Epson’s New Robotic DTO System Debuts in Europe: Redefining Printing on Complex Surfaces

The Long-Standing Challenge: Printing on Curved, Grooved, or Irregular Surfaces In manufacturing and design, printing on non-flat surfaces—such as a guitar body with smooth contours, an ergonomically ridged tool handle, or a decoratively curved vase—has long been a stubborn hurdle. Historically, these surfaces required painstaking manual work or expensive, specialized machinery, often forcing a trade-off between precision and flexibility. Epson’s DTO System: A European Debut Merging Robotic Precision and Inkjet Innovation This week at Germany’s Automatica trade fair, Epson is set to rewrite this narrative with the European launch of its groundbreaking direct-to-shape (DTO) printing system. A fusion of robotic precision and advanced inkjet technology, it promises to revolutionize how […]

Epson’s New Collaborative Robot: A Lightweight Powerhouse of Precision and Flexibility

The Rise of Collaborative Robots: A New Trend in Industrial Automation In the high-stakes environment of modern manufacturing, where skilled labor shortages collide with surging demand for precision manufacturing, a quiet revolution is unfolding: collaborative robots (cobots) are moving beyond factory floors into laboratories, clean rooms, and logistics hubs, working side-by-side with humans to tackle tasks once deemed too delicate or repetitive for automation. Epson Enters the Fray: Birth and Mission of Its First Collaborative Robot Epson, an industry leader with 40 years of expertise in industrial robotics, is now set to join this field—its first collaborative robot is 即将问世 (soon to be released). This lightweight, high-performance product aims to […]

AI in a Kentucky Town: Unlocking a Surprising Consensus in Democracy

From Empty Town Halls to a Radical Idea: AI’s Unexpected Impact On a gray February morning in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Doug Gorman stared at a stack of unopened town hall sign-in sheets. The county judge executive had hosted three meetings that month to discuss the city’s looming population boom—by 2050, projections showed the area could grow by 40%—but turnout topped out at 23 people. “Mostly folks upset about new traffic lights,” he later recalled. “Hardly anyone talking about schools or parks or jobs.” Across America, this was the norm: democracy reduced to the loudest voices in a room, while the silent majority stayed home, too busy with work or kids […]

Awareness, Perceptions, and Opinions of Artificial Intelligence Among Medical Undergraduates at Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia in 2025: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract Background and Objectives: With the increasing application of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare (such as image analysis and robotic surgery), the World Medical Association (WMA) emphasizes the need to integrate AI education into medical curricula. This study aims to assess the awareness, perceptions, and attitudes of medical undergraduates at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, regarding AI and its applications in healthcare, providing a basis for integrating AI courses into medical education. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in March 2025, using stratified random sampling to select 170 undergraduate medical students from Umm Al-Qura University, ensuring representative samples across all academic years. A self-administered online questionnaire, […]

Augmented Intelligence in Medicine: Amplifying Human Care, Not Replacing It

   In the quiet of a hospital hallway, Dr. Elena Ruiz pauses over a patient’s chart, her pen hovering. The scan shows a suspicious shadow in the lung—a finding that could mean early cancer, but might also be a harmless artifact of the imaging. Beside her, a screen glows: an AI tool has flagged the anomaly, cross-referencing it with thousands of similar cases and noting, “High correlation with adenocarcinoma in patients with this smoking history.” Dr. Ruiz nods, then pulls up the patient’s full history—something the AI can’t do alone. “It’s not telling me what to do,” she says later. “It’s giving me more to work with.” This is the […]

AI Wrote My Column (But I Stole It Back)

 （1）The coffee had cooled to the temperature of a regret—lukewarm, lingering, proof that I’d spent 47 minutes “just resting my eyes” instead of writing this column. The solitaire deck was stacked like a monument to my own indecision: three kings buried under a mess of 5s and 8s, much like the ideas in my head. I stared at the blank document, its cursor blinking like a judgmental eyelash, and thought: If only this thing could write itself.  （2）Turns out, the computer was one step ahead. Above the empty page, a tiny prompt winked: “Let AI help you draft.” Followed by a list of suggestions, as if it knew I was […]

AI-Powered Vision: How Visual-Language Models Are Transforming Medical Image Analysis

（1）In the dimly lit reading rooms of hospitals across Australia, radiologists hunched over glowing screens face a quiet crisis: stacks of chest X-rays pile up faster than they can be analyzed, while patients wait anxiously for answers. A single radiologist might juggle 50 or more scans a day, each holding clues to a heart condition, a hidden tumor, or a misplaced medical device. But amid this pressure, a new ally is emerging—artificial intelligence, armed with the ability to “see” and interpret medical images with remarkable precision. （2）This isn’t the AI of chatbots or social media filters. Researchers at CSIRO’s Australian e-Health Research Center (AEHRC) are harnessing cutting-edge visual-language models (VLMs)—systems […]

AI in Classrooms: A Divisive Tool Shaping Education’s Future

As the first day of school looms, a quiet shift is unfolding in backpacks and lesson plans across the country: alongside textbooks and calculators, students now carry access to a tool that’s dividing educators, parents, and policymakers alike—generative artificial intelligence. From middle school essays to high school math problems, AI tools like ChatGPT have become as ubiquitous as Wi-Fi in classrooms, sparking debates over whether they’re a game-changing ally or a threat to learning itself. In Hampton Roads, Virginia, and districts nationwide, this divide is playing out in real time. While some teachers ban AI outright, fearing it will erode critical thinking, others are rewriting lesson plans to harness its […]

A New Gold Rush? How AI Is Reshaping San Francisco​

Beneath the glittering skyline of San Francisco, where the bay’s fog curls around skyscrapers and tech history hums in every cable car clang, a quiet revolution is unfolding. Inside the Exploratorium, a waterfront museum where curiosity meets cutting-edge, families aren’t just observing artificial intelligence—they’re wrestling with its soul. Kids giggle as AI misidentifies their shadow puppets as “dancing octopuses,” teens lean in to hear AI croon original songs, and adults pause to scribble on cards: “Will AI cure Alzheimer’s?” one asks. Another reads, “What if we forget how to dream for ourselves?”​ Here, in this temple of experimentation, the hype and fear around AI collide in tangible ways. “We’re not […]

Promote the Development of the Brain-Computer Interface Industry! The Latest Deployment by Seven Departments Including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

Brain-computer interface (BCI) establishes an information channel between the brain and machines to realize the collaborative interaction between biological intelligence and machine intelligence. It is a cutting-edge technology integrating life sciences and information sciences. By 2030, the innovation capability of the BCI industry will be significantly enhanced, a safe and reliable industrial system will be formed, an internationally competitive industrial ecology will be built, and the overall strength will rank among the world’s top. Recently, seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the National Health Commission, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, […]