'Ring' to turn arm into touchpad

                Scientists have developed a new wearable technology that may be able to turn your entire lower arm into a touchpad for a smartwatch. Called SkinTrack and developed by researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University in the US, the new system allows for continuous touch tracking in the hands and arms. It also can detect touches at discrete locations on the skin, enabling functionality similar to buttons or slider controls, researchers said. SkinTrack requires only that the user wear a special ring, which propagates a low-energy, high-frequency signal through the skin when the finger touches or nears a skin surface, researchers said.

Coming, bee-inspired flying bots

                Scientists have created a computer model to look at how bees use vision to detect the movement of the world around them and avoid crashes, a breakthrough which could help develop autonomous flying robots. Bees control their flight using the speed of motion – or optic flow – of the visual world around them, but it is not known how they do this, said researchers at the University of motion-direction detecting circuits could be wired together to also detect motion-speed, which is crucial for controlling bees’ flight.

A touchscreen you don't need to touch

                Microsoft has unveiled an experimental touchscreen which you don’t even have to touch to use. The innovative display uses an array of sensors on the front and sides of the phone to detect the user’s finger when it’s hovering above the screen. This opens up a range of interesting new functionalities – for example, when playing video, the controls to pause, play and fast-forward only appear when the user goes to touch the screen, and disappear when the phone detects the finger has moced away. Browsing webpages becomes a lot smoother, as well – hyperlinks, which can make a page look busy and confusing, aren’t visible when a user is just reading an article. When they move to tap the screen, however, the links become visible, with more appearing as the user’s finger moves around the display.

Low cost and environment-friendly solar lighting device, Solar Jyoti launched

                On 5 April 2016, Union Government launched the low cost micro solar device, Surya Jyoti. The solar dome would help rural and urban population to have a reliable access to electricity. This low cost and environment-friendly solar lighting device was launched by Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan. The device would light up homes without electricity and save millions of units of power. The device has been developed under the aegis of the Department of Science & Technology.

Scientists discover three 'potentially habitable' planets

                An international team of scientists said on 2 May that they had discovered a trio of Earth-like planers that are the best-bet so far for finding life outside our solar system. The three orbit an ultracool dwarf star a mere 39 light years away, and are likely comparable in size and temperature to Earth and Venus, they reported in a study.

                “This is the first opportunity to find chemical traces of life outside our solar system.” said lead author Michael Gillon, an astrophysicist at the University of Liege in Belgium. All three planets had the “winning combination” of being similar in size to Earth, “potentially habitable” and close enough so their atmospheres can analysed with current technology, he said.