An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: In 2015, after years of research, SoftWear Automation introduced LOWRY, a sewing robot, or sewbot, that uses machine vision to spot and adjust to distortions in the fabric. Though initially only able to make simple products, such as bath mats, the technology is now advanced enough to make whole t-shirts and much of a pair of jeans. According to the company, it also does it far faster than a human sewing line. SoftWear Automation’s big selling point is that one of its robotic sewing lines can replace a conventional line of 10 workers and produce about 1,142 t-shirts in an eight-hour period, compared to just 669 for the human sewing line. Another way to look at it is that the robot, working under the guidance of a single human handler, can make as many shirts per hour as about 17 humans. The company has emerged as a leader among those trying to automate sewing, drawing the interest of businesses that make home goods and of course clothing manufacturers, including Tianyuan Garments Company, a Chinese firm that produces for brands such as Adidas and Armani. Tianyuan Garments has invested $20 million in a 100,000-square foot factory in Little Rock, Arkansas, planned to open in 2018. The factory will be staffed with 21 robotic production lines supplied by SoftWear Automation, and will be capable of making 1.2 million t-shirts a year.

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Source: Slashdot – New T-Shirt Sewing Robot Can Make As Many Shirts Per Hour As 17 Factory Workers

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday announced what the agency calls a “historic action” — the first approval of a cell-based gene therapy in the United States. The FDA approved Kymriah, which scientists refer to as a “living drug” because it involves using genetically modified immune cells from patients to attack their cancer. The drug was approved to treat children and young adults suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of blood and bone marrow that is the most common childhood cancer in the United States. About 3,100 patients who are 20 and younger are diagnosed with ALL each year. The treatment involves removing immune system cells known as T cells from each patient and genetically modifying the cells in the laboratory to attack and kill leukemia cells. The genetically modified cells are then infused back into patients. It’s also known as CAR-T cell therapy. The treatment, which is also called CTL109, produced remission within three months in 83 percent of 63 pediatric and young adult patients. The patients had failed to respond to standard treatments or had suffered relapses. Based on those results, an FDA advisory panel recommended the approval in July. The treatment does carry risks, however, including a dangerous overreaction by the immune system known as cytokine-release syndrome. As a result, the FDA is requiring strong warnings.

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Source: Slashdot – FDA Approves First Cell-Based Therapy For Cancer

In October, Kaspersky Labs was sued by a “do-nothing patent holder in East Texas who demanded a cash settlement before it would go away,” reports Ars Technica. Today, founder and CEO Eugene Kaspersky said his company has defeated five patent assertion entities, including the infamous claims from Lodsys, “a much-maligned patent holder that sent demand letters to small app developers.” The patent-licensing company who sued Kaspersky Labs in October was not only defeated, but they ended up paying Kaspersky $5,000 to end the litigation. From the report: The patent-licensing company, Wetro Lan LLC, owned U.S. Patent No. 6,795,918, which essentially claimed an Internet firewall. The patent was filed in 2000 despite the fact that computer network firewalls date to the 1980s. The ‘918 patent was used in what the Electronic Frontier Foundation called an “outrageous trolling campaign,” in which dozens of companies were sued out of Wetro Lan’s “headquarters,” a Plano office suite that it shared with several other firms that engage in what is pejoratively called “patent-trolling.” Wetro Lan’s complaints argued that a vast array of Internet routers and switches infringed its patent. Most companies sued by Wetro Lan apparently reached settlements within a short time, a likely indicator of low-value settlement demands. Not a single one of the cases even reached the claim construction phase. But Kaspersky wouldn’t pay up. As claim construction approached, Kaspersky’s lead lawyer Casey Kniser served discovery requests for Wetro Lan’s other license agreements. He suspected the amounts were low. Wetro Lan’s settlement demands kept dropping, down from its initial “amicable” demand of $60,000. Eventually, the demands reached $10,000 — an amount that’s extremely low in the world of patent litigation. Kniser tried to explain that it didn’t matter how far the company dropped the demand. “Kaspersky won’t pay these people even if it’s a nickel,” he said. Then Kniser took a new tack. “We said, actually, $10,000 is fine,” said Kniser. “Why don’t you pay us $10,000?” After some back-and-forth, Wetro Lan’s lawyer agreed to pay Kaspersky $5,000 to end the litigation. Papers were filed Monday, and both sides have dropped their claims.

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Source: Slashdot – Kaspersky Lab Forces ‘Patent Troll’ To Pay Cash To End Case

Google announced today several new third-party speakers that will support the Assistant. Their blog post is a follow-up to a post in May where they announced the general availability of the Google Assistant SDK, which lets anyone download and run the Google Assistant on the gadget of their choice. TechCrunch reports: That’s likely to be good for both the voice-powered assistant market, as well as for Google’s ability to use its service to collect useful data which it can then use to work on its advertising and marketing products. The more places Assistant appears, the more likely it is that people will engage with the voice companion, and that’s not territory Google wants to cede to someone like Amazon. Some of the devices getting Google Assistant coming to IFA include the Anker Zolo Mojo, a small cylinder speaker that’s sort of like a third-party Google Home, which will go on sale in late October. Two other smart speakers powered by Assistant, including the Panasonic GA10 and the TicHome Mini, are also on their way. Google is also now making it possible to use Assistant to check on the state of your laundry or dishes, using an integration with LG’s line of home appliances, which also includes voice commands for LG’s Roomba competitor.

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Source: Slashdot – Google Assistant Coming Soon To More Speakers, Appliances and Other Devices

According to a new report, TCL will be manufacturing palm-branded devices next year. SlashGear reports: The Palm brand has been in limbo for the past half-decade, moving in and out of HP-connected devices then on into relative obscurity. The Palm operating system was acquired by LG and continues to be used (in some form or another) in LG smart TVs to this day — as such, it won’t be coming with the Palm phone set for next year. On the day when gesture controls for the next iPhone just started to look like the last phone version of Palm OS, word appears of Palm’s resurgence. Sadly, this resurgence almost certainly wont include Palm OS. Word comes from Android Planet that TCL Marketing Manager Stefan Streit confirmed that they’ve finally gotten to a place where they can make a Palm phone. TCL acquired the Palm brand all the way back in 2011.

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Source: Slashdot – Palm Devices Are Coming In 2018 Without WebOS, Says Report