question: By. Ellie Zolfagharifard. and Reuters. Selfie fans, your life just got a little easier. A Swedish tech start-up has launched an app for Apple devices that lets people take photos of themselves without having to touch their screens. Using touchless technology, which it says is ideal for taking 'selfies' or 'groupies', Crunchfish's GoCam app lets users trigger photos or videos from a distance with just hand gestures. Scroll down for video. Using touchless technology which it says is ideal for taking 'selfies' or 'groupies', Crunchfish's GoCam app lets users trigger photos or videos from a distance with just hand gestures. Photos can be triggered from a distance of up to 10 ft (3 metres), the company claims. The company, based in the southern Swedish city of Malmo, says the free GoCam app is currently only available in Sweden and Australia. Over the past few years, gesture recognition has become more popular thanks to products such as Microsoft's Kinect for video games. However, power-hungry technology has yet to become mainstream in computers or mobile devices. Photos can be triggered from a distance of up to 10 feet (3 metres). The company, based in the southern Swedish city of Malmo, says the free GoCam app is currently only available in Sweden and Australia. The technology using something known as Touchless A3D software which detects and tracks different gestures. It does this using a video stream from the camera in the mobile phone, picking up on particular movements, such as a wave of a hand. 'Even though a number of handset vendors globally are integrating our touchless software for different features into their devices, we wanted to develop GoCam in order to show the capabilities of gesture interaction also in the iOS environment,' said Joakim Nydemark, chief executive of the group. The technology using something known as Touchless A3D software which detects and tracks different gestures. It does this using a video stream from the camera in the mobile phone, picking up on particular movements, such as a wave of a hand. 'Touchless A3D requires no hardware changes and runs on all major mobile operating systems, the company writes on its website. 'This makes it possible for the user to experience a new interaction paradigm in any mobile device.' Too lazy to get up to switch the kettle on? Soon you may be able to simply raise your hand or nod your head from another room, and you’ll be moments away from a fresh cup of tea. This is the hope of researchers at the University of Washington who have developed technology that will allow people to control household devices with simple gestures. The technology, named ‘WiSee’, is similar in concept to how Microsoft's Xbox Kinect sensor works by using cameras to recognise gestures. By adapting a Wi-Fi router and wireless household devices, the researchers developed a system that can detect specific movements without the need for sensors or cameras. They claim it is simpler and cheaper than similar gesture-recognition technologies. Out of the 900 gestures performed, WiSee accurately recognised 94 per cent of them. It was found that as many as five people can move simultaneously in the same room without confusing the receiver.

answer: App tracks gestures via iPhone camera using its Touchless A3D software. GoCam app can be triggered from a distance of up to 3 metres. The app was created by Crunchfish, a start-up based Malmo, Sweden. Free technology is currently only available in Sweden and Australia.

question: An apartment left untouched since before the fall of the Berlin Wall has been discovered by a developer in the eastern German city of Leipzig, German media reports said Thursday. The fall of the Berlin Wall heralded the end of the communist regime in East Germany in 1989. The discovery, made by architect Mark Aretz, revealed a small one-bedroom apartment evidently abandoned quickly by its occupants as the Communist East German state disintegrated in 1989, Spiegel Online reported. A wall calendar showed August 1988, and the kitchen cupboard and drawers contained plastic crockery and aluminium cutlery along with communist-era food brands such as "Vita" Cola, "Marella" margarine, "Juwel" cigarettes and a bottle of "Kristall" vodka. "When we opened the door we felt like Howard Carter when he found the grave of Tutankhamen," Aretz told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. "Everything was a mess but it was like a historic treasure trove, a portal into an age long gone." According to Aretz -- a developer who renovates properties in eastern Germany -- the occupant appears to have been a 24-year-old man from Leipzig who had been in trouble with the authorities, judging by personal documents left behind. The most recent document was dated May, 1989 -- a police search warrant for a caravan. There was also a stamped and addressed postcard written by the occupant, but he had never sent it, Spiegel said.

answer:
Apartment found by developer in eastern German city of Leipzig. Occupant left in a hurry as East German state crumbled in 1989. Communist-era food brands such as "Vita" Cola, "Marella" margarine found.