, internet (especially remote) and telephone voting may also be methods of engaging those voters who are considered the hardest to reach, particularly young people aged 18 to 30. These voters most familiar with the technology, are the most frequent reported users and would likely benefit the most from the extension of remote types of electronic voting.

It could also allow greater secrecy for special populations of electors with disabilities (including visually or hearing impaired). By voting electronically and therefore unassisted, these electors are afforded a greater degree of anonymity when casting a ballot. Enabling secrecy for these groups enhances the equality of the vote. Furthermore, enhancing accessibility and creating more participatory opportunities for electors holds promise to positively impact voter turnout.

The models could enjoy success if it is tailored to meet the specific needs of a larger segment of the voting population. The development of such apps should be based on the requirements of the electoral process as well as the specific needs of electors and other affected parties. Furthermore, the basis for a legal framework that supports internet voting and a government mandate to conduct internet voting research are important facilitating factors.

Various measures need to be considered before the next steps are taken for adopting the app for voting. These could include the gathering of additional data to measure public attitudes and those of political parties and candidates towards electronic voting. Consideration should also be given to establishing clear requirements that an additional method of voting would fulfil, as well as creating and consulting with an interdisciplinary committee of experts.

This would lay the groundwork for designing an initial small-scale trial and then progressively increasing the number of electors who vote electronically with each additional trial. These are important aspects of the process which, based on the experiences of other jurisdictions, appear to be both relevant and necessary toward creating a successful framework upon which such app can be effectively developed.

Oyewole is a development strategist in Lagos

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Time to deepen democracy with technology - By: . . - Daily Trust