Battery-Free Video Cam Grabs Picture and Power—from Same Light

The researchers at the Columbia University have created a futuristic and quite unbelievable self sufficient camera. A simple video was shown first by the researchers wherein a person was seen changing his facial expression each time, he moves his head either upside and down followed by side to side movement. This video appeared to shot centuries ago but the concept and design is relatively new and refreshing in every essence.

The video here is not in the question but the device with which this video is recorded is turning heads. This particular camera has used a cutting edge, futuristic technology which uses light both as source of creating video and harnessing power for the device. This can certainly bring in a new age of battery less camera, which will keep recording videos as long as there is light.

How this concept works? 

The researcher states that they had combined the two different concepts in the mechanism of this camera. One concept center around the camera’s image senor capability of collecting and measuring light along with another concept which uses the photovoltaic cells to convert some of the captured by camera into harnessing energy for the device. It is still an earlier stage of development wherein the researchers at Columbia University were able to develop a self-sufficient camera.

How this new camera works? 

This new self-sufficient camera works directly on the lines of the concept put forward by the researchers. This camera during each of the image capture cycle first works towards records the lights into pixels for producing images, later on it harvest energy and in return works towards charging the sensor’s sensor supply. It is a brilliantly devised concept, which helps in killing two birds with one stone. Capturing of images and powering of the device is done simultaneously in this process.

Future prospects of this self-sufficient camera? 

As said earlier this camera happens to be in crude development stage but it shows a greater promise for wide applications in future. It can easily become a critical part of the networks, prominent feature in consumer electronics along with wearable gadget and other Internet of Things devices. The creator of this camera Shree Naya, Columbia computer science professor, was upbeat about this self-powered camera. He states that very soon companies will be willing put this kind of powerful camera device in their products, which can return high quality images at minimal energy requirements.

This research will be presented as a team’s research at the upcoming IEEE International Conference on Computational Photography in Houston. This self-powered camera not only will provide high quality images but it can keep working tireless to almost forever, as it is self sufficient in harvesting energy. It can see a mainstay use in the popular consumer electronics like smartphone, tablets and other devices. In the security industry, it can work like a charm for providing unlimited supply of surveillance without the need of any external power source.

Canon 250-Megapixel Sensor can Read the Side of a Plane from 11 Miles Away

Canon’s 250 Megapixel APS-H CMOS Sensor

Everything tends to get under surveillance more than ever now as drones tend to get cheaper and the cameras far more advanced. Canon has now come up with a 250 megapixel APS-H CMOS sensor which could be used in a DSLR.

It is an APS-H size sensor which is about 80% of the length and width of full frame sensor. It seems to be a bit larger than the popular APS-C setup. This has the capabilities of distinguishing letters on the side of flying airplane at a distance of 12 miles. This sensor could be utilised in spy cameras sometimes in the near future.

The Japanese giant camera claims that the 19,580 x 12,600 pixel sensor has set a world record in its size for resolution. This means that each pixel is around 1.5 microns, almost similar as an iPhone 6. One can imagine what the new sensor as an array of 30 perfectly aligned and high speed smartphone sensors could do. The CMOS sensors tend to increase pixel counts.

The consequence can increase signal volume which could result in problems as signal delays.However the APS-H tends to have a fast signal readout speed of around 1.25 billion a second. It is said to produce crisp images.

Videos Can be Cropped & Magnified

Besides taking photos from far-fetched distance, the sensor portrays its high speed by being capable of writing out over 1 billion pixels per second, permitting to capture 250MP video at 5fpsThe footage is shot sharper at 30 times than 4K or 125 times that of a Full HD video.

The videos could also be cropped and magnified without the need of losing image resolution and clarity.Canon has informed that the sensor could be utilised one day in specialised surveillance and crime prevention tools, ultra-high resolution measuring instruments as well as other industrial equipment.

This would mean that when spies may get their hands on technology, it would not appear in a standard DSLR camera in the years to come. As Cannon is looking forward in marketing its new sensor to specific audiences comprising of surveillance, industrial equipment and much more, it could be helpful to make way for practical light-field camera as well.

Future of Imaging

However the big issue with light-field products like the ones from Lytro is the amount of resolution they give up to gain their ability in capturing dimensionality and change focus in post-production. Ren Ng, the founder of Lytro had made it transparent that the company had been built on the premise which sensor resolution would tend to continue on improvement, making the compromise more reasonable.

Based on how much of the light-field that a camera may be designed to capture, it could lessen the native sensor resolution from about 10% to 90%. With a native resolution of 250MP, even a 90% resolution would probably produce a respectable 25MP image.

As Canon continues to make headway with its recent announcement of ultra-high definition megapixel sensors, there seems to be some interesting ideas for the future of imaging. Application for ultra-high definition sensor tend to differ, however, they would be utilised in government surveillance, astrophotography or space exploration and geological surveillance.

How Facebook Plans to Make Money on Messenger

Facebook Messenger has already become a new revolutionizing way for the companies to communicate their business through its private messages. Just take a scenario a person buys a bag of chips and happens to find all broken and he just uses the Facebook Messenger private chat service to express his displeasure. Within six months of Messenger business features launch a large number of businesses had started utilizing this platform to engage with their customers and provide them with quick and active customer services.

Facebook’s head of ads and Pages executive, Andrew Bosworth has revealed the company’s intention to monetize the private chats for better returns. It was expected that sooner or later Messenger will help the Facebook in generating some valuable income and it has some incredible ideas to test out.

Facebook is trying some new ideas

Facebook for long had tried kept it away from any revenue generation model and focused on providing an exciting and commendable platform for social networking. But at last it has to monetize its platform in order to generate some revenue no for its own benefit but also for the investors. Now it is planning to make some money on the Messenger, which is tricky, but Facebook has some ideas to try out. Bosworth has hinted about few ideas, which can help business in driving by bringing in repeat customers, or offering them discounts over the Messenger.

Facebook to integrate M in Messenger
 
Earlier this month Facebook has unveiled its M, which is essentially an artificial intelligence assistant for the users. A number of companies are using Facebook to communicate with their customers and offer fast and quick resolution to their problems in a more interactive fashion. M can help a lot in automating the process of dealing with numerous customers on the social media platform. It should be noted that M happens to be more refined and robust artificial digital assistant who helps people in performing wide number minor to tasks like making restaurant reservation to ordering flowers.

More features can be integrated into Messenger

The digital assistant M makes it possible to add more core features to the Messenger, which will help in businesses in a productive manner. Click-to-message ad features are being testing out by the companies on the Message to assess its potential. It works in a simplistic manner whenever a user clicks on any one of these ads then it helps in launching a private Messenger conversation with that particular business. More hardcore features like payments and customer care services via Messenger are also possible. It is worth noting that Messenger service is utilized by more than 700 million worldwide each month.


Bosworth even said there is possibility of virtual reality integrating in future, as Facebook own the Occulis Rift, which is now making come riveting VR headsets for the consumers. Virtual Reality experience is also a great avenue to bring ads as human life does include ads. Having ads in the virtual sphere will be an exciting and remarkable in itself.

Google Sends out Invites for September 29 Event

Google’s Invites for Upcoming Event

Google has begun sending invites to media for the upcoming event on September 29 where probably the launch of the next generation Nexus and Chromecast devices will be coming up. There have been rumours and reports stating that the search giant would be launching not one but two Nexus smartphones at the event where both of them would be smartphones.

The two Nexus smartphones would be launched one from LG while the other would be from Huawei. Moreover the reports also indicate that the successor to the Google Chromecast would be launched with quicker Wi-Fi together with added features accompanied with a special music focussed variant of Chromecast known as Chromecast Music.

 This would be with provision for Spotify streaming. The LG Nexus 5X which is referred to be the name of the sub 5 inch screen variant would be featuring a 5.2 inch 1080p IPS LCD display. It is a hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 SoC with 3GB RAM, 16/32FB having an internal storage space together with a 13 megapixels primary camera, a 4 megapixel secondary camera and a 2,700 mAh battery.

Enhanced Wi-Fi/Fast Play

On the other hand, the Huawei Nexus 6P features a 5.7 inch QHD AMOLED display with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, a 3GB RAM, 32GB on-board storage. These would be accompanied with a 12 megapixel primary camera along with 4K video recording as well as an 8 megapixel front facing camera. The smartphone by Huawei would be named the Nexus 6 comprising of a fingerprint scanner and USB Type-C.

 The Nexus 5 of LG would feature a 5.2 inch display. It would also have a fingerprint scanner which would be under the extended camera and comprise of 3 GB RAM. The two smartphones would be the first set of smartphones which will run the latest Android M – Marshmallow, software.

It is also expected that Google would be unveiling the second breed Chromecast dongle which would be packed with a range of latest features. These would comprise of feeds for the main screen device accompanied with enhanced Wi-Fi together with a new features which has been known as `Fast Play’.

Introducing Chromecast Audio

It is also said that Google has been speculating on introducing Motorola inspired dongle labelled as `Chromecast Audio’that would be permitting a Chromecast device to get plugged directly into any of the speaker through an auxiliary cord. Since the invitation reads `hands-on time’, followed by a presentation, there seems to be possibilities of seeing the two new Nexus smartphones revealed at the event at San Francisco.

Google’s event comes weeks after Apple’s similar events where the tech company had announced new iPhones, iPads as well as new Apple TV together with latest accessories. Earlier this week, Amazon too had unveiled a new line of products which included a $50 tablet as well as a new version of the Fire TV with a potential of streaming device at 4K resolution.

As always Google event will be streamed live on their YouTube channel and for those unable to make it for the event could tune online and view the live event which would be starting on Tuesday, September 29, 9 AM PT.

Harry Potter-Style Invisibility Cloaks Exists in Real Life

Invisibility Cloak – Material of Gold Nanoantenna

An invisible cloak has been developed by scientists, a type of material which tends to wrap around objects, making them invisible to the naked eye. But the material is presently just enough to wrap around a very small item, much smaller than Dobby the house elf. However it is a huge innovation which portrays that we can in the near future have human sized invisibility cloaks.

 The microscopically thin film has been created by US researchers from the material of gold nanoantenna which is utilised in collecting the sun’s rays in solar panels. The film tends to confuse the human eye by sprinkling light waves which would generally hit an object making it invisible. Presently it has managed to hide something the size of a few cells.

Dr Xiang Zhang, corresponding author of US Department of Energy – DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) Materials Science Division, stated that it is the first time a 3D object of arbitrary shape has been cloaked from visible light.

The ultra-thin cloak seems like a coat and is easy to design as well as to implement. It is possibly accessible for the purpose of hiding macroscopic objects’.

Meta Engineered – Deflect Reflected Light Waves

The scattering of the light, whether it is visible, infrared of X-ray, from its interaction with matter is what enables us to detect and observe object. What governs these reactions in natural materials is evaded in metamaterials where optical properties tend to rise from their physical structure instead of their chemical composition.

Though the cloak is microscopic in size, the values behind the technology could enable it to be reached up to cover macroscopic objects too, according to researchers. Working on blocks of gold nanoantennas, a skin cloak has been created by the researches which is barely 80 nanometres in thickness that can wrap around a three dimensional object, the size of a few biological cells and randomly shaped with dents and bumps.

The surface of the skin of the clock is said to be Meta engineered to deflect the reflected light waves in order that the object is rendered invisible to optical recognition when the cloak tend to be activated.

Antenna Designed to React with Light/Scatter it Back

For the past ten years, Zhang together with his research group had been going beyond the precincts of how light tends to interact with metamaterials, handling to curve the path of light or bend it backwards, phenomena which is not envisaged in natural materials and to render object optically invisible.

Most of the cloaking devices in progress tend to work by channelling the light which normally would hit an object away from it. The new cloak on the contrary changes the way the light scatters, and creates an illusion of a surface as flat as a mirror rather than of the actual shape of the object.

 It has accomplished this by utilising a thin layer of material known as metasurface which is made of magnesium fluoride that is covered in millions of tiny golden antennae, each of which is about 1/1000th, the width of a human hair. Zhang had informed The Post that each antenna has been designed to react with the light and scatter it back and delay the light, delay the reflection in a way that every point of the face would reflect as if from a flat surface like a mirror.

He admits that there seems to be a lot of work to be done prior to the invisibility cloak of this type could be made useful.

Drones Operated by Criminal Gangs Used to Deliver Drugs Mobile Phones and Potentially Firearms to Prisoners

Operating Drones – Threat to Security

According to officials, crime gangs are posing as increasing threat to security in Britain’s prison by operating drones and providing new options of smuggling drugs and other probably firearms in the hands of criminals.Commercial small drones are being utilised to pick up packages comprising of illicit items from mobile phone to synthetic drugs in jails which tends to threaten the security by making the intoxicants available that could aggravate and cause disorder in prison cells.

The intelligence officers at the National Offender Management Services – NOMS have shown that they are also disturbed at the prospect of using remote-controlled Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – UAVs to drop lethal weapons in jails after a package of the same size and weight of a gun had been dropped successfully unobserved in an unnamed totally secured prison at the time of covert testing earlier this year.

On investigation it was recommended that many incidents with the help of drones to overfly prisons, delivering packages in the last few months had been linked to serious crime groups. The outcome of it has governors now gearing themselves for security breaches by UAVs in being more recurrent issues over 150 prisons in Britain.

Drones – Cheap & Easy to Use

According to NOMS, the number of attempts to intrude the prisons with the use of four or six drones is generally available through online or high street retailer though small,l is on the rise. Within a span of five months to May this year, nine incidents have been identified in England and Wales when compared to four for the total of 2014.

 Analysts from NOMS gave a briefing at the Defence and Security Equipment International show in London describing drone use as an emerging threat causing a UAV technology, as cheap and easy to use. A senior analyst at the NOMS unit, Eve Richard stated that `in a nutshell, the intelligence recommend that the use of UAVs to release items into the prisons is an emerging threat and it is not a huge issue presently but there could be potential for the same to increase and become more problematic’.

He added that all the prisons could be vulnerable and it does not seem to matter where they could be but it does matter what kind of prisoners they tend to have and in what type of security category they may be.

Three Month Study of UAV Risks

Every space could be vulnerable since it is air space and as long as one can get a UAV over the wall they could be vulnerable. A UAV which is refined and capable of being accurately manoeuvred with the use of GPS technology and move a payload of over 1.5 kg could be bought for less than £1,000 and flown away with the minimum training.

A recent attempt where drones had been used to breach security had been made in March to fly a UAV into Bedford Prison along with a package comprising of mobile phones and drugs. However the aircraft got entangled in barbed wire after it seemed to have been destabilised by its cargo. NOMS has stated that as a part of a three month study of UAV risks, it had carried out a test flight of a drone over maximum security prison.

The drone achieved to fly over the prison and drop packages which were the same size and weight to a handgun prior to withdrawing unobserved by any one on duty. Mr Richard had commented that they had no intelligence that drones were being utilised for trafficking weapons but can now recognise that the possibility is there’.

How To Organize Your Files In A Convenient And Productive Fashion

Whether you are working on behalf of a major international corporation or starting out as a first time business owner, one thing is clear; If your work is primarily computer based, you will need to know how to organize your files in a convenient and productive fashion. The old adage that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" can be updated for your purposes to read, "Cleanly organized files are tops for productivity and profits." But how can you quickly get organized so as to attain to such an exalted level among your peers?

Organize Your Relevant Files Like A True Professional

The answer is a simple one: You have got to figure out a way to organize your files so as to zip straight through all of your relevant information and turn that disorganized mess into a profit making whirlwind. How do you go about it? The first thing you need to do is sort through all of your incoming information and organize it into bite sized categories. For example, if you are collecting baseball stats for a company survey on fantasy sports leagues, you will need to organize all of the information into categories such as "At Bats", "Runs Batted In", "Walks", "Strike Outs", "File Photos", and so on.

Put All Of Your Incoming Information Into The Relevant Folders

As soon as you save some new piece of important information, it's an excellent idea to categorize it as shown above, and then place each bit into a relevant folder created specially for the purpose of receiving it. In other words, following the example listed previously, you should have folders marked "At Bats", "Walks", and so on ready to receive each new file that pertains to the matter at hand. This is the best way to insure that you will always know exactly where to find all of the bits of info that you need to insert into the appropriate place in your project.

You'll Need To Make Use Of An File Organizing System

Finally, you will need to make use of an online file organizing system that can keep all of your info in a safe, tidy location. For more information on how to make use of one of the hottest and most eagerly recommended new file organizing systems, please feel free to log on to https://www.clipix.com/ for more information.

Google Car: User Interface For Displaying Internal State Of Autonomous Driving System

Google has long been creating news with its driverless car both for good and bad reasons. It has even registered the car and a company under its parent company to ensure a fine streamlined approach for making cars. Its testing with driverless cars has engaged with some unwanted accidents on minor scale, which is helping, in perfecting the vehicle.

The driverless automobile is still far from becoming a reality and it won’t be happening within next few years. Though currently it is in news for the new patent application, which shows that tech giant will be bringing some manual control options in its driverless car.

New manual controls to offer better driving experience

Google team of techs has termed the new addition of the manual controls as ‘arm the chauffer’ in the literal sense. This new feature helps in adding an arm on the steering column, which results in activating the automatic driving mode, and it works vice versa by restoring the manual control.

The transition from automatic to manual and manual to automatic is quite quick and it is almost similar to switching on and off the high beams. There is heightened support, which is quite intuitive in nature if a driver touches the pedal, or steering wheel either suddenly or with force then manual controls are activated by default. In simple words driver will be able to get the controls back in case he or she wishes to make any abrupt changes in the driving by taking some new roads or stopping by at some point.

How beneficial will be this new feature? 

This patented feature will allow a driver to take control of the vehicle back from the autopilot within a matter of few seconds. This feature allows a sublime and quick change between the driverless driving mode and manual drive mode, which is quite similar to the flight’s auto pilot mode.

With autopilot mode activated, one can sit back, relax and catch the wondrous scenes fleeting across the roads during long road trips. The driverless car and driver will work in close relation with the GPS and inbuilt driving assistant for using the driverless car.

This feature will enhance safety levels

The driverless cars being tested by many car manufacturers and Google has shown that it possess better safety records when coupled with humans behind the wheel but on its own it doesn’t that kind of record. This feature addition in Google’s driverless car will help in enhancing the levels of security to a greater extent. Google’s upcoming driverless technology will certainly be boosted by human control and with their experience and judgment in driving.

Does this feature show Google backing away from earlier stance? 

Google has for long taken a stance of developing a completely free from human intervention automatic driving technology which didn’t go well with many people. It should be also noted that laws also forbid to handle controls completely to robots or technology and it might be the reason that Google is now thinking about bringing manual controls in the driverless vehicle.

How it takes just 15 minutes of web tuition for anyone to hack into your email

Email Account Hacking – Easier & Faster

According to latest study, email account hacking is easier and faster than expected and takes less than 15 minutes. A group of volunteers comprising of TV producer, a retiree, a self-employed baker managed to learn the technique of hacking into someone’s account within a span of about 15 minutes.

 The group with limited knowledge of technology followed online tutorial utilising a man in the middle concept to hack into a computer network to gain each other’s login information. The controlled classroom trial led by Life assistance company CPP Group Plc involved helpers with a 14 minute lesson made available freely online.

Through this they were capable of downloading hacking software which enabled them to gain access in login details as well as passwords for email accounts, online shopping accounts and social networking sites within a few minutes.

There seems to be more than 20,000 videos online, coaching users on how to hack social media profiles, email, PayPal accounts and smartphones and the internet’s potentials in hosting hacking tutorials seems to be unchallenged. It has been observed that over seven million people have been the victims of their online password protected information accessed without their permission

Government to Take a Stronger Stand on Online Hacking Tutorials

Many users have had their personal emails hacked with around 19% stating that their eBay accounts have also been hacked.Accounts of social media users were also not spared from being hacked too, with 16% informing that their social networking profiles had been tampered into and around 10% have had their money or a loan taken on their behalf. With the increase in several public Wi-Fi networks as well as smartphone with inbuilt Wi-Fi connections in the last few years have given rise to opportunities for hackers with this type of crime the capabilities which would tend to increase in due course of time.

Most of the people are aware that the online hacking tutorials prevail with several others agreeing that this type of coaching need not be made available to online users, which would be creating a lot of inconvenience to the victim and beneficial to the culprit.

More than half of the people desire that the governments should take timely action in eliminating these hacking tutorials from the internet. The CPP has been advising people to take necessary action in protecting themselves from these online hackers wherever possible and are also influencing the government to take a stronger stand on, online hacking tutorials.

Bring Awareness on Risks Involved

Michael Lynch, the firm’s identity fraud expert had commented that `the recent Sony security break which had seen a hacker gaining access to the personal data of over 100 million online gamers, that included the people in Britain, has portrayed the increase and widespread danger, hackers tend to pose to consumers as well as businesses.

It is essential to bring about awareness on the risks involved so that adequate steps in the protection of their identities and safeguard their personal data from the hands of these hackers. The technique shown in the live session indicate that these hacking skills could be applied within a few minutes and hence it is critical for consumers to take timely action and protect their data from these hackers.

They use the man in the middle hacking technique which works by the hacker interrupting communication between two users or what an individual is viewing on the internet and as the user logs into their online account, their username as well as password appears also on the hackers’ desktop enabling him to store the information and access the account immediately on some time later.

The Search for a Thinking Machine

New Age of Machine Learning

According to some experts, they are of the belief that by 2050, the machines would have reached human level intelligence. To a new age of machine learning, computers have started assimilating information from raw data in much the same way as the human infant tends to learn from the world around them.

This means that we are heading towards machines which for instance teach themselves on how to play computer games and get reasonably good at it as well as devices which tend to begin to communicate like humans such as voice assistants on the smartphones. Computers have started comprehending the world beyond bits and bytes. Fei-Fei Li has spent the last 15 years in teaching computers how to see.

 Initially, a PhD student and thereafter as a director of the computer vision lab at Stanford University, she had tracked difficult goal with the intention of creating the electronic eyes for robots as well as machines to see and to understand their environment. Half content of all human brainpower is in visual processing though it is something we all tend to do without much effort.

Ms Li in a talk at the 2015 Technology, Entertainment and Design – Ted conference had made a comparison stating that `a child learns to see especially in the early years, without being taught but learns through real world experiences and examples’.

Crowdsourcing Platforms – Amazon’s Mechanical Turk

She adds that `if you consider a child’s eyes as a pair of biological cameras, they take one image about every 200 milliseconds, which is the average time an eye movement is made. By the age of three, the child could have seen hundreds of millions of images of the real world and that is a lot of training examples. 

 Hence she decided to teach the computers in the same way. She elaborates further that `instead of focusing solely on improved algorithms, her insight was to give the algorithms the kind of training data which a child is provided through experience in quantity as well as quality. Ms. Li together with her colleagues in 2007 had set about an enormous task of sorting and labelling a billion divers as well as random images from the internet to provide examples for the real world for the computer. 

The theory was that if the machine views enough images of something, it would be capable of recognizing it in real life. Crowdsourcing platforms like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk was used, by calling on 50,000 workers from 167 countries in order to help label millions of random images of cats, planes and people.

ImageNet – Database of 15 Million Images

Ultimately they build ImageNet, which is a database of around 15 million images across 22,000 lessons of objects that were organised by daily English words. These have become the resource utilised all over the world by the research scientists in an attempt to give vision to the computers.

To teach the computer in recognizing images, Ms Li together with her team utilised neural networks, computer programs accumulated from artificial brain cells which learn as well as behave in the same ways as human brains.

At Stanford, image reading machine now tends to write accurate captions for a whole range of images though it seems to get things wrong for instance, an image of a baby holding a toothbrush was labelled wrongly as `a young boy is holding a baseball bat’.

Presently machines are learning instead of thinking and if the machine could ever be programmed to think, it is doubtful taking into consideration that the nature of the human thought has escaped scientists as well as philosophers for ages.

Poker Players Targeted By Card-Watching Malware

Malware Target Popular Online Poker Sites

Malware researchers at security firm ESET have come across a new Trojan which has been designed to cheat online poker by a sneak quick look at the cards of infected opponents. According to ESET’s security researcher, Robert Lipovsky, the malware is said to target PokerStars and Full Tilt which are two of the most popular online poker sites.

He has mentioned in his recent blog post that the attackers operate in a simple manner and after the victim has been affected successfully with the Trojan, the culprit then attempt to join the table where the victim tends to be playing with an unfair advantage by getting to know about the cards in their hands.

Malware, Win32/Spy.Odlanor, covers up as a benevolent installer for several general purpose programs like Daemon Tools or mTorrent. Lipovsky has mentioned that people tend to get infected while downloading some other useful application from some unofficial source.

In some instances, it tends to get loaded on to the user’s systems through several poker related programs which comprises of poker player databases as well as poker calculators like Tournament Shark, Smart Buddy, Poker Calculator Pro, Poker Office and much more.

Prowls in Software Created For Better Performance

The tricky malware has been discovered prowling in software created to support poker fans with better performance according to a security firm which discovered it. The software is also said to target other valuable information on a user’s computer like login names as well as passwords.

When a system is infected, the software observes the activity of the PC and operates when a victim has logged in to any of the two poker sites. Thereafter it begins taking screenshots of their activity and the cards they tend to deal with and send the screenshots to the culprits.

Lipovsky mentioned that later on the screenshots can be retrieved by the cheating culprits which reveal not only the hands of the infected opponent but the player ID as well.This according to ESET enables the criminals to search the sites for that play and join in their game. Both the targeted poker sites permit searching for players by their player ID and so the culprit can connect with ease at the table on which they tend to be playing.

Largest Detection of Spywares – Eastern European Countries

With the information gathered with regards to the victim’s hand, it provides significant advantage to the criminal. Lipovsky writes that he is not sure if the attacker tends to play the games manually or in some automated way.ESET have discovered that the Windows malware seem to be prowling in some of the well-known file-sharing applications, PC utilities and many other widely used poker calculators and player databases.

Lipovsky writes that the largest number of detection of spyware has been active for several months where most of the victims were from Eastern European countries. However, the Trojan tends to be a potential threat to any online poker player.

 Most of the victims were from the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. ESET had stated that they had discovered various versions of this malware dating back to March 2015. To make matters worse, new versions also tend to contain `general purpose data stealing functions’ with the abilities of siphoning passwords from several web browsers. As of September 16, several hundred users have been infected with Win32/Spy.Odlanor.

5 Durable Products for Your Photography

Pictures on the desk or hanging on the wall adorn a variety of homes. However, many of these images have one inescapable flaw: glass frames. How often have you knocked a picture frame off of your desk or had a family portrait crash to the ground? Depending on the extent of the damage, the picture within the frame can be scratched or punctured. Luckily, there are several ways you can protect those valuable pictures from suffering such damages.

Metal Prints

When it comes to durability and longevity, metal prints are some of the most cost efficient forms of protecting your photographs. The process of heat-fusing the image directly onto an aluminum surface provides vibrant colors on a strong surface. In some cases, you can even have the metal shaped in various ways to give the print a more unique look and feel.

Acrylic Blocks

Acrylic is a material that has a completely transparent appearance while offering great resistance to impact damage. Polished to a high-gloss finish, the acrylic allows for vivid colors while augmenting the image. These blocks can be dropped from variable distances without damaging the photograph. Even if the surface is scratched, it can be repaired easily.

Album Boxes

Album boxes can protect your photo albums from various elemental conditions and ultraviolet fading. In most cases, you can have these boxes customized with various colors and cover materials. As many of these boxes resemble books themselves, they can easily fit on a shelf while keeping with the aesthetics of your literary collection.

Coasters

Entertaining your guests with customized coasters of your photographs can enhance a special occasion. These surfaces were designed to prevent moisture damage and can keep your imagery looking like new for years to come. You could also set them aside as a collector's item and never use the coasters if you want to keep them in mint condition.

Puzzles

Many people assemble a puzzle and then return it to its box. This can provide an entertaining pastime while giving you a method in which to keep the image secure. These can also make great gift ideas for special occasions.

Whether your using Photo Prints behind acrylic blocks or having the image fused onto metal plates, there are a number of ways to protect your moments captured in time. By stepping away from the traditional and mundane, you can add more appeal to the area which adorns your durable photography.

Google will Fly a Crazy, Plane-like, 84-Foot Wind Turbine Next Month

The tech giant Google has some extraordinary plans, which might seem futuristic and quite far-fetched in reality but still is worth counting. Google has one of its pet project which aims at gathering the wind energy not from the ground from the higher altitudes where wind possesses more power through stronger and reliable blowing. Google has earlier tested the prototypes of its flying wind turbine with capabilities of harnessing energy from the wind in higher altitudes. Now Google will be launching its 84-foot wind turbine next month at SXSW.

Features of Google Wind Turbine

Google turbines are very much different from the general wind turbines, which are usually seen along the US coastline. It is more like planes, which are equipped with eight propellers and tethered to a docking station. Once it is released from the ground it can hover up to 450 meters in the air and it should be noted that this is the altitude at which planes usually starts doing the circles in the sky. The drag helps turning the propellers on this exciting piece of machine into turbines, which has the ability to send back 6+00 kilowatts of energy harnessed from the wind back to the ground.

Google has long been working on the wind turbines and it has even bought a part in the energy company named Makani Power in 2013 for this purpose. It has also made a number of tests with prototypes with a 28 feet wind turbines but it will be flying a more robust 84 feet wind turbine possessing the ability to harness more power easily.

Prior testing helps in boosting confidence

Google has performed extensive testing in the past to ensure the stability and reliability of the wind in the harsher and much challenging environment found at the higher altitudes. Google indulged in performing the tests on its futuristic wind turbines in one of the windiest places in the whole of North America namely Pigeon Pint in Pescerado California.

The challenges faced by the Google tech were quite pressuring and compelling in every manner but they held their ground and ensured that the product offers the most remarkable results regardless of difficulties. At higher altitudes, the speed of wind can easily change by 20 miles per hour within a matter of few seconds and the direction can change by 90 degrees within a second. However, it is worth noting that wind turbines failed to be let down by the wind changes at all and performed in the most efficient and best manner.

Google X’s Astro Teller has also stated while chatting with the media and smaller crowd of tech enthusiasts that they had done all those tests on smaller prototypes. The testing crew was advised by the Larry Page to make sure they get their wind turbines crashes as many five times in order to ensure it offers best solutions for harnessing energy. But luckily Google techs were able to do it without crashing even once.

Continuing A Proud Legacy Of Contributions To Work Place Safety

The AJ Weller corporation is known throughout the world as the proud inventor of wear technology, an amazing new system that has revolutionized the ability of industrial machines to fulfill their purpose in a safe, productive, and profitable fashion. More and more industrial work sites are making use of this potent new system to realize incredible returns on the investment they have made on all manner of heavy equipment. Not only have these machines been rendered more productive and profitable, they have also been made far safer for work place employees to operate and remain in the proximity of.

Work Place Safety Is Always A Paramount Issue Of Concern

When it comes to the issue of work place safety, there is no margin whatsoever for any type of oversight, neglect, or error. Human limbs and lives are at stake, and the safety of the employees of the company should always be the paramount concern. This is precisely why the use of wear technology has become so prevalent throughout the heavy industrial industry all over the world. Without proper safety equipment and techniques firmly in place, no company can be given the go ahead on any of the projects it may have planned.

Wear Technology Renders Valuable Services To Any Industrial Work Place

The use of wear technology not only reduces the instance of equipment failure and down time for repairs, but also renders other valuable services to any heavy industrial work site that makes use of it. For example, the use of wear technology has been cited by many industry experts as a means of lowering the premiums that major industrial corporations pay in order to insure both the equipment used at a particular site and the employees who work in proximity to it.

Wear Technology Represents A Bright New Future For Work Place Safety

In the end, it's clear that the invention and implementation of wear technology represents a truly bright new future for work place safety. As the 21st century continues to unfold, it's obvious that employee safety remains a pressing issue for companies, industry experts, and critics alike. By giving such a strong guarantee for the continued health and prosperity of their employees, industrial companies that have implemented wear technology have also set themselves up to enjoy a golden age of unprecedented productivity and profitability for years to come.

How the 'Memristor' could Revolutionize Electronics

Memristor – Combination of Resistor/Capacitor/Inductor

A physicist in 1971 theorised the presence of a fourth fundamental element in the electronic circuit in addition to the three that were utilised at the time. Leon Chua the physicist believes for reasons of symmetry that an extra component would probably one day be created to combine the resistor, the capacitor as well as the inductor. He has called it memristor, a multiple of the words memory and resistor.

It took 37 years for the engineering skills to catch up with the idea, the first memristor being built by Hewlett Packard in 2008. Many researchers presently are of the belief that it could spark a revolt in computing. The memistor in plain terms could mean the end of electronics and the beginning of a new period known as `ionics’.

Transistors were invented in 1947 and were an important component of computer chips and functions utilising a flow of electrons while the memristor couples the electrons with ions or electrically charged atoms. In the case of transistor, once the flow of electrons tends to get interrupted by cutting the power, all information is lost. But a memristor can recall the amount of charge which was flowing through it and like a memory stick, tends to retain the date even when the power seems to be turned off.

Outflow the Boundaries of Binary Code

This could make the coast clear for computers which can immediately turn on and off like a light bulb without losing data. The RAM or memory will not get erased when the machine is turned off without the need of saving anything to hard drives as it is with the present technology.

However memristors have another important difference when compared to transistors, they outflow the boundaries of binary code. Originally, the technology would be utilised mostly to create super-fast memory chips which contains more data and will consume less energy and would make regular powerful, though down the line the memristor would also take on the processing.

Professor of electrochemical materials at ETH Zurich, Jennifer Rupp, working with IBM to build a memristor based machine pointed out to CNN’s Nick glass, that it tends to function just like a human brain. Unlike a transistor that is built on binary codes a memristor could have various levels. One could have various states such as zero, one half, one quarter, one third and so on which gives a powerful new perspective on how the computers tends to develop in the future.

Transistor Based on Silicon

This kind of change in computing methodology would help in creating smart computers which tend to operate in a meaningful way like the synapses in our brains.

Transistors are based on silicon which is a rigid substance where the properties are utilised in managing the flow of electrons and information. Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, had formulated a famous law in 1975 which stated that the number of transistors in an electronic circuit tends to double around every two years. This has proved to be precise so far setting the pace for the gradual increase in computing power; however the trend could probably be ended.

There seems to be a physical limit to the number of transistors which can be packed on a chip and we are already on the road of reduction threshold of this technology. It is predicted that someday we would have to move away from silicon based computing.

The memristor technology seems to be a candidate for this crucial step and Rupp has commented saying that `it could mean the end of the silicon era, giving lower power consumption, that ability to compute more information, increased data storage as well as a completely new logic pattern for the computers.

Memristors Operates at Lower Power Consumption

Memristors does not need a silicon layer and various materials could be utilised as substrate thus creating a new class of microchips which would ultimately be assimilated in everyday products such as clothes, windows or coffee cups.

After manufacturing the first memristor, Hewlett Packard, had been working for years on a updated type of computer based on the technology and as per plans would be launched by 2020. Known as `The Machine, it utilises electrons for the purpose of processing, photons for communication and ions for storage.

Rupp informed that there is a race going on and there is a strong driving force while at the same time it is very important that there are players like HP since they intend to get to the market and show everyone that this is real. Presently manufacturing cost tends to be on the higher side though the benefits are worth it.

Rupp has informed CNN that Memristors tends to operate at lower power consumption with a faster speed and with a higher volume density of information than anything that is based on silicon microchip transistors. The existence of the memristor, like a particle in the realms of physics, was theorized much before one was actually built.

Porsche Takes Aim at Tesla with a Stunning Electric Concept

Mission E Concept – Combination of Excellent Range/Performance

Mission E concept which was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show recently comes with a combination of excellent range together with performance in a package which could make Elon Musk apprehensive. The German car maker claims that the four door Mission E would be capable of driving roughly on a range of 310 miles and can blitz from 0 to 62 mph within 3.5 seconds and the Tesla Model S seems to be the only electric car with these numbers where its range topping P90D model is of almost 300 miles hitting 60 in 2.8 seconds.

Moreover, Porsche also states that the Mission E Battery could attain 80% charge of its capacity in about 15 minutes which competes with the Model S that need around 30 minutes to reach the same level of charge. However, the Tesla does seem to have a substantial advantage over the Porsche and it truly exists.

A Porsche spokesperson has informed Sources that the production of the car would be a possibility in the near future but noted that it would probably take around five years for the development of the battery technology. The Mission E is but an idea, a sensual body on a drive train which would or probably not be real or deliver the number quoted.

Mass Market Battery

Moreover, the Mission E also has a longer range than Tesla’s Model and should run for 250 miles after a charge of 15 minutes versus 170 miles from a 30 minutes charge.. The company however, offers an incentive, a mass market battery electric which must meet the fuel emission standards from US and European authorities.

Porsche had offered plug-in hybrid version of the Panamera and Cavenne already and it has seen some success racing a 911 hybrid and the gas electric 918 Spyder is quite amazing. The automaker had revealed nothing about the battery besides mentioning that it utilises the `fastest lithium-ion technology’ and extends from the front axle to the rear like the Model S.

The propulsion system is the consequent of the 919 and two motors tend to generate 600 horsepower, driving all the four wheels. The car has got all the wheel steering, which is a system used in the 918 Spyder, 911 GT3 and 911 Turbo in order to develop the stability at speed.

Low Sweeping Roofline

The Mission E is about 4 feet, 3 inches tall having a low sweeping roofline which cuts through the wind and a problem for any reasonably tall backseat passenger. It is not far from the Model S but completely beats Elon’s ride for sleek looks and is similar to the stillborn Fisker Atlantic. It looks like what the Panamera should be having all along.

The interior of the Mission E is theoretical silliness. Porsche had informed about a 3D display which tends to move as the driver changes position, eye tracking and gesture control and holograms. A camera in the rear view mirror tends to tell if the driver is in a good mood, displaying a matching emoticon in the dashboard since the Germans are of the belief that one need to be alerted to the fact that one is having fun. Porsche will now have to take up the challenge to Tesla in real life

Automakers, Google Take Different Roads to Automated Cars

Google had pursued the dream of creating one of a kind of fully automated vehicle but till now it is still experimenting with its self driving car. An automated vehicle pioneer namely Raj Rajkumar has recently stated that automated cars will a take a considerable time and effort to emerge and it will require a close partnership and monitoring by the human for a long time. This might come as a jolt for the Google self-driving car program head Chris Urmson who had earlier stated that Google is on the verge of successfully bringing a fully automated vehicle devoid of any input from human by 2020.

Google aims at improving the automated technology

Raj Rajkumar and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon have emphasized the need of having a solid human intervention at different stages of automated vehicles development. Having a car, which possesses partial automation, will certainly help in reducing few accident risks but it will also end in creating new safety challenges.

A fully automated vehicle or system will not be a right option at the moment as it might lead to scuffle between the system and human. For example, while driving if a automated system suddenly demands the users to make decision regarding the routes then it will put the vehicle users and driver in a fix.

Google is taking a different approach at building the automation strategy, which will be better in every aspect and devoid of any safety issue and it will be available for open buying within next few years.

Major vehicle makers focus Rajkumar’s ways

In the past few years, major vehicle makers such as General Motors and Volkswagen along with the Tesla Motors had showed their interest in the self-driving cars. But these mainstream car players are focusing on the path of automation laid-down by Rajkumar which asks for human intervention during the different stages of development. In order to get advantage over the Google’s self driving car these players had kicked off their different plans of introducing the automated cars. Tesla is currently testing its AutoPilot system, which will offer a hands-free highway cruising along with automated parking capability to the vehicle.

It should be noted that technology which allows the vehicle to park itself is already in the market and many vehicles are getting equipped with the system which brings automatic braking and corrects the steering of vehicle along with maintain a safe distance from other vehicles plying on the road.

Time to retake the control of vehicle has to be optimized

The moment of alerting a driver and by the time a driver can retake the control during the emergency is one of the major sources of worry for the automated car manufacturers. Various studies conducted on the partially automated vehicle have resulted in an average response time of 17 seconds in which a driver is able to retake the control of the vehicle. This means that if an alert is generated by the automated system (vehicle is running at 60miles per hour) and by the time a person will able to regain the control of vehicle it will have covered more than a quarter of a mile.

Graphene Made Superconductive by Doping with Lithium Atoms

In today’s scientific world, there is nothing that can surprise you anymore. This is because of the fact that the scientists have been making a lot of improvisations in the world of physics as in every other field. And that is the reason as to why you will be glad to know about the new sort of superconductor. According to the recent research, grapheme has now been discovered to be the best possible superconductor if it is doped with the right proportion of Lithium atoms as then the charge transfer rate becomes even higher than it formerly used to be. But in order to know more of it, you definitely need to read this up.

How is it made possible? 

Graphene is the single carbon atom layer of the same kind of material that has been subjected to the tests as to how it can be connected to a number of devices all at a go. In this case, a thought has been subjected as to how the thing can be evolved to have the best out of its super electrical properties and its super conducting phenomena as well. Formerly it was found that if Graphene was coated with some other materials, then it could serve an even better purpose than it formerly did but the scientists could not figure out what it is. The finally after years of research it has been brought out that if lithium can be used, then it may turn out to be just the thing that is required to get hold of the desired effect.

The process 

In order to bring out the result, what the scientists did is to have samples of the right kind of Graphene and that too on a Silicon Carbide substrate- then the samples were kept in a vacuum area and cooled to 8K. When that was done, the samples were then accessorised with the lithium atoms and then the results turned out to be really amazing.

In this way, the energy gap of the electrons could be reduced to a great extent. Now the scientists are probing deeper and conducting further tests as to whether it is possible to have a complete loss of electrical resistance which i turn will enhance the power of the superconductor and serve the purpose in an even better way. In case of further demonstrations, amends will be made in order to see whether the superconductor can actually expel the external magnetic field and that is the test that will reveal that it is a true sort of superconductor.

It was at first theoretically proposed that if the right sort of lithium could be used up as a doping material, then it could bring about positive results. But the recent researches have revealed that it is something more than it and is indeed a grand thing that has come up and this superconductor can be used in a lot of fields as because of its multi faceted manner of working.

Asus’s GX700: First Ever Water Cooled Laptop

Asus’s GX700 – World’s First Water-Cooled Laptop

In the PC gaming world, liquid cooling is considered to be a luxury something one would not consider in investing especially for a laptop unless it’s an Asus. Cooling a high power gaming laptop has been limited to fan cooling but Asus has now introduce liquid cooling to it. Gaming seems to be a big theme of IFA 2015 in Berlinand at the event the GX700 was unveiled.

Acer’s releasing of a whole new line of Predators and Lenovo has taken on the challenge with a new range of gaming PC of its own. However none have gone as far as Asus which was introduced as the world’s first water-cooled laptop. A 17-inch laptop furnished with a 4K display and to-be-named Nvidia GPU, has an unlocked Intel Skylake processor.

The GX700 links to a huge boxy base station which comprises of all the essential hardware in achieving efficient water cooling, a reservoir and pump together with a radiator. When the connections on the rear of the notebook are secured the liquid cooling system tends to work its heat moving system, giving the laptop the additional thermal headroom needed for overclocking and standard tests.

An Immense Pixel Pushing Machine

It is however, not clear how the system handles issues like air bubbles which could be an issue in PC cooling loop such as this or what type of maintenance is essential for the water cooling station. Liquid cooling system on a gaming PC should be cleaned approximately every six months or so where the process involves soaking, inspecting and at times, replacing sections of the loop.

Water cooling has been usually an interesting addition which the gamers would join in order to improve the cooling setup. It has become quite easy to integrate it into modern PC since the size of the other components have been reduced and the developers have started designing self-contained water-cooling kits which could reduce the task of installation.

At this point of time the Asus GX700 seems to be a mystery and Asus has been refraining in divulging in any of the machine’s specifications other than revealing that it is the first 17-inch laptop with a 4K display.

Nvidia GeForce Graphic Card

It is known that there will be an Nvidia GeForce graphic card inside and it is presumed that it will be ready to overclock once the water cooling rig is linked with the GX700 to amp up the performance. This laptop is an immense pixel pushing machine and once docked, it turns everything up to that extra bit further in the absurd sphere.

The enclosed case of GX700 does not seem like it has been made with maintenance in mind and it is to be seen what Asus has in mind, With the combination of a top of the line mobile GPU with all new Intel CPU, 4K display together with the proprietary water cooling base station the price could be up and over $3,000 mark.

 If the final price tend to be above that it would probably be impossible for all users to purchase it, with the exception of the most well-to-do PC gamers.

Physicists Show ‘Molecules’ Made of Light May Be Possible

Physicists - Building Objects Out of Photons

A team of theoretical physicists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology – NIST, have come up with building objects out of photons and the discoveries indicate that the weightless particles of light can be linked into a kind of molecule having its own peculiar force. The discoveries are build on earlier research which many team members have contributed prior to joining NIST.

 In 2013, collaborators from Harvard, Caltech and MIT had found a way of binding two photons together so that one would sit right on top of the other, overlaid as they tend to travel. Their experimental demonstration was considered an invention since no one had constructed anything by joining single photons, motivating some to imagine that life lightsaber were very near.

In a forthcoming paper in Physical Review Letter, the NIST and University of Maryland based team together with other collaborators had showed in theory thattwo hydrogen atoms are near each other in a hydrogen molecule. Alexey Gorshkov of NIST has commented that `it is not a molecule per se, but one can imagine it as having a similar kind of structure and that they are learning how to build complex states of light which in turn could be built into more complex objects.

Modern Technologies Depend on Light

This seems to be the first time anyone has ever shown how to fixtwo photons a finite distance apart. Binding photons need extreme conditions which are difficult to produce with a plenty of lab equipment. However there are various other reasons in making molecular light humbler than lightsabers but nonetheless useful. Gorshkov states that `lots of modern technologies depend on light from communication technology right to high definition imaging and several of them could be enhanced if we could engineer their interaction between photon.

 For instance, engineers would require a method to regulate accurately the light sensors and Gorshkov says that the findings could make it very easy in the creations of a `standard candle’ which could shine a precise number of photons at a detector. Possibly more important to industry, binding as well as entangling photons would enable the computers in using photons as a means of information processors; a task that electronic tends to switch in the computer to do currently.

Important to Test the New Theory in Practice

This would not only provide a new basis in creating computer technology but it could also be the outcome in substantial conservation of energy. Other data and phone messages which presently tend to travel as light beams via fibre optic cable need to be converted into electrons for the purpose of precession which is an inefficient step that tends to waste a great amount of electricity.

If the transport as well as the processing of the data could be done directly with photons, it would reduce the energy losses. Gorshkov had indicated that it would be important to test the new theory in practice for these as well as other possible benefits.

He adds that `it is a cool new way to study photons and there are massless and fly at the speed of light and slowing them down and binding them, would show us other things we had not been aware of prior to it’.

Misuse Of Artificial Intelligence 'Could Do Harm

Google’s Head – Demis Hassabis – Artificial Intelligence, Powerful Technology

The head of Google’s £400m machine learning business, Demis Hassabis, has called for a responsible debate on the role of ethics in the creation of artificial intelligence. It seems to be a technology which is so powerful that probably in the near future, could mean that the computers would be able to advice on the best way to treat patients, handle climate change or even feed the poor.

 With this potential power there is also a big responsibility. Mr Hassabis has stated that artificial intelligence is like any new powerful technology. It needs to be used in a responsible manner and if misused could cause much harm.

He informs that all need to be aware of that and those developing it – the companies and universities need to realise and take their responsibilities seriously and have proper concern as the main focus of their mind. He adds that they tend to engage actively with artificial intelligence community at MIT at Cambridge, Oxford and there are lot of academic institutes speculating about this and they interact with them actively and openly in their research.

Artificial Intelligence – Science of Making Machine Smart

Mr Hassabis is of the belief that there are valid concerns which need to be discussed and debated, decades prior to anything which could actually give cause to any potential consequence or power that may result in worry and hence the need to have the answers in place much in advance.

He was responding to apprehensions with regards to the development of artificial intelligence raised with others by the technology entrepreneur and a DeepMind investor, Elon Musk and Professor Stephen Hawking. Prof Hawking had informed his colleague Rory Cellan-Jones that mankind would end, with artificial intelligence.

Hassabis’ work is focused on learning machine that are capable to scrutinise large amount of data and support human understanding of the exponential rise of digitised information. He informs that artificial intelligence is the science of making machines smart and we are capable to fill machines with intelligence, they would be able to assist us as a society in solving all types of big problems which then could have better control on all things like disease and healthcare to big issues like climate change and physics, where the ability for machines to understand and obtain insights in large amount of data could be beneficial to human scientist as well as doctors’.

Computers Unable to Copy Human Behaviour/Way of Thinking

Mr Hassabis adds that the computers cannot copy human behaviours or overtake human way of thinking. London is doing well in artificial intelligence. DeepMind which is located in King’s Cross has grown to a 150 strong company of computer scientists and mathematicians.

Mr Hassabis has advised the UK not to misuse its leading position in the developing sector and has commented that they are proud to be a UK company. He further adds that though they are owned by Google, their whole operation is in UK and Cambridge, Oxford, University College London, Imperial has very strong machine learning departments.

This is something that UK is strong in and he thinks that it is great UK success story. However, unlike in the past, when they were at the beginning of the computer age and Silicon Valley ended with all the innovation as well as reaping the commercial benefits, they will now ensure that they stay at the forefront of what would be an incredibly important technology in the forthcoming 10 or 20 years’.

Adaptive Headlights Could Help Drivers Avoid Hitting

Automotive Headlight – Improve Safety in low light/Poor Weather

The main purpose of an automotive headlight is to improve safety in low light as well as poor weather situations. However, inspite of innovation on light sources, several accidents tend to take place at night with even less traffic on the road.

Recent progress in adaptive lighting have addressed certain restrictions of standard headlights but they have limited flexibility like switching between high and low beams, turning off beams towards the opposing lane or rotating the beam as the vehicle turns.

 They are not designed for all driving environments.Present day cars are equipped with dozens of computers which monitor and adjust mechanical as well as electrical systems though the headlights need to be improved upon. Their light sources have evolved from acetylene and oil lamps to tungsten filaments to LEDs in the past century but an advanced headlight available on a luxury vehicle only tend to light whatever is in front of them.

These limitations could cause problems to the driver, as indiscriminate illumination tends to reflect light off, of the snow and rain during storms creating glare for oncoming drivers in dry weather which could also be dangerous.

Headlights to Adjust Instantly to Anti-Glare High Beams

Robotics researchers are developing a headlight which tends to adjust instantly to anti-glare high beams, improved driver visibility during changing conditions, enabling the driver to see through rain and snowstorm, increased contrast of lanes, follow GPS directions as well as early visual alerts of obstacles.

The ultra-low latency reactive visual system tends to sense, react as well as adapt quickly to any environment at the time of moving at highway speeds wherein the single hardware design can be programmed to accomplish various task.

These adaptive headlights coming to the market, features automatic dimmers, motors which reorient the headlight as the vehicle tend to turn or lighting arrays which change beam pattern in order to avoid shining in the oncoming driver’s eyes, for Audis, BMWs, Mercedes and some other costly vehicles.

Unfortunately even the smart headlight systems seem to have only one of these competences. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute are attempting to go beyond these issues by programming headlight which could improve the driver’s visibility by dynamically modifying to a wider variety of driving conditions.

Smart Headlight a Looped System

The team are working on developing a headlight system which would avoid illuminating raindrops or snowflakes in poor conditions, reducing glare when high beams are used, lights up the driving lane, much brighter than the adjacent lane and provide early visual alert of obstacles on the road.

The smart headlight is a looped system which tends to read continuously, assesses and reacts the driving conditions and the headlight camera senses and captures images in front of the vehicle which is analysed by the computer processor.

 It then utilises that information in controlling the headlight’s spatial light modulator, thereby dividing a single beam from the headlight into one million smaller beams each of which can be switched on or off when needed.

The researchers led by Professor Srinivasa Narasimhan, states that their system reduces the visibility of rain four meters away from the light source by 70% when the vehicle tends to move at 30 km per hour. The model equally reduces the visibility of snowflakes which fall more slowly and seem to be larger than raindrops by 60%.

Boomer Alert: Exercise Keeps Your Brain Young

Photo: Kelly Rossiter

Boomer Alert – Exercises Keeps Brain Young

Baby boomers are aware that exercise tends to keep the brain young and several of them would be pleased to know that using the phone or a computer could be of great help. In the course of the ageing we tend to suffer from cognitive decline but there are options wherein we could slow it down and one of these options is exercising the brain to keep it active.

It is a known fact that exercise can add years to our lives and helps in keeping physically fit and a new study shows that it keeps us mentally fit as well. A new study – Smarter every day: The deceleration of population ageing in terms of cognition indicates that the use of computers and smartphones could make a difference.

The authors of the study were not the first to notify about it. Nora Ephron had pointed it out some years ago. She indicates that we tend to live in the Google years and there are benefits to it. When one tends to forget something, you take the iPhone and go to Google. The Senior Moment has become the Google moment and by controlling the obligation of the search mechanism, one can prove that you can cope up.

The Flynn Effect – To Perform Better

Study conducted indicated different intelligent tests that were performed on people 50+ in 2006 and thereafter in 2012 and it was observed that the 2012 group had cognitive functioning equivalent to people four to eight years younger.

 Moreover there has been a steady inclination among all ages to do perform better on these tests which is known the Flynn effect, which has been attributed to nutrition, education and other causes. However, they studied in particular if the technology made any kind of a difference.

The theory that the growing use of modern technology in daily life tends to increase cognitive demand on the older people which can helps them in maintaining cognitive potentials to higher ages, is put to an experimental test in the current study.

As the authors of the study draw their conclusion observing other factors which could have affected the consequences they conclude that the use of computers as well as smartphones does make a difference. Valeria Bordone, one of the study authors has summarized the results in an interview in `business website Quartz’.

Smartphone Users – Enhanced Thumb Sensory Representation

In several cases 52 years old from 2006 obtained the same score as 60 years old from 2012 and the levels of education had not changed between these two groups. However, it was observed that their use of computers as well as mobile phones had undergone a bit of a change.

Evidently to kids essay at Quartz, 52 and 60 years olds are considered senior citizens. The authors of the study reason and suggest that video games together with the other software programs could be helpful in keeping multi-tasking skills and attention extents high as we age.

Nora seems to be right that living in the Google years tends to keep one smarter for a longer period of time, not for the information one gets whenever essential but for the act of looking out for it and locating it tends to keep the brain working. As per another study, smartphone users also have `an enhanced thumb sensory representation in the brain’ and utilising the phone and the tablet could keep your thumb young also.

Cancer Patient Receives 3D Printed Ribs

Cancer Patient Receives First 3D Printed Rib Cage

A 54 old cancer patient from Spain has become the first person in the world to receive a 3D printed RIB CAGE who had been suffering from a cancerous tumour which had grown around his rib cage and sternum. A section of it had to be removed to cut out the growth completely.

However, rather than changing the ribs with a metallic plate as is the custom, surgeon at Salamanca University Hospital requested Anatomics, an Australian firm to make a personalized titanium imitation. By scanning the patient’s sternum and the rib cage, the team designed a customized model utilising a 3D printer provided by Australia’s national science agency – CSIRO.

Additive manufacturing research leader at CSIRO, Alex Kingsburg informed that `the reason 3D printing was preferred in making this implant was because it needed to be customised accurately to suit the patient since no human body tends to be the same and hence every implant would be different’. He further adds that it would have been an extremely complex piece to create usually and would have also been impossible.

CSIRO’s 3D Printing Facility Lab 22

After the 54 year old Spanish had been diagnosed with a chest wall sarcoma, the surgical team made a decision to remove his sternum an a part of his rib cage, to replace it with an implant where the implant was designed and manufactured by medical device company – Anatomics.

The device company used the CSIRO’s 3D printing facility Lab 22 in Melbourne, Australia. The surgical team comprising of Dr Jose Aranda, Dr Marcelo Jimene and Dr Gonzalo Varela from Salamanca University Hospital, were aware that the surgery would be a difficult one due to the complicated geometries that were involved in the chest cavity.

The process has been described in the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic surgery. Dr Aranda has stated that they thought that they could create a new kind of implant which could fully customise to replicate the intricate structures of the sternum and ribs. They wanted to provide a safer option for the patient and improve their recovery post-surgery’. Hence the surgeon had sought the help of Anatomics.

Implant Out of Surgical Grade Titanium Alloy

On evaluating the complexity of the requirements, Andrew Batty, CEO of Anatomics informed that the solution lay in metallic 3D printing. He stated that they wanted to 3D print the implant from titanium due to its complex geometry and design.

He added that while titanium implants had previously been utilised in chest surgery, designs have not considered the issues related to long term fixation and flat and plate implants depend on screws for firm fixation which may tend to get loose over a period of time. This could however, increase the risk of complication and the possibility of a re-operation. With high resolution CT data, the Anatomics team were capable of creating a 3D reform of the chest wall as well as the tumour enabling the surgeons to plan and precisely define resection margins.

With this, Mr Batty informed that that they were able to design an implant with firm sternal core and semi-flexible titanium rods which acted as prosthetic ribs attached to the sternum. Operating with experts at CSIRO’s 3D printing facility, the team then developed the implant out of surgical grade titanium alloy. The implant was built using a $1.3 million Arcam printer according to Alex Kingsbury from CSIRO’s manufacturing team.