Wearable Android device can assess seniors’ risk of suffering a nasty fall

We’ve previously covered smart technologies, such as a wearable airbag, that are designed to help elderly people in the event that they suffer a fall. A new, more proactive device, however, wants to make sure that those unexpected falls don’t happen in the first place.

Developed by researchers at Spain’s Universitat Politècnica de València, FallSkip is a mobile app that runs on a special Android-based mobile device, which sits on a custom waistband. Doctors can enter the patient’s vitals into the app, and then use its in-built accelerometer and gyroscope to test them for balance and gait patterns, coordination, reaction time, and muscle strength. Once this test is completed, the patients are awarded a score which indicates whether they are a likely candidate to have a fall in the near future. That data can then be used to make informed decisions about their care.

“One out of three older adults falls at least once a year, which is one of the major geriatric syndromes and the second [biggest] cause of accidental or unintentional death,” Xavi Andrade Celdrán, innovation manager for FallSkip, told Digital Trends.

“A fall usually implies a deterioration in the autonomy of elderly people, which reduces their quality of life and that of their social environment. The consequences range from clinical problems, such as fractures or sprains, to the fear of falling syndrome, which involves an increase in the fragility of the older person and the onset of functional disability. According to [one study], falls affect approximately 16.5 percent of elderly people in Spain. The psychosocial and assistance consequences, as well as the fear of falling syndrome, affect between 44.7 percent and 64 percent. In addition, between 9.7 percent and 19 percent of falls result in hospital admission of the elderly person.”

FallSkip was intended to be an objective test to measure a person’s risk of falling, a bit like the way that a Breathalyzer turned subjective guesswork into an accurate test. It is highly repeatable, affordable to carry out, and based on the latest research. “The methodology followed by FallSkip is based on the application of an adapted version of the ‘Time up Go’ Test (TUG), which has been cited in multiple clinical trials as a reliable and cost-effective method for assessing general functional state,” Celdrán continued.

One day, the team hopes that this will be a standard tool in every physician’s clinic to help optimize care for our growing elderly population.

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Wearable Android device can assess seniors’ risk of suffering a nasty fall

We’ve previously covered smart technologies, such as a wearable airbag, that are designed to help elderly people in the event that they suffer a fall. A new, more proactive device, however, wants to make sure that those unexpected falls don’t happen in the first place.

Developed by researchers at Spain’s Universitat Politècnica de València, FallSkip is a mobile app that runs on a special Android-based mobile device, which sits on a custom waistband. Doctors can enter the patient’s vitals into the app, and then use its in-built accelerometer and gyroscope to test them for balance and gait patterns, coordination, reaction time, and muscle strength. Once this test is completed, the patients are awarded a score which indicates whether they are a likely candidate to have a fall in the near future. That data can then be used to make informed decisions about their care.

“One out of three older adults falls at least once a year, which is one of the major geriatric syndromes and the second [biggest] cause of accidental or unintentional death,” Xavi Andrade Celdrán, innovation manager for FallSkip, told Digital Trends.

“A fall usually implies a deterioration in the autonomy of elderly people, which reduces their quality of life and that of their social environment. The consequences range from clinical problems, such as fractures or sprains, to the fear of falling syndrome, which involves an increase in the fragility of the older person and the onset of functional disability. According to [one study], falls affect approximately 16.5 percent of elderly people in Spain. The psychosocial and assistance consequences, as well as the fear of falling syndrome, affect between 44.7 percent and 64 percent. In addition, between 9.7 percent and 19 percent of falls result in hospital admission of the elderly person.”

FallSkip was intended to be an objective test to measure a person’s risk of falling, a bit like the way that a Breathalyzer turned subjective guesswork into an accurate test. It is highly repeatable, affordable to carry out, and based on the latest research. “The methodology followed by FallSkip is based on the application of an adapted version of the ‘Time up Go’ Test (TUG), which has been cited in multiple clinical trials as a reliable and cost-effective method for assessing general functional state,” Celdrán continued.

One day, the team hopes that this will be a standard tool in every physician’s clinic to help optimize care for our growing elderly population.

Editors’ Recommendations

• New brainwave-reading technique may unlock ‘locked-in’ patients
• Assistive tech is progressing faster than ever, and these 7 devices prove it
• Neuroscientists use electrical pulses to brain to curb Tourette syndrome tics
• Doctors may be able to spend less time transcribing notes thanks to Google
• FDA approves algorithm that predicts sudden patient deaths to help prevent them

Alphabet’s new cybersecurity company focuses on accelerating threat responses

Google’s parent company Alphabet recently introduced an independent cybersecurity business called Chronicle. According to CEO Stephen Gillett, Chronicle stems from a team that previously resided at Alphabet’s X Development arm (aka The Moonshot Factory). The staff spent several years determining how to best attack the growing cybersecurity problem and the result is a company that now provides two services: The current malware intelligence-based VirusTotal acquired by Google in 2012, and a new cybersecurity intelligence and analytics platform. 

“We want to 10 times the speed and impact of security teams’ work by making it much easier, faster and more cost-effective for them to capture and analyze security signals that have previously been too difficult and expensive to find,” Gillett said. 

The big deal is the “planet-scale” computing power behind Chronicle’s initiative. It’s the same infrastructure that powers Alphabet‘s other services, and backed by machine learning, Google’s search technology, and huge cloud-based storage capacities. Gillett believes Alphabet‘s powerful platform should help find and retrieve “useful” security-based information in mere minutes rather than hours or days as seen with other services. 

Chronicle puts an emphasis on speed and ease to provide tools for companies to understand its volumes of data, and unlock “hidden insights.” The goal is to provide security teams enough time to protect themselves against possible cyberattacks via vulnerabilities in their defenses, and the way they manage data across networks and campuses. Scale and affordability are also important factors. 

One of the benefits is using machine learning to find patterns in large volumes of data. According to Chronicle, these patterns aren’t easily detected by humans. Another benefit is not having another local software solution that must be maintained by IT. Instead, Chronicle will provide web-based services that can grow with the organization. 

Gillett says his team already consulted with several Fortune 500 companies to help shape and steer Chronicle in the right direction. Several of these companies are now testing the new cybersecurity intelligence program by way of an early alpha program. The company’s website currently doesn’t provide any specific plans for enterprise customers to purchase or lease, but it does offer an email address for querying about early access. Chronicle is also open to security and channel-based partnerships. 

“We’re excited about being an independent company, yet part of Alphabet,” Gillett said. “We’ll have our own contracts and data policies with our customers, while at the same time having the benefit of being able to consult the world-class experts in machine learning and cloud computing (among many other topics) that reside in other parts of Alphabet.” 

Alphabet’s X Development arm, formerly Google X, is a pool of moonshot thinkers that tackle global problems. Gillett joined Google Ventures in early 2016 after serving as the chief intelligence officer and general manager of Digital Ventures at Starbucks, and as the chief operating officer at Symantec. He moved over to X Development and teamed up with Mike Wiacek and Shapor Naghibzadeh, both who were longtime engineers on Google’s security team. 

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Samsung Galaxy S9 launch event set for February 25: ‘The camera. Reimagined.’

Now it’s all official.

We all had the date of February 26 circled on our calendars for the Galaxy S9 launch event, but now Samsung just made the whole darn thing official by sending out invitations to its launch event. The announcement date is February 25 — the original expectation of the 26th likely being a difference in time zones between Europe and Asia. And it’s the big press day right at the start of MWC 2018.

And just in case there was any doubt that we’d be looking at a Galaxy S9, the invite makes that pretty clear.

The only hints we have here beyond that are the few words that make up the tagline for the event: “The camera. Reimagined.”

Of all we’ve heard, some of the most intriguing rumors about the upcoming Galaxy S9 and S9+ have related to the camera(s). We have rumors of physically adjustable apertures, a dual camera set up on the larger Galaxy S9+, and more. Wonderfully, we have to wait just a month from today to find out for sure.

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US charges cryptocurrency creators over $6 million scam

US regulators are making good on their promise to get tough on crypto fraud. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed complaints charging My Big Coin Pay and two of its operators, Randall Crater and Mark Gillespie, with using the company’s My Big Coin cryptocurrency as part of an ongoing, not-so-subtle Ponzi scheme. Crater and Gillespie allegedly drew investments in the virtual money by making numerous bogus claims (that it was traded on multiple exchanges, backed by gold and had a MasterCard partnership) and promptly “misappropriated” the $6 million in funds for buying a home, jewelry, vacations and other indulgences.

To make matters worse, the scammers reportedly tried to hide their fraud by issuing additional coins and claiming to have a new exchange deal that ‘conveniently’ made it a bad idea for customers to redeem their holdings.

This isn’t the only case in the pipeline. The CFTC had already filed fraud charges against three other operators the week before. However, it illustrates the shadiness that still pervades cryptocurrency startups. While many initial coin offerings are sincere efforts, some are questionable cash grabs — and in the most extreme circumstances, they’re outright rip-offs or prone to theft. Continued crackdowns like this might deter some perpetrators, but it may be hard to completely eliminate as long as cryptocurrency values are through the roof.

Via: Reuters

Source: CFTC

Udacity’s ‘flying car’ engineering course starts next month

Flying cars have always been a goalpost of the future, but last year companies like Toyota, Airbus, DeLorean and Volvo’s parent company invested in or announced plans to get their own units flying soon. If you wanted to get in on the ground floor of tomorrow’s transportation, you might try joining the first class of ‘flying car engineers’ in a new nanodegree program at Udacity fronted by Sebastian Thrun, the former leader of Google’s self-driving car program.

Thrun has quite a pedigree as a founder of Udacity himself along with the Kitty Hawk prototype flying ‘car,’ but the rest of the course’s instructors are likewise impressive. They include MIT professor Nicholas Roy, founder of the Alphabet-backed Project Wing whose drones air-delivered burritos to Australians last October; Aerospace professor at University of Toronto Angela Schoellig; And lastly the founder of Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics), Raffaello D’Andrea.

The course itself aims to educate engineers on both robotics and aerospace concepts to understand particular demands of ‘flying cars.’ Then they’ll learn how to code test programs in simulators to refine their designs. The program might be the first of its kind, and no others have sprung up since we heard the course was coming last September, but it’s certainly pricey: Its two 12-week terms cost $1200 apiece (though you can get a $300 discount on the first if you apply soon), so this is quite an investment in the nascent field of drone transportation and as-yet-realized flying cars. But hey, who remembers the naysayers of SpaceX?

Via: BBC

Source: Udacity

Android Messages adds Smart Replies for Project Fi users

In 2015, Google debuted a new feature in its Inbox app: Smart Replies, which offered a trio of context-aware options for users to quickly reply with a few taps. That spread to other services in the company’s suite, from Gmail last year to news last week that it might be added to Gboard. Now it’s coming to tje Android Messages app — but only for Project Fi subscribers, at least for now.

Messaging on the go? Smart Reply for Android Messages lets you text with a tap, rolling out starting today on Project Fi. pic.twitter.com/FRYO4hu9Ah

— Project Fi (@projectfi) January 24, 2018

Per the above tweet, Smart Replies are now live for Android Messages users subscribed to Google’s WiFi-based carrier. It’s unclear why Project Fi will be getting this feature on the Android Messages app exclusively, or when it will be available on other carriers, but we’ve reached out to Google for clarification.

Via: Android Central

Source: Project Fi (Twitter)

Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S9 on February 25th

Samsung has started sending out invites for the Unpacked event this year, where it will take the wraps off the Galaxy S9. The date? February 25th. Its upcoming flagship phone will make its debut at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, just like what DJ Koh, the Korean conglomerate’s mobile chief, promised at CES. The teaser Samsung posted on Twitter hints at the S9’s “reimagined camera.” While the company didn’t say anything more than that, one of the phone’s rumored features is a variable aperture camera.

From 02.25.2018. #Unpacked will change how you experience everything. pic.twitter.com/llrGt0Q6gF

— Samsung Mobile (@SamsungMobile) January 25, 2018

According to the rumors going around, the device’s 12-megapixel shooter will be able to switch between f/1.5 and f/2.4 apertures. As you might know, f-stop pertains to the opening that lets light into the camera. The bigger the number is, the smaller the opening and the smaller the amount of light that can go in. Having the ability to let more light in could improve a phone camera’s performance in low lighting. Of course, we still don’t know if this is the feature Samsung’s hinting at — we’ll just have to wait for the big reveal a month from now.

Source: Samsung (Twitter)

iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 Introduce Support for AirPlay 2

The new developer betas of iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 introduce AirPlay 2 features, allowing for multi-room music playback on Apple TVs using your iPhone.

With iOS 11.3 installed on an iOS device and tvOS 11.3 installed on one or more fourth or fifth-generation Apple TVs, you can use AirPlay 2 to stream music to multiple devices at the same time.

For example, with two Apple TVs running tvOS 11.3 set up in different rooms in the house, you can use the iPhone to play the same song on both, successfully using the multi-room audio feature of AirPlay 2.

Installing tvOS 11.3 prompts you to add your Apple TV to your HomeKit setup, and you’ll be asked to choose a room for it during the setup process. After that’s done, the Apple TV is displayed as an available device in the Home app. You can’t do much with Apple TV in the Home app, but you can play and pause music.

Announced as part of iOS 11 back in June when the operating system was first introduced, AirPlay 2 introduces features like multi-room audio playback from iOS devices and improved buffering.

AirPlay 2 functionality is limited to devices running the current iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 developer betas, so it basically only works with the Apple TV right now. AirPlay 2 has not yet officially been released by Apple, but in the future, third-party speakers and Apple’s own HomePod will support the feature. When AirPlay 2 compatible devices are widely available, you will be able to use AirPlay 2 to control all of the different speakers and devices located throughout your home, for a full multi-room audio experience.

HomePod, which will be available starting on February 9, will not ship with multi-room audio support. It’s possible multi-room HomePod playback will be available once iOS 11.3 launches to the public, however, as iOS 11.3 is not set to be released until the spring.

Apple hasn’t provided specific details on when the HomePod will be updated with multi-room support beyond stating that it will come in a later update, and AirPlay 2 was missing from the detailed rundown of iOS 11.3 features that Apple shared this morning ahead of the beta’s release, so Apple’s plans aren’t quite clear.

At the current time, AirPlay 2 on iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 is rather buggy and the implementation is clearly incomplete, but Apple will likely make significant improvements over the iOS 11.3 beta testing period.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, iOS 11Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
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Everything New in iOS 11.3: iCloud Messages, Animoji, Health Records, AirPlay 2 and More

Apple today released the first beta of an upcoming iOS 11.3 update, and it introduces quite a few new features, including several major changes and a long list of smaller tweaks. iCloud Messages, a long-promised feature has finally made its debut in iOS 11.3, and there are new Animoji, new ARKit tools for developers, and tons more.

In the video and post below, we’ve outlined all of the new features that we’ve discovered in the iOS 11.3 beta so far.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.

Major New Features

Ahead of the release of the first beta, Apple outlined many of the upcoming changes in iOS 11.3 in a preview that explains the new features and lets users know what to expect when the update is released to the public this spring.

Messages on iCloud

iCloud Messages is a feature that was highlighted as a key new iOS 11 component when the operating system was introduced at the June Worldwide Developers Conference, but it was pulled from the iOS 11 update while it was still in beta testing and was not reimplemented before iOS 11’s September launch.

Apple said the feature would return in a future update, however, and it appears iOS 11.3 is that update. When opening up the Messages app after installing iOS 11.3, you’ll be prompted to turn on “Messages on iCloud.”

Messages on iCloud will free up space by keeping photos and other message attachments in iCloud, plus it will sync your messages across all of your devices — even new ones. If you have two-factor authentication and iCloud Backup enabled, Messages on iCloud is automatically enabled.

New Animoji

iOS 11.3 introduces four new Animoji, which are the little animated characters that mimic your facial expressions and voice using the TrueDepth camera. Animoji are limited to the iPhone X, but iPhone X owners with iOS 11.3 will be able to access dragon, bear, skeleton, and lion Animoji, bringing the total number of available Animoji to 16.

ARKit 1.5

For developers, iOS 11.3 introduces ARKit 1.5, an upgraded version of ARKit that can more accurately map irregularly shaped surfaces and recognize and place virtual objects on vertical surfaces like walls and doors. The prior version of ARKit was not able to detect vertical planes.

With ARKit 1.5, augmented reality apps can recognize the position of 2D images like signs and posters, integrating these images into AR experiences like interactive exhibits in a movie theater or a movie poster that comes to life when you view it. ARKit 1.5 also supports 50 percent greater resolution (1080p instead of 720p) and it now works with auto-focus.

Health Records

Apple has worked with several hospitals, clinics, and medical providers to add a “Health Records” feature to the Health app. Health Records is designed to aggregate all of a person’s medical records in one easy-to-access spot in the Health app.

Health Records can store data from multiple participating medical institutions, and it can provide users with notifications when lab results and prescriptions are available. Apple says all Health Records data is encrypted and protected with a passcode.

Participating medical providers include Supported providers include Johns Hopkins Medicine, Cedars-Sinai, Penn Medicine, Geisinger Health System, UC San Diego Health, UNC Health Care, Rush University Medical Center, Dignity Health, Ochsner Health System, MedStar Health, Ohio Health, and Cerner Healthe Clinic.

Apple says additional medical facilities will connect to Health Records in the future.

Minor Tweaks and Changes

In addition to these major features highlighted by Apple, there are also several other smaller tweaks and changes that have been made to the iOS operating system in iOS 11.3.

– Apple News – Apple News will now offer a list of the top videos of the day in the “For You” section, and the algorithm that displays the top stories in the For You section has been improved.

– HomeKit – iOS 11.3 introduces official support for HomeKit software authentication options, which will allow developers to add HomeKit support to many existing accessories. Until software authentication was available, developers were required to meet Apple’s HomeKit specifications through hardware, limiting HomeKit’s backwards compatibility with existing devices.

– Emergency Calls – Support for Advanced Mobile Location (AML) has been introduced in iOS 11.3 to automatically send a user’s precise location over GPS or WiFi when making a call to emergency services. AML requires carrier support and it is not available in the United States. It does, however, work in the United Kingdom, Estonia, Lithuania, Austria, Iceland, and New Zealand.

– iBooks – The iBooks app has dropped the “i” and it’s now known as just “Books.”

– App Store updates – In the App Store’s “Updates” tab, the version number for each app and its installation size is now listed right under the app’s name, both for updates that have already been installed and updates that are available for download.

– Face ID side button – On the iPhone X, when you install an app in the App Store, there’s now a little animation that instructs you to double press the side button to confirm the installation. This animation is also present whenever you need to press the side button, such as when you confirm an Apple Pay payment.

– Privacy screen – When go through the device setup process after installing iOS 11.3, there is a new Privacy screen and icon, which explains that you’ll see the icon whenever an Apple app or feature asks to use your personal information.

– Game Center – In Game Center, you’re now able to manage your Game Center friends and remove individual people. Prior to this update, you could only remove all game center friends in one go.

– AirPlay 2 – There are some AirPlay 2 features built into iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3, which allow music to be controlled on multiple Apple TVs using an iOS device once the updates have been installed.

Future Additions to iOS 11.3

Apple outlined several features that are coming to iOS 11.3 but haven’t been implemented as of yet.

More Detailed Battery Info

A later beta of iOS 11.3 will feature new, more detailed information about the health of a device’s battery. The change comes following controversy over power management features implemented in older devices to prevent unexpected shutdowns. Those power management features throttle iPhones with degraded batteries at times of peak power usage to maintain stable performance.

The update should provide a lot more data about battery health, and there will also be an option to let customers turn off the power management feature entirely, though Apple does not recommend disabling it. The new features will be available in Settings -> Battery and are available for iPhone 6 and later.

Business Chat

Business Chat is designed to give iPhone and iPad users a way to communicate directly with businesses using the Messages app. Business Chat will launch in a beta capacity when iOS 11.3 becomes available to the public in the spring.

Select businesses will support the feature at launch, including Discover, Hilton, Lowe’s, and Wells Fargo.

Business Chat will let you have a conversation with a service representative, schedule appointments, and make purchases using Apple Pay in the Messages app. Your contact information is not shared when you use Business Chat, and you can end a chat at any time.

Apple Music Videos

Apple is planning to introduce some improvements to music videos in the Apple Music app. According to Apple, Apple Music “will soon be the home for music videos.” Users will be able to stream all the music videos they want without ads, and they’ll also be able to view and create music video playlists.

Release Date

According to Apple, iOS 11.3 will be released to the public in the spring, which means we’re going to see an extended beta testing period. Technically, “spring” kicks off on Tuesday, March 20, so the beta will be in testing throughout the entire month of February and much of March. That will let Apple iron out the bugs to make sure things like iCloud Messages are running smoothly ahead of launch.

While iOS 11.3 is currently limited to developers, Apple plans to make a public beta available for public beta testers in the near future.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
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