ARM has acquired Apical, a U.K. designer of embedded computer vision technology, and plans to incorporate that technology into future ARM microprocessor and system-on-chip designs, it said Wednesday. The move will open up new opportunities for designers of autonomous vehicles and security systems, among other connected things, according to ARM CEO Simon Segars. Computer vision is in its early stages, and Apical is at the forefront of embedding such technology, he said. Apical's technologies is already used in 1.5 billion smartphones, according to ARM, although many of those phones may be using nothing more sophisticated than a display brightness control Apical calls Assertive Display. That technology also turned up in Samsung Electronics' new laptop, the ATIV Book 9. Assertive Camera is another of Apical's developments: It's a range of software packages and silicon-based image signal processors for reducing image noise, managing color and shooting high dynamic range images.

BEIJING – It could be a blockbuster. At least that's what a Chinese-American movie studio hopes to produce in a sci-fi thriller based on the popular 1980s video game "Tetris." The 80 million ( 8.72 billion) project is the first from the newly formed Threshold Global Studios, a joint venture between Chinese entertainment investor Bruno Wu's Seven Star Works and producer Larry Kasanoff's California-based Threshold Entertainment Group, which produces live action movies. The joint venture "will make cross-cultural movies for the global market," a statement released Tuesday from the studio said. Kasanoff added that the 32-year-old video game "Tetris" is a perfect first project for this strategy.

Sony Corp. said Wednesday it has invested in U.S. artificial intelligence startup Cogitai, aiming to develop new AI technologies and release products within the next three years. Sony is believed to have obtained a roughly 20 percent stake in the company that was founded in September by three AI researchers. The move could lead to the electronics giant re-entering the robot business. Sony was an AI pioneer, known for producing robotic dog AIBO and humanoid QRIO featuring AI technologies. But it withdrew from the robot business in 2006 to improve profitability and restructure its consumer electronics business.

Round the year, investors kept showing faith in innovative data driven healthcare ideas. Market and innovators continued exploring how mobile technology could be leveraged to improve user healthcare. Global commitment to better healthcare, from both the governments as well as industry giants, strengthened. I foresee 2016 to continue carrying the momentum of this year. Several ideas and solutions that received initial support from the medical community will go mainstream next year as new paradigms will keep emerging.

CMIS Group, together with Holland FinTech, is glad to invite you to Money in a Minute, on the 20th of May in Amsterdam. Facing increasing competition and understanding the need to innovate and improve our customer relationships, CMIS Group initiates Money in a Minute, an event with the main purpose of creating valuable and successful partnerships with startups. Money in a Minute is an event with a free afternoon program where a selected group of startups will pitch in front of the audience. During this event, attendees will have the chance to get in touch with five high-level European start-ups in the fields of Artificial intelligence, Credit-scoring and Robo advisory. For any enquiries, please send your email to events@hollandfintech.com

Agriculture is considered a prime area of potential growth in the drone industry because of the technology's ability to help survey crops and gather real-time information on farmland. Crop-spraying drones or easy-to-fly devices that are designed to spray pesticides on crops, can also capture high resolution images of whole field for further analysis. Effect of crop-spraying drone usage is massive. Drones can take off and land vertically which means unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sprayer does not need a runway. They are suitable for all kinds of complex terrain, crops and plantations of varying heights.

Following a similar business tactic that drug dealers have employed for ages, developer Blizzard is giving folks who check out the upcoming Warcraft movie a free, full, copy of World of Warcraft. That's assuming you see the movie at certain Regal Cinemas (which is running a promo to send folks to BlizzCon, as well), United Artists Theaters or Edwards Theaters here in the United States. The promo is supported abroad too, with Australia, Brazil, Europe, Southeast Asia and New Zealand all getting in on the action.

I've been skim-reading articles in The Economist, The Sunday Times and The Evening Standard lately about the coming wave of robotics and automation. Those articles are all the same. They talk vaguely about how robots will replace lots of white collar workers within ten years. And they skim over the question of how the technology works. Ten years is a nice time scale for a prediction: far enough out that you can make amazing claims, close enough that they seem vaguely urgent.

IBM researchers have just revealed a new storage memory breakthrough that has the potential to speed up machine learning and access to the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as mobile phone apps and cloud storage. For the first time, scientists have demonstrated reliably storing three bits of data per cell using a new memory technology known as phase-change memory (PCM). While memory types span from DRAM to hard disk drives to flash, over the past few years, PCM has become quite popular in the industry as well, due to its combination of read/write speed, endurance, non-volatility and density. The experimental multi-bit PCM chip used by IBM scientists is connected to a standard integrated circuit board. For example, unlike DRAM, PCM doesn't lose data when powered off, and it can endure at least 10 million write cycles, while an average flash USB stick tops out at 3,000 write cycles.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google is expected to dive deeper into virtual reality and artificial intelligence Wednesday during an annual conference that serves as a launching pad for its latest products and innovations. Although Google keeps its plans under wraps until the big event, the conference agenda makes it clear that virtual reality and artificial intelligence, or "machine learning," will be among the focal points. That has spurred speculation that Google is getting ready to release a virtual-reality device to compete with Facebook's new Oculus Rift headset, as well as the Samsung's Gear VR and the Vive from HTC and Valve. Reporters and bloggers from around the world will attend, ensuring that whatever the company unveils will also be featured in stories, pictures and video delivered to a vast audience of consumers. The three-day showcase also attracts thousands of computer programmers, giving Google an opportunity to convince them why they should design applications and other services that work with its gadgets and an array of software that includes the Chrome Web browser and Android operating system for mobile devices.