19-year-old builds robot that uses facial recognition to shine a laser in your eye

Why it matters to you

Want to build a crappy robot for annoying people with a laser pointer? Want to know which robots to avoid when you see them? Those are two good reasons right there!

One of the most exciting parts of this job is getting a glimpse at what kind of innovations the next generation of socially-conscious entrepreneurs — raised on the dream that technology can positively impact on all of our lives — will strive to create.

That’s what 19-year-old university student Michael Reeves has done with his … wait a second, he’s done nothing of the kind!

Instead, Reeves has poured his budding tech expertise into building a robot which uses facial recognition to shine a laser into the eye of anyone who dares use it. And, no, just in case you’re wondering, this isn’t some prototypical laser eye surgery technology; we’re talking about a laser pointer designed purely to annoy.

“I combined a multitude of useful technologies into one completely useless invention, as per my goal,” Reeves told Digital Trends. “It detects your face and shoots you in the eyes with a laser. The machine takes in video and sends it to my computer which is running the software I wrote. The software processes it and sends coordinate data to a microcontroller inside of the machine, which in turn sends signals to the servos for pan and tilt respectively.”

Reeves may be a prankster, but one thing he isn’t is selfish. If anyone else wants to join him in building their own “sh*tty robot” laser flasher he’s made the C# source code available to download here. You’ll need a webcam, a pair of servos for panning and tilting, and a laser pointer to pull it off, but Reeves says he plans to show how to do this — and show how the software’s calibration setting work — in a subsequent video.

As for future plans to expand the project? “Aside from minor optimizations that just nag at me, no plans as of now,” he continued. “I don’t have a lot of time to focus on personal projects between work, my company, and school, but the overwhelming support is definitely a motivator for more effort.”

Because more laser-shining robot troublemakers is just what the world needs, right?

Some Pixel XL devices receive Google’s internal-only OTA of next Android security update

Google accidentally pushes out internal-only build to a few Pixel XL customers.

The Pixel XL is currently receiving the Android 7.1.2 Nougat update globally, but it looks like a few customers received a Googlers-only dogfood build containing next month’s security update. Google tests its builds internally ahead of release in a process called dogfooding, which gives Googlers the ability to share feedback and find any bugs before a wider OTA rollout commences.

This time around, regular Pixel XL customers ended up getting the internal-only OTA update. According to screenshots sent to Android Police, the update clearly mentions that it is a “confidential internal only” build meant for Googlers, adding that employees should not “discuss or comment” on the update externally.

The update itself comes in at 62.3MB and features the May 02, 2017 security patch. The build number is incremented to N2G470, and there don’t seem to be any user-facing changes in the build. Hopefully, the actual update should be hitting the Pixel and Pixel XL along with Nexus devices by the end of the month.

How to get driving directions in Google Maps

Google Maps lets you easily navigate with turn-by-turn directions for various forms of transportation.

Google Maps has a wealth of options for driving, walking, public transit, and cycling. The desktop version of Maps also includes flight information, but that option isn’t available on mobile. Whether you’re looking for turn-by-turn directions to your favorite restaurant by car or are interested in cycling through a particular area, Google Maps has you covered.

Google offers tailored options for each navigation mode. For instance, in driving mode, you can ask Maps to pick out a route that avoids tolls, highways, or ferries. You can also press and hold the blue Drive icon at the lower right corner of the screen to quickly start navigation. Doing so lets Google automatically pick out the fastest route and launch into turn-by-turn navigation mode. Similarly for biking directions, you will see the elevation point of your destination.

How to get driving directions in Google Maps

Open Google Maps from your app drawer or home screen.
Enter your destination in the Search here textbox.

Pick the most relevant option from the list.

You’ll see an icon with your last-used mode of transport. Select it to see all available options.
You should be able to see driving, public transit, walking, and ridesharing options to your destination along with estimated journey times (biking directions aren’t available worldwide).

If you’re driving by car and want to avoid tolls or highways, you can easily do so. Select the action overflow icon (three vertical dots in the top right corner of the screen).

Hit Route options.
Select your preferences and hit Done. Google will remember these settings for upcoming trips as well.

Once you’re done, tap the Start button to commence turn-by-turn navigation.

You’ll also be able to add multiple stops to your route, and if you’re in a city that has a lot of public transit options available, you can easily view their schedules in Google Maps. What option do you frequent for turn-bu-turn directions in Google Maps? Let us know in the comments.

Spotify’s half-price student discount plan goes live in 33 more countries

Spotify’s half-price student discount plan is now available in 36 countries.

Spotify allows students to subscribe to its premium plan for 50% off in the U.S., UK, and Germany, and today the streaming service has vastly expanded the program to 33 more countries around the world.

These are the new countries where the half-price student discount plan is available:

• Austria
• Australia
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• Chile
• Colombia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Ecuador
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Greece
• Hong Kong
• Hungary
• Indonesia
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Lithuania
• Latvia
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Philippines
• Portugal
• Singapore
• Spain
• Switzerland
• Turkey

The offer is valid to students “for every year of their student life,” meaning you can get a 50% discount for four years if you’re just getting started with an undergrad degree. To sign up, you’ll need to head to spotify.com/student and authenticate your eligibility with SheerID.

See at Spotify

PlayStation 4 Slim now comes with a 1TB hard drive for the same price

PlayStation 4 Slim now offers a 1TB hard drive at the same $299 price point.

Back when the PlayStation 4 Slim made its debut in September, it came with a 500GB hard drive. Sony is now upgrading the storage to 1TB while retaining the $299 price point.

Aside from the increased storage, there isn’t a whole lot new. You still get a Jet Black DualShock 4 controller, an HDMI cable, wired headset, power cable, and a USB charging cable in the box. The console will go up for sale starting tomorrow, April 20, at Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop.

While more storage is always welcome, the hard drive on the PS4 is easily replaceable, so if you’re looking to extend the storage on your console beyond 1TB, a better move would be to pick up a 500GB PS4 Slim for $254 and swap out the internal storage. If you’re interested in 4K gaming, then you should take a look at the PS4 Pro.

See at Amazon

Android Central Photo Contest: Transportation!

Drive with us.

Humans are always moving around from place to place for one reason or another, and with summer looming, we’re soon more likely to be traveling than not. “Transportation” is the prompt for this week’s photo contest, but that doesn’t have to mean a big hunk of metal moving at high speeds. We all get around more modestly sometimes. If you think about it, there are plenty of ways to express the concept of “transportation.”

This week we’ll have a single winner for the contest, and for their efforts they’ll receive a Samsung Gear 360 camera!

Entering is easy. Just drop your entry in the forums at the link below. Tell us what Android you used to get the picture, and any back story you want to add to it. We’ll leave this contest open for 3 weeks and announce the winner on the blog with the next contest. Full guidelines for entering are included in the forums, so be sure to check that out when you enter. Good luck, everyone!

Enter this week’s photo contest!

Previous Photo Contest Winner: Events!

Please join me in congratulating Android Central member dohcstunr for his winning photo!

I live in Washington DC, only a few blocks from the Capitol. I decided to take my cameras out to document the Women’s March as a casual neutral observer. All politics aside I just wanted to witness a political movement as it descended on my neighborhood. Some of my best shots came from my Pixel XL. I picked this as my favorite shot, taken from my Pixel XL in HDR with light editing in Snapseed. In a sea of political signs that day, my Pixel XL captured a moment of innocence and hope.

Check out the rest of the Event entries here

Enter this week’s photo contest!

You can spill a cup of water on Lenovo’s new $279 Flex 11 Chromebook

Lenovo’s new Flex 11 Chromebook is cheap, rugged and versatile.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for manufacturers to differentiate their Chromebooks in the highly competitive laptop space. Lenovo’s $279 Flex 11 Chromebook, which goes on sale this week, has a trick up its sleeve — or its keyboard port.

The Flex 11 has sealed ports and a keyboard that can withstand up to a cup of water spilled on it, with draining channels to ensure that the liquid has something to go. This is a feature Lenovo has been putting to good use in its more expensive Yoga and Thinkpad laptops for some time, but it’s good to see it integrated into something a bit cheaper.

Elsewhere, the Flex 11 is powered by a 2.1Ghz unnamed ARM processor — likely from Rockchip — with an 11.6-inch 1366×768 pixel IPS display, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Like many of Lenovo’s other laptops, the Flex 11 has a strong hinge that allows the unit to be contorted into one of four positions, including laptop, tablet, “tent”, and “watch”.

Compatible with the Google Play Store (in an update coming after launch, natch), the Flex 11 lasts 10 hours on a charge, and comes with a plethora of ports, including HDMI, USB 3.0, headphone port, and SD card slot. It is powered by a USB-C port, which is handy, and weighs just under three pounds.

See at Lenovo

Watch our Galaxy S8 and S8+ video review!

Who has time to read a 6,000 word review? I wrote the damn thing and didn’t have time to read it (kidding! maybe!). That’s why I also made this handy 14-minute video for you about the new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, Samsung’s latest flagships.

These are two of the best phones on the market right now, and potentially trounce the Google Pixel as the best Android phone, period. Beautiful, big screens, excellent build quality, awesome cameras, superb battery life, and some really neat unlocking tricks — well, just watch the video.

• Android Central on YouTube
• Samsung Galaxy S8 review
• Which Galaxy S8 size should you buy?
• Everything you need to know about these phones

Fujifilm Instax Square SQ10 combines instant photo printing with a digital image sensor

Fujifilm has revisited its Instax series of instant stills cameras and has announced the Square SQ10, which represents the biggest evolution of the Instax range for some time.

The SQ10 is classed as a hybrid instant camera and is the world’s first. To achieve hybrid status, Fujifilm has combined a digital image sensor and digital image processing technology, with the built-in printing capabilities the Instax series of cameras is known for.

By fitting a digital image sensor, which is a 0.25-inch CMOS sensor with f/2.4 aperture, the Instax Square SQ10 is able to fare much better in low-light conditions compared to previous Instax cameras. It has a 28.5mm equivalent fixed focal length, can take close-up shots from a distance of up to 10cm and has built-in autofocus with facial recognition and automatic exposure control.

The Square SQ10 is aimed at the arty, blogger types, and has ten preset filters that can be applied to photos before or after shooting, vignette control and brightness adjustment. There are three buttons on top of the camera to control each individually. If applied before a photo is taken, you can see what effect it will have in real-time on the 3-inch LCD display.

Fujifilm

Up to 50 edited and processed images can be stored on the SQ10’s internal memory, but you can insert your own microSD card to increase the storage. The battery claims to be good for up to 160 images on a single charge.

Of course, being an Instax camera means you can instantly print any photos you’ve taken. The SQ10 is no different, but this time prints in a 1:1 aspect ratio, to produce square photos like the ones you see on Instagram. The Instax Square film is 86mm x 72mm, but photos only take up 62mm x 62mm of spac. Each photo takes around 12 seconds to print.

The Fujifilm Instax Square SQ10 will be available from mid-May for £249 while a 10-pack of Instax Square film will cost £8.99.

Garmin Vivoactive HR review: Multi-sports master, just not much of a looker

If you’re a general fitness fan rather than someone with a specialist hobby, deciding which wearable is right for you is tough. What sport do you prioritise? Are your morning runs more important to you than your weekend round of golf, or would you rather track your commute-based cycles or your evening swims?

Most fitness-focussed wearables make you pick a speciality. The Garmin Vivoactive HR, however, has you covered on all basis. It’s a fleet of specialist devices, all wrapped up into a single body. A Garmin Forerunner, Approach, Swim and Fenix all combined into one individual device, if you will.

That might explain the premium asking price. No, the Vivoactive HR isn’t cheap, but it’s a well-rounded multi-purpose tracker, and one that’s designed to appease your ever changing fitness kicks.

Is this do-it-all device a master of all or none though? We put it to the test to find out.

Garmin Vivoactive HR review: Design

• Plastic and rubber design
• 30.2 x 57.0 x 11.4mm; 47.6g
• 5ATM rated water-resistance
• 205 x 148 pixel display

The Garmin Vivoactive HR might have you covered when it comes to tracking all your fitness activity, from your standard runs to more obscure exercise sessions such as skiing or rowing, but it’s not exactly a looker.

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For all its sports tracking skills, leave the gym and you’ll be pulling your sleeve down to try hide its boxy, plastic form. If you want something better looking then something like the Fenix 5 watch might tick the box, but that’s a lot more expensive because of its material form.

The HR is finished with an also bulky silicone rubber strap. It might be big, but it’s reasonably comfortable and certainly secure thanks to a firm metal buckle. You won’t be losing it any time soon.

It’s also waterproof. So beyond running and cycling, you can go swimming too. That’s possible thanks to the device’s impressive 5ATM water-resistance that allows you to take it to depths of 50 metres without it meeting a watery demise.

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Offsetting the basic form, the Garmin Vivoactive HR plays host to two physical buttons. Sat beneath the device’s touchscreen, these offer additional ways to navigate the menus. While the right button acts as a shortcut to all your sports tracking options, the left control is a back button.

During standard use, you’re likely to favour the screen, but these physical controls come into their own during exercise sessions, letting you more easily start, stop, pause and set lap markers and time splits. This is especially handy when your wrist’s shaking around while running or cycling.

The touchscreen is a solid addition for letting your move through the mass of menu options when static, however, with each swipe and press gesture promptly met with corresponding reactions. It’s not the sharpest or brightest to look at, however, feeling a little grainy and recessed from the watch’s body.

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It’s not the only thing lacking quality either. In terms of customisation options, you’re pretty limited with the Vivoactive HR. You can switch out the watch face for something bland and basic and, well, that’s pretty much it. There’s no standard strap connection to let you switch out for something more stylish.

Fortunately, this is a watch that has taken its style shortcomings and focused those lesser efforts on substance instead. To great effect too.

Garmin Vivoactive HR review: Features & performance

• Built-in heart rate sensor
• Built-in GPS tracking
• Plenty of pre-set sports modes

Key to the Vivoactive – as the “HR” in the name suggests – is a sizeable underside protrusion to host the watch’s built-in heart-rate sensor. This is what sets it apart from other Vivo-named models in Garmin’s series.

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Whatever sport you’re buying this for, the Garmin Vivoactive HR’s tracking is bang on, with decent, relatable metrics available whether you’re running, cycling or doing a general gym session.

Kicking off a session is easy, too, thanks to the physical button that offers instant access to all the pre-set sports tracking modes. A press of this lets you select from a mass of exercise options that range from the traditional to more specialist activities like stand-up paddle boarding, cross country skiing and golf. The sport you select dictates the data you’re presented, and this is where the Vivoactive HR really sets itself out from the masses.

You’re not given meaningless information just because the sensors are there though. Each sport attunes itself to your needs. Runs and cycles will show your heart rate, distance and pace; golf uses the watch’s built-in GPS for a different purpose, giving you distances to the pin on the course you’re playing. It’s a great addition and one that helps the HR standout as wearable for the all-round sports enthusiast.

While selection is great, many will primarily use this watch for run and cycle tracking. Fortunately, the Vivoactive HR is great at monitoring both, offering all the usual metrics – calories burned, time active and distance covered – with pleasing accuracy and a few extras thrown in for good measure: elevation gain on cycles and average cadence on runs.

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The GPS is great and didn’t drop out for us at all during use. This is key as it helps the Vivoactive HR more accurately track your exercise, with runs correctly monitored to the metre rather than using an accelerometer to take an educated guess at roughly how far you’ve run. So if you’re working towards a 10K personal best or training for your first marathon, this level of detailed tracking is invaluable.

It’s not just the watch’s GPS skills that impress either, the device’s heart-rate sensor is pleasingly on point too. Compared with a Wahoo heart-rate monitoring chest strap, we found it did tend to wobble slightly the harder we pushed and the higher our heart rate became, but for standard runs instead of sprint sessions, it’s pleasingly accurate.

While all the information is relayed instantly to the wrist, it’s not always laid out in the best way. Yes, being able to see multiple metrics on a single screen during a run is a great addition, but everything’s a little bit sanitised and clinic.

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Similarly, you can set the watch up to push message and call alerts direct to your wrist, and although perfectly functional, they’re not the most elegant looking. You can read messages without fishing your phone from your pocket, but it’s a slow, clunky affair with messages leaking from line to line and requiring a lot of scrolling to digest.

Garmin Vivoactive HR review: Software & app

• Garmin Connect app works with iOS and Android
• On-screen data or in-browser full metrics & graphs

Fortunately, the watch’s Garmin Connect companion app is prettier than the on-screen graphics. More detailed too, which is ideal as all of that data capture is great, but without a decent companion app to turn it into something tangible, it would otherwise be redundant.

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Open the app while in close proximity to the Garmin Vivoactive HR and the watch will automatically sync its latest data. Now you’ll be presented with a series of graphs, charts and graphics that outline your activity in a friendly manner.

Like the watch itself, this is an app that offers something for everyone. For the general user, there is quick hit data that shows how far you’ve moved throughout the day, the amount of steps you’ve taken and the number of calories you’ve burned. Click on any of the metrics or listed exercise sessions, however, and you get a deeper dive of your daily actions.

For more knowledgeable fitness fans, being able to see a biggest metric breakdown, such as average heart rate, cadence on cycles and elevation change during runs is crucial. It transforms the device from yet another fitness tracker to one of note.

Graphing your heart rate over your steps is a great way of seeing your progressing fitness levels with your peak heart rate able to be tracked alongside the time taken to return to a resting heart rate after an activity session.

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While this is great, unfortunately you’re largely on your own to discover all this. As well as making you jump through multiple menus and metrics to find the data useful to you, the Garmin Connect app doesn’t back it up with any coaching element. There’s no indicator on how to lower those kilometre split times on a run or maintain a better cadence during your cycles. It’s an omission that stops this great activity tracker being an instant must own.

Garmin Vivoactive HR review: Battery life

• 8 days life with 24/7 heart-rate
• More than 13-hours with GPS
• Proprietary charger

While the Garmin Connect might leaving you wanting a bit more, the Vivoactive HR’s battery life won’t. Given the amount of battery-sapping tech squeezed into this watch, we half expected it to churn through its limited power supply and be begging for nightly trips to the mains.

Fortunately that’s not the case. Far from it. Garmin claims the watch is capable of 13-hours of GPS-equipped tracking between charges, and we found to achieve more than this. Unless you’re dropping in an ultra marathon then this will see you good for at least a few days.

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We found that with daily runs or cycles plus some nightly gym tracking and a full day’s worth of message relaying and general step-tracking, the Vivoactive HR lasted us the better part of a week. That puts a number of its rivals to shame, with the likes of the TomTom Adventurer unable to match.

When you do need to make a trip to a power supply, recharges aren’t the fastest, however. Like most other smartwatches the Vivoactive HR requires a bespoke charger. This cradle-based addition is easy enough to use, and unlike the Fitbit Alta HR, isn’t hampered by a ridiculously short cable.

Verdict

The Garmin Vivoactive HR is a well-rounded sports watch companion – whether you’re a multi-sport fitness fanatic or a diehard runner who dabbles in the occasional extra. It’s mighty capable, has great tracking features that work well, heaps of metrics, and long-lasting battery life.

Shame it’s not much of a looker, then, which is the ultimate letdown of this watch. The design is, frankly, uninspired enough to see you dropping it into a bag as you leave the gym rather than wanting to wear it all the time. The screen is also on the soft side, lacking clear detail and definition.

Overall, the Vivoactive HR is a device for the sports fan who spreads their love of being active rather than obsessing on a single form of exercise. It’s a device that will charge through your full week of action and accurately keep tabs on whatever you ask of it, no matter how obscure you latest fitness hobby.

The alternatives to consider…

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TomTom Adventurer

Slightly more expensive than the Garmin Vivoactive HR, the TomTom Adventurer is just as well-rounded when it comes to fitness tracking, with its mass of sports-centric capture modes enhanced by an integrated heart rate sensor and inbuilt GPS. There’s is a key difference, however, TomTom multipurpose wearable wraps everything up in a far more stylish package.

Read the full article: TomTom Adventurer review

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Polar M200

Design is again an issue for the Polar M200, but at almost half the price of the Garmin Vivoactive HR, it poses great value for money without skimping on the features. Moving beyond simple runs and rides, it tracks all of your activity with heart rate and GPS thrown in to finish the package.

Read the full article: Polar M200 review