Celebrities get digital puppets made from paparazzi photos
Typically, recreating a celebrity as an animated 3D character requires painstaking modeling based on motion capture and laser scans. In the future, though, all you’ll need is a few limo-chasing photographers. University of Washington researchers have developed a system that creates digital face “puppets” by running a collection of photos — in this case, paparazzi shots — through special face tracking software. The digital dopplegangers (such as Kevin Spacey and Arnold Schwarzenegger) bear an uncanny resemblance to their real-world counterparts, but are sophisticated enough to mimic the expressions of virtually anyone else. Want the Japanese Prime Minister saying Daniel Craig’s lines? You can make it happen.
The development has obvious advantages for games and movies, which could incorporate actors and political figures without requiring either in-person scans or expert artists. However, it could also be helpful for producing likenesses the deceased, or chat avatars that reflect who you’d like to be. This could get creepy (it’s easy to imagine obsessive fans holding pretend conversations with their idols), but the advantages will hopefully outweigh the drawbacks.
[Image credit: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic]
Filed under: Science, Software
Via: New Scientist
Source: ArXiv.org, University of Washington
LG and Samsung smartwatches leave data unencrypted
University of New Haven researchers have been able to uncover what they call sensitive information from the LG G Watch and the Samsung Gear 2 Neo. On the LG G Watch, researches were able to get contacts, pedometer and calendar data. The G Watch also gave up the owners email address, but let’s be honest, everyone has your email address. The Samsung Gear 2 Neo yielded health, email, messages and contacts data.
They found all of this information, and none of it was encrypted. Your data is being left out in the open by Samsung and LG.
““It was not very difficult to get the data, but expertise and research was required,” said Ibrahim Baggili, director of the university’s Cyber Forensics Research and Education Group (UNHCFREG). He and co-authors Jeff Oduru, Kyle Anthony, Frank Breitinger and Glenn McGee plan to present their findings in a paper for a digital forensics conference in August.“
Both companies had a statement to share with CNET stating that they both take “security very seriously” (direct quote found in both statements). I mean, who doesn’t take “security very seriously”? Gosh, I have yet to find a company that just takes security seriously, they all take it very seriously.
Both companies also say that they look into all reported security flaws promptly in order to find a solution immediately.
Security is becoming a bigger and bigger issue with each new electronic in our lives. Electronics have snaked their way to our pockets, on our wrists, even on our faces. Google even wants to put them directly into your cloths.
The more electronics around, the more places hackers can grab your information from. Security is becoming a bigger issue than it was previously, and it was a huge issue previously.
The post LG and Samsung smartwatches leave data unencrypted appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Chinese shopping giant Alibaba is launching an HBO-like Netflix rival
Alibaba is already a cornerstone of China’s online shopping space, and it’s now setting its sights on one of the internet’s other big draws: streaming video. Jack Ma and crew are planning to launch Tmall Box Office, a Netflix-like service that will combine HBO-like original video productions (hence the name) with content bought from both China and abroad. It’ll represent a sharp break from the norm in China, where YouTube-style (and typically free) video portals like iQiyi and Youku Tudou tend to dominate. While about 10 percent of TBO’s material will cost nothing, the rest will require that you either subscribe or pay per show. There’s no telling how successful Alibaba’s offering will be when it launches in a couple of months. However, we have a hunch that Netflix is feeling a lot of pressure to speed up its Chinese talks — it’ll want to get a solid foothold in the giant nation before it’s too late.
[Image credit: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Source: Reuters
Voice Recorder HD review
Modern smartphones are created to be able to perform so many different tasks, from being able to check the internet (the largest repository of knowledge on the planet) to playing console quality games. With so much built into them, it can be easy to forget their original purpose, be able to understand our voices and words and then transmit them elsewhere. Well, today we are taking a moment to go back to our phone roots and appreciate the great ability that our smartphones and phones can do, understand sound. Even better, let’s appreciate that our phones can not only understand it but save it for later listening.
I mean, you never know when you are going to need to record a lecture in class because you are too busy staring at that cute girl that sits right in front of you. Morgan, I think we will call her Morgan. Anyway, I digress. Today we have a great new app that specializes in voice recording and does a great job. (Key drum roll!) Introducing Voice Recorder HD
Design
The interface of Voice Recorder HD can be best described as modern and sleek. Designed with blacks, grays and some splashes of red, it is quite the looker and doesn’t try to distract you from its actual purpose. It seems that most apps nowadays try to impress users by throwing every color under the rainbow at them, when only one or two are really needed. Anyway, Voice Recorder HD not only maintains a great color scheme but they also do not try to add so many buttons and distracting elements to their interface and instead opted to only include the needed buttons.
When you first open up the app, all you are going to see is the name of the app and a setting logo on the topmost bar, a Recorder and Voice Memo tab, a graphical image of a microphone that dominates the most of the screen, and pause and stop buttons on the bottom.
Click on the Voice Memos tab and you will be taken to the only other page of Voice Recorder HD. This section is going to appear empty until you actually record some audio, but once you do all of them will be listed on this page in order of recording. On the bottom, you will find buttons that will allow you to rewind the recording or forward it, whichever one suits your fancy at the moment.
Not satisfied with the current settings? Then you can click on the setting page on the top and from there you can change some of the options on Voice Recorder HD. From the General tab, you can change how you want your voice memos to be uploaded (which we will address later on) and the amount of time that can be rewinded or forwinded. Other options that can be changed are the recording quality and Dropbox syncing.
Features
Now that we have addressed the way Voice Recorder HD looks, let’s delve a bit deeper into all the cool features that the app provides. The number one feature (and most obvious) is the ability to record sound. Now, while that by itself is not a world changing feature, it’s the way that Voice Recorder does so and then organizes it that makes it such a great app.
“Voice Recorder HD is a great tool for anyone that finds themselves in need of recording audio on a daily basis. From recording that killer conversion with a famous celebrity to your baby’s first words, Voice Recorder has you covered. “
Voice Recorder HD also has a nifty feature that you many other similar apps do not have, the ability to automatically pause itself when you receive a phone call and resume recording after yoru call has ended. Great little feature that at first glace might not seem like a very big deal but you are going to be glad you have it when you are recording an epic monugle for yoru next acting session and your Mom calls right in the middle of it. Now you can kindly tell her you are busy and quickly resume to what you were doing.
One quick thing that wish to mention is the ability of Voice Recorder HD to allow you to sync your Dropbox account to the app. This way, if you don’t have a large amount of storage on your phone, you can instead record your audio and then send it to the cloud. This allows you to record audio in High quality without having to worry about running out of space (At least space on your phone).
Final Thoughts
We really enjoyed using Voice Recorder HD and would recommend it in a heartbeat for anyone that is in need of such an app or wishes to replace their current recording application. One feature that we would really like to see in a future update though would be the ability to be able to sync our recordings with our Google Drive accounts. While I am sure that there are many of you that use Dropbox, there are also a great many that use Google Drive exclusively (One of those being me.) Make sure to download Voice Recorder HD using the link below and let us know what you think in the comment sections below!
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The post Voice Recorder HD review appeared first on AndroidGuys.
‘Super Smash Bros.’ gets ‘Street Fighter’ and ‘Fire Emblem’ brawlers
The roster for Super Smash Bros. just grew a little larger. Nintendo announced today that Street Fighter icon Ryu and Fire Emblem‘s Roy are joining the fight on Wii U and 3DS. They’re available for $3.99 on either system, or across both for $4.99 each — Ryu’s pack also comes with a Suzaku Castle stage, if you’re struggling to decide which to buy first.
Footage of both characters leaked on YouTube recently, so neither is a huge surprise. However, they’re arriving today alongside the previously announced Lucas from Mother 3 and a host of new Mii fighter outfits. These include Mega Man and Zero, Isabelle from Animal Crossing, an inkling boy, girl and “squid hat” outfit from Splatoon, Heihachi from Tekken, and Jacky and Akira from Virtua Fighter. All eight costumes are available for $6, or $9.20 across both the Wii U and 3DS versions. Alternatively, you can fork out $0.75 for individual costumes on your preferred system, or $1.15 if you want them on both.
That’s a ton of new playable characters — and a huge nod to classic fighting games — but Nintendo isn’t stopping there. In its pre-E3 presentation, Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai also showed off a new Dreamland stage from Kirby, as well as two retro-styled levels taken from the original Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64. The Kirby-inspired stage is coming out today and will set you back $1.99, or $2.99 across both systems. If you fancy all of the new content, Nintendo is offering a complete DLC pack (including Ryu, Roy and Lucas) for $21.96 on either 3DS or Wii U, or $29.16 across both game versions. If that sounds a little expensive, fear not. Nintendo is also rolling out a free Miiverse stage today which shows a selection of community-created Miiverse posts in the background.
In terms of gameplay, Nintendo is planning an August update that will introduce two new tourney modes: regular tourneys and community tourneys. In the future, the company will also patch in YouTube support so that you can easily upload and share your replays. Finally, Nintendo is promising that every playable Smash Bros. character will eventually have a corresponding Amiibo figure. The next wave will arrive in September with the Mii Brawler, Mii Swordfighter and Mii Gunner, alongside R.O.B, Duck Hunt and Mr. Game & Watch. Falco will debut this holiday season, followed by Mewtwo, Lucas, Roy and Ryu some time in the future. If you’re a Nintendo fan, E3 just got off to a pretty good start…
Source: YouTube
Facebook to start measuring time spent on stories
Facebook has announced a new metric they will start measuring in order to “improve” the news feed presented to users. In the past they have used things like commenting or liking or sharing a post to help determine what stories may be most relevant to users. Recognizing that some stories may be of interest but do not create any of those actions, Facebook will start measuring the time spent viewing a story to improve the News Feed.
Part of the impetus for this change is a survey Facebook conducted to ask users to rate their experience and share ideas on how it can be improved. As a result of that input, Facebook determined that some users find information to be very interesting and meaningful, but they are not interested in liking or commenting on it.
Facebook indicates the change to start measuring how long users stay on a story or reading comments has already started to rollout and will continue over the next several weeks. Although Facebook does not explain details as to how their measurements will make a distinction, they do indicate that Pages should not expect any significant changes in distribution as a result of this update.
source: Facebook
Come comment on this article: Facebook to start measuring time spent on stories
Inhabitat’s Week in Green: fish domes and 3D-printed bridges
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.
We’ve seen 3D-printed clothing, cars and houses — and now Amsterdam is building an entire bridge from 3D-printed steel! Designed by MX3D and Joris Laarman, the revolutionary pedestrian bridge will be constructed by multi-axis industrial robots. In other architecture news, Dubai has given the green light for a fleet of floating luxury islands to be built in The World archipelago. One World Trade Center opened late last year — and now it looks like New York City’s tallest building is about to get a new neighbor. Last week, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) unveiled a set of architectural renderings for Two World Trade Center, a 1,340-foot tower that will consist of a series of stacked boxes.
Students don’t require much when it comes to housing — a place to rest their heads and a little room to stash books and clothes. With that in mind, CannonDesign’s Yazdani Studio designed a tiny prefab sleeping pod for students. The entire unit measures just 55 square feet. If you need a little more space to stretch your legs, the French company Domespace has designed a gorgeous dome house that looks like a spaceship from the outside. The entire home can rotate with the press of a button, allowing its inhabitants to change their view and take full advantage of sun and shade. And a dazzling mirrored crystal cavern popped up in Sydney Harbor.
On the green transportation front, Elon Musk just announced that the Tesla Model X will arrive as early as this September. Inhabitat also took a test drive of the 2016 Volvo XC90 T8 plug-in hybrid, and came away impressed with the SUV’s 59 MPGe rating. In other green tech news, engineers at Stanford University have developed a new type of computer that operates using moving water droplets instead of electrons. Yes, you read that correctly. The revolutionary computer looks nothing like your typical laptop. And Dyson has developed a new LED light that will last for 37 years (if used for 12 hours per day).
The free market is a major culprit when it comes to assigning blame for climate change, but private companies are beginning to step up to do their part to combat global warming. Retail giant IKEA is pledging €1 billion to fight climate change. The company will use that money to invest in renewable energy for developing nations. Google is also getting in on the action — according to reports, the tech giant is considering investing tens of millions of dollars to build Africa’s largest wind power project. In other green energy news, a team of engineers showed how the United States can be powered by 100 percent renewable energy by the year 2050. GE has designed a new type of wind turbine with a dome-shaped addition to its front. The add-on, which looks sort of like a shield, helps it to generate 3 percent more energy than a traditional windmill. The UK just installed its first new electricity pylons in 90 years. The new pylons transport the same amount of power as the old ones, while giving the country’s energy grid a visual upgrade.
A grad student at Wake Forest University designed a drone that is being used to track illegal logging in the Peruvian Amazon. In other nature news, a mysterious sinkhole has naturally developed into a gorgeous, leafy underground ecosystem in China, producing some of the most amazing photos we’ve seen. And if you’ve ever wanted to get a better look at koi fish, here’s just the thing: The company Velda has designed a floating fish dome that enables fish to poke their heads above the surface of the water.
Filed under: Misc, Household, Transportation, Science, Internet
Europe’s Philae comet lander finally wakes up
After seven months of not-so-voluntary deep sleep, the comet lander Philae has finally woken up in earnest. The European Space Agency got in contact with its explorer for 85 precious seconds late on June 13th, receiving 300-plus data packets that shed light on what happened following the machine’s bumpy touchdown. As it turns out, Philae came back to life at least temporarily during its forced hibernation — it just couldn’t get back in touch with its Rosetta host ship and thus the ground crew.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is back on track. Philae still has yet to send over 8,000 data packets that will say what happened over the past few days, for a start. And while the lander appears healthy right now, it’ll likely take some time before the ESA knows for sure that it’s smooth sailing from here on out. Researchers will need sustained contact before they can make up for a ton of lost time and expand humanity’s understanding of how comets work.
[Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab]
Incredible news! My lander Philae is awake! http://t.co/VtzAQHx4zT pic.twitter.com/SZqnsnNpUZ
– ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) June 14, 2015
Hello Earth! Can you hear me? #WakeUpPhilae
– Philae Lander (@Philae2014) June 14, 2015
Filed under: Science
Via: ESA Rosetta Mission (Twitter)
Source: ESA
Android Authority this week – June 14, 2015
Hello Android fans, this week brought us rumors of new Samsung devices, a potential release date for the OnePlus 2, and Apple’s first foray into the world of Android apps.
The iPhone maker can’t pretend Android doesn’t exist any longer, so it’s bringing Music to Google’s platform this summer; patents gave us a glimpse at Samsung’s future folding tablets and smartphones, while more details of the rumored Galaxy S6 Plus surfaced; OnePlus cut the price of its first device by $50, as the OnePlus 2 is coming round the corner; Google had another busy update window; a new report confirmed the Huawei Nexus; BlackBerry is reportedly working on an Android device; and Oculus introduced the consumer version of the Rift.
Inside AA HQ
It’s been pretty quiet around AA HQ this week, though that doesn’t mean we’ve revved down our Android coverage engines. Quite the opposite, we had several cool reviews, comparisons, and feature pieces coming out these past seven days, and some of the best are highlighted below.
The world’s biggest gaming event, E3, is starting this Tuesday, and for the first time ever, Android Authority will be covering the show on the ground. Gaming on Android is big and getting bigger each year, and we want to be a part of that. Expect hands-on coverage of hot new titles and Android gaming devices, but also our impressions of the show as a whole. Game on!
This week we’re putting a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge up for grabs. As always, it’s super easy to get your raffle tickets, so you’ve got nothing to lose!
The stuff you shouldn’t miss
- Opinion: Nirave discusses the benefits and drawbacks of rugged devices
- Opinion: Should after-sale services and warranty programs be higher on your list of priorities?
- Review: Lanh reviews the excellent Xiaomi Mi Note Pro
- Versus: Josh pitches against each other the two hottest Android devices right now: S6 Edge and LG G4
- Review: It’s not just the flagships that matter: Bailey reviews the affordable Blue Life One
- Feature: Gary gives you a thoughtful perspective on the changes the emergence of true AI will bring
- Feature: Samsung is at a turning point. What paths can it take?
- How to: Turn your Galaxy S6 Edge in an Iron Man edition with Slickwraps
Top news of the week
And here are the top news in the Android world this week:
Folding Samsung
- New Samsung patent could be further proof of Project Valley, a rumored foldable device
- Samsung’s foldable tablet could look like this
S6 Plus and Note 5 rumors
- Samsung patents automatic ejectable stylus design for a Galaxy Note
- Galaxy Note 5 rumor: USB 3.1 Type-C and Quad HD display
- Rumors point to 5.7-inch Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, but trademark hints at S6 Note moniker
Apple on Android
- Apple Music is making its way to Android devices this fall
- Apple’s other Android app will help you switch to iOS, “recycle” your Android for free
OnePlus One & 2
- OnePlus One now from $249 permanently, partners with Dropbox for promo
- OnePlus won’t issue Android 5.1 update for OxygenOS until the OnePlus Two is released
- Enter these contests for your chance to win a OnePlus Two
- OnePlus 2 rumored to launch this July with a $322 price point
Google apps updates
- Google Maps gains improved photo viewer and rental car information in v9.10 update
- Google’s new family-friendly section now live in the Play Store
- Google offering a free movie rental for Chromecast owners
- Android Auto update supports Galaxy S4 and S5 on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon
- Gmail adds OAuth support for Microsoft and Yahoo email accounts
- Google Slides updated bringing Chromecast support and more
Huawei Nexus
DroidBerry
Oculus Rift is ready for business
Sound off
We always want to hear your feedback. Whether it’s criticism or praise, feel free to tell us what you think about Android Authority’s content, design, and community. Comment here or get in touch with us on our social channels:
Happy Sunday!
Ride shotgun in this 360-degree Le Mans video
Sure, 360-degree video is practically old news at this point, but we’ve never seen an example that works as well as this. To coincide with the Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race, Nismo (Nissan’s motorsports division) has uploaded a 360-degree lap of Circuit de la Sarthe, the course that plays venue to the contest. Although it’s probably more immersive on your PC or laptop, we’d recommend also watching it through the YouTube app on your phone or tablet, as you’ll be able to use your device’s gyroscope to move the camera in any direction you chose.
Via: AutoBlog
Source: Nismo (YouTube)
AIVAnet 