This Week in Tech

IRS Will Require Facial Recognition Scans to Access Your Taxes Online

IRS Will Require Facial Recognition Scans to Access Your Taxes Online

Online tax filers in the United States will soon be required to submit a selfie to a third-party identity verification company using facial recognition tech in order to access their IRS accounts…


MIT Lays Out Strategy To Help the U.S. Regain Its Place as a Semiconductor Superpower

The global semiconductor shortage has grabbed headlines and caused a cascade of production bottlenecks that have driven up prices on all sorts of consumer goods, from refrigerators to SUVs. The chip shortage has thrown into sharp relief the critical role semiconductors play in many aspects of everyday life…


Wandercraft’s Latest Exoskeleton Lets Paraplegics Walk With a More Natural Gait

Paris-based Wandercraft has announced that it’s latest “Atalante” exoskeleton has been updated to give paraplegic and other patients a more natural gait during rehabilitation exercises. It also received a Medical Device Regulation (MDR) certificate in Europe, allowing patients and medical staff to use the device more widely. Finally, it’s taken a step closer to personal exoskeletons with additional funding…


Habitat for Humanity Builds 3D-Printed Home in 28 Hours

Virginia mom April Stringfield is now the owner of Habitat for Humanity’s first 3D-printed home — built in record time, thanks to new construction tech…


German Bionic’s Connected Exoskeleton Helps Workers Lift Smarter

We’re still quite a ways away from wielding proper Power Loaders but advances in exosuit technology are rapidly changing how people perform physical tasks in their daily lives — some designed to help rehabilitate spinal injury patients, others created to improve a Marine’s warfighting capabilities, and many built simply to make physically repetitive vocations less stressful for the people performing them. But German Bionic claims only one of them is intelligent enough to learn from its users’ mistaken movements: its 5th-generation Cray X…


Former SpaceX Engineers Bring Autonomous, Electric Rail Vehicle Startup Out of Stealth

Parallel Systems, a company founded by three former SpaceX engineers to build autonomous battery-electric rail vehicles, came out of stealth mode on Wednesday with a $49.55 million Series A raise. The company, which has raised $53.15 million to date, including a $3.6 million seed round, is working to create a more efficient, decarbonized freight network that flows on top of existing railway infrastructure…