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takyon writes:

Intel wants to make your autonomous car rides more entertaining

To that end, Intel announced on Wednesday at the 2017 LA Auto Show that it will partner with Warner Bros. to develop "in-cabin, immersive experiences in autonomous vehicle (AV) settings," according to the company's press release. They're calling it the AV Entertainment Experience. Essentially, not only will passengers be able to watch movies, TV shows or play games on their mobile devices while their autonomous vehicles are driving, they'll eventually engage with fully immersive VR and AR experiences as well.

So get ready for the advertising:

It's also the first indication that the future of driving will be chockablock with advertising. We're used to seeing ads on the side of the road while driving, or hearing commercials on our radios. But the idea that brands will be competing for space on the screens inside our vehicles — or on the windshields of the vehicles themselves — may not sit well with some people, especially if they aren't afforded a chance to block or mute these ads. It might be too early to start worrying about the manipulation of self-driving cars to sell us more stuff, but that doesn't mean advertisers aren't already devising ways to do just that.

[...] "Get ready for your car to become yet another 'screen' where publishers and advertisers compete for your attention," says a new report from Forrester Research entitled "Autonomous Vehicles Will Reshape the Global Economy" (via MarTech Today). "Don't be surprised," the report warns, "when you start to see big brands sponsoring your rides: 'This trip is brought to you by the champagne of beers — Miller High Life.'"

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Phoenix666 writes:

Elon Musk wants to take his train to Chicago.

The billionaire tech entrepreneur tweeted Wednesday that his Boring Company would compete to design, fund, build and operate a high-speed loop connecting O'Hare Airport with downtown Chicago.

Musk's statement came after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked for proposals to build and operate a high-speed rail line that will whisk passengers from the airport to downtown in 20 minutes or fewer, cutting travel times in half. Contractors will also have to figure out how to finance it without taxpayer dollars, Emanuel said.

The L already connects O'Hare and Midway airports to downtown Chicago.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Want, or Do Not Want?

"What I think is so interesting is that the future is always flying cars," Leuthardt says, handing the resident his Sharpie and picking up a scalpel. "They captured the dystopian component: they talk about biology, the replicants. But they missed big chunks of the future. Where were the neural prosthetics?"

It's a topic that Leuthardt, a 44-year-old scientist and brain surgeon, has spent a lot of time imagining. In addition to his duties as a neurosurgeon at Washington University in St. Louis, he has published two novels and written an award-winning play aimed at "preparing society for the changes ahead." In his first novel, a techno-thriller called RedDevil 4, 90 percent of human beings have elected to get computer hardware implanted directly into their brains. This allows a seamless connection between people and computers, and a wide array of sensory experiences without leaving home. Leuthardt believes that in the next several decades such implants will be like plastic surgery or tattoos, undertaken with hardly a second thought.

The article reports Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are working on neural implants as well.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Finally, the invention I wanted all my life has come to pass:

"A British company has released the first pictures of a 'smart condom' which collects very intimate data about the sex life of anyone brave enough to wear it.

The device is called the i.Con and can detect STIs as well as sending data about a sex session straight to the wearer's smartphone.

British Condoms said its 'revolutionary wearable tech for the bedroom' measures the number of calories burned during intercourse, the speed of a man's thrusts, how long he lasts and even what positions are used.

The condom firm said its invention would help men see how they 'stack up to other people from around the world'."

[...] The smart condom is a small band which fits around the bottom of a man's willy, which means wearers will still need to strap on a normal condom to get full protection.

It is waterproof and features a band that's 'extraordinarily flexible to ensure maximum comfort for all sizes'.

Bizarrely, it even lights up to provide illumination for both partners' nether regions.

Now, we can all compete in the Direct International Comparison Kinetics. Hooray. ;)

http://metro.co.uk/2017/11/28/worlds-first-spy-condom-collects-intimate-data-during-sex-and-tells-men-whether-their-performance-is-red-hot-or-a-total-flop-7116049/

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takyon writes:

Google will contribute changes to Apple's Swift programming language, and will support the language in the Fuchsia OS, a presumed replacement for Android, ChromeOS, etc. that is designed to work on all devices:

Fuchsia is Google's not-at-all-but-kind-of-secret operating system that's being developed in the open, but with almost zero official messaging about what it's for, or what it's built to replace. (Android? Chrome OS? Both? Neither?) The operating system's core is written in mostly C and C++, with Dart for the default "Flutter" UI, but other languages like Go, Rust, Python, and now Swift have also found a home in the project.

Of course, just because you'll be able to compile Swift to run on Fuchsia doesn't mean you'll be able to instantly port any iOS app to Google's new OS when or if it ships. While Apple has open sourced the Swift language itself, much of the iOS platform (like the UI stuff, for instance) is closed source, so code that relies on those closed Apple libraries won't be portable.

One possible future in a world where Fuchsia is an important and relevant platform for apps is that you write the "core logic" of your app in your language of choice — Swift, Go, Rust, JavaScript, etc. — and then you build a custom UI for each platform — Android, iOS, Fuchsia, Linux, Windows, the web — using the appropriate tools for each.

Also at Android Police.

Previously: Google's New Non-Linux OS: Fuchsia
Google's Not-So-Secret New OS
Google Fuchsia UI Previewed

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takyon writes:

Verizon will launch "5G" wireless service in three to five cities by the end of next year, starting with Sacramento, California:

Verizon is getting closer to releasing its first commercial 5G network, with the company announcing today that it plans on launching 5G in three to five cities by the end of next year. The rollout starts with Sacramento, California sometime in the second half of 2018.

Verizon press release.

Related: 5G Draft Technical Requirements Announced
Intel Announces Development of 5G Modems (Due in 2019)

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takyon writes:

A glitch in American Airlines Group's scheduling system has given too many pilots time off during the busy holiday season in mid-late December. The airline may be forced to pay pilots more to show up:

American Airlines Group Inc. is rushing to resolve a scheduling fault that gave time off to too many pilots in December -- a flaw that has left more than 15,000 flights without sufficient crew during the holiday rush, according to a union for the carrier's pilots.

The Allied Pilots Association estimated the number of affected flights, from Dec. 17 to Dec. 31, based on information provided by the carrier, said Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the union. American spokesman Matt Miller declined to quantify the potential number of flights involved, saying the airline expects to correct the problem in time to prevent service disruptions.

"We are working diligently to address the issue and expect to avoid cancellations this holiday season," Miller said. The number of flights involved will decline each day as the carrier reassigns them, he said.

The computer-system problem will force American to rebuild its staffing schedule, similar to what airlines must do after major weather disruptions, said John Cox, chief executive officer of consultant Safety Operating Systems and a former commercial airline pilot. Revenue will take a hit if American has to scrub many flights. At a minimum, the carrier is likely to face higher labor costs just as investors are stepping up scrutiny of airline expenses.

Also at Wired and Reuters.

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takyon writes:

Andy Rubin has taken a leave of absence from Essential Products following the disclosure of the circumstances of his departure from Google:

Essential founder and CEO Andy Rubin has taken a leave of absence from his new company for "personal reasons" following a report on the circumstances of his 2014 departure from Google. According to The Information, Rubin left Google shortly after an investigation found that he had maintained an "inappropriate relationship" with a woman who worked under him and filed a complaint to HR.

The nature of that relationship isn't detailed in the report, and Rubin's spokesperson Mike Sitrick denies the connection. "Any relationship that Mr. Rubin had while at Google was consensual," Sitrick tells The Information. "Mr. Rubin was never told by Google that he engaged in any misconduct while at Google and he did not, either while at Google or since." Rubin is said to have told Essential employees of his leave of absence on Monday after The Information informed Sitrick of its story.

The Information's information about the matter is not extensive. Here is the important paragraph:

Google initiated its investigation after an employee complained to the company's Human Resources division about her relationship with Mr. Rubin, according to three people familiar with the matter. The people declined to elaborate on the specific nature of the woman's complaint against Mr. Rubin.

Essential Products released a high-end Android smartphone in May and will release a "smart" speaker later this year.

Also at Engadget, 9to5Google, and Fast Company.

Update: Here is Essential's Bi-weekly AMA where they basically assured users that the company is still operating, business as usual.

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takyon writes:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an EKG reader medical device accessory for the Apple Watch:

Up until now, AliveCor has used the KardiaMobile device, which was stuck to the back of your smartphone and paired with an app to detect abnormal heart rhythm and atrial fibrillation (AFib). The new Apple Watch accessory, Kardiaband, clicks into a slot on the Watch band to do the same thing.

However, rather than needing to hold your smartphone with both hands for 30 seconds to get a reading, you can get an EKG reading continuously and discreetly just by touching the band's integrated sensor.

[...] EKGs are usually only available in offices and hospitals — and only after a life-threatening event. Having one on your wrist that you can use to check your heart and then send a readout straight to your doctor is vital to prevention of a heart attack or stroke. And, as Gundotra also points out, "It's not possible to diagnose atrial fibrillation without FDA clearance. That is a big, big play."

It's worth noting Apple could easily replicate what AliveCor is doing. It has all the right equipment within the Apple Watch and the manpower to do so. However, it doesn't seem likely Apple would want to go through the hassle of FDA approval for the Watch, which is a general purpose device used for numerous other applications besides getting your heart rate.

Also at CNET and Fast Company.

Update: Apple launched a study to look for irregular heart rhythms on the Apple Watch (just as feared)

Previously: Apple Watch Could be Used to Detect Hypertension and Sleep Apnea

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takyon writes:

A contractor misconfigured an Amazon Web Services storage "bucket", exposing top secret information from the U.S. Army's Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM):

UpGuard's director of cyber risk research, Chris Vickery, discovered the publicly accessible S3 storage "bucket" on September 27 in the AWS subdomain "inscom." INSCOM is the US Army's Intelligence and Security Command, the Army's internal operational intelligence branch based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. INSCOM is also integrated into the National Security Agency's Central Security Service—connecting the Army's signals intelligence operations to the NSA.

The public bucket was accessible via the Web and had "47 viewable files and folders in the main repository, three of which were also downloadable," UpGuard reported in a blog post today. The largest downloadable file was an Open Virtual Appliance file named "ssdev.ova," which contained a virtual hard drive and configuration data for a Red Hat Linux-based virtual machine. "While the virtual OS and HD can be browsed in their functional states, most of the data cannot be accessed without connecting to Pentagon systems—an intrusion that malicious actors could have attempted had they found this bucket," UpGuard's research team noted.

Still, the contents of the virtual hard drive itself were highly sensitive. Some of the files were marked as "Top Secret/NOFORN"—meaning that they were not to be shared even with US allies. Metadata on the virtual drive shows that "the box was worked on in some capacity by a now-defunct third-party defense contractor named Invertix, a known INSCOM partner," including private encryption keys used for hashed passwords and for accessing DCGS that belonged to Invertix system administrators.

Also at Techdirt, TechCrunch, and The Next Web.

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takyon writes:

A NASA project will test a small nuclear fission power system that could provide kilowatts or megawatts of power for space missions:

In preparing for possible missions to the Red Planet in the near future, NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) has been given the go-ahead to test a small nuclear reactor that could one day run equipment on the Martian surface.

The Kilopower project[PDF] is working to advance a design for a compact, low-cost, and scalable nuclear fission power system for missions that require lots of power, such as a human mission to Mars. The technology uses a fission reactor with a uranium-235 reactor core to generate heat, which is then transferred via passive sodium heat pipes to Stirling engines. Those engines use that heat to create pressure, which moves a piston – much as old coal-powered ships used steam pressure to run their pistons. When coupled to an alternator, the Stirling engine produces electricity.

"What we are striving to do is give space missions an option beyond RTGs [radioisotope thermoelectric generators], which generally provide a couple hundred watts or so," Lee Mason, STMD's principal technologist for Power and Energy Storage at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a NASA news release. "The big difference between all the great things we've done on Mars, and what we would need to do for a human mission to that planet, is power."

Mason said the new technology could provide kilowatts of power and even be upgraded to provide hundreds of kilowatts or even megawatts of power. "We call it the Kilopower project because it gives us a near-term option to provide kilowatts for missions that previously were constrained to use less," Mason said. "But first things first, and our test program is the way to get started."

Stirling engine.

Also at World Nuclear News.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

NAFTA's Digital Trade chapter could be finalized next month all before the public has seen a single word of it. The fifth round of re-negotiations for NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) finished last week in Mexico and the Digital Trade section might be forced through, unseen by the public, during the next round on December 11^th in Washington, DC.

The fifth round of negotiations over a modernized North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) wound up last week in Mexico. Following conclusion of the round, Mexican Trade Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told reporters that he hoped that the next round, to be held in Washington, DC in the week of 11 December, could see sufficient progress made that the agreement's Digital Trade chapter could be closed... all before the public has seen a single word of it.

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takyon writes:

The world's slowest, most boring bus simulator finally has a VR version

After roughly 22 years, one of the worst video games of all time, Desert Bus, finally has a sequel. In very good news for anybody who hears "notorious game's sequel" and flinches, this new take, dubbed Desert Bus VR, is now completely free to own for PC gamers, whether they own a virtual reality headset or not.

[...] The original Desert Bus would have launched in the mid-'90s as a mini-game tucked into Penn & Teller: Smoke & Mirrors, a comedy-minded Sega CD game that never saw an official commercial launch. Years later, the finished game leaked as a download, which meant fans could finally see its many weird mini-games, including this dreadfully boring bus simulator. The latter has since been popularized by the Canadian comedy troupe Loading Ready Run, whose annual "Desert Bus For Hope" campaign raises charitable donations by live-streaming actual Desert Bus gameplay for hours on end.

Comedian Penn Jillette appears in this VR version via narration, where he describes the original '90s game as a reaction to former US Attorney General Janet Reno's claim that video games were "murder simulators." To mock her claim, he and the original game's design team simulated the monotony and boredom of driving a giant, empty bus down a straight road for hours at a time. The game is tuned so that it requires playing the same amount of time it would take to drive from Las Vegas to Tucson, Arizona, at roughly 40mph. (If you're wondering, that's about eight hours.)

Desert Bus For Hope.

Also at Engadget and Road to VR.

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takyon writes:

Waymo racks up 4 million self-driven miles

Waymo continues to press its lead in terms of actual miles driven on roads, which is potentially the most important metric out there when it comes to building successful autonomous driving technology. The Alphabet-owned company that began life as Google's self-driving car project around a decade ago now has 4 million miles driven autonomously on roads.

That 4 million miles represents the self-driving effort of Waymo's entire test fleet, covering its original autonomous vehicles all the way up to its current driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which are actually now testing on Arizona public roads, right alongside everyday human drivers, with no safety driver behind the wheel at all.

In simulations, Waymo's bots have driven 2.5 billion "virtual miles".

Also at The Verge.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

World's Smallest "Tape Recorder" Is Built From Microbes

Through a few clever molecular hacks, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have converted a natural bacterial immune system into a microscopic data recorder, laying the groundwork for a new class of technologies that use bacterial cells for everything from disease diagnosis to environmental monitoring.

The researchers modified an ordinary laboratory strain of the ubiquitous human gut microbe Escherichia coli, enabling the bacteria to not only record their interactions with the environment but also time-stamp the events.

"Such bacteria, swallowed by a patient, might be able to record the changes they experience through the whole digestive tract, yielding an unprecedented view of previously inaccessible phenomena," says Harris Wang, assistant professor in the Departments of Pathology & Cell Biology and Systems Biology at CUMC and senior author on the new work, described in today's issue of Science. Other applications could include environmental sensing and basic studies in ecology and microbiology, where bacteria could monitor otherwise invisible changes without disrupting their surroundings.

It seems to be capable of recording chemical data, or perhaps something like exposure to light (allowing you to figure out how many times an office light is switched on, perhaps). It's a potential future surveillance tool.

Video (1m27s).

Multiplex recording of cellular events over time on CRISPR biological tape (DOI: 10.1126/science.aao0958) (DX)

Original Submission