Sleepless nights are a given for new parents: when a baby awakes in the night, the soothing voice of a mother or father is most likely the only suitable remedy. Now, SleepHero is a sound-activated mobile app which enables parents to reassure their children in the night, without even having to wake up. The app uses a repertoire of lullabies recorded in the voice of a parent, which play automatically when the child stirs, easing them back to sleep.
Atomwise, a startup that relies on an increasingly popular type of artificial intelligence called deep learning to identify drug candidates, announced today a $6 million round of funding.
The promise of Atomwise lies in its algorithms. Instead of relying on more traditional machine learning approaches, Atomwise employs deep learning, which involves training artificial neural networks on a large quantity of data — like billions of pictures, for example — and then giving them new data to receive inferences, or predictions, in response. These systems can become more accurate over time as they receive more and more data.
Bioptigen, a medical device firm that developed and commercialized a non-invasive scanning technology for ophthalmic procedures, has caught the eye of a German diagnostics company now set to buy the startup.
Google has a thing about contact lenses. The company has done a lot of work with contact lenses used in health applications. It’s now patented a technology that employs the contact lens as an identification device.
The new patent describes a contact lens that covers all or part of the iris of the eye, and one or more light sensors embedded in the surface of the contact lens collects reflected light off the iris.
Google has acquired Lumedyne Technologies Inc., a company that has built multiple types of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors, according to a report today.
Google paid around $85 million to do the deal, which ensures that Lumedyne’s employees will be able to keep working at the company’s San Diego office, according to the report from Xconomy, citing unnamed sources.
The company’s technology could be used for several projects Google has been working on.
From Northwestern Mutual to Ping An to Transamerica, a coterie of the largest insurance providers in the world are rapidly increasing their investment activity to private tech companies. According to CB Insights, tech startup deal activity by insurance companies and their corporate venture arms rose 460% YoY in 2014. Since 2010, insurance companies have participated in $1.78B in funding to tech companies covering a broad array of companies ranging from Uber to Betterment to Coinbase.
In 1992, the novel Snow Crash introduced to science fiction readers the idea of seamlessly merging digital reality with the real world, something the author, Neal Stephenson, dubbed the “metaverse.”
The Human Genome Project was one of mankind’s greatest triumphs. But the official gene map that resulted in 2003, known as the “reference genome,” is no longer up to the job.
So say scientists laying plans for a new universal map they say will combine the genomes of hundreds, and eventually thousands, of people to create a true reference that reflects all of humanity.
The problem with the existing gene map is that it represents only one way a person’s genome could look. The new map, called a “graph genome,” or pan-genome, would use mathematics to reflect every possible twist or turn a person’s genome could take as it spirals around 46 chromosomes.
mid skepticism from many member states over the Commission’s planned European Energy Union, Germany is seeking to set an example by establishing a single energy market with its “electric neighbours”. EurActiv Germany reports.
With its planned Energy Union, the EU intends to merge 28 European energy markets, thereby reducing Europe’s dependence in the sector, promoting climate protection, creating jobs and boosting growth. The project is one of the biggest and most challenging tasks currently on the EU’s agenda.
