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What does an electronic nose smell?

These innovative systems serve both to detect diseases through olfactory patterns and to find and deactivate explosive devices

  When it comes to competing in the animal kingdom, the human nose loses the battle at the first moment of change. According to a study by Japanese researchers, elephants have a smell five times more developed than that of humans and more than dogs. They have 811 olfactory receptors. Humans only 386, although for some scientists there is no problem.

"We can detect and discriminate an extraordinary range of smells, we are more sensitive than rodents and dogs to some of them, we are able to track odor traces and our behavioral and affective states are influenced by our sense of smell," says John McGann , associate professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

    Although the best friends of the human being, dogs, are still the preferred ones to detect explosives and prohibited substances, the advance of technology has introduced a new protagonist in this sector: the electronic naris. "A person or an animal is able to distinguish according to what smell due to sensors that connect with the neurons of the brain." An "eNose", in a certain way, does the same, "says Juan Bautista Talens, a professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV).

Bautista is part of the group of researchers at the Gandía campus of the UPV and the La Fe Sanitary Research Institute (IIS La Fe) that has developed a prototype electronic nose that can distinguish patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. More than 400 tests conducted since 2014, all based on a simple 'software' and 32 sensors. "Through the use of 'software' for data mining, we can test with different algorithms and / or neural networks reserving samples to test them and samples to train," says Bautista. This system is able to recognize olfactory patterns, so they are trying to test those substances that may have differences in their aroma. "Stools in the case of digestive diseases and urine in other pathologies",

     The device - called Moosy 32 eNose - also detects if the disease is active with an accuracy close to 90%. The nose devised by the Valencian researchers can detect volatile organic compounds that act as diagnostic markers or of intensity of the activity of the disease. "Although it may seem simple, it requires a lot of analysis, repetitions, adjustments and simulations." 

Pilar Nos, Head of Digestive Medicine at Hospital La Fe, explains that "volatile organic compounds are originated by physiological processes of metabolism in the human body, and are expelled as waste through faeces. being a differential marker in certain intestinal diseases and its precise detection, through non-invasive devices such as the electronic nose, would be a great advance for the diagnosis and monitoring of the evolution of these diseases. "

The development of this prototype has been funded by the Generalitat Valenciana. In addition, the initial part of the project - the feasibility study that served to establish the foundations of the system - was paid for by Inbio, a scientific collaboration structure between the UPV and La Fe. Although "funding has been terminated", denounce Baptist.

'ENose' cops
The technological advance in this sector is not only focused on medicine. Two researchers from the Group of Perception and Intelligent Systems (PSI) of the University of Extremadura together with the chief inspector of the TEDAX-NRBQ Group of Badajoz have developed the research work "Artificial Olfactory Systems for the Detection of Hazardous Agents".

A laborious project whose authors, Jesús Lozano Rogado and José Luis Herrero and policeman José Miguel Sánchez, have been awarded the Spanish Police Foundation Research Prize for 2016-2017. Its proposal of artificial olfactory system allows to detect chemical and explosive atmospheres remotely by means of gas sensors, combined with artificial intelligence techniques . The device, which is easy to use through a mobile phone or tablet, has as its main advantage the security it offers TEDAX specialists to be able to work remotely.

"It is an electronic system that incorporates several sensors of gases, temperature and humidity that are connected wirelessly to a device that performs data processing and indicates what type of environment the device is in," Jesús Lozano explains in an interview. release.

Current threats require a very wide field in the search for new detection technologies that are translated at the field level in equipment with high response speed, sensitivity, small size, low cost, low frequency of false alarms, etc., for improve the response to these NRBC-E attacks, in which the price does not represent a stumbling block to guarantee security.

'Low cost' system
"This electronic system, compared to other technologies on the market, has the added value of its low cost, since with only 700 euros you have similar benefits than other much more expensive detectors," says the University of Extremadura on its website.

In addition, the main advantage offered by this device is the possibility of working remotely. For the TEDAX work of the Police , one of the key requirements is security, so this point becomes vital. The electronic nose can be adapted to a drone or mobile robot avoiding personal travel to the dangerous area. In addition, you can consult the data in real time.

Laboratory tests support this system for the detection of explosives, dynamite, gunpowder, pentrite and chemical substances such as chlorine, ammonia, acetone and hydrogen peroxide. It can also detect the precursors of the TATP explosive, commonly used by jihadist terrorism. Until now, there was no detector that contemplated such a diverse range of explosives and narcotics.

Your payroll in bitcoins

Spanish companies begin to get on the cryptocurrency cart and some already think of bitcoins to pay their employees and receive payments

    A large part of the population is not clear about what bitcoins are, although it is a term that has become very popular in the last two years, but on the other hand there are those who already receive part of their salary in this virtual currency and even have the possibility of buying houses and trips with her. As in all technological advances, "it will take a few years" for the population to adapt to change and "cryptocurrencies become a day-to-day thing".

Curro Quevedo works from Zooo, a mobile repair shop in the ABC Serrano shopping center in Madrid, where one of the first cryptocurrencies ATMs in the Bitnovo company has been installed. The responsible says that although it has been installed for a year and a half, at first it was not very used. However now "every day people come to buy bitcoins"


    How does it work? It is not a cashier to use, but rather it is a vending machine in which you enter the amount in euros that you want to exchange for bitcoins (from 10 to 500 euros) and generate a coupon that the customer You can change on your website for the virtual currency within three months. "There are people who although they bought it today, do not exchange it for another week because they are waiting for the change, this currency fluctuates a lot," explains Quevedo.

Are there already salaries in bitcoins?
"Some companies already pay in bitcoins in Spain," says Pablo F. Burgueño, founder of NevTrace and an expert in crypto-dumbs. In his case explains that they raised in the company but decided it was better to continue charging in euros and then each "bought the bitcoins you want" because by law "you can only receive 30% of salary in this currency" because it is recognized as a payment in kind to be a digital asset.

It is, therefore, a payment in kind of very high risk. "If this large amount is given to the worker, he runs the risk of losing everything, so it can not be imposed that the collection is like that and at most 30% of the total salary," explains Burgueño.


Different is the case of the company ReparaTuDeuda , where they have decided that their employees can collect the part of the salary that they decide in bitcoins although they make it clear that "not as a tax benefit because everything will pay the same, but to encourage the use of new technologies" , says Enrique Espinosa, CTO of the company.

At the moment they are in the phase of training courses so that workers learn more about this cryptocurrency and make their decision. In addition, the CTO announces that ATMs will be installed in its headquarters so that people with their "virtual wallet can change bitcoins for euros".

There are more cases outside our borders. The Japanese Internet services giant GMO announced last December that it will pay in bitcoin part of the salaries to those of its 4,700 employees who wish to do so starting in February, which is the first initiative of its kind among large companies in the world. country. The company offers to receive a fraction of its salary between 10,000 yen (74 euros) and 100,000 yen (748 euros) in the virtual currency. Its objective is to "promote the active use of virtual currency" among its employees and "increase its knowledge about this type of currency," according to a statement from the Japanese company.

Houses in bitcoins
Despite the distrust it generates in the market, the recent restrictions against it and the increase of its control by the Treasury, the bitcoin is also getting stronger in the real estate market, where experts believe that the consolidation of this Currency is just a matter of time. In fact, there are already houses that are for sale only in bitcoins in the photo portal Fotocasa.

It is a house in El Sauzal, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife of 200 m2 with sea views. It can be purchased only through the cryptocurrency for a price of 45 bitcoins (about 450,000 euros). From Fotocasa assure this newspaper that this is a trend "totally new and not yet has many followers." Currently in the portal have nine homes that accept payment in bitcoins. They emphasize the fact that of these houses, four are in Catalonia. "Being intermediaries are not present at any time of the exchange, so while the type of payment is legal and regulated, we will let them announce the type of payment that owners want to make", explain the same sources.

Only 3 out of 10 Spaniards have the skills to face the digital transformation

65% of young people will work in positions that do not exist today, so their training and the digitalization of companies and public administrations «is key», warns César Alierta

    Although 65% of young people who currently study Primary and Secondary in Spain will occupy jobs related to the digital world that currently do not exist, only 31% of Spaniards today have advanced digital skills to adequately address this moment of digital transformation that the world has to face.

Therefore, the focus should be on education because it is "fundamental" that new generations "know how to move" in digital skills in Big Data, Cloud and Artificial Intelligence , said César Alierta, president of Fundación Telefónica, during the presentation this Monday in Madrid of the report 'Digital Society in Spain'. "It takes 2.5 million boys and girls by 2020 to study to be experts in digitalization and meet the high demand," said Alierta, who has called for this issue to be a "priority" for governments, that they must change all education. «In our country we continue to teach what was valid in 1980and that can not be. Those who are in charge are not aware of the problem of lack of training, and that is worrying, "he has denounced.

     In fact, a LinkedIn study reveals that nine of the ten most demanded professional skills in Spain are related to ICT and data analysis : cloud computing, data collection, web architecture, user testing, user interface design, SEO / SEM, data engineering, integration software, etc. The global investment in Artificial Intelligence systems indicates that Spain could increase labor productivity by 11% .

Regarding the international position, Spain is ranked 17 out of the 28 countries that make up the European Union in the Human Capital indicator included in the indicator DESI, a situation of "clear disadvantage" in the current labor market. During the round table after the presentation of the report, Ramón López, CSIC researcher and AI expert, said that the Spanish position is "powerful in some areas of Artificial Intelligence".

Internet connection
The report also reveals that 24 million Spaniards between the ages of 16 and 74 connect daily to the Internet, which represents 68% of the total. Likewise, half of the young people in 2018 will be 'mobile first' , that is, they will consume between 90% and 100% of their time in the network on a mobile screen.

Thus, 98% of young people connect daily to the Internet , a percentage that in the case of adults between 65 and 74 years old is 43.7%. From Telefónica they say that older people are joining "quickly to the digital society, since their use of the Internet increased by 26% last year.

The report says that there are already more mobile lines than people on the planet: 103% penetration has been achieved. The Internet of Things (IoT) has increased by 30% in 2017 and there are already more than 8.500 million devices connected to the internet. In addition, they have ensured that Spain is a "leader" in the deployment of fiber optics.

The reduction of the gender gap in the use of internet is also verified : it goes down from 3.9 to 1.8 points. 86% of young people own a 'smartphone' and use it as a reference device for instant messaging, access to social networks, consumption of music and videos in streaming.

Internet security
83% of respondents are concerned about Internet privacy and 90.2% consider it important to exercise control over the contents that can be monitored by hanging on the Internet.

Alierta explained that Telefonica invests around 10 billion euros per year in networks to show that with a contribution of 4 billion from Europe would ensure the security of communications throughout the continent, something "fundamental because everything will be digital » "You just have to convince the European Commission because afterwards it will be copied everywhere and we will have a free and secure society," he said.

R & D has a hard time overcoming the crisis in Spain

Europe is the accelerator of innovation, while here the public sector investment is 13% below 2009

    Although the economic crisis began in 2008, the R & D & i sector (Research, Development and Innovation) comes later because there is a first drop in private spending in 2009, but public spending is not reduced until 2011. Cows fat of innovation occupied the year 2000 to 2008, beginning the millennium with an investment 50% higher than what the average of European countries, but reaching eight years later to 71%.

The report of the Cotec Foundation for Innovation (which takes data from the INE and Eurostat as a reference) reveals that public investment today stands 13% below pre-crisis levels , while private investment 5.8% below . Aleix Pons, director of Economy and Finance of Cotec, explains to this newspaper that currently "practically all European countries have recovered the investment prior to the crisis", but this is not the case of Spain.

     The EU as a whole has increased investment by 27% compared to 2009, while in Spain in the same period it has fallen by 9%. Surrounding countries have bet much more than us in this field. This is the case of the United Kingdom, with an investment 40% higher in 2016 than in 2009 , Germany with 38% more or even Italy with a rise of 12%.

But Spain still does not recover the levels prior to the crisis. The responsibility falls on both the low investment of the private sector and the public, but according to INE data of November 2016, companies have two years of positive growth in investment, although the average is still far from the European. "This may have to do with the business structure composed of SMEs for the most part, but it is the larger companies that invest the most in R & D," says Pons.

     However, the public sector reached its maximum level of investment in 2009, but since then there has been a cut of approximately 30%. "In addition, there is an additional cut because a part smaller than the budgeted one is being executed, that is to say, not everything that is available is being spent", affirms Cotec's director of Economy.

Not everything is negative

On the other hand, sources of the Secretary of State of Investigation, Development and Innovation assure to this newspaper that although there is "many things that to improve", in Spain it is made "very good science". "We have researchers with global impact in various areas and an important participation in many of the largest European and international facilities." Some of these aspects in which the public sector works are "progressive and stable long-term public financing , greater administrative flexibility and better contracts for researchers".

    From the Secretariat of State they emphasize that not everything is as negative as it is painted, although the figures are what they are. They affirm that although R & D expenditure increased for the second consecutive year in 2016, the weight of science decreased "due to the significant increase in the Spanish economy", which ended up placing it at 1.19% of GDP, far from 2% that the State set itself as an objective in 2020. "It is the responsibility of the Central Administration, the Autonomous Communities and the companies to increase investment in R & D", explain the same sources.

"The biggest challenge we face is to increase the weight of private investment . The EU states that to achieve a healthy R & D & I system, two thirds of the total investment must come from companies. In Japan, the US, South Korea or Germany private contribution is higher than 65%, even close to 80% in some cases, while in Spain it stands at 53%. Since 2012 we have opted for public-private collaboration and we have worked with insistence to bring the actors of the system closer, they say.

Competitive position

However, Ángel San Segundo, a professor at the EAE Business School, does not see it as positive. "The competitive position of Spain in the field of R & D & I is doubly worrisome because on the one hand it is far from the reference countries for our economy and on the other hand that distance tends to increase according to the available data," he says. Although the expert recognizes that in the last five years the R + D + i efforts of most of the countries that surround us hardly grew, "in Spain they not only did not stagnate but they decreased 9% accumulated", laments San Second.

Roundtrip scientists

According to INE data, there are currently 8,000 fewer researchers in Spain than before the crisis, but Spain is recovering. Since 2014 there has been an "important" increase in the number of scientists, but the fall of the hardest years of the crisis was so strong that recovery is hard.

The professor of the EAE Business School, Ángel San Segundo, reveals that according to the latest available data, Spain has 7.9 researchers per 1,000 employees, a figure below France (9.9) and United Kingdom (8.9) . But remember that when these figures are analyzed taking into account the origin of the researchers, Spain has a similar number and even higher in the public and higher education sectors. "It is in the private sector where we are below our environment and where our shortcomings are evident".

Sources from the Secretary of State explain that in 2016 there was an increase of 5,000 R & D workers compared to 2015, of which more than 4,000 were researchers. And they reveal that in 2018 the Government will stabilize up to 90% of the positions filled with temporary contracts.

TIAGo, the robot assistant made in Spain

The semihumanoid device is programmed to help the elderly at home

     About five million Spaniards live alone and the vast majority are people over 65, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE). By Autonomous Communities, those with the highest percentage of single-person households are Asturias, Castilla y León and La Rioja.

Technology has become an ally to help older people to carry out their daily tasks and monitor the day to day of the elderly. This is the summary of the Catalan project of the company PAL Robotics, which has developed a semihumanoid robot capable of giving the pills at the time it touches, monitoring vital signs and physical state, and locating the keys or the mobile.

     TIAGo, which is the name of the device, is able to accompany sick or dependent people who are notified about the time to eat. In addition, the robot is also prepared to recommend healthy dishes, carry objects and monitor the vital signs of the elderly

"The robot allows the elderly to stay longer at home" instead of having to go to a center or residence as it lengthens, on average, between 2 and 3 years the time of their autonomy, says Francesco Ferro to the EFE Agency

TIAGo is also able to detect objects previously marked with a special label, such as keys or mobile phone, and assist the person at bedtime, such as tucking her up or helping her get into bed, all of this "to preserve the dignity of the person ", explains the director of communication of PAL Robotics, Judith Viladomat.

The user can also teach the robot to develop new functions because it is "very easy to program since one of the objectives is for everyone to be able to use it", according to its creators.

The price of the robot varies between 20,000 and 60,000 euros depending on its components, but Ferro stresses that "you have to lower the price of robots so that everyone can have one at home."

Spanish SMEs need help to join ecommerce

The leaders in this channel are the Aragonese companies

   Seven out of ten small and medium-sized Spanish companies recognize that they need external support to integrate the mobile channel into their business, according to the study Spanish SMEs in the online field, conducted by the global e-commerce platform eBay.

This study emphasizes that the smartphone is one of the main means by which users search, compare and buy products.

However, the need for external support is offset by the willingness of SMEs to reinforce their strategy in several channels. Thus, 44.4% say that having mobile applications or optimized websites is vital for the growth of their business, while 43.1% recognizes that, in the future, everyone will buy through applications.

     The study shows that 70.5% of the SMEs surveyed know the advantages of mobile commerce, but only 28.4% have an application or an optimized web of their business for this channel.

By region, Aragonese SMEs lead the implementation of the mobile channel, since 37.3% of them have an application or an optimized website. Aragonese autonomy is followed by Madrid (36.6%), Catalonia (33.1%) and Castilla y León (32.9%).

The Civil Guard blocks 23 websites for downloading movies and games

Divxtotal, Gamestorrents and Estrenosdtl, among others, gave access to P2P links for direct download of all kinds of protected audiovisual material, in some cases without having been released in Spain yet

    The Civil Guard has announced on Tuesday that it has launched a campaign to block websites downloading content protected by copyright with the blocking of 23 web pages that link free of charge to sites where movies, series, music and video games were downloaded. .

In this first phase of the 'Cascada' operation, which is led by the Central Operational Unit (UCO), a total of 23 web domains have been blocked from which P2P links were directly downloaded from all types of protected audiovisual material. in some cases without having been released in Spain yet.

    According to the Guardia Civil, the blocked websites, including www.divxtotal.com, www.estrenosdtl.com or www.gamestorrents.com, offered high quality versions of films available on the cinema billboards of our country, without even having They were put on sale in physical or digital format and dubbed with audio in several languages.

Most of the web pages investigated had very high rates of daily visits, some of them being the best known and used in our country to download illegally and free of charge, all kinds of protected audiovisual material. These domains were created in the beginning by a person of Spanish origin, who then sold them to a company based in Argentina, current owner and administrator thereof.

     According to the researchers, those responsible for these pages used various methods to avoid closing or blocking such as hiding the actual location of their servers and the registration data of the contracted domains, even to the constant change of the location of their servers in several countries .

The Department of Telematic Crimes of the UCO has detected cases in which domains previously blocked judicially, were reactivated in a matter of hours, with virtually identical domain names or even changing only the extension of the same.

Create a system that saves 40% of the usual water consumption in a home 

Its creators estimate that the device allows reducing CO2 emissions by 35%

     Spain is currently suffering from a severe drought. In spite of the last rains, the data are very alarming and it is not only a problem of this last year, but it comes from a long time ago. Climate change and the increase in population have aggravated this scenario.

This problem has been a business opportunity for two Valencian plumbers who fight against the waste of water. An idea that was born "on a daily basis when they observed the daily waste of water that was done in all homes and businesses," says the company.

     The bet of Smartwater , that is the name of the Valencian company, allows to develop a system that saves up to 40% . Rafael Rodrigo and Francisco Pelegero decided to create a system that avoids that waste that occurs at the moment when the tap or shower is opened and waits for it to come out hot.

In 2011 they patented the invention and it is now when it is marketed under the umbrella of the IDI company, created especially for this purpose. "In that minute, approximately, in which we wait for hot water, they waste between 8 and 15 liters. It is something that does not catch our attention, because we have been doing it all our lives and we see it as normal, "says Rafael Rodrigo.

With the push of a button, "it is possible to have hot water at any point without wasting a single drop," they say . The product saves around 40.6% of total water consumption. Additionally, there is a saving in energy consumption. The total energy saving can reach a value of around 33.8%.

"At the same time, it reduces CO2 emissions by up to 34.8%, " the statement said. All the savings data have been endorsed in a technical evaluation report carried out by the Physical Technologies Center of the Universitat Politècnica de València-Campus de Gandía.

The device designed by these two plumbers is prepared to store water and be able to dispose of it at a certain temperature to "avoid losing all the cold water that exists in the installation until the hot water arrives".

Thanks to a control system, SmartWater controls the temperature of the water and if it is not at the required temperature it is accumulated in a tank. Once the desired temperature has been reached, the system warns the user that the hot water is ready. "The cold water accumulated in the reservoir is provided when there is a demand for cold water," say the creators of Smartwater.

The King bets for Barcelona in the midst of territorial crisis and eludes criticism of secessionism

The independence movement is mobilized to express its rejection of the presence of the Monarch

    King Felipe VI appealed this Sunday in Barcelona to the «institutional cooperation» as the basis of «success» if carried out with «clear objectives and for the benefit of all». During the inauguration dinner of the world mobile salon, which this week will attract more than one hundred thousand directors of the telecommunications sector in the Catalan capital, the head of the State made a closed defense of Barcelona and its inhabitants, who stand out for his "dynamism and entrepreneurial spirit," he said, and he pleaded for the city to remain the site of the event, despite the fact that the government warned hours before secessionist tensions could harm him in this regard.

    The King, in English, Spanish and Catalan, opted for the Catalan capital as a "candidate to house the European technological center that develops 5G technology". "The history of this Congress in Barcelona is the story of a success achieved over years of work," he said. And it has been, he added, thanks to the people of Barcelona and "to the commitment and collaboration between the central government, the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Barcelona City Council".


In his first visit to Catalonia in the last six months, Felipe VI passed by on the institutional crisis that confronts Catalonia with the rest of Spain and eluded references to the process and to the secessionist leaders, who have focused some of their most relevant speeches of the last times, like the one that pronounced the 3 of October, but also the one of Christmas, the one of the Prizes Princess of Asturias or its intervention in the Forum of Davos.

The head of the State avoided criticism of the independence movement on Sunday, trying to reduce the tension, after the controversies of the last hours, marked by the proposal of the president of the Catalan Chamber, the Mayor of Barcelona and the representatives of the Generalitat to the besamanos that the Royal House organizes every year to receive authorities and organizers of the mobile lounge.

    The King arrived accompanied by the Vice President of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, and was received by the Minister of Industry, Álvaro Nadal; the delegate of the Government in Catalonia, Enric Millo, and the general director of GSMA, Mats Granryd. The president of the Parliament, Roger Torrent, and the mayor of the city, did not go to the besamanos as they had advanced on Saturday, but were at the subsequent dinner, held at the Palau de la Música and surrounded by strong security measures, the independence movement was mobilized in the street to protest the presence of the monarch, which the independence movement gave him a loud cacerolada in the environment of the Palau.

    The last time the Head of State visited Barcelona was on August 28. It was to attend the demonstration of rejection of the attacks on the Ramblas and Cambrils. Felipe VI was then received with whistles and boos by the independentistas, who filled the head of the march of 'esteladas' and posters against the monarchy and the central government. As six months ago, the independence movement again mobilized to express its rejection. On this occasion there were police charges and there were injuries. «Outside the Bourbon» was the motto of the several hundred secessionists who demonstrated yesterday in the center of Barcelona. The Mossos were forced to shield all the accesses to the Palau de la Música and the tension was increasing when secessionist demonstrators mixed with sympathizers of the imaginary Tabarnia,

Puigdemont attacks

Since his last visit to Barcelona, ​​much has rained in the political landscape: referendum of 1-O, general strike of 3-O, speech of the King, proclamation of the republic, 155, imprisonment and Catalan elections. It has rained so much, that for the first time the King visited Catalonia and was not received by any autonomous authority: because Catalonia still does not have a government and because the representatives who could have gone-general secretaries-did not do so to protest the position of the Monarch in relation to to the sovereignty process.

     Carles Puigdemont did not waste the opportunity to brandish from Belgium the anger that exists in the secessionism with the head of state. "King Felipe VI will be welcomed in the Republic of Catalonia as the highest authority of Spain when he apologizes for his unconstitutional role last October," said the former president of the Generalitat, who last year did share a presence in the mobile room with the King.

      The climate is of maximum tension, as it was possible to see in the rebellion that the judicial dome of Catalonia did to Roger Torrent on Thursday in the bar association of Barcelona for speaking of "political prisoners". The independence movement accuses the monarch of not having remained neutral in the territorial crisis, of having led the 'for them' and of having urged, in his speech of 3-O, the Government to apply the 155. «The responsibility of the legitimate powers of the State is to ensure the constitutional order, "he said then. The sovereignty accused him of not appealing to the dialogue or making reference to the wounded by the police charges of 1-O.

The government, meanwhile, described as "unfair and petty" the rude to the King and warned that they put at risk that Barcelona "may continue to host a global event of such importance in the future." "The presence of the King in Barcelona symbolizes the support of the Crown and the whole of Spain to the MWC, and by extension, to the development and strength of the Catalan economy, "according to government sources," Barcelona is playing a lot these days, "the executive said.

Samsung gets all the prominence of the MWC with its Galaxy S9

Huawei introduces a notebook without frames, LG the new V30S with Artificial Intelligence and Nokia a renewed 8110

    No surprises Samsung has managed to capture all the attention in the first day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) that is held these days in Barcelona. All on your part: a good worthy product worthy of this role but also driven by the news released by its biggest competitors, much more decaffeinated than on other occasions. Below, an analysis of the presentations that took place this Sunday in Barcelona:

SAMSUNG

Last year, 1.2 billion photos were taken with mobile phones around the world and 5,000 million emojis were shared per day. With this premise, Samsung has presented its new bet of 2018 with its eyes on the camera and the new way that its users have to communicate. Thus, the new Galaxy S9 does not differ excessively at the design level of its predecessor S8. Continues with that style so characteristic and careful of the South Korean firm with infinite screen up the rounded sides and a rear sensor for the fingerprint (this time in a better position), but also includes iris recognition to unlock it. Its price: 849 euros for the S9 and 949 euros for the S9 +.

     At the level of photography, it is surprising that the Plus version includes the double camera, as is already usual in high-end models, but it is not like that in the S9. Of course, it has a sensor with double aperture (f / 2.4 and f / 1.5, the largest on the market) that adjusts depending on the ambient light getting luminous photos even in totally dark environments without the need for a flash. "28% brighter than the Galaxy S8", they have assured in Samsung during the presentation. In the case of the S9 Plus includes a double camera, a 12 MP with double opening and another telephoto of 12 MP. In both cases, the front is 8 MP with aperture f / 1.7.

One of the curiosities is the arrival of animated emoticons. In the style of the animojis of the iPhone X, the user can make a selfi and the phone creates an animated doll similar to him that can be personalized with clothes, hairstyles, accessories and a long etcetera. This AR Emoji (as it is called) represents 18 different expressions that can be sent to friends even if they have another mobile model since they are sent as if they were a gif.

     Screens of 5.8 inches for the S9 and 6.2 inches for the Plus, both with curved OLED panels on their sides. In Spain they will be marketed in three colors: black, light blue and a surprisingly beautiful violet. It will have front speakers with AKG certification with Dolby Atmos. At the level of performance and capacity, the S9 has 4 GB of RAM and versions of 64, 128 and 256 GB of memory, although expandable to 400 GB with SD card, the largest so far. The Plus version only changes in performance, reaching 6 GB of RAM. Battery left over for both, 3,000 mAh for S9 and 3,500 mAh for the S9 Plus.

China will have in 2022 a solar superhighway with automatic car loading

The automobiles will not have to stop either to pay the tolls, since the amount will be paid automatically through a chip installed in them

    China will have its first solar superhighway in 2022, which will allow automatic charging of the electric vehicles that circulate along the 161 kilometers that will link the cities of Hangzhou and Ningbo, in the east of the country.

The six-lane highway will have solar panels throughout the resort that will automatically charge electric vehicles and allow autonomous driving, in an attempt to decongest traffic from another parallel highway, the official newspaper Global Times reports today.

Another novelty is that cars will not have to stop to pay tolls, since the amount will be paid automatically through a chip installed in them.

    With this project, the authorities want to promote the development of electric vehicles in this country, the world's largest automobile market, which plans to prohibit the production and sale of vehicles powered by fossil fuels in the future.

In fact, some of the main highways, including the one that connects the two most important cities in the country, Beijing and Shanghai, already have thousands of charging points for electric vehicles.

The first attempt to launch this type of highway in China was made last December in the city of Jinan, in the east, although it was only one kilometer long and suffered acts of vandalism a few days after its inauguration, when parts were stolen. of solar panels.

Create an intelligent jacket that adapts to cold and heat

Mercury is connected to Alexa to check the outside temperature

    Now that the Siberian polar wave is advancing in the Old Continent and threatens to leave Spain at six degrees below zero, technology is allied with citizens to overcome the last throes of winter. Ministry of Supply, a clothing firm based in Boston (United States), has manufactured a jacket that adapts to the temperature and protects its users.

Mercury is connected to the internet, controlled by an application, synchronized with Alexa, Amazon's intelligent assistant, and customizes its temperature through automatic learning.

The American jacket uses an accelerometer and temperature sensors to change the amount of heat it pumps according to the temperature of its surroundings in combination with user activity levels.

       The company, which has started, a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter where you can contribute from $ 295 to more than $ 2,500. "At the core of Mercury there are three carbon fiber heating elements that heat all at once, strategically located to disappear in the jacket With only 100 g, flexible and 1 mm thick, you will hardly notice the heaters, these heaters can deliver 10 watts of heating power almost instantaneously, reaching up to 57 ° C, "explains Ministry of Supply.

With an "Alexa turn on my jacket", Alexa gives the order to the Mercury heaters to start warming up the user. In addition, according to the company explains, just save the smartphone in your pocket you can charge the battery.

One in three Spaniards wants to pass the credit card

24% of the European population already pays for these devices

    One in three Spaniards wants to make contactless payments through their watch, wristband, keychain or other portable devices, according to the latest study prepared by Mastercard.

The report also reveals that, in Europe, 175 million people are interested in this form of payment, representing 24% of the total European population.

These figures are mainly due to the great acceptance that contactless cards have among consumers. According to the report, spending through contactless cards in 2017 increased 145% in the continent and 153% in Spain.

     Currently, 54% of Spaniards say they make a payment of these characteristics, at least once a week. 14% say they do it daily, 2% less than the European average.

The convenience and speed of this method of payment has fostered its great acceptance among the consumer and, in turn, this increase in its use has increased confidence and reduced the main reluctance that until now could be a barrier in its adoption.

Specifically, the fear of fraud in the case of contactless payments decreases considerably with respect to 2016: 15% less in Spain (a reduction of 10% in the European average).

«In all the houses there will be a robot that takes care of us»

International companies strive to show the most human face of these assistants who teach to program children, give company to the elderly or make video calls

     Lately, a recurring theme has been current every few years: robots will take away the work of humans in the near future. On many occasions you have an apocalyptic vision of them but the reality is that, at least today, they help society much more than harm it. In the framework of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) that takes place these days in Barcelona, ​​international companies have taken the opportunity to present their novelties in assistance robots that help humans.

Some take a step further and see a future full of humanoid robots to help us out at home. "All households will have a humanoid robot that takes care of us and helps us with domestic chores," Rosa Liu, senior accountant at IEI Group, said Monday. His company has launched AfoBot , a domestic computer connected to the Internet that measures the vital signs of users, allows video calls and control through it the rest of connected devices in the house.


      This robot has a screen that rotates 360º and is based on Android 6.0, so it is open to developers to expand the possibilities of the device with the integration of new 'apps'. At the moment, it is sold in the United States and China at a price of around $ 500. For the arrival to our country they are looking for distributors.

Another system presented was Robelf , oriented to family life especially for the care and companionship of the elderly and children. It is a robot with a more human form, which adapts to the height of the user and can sit and lift. It has a voice recognition system with noise cancellation, which allows you to communicate better with older people and young children.


     With this idea of ​​accompanying the children, Jibo has also been presented , the first social robot for the home of Everis and NTT Data, whose objective is to be integrated into the day-to-day lives of their owners. The application 'Be a Maker' (open-source) launched in Barcelona allows children to program real interactions with the robot. Jibo reacts through expressive responses and movements and has an advanced processing of natural language, voice technology and facial recognition. "Jibo can build relationships with the people he interacts with the most," Cynthia Breazeal, creator of the robot and professor at MIT, said in an interview.

It is, therefore, a social robot in which technology and entertainment come together. On its rounded shape, the creator explains that they wanted it to have a shape that children could recognize as a pet or a friend, but "that does not resemble a human being so that they clearly differentiate who is who".


And in this world of robots that are friends of humans , Pepper , one of the most mediatic ones, could not miss . SoftBank, its creators, define it as a "proactive, attractive and interactive" assistant. It is designed for professional environments in which it is naturally integrated by its friendly forms. "Pepper offers a very good experience with the real world adding value to a location," they say from SoftBank.

     Other of its most outstanding characteristics are its "emotional empathy, its connectivity and the high degree of personalization", which allows hundreds of companies to incorporate it for very different uses. Among them is Nescafé and Carrefour, which have placed Pepper in some of their stores to help the customer decide on their purchases and give them information about products; airports such as Munich and hotels in the United States and Japan where complements the receptionists with tourist information to visitors.

The battle for the super online intensifies

The purchase of the fresh product online is the last link in the chain. Although success has resisted so far, users increasingly demand this service and supermarkets know that the last mile is in the fresh

    Convenience, time savings and a great capacity to control spending are the advantages that the purchase of online food provides to users. So much so that, according to the FoodISDIgital study conducted by Ipsos, we save more if we buy online.

Therefore, it is not surprising that e-commerce in this sector has grown in value by 24.5% in the first quarter of 2017, according to data from Kantar. The acceleration that the pure players have granted to the channel continues to have an effect, and this sales platform advances two tenths with respect to 2016 and already represents 1.2% of household spending on consumer products. In addition, according to this consultancy, the online channel can curb in the medium term this tendency to invest continuously in the physical store.

Not only in the super

When deciding on an establishment to make this purchase, the majority (77%) opts for the super and hypermarket websites themselves. But Amazon and Glovo are gaining more and more positions (especially among men).

But what exactly do we acquire when we buy home products online? Packaging (88% of consumers ask for it), beverages (82%), dairy (64%) and to a lesser extent bakery and confectionery (44%) are the main options, although the Ipsos report also ensures that perishable products like Fruit, vegetables, meat and fish are not so far from the usual shopping list. In fact, they reach percentages of 44% and 37% respectively.

«The online channel now represents 38% of food purchases, compared to 62% in person»

From Carrefour, Innova + is assured that seven out of ten customers include these products in their online purchases. "The company prepares the order the same day of the delivery and identifies the days of useful life to guarantee the maximum quality of the products, and also offers the customer the Freshness Guarantee plan, by which only the customer calls If you are not satisfied, you have a money back guarantee. " On the other hand, Diego Sebastián de Erice, e-commerce director Food DIA Spain, assures that although it is true that at first the fresh product did not enter the online orders, right now the proportion is identical to the physical purchase. "It is true that bulky or heavy products are the gateway to buying online, but sometimes the expert knows how to choose better than yourself the melon that is good.

The 60-40 ratio

The online channel copa and 38% of food purchases compared to 62% that is done in person. In the case of DIA they assure that, at the moment, the client is mixed: it combines the purchase in the physical store with the online store. "When he tries it a couple of times and sees that he has no problems, it's when he repeats and loyalizes," De Erice explains. But he does not believe that the retail disappears altogether, although he admits: "I do not see my children going to the supermarket as I have been".

Carrefour sources believe that "the key is to be able to respond to the needs of the consumer and Carrefour does with the development of its omnichannel, multi-format and multi-brand strategy, with which it is able to offer a consumer purchase option, independently where is this and the way of purchase you choose ".

«The logistics and transport of fresh products is one of the key points for the business»

The majority payment method, according to Ipsos, is the credit or debit card (87%) although the high use of systems such as Paypal (47%) leads to the conclusion that among the most experienced consumers this type of solution has many followers. A high percentage of users, 42%, consider that it is easier to control spending when buying online: without a doubt, the monitoring of the shopping cart has more effect than the mental sum while the commercial surface is covered.

In the guidelines that govern the moment of purchase, they overwhelm the computer (device chosen in 70% of transactions) and from home (94% of cases). The "heavy users" are those that exceed the average purchase by mobile (29% compared to 22% on average). The use of applications for these operations is already successful for a third of consumers.

This will be the purchase of the future

Supermarkets without ATMs and smart speakers are the technology that will take care of the shopping list

     Hello Alexa. I want fourth half of ham. " This is the future of shopping in supermarkets, although that morning is not so far away and may be around the corner.

The virtual assistant Amazon is already prepared , at least in the United States, to order the purchase to supermarkets throughout the country and thanks to artificial intelligence with just review the shopping list, either Alexa or other attendees, may Go shopping.

In Spain, for the time being, we are getting used to mobile payment or contactless cards, but the bets of the great technology companies are already receiving biometric recognition .


     Using the fingerprint or the face are the next steps that are already being tested in different platforms and allow opening bank accounts in Spain. However, the next step has been Amazon with the presentation of the first supermarket in the world without boxes.

The Seattle company has taken a year to open its most disruptive bet, but citizens of New York County can already go through the 167 square meters of the first Amazon Go in the world.

     Zero boxes and zero ATMs , but in the future. Upon entering the store, the Amazon account is activated and becomes the virtual cart that will wander the aisles of the Seattle store. One of the culprits of the delay in the start-up of the establishment.

To fight against friends of the alien and guarantee their sales, Amazon has launched Just Walk Out technology. At the entrance of this supermarket of the future, users will have to pass a QR code, which is obtained through the Amazon Go application, by a reader located in the entrance lathes to the establishment.

With this action, the client is registered by the dozens of cameras located in the aisles of the store, it is the gateway to the new Big Brother of Amazon. According to Sam Machkovech, who has been able to buy at Amazon Go, and tells ArsTechnica: "Each camera is approximately 2.5 inches in size, incorporate a small LED light that indicated that they were on and focus on the products of the store" .

How do they charge the products?

Just by taking the product and putting it in the bag, Amazon's intelligent system includes it in the virtual basket and charges it. The test of fire is about to happen and check if the system designed by the team of Jeff Bezos works and there is still the question of whether Alexa in the future will be a cashier and will help Amazon Go customers to find a product.

Although Amazon has launched this store for the first time, a decade ago, IBM raised what would be the supermarket of tomorrow and the idea was very similar to that of Jeff Bezos.

The computer giant presented a video in which the products were equipped with RFID chips and thanks to a radiofrequency reader the payment was completed without removing the wallet from the pocket.

Now that future raised in 2006 is reality thanks to a small 'big brother' of 167 square meters installed in the US city of Seattle.

Smartphones and minors: more use, more exposure to risks, but less damage

Children in Spain have their first mobile phone at 8 years old, when it was only 6 years ago when they accessed their first terminal

    Children in Spain have their first mobile at 8 years, when just 6 years ago it was not until 11 when they accessed their first terminal. Something that makes Spain exceed the European average. This is clear from the book 'Between selfies and whatsapps', which aims to be a current diagnosis on the safety of minors on the Internet.

Maialen Garmendia, one of the co-authors of the book, believes that there is also greater awareness of online risks. "If there is more use, it is evident that there is more exposure to risks, but the truth is that the percentage of those who suffer damage is less."

     A good example of this is that, although bullying is the most damaging risk, "face-to-face is more frequent than on-line, so we should not blame technology", says this expert.

The authors of the book, nevertheless, consider that, beyond the risks, the opportunities of the early access to the technologies must be analyzed and they have revealed some data about the carried out study.

     Thus, it is clear that for minors, their smartphone is something that allows them to be more connected, both with their friends (55%) and with their family (25%). In addition, one in four feels that they are safer when they carry their smartphone, which also allows them, at 19%, to organize their lives more easily. That is to say, that these technological tools have become "something fundamental for their social well-being" because "they develop their lives through technologies".

The report points out that, as far as penetration of smartphones is concerned, there is no socio-economic gap in our country. Something that does occur as far as access to computers is concerned. This worries the authors of the report, in the sense that these PCs could reduce the gap in technological skills.

     In addition, this report indicates that parents tend to monitor what their children do with the smartphone as well as with a mobile phone. That is to say, although technical supervision and control by gps can be done, the parents are at the crossroads of protecting their children and respecting their privacy. Therefore, they do not supervise everything they can out of respect for the privacy of their children.

Artificial intelligence is able to pre-empt medical diagnoses

The Alphabet project can predict when a patient will get worse

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and the US Department of Veterans work hand-in-hand to take the technology to the patients' rooms to monitor and monitor possible changes in the health status of the elderly.

However, this union is not about electronic devices to monitor the heartbeat or to control blood pressure or tension, but both companies work on the deployment of DeepMind, the artificial intelligence of Alphabet.

According to several medical studies, one out of ten deaths in hospitals occurs after obviating any change in the patient's health status. The Alphabet project and the US administration will analyze patterns of 700,000 anonymous medical records to see if Artificial Intelligence from DeepMind can identify which patients will get worse during admission to the hospital and find out their future doctor

DeepMind and its engineers say that a possible use of the technology is to detect kidney failure in its early stages.

Kidney injuries commonly occur after routine procedures and operations, such as a hip replacement, and often appear suddenly without obvious warning signs. These injuries can be life-threatening, so DeepMind wants to find ways to detect them early in the hope of saving patients, they say.

This medical incursion of Alphabet and DeepMind is not the first. The 'intelligent' division of the search engine giant's matrix is ​​capable of diagnosing eye diseases and detecting pathologies with great precision.

The system relies on medical scanners and algorithms trained from retinal scans, and thus detect any problem more quickly and effectively. It is the first application of relevance in the field of health, and soon it could begin to be tested in clinical trials if it obtains the approval of the regulators.

According to Accenture, the advances in artificial intelligence applied to medicine could save up to 150,000 million dollars to the industry by the year 2026.

Vero, the social network that wants to face Facebook

He arrives with novelty, but his birth occurred in 2015

      Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest ... There are several names of social networks, which more or less, have monopolized interest among users. Now, there is a new player or, rather, a player, since it has a woman's name: Vero.

With three years of life, was born in 2015, has gained momentum in recent months after betting on a direct connection between its users, who can also segment their publication and reach a more consistent audience.

A feature, which also allows Facebook. In Vero, users can share a post with close friends, friends, known contacts or privately.

      Created by Ayman Hariri, son of the former president of Lebanon, maintains an interface very similar to the current ones. "The feed is made up of your publications and the publications of the people you are connected to or the people you are following, we do not protect, manipulate, insert advertising or retain publications, you will see what was shared and when it was shared. You will have to pay to increase your publication or reach your audience, "explains the company.

Vero has a timeline ordered chronologically with the latest contact updates. The idea of ​​this social network is that its users share all their tastes and hobbies with their virtual circle and allows the use of photographs, links, music, movies, books or places.

      The big difference with the current social networks is that Vero completely dispenses with advertising. The platform is based on the payment of an annual subscription as well as a percentage of the purchases made through the application. The application is available for iOS and Android devices.

"Our subscription model will allow us to keep Vero free of advertising, and focus only on offering the best social experience instead of trying to find new ways to monetize user behavior." Our subscription-based service makes our users our own customers, not the product that we sell to advertisers, "says the company.

The 5G will be ten times faster than the current network

Qualcomm's first tests show average navigation at 490 Mbps speed | Huawei presents the first commercial 5G modem

     There is still time for 5G to arrive. The most favorable estimates point to 2020 as the year of its implementation. However, in this Mobile World Congress (MWC) he is the protagonist. The companies gathered these days in Barcelona strive to get the looks of the media and customers with their advances in 5G.

This is the case of Qualcomm, the US chipsets manufacturer, which in the framework of this international event has carried out 5G simulation tests in which they have shown that the future of mobile internet will be extremely fast . It has replicated real world conditions (number of devices, geography or different user demands) in Frankfurt (Germany) and San Francisco (USA). In addition, the tests have been done thinking about the 5G networks that will exist at the beginning built on the existing 4G , not the ones that will arrive later in a truly independent way.


      Even with these premises, the results are amazing. In the German test, navigation increased from 56 Mbps for the average 4G user to over 490 Mbps with 5G , with a seven times faster response rate. In addition, the file download reaches 100 Mbps, a huge increase from the 8 Mbps 4G user. In terms of latency, it has been possible to go from 116 milliseconds (ms) to 17, figures much more similar to fiber optics .

But it goes beyond. The San Francisco simulation has shown more impressive speeds. Qualcomm modeled a network that has reached 1.4 Gbps of speed, that is, 23 times faster than the average of 4G in the American city that reached 71 Mbps. In addition, another of the conclusions of the study is that more than 90% of 5G users will be able to enjoy more than 100 Mbps.

     There is a great interest from different players in the mobile ecosystem to understand the real-world performance of 5G networks and devices," said Alex Holcman, Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm Technologies. He stressed that the comprehensive study has been done to help this ecosystem to "prepare for the incursion into the world 5G" with the aim that application developers can begin to plan new experiences and services for users with 5G devices.

The first 5G modem

     But for this speed to make it possible, device manufacturers have to start thinking about 5G and the network companies go thinking about the infrastructure. The Chinese company that combines these two sectors is Huawei, which has presented at the MWC the first 5G commercial modem, Balong 5G01. Although there is still time for it to work in Spain, it comes with a 3FPP 5G chipset with a connection speed of up to 2.3 Gbps.

It is compatible with 5G in all frequency bands to offer a complete solution suitable for all kinds of uses. "The 5G technology will define the next leap towards a smarter world in which people, vehicles, houses and devices are fully connected, thus generating new experiences, knowledge and capabilities for all," said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, during the presentation.

The Chinese company that invests in 5G technology since 2009, has presented two modem models. The first, low frequency (sub6GHz), is small and light, compatible with 4G and 5G networks and has demonstrated downlink speeds of up to 2 Gbps, 20 times more than 100Mbps fiber. This provides an ultra-fast user experience, which allows you to enjoy video games in virtual reality or download a television program in just one second . On the other hand, the high frequency (mmWave) is available in indoor and outdoor units.

The first call 5G

Another of the recent projects in which Huawei has been involved, although this time under the union of Vodafone, is in the first call 5G in the world with the commercial standard NSA (Non Stand Alone). It was held last week between Castelldefells (Barcelona) and Madrid. The new standard contemplates the use, in a first phase, of the infrastructure of the 4G network for the control and management of traffic, so it will be necessary that both the terminals and the base stations can establish a dual connectivity to 4G networks and 5G at the same time.

It reaches speeds above 2 Gbps and latencies below 10 milliseconds. During the demonstration, the promoters of the call reminded that NSA will be "the only standard that commercial telephones will support in the short and medium term".

Cyber ​​attacks at home

Cybercriminals can access alarms, televisions, smart bulbs or washing machines and take control of the home | The attacks by known viruses only represent 12% of the total

     All the appliances connected to the internet that we have at home can be hacked. Also the Smart TV or even the entrance door, if it is has a security code instead of the traditional key. All these devices IoT (Internet of Things) are connected to a 'Smart Hub' , the module placed in the home that manages them.

The problem analyzed by Kaspersky Labes that a cybercriminal can remotely access the server of these modules and download a file with the personal data of the user needed to access their accounts. "Could get to take control of their home systems," they say from the security company. And because these systems have a 'unifying' function, they are especially interesting for hackers because they can use them as an entry point.


       Although cybersecurity researchers have focused their attention on IoT devices in recent years, they are still proving that they are not entirely safe," said Vladimir Dashchenko, head of the vulnerability research group at Kaspersky Lab, during the conference. This Tuesday's press at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, ​​who has ensured that even a smart light bulb "can commit us".

The company recommends users to always use complex passwords and change them regularly. In addition to these usual tips, Dashchenko has asked people to take an interest in cybersecurity issues by looking up the latest information on discovered and patched vulnerabilities in smart devices.


The most threatened Android

Threats at the computer level are increasing and the "cybercrime business" is increasing all over the world. Ricardo Maté, general director of Sophos Iberia, has been little optimistic, explaining in an interview to this newspaper that the best technical tools that only terrorists or governments had before, are now "within the reach of anyone in the 'deep web' " . In the same way, anybody - individual person or company - is exposed to being attacked.

Thus, it is no longer just the large multinationals that cybercriminals look at, but that the focus is more than ever on mobile phones. On all Android. A study by Sophos revealed that devices with this operating system detected more than 10 million threats in 2017, of which 77% were malignant. To avoid these cyber attacks, Maté recommends above all a task of "prevention" and always have the security copy ready, which in the end user is "so rare" that he does it.

Viruses are new

In addition, a Sophos study of 2,700 companies around the world has shown that attacks by known 'malware' only account for 12% of all attacks. "The new techniques of 'ransomware' or vulnerabilities to applications are 60%, so traditional antivirus solutions do not protect the user," says Maté. A worrisome problem because, in addition, it is a similar situation throughout the world, although in the United States and the United Kingdom they are "somewhat more advanced". Spain, although it is not a very cyber-ravaged country, receives a significant number that has increased greatly from 2016 to 2017.

Mobile devices are, therefore, the target of attacks of 'malware' that grows the most. This creates a "significant" threat to the security of companies because most employees have job information on their personal cell phones or laptops. Dan Schiappa, global head of Products at Sophos, says that one of his studios has discovered that attackers increasingly use Google Play to hide malicious applications such as crypto-software or unwanted advertising that "can cause a variety of problems for users." Android users. "

On the other hand, the computer security company ESET has presented at the MWC of Barcelona a study that states that 90% of televisions connected to an Android operating system are vulnerable. ESET says that although the benefits of the Internet of Things are "undoubted", these devices have "a dark side" related to the data they handle.

"We are seeing an increase in the number of attacks on Android devices, including those related to ransomware. As the number of connected devices in the market grows, the risk for companies and users is greater, "says Juraj Malcho, ESET's technology director

Autonomous cars? For now, only connected

The automotive industry and technology companies must work together to explore solutions that allow the arrival of vehicles without a driver in a few years

     The technology fairs have hundreds of cars parked in their corridors for a few years. The automotive sector has not wanted to be left out of technological advances and some manufacturers now present proposals to champion the race for the 5G . This is one of the most important fields for the sector, since the arrival of this network is necessary for the proper functioning of future autonomous cars.

Thus, it is normal that technology companies and car manufacturers work together more than ever for the launch of electric vehicles, connected and autonomous. In the framework of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) of Barcelona, ​​both present their proposals for the real car of the future. And you do not have to go far to see it. The Spanish Seat has been working for several years on the "connectivity of our entire range of vehicles", according to an interview with this newspaper Leyre Olavarría, director of Connected Car at Seat.


      Younger customers are always connected to their phone and do not understand why when they get into the car they have to stop being," he says. Its objective is that its vehicles incorporate entertainment in the most natural and safe way possible . "It's not just for leisure, but with this service you get not to use your mobile phone while driving," he explains


The manufacturer, which since last September incorporates the interactive service by voice control Amazon Alexa, has just announced in Barcelona that it becomes the first in the world to incorporate Shazam , the song recognition service. The consultant Nielsen indicates that 70% of the users of Shazam use this application to more than 30 km / h, what supposes an important danger.

The president of the company, Luca de Meo, also highlighted the creation of X Moba , a new independent entity whose objective will be to "identify, test, commercialize and invest" in projects that promote solutions that improve the mobility of the future. Your first service is Justmoove, an application that allows you to reserve and pay parking or put gasoline from your mobile. Another initiative under the umbrella of X Moba is Respiro, a car-sharing company that, for the time being, will operate only in Madrid, although they want to export it to other cities outside of Spain.

For its part, Olavarría says that the company is testing with Telefónica for the integration of its vehicles in the 5G ecosystem. "We want to be prepared for when 5G arrives in Spain." It is curious that despite the commitment of many of its competitors for electric vehicles, the firm based in Barcelona does not have any model. On this, the director of Connected Car explains that they are conducting pilot tests with some of them to see the behavior of users, but that their current focus is natural gas "as the necessary energy transition to electrification," he says.

A mobile drives the car
On the side of the technology there have been great advances in this MWC. The Chinese Huawei has presented the first vehicle driven by a smartphone with Artificial Intelligence (AI). The 'RoadReader' project has transformed a Porsche Panamera into a vehicle without a driver that not only detects obstacles, but also understands the stimuli it receives around it and differentiates between more than 1,000 objects or animals . The tests were made with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, a smartphone that includes AI in its processor.


The head of Huawei Consumer Product, Fabio Arena, explains to this newspaper that the AI ​​is integrated into the device with the Kirin 970 chip, which has a neural processing unit (NPU) that acts as its brain, so the car can "understand and know the dangerous objects of the road" to perform the necessary maneuver. "This learning capacity of Artificial Intelligence is unique."

On the other hand, the Korean operator SK Telecom has presented its connected, autonomous and 5G car project at the MWC of Barcelona . "The vehicle is connected with the user, with the other cars and with a control tower", explains Marta Silva. The vehicle is surrounded by cameras for a 360º vision that also send images to the control tower. "If an accident happens, the car in front can send the video to others to recalculate the route and do not form a traffic jam." The same thing could happen with traffic lights, the vehicle reads them at a distance and calculates the fastest route.

This 5G car, which demonstrated its operation on February 5 in a closed circuit tests in Korea, is not yet available due to the need for a 5G network that allows "much faster" data transmission between vehicles.

The 4G will reach the Moon

It will allow the future streaming of the return of the human being to the Earth's satellite

    PTScientist, Vodafone Germany, Audi and Space X work side by side to get back on the Moon, but, this time, with private financing. Mission to the Moon aims 2019 and Cape Canaveral to bring a Falcon 9 to the Earth satellite.

50 years after the man stepped on the moon for the first time, Vodafone and Nokia have proposed to take the 4G in 2019 to the satellite.

The 4G network will allow Audi lunar quattro rovers to communicate and transfer scientific data and HD video as they carefully approach and study NASA's Apollo 17 lunar exploration vehicle. This vehicle was used by the last astronauts who walked the Moon (Commander Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt) to explore the Taurus-Littrow valley in December 1972.

    It is a crucial first step for the sustainable exploration of the solar system, so that humanity can leave its home on Earth, we must develop infrastructures beyond our planet," explains Robert Böhme, CEO and founder of PTScientists.

The Vodafone tests indicate that the base station should be able to emit 4G using the 1800 MHz frequency band and send the first live HD video broadcast from the surface of the Moon.

This broadcast will be broadcast to a global audience through a link in the deep space that interconnects with the PTScientists server at the Mission Control Center in Berlin.

    This project adopts a radically innovative approach in the development of mobile network infrastructure, and is an excellent example of an independent and multidisciplinary team that achieves a goal of enormous importance thanks to its courage, pioneering spirit and inventiveness", highlights Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of Vodafone Germany

A 4G network offers high energy efficiency compared to analog radio and will play an essential role in Mission to the Moon. In addition, it will be the first step to establish a communications infrastructure for future missions.

Spartanhack, programming and entrepreneurship

The Spanish company offers a wide variety of courses focused on technology and the ecosystem of startups

    The most demanded professions and competences at present did not exist ten or even five years ago". This is one of the statements in the report 'The future of jobs: Employment, skills and strategy of the workforce for the fourth industrial revolution' signed by the World Economic Forum.

The irruption of technology and Industry 4.0 has changed the world of work and entrepreneurship is almost an obligation when it comes to entering the market or breaking through as a successful entrepreneur.

However, that change of mentality has not reached the whole society. Between 2012 and 2016, Spain is ranked as the penultimate country (only behind Bulgaria) in the rate of entrepreneurs . Only 2.6% of people between 18 and 64 years old create their own or shared company that has been running for less than three months, below the European average of 4%, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD).

      These two ingredients are the cocktail that Spartanhack has created to open their school next Monday, March 5. "It's time to grow up. It's time to create. Schedule your future. " With this flag they present a Programming and Entrepreneurship Course "focused on introducing in these environments any person interested and motivated to develop their own project, regardless of their previous knowledge", they point out.

A training divided into 9 weeks aimed at establishing the basic pillars of programming . The course is focused on learning current technologies and languages ​​such as HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, Firebase, NodeJS.

"It's a very young project, a commitment to the future, and a temptation for any age," explains Antonio Serrano, CEO of Spartanhack. Training of the 'future' that is taught in Alcobendas (Madrid) and whose courses are subsidized with several scholarships.

The school offers a wide variety of courses focused on programming, disruptive technology and the ecosystem of startups. Among the training highlights the program in Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Data Protection that "aims, on the one hand, to address these disruptive technologies from both a technical and legal point of view; and on the other hand, analyze the practical challenges that they pose ", they explain.

The prices of the courses vary according to their duration. From the 850 euros of the course of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence to the 3,500 euros of the Programming and Emprendimento.

Too many difficulties to maintain a telematic relationship with the administration

The associations of internauts assure that the renovation of the digital signature can only be done with obsolete and insecure browsers

          Many of the administrative procedures that any citizen, company or association must do with the Public Administration can only be done via telematics. For example, anyone who wants to apply for some of the public employment offers has to do it through the internet. Or any paperwork with the Tax Agency can also be done through the network. For this, it is necessary to have an electronic signature. However, as reported by the Association of Internet Users (AUI) and the Association of Internet Users (AI), the renewal of this digital signature is a path full of obstacles.

"The problem is simple, but important," explains Víctor Domingo, president of AUI. «When you have to renew the digital certificate you are asked for some requirements, but you can not do it if it is not with certain browsers. The problem is that they are asking for old versions of Explorer and Firefox, "he explains. "We always ask that the user has updated their browser to avoid security problems, such as 'malware' and 'bugs' (computer errors). If to renew the digital certificate you have to uninstall your current browser or add one that is not up to date, we are putting obstacles and difficulties also to that telematic relationship with the administration », Domingo says.

                  The two organizations filed a complaint with the Ministry of Finance due to the impossibility of renewing or requesting certificates from the National Currency and Stamp Factory (FNMT) over the Internet with current browsers. Having received no response, both organizations have requested protection from the Ombudsman.

"It is irresponsible to do these procedures with outdated browsers. It's like if I watch TV I was asked for a VHS, "says Domingo. And he puts another example. "To ask for a CIF, you have to do it electronically, but it's very complicated to request if I can not renew my digital signature." In addition, both associations have requested a meeting to the telecommunications council (of which they form part) so that "there is intercession from the Ministry of the Digital Agenda". They also hope that the Ombudsman will "take action on the matter so that everything can be done telematically".

Domingo does not believe that the fact that digital signatures can only be renewed with older browsers is due to a technical issue. "Perhaps what they want are intermediaries with the administration and they may be afraid of electronic voting. The relationship with the Treasury should be easier and more fluid, but it is full of complications. "

And the electronic DNI?
The complaint presented by the associations of Internet users refers to digital signatures. Something that does not affect, in theory, the electronic DNI. But, as the president of AUI explains, «the DNI would have to serve for this digital relationship with the administration, but the truth is that nobody uses it electronically. And it is not used because it is very complicated to do it ».

It should also be remembered that last November, in addition, the electronic signature of the DNI had to be deactivated due to a security problem. According to data from the 2014 eSpaña Report (the most recent that the Orange Foundation has), despite the fact that the electronic DNI was born in 2006, the truth is that only 0.02% of the procedures that citizens carry out with the administration are carried out out with the digital version of the national identity document.