cross pond high tech

The US ban on Chinese tech giant Huawei and its 5G technology has sparked a heated debate on the future of information flows and their control.

Until now, however, that debate has largely overlooked how Huawei arrived at its position of tech prowess.

The Five Eyes intelligence group (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom) insist that Huawei 5G technology represents a huge intelligence risk.

Huawei flatly denies the accusation. Meanwhile, trillions of dollars in 5G revenue are at stake. Shutting down Huawei also has an extra benefit for the US — it temporarily halts Chinese progress in this extremely lucrative sector.

But how did Huawei get so far ahead in the first place? Well, according to a piece in Wired and carried by androidcentral, it all comes down to a theory crafted in 1948 and recently revived by a Turkish professor.

Amazon has patented a new version of its virtual assistant Alexa which can automatically detect when you’re ill and offer to sell you medicine.

The proposed feature would analyse speech and identify other signs of illness or emotion.

One example given in the patent is a woman coughing and sniffling while she speaks to her Amazon Echo device. Alexa first suggests some chicken soup to cure her cold, and then offers to order cough drops on Amazon.

If Amazon were to introduce this technology, it could compete with a service planned by the NHS. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier this year that the NHS was working on making information from its NHS Choices online service available through Alexa.

Amazon’s system, however, doesn’t need to ask people whether they’re ill - it would just know automatically by analysing their speech.

Amazon's new patent filing shows an Amazon Echo device which knows when you're ill CREDIT: AMAZON
Adverts for sore throat products could be automatically played to people who sound like they have a sore throat, Amazon’s patent suggests.

The patent filing also covers the tracking of emotions using Alexa. Amazon describes a system where Alexa can tell by your voice if you’re feeling bored and tired, and then it would suggest things to do for those moods.

This futuristic version of Alexa would listen out for if users are crying and then class them as experiencing an “emotional abnormality.”

• NASA patented an efficient new trajectory for sending smaller robotic spacecraft to the moon.
• The agency says it patents and licenses technologies to ensure they can achieve the "widest distribution" possible.
• The new trajectory may help a planned spacecraft called the Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder reach lunar orbit and repeatedly fly through a "cone of silence" on the far side of the moon.
• That spacecraft could detect signals from the first atoms, stars, galaxies, black holes, dark matter, and more, leading to big discoveries about how the universe evolved.

An electronic device such as a media player is formed from electrical components such as integrated circuits, buttons, and a battery. Electrical input-output port contacts are used to play audio and to convey digital signals. Electrical components for the device are mounted to a substrate. The components are encapsulated in an encapsulant and covered with an optional housing structure. The electrical input-output port contacts and portions of components such as buttons remain uncovered by encapsulant during the encapsulation process. Integrated circuits are entirely encapsulated with encapsulant. The integrated circuits are packaged or unpackaged integrated circuit die. The substrate is a printed circuit board or is an integrated circuit to which components are directly connected without any printed circuit boards interposed between the integrated circuit and the components.