Researchers digitize writing with cheap, touch-sensitive paper

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a paper that can track touch, which, among other applications, could lead to an inexpensive way to digitize writing. They’re presenting their work this week at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

The paper itself is your typical, run-of-the-mill paper, but conductive material is applied to the back. While looking for the best conductive material to attach to the paper, the researchers wanted to make sure it was as inexpensive as possible and could be applied in a high-volume production scenario. Many materials were eliminated due to high costs, non-scalability and poor interaction with paper, but the researchers found two that were suitable — a carbon-loaded plastic sheet that can be adhered to the paper and carbon-loaded paint that can be silk-screened, brushed or sprayed on.

Once a sensor board is connected to the sheet of paper with one of the conductive backings applied, it allows touch — whether it be from a finger, a pen or a stylus — to be digitized and applied in a variety of ways. As you can see in the video below, the researchers used their paper to digitize notes, enhance a board game, grade a test in real time and even share articles in a printed newspaper online.

The design resulted in a cost of around $0.30 per sheet, but the researchers say that price can likely be reduced through large-scale production. The researchers acknowledge more works needs to be done, but added, “We believe this illuminates one possible approach for achieving low-cost, interactive, paper-based experiences in the future.”

Source: Yang Zhang

BMW’s Concept iX3 dials back the futuristic styling

As we enter the BMW Group Research and Innovation Centre (also known as FIZ) in Munich Germany, I’m asked to give up my ID. Guests are rarely admitted and journalists are almost never allowed inside. The automaker is about to show me its latest concept vehicle in a building that’s the birthplace of the future of the brand.

I’m led to a room where a small SUV is covered by a sheet. There’s none of the pomp and circumstance that comes with an auto show reveal (that’ll happen in Beijing a few weeks later). Instead, the cloth is removed to show off the pure electric Concept iX3, The vehicle will go into production in 2020. Other than a few design tweaks and an off-white matte paint job the crossover looks like an X3. That’s the point.

The i brand was launched with two very different and very polarizing vehicles. The urban i3 and the hybrid supercar, the i8. If the character Tron were to escape the grid and need two cars to get around, these would be his first choice. Which is great for fans of science fiction, but can be off-putting to some potential customers. “It’s difficult with such niche products to reach the main customers in the wide range.” Domagoj Dukec head of the design team for BMW i and M vehicles said during the unveiling.

That’s not to say that when the iX3 goes into production it will blend in completely with the rest of the SUVs on the road. The body has been smoothed out to reduce wind resistance and the iconic BMW kidney grill found at the front of all the automaker’s cars no longer has slates to feed air to the radiator. The car doesn’t need that air and it lowers the vehicle’s aerodynamics.

One thing that will differentiate it, is the color blue. All the i cars will have blue badges and accents to show the world that you’re piloting a greener vehicle. Even the space where you would typically see the exhaust has been replaced with blue rectangles. The familiar design language of a BMW is there even if the legacy internal combustion engine elements are gone.

“We don’t invent a completely new car with the design. We give it this cleanness. This boldness and a more modern design,” Dukec said. The result is an SUV (or as BMW calls it, an SAV – Sports Activity Vehicle) that appeals to anyone that’s already a fan of the petrol version of the crossover. If you like the X3, you’ll like the iX3. But it takes more than looks to sway folks from the tried and true world of gas-powered engines.

Under the hood, it delivers the goods with a 249-mile range (which may vary depending on regional regulatory standards and testing) and 270 horsepower (the regular X3 has 248). According to BMW, the 70kWh battery charges up to 80 percent (via a 150 kW DC fast charger) in about 30 minutes.

But the news isn’t about the range or horsepower, it’s how BMW is building the electric motor found in the iX3. In fact, the current generation of the “eDrive” system is a combination of the electric motor, transmission and electronics. It’s all bundled into one unit that just so happens to be modular. So, the automaker doesn’t have to design an entirely new drivetrain to add more power to a vehicle. It can just swap out the electric motor and/or transmission.

In the future that modularity will expand beyond eDrive to how the car’s themselves are built. The automaker will have a single platform for each car that accepts gas, hybrid and pure EV drivetrains. The result should give the automaker the agility to adjust production of vehicles, regardless of how they are powered, based on demand.

In other words, there will be more i vehicles, like the Concept iX3 that only look slightly different from their gas counterparts. Frankly, it’s those cars that’ll grow the EV market. For fans of the i3 and i8 (like myself), BMW will continue to introduce — and put into production — cars that look like they’re from the future. They probably won’t sell as well and — like the i8 — will end up on more posters on people’s walls than in people’s garages.

As the presentation ended another journalist asked why the windows of the Concept iX3 were blacked out. Should we expect a surprise at the Beijing Auto Show? When the car goes into production would it have a next-generation infotainment system or stylish new interior? BMW informed us that owners of the iX3 will have the same in-car experience as the owners of the X3.

Dukec notes that there will always be drivers that want to express their allegiance to EVs in an extreme way. For them, there’s the niche dedicated i vehicles. But to continue down the electrified road, the automaker needs to actually sell cars to everyone.

I had hoped to see something outlandish in the design studio of FIZ. Something that glowed blue that would make people stop in their tracks and stare as it rolled down the road. Instead, I saw the future of BMW’s electrification. While it won’t turn as many heads as it rolls down the street, as long as it sells to the masses, BMW is totally fine with that.

Samsung’s 970 series SSDs provide the write speeds you crave

Few would call Samsung’s 960-series SSDs slow (or indeed, most any NVMe SSD), but that isn’t stopping the company from refining the formula. The newly launched 970 Evo and 970 Pro drives take advantage of Samsung’s developments in its 64-layer 3D flash memory and Phoenix controller (both of which have surfaced in earlier drives) to deliver performance that makes the 960s seem relatively pokey. Both the Evo and Pro can hit the peak 3,500MB/s sequential read speeds of the 960 line, but the real star is the write speed. The 970 Evo by itself is faster than the 960 Pro with up to a 2,500MB/s sequential write rate, while the 970 Pro is quicker still at 2,700MB/s.

The two drives also promise better endurance, with even the 970 Evo officially supporting up to 1,200TB of written data. You’ll still want a Pro drive if longevity matters most, though, since their 2-bit MLC flash memory enables roughly double the number of bytes written at the same capacity.

Both SSD models will be available worldwide on May 7th. As always, how much you pay depends on the model and capacity. The home-oriented Evo line starts at $120 for a 250GB drive with capacities of 500GB ($230), 1TB ($450) and 2TB ($850). The Pro series, meanwhile, starts at $330 for a 512GB variant and jumps to $630 for 1TB. These SSDs are still built for gaming PCs, pro workstations and other high-end machines where massive throughput is vital — it’s just that you’re getting more power for your money.

Source: Samsung

LG G7 ThinQ will come with a super bright display

LG, as per its tradition of teasing its upcoming flagship smartphones, has yet again dished out some tidbits about the G7 ThinQ ahead of launch next month. Specifically, the latest tease is all about the device’s display, which will come in at 6.1 inches large with a QHD+ (3,120 x 1,440; 19.5:9) resolution — part of which will indeed be occupied by a notch, as shown again by a recent @evleaks tweet and now confirmed by a couple of official screenshots. What’s more interesting is that you’ll be able to crank this LCD up to 1,000 nits — beating the 400- to 700-nit brightness peaked by most other smartphones — thus making it easier to read under bright sunlight.

Additionally, LG claims that this mobile display uses “as much as 30 percent” less power than the one on the G6, though it fails to specify under what condition. The company also mentioned the panel’s support for 100-percent DCI-P3 color gamut, while the G7 ThinQ also offers six screen color modes — Auto, Eco, Cinema, Sports, Game and Expert — that are common on TVs, and these can be toggled automatically depending on the video content.

We have a feeling that LG has more to say about this upcoming smartphone’s screen, let alone the dedicated Google Assistant button that it’ll apparently come with, but chances are we’ll have to wait until early May for the full reveal.

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!

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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