Travel tech tips for flying this holiday season

Flying is awesome. Dealing with flights is less so.

You’ve got to get through airport security, find somewhere to eat that isn’t insanely priced or complete garbage, waste hours before your flight leaves, waste hours packed six-across in a tin can, and then do the whole thing over again to get home. Nevertheless, airline trips don’t have to be a complete headache if you’re properly prepared, and we’ve got some tips to help you and your phone get through it as painlessly as possible.

Check the TSA website

TSA is a pain, but at least it’s a pain that will help you prepare for it. The My TSA website will let you see if there are any any destination delays being reported at your airport, how long wait times have been, and if you’re not sure about what you can and can’t bring in your carry-on, you can search the Can I Bring section to find out where and how you should pack it. They also have an app, but unless you’re a frequent flier, the mobile site should do just fine.

My TSA

Fill out customs forms on your phone

If you’re going out of the country, congratulations on your escape. Customs forms can take forever with their tedium, which is why you should download the Customs and Border Protection-approved Mobile Passport app. Mobile Passport will let you fill out the forms in advance on your phone so you can avoid the physical paperwork and hopefully get through Customs quicker and get on with your trip. It also lets you spare the customs agent your terrible, terrible handwriting.

Download Mobile Passport

Offline content

Just because most planes say they’ll have Wi-Fi doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed, and nothing is worse than finding out your cross-country flight’s Wi-Fi isn’t working and you forgot to download something to keep you entertained. You should always keep a few albums/playlists downloaded to keep your sanity on a WI-Fi-less flight, or in the car, or in the store surrounded by holiday crowds. Books are more storage efficient for offline entertainment, but this is the 21st century! and when we’re bored on flights, we watch movies and TV shows. Here are the major video services statuses on offline content:

• Hulu doesn’t allow any offline playback of any content at this time.
• Netflix allows some content to be saved for offline playback, depending on the studio.
• Amazon Prime Video allows pretty much everything to be downloaded for offline playback, be it purchased content or Prime library content.
• Google Play Movies & TV allows all purchases to be saved for offline playback.
• Movies Anywhere will download your content for offline playback on Android devices through Google Play Movies.
• YouTube allows videos to be saved for offline playback if you have YouTube Red or live in India.

If your phone is short on space and supports a microSD card, you might want to consider nabbing a decently sized card to load up with movies and music for the flight.

Packing power

Watching movies on a plane or playing a plethora of mobile games can run your phone down quite swiftly, and having your phone die on an airplane is about ten times worse than having it die in the car or at work, because most planes still don’t have USB chargers in the seats. To this end, if you don’t already have a portable battery, you should really pick one up. Anker’s PowerCore 10000 Battery delivers ample portable power at a great price ($26), and think of it as a gift to yourself to avoid dead phones and chaos.

See at Amazon

Beyond the battery, while packing your bag, keep a charger and cable in an outer accessory pocket where it can be easily extracted for topping off your phone at the gate or food court between surviving TSA and getting on your flight.

Headphones required

I understand that not everyone shares my ‘never leave the house without headphones’ philosophy, but when it comes to airline trips and airports, you simply can’t deny it: headphones are a must. I know what you’re thinking! “Oh, airlines usually have free earbuds they’ll let you use.” Well, just like airline pillows and blankets, the plane you’re on can run out and moreover, airplane earbuds are complete crap. Bring your own!

If you don’t have a good set of earbuds, consider the Marshall Mode EQ. These earbuds bring huge sound in a small package, for $78. Best of all, they’re really comfortable, so you can wear them for a cross-country flight without fatigue.

See at Amazon

If you can’t find the carry case for your earbuds, use an empty Altoids tin so they don’t tangle inside your bag when TSA goes through it. Trust me, you don’t wanna get on the plane and realize you ripped a wire pulling the headphones out of your bag. If you’re not into earbuds, get a good pair of Bluetooth headphones that can switch to a 3.5 mm wire when the battery runs down.

Kickstart your trip with a phone grip

If you don’t already have a phone grip/kickstand on the back of your phone, consider grabbing one. Being able to more securely grip your phone while hustling to your gate or trudging through airport lines can give you a hair more security for a device that you’ll be relying on even more than usual, and will let you prop your phone up on the tray table instead of cradling it in your hands the whole time. PopSockets can pull triple duty as a phone grip, a kickstand, and a fidget toy when you’re stuck on a four-hour layover, but their kickstands are a little less steady. The Spigen Style Ring is built like a tank and takes a long, long time to wear out, but there are more compact variations if you need something that’ll fit more easily in your pocket/holster.

Bag it up

If you’re flying from somewhere cold to somewhere that’s not, consider packing a collapsible shopping bag with a long strap like the $13 Flip and Tumble bag. Packing a collapsible bag gives you leeway carry your winter coat without it being stuck in your arms the whole time or overstuffing your main bag. If you’re on a long flight that’s at risk of significant delays, fill the bag at home with snacks and then stow the empty, collapsed bag in your main carry-on after you’ve finished the food. I’ve had a Flip and Tumble for years and it takes five seconds to wad it up inside the elastic carry pouch when it’s empty.

See at Amazon

What’s in your carry-on?

How do you travel with your tech? Share your tips in the comments below!

ZTE confirms 8.0 Oreo is coming to Axon 7

The ZTE Axon 7 was a fantastic mid-range phone when it was released in August of 2016, and if you can find a solid deal on it now, it’s still not the worst way you can spend your cash on an Android handset. The hardware of the Axon 7 continues to look and feel great even in late 2017, and it now looks like the software will be receiving a big update very soon.

In a community forum for ZTE fans, one representative from the company created a thread for the Axon 7 group and posted a message to announce that Android 8.0 Oreo is officially coming to the handset.

Dear ZTE customers,

We are announcing now that we are already developing android 8 for the Axon 7, your positive feedback has been inspiring us a lot and made us very happy and because of this we try to get it customer ready as soon as possible for the best customers in the world, and I ask for your understanding because we still need some time to perfect it.
So if you have any suggestions or ideas please let me know it under this post, thanks a lot!!

There’s currently no timeframe as to when Oreo will be ready for the Axon 7, but seeing as how the title of the post is “Android 8 is just around the corner”, our guess is that we should hopefully see it pushed out within the first couple months of 2018.

When Oreo hits the Axon 7, users will be able to tap into the likes of picture-in-picture, Google’s Autofill API, notification dots, and quite a bit more. We’ll still likely see ZTE’s skin layered on top of it, but even so, this is a greatly appreciated development.

Android Oreo

• Android Oreo review!
• Everything new in Android Oreo
• How to get Android Oreo on your Pixel or Nexus
• Oreo will make you love notifications again
• Will my phone get Android Oreo?
• Join the Discussion

Galaxy A8/A8+ are official with dual front cameras and Infinity Display

Meet Samsung’s powerful mid-rangers for 2018.

The market for mid-range phones is more aggressive than ever, and Samsung is driving this point home as much as it can with its newly announced Galaxy A8 and A8+. These two phones bared all in a recent leak, but we now have confirmation from Samsung on their specifications and release date.

The A8 and A8+ share a lot of the same specs, including Samsung’s Exynos 7885 processor, 32-64GB of storage, 4GB RAM (up to 6GB on A8+), Android 7.1.1 Nougat, a 16MP f/1.7 rear camera, and two front-facing cameras. You’ll find a 16MP and 8MP lens on the front of the A8 and A8+, and this allows for a portrait selfie mode like we’ve seen on the Pixel 2 and iPhone X.

Another standout feature for these two phones is their displays. The A8 and A8+ come equipped with a Super AMOLED Infinity Display, allowing for slim bezels, an 18:9 aspect ratio, and rounded corners. The A8 has a screen size of 5.6-inches while the A8+’s measures in at 6.0-inches, but both share the same resolution of Full HD+.

Other welcome additions include a glass back with a metal frame, rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, IP68 dust/water resistance, Gear VR support, and Samsung Pay for NFC and MST transactions.

Samsung says the A8 and A8+ will be launching in early January 2018, but it still hasn’t announced pricing details. We have to imagine these phones will cost at or around $500 considering all of the specs and features they’re bringing to the table, and if that’s the case, they’ll be stiff competition for the OnePlus 5T.

What are your first impressions of the Galaxy A8/A8+?

Samsung’s Galaxy A8 might be one of 2018’s best budget phones

Fitbit Aria 2 review: Keeping it in the family

The Fitbit Aria 2 is a sleek and capable Wi-Fi smart scale that plays nicely with other Fitbit products.

As the name implies, the Fitbit Aria 2 is the second-generation of smart scales from Fitbit, the brand that’s become synonymous with fitness-focused technology. It’s sleek and easy to use with a really bright LED screen, but is it worth the rather steep $130 price tag?

That question largely depends on your opinion and usage of other Fitbit products. Lets dive in.

Design and use

If you’ve seen the original Fitbit Aria, you’re going to be asking what’s new or different with the Aria 2. Design-wise, the quick answer is not much on the surface. The Aria 2 offers a near-identical physical design to its predecessor, with the LED display being the only noticeably improved part of the hardware. It runs on just 3 AA batteries, which are included in the box.

The surface is made of conductive glass to allow the Aria 2 to detect your body’s bioelectrical signals. All you need to do is step onto the scale with bare feet and it will start to measure your weight (obviously), as well as your body fat percentage and BMI. Your weight and overall body fat percentage is displayed right on the scale’s display, and then the info is automatically transferred to your Fitbit account, so you can dive in a bit deeper in the app.

The fact that you don’t need your phone or Fitbit to be on or near you when you step on the scale is pretty incredible. The Fitbit Aria 2 can handle up to eight unique profiles at one time, so every member of your family will be able to track their personal statistics in a discreet and private way. You’re also able to select a unique profile image that will appear on the Fitbit scale after it’s taken its measurements as confirmation that it has connected to the right profile.

Syncs with your other Fitbit data

You could, in theory, use the Fitbit Aria 2 as a standalone device without pairing it with a Fitbit tracker, but since the Aria’s data is pigeonholed into a small section of the Fitbit home screen, it’s way more convenient to use in combination with a Fitbit tracker.

For the purposes of this review, Fitbit sent me a Blaze smartwatch to wear as I tested out the Aria 2, and I must say that the full Fitbit experience with the tracker and the scale was pretty enjoyable. I’ve tried using a Fitbit before, but couldn’t stay committed to wearing one as reliably as I would have liked. I’ve found, however, that just by adding a second Fitbit device to my account gave me more data to peruse every time I load up the app. Obviously, that’s what Fitbit is hoping — the more gadgets you buy, the more engaged you are within the Fitbit community.

For that reason, I’d recommend a Fitbit Aria 2 to anyone who’s already well-bought into the Fitbit ecosystem, as it will seamlessly integrate into the app that you’re already comfortable using. Since it’s always connected to Wi-Fi, you just use it as you would any other bathroom scale and then you get that data sent to your phone. However, if you already own and enjoy using the first generation Fitbit Aria scale, it would be hard to justify upgrading to the Aria 2. But if you’re like me and had issues using the original Aria, you’ll be happy to know that the experience feels a heck of a lot smoother with the Aria 2.

Should you get a Fitbit Aria 2?

The Fitbit Aria 2 is a smart scale that I would exclusively recommend to people who have already bought into the Fitbit community. If that’s how you track your health metrics, the Aria 2 will seamlessly work with your existing Fitbit accessories and you’ll appreciate the extra data in your Fitbit dashboard.

Within the broader smart scale category, the Aria 2 falls flat in a number of areas including the speed at which it takes measurements and the price. As I pointed out in my head-to-head comparison article, the Aria 2 can’t match competitors such as the Eufy BodySense smart scale in terms of value and enhanced functionality.

Priced at $129.99, the Aria 2 is aimed at a specific demographic who are okay with paying a bit more for the Fitbit brand, but there are better deals to be had if you’re not so brand-loyal.

See at Amazon

Android Oreo beta now available for Nokia 6

Launching first through Nokia Mobile Beta Labs.

HMD Global, the company in charge of Nokia-branded Android phones, has been doing a commendable job with fast software updates. So far we’ve seen Oreo updates pushed out to the Nokia 8 and Nokia 5, and the next handset to share in on the Oreo love is the Nokia 6.

Chief Product Officer at HMD Global, Juho Sarvikas, made the announcement via Twitter on December 19, and like other Nokia devices, the Nokia 6 will first get Oreo through the Nokia Mobile Beta Labs program.

You can enroll in the program and register your device on the official Nokia website, and once you do, you’ll receive an OTA update for 8.0 Oreo within a matter of minutes.

An official build of Oreo should be available soon, but if you want to test it out now and put up with the possibility of a few bugs here and there, today’s your day.

Android Oreo

• Android Oreo review!
• Everything new in Android Oreo
• How to get Android Oreo on your Pixel or Nexus
• Oreo will make you love notifications again
• Will my phone get Android Oreo?
• Join the Discussion

These $6 Bluetooth headphones are the perfect last-minute holiday gift idea

Last-minute gift idea = complete!

Bluetooth headphones have become more of a must-have with phones than they ever were in the past thanks to the removal of headphone jacks on various newer devices. Not everyone wants to drop hundreds of dollars on Bluetooth headphones, though, and luckily you don’t have to.

Right now you can pick up these Vtin Bluetooth Sports Earbuds for just $5.99 at Amazon when you use coupon code 5ERVAUV2 during checkout. These days it’s hard to find a meal to eat for $6, let alone a pair of headphones that you can use on a daily basis to listen to music, take phone calls, and more.

The ear hooks are designed to better fit and hold inside your ears so they won’t move while you are working out or moving about, and the cable buckle helps adjust the length of the cable to help them fit better. You’ll get around 6 hours of playback time per charge, and they recharge fully within 2 hours. Whether you are looking for a last-minute holiday gift idea, or want some Bluetooth headphones for yourself, you won’t want to pass up this deal. Do yourself a favor and pick up a couple pairs at this price and then thank us for the idea later.

See at Amazon

Headphones Gift Guide 2017

Like music to your ears.

Not everyone is an audiophile. Folks who are, like to endlessly ponder the merits (and lack thereof) of their headphones and other equipment, but most of us just want a good pair of headphones in the right style that fit our budget.

We’ve harnessed the power of a couple of self-admitted audiophiles-in-training and bring you our headphone gift guide. We’d love to own (or already do!) any of these products and think you’ll feel the same way if you want the most from your phone when it comes to music or video.

Best Earbuds

Most people use earbuds to listen to music on phones because they’re portable and, in many cases, inexpensive. And there is a huge selection to choose from when buying. That means there are plenty of good ones, but also plenty of bad, too. Here are our picks for the best earbuds.

Best overall: Bose QuietComfort 20

Everyone knows about Bose on-ear headphones, but did you know the same active noise canceling system comes in earbud form, too? The QuietComfort 20 earbuds offer the same acoustic cancellation as the bigger model but will fit in your pocket. Complete with in-line audio controls (be sure to choose the right model — Android or iOS) and a wide selection of tips, the QuietComfort 20s from Bose are the best earbuds money can buy. They’ll also set you back about $250.

See at Amazon

Best sounding: 1MORE Triple Driver

While they don’t offer noise cancellation or fit as well as the Bose buds in our top pick, these earbuds from 1MORE win when it comes down to the sound. Grammy award-winning sound engineer Luca Bignardi is responsible for this as his input helped this UK company tune the drivers for the best audio response possible from a small speaker that sits inside your ears. And it worked! The 1MORE Triple Drivers are about $90 and worth every penny if you want the best sound.

See at Amazon

Best value: Panasonic ErgoFit

You can get awesome earbuds for just $8! The Panasonic ErgoFits might not sound as good or offer as many features as others on this list, but they are hands-down one of the best deals around when it comes to earbuds. They come in eight different colors and have a decent inline mic for taking calls or talking to your phone’s assistant, and are one of the best ways to spend $8 we can think of.

See at Amazon

Best Wireless headphones

Headphone jacks on smartphones are going to soon become a thing of the past. Or at the very least become that thing you find on specialty phones like the LG V series. That means wireless headphones that look great, sound great and fit great are something you’ll soon be looking for if you’re not already. Here are our top picks for sound without wires.

Best overall: Bowers & Wilkins PX

At $399 they’re not cheap, but if you’re looking for wireless headphones that sound amazing and have decent noise cancellation, the Bowers & Wilkins PX is your best bet. They have removable magnetic earcups for easy cleaning, 20+ hours of battery life, and gesture support that stops the music automatically when you remove them from your head. Magic!

See at Amazon

Best noise cancellation: Bose QC35 II

Bose has a reputation for decent sound quality and even better noise isolation, and the $349 QC35 IIs are the company’s best yet. Like the wired QC20s, these use algorithms to intelligently block outside noise from disrupting your flight, commute or coffee shop excursion. Best of all, they’re super lightweight and have Google Assistant built right in!

See at Amazon

Best value: Jabra Move

If you’re after sheer value for money, you can’t do better than the Jabra Move wireless headphones. For just over $50, they sound great, are incredibly comfortable, and have over eight hours of battery life. They’re also very sturdy, made from lightweight aluminum.

See at Amazon

Best Wired Over-Ear or On-Ear headphones

If you’re a person who doesn’t like earbuds, you probably appreciate a good set of on-ear or over-ear headphones when it comes to listening to music or video. While not as easy to carry around, bigger headphones mean bigger sound and there are great options to choose from at almost every company that makes audio equipment represented. Here are our top picks.

Best overall: OPPO PM-3

Offering great sound, great comfort, and a great look, the OPPO PM-3 planar closed-back headphones are our pick for the best overall on-ear or over-ear headphones. Companies like Bowers & Wilkins or Bang & Olufsen make great headphones that are comfortable to wear, but the OPPO’s are just as comfortable and sound even better when driven from your average (read: not with a high-end DAC and amp) smartphone or media player. They’re incredibly light so you’ll forget you’re wearing them, except for the wonderful sound that comes from the speakers. The OPPO PM-3s cost about $400 but are a joy to use.

See at Amazon

Best sounding: Sony MDR7506

Unless you have a phone with a high gain amplifier, the Sony MDR7506 over-ear headphones offer the best sound possible from your average equipment. They’re a little bulky and have a cumbersome coiled cord, but they are tuned for a flat response and used in studios every day because they offer a true representation of the audio. And with a 63 Ohm impedance, they’re a perfect match for most phones or portable media players. The MDR7506 headphones cost about $80 but sound better with most phones than models costing hundreds more.

See at Amazon

Best value: Samson SR850

These semi-open-back headphones bring real studio-reference audio to the table for about $30. They offer a 10Hz-30kHz frequency response and have a 32 Ohm impedance so any phone or media player can properly drive them, and the semi-open-back design helps fight “ear-fatigue” as well as lets you hear things like car horns when you’re walking, which can be pretty important. They’re not built quite as well as our other picks and the open-back design means they will leak a bit of noise, but they are a great buy at $30 and we recommend them to anyone looking for that great budget-friendly pick.

See at Amazon

Best High-end

If you have a phone like the LG V30 with a high-end DAC and amplifier, you might want a pair of high-end headphones to go with it! When it comes to listening to music, there is nothing quite like driving a pair of large transducer headphones and losing yourself in the sound, and to get there you need the right equipment. Here are our top picks for your audiophile smartphone.

Best overall: Sennheiser HD 800

A huge 56-millimeter driver and unique (patented, even!) transducer design make the Sennheiser HD 800’s sound great, and the excellent craftsmanship and materials used make them the best overall headphones when you’re looking in the high-end. They’re 300 Ohm so you’ll definitely need the right phone or media player to use them, but the big soundstage and comfortable fit make the Senn HD 800s a great set of headphones and our top pick when it comes to the category. You’ll be spending about $1,160 here, but that’s not a lot of money when it comes to audiophile equipment.

These come with a 6.3mm XLR audio interface, so be sure to buy the adapter to use them with your phone!

See at Amazon

Best sounding: Grado PS1000e

If you value the very best sound above all else, the Grado PS1000e model is for you. At only 32 Ohm they’re an odd choice for this category but paired with a high-power amp these tonal wood (mahogany in this case) and steel over-ear headphones bring a sound you simply won’t believe directly to your ears at moderate volume levels. While the Sennheisers may be more comfortable while bringing excellent audio quality (and thus our top pick) these offer greater detail and a huge soundstage that will make you feel like you’re there in person rather than listening through a cable. Simply put, we haven’t found anything that sounds as good as the Grados, but they’re not as comfortable as the also-excellent Sennheiser HD 800s.

The Grado PS1000e headphones use a 6.3-millimeter XLR audio interface, so be sure to order an adapter to use them with your phone!

See at Amazon

Best value: Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro (250 Ohm)

If you have the power to drive them from your phone, the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pros is the 250 Ohm configuration are hands-down the best value in high-end headphones. At $170, they’re hundreds less than other brands but offer excellent sound quality and are extremely comfortable to wear for extended periods. They will also get as loud and nasty/awesome as you want! They aren’t built as well as others on this list, and the open-back design means others get to hear along with you at high volume, but this is the best way to spend $170 if you have the phone to drive them.

Don’t get the 600 Ohm model if your primary use is with a phone or portable player, but for home use on the right equipment, they are awesome, too!

See at Amazon

Samsung’s mega-wide gaming monitor is first to be HDR certified

Last week VESA (finally) launched an HDR standard for computer displays to tell consumers whether a pricey monitor will show games and movies the way the creators intended. Samsung has announced that it’s 49-inch QLED super ultra-wide monitor, the CHG90, is the first to receive the DisplayHDR 600 certification. That means it delivers enough brightness (600 cd/m2 peak and 350 cd/m2 average), contrast (3,000:1) and color accuracy (10-bits) to deliver on the HDR promise.

The CHG90 has a very weird 3,840 x 1,080 resolution (a 32:9 aspect ratio),144 Hz refresh, AMD FreeSync support, deep curvature and a $1,300 price tag, so it’s not for everyone. It’s built mainly to replace multi-monitor setups so that you can, say, game on one half and stream on the other. As a single screen, it could give you more visibility and flexibility with controls, but does not, obviously, deliver full 4K resolution.

It’s interesting that a gaming monitor is first to receive the VESA DisplayHDR certification, as there are plenty of professional graphics monitors designed for maximum color accuracy and contrast. However, many of those use IPS panels that lack brightness and likely wouldn’t meet the 600/350 cd/m2 threshold. Samsung has mostly used its QLED tech for 4K TVs, and while the blacks aren’t as good as on OLED displays, they’re definitely bright.

On the color side, VESA says that monitors must display a billion colors (10 bits), but 8-bit panels with 2 bits of “dithering” to simulate 10 bits also qualify. Very few monitors have true 10-bit panels, but most of Samsung’s QLED TVs do (Samsung’s specs for the CHG90 don’t say).

VESA promised to announce multiple DisplayHDR certified monitors on or before CES 2018, so you can expect to see others soon. It will be interesting to see which is the first to conform to DisplayHDR 1000, which is much more demanding for brightness and black levels (contrast). If consumers start pushing manufacturers to meet those specs, it will be a big plus for both gamers and streamers.

Via: Tom’s Hardware

Source: Samsung

This year we took small, important steps toward the Singularity

We won’t have to wait until 2019 for our Blade Runner future, mostly because artificially intelligent robots already walk, roll and occasionally backflip among us. They’re on our streets and in our stores. Some have wagged their way into our hearts while others have taken a more literal route. Both in civilian life and the military battlespace, AI is adopting physical form to multiply the capabilities of the humans it serves. As robots gain ubiquity, friction between these bolt buckets and we meat sacks is sure to cause issues. So how do we ensure that the increasingly intelligent machines we design share our ethical values while minimizing human-robot conflict? Sit down, Mr. Asimov.

In the last year, we’ve seen Google form the DeepMind Ethics & Society to investigate the implications of its AI in society, and we’ve witnessed the rise of intelligent sex dolls. We’ve had to take a deep look at whether the warbots we’re developing will actually comply with our commands and whether tomorrow’s robo-surgeons will honor the Hippocratic Oath. So it’s not to say that such restrictions can’t be hard-coded into an AI operating system, just that additional nuance is needed, especially as 2018 will see AI reach deeper into our everyday lives.

Asimov’s famous three laws of robotics is “a wonderful literary vehicle but not a pragmatic way to design robotic systems,” said Dr. Ron Arkin, Regents’ professor and director of Mobile Robot Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Envisioned in 1942, when the state of robotics was rudimentary at best, the laws were too rigid for use in 2017.

During his work with the Army Research Office, Arkin’s team strived to develop an ethical robot architecture — a software system that guided robots’ behavior on the battlefield. “In this case, we looked at how a robotic software system can remain within the prescribed limits extracted from international humanitarian law,” Arkin said.

“We do this in very narrow confines,” Arkin continued. “We make no claims these kinds of systems are substitutes for human moral reasoning in a broader sense, but rather we can give the same guidelines — in a different format, obviously — that you would give for a human warfighter when instructed how to engage with the enemy, to a robotic system.”

Specifically, the context of these instructions is dictated by us. “A human being is given the constraints, and restraints, if you will, for the robotic system to adhere to,” he said. It’s not simply a matter of what to shoot at, Arkin explained, but whether to shoot at all. “There are certain prohibitions that must be satisfied,” Arkin said, so that “if it finds itself near cultural property which should not be destroyed, or if that individual or target is near civilian property like a mosque or a school, it should not initiate in those circumstances.”

This “boundary morality,” as Arkin puts it, likely won’t be enough for robots and drones to replace human warfighters, and certainly not next year. But in certain scenarios, such as clearing buildings or counter-sniper operations, where collateral damage is common, “put a robot in that situation and give it suitable guidance to perhaps do better, ultimately, than a given warfighter could,” Arkin concluded.

In these narrowly-defined operations, it is possible to have a three-laws-like sense of ethics in an AI operating system. “The constraints are hard-coded,” Arkin explained, “just like the Geneva Conventions say what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.”

Machine-learning techniques may empower future AI systems to play an expanded role on the battlefield, though they are themselves not without risk. “There are some cases of machine-learning which I believe should not be used in the battlefield,” Arkin said. “One is the in-the-field target designation where the system figures out who and what it should engage with under different circumstances.” This level of independence is not one that we are currently ethically or technologically equipped to handle and should instead be vetted first by a human-in-the-loop “even at the potential expense of the mission. The rules of engagement don’t change during the action.”

“I believe that if we are going to be foolish enough to continue killing each other in warfare that we must find ways to better protect noncombatants. And I believe that this is one possible way to do that,” Arkin concluded.

While 2017 saw the rise in interactions between robots and humans in the supermarket — looking at you, Amazon Go. In the coming year, care must still be taken to avoid potential conflict. “These robots, as they actuate in the physical space, they’ll encounter more human bodies,” said Manuela Veloso, Professor at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science and head of CMU SCS’s Machine Learning Department. “It’s similar to autonomous cars and how they’ll interact with people: robots will eventually need to have to make ethical decisions.” We’re already seeing robots encroach on production lines and fulfillment centers. This sense of caution will be especially necessary when it comes to deciding who to run over.

And, unlike military applications, civil society has many more subtle nuances guiding social mores, making machine learning techniques a more realistic option. Veloso states, “Machine learning has a much higher probability of handling the complexity of the spectrum of things that may be encountered,” but that “it probably will be a complement of both.”

In this way, fundamental social rules — such as no biting, no shouting, et cetera — can be hard-coded into the AI while machine learning can help guide the AI through its day-to-day tasks. “Machine learning has a very beautiful kind of promise — in some sense humans, they are not as good in terms of explaining everything they care about in terms of actually rules and statements,” Veloso added. “But they do reveal themselves how they act by example.”

Like Arkin, Veloso doesn’t exactly think we’ll be handing robots the keys to the kingdom next year. “AI systems for a long time should be assistants, they should be recommenders,” she said. And we’ve already witnessed that trend in 2017, with digital assistants moving from our phones to our homes. It’s one that will very likely continue into the new year. But a long time doesn’t mean never. “These AI systems have the potential to be great other ‘people’,” Veloso continued. “Great other minds, data processors and advisors.” Just maybe don’t give them guns just yet.

Humans will have responsibilities towards their mechanical counterparts as well, specifically treating them with respect. Now, whether robots — especially anthropomorphic ones like Hanson Robotics’ Sophia, which debuted this year — “deserve” respect anymore than your Keurig or Echo do is a slippery ethical slope that only Chidi would relish sliding down. But social standards on acceptable behavior are constantly in flux, and this something that needs codifying in 2018.

“We feel responsible to not hurt dogs and cats,” Veloso explained. “I don’t think that [robots] will have ‘feelings’ like a dog or a cat does. I think that it’s probably that people have to get used to appreciate the function, like you’re not going to kick your refrigerator or disconnect your toaster” when they don’t function properly.

“I believe that if we don’t make these robots look a lot like people — with skin and everything — people will always treat them as machines,” Veloso concluded. “Which they are.”

Our relationship with technology, especially AI systems that approach (and will eventually exceed) human intelligence are changing whether we like it or not. For example, we’ve already seen Google’s AlphaGo AI beat the pants off of human masters repeatedly this year. We’re not likely to see America’s military rolling out autonomous smart tanks and Terminator-style battle robots within the next two decades, let alone 12 months, Arkin estimates.

The US Army is already reaching out to industry for help in designing and deploying machine learning and AI systems to counter foreign cyberattacks, the first results of which will begin rolling out next year. In the immediate future beyond that, we’re likely to see a slate of smart technologies, from self-guided helicopters to in-the-field part printing (assuming Elon Musk doesn’t get his way). The state of the art for battlefield AI is simply too far within its infancy to reliably deploy such technology. Instead, that change will likely be driven by civilian society.

“I think humans are amazing in the sense of being extremely open minded with respect to technology,” Veloso said. “Look at the world in which we live versus the world in which our grandparents lived. The amount of technology we are surrounded by is absolutely fascinating. We aren’t taught in school anything different from what our grandparents were taught in school: it’s history and geometry and algebra and we still manage to live with so much more technology because humans are so smart.”

Hopefully we’ll prove smart enough to treat tomorrow’s robots better than we treat each other today.

Check out all of Engadget’s year-in-review coverage right here.

NASA will take images of its quiet supersonic jet’s shockwaves

When NASA begins testing its supersonic jet, you won’t only hear about it — you’ll see cool images from the experiments, too. The agency has recently completed a series of flight tests proving that the imaging technique it developed is capable of capturing the shockwaves NASA’s Low Boom Flight Demonstration (LBFD) aircraft will make when it starts flying faster than the speed of sound.

The Federal Aviation Administration has placed restrictions on supersonic flights, because they tend to produce powerful shockwaves that people on the ground hear as very loud booms. In 2016, NASA began developing a quiet supersonic jet design with Lockheed Martin under the Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) program. The agency will work with a contractor to bring that design to life as the LBFD jet and expects to start demonstrating what it can do by 2022.

But before anybody can use that technology to create planes that cut current flight times in half, scientists will have to confirm that it can actually do what it was designed for. That’s why the agency has been improving upon the “schlieren imaging” method used to visualize elements that are typically invisible, like air flow and shockwaves. NASA’s technique is called Background Oriented Schlieren using Celestial Objects or BOSCO. It uses full-sized telescopes and cameras with special hydrogen alpha filter to capture images of shockwaves as a plane flies with the sun in the background.

The technique produces images like this:

The photo above was captured during NASA’s latest round of tests wherein a US Air Force Test Pilot School T-38 aircraft traveled in supersonic speeds between the cameras and the sun at an altitude of 10,000 feet. When NASA first tested the technique in 2016, the aircraft flew at an altitude of 40,000 feet and traversed an area 300 feet in diameter. For the more recent tests, the smaller equipment NASA used had to be able to capture images while the plane was moving through an area only 100-foot-diameter in size.

Why? Well, because to be able to capture clear images of the shockwaves produced by LBFD, a plane meant to fly 60,000 feet above the ground, NASA has to mount its equipment on a chaser plane flying 10,000 feet below it. The chaser only has a small window of opportunity to capture its shockwaves, as well. Now that NASA has proven that its technique will work (the image above wouldn’t exist otherwise), it can focus on building LBFD and start putting it through some rigorous testing.

Source: NASA