Technology

In the future, we will not need to look down at the computer or mobile device, since we will be able to consult all the information through glasses. This Robocop-style technology is not science fiction: many companies are already working on it. Some of them presented their advances at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (USA), a huge fair where small and large companies present their ideas and innovations in electronic devices.

Can you imagine a city in which its streets are digital? Thanks to the Smart Way, the more than 50,000 citizens and tourists who walk through the center of Madrid every day will be able to receive tourist and commercial information about the area via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth: city maps, public transport plans, access to the leisure or information about events among others. All these digital services will come from a "virtual cloud" installed on the pavement.

Mii characters are the virtual avatars that users use in video games on the Nintendo Wii console. Since its launch in 2006, few gamers have resisted creating their own cartoon or that of their family and friends. The result is spectacular: there are currently more than 213 million Mii characters in the world, representing a population four times larger than the Spanish population.

In 2006, IBM predicted that by the year that is ending it would be possible, among others, to geolocation through mobile phones and simultaneous translation by voice recognition. Now, the company publishes its technology predictions for the next few years. Do you want to know what they are?

After two years of work, researchers from the University of Salamanca and the Arborea company have developed the "arachnocopter", a spider-shaped device that allows flight without a pilot and is equipped with cameras and sensors to obtain different data.

How much time do you spend checking your email each day? Of all the emails you receive, how many are really useful? These are the questions that have led Thierry Breton, CEO of Atos Origin, one of the most important European technology services companies and former French Minister of Economy, to establish a "zero-email" policy in his company. .

? Videogames are the formula one of digital content ?, assured Ignacio Pérez Dolset, co-president of Grupo Zed, a multinational of Spanish origin dedicated to multiplatform digital entertainment. In his presentation during the table dedicated to "The future of video games" at the EmTech Spain conference held on October 26 and 27 in Malaga, Pérez Dolset stressed that most of the innovation and interfaces developed in the field of new technologies have their origin in video game technologies. "Steve Jobs himself was a fanatic of video games; the iPhone would be unimaginable without the advances brought by video games," reflected the expert. Among the highlights of the "golden age" that, according to Pérez Dolset, video games are currently going through, the success of social games through platforms such as Facebook stands out, as well as consoles that use motion sensors, such as the Wii of Nintendo, which have allowed "to develop new ways of playing and attract new players." But what will happen in the future? His prognosis is that video games will have an increasingly important presence in our daily lives. We could even predict that there will be a? Gamification of everyday life ?, with new applications in health, construction, transportation, education ... In short, in the future "we will live playing." Fewer sequels and more innovation For his part, Philip Tan, Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab Executive Director, who also participated in the event, sees the present and future of video game developers a bit black. According to the experienced researcher, the problem in this industry is that the people who make video games "tend to get burned and go to another sector very soon."That's why, Tan says, video games are so similar to each other, "and users notice it." And also for the same reason, "eight out of ten of the best games in history have been sequels, second parts of others that were successful." Tan insists that "innovation is lacking because we fail to retain talented experts." If the human resources problem can be solved, Philip Tan predicts that the video games of the future will be playable over and over again because they will continually change, thanks to the use of artificial intelligence. Furthermore,? The interfaces of the future will have to connect minds with other minds, and not minds with machines ?, he predicts. And he advocates variety:? Users should have such a variety of options when it comes to playing that they can decide when to incorporate it into their "busy" lives, "whether it's on the way to work, cooking, at the gym or in the shower. That yes, according to Philip Tan, always keeping in mind that "we will never be able to compete with real life using graphics." And also "Special EmTech 2011 This will be the smart city of the future

Five Spanish scientists have been awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO Research Bags "For women in science". Selected by a committee of experts from more than 100 applications, the winners have received a scholarship of 15,000 euros, which they can use both to promote their projects and to reconcile their work and personal life. In short, it is a stimulus for their studies in the field of materials sciences and an incentive to the recognition of the role of women in science.