All posts by Paul Stradling

News

Tech Insight : Ultra-Accurate GPS (10 cm)

In this insight, we take a closer look at the new alternative positioning system to GPS that is accurate to within an incredible 10 centimetres.

Issues With Current GPS System 

Society heavily relies on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) like GPS for positioning and navigation, as well as the distribution of time and frequency reference signals. Although current GPS works reasonably well and has a high economic value, it has some limitations. These include:

– It uses satellites. This can mean that when received on Earth, radio signals can be weak, thereby affecting the usability of GPS positioning.

– GPS can be unreliable in urban areas because buildings block the radio signals. This has implications for location-based applications, navigation devices, and for new technologies like automated vehicles.

– GPS often doesn’t work in indoor settings due to radio waves being blocked by physical barriers, e.g. walls and other objects.

– The narrowband GNSS-signals (used in GPS) offer lower data rate transmissions, i.e. slower communication.

– There is no back-up system to GPS.

SuperGPS 

‘SuperGPS’ is the new system developed by researchers at Delft University of Technology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and VSL. SuperGPS was specifically developed to tackle many of the limitations of GPS and to work as a hybrid optical-wireless system for accurate positioning, navigation and network synchronisation for many applications.

How It Works 

Instead of using satellites, SuperGPS uses fibre-optic connections in the telecom network, synchronised to an accurate optical atomic Master clock, and the system uses wideband radio signals, rather than today’s narrowband GNSS-signals. This creates a synchronised optical network which serves as a backbone for a wireless enhanced terrestrial positioning system.

The Benefits 

The benefits of SuperGPS compared to GPS are:

– It could be more accurate and stable. The SuperGPS researchers say that it has 10-centimetre accuracy compared to (the several metres of) GPS, with greater stability.

– It works where GPS doesn’t, i.e. it works in circumstances in which satellite navigation is not available, or only with strongly reduced performance.

– Its simultaneous data, time and frequency transfer offers two important systems in one, i.e. connectivity like the existing mobile and Wi-Fi network, and accurate positioning and time distribution like GPS.

– Futureproofing. It offers the kind accurately synchronised infrastructure that will be needed for future applications of wireless terrestrial positioning systems, appropriate signal processing and positioning techniques.

– SuperGPS uses the existing fibre-optic connections in the telecom network, thereby speeding up its introduction and keeping costs down.

Applications 

Currently, GPS has a relatively wide variety of applications including communications networks, banking systems, financial markets, and power grids, logistical supply chain management, precise time synchronisation, wireless services, personal devices including mobile phones and watches, and more.

It is hoped that the new, more accurate SuperGPS with stronger, more reliable signals will deliver many new benefits for personal smart devices, industry and e-commerce, wireless Internet (4G+), Cm level positioning, science, quantum communication, and new/emerging technologies like smart highways and autonomous vehicles.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

The reliance upon satellites in the current GPS system can mean that weak signals being blocked by buildings and other objects can affect its reliability and accuracy. The new SuperGPS system’s use of fibre-optic networks, increased speed and accuracy mean that it could offer a much more stable, reliable, and effective earth-based localised alternative. These benefits, along with its two-in-one simultaneous connectivity, coupled with accurate positioning and time distribution give it the kind of scope that is needed for next level communications and new technologies like autonomous vehicles. Putting this kind of improved infrastructure in place could boost industries like autonomous vehicles, have positive knock-on efficiency effects across many industries, plus lay a foundation for a whole new realm of innovation.

News

Tech News : Personalised (Printed) Pills

A Helsinki startup has developed a ‘Medicine-as-a-Service’ system where drugs can be 3D printed to exactly match the needs of the patient in terms of their size, physiology, species, plus any allergies.

CurifyLabs   

According to CurifyLabs, the startup that has created the system, there is one big drawback to the existing methods of administering medication. CurifyLabs says that the pharma industry’s capital-intensive processes to produce large volumes of tablets that are identical in dose, shape and size mean that these tablets may be unsuitable for treating patient populations who need more individualised treatments.

For example, these include:

– Pets, the variety of which varies widely and each species may need different size/shape tablets for different conditions.

– Children, because they have specific needs due their small body weight.

– The elderly, who often have trouble swallowing.

– Any patient group who currently have a very limited amount of suitable treatment options and benefit from tailored dosage forms and/or must have allergen-free treatments.

These issues mean that many current drug treatments are suboptimal for these groups, resulting in undesirable side effects and poor treatment efficacy.

The Solution? Curify MiniLab 

According to Curify, the answer is to develop a small-scale manufacturing system which can be used effectively in a busy pharmacy and that can produce personalised medicines of any size, shape, or flavour to exactly meet the needs of niche patient groups.

The Curify MiniLab, which looks a bit like a small, stainless steel-finished fridge/microwave size cabinet with lab technology and tools inside enables on-site, sustainable, on-demand manufacture of medicines, customised to provide effective treatment for all patients. It can be used, for example, in pharmacies (it’s targeted primarily at pharmacists), clinics, veterinary practices, and other locations where tablets need to be dispensed.

Technology 

Some of the key tech elements of MiniLab are:

– A user-friendly platform which the company says, “turns pharmacy compounding into a digital experience”.

– 3D printing technology, giving control over the composition of tablets.

– A built-in quality control system and technology that allows printing directly into blister packs.

Benefits 

Some of the key benefits of using the MiniLab are, for example:

– It could provide more effective treatments with fewer side effect risks for niche patient groups.

– It’s automated and seamless so requires less attention/time from human workers and eliminates the human error risk (in the manufacturing process).

– The precise, small batch production of pills mean less wastage.

– Being a self-contained, digitised unit with built-in quality control, it makes it easier and quicker to make high quality, targeted medicines, as and when required.

– It’s adaptable with a lot of scope, i.e. it can be used for many different niche patient groups, human or animal.

– Printing pills straight into blister packs makes it safer, i.e. no risks from human handling.

– With the system being digital, this removes the need for manual paperwork (saving time and wastage) and enhance efficiency.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?

Although the MiniLab is essentially targeted at pharmacies, giving them a fast, less labour-intensive way to more closely meet the needs of niche patient groups, it could be used in many other medical/clinical settings. This product is an example of how leveraging a combination of technologies can have the potential to solve not just long-standing treatment problems but could have significant human benefits too.

It is also another example of how, as in so many industries now, 3D printers are being used innovative ways to simplify manufacturing challenges. If this product (and others like it) proves to be successful, it may even change how we treat illness and lead to medicines that treat you as an individual by tailoring drugs to precisely to your body. In doing so, as highlighted by Curify, it may “remodel the world of health”.

News

Tech News : New Deadline To Remove Huawei

Following the UK government’s decision back in June 2020 to remove all Huawei Equipment From 5G Network Cores, the deadline has now been pushed back to December 2023.

Why Remove Huawei Equipment? 

The decision to remove the equipment in the UK dates back to the Trump era in the US, however worries about national security due to Huawei’s possible links to the Chinese state date back much further. For example:

2001 – Allegations from India’s intelligence agencies that Huawei was helping the Taliban.

2003 – A Cisco lawsuit against Huawei in 2003 over the alleged copying of intellectual property (copying of software and violation of patents).

2007 – Concerns over whether a venture between Cisco rival 3Com and Huawei should be permitted due to a perceived lack of transparency in Huawei.

2010 – Concerns after Huawei products and equipment were tested for security holes at a Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) in Banbury. The factory-style centre was set up as a partnership between Huawei and the UK authorities to make sure that the UK’s telecoms infrastructure is not compromised by the involvement of Huawei.

2012 – A US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee report flagged-up the potential for Chinese state influence from both Huawei and ZTE.

2018 – The ‘Five-Eyes’ espionage chiefs from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S. agreed at a meeting to contain the global growth of Chinese telecoms company Huawei (the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment) because of the threat that it could be using its phone network equipment to spy for China. From here, bans on Huawei Technologies Ltd as a supplier for fifth-generation networks equipment followed in the US, Australia and New Zealand, plus Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, was detained in Vancouver at the request of U.S. authorities, for allegedly violating US sanctions on Iran.

2019 – The US Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Huawei with bank fraud and stealing trade secrets. Also, in the US in 2019, Huawei was put on an export blacklist in 2019 (the entity list), banning the telecom giant from buying components and technology from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval.

2020 – January, in the UK, the government at first said that it would allow Huawei equipment to be used in the country’s 5G network, but not in core network functions or critical national infrastructure and not in nuclear and military sites. Then, following White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney visiting the UK to help dissuade the UK from using Huawei’s products in phone networks. Furthermore, after warnings by Robert Strayer (the US deputy assistant secretary for cyber and communications) that allowing Huawei to provide key aspects of the 5G network infrastructure could allow China to undermine it and to have access to “sensitive data”, GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) produced a new report about Huawei’s products and security.

2020 – In July, the UK government went back on its original decision to use some Huawei equipment in non-core parts of the UK’s 5G network and has opted to remove all Huawei kit by 2027

2020 – In the US, the Trump administration issued an executive order banning US companies from doing business with Huawei (due to national security concerns) including supplying equipment for network infrastructure, particularly 5G. The ban was extended in 2021.

March 2021 – In the US, five Chinese companies were put on a “covered list”, identifying them as posing a threat to national security under a 2019 law to protect US communications networks. The list included Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications Corp Hikvision and Dahua.

Deadlines In The UK 

In the UK, the original deadline to remove all Huawei Equipment From 5G Network Cores was set for January of this year. Also, BT and Vodafone have been told to remove Huawei 5G equipment from their core by January 2023 (at the latest).

It is still the case that under The Telecoms Security Act (passed last year), no new Huawei 5G installations can be added and all Huawei products must be removed from UK networks by the end of the year 2027.

The new extension, however, now means that:

– Telecoms companies in the UK now have until December 2023 to remove Huawei equipment from their 5G mobile connectivity (network cores).

– The deadline for companies to cut the amount of Huawei equipment used in their non-core networks to 35 per cent has been extended from July 2023 to Oct 31, 2023.

– All 35 telecom network operators in the UK have been informed of the change by legal letter.

New Ban In the US Last Week 

Last week there was news that the Biden administration has banned any approvals of new telecommunications equipment from Huawei Technologies and ZTE. The reason given is that they pose “an unacceptable risk” to US national security.

News

Featured Article : AI Content Legal Challenges

Following a copyright lawsuit against an AI code generator and industry questions about who actually owns images made by AI text-to-image generators, we look at the legal issues (and others) surrounding generative AI.

The Issue 

The recent lawsuit and questions from coders, artists, musicians, and other creatives show that the challenge is that there is currently a lack of clarity around issues of ownership relating to the output of AI content generating tools. There are many issues at the heart of the whole generative AI area, including:

– AI tools that generate images, code, text, and music are relatively new and how and what they produce hasn’t yet been subject to much legal scrutiny.

– AI content generating tools are built using with algorithms that have trained on previous work produced by humans and, once again, need more scrutiny.

– As noted by visual artists, the legality and ethics of AI that incorporates existing work needs to be examined. Also, AI art tools that have been trained on work by specific artists can copy their style in the images they produce. This could have a negative impact on the artist’s income.

– It is not clear exactly who owns an image or other piece of content that generative IT tools produce. For example, is it the owner of the AI that trains the model, or the human that prompts the AI with words?

The Lawsuit – Who Owns AI Generated Code?

The recent class-action lawsuit filed in California was focused on an AI tool called GitHub Copilot which automatically writes working code as the programmer types. The coder who filed the lawsuit argued that the code-writing tool may be infringing copyright because it doesn’t provide any attribution for the open-source code it reproduces. Some open-source code, for example, is covered by a license that requires attribution.

It should be noted that GitHub’s CEO has now said that Copilot now has a feature that can be enabled to prevent copying from existing code.

DALL-E Prompts Questions About Copyright And Ownership Of AI Generated Images 

Another recent example of generative AI that has prompted industry questions relating to copyright and ownership is OpenAI’s DALL ·E tool. DALL·E 2 is an AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language using a process it calls “diffusion” (see: https://openai.com/dall-e-2/). Although for a subscription, users are given full usage rights to reprint, sell and merchandise the images they create with the tool, creative professionals have been asking questions about generative AI ownership issues like the ones mentioned above.

Other Examples Of Generative AI Tools 

GitHub Copilot and DALL·E are by no means the only AI generative tools available. Others (and there are many more) include:

– Images (text-to-image) – Starryai, Craiyon, and NightCaf.

– Video (text-to-video) – Synthesia, Lumen5, and Elai.

– Design – Khroma, Designs.ai, and Uizard.

– Audio (text-to-speech voice generators) – Replica, Speechify, and Play.ht.

– Music -AIVA, Jukebox, and Soundraw.

– Text – Jasper.ai, Peppertype, and Copy.ai

– Code (text-to-code) – Tabnine, PyCharm, and Kite.

Copyright Law 

Up until now, the Internet has created a challenging area to keep track of legally, nevertheless some basic copyright rules apply. That said, so much digital (and non-digital) work is continuously created that there is no one copyright register in the UK for the online world. Instead, the law simply states that a person automatically enjoys copyright protection when they create something, e.g. original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic work (including illustration and photography). This automatic ownership also applies to creating original non-literary written work, such as software, web content and databases.

If a person has copyright protection in the UK, it should mean that nobody else can copy, distribute (paid or free), rent, or lend copies of that work, make an adaptation of the work, or put that work on the Internet. However, AI content generating tools are blurring those lines and raising new ownership questions.

Fair Use 

Some legal and tech commentators have pointed to the possible importance and relevance of US copyright ‘fair use’ in making decisions about (for example) the output of text-to-image generators. For example, in Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc (2021), it was decided that Google’s use of Oracle’s code was ‘fair use’, and the focus of the decision wasn’t whether the material copied was protected by copyright.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

This is a relatively new area where, as with so much of AI, the technology and its usage appear to be advancing faster than regulation and laws. This is generating more questions than clear answers, thereby creating uncertainty. For creatives such as musicians and artists, generative AI could be a threat, e.g. copying their style or work, as well as an opportunity.

For coders too, generative AI tools could represent a threat although, as with GitHub’s CoPilot, features could be added to the tools to lessen the threat. However, generative AI is a growing and lucrative market with the potential to step on many toes, hence the inevitable lawsuits. Users of generative AI services may also have doubts about the absolute legality of what they produce and publish using generative AI services, e.g. it may not always be clear whether AI-produced text for blogs contains copied material or is even factually accurate.

It appears, however, that the courts in each country will be the way that disputes about infringements by generative AI are decided and settled. Generative AI tool producers will need to keep a very close eye on how their algorithms work and the legal outcomes and implications of various cases as they are decided. For businesses using generative AI tools (e.g. to create images or other content), it undoubtedly meets a need in a new and innovative way, can save time, add value, and be a source of new strengths and opportunities. For the large, well-established photo/image retailers, these tools may currently represent a threat so it remains to be seen how markets such as this react.

News

Sustainability : World’s First 3D-Printed 100% Bio-Based House

The University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) in the US has unveiled the first 3D-printed house made entirely with bio-based materials.

BioHome3D 

The 600-square-foot prototype ‘BioHome3D’ has 3D-printed floors, walls and roof made of wood fibres and bio-resins. The fully recyclable house also has 100 per cent wood insulation and customisable R-values. ASCC has also said that another bonus of Biohoime3D is that the precision of the printing process of the house construction means that waste was almost eliminated.

Could Solve Housing Problems and Help The Environment 

The University of Maine has highlighted the advantages of the technology in helping with a housing and environmental crisis as:

– Addressing labour shortages and supply chain issues that are driving high costs and constricting the supply of affordable housing.

– The use of automated manufacturing and off-site production cutting the time for on-site building and fitting up the home.

– Printing using abundant, renewable, locally sourced wood fibre feedstock reducing the dependence on a constrained supply chain, supporting the revitalisation of local forest product industries, and making the process more resilient to global supply chain disruptions and labour shortages.

– The sustainably grown wood fibre used is a renewable resource that captures carbon during the tree growth cycle. This could help reduce the 40 per cent of global carbon emissions that buildings account for (UN Environment Programme figures).

– BioHome3D houses could act as carbon storage and sequestration units during their lifetime and after they are recycled.

How And Where? 

The prototype BioHome3D was printed in four modules, then moved to the site and assembled in half a day. Electricity was running within two hours with only one electrician needed on site.

The house is sited on a foundation outside ASCC and has been equipped with sensors for thermal, environmental, and structural monitoring to test how it performs through a Maine winter. Researchers say they expect to use the data collected to improve future designs.

Scalable 

ASCC says it will be able to scale its advanced manufacturing research in housing construction with the opening of the Green Engineering and Materials (GEM) research ‘Factory of the Future’. When complete, GEM will serve as a hub for AI-enabled large-scale digital hybrid manufacturing and will have bays dedicated to scaling up the production of housing, such as BioHome3D, as well as boatbuilding (an important industry in Maine).

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

Finding ways to quickly provide enough affordable housing while facing a labour shortage are two big challenges in themselves. The BioHome3D, however, looks as though it may be a way to meet these challenges whilst also addressing ecological and climate change challenges i.e., by using sustainable, renewable, locally sourced, recyclable natural resources in a way that also captures carbon. The fact that the main parts of this type of home can be pre-made (printed in four modules), then moved to the site and assembled in half a day with only one electrician needed on site shows huge promise in terms of cost and labour saving and getting affordable homes to where they’re needed fast. This project is another example of the enormous potential of 3D printing technology and how its innovative use is revolutionising many parts of different industries. Being in Maine where boatbuilding is an important industry, 3D printing at scale in this way also shows how this method could be adapted easily to build boats. This is an exciting development that could be reproduced in other parts of the world and could create new opportunities not just in housing but in many different industries and sectors.

News

Security Stop-Press : WhatsApp Data Breach: 487 Million User Phone Numbers!

According to a Cybernews report, it has been alleged on a hacking community forum that 487 million WhatsApp user phone numbers from 84 countries, including the UK, are for sale online as part of a database which may have come from a breach. It’s been reported that the UK dataset contains the phone numbers of 11 million users and is being sold for a per-capita sum of $2,500. The advice is, if you need to check whether your number or email has been stolen in a breach, use a site like https://haveibeenpwned.com/. To make accounts more secure, choose strong passwords, don’t share them between accounts, use 2FA where possible, and use a good authenticator app.

News

Tech Tip – Find And Share The QR Code For Any Website

If you’d like a quick way to share a page from any website, Google Chrome gives you the option to share a QR code for any page. Here’s how it works:

– After making sure that your Google Chrome browser is updated to the latest version, go to the page on any website that you want to share.

– In the address bar, top right, find the ‘share this page’ symbol (an arrow in a box) and click on it.

– Chose ‘Create QR Code’.

– Either copy the QR link code, click ‘Download’ to download the QR code, or scan the on-screen QR code with another device’s camera.

News

Tech News : WhatsApp’s New Business Directory Search Function

WhatsApp has given a progress update on new business-focused features that can embed the entire shopping experience directly into the WhatsApp chat.

Find A Business – Browse Businesses By Category 

WhatsApp says that it is launching a new ‘Business Search’ feature. This allows users to browse businesses by category, or search by the business name. WhatsApp says that using this feature within the app can “save people from having to find phone numbers off websites or type a number into their contacts.” 

Also, WhatsApp says an added privacy bonus of this feature is that whatever users search for within business search is processed in a way that means it can’t be linked back to their account.

Make Secure Payments Within Chats 

Although WhatsApp stressed in its progress update that its “first principle remains keeping people in control of their conversations”, i.e. its message service, its new secure checkout feature allows users to make a secure payment right from a chat with their credit or debit card. Recently launched in India and being tested in Brazil with “multiple payment partners,” WhatsApp describes the seamless checkout within its App as “a game-changer for people and businesses looking to buy and sell on WhatsApp without having to go to a website, open another app or pay in person.” 

Many Business Focused Features Being Introduced 

These latest features follow WhatsApp’s launch of ‘Communities’ which was designed to capitalise on the fact that many non-profit organisations, as well as businesses now use WhatsApp, and build more engagement and loyalty among these valuable segments. Meta’s WhatsApp has been introducing many features over the last few years designed to attract more business users an monetise the app. These include, for example, voice and video calling, the ability to share files within WhatsApp up to 2GB in size, improvements to voice messaging, Linked Device (WhatsApp Web) and more. WhatsApp already has ‘WhatsApp Business,’ launched in January 2018 in the UK.

Staying Within The App 

The new WhatsApp features also highlight how many apps, WhatsApp included and recently Zoom (with its Mail and Calendar Clients and Services) are trying broaden the range of services that can be accessed within their apps so users (especially business users) don’t have to leave the app. Eventually, many apps are looking to become ‘super apps’ that provide a diverse range of service and shopping opportunities in one app.

Trouble At Meta Mill 

Recently however, following a slump in advertising revenue from Facebook and Instagram, alongside two poor financial results from investor confusion about and huge investment in the slow-burning Metaverse concept, there’s trouble for Meta. WhatsApp’s owner Meta recently announced that it was laying off a massive 13 per cent of its workforce globally in re-structuring. The pressure, therefore, is now even more on WhatsApp to bring in more revenue and attract more business customers.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

With Meta’s recent poor financial performance, declining advertising revenue from its core services, plus competition from other apps targeting the business market WhatsApp needs to keep adding more features (as it has been doing for some time) and broadening these features to attract and bring in more revenue from business customers.

Features like business search and secure checkouts within chats may help both businesses and users as well as a way to keep users within the app and move it more towards being a potential complete and secure service. This will help WhatsApp compete in an environment where individual apps are trying to gain share by expanding their range of services to become one-stop shops and super apps.

News

Tech News : UK Could Be Like Silicon Valley Says Hunt

Speaking in the House of Commons, UK chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt said that Brexit “freedoms” could be leveraged to “turn Britain into the world’s next Silicon Valley.” 

How? 

Mr Hunt highlighted artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technology and robotics as key areas he believes the UK could excel in. In his speech, he drew upon ‘lessons’ from a previous Conservative chancellor, Nigel Lawson, and highlighted four changes that he believes could support innovation and make the UK a major technology centre. These are:

– By the end 2022, the UK government plans to make changes to EU regulations in five growth industries: digital technology, life sciences, green industries, financial services, and advanced manufacturing. Mr Hunt suggested that these regulations changes will, helped by Sir Patrick Vallance, “support safe and fast introduction of new emerging technologies.” 

– Legislating to give the Digital Markets Unit new powers “to challenge monopolies and increase the competitive pressure to innovate.” Mr Hunt believes this could help create a more favourable competitive environment for UK tech companies.

– Increasing funding for the UK’s nine catapults (nine leading technology and innovation centres) by 35 per cent and committing to the Project Gigabit ultrafast broadband roll-out with a view to maintaining the target of 85 per cent coverage by 2025. Project Gigabit ultrafast broadband is the project to connect up 7,000 more remote properties on UK’s Jurassic coastline with fast broadband by 2025.

– Reform of R&D tax reliefs to improve the effectiveness of how public money is spent.

Challenges 

Despite Mr Hunt’s ambition and optimism, tech, communications, and business commentators have been quick to highlight challenges to this vision becoming a reality. These include:

– The effects of the recession (which may last years) and the cost-of-living crisis.

– A predicted fall in GDP, rising unemployment (predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility / OBR).

– A tech skills gap and 60,000 vacancies in the IT sector.

– A need to give investment help more equally across the country and to close the digital divide.

– Worries that cutting R&D tax credits for small businesses could adversely affect the UK’s most innovative start-ups.

– Concerns that the UK is lagging behind other countries in terms of fast broadband provision and the rollout of 5G, thereby affecting competitiveness.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Mr Hunt’s aim and vision to boost the UK’s technology industry and make it a tech centre has been welcomed by many but has echoes of previous pledges over many years to make this happen. The UK has suffered from a tech skills gap for many years and Brexit led to fears that skilled tech workers, many of whom came from overseas, would leave (which happened in many cases), leaving employers struggling to attract new skills compared to other countries. Mr Hunt’s speech highlighted his beliefs, however, that changes to regulations (which in reality, are unlikely to happen until the end of next year) and challenging monopolies could be a way to create a more favourable environment for tech innovation to flourish in the UK.

The idea of cutting R&D tax credits, however, appears to have the potential to be counter-productive to the aim of giving a boost to innovative small businesses. The recession, cost of living crisis, tech skills gap, and the UK lagging behind in terms of fast broadband provision and 5G rollout are very tough challenges that are hard to ignore and so it appears that there’s a lot of work to do to make the UK like ‘Silicon Valley’ although the ambition and the vision are welcomed.

News

Tech Insight : Google’s New Features For Maps, Search, And Shopping

Following the roll-out of a range of new features for Google’s Maps, Search and shopping, we take a look at what they are and what benefits they could bring to users.

Two New Features For Shopping 

It’s the ideal time of year to introduce new features to Google Shopping, hence the roll-out of two new features now. They are:

1. AR Shopping. This feature allows users to see how beauty products would look on their face, i.e. whether a shade of foundation would suit them. To do this, Google’s AR shopping presents users with a photo library featuring 148 models representing a diverse spectrum of skin tones, skin types, ages, genders, face shapes and ethnicities.  Users can search for a foundation shade on Google across a range of prices and brands, and see what that foundation looks like on a model with a similar skin tone, including before and after shots. This can help make the decision of which one to purchase easier, more convenient, more personal, and may give the user more chance of selecting the right product. Once a foundation brand/type is selected, the user can then select a retailer to buy directly through Google. This feature is helpful for both retailers and customers, and, like several of the other new features, may encourage more of boost in Google Ads plus more engagement with Google’s services from businesses.

2. Try out products in 3D and AR. This feature allows customers to examine a product all the way around, e.g. spin and zoom, as well as see a product up close. For example, users can look at shoes in their space so they can really decide if elements like the colour, laces, tread, or sole fit their style. As of now, Google says users can look at brands like Saucony, VANS and Merrell in 3D and AR, and that other brands are on the way. To use the feature, it’s a case of typing (for example) “Shop blue VANS sneakers” and tapping “View in my space.”

Three New Features for Maps 

Originally announced in September but rolled out in time for the festive season, Google has introduced three new features for Google Maps which are:

1. Live View. Using a combination of AI, billions of Street View images and augmented reality, Google says this feature allows users to navigate a city more intuitively. For example, Google says tapping the camera icon in the search bar lets users see nearby stores, coffee shops, banks and ATMs, and AR-powered directions and arrows show which direction a user is travelling and how far away they are. Users can also tap on different place categories to explore what restaurants, bars, dessert shops, parks and transit stations are nearby. One really helpful aspect of the feature is that AR overlays key information about each spot, e.g. opening times and prices. For users who are not very familiar with the area of a city they’re in (e.g. for a shopping trip), this could be a real timesaving and value-adding feature. Google says that this feature is first being rolled out for use in London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Tokyo (on Android and iOS).

2. Find the best charging station for your electric vehicle. Although Google Maps already gives some real-time charging point information, with the new feature, users can search for “EV charging stations” and select the “fast charge” filter. Users can also see stations with chargers 50kW or higher (to charge up faster) plus, in some cities, the feature will allow users to filter for stations that offer a particular EV plug type. One of the key challenges for EV owners is finding suitable charging points nearby which can be more of a headache if you’re not familiar with the area, so this new feature offers convenience, greater peace of mind, and saves time for users.

3. See wheelchair accessible, stair-free places. Using information from business owners and contributions from the Google Maps community, this feature can be useful not just for wheelchair users, but anyone with a pushchair, or luggage. Tapping the “Accessible Places” setting in the Google Maps app shows a wheelchair icon on the business profile if it has a wheelchair accessible entrance, plus the same icon with a strikethrough if it’s a non-accessible place. Users can also use the feature to check if a place has accessible seating, disabled toilets and suitable parking. Business owners can contribute to this; i.e. they can show that their business is accessible by finding their profile, tapping “About,” and then “Edit features.”  Although Google Maps has given accessibility information since 2020, this feature expands the scope of what users can find out in advance and could therefore be extremely helpful, save time, and save potentially poor experiences. With this feature, Google is leveraging different technologies to advance the idea of virtual shopping (similar to the Metaverse idea), handling the whole shopping process, and linking directly to retailers in Google, e.g. advertisers, thereby appealing to brands, retailers and customers as well.

Search 

Google’s core service has always been its search, and this has been expanded  again with two new features that link it with local food businesses, thereby competing with aspects of food ordering apps, and its Maps feature. The new Search features are:

1. Search for your favourite dish. Originally announced in September, this feature allows users to save time and increase the personalisation and precision of their search. Users can search for an exact dish, and where they can find it nearby by typing the dish name into search, e.g. “mac and cheese near me.”

2. Multisearch near me. The introduction of this feature means that Google Lens in the Google app can be used to snap a picture or take a screenshot of a dish or an item, and the words ‘near me’ can be added to quickly find a place that sells it nearby.  Cindy Huynh, Product Manager for ‘Lens’ says “This new way of searching will help me find local businesses in my community, so I can more easily support neighbourhood shops during the holidays.” 

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

With these exciting new features, Google is funding more ways to leverage, combine, and integrate its existing services (Search, Maps, and Shopping) to create more value by focusing on improving how they can be used to link them more closely to smaller businesses for use on the go.

These features are likely to be of particular interest to users at this time of year (Christmas shopping) which could in itself encourage more trial and more of a buzz about them. This combination of new features also integrates with Google My Business, Google Ads, and aspects of Search which, in turn, could make local city businesses engage more with Google’s service and could boost ad sales too. These are also a way for Google to compete with the many popular other Map apps that people now use, such as Waze, HERE WeGo, Bing Maps, MapQuest, Maps.me, OpenStreetMap, OsmAnd, and more.