Smartwatch prototype uses laser projection to turn your arm into a touchscreen

As they stop being smartphone accessories and increasingly stand apart as full-fledged devices in their own right, we totally dig smartwatches. But they do have one big (or, should we say, small) problem it’s difficult to get around: Their diminutive screen size reduces the surface area users can interact with. Since touch gestures remain the best way of interacting with mobile devices, that poses a bit of a challenge.

Fortunately, terms like “big problem” and “a bit of a challenge” are exactly what get the folks at Carnegie Mellon’s Future Interfaces Group (FIG) out of bed in the morning. To help deal with this particular conundrum, they’ve developed a prototype for a special smartwatch that vastly increases its capacitive touch surface area by projecting a touchscreen onto a user’s arm.

This is achieved using a 15-lumen scanned-laser projector that’s bright enough that it can be viewed both inside and outside. A depth-sensing array is then used to register the different touch gestures — while the team has even thought to consider a “slide to unlock” mechanism to avoid false positive gestures being recognized when, say, you simply scratch your arm. In all, the self-contained LumiWatch creates an interactive surface area of 40 x 40cm, more than five times that of a typical smartwatch display.

“It’s an entire computer, with battery that lasts a day, plus a projector for on-skin graphics, as well as a custom depth sensor that allows us to track touch input on the skin,” Chris Harrison, head of FIG, told Digital Trends.

Harrison suggested that the LumiWatch could potentially be the kind of innovation that takes smartwatches in general to the next level. “The computational difference between a smartphone and smartwatch is very small,” he continued. “The big difference is the screen. Smartwatches have yet to gain traction in large part because the interfaces are so meager you can’t do much with them. If we can solve that problem – give smartwatches big screens – we might be able to make them first class devices.”

So will we ever get to see this in action? Quite possibly. “We collaborated on this proof-of-concept hardware with ASU Tech, a consumer electronics OEM in China,” Harrison said. “They are well positioned to take this to the market. Beyond that, I can’t say much more.”

In other words, watch this space. And, if you’re reading this on a smartwatch, be aware that you may soon be able to do said space-watching on a much larger (and slightly hairier) canvas!

Editors’ Recommendations

• Haier Asu hands-on review
• Google Pixelbook review
• The best home theater projectors you can buy
• Awesome Tech You Can’t Buy Yet: Haptic bass straps, musical rings, and more
• The best smartwatches you can buy

Sports Illustrated’s standalone streaming service is now available

Sports Illustrated‘s television offering (SI TV) launched last November on Amazon Channels for $5 per month. Plans to expand the service to Roku, iOS, Android and web browsers have been in the works, and it’s available on the web now, with other platforms ready to go within the next week.

SI TV isn’t a live streaming service like ESPN+, but rather a video on demand service with Sports Illustrated studio shows, sports films and documentaries. It will also feature ongoing weekly sports analysis shows like The Crossover, Planet Futbol and The Line.

“Launching this app provides sports lovers with even more opportunities to access SI TV’s programming, so whether they go direct or though pay TV providers like fuboTV we offer consumers even more ways to tap into the vast options of SI TV’s original and acquired documentaries, shows and movies that have broad appeal,” said SI TV’s Josh Oshinsky in a statement. “Our strategy is to keep finding ways to bring SI TV to consumers however and wherever they want to watch.”

NVIDIA’s AI fixes photos by recognizing what’s missing

Most image editing tools aren’t terribly bright when you ask them to fix a photo. They’ll borrow content from adjacent pixels (such as Adobe’s recently demonstrated context-aware AI fill), but they can’t determine what should have been there — and that’s no good if you’re trying to restore a decades-old photo where you know what’s absent. NVIDIA might have a solution. It developed a deep learning system that restores photos by determining what should be present in blank or corrupted spaces. If there’s a missing eye in a portrait, for instance, it knows to insert one even if the eye area is largely obscured.

There have been previous attempts at AI-guided fills, but they’ve typically been limited to rectangular sections, have focused on gaps near the middle of the picture and haven’t scaled well to missing photo data of different sizes. NVIDIA’s “partial convolution” approach, which guarantees that the output for missing pixels doesn’t rely on the input values, can work with holes of any shape, size or location. That, in turn, produces uncannily realistic results in many cases — even if the AI doesn’t know exactly what’s missing, the result usually looks like it fits. Previous methods tended to produce obvious glitches.

NVIDIA trained its system by generating tens of thousands of hole variations and making the AI learn how to reconstruct photos. It tested using a different set of holes to ensure the AI genuinely understood how to restore photos on its own.

The results aren’t always flawless. You may see a facial feature clearly borrowed from someone else, and it’s bound to struggle if the hole is so large that there isn’t enough information to create a plausible reconstruction. But what’s here could still be incredibly useful. You could repair seemingly hopeless images without hours of painstaking reconstruction. The scientists also envision the AI helping to upscale images without losing sharpness. In effect, you’d only ever have to worry about touching up minor details — the days of recreating whole segments from scratch might soon be over.

Via: Taxi

Source: ArXiv.org, NVIDIA

Snapchat backtracks on its redesign to highlight friends’ Stories

When Snap unveiled its giant Snapchat redesign in fall 2017, it was emphatic that your friends’ content would remain separate from superstars and media giants. The company might be having second thoughts about that strategy, though. Snap has confirmed to Recode that it’s testing a Snapchat change that would put your friends’ Stories in the Discover section alongside all the others, effectively reverting to its old model. A spokesperson explained the move only by noting that Snap is “always listening to our community” and will “continue to test updates” that might improve the experience, but there are some potential explanations.

There’s no question that the Snapchat redesign prompted harsh criticism — when your stock price drops because Kylie Jenner said she’d stopped using your app, you sit up and take notice. Snap may be trying to appease critics by reverting to the old ways. It’s not certain that Stories use has dropped as a result of the split, but it wouldn’t be surprising. And as Recode observed, there’s a chance that Snap would use its unified Stories as a way to pitch professional content. If you have to glance at the latest big-name shows in order to catch your friend’s concert snap, you might be more inclined to watch those shows.

The one certainty: this would represent a fundamental shift in philosophy. The Snap spokesperson noted that the test interface revolves around “users’ behavior, not just relationships.” It’s about what you’re trying to do, not who you’re doing it with — a simple strategy for a company that has lately been accused of making things unnecessarily complex.

Source: Recode

Amazon confirms the existence of a ‘Fire TV Cube’

The next-generation Fire TV might take on a cube-shaped form. AFTVNews has discovered a page on Amazon’s website where you can sign up to receive more info about a certain “Fire TV Cube.” While the page is pretty much empty other than the words “What is Fire TV Cube?” and the promise of more details coming soon, it could be all about the box-like device the same publication leaked last year. Back in September, AFTVNews published the photo you can see above. It said the boxy contraption on the right is some sort of a Fire TV-Echo Dot hybrid with hands-free Alexa support.

To be able to control current Fire TV devices with Amazon’s voice assistant, you need to use its accompanying voice remote or a separate Echo speaker. You apparently don’t need either with the cube-like device, and since it has a built-in speaker, you’d even hear Alexa’s responses even if the TV isn’t switched on. The device will reportedly be able to handle 4K HDR video, as well.

Of course, we can’t say with 100 percent certainty whether that’s truly what the “Fire TV Cube” is. As AFTVNews noted, it’s also unclear whether “Fire TV Cube” is an official name or something Amazon decided to use for now, since that’s what fans call the device in the leaked image. Your best bet is to sign up to receive more info and hope that the e-commerce giant sends out one with all the juicy details in the near future.

Source: AFTVNews, Amazon

Facebook was a bulletin board for identity theft sales

Cybercriminals have been advertising stolen information like addresses, credit card numbers, dates of birth and social security numbers on Facebook, Motherboard reports today, and they’ve been doing it unchecked for years. Security researcher Justin Shafer tipped Motherboard off to the information, much of which could be easily found through simple Google searches. A lot of the private information posted on Facebook appeared to be used in advertisements shared by those looking to sell the data and Motherboard was able to confirm that at least some of the stolen info was accurate.

Motherboard flagged some of the posts and alerted Facebook to the issue. A few of the posts were removed today. “We work hard to keep your account secure and safeguard your personal information,” a Facebook spokesperson told Motherboard. “Posts containing information like social security numbers or credit card information are not allowed on Facebook, and we remove this material when we become aware of it. We are constantly working to improve these efforts, and we encourage our community to report anything they see that they don’t think should be in Facebook, so we can take swift action.”

“On their end it’s pure laziness to wait for an abuse report to stop posts that are following a doxing template,” digital security trainer Matt Mitchell told Motherboard. And Facebook’s reliance on user flagging to spot inappropriate content came up frequently during Mark Zuckerberg’s Congressional hearings earlier this month.

Further, this isn’t the first time Facebook has been caught allowing illicit sales on its platform. In 2016, it apologized for a “technical issue” that allowed users to sell illegal items like drugs, guns and baby hedgehogs on Marketplace. And while Facebook changed its community guidelines in 2016, banning person-to-person gun sales, enforcing those rules turned out to be a challenge for the company.

Image: Motherboard

Via: Reuters

Source: Motherboard

Apple Discontinues Financing Options in the United Kingdom

Apple has stopped offering financing options to customers in the United Kingdom, as indicated by the elimination of its UK financing page, which was removed from the UK Apple site this afternoon.

Apple previously allowed customers in the UK to sign up for financing on Apple products through PayPal Credit or Barclays when checking out from the online Apple Store. PayPal Credit could be used on purchases with a £99 minimum, while Barclays was available for purchases over £399.

When making a purchase through the Apple site in the UK, there are now no financing options to select at checkout, and the finance pages that were previously available now redirect to the main UK site.

Apple previously eliminated financing options in Canada back in June of 2017, but in the United States, Apple still offers financing through the Barclaycard Visa that includes Apple Rewards points.

Apple also continues to offer financing options for educational institutions in the UK, and financing on iPhones continues to be available through the UK iPhone Upgrade Program in partnership with Barclays.

Tags: United Kingdom, Apple retail, financing
Discuss this article in our forums

Maker of ‘GrayKey’ iPhone Unlocking Box Suffers ‘Brief’ Data Breach, Receives Money Demands

Grayshift, the company that makes the GrayKey iPhone unlocking boxes that have been sold to multiple law enforcement agencies across the United States, recently suffered a data breach that allowed hackers to access a small portion of the GrayKey code, reports VICE’s Motherboard.

GrayKey box, via MalwareBytes
Last week, unknown hackers leaked portions of the GrayKey code and demanded two bitcoin from Grayshift with the threat of additional data being leaked. According to Motherboard, the code in question “does not appear to be particularly sensitive,” but Grayshift did confirm that a “brief” data leak had occurred.

Indeed, Grayshift told Motherboard in a statement “Due [to] a network misconfiguration at a customer site, a GrayKey unit’s UI was exposed to the internet for a brief period of time earlier this month.”

“During this time, someone accessed the HTML/Javascript that makes up our UI. No sensitive IP or data was exposed, as the GrayKey was being validation tested at the time. We have since implemented changes to help our customers prevent unauthorized access,” the statement added.

Grayshift says that no sensitive IP or data was exposed, and Motherboard confirms that the leaked code appears to be related to the user interface that displays messages on the GrayKey, but it’s clear that Grayshift security is not airtight, raising questions about what kind of data might be accessible to hackers.

The GrayKey is a small, portable gray box equipped with dual Lightning cables. An iPhone is plugged into one of the cables to install proprietary software that’s able to guess the passcode to an iPhone in as little as a few hours to a few days, based on the strength of the passcode.

GrayKey, which is priced starting at $15,000, can crack the latest iPhones running modern versions of iOS, including iOS 11. While the box is designed to provide law enforcement officials with easy access to locked iPhones for criminal investigations, there have been fears that the GrayKey technology could fall into the wrong hands.

The box has been sold to multiple law enforcement agencies across the country, and the data breach that Grayshift suffered, however inconsequential, is not at all reassuring for those who are worried about the security of the GrayKey boxes. The underlying functionality that allows the GrayKey to crack iPhones could be discovered and replicated, and the GrayKey boxes themselves are said to download data from cracked iPhones, which could also be at risk in a data breach.

According to Motherboard, Grayshift has not paid the extortionists their two bitcoin fee, as the Bitcoin addresses provided have received no funds. An additional Bitcoin address promising to provide interested parties with GrayKey information has also not received funds.

Grayshift says that “changes” have been made to help customers prevent unauthorized access to GrayKey boxes in the future, but Motherboard discovered another exposed GrayKey device broadcasting similar code.

Using the computer search engine Shodan, Motherboard found a seemingly exposed GrayKey device, broadcasting similar chunks of code to the open internet.

“To brute force a complex alphanumeric passcode, upload a custom password dictionary. If a dictionary is not uploaded, GrayKey will not attempt to brute force custom alphanumeric passcodes,” one section of the apparent device’s code reads.

The technology used for the GrayKey will likely be outdated at some point through updates to the iOS operating system, but as far as we know now, it’s still functional for even the latest versions of iOS and the newest iOS devices, including the iPhone X.

Those worried about GrayKey and similar technologies can implement stronger and more secure passcodes and passwords that are more difficult to guess through brute forcing to prevent these kinds of tools from working. A 6-digit numeric passcode, Apple’s default, can be guessed in as little as 11 hours, but an 8-digit numeric code can take over a month, while a 10-digit numeric code can take years.

Security experts recommend alphanumeric passcodes that are at least seven characters long with numbers, upper and lowercase letters, and symbols included. The longer the password, the more secure it is from GrayKey-style guessing methods. For more information on Grayshift’s data breach, check out Motherboard’s full report.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple CEO Tim Cook Attends State Dinner at White House

Apple CEO Tim Cook is attending the first state dinner of the Trump administration, which is honoring French president Emmanuel Macron, according to CNN. Cook is accompanied by Apple vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives Lisa Jackson.

Guests at the dinner, which is taking place in the White House State Dining Room, will dine on a goat cheese gateau with tomato jam and buttermilk biscuit crumbles, a rack of spring lamb with Carolina Gold rice jambalaya and a burnt cipollini onion soubise, and a nectarine tart with crème fraîche ice cream.

Image via Paul Bedard
Other state dinner attendees, aside from President Donald Trump and Melania Trump along with President Macron and his wife, include Vice President Mike Pence, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Rupert Murdoch, Olympic curler John Shuster, hockey player Meghan Duggan, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Approximately 150 guests are attending.

Cook has met with Trump several times in the past, attending a December 2016 tech summit and a meeting of the American Technology Council put together by Trump. Most recently, Cook was in Washington D.C. to meet with Senators Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and Richard Burr (R-North Carolina).

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Tim Cook
Discuss this article in our forums

Amazon’s Alexa App Finally Gains Support for iPhone X

Amazon today updated its Alexa app for iOS devices to introduce iPhone X compatibility, allowing the app to be displayed full screen on the longer display of the iPhone X.

Prior to today, the Amazon Alexa app displayed unattractive black bars at the bottom and top of the app, so this should be a welcome change for Amazon users who have an iPhone X. The addition of Alexa support comes just over a month after Amazon promised the update was in the works.

The Alexa app for iOS is designed to be a companion to Alexa devices, allowing iPhone users to set up and manage Alexa-enabled equipment.

While many popular apps have been updated with support for the display of the iPhone X, there are still some notable holdouts even months after the release of the new smartphone. Inbox by Gmail, for example, continues to lack iPhone X support, as do several Apple apps, including iMovie, iTunes Connect, iTunes Remote, and AirPort Utility.

Tags: Amazon, Alexa
Discuss this article in our forums