Technology turns touchscreen displays into biometric scanners
A team of researchers from Yahoo Labs has developed a much affordable alternative to fingerprint sensors for phones. It’s a biometric system called “Bodyprint,” and it only needs devices’ capacitive touchscreen displays to authenticate body parts. Since displays have lower input resolution compared to specialized sensors, the system requires you to use larger parts of your body. It can recognize your ear, fist, phalanges, set of five fingers and your palm — simply press any of them on the screen for access. In addition to serving as your phone’s gatekeeper, it has a number of other potential applications, as well.
For instance, you can program the system to answer calls only when it detects your ear pressed against the phone. You can also use it to lock documents and keep them away from prying eyes. Bodyprint, which was recently demoed at the 2015 Computer-Human Interaction Conference (CHI) in Seoul, accurately identified body parts and their owners 99.98 percent of the time during a small test comprised of 12 subjects. But we’re guessing its creators, Christian Holz and his team, will need to test it on a wider scale before anybody can use it on a commercial device.
Make sure to watch the system in action below:
[Thanks, Christian]
Filed under: Cellphones, Science
Source: Christian Holz
A closer look at the ARM Cortex-A72
The Cortex-A72 was announced back in February, promising another boost to performance and substantial energy savings to boot. At ARM’s TechDay 2015 in London this week, we were fortunate enough to be given some deeper insight into the inner workings of ARM’s latest application processor.
Although the base-line architecture is very similar to the Cortex-A57, the A72 is much more than typical revision. A team of some 65 to 70 engineers have gone back through the design, optimizing almost every logical block for power efficiency, helping the processor to sustain maximum frequencies during heavy workloads, and focused on squeezing the design into a smaller area, to keep costs down.
Architecturally, the Cortex-A72 features a new branch-predictor, increases the effective decode and dispatch bandwidths, and has had changes made to the execution units, to name just a few alterations. ARMs new branch predictor reduces misprediction with a new algorithm and can suppress superfluous branch predictor accesses, which helps to reduce wasted energy. The rebuild offers up to 20 percent improvements to prediction over the A57.
The design still features a 3-wide decode, but the dispatch unit has gone from 3- to 5-wide, to more effectively break operations down into further micro-ops which help keep the 8-wide issue machine well fed. The execution stage sees the introduction of next-gen floating-point SIMD units with a variety of latency reductions, multiple zero-cycle forwarding datapaths to reduce wasted cycles, and substantial bandwidth increases in the two integer units. The load and store units have a more sophisticated combined L1/L2 data prefetcher, offering a bandwidth improvement of 30 percent. All of which, among other changes, is designed to help reduce power consumption and to improve performance in certain areas over the A57.
In terms of what this means for silicon designers and end users, the Cortex-A72 is still a high-end processor, but it will utilize energy more efficiently. In other words, the CPU will be able to do more within the limited power budgets available on mobile and should result in cooler devices as well. Even at 28nm, the Cortex-A72 boasts up to a 50 percent energy reduction when compared with the Cortex-A15 and a 20 percent saving compared with the A57, at the same clock speeds. Milliwatts per core have dropped from the A57, to around 700mW at 2.5GHz. The design takes up 10 percent less area than the A57, which will also help save on costs.
Jargon Buster:
- Branch predictor – designed to speed up processing by predicting which branch of instructions to execute and to avoid stalls.
- Decode – determines which instruction is being performed and breaks this up into dedicated operands for other parts of the CPU. The width refers to the number of concurrent executions.
- Dispatch – Dispatches operands to the correct logic (execution) unit, such as the integer or floating point unit.
ARM is also increasingly focused on its POP IP, you’ll see quite a few references to TMSC’s 16nm FinFET Plus manufacturing node in the examples. As well as substantial energy savings, ARM reckons that the A72 will be able to sustain 2.5GHz clocks on the new 16nm process, whilst keeping within the limited smartphone power budget. It’s the additional power efficiency and resulting lower heat profile that will really help the A72 achieve higher clock speeds than a 16nm A57.
We’re also a little wiser about the change to the naming convention too. ARM is looking to differentiate its high performing designs from their lower energy counterparts. The A53 and A57 are quite different in their design and intended applications, so switching the more powerful cores over to the A7x naming scheme should help avoid any confusion in the future.
The key point to take-away is that ARM has focused heavily on improving power and area efficiency with the A72, which is always welcome in mobile products. This also has the added benefit of allowing the chip to run cooler and to be clocked slightly higher than its predecessor. MediaTek and Qualcomm have already announced Cortex-A72 based mobile SoCs, which are expected land on the market towards the end of 2015, we should also see Cortex-A72 powered high-end mobile products in early 2016.
Apple Introduces New 5W Charger With Folding Pins in United Kingdom
Apple has introduced a new 5W USB power charger with folding pins for use in a handful of countries in Europe and Asia. The new adapter is available now for £25 on the Apple Online Store in the United Kingdom, and is designed for use in Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia as well. The charger is also included in the box with the Apple Watch in those countries.
British former professional rugby player Will Carling shared photos of the new folding charger on Twitter earlier this month after claiming to have received the adapter from Apple design chief Jony Ive, who grew up in England and is known to be a rugby fan, but it was unknown at the time if Apple would ever release the product.
https://vine.co/v/ea3rZ0bDjI1/embed/simple
The travel adapter, which can also be used to charge an iPhone, iPod touch and several other iPod models, is currently available to ship within 1-2 business days on the Apple Online Store in the United Kingdom. The original non-folding 5W charger remains available in the United Kingdom for £15 as of now.
Android Mascot Discovered Urinating on Apple Logo in Google Maps [iOS Blog]
Amid the fanfare of the Apple Watch launch, a few eagle eyed employees at Team Android today discovered an unusual easter egg within Google Maps. Visiting these specific coordinates on the outskirts of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Team Android found an image of the Google Android mascot urinating over the Apple logo to be imbedded within the map itself.
It’s yet to be made clear who exactly created the image and placed it within Google Maps and, as Engadget points out, whether Google is even aware it exists at all at this time. While the two companies have been known to be rivals in the past, especially concerning their own individual Apple Maps and Google Maps services, today’s development is an interesting new addition to their long history.
Apple Watch Proves ‘More Waterproof Than Anticipated’ in New Test
Thanks to the time difference, a few Australian Apple Watch customers began receiving their orders as early as yesterday afternoon here in the United States. Because of this, smartphone website FoneFox decided to put the Apple Watch through a variety of waterproof tests to measure just how much moisture the Watch could take before failing to function.
The first test is a basic splash test followed by a five minute simulated shower complete with shampoo and soap, at the end of which the Apple Watch comes out noticeably unscathed and completely responsive to FoneFox‘s inputs on both its touch interface and digital crown. It should be pointed out that all of FoneFox‘s tests were completed with a 38mm Apple Watch Sport. Although it’s hard to tell how different models of the Watch will size up to similar testing, it’s clear after today’s tests that most models in the Sport range should see similar results as FoneFox‘s.
After finding “absolutely no issues whatsoever” with the Watch after the shower test, FoneFox decided to place the Apple Watch Sport completely submerged in a bucket for another five minutes. After the Watch produced similarly impressive results, the website took the device for a swim in a pool. Despite obvious responsive issues when placed underwater, after a 15 minute swim the wearable remained as functional for FoneFox as it was when taken out of the box.
Apple’s estimation of the waterproof rating for Apple Watch has most likely been underplayed, as most technology is, due to certain legal and business reasons. The company gave the wrist-worn device a water resistance rating of IPX7, suggesting it to be splash and water resistant but not completely waterproof. Tim Cook even claimed he wore his own personal Apple Watch in the shower back in February, pointing at a better-than-expected waterproof rating for the device ahead of its launch.
Comcast officially gives up on Time Warner Cable merger
The rather unpopular, $45 billion merger attempt between Comcast and Time Warner Cable has been officially called off. In a very brief statement, Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts said that he would have liked to pair the two companies together, but governmental pressure has killed the deal. The biggest objection to the deal was that the pair would be so close to a monopoly that it would have no reason to compete, raising the ire of both the FCC and Justice Department. Unlike the failed AT&T – T-Mobile deal a few years back, it doesn’t appear as if either party has to pay a severance fee to the other, which should make walking away a little easier.
[Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
Source: Comcast
Berkeley’s artificial photosynthesis turns carbon dioxide into future fuel
Whenever a scientific discovery claims to have solved one of the world’s most critical issues, it’s hard not to get a little bit excited. Today, our hopes are riding high on the news that Berkeley University might have just worked out how to solve the problem of climate change. Working in collaboration with the Department of Energy and the University of California, researchers have developed a system that captures carbon dioxide and turns it into chemicals that can be used to make plastics, drugs and, even better, biofuel.
Put simply, the system is an artificial form of photosynthesis using a series of semiconducting nanowires and genetically engineered E.coli bacteria. Whereas a plant would absorb carbon dioxide and produce sugar and oxygen, this system creates acetate, a building block for various organic compounds.
In terms of its practical applications, the team can already extract promising if not yet useful quantities of each substance. For instance, the process kicks out a 26 percent yield of butanol (biofuel), 25 percent amorphadiene (base component for anti-malaria drugs) and 52 percent amounts of PHB (biodegradeable plastic).
With more time, money, research and some luck, the team hopes to get those figures up to a level where the technology is commercially viable. If the system can be then created on a large enough scale, the carbon in the atmosphere could be captured and converted into a sustainable green gas for your vehicle that wouldn’t require pulling more fossil fuels out of the ground.
Filed under: Science
Source: NanoLetters, Berkeley
Drones will deliver mail in Switzerland this summer
You know which organization doesn’t want to fall behind Amazon, DHL and Alibaba when it comes to drone deliveries? The Swiss Post. Yes, Switzerland’s postal service wants to deliver small packages using small drones. In fact, it will start using quadcopters developed by a company called Matternet to drop off its customers’ parcels during a pilot program this summer. Matternet ONE can carry anything up to 2.2 pounds for over 12 miles on a single charge, and the Post will put it to the test delivering small things like medicine or documents.
The pilot program, according to the company, serves as “a Proof of Concept to clarify the legal framework, consider local conditions and explore the technical and business capabilities of the drones.” Matternet isn’t a new player by any means — it’s already used its drones to deliver meds in Haiti — so the Swiss Post chose a great partner for the project. “Our product is vertically integrated into a complete transportation solution. Swiss Post comes to us, we supply them all the technology (drones, landing pads, batteries, charging stations, cloud software) and they just focus on operations,” one of its founders, Andreas Raptopoulos, told TechCrunch. If this first run is successful, the postal service hopes to go through two more rounds of pilot testing to determine how viable delivery drones truly are.
Filed under: Misc
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Matternet
An Android is urinating on the Apple logo in Google Maps
Google and Apple have always had their differences, but a new Easter egg inside Google Maps has just taken their rivalry to a whole new level. As spotted by Team Android, if you head to these coordinates with the regular Map view enabled, you’ll see Google’s iconic Android mascot taking a leak on the Apple logo. At the moment, it’s unclear who created this little piece of mischief and whether Google is even aware of its existence. It could have been made by a renegade Google employee, or a member of the public using a crowdsourced mapping tool like Map Maker. Regardless, it’s a crazy (and pretty hilarious) addition that’s sure to rile some of the employees in Cupertino. Shots fired!
Filed under: Internet, Apple, Google
Via: Team Android
Source: Google Maps
ZTE at IFA GPC: SPro2, global growth and 2015 targets
ZTE has announced that the SPro2 smart projector will be going on sale in the USA tomorrow. ZTE’s Senior Director of Technology and Partnerships, Waiman Lam, announced at the company’s IFA GPC power briefing that the SPro2 will be launched in the USA tomorrow and, as we revealed earlier this week, it’s landing on AT&T with a price tag of $400.
The SPro2 is the world’s smartest mobile projector as it runs Android 4.4 KitKat and features a 5 inch display, Snapdragon 800 processor and a 6300 mAh battery. The Pico-HD projector can output 720p HD images on a screen up to 120 inches which autofocuses with a brightness of 200 lumens. For more on the SPro 2, check out our ZTE SPro 2 review (or look at the video below).
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Alongside the SPro 2 announcement, ZTE revealed the Star 2 is coming to Europe and gave us an overview of their market performance around the world.
The Star 2 is the first smartphone to have system-wide voice control that doesn’t require an internet connection and is backed by over 1000 patents, of which 158 are related to voice control. ZTE is working with the world’s leading voice control companies and partners to deliver an impressive voice control system that is untethered and doesn’t require an internet connection to operate.
2014 saw the company ship a total of 100 million devices with 48 million of these being smartphones and for 2015, the company has predicted a total of 100 million shipments but an increase in smartphone shipments by 25 percent to 60 million.
In the US, ZTE remains the only Chinese OEM with significant share in the market and at the end of 2014, the company had 7 percent market share and 21 percent of the prepaid market. At the end of 2014, the company was No 4 in the overall device market and expects to grow this significantly in 2015 with more devices shipping with the ZTE logo.
ZTE’s growth is not just limited to the US, with the company revealing performance gains all over the world. In Asia Pacific, the company’s smartphone shipments are up 100% year-on-year (YoY) and LTE smartphone shipments are up 500% YoY. Channel income is up 200% YoY and in Russia alone, there are 10,000 retailers offering ZTE devices to customers.
All across the world, the company is transitioning from being an ODM (Original Device Manufacturer) to OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) with 75% of devices in Europe now having the ZTE logo stamped on the back. In the Middle East & Africa, ZTE smartphone shipments are up 400% YoY while in China, the company has continued growth for the past four years.
More on ZTE:
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Overall, the short 15 minute presentation revealed that ZTE are a Chinese OEM dedicated to delivering growth around the world and the transition to an OEM should help ensure this happens sooner rather than later.
AIVAnet 