Google Chrome will Start Blocking Flash by Default

Google Chrome Stop Support to Adobe Flash Player

Chrome browser of Google will stop its support to Adobe’s Flash Player on almost all websites by the end of this year. Staff member, Anthony LaForge while posting to Google groups, had defined the plan of the company to stop automatically permitting Flash to run on websites. The plan intended to be implemented by the fourth quarter of 2016 would be seeing HTML5 replacing Flash as a much integrated media experience with quicker load times and less power consumption.

LaForge had mentioned that `if a site offers an HTML5 experience, this change would make that the main experience’. They will continue to ship Flash Player with Chrome and if a site really needs Flash, a prompt would be appearing at the top of the page when the user first tends to visit that site, providing the options of allowing it to run for that site. But the top ten website utilizing Flash would not have it disabled, according to Google. Presently the ten biggest website as per Google are Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, V.K.com, Yahoo, Live.com, Yandex.rv, OK.ru, Twitch.tv and Mail.ru, though these may be changing towards the end of the year.

Proposal Document Outlining Change

Whitelisted websites would be having their Flash use secured for a year though it will also be reviewed during a period of 12 months. Proposal document outlining how the change would take place had been online by LaForge:

• Flash would still be bundled with Chrome though would not be advertised by default 
• If HTML5 is provided by a website, Chrome would automatically default to it 
• If Flash Player is essential, a user would be prompted 
• When a user accepts the page will get refreshed and Flash will appear on any following visits to the domain

Latest Backlash against Adobe Flash

The move is said to be the latest in on-going backlash against Adobe Flash and the platform was used to create animations, web pages as well as games from the early 2000s. However, it has been slowly replaced with more open web standards. Adobe had said, in November, that it was time for developers to move away from using Flash. The company had mentioned in a blog post that they encourage content creators to build with new web standards and would continue to focus on offering the best tools and services for designers as well as developers in creating amazing content for the web.

In July 2015, Mozilla had blocked all the versions of Flash in its Firefox browser. During the time Mozilla had said that Flash would stay blocked till Adobe releases a version which was not being actively exploited by publicly known susceptibilities and the block had been lifted few days thereafter. The death of Flash had been slow and painful with Google now planning to deal with another blow.

Google has plans to begin blocking most of Flash content with Chrome and the changeover is targeted to the end of the year. Under its existing vision, almost every website would be having Flash content blocked by default and visitors will still be capable of enabling Flash content on a site-by-site basis though would have to specially opt to do so. Flash has been a threat on battery life and is constantly found to have severe security errors and hence its ultimate disappearance would be accepted.

This Tiny Robobee Could one day Save Your Life

Tiny Robo-Bee Utilised for Exploration Mission

Tiny robot has been created by a team at Harvard University that can land on ceilings, settle on dangerous objects as well as assist out in search and rescue mission. The robot has been inspired by the biology of the bee and the hive behaviour of the insect. The team had mentioned on the website of the project that they `aim to push advances in miniature robotics and the design of compact high-energy power sources, spur innovations in ultra-low-power computing and electronic smart sensors and refine coordination algorithms to manage independent machines’.

The Robobee tends to have various uses, pollinating a field of crops, for instance or in search and rescue missions. Due to its tiny size and the potential to land as well as settle on ceilings and walls, it can be possibly be utilised for exploration missions at the time of natural calamities and as `hazardous environment exploration`, military surveillance or climate mapping. Likewise robots had been developed in a different place, particularly the robot cockroach developed at the University of California at Berkeley though the Harvard team had stated that by modelling a robot’s `physical and behavioural strength’on insects, they could carry out difficult tasks much faster, reliably and efficiently.

Robot Settle on Walls/Ceilings Utilising `Electrostatic Adhesion’

Bee colonies also seem to be intelligent which the team expect to duplicate, with a complex nervous system which can skilfully sense and familiarize to changing environments. Moritz Graule, who worked on the system stated that the robot tends to settle on ceilings and walls utilising `electrostatic adhesion’ a similar type of energy which tends to make a `static sock stick to a pants leg or a balloon to the wall.

With regards to the balloon, though the charges disperse over a period of time, where the balloon ultimately tends to fall down and that in the system, a small amount of energy is continuously provided to maintain the attraction’. The structure seems to be extremely light, the same weight as a real bee, around 100mg. Now the team would be working on enhancing their model by altering the mechanical design in order that the robot can settle on any surface besides just ceilings.

Micro Aerial Vehicles

Graule has mentioned that `there are more challenges in making a robust, robotic landing system though this experimental result demonstrates a very versatile solution to the problem of keeping flying micro-robots, operating longer without quickly draining power. The small thin robot, flapping its two tiny wings, sways its way to the underside of a leaf, crashes into the surface and latches on, settling motionless above the ground. Seconds later, it tends to flap its wings once more and wiggles off on its way.

Such robots, known as micro aerial vehicles can be invaluable in exploration of disaster zones or in the forming of unprepared communication networks. However there is a snag wherein flying needs energy and so the time these robots can spend in the air seems to be limited by the size of the battery pack they tend to carry. The scientist state that the little flying vehicle known as RoboBee has been designed to settle on a mass of various surfaces, thereby opening new prospects for the utilisation of drones in offering a bird’s eye vision of the world.

Moto G4 Plus First Impressions

Moto G Series Smartphone Enters its Fourth Generation

Lenovo which tends to own the smartphone business of Motorola seems to be getting stronger and the formerly Google owned company is sticking to its main philosophy. The focus is on the Moto G series of smartphone that has entered its fourth generation and which is named `Moto G’ with references to the generation of the device like Moto G 2015 or Moto G 3rd Generation. The complete line-up, in fact is being broken down further and Lenovo is launching the Moto G4 Plus in India, soon while the Moto G4 would be coming in June.

The Moto G4 Plus is Motorola accepting some of the market developments though sticking to its own philosophy. It has a 5.5 inch 1080p display, a clear update from the 720p displays seen against the original Moto G. In Moto G4 Plus the colours do not pop and it is also a bitreflective. The most important update is the camera which has a 16Mp shooter on the back with laser auto-focus as well as PDAF and it has been claimed by Motorola that it is better than the iPhone 6 Plus. However, there is a considerable amount of processing time and the camera app launches slower than the older Moto G phones.

Moto G4 Plus – Two Options

This could be due to its added features such as HDR, Pro Mode and best shot that tends to make the app heavier. The lighting during the launch event was not suitable to take good shots but served to satisfy several users, at least in the sunlight. Motorola has utilised an Omnivision sensor for this smartphone. Besides this, another addition is the fingerprint sensor that does not make it to the Moto G4.

 Located on the front, the fingerprint sensor on the Moto G4 Plus is said to be square shaped and tends to feel new if not odd. It seems to have ridged design that feel unnatural and though it is not a button, it could be used to light up the screen or close an app. In India, the Moto G4 Plus comes in two options, for the version with 16GB internal storage and 2GB RAM forRs 13,499 and for 32GB internal storage and 3GB RAM for Rs 14,999.

Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow Operating System

The processor is the same for both options which has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 oct-core chip. Each model comes with a MicroSD card slot which can have an extra 128GB of additional storage in order that the added internal memory may not be a big concern. Beneath the screen lies the fingerprint sensor having an unusual square shape design. The operating system running on the device is Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow which in line with the promise of Motorola, seems to be most prevailing version available.

It also has a battery of 3,000mAh. A lot of specification is shared between the Moto G4 and the G4 Plus comprising of the 5.5 inch screen with 1080p resolution, a Snapdragon 617 processor together with a fast charging 3,000mAh battery while the Android version tends to remain the same together with the microSD card slot.

Google built a tiny radar system into a smartwatch for gesture controls

Google’s Tiny Radar Chips in Electronics – Controlling Digital World

In a conference room at an important tech corporation like Google, Ivan Poupyrey who works at Google’s ATAP research lab had posed a question on `How are you going to interact with an invisible computer? Poupyrey a technical project lead for Project Soli which has been designed to prove that we can embed tiny radar chips in electronics so that minute hand gestures could be utilised in controlling the digital world around us.

Advanced Technologies and Projects – ATAP is a division within Google which is at crossroads. Formerly led by Regina Dugan of DARPA recognition together with her influence had led the division to stream technologies which would range from modular phones – Project Ara, to real time 3D mapping- Tango, to cinematic, live-action virtual reality movies – Spotlight Stories.

Earlier in the year she had left for Facebook and hence it was a question whether the project left behind by her would continue. Tango had progressed into Google while Ara seemed stuck in the muck. However, the Jacquard touch-sensitive fabric project together with the Soli is yet at ATAP whereas Soli has at least a new and a remarkable goal, creating the industry as well as the project language for radar-enabled consumer electronics.

Radar to Work in SmartWatch

For this reason, Poupyrey had engaged his team to prepare for more than just experiment so as to ascertain that radar can work in a smart watch. Poupyrey had commented that if one can put something in a smartwatch, you could put it anywhere. So ATAP had redesigned the Soli chip in order to make it smaller and pull less power. It then redesigned it to do the same thing again and again.

Eventually according to Hakin Raja, lead hardware and production engineer of Soli, the team developed the smallest of the chips which is a tiny sliver one could balance on the pinky toenail, with four antennas which tend to offer full duplex communication in sending and receiving radar beeps. The first duplication of Soli shipped in a development kit, drew 1.2w of power while this one tends to draw 0.054 w x 22x reduction. But developing a chip which is small tends to have some setback. Radar had been designed to identify massive flying metal objects from miles away, not tiny millimetre movement from finger just inches away.

Logical to Convert Spatial Signal Radar into Temporal One

Till recently, no one was concerned about the power draw at this scale and no one had to deal with believing what the signal would look like when it had shrunk down. Lead research engineer for Soli is Jaime Lien and it is her task to tune the machine learning procedures which get hardwired in the chip. Her main understanding was that it was logical to convert the spatial signal radar provided into a temporal one, tends to make sense on a computer.

But the same was nothing when compared to noise pollution and one would run into these small scales. She portrayed a vast set of screenshots of all types of impenetrable noise which her processes need to locate signal and at these scales it seems impossible to do any kind of beam forming. Moreover the electrons running through the chip need to be accounted for.

Hybrid Hydrostatic Transmission Enables Robots with Human-Like Grace and Precision

Hydrostatic Transmission Combines Hydraulic/Pneumatic Lines

A new kind of hydrostatic transmission which combines hydraulic as well as pneumatic lines can precisely as well as safely drive robot arms, providing them with the delicacy essential to pick an egg without breaking it. This communication does not have any friction or play providing great precision for jobs like threading a sewing needle. The hybrid transmission had made it possible to split the number of bulky hydraulic lines which a complete hydraulic system requires. Robotic limbs could thus be lighter and smaller according to John P. Whitney, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at North-eastern University, who is leading the development of the transmission and also an associate research scientist at Disney Research.

Whitney together with his colleagues from Disney Research, the Catholic University of America and Carnegie Mellon University would be reporting on the new transmission as well as the upper body humanoid robot, built with it at the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2016, on May 17 in Stockholm, Sweden. Co-author Jessica Hodgins, vice-president at Disney Research and a professor of robotics at the Carnegie Mellon had stated that `the communication provides the robot with incredibly smooth and fast motion as well as enabling life-like interaction with people and the handling of delicate objects.

Robot Remotely Controlled by Human Operator

She adds that presently, the robot is remotely controlled by human operator though the same level of mechanical performance, once the motions are automated would be expected. Whitney states that the robot joint would normally have two hydraulic cylinders, which are balanced against each other. However in the new design, the researchers have paired each water-filled cylinder instead with air-filled cylinder.

The pneumatic cylinder tends to assist as a constant force air-spring offering the required preload force enabling the joint to move in both directions with half the number of bulky hydraulic lines. The new transmission was used by the researchers to build a simple humanoid robot having two arms with stereo cameras placed in the head, streaming their video signal to an operator wearing a head mounted display. The arms have been coupled to a similar control figure, which is hidden behind a wall to permit the robot to be used for human-robot communication study.

Combination of Small Mass/High Speed/Accurate Motion

Whitney has mentioned that this technology has enabled them to build robot arms which are light, fast and dexterous and that they have an incredible life-like nature, providing a combination of small mass, high speed together with accurate motion not envisage earlier.

Together with Whitney and Hodgins, the research team had also included John Mars of Disney Research, who had developed the camera and head-mounted display system as well as Tianyao Chen, research assistant at The Catholic University of America, who had designed the robot arms at intern at Disney Research.

Robots utilising this technology are suitable for naturally accommodating and life-like interaction with people. On tele-operation, the low friction and the lack of play enables the transmission to devotedly transmit contact forces to the operator, offering a high reliability remote sense of touch.