Tag: Diversity

An opera is giving homeless people a stage. Film is ploughing its own furrow too: October saw the first ever film festival take place inside a US-prison. The festival was founded by a female press volunteer at California’s oldest state penitentiary and a former prison resident whose podcast was listed as a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Over two days, six...

Software can detect when video-callers are using sign language. People with speech difficulties relating to Parkinson’s disease, however, often withdraw from conversations, providing the spur for a US-based research team to improve speech recognition software. In a recent study, 211 patients read specially prepared texts or responded spontaneously to questions about everyday tasks. Over 151 hours, 74,467 answers were...

People with weakened leg muscles can still walk. And now a Swedish startup is turning its attention to people who have reduced capacity to grip. The team’s robot glove is worn over the thumb and middle- and ring fingers. It uses integrated pressure sensors to calculate any additional support required when gripping an object. Mini electric motors then activate artificial...

An intelligent bracelet can help people with hearing difficulties participate in conversations. During online meetings, the screen usually displays the person who is speaking through an integrated microphone. Not, however, when call participants are communicating by sign language. Until now. A Toronto-based startup is working on a solution using artificial intelligence, which recognises sign language and is able to...

Internal wounds could be closed by a robot with an integrated 3D-printer. Sometimes, however, a blood transfusion is required. Here, blood type and Rh factor must be identical for donor and patient, although type 0 can generally be used for types A, B and AB. Need is unpredictable, and donated blood can only be stored for 42 days. Now,...

Thanks to an app people with disabilities can date on an equal footing. And soon the same could be true for wheelchair users - at work and at home. A Lithuanian startup has developed a mobile device, which moves people from a sitting to a standing position at the touch of a button. The equipment is self-balancing and controlled...

Some car tyres can adapt their size according to the terrain. Flexible walls mean flats can be easily converted. But eyewear that automatically adjusts focus between near and distant objects? Sounds unlikely, but it’s exactly the product a startup from Japan has recently developed together with a design firm. Before first use, consumers adjust the diopter for both integrated...

A special bra can help detect early-stage breast cancer. When it comes to skin cancer, early detection is equally vital. In large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, however, treatment is either scarcely available or unaffordable. Which is why a 14-year-old schoolboy has developed a soap to help those affected access a potential cure. Alongside coconut oil, shea butter and honey,...