World's First Brain-Powered Car Being Developed

Car Controlled Through Brain Signals of Driver

Automotive companies such as Nissan, Tesla and Toyota have informed that self-driving cars are likely to show up soon though it may not be the only futuristic automotive tech coming up. According to a report, at China’s Nankai University, a team have created a prototype of a car which is controlled through brain signals of the driver.

 According to the publication, the team have been working on a technology utilising brain signals in order to control a car to stop, move forward, backward, lock or unlock. One of the project researchers, Zhang Zhao had explained that the headgear contains around 16 electroencephalogram – EEG sensors which tend to identify the activity of the brain that is worn by the driver.

They have developed a computer program which tends to select the related signals, translating them inthe control of the car. The computer tends to examine and decode brain signals and translate the same to the relevant automotive commands. Zhang has informed that the `tester’s EEG signals picked up by the brain signal reading equipment and transmits wirelessly to the computer.

The computer processes the signals to sort and recognize the intention of the person and translate them in controlling the car. The central point of the whole procedure is to process the EEG signals which are done by the computer.

Self-Driving Cars Soon a Reality for Consumers

Improvement in the field of consumer vehicles is great with the company at a point of delivering partly autonomous cars. After several years of testing out the technology, Google has exposed its intentions of releasing smart automobiles within the next five years which is also supported by Toyota as well as Nissan.

They have both fixed 2020 as the year wherein self-driving cars would begin to be a reality for their consumers. The technology is said to be in progress wherein the researchers are at the stage where their cars which has been provided by Chinese manufacturer Great Wall Motors, could drive in a straight line with the use of brain power.

 The project is led by Dang Feng, associate Professor from the university’s College of Computer and Control Engineering. He highlighted that the technology is focused on serving human beings and there could be a possibility of combining brain controlled technology as well as driverless cars, like Google Self Driving Car – SDC.

Driving Method without Use of Hands/Feet for Disabled

He adds that driverless cars’ further improvement could bring about additional benefits since we can realise functions relating to brain controlling better, with the aid of the driverless cars’ platform. In the end, cars, irrespective of driverless or not and machines, would be serving people. In the project, it makes the cars better serving human beings.

The brain fuelled automotive project materialised from the desire to help physically handicapped people to drive, according to Duan Feng, an associate professor and project leader. There are two starting point of this project where the first one is in the provision of a driving method without the use of hands or feet for the disabled who may be unable to move freely while the second is to provide healthy person with a new and much more intellectualized driving mode according to Zhang. As per the team it is said that presently there are no plans to mass-produce the technology.

Five Must-Have Shopping Cart Features (And a Few Things to Avoid)

Aside from a great product or service and an engaging website, your shopping cart is probably one of the most important features of an eCommerce website. You want to find a design that's easy to locate, user-friendly and right for your type of business. Three are hundreds of options, designers and templates available, and each concept has its advantages and disadvantages. Here are five essential features that will make your shopping cart as efficient as possible, as well as common mistakes to avoid.

VISIBILITY

If your customers have trouble seeing the button or icon to make a purchase, they're likely to move on to another eCommerce site. Most shopping cart templates have several standard design layouts that are based on customer preferences and industry best practices to ensure optimal size and placement of critical features.

ONE-PAGE LAYOUT

Studies show that the more complicated the checkout process, the more likely you are to have problems with abandoned carts and canceled transactions. The most favorable checkout process consists of one checkout page that's accessible by a clearly identifiable button or icon from each page of your website. The checkout page should include a summary of shopping cart contents, product details and a mechanism for editing your order.

USE ICONS

Even if they spend hours browsing, when it comes to checkout time, most consumers want to complete their purchase and move on as fast as possible. One way to make the process easier for your guests is to provide icons in lieu of text whenever possible.

USE A SIMPLE DESIGN

In addition to one-page checkout systems, the design of the final order page should provide a simple table format, with large, easy to identify fields. Numeric fields should update automatically as items are added or removed, and any taxes or shipping costs should be clearly spelled out and added to the total in a line-by-line format.

PROVIDE SEVERAL HELP OPTIONS

A good way to provide superior customer support is to give the customer plenty of guidance to help facilitate their transaction. Features like providing sample text on or below input fields on your forms, clearly labeling basic elements and adding a clickable question mark icon to explain unfamiliar processes will help provide a more hassle-free process.

What NOT to Do

- Don't use cutesy names - pocketbook, basket, or 'My' anything - for your shopping cart. Simplicity is key; it's a shopping cart, leave it at that.

- Don't over-complicate the process

- Don't require registration before allowing visitors to buy

Not all shopping cart eCommerce software is created equally, so it pays to shop around for a provider who offers a variety of templates and designs, or who can customize your shopping cart to suit the needs of your business. If you're not sure what will work best, a web design company that specialized in eCommerce websites is a good place to start. You can also browse different websites to get an idea

Java Developers Can Dish Out Tastier Web Apps with JSweet

Java developers get a sweet treat this Christmas by the launch of the JSweet via open source. JSweet will the java developers in utilizing their Java skills for building much better and highly interactive and rich Web Apps with JSweet. This particular technology ‘transpiles’ from Java programming language to TypeScript and finally into JavaScript. TypeScript is essentially a Microsoft technology, which compiles programming codes into JavaScript. JSweet has been developed by a Paris based software engineering company, Chincheo, which aimed at making the life of Java bit fun and easier in building Web apps.

Thought behind developing JSweet

Cincheo CEO Renauld Pawlak has shed some light behind the reasons for developing JSweet. He stated that in last couple of years TypeScript found widespread usage as it helped in transpiling to JavaScript in an efficient fashion. Java developer were longing for a light and simple approach which can help in designing the Web application in Java with similar efficiency. Most of the developers were frustrated with the idea of running everything in Java on a JRE. While a large number of developers were impressed with what can achieved with distinction through using TypeScript/JavaScript on the front end.

JSweet thus helps in offering a light and simple solution for adding bits of Java syntax to TypeScript. It is a great alternative to the Java developers for developing real Web application with ease.

Java still a great language for developing various apps and programs

Java has been known to cause confusion with its elaborate and complex syntax and functions, which led to the rise in adoption of other coding languages. But Pawlak still considers the Java as a good platform and safer language for the programmers to develop more powerful and rich apps. Java still retains its supremacy in developing efficient and scalable large complex applications than any other language.

JSweet has also made the accommodation for Node.js, which is a popular server side JavaScript platform. Pawlak ahs elaborated that JSweet works in same tandem with Node.js as TypeScript does but the difference is that it adds types. It is a small but quite an interesting difference which it a more transparent way of handling commonjs module for the java programmers.

The benefits and difficulty associated with JSweet

JSweet comes with pre defined @Module annotation, which can be generated automatically when a programmer makes use of the APIs. Here a programmer is just required to import the right packages and that also without the need of knowing all about JavaScript modules.

JSweet is designed to cross validate the Java Programs and the Java API with TypeScript. It also has a JSweet API translator Tool which can make JavaScript APIs available in Java. But Pawlak has the cautioned the programmers from making its wider usage as there are few issues with this technology which needs to be remedied. Pawlak has also asked the Java developer to remain open minded while programming with JSweet as they have to do away with some Java logic.

Moto 360 Sport, Meet Your New Workout Partner

Android Wear market is growing through a crazy phase where every month new wearables are making to the stores and constant innovation is helping in bringing more features to the devices. The latest version of Moto 360 sport shows remarkable improvement over its predecessor Moto 360 in terms of design and features. It is quick and concise of review of the Moto 360 Sport on basis of its first impressions, which is very amazing and impressive.

Moto 360 Sport hardware stands out from the crowd

The Moto 360 Sport comes with integrated silicone band, which is not changeable though. The internals of the Moto 360 Sport 42 mm model is similar to the earlier model with an addition of a GPS receiver. There is new display on this Smartwatch, which is named Motorola AnyLight Hybrid Display technology, which easily adapts with the environment.

It works like a traditional backlit display in low light situation and in the sunlight as front-lit reflective display. Motorola has provided an extended back button, which is located on the upper right side, and mic is located on the lower side. Motorola has carefully positioned the heart rate monitor on the center of the back. Motorola has covered the display with Gorilla Glass 3 surrounded by a ring of metal, which makes it more elegant.

Moto 360 Sport is a performance driven Sartwatch

The Moto 360 Sport runs on the Android Wear 1.3.0.x OS which is based on the popular Android 5.1.1 and it performs flawlessly with no glitches. It has a 300 mAh battery and runs o the 1.2Ghz quad core QUALCOMM Snapdragon 400 processor and has a 4GB of interNal storage with 512 MB of RAM.

Motorola has added some new fitness focused apps as well as a fitness watch face. These apps are called Moto Body and Moto Body Running while the watch face is called Sport, which provides status right in the top of display and a tap for accessing more options.

Users can easily view their heart rate, set goals for various exercises and get some interesting and accurate stats in the results at the end. Moto 360 Sport has a Start button near the middle of the display, which launches the Moto Body Running app where users can select different options before they start their run. Motorola 360 Sport is great at tracking the different exercises along with the calories count burned.

How Moto 360 Sport fares in tests? 

Motorola Moto 360 Sport is very nicely designed and its performance is amazing even though very few tests were performed in short time. First of all this watch is incredibly responsive and it brings one of the best displays ever seen on an Android Wear watch. Motorola 360 Sport will be launching in US In January and it will come with a base price of $299.99. And if you are looking up a smart and a performance driven Android Wear in New Year then keep this watch in your buying list.

How Boring is Your Face? Ask the 'MemNet' Algorithm

Ever thought of knowing how good your face looks in the pictures captured by the selfie cameras. A group of scientists at the MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has developed a unique computer algorithm which can easily measure ‘’how memorable an image is’. One is just required to feed the photo from the Instagram feed and the MemNet algorithm will simply show the portion of the images, which are most likely to stick in the memories of viewers. Scientist has even uploaded a version of this algorithm online for everyone to try out.

What is MemNet? 

MmeNet is a deep-learning algorithm, which is designed by the scientist at MIT. Deep learning algorithm is quite hard to develop as they are built to acquire and incorporate new information, which helps in improving their abilities without any manipulation or control of human programmers. Deep learning technologies work in its own unique manner as essentially mimics the neural pathways which area associated with the human learning. This helps deep learning algorithm in repurposing the same logic and understanding for various different skill sets.

MemNet to get better at reading images

MemNet is expected to improve its ability to read images and predict an images’ indelibility by simply processing more and more information over time. These computer scientists have released the MemNet version for the common users to try and with prediction; it will improve its ability of reading faces with more accuracy.

MemNet was first endowed with the basic required skill sets by the MIT scientists through uploading of thousands of images and associated data. The metadata fed to the MemNet basically included the information about each image’s popularity and the emotional impact as determined by the online viewers. When asked to predict the memorable parts within a picture MemNet performed as good as human.

The lead study author, Aditya Khosla, stated that understanding the memorability will help us in making systems, which can capture the most important information, and it can even help in storing the information which are most likely to be forgotten by the humans. Visual images are mostly preferred by a large number of institutions to send across the messages but MemNet can help it making more memorable than before.

Future prospect of the MemNet algorithm

MemNet is not much better at the task of measuring the memorability than any other human but researchers are hopeful it will get better over time. It creates a heatmap to show the memorable part and boring part of each image, which happens to the key elements in understanding the memorability level of the pictures. This algorithm can help the marketers and even the movie makers in editing their images in such a manner than it stays inside the head of the customers and viewers. MemNet can also help people in learning various things easily and efficiently too. People tend to assimilate and forget things more often but the research in developing MemNet opens up a new avenue. It has the potential to improve the people’s memory they are presented with the memorable images.