Microsoft says its AI can translate Chinese as well as a human

Run Chinese text through a translation website and the results tend to be messy, to put it mildly. You might get the gist of what’s being said, but the sheer differences between languages usually lead to mangled sentences without any trace of fluency or subtlety. Microsoft might have just conquered that problem, however: it has developed an AI said to translate Chinese to English with the same quality as a human. You can even try it yourself. The trick, Microsoft said, was to change how it trained AI.

Rather than use the conventional translation technique (statistical machine translation), Microsoft used deep neural networks that more closely mimic human behavior. Its team used a dual learning system where the AI would reverse the translation to gauge how well it did. The company also relied on deliberation networks, which mimic the repetitive process people use to revise writing, as well as joint training that used English-to-Chinese translations to boost the training samples for Chinese-to-English work. The AI would even change the direction of its translation (left to right and vice versa) and promote results that were similar both ways.

It’s not clear that this is ready for prime time. Microsoft based its claim based on a lone test (albeit a thorough one) focused on news stories. You’d ideally pit the AI against informal writing examples like social network posts to see how it handles grammatical errors, slang and other twists. This could well be a breakthrough for translating many languages, though, and the underlying concepts could be useful for other AI systems. Translation is a challenge precisely because there’s rarely one right way to do it — if an AI can master that, it can master many tasks.

Source: Microsoft AI Blog, Microsoft Translator

Amazon’s ‘Life Itself’ tells a love story that spans decades

Amazon Studios has released a teaser trailer for its upcoming film Life Itself. Written and directed by This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman, the movie centers on a couple — played by Oscar Isaac and Olivia Wilde — and a love story, which spans both decades and continents. The teaser shows images of the young couple at the very beginning of their relationship as well as snippets of Isaac embracing a pregnant Wilde as they stroll happily down the street. But there are some darker moments as well — Isaac tearing up as he’s asked to talk about “that day,” one young woman punching another and shattered glass flying past the face of a child. And the “multi-generational love story,” as Amazon describes it, is all tied together by some single event.

Life Itself also stars Mandy Patinkin, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Olivia Cooke and Laia Costa. It hits theaters this fall and you can check out the teaser trailer below.

Source: Amazon Studios

Valve’s new ‘Dota 2’ subscription adds an in-game coach

Dota 2 is a completely free-to-play game, with all the MOBA’s heroes available to new players from day one. Valve makes money by selling different in-game cosmetics, announcers, HUDs, etc. When major tournaments roll around, the house that GabeN built also puts out time-limited “Battle Passes” that add challenges, co-operative game types, fantasy leagues and other things that encourage your participation in exchange for special effects and the latest hero skins. That’s how it’s worked in the past, but this year Valve is trying a more consistent approach to monetization with the new Dota Plus subscription.

Valve calls it an “evolution of the Battle Pass.” For $3.99/£3.05 per month, or less if you commit to a longer term up front, you get access to an exhaustive list of challenges. Prepare to develop an unhealthy fixation on micro-rewards, in other words. There’s a new hero leveling system so you can show everyone how good you are with a specific character, and various other seemingly pointless ways you can pimp your profile. All the little branches of progression earn you “Reward Shards,” which is the in-game currency you’ll use to buy cosmetics and stuff.

What’s way more interesting, though, is the new Dota Plus Assistant. It’s basically like having a stat-obsessed pro looking over your shoulder. It’ll suggest heroes to pick during the drafting phase and the positions they should play, as well as what abilities and items you should prioritize during the game. It works in real time, too, so as the match progresses it’ll change recommendations based on how things are playing out. Plus subscribers also get access to richer post-game analytics and stats that paint a picture of worldwide trends.

Valve has basically cribbed from great community-run sites like Dotabuff, as well as third-party tools that help players draft effective hero lineups, made them pretty, and baked the ideas in as a premium service. But enough from me. To help you digest everything Dota Plus, why not hear a pro’s take? I recommend watching the candid breakdown below from Dota 2 celebrity PPD, aka Peter Dager, who just happens to be the self-proclaimed “greatest Dota 2 player to ever play the game.”

Source: Valve (1), (2)

President Trump wants to create a military ‘Space Force’

This week, while addressing service members at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California, President Trump discussed creating a branch of the armed services specifically designed to operate in space. He called it a “Space Force.”

Apparently, the idea started out as a joke. “I said, ‘Maybe we need a new force, we’ll call it the Space Force,’ and I was not really serious. Then I said, ‘What a great idea,’ maybe we’ll have to do that,” the president said. He continued to discuss why the Space Force would be a good idea. It’s unclear whether the president was joking. We’ve asked the White House for clarification on whether the president was, in fact, in jest when he discussed this.

Trump says that space is a “war fighting domain” and proposes a military “space force.” pic.twitter.com/759ENLaIYj

— Jack Smith IV (@JackSmithIV) March 13, 2018

Joke or not, President Trump isn’t close to the first person to discuss militarizing space. The Air Force already has a Space Command division that oversees our country’s military operations in space. While militarizing space is a bad idea for many reasons, it’s already happening. Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coates said in 2017 that “Both [China and Russia] will continue to pursue a full range of antisatellite (ASAT) weapons as a means to reduce US military effectiveness.”

President Trump didn’t give us any details about what exactly the Space Force would do. He said, “We may even have a Space Force, develop another one, Space Force. We have the Air Force, we’ll have the Space Force.” This isn’t the first time such a military organization has been suggested; language that would divide the Air Force into two different branches was proposed back in 2017, but ultimately didn’t make it into the defense authorization bill.

Via: CNBC

Source: Twitter

Apple CEO Tim Cook Commemorates the Life of Stephen Hawking

Apple CEO Tim Cook has commemorated the life of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who died early Wednesday at the age of 76. “We will always be inspired by his life and ideas,” he said on Twitter.

Stephen Hawking via REX/Shutterstock

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” -Stephen Hawking. We will always be inspired by his life and ideas. RIP.

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 14, 2018

Hawking was a renowned scientist, cosmologist, astronomer, and mathematician. He authored several books, including his best-selling 1988 classic A Brief History of Time, which has sold more than 10 million copies.

Hawking was diagnosed with the degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, at the age of 21. He was given just a few years to live, but battled the illness for more than five decades.

Tag: Tim Cook
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Icon and New Story are pairing cheap 3D-printed homes with people in need

A match made in high-tech heaven was unveiled at South by Southwest (SXSW) when Icon, a revolutionary design and construction company, announced its partnership with New Story, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that invests in international housing solutions. Their goal: To deploy a 3D-printer capable of manufacturing an 800-square-foot house in under 24 hours for less than $5,000.

It’s an ambitious project but one that has a headstart; Icon also brought to SXSW a fully functional 3D-printed model that demonstrates how the company can in produce a low-cost, livable home designed to function with zero waste and work under constraints such as limited water, power, or labor. For its efforts, Icon won this year’s SXSW Accelerator “Pitch Event,” receiving $4,000 and vital exposure to potential investors and constituents in the housing market.

New Story is an ideal test platform for the new 3D-printing technology as it’s a non-profit that already has deep roots in communities in Mexico, Haiti, El Salvador, and Bolivia. In three years, the nonprofit has funded more than 1,300 homes for families in need at a cost of about $6,500. New Story, supported by Y Combinator and other backers, works on a model that guarantees all funds collected goes to build homes.

Following the conference, Icon intends to use the model as an office in its own backyard so it can experience what it’s like to spend long amounts of time in the space and tweak the design accordingly. Each house can be assembled by just two to four workers. New Story also insists on manufacturers using a concept known as “participatory design,” meaning that their “customers” have an active role in sharing their needs before a build, so everyone involved can solve real problems. New Story also uses a streamlined, non-invasive approach to evaluating each project so that each new community they raise is better than the last one.

Using advanced robotics, cutting-edge materials and a proprietary software, Icon enables families to have options for different designs based on factors like terrain, climate, and family size. The actual “printer,” demonstrated at SXSW, is called the Vulcan and is built out of lightweight aluminum with a built-in backup generator.

Another challenge was developing a proprietary building mix using concrete that could be managed by the Vulcan but also suit New Story’s requirements, which include no exotic materials that might have to be imported. The mortar, which must be sourced from local materials, had to be thin enough to flow through the 3D printer but thick enough to support the building structure. The mix has to cure relatively quickly but if it cured too fast, the walls won’t fuse together properly. Heavy rain and challenges in cleaning slowed the company during its research and development phase.

Icon’s future goals are equally lofty. The manufacturer would like to develop robots capable of installing different assets like doors or windows, as well as drones that could spray-paint the exterior walls. It is also testing the Vulcan and other equipment to investigate the potential to print roofs as well. Eventually, Icon would also like to construct homes to alleviate the housing crisis in the United States.

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Stephen Hawking, acclaimed theoretical physicist, dies at 76

Confirmed by a spokesperson for the Hawking family, Nobel Prize-winner Stephen Hawking died early Wednesday morning, March 14, in Cambridge, England. Author to several books including the extremely popular “A Brief History of Time,” the family said Hawking “died peacefully” in his home after living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) since 1962. Hawking is survived by his wife Lucy, and his two sons, Robert and Tim.

Detailed within a statement, the family wrote “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world. He once said, ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him forever.”

Arguably one of the best-known figures in the scientific community, Hawking’s work as a theoretical physicist changed how many scientists viewed the universe. Combining the theory of relativity with quantum mechanics, Hawking theorized that there was a particle that radiated out of black holes; essentially altering how scientists viewed gravity. That particle was named Hawking radiation after the physicist.

While Hawking’s debilitating neurological disease forced him into immobility, it never restricted his brilliant work or hampered his spirit. Helping make science popular around the world, he appeared in multiple television shows including The Simpsons, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Futurama, and The Big Bang Theory. In addition, his life was adapted into a movie, The Theory of Everything. Eddie Redmayne went on to win the Best Actor award at the Academy Award for his portrayal of Hawking.

Interestingly, Hawking actually got a chance to experience weightlessness during 2007 when the Zero G Corporation offered to take Hawking up in one of the company’s planes. Speaking prior to the experience, Hawking said  “I have been wheelchair-bound for almost four decades, and the chance to float in zero-G will be wonderful.”

Multiple public figures and organizations have expressed their sadness over Hawking’s death on social media:

His passing has left an intellectual vacuum in his wake. But it’s not empty. Think of it as a kind of vacuum energy permeating the fabric of spacetime that defies measure. Stephen Hawking, RIP 1942-2018. pic.twitter.com/nAanMySqkt

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 14, 2018

The world has lost a beautiful mind and a brilliant scientist. RIP Stephen Hawking

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) March 14, 2018

RIP Stephen Hawking. Genuinely very sad to hear that. If you haven’t, read A Brief History of Time. It’ll make the world feel more amazing and beautiful and strange. It’ll also make you feel smart and stupid all at once.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) March 14, 2018

R.I.P. Stephen Hawking. Among his many profound contributions to this world was this simple sentiment: “It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.”

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) March 14, 2018

Remembering Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist and ambassador of science. His theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we & the world are exploring. May you keep flying like superman in microgravity, as you said to astronauts on @Space_Station in 2014 pic.twitter.com/FeR4fd2zZ5

— NASA (@NASA) March 14, 2018

In loving memory of Stephen Hawking. It was an honor to have him on The #BigBangTheory. Thank you for inspiring us and the world. pic.twitter.com/9rWoYqIToy

— The Big Bang Theory (@bigbangtheory) March 14, 2018

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How to set up Google Pay

Google Pay lets you keep all your preferred payment and loyalty cards right on your phone.

Google Pay is the new app that combines Android Pay and Google Wallet into one streamlined app for all your cards — that includes credit, debit, gift, and loyalty cards. With more shops supporting Google Pay via NFC and more banking institutions offering the service to its clients, there’s no better time to start setting up Google Pay on your phone. Right now Google is offering a $10 Google Play Store gift card if you use Google Pay on five different days over the next month, so there’s no better time to get started!

Setting up Google Pay the first time

When you load up Google Pay for the first time and log into your preferred Google account, the app will automatically recognize any credit cards associated with your Google Play account and request to add them to Google Pay. Depending on the banking institution, you may need to go through a verification process to confirm things.

You’ll also be asked to allow Google Pay a slew of permissions as you’d expect, including NFC which you’ll absolutely need to turn on if you want to use Google Pay’s tap-to-pay features. The app will also request to be your primary payment method. You may only see that notification if you’ve previously used Samsung Pay or another banking app.

How to add a credit or debit card

While Google Pay will automatically add any credit cards associated with your Google Play account, chances are you have other credit or debit cards you’d also like to use. You can find out which banks are supported in the USA. In Canada, most major banks offer Google Pay support but it is currently unavailable to Canadian credit union members.

Tap to launch the Google Pay app.
Tap the add card icon, which looks like a “+” symbol.
Tap add a credit or debit card
Follow along with the onscreen instructions. You’ll have the option to scan your card using your phone’s camera or manually enter your card information.

Once your card has been added you will be required to activate it via your financial institution.

How to add a loyalty program card

Google Pay is also a great way to keep all your loyalty cards in one convenient place.

Tap to launch the Google Pay app.
Tap the add card icon, which looks like a “+” symbol.

Tap Add a loyalty program.

Use the search bar to find the loyalty card you wish to add.

Use your phone’s camera to scan your card’s barcode or manually enter your card’s info to add it to Google Pay.

How to add a gift card

On top of your debit, credit, and loyalty cards, you can also use Google Pay to store all your gift cards digitally and in one place.

Tap to launch the Google Pay app.
Tap the add card icon, which looks like a “+” symbol.

Tap Add a gift card

Use the search bar to find the associated business for the gift card you wish to add.

Enter the gift card information and tap Save.

Your gift card along with the remaining balance will be displayed amongst your other cards.

Xiaomi Redmi 5 launches in India: Everything you need to know

Xiaomi’s latest budget phone brings the 18:9 form factor at an even more affordable price point.

After launching the Redmi Note 5 and the Redmi Note 5 Pro in India last month, Xiaomi is now introducing an entry-level option in the Redmi series that brings the 18:9 form factor to an even more affordable price point. The Redmi 5 comes with a 5.7-inch HD+ (1440×720) 18:9 display and is powered by the Snapdragon 450 chipset. The phone is set to go on sale starting March 20 for just ₹7,999 ($125).

The Redmi 5 is in fact the smaller variant of the Redmi Note 5, which is sold as the Redmi 5 Plus in China. As such, the phone shares the same design aesthetic as the Redmi Note 5 series. Here’s what you need to know about the Redmi 5 in India.

Xiaomi Redmi 5 Specs

Xiaomi Redmi 5 Price in India

Xiaomi is going to sell the Redmi 5 in three variants in India, with prices starting off at just ₹7,999. That’s for the model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Here’s the breakdown of pricing of the Redmi 5 in India:

• 2GB + 16GB: ₹7,999 ($125)
• 3GB + 32GB: ₹8,999 ($140)
• 4GB + 64GB: ₹10,999 ($170)

The Redmi 5 will go on sale starting March 20 at Xiaomi’s own portal as well as Amazon India and Mi Home retail stores across the country. Xiaomi has also stated that the Redmi 5 will go on sale through its offline partners in the coming weeks.

See at Amazon

Xiaomi Redmi 5 vs. Redmi Note 5

Xiaomi sells a lot of phones in the budget segment, creating a lot of overlap between models. The 2GB variant of the Redmi 5 is enticing considering it costs a mere ₹7,999, but it doesn’t make as much sense to go for the 32GB or 64GB models considering the Redmi Note 5 costs just ₹1,000 more.

The 32GB Redmi Note 5 is available for ₹9,999 ($155), and the 64GB model with 4GB of RAM is retailing for ₹11,999 ($185).

With the Redmi Note 5, you’re getting a larger 5.99-inch display with a resolution of 2160×1080, Snapdragon 625, and a huge 4000mAh battery that easily lasts two days on a full charge. Seeing as how it is just ₹1,000 more than the Redmi 5, the larger Redmi Note 5 is a much better option if you’re in the market for a new budget device.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 review: The best just got better

How to shoot better slow motion video at 120fps, 240fps, and 960fps

Know when to go slow and when to go really slow when you’re taking slo-mo video.

Not too long ago you needed very expensive cameras and equally expensive desktop software to produce a good slow-motion video. Now we can grab slow-motion capture at up to 960 frames per second from a smartphone, and that means we can shoot video that’s about 32-times slower than real life. Isn’t technology grand? We don’t need to know how to build a smartphone that can shoot super slow-motion video or how the internal software works to use it, but it’s a good idea to know a little bit about the things you can do to make it better. Or worse.

The Galaxy S9+ can shoot slow-motion video at 240 fps (frames per second) in 1080p, or 960 fps in 720p. Sony’s latest, the Xperia XZ2, can shoot 960 fps video at 1080p! We expect to see a lot more companies building phones with cameras that can tackle the super slo-mo so no matter which brand you prefer you’ll probably get the feature. It sounds really cool, and it can be once you get a little bit of practice in and remember a few things about when it’s best to use it versus the still-impressive 240 fps slow-motion feature.

Resolution

Resolution is the biggest difference on paper, and the easiest to remember because the results are right there in front of you when you play it back. Super slo-mo shoots at 960 fps, but can only do so for less than a second (0.2 seconds in the Galaxy S9+) but that translates into about 6.5 seconds when you play it back at normal speeds. While that’s awesome, there are times when a 720p video just won’t cut it.

Don’t let 6 seconds of 720p footage ruin your video. If it will be a jarring switch, shoot at 240 fps instead.

The thing you’ll be playing the video back with very likely has a very high resolution. A computer monitor, television, or even the display on your smartphone falls into this category. You have to decide if 6 seconds of 720p footage right in the middle of an FHD video is going to work. The best way to decide is by trial and error.

Take your phone and shoot some video of anything that’s moving as a test. Play it back on the phone and upload it to YouTube where you can watch it on a bigger display so you get a feel for the way the switch to 720p looks when you’re watching. It can work sometimes, especially if you’re going to be editing the final product, but other times it isn’t going to cut it and the FHD 240 fps capture will work better, even if the footage isn’t quite as slow-motion.

Keeping the phone still

Slow-motion video is a bit blurry. It’s difficult for even the most expensive cameras to capture high-speed video and still get a great sharp image because it’s next to impossible to take enough samples to fine tune the focus. It’s not too bad looking, and it can even add to the effect, but only if it’s done right.

In this case, done right means the camera is held perfectly still. Especially if you’re going to use the Automatic capture feature in the Galaxy S9+, where it detects motion and grabs the super slo-mo footage when it sees something moving. Keeping your camera perfectly still is important.

Even the tiniest bit of shaking in your hands can look like an earthquake when you slow it down by a factor of 32.

In fact, it’s important enough to invest in a tripod or gimbal if you plan to shoot a lot of super slo-mo video. With the right equipment your phone can take some amazingly great video footage, and investing in some gear to make better use of it isn’t a bad idea at all.

We really like the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 gimbal here. it can account for any small hand motions (the smallest shake goes on f-o-r-e-v-e-r when shooting at 960fps) and can be programmed to enhance your video with other effects through the mobile app. It’s a handheld, but you can pick up a number of attachments that will let you place it on a flat surface on a tripod. And best of all, the $130 price is a lot cheaper than some others out there.

If you don’t have a way to keep your phone still while taking slo-mo video, shoot it at 240 fps if the video needs to be stable and level.

See at B&H photo

Know your lights

Lighting is the biggest thing to consider when you’re taking any photo or video. You need the right light in the right amount to properly expose whatever it is in front of the lens, and when shooting at high speeds you get another factor in the mix: pulse modulation.

We can see more things when they are slowed down. things like blinking lights.

Pulse modulation is how fluorescent lights and LED’s “work”. A “regular” light bulb has a filament inside of it that’s superheated in a sealed glass globe. It gets so hot it emits bright light and the sealed environment keeps it from catching fire and lets it last longer. It’s also a steady emission — it gets hot, puts out light, and stays in that state until you turn off the electricity and it cools down.

Fluorescent lamps are driven by a ballast that pulses high voltage through the contacts. This ionizes a small amount of metal (usually a mercury-based metal which is why you should never handle a broken fluorescent lamp) and causes it to emit a lot of UV radiation (the harmless type). A phosphor-based coating on the inside of the glass converts the UV radiation into visible spectrum radiation, which is light. Hot cathode fluorescents work a little differently and need a long arc to cause vapor in the sealed lamp to glow, but when it comes to the timing they are both the same — they turn on and off about 60 times each second.

LEDs use a driver to apply current to the leads of the lamp, and this causes electrons to move in a semiconductor inside the LED. When the right amount of current is applied, the electrons are converted into photons, which are tiny rays of light. Fluorescent lamps and LEDs don’t work quite the same way, but they have one thing in common: they aren’t a steady light source. LEDs can have an on/off cycle as slow as two times per second.

240 fps will make fluorescent lights and LEDs blink, but a lot less than 960 fps will. It makes a big difference.

This doesn’t matter to our eyes because we can’t see the darkness between pulses when they are that fast. But when you slow down your video by shooting at a very high frame rate, you see it in the end result. Sometimes, it can be so bad it ruins the footage. Shooting video under a normal fluorescent lamp at 240 fps the lamp “blinks” 7 times per second. Shooting at 960 fps it blinks a little less than 2 times per second. That’s easy to see, and there’s no way to edit it out.

Ideally, you want to shoot outside in the sun or using old-fashioned filament lighting. But if you can’t do that and are shooting video under fluorescent lights or LEDs, shoot at 240 fps to minimize the flickering.

The most important thing to know is that it gets better with practice, and practicing is pretty fun. Shoot video of all kinds of things and have fun while you’re figuring it all out!

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. Google Pixel 2: Which should you buy?
• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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