An office in 2018 looks very different to one 50 years ago, but the similarities remain. There's a desk, with a typewriter/workstation, and in the corner a Photostat machine/printer. The tools have changed and evolved over the half century, but the setup is co...

By Christian Cawley | 23-07-2018

There are two key issues, or challenges, currently facing industrial automation. Together, these challenges are driving the development of a new exciting form of robotics - the cobot. Depending on who you are talking to, a cobot may be defined as either a coll...

By Mark Patrick | 20-07-2018

The nano electronics market is strengthening on the back of a raft of new technologies and products such as mobile wireless devices, the internet of things (IoT) and cloud computing. A useful working definition for nano electronics is that branch of electronic...

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 16-07-2018

A water management system dubbed the Internet of Water and being trialed in Flanders could help control water quality and improve supply, something UK water utilities might find useful. This Belgium system uses wireless-connected sensors and intelligent sof...

By Paul Whytock | 13-07-2018

Genetically engineered bacteria that can detect bleeding in the stomach and potentially other gastrointestinal problems have been combined with electronics that convert the bacterial response into a wireless signal that can be read by a smartphone. “At the mom...

By Rob Coppinger | 12-07-2018

With laptop in hand you are about to set off on your train, metro, bus or tram journey home hoping to get some work done using the onboard Ethernet. What you don’t know is the sheer number of settings, any of which can fail, that make this endeavour possible....

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 09-07-2018

Memristors are simpler than transistors, smaller, use less energy, can alter their resistance and remember previous states which could lead to computers that use less power, never forget, have improved distributed memory and processing and can switch on and of...

By Rob Coppinger | 06-07-2018

Being served drinks by a robot in a glittering high-tech bar is one thing but would you want one operating autonomously on one of your major organs? Mercifully, the scalpel-wielding-droid question does not currently arise for patients who are just about to...

By Paul Whytock | 05-07-2018

The fourth industrial revolution is fast becoming a reality in many parts of the developed world. And as this revolution comes into being, manufacturing is being transformed with a move to fully ‘smart’ or intelligent factories and the evolution of smarter pro...

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 02-07-2018

Do the challenges presented by the disclosure of the Meltdown and Spectre exploits remain locked into the usual bug-patch-repeat dynamic? Do businesses have a choice beyond putting up with PCs slowed by patching the bugs? It turns out that there could be a...

By Christian Cawley | 29-06-2018

How long it takes for a memory microchip to delete data is to be used to detect fake or failing flash memory with a smartphone app expected next year. The electronics industry faces two challenges with components, the infiltration of counterfeit parts into...

By Rob Coppinger | 28-06-2018

The market for robust relay modules is growing rapidly on the back of rising demand from heavy duty industrial and infrastructural applications. Relays come in a variety of styles and technologies and it is important to match the one that best suits their desi...

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 27-06-2018