Eizo’s 31.1-inch DCI-4K display is perfect for video and film professionals

Why it matters to you

If you’re a video and film professional who needs DCI-4K support and the best HDR around, then Eizo’s newest monitor is for you.

The PC monitor market has produced some quality products lately, with a number of new technologies like 4K resolutions and high dynamic range (HDR) grabbing much of the limelight. That does not mean there is no room for improvement, however, as merely including a buzzword technology does not guarantee the best image quality.

Eizo would likely agree with that, given the company’s focus on producing high-performance displays. It has taken things to a new level, however, with the new ColorEdge Prominence CG3145 monitor that offers the qualities needed for a truly professional post-production workflow.

First up in the CG3145‘s specs list is its DCI-4K support, which offers 4,096 x 2,160 resolution in a 31.1-inch display that meets the needs of film and video professionals. In addition, Eizo upped the ante with high brightness hitting 1,000 nits and offering the world’s first LCD monitor to offer 1,000,000:1 contrast ration and deep, true blacks.

Next up is the monitor’s HDR support, with Eizo avoiding the Auto Brightness Limiter (ABL) and local dimming methods used by other HDR displays and creating a “true” HDR experience. ABL is used in OLED monitors to extend their lifespans, but it can limit a monitor’s ability to show light scenes while maintaining full tonal range. Local dimming adjusts brightness by display sections, which can result in a “halo” effect when an on-screen object falls outside the backlit area.

Further, the ColorEdge Prominence CG3145 utilizes two gamma curves to create HDR video, hybrid log-gamma (HLG) and perceptual quantization (PQ). HLF is optimized for live television broadcasting, while PQ matches human vision in terms of color and light perception. Between the two gamma curves, the CG3146 is designed for the best film, streaming, and other video content experiences.

Other specifications include a wide color gamut with support for 98 percent of the DCI-P3 color space. Smooth gradations are provided by a 10-bit display generated from a 24-bit look-up table. The included light shielding helps video professional isolate their content during production. Finally, the CG3145 supports a wide range of video formats via HDMI supporting 10-bit 4:2:2 at 50/60p, and DisplayPort with support for 10-bit 4:4:4 at 50/60p.

Eizo has not yet released pricing for the ColorEdge Prominence CG3145, although availability is set for late 2017. Anyone interested in seeing the monitor in person can visit Eizo’s booth at the National Association of Broadcasters Show 2017 in Las Vegas from April 24 to 27.

Latest Windows Insider update targets battery hogs with ‘Power Throttling’

Why it matters to you

The Windows Insider Program acts as a test bed for new features, so it’s important to keep an eye on what Microsoft has in the works.

The Creators Update is live, but work continues behind the scenes, with Windows Insiders getting a taste of some brand-new features on the horizon. Today’s Insider build includes the usual assortment of bug fixes, and just might extend your laptop’s battery life.

Insiders installing Build 16176 can expect some slight improvements in overall battery life, thanks to Microsoft’s new “Power Throttling” feature. Designed to make background applications more efficient, Power Throttling can reportedly decrease your CPU power consumption by about 11 percent in strenuous use cases.

“To give great performance to the apps you’re using, while at the same time power throttling background work, we built a sophisticated detection system into Windows,” said Bill Karagounis, director of program management for the Windows Insider Program.

Windows will automatically detect which applications are most important to you — foreground applications and the like — and start throttling the power consumption of other, less important processes. Power Throttling works as an add-on to the existing battery saver settings, and users can control it through the Power Slider, scaling throttling up and down depending on their workload.

Aside from the Power Slider, users can also control how Power Throttling works through the Battery Settings menu. From there, it’s easy to exempt certain applications if Power Throttling is misbehaving or throttling an important application’s CPU usage.

It’s important to note that Power Throttling only works on systems running processors with Intel’s Speed Shift technology — which is available in sixth-generation Intel Core processors and beyond. Microsoft has stated, however, that it has plans to roll out support to other processors in the future.

Microsoft also set about fixing a few major bugs introduced in the previous Insider build. For instance, some apps and games were crashing unexpectedly due to a misconfigured advertising ID caused in a previous build, and Microsoft has reportedly fixed the issue.

For a full list of all the bug fixes and known issues in this latest Insider build, check out the Microsoft blog here.

New technology uses light instead of electricity to move information quickly

Why it matters to you

A material that enables more power-efficient and faster light-based memory makes all sorts of electronic devices more potent.

The hunt for new and improved technologies never ceases, which is a good thing for the future of computing. As long as our hunger for faster and more powerful PCs continues, then it appears that researchers are up to the task of the continued advancements that we demand.

One area where work continues unabated is in the quest for new and faster memory, where mundane electronic technologies remain at the heart of even the fastest random-access memory (RAM). Researchers at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, hope to change all of that with their development of a new material that could make RAM perform faster and more efficiently.

The material is dubbed light-induced magnetoresistive RAM (LI-RAM), and it essentially “allows computer chips to exist at a molecular level,” as the university’s blog describes it. Chemist Natia Frank is behind the effort, which aims to reduce the power consumed and heat produced by modern PC processors — to break through the “power wall,” as it is called.

LI-RAM utilizes 10 percent less power than current RAM, produces virtually no heat, and is more durable. On top of all that, it is also faster. What makes LI-RAM special is that it uses light rather than electricity to move information around a system.

As Frank puts it, “The material in LI-RAM has the unusual quality of rapidly changing magnetic properties when hit with green light.” Information is processed and stored on single molecules, making once hypothetical “universal memory” technology possible.

According to the researchers, about 10 percent of all electricity is consumed by information communications technology, while discarded ewaste amounts to 3 million tons of hazardous materials on a global scale. LI-RAM would help alleviate some of those concerns by utilizing less power and lasting longer.

Researchers plan to use the LI-RAM for more than just mobile phones, PCs, and consumer electronics. As Frank explains, “Potentially, this material could have other uses in medical imaging, solar cells and a range of nanotechnologies. This is just the beginning.” It’s anticipated that the technology could make its way into consumer products within the next decade and it is already in the hands of international electronics manufacturers with just that goal in mind.

Facebook’s Camera Effects Platform puts power to create AR in your hands

Why it matters to you

Facebook Camera Effects Platform will give the public the tools to create frames and innovative augmented reality applications for the first time.

If there is one takeaway from this year’s F8 developers conference, it is that Facebook is going all-in on augmented reality. The social networking titan is positioning its new Camera Effects Platform as the first of its kind — a space and toolset that allows artists, developers, or just ordinary Facebook users to build frames and filters they can overlay on top of their pictures, videos, and Facebook Live posts.

The Camera Effects Platform can be divided into two halves — Frame Studio and AR Studio. Frame Studio is a web-based editor that allows anyone with a Facebook page to build an effect they can adorn their photos and profile pictures with, or share friends. The creator’s name will appear alongside the frame every step of the way, and Facebook has published guidelines as to how frames should be made and what criteria they need to be shared.

AR Studio, unsurprisingly, is a little more complicated and is currently restricted to a closed beta for Mac users. This tool allows developers to combine the Facebook Camera’s vision algorithms and sensor data with their own content to add interactive effects and animations to posts. To get the ball rolling, Facebook already released two AR Studio-powered effects on Facebook Live: This or That, and Giphy Live.

This or That is a game in which two choices to the titular question appear as an effect over the live feed. The broadcaster can select their own answer, and the audience can chime in with hashtags to pick the option they think the broadcaster will go for.

Giphy Live also encourages interaction between hosts and viewers, albeit in a much more oddball way. The audience can comment with hashtags, the most popular of which will show up in a ticker at the top of the frame. As the results flow in, the broadcaster can select one and the related GIF will display in a news-style windowed format next to their head.

TripIt

These are just two of many interactive experiences that will be arriving on the Camera Effects Platform over the coming months, and Facebook says it has already secured a number of high-profile partnerships during the beta period, including Electronic Arts’ recently released game Mass Effect: Andromeda, soccer teams Manchester United and Real Madrid, and even travel-planning app TripIt.

TripIt’s upcoming camera effect builds a unique frame based on your itinerary and makes it accessible through a dedicated button in the top-right corner of the app. With it, you will be able to quickly fire off travel-themed selfies and share your exploits with friends.

You can try out the Frame Studio for yourself right here, or apply for the AR Studio closed beta by following this link.

Facebook’s Camera Effects Platform puts power to create AR in your hands

Why it matters to you

Facebook Camera Effects Platform will give the public the tools to create frames and innovative augmented reality applications for the first time.

If there is one takeaway from this year’s F8 developers conference, it is that Facebook is going all-in on augmented reality. The social networking titan is positioning its new Camera Effects Platform as the first of its kind — a space and toolset that allows artists, developers, or just ordinary Facebook users to build frames and filters they can overlay on top of their pictures, videos, and Facebook Live posts.

The Camera Effects Platform can be divided into two halves — Frame Studio and AR Studio. Frame Studio is a web-based editor that allows anyone with a Facebook page to build an effect they can adorn their photos and profile pictures with, or share friends. The creator’s name will appear alongside the frame every step of the way, and Facebook has published guidelines as to how frames should be made and what criteria they need to be shared.

AR Studio, unsurprisingly, is a little more complicated and is currently restricted to a closed beta for Mac users. This tool allows developers to combine the Facebook Camera’s vision algorithms and sensor data with their own content to add interactive effects and animations to posts. To get the ball rolling, Facebook already released two AR Studio-powered effects on Facebook Live: This or That, and Giphy Live.

This or That is a game in which two choices to the titular question appear as an effect over the live feed. The broadcaster can select their own answer, and the audience can chime in with hashtags to pick the option they think the broadcaster will go for.

Giphy Live also encourages interaction between hosts and viewers, albeit in a much more oddball way. The audience can comment with hashtags, the most popular of which will show up in a ticker at the top of the frame. As the results flow in, the broadcaster can select one and the related GIF will display in a news-style windowed format next to their head.

TripIt

These are just two of many interactive experiences that will be arriving on the Camera Effects Platform over the coming months, and Facebook says it has already secured a number of high-profile partnerships during the beta period, including Electronic Arts’ recently released game Mass Effect: Andromeda, soccer teams Manchester United and Real Madrid, and even travel-planning app TripIt.

TripIt’s upcoming camera effect builds a unique frame based on your itinerary and makes it accessible through a dedicated button in the top-right corner of the app. With it, you will be able to quickly fire off travel-themed selfies and share your exploits with friends.

You can try out the Frame Studio for yourself right here, or apply for the AR Studio closed beta by following this link.

Bots from Spotify, Mastercard, others play nice with Facebook Messenger 2.0

Why it matters to you

These new Messenger bots may change the way you share music, transfer money, order food, and book flights.

Bots, the AI-powered companions that supply reminders and recommendations, are the future of mobile interactions. That was the takeaway from Facebook’s F8 developer keynote on Tuesday, where the social network pulled back the curtains on an overhauled Messenger platform: Messenger 2.0.

As if on cue, Facebook’s partners announced new bots that take advantage of the new Messenger’s features. There are far too many to list, but we’ve rounded up a few of the best so far.

Spotify

Spotify announced a Messenger app at F8, and it, as you might expect, plays tunes on demand. Thanks to support for Chat Extensions, a new Messenger feature that lets bots join group sessions, you can invoke Spotify in chats with friends — tapping the “plus” button in Messenger, choosing Spotify from the list, and entering the name of a song brings up playback controls. You’ll hear a preview of the song if you aren’t a Spotify user, and if you are, you can listen to the whole thing.

Aeromexico

Mexcico City-based airline Aeromexico has unveiled a new Messenger customer service bot. By tapping artificial intelligence platform IV.AI and chat developer YaloChat.com, Aeormexico said it’s able to cut customer service resolution time from 16 minutes down to 2 minutes — all while juggling flight statuses, ticket purchases, and group bookings. It’s even smart enough to serve up vacation destination recommendations.

ScribbleChat

If you’re itching to channel your inner internet calligrapher, check out ScribbleChat. The new Messenger bot integrates handwriting and, thanks to native Chat Extensions integration, lets you share your digital chicken scratch among friends. You can send handwritten text, emojis, and interactive animations via Messenger, or tap ScribbleChat’s library of graphics and animations.

Mastercard

There’s a new way to pay for food online, and it’s Mastercard’s Messenger app. The payments processor has teamed up with Subway to handle online ordering. It’s simple enough: The bot searches users’ locations to find the closest of Subway’s 26,500 restaurants for pickup, and lets you choose from different options for sandwiches, salads, sides, and drinks.

Rue21

Facebook Messenger bots run the gamut, and there’s no better example than Rue21’s “virtual stylist.” On Tuesday, the apparel retailer launched a Messenger “artist” that taps AI to deliver an
interactive shopping experience.”  You browse the retailer’s virtual aisles by yourself or in a group, and select from apparel of various sizes, colors, and prices.

Western Union

If you need to cover lunch or lend a friend some spending money, the Western Union Messenger bot has your back. The payments giant announced a Facebook Messenger tool that transfers money to “almost anywhere in the world” — 200 countries and territories across 130 currencies. Messenger users in the U.S. can look up real-time foreign exchange rates and get automated customer support.

Bots from Spotify, Mastercard, others play nice with Facebook Messenger 2.0

Why it matters to you

These new Messenger bots may change the way you share music, transfer money, order food, and book flights.

Bots, the AI-powered companions that supply reminders and recommendations, are the future of mobile interactions. That was the takeaway from Facebook’s F8 developer keynote on Tuesday, where the social network pulled back the curtains on an overhauled Messenger platform: Messenger 2.0.

As if on cue, Facebook’s partners announced new bots that take advantage of the new Messenger’s features. There are far too many to list, but we’ve rounded up a few of the best so far.

Spotify

Spotify announced a Messenger app at F8, and it, as you might expect, plays tunes on demand. Thanks to support for Chat Extensions, a new Messenger feature that lets bots join group sessions, you can invoke Spotify in chats with friends — tapping the “plus” button in Messenger, choosing Spotify from the list, and entering the name of a song brings up playback controls. You’ll hear a preview of the song if you aren’t a Spotify user, and if you are, you can listen to the whole thing.

Aeromexico

Mexcico City-based airline Aeromexico has unveiled a new Messenger customer service bot. By tapping artificial intelligence platform IV.AI and chat developer YaloChat.com, Aeormexico said it’s able to cut customer service resolution time from 16 minutes down to 2 minutes — all while juggling flight statuses, ticket purchases, and group bookings. It’s even smart enough to serve up vacation destination recommendations.

ScribbleChat

If you’re itching to channel your inner internet calligrapher, check out ScribbleChat. The new Messenger bot integrates handwriting and, thanks to native Chat Extensions integration, lets you share your digital chicken scratch among friends. You can send handwritten text, emojis, and interactive animations via Messenger, or tap ScribbleChat’s library of graphics and animations.

Mastercard

There’s a new way to pay for food online, and it’s Mastercard’s Messenger app. The payments processor has teamed up with Subway to handle online ordering. It’s simple enough: The bot searches users’ locations to find the closest of Subway’s 26,500 restaurants for pickup, and lets you choose from different options for sandwiches, salads, sides, and drinks.

Rue21

Facebook Messenger bots run the gamut, and there’s no better example than Rue21’s “virtual stylist.” On Tuesday, the apparel retailer launched a Messenger “artist” that taps AI to deliver an
interactive shopping experience.”  You browse the retailer’s virtual aisles by yourself or in a group, and select from apparel of various sizes, colors, and prices.

Western Union

If you need to cover lunch or lend a friend some spending money, the Western Union Messenger bot has your back. The payments giant announced a Facebook Messenger tool that transfers money to “almost anywhere in the world” — 200 countries and territories across 130 currencies. Messenger users in the U.S. can look up real-time foreign exchange rates and get automated customer support.

A look inside the budding battle between cyborg supply startups

Liviu Babitz’s eyes well up when he mentions his young son. In a past life Babitz was forced to be stoic, in perpetual danger as he worked for a secretive human-rights group in corrupt countries. Today he’s a cyborg, standing in front of crowds to champion the cause of biohacking.

As CEO of startup Cyborg Nest, Babitz is among a new breed of hackers-cum-entrepreneurs hoping to capitalize on putting technology into the human body. Their industry, biohacking, began as a hobby for a small group of tinkerers who implanted magnets into the flesh of their fingers and rice-sized radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips in their hands. It’s since grown to an only slightly larger community of enthusiasts who share experiments on forums and strive to push the body’s boundaries.

Babitz and others want to make biohacking more mainstream. They think artificial senses and implanted devices will be commonplace in society’s foreseeable future, and they’re jostling to get in on the ground floor of a billion-dollar industry before tech giants take over.

“This will be as profitable as any other tech industry out there,” Babitz told Digital Trends. “This is the future. Everybody is going to be a cyborg.”

From DIY to buy, buy, buy

If great tech companies begin in makeshift labs, most biohacking companies are off to a good start. Alex Smith, founder and sole-employee of Cyberise.me, runs his startup out of a converted double garage in Melbourne, Australia, where he keeps his assortment of equipment and packaging. Smith is a full-time computer security consultant who works on Cyberise in the little free time he has.

“I started building my own implants because the ones that were available weren’t as advanced as I’d wanted,” he said. “After I did the first two, people started to want to buy them from me. I decided to just start my own company to basically help fund my future research and pay for my hobby.”

In his booth at BDYHAX, Smith showed off his wares — chips used to access smart devices and fluorescent subdermal implants for purely aesthetic purposes. He’s among a close group of biohackers developing new devices, including payment implants and biomedical sensors for monitoring things like temperature and blood oxygen levels. He hopes to one day soon develop a neural interface that will allow him to wirelessly access the internet without having to touch his phone or computer. By then Smith hopes the biohacking industry will be booming and most people may have implants to unlock their front door, let them sense magnetic fields, or keep track of their vitals. Then he’ll be able to commit to Cyberise full-time.

This industry will be as profitable as any other tech industry out there.

“Right now I can count the number of people in the industry on one hand and the amount of money involved is in the tens of thousands of dollars range,” Smith said. “It’s very small. In the future — maybe ten or twenty years — it will be a multi-billion dollar industry. It will be like the computer industry or cosmetic medical industry. It will be huge. I don’t know exactly when but most people alive today will see that day.”

Amal Graafstra was sitting in a similar booth an aisle away, holding a thick syringe in his gloved right hand. With his left hand he pinched the skin between a customer’s thumb and index finger before inserting the syringe and plunging a rice-sized RFID chip into the pocket of flesh.

Will a rising tide lift all businesses?

Graafstra runs his own startup, Dangerous Things, out of his Seattle garage. Last year, there was a line of customers at his BDYHAX booth waiting to receive free devices. This year, Graafstra decided to charge the standard $50 for each chip and just a handful of attendees forked over the cash, though there’s still a crowd around eager to watch others undergo the quick procedure.

Graafstra and Smith sell practically the same products. “He is competition in the technical sense,” Smith said. “But I think it’s a good kind of competition. We drive each other to innovate and experiment.”

DT’s intrepid Cool Tech Editor Drew Prindle willingly submits himself for an RFID chip injection

Rich Shibley/Digital Trends

However, where Smith has held on to his day job, Graafstra quit his to focus on Dangerous Things full-time. The bottom line is understandably more noticeable for him.

“It’s such a niche market that we’re literally competing for every sale,” Graafstra said.

Babitz echoes Smith’s sentiment that competition, particularly in an industry’s infancy, will only serve to increase interest and make for better products. Cyborg Nest sells a $425 silicon device called the North Sense, which is bolted to the chest by two titanium bars. Whenever a wearer faces north, the device evokes a brief vibration. In a panel discussion at BDYHAX, Babitz shared some of the unexpected consequences of gaining a new sense — such as when a vibration coincided with a goodbye to his son, and the memory of the moment was seared into his mind. In an interview with Digital Trends later on, he said he welcomes competition and encourages other startups to explore the field.

It’s such a niche market that we’re literally competing for every sale.

“I look forward to healthy competition from other companies to come in producing other artificial senses,” he said. “It will help everybody grow. They’ll have a marketing budget so they’ll expand and attract more clients who one day buy from us and another day buy from them.

“[Competition] gives you a mirror. It’s a very basic economics rule,” he added. “Say I have a tomato and I’m offering you a tomato. If you buy the tomato then I’ll have a shop. If you don’t buy the tomato then my tomato probably isn’t any good.”

Growing pains

A few BDYHAX attendees sported puck-sized implants in the back of their hands with LEDs that lit up in a star-like pattern when activated by a magnet. They’re strictly aesthetic implants called North Stars (not to be confused with the North Sense) and they’re the work of the Pittsburgh-based collective Grindhouse Wetware.

Launched as a think tank by Tim Cannon and Shawn Sarver around 2010, Grindhouse was incorporated in 2012 and, for the past five years, has been plugging away at experimental projects aimed at the experienced biohacker. Grindhouse created the Circadia, a device that collects biometric data and relays it to smartphones via Bluetooth. Another device called the Bottlenose let wearers feel far away objects and determine their distance. But, despite the company’s best efforts, the devices didn’t click with consumers as they’d hoped.

“For a while we were selling [the Bottlenose] as a kit but realized it was a little more advanced than people thought it was going to be,” Justin Worst, who manages Grindhouse’s business operations, said. “You had to have some hacking and programming background but we just kind of gave people all the parts to make their own and through a bunch of extra stuff to see what people would create. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn’t realize that was the goal, so we discontinued it.”

Grindhouse had trouble commercializing North Star as well.

“Before we developed the device, we had a lot of people who said they wanted to buy them,” Worst said. “But once we made and put a price on them, a lot of people said they didn’t have the money or didn’t think it would cost so much.”

To be fair, at $350, the North Star is an expensive accessory. Only 15 people — many of them affiliated with Grindhouse — have implanted the device. None of Grindhouse’s members having given up their day jobs. Until the startup takes off, Worst’s bread and butter is in archaeology.

Can open source ethos survive capitalism?

Worst admits his company’s goal is to turn a profit but, like the other startups we spoke to, Grindhouse hopes to invest those funds into developing better devices. They also acknowledge the importance of patents in today’s market — even if trade secrets are at odds with the open source ethos the biohacking community was founded on. For Grindhouse’s part, they plan to follow the “Elon Musk plan” of patenting initial versions, only to open source schematics after the product’s second or third iteration.

“There’s definitely an open source mentality in the community,” said Dr. Kevin Warwick, a biohacking pioneer whose extensive work has earned him the moniker Captain Cyborg. “And the guys who are doing it still have that mentality. The market isn’t established enough that you can get into trouble over patent complaints at the present time.

“I think the patents are established with the future in mind but I don’t think you’re going to see someone in Pittsburgh taken to court because they’ve used very similar product to somebody in Seattle,” he added. “But that will all change when the big companies come in.”

These big companies are currently conspicuous in their absence, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t watching closely distance. Only time – and no shortage of regulatory hurdles — will tell if biohacking turns into a truly lucrative industry with devices offering biomedical monitoring, various artificial senses, and extended abilities. But you can bet that tech giants will be waiting to pounce and purchase any proven startups once it does.

A look inside the budding battle between cyborg supply startups

Liviu Babitz’s eyes well up when he mentions his young son. In a past life Babitz was forced to be stoic, in perpetual danger as he worked for a secretive human-rights group in corrupt countries. Today he’s a cyborg, standing in front of crowds to champion the cause of biohacking.

As CEO of startup Cyborg Nest, Babitz is among a new breed of hackers-cum-entrepreneurs hoping to capitalize on putting technology into the human body. Their industry, biohacking, began as a hobby for a small group of tinkerers who implanted magnets into the flesh of their fingers and rice-sized radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips in their hands. It’s since grown to an only slightly larger community of enthusiasts who share experiments on forums and strive to push the body’s boundaries.

Babitz and others want to make biohacking more mainstream. They think artificial senses and implanted devices will be commonplace in society’s foreseeable future, and they’re jostling to get in on the ground floor of a billion-dollar industry before tech giants take over.

“This will be as profitable as any other tech industry out there,” Babitz told Digital Trends. “This is the future. Everybody is going to be a cyborg.”

From DIY to buy, buy, buy

If great tech companies begin in makeshift labs, most biohacking companies are off to a good start. Alex Smith, founder and sole-employee of Cyberise.me, runs his startup out of a converted double garage in Melbourne, Australia, where he keeps his assortment of equipment and packaging. Smith is a full-time computer security consultant who works on Cyberise in the little free time he has.

“I started building my own implants because the ones that were available weren’t as advanced as I’d wanted,” he said. “After I did the first two, people started to want to buy them from me. I decided to just start my own company to basically help fund my future research and pay for my hobby.”

In his booth at BDYHAX, Smith showed off his wares — chips used to access smart devices and fluorescent subdermal implants for purely aesthetic purposes. He’s among a close group of biohackers developing new devices, including payment implants and biomedical sensors for monitoring things like temperature and blood oxygen levels. He hopes to one day soon develop a neural interface that will allow him to wirelessly access the internet without having to touch his phone or computer. By then Smith hopes the biohacking industry will be booming and most people may have implants to unlock their front door, let them sense magnetic fields, or keep track of their vitals. Then he’ll be able to commit to Cyberise full-time.

This industry will be as profitable as any other tech industry out there.

“Right now I can count the number of people in the industry on one hand and the amount of money involved is in the tens of thousands of dollars range,” Smith said. “It’s very small. In the future — maybe ten or twenty years — it will be a multi-billion dollar industry. It will be like the computer industry or cosmetic medical industry. It will be huge. I don’t know exactly when but most people alive today will see that day.”

Amal Graafstra was sitting in a similar booth an aisle away, holding a thick syringe in his gloved right hand. With his left hand he pinched the skin between a customer’s thumb and index finger before inserting the syringe and plunging a rice-sized RFID chip into the pocket of flesh.

Will a rising tide lift all businesses?

Graafstra runs his own startup, Dangerous Things, out of his Seattle garage. Last year, there was a line of customers at his BDYHAX booth waiting to receive free devices. This year, Graafstra decided to charge the standard $50 for each chip and just a handful of attendees forked over the cash, though there’s still a crowd around eager to watch others undergo the quick procedure.

Graafstra and Smith sell practically the same products. “He is competition in the technical sense,” Smith said. “But I think it’s a good kind of competition. We drive each other to innovate and experiment.”

DT’s intrepid Cool Tech Editor Drew Prindle willingly submits himself for an RFID chip injection

Rich Shibley/Digital Trends

However, where Smith has held on to his day job, Graafstra quit his to focus on Dangerous Things full-time. The bottom line is understandably more noticeable for him.

“It’s such a niche market that we’re literally competing for every sale,” Graafstra said.

Babitz echoes Smith’s sentiment that competition, particularly in an industry’s infancy, will only serve to increase interest and make for better products. Cyborg Nest sells a $425 silicon device called the North Sense, which is bolted to the chest by two titanium bars. Whenever a wearer faces north, the device evokes a brief vibration. In a panel discussion at BDYHAX, Babitz shared some of the unexpected consequences of gaining a new sense — such as when a vibration coincided with a goodbye to his son, and the memory of the moment was seared into his mind. In an interview with Digital Trends later on, he said he welcomes competition and encourages other startups to explore the field.

It’s such a niche market that we’re literally competing for every sale.

“I look forward to healthy competition from other companies to come in producing other artificial senses,” he said. “It will help everybody grow. They’ll have a marketing budget so they’ll expand and attract more clients who one day buy from us and another day buy from them.

“[Competition] gives you a mirror. It’s a very basic economics rule,” he added. “Say I have a tomato and I’m offering you a tomato. If you buy the tomato then I’ll have a shop. If you don’t buy the tomato then my tomato probably isn’t any good.”

Growing pains

A few BDYHAX attendees sported puck-sized implants in the back of their hands with LEDs that lit up in a star-like pattern when activated by a magnet. They’re strictly aesthetic implants called North Stars (not to be confused with the North Sense) and they’re the work of the Pittsburgh-based collective Grindhouse Wetware.

Launched as a think tank by Tim Cannon and Shawn Sarver around 2010, Grindhouse was incorporated in 2012 and, for the past five years, has been plugging away at experimental projects aimed at the experienced biohacker. Grindhouse created the Circadia, a device that collects biometric data and relays it to smartphones via Bluetooth. Another device called the Bottlenose let wearers feel far away objects and determine their distance. But, despite the company’s best efforts, the devices didn’t click with consumers as they’d hoped.

“For a while we were selling [the Bottlenose] as a kit but realized it was a little more advanced than people thought it was going to be,” Justin Worst, who manages Grindhouse’s business operations, said. “You had to have some hacking and programming background but we just kind of gave people all the parts to make their own and through a bunch of extra stuff to see what people would create. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn’t realize that was the goal, so we discontinued it.”

Grindhouse had trouble commercializing North Star as well.

“Before we developed the device, we had a lot of people who said they wanted to buy them,” Worst said. “But once we made and put a price on them, a lot of people said they didn’t have the money or didn’t think it would cost so much.”

To be fair, at $350, the North Star is an expensive accessory. Only 15 people — many of them affiliated with Grindhouse — have implanted the device. None of Grindhouse’s members having given up their day jobs. Until the startup takes off, Worst’s bread and butter is in archaeology.

Can open source ethos survive capitalism?

Worst admits his company’s goal is to turn a profit but, like the other startups we spoke to, Grindhouse hopes to invest those funds into developing better devices. They also acknowledge the importance of patents in today’s market — even if trade secrets are at odds with the open source ethos the biohacking community was founded on. For Grindhouse’s part, they plan to follow the “Elon Musk plan” of patenting initial versions, only to open source schematics after the product’s second or third iteration.

“There’s definitely an open source mentality in the community,” said Dr. Kevin Warwick, a biohacking pioneer whose extensive work has earned him the moniker Captain Cyborg. “And the guys who are doing it still have that mentality. The market isn’t established enough that you can get into trouble over patent complaints at the present time.

“I think the patents are established with the future in mind but I don’t think you’re going to see someone in Pittsburgh taken to court because they’ve used very similar product to somebody in Seattle,” he added. “But that will all change when the big companies come in.”

These big companies are currently conspicuous in their absence, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t watching closely distance. Only time – and no shortage of regulatory hurdles — will tell if biohacking turns into a truly lucrative industry with devices offering biomedical monitoring, various artificial senses, and extended abilities. But you can bet that tech giants will be waiting to pounce and purchase any proven startups once it does.

AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive Edition adds support for RX 580 and 570 GPUs

Why it matters to you

If you’re looking to get the best out of that new Radeon RX 580 or 570 GPU, then the latest AMD driver software is for you.

Every good graphics card needs a solid set of drivers to perform at its peak while avoiding the kind of instability that can ruin an otherwise excellent gaming session. That’s why AMD’s latest version of its Radeon Crimson ReLive Edition software suite should be welcome to users of the company’s latest GPUs.

Version 17.4.3 offers support for AMD’s recently released Radeon RX 580 and 570 line. In addition, the version brings the software suite up to speed with Microsoft’s recent release of Windows 10 Creators Update.

The Radeon RX 580 and 570 are the company’s next iteration of its GPUs based on the Polaris architecture, and serve as a stopgap to keep AMD fans satisfied until the release of the next-generation Vega GPUs. The RX 500 series offers faster clock speeds over the previous RX 400 series, and thus improved performance at the same price points. Be sure to check out our review of the Asus Strix Radeon RX 570 C 4GB.

Of course, the latest Radeon Crimson ReLive Edition software supports a wide range of current and previous AMD Radeon graphics cards, and the current version has some known issues that users might want to keep in mind. Here’s the list directly from AMD’s support page:

• Radeon WattMan may fail to apply settings on some Radeon R9 390 series graphics products.
• Radeon Settings may crash on switching Windows user after toggling AMD CrossFire technology mode.
• A small amount of apps may still experience issues with borderless full-screen mode and AMD FreeSync technology if other applications or game launchers are running on the primary screen in the background.
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and World of Warcraft may experience flickering or performance issues the first time the game is launched on a system boot with AMD FreeSync technology enabled. Workarounds include exiting and restarting the application or task switching (alt+tab) in and out of the game to fix the issue.

Generally speaking, Radeon ReLive also has some issues independent of version 17.4.3.

• The Xbox DVR application may cause conflicts with Radeon ReLive, and users are urged to disable Xbox DVR if Radeon ReLive is experiencing issues.
• Radeon ReLive may fail to install on AMD APU family products or experience a system hang or failure to record when using the recording feature on AMD APU family products.
• Radeon ReLive may intermittently fail to work after performing task switches of applications. A workaround is to disable and then enable the feature in Radeon Software.
• Radeon ReLive may exhibit corruption in recordings when capturing Microsoft Office applications.
• Radeon ReLive may experience recording or streaming issues when task switching using alt+tab.

You can download the newest software via the AMD support site. Here are instructions on installing the Radeon Crimson ReLive Edition, as well as  instructions on uninstalling the software.