Audi’s AI future tackles autonomous driving one solution at a time

If you want a self-driving car, you need artificial intelligence. At its first Audi Tech Summit, the automaker unveiled Audi AI, its long-term plans to stay ahead of — or at least keep pace with — its competitors.

To help understand where the company is right now and where it intends to go (and when), we spoke with Dr. Miklos Kiss, head of predevelopment and driver assistance systems at Audi. The automaker is tackling the tough problems by taking on simpler solutions for the various levels of autonomy (Level 0 is basically manual driving, Level 5 is full autonomy).

What is the state of AI within Audi?

“AI within Audi means Audi intelligence. That means we present more functionality than the customer would expect. That differs very much from the AI topic that is just machine learning. What we are presenting right now is that Audi has the first passenger car that is ready for Level 3 driving, an automation level where, for the first time, we take over the whole responsibility of the driving task.

So the driver no longer has to monitor the driving task in a traffic jam up to 60 kilometers per hour (37 miles per hour); you just sit back and relax. That’s new. Therefore we needed a new architecture. We now have a central computing unit for drivers’ assistant systems that gathers all the sensor data in one unit.”

How is that different from what Audi’s been doing before?

“It differs very much from what we did before where certain systems didn’t talk to each other. So we had a system responsible for the longitudinal under control. We had the Audi Lane Assist responsible for lateral control and these were two completely independent systems. Now we brought them together into an integrated system. That does longitudinal and lateral and lack of control. This gives us much more possibilities to new scenarios in traffic.”

Right now you have Level 3. What do you see for the future? Is Level 4 just around the corner?

“Well the first thing is the levels of automotive driving. The second thing is the scenarios of automated driving. For the highway scenario, we see Level 3 for the next couple of years. It’s very hard to get to Level 4 because we would have to come up with any conceivable situation on any highway in any country. That’s quite a hard one. On the other hand, a Level 3 system on the highway is very comfortable for the driver. So it’s a valuable system.

When you think about the automotive parking garage pilots, a Level 3 system wouldn’t help very much because the driver would have to go to the store and then walk out to their car just as before. But a Level 4 system in the parking garage would be the comfort system. Exit the car at the entrance, go on your way and the car would park itself. That would be nice. So this is a limited-use case for low speeds that we can think of for a Level 4 system that’ll come much earlier than driving on a highway.

So the important thing is to separate the levels from the functions.”

How do you train these systems?

“Well, they’re two different things. We have object detection algorithms and we train them with pictures and video streams we have from all over the world. Lots of data. The second thing is the algorithm for the maneuvering itself. This is physical. We have no trained algorithms in the car right now because we describe them in physical algorithms that come from engineers. So this is the big difference. There’s no self-learning car that drives on AI data.”

Is the goal to have a self-learning car that learns and it uploads to the cloud in the cloud shares it with other cars?

“We call it a vision, not an actual goal.”

What is the vision for the next five to 10 years?

“The vision is more complex scenarios. When we envision a future research project of driving in the city, we’re facing complex intersections where there are pedestrians, cyclists, cars and trucks, and distinguishing all the possible situations and do the right hypothesis. I think this is the big thing we can do with AI.

At the moment, there are much more simpler things. For example, describing a parking lot. What is a parking lot? What’s not? That’s very hard to describe to an algorithm. But for a self-learning algorithm we could feed millions of pictures from all the world. That’s a possible solution. So we’re testing simple scenarios and coming to the more complex ones.”

The Audi A8 with Level 3 autonomy will launch sometime in 2018. Check our more of other coverage from the Audi Tech Summit in Barcelona.

Samsung’s latest acquisition could give Bixby its voice

Despite unveiling Bixby in March, Samsung’s digital assistant remains an elusive beast. An ETA was predicted for June, but we’re now in the throes of summer and Bixby is still in hiding. However, the Korean manufacturer’s latest acquisition sounds like it’s tailor-made for the voice assistant — and any other Bixby-powered devices it may have in the pipeline.

Samsung has quietly snapped up Innoetics, a Greek text-to-speech startup. Among Innoetic’s software is a voice-to-speech system that can pick up a speaking voice and then mimic it to recite a completely different text. The startup’s library of 29 synthetic voices in 15 languages (including Hindi and German) should come in handy for Bixby’s inevitable global rollout. In particular, Samsung will be eyeing Innoetics’ “English US” voice program, a crucial vernacular that the company is still busy tinkering with.

Until now, Innoetics has mainly been gearing its tech APIs toward the B2B market, including telcos. Financial details are hard to come by, but TechCrunch estimates the deal at below $50 million. Samsung will reportedly retain Innoetics’ small team of employees, while the startup’s website says that it is discontinuing both its commercial and B2B services. This should free it up to devote it its time to Samsung’s products instead.

Source: TechCrunch

Disturbing, fake YouTube shows fool kids for more clicks

We want our kids to use the internet, sure, but we want them to do it safely. No one wants young children to deal with inappropriate content, like fake Peppa Pig or Doc McStuffins videos. Unfortunately, it’s increasingly difficult to police all of the various services and apps that our children use, including YouTube. A new study performed by researchers from the US, UK and Brazil analyzed YouTube videos from all three regions that had been viewed more than 37 billion times. They found that children are increasingly exposed to videos containing advertising and disturbing images that are indistinguishable from regular kids’ programming. The study also found that children younger than the “allowed” ages around the globe are accessing YouTube, many through their parents’ accounts.

The researchers wanted to know more about how YouTube channels were targeting children, as well as how kids interact with channels and videos, via comments. The team was looking for patterns in content from the most recurrent videos, the types of kids watching the videos and what kinds of products were marketed to specific genders, ages and ethnicities of children. If we can figure out what’s happening in the YouTube space around targeted kids advertising, then we can possibly combat it. The scientists collected data from 12,848 videos from 17 channels across the US and UK, along with 24 channels from Brazil. The English-language channels had been viewed more than 37 billion times. The team also analyzed more than 14 million user comments from the videos.

The authors of the study conclude with a discussion of Google’s age requirements, which restricts use of YouTube to those 13 and older in the US, 14 or older in Spain and South Korea and 16 or older in Netherlands. Brazil restricts YouTube to those 18 and older. According to this study, kids younger than these ages are using YouTube; Google needs to deal with this issue of compliance.

A Google spokesperson responded to our request for comment. “In order for YouTube to be available for free, and accessible to everyone, and also to ensure that creators are paid for their content, we show ads,” they said in an email. “Users under 13 should use YouTube Kids – a free app built for families – which excludes certain categories of ads to ensure an age-appropriate experience. All adverts in the UK are also regulated by the ASA and we work closely with the advertising industry to ensure young people understand the nature of advertisements.”

Via: Daily Mail

Source: Cornell University Library

Amazon may give developers your private Alexa transcripts

With new rivals on the market, Amazon has to do something to help its Alexa devices compete. Until now, Amazon has not given third-party developers access to what you say to the voice assistant. Google Home, though, does. According to sources reported by The Information, Amazon is currently looking at opening up this private transcript data to its developers, which could help them build better voice apps for Alexa. It would also raise serious privacy concerns for users. It’s a delicate balancing act between user privacy and developer access, of course, but with rivals like Google and Apple getting into the smart speaker game, Amazon needs to keep its early lead.

So far, Alexa developers can only see non-identifying information, like the number of times you use a specific skill, how many times you talk to your Echo device and your location data. The Information reports that some developers have heard from Amazon representatives about more access to actual transcripts, though how and how much wasn’t discovered. We’ve reached out to Amazon for more information and will update this post when we hear back.

If developers knew what exactly is being said to their skills, they could make adjustments based on specific information. Skill developer Ahmed Bouzid, who used to be a product head on the Alexa team at Amazon, says that current access only gives developers “70 percent of what they need to know.” The Information reports that some teams already have access to the full data, though it’s not clear how anyone is included on such a white list.

Source: The Information

Moon Express details plans to mine the moon with robots by 2020

Spaceflight company Moon Express has released its plans to mine the moon with robots and it aims to get started by 2020. The company was founded in 2010 with the aim of winning the Google Lunar Xprize — a competition to get privately funded spacecraft on the moon. And while it still has its sights on that prize, Moon Express has planned beyond that and has laid out a strategy for establishing its lunar outpost in just a few years.

The company’s first moon mission, dubbed Lunar Scout, will use Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket to send its MX-1E robotic explorer to land on and deliver several payloads — including the International Lunar Observatory — to the moon. If completed by the end of this year and before the four other finalists for the Lunar Xprize, this mission could win Moon Express the competition’s $20 million prize. Lunar Outpost, the second planned mission, will establish Moon Express’ commercial presence on the moon’s South Pole using its MX-2 system. Once set up, the robots will prospect for water and minerals. Finally, the third mission, Harvest Moon, will bring samples from the moon back to Earth and Moon Express hopes to complete this leg by 2020.

The MX-1E lander hasn’t yet been completed and Rocket Lab is still working on the Electron rocket, which has only flown once so far with two more test launches planned for this year. However, Moon Express does have coveted FAA clearance to land on the moon and it was the first private company to be granted such approval.

Mining for water and rocks on the moon has both commercial and research value. Water and ice at the lunar poles can be used as rocket propellant and Moon Express says on its website, “The discovery of water on the Moon is a game changer, not just for the economic viability of lunar resources, but for the economics of reaching Mars and other deep space destinations. Water is the oil of the solar system, and the Moon will become a gas station in the sky.” As for moon rocks, harvesting them and bringing them back to Earth could be a lucrative business for the company. As Ars Technica reports, NASA never sold any of its Apollo mission lunar haul, but three rocks from the Soviet moon mission weighing just 0.2 grams sold for $442,500 in 1993. Moon Express says its lunar samples will also be used to benefit science.

The plan is pretty ambitious and there’s still plenty Moon Express has to do before completing it or nabbing the Lunar Xprize championship, but we’re in for an exciting few years if the company can pull it off.

Via: The Verge

Source: Moon Express

Google Drive is ready to back up all the files on your PC

Google Drive just became more useful as a means of protecting those files you can’t afford to lose. A few weeks later than promised, Google has released its Backup & Sync app for Macs and Windows PCs. As before, this is a simpler option for safeguarding your data in the cloud — it merges the photo backup of the desktop Google Photos app with Drive functionality that lets you back up the folders of your choice. You don’t have to wonder whether or not your pictures will survive a system crash as well as your must-have documents. The app is free, although you’ll need a lot of Google Drive space if you’re determined to upload more than a modest amount of content.

Source: Google Drive

Microsoft upgrades Paint 3D’s drawing and magic select tools

Microsoft’s Paint 3D was introduced as part of the Windows 10 Creators update last October. The company wants to make 3D modeling as easy and accessible as using a 2D drawing program. The free Windows 10 app gives you the power to create, share and print anything you can think of in three dimensions. Now, the Microsoft team has two new updates for Paint 3D, available now, that should improve the experience of 3d modeling.

The first update is an improved magic select tool, which lets you crop out the background of any image. This lets you turn the resulting content into a sticker or use as a skin to wrap onto a 3D object. “As of today, you can now magic select content directly into a scene,” Paint 3D studio head Lee Shuneman writes in a blog post, “even after the scene has been partially composed so there is no need to move the object off canvas first.”

The second improvement comes from the original MS Paint. You now have the option to draw and create shapes with a straight line and curve tool. This should help make smooth edges and curves on your objects without having to be a steady-handed mouse master. “When you use these tools across 3D shapes, the line and curve tools act just like other stickers, which means that they can be seamlessly applied to both the canvas and 3D objects,” writes Shuneman.

Finally, Paint 3D now supports the new open standard for 3D file sharing, called GLB, which makes 3D asset transfers quicker and more efficient. According to Shuneman, this works by putting all the assets into one container, which helps minimize the file size while standardizing the format for all other programs that might need to use the 3D file itself.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft Updates Outlook for iOS With Redesigned Navigation, Conversations and Search

Microsoft today announced some major changes to its Outlook app for the iPhone and the iPad, introducing a redesigned conversation experience, improved navigation, and smarter search features that are coming in the near future.

The enhanced conversation design displays more of a conversation on a single screen, and there’s clearer separation between each individual message. When opening a conversation to read more, Outlook will bring you to the first unread message, and there’s a new quick reply feature that makes it easier to send an email without leaving the main conversation view.

As for the navigation improvements, Microsoft has made it easier to switch between accounts and browse through their folders. The account and folder menu has been tweaked so you can swap accounts with a tap, and the Help and Settings buttons have been relocated to the sidebar to make them easier to access.

In the near future, Microsoft plans to introduce an intelligent search feature (powered by Microsoft Graph) that will make it easier to find specific conversations. A search box will be added to the app’s tab bar, so it’ll be accessible from anywhere in the app, and People and Files will both be integrated into the search experience.

Microsoft plans to provide proactive suggestions for content, and when searching for a name, your most frequent contacts will pop up first.

The redesigned Outlook app is available today for all iOS users with Outlook.com and Gmail accounts. Support for Office 365 accounts will roll out “in the coming days.” As for the search feature, Microsoft says it is “coming soon.”

Microsoft Outlook can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tags: Microsoft, Microsoft Outlook
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UrbanEars Plattan ADV Wireless – Solid headphones for active people

Let me get this out of the way in advance – UrbanEars’ Plattan ADV headphones are not a premium Bluetooth headset. The sound quality is decent – not amazing – the build on them is sturdy and comfortable – but still largely plastic and nylon – and the headphones have interesting – if not mind-blowing – features, but the headset will not be winning any awards. What it does do well, however, is deliver solid performance all-around in a convenient, portable, easy-to-use package.

Build

The Plattan ADV Wireless’s design is actually pretty clever – its claim to fame is its washable headband and collapsible design, both of which have a couple cute little features that set it apart from other headphones.

The headband that covers the frame is removable (secured to the frame by magnets and metal plates) and machine washable, letting you keep your headset like new. Confusingly, the earcups are neither removable nor washable; so while your headband will keep its colorful, not-smelly sheen, your earcups…won’t. If UrbanEars had really wanted to impress with the “washable” feature, it would have gone all in.

In addition to being semi-washable, it’s also collapsible, thanks to small hinges on either side of the frame that let the cups fold into the bow of the band. This is not a revolutionary feature by any stretch of the imagination, but it certainly lends credence to the idea that these are headphones for active people – just fold your UrbanEars away when you’re done with a workout, wash the sweat out of them when you get home, and then tuck them into your gym bag for your next trip.

My one gripe about the build, perhaps, is the size of the earcups. As advertised, these are most definitely on-ear headphones rather than over-ear headphones. The cups sit directly on the ear, which, while soft and light, annoys the living crap out of me.  I prefer my headphones over my ears or in them – not on. That being said, over-ear cups can be uncomfortable and sweaty, which doesn’t fit the model that UrbanEars is going for; so while it isn’t my personal preference, it does make sense.

Features

Perhaps the most unique thing about these is its touch-sensitive earcups and their respective gesture controls. With the device powered on – it disturbs me that I felt compelled to type that – controlling playback is as simple as tapping or swiping on the surface of the cup; tap to play, pause, or answer a call, hold to hang up, swipe vertically to control volume, or horizontally to skip forward or back.

In concept, this is an excellent feature – in practice, however, it gets a little sketchy. Doing any physical activity that requires you to lift your hands over your head you run the risk of brushing against the earcup, causing some combination of a skip, pause, or volume change. The same thing can happen if you reach up to adjust the fit. A small thing, perhaps, but a design quirk with real-world complications, to be certain. The benefit of not having to grope around for buttons, though can’t be understated. It’s really smooth when used as intended.

Performance

As I said above, UrbanEars’ Plattan ADV Wireless is just an okay headset, as far as actually delivering sound to your eardrums is concerned. The sound quality is solid, if unspectacular. It’s got balanced highs and lows, decent bass, and good clarity, but it won’t blow your mind. Given the reasonable (compared to, say, a comparable Beats headset at $399) $99 price tag ($89.99 on Amazon), it’s not surprising that the performance is middle-of-the-road.

At 14 hours, the battery life is excellent – assuming you’re not wearing them every day for hours on end, you should get about a week out of them. The Bluetooth connection is solid and rarely loses signal, even with your phone in your pocket. Charging is done through a standard Micro-USB, so no need to worry about finding a cord.

Conclusion

Overall, as I’ve stated – probably ad nauseam – UrbanEars’ Plattan ADV Wireless is a solid, well-performing active set of headphones at a reasonable price. The battery life is great and the sound quality is good, but it’s not a high-end headset by any stretch of the imagination.

Crazy Taxi Classic brings back everything you loved about the game and more (review)

If you’re reading this and are old enough to remember the SEGA Dreamcast, you likely remember the game Crazy Taxi. The game came onto the arcade scene in the late 90’s, and jumped onto the Dreamcast platform shortly thereafter. The game then spread to other platforms over time, including several Playstation generations, Xbox, and Windows PCs.

Well now SEGA has brought back this classic game, and brought it to Android, with the free game Crazy Taxi Classic. This version brings the old-school game options available years back, as well as new free-play options, as well.

For those who’ve never played, Crazy Taxi is a generally open-world driving game. You play a taxi driver, and you’re given a limited amount of time to find, pick up, and deliver as many riders as possible. Also, the faster you deliver each rider to their destination, the more fare you make. Your total fare is your score for your game.

This is a game that allows for a fair (or more than fair) amount of bragging rights to be put on the line. It’s a great game to play with friends; taking turns to see who can be the “king of the cab”.

Setup

Setup is almost nill. Simply download the game from the Play Store. Once downloaded, just open and off you go.

Upon opening, you are greeted with a Game Options screen, where you can select Arcade, Original, and Crazy Box (a series of skills challenges). For the Arcade and Original options, you can play by arcade rules (where you gain time a little at a time for every successful fare) or a pre-determined time limit (3, 5, or 10 minutes). After you select your game type, you can then choose your driver and car…..between 3 mailes and a female.

Gameplay

At this point you’re launched into the game. You find yourself in your taxi, and you are free to drive wherever you want. Of course, it makes good sense to find a customer as soon as possible. When you do see one, you pull up and stop within a glowing circle. There are several icon colors you may see over customers, ranging from red (short ride but low fare) to green (high fare potential but a long way to drive to get there in time).

Once you brake your customer will hop into your taxi, then it’s up to you to get there. The game physics are very arcade-like, allowing you to take several liberties with gravity and such, while also plowing through traffic, pedestrians, and the like at superhuman abilities. It’s impossible to crash-and-burn, but you will come to sudden stops should you slam into oncoming traffic. Get to the destination with time to spare, and you make a handsome fare. But get there late and you risk your customer simply jumping out mid-ride.

You control your taxi a couple of different ways (selectable via the settings menu). You can steer via tilting your screen or on-screen left and right buttons. You also accelerate and brake via on-screen buttons.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Crazy Taxi will take you right back to your Dreamcast or PS2 years. That’s not a bad thing, though. The provided graphics match up will with the era this game thrived in, and we’re all in with this approach.

Sound is dominated by an eclectic mix of punk rock tracks blasting throughout the game. The music does a great job in ramping up the intensity of your gameplay, and doesn’t let up no matter how you’re doing.

What We Liked

The replay value of this game is very high. I found (and still find!) myself playing the game at slow moments throughout the day. It’s a game you can pick up and play for as long as you want, get your kicks on it, then shut it off without a save nor a care…..it will be waiting for you to pick up again just when you’re ready.

What Could Use Improvement

The main complaint in playing this game is a technical glitch I encountered often. While driving around, be it with a customer in tow or not, whenever I bumped up against buildings, my car would get “stuck” while trying to accelerate away. I would sit there with the accelerator pegged, but the car would only very slowly pull away. Once clear of the building, I’d be back to normal again, flying away with my hair on fire. Weird glitch, and yes, I’d experience it less if I wasn’t driving into buildings so much, but it is still there.

Wrap-Up

Crazy Taxi Classic takes what made the original game so much fun, and brings that same action to your Android device. In addition, the game allows you more options to play as long as you want. We highly recommend this family-friendly title for your enjoyment.

Download Crazy Taxi Classic from the Play Store here.