This week’s roundup of top data news covers highlights from February 14, 2026 to February 20, 2026, includes a new real-time translation system for worshippers attending Holy Mass at the Vatican and a Guinness World Record for the smallest QR code ever created.
The Ukrainian government has recently launched its digital government app called Diia to ensure public services continue despite Russian attacks. The platform offers more than 160 services, including digital IDs, business registration, and social benefits. Designed to work securely even during infrastructure disruption, Diia stays operational through cloud‑based systems, strong cybersecurity, decentralized data storage, and rapid crisis adaptation.
2. Boosting Students’ Reading Skills
Delaware County School districts have begun testing an AI-powered reading tool called Amira for elementary students. The system uses speech recognition to listen as children read aloud, spot errors, and adjust lessons in real-time. Teachers receive detailed progress reports that track accuracy, fluency, error patterns, and reading proficiency over time.
3. Translating for Holy Mass Attendees
The Vatican and Italy-based language translation company Translated have created an AI-assisted live interpretation system for Holy Mass attendees. The tool uses speech-recognition models trained on audio and text from past services at the Vatican, and works alongside human interpreters to manage complex theological language. It delivers near real-time translation across multiple languages, expanding access while keeping human oversight to review phrasing and accuracy.
4. Improving Sports for Deaf Audiences
Japan-based immersive music‑tech company Hapbeat has adapted its wearable vibration technology to help deaf judo fans experience what’s happening during matches through touch. Sensors in the fighters’ mats capture movement, translate it into vibration data, and transmit those signals to the users’ wearable device, allowing them to feel footwork and impacts. The device also signals match cues typically delivered by voice, helping make the sport more accessible to deaf audiences.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have built a radio‑wave sensing system called HoloRadar, designed for future use on self-driving cars. In tests with small mobile robots, the mounted Holodar system sent out radio waves that bounced off nearby surfaces, such as the side of a building at a street corner, and returned to onboard sensors. An AI model analyzed the reflections to create a 3D view of hidden objects, letting the robots detect around corners.
Australia-based engineering firm Cyborg Dynamics Engineering and researchers at Griffith University in Australia have built an AI‑powered system that enables multiple unmanned ground vehicles to coordinate firefighting in hazardous environments. Using reinforcement learning, the robots learn to navigate obstacles and extinguish controlled test fires with high success rates. In tests, a robot located the active flames and moved in to extinguish them.
San Francisco‑based Weave Robotics has built a laundry‑folding robot that uses an AI system, computer vision, and soft robotic hand‑like grippers to handle clothing. The system identifies garment types, adjusts its grip, and folds items at speeds approaching commercial laundry operations. It maps each item’s shape, smooths wrinkles, and sequences folds automatically, coordinating its grippers and vision system to produce consistent, neatly folded results.
8. Simulating Energy Use in New Buildings
Researchers at Kanazawa University in Japan have created an AI system that simulates a building’s expected energy use in real-time and uses those findings to predict demand, adjusting lighting, heating, and cooling automatically. By analyzing occupancy and equipment data, the system reduces waste while maintaining comfort. In controlled tests, the system reduced energy use relative to conventional building controls
9. Generating Music with Images
Google has announced that its AI assistant Gemini is adding a music‑generation feature powered by Google’s AI research lab DeepMind and its Lyria 3 model, an advanced system for creating realistic audio. Users can turn prompts, images, or short videos into 30‑second songs with adjustable style and tempo. The system generates melodies, vocals, and arrangements with improved realism over earlier versions and is rolling out within the Gemini app shortly.
10. Creating the Smallest QR Code Ever
Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology and data‑storage company Cerabyte have created a QR code using features just 49 nanometers wide—about 200 to 300 micrometer modules smaller than typical smartphone-scannable QR code. The prototype uses an electron beam to etch information into ceramic glass and is designed for ultra‑long‑term storage by libraries, archives, and museums rather than routine document scanning.
