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LONDON — Tuberculosis (TB) is becoming concentrated among immigrants, drug addicts, and the poor and homeless in Western Europe's big cities despite progress in reducing national rates of the disease, experts said on Friday.

The contagious lung infection, once known as the "white plague" for its ability to render its victims pale, skinny and feverish, is being well tackled at national levels, they said, but is persisting in high-risk, marginalised groups.

In a study of EU cities with populations of more than 500,000, the researchers found that on average the rate of TB  in big cities was twice the rate of the national incidence.

In Britain, data from the government's health agency, Public Health England show that more than 8,750 TB cases were reported 2012, and 3,426 of them — or 40 per cent of the national total — were in London.

"Although we have long understood that TB affects specific groups and is often concentrated in urban areas, what we are now witnessing is a marked change, where rates of TB are showing an overall reduction nationally while still increasing within big cities," said Ibrahim Abubakar, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at University College, London.

His study found the highest TB rates in big cities in countries with generally low rates of the disease were in Birmingham and London in Britain, followed by Brussels in Belgium and Barcelona in Spain.

These cities' rates were all "higher or considerably higher compared to their national TB notification rates", it found.

TB is often seen as a disease of the past — but the emergence over the past decade of "superbug" strains that cannot be treated even with numerous drugs has turned it into one of the world's most pressing health problems .

Of all infectious diseases worldwide, only HIV — the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS — kills more people.

In 2011, 8.7 million people fell ill with TB and 1.4 million died of it. The World Health Organisation, which declared TB a global emergency in 1993, says up to 2 million people may be infected with drug-resistant strains by 2015.

In the relatively wealthy countries of western Europe, TB mainly affects certain high risk urban groups such as those who originate from high TB burden areas of Asia and Africa, homeless people and people who abuse drugs or alcohol.

TB symptoms include fevers and night sweats, persistent coughing, weight loss and blood in the phlegm or spit and it is spread though close contact with an infectious person.

GENEVA – Brew an espresso, watch a movie on a large screen, surf the Internet or simply sit and chat with friends?

As automakers and technology firms steer towards a future of driverless cars, a Swiss think tank was at the Geneva Motor Show this week showing off its vision of what vehicles might look like on the inside when people no longer have to focus on the road.

“Once I can drive autonomously, would I want to watch while my steering wheel turns happily from left to right?” asked Rinspeed founder and chief executive Frank Rinderknecht.

“No. I would like to do anything else but drive and watch the traffic. Eat, sleep, work, whatever you can imagine,” he told AFP at the show, which opens its doors to the public Thursday.

Google is famously working on fully autonomous cars, and traditional carmakers are rapidly developing a range of autonomous technologies as well.

With analysts expecting sales of self-driving, if not completely driverless, cars to begin taking off by the end of this decade, Rinderknecht insists it’s time to consider how the experience of riding in a car will could be radically redefined.

Patting his shiny Xchange concept car, Rinderknecht says he envisages a future where car passengers will want to do the same kinds of things we today do to kill time on trains an airplanes.

So Rinspeed has revamped the interior of Tesla’s Model S electric car to show carmakers how they might turn standard-sized vehicles into entertainment centres, offices and meeting spots wrapped into one.

The seats can slide, swivel, and tilt into more than 20 positions, allowing passengers to turn to face each other or a 32-inch screen in the back.

Up front too, an entertainment system lines the entire length of the dashboard, and the steering wheel can be shifted to allow passengers a better view of the screens.

Espresso anyone?

And of course there is an espresso machine.

While brewing coffee, video conferencing and keeping an eye on your e-mail at 120 kilometres an hour may sound like a fantasy today, Rinderknecht is convinced it could happen in the not too distant future.

“We think this is what things could look like in a few years time,” he said.

Driving, he said, is on the cusp of being redefined, allowing people to take the wheel for pleasure, for instance while going over an Alpine pass, but handing over control of the car on tedious stretches.

“If I have to go three hours from Geneva to Zurich and it’s congested, I’m not doing anything... I want to be doing something else,” he said.

Carmakers at the Geneva Motor Show seemed to agree that vehicles that drive themselves, at least to a certain extent, are on the horizon.

“Autonomous driving is an inevitability that we are approaching very rapidly,” Hyundai Europe Chief Operating Officer Allan Rushforth told AFP.

He stressed though that “full automation” was not a priority.

Ford Europe chief Stephen Odelle also said  the technology was speeding forward, but added that he believed “the technology will be ready before legislation and consumers are”.

“How comfortable will consumers be with fully automated cars?” he asked, adding that legislating for liability would be quite tricky with no driver behind the wheel.

Rinderknecht acknowledged there are obstacles, but insisted “they can be overcome.”

He pointed out that accident reduction is actually a major argument for automation, since once the technology is finalised the machines should be far more reliable than humans.

And while it will be an upward battle to redefine liability legislation, “I think it can be done, because laws must adapt to life, and life as we all know changes,” he said. 

PARIS — Global warming will expose millions more people to malaria as parasite-bearing mosquitoes move to higher altitudes, according to new research into the health perils from climate change.

Tropical highland areas in Africa, Asia and central and southern America are particularly at risk, according to a study published in the US journal Science recently.

Malaria, which killed an estimated 620,000 people in 2012, is among a host of diseases that researchers warn will spread more easily thanks to global warming.

For Ethiopia alone, “a one-degree-Celsius increase in temperature will lift the area where malaria can occur by 150 metres,” Menno Bouma of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told AFP.

“In this band, there live about six to nine million people. These people will be additionally affected, but also people that live a bit lower, where malaria is present but at a lower level. For those people, the malaria intensity is likely to increase.”

Bouma and a team scrutinised malaria records from the highland regions of Colombia from 1990 to 2005 and Ethiopia from 1993 to 2005.

They found that in warmer years, people living at higher elevations experienced more malaria infections than they do in cooler years.

“This is indisputable evidence of a climate effect,” said University of Michigan ecologist Mercedes Pascual.

“The main implication is that with warmer temperatures, we expect to see a higher number of people exposed to the risk of malaria in tropical highland areas like these.”

People in areas previously unaffected by malaria never built up immunity, and will be particularly vulnerable.

Bouma said other tropical highland areas surrounded by malaria-endemic regions “are likely to be affected by a similar principle” as found in the study.

These included parts of Peru, Ecuador, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Papua New Guinea.

But Bouma said the study did not automatically imply a higher malaria risk for all countries at higher altitudes, as a special mix of climate and socio-economic conditions had to be present.

Transferred by a parasite transmitted through mosquito bites, malaria can be prevented with nets, insecticides and medicines.

Symptoms include fever, headache and vomiting. If left untreated, it can kill by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs.

Malaria is not the only threat to human health receiving a boost from global warming.

“Many of the major killers such as diarrhoeal diseases, malnutrition, malaria and dengue are highly climate-sensitive and are expected to worsen as the climate changes,” according to the World Health Organisation.

Dengue, which is a mosquito-borne disease like malaria, is spreading at an alarming rate and had “epidemic potential”, according to the UN agency.

It causes high fever, headaches, itching and joint pains, and can lead to haemorrhaging and death.

Scientists warned in 2012 that the warmer, wetter climate in northwestern Europe and the Balkans was becoming suitable for the Asian tiger mosquito which spreads dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever and chikungunya, an East African disease which attacks the joints.

The mosquito is an invasive species first spotted in Europe in Albania in 1979 — possibly having arrived there in a shipment of goods from China, investigators believe.

The health risks from climate change loom large in an upcoming report by the UN’s Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

A draft document to be vetted at an IPCC meeting in Yokohama, Japan, at the end of March, warns that climate change this century “will lead to increases in ill-health in many regions”.

“Examples include greater likelihood of injury, disease and death due to more intense heat waves and fires; increased likelihood of under-nutrition resulting from diminished food production in poor regions’ risk from lost work capacity and reduced labour productivity in vulnerable populations; and increased risks from food- and water-borne diseases,” it says.

SAN JOSE, California — Arwin Buditom guards some of the most successful high-tech firms in America. Joseph Farfan keeps their heat, air and electric systems humming. But these workers and tens of thousands like them who help fuel the Silicon Valley’s tech boom can’t even make ends meet anymore. 

Buditom rooms with his sister an hour’s drive from work. Farfan gets his groceries at a food pantry.

“It’s unbelievable until you’re in the middle of it,” Farfan said, standing in line at the Sacred Heart Community Center in San Jose for free pasta, rice and vegetables. “Then the reality hits you.”

Silicon Valley is entering a fifth year of unfettered growth. The median household income is $90,000, according to the Census Bureau. The average single-family home sells for about $1 million. The airport is adding an $82 million private jet centre.

But the river of money flowing through this 1,800-square-mile (5,000-sq. kilometre) peninsula, stretching from south of San Francisco to San Jose, has also driven housing costs to double in the past five years while wages for low- and middle-skilled workers are stagnant. Nurses, preschool teachers, security guards and landscapers commute for hours from less-expensive inland suburbs.

Now the widening income gap between the wealthy and those left behind is sparking debate, anger and sporadic protests.

Rants against the rich were spray-painted last month on walls, garages and a car in the Silicon Valley town of Atherton, home to many top tech CEOs that Forbes magazine last year called the nation’s most expensive community. In Cupertino, security guards rallied outside Apple’s shareholder meeting on February 28 demanding better wages. “What’s the matter with Silicon Valley? Prosperity for some, poverty for many. That’s what,” read their banner.

Farfan, 44, a native of the valley, said he figured he must be mismanaging his $23-an-hour salary to be struggling with what seemed like a decent paycheck. But when he met with financial counselors, they told him there was nothing left to cut except groceries because rent, child support and transportation expenses were eating away the rest of his money.

Buditom, also 44, said the reality of working for some of the nation’s richest companies has sapped his belief in the American dream. For the past four years, he has been living in his sister’s apartment, commuting an hour in stop-and-go traffic for a $13-an-hour security job.

“I’m so passed over by the American dream, I don’t even want to dream it anymore,” said Buditom, who immigrated from Indonesia 30 years ago. “It’s impossible to get ahead. I’m just trying to survive.”

From the White House to the Vatican to the world’s business elite, the growing gap between the very wealthy and everyone else is seizing agendas. Three decades ago, Americans’ income tended to grow at roughly similar rates, no matter how much they made. But since about 1980, income has grown most for the top earners. For the poorest 20 per cent of families, it’s dropped.

A study last month by the Brookings Institution found that among the nation’s 50 largest cities, San Francisco experienced the largest increase in income inequality between 2007 and 2012. The richest 5 per cent of households earned $28,000 more, while the poorest 20 percent of households saw income drop $4,000. To the south, Silicon Valley’s success has made it a less hospitable place for many, said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, an organisation focused on the local economy and quality of life.

“We’ve become a bifurcated valley, a valley of haves and have-nots,” Hancock said. “The economy is sizzling any way you slice it, and it’s about to get hotter. But having said that, we are quick to point out there are perils to our prosperity.”

Once a peaceful paradise of apricot, peach and prune orchards, the region is among the most expensive places to live in the US Those earning $50,000 a year in Dallas would need to make $77,000 a year in the Silicon Valley to maintain the same quality of life, according to the Council for Community and Economic Research; $63,000 if they moved from Chicago or Seattle.

Housing costs are largely to blame. An $800-a-month, two-bedroom apartment near AT&T’s Dallas headquarters would cost about $1,700 near Google’s Mountain View, California, headquarters. Dental visits, hamburgers, washing machine repairs, movie tickets — all are above national averages.

ALBANY, New York — Under pressure from gun control advocates, Facebook agreed Wednesday to delete posts from users seeking to buy or sell weapons illegally or without a background check.

A similar policy will be applied to Instagram, the company’s photo-sharing network, Facebook said. The measures will be put into effect over the next few weeks at the world’s largest social network, with 1.3 billion active users.

“We will remove reported posts that explicitly indicate a specific attempt to evade or help others evade the law,” the company said in a statement.

The move reflects growing alarm that the Internet is being used to sell banned weapons or put guns in the hands of convicted felons, domestic abusers, the mentally ill or others barred under federal law from obtaining firearms. Gun control advocates say Facebook has become a significant marketplace, with thousands of gun-related posts.

Google Plus and Craigslist already prohibit all gun sales, legal or illegal.

Facebook said that instead of patrolling its network for violators, it will rely on reports from users and police.

The new policy was worked out in an agreement with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has been pressing the company along with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group backed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Moms Demand Action. Moms Demand Action collected more than 230,000 signatures on petitions calling on Facebook to act.

“Responsible social media sites know that it is in no one’s interest for their sites to become the 21st-century black market in dangerous and illegal goods that place our families and communities at risk,” Schneiderman said.

Chris Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s legislative policy arm, portrayed the new policy as a victory for the NRA, saying Bloomberg and those he supports tried — and failed — to shut down discussion of gun rights on Facebook.

“NRA members and our supporters will continue to have a platform to exercise their First Amendment rights in support of their Second Amendment freedoms,” Cox said.

But Tom King, president of the NRA’s New York affiliate, warned that the policy could be used to silence gun rights organisations on Facebook.

“This is something that could greatly get out of control very quickly,” King said.

The new policy was crafted to deal with the patchwork of laws around America. New York, for example, has some of the nation’s toughest gun laws. It prohibits the sale of weapons such the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, and it is one of 16 states that require background checks on buyers making private firearm purchases.

Under the new policy, Facebook would allow a user to list an AR-15 as long as it wasn’t offered for sale in states where the weapon is illegal.

It will also remove any posts in which a gun seller offers to skip a background check, even if such checks aren’t required in the seller’s state.

“This is one of many areas where we face a difficult challenge balancing individuals’ desire to express themselves on our services and recognising that this speech may have consequences elsewhere,” Facebook said.

The company already has systems in place to remove advertising that is false and deceptive, and it prohibits ads for illegal drugs, tobacco products and prescription drugs.

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, complained that Facebook hasn’t gone far enough.

“They are talking about a community-based reporting system. Do what these other companies did and shut it down. Shut down the private sales of guns,” he said.

There’s no way to know how many guns are sold via Facebook, because the transactions are actually completed offline, said John Feinblatt, chairman of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. But such sales have occurred.

In Kentucky, for example, federal authorities in February charged an Ohio man with illegally selling a 9 mm pistol to a Kentucky teenager in a transaction arranged through Facebook.

Feinblatt said there are “virtual gun shows” online. His group issued a report in December showing 66,000 active ads on a popular gun sales website called Armslist.

We are now device-independent.

The notion dates back to the late 1980s, computers don’t really matter, only data does. The first are disposable, the second is not. The professionals who take care of IT infrastructures and setups in large corporations and businesses know it all too well. And of course Google, Facebook, Twitter, not to mention Microsoft and the like, they all live by it. 

Today the notion is put forward again, this time with a particularly strong stress, in the realm of personal computer usage, because of the Internet and of the multiplicity of devices that, in the end, do more or less the same thing: put all your data at your fingertips, show you info, allow you to connect and to communicate, and to share audiovisual contents.

Laptops, desktops, tablets, phablets, smartphones and now smartwatches; aren’t you lost? Are you able always to make the right buying choice, to learn your way around, to keep the devices in good shape, updated, virus-free and with a safety backup set aside?

The “larger” laptops and desktops machines have a reasonable average life time of four to five years. Tablets and smartphones, all these“smaller” devices that have captured users’ attention the last couple of years more than any other computer-related hardware, these smaller machines are changing faster than you can save money to buy them. Once a year, at least, there are new models.This leaves you no time to catch your breath between models. It’s like haute-couture, there’s an annual fashion show that sets the upcoming trend.

Take heart. Again, the machine is not that important. In a certain way you can ignore it. Or, to put it in a milder way, stop losing sleep over it.

On one hand the large array of machines and the many hardware choices are overwhelming, as if the industry were making your life harder and more expensive. On the other hand, devices now communicate much better than before with each other, with a dominating insistence on the Web, a place that has become the focal point of most everything we do. The devices, therefore, are making your life easier in many ways.

What makes users machine-independent?

Whether it is to check your e-mail, to send or receive a photo or a music file, to place a voice call on the several free networks, to read the news or to do your daily e-banking work, you can do it whatever the device you have at hand. The same is true for writing, working on a spreadsheet or a database.

Moreover, if you happen to store your files in the cloud (DropBox, SkyDrive, Google Drive, etc) you become even more machine-independent, for understandable reasons. Open, save and read your files on any machine, whatever it is and wherever it may be, including a friend’s device.

Naturally there are differences between the machines in terms of speed and comfort. I wouldn’t like starting a serious audio recording project on a tablet or a smartphone for instance, or processing very large spreadsheets full of numbers, columns, rows and graphics on such small machines. But I guess I could…

Go back to a good laptop for raw power, use smaller devices for convenience and while on the go.

For example, think of Word and Excel — there are virtually no limitations in terms of devices on which these essential applications work. Docs-To-Go by DataViz, for one, is a Suite that is compatible with Microsoft’s Office Suite (up to a certain point…) and that lets you process Word, Excel, PDF and PowerPoint documents on an Android or Apple smartphone. Despite the reduced screen size and also the somewhat reduced features, Docs-To-Go is an extremely useful application, one that, like so many others, frees you from devices. You have your Word documents “somewhere” in the cloud, now use them on any machine you want.

There are countless other examples of software applications and ways to work that make you device-independent today. Focus on your files and on what you want or need to do. The machine matters less.

Some people have a natural gift. They can be bilingual or even multilingual, and it is fascinating to watch them switch from one language to another without pausing for breath. 

Almost like being ambidextrous, you know. This term is used for individuals who are adept at using both hands equally well.  Very few persons are born ambidextrous and research shows that only one in a hundred people could be instinctively so. But here I digress. 

Being linguistically proficient in at least two languages is not so tough. Most countries of the world have an official language that is used for conducting business and imparting education. English, Spanish and French would fall in this category. Then there is the mother tongue, which the child learns, literally in the lap of its mother. 

Picking up several vernaculars and speaking them to perfection, is an art that is gifted to a chosen few. For that one has to have a keen ear, sharp powers of observation and an ability to talk incessantly. The last one is important, according to me, because academic knowledge is okay but proficiency in a language is only obtained by speaking it. The grammatical irregularities also smoothen out with constant vocalisation. But one has to have conversations with a native speaker; otherwise the finer nuances of enunciation cannot be perfected. 

Where pronunciation is concerned, the most learned of theoretical scholars also have a tough time. English, say the non-English speakers, is a funny language. Here, even the two and three lettered words with almost the exact same spelling, have a different diction when spoken aloud. For instance, “put” is made to sound like “foot”, and “gut” is rhymed with “shut”. “Go” is like “show” but “do” is like “flu”. This is even before we come to the difference between the words starting with “w” or “v”. 

When I was little, the Catholic nuns in my school could not stop emphasising over this. For the words “vase” or “violin”, I had to bring my upper teeth over my lower lip, and for say, “window” or “water” I had to sort of stretch my mouth into a round circular shape while articulating it. Nothing escaped their eagle eye and in an elocution competition, our diction mattered as much as the content of what we were delivering. 

Despite being trained in this manner, some problem words would send me into a quandary. “Schedule” for example. Phonetically, should it be “shed-yule” or “sked-yule”? Ditto for “issue”. Should it end in a “shoe” or “sue” sound? 

But when it came to “epitome” my confusion was complete. This charming word depicted a person or thing that was a perfect example of a particular quality or type. From the moment I came across this interpretation, I wanted to generously use it in my vocabulary.

But I was unsure whether to rhyme “happy-comb” with “epi-tome” or go with the “epiphany” sounding “epi-tummy”.  The other day I got a lesson for free. 

“It’s amazing how Petra has survived for two thousand years,” I said to the anglophile guide who was escorting me. 

“Yes, the fabled city is half as old as time,” he agreed. 

“How perfect was the ‘red-stone’, also sounds like ‘epitome’,” I exclaimed.

“‘Epic-symphony’ is what rhymes with ‘epitome’,” he corrected me. 

“Minding my language?” I teased.

“Only dotting the ‘i’s’ and crossing the ‘t’s’, my fair lady,” he emphasised.

“I picked the wrong issue?” I asked

“Shh, it’s alright,” he smiled.

NEW YORK – Fitness warriors eager to step out of the gym at the first sign of spring should exercise caution, fitness experts say, noting that hitting the open road is more taxing than running on a treadmill, and mountain trails are bumpier than a spinning class.

Even conditioned people may need a period of adjustment to transition safely into working out in the open air.

“The harsher the winter, the more we have to be careful not to come back too fast, too soon,” said exercise physiologist and running coach Tom Holland, who lives in Connecticut. “Even people who are generally fit might do less over the winter.”

When the weather changes, Holland said, many runners try to run too many miles too soon.

“The body generally takes about two weeks to acclimate,” he explained, “so give yourself time to build back that base of strength.”

He recommends that regardless of what was done outdoors last fall, a little less should be done in the spring.

“Running on a treadmill is generally easier than outdoor running, so if you’ve been running five miles on a treadmill don’t increase (outdoor) mileage immediately,” he said.

And cross-training should not be neglected.

“Just because the weather gets nice, doesn’t mean we eschew the gym,” he said. “Strength training is a big part of being injury-free.”

Chris McGrath, senior fitness consultant for the American Council on Exercise said too many people doing their winter cardio on a treadmill assume they can transition seamlessly to running on the ground.

Pavement is harder than the belt of a treadmill and the mechanics of running are slightly different.

“Most treadmills have some bounce,” he explained. “On a treadmill the belt is essentially kicking your foot back. You’re not pulling yourself along the ground as much as when you’re running on a street.”

McGrath said shin splints are a common, minor injury of runners unable to absorb the impact of running on pavement. Whether running, biking or walking, moving outdoors changes things.

“If you’ve been taking spin classes and then go to a hilly area, it’s going to be different”, he said. “Heart and lungs and muscles still have to make an adjustment.”

As motivating as warmer weather can be, he said, exercisers inconsistent in winter are not conditioned to leap full throttle into a high-level warm- weather workout.

Fitness and wellness coach Shirley Archer, who travels regularly between Switzerland and Florida, said transitioning from cold to warm weather is easier than the other way around.

“In cold weather muscles are colder, the body loses heat more easily, old injuries are more noticeably stiff and the cardiovascular system is more stressed,” she said.

When transitioning to a new workout environment, she advises, it’s better to rely more on feelings of perceived exertion than to follow a particular pre-set training pace or time.

“Listen to your body. If you’re uncomfortable or straining, ease up,” she said.

SAN FRANCISCO – Sony on Tuesday announced it has sold more than six million PlayStation 4 (PS4)consoles since the videogame system debuted in November.

The Japanese consumer technology and entertainment titan said that the global sales figure includes 370,000 PS4 consoles snapped up in Japan since they launched there on February 22.

“I am absolutely delighted that PS4 is off to such a great start in Japan,” Sony Computer Entertainment chief executive Andrew House said in a release.

The long-awaited Japanese launch came after a stellar debut in the United States and Europe, offering a ray of hope to Sony after years of gloomy sales of its key consumer electronics goods.

House said player response to console features for sharing game play and connecting in online matches has been “phenomenal.”

Early adopters of the PS4 have enthused over its vast computing capacity and the cinematic graphics it makes possible.

Industry trackers have the PS4 strongly outselling the new-generation Xbox One that US rival Microsoft fielded in November.

Sony’s fellow Japanese rival, Nintendo, launched its new Wii U console in late 2012. It took more than a year for the video game giant to sell 5.86 million units.

PS4, Wii U and Xbox One are fighting to be at the heart of digital home entertainment at a time when consoles are under intense pressure to prove their worth as people increasingly turn to smartphones or tablets for games and videos.

Sony’s gaming division has emerged as a potential saviour for the once-mighty giant, which is struggling to reinvent itself in the digital age, having been left in the dust by nimbler rivals like South Korea’s Samsung.

SAN FRANCISCO – For almost as long as there have been computers, there have been people intent in playing games with them.

Since young programmers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came up with “Spacewar!” some 50 years ago, the world of video games has exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry.

“From the earliest days of computer, these folks went after computer graphics and went after video games,” Gartner consumer technologies research director Brian Blau told AFP.

“People enjoy games, and marrying the concept of real-world games with a computer and interactivity is really powerful.”

Gartner predicts the worldwide video game market combining console, online, mobile and personal computer offerings will expand from $101 billion this year to $111 billion next year and top $128 billion in 2017.

While play on high-performance desktop or laptop computers has long captivated hardcore video game lovers, rival console makers Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have successfully turned games into standard family household entertainment during the past 20 years, with Xbox, PlayStation and Wii hardware respectively.

Console Kings 

New-generation Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles released late last year are credited with bringing new life to a section of the market under pressure from the popularity of smartphones and tablets.

But Nintendo’s latest console, Wii U, has had trouble gaining traction among players.

Console kings are also the big names behind titles for play on their hardware, but third-party studios such as Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Disney Interactive and Warner Brothers are established titans in game software.

While movie-like immersion in play and broadening entertainment menus to include streamed films and television shows has consoles proving their worth, mobile games are on fire.

There are more game “apps” for smartphones or tablets than any other type of mini-programme for mobile devices and it is the top revenue-producing category, according to Gartner.

Apps on fire 

Smartphones and tablets have lured players from dedicated handheld mobile game devices that, for a time, were a hit with people who wanted to play on the go.

Mobile game revenues can come from people paying to download “apps” or from in-game transactions in which players pony-up to advance more quickly through levels or buy abilities or digital items.

Britain-based King Digital Entertainment, which is behind a Candy Crush Saga game craze, is set for a keenly anticipated stock market debut. Other sizzling mobile game firms include Rovio, Wooga and Supercell.

Even Zynga, which pioneered online social games only to get caught on its heels when players turned to mobile devices, is not out for the count.

The San Francisco company is intent on reviving a line-up that includes “Farmville” and “Words With Friends” along with a popular Zynga Poker title.

Mobile game revenue globally is set to nearly double in the next two years to $22 billion, according to Gartner.

Spectator sport 

A new and flourishing eSport category in which video game play is spectator sport complete with commentators, sponsors and ads has yet to be factored into the global video game revenue model.

“Computer graphics represent a new interaction paradigm,” Blau said. “Today’s high-detail graphics and more immersive experiences are almost science fiction-like.”

Innovations in game hardware and software from Internet-linked eyewear to augmented reality programmes are expected to fuel increasing demand for play.