Those of us who've had the opportunity to know the deaf or blind/visually impaired have had a small glimpse into an entirely new world where connectively tools must work differently.  The deaf "hear" with their eyes and the blind "see" with their ears.  As a consequence, mobile phones that rely on both audio and visual functions rarely serve their needs straight out of the box.  To address this a variety of helpful mobile apps have entered the market and are revolutionizing communications for the deaf and blind.

It's estimated that by 2022 the number of jobs in the artificial intelligence field will outnumber the number of qualified workers by 30%.  Microsoft has taken notice and partnered with OpenClassrooms, a leading online educator and developed a collaboration to provide more students with masters-level education in AI tech.

Five researchers recently announced that they'd developed a way to use AI to mimic human fingerprints - which has recently become a popular security format.  Philip Bontrager of the New York University engineering school led the team and the group ultimately named their project DeepMasterPrints.

Samsung, the popular electronics manufacturer, has announced headway into their work to develop technologies that allow televisions to be controlled with brain waves alone.  This technology is being developed with the disabled in mind - such as quadriplegics or people with other conditions that affect the use of their hands.  Samsung's goal is to create the ability for these people to change channels and adjust sound volume with their mind.

Users of Windows 10 are well familiar with the inescapable grip of forced system updates - taking their system down for a period of time with no way to cancel or schedule it for later.  However, Microsoft took note of how inconvenient this is for users and implemented a snooze function in 2017.  Now, it's enlisting the help of machine learning to determine the best time to run mandatory updates that won't reboot your computer when you weren't expecting it (and losing all your unsaved work!).

Many are familiar with the Rise of the Robots and the jobless future they will leave, but is this belief based on sound facts?  Turns out it's not, and in fact robots will keep plenty of humans employed.  The change is just going to be what the humans are employed in.

According to UK consultancy firm PwC, research into the robotic AI future shows that automation will displace 38% of transport jobs, and 30% of manufacturing jobs.  However, other industries will see a different effect, such as healthcare where 12% of jobs will be replaced but 34% will be created.

Europe-based HSBC bank offered some revealing insights into the future of your interaction with banking.  As many know, more and more banking can be done remotely or even through branch ATMs, reducing the demand for in-person branch tellers for all but the most complicated banking transactions.  Artificial intelligence and mobile technologies are fueling the progression.  Because of this, HSBC is investigating new technology roles within the company to carry tech-fueled banking forward.

This week Dell EMC introduced its new Artemis 3 supercomputer, which will soon be put to use at the University of Sydney to power research and academic programs, notably those focused on artificial intelligence (AI) research under the university's UBTECH Sydney Artificial Intelligence Centre.  The university's system has an rPeak performance of 1 petaflops and an rMax of 700 teraflops, which will allow faster processing and analysis of data to expand research in ways not possible before.  Alongside AI research, the $2.3 million system will also study geophysics, cosmology, genomics, proteom

PaperFree partner OpenText recently announced OpenText Release 16 Enhancement Pack 4, a update that addresses security, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things, and cloud capabilities of their core EIM platform.  This newly-available release eases the transition to hybrid or fully managed cloud environments for enterprises and features cloud connectors to fully integrate OpenText solutions at the core of the workflow, even while working seamlessly with other technology solutions.  

Enhancement Pack 4 includes the following features:

Amazon was recently in the news for its new grocery store concept called Amazon Go in Seattle.  This store, the first of its kind and a technology testbed for Amazon, uses a variety of cameras and sensors to track items shoppers select, and then automatically charge their credit cards once they leave the store.  All the customers have to do is check in via smartphone at a kiosk at the entrance.  No waiting in lines, no cashiers, just grab your items and leave (which, admittedly, feels wrong for many shopper