Change the composition after you shoot? Computational zoom makes it possible

Why it matters to you

Computational photography is making the impossible possible — including changing the composition after the shot.

Photographers favor wide-angle lenses to show more of the scene, but favor telephoto lenses for less distortion and more flattering portraits — but what if software could mix the best of both worlds? Researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara and Nvidia recently developed what they’re calling computational zoom, which allows photographers to change the composition after the fact to use more flattering angles or even bring the background closer or farther away from the subject. The researchers presented their work at the SIGGRAPH conference earlier this week.

The technique is a form of computational photography which uses software to create what isn’t possible with hardware alone. To use the technique, the photographer first has to take a series of images, moving further into the scene after each shot. The computer estimates where the camera was when it took each photo. Then, using all of those shots, the software creates a 3D model of the scene. With that model, the user can then pull the background closer or farther away, adjust the position of the foreground or even shorten the distance between the two.

Using the software, the researchers were able to create images that would not have been possible if they had started with a single image. For example, the program can make it appear as though the person in the photo was shot with the flattering look of a telephoto lens, while the background looks like it was shot with a wide-angle lens. The program can bring parts of the scene closer together or farther away, for example, to make something in the background appear more dominant in the image.

“This new framework really empowers photographers by giving them much more flexibility later on to compose their desired shot,” said Pradeep Sen, a UCSB adviser that worked on the project. “It allows them to tell the story they want to tell.”

Photography traditionally has a set number of elements that can be adjusted in post processing and a handful of aspects that cannot be altered after the image is taken. However, computational photography is changing that. For example, focus is traditionally one of the elements that photographers had to get right in-camera. A technique by Panasonic, however, records a 4K video altering the focus through each frame, allowing the focus to be adjusted after the fact using a form of computational photography. Canon also has a form of the technique to create small focus adjustments. And research presented earlier this week uses computational photography to edit images even before the shot.

With the latest research, composition could join the list of previously impossible photo edits that are now not only do-able, but simple to use. Of course, like post focus techniques, the trick only works if you plan to use the process ahead of time — since both options require taking more than a single image.

Chemists figure out how to strip 99 percent of BPA from drinking water

Why it matters to you

BPA is an industrial chemical linked with various negative health effects. A new technique could help eliminate it from our water supply.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical that has been used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins dating back to the 1960s. Today, it is found in everything from CDs and DVDs to dental fillings and cash register receipts — as well as nefariously making its way into water sources around the world. Unfortunately, certain studies suggest BPA is not exactly harmless. Its usage has been linked it to a range of negative health effects, including increased blood pressure, adverse impact on brain and nervous system development, cardiovascular disease, and more.

After 15 years of hard work, chemists at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Auckland, and Oregon State University have come up with a solution they claim can quickly, cheaply, and effectively remove upward of 99 percent of BPA from water. The cleanup solution involves catalysts called TAML activators, referring to small molecules which mimic oxidizing enzymes. When these are combined with hydrogen peroxide, the TAML activators are able to effectively break down harmful chemicals, including BPA.

The technique can be used to effectively treat large quantities of water in just 30 minutes. According to its creators, tens of thousands of tons of water can be treated with one solitary kilogram of the catalyst.

“[In our paper], we show how TAML and peroxide processes can remove BPA easily and efficiently from water,” Terrence Collins, the Teresa Heinz Professor of Green Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon, told Digital Trends. “There are two outcomes depending on how much acid is present. At low acid concentrations, the BPA is obliterated. At higher acid concentrations that are typical of environmental waters, the BPA is precipitated by chemistry that sticks BPA molecules together in ways that will not revert to BPA, as with current plastics. In both cases, the removal is effectively quantitative. The BPA elimination chemistry involved is fast and facile: You simply mix traces of catalyst and a little peroxide into the water and the processes takes off quickly.”

Having demonstrated the technique in the lab, Collins now hopes the research can be applied in the real world. “If this chemistry, conducted in pure lab water, transfers to much dirtier real-world situations with similar BPA concentrations, such as landfill leachates and paper recycling streams, then this work could help reduce aquatic contamination by BPA,” he said. “The ball is in the BPA industry’s court.”

A research paper — complete with BPA reviews primarily written by Collins’ postdoc Dr. Matthew DeNardo — was recently published in the journal Green Chemistry.

In all, it is another example of how the work coming out of cutting-edge research labs is helping purify water all around the world in the name of good health.

Monolith BBQ Guru Edition Grill automates temperature control for perfect results

Why it matters to you

Finding good barbeque can be difficult. With the automated Monolith BBQ Guru Edition grill, people can make it themselves.

Grilling outdoors is one of the many great summer activities to enjoy with friends and family. It is a social occasion but constantly checking the food guarantees that one person is going to be stuck at the grill. In order to give grill owners a break, the Monolith BBQ Guru Edition grill comes with smart tech built right in.

Developed by BBQ Guru, the Monolith ceramic grill features a Komodo style and comes with more than a dozen different accessories for pretty much any cooking method. Users can use direct or indirect cooking, two-zone, pizza, or baking. The biggest feature is the addition of the CyberQ Cloud. With this BBQ temperature control device, users can control their Monolith BBG Guru Edition from any smartphone, tablet, or PC.

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CyberQ Cloud works by constantly and automatically regulating the temperature inside the grill. What normally requires abundant attention now allows users to entertain their guests. This is done using a built-in fan that feeds in the right amount of oxygen, which increases the intensity of the charcoal’s heat. When the food is done, a text message or email alert will notify the user. If fingers are too covered in sauce to touch anything, users can try out the voice control and monitor up to three different foods with Amazon Alexa. For example, users could say, “Alexa, ask CyberQ Cloud, what is the temperature of Food One?”

By syncing up with the newly launched website, Share My Cook, grillers can connect with other enthusiasts. Here, they can share recipes, images, and detailed information about the cook. Simple, yet detailed graphs supply all the information others need in order to replicate the cook. Based on the results, users can rate the cook out of five stars.

Prices for the Monolith BBQ Guru Edition starts at $1,144 and come with a variety of accessories. For those who are more interested in the CyberQ Cloud technology than the actual grill, this can also be sold separately, starting at $255. This little device works with almost any smoker available. If a smoker is not on the list, requests can be sent in to ensure the right kit adaptor is available.

Where to buy the Samsung Galaxy S8 in the U.S.

Here’s where you can buy Samsung’s latest phones.

Samsung will sell you a Galaxy S8 and S8+ from just about anywhere you want. Every carrier, retailer and online store you can think of has these phones, and for the most part they each offer the same colors and plan options as well. We’ve rounded up the top places you’ll be looking to buy, and you can find all of the info you need right here.

U.S. carriers

All of the U.S. carriers are offering both the Galaxy S8 and S8+, which come with 64GB of storage and in three different colors: black, orchid grey and silver.

Verizon

Verizon comes in at a pretty standard price for the Galaxy S8 at $756, though now and then you can find a discount or promotion that’ll knock some money off. Spend just $84 more, and you can have the larger Galaxy S8+.

See at Verizon

AT&T

AT&T’s pricing is set at $749 for the Galaxy S8 and $849 for the Galaxy S8+, and offers the longest financing option of 30 months — which spreads out the prices to $25 per month for the GS8 and $28 per month for the GS8+.

See at AT&T

T-Mobile

T-Mobile pegs prices at $750 for the Galaxy S8 and $850 for the Galaxy S8+. If you want to finance your purchase, it breaks down to $30 up front and $30 per month for 24 months for the GS8, or $130 up front and $30 per month for 24 months for the GS8+.

See at T-Mobile

Sprint

Sprint continues to offer the most confusing pricing scheme for its Galaxy phones. The big numbers you see it push are its leasing plans, which are cheap per month but involve returning the phone after 18 months to then pay to get a new one. The Galaxy S8 on an 18 month lease is $31.25 per month, or you can pay that same price per month over 24 months to buy it in full — the full price is then $750. The Galaxy S8+ comes in at $35.42 per month on that 18 month lease, or you can continue to pay the same price over 24 months to pay the full retail price of $850. Those financing deals also mark a $30 discount when ordered online.

See at Sprint

MetroPCS

T-Mobile’s low-cost subsidiary MetroPCS is selling just the standard Galaxy S8 and not the S8+. Its pricing is great, at $729, and the carrier often has incentives if you port over your number.

See at MetroPCS

Cricket

The AT&T-owned prepaid carrier is offering up just the Galaxy S8 and not the GS8+ at the moment. You can get it in one color, midnight black, and it’ll cost you $699 out the door.

See at Cricket

Retailers

Big retailers like Best Buy and Walmart are selling the Galaxy S8 and S8+, typically tied to a carrier with many of the same perks as the carriers offer directly. Historically these retailers have offered slight discounts in the form of gift cards or accessory incentives, so take a look to see which one is offering the best deal.

Best Buy

Best Buy has both the Galaxy S8 and S8+ on all four major U.S. carriers. Pricing matches that of ordering directly from the carriers, for the most part, with some special deals depending on when you go to order.

See at Best Buy

Walmart

Walmart will let you order the Galaxy S8 and S8+ online, but only if you want it as a prepaid phone from Total Wireless or Straight Talk. If so, the prices are great: $659 for the Galaxy S8, and $759 for the Galaxy S8+ — color choices are limited, though, with some models only offering one or two to choose from.

See at Walmart

If you want to buy from Walmart for one of the big carriers — Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, U.S. Cellular — you’ll have to do so in store, at least right now. Prices and availability of different models and carriers may vary depending on your region. You have to use the Walmart “store finder” to get an idea of what you can get.

See at Walmart

Unlocked models

Several weeks after the launch of the carrier-sanctioned versions of the phones, Samsung started making proper U.S. unlocked models available. You can get them from some of the major retailers, as well as Samsung itself.

Best Buy

Right now, Best Buy is the only place that wants to say it is selling an official U.S. unlocked Galaxy S8 or S8+. Pricing is set at $725 for the Galaxy S8 and $825 for the Galaxy S8+.

See at Best Buy

Amazon

You can get the same U.S. unlocked model from Amazon as you can elsewhere. Just be careful that you buy the right one and not some international model that’s imported and doesn’t have the proper U.S. warranty you likely want.

See at Amazon

Samsung

Why not buy your unlocked Samsung phone directly from Samsung? Its own online store doesn’t always have the lowest prices, but is worth considering for some limited-time deals that can crop up. It also offers 24-month financing even when you buy unlocked.

See at Samsung

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

• Galaxy S8 and S8+ review!
• Galaxy S8 and S8+ specs
• Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S8’s cameras
• Get to know Samsung Bixby
• Join our Galaxy S8 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint
Unlocked

Theseus Review on PlayStation VR

Help the girl, slay the Minotaur, escape the labyrinth.

I can feel the slight tug of the red, bloody waters as I trudge towards a narrow tower of light. It’s where two absolutely massive, towering doors stand, the only structure in this strange landscape I find myself in. I manage to reach the doors, push my way through them, and I am absorbed by a bright, blinding white light. I gasp, sitting up on a stone block, surrounded by a flickering torch, and crude stone hewn walls.

This, is Theseus.

Read more at VRHeads

How to disable Bixby voice

You can disable Bixby Voice with just a few taps!

Bixby Voice lets you ask questions to your Galaxy S8 and receive answers vocally. While this is handy for some people, not everybody wants to have Bixby answering questions for them. By turning off Bixby Voice, holding the Bixby button will now launch the app instead of a speech bubble. Turning Bixby Off — or back on — only takes a few moments, and we’ve got the details for you here!

How to turn off Bixby Voice

Launch the Bixby app on your phone.
Tap the menu button in the upper right corner of your screen. (It looks like three vertical dots.)

Tap on settings.

Tap the toggle next to Bixby Voice.

Tap Turn Off.

Questions?

Do you have questions about turning off Bixby Voice? Do you prefer leaving Bixby Voice turned off? Let us know in the comments below!

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

• Galaxy S8 and S8+ review!
• Galaxy S8 and S8+ specs
• Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S8’s cameras
• Get to know Samsung Bixby
• Join our Galaxy S8 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint
Unlocked

‘Minecraft: Story Mode’ arrives on Nintendo Switch August 22nd

The second episode of Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two will be released on August 15th and like the first episode, it will be available for download on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, iOS and Android devices. Entitled “Giant Consequences,” episode two takes up where the first installment left off — Jesse and company have brought back a lost adventurer, a powerful device and an enemy that the team needs to find out more about. And their next adventure takes them into an “icy unknown.”

Along with the announcement of the second episode’s premiere date, Telltale also revealed that the first season of Minecraft: Story Mode will be available on Nintendo Switch beginning August 22nd in North America and August 25th everywhere else. It includes the five episodes of the original season pass as well as the three bonus “Adventure Pass” episodes. You can snag it as a digital download or a physical cartridge.

Source: Telltale

Facebook is still terrible at managing hate speech

Facebook has failed yet again at managing and removing hate speech. Ijeoma Oluo, a black activist and writer, was on a road trip with her children recently when she decided to make a meal stop at a Cracker Barrel. While at the restaurant, which has been sued numerous times for racially discriminatory practices and has paid millions of dollars to settle such cases, Oluo jokingly tweeted, “At Cracker Barrel 4 the 1st time. Looking at the sea of white folk in cowboy hats & wondering ‘will they let my black ass walk out of here?’”

That tweet launched hundreds of disgusting, racist responses on both Twitter and Facebook, some of which Oluo screenshotted and posted on a Medium article she wrote describing the situation. Somewhat surprisingly, Twitter actually responded in a proactive way, removing abusive content and shutting down accounts. “Now, perhaps it’s because Twitter has made a lot of headlines lately for failing to address abuse and harassment that I’m able to say that Twitter has actually done a pretty good job of handling this abuse,” said Oluo in the article. “Just about everything that I reported for slurs and threats was removed and quite a few of the offending accounts were locked.”

Facebook, however, didn’t react as well. Oluo said she couldn’t report abusive responses from her phone — it wasn’t even an option — and when she was able to report them, Facebook didn’t do anything about them. So, she started posting screenshots of some of the racist comments as well as death and rape threats she was receiving and Facebook suspended her account for it. “I write and speak about race in America because I already see this hate every day. It’s the complicity of one of the few platforms that people of color have to speak out about this hate that gets me,” said Oluo, who added, “Any time people of color, especially women of color, speak the truth — we are silenced. And facebook is helping.”

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Last year, Facebook did the same thing to New York Daily News writer and activist Shaun King after he posted hate-mail he had received.

Last month, Facebook addressed the problem of hate speech in its “Hard Questions” series saying, “Sometimes, there isn’t a clear consensus — because the words themselves are ambiguous, the intent behind them is unknown or the context around them is unclear. Language also continues to evolve, and a word that was not a slur yesterday may become one today.” But it also said, “Our current definition of hate speech is anything that directly attacks people based on what are known as their “protected characteristics” — race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or serious disability or disease.”

So, the hate speech and threats received by Oluo going largely unanswered while her account is subsequently suspended points to a major flaw in Facebook’s management of this kind of content. Facebook has admitted that it needs to work on this and that it has made mistakes in the past. “Our mistakes have caused a great deal of concern in a number of communities, including among groups who feel we act — or fail to act — out of bias. We are deeply committed to addressing and confronting bias anywhere it may exist,” it said.

But this is an ongoing problem and one Facebook needs to tackle much more aggressively than it has. As Oluo said, “Facebook is failing people of color, just as they are failing many feminists and transgender people, in punishing them for speaking out about abuse. And they need to be held accountable.”

Update: A Facebook spokesperson apologized for the mistake and said, “We know how painful it is when someone feels unwelcome or attacked on our platform, and how much worse it must be when they are prevented from sharing that experience with others. We need to do better and are committed to improving our process on these important issues.” The site is also working on ways to distinguish between hate speech and its condemnation.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Medium

FBI arrests UK security researcher who stopped WannaCry outbreak (updated)

Marcus Hutchins, the 23-year-old security researcher who is credited with halting the spread of the WannaCry malware program earlier this year has been arrested by the FBI while attending the DefCon security conference in Las Vegas, Motherboard reports.

This is a developing story and details remain scarce as of the publication of this post, however The Telegraph states that “UK law enforcement and security agencies confirmed a British citizen has been arrested” as part of an ongoing FBI investigation.

Hutchins was hailed as a hero in May when he found the killswitch to the WannaCry virus, a malware program that had infected vulnerable targets across Europe and Asia, including the UK’s National Health Service and a Spanish telecommunications company. Hutchins, who works for Kryptos Logic, halted the virus’ spread by registering a web domain that the program’s code relied on.

Motherboard reports that as of early Thursday morning Hutchins was being held in the Henderson Detention Center in Nevada, however he was later moved to an undisclosed location. “I’ve spoken to the US Marshals again and they say they have no record of Marcus being in the system. At this point we’ve been trying to get in contact with Marcus for 18 hours and nobody knows where he’s been taken,” an unnamed friend of Hutchins told Motherboard. “We still don’t know why Marcus has been arrested and now we have no idea where in the US he’s been taken to and we’re extremely concerned for his welfare.”

Engadget has reached out to Kryptos Logic and the FBI for comment. This story will be updated as they reply.

Update (2:29 pm EDT): Hutchins has reportedly been located and is being held at the FBI’s Las Vegas field office.

Finally located @MalwareTechBlog, he’s in the Las Vegas FBI field office. Can anyone provide legal representation?

— Andrew Mabbitt (@MabbsSec) August 3, 2017

Update (2:45 pm EDT): The Department of Justice has just announced that Hutchins is in custody for “his role in creating and distributing the Kronos banking Trojan.” According to the DoJ, between July 2014 and July 2015 Hutchins developed the malware and shared it online.

Source: Telegraph UK, Motherboard

WNBA teams make their console debut in ‘NBA Live 18’

It looks like EA is finally getting the idea that women play sports and that video game fans want to see them in their sports titles. Since the video game company has women’s soccer teams in soccer sim FIFA, it’s now set to add WNBA teams and players to its NBA Live franchise, the latest of which launches on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in September. This is the first time the official WNBA roster will appear in a video game.

NBA Live 18 will include WNBA Play Now, which lets you use official female teams and players in games. You won’t be able to mix them in with the NBA players, however. According to EA, the teams and player skills have been balanced to “reflect the unique playstyle of the league and skills of its players.” The development team at EA Tiburon scanned the heads of star WNBA athletes like Maya Moore, Brittney Griner, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Sylvia Fowles, Alisha Gray, Chelsea Gray, Jonquel Jones, and Alyssa Thomas. Kelsey Plum, the 2017 WNBA Draft first overall pick, did some motion capture sessions, as well.

“We are extremely proud to partner with the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) on this groundbreaking occasion,” said EA’s Sean O’Brien in a statement. “The WNBA is home to some of the most incredible athletes on the planet, and we’ve been working hard to integrate them into our game in an authentic and meaningful way. This is only a taste of what we have in store, and look forward to working with the league on more great integrations in the franchise in the future.”

Source: EA Sports