Prius plug-in drivers in Japan can earn real-world rewards for electric driving

Because saving money on gas just wasn’t incentive enough.Buyers of new plug-in Prius models in Japan (known as the Prius Prime in the US) will have another incentive, besides using less gas, to drive in EV mode as much as possible. Toyota has formed a partnership with five major electricity providers in Japan to offer a program that rewards points to drivers who maximize the electric mode. And these points aren’t arbitrary. They have actual monetary value and can be used to help pay electric bills or be exchanged for products. We’ve come a long way from adding leaves to a Ford Fusion hybrid’s digital tree.

According to Toyota, points are awarded using a few types of data. One component is how far drivers travel on electric power only, and since the program is meant to encourage electric driving, it’s safe to assume that longer distances earn more points. The other components include how much home charging is performed, and various other unnamed data collected by the car’s data communication module. Toyota tracks the data of people in the program, and provides it to the power companies that award points. Exactly how the other data affects points wasn’t given by Toyota.

This happens to be the second program Toyota has launched that gamifies driving. Just a few months ago, the company teamed up with coffee chain Komeda to create an app to keep people off their cell phones while driving. The app would recognize when the phone was face down and not being used, and when drivers reached a certain distance, they would receive a coupon for coffee at a Komeda shop. Toyota reported that the app was downloaded 37,000 times and drivers racked up over 1.6 million miles of phone-free motoring. It will be interesting to see how many people sign up for this new Prius program, and whether similar programs show up in different countries with different companies.

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Plume’s WiFi extending pods are now available

If you’re having WiFi issues in certain rooms and range extenders or powerline plugs aren’t doing the trick, there’s another option on the market. Plume’s mesh-based “pod” WiFi system is now on sale following a pre-order campaign earlier this year. Like Eero or Google WiFi, you place a pod in rooms where you want internet, and they’ll intelligently connect over multiple 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, providing uniform coverage around your home.

There’s no central router per se — you just plug each Plume pod directly into a power jack, and connect one to your modem. At $179 for three pods, Plume’s system is significantly cheaper than both Google WiFi and Eero ($299 and $499 for three, respectively). However, you’ll likely need fewer pods with those systems, whereas Plume recommends you put a pod in each internet-connected room. Pods include a single internet jack should you need to go wired.

Plume says its “adaptive WiFi” is faster than most systems because the signal can jump across multiple “backhaul” channels between pods, rather than just one like a regular router and extender. It’s managed by a cloud-based system that can adjust traffic patterns for maximum efficiency and optimize speeds for, say, Netflix streaming. The cloud system also reduces the electronics required on each device, keeping costs down.

You can now order pods for $69 each, $179 for three or get a six-pack for $329 from Plume’s online store (in the three colors shown above). Shipping is three to four weeks, and as mentioned, the company recommends one pod per room.

Via: The Verge

Source: Plume

Disney can digitally recreate your teeth

Digital models of humans can be uncannily accurate these days, but there’s at least one area where they fall short: teeth. Unless you’re willing to scan the inside of someone’s mouth, you aren’t going to get a very faithful representation of someone’s pearly whites. Disney Research and ETH Zurich, however, have a far easier solution. They’ve just developed a technique to digitally recreate teeth beyond the gum line using little more than source data and everyday imagery. The team used 86 3D scans to create a model for an “average” set of teeth, and wrote an algorithm that adapts that model based on what it sees in the contours of teeth in photos and videos.

The technology doesn’t require any special capture equipment outside of the initial scans (the camera on your phone will do). Also, you don’t have to purposefully bare your teeth: it can work with the incomplete information from a smile or grimace. A movie crew could generate models based on a brief, natural motion capture session.

This being Disney, the most obvious use is for digital actor models in animated movies and video games. You could see uncannily realistic characters whose details pass muster even in close-up shots. However, there are plenty of medical uses as well. The scientists see dentists using the tech to previsualize a patient’s mouth before they sit in the operating chair, and it’s easy to imagine this leading to more authentic-looking dentures. As silly as the notion of accurately rendered teeth may be, they could be important for your well-being.

Source: Disney Research, EurekAlert

Design your dream drone with MIT’s program

Most of today’s commercially available drones have four rotors and more or less look the same (other than that one that’s foldable). So if you wanted to own a drone that had, say, five copters or a completely different design altogether, you’d probably have to make your own, which can be a really tedious process. If you don’t know where to start customizing your flying masterpiece, MIT’s new system could be your first stop. The institute’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)’s latest project is what it says is the first platform that lets you design, simulate and build your own drone.

Through the project interface, you can pick your own propellers, rotors and rods from MIT’s database, as well as determine the size, shape and structure of your device. Then, you specify your need for payload, material cost and battery usage. The system will calculate the necessary rod lengths and motor angles, as well as metrics such as torque and thrust to ensure that the overall product is able to take off, hover and land.

“This system opens up new possibilities for how drones look and function,” says MIT Professor Wojciech Matusik, who oversaw the project. Indeed, although it isn’t publicly available yet (its code is available on GitHub), the new system could enable all kinds of variety in drones that could push the market to innovate and experiment further. That could lead to improvements in areas where drones are lacking, such as longer lasting batteries for better flight times, enhanced camera quality and positioning, as well as sturdier constructions. We’ve reached out to MIT to see how the public can access the platform. Meanwhile, if you’ve already got a brilliant (or simply wacky) idea for a drone and want to see if it will work, keep your eyes peeled for instructions on how to use the CSAIL system.

Source: MIT News

Apple’s iCloud Service Down for Some Users

Apple’s iCloud service appears to be down or working slowly for many users, according to reports sent in by MacRumors readers and comments on Twitter.

Customers who are affected by the outage are not able to log into the iCloud website and are receiving server error messages. iCloud features like Calendar and mail are also not working for users in areas where iCloud is down.

Apple’s System Status page is not currently reporting an iCloud outage, but Apple often does not update the page until outages are resolved or close to being cleared up. There’s no word on how long the outage might last, but most of the time, connection issues are resolved quickly.

Update: Apple’s System Status page is now reporting an issue with iCloud Web Apps, which appear to have been unavailable for some users since 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

Tag: iCloud
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