Self-driving cars could soon be cheaper and easier to build

There’s no shortage of companies working on artificial intelligence for cars. If anything there’s a glut. Every automaker and startup seems to be building a nearly sentient system designed to operate cars and avoid objects (especially humans). AImotive (pronounced “AI Motive” — yeah, it’s confusing) is doing the same thing, except it’s also designing the accompanying hardware. What’s more, it’ll play nice with rival software platforms too. The ultimate goal is to create a suite that simplifies the way we connect different hardware configurations.

The company is creating a lower-cost self-driving system that forgoes the pricey LiDAR sensors in exchange for multiple low-cost cameras. Instead of using LiDAR-building juggernaut Velodyne’s $75,000 top-of-the-line sensor on its cars, it’s outfitted them with eight to 12 off-the-shelf $12 cameras.

Meanwhile in the trunk of AImotive’s Prius test vehicle, the company is sticking with industry darling NVIDIA to help make sense of all that camera data. But even those GPUs are on the way out in favor of a lower-power solution. The four NVIDIA cards currently used in the company’s car computer suck up 1,000 watts of power. That’s not exactly efficient, especially when you consider how the cars of the future will be powered. Self-driving cars are more than likely going to electric vehicles, so a supercomputer in the trunk sucking up enough wattage to power a small home isn’t ideal. So AImotive decided to design its own chip to replace each of those GPUs.

It’s not going to be easy. NVIDIA’s hardware is entrenched in the automotive space. AImotive says it will license the design to third parties and that its A6-based chip will reduce the power consumption of a four-processor system from 1,000 watts to 100. “What we found is that there are serious bottlenecks in the current chips, and we basically designed a new chip architecture,” said CEO László Kishonti. The new chips are expected to be 20 percent more efficient at crunching AI algorithms than the NVIDIA GPUs.

While the company hopes to change the processors in the cars, AImotive also understands that the backend of these systems requires high-end processors from NVIDIA, Intel and others. To streamline the process of working with multiple chip architectures in a single system, it’s created an open-standard translation tool for AI algorithms to increase the efficiency of file sharing between chip types.

All of this is based around the company’s premise that self-driving cars should act more like people. That it should be a vision-based system with Radar (or LiDAR, if the price ever drops substantially) as a backup. And more important, that it should be inexpensive and relatively easy to implement.

AImotive is taking on some huge competition. It’ll take a lot to unseat NVIDIA’s dominance in autonomous cars, and the company built a driving simulator because there’s no way its five cars can come close to real-world miles that Tesla and Google have accumulated. But the software company is looking beyond just building software for its potential customers. By taking a wider view and adding hardware to the mix, it’s working like an established automaker instead of dozens of other AI startups.

Apple invests $200 million in Corning’s US glass manufacturing

Apple is awarding $200 million of its billion-dollar Advanced Manufacturing Fund to Corning Incorporated for research and development, “capital equipment needs” and high-tech glass processing. In a statement, Corning’s CEO Wendell P. Weeks said that this has created around 1,000 jobs domestically, and will benefit its Harrodsburg production facility in Kentucky, specifically.

The company has supplied the glass for every iPhone since 2007. This new partnership extends for ten years.

Earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook made the announcement that investing domestically made sense because of manufacturing’s inherent ripple effect for job creation.

“If we can create many manufacturing jobs around, those manufacturing jobs create more jobs around them because you have a service industry that builds up around them,” Cook said at the time. Apple is expected to announce investments in coding and developer training this year as well.

If you’ll recall, way back in 2013 Apple built the Mac Pro in the United States. Its mobile device and laptop manufacturing primarily take place in China, however, and given the company’s relationship with manufacturer Foxconn, Apple bowing to Donald Trump’s campaign-trail threats is highly unlikely.

Source: BusinessWire

Alexa’s now a Eurovision trivia buff

Whatever your thoughts are on it, there’s no denying that The Eurovision Song Contest continues to go from strength to strength. In 2016, over 200 million viewers watched Ukraine’s Jamala triumph over three live shows broadcast from Stockholm, Sweden. And thanks to an ever-increasing US audience, tomorrow’s final is expected to help break the record once again.

For some, Eurovision is a way of life, but for others, the music event can take some getting used to. To bring people up to speed, Eurovision has created an official Alexa skill that doesn’t only provide answers to europop trivia, it can also play back every track performed over the last 60 years.

Once the skill has been enabled on the Echo or Echo Dot, US, UK and German users can ask Alexa “Who won in 1967?” It’ll then deliver the winning song, the artist and country and then ask if they’d like to hear it. (Sandie Shaw won with Puppet On A String, if you’re wondering). UK owners can also ask their Echo to tune into the BBC’s live radio coverage, although they’ll inevitably lose some of the spectacle.

Source: Amazon (UK), (US)

Satechi Launches Type-C Pro Hub for 2016 MacBook Pro With Ports for Thunderbolt 3, HDMI, SD, and More

Accessory manufacturer Satechi today launched a new $99.99 Type-C Pro Hub for the 13-inch and 15-inch 2016 MacBook Pros, featuring a total of seven ports to make up for the inclusion of only Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports on the 2016 MacBook Pro.

The new hub is similar in design to the Type-C Hub compatible with Apple’s original 12-inch Macbook, but includes two Thunderbolt 3 dongles that take up both ports on either side of the new MacBook Pros with Touch Bar. The hub is compatible with the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro as well.

After users plug the hub in, they can gain access to a passthrough Thunderbolt 3 port, a USB-C port, and the following ports missing from Apple’s device: 4K HDMI, 2 USB 3.0 ports, and both SD and microSD card readers.

The Thunderbolt 3 port supports quick data transfer of speeds up to 40Gbps, as well as passthrough charging for both 13-inch (61W) and 15-inch (87W) models of the MacBook Pro. Users can output 1080p video at 60Hz via the HDMI port, and up to 4K video at 30Hz.

Both the USB 3.0 and USB-C ports include transfer speeds of up to 5 GB/s, while the photo and video editing capabilities of the SD card slots provide data transfer speeds of up to 104 MB/s.

Those interested can purchase the Type-C Pro Hub from Satechi’s website for $99.99 starting today. Like the company’s other products, the hub comes in MacBook color-matching Silver and Space Gray, and has a brushed aluminum finish to complement Apple’s aesthetics.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Tag: Satechi
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Neutral)
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iPlayer will soon require a BBC account

The majority of Brits will soon need a BBC account in order to watch iPlayer, listen to iPlayer Radio and use some of the broadcaster’s other services. The BBC has said that registration will move from optional to mandatory within the next few weeks. No formal date has been set because the BBC wants to ensure as many people as possible have been given the opportunity to sign up before it flips the switch, and it’s started warning users of the impending change online and within its various apps. The BBC says it’s introducing mandatory logins to improve its services and user personalisation, but there’s also a secondary motivation: Making sure you’re paying your TV licence.

The BBC already tailors many of its services for logged-in users. For example, iPlayer will recommend things to watch based on your viewing habits, and only with an account can you pause a show on one device and pick up where you left off on another, for obvious reasons. By forcing more people to log in, the BBC says it can get a much better idea of how people use its services, and improve them accordingly.

When signing up, you need to provide your date of birth, email address and post code. With a richer understanding of user demographics, the BBC hopes to personalise on an individual and country-wide scale. “By finding out more about you and what you like we can make better content, make it more relevant, and bring it to you more effectively,” the BBC’s Andrew Scott writes. Logging-in will initially only be mandatory when watching iPlayer online or via mobile apps. “Connected TVs,” which is a term the BBC uses to describe apps for smart TVs, games consoles, set-top boxes, etc., will fall in line in due course — some of these platforms will be forever be exempt since they aren’t built to support account systems.

The BBC first announced it was going to introduce the registration requirement last September. Coincidentally, or not, this was made just a few weeks after TV Licensing law changed, closing the so-called “iPlayer loophole.” Previously, only those watching the BBC’s live channels needed a licence, but it was extended to cover the broadcaster’s on-demand content too.

As much as the BBC tries to downplay the connection, account details will be available to TV Licensing and used to tackle fee evasion. For now, at least, the BBC says only the email address you sign up with will be of interest. If you’ve explicitly told TV Licensing you don’t need one, it’ll be obvious you’re lying when you’re logged into iPlayer with a known email address and catching up on Masterchef. That’s not to say your post code will be ignored forever, but Scott says nobody’s going to start asking ISPs for IP addresses to connect the dots.

Last year, the government suggested the BBC consider a strict TV licence verification system for iPlayer. “This is something we’re continuing to look at,” says Scott.

Via: Wired

Source: BBC

50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch foundation that aims to deal with plastics polluting our seas, says it’s finally ready to put its technology to work. In a statement released today, the organization has revealed that it plans to start cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in early 2018 using its newly redesigned cleaning system. That garbage patch is the biggest collection of debris in the ocean, a massive soup of visible and microscopic plastic particles poisoning marine life. The ship captain who discovered it in 2003 said he “never found a clear spot” in the week it took to cross the region.

While Boyan Slat (the organization’s founder) originally envisioned trapping plastic trash with one large screen tethered to the ocean floor, the new design is smaller, sturdier and can save the group a ton of money. Instead of deploying a 60-mile stationary screen, they plan on releasing 50 smaller ones that measure 0.6 miles in length. They’ll weigh the floating screens down with anchor, so they can move with the currents like plastics do, albeit a bit slower in order to trap debris.

Slat told FastCompany that he expected the original design to clean up half of the massive garbage patch in 10 years for $320 million. Now, he expects the new design to cut that timespan in half and to cost the group significantly less than that amount. Since he and his team still need to fund the project, though, they plan to use the plastic they collect to make items they can sell, such as sunglasses, chairs and car bumpers.

Source: The Ocean Cleanup

Microsoft’s dream of owning the living room hinges on Cortana

When Microsoft unveiled Cortana three years ago, it was positioned as the company’s response to Siri and Google Now. But as Windows Phone faltered, Microsoft wisely shifted Cortana over to other mobile platforms and Windows PCs, where it could hook into your calendar and email to offer even more personalized assistance. Now, it appears that Microsoft wants Cortana to take over yet another space — the living room.

At Build, Microsoft’s annual developer conference, the company revealed that it was working on several Cortana-powered smart speakers that would take on Amazon’s Echo. Aside from the Harmon Kardon Invoke that was leaked earlier this week, both HP and Intel are working on their own Cortana-powered speakers. What’s more, Microsoft also launched a Cortana Skills Kit so developers can teach the personal assistant new skills or at least convert them from Alexa.

The company gave hints that this play for the living room was coming a few months ago, when a leak showed that Windows 10 was getting a Home Hub feature that would turn any PC into an Echo rival. Home Hub promised that the entire family could share calendars and shopping lists, and a smart-home app would control all your connected devices — with Cortana stepping into a role similar to Alexa. Microsoft also recently revealed that the Windows Creator 10 Update would bring Cortana to Windows 10 IoT Core devices with screens, which could include everything from a thermostat to a smart refrigerator. Of course, Microsoft’s Xbox One finally added Cortana not long ago as well.

Still, not everyone is going to buy an Xbox One, especially non-gamers. Also, the aforementioned smart appliances are months, if not years, away from being on the market. Not everyone has the funds to buy a whole new IoT appliance or a brand-new PC, both of which can cost thousands of dollars. Integrating Cortana into $200 speakers, however, is a much more affordable way to sneak Microsoft’s personal assistant into people’s homes.

It’s a tactic that Amazon has already proved with the Echo. Though the company wouldn’t reveal sales information, an independent consumer report estimates that 8.2 million customers own one of Amazon’s smart speakers. A company spokesperson wouldn’t confirm the number, but did say that “there are millions of Alexa-enabled devices out there.”

On top of that, the Alexa-powered ecosystem has grown to include all kinds of services and applications. It’s even integrated in a variety of third-party hardware like smartwatches and phones — even cars. Amazon shows no sign of slowing down, either, as evidenced by the introduction of the touchscreen-enabled Echo Show earlier this week, along with increased investment in developing Alexa’s AI smarts. With such a growing market, it’s no wonder that others want a piece of it, too. Google, for example, released its own Google Home speaker last year, which CEO Sundar Pichai said had a “very strong” first quarter.

With Amazon and Google duking it out for a space in the living room, it’s certainly prudent for Microsoft to get in as well. After all, this is the same company that’s harbored smart-home dreams since the ’90s. In this 1999 Microsoft Smart Home video, for example (credit goes to Gizmodo for finding it), it predicted a whole slew of smart-home tech that proved to be remarkably prescient, like a personal voice assistant, connected thermostats and internet-enabled TV (remember WebTV, anyone?). Alas, Microsoft never really brought its dream to fruition. It did come really close with Windows Media Center back in the early aughts, but it’s unfortunately since been discontinued.

With Cortana, however, Microsoft has yet another shot at its smart-home dreams. Sure, it has a lot of catching up to do with Amazon, and it doesn’t have nearly the AI smarts that Google does, but Microsoft could bring something else to the table: sheer ubiquity. With Cortana available on iOS, Android, your PC and now in the center of your home, Microsoft’s smart ecosystem could trump everyone else’s simply because it would be the most-integrated across all your devices. Microsoft might have missed the mobile boat, but if it succeeds in the smart home, it would further prove to the world that the company is more than just a boring PC company.

Samsung promises Tizen phones aren’t dead with the budget Z4

Samsung has plenty of reasons to give up on Tizen phones — they’re a security nightmare and there are basically no apps. However, it’s not punting yet on its home-grown OS, as it has just launched its fourth Tizen smartphone, the Z4. The device is aimed clearly at emerging markets, with low-end specs: a quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a lightly-curved 4.5-inch “2.5 D” WVGA screen and 5-megapixel camera. Rather, Samsung is pitching it to “first time smartphone users” who want a simple device and LTE connectivity.

So why doesn’t Samsung stick with Android, since it has endless apps, regular security updates and more overall desirability? It’s surprisingly popular in India, for one thing. Samsung is clearly still dreaming of it being a successful smartphone OS, as it’s used to good effect in its appliances, TVs and Gear smartwatches (Tizen reportedly has a greater share of the smartwatch market than Android Wear). Mainly though, Samsung likely wants to keep it on life support as both fallback and leverage against Google, in case their schizo relationship sours.

Samsung recently said that it will stick with Android for high-end phones, but it does plan to eventually release Tizen devices outside of emerging markets like India. To counter the lack of apps, it recently launched a competition offering developers $10,000 prizes, and promised to work with security researchers to fix the numerous holes. The Z4 will launch in India starting this month and come to a handful of markets later — Samsung didn’t reveal the price, but given the specs, it should run less than $100.

Source: Samsung

Google Allo Gaining Personalized Sticker Packs Generated Through Neural Network-Powered Selfies

Google this week announced an update coming soon to its iOS Google Allo app, which will introduce neural network-generated stickers that are personalized to match your own distinct look. The company said that the new feature will combine neural networks and the work of artists to turn your selfies into unique sticker packs, which can then be used in Allo, the company’s messaging app.

The process to generate the stickers is relatively simple, according to Google, with the sticker packs of your likeness being created “on the fly” after you take a selfie. If you aren’t happy with some aspects of the stickers, a few customization options will appear so you can tweak and personalize even more. You can take a selfie with a few filters for a more comical sticker pack, or opt for results that more closely resemble you.

Google went deeper into the process of developing the neural network for the new sticker pack feature in Allo, as well as how the collaborative artists working with the company affected the end results. The pack that will debut at launch is said to be the first in a line of artistic styles — Google said it “speaks to your sarcastic side” — and future updates will add different emotive artwork that “might be more cute for those sincere moments.”

The first pack was designed by artist Lamar Abrams, who works as a story boarder on Steven Universe, and whose feature designs for Allo help account for more than 563 quadrillion potential combinations of personal stickers.

To create an illustration of you that captures the qualities that would make it recognizable to your friends, we worked alongside an artistic team to create illustrations that represented a wide variety of features. Artists initially designed a set of hairstyles, for example, that they thought would be representative, and with the help of human raters we used these hairstyles to train the network to match the right illustration to the right selfie.

We then asked human raters to judge the sticker output against the input image to see how well it did. In some instances, they determined that some styles were not well represented, so the artists created more that the neural network could learn to identify as well.

Google Allo launched last year and combined standard messaging threads, photo editing, and stickers with the company’s AI helper Google Assistant. The AI could be brought up directly within a chat thread to find somewhere nearby to eat (even by using related emojis, like the taco), search for a YouTube video, and more.

A few of the 563 quadrillion combinations that can come from Abrams’ basic feature illustrations
Google didn’t confirm when the new neural network update would appear on Google Allo for iOS [Direct Link], but Android users can use the selfie feature right now.

Tags: Google, Allo
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Keep dreaming. Microsoft’s ‘mixed reality’ visions remain out of reach

Microsoft may have the best demos of any consumer tech company, ever. Consistently, year after year, it hits press events and conferences with beautiful, well-paced showpieces that demonstrate how new technology can accomplish the impossible.

Virtual and augmented reality have provided the company with an opportunity to exercise this creativity. At Build 2017 we saw new motion controllers, a Cirque du Soleil set designed and refined with HoloLens, and real-time use of holograms to design chair lifts, among other things.

It all looked great, yet there’s a problem. Microsoft’s real-world rollout of its ideas has fallen behind and so far, appeared for only a limited audience. That makes it hard to take the company’s mind-bending ideas seriously.

Motion controller magic

The biggest VR news from Build 2017 was undoubtedly Microsoft’s new Windows Mixed Reality motion controllers. Based on inside-out tracking technology, the controllers base their position off the headset and their internal sensors, rather than external base stations.

It’s hard to take these mind-bending ideas seriously.

They simplify setup and make multi-room use possible. Better yet, they seem reasonably priced. An Acer Mixed Reality Headset bundle was revealed at $399, just $100 more than the headset on its own.

All that sounds great, but hold on. The controllers weren’t present at Build 2017. They weren’t even shown on stage. While Microsoft answered a few general questions about the controllers in a press session, the specifics weren’t provided.

Fool me once…

Of course, it’s perfectly OK for Microsoft to tease a product. A reveal doesn’t need to have all the details.

The problem is not with the motion controllers’ reveal, but instead in the pattern they’re a part of. Since HoloLens first appeared, Microsoft has continually demonstrated VR, AR, and now Mixed Reality devices without firm release dates, and with only vague technical details.

Repeatedly, these projects have taken much longer to appear than initially hoped. HoloLens appeared in January of 2015, yet it still lacks any tangible plans for broad release. Windows Mixed Reality was shown first in conjunction with the Windows 10 Creators Update, implying they would launch together. Now, it appears we’ll have to wait until holiday 2017 to see a headset that doesn’t have “dev kit” in its title.

Then we have the elephant in the room — Paint 3D. Touted as a content creation tool for Windows Mixed Reality, the version delivered with the Creators Update is little more than a toy. It’s completely unsuited for 3D printing or serious content creation, and its disappointing execution undermined the heart of the Creators Update.

Let’s see the proof

There may be reason for Microsoft’s delays and lack of detail. As our own Mark Coppock argued several months ago, Microsoft’s casual pace may be due to its desire to create platforms rather than individual devices. In other words, the goal may be an ecosystem of devices, rather than a particular device.

Which may be true.

Still, Microsoft should consider holding back the fireworks until the fuse is lit. It’s hard to get pumped about the next big thing when the last few big things still haven’t launch — or exploded on the launch platform.