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Tracking what consumers think before they buy

24 June 2026 at 15:40
Manufacturers have traditionally relied on sales figures to understand where they stand with consumers, but by the time those numbers arrive, consumers' buying decisions have already been made. A study co-authored by UC Riverside business professor Hai Che offers a way to capture what consumers are thinking while they are still weighing options, comparing products and deciding whether to buy at all.

Wearable glove turns data into heat and touch for more personal insights

18 June 2026 at 21:00
University of Adelaide researchers have developed a wearable glove that uses heat, touch and physical objects to transform data into a sensory experience. The prototype, called ThermoPhy, was developed as part of a remote internship run by the Australian Research Center for Interactive and Virtual Environments (IVE) at the University of Adelaide.

Intelligent, but not conscious: A warning about AI chatbots

18 June 2026 at 14:49
Have you ever said "thanks" to ChatGPT, or "please" to Claude? Maybe you're just being polite, showing some civility to a helpful and eloquent conversational partner. You may even consider politeness a safe choice, just in case machines someday reveal that they were conscious all along and decide to take revenge on those who were rude to them.

Harsh critics are the most loyal fans of video game brands, study shows

16 June 2026 at 15:20
Dr. Naser Pourazad, senior lecturer in marketing at Flinders University's College of Business, Creative Arts, Law and Social Sciences, has examined how video game fans express their brand advocacy through online forumsβ€”and this reveals distinct consumer engagement patterns that challenge traditional marketing approaches. "This isn't just about games," says Dr. Pourazad. "As brands try to build passionate fan bases, our study shows the traditional marketing playbook is broken."

AR-assisted Japanese flower arrangement helps beginners learn at home while preserving mindfulness

15 June 2026 at 19:00
Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, is an important form of Japan's Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) that fosters creativity, mindfulness and aesthetic sensitivity. Also known as "Kado," or way of the flower, ikebana offers people living in metropolitan areas a way to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and connect with nature, which significantly benefits mental well-being.

Love at first prompt? How AI-assisted courtship is rewriting the rules of online dating

15 June 2026 at 16:20
In the famous French play Cyrano de Bergerac, the brilliant but insecure Cyrano lends his eloquence to the handsome, tongue-tied Christian to help him woo his lover. Today, a remarkably similar scene is playing out among millions of dating app users, with the role of the lovelorn poet played not by a human but by AI. New research from Constructor University professor Dr. Lennart Ante analyzes the growing impact of dating app users outsourcing the delicate work of courtshipβ€”from the witty opening line to the flirtatious replyβ€”to AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini or even specialized "wingman" apps like Rizz and Winggg.

Vehicle miles traveled: An improved, but imperfect, traffic metric

15 June 2026 at 15:40
Opponents of new developments often argue that more construction will bring more traffic, frequently convincing developers to reduce the scale of their projects or seek out less densely populated areas to build. Although such compromises may lead to less congestion on the road, they don't necessarily reduce driving and driving's associated environmental effects. But what if how much a community actually drives provides a better measure of how a new development stands to affect a neighborhood?

Human understanding of AI can't keep up with its advancement, researchers say

12 June 2026 at 16:56
In a recent editorial published in Science, Microsoft's chief scientific officer, Eric Horvitz, and researcher Robert West from the School of Computer and Communication Sciences at EPFL in Switzerland issue a stark warning about AI. They say the advancement of AI systems rapidly being woven into our everyday lives is beginning to outpace our understanding of them. At the same time, AI's understanding of human behavior is expanding.

High prevalence of poor sleep quality among Japanese esports players

11 June 2026 at 23:00
A research team at the University of Tsukuba reported that 43.3% of Japanese esports players were classified as having poor subjective sleep quality, according to a cross-sectional survey. In particular, poor sleep quality was common among individuals who engaged in esports play between 3:00 a.m. and 8:59 a.m. The study also identified differences in sleep patterns according to competitive level: Professional players were more likely to have later bedtimes and wake-up times, and amateur players tended to report a shorter total sleep time.

How AI chatbots become better learning coaches

11 June 2026 at 02:40
Many AI systems answer questions in a matter of secondsβ€”and, in the process, often prevent people from doing exactly what learning is all about: thinking for themselves. Machine learning expert Jakub Mačina is therefore developing models that don't provide pupils with finished solutions, but rather help them develop their understanding step by step.

Entirely new way of making espresso shakes up the coffee world

10 June 2026 at 16:23
Researchers at UNSW Sydney have harnessed the power of ultrasonic sound waves to make espresso-strength coffee with room-temperature water, cutting energy use by up to 75%. That morning coffee kick from a shot of espresso needs boiling water and high pressureβ€”equaling plenty of energy consumption, right?

The consequences of relying on AI for accurate news

10 June 2026 at 15:03
It's no secret that the last few years have seen a massive explosion in the use of artificial intelligence for general information-gathering. An even more recent trend, though, is how large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are increasingly being used for verifying and consuming news. Reports from the Pew Research Center over the last year found that 1 in 5 U.S. teens regularly use LLMs to get their news, while 1 in 4 young adults have reported using them for that purpose at least once.

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