'Smart glasses' hope for blind

BRITISH-DESIGNED "smart glasses" that provide a new set of eyes for the visually impaired are being tested in public for the first time.

THE devices, which use a pair of video cameras to enhance residual vision, have the potential to transform the lives of thousands of registered blind people in the UK.

The glasses are being trialled by 30 visually impaired volunteers at testing venues in Oxford and Cambridge.Dr Stephen Hicks, of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Oxford University, who led development of the glasses, said: "The idea of the smart glasses is to give people with poor vision an aid that boosts their awareness of what's around them - allowing greater freedom, independence and confidence to get about, and a much improved quality of life."We eventually want to have a product that will look like a regular pair of glasses and cost no more than a few hundred pounds - about the same as a smart phone."The device consists of a pair of video cameras mounted in a headset, a pocket-sized computer processor, and software that projects images of close-by objects onto displays in the see-through eye pieces.The software interprets nearby surroundings to make important objects such as kerbs, tables, chairs or groups of people stand out more clearly.In some cases, details such as facial features can become easier to see.Of the more than 300,000 severely sight impaired people in the UK, it is believed about a third could benefit from the technology.Twenty volunteers with a range of eye conditions and levels of vision took part in preliminary tests of an earlier version of the glasses conducted last year by the Oxford team.The new trials are being conducted with support from the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

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Liberia links seven more deaths to Ebola

A HEALTH official says seven people believed to have the Ebola virus have died in recent days in the Liberian capital, in the first reported deaths in Monrovia.

DEPUTY Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said on Tuesday that brings to 16 the number of people believed to have died from the virus in the West African country since the outbreak began.

The deaths are worrying because no new cases had been confirmed in Liberia in more than two months.The outbreak appears to have begun in neighbouring Guinea and has also spread to Sierra Leone. In all, the World Health Organisation says nearly 250 people have died of the virus, which causes severe bleeding and high fever.

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Complaints about data fees on the rise

MORE mobile users are complaining of being hit with up to thousands of dollars in fees for exceeding data limits.

THE Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman says overall mobile and network complaints dropped by almost a fifth in the first three months of the year, compared to early 2013.

But while complaints about faults such as slow data speeds dropped 67 per cent, disputes over excess data charges rose by nearly a third.Ombudsman Simon Cohen says mobile plan customers have been shocked to discover huge charges for exceeding their data cap."Commonly we are seeing consumers come to us with complaints in the hundreds to thousands of dollars," he told AAP."It might be the case where the consumer has a low cost service but the amount charged for excessive data use is at a very high rate, and as a result the charge they received is many times the regular monthly bill they were expecting."Many consumers felt the charges weren't properly explained to them from the beginning, and that they couldn't get the telecommunications provider to properly hear their complaint."A great deal of clarity of how customers are being charged is critical to reducing problems down the track," Mr Cohen said."Many Australians have finely balanced budgets and they don't have the flexibility to have significant variations in charges for basic utilities like mobile phones."One in three internet disputes were over billing issues, with many complaints related to faulty services or late connections.The ombudsman received 36,256 new complaints in the three months to the end of March.

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US home building declines 6.5% in May

THE pace of US home construction has slipped in May, with many Americans still struggling to afford new houses.

THE Commerce Department says builders started work at a seasonally adjusted annual rate on 1.01 million homes.

That was down 6.5 per cent from 1.07 million in April.Construction firms began work on fewer single-family houses, condominiums and apartments last month.Building tailed off in the Northeast, Midwest and West.Only the South experienced greater construction activity in May.Housing starts have risen 9.4 per cent over the past 12 months.But apartments account for most of the gains, suggesting that more Americans will be renting instead of owning homes.Applications for building permits, a gauge of future activity, fell 6.4 per cent in May to an annual rate of 991,000.

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Walmart tech lab buys Stylr app

WALMART Stores' innovation lab is diving deeper into mobile apps with another acquisition.

THE latest purchase for WalmartLabs is Stylr, a mobile app that allows shoppers to find clothes in nearby stores.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Stylr is WalmartLabs' 13th acquisition in the past three years. The purchase is the latest effort by Walmart, the world's biggest retailer, to develop new digital tools to help create a seamless shopping experience for shoppers who are increasingly jumping back and forth from stores and their mobile phones.Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon, who took the helm in February, vowed Walmart would pick up the pace in technology in his address earlier this month at the company's annual shareholders meeting."It is important that we all understand the shift that has happened in technology and retail, what it means for us, and what we're doing to win," said McMillon."People now spend more time on digital devices than they do watching TV. A lot of times, they're doing both at the same time."Walmart has a ripe audience: 65 per cent of its customers have smartphones, while 80 per cent of shoppers under age 35 do. Half of Walmart smartphone users have used the device in its stores to assist with shopping, company officials say.Stylr will be removed from the app store by the end of the month, said Ravi Jariwala, a spokesman for WalmartLabs. Walmart's own mobile app won't run Stylr, but its technology will be used to develop future mobile innovations.WalmartLabs technology enables Walmart's mobile app to guide shoppers to products and tracks customers' spending as they shop.New York-based Stylr's founders Eytan Daniyalzade and Berk Atikoglu will be joining WalmartLabs in San Bruno, California, as part of the deal.

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Bosnia floods reveal remains

RECORD flooding in Bosnia has uncovered human remains experts believe belong to people who went missing during the country's 1992-95 war.

Lejla Cengic of Bosnia's Institute for Missing Persons said on Tuesday teams fixing power lines damaged by last week's floods discovered the remains near the northern town of Doboj after water receded.

She says the institute is hoping the remains belong to some of the dozens of people missing since the war from the town of Maglaj - a few kilometres up the river Bosna from Doboj.

Nearly 30,000 people went missing during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. One third of them have been found in mass graves, mostly in Bosnia. Authorities continue to search for thousands still believed hidden.

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Bus strike hits Brazil World Cup city

BUS drivers are on strike in the World Cup host city of Salvador, snarling traffic in Brazil's third biggest metropolis.

Bahia state transport secretary Fabio Mota says police will escort buses whose drivers are willing to work on Tuesday. News reports say only about 200 of Salvador's 3000 buses are expected to operate.

The striking drivers' demands include a 12 per cent salary hike and reduced working hours.

With the World Cup less than three weeks away, Brazil has been rocked by strikes by workers from many sectors and regions.

Last month, Salvador saw a strike by military police. The city of around three million is hosting six World Cup matches, beginning with Spain versus the Netherlands on June 13.

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GM recalls 2.4 million more vehicles

GENERAL Motors is recalling 2.4 million vehicles in the US as part of a broader effort to resolve outstanding safety issues more quickly.

The latest action brings to 13.6 million the number of vehicles GM has recalled this year, a new record for the carmaker.

The recalls announced on Tuesday include 1.3 million older-model crossovers with defective front seat belts and 1 million sedans with a shift cable that can wear out.

GM is also recalling 1,400 new Cadillac Escalade SUVs with faulty air bags.

No fatalities related to the defects have been reported, GM says

It expects to take a $US400 million ($A433 million) charge in the second quarter to repair the vehicles.

GM agreed to a $US35 million federal fine last week for delays in reporting a deadly ignition switch defect.

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AirAsia to do Interpol checks

BUDGET airline AirAsia says it will become the first carrier to check its passengers' passports against Interpol's database of stolen and lost travel documents.

The Kuala Lumpur-based airline said on Tuesday it will begin implementing the screening this month as part of its effort to enhance aviation security in the aftermath of the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jet on March 8.

The Interpol database had previously been available only to government immigration authorities. Interpol's I-Checkit system will be deployed across all of AirAsia's international operations, covering 600 flights daily.

Attempts to solve the mystery of what happened to the missing Malaysia Airlines plane with 239 people on board revealed that two of its passengers had travelled with stolen passports. The Austrian and Italian passports used were on Interpol's database as having been stolen in Thailand.

Ronald Noble, Interpol secretary general, said the decision of AirAsia to screen its passengers using the Interpol database "will raise the bar across the industry for passenger safety and security".

"After today, airlines will no longer have to depend solely on countries screening passports to keep passengers safe from terrorists and other criminals who use stolen passports to board flights," he said.

At present, fewer than 10 countries systematically screen passenger passports against the Interpol database.

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Hundreds trapped in Turkish coal mine

AT least one miner has been killed and 19 others hospitalised following an explosion and fire at a coal mine in western Turkey.

More than 200 others are reported trapped.

Local administrator Mehmet Bahattin Atci said 20 people were rescued from the mine in the town of Soma, in the province of Manisa, but one of them died in hospital.

He said Tuesday's explosion was caused by a power distribution unit and between 200 and 300 more workers are still inside the mine.

"Rescue efforts are underway," Atci told reporters.

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