Before war and time destroy more of our important cultural sites, we need to save them in 3-D digital libraries. Across 163 different countries, more than 1,000 natural and cultural historic places make up our most precious human heritage, which UNESCO calls World Heritage Sites.

We lose a little of that heritage every day. War, climate change and pollution have bad effects, as do wind and rain. The $4 million a year that UNESCO spends on preservation is not nearly enough to take care of even the four dozen sites considered to be at approaching risk of being lost forever. Now there’s a better choice. New digital conservation technologies let us hold on to them, at least virtually, through 3-D scanning, modelling and digital storage. Such projects can be accomplished through cooperation between governments, universities, industries and non-profit organizations.

To make a 3-D model, a laser (激光) scanner bounces light off an object and records the results. To reproduce every corner and opening, the scanner collects overlapping (重登的) images from all possible angles. A computer then sews them together into one large surface image and draws lines from one point to another to create a wireframe model. High-resolution digital cameras add colour and texture. When fully put together, the models can be viewed, printed or operated.

These scans do more than preserving a memory in a database. With highly accurate measurements, archaeologists (考古学家) can find hidden passages or reveal ancient engineering tricks. School kids can explore places they might otherwise never see. And when a site is destroyed, the scans can even be used to reconstruct what was there. That has already happened to one World Heritage Site, the Kasubi Tombs in Uganda. Built of wood in 1882, they were destroyed by fire in 2010 and rebuilt in 2014, based in large part on 3-D models made in 2009. More than 100 World Heritage Sites have already been preserved through 3-D models, and conservationists are racing to record as more as possible.

A humanoid robot can transmit (传输) video and touch sensations to a person wearing special gloves and a virtual reality (VR) headset hundreds of kilometers away, offering a way for people to attend events without traveling.

The iCub3 robot is a 52-kilogram and 125-centimetre-tall robot with 54 points of articulation (关节点) across its body. Its head contains two cameras where a human’s eyes would be and an Internet-connected computer where the brain would go. Along with the cameras, sensors covering its body send data to the robot’s “brain”. These sensations are then copied on a suit and VR headset worn by a remote human operator.

When the operator reacts to what they see and feel, the suit’s sensors pick up the movements and the robot matches them. “The key is to translate every signal and bit of numeric data that can be sent through the network,” says Stefano Dafarra, who is part of the iCub 3 team. There can be a small delay of up to 100 milliseconds to collect and transmit the visual footage, but the operator can improve this by moving slightly slower than normal.

The team has demonstrated the robot at the Venice Biennale, where it wandered through an exhibition while its operator stood 290 kilometers away in Genoa.

Dafarra hopes people will use iCub 3 to attend events remotely, reducing the need to travel. “But at present, a fall could be hugely damaging to the robot, and it’s uncertain whether it could stand up again on its own,” he says.

“iCub 3 is an interesting robot and has clear advantages over the previous version,” says Jonathan Aitken, whose laboratory owns a prior version of the robot. However, he is disappointed that the team wasn’t clear in its research about the data transmission requirements of the new version of the robot. “It would be good to know just how much data was required, and what the upper and lower bounds were,” he says.

The term “Industry 4.0” refers to the fourth industrial revolution. The first industrial revolution was the production of goods with machines like steam engines, which was followed by the second industrial revolution that introduced mass production with the help of electric power, followed by the digital revolution —the use of electronics and IT in production.

Industry 4.0 is a high-tech project, which promotes the computerization of manufacturing (制造业). The basic principle of Industry 4.0 is that by connecting machines, work pieces and systems, we are creating intelligent networks along the entire value chain that can control each other automatically. The goal is the Smart Factory, which adapts well and uses resources efficiently as well as linking customers and business partners with great intelligence. Technological bases are the Internet systems and advanced factories. Experts believe that Industry 4.0 could be a reality in about 10 to 20 years.

So, what effects does this change have on the classic manufacturing? According to an expert, “it is highly likely that the world of production will become more and more networked until everything is connected with everything else.” Networks and processes have so far been limited to one factory. But in the time of Industry 4.0, the boundaries (界限) of individual factories will most likely no longer exist. Instead, they will be lifted in order to inter-connect multiple factories or even geographical regions.

How is an Industry 4.0 factory different from a today’s factory? In current industry environment, providing high-end quality service or product with the least cost is the key to success. Factories are trying to increase their profit as much as possible. In the time of Industry 4.0, various data sources are available to provide worthwhile information about different aspects of the factory. Using data for understanding the current condition and checking faults and failures is a natural thing. The sharing of information around the clock and around the globe will enable these connected systems to manage themselves independently, work more efficiently and identify any errors quickly.

The good news is that Europe is much better prepared for the Industry 4.0 revolution than one might think. Europe will position itself as a pioneer in the fourth revolution. Industry 4.0 is a project in the high-tech strategy of the German government. Meanwhile, in the U.S., some companies are also working hard on it. But the success of industry depends on whether business and politics can work together. It’s not only politics that needs to help open the door for Industry 4.0. Every company is advised to seize the new digital opportunities.