That's exactly what HealthMap is trying to do. It was introduced in 2006 by two researchers at Boston Children's Hospital: John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and professor of pediatrics, and Clark Freifeld, a software developer who is now studying for his PhD in biomedical engineering at Boston University. The software tool they built collects data from the Internet in real time, looking at a wide variety of sources, including Twitter feeds, local newspaper articles, eyewitness reports as well as official data from governments and organizations like the WHO and then plots pertinent information on an interactive map. "We use natural language processing, machine learning, and cluster detection to represent a global view of epidemics," explains Brownstein. "As these sources build up, they bring together a picture of a serious situation for us. Our analysts work to synthesize and we disseminate the information via various channels."

Piracy off the shores of Africa continues to be a serious problem, costing the shipping industry billions of dollars. Could robots help in the battle against pirates? ReconRobotics has teamed up with Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific to develop a concept robot that would be able to climb hulls and perform reconnaissance missions on ships seized by pirates. The micro-robot would be based on Recon's Throwbot platform, a rolling surveillance robot that can be tossed through a window, down a staircase, or into hazardous situations. It's used by military and law enforcement and can survive throws of 120 feet. The 1-pound ship-boarding bot would launch from a "marsupial robot deployment system," in which a larger robot would carry it to its deployment location.

Before he took office in 2008, Barack Obama vowed to end America's grueling conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his second term, he pledged to take the country off what he called a permanent war footing. "Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue," he said in May 2013. "But this war, like all wars, must end. But Obama leaves a very different legacy as he prepares to hand his commander-in-chief responsibilities to Donald Trump. U.S. military forces have been at war for all eight years of Obama's tenure, the first two-term president with that distinction. He launched airstrikes or military raids in at least seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. Yet the U.S. faces more threats in more places than at any time since the Cold War, according to U.S. intelligence. For the first time in decades, there is at least the potential of an armed clash with America's largest adversaries, Russia and China.

In recent years we've seen Facebook go public with a $100 billion valuation and General Motors, formerly the world's biggest company, go effectively bankrupt and need to be bailed out. And hot digital properties like Instagram, SnapChat and WhatsApp have built communities of millions of people in a very short period with very lean resources. We are now witnessing the complete transformation of business models that we knew. Value chains are now being subsumed by value networks. Uber, the taxi replacement service, with a valuation of $50 billion has no cars. Alibaba, an ecommerce outfit, with a valuation of $167 billion has no inventory.

Before he took office in 2008, Barack Obama vowed to end America's grueling conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his second term, he pledged to take the country off what he called a permanent war footing. "Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue," he said in May 2013. "But this war, like all wars, must end. But Obama leaves a very different legacy as he prepares to hand his commander-in-chief responsibilities to Donald Trump. U.S. military forces have been at war for all eight years of Obama's tenure, the first two-term president with that distinction. He launched airstrikes or military raids in at least seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. Yet the U.S. faces more threats in more places than at any time since the Cold War, according to U.S. intelligence. For the first time in decades, there is at least the potential of an armed clash with America's largest adversaries, Russia and China.

Wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas had long wanted to add up-close-and-personal images of iconic African animals to his portfolio. But to get those intimate shot of lions and leopards, he would need to crawl up right next to their sharp-toothed faces. So Burrard-Lucas devised a far less deadly alternative. SEE ALSO: The world's fastest land animal is even more threatened than we thought In 2009, during a trip to Tanzania and Kenya, he bolted a camera to a small remote-controlled, four-wheel buggy and steered the rig toward herds of elephants and rambunctious lions. His BeetleCam, now on its fifth edition, has since evolved to include new features like a remotely-operated camera tilt and a live video feed.

The still-unannounced Huawei P10 has surfaced again in newly leaked renders. This time around, however, it appears as though the device's full specifications have been leaked as well. The Huawei P10 will be powered by the 64-bit octa-ocre 2.3GHz Kirin 960 system-on-chip (SoC) with a Mali G71 GPU, 6GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage, according to Android Headlines. The leaked low-res render of the Huawei P10. As for its external design, the Huawei P10 appears to have a dual-curved display while still retaining the metallic frame.

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Chatbots are automated text conversation computer programs that use artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing to talk to customers/users. Want to disappear from a fleeting relationship? Ghostbot is a burner text messaging bot that will ghost you away. Need something to do to pass the time? Send a text to the Casper mattress company's chatbot and talk about anything and everything.

Virtual assistants are everywhere at CES this year - but one speaks louder than the rest. Amazon's Alexa has popped up in a bewildering list of devices including fridges, cars and robots. Manufacturers are clearly interested in making their appliances voice-operable, and many see Alexa as a great way to do this. But having Alexa also allows the appliances to gain capabilities, such as streaming music and turning smart lights on and off. How did Alexa come out on top and how will it benefit Amazon?