Manufacturers and businesses use barcodes, quick response (QR) codes and radio frequency ID (RFID) tags to streamline different processes, such as inventory, manufacturing, maintenance, sales and safety, as well as...
This year’s IEC General Meeting is taking place in China, a country with a long tradition of putting up buildings that can withstand earthquakes. Centuries ago the Chinese realized that the best way to protect cities in...
Over the last century, automation has advanced in many industries. More recently people must work with non-human entities, which increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
In a city famous for its honking horns and yellow cabs, it is hard to imagine that horse drawn carriages were once the most common form of transportation in New York City. Two images of Fifth Avenue, taken only thirteen...
Fifth-generation cellular networks, known as 5G, look set to transform the way we live and work by connecting not just people but things in the so-called Internet of Things. It’ll mean smarter motorways and smarter...
Engineers and scientists around the world are racing to build quantum computing devices capable of achieving quantum supremacy, which is broadly defined as solving problems that today’s computers cannot. Quantum devices...
The digitalization of information is underway. It is enabling the use of data to better understand our preferences and provide us with the services that match our needs. At home, the data collected and analyzed ensures...
In 2019, a day of data includes 500 million tweets, 294 billion emails, four terabytes produced by a connected car, 65 billion messages sent over WhatsApp and two billion minutes of voice and video calls made, five...
The introduction of robots, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data in agriculture marks the fourth phase in modern farming, the so-called Agriculture 4.0. It follows the first one, which dates back to the introduction...
Mobile devices have rapidly changed society and the way in which we interact and exchange information. For example, the mobile phone has rapidly evolved from being purely a telephone to the complex smartphone systems of...
In parts of Asia, North and South America, Europe and Africa, digital technologies are enabling students to learn more effectively and from entirely new perspectives.
Malicious hackers are threatening public safety all over the world. In the United States, for example, the January edition of the National Intelligence Strategy Report warns, “Cyber threats will pose an increasing risk...
Today, for many, technology is an inextricable part of life and healthcare. Friendly robots administer daily medications; algorithms diagnose diseases more accurately than top specialists, and a doctor’s appointment can...
Protecting physical and digital assets, for production, storage and distribution, ensuring continuity of service, safeguarding valuable content from being stolen or misused, are some of the challenges facing broadcasters...
One of the MIT’s best-known physicists, Seth Lloyd, uses a musical analogy to explain quantum computers. Classical computation, he says, is like a solo voice that produces a series of pure tones which form a single...
Ignore the recent media reports about the failings of AI devices, from disappointing gadgets on show at the CES to malfunctioning hotel bots. Some of the stories are very funny, but all they tell us is that the...
The growth of connected devices has accelerated the convergence of the once separate domains of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), resulting in industrial IoT (IIOT).
The Internet of Things (IoT), increased connectivity and advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, such as algorithms and machine learning are enabling industries to streamline processes, improve efficiency...
At this time of the year many eyes are turned towards the new technologies coming out of big trade shows, such as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. And while new...
We use the expression “belt and braces” to mean that we are being extra careful about something. The idea is that if our belt breaks unexpectedly, our braces will ensure that our trousers stay up.
As up to 80% of cyber breaches may originate in supply chains, protecting these is an absolute priority for all organizations. Industrial and critical infrastructure assets are most at risk. The IEC has developed many...
