Judge bins Qld's IBM lawsuit; Toshiba faces $82m fine over scandal; Mind-controlled car

A judge has thrown out of court the Queensland Government’s lawsuit against IBM over the state’s infamous health payroll system, according to news reports.

As the AFR explains, in December 2013 the then Liberal National Party Queensland Government lodged a statement of claim seeking damages over the implementation of the state’s health payroll system.

But on Monday, Supreme Court Justice Glenn Martin rejected the Queensland Government’s attempt to sue IBM, saying that a 2010 waiver of liability signed by both parties meant that the current legal action was legally invalid, ITnews reported.

“The Supplemental Agreement, properly construed, releases IBM from the claims made by the state against IBM in proceedings,” the AFR quoted Martin as saying.

The AFR quoted an IBM spokesperson as saying, after the court’s decision was handed down, “These issues were settled between IBM and the Queensland Government in 2010, notwithstanding the government’s continued attempts to rewrite history and shift blame to IBM for their own failings on the project.”

Toshiba faces $82 million fine over accounting scandal

Japanese regulators have recommended Toshiba be fined a record 7.37 billion yen (about AU$82 million) over accounting-related violations at the company, the WSJ reported.

The paper quoted Kiyotaka Sasaki, secretary-general of Japan’s Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission, as saying: “Because of the significance of the name Toshiba and interest from the public, we took this case seriously, looking into fundamental problems deeply.

“This is important because Toshiba is one of Japan’s top companies and is also a global company, and yet this happened at the time when Japan is ramping up corporate governance.”

As Sky News explains, revelations broke earlier this year that Toshiba executives systematically pressured employees to inflate profits in an effort to hide poor results. The company has reportedly admitted it had inflated profits by about US$1.2 billion since 2008.

Toshiba has already been involved in legal action since the revelations broke. According to the WSJ, some Toshiba shareholders have sued the company for damages relating to a decline in the company’s share price, while Toshiba itself has sued some of its own former executives for damages in connection with the scandal.

The proposed fine is subject to approval from Japan’s Financial Services Agency, Sky News reported.

If approved, the fine would be the largest ever in Japan for accounting-related violations, the WSJ said.

Mind-controlled car

Researchers from China’s Nankai University have developed a car that can be controlled by a person’s mind, according to a report from Reuters.

According to the report, the project relies on wearable equipment that takes readings from a user’s brain and allows the user to direct the car to move forward, backwards or come to a halt, as well as lock and unlock the vehicle.

One of the researchers, Zhang Zhao, told Reuters the wearable equipment includes 16 sensors that capture electroencephalogram (aka EEG) signals from the user’s brain. These signals are sent to and processed by a computer program developed by the team.

“The tester’s EEG signals are picked up by [the equipment] and transmitted wirelessly to the computer. The computer processes the signals to categorise and recognise people's intention, then translates them into control command to the car. The core of the whole flow is to process the EEG signals, which is done on the computer,” Reuters quoted Zhang as saying.

“There are two starting points of this project. The first one is to provide a driving method without using hands or feet for the disabled who are unable to move freely; and secondly, to provide healthy people with a new and more intellectualised driving mode,” Zhang was quoted as saying.