accurate GPS tagged posts

Hybrid laser 3-D-view. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Twente

Researchers have developed the world’s most narrowband diode laser on a chip. This laser represents a breakthrough in the fast-growing field of photonics, and will bring applications like 5G internet and accurate GPS closer. We are slowly reaching the bounds of what is possible with electronics. That is why scientists and the private sector are committed to photonics – a key technology that makes numerous other innovations possible. This involves the deployment of photons (light particles) for transporting and processing data.

For photonic chips to function as efficiently as possible, one has to be able to properly control the light signals...

This is an example of SegNet in action: the separate components of the road scene are all labelled in real time. Credit: Alex Kendall

New smartphone-based system could accelerate development of driverless cars. 2 newly-developed systems for driverless cars can identify a user’s location and orientation in places where GPS does not function, and identify the various components of a road scene in real time on a regular camera or smartphone, performing the same job as sensors costing tens of thousands of pounds.

Although the systems cannot currently control a driverless car, the ability to make a machine ‘see’ and accurately identify where it is and what it’s looking at is a vital part of developing autonomous vehicles and robotics...