Science News

If the thought of walking home alone worries you anytime, here comes a public safety mobile phone app that offers you a virtual company by allowing your friends or family members to a keep watch over you. The application named “Companion”, originally developed by students of University of Michigan in the US with the aim of providing lone travellers in …

Tracking mobile phone data can help predict how infectious diseases will spread seasonally, a large-scale study has found. Researchers from Princeton University and Harvard University used anonymous mobile phone records for more than 15 million people to track the spread of rubella in Kenya and were able to quantitatively show for the first time that mobile phone data can predict …

Scientists, led by an Indian-origin engineer, have identified a novel way to keep a surface dry for months when submerged in water, an advance that may save billions of dollars in a variety of industries. The research team at Northwestern University in US is the first to identify the ideal “roughness” needed in the texture of a surface to keep …

Spending more than two hours daily on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram can put your kids at the risk of developing poor mental health, high psychological distress and even suicidal thoughts, new research shows. “The findings send an important message to parents and suggest an opportunity to increase mental health support service offerings on these websites,” said researchers Hugues Sampasa-Kanyinga and …

You can hide it from everyone around you, but your phone knows when you are upset and can even detect you depression. According to a research conducted by the Northwestern University, depression can be detected from smart-phone sensor data by tracking the number of minutes a person uses the phone and his daily geographical locations. The research claims that the …

Researchers have developed a new Wi-Fi-style technology that allows multiple mobile devices to be charged from a distance without the need for chargers. With this technology, so long as mobile users stay in a designated area where the charging is available, eg, the Wi-Power zone, the device, without being tethered to a charger, will pick up power automatically, as needed. …

Yes. You read it correctly. Paying bills need no longer be an arduous task if you do it through Mastercard. All you need is a selfie from your smartphone, blink once at your self-portrait and your bill is paid. That what the new mobile app that MasterCard is developing will do, CNET.com reported. The app uses facial recognition to verify …

Small add-on devices could allow your smartphone to take pregnancy tests or monitor diabetes, scientists say. Researchers at the Hanover Centre for Optical Technologies (HOT), University of Hanover, Germany, have developed a self-contained fibre optic sensor for smartphones with the potential for use in a wide variety of biomolecular tests, including those for detecting pregnancy or monitoring diabetes. According to …

Scientists are developing new adaptive mobile technology that could enable blind people to ‘see’ through their smartphone or tablet. Specialists in computer vision and machine learning based at the University of Lincoln, UK, funded by a Google Faculty Research Award, are aiming to embed a smart vision system in mobile devices to help people with sight problems navigate unfamiliar indoor environments. …

Social networking giant Facebook has partnered security software firm Kaspersky to help its users detect and clean malware from their computers. ‘Malware’ is an umbrella term used to refer to computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware and other malicious programmes. Facebook said for the past year, it has been working with anti-malware companies like ESET, F-Secure and Trend …