A team of computer scientists may have developed a surprising way to curb wildlife poaching. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a team of computer scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have developed a model for "green security games" that use game theory to protect wildlife from poachers. Game theory uses mathematical equations "to predict the behavior of adversaries and plan optimal approaches for containment," explains NSF, which would allow park rangers to patrol parks and wildlife sanctuaries more effectively. "In most parks, ranger patrols are poorly planned, reactive rather than pro-active and habitual," Fei Fang, a Ph.D. candidate in the computer science department at USC and a researcher involved with the project, tells NSF. "We need to provide actual patrol routes that can be practically followed."

When it comes to new age tech segments -- machine learning, IoT, augmented/virtual reality, India still has very few startups. To boost innovation and encourage entrepreneurs working in these domains, a new startup fund called Ideaspring Capital worth 125 crores has been set up by a clutch of famed investors and businessmen, reports ET. The fund will focus on new-age tech companies working in areas such as Machine Learning and Deep Learning, Computer Vision and Image Processing, Big Data Analytics, Internet of things, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Internet Security,etc. We will invest in 4-5 firms annually. Initially, we will invest up to Rs 3 crore in the seed round that would last them for 12-18 months.

For people living in a world without sound, sign language can make sure their points of view are heard. But outside of the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities, this gesture-based language can lose its meaning. Now a pair of entrepreneurial technology students in the US has designed a pair of gloves to break down the communication barriers, by translating hand gestures into speech. US inventors have designed a pair of gloves, called'SignAloud', which translate the gestures of sign language to spoken English. The gloves (pictured) use embedded sensors to monitor the position and movement of the user's hands, while a central computer analyses the data and converts gestures to speech Called'SignAloud', the gloves use embedded sensors to monitor the position and movement of the user's hands.

Parry Malm: I studied computer science in university, and worked coding CRM software starting in 1999, so the idea of the importance of customer data is native to me. When I led a global marketing team for a FTSE250 publisher, I sent out millions of emails, and I was always perplexed as to why one worked, and why one didn't. "Here's a secret about email marketers: most of them hate writing subject lines." Because it's surprisingly hard, and it's an imperfect process, and if your subject line sucks then all your effort on the rest of the email has been a waste of time. Previous to Phrasee, marketers would just stick their finger in the air.

About a year ago, London design studio Map picked up a job from Honda. The brief called for a design for a self-driving Honda car that could, in some not-so-distant future, take passengers around the world. But the circumstances of the commission were unusual, for two reasons: (1) Map is a small firm that typically works with upstart entrepreneurs, and (2) Honda didn't even want anything tangible or buyable from Map. The automaker wanted beautiful ideas--a concept that gazed dreamily into the future of transportation. Great Journey" is the result of Map's work.

Sharp Corp. has announced the launch of a small humanoid smartphone that responds to voice commands and can project movies on a wall. Debuting May 26, RoBoHon resembles a robot and has a screen that reflects its cellphone ancestry. It is priced at 198,000 with an additional monthly usage fee, the Osaka-based firm said. "Sharp has a new vision of adding artificial intelligence to electronics products," said Yoshisuke Hasegawa, a Sharp executive. He said this merging of artificial intelligence with consumer products will be an ongoing project, dubbed "Kokoro" ("Heart").

The Go contest between Lee Sedol and AlphaGo, Google DeepMind's Go-playing computer program, was broadcast across South Korea. Scrambling to respond to the success of Google DeepMind's world-beating Go program AlphaGo, South Korea announced on 17 March that it would invest 863 million (1 trillion won) in artificial-intelligence (AI) research over the next five years. The commitment includes an already-budgeted 138.8 billion won for 2016; if the rest is spread evenly over the following four years, it represents a 55% increase in annual funding for AI. The windfall includes money for the founding of a high-profile, public–private research centre with participation from several Korean conglomerates, including Samsung, LG Electronics and Hyundai Motor, as well as the technology firm Naver, based near Seoul. "Thanks to the'AlphaGo shock', we have learned the importance of AI before it is too late" The timing of the announcement indicates the impact in South Korea of AlphaGo, which two days earlier wrapped up a 4–1 victory over grandmaster Lee Sedol in an exhibition match in Seoul.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

DUBAI // Despite rapid transformations in the way humans live, the future should be embraced and not feared, said Gerd Leonhard, author and self-described futurist. Through emerging technologies such as cloud computing and "the Internet of Things", in the next five years Mr Leonhard said 75 per cent of "the whole world" will be connected. "There's many great things about this, and there's many challenges about this," he said. "There are predictions saying that 80 per cent of the military budget in 10 years will be spent on data cloud, cyber issues. "Our world is going to change more in the next 20 years than the previous 300 years." This week, he addressed attendees at the SubOptic 2016 conference -- an event for the submarine fibre-optic cable industry -- and touched upon issues that will affect the entire internet's infrastructure, such as bandwidth and access. Mr Leonhard, a Swiss national and native German speaker, recounted an experience in Japan earlier this month where he used a mobile app to talk about fish with a Japanese-speaking sushi chef for 30 minutes. What made his conversation possible, and what will be central to the continuing change he describes, is connectivity and the role of the internet in nearly every aspect of our daily lives, he said. Language translation, as he illustrated through his sushi restaurant anecdote, as well as things such as artificial intelligence and self-driving cars, are all emerging technologies being built around connectivity. Due to interconnectivity and associated technologies, by 2030, he said roughly 40 to 60 per cent of all jobs will be completed by machines. Areas such as finance, real estate, medicine, energy and food are still to be "disrupted" in the way other industries, such as media, telecommunications and transportation, have in recent years, he said. Associated challenges that will continue to emerge will revolve around ethics, establishing limits on how humans approach issues such as artificial intelligence and human genome editing, capabilities and control over the internet's infrastructure and cyber security. "Watching the media or watching movies about the future, there's always one thing that comes up - that we're all going to die because the robots will take over the world.

Dr. Harari, an Israeli professor of history and author of "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind," made the remarks during the "Daji," China's TED-like talk show, initiated by the CITIC Publishing Group during this year's World Reading Day. The Israeli historian began this argument while citing the historic five-game match between World Go Champion Lee Sedol and AlphaGo, Google's computer program, which brought worldwide attention to the power of artificial intelligence. He forecasted that we may witness AI's emergence and domination in the decades to come. "It (AlphaGo) has no conscious or feelings; when it played, it did not feel anxious and while it won, it did not feel joy," said Dr. Harari who is frightened by a situation in which intelligence and consciousness may separate with AI conquering the world. He cited driving as an example, saying that as companies like Google and Tesla all developing AI that can outperform humans in operating vehicles, people may finally free themselves from these actions as the computer programs drive more efficiently, safely and cheaply in a highly-connected system of artificial intelligence that renders accidents and traffic jams a thing of the past.