Can Artificial Intelligence Help Us Make More Human Decisions?

About 88 million pages of original and authentic handwritten documents belonging to the past three-and-a-half centuries, line the tiled halls of a simple 16th-century trading house located right in the middle of Seville, Spain. These are stored here, incompletely transliterated, where some of them are almost indecipherable. A few of them were carried back on armadas from the Americas while a few have undergone scanning and digitisation.

These documents contain the answers and the context for the innumerable questions pertaining to the Conquistadors, the European history, the New World contact and colonialism, politics, law, economics and ancestry. However, it is unfortunate that hardly some of these carefully kept pages were ever read or interpreted since they were written and brought to Seville centuries before and it is highly unlikely that most of them never will be.

All hope is not lost as a researcher from the Stevens Institute of Technology is trying to get computers to read these documents, before we are out of time, while the documents are still readable. A Stevens computer science professor, Fernando Perez-Cruz asks “What if there was a machine, or a software, that could transcribe all of the documents?”.

Perez-Cruz, who’s expertise lies in the research area of machine learning also says “What if there was a way to teach another machine to combine into groups those 88 million pages and convert them into searchable text categorised into topics? Then we can start understanding the themes in those documents and then will be aware where to look in this storehouse of documents for our answers”. Thus Perez-Cruz is working on both factors of this two-fold approach which, if right, could then be applicable to many other new age and futuristic data analysis queries such as independent transport and analysis of medical data.

Pricing on Amazon, medical study, text reading machines

Perez-Cruz, who is a veteran of Amazon, Bell Labs, Princeton University and University Carlos III of Madrid, has had a very interesting career dealing with scientific challenges.In 2016, he joined Stevens and contributed to the growing asset of the computer science department of the university. Stevens aims at making this a strong research department which in turn is drawing more talent and resources. Perez-Cruz is using this to his advantage in his work. Currently, at Stevens, he is working to develop something called as ‘interpretable machine learning’ which is a systematized intelligence that humans can still work on.

As far as the problem of the historical document analysis is concerned, Perez-Cruz is in the hopes that he will be able to develop improved character-recognition engines. With the help of short excerpts of documents written in varied styles, which have been earlier transliterated by experts, he aims to teach software to identify both the forms of characters and often correlated associations between letters and words, thus constructing a growing recognition engine over time that is absolutely precise. The only question remains, he says, is that how much data or how much handwriting that is transcribed, is sufficient to do this well. The work on this concept is still developing.

Perez-Cruz states that he believes even though it is a technical challenge, it may still be achievable. He is even more fascinated about the next part which is organisation of large quantities of transcribed matter into topics that can be used in a glance. He says that the machine should be able to give us information right away from these three-and-a-half centuries of data when transcribed and should itself learn from the locations of the words and sentences. This is, what he calls, topic modelling.

A key link: Systematically grouping large data into easily accessible topics

After sufficient data has been entered into the algorithm, it begins to spot the most vital identifying and organizing forms and designs in the data. Very often, it so happens that various cues from the human researchers are vital and are searched for.Perez-Cruz notes that eventually, we might discover that there are, let’s say, a few hundred topics or descriptions that run through the whole of this archive and then all of a sudden there may be 88-million-document problems that have been scaled-down to 200 or 300 ideas.

If algorithms can consolidate 88 million pages of text into a few hundred lots, a huge progress in systematisation and efficiency can be achieved by historians and researchers who need to make choices about which particular document, theme or time periods are to be searched, reviewed and analysed in the formerly unmanageable archive. The same concept could be used to find styles, themes and concealed meaning in other vast unread databases.

He concludes saying that one begins with a huge quantity of unorganised data and in order to understand what material does that data contain and how it can be used, a kind of a structure needs to be brought to that data. Once the data is comprehended, one can begin to read it in a particular way, understand better what questions are to be asked pertaining to that information and make better conclusions.

Students Present Solar Car for 5 Occupants

Stella Vie – `Car of the Future’

The Students at Eindhoven University of TechnologyTU/ehave presented a solar car for 5 occupants known as Stella Vie.The team has been considering this car as a source to secure its third world title at the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia (8-16 October) where it expects to highlight the prospective of solar powered family cars.

The new solar powered family car that had been unveiled recently is said to be the successor of Stella Lux and the Stella will be entered in the Bridgestone World Solar challenge in Australia later this year according to the announcement on the website of the university by TU Eindhoven solar team.

The most amazing fact regarding this car is that for the first time, it has been equipped to carry five occupants, instead of four and seems to be much more efficient than all the solar cars before it. The car has the potential of a range of around 1,000 kilometres on a summer’s day in Netherlands with few solar panels on its roof. As per the students, Stella Vie, a reference to daily family life is said to be `the car of the future’. Being powered by the sun, it has the tendency of reaching a speed of around 130 kilometres per hour.
 

Smart Navigation System

  The car comprises of new, smart technology such as parking navigation system which tends to take account of the position of the sun while parking.The car’s smart navigation system also tends to utilise the updated V2X technology to caution the driver regarding the upcoming traffic condition, enabling a safe and a much more efficient voyage.

 In order to save energy still further, Stella Vie tends to gently shove the user to drive efficiently as possible by giving refined feedback via a built-in lighting system that is inclined to caution the driver by turning red if they seem to brake too fast or speed up too violently.

From Eindhoven University of Technology, the team comprising of 23 students would be defending its world title in this forthcoming bi-annual, solar-powered car competition which tends to run 3,000 kilometres through the wilderness of Australia.The Eindhoven team had won the title in 2013 in the Cruiser Class with the Stella. The team would be competing in the Cruiser Class, for practical cars, where judging would be based on technical innovation, battery consumption together with the number of occupancy on board.
 

Solar Team Eindhoven – Contribution to Clean World

  Teams from Delft as well as Twente have been competing in the Challenger Class in the contest for the quickest solo occupant car. The Solar Team at Eindhoven have already portrayed to the world that there is a possibility of constructing an energy competent family car.

The team have designed Stella Vie to slowdown an impeccable steadiness between aerodynamic and aesthetic design and is createdto be more efficient than its forerunner, the Stella Lux.The Vie tends to increase the aero- dynamicity of its earlier siblings by 9%.

The Solar Team Eindhoven tends to make its contribution to a clean world and the main focus is to create a solar car which will be ready for the market in the future. One can imagine a world where cars would no longer require fossil fuels, a world where cars tend to be energy positive.

Selfies: Selfie-Presentation in Everyday Life

Study – First Significant Experimental Research on Selfie

 
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have scrutinized through 2.5 million selfie post on Instagram, to comprehend the photographic spectacle better and how people tend to form their personalities online and to determine what types of identity statement people tend to make on taking and sharing selfies. When it comes to Selfies, appearance tends to be almost everything.

Almost 52% of all selfies tend to fall in the category of appearance, with images of people portraying their make-up, clothes, lips etc. Images regarding looks seems to be twice more well-known than the other 14 categories altogether. After the appearance category, social selfies with friends, loved ones as well as pets were most common to 14%.

The ethnicity images at 13%, travel – 7% and health and fitness to 5%. It was observed by the researchers that the prevalence of ethnicity selfies is an indication that people seem to be proud of their background and also found that several selfies were solo picture instead of taken with a group. The data had been collected in the summer of 2015.the Georgia Tech team are of the belief that the study is the first significant experimental research on selfies.
 

Selfie – An Identity Performance

 
Generally, on Instagram, an overpowering 57% of selfies had been posted by 18-35 year old multitude which according to the researchers is not too surprising taking into account the demographic of the social media platform.

Selfies posted by the under-18 age group was about 30% while the older group of 35+ shared them less often around 13%. Appearance on the other hand was most popular among the crowd of all age groups. Julia Deeb-Swihart, lead author stated that selfies are an identity performance which means that users tend to carefully craft the way they may tend to appear online, which is an extension of that.

 Deep-Swihart had stated that `just like on other social media channels, people are inclined to project an identity promoting their wealth, health together with physical attractiveness, with selfies we decide how to present ourselves to the audience and the audiences tends to decide how it identifies you.

 

Type of Blending of Online/Offline Selves

  This work is stuck in the theory offered by Erving Goffman in `The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life’. The attires we tend to choose to wear together with the social roles we are inclined to play, are all intended to control the version of ourselves we prefer our peers to view.

Deeb-Swihart had commented that `selfies are a type of blending of our online and offline selves and is a way to prove what is true in your life or at least what one would want people to believe is true’. The data had been accumulated by the researchers by searching for `#selfie’, then utilised computer vision to confirm that the pictures really included faces.

 Almost half of them did not seem to have and they found plenty of spam with blank images or text. The accounts had been utilising the hashtag in order to show up in additional searches for the purpose of obtaining more followers.

Space Robot Technology Helps Self-Driving Cars and Drones on Earth

Support Robots to Navigate Independently
 
The significance of making units of self-driving cars together with grocery delivery through drone could be revealed through an improbable source – autonomous space robots.

An assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, Marco Pavone has been creating technologies to assist robots in adjusting to unknown as well as altering environments. Pavone had been working in robotics at Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA before coming to Stanford and had maintained relationships with NASA centres together with collaboration with the other departments at Stanford. He views his work in space and Earth technologies as complementary.

 He commented that in a sense, some robotics techniques which tend to have been designed for autonomous cars could be very useful for spacecraft control. Similarly the algorithms which he and his students devised to assist robots make decisions and assessments on their own with a span of a second could help in space exploration as well as they could improve on driving cars and drone from the Earth.

One of the projects of Pavone tends to centre on supporting robots to navigate independently in bringing space debris out of orbit, delivering tools to astronauts and grasp spinning, speeding objects out of the vacuum of space.
 
Gecko-Inspired Adhesives
 
There is no boundary for error while grabbing objects in space. Pavone informed that in space when you approach an object, if you are not very careful in grasping it at the time it is contacted, the object would float away from you. Bumping an object in space would make recovering it very difficult.

Pavone had teamed up with Mark Cutkosky, a professor of mechanical engineering, who had spent the last decade perfecting gecko-inspired adhesives, in order to resolve the grasping issue.

 The gecko grippers support a gentle approach as well as a simple touch in order to `grasp’ an object, enabling easy capture and release of spinning, unwieldy space debris. However the delicate navigations needed for grasping in space is not an easy job. Pavone had stated that one have to operate in close proximity to other objects, spacecraft or debris or any object one might have in space that needs advanced decision making potentials.

 Pavone together with his co-workers developed systems which enabled space robot to independently respond to such flexible situations and competently grab space objects with their gecko-strippers.
 
Perception-Aware Planning
 
The subsequent robot could move as well as grab in real time, updating its decisions at a rate of several thousand times a second. This kind of decision-making technology is said to be beneficial in solving navigation issue with drones that are Earth-bound.

 A graduate student Benoit Landry had stated that for these types of vehicles, navigating at high speed in proximity to buildings, people together with the other flying objects seems difficult to perform. He focused that there seems to be a delicate interplay between making decisions and environmental perception. He added that in this perceptive, several aspects of decision making for independent spacecraft tend to be directly significant to drone control.

Landry together with Pavone have been working on `perception-aware planning’ that enables drones to consider fast routes as well as to `see’ their surroundings besides improved estimate on where they are. The work is presently being extended towards handling of interactions with the humans, a main section to organize autonomous system like the drones and self-driving cars.

 

Reduced Gravity Atmospheres
 
Landry had also mentioned that the background of Pavone at NASA had been a good complement to the academic work. When a robot is said to land on a small solar system body type an asteroid, added challenges tend to come up.

 These atmospheres seem to have total different gravity than the Earth. Pavone had stated that if one were to drop an object from waist-height, the same would take a couple of minute to settle to the ground. Ben Hockman, a graduate student in the lab of Pavone, had worked on a cubic robot known as Hedgehog, in order to deal with low-gravity atmospheres such as asteroids.

 The robot passed through uneven, rugged and low-gravity territories by hopping rather than driving like the traditional rovers. Ultimately, Pavone and Hockman desired Hedgehog to be capable of navigating and carrying out tasks without being obviously told how to perform it by a human located millions of miles away. Hockman had mentioned that the prevailing Hedgehog robot is said to be designed for reduced gravity atmospheres though it could be adjusted for Earth.

It would not hop quite that far since we tend to have more gravity though it could be utilised to cross more rugged territories where wheeled robots are unable to go. Hockman viewed the research that he had been doing with Pavone as core scientific exploration adding that science attempts to answer the difficult questions we don’t know the answers to and exploration seeks to find whole new questions we don’t even know yet how to ask.

Sony Unveils New 'Spider-man' Game at E3 Expo

Sony’s Updated Game - `Spider-Man’

An updated game `Spider-man, for PlayStation video console, had been unveiled by Sony, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo – E3, in Los Angeles recently. It is said that Spider-man is likely to be released in 2018 and is being established by Insomniac games, which is the group dealing with the contribution of PlayStation like `Resistance’ and `Ratchet & Clank.

The president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, Shawn Layden, at the time of unveiling the `Spider-man’ game, had commented that the future is here and it is now with PlayStation 4 Pro and PS VR. Virtual reality – VR is rapidly gaining new battleground in the gaming scenario wherein developers are in search of winning over fans with immersive headsets and accessories.

Sony Corp had mentioned that last week it had sold over one million units of its virtual reality headset all over the world and was enhancing production. Besides this at the E3, Sony had also announced that the cult game `Shadow of the Colossus’ would be getting a high-definition remake for PlayStation 4. This game as well as the next `God of War’ edition are likely to be released next year. Though since Spider-Man 2 the Spidey game has not be mostly good, we seem to live in hope.

 

Reclaiming Earlier Glory

 
The reason of Spider-Man 2 is the standard of Spidey game which came down to the feeling of sandbox. The new game after an original story, not a tie-in film, tends to look fixed in reclaiming some of the earlier glory. Though there had not been any strong announcement, it surely seems like it was utilising the Spider Man 2 model.

Perhaps the biggest E3 2017 news, so far is the launch of the Xbox One X and after several months of speculation, the `Project Scorpio’ game console was unveiled by Microsoft. One of the most striking features of the Xbox One X is its design.

A dreadful amount of hardware has been crowded into what is claimed to be the smallest Xbox by Microsoft. Microsoft’s answer to the PS4 Pro is the new high-end console which will be hitting the shelves on 7 November which will be costing £449.99. At its global E3 showcase, Sony may not have exposed a brand new console though there had been no lack of best-seller game being provided. Ubisoft contributions covered varieties from action shooters like `Far Cry 5’ to sports, piracy, dance, together with space money and virtual reality.

 

Prime Announcement – New Game - `Far Cry’ Series

 
However, the prime announcement had been the new game in the tremendously prevalent `Far Cry’ series. The future edition of the first-person shooter action-adventure is said to be the 11th instalment in the award-winning series which is scheduled for a release on 27 February 2018.

Assassin’s Creed’ franchise, the next game in the long-running is called `Assassin’s Creed: Origins’ and is said to be one of the most expected games of the year. Assassin’s Creed is considered to be a franchise centred on exploit-adventure video game series designed by Ubisoft. Plenty of rumours have been circulated and speculated with regards to `Assassin’s Creed” Origins’ much ahead of E3 2017 and the new video game has been heading for Egypt taking the story back to an ancient world. On October 27, versions of Origins custom-made for playing on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows-powered personal computers will be released.

WhatsApp Rises as a Major Force in News Media

WhatsApp - Purpose of News

 
According to a study, WhatsApp is said to be one of the most prevailing means wherein individuals can discover and discuss various topics. However the utilisation of messaging app seems to differ extensively among countries. Over 50% of those surveyed in Malaysia had informed that they utilised WhatsApp for the purpose of news at least once a week.

 However in the US, the figure was said to be around 3% while in the UK it was considered to be 5%. It had also been indicated by the Digital News Report that the Brexit debate had led to mounting mistrust of the media of UK. It stated that around 43% of respondents had declared that the news could be trusted, down from last year to around 5% with BBC disapproved for having a pro-EU bias as well as failing to uncover the `distortions’ of the leave campaign.

Research had been conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism which had covered 34 countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia besides Taiwan and Hong Kong which had been sponsored by the BBC and Google among others. In January and February, an estimate of around 71,805 had been questioned by YouGov to generate its data. Facebook still tends to lead though WhatsApp seems to be on the rise, and percentage of people utilising individual service at least once a week.
 

Facebook – Most Well-known Social Media/Messaging Service

 
The results indicated that Facebook tends to be the most well-known social media and messaging service for new engagement in all, though two countries namely Japan and South Korea wherein YouTube and Kakao Talk tend to dominate. However it adds that the utilisation of Facebook for the purpose of news had dropped in over half of the territories with the possibility of year-on year comparison. Sharing new stories by contrast as well as chatting regarding them seems to be increasing with private instant messaging apps especially in the case of WhatsApp.

As per a report, WhatsApp is said to be now the second most well-known social service for information in nine of the 36 areas as well as the third most famous platform in further five countries. Numerous prospective clarifications have been provided by the journalists for the rise of WhatsApp. The use of its end-to-end encryption means that messages can be seen only by their senders and recipients, providing users with the protection from being scrutinized by the authorities.

Nic Newman one of the authors of the study had commented that some of the biggest growth seen is in places like Turkey where it is positively risky for people to express anti-government preferences on open networks like Facebook.
 

Share-to-WhatsApp Button

 
As a consequence, people tend to use closed groups where they are more confident of expressing their views. WhatsApp has also profited from the circumstance that in much of Latin America together with other mobile networks have been providing unlimited data usage within the program has encouraged its use.

Moreover, numerous Spanish as well as Chilean media channels have incorporated the app and radio stations usually request listeners to send short voice recordings through the service. Local news site have also included share-to-WhatsApp button to their pages. Mr Newman however had stated that beyond that it could be complex for the media to take benefit of the popularity of the app further than publishing stories which people would prefer to share.

He had explained that one can set up branded areas or group of people on their own though it would be extremely heavy and time consuming and there seems to be few tools for assistance.
 

Digital News Report

 
He further added that part of the appeal of WhatsApp is that users do not get interrupted by brands, thus making it a pure kind of messaging which is something its developers would really tend to hold to. The report had also highlighted the widespread concerns regarding the so-called `fake news’.

It stressed on the suspicions of the users that the lack of rules and use of viral algorithms of social media had supported low-quality false stories to spread around rapidly. However, they have stated that there tends to be a strong distrust of the mainstream media especially in Asian and central, southern as well as eastern European countries where industry is seen as being closely linked to the government.

 The Digital News Report this year is said to be even more sobering than normal. Several of the institutions in the West, which tend to contribute to democracy, have been going through a crisis of trust and new providers are not exempted. The citizens of UK’s trust in news in general have dropped by 7% since the referendum of Brexit according to report which is a cause for worry.

 

Internet – Daily General News – Common Commodity

 
The combination of Reuter’s revelations that the proportion of people have been paying for online news in the UK seems to be `among the lowest of all the countries which had been surveyed and is a cause for alarm. One of the reasons could be the BBC, whose control in news ecosystem could mean the less people feel the need to pay for good news.

The link for a new generation between high-quality general news together with payment for the news could be violation. Due to the internet, the daily general news has become a very common commodity. With the help of tech giants such as Facebook and Google having more of the advertising share, news providers could find they have to specialise if they need to get audience to gain revenue and these audiences would not agree to pay for content which are not trustworthy.

Gaining back that trust in a period of digital echo chambers together with false news would be difficult though it needs to be done. Yahoo News is said to be the most famous online news brand with regards to the number of people utilising it at least once in a week all over the 36 markets all together. Moreover it also tends to rank as the top online provider of online news in the US, Taiwan and Japan.

How to Create the Perfect App

App Streamlining Path to App Success

A lot of individuals would prefer pricing their app at the 99 cent price point and by default, it could not essentially be the best price for your app. But 99 cents could be a good offer for a game which kids tend to buy since it seems easy for them to convince their parents to spend some money on a game. However when it comes to an utility apps, there seems a sense that one would get what you pay for and hence people could really opt for a higher priced app in the same group.

Some may prefer to charge a million dollar from a user though no one would purchase it. However one needs to be realistic while not underestimating one’s services. An individual could experiment with their price and find a price where some seem to purchase your app at a fast speed. Several of the app makers tend to find the price to be about $4.

 App monetization assistance is provided to individuals by online service provider. The app had been developed in order to assist streamlining the path to app success and is expecting that with the help of videos they would be successful in directing the user step by step to their app career.

Various App Styles – Develop & Monetize

Guidance is provided in imparting knowledge on how to build an app from scratch, how to create an app from a template and how one could distribute your app. Moreover there are also videos which could explain the marketing techniques together with videos that provide full explanation.

At times reading on how to develop and market an Android app could be puzzling and daunting and essential information has been made available by the provider for every app making need though there could be requirement of further assistance and it is here that the provider offers the necessary guidance.

A short one minute video tutorials has been created which tends to portray how one could create an app from scratch, giving the user ideas for content, guiding them on how to make money from their app. They have also permitted the complete collection of app templates to be monetized which gives the user more than 50 various app styles that one could develop and monetize.

Style of Affiliate Ads

For creating apps one could log in and opt for the template style. Then you could insert your content either the URL of your company, your brand icon, family video, or any content which one may have developed and within a few clicks it is accomplished.

To monetize the app, one needs to insert the code of your ad publisher in your dashboard within the monetization tab. The best way to monetize your app in a passive way is the banner ads. The way it tends to work means that a person at any point of time is using your app and with the banners displayed, you tend to get revenue though the amount earned is not known since it is based on several factors.

This could comprise the style of affiliate ads one may have chosen, the number of times people may tend to view the banners and the time which is spent on your app.

Cyber Firms Warn of Malware That Could Cause Power Outages

Malicious Software – Modified with Ease Harming Critical Infrastructure

It was recently noted that malicious software had been uncovered by two cyber security firms which is presumed to have caused a December 2016 Ukraine power outage, cautioning that the malware could be modified with ease in harming critical infrastructure operations all over the world.

A Slovakian maker of anti-virus software – ESET together with Dragos Inc. a U.S. critical-infrastructure security firm had released information analyses of the malware called Industroyer or Crash override and had dispensed private alerts to governments as well as infrastructure operators to assist them in defending against the threat.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security had mentioned that they were investigating the malware but it had not perceived any evidence to put forward that it had infected U.S. critical infrastructure. The two firms had stated that they were not aware of who had been behind the cyber-attack. Ukraine had put the blame on Russia but the officials in Moscow had denied the blame constantly.

The firms still cautioned that there could be added attacks utilising the same method by the group that built the malware or by imitators who alter the malicious software. ESET malware researcher Robert Lipovsky had stated in a telephone interview that the malware was easy to repurpose and utilise against other targets which was certainly alarming and could cause wide-scale destruction to organization systems that are dynamic.

System Compromised by Crash Override

That warning had been verified by the Department of Homeland Security stating that it was working to understand better the threat posed by Crash Override. The agency had mentioned in an alert post on its website that `the tactics, techniques and procedure described as part of the Crash override malware could be modified to target U.S dangerous information networks and systems’.

 The alert had posted around three dozen technical indicators that a system had been compromised by Crash Override and requested firms to contact the agency if they had doubted that their system had been compromised by the malware. Robert M. Lee founder of Dragos had stated that the malware had the potential of attacking power systems all over Europe and had the tendency to be leveraged against the United States with small modifications.

Risk to Power Distribution Organizations

Lee had further mentioned by phone that` it is able to cause outages of up to a few days in portions of a nation’s grid but is not strong enough to bring down an entire grid of a country’. Lipovsky had stated that through modifications, the malware could attack other kinds of infrastructure comprising of local transportation providers, gas and water providers.

A leader of Kroll’s cyber security practice, Alan Brill had mentioned in a telephone interview that power firms are concerned that there will be more attacks. He further added that they have been dealing with very smart people who came up with something and deployed it. It represents a risk to power distribution organizations everywhere.

Industroyer had been the only second piece of malware that has been uncovered till date which has the potential of disrupting industrial process to manually intervene, without the help of hackers. Stuxnet was first discovered in 2010 and is generally believed by security researchers to have been utilised by the United States as well as Israel for attacking nuclear program of Iran. The Kremlin and Federal Security Service of Russia had refrained from replying to their request for clarifications.

Deep Learning With Coherent Nanophotonic Circuits

Light processor recognizes vowels

Nanophotonic module forms the basis for artificial neural networks with extreme computing power and low energy requirements

Supercomputers are approaching the enormous computing power of up to 200 petaflops, ie 200 million billions of operations per second. Nevertheless, they lag far behind the efficiency of human brains, mainly because of their high energy requirements.

A processor based on nanophotonic modules now provides the basis for extremely fast and economical artificial neural networks. As the American developers reported in the magazine "Nature Photonics", their prototype was able to carry out computing operations at a rate of more than 100 gigahertz with light pulses alone.

"We have created the essential building block for an optical neural network, but not yet a complete system," says Yichen Shen, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. The nanophotonic processor developed by Shen, together with his colleagues, consists of 56 interferometers, in which light waves interact and form interfering patterns after mutual interference.

These modules are suitable for measuring the phase of a light wave between the wave peak and the wave trough, but can also be used for a targeted change of this phase. In the prototype processor, these interferometers, which in principle correspond, in principle, to a neuron in a neural network, were arranged in a cascade.

After the researchers simulated their concept in advance with elaborate models, they also practically tested it with an algorithm for recognizing vowels. The principle of the photonic processor: A spoken vowel unknown to the system is assigned to a light signal of a laser with a specific wavelength and amplitude. When fed into the interferometer cascade, this light signal interacts with further additionally fed laser pulses and different interference patterns are produced in each interferometer.

To conclude these extremely fast processes, the resulting light signal is detected with a sensitive photodetector and is again assigned to a vowel via an analysis program. This assignment showed that the purely optical system could correctly identify the sound in 138 of 180 test runs. For comparison, the researchers also carried out the recognition with a conventional electronic computer, which achieved a slightly higher hit rate.

This system is still a long way from a photonic light computer, which can perform extremely fast speech recognition or solve even more complex problems. But Shen and colleagues believe it is possible to build artificial neural networks with about 1000 neurons from their nanophotonic building blocks.

In contrast to electronic circuits of conventional computers, the energy requirement is to be reduced by up to two orders of magnitude. This approach is one of the most promising in the future to compete with the viability of living brains.

Gelsight Sensor Giving Robots a Sense of Touch

Innovative Technology – GelSight Sensor

The research group of Ted Adelson at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory – CSAIL had unveiled an innovative sensor technology known as GelSight sensor, eight years ago which utilised physical contact with an object in providing an amazing comprehensive 3-D map of its surface.

The two MIT teams have now mounted Gelsight sensors on the grippers of robotic arms providing the robots with better sensitivity and agility. Recently the researchers had presented their work in twofold paper at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

Adelson’s group in one paper had utilised the data from the GelSight Sensor to allow a robot to judge the hardness of surfaces it tends to touch a crucial ability if household robots are to handle the daily objects. In the other Robot Locomotion Group of Russ Tedrake at CSAIL, GelSight Sensors were used to allow a robot to manipulate smaller objects than was earlier possible.

The GelSight sensor is said to be somewhat a low-tech solution to difficult issues comprising of a block of transparent rubber. The gel of its name is one face which is covered with metallic paint. When the paint coated face is pressed against an object, it tends to adapt to the objects shape

GelSight Sensor: Easy for Computer Vision Algorithms

Due to the metallic paint the surface of the object became reflective and its geometry became much easy for computer vision algorithms to understand. Attached on the sensor opposite the paint coated surface of the rubber block one will find three coloured light with a single camera.

Adelson, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Vision Science in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences has explained that the system is said to have coloured light at various angles and it tends to have this reflective material and on viewing the colours, the computer is capable of figuring out the 3-D shape of what that thing would be.

A GelSight sensor in both the groups of experiments had been mounted on one side of a robotic gripper which is a device to some extent like the head of pincer though with flat gripping surfaces instead of pointed tips.

As for an autonomous robot, gauging the softness or hardness of objects is needed in deciding where and how hard to grasp them but also on how they would behave when moved, stacked or even laid on various surfaces. Moreover physical sensing would also assist robots in differentiating object which may look identical.

GelSight Sensor: Softer Objects – Flatten More

In earlier work, robot had made an effort to evaluate the hardness of object by laying them on a flat surface and gently jabbing them to see how much they give. However this is not how humans tend to gauge hardness. Instead our conclusion depends on the degrees to which the contact area from the object to our fingers seems to change as we press it.

Softer objects seem to flatten more increasing the contact area. This same approach had been utilised by the MIT researchers. A graduate student in mechanical engineering and first author on the paper from the group of Adelson, Wenzhen Yuan had utilised confectionary mould in creating 400 groups of silicon objects with 16 objects for each group.

 In each group, the object seemed to have the same shapes though with altered degrees of hardness which was measured by Yuan utilising a standard industrial scale. Then GelSight sensor was pushed against each object physically and thereafter documented on how the contact pattern seemed to change over a period of time thereby producing a short movie for each object.

In order to regulate both the data format and keep the size of the data adaptable, she had extracted five frames from each movie, consistently spaced in time describing the formation of the object which was pressed.

Changes in Contact Pattern/Hardness Movement

Eventually the data was provided to a neural network that mechanically looked for connections between changes in contact patterns and hardness movements resulting in the system taking frames of videos as inputs producing hardness scores with high accuracy.

A series of informal experiments were also conducted by Yuan wherein human subjects palpated fruits and vegetables ranking them according to their hardness. In every occasion, the GelSight sensor -equipped robot came to the same rankings.

The paper from the Robot Locomotion Group originated from the experience of the group with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Robotics Challenge – DRC wherein academic as well as industry teams contended to progress control systems which would guide a humanoid robot through a sequence of tasks linked to theoretical emergency.

 An autonomous robot usually tends to utilise some types of computer vision system in guiding its operation of objects in its setting. Such schemes tend to offer reliable information regarding the location of the object till the robot picks the object up.

GelSight Sensor Live-Updating/Accurate Valuation

Should the object be small most of it will be obstructed by the gripper of the robot making location valuation quite difficult. Consequently at precisely the point where the robot needs to know the exact location of the object, its valuation tends to be unreliable.

 This had been the issue faced by the MIT team at the time of the DRC when their robot had picked up and turned on a power drill. Greg Izat, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science and first author on the new paper had commented that one can see in the video for DRC that they had spent two or three minutes turning on the drill.

 It would have been much better if they had a live-updating, accurate valuation of where that drill had been and where their hands were relative to it. This was the reason why the Robot Locomotion Group had turned to GelSight. Izatt together with his co-authors Tedrake, the Toyota Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Aeronautics and Astronautics and Mechanical Engineering, Adelson together with Geronimo Mirano, another graduate student in the group of Tedrake had designed control algorithms which tends to utilise computer vision system in guiding the gripper of the robot towards a tool and thereafter turn location estimation over to a GelSight sensor when the robot is said to have the tool in hand.

Microsoft Issues Urgent Windows XP Updates to Block US Spy Tools

 WINDOWS XP GETS A NEW PATCH TO BE SAFE FROM HACKERS

The recent attacks- ransomware has created a great chaos among the netizens. So, Microsoft has done a U turn when it as time to provide the most important updates of security for the Windows XP. They were supposed to provide an important patch in order to protect the computers from cyber-attacks.

The Tech giant company has asked the users who were still using the software version of 2001 to get the update and the patch for the security purposes. Those who have not opted for it have to bear the brunt and face a huge issue. Some were asked to pay huge amount of bucks and the worst part of the ransomware was that even after paying the amount they were unable to get the info or their precious data back from the hackers. The Wannacry attack has realty shaken the world.

THE OPERATING SYTEM

The Windows operating system has been idle for more than three years as they were not providing any kind of support from 2014. There are still computers or machines which use the Windows XP version even though it has become outdated. Well, some people have the habit of using the old versions and things and this has cost them a lot recently.

The reports state that more than 5 percent still use the same old version of the Windows XP. The attacks don’t guarantee that they would get the updates of Windows XP even after the attacks of ransomware. So, the people are at a big mess.

The recent report is a bit confusing from the windows team as they have revealed that they are not going to provide any kind of support. The current attack is more threatening and so they would look into this very carefully. The engineers have decided to post the updates more efficiently in a broader spectrum.

THE FAILURE

The initiative has been taken as the Wannacry have already damaged a great number of computers over the world in a span of two days. The global attack has created a fear among the common multitude to use the internet or do any kind to transactions online.

The attack was mainly done with the help of Eternal Blue tool which was formed by the security Agency. But unfortunately, it got leaked and went into the hands of one of the famous hackers round the world who are known as the Shadow Brokers. The attack has hit very badly even the top organisations in like the Airports of England, Health departments and many more.

THE PATCH

The tech giant released a patch which has solved more than 94 problems but there are few issues which needs to be solved. Else the hackers may take advantage again. The users should update their systems in order to be safe. However, it has released a patch as an exception for the Windows XP in order to completely bring an end to support the old version of Windows XP.

What Facebook Knows About You

Model Devised to Analyse Facebook `Likes’

Whenever the advertisements on one’s Facebook newsfeed tends to appear unusually significant, it could be due to the social network giants being aware of you very well. The social network takes pride of having almost two billion users and provides a amazing amount of free content which has a tendency of keeping most of the users engrossed for hours daily. It intends to improve its efforts further in the near future by keeping the users on-site for even a longer time or in other owned properties of Facebook such as the Messenger, Whatsapp and Instagram.

Facebook is said to have accumulated an estimated $26.9 billion by way of ad revenue in 2016 by drawing out its massive troves of data on its 1.86 billion users in order to sell directed information to advertisers used to provide products as well as services depending on their particular preferences. There seems to be more disturbing methods wherein companies tend to utilise personal information. A model had been devised by researcher Michal Kosinski which tends to analyse Facebook `likes’ of a user in predicting information like ethnicity, sexual orientation together with political belief in creating as well as locating personal psychological profiles.

Facebook Most Appalling Spying Machine

As it was recently revealed by tech publication Motherboard, wherein an identical scheme was reported to have assisted Donald Trump in reaching the White House, on sending directed campaign ads which had appealed to individual needs together with requirements. Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, in an interview with Russian news site RT, had called Facebook as the most appalling spying machine which has ever been invention.

 Assange had claimed that they have the most comprehensive database regarding people in the world, their relationships, their names together with their addresses, their locations as well as the communications with each other, their relatives, all being within the United States and accessible to U.S. intelligence. He added at a book launch in 2014, that each time one goes to a party, takes an image and posts the same on Facebook, you are being a traitor.

However even his organisation finds it difficult to refrain from joining the damage. Wikileaks tends to have its own Facebook page that seems to disclose the secrets of the rulers of the world. What Facebook intends to do with the data seem to be a subject of debate though the data it has is alarmingly all-inclusive. The following details will bring about an awareness of how much details Facebook can have regarding its users:

1. How much Facebook tends to know about the user, its family and friends

The source of one’s profile seems to be the on-site behaviour that covers the profile information one tends to provide, the advertisements clicked on, the events created and attended, items one prefers and the information that one has posted. All these behaviour tends to expose the age, gender, language together with the educational level, the electronic device one may utilise and how one would connect to the internet.

The post and the profile provide the details of your Facebook data footprint though the company gathers a huge selection of information from the other sources for adding personal information beyond those which have been significantly uploaded.

The user’s online behaviour together with the information from third-party sources are inclined to get mixed in conveying to Facebook about their job, whether the user is married, engaged or intending celebrating an event, whether you are a parent or expecting to be one. Moreover, it is also aware of who is in the family, how far they seem to be living and their anniversaries and much more.

2. Facebook aware of your finances and spending habits

It has a tendency of paying data brokers like Experian and Epsilon for added information they have compiled over a period of time in collection of additional information from government, surveys together with commercial sources like magazine subscription list.

 This conveys to them where one may shop, what is purchased and whether one owns a car. It also tends to be aware of the value, size, and composition together with the type of property one may be living in and when the said property had been constructed. Besides this, it not only knows what may be in possession with the user, but also what one purchases, on comprehending their tastes and when they would be likely in upgrading to some degree.

The financial information of the user is all taken hold wherein Facebook can forecast what one had invested in, or if is in possession of a credit card and if it is in debt, your net worth and income, together with details if one is a member of a credit union, national bank or regional bank

3. Facebook is aware of the websites visited and the apps utilised

The online activity of the user tracked by Facebook is not restricted to the social media site only. Should the user visit a web page which utilises Facebook technologies like Facebook pixel, then the publishers as well as Facebook can trail visits from the users. The information is utilised by the advertisers to craft ads for the individuals who tend to visit the website or use the mobile app.

 It covers any page with `like’ or `share’ button which informs Facebook where one could be browsing, any downloads of their mobile apps as well as any purchases done from the site or products which may have been added in the shopping cart. The family of apps and services of Facebook comprises of Instagram and WhatsApp which tend to add to the data record of the company.

4. Facebook knows the whereabouts of the user

The location data is utilised by Facebook to support advertisers in targeting individuals in or within a specific area. This detail is conveyed by the IP address where one tends to connect to the internet, the GPS as well as the location services on your phone, your check-ins together with the listed areas in your Facebook and Instagram profiles. In June 2016, debate came up when Facebook had first acknowledged and later denied that it was using smartphone location details to recommend friends, though eventually revealed that it had briefly done the previous year.

5. Facebook knows about your beliefs

Directed advertising utilised by the Donald Trump team before the US presidential election of 2016, had revealed the value of Facebook data in the political campaigning. If one mentions their political preferences, expresses a political leaning or like a page connected with one, Facebook has the tendency of utilising the information in presuming your political opinions.

 However, the company is not only in need of direct evidence. If the user like pages viewed as characteristic of a certain position, it could recommend you to share those beliefs. Liking Exxon for instance could specify that you are more expected to be traditional. Facebook tends to combine the details with demographic information to classify the users as substantial, traditional or reasonable.

6. Facebook knows your secret thoughts

The old saying of `think before you speak’ has given a new lease to life on social media where the fake security shield of screen together with the keyboard has given rise to several regrettable tap of the enter key. Recently it had been revealed by data scientist Vicki Boykis that Facebook tends to know what the user could be thinking even when they choose not to comment on it.

 The company can trail your typing in order to read your mind. Facebook tends to gather the text as it is typed by sending code to the browser which has the tendency of analysing the keystrokes and report the metadata. It comprises of deleted post, comments together with check-ins. The company has named these unpublished thoughts as `self-censorship’ and had earlier utilised the data in researching the human behaviour.

The overall incoming data amounts to about 600 daily terabytes if the estimates of 2014 of Facebook engineers tend to be precise. As per the calculations of Boykis, this could be the equivalent of uploading 193 million copies each day of the novel War and Peace.

7. How to find out what Facebook know about you

A board outline of information is provided by Facebook that tends to accumulate in its Data Policy though does not expose the complete details of how it functions. This can be found out by going to your ad preferences on the social network which comprises of profile information, categories of interest together with advertisers the user may have interacted with as a customer, a website user or by just clicking on their ads.

One could also hide advertisements regarding sensitive issues which you would like to opt out. Users of Facebook could also block certain kinds of ads by going to Facebook ads settings. The only means of averting the controls of the Facebook data collectors together with their partners is by quitting the social network completely though it may not provide you with a clean break.

 The data of the user has left an ineradicable mark and once the user tends to agree to hand it over they are no longer entitled to get the same back. However, one could download the complete Facebook data history as a ZIP file by utilising a self-service tool that has been designed by the company.

Mario caps Nintendo's triumphant comeback

Nintendo's super comeback!

Gaming in consoles has taken a huge turn with passing years, where the youth of the country invest quite a sum annually into various gaming consoles. The year was marked by the return of the famous Nintendo. And above it all, it is worth mentioning how Super Mario caps the royal return of the company.
 
The Wii back in its time was the talk of the town. Every kid in town seemed to have one tucked in their backpacks. It was definitely a challenge for Nintendo to come back with expectations of competing with Microsoft or Sony, however, their growth has been astounding. The newest talk of the town, the Switch had been released earlier this year. It may not have blown off minds but the company is pretty confident about its growth in the market. Perhaps the name pays off. There has been quite a growth in the passing year.

The Switch:

 This new device had a major sell-out after its release, peaking to sell almost 3 million devices. The famous- Legend of Zelda, the game has said to sell almost seven million copies. That is a whopping amount indeed. The Switch unlike perceived by many, made it big in the consoles market, bringing back the fame Nintendo deserves.

It brings back a nostalgic feel while indulging in the games. Innovation at its peak. Nintendo's hopes cross the number of copies sold for Wii when it comes to the Switch. It may be difficult, but with the return of Mario, it can’t be impossible. An innovation takes on the product, the Gameplay mechanic uses the product’s dual motion controller and shows off various new additions to Mario.
 
Mario caps the release:
 
Remember our favorite chubby plumber? Well seems like he is back with a bang with newer additional this October.

The Super Mario Odyssey, releasing this October has a lot of expectations. This time our favorite character will be seen in a real-life situation, perhaps in one of the busiest cities in the US. What is better is that it can be customers, people are free to the customer with the character, make it do what they want, go where they want. Similar to GTA perhaps, but no one dies. With the dual motion control per, with a click of a Switch, one can fling Mario’s new cap, the 'Cappy’ into the air, helping him combat enemies.

Mario surely caps the release of Nintendo.

Nintendo is to release another game this year called Arms, an action based game and another one called the Spatoon 2, featuring paintball shooting by squids.

The question is if people are fine without the 4K feature. Nintendo unlike other consoles like Chod does not support third party games with grand visual quality. According to talks, this is one of the development and additions Nintendo wishes to make this year on its consoles. The Wii however always had a larger impact, and matching up to that is difficult. The Switch wishes to do that in future. Wii has revolutionized the idea of gaming, making it as real life as possible. It was no more about pressing buttons.  The company had miles to go indeed.

Solar Paint Offers Endless Energy From Water Vapor

Solar Paint and its capability to Produce Fuels out of Water Vapor

Researchers always tend to turn the whirlwind with their innovative research and invention. This time they have decided to bewilder the world with the most innovative research in terms of paint. We have heard about the use of solar energy to generate electricity, but this time the impact of solar power will be located in paints as well. The researchers have unveiled this new development (Solar Paint) which can be used as a measure to generate water vapor which would further split to provide hydrogen. This has left all the science Nazis with utmost eagerness to follow up this research as soon as possible.

The paint would be so tempting because it would contain all essential compounds which would act like silica gel. This compound seems to be frequently used in most of the materials, these days. It is most commonly used in all the sachets in order to absorb moisture, so that the food, medicine or any other product in sachet would remain fresh and undetected from any sort of bacteria. But other than this gel, there are several other materials such as synthetic molybdenum-sulphide which also acts as a semi-conductor and behaves as a catalyst in spitting the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

One of the renowned researchers at the University of RMIT in Melbourne known as Dr. Torben Daeneke, Melbourne, Australia, has confirmed that they once absorbed that when they added titanium particles to compounds it resulted in forming a paint that could absorb sunlight and thus, produced hydrogen from solar energy and moist air. Hence, the name solar paint was given.

Observation suggests that the white pigment which is already present in wall paints is known as titanium oxide, which means that just with the addition of this new component a simple material can upgrade itself to form large chunks of energy harvesters and real estate which produces fuel by converting walls of brick.

The researcher has further concluded that this invention in terms of solar paint has several advantages. Usage of water can be restricted to some extent, as the water vapor or moisture absorbed from the atmosphere can now be utilized to produce that too in much-affected ways. One of his colleagues also seconded him by adding that hydrogen is the cleanest and purest forms of energy which could be used as fuels by utilizing it in fuel producing cells and in combustion engines that are conventional with an alternative measure other than fossil fuels.

This invention can be used in all sorts of places irrespective of the weather conditions. May that be a hot or cold climate or places near to the oceans this formula would be applicable in all places. The formula is very simple, the sea or ocean water would evaporate due to sunlight and thus, the vapor formed can be utilized to produce fuels. The way solar paint is turning out to be beneficial in everyday life soon its impact would be realized globally. 

Sennheiser’s PC 373D Dolby 7.1 Gaming Headphones

Sennheiser has not made any adjustments to the basic concept on the PC 373D Dolby 7.1 gaming headphones while comparing with its successful predecessor. The gaming headset, like its predecessor, can be connected to the PC via USB or mini USB and is based on an open design for good ventilation of the ears.

The design of the PC 373D Dolby 7.1 gaming headphones has been slightly revised compared to its predecessor. While the PC 363D was completely black, the successor has additional, discreet red elements. There are small red lines on the microphone bracket and the cable. The inside of the auricle was also lifted in color.

Overall, however, Sennheiser continues to rely on the familiar, simple, functional design. The processing is high-quality and the carrying comfort was increased.

Great Package of Delivery

The PC 373D Dolby 7.1 gaming headphones is delivered with manageable accessories. In addition to the headset, the scope of supply includes a 1.2 m long extension cable so that the cable length can be extended to a total of three meters. In addition, there is a USB surround dongle in the package, which can be switched between stereo and surround sound quickly.

The specifications of the PC 373D Dolby 7.1 gaming headphones are as follows:

Transducer principle: Dynamic, open

Frequency range: 15 Hz - 28,000 Hz

Impedance: 50 Ohm

With these specifications, the headset is also compatible with all other players, such as MP3 players and mobile phones.

Sound Quality

The goal of Sennheiser is to produce headsets with a sound that satisfies both professionals and ambitious amateur gamers. This is the absolute success of the manufacturer with the PC 373D Dolby 7.1 gaming headphones. The Sennheiser PC 373D Dolby 7.1 gaming headphones delivers 7.1. Dolby Surround Gaming Sound of the top class.

The sound is clear and the gaming headset manages to reproduce basses as well as letting higher notes sound naturally. The highs and lows also have a very good correlation with each other.

The 7.1 surround sound in PC 373D Dolby 7.1 gaming headphones is characterized by a realistic and precise spatial sound. One has the feeling exactly to determine, where the sound in the game comes from.

Sennheiser has developed a new software for the PC 373D Dolby 7.1 gaming headphones to precisely adjust the surround sound for every gamer's ear. The software implementation is intuitive and allows gamers to choose between four different equalizer settings.

Microphone

The new Sennheiser PC 373D Dolby 7.1 gaming headphones headset is also equipped with noise canceling. In this way, background noise is avoided, thus ensuring that only your voice is recorded. The voice is clearly transmitted.

There is also the possibility to use the "Mic Sidetone" on the headphones and the Sennheiser software to adjust the voice reproduction. This makes the voice recording even clearer.

Of course, the PC 373D Dolby 7.1 gaming headphones also has the simple, intuitive mute of the microphone, which we know from the PC 363D. The microphone is muted when the microphone is raised until a "soft" sound is heard. A small but very useful feature.

Overall, the implementation of the microphone is impressive all along the line and is in no way inferior to the sound quality.

Comfort

Besides the sound quality, Sennheiser has always attached great importance to the wearing comfort of the headset.

The auricles are covered with velvet. This makes the headset very soft and comfortable to wear. Sennheisser himself applies the ear pads as an "XXL ear pad".

With a weight of 354 grams, the headset is not a light weight. Due to the very soft padding of the temples, this weight is not noticeable even during long gaming sessions when worn.

Overall, the Sennheiser PC 373D Dolby 7.1 gaming headphones is also convincing in terms of style and comfort.

DirectReality of Microsoft - New VR Interface Planned for Windows

Since Microsoft has presented projects such as HoloLens, the company is the pioneer in innovation for many people. Now Microsoft has once again secured more rights to something new called

Although Microsoft recently assured that VR is not shown during this year's E3 during the own briefing, the company only a few days earlier secured the rights to something called DirectReality.

Sounds exciting and many people will now say that it has nothing to do with gaming, but you are wrong. DirectReality is said to have a direct reference to gaming. Microsoft has just registered a new brand name just a few days ago, which points to a new interface for Windows and perhaps also the Xbox One Scorpio. What exactly lies behind DirectReality hides this year's E3 probably not give up.

Microsoft applied for trademark protection for the term "DirectReality" on June 2, 2017 in the United States and applied for computer software, computer games, software for holographic apps and their online versions. However, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) does not provide more detailed information. Companies such as Microsoft also often secure brand names, which are ultimately not used.

 

DirectX, Direct3D - DirectReality?

However, in the context of the forthcoming E3 games fair and the presentation of the Xbox One Scorpio, the brand DirectReality ensures some speculation. Microsoft has been using the term "Direct" for important interfaces for the Windows operating system, for example DirectX, Direct3D or DirectShow. Even the Xbox owes its name to DirectX, since it was originally planned as a DirectX box. This could be a new graphics interface for DirectReality that is related to the mixed reality features that Microsoft is planning for Windows 10 and in Hololens.

Perhaps a standard for VR / AR under Windows

However, it would also be conceivable that Microsoft, like DirectX for 3D graphics under Windows, is planning a new standard for virtual and augmented reality in Windows 10, which allows the development of software for hardware from many different manufacturers.

A standard would probably also be very useful for developers who want to offer their VR software for consoles like the Xbox One, Scorpio and Windows 10. There may be some information at E3 during the Microsoft press conference. Microsoft has a lot to tell and in the person of Phil Spencer already warned that this time 90 minutes will not be enough.

The Microsoft could be a feature with regard to the HoloLens, but of course also the Scorpio, which supports VR headsets, possibly also the Hololens. In addition to Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality, DirectReality would be a new form and could even be a reference to a controller unit. With a little luck, we know more about the E3, otherwise it could be a long-term project, so we could only learn about it in the distant future.

Novel Innovation Could Allow Bullets to Disintegrate After Designated Distance

Purdue University – Bullet to Be Non-Lethal

Presently bullets have been made from various materials particular for the projected application which tends to retain an important portion of their energy after travelling hundreds or thousands of meters. This could result in unwanted significances like unintended death or injury of those around the place as well as security damage if the target was missed.

Very often stray bullet shootings are overlooked consequence of firing which could result in severe injury or even death to bystanders or collateral damage victims in the military. Hence a need in law enforcement, military together with civilian segments for a safer bullet would considerably decrease collateral damage as well as injury.

Technology has been created that could avoid these occurrences at Purdue University. Research group headed by a professor of materials engineering and electrical and computer engineering, Ernesto Marinero has designed novel materials and fabrication which enables a bullet to be non-lethal which collapses after a selected distance.

This technology was the consequence of a need for safer bullet which would considerably decrease security damage as well an injury in law enforcement, civilian and military segments. Conservative bullet tends to have a substantial percentage of their energy after travelling a hundreds or even thousands of meters.

Combination of Stopping Power of Standard Bullets/Restriction of Range

The newly developed Purdue innovation helps the bullet to break over a predetermined period owing to the heat that is generated at the time of firing in combination with air drag together with an internal heating component. The heat conducts over the complete bullet part, melting the low temperature binder material facing drag forces that tends to result in breakdown.

The technology is said to be a combination of stopping power of standard bullets, the shrapnel-eliminating aids of frangible bullets together with a restriction of range in decreasing injury or death of would-be spectators. The Office of Technology Commercialization of Purdue Research Foundation has patented the technology and is said to be available for license. The researchers at Purdue University had established materials together with fabrication for ammunition which became non-lethal after a chosen space.

A professor of emergency medicine and director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Centre, Garen Wintemute had commented that `stray bullet shootings gave rise to fear and insecurity among the people. They tend to remain indoors and stop their children from playing out in the open thereby changing their pattern of their daily routine to evade from being struck by a bullet intended for someone in mind.

No Research – Exploring Epidemiology of Firings

However, no research had been done at the national level in exploring the epidemiology of these firings and such information is essential in identifying preventive measures’. He further added that stray bullet firings are mostly a side effect of planned violence what is indirectly known as collateral damage.

Those who tend to get shot have little or no warning; opportunities to indulge in preventive measures once the shooting tends to take are restricted. We will only be capable of preventing these shootings to the extent that we are able to prevent firearm violence unless we intend to bulletproof the complete communities together with the residents.

Millimeter-Wave Technology: Highly Sensitive Tracking Nose in Space

Low Power Millimeter-Wave Amplifier

It was recently announced by Hiroshima University and Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited – MIFS, the development of a low power millimetre wave amplifier which tends to feed on 0.5 V power supply, covering the frequency range from 80 GHz to 106 GHz. It had been invented utilising Deeply Depleted Channel – DDC technology of MIFS and is the first W-band amplifier (75-110GHz) which operates with low power supply voltage.

 Technology details will be presented at the IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium – RFIC 2016 which was from June 4th to 6th in Honolulu, Hawaii. The W-band is said to cover frequencies utilised by automotive radars. Radars with millimetre-wave beam would be essential for sophisticated driver-assistance and self-driving to scan capability which can `see’ in day as well as night conditions as well as in adverse weather situations.

 This type of phased array would comprise of up to hundreds of transmitters and receivers. Since battery-powered cars tend to be more common, it is vital that these circuits have a tendency to be low power and lowering the power-supply voltage seems to be the most effective means of achieving the same. But transistor performance tends to fall with voltage and W-band amplifier has not operated so far as low as 0.5 V.

High-Performance Silicon MOS Transistors

A W-band amplifier at 0.5 V had been successfully demonstrated by the team of researchers by bringing together DDC technology of MIFS and design techniques created by Hiroshima University. The DDC technology provides high-performance silicon MOS transistors also at low voltages and is presently made available as a 55-nm CMOS process from MIFS.

 Moreover, the design techniques tend to enhance transistor as well as circuit performance at millimetre-wave regularities. A graduate School of Advance Sciences of Matter, Hiroshima University, Professor Minoru Fijishima had commented that `now seriously low power W-band circuits really seem possible, they would think about what can be done with them. Applications aren’t restricted to automotive radars and high-speed communication between base stations.

 What if one had radar on their smartphone? Presently smartphones tend to sense things already such as acceleration, audible sound, and visible light together with the magnetic field of the Earth. However the only active searching device is that tiny LED – light emitting diode, which can brighten at best a few meters.

W-Band Amplifier - Reliability

He further stated that by adding millimetre-wave radar on your smartphone, it does not have to be a imaginary main radar that tends to sense waves reflected back but your smartphone could respond to waves from the radar of your friend, sending some signals back to them.

 A new set of applications can be developed comprising of games. Professor Fujishima further added that another significance of our 0.5 V W-band amplifier is reliability and the researchers are aware that they are long lasting. They tend to degrade as one measure them, within days or hours and not years due to the supposed hot-carrier effects.

The 0.5 V supply voltage is said to reduce hot-carrier generation, considerably. In comparison to conventional SMOS the DDC transistors provide amazing performance in low-power processes. The research group intends to progress in exploring the possibility of low-voltage millimetre-wave CMOS circuits.

High Pressure Key to Lighter, Stronger Metal Alloys, Scientists Found

With the scientists and technicians creating a revolution, the world has witness some of the great changes. We are quite grateful that we are able to live a more peaceful and cosy life when compared to our earlier generations. However, the world has progressed in every field be it technology, medicine or even metallurgy. There are reports every day that amuse us and we are quite blessed to live in this era. Each day we come across some new kinds of discoveries and this has only got better with each passing day. Certainly, a change has shaped the world into a better place. Few weeks ago, a report was released which stated that if high pressure was allowed, then it could make the new and improvised versions of metal compounds which are can resist heat than the normal metal alloys. This theory of the conventional metal alloys was released by the researchers of the Stanford University. 

THE BLENDING OF METAL ALLOYS

It has been since ages that metallurgy has seen the blending of the metals in order to create improved and stable metal alloys. They used to have exclusive properties for the last hundreds of years. The previous theory included with one or two important metal comprising a higher portion of the mixture and the other elements are in less proportion.

They form a compact structure. Ever since the inception of the metallurgy, the scientists were successful in creating 2 structures till date. The third structure has taken a huge toll on the scientists as they have not been able to figure out still.

THE STUDY

The recent study which was published in the recent journal have reported that they were successful to come up with a new design of an alloy which comprised of normal metals. The structure is somewhat hexagonal in shape and it is closely packed. This type of similar structures has been created in the past but they used to contain a huge amount of harmful elements.

The elements were mostly alkaline metals or rare species of metals. They have been able to make the compact structure from the very common metals which are normally used in the engineering department.

THE PRESSURE APPLIED ON METAL ALLOYS

They have found that it is ultimately the pressure that helps in achieving all these. A new device kind of form has been used in order to achieve this. The device is used to confine the minute samples of the high entropy metal alloys to get pressurized to a high pressure normally as 55 Giga Pascals.

The pressure is so humongous that it can be seen when there is large meteorite crashed on the surface of the earth. The high pressure seems to break the interaction of the magnetic impact. The metal alloys still maintain the compact hexagonal structure even if the high pressure is taken off from them. So, we are grateful to the great renowned scientists.