The Veiu transforms standard peephole into a video doorbell with an app
Why it matters to you
Keeping track of your home is vital. Veiu allows you to rest easy whenever you aren’t home to check the door.
Whether people are at home, on vacation, or running errands, they would always feel safer knowing if and when someone is at their door. It is no wonder that the video doorbell market has been growing so quickly.
Eques, known for its previous video doorbells, returned with the Veiu, a smarter refinement of the previously released DingDong3. With it, users can keep an eye on their home from wherever there is an internet connection.
Veiu replaces the traditional peephole and comes with a monitor that mounts to the back of the door. This allows the device to work without the companion smartphone app.
The camera itself offers an 180-degree view from the front door in high-quality 720p HD. After nightfall, infrared night vision allows for detailed footage. This footage displays on a five-inch LCD touchscreen with two gigabytes of internal memory. A micro SD card can expand this memory up to 32 gigabytes. Powering the device is a rechargeable battery that should last up to two months.
With the upcoming companion app, the convenience of the Veiu is made more apparent. Whether owners are away, in the backyard, or too sick to get up, they can easily answer the door using their phone. A two-way mic allows users to speak with whoever is at the door while a live video allows them to see who it is.
Even if someone ignores the doorbell, Veiu can be set up to capture footage and take a picture whenever motion is detected on the porch. An alert will be sent through the app, keeping users informed. If it looks like foul play, the picture can always be helpful when speaking with law enforcement.
Veiu is currently available for pre-order on Kickstarter starting at $149. No subscription is required and the upcoming app will be completely free. Shipments are scheduled to go out in July.
Backblaze’s hard drive reliability data helps you choose a long-lasting option
Why it matters to you
If you’re in the market for a new hard drive, this data can help you find the most reliable model.
Cloud backup and storage services company Backblaze has a vested interest in how storage devices perform, including how long they last and how reliable are specific brands and models. The company has therefore built up one of the most extensive databases around that track such data and can provide insights on which drives perform the best.
On Tuesday, Backblaze published its report on hard disk drive (HDD) statistics for the first quarter of 2017. The analysis looks back over the last four years of data for 82,516 HDDs in its database, including 17 models that are between 3TB and 8TB in storage space.
During the first quarter of 2017, Backblaze notes a wide range of performance, with some drives achieving a zero percent annualized failure rate and one brand suffering more than 35 percent failure, albeit with a statistically insignificant 170 drives. Out of the tens of thousands of drives in the database, a total of 357 drives failed during the first quarter.
Backblaze specifically utilizes the quarterly statistics to look for anomalies among different HDDs, to help it identify which manufacturers and models are particularly reliable and particularly unreliable. It found that its current annualized hard drive rate for the quarter was a bit higher than usual at 2.11 percent, which it attributes to the influx of more htan10,000 new drives and their tendency to fail early.
If you’re looking for a source of information on the most reliable drives for your own purchasing purposes, then the Backblaze database provides some interesting information. While its data is based on how the drives are used in its own systems and environment, it is nevertheless a solid source on how well drives might perform in high-demand data storage applications.
Backblaze also began implementing enterprise-level HDDs in its data centers, specifically adding in almost 2,500 Seagate 8TB HDDs. The company’s decision to implement the new drives was based on higher performance and additional features, but not enough time has passed to allow the company to verify if the enterprise drives are more reliable than their consumer counterparts.
The company will be reporting on its HDD database and experience at the upcoming 33rd International Conference on Massive Storage Systems and Technology (MSST 2017) being held at Santa Clara University on May 15 to 19. In addition, anyone who wants to take a look at the Backblaze raw data can download it here for analysis.
Shape-shifting fog display ushers in a whole new world of holograms
Why it matters to you
This shape-shifting fog display opens up all kinds of awesome new interactions and future entertainment options with viewers.
Researchers at the U.K.’s University of Sussex developed a shape-changing fog display that projects 3D-looking images directly onto a thin wall of mist, floating in midair. The work represents the first time anyone has combined shape-shifting displays and fog screens into one creation.
Called Mistform, the display is about 39 inches and is made up of fog stabilized by curtains of air. The 3D- projection part of the project makes use of some smart algorithms that have to account for the way that fog scatters light. They also remove any image distortion which might occur due to projecting an image onto a moving, curved fog surface.
However, the interesting part of Mistform is the way that the screen extends and retracts to interact with its viewers.
For example, it can curve around two viewers as a way of providing the best possible viewing experience for both of them. On the other hand, it can adopt a triangular shape if they want to work independently on different parts of the screen. Even if just one person is watching, the shape-shifting tech can be effective by manipulating itself to facilitate interactions — or simply to make an image appear more three-dimensional by physically moving closer to a viewer.
It is able to manipulate itself in this way thanks to motion trackers which detect the user’s movement and intentions and then instruct the display on how to adapt.
“With other 3D display technologies your eyes need to focus on the display surface, even if you see an object ‘popping out’ of the screen,” Dr. Diego Martinez Plasencia, a lecturer in the Interact Lab at the University of Sussex’s School of Engineering and Informatics, said in a press release. “If you then try to touch it, your eyes will need to focus either on your hand or on the display, which soon can lead to eye fatigue (unless the 3D object and your hand are really close to the display surface). MistForm can adapt to these scenarios, moving the display surface so that both the object and the hand remain comfortably visible. With this kind of technique, we can provide comfortable direct hand 3D interaction in all the range your arms can reach.”
While it is unlikely that we will be ditching the TV in our living room shape-shifting fog display any time soon, it is hard to deny this technology is pretty darn rad. At the very least, we look forward to it making for some great future theme park rides.
Facebook is using AI to make language translation nine times faster
Why it matters to you
If you’re ever had dealings with someone who speaks a foreign language, you probably know how difficult a language barrier can be. Facebook’s new tech could change that.
Artificially intelligent systems are only getting better, and they’re likely to appear in our computers and on our phones more and more often over the next few years. Facebook has been using artificial intelligence and machine learning for various things — like its M digital assistant — but now the company is turning to AI for another purpose: translation.
Facebook’s research team has published a report on how artificial intelligence is a hefty nine times faster than traditional language translation software. Not only that, but the researchers have revealed that the source code for the translation software is open-source, so anyone can get their hands on it to verify the results.
The report highlights the use of convolutional neural networks (CNN) as opposed to recurrent neural networks (RNN), which translate sentences one word at a time in a linear order. The new architecture, however, can take words further down in the sentence into consideration during the translation process, which helps make the translation far more accurate. This actually marks the first time a CNN has managed to outperform an RNN in language translation, and Facebook now hopes to expand it to to cover more languages.
“Language translation is important to Facebook’s mission of making the world more open and connected, enabling everyone to consume posts or videos in their preferred language — all at the highest possible accuracy and speed,” said the company in a blog post.
Convolutional Neural Networks aren’t a totally new technology, but they haven’t really been applied to translation before. As a result of the new tech, Facebook can compute different aspects of a sentence at the same time, and as a result it can train its systems using a lot less computational power — which in turn results in faster translation. The system is also open source, meaning translation should get better across the web — not just in Facebook’s offerings.
Facebook is using AI to make language translation nine times faster
Why it matters to you
If you’re ever had dealings with someone who speaks a foreign language, you probably know how difficult a language barrier can be. Facebook’s new tech could change that.
Artificially intelligent systems are only getting better, and they’re likely to appear in our computers and on our phones more and more often over the next few years. Facebook has been using artificial intelligence and machine learning for various things — like its M digital assistant — but now the company is turning to AI for another purpose: translation.
Facebook’s research team has published a report on how artificial intelligence is a hefty nine times faster than traditional language translation software. Not only that, but the researchers have revealed that the source code for the translation software is open-source, so anyone can get their hands on it to verify the results.
The report highlights the use of convolutional neural networks (CNN) as opposed to recurrent neural networks (RNN), which translate sentences one word at a time in a linear order. The new architecture, however, can take words further down in the sentence into consideration during the translation process, which helps make the translation far more accurate. This actually marks the first time a CNN has managed to outperform an RNN in language translation, and Facebook now hopes to expand it to to cover more languages.
“Language translation is important to Facebook’s mission of making the world more open and connected, enabling everyone to consume posts or videos in their preferred language — all at the highest possible accuracy and speed,” said the company in a blog post.
Convolutional Neural Networks aren’t a totally new technology, but they haven’t really been applied to translation before. As a result of the new tech, Facebook can compute different aspects of a sentence at the same time, and as a result it can train its systems using a lot less computational power — which in turn results in faster translation. The system is also open source, meaning translation should get better across the web — not just in Facebook’s offerings.
Microsoft invites Insiders to discover what’s new in OneNote for Windows 10
Why it matters to you
You can enter for a chance to win prizes by tweeting new features in the May 2017 version of OneNote for Windows 10 — but only if you’re an Office Insider.
Microsoft introduced a new version of OneNote for Windows 10 on Tuesday, and it is available exclusively for Office Insiders who are running on the Fast Ring and have updated to the May Insiders version of OneNote. The company is doing things differently this time around — rather than publishing a changelog for the new version, it is inviting users on a quest to find the new features themselves.
#OfficeInsiders It's time–Grab your morning brew & get ready for the festivities! https://t.co/KWWJa9aFhb. #OneNoteQuest #TwitterTakeover pic.twitter.com/6sHbZ8oavJ
— MS Office Insiders (@OfficeInsider) May 9, 2017
If you head over to the Microsoft Office Insider Twitter account, you can follow along using the hashtag #OneNoteQuest. That’s where you can pose your questions to the Office Insider team, identify features that you have discovered, and, perhaps most important, have a chance to win prizes.
Mark Coppock/Digital Trends
In order to participate, you will need to install the latest Office Insider Fast Ring update for OneNote for Windows 10 from the Windows Store. Head to OneNote and open Settings, then Options, and then turn on Enable Beta Features. Finally, scan the app for new features and tweet them to @OfficeInsider with the feature name and the OneNote build you are currently running.
Digging through the various tweets, here are some of the new features that users have discovered:
- You can now open multiple windows in OneNote for Windows 10, making it easier to access and manage your notes.
- You can choose which navigation panes to keep open, including always showing the notebook pane.
- You can nickname notebooks and change notebook colors.
- OneNote for Windows 10 will now show you which pages have unread changes, and you can mark them as read.
- You can insert meeting details in OneNote for Windows 10.
- The Send to OneNote app, which you can install from the Window Store, can be used to send to OneNote for Windows 10 from any app via the print dialogue.
Mark Coppock/Digital Trends
Even if you miss the festivities, you can keep scanning the tweets for new features. OneNote for Windows 10 is a nice and lightweight alternative to the desktop OneNote 2016 app, and these new features bring some welcome functionality. Of course, you will need to be an Office Insider to participate, and you can join up for the program here.
Microsoft Build 2017 is happening! Here’s how to follow it
Catch all the Microsoft Build announcements over at Windows Central!
Microsoft Build is like Google I/O, but rainier. I kid, I kid. This year, Microsoft’s annual developer takes place in the company’s hometown of Seattle, Washed Out (don’t @ me, Andrew).
Starting May 10 at 8am PT / 11am ET, the event kicks off with a keynote by CEO Satya Nadella, and even though Microsoft just announced its new Chromebook competitor, Windows 10 S, along with a pretty new laptop, the Surface Laptop, there will certainly be some big announcements across the company’s vast product line — including Cortana and some other Android-based initiatives.
On day two, Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group, gets on stage at 8:30am PT / 11:30am ET to talk about what’s happening with Windows 10 and, perhaps, its smartphone strategy.
Microsoft Build Day 1 + 2 Keynote liveblog and livestream
Our buddies at Windows Central will be covering everything, including all the announcements, analysis and lack of smartphones. I kid, I kid. Sort of.
How VW’s Arteon keeps you alive if you pass out while driving
The Volkswagen Arteon is not a fully fledged self-driving car, but it definitely has some fancy autonomous features. The sedan, which is due to land in the United States this summer, features a program that will recognize if a driver has blacked out at the wheel and then gently steer the car to the side of the road.
The system is called Emergency Assist 2.0, and it takes advantage of four existing VW safety programs: Adaptive Cruise Control, Side Assist, Lane Assist and Park Assist. The Arteon will notice if a driver hasn’t touched the gas, brakes or steering wheel for a certain length of time, and it will attempt to “wake up” the person with sounds, visual cues and even a physical brake tap. If that doesn’t work, Emergency Assist 2.0 takes over: The car’s hazard lights switch on and it steers itself to a safe, nearside lane.
The system uses Lane Assist to recognize lines on the road and Park Assist to actually steer the car. Radar detection via Adaptive Cruise Control and Side Assist helps ensure the Arteon won’t hit any other vehicles.
This type of technology isn’t new. Vehicle manufacturers like BMW have been toying with similar emergency systems since 2009, at least. However, that was back when driverless cars were still the stuff of pipe dreams. Today, autonomous-vehicle technology is becoming more ubiquitous by the second, and the Arteon’s Emergency Assist 2.0 — a self-driving system in a traditionally controlled car — is a testament to this growing industry.
President Trump fires FBI Director James Comey
President Donald Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey, who recently led multiple investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State and Russia’s involvement in the 2016 US presidential election. Trump acted on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who argued Comey caused “substantial damage” to the FBI’s reputation and credibility over the past year.
Which brings us back to Clinton’s emails.
“I cannot defend the Director’s handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton’s emails, and I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken,” Rosenstein writes.
BREAKING: FBI Director James Comey has been fired, White House says. https://t.co/8UupHPDBNs pic.twitter.com/U3Mxx8LY2p
— ABC News (@ABC) May 9, 2017
He’s talking specifically about Comey’s press conference on July 5th, 2016, when he announced the FBI would not bring charges against Clinton for her use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State, even though he said her actions were “extremely careless.” Rosenstein argues — and Trump and Sessions clearly agree — that Comey should not have closed the case without consulting members of the Justice Department.
“Compounding the error, the Director ignored another longstanding principle: we do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation. … The Director laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument, but without a trial,” Rosenstein writes.
Just last week, Comey defended his handling of the Clinton email probe to the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, he mistakenly said Clinton aide Huma Abedin “forwarded hundreds and thousands of emails, some of which contain classified information,” to her husband at the time, former Congressman Anthony Weiner. The FBI later sent a letter to the committee saying this information wasn’t accurate.
Comey was also heading an investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 US presidential election. In his termination letter to Comey, Trump mentions this investigation and the fact that he has not been personally implicated in it, saying, “While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.”
Comey consistently supported decryption legislation, and argued for “backdoors” that would enable law enforcement to search locked phones and other devices. In March, Comey refuted Trump’s claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the campaign.
Trump and Comey have publicly locked horns over the past year. On May 2nd, Trump tweeted the following message: “FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds! The phony….”
Trump fired Comey one week after that tweet, as he was in Los Angeles, California, for work.
Comey learned of firing as he addressed FBI employees in LA. TV screens in background flashed news of firing. Letter was then given to FBI.
— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) May 9, 2017
“The FBI is one of our Nation’s most cherished and respected institutions and today will mark a new beginning for our crown jewel of law enforcement,” Trump said today in a prepared statement.
Robot that performs surgery inside your eye passes clinical trial
The next time you go under the knife for retinal surgery, it may not be a human hand holding the blade. That’s because a revolutionary surgical system developed University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, which just passed its first set of clinical trials, is able to perform these intricate operations better than even the steadiest surgeon.
The problem lies in the pulse. Retinal surgeries rely on creating miniscule holes in the eye to gain access to the retina itself, a 10 micron thick flap of membrane that converts light into electrical signals that the brain can interpret. In the case of issues like an epiretinal membrane, essentially a scar on the retina caused by anything from injury to disease to just growing old, even the flow of blood through a surgeon’s hands is enough to throw off their accuracy, raising the odds that they’ll cut too deeply and make matters worse.
However Oxford’s Robotic Retinal Dissection Device (yes, “R2D2”) has no pulse and is therefore precise enough to move just 10 microns at a time, a tenfold increase over what human surgeons can achieve. That’s important when you’re shoving a tiny knife into a millimeter-wide hold in the side of the patient’s eyeball. The entire process is really still performed by a surgeon, albeit they’re holding a joystick rather than the scalpel itself.
The Oxford team has been developing the R2D2 since 2011 and conducted the first successful experimental procedure on a 70-year-old priest last September. Since then, the team has performed another 11 successful surgeries in a randomized clinical trial pitting it against results performed by humans.
These operations were not without their complications however. According to the team, who presented their findings at the the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in Baltimore on Monday, two patients suffered minor bleeding (aka micro-hommorhages) and another suffered a “retinal touch” which heightens the risk that the retina will tear or detach. Still, that’s better than the control group which had five hemorrhages and a pair of retinal touches.
This isn’t the first time that robots have taken the helm in delicate eye surgeries. In January of this year, doctors at University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium successfully trialed a robotic syringe for treating retinal vein occlusion, wherein a vein in the retina becomes blocked and can lead to blindness. Treating that condition is insanely expensive, around $35,000 an eye, that requires surgeons to inject medicine into a 0.1mm-wide vein in the back of the eye for ten minutes straight.
The Oxford team believes that its R2D2 can do even more for patients. They hope to next outfit the machine with needles that can be used to inject fluids into the back of the eye, such as those used for retinal gene therapy.
Source: NBC News
