Tech
Smartphone’s camera, flash can measure blood oxygen up to 70% at home

A team of US researchers has found that smartphones are capable of detecting blood oxygen saturation levels down to 70 per cent — the lowest value a pulse oximeters should be able to measure.
The proof-of-principle research by University of Washington (UW) and University of California San Diego researchers involved participants placing their finger over the camera and flash of a smartphone, which uses a deep-learning algorithm to decipher the blood oxygen levels.
When the team delivered a controlled mixture of nitrogen and oxygen to six subjects to artificially bring their blood oxygen levels down, the smartphone correctly predicted whether the subject had low blood oxygen levels 80 per cent of the time.
“Other smartphone apps that do this were developed by asking people to hold their breath. But people get very uncomfortable and have to breathe after a minute or so, and that’s before their blood-oxygen levels have gone down far enough to represent the full range of clinically relevant data,” said co-lead author Jason Hoffman from University of Washington.
“With our test, we’re able to gather 15 minutes of data from each subject. Our data shows that smartphones could work well right in the critical threshold range,” Hoffman said in the study published in npj Digital Medicine.
Another benefit of measuring blood oxygen levels on a smartphone is that almost everyone has one.
“This way you could have multiple measurements with your own device at either no cost or low cost,” added co-author Dr. Matthew Thompson, professor of family medicine in the UW School of Medicine.
This would be really beneficial for telemedicine appointments to be able to quickly determine whether patients need to go to the emergency department or if they can continue to rest at home and make an appointment with their primary care provider later.
To gather data to train and test the algorithm, the researchers had each participant wear a standard pulse oximeter on one finger and then place another finger on the same hand over a smartphone’s camera and flash.
The researchers used data from the participants to train a deep learning algorithm to pull out the blood oxygen levels. The remainder of the data was used to validate the method and then test it to see how well it performed on new subjects.
“The camera records how much that blood absorbs the light from the flash in each of the three colour channels it measures: red, green and blue,” said senior author Edward Wang, assistant professor at UC San Diego.
The team hopes to continue this research by testing the algorithm on more people.
National
SpaceX’s Starship fails 3rd time, Musk blames fuel leak as megarocket explodes

New Delhi, May 28: Even as SpaceX’s Starship flight exploded during splashdown on its ninth test on Wednesday, the company’s founder Elon Musk blamed it on fuel leaks.
This is the third time in a row that Starship flight has faced issues during the test flight. The company’s last two test flights — the seventh (January) and eighth (March) test flight — also ended prematurely with the destruction of the aircraft.
The ninth test flight of Starship — which blasted off at about 7:36 p.m. EDT (5:06 am IST) from the company’s Starbase launch site in Texas — successfully reached orbit, flying farther than on its two previous attempts.
However, the spacecraft’s payload bay door failed to open, preventing the planned release of simulated Starlink satellites. Around 30 minutes into the mission, SpaceX confirmed a fuel tank leak aboard the vehicle.
The first-stage Super Heavy booster exploded shortly before its expected splashdown, and live video showed the upper-stage vehicle spinning uncontrollably before its planned re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere, due to fuel leaks.
“Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase,” Musk shared in a post on his social media platform X.
“Contact with the booster was lost shortly after the start of the landing burn when it experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly approximately 6 minutes after launch, bringing an end to the first reflight of a Super Heavy booster,” SpaceX said in a statement.
However, Musk called the flight an achievement and noted that there had been no loss to the heat shield tiles.
“Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over the last flight! Also, no significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent. Lot of good data to review,” Musk said.
SpaceX noted that the company “will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test”.
Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, Starship and heavy booster — the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket system. It will launch the moon lander for NASA’s Artemis 3 mission that aims to land astronauts on the Moon by 2026.
Business
Jupiter Wagons’ net profit falls nearly 2 pc in Q4, revenue slips

Mumbai, May 19: Railway wagons and components manufacturer Jupiter Wagons on Monday reported a decline of 1.9 per cent in its net profit at Rs 103 crore in Q4 FY25, down from Rs 105 crore in the same period last fiscal.
The profit before tax (PBT) also declined by 8.26 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 127.47 crore from Rs 138.95 crore, according to its stock exchange filing.
The company’s consolidated total income also saw a decline, falling to Rs 1,057 crore from Rs 1,127 crore a year earlier — a drop of around 6.2 per cent.
Similarly, revenue from operations decreased by approximately 6.4 per cent, from Rs 1,115.41 crore in the year-ago period to Rs 1,044.54 crore in the last quarter of FY25.
Despite the revenue dip, Jupiter Wagons managed to reduce its total expenses to Rs 923.34 crore in Q4, down 6.4 per cent compared to Rs 986.41 crore in the same quarter last financial year.
However, on a sequential basis, expenses rose by about 1.56 per cent compared to Rs 909.16 crore in Q3.
The company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) rose slightly to Rs 153 crore from Rs 147 crore last fiscal, with the EBITDA margin improving to 14.6 per cent from 13.2 per cent.
Shares of Jupiter Wagons Limited fell by Rs 13.1 or 3.1 per cent to close the intra-day trading session at Rs 408.95 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday.
Speaking about the full financial year, Managing Director Vivek Lohia described FY25 as a transformative year for Jupiter Wagons.
He highlighted several strategic wins, including major contracts with Braithwaite for wheelsets.
“The company also secured brake system contracts worth over Rs 215 crore,” Lohia mentioned.
Lohia emphasised the company’s push into electric mobility with the inauguration of a new facility in Pithampur.
“This state-of-the-art plant is expected to drive battery production and supply to Indian Railways and private partners, along with orders for complete Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS),” he said.
Tech
How PM Modi-led NDA has curbed retail inflation better than UPA regime

New Delhi, May 14: Official data on Wednesday showed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government had done a much better job in controlling retail inflation — especially in food and fuel — compared to the UPA era.
According to a post by BJP leader Amit Malviya on the X social media platform, “double-digit inflation (over 10 per cent) seen during the UPA era is no longer a concern, reflecting effective governance and price control in the past decade”.
“Since 2014, retail inflation has not crossed 8 per cent, in contrast to the UPA’s 2004–14 average of 8.1 per cent, with 10.4 per cent during 2009–14,” he mentioned, citing the official data.
On the other hand, from January 2012 to April 2014 period during the UPA government, inflation was above 9 per cent in 22 out of 28 months, hitting double digits nine times.
Malviya, the BJP Information Technology cell chief, pointed out that retail inflation in April 2025 fell to 3.16 per cent, the lowest in nearly 6 years, continuing a downward trend.
For FY 2024-25, retail inflation was 4.6 per cent, the lowest since 2018-19, marking three consecutive years of decline.
“Overall, the data indicates better inflation control, especially in food and fuel, under the NDA government compared to the UPA era,” he observed.
The BJP-led NDA government had succeeded in containing inflation with the implementation of concrete steps such as PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana which provides more than 80 crore citizens with free rations (extended till 2029), ‘Bharat’ brands launched for retail sale of cereals and pulses at affordable rates through NAFED, NCCF and Kendriya Bhandar.
Besides, under the Price Stabilisation Fund, a dynamic buffer stock of pulses is maintained and calibrated release of stocks from the buffer is done to ensure the availability and affordability of pulses to consumers.
The government is continuously offloading the wheat and rice from the central pool under Open Market Sale Scheme to augment availability in the market and control retail prices.
As far as fuels are concerned, the LPG subsidy and the price of cylinders has been reduced to benefit both PM Ujjwala and regular consumers, prices of non-subsidised LPG were reduced by Rs 100 per 14.2 kg cylinder, effective March 9, 2024.
-
Crime3 years ago
Class 10 student jumps to death in Jaipur
-
Maharashtra8 months ago
Mumbai Local Train Update: Central Railway’s New Timetable Comes Into Effect; Check Full List Of Revised Timings & Stations
-
Maharashtra8 months ago
Mumbai To Go Toll-Free Tonight! Maharashtra Govt Announces Complete Toll Waiver For Light Motor Vehicles At All 5 Entry Points Of City
-
Maharashtra8 months ago
False photo of Imtiaz Jaleel’s rally, exposing the fooling conspiracy
-
National News8 months ago
Ministry of Railways rolls out Special Drive 4.0 with focus on digitisation, cleanliness, inclusiveness and grievance redressal
-
Crime8 months ago
Baba Siddique Murder: Mumbai Police Unable To Get Lawrence Bishnoi Custody Due To Home Ministry Order, Says Report
-
Maharashtra7 months ago
Maharashtra Elections 2024: Mumbai Metro & BEST Services Extended Till Midnight On Voting Day
-
National News8 months ago
J&K: 4 Jawans Killed, 28 Injured After Bus Carrying BSF Personnel For Poll Duty Falls Into Gorge In Budgam; Terrifying Visuals Surface