When Worlds Collide, the 1951 Sci Fi film, painted a rather gloomy vision of the future of mankind on earth. However, the prospects for blended reality, in which the physical and digital worlds collide, couldn't be more promising. By fusing the virtual and real worlds, the possibilities are endless. By eliminating filters and limitations, blended reality enables expression at the speed of thought to improve experiences and inspire new technology. Using healthcare as an example, blended reality has significant implications for more personalized care, prevention and treatment by converging human biology, real-world context and technology advancements.

Last year, Huawei leapfrogged a couple of fellow Chinese hardware companies to secure its spot as the third largest smartphone maker worldwide. As the company takes aim at the number two spot, it's apparently working to differentiate itself even more from the competition by developing more proprietary tech, adding to a list of components that already includes its own in-house chips. According to a new report from Bloomberg, a smart assistant is the next step. The company is said to be hard at work on a Siri/Alexa/Google Assistant competitor, employing a team of more than 100 people tasked with its creation in Shenzhen. If true, the company would join Samsung in a growing list of Android handset makers opting not to go with Google's assistant – though the Galaxy maker sped up the process a bit with its recent acquisition of Viv Labs.

London's brand new, and supposedly high-tech, phone boxes are currently little more than elaborate-looking advertising boards, according to reports. Around 100 of them were installed across the capital by advertising firm Clear Channel last year, with 500 more set to pop up before the end of 2017. Each kiosk has been designed to offer Wi-Fi, touchscreen-controlled interactive maps and payphone services, but these don't appear to be working as they should, according to The Memo. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

Facebook has announced plans to automatically play sound on the videos that pop up in your News Feed. The move is unlikely to prove popular with the vast majority of users, but video content has become increasingly important to the social network. "As people watch more video on phones, they've come to expect sound when the volume on their device is turned on," it wrote in a blog post. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

Halfway through talking to two of Nintendo's most high-powered executives, one of them pulls a playing card from his pocket. It's a strangely low-tech demonstration – especially given that they are here to talk about the Nintendo Switch, perhaps the company's most important console ever made. But that card makes beautiful sense for at least two reasons. The first: that Nintendo actually started out as a business making handmade playing cards in 1889, and the Switch is a conscious attempt to reconnect with some of the companies long and celebrated history. But more importantly it is a way of understanding the very essence of what the Switch is about, or at least how Nintendo conceives of it – it's best compared not with the PlayStation or Xbox's run of blockbuster gaming experiences, but with the fun, social thrill of a game of poker.

Makeblocks, a company known for kid-friendly robotics and DIY hovercraft-drones, is launching a new gadget-building platform called Neuron. It's like Lego meets Littlebits -- you get over 30 blocks with different functions that kids can snap together and then program to create science experiments or gadgets like an internet-connected cat feeder. The system is platform agnostic, the company says, so it can work with products like Lego and even Microsoft's Cognitive Services AI platform. There are six kits available: Explorer, Explorer Pro, Light Wizard, Science Lab, Smart Life and All-in-One. Each is equipped with basic blocks like a light sensor and adjustment knob, with the different kits featuring specialized blocks geared toward a child's interests, like cold cathode, WiFi and camera blocks.

In the hope of preventing a catastrophic asteroid from colliding with Earth, a respected astrophysicist has advised that governments should be spending'hundreds of millions' each year on defence systems. Speaking at a press conference this week, Lord Martin Rees, UK Astronomer Royal, said that humans are'vulnerable to impacts from outside.' He suggested that a two-pronged approach would be needed to ensure Earth could survive an asteroid collision – a better detection system, and a deflection system. Experts have warned that humans are not prepared for an asteroid impact, and should one head for Earth, there's not much we can do about it (stock image) Nasa is planning an ambitious mission that will see a robotic spaceship visit an asteroid to create an orbiting base for astronauts. The robot shipwill pluck a large boulder off the space rock and sling it aroundthe moon, becoming a destination to prepare for futurehuman missions to Mars.

Apple is preparing to completely redevelop its fingerprint sensor to feature in a new iPhone, according to patent filings. The rumoured development is probably a way of having the technology fit into its next handset, mostly referred to as the iPhone 8. Because that phone is likely to bring with it an entirely new design – and a range of never-before-seen features – some of the most central parts of the phone will have to be re-designed. Apple is planning on making the display of the new phone reach all the way across the front of the handset, according to rumours, doing away with the black or white plastic that has surrounded the screen in some form since the very first iPhone. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

Remember that tiny flying taxi that caused a buzz at CES 2016? That's right, the egg-shaped contraption that resembles a kind of giant quadcopter. Well, it seems the simply named "184" vehicle is ready to take to the skies this summer, ferrying paying passengers around the Emirati city of Dubai, according to an AP report. Developed by Chinese firm EHang, the 184 takes its name from having one passenger, eight propellors, and four arms. Perhaps there should be a "0" too, for zero pilots.

The first of many planned IMAX theaters dedicated to virtual reality has opened in Los Angeles. Trading large, wraparound screens for small, immersive headsets, the facility allows anyone to experience VR without buying a high-end gaming PC or video game console. As UploadVR reports, the LA center has a mixture of HTC Vive and Starbreeze StarVR headsets. They're stored in 14 isolated "pods" which also contain a Dbox cinema chair, a vibration-emitting Subpac vest and a variety of physical controllers. You can buy experiences individually, such as John Wick Chronicles, or grab a "sampler" if you want a broader taste of VR.