Technology News

New technology allows users to interact with each other in the virtual reality environment using mouth gestures.

Facebook, HTC, Microsoft and PlayStation are some of the top players in the game of virtual reality device marketing with competitive pricing and designs for the mass market. But what Oculus, Vive, HoloLens and PlayStation VR have in common is that by offering immersive visual experiences in their viewers, they hide the upper half of a user’s face and prevent facial recognition of the entire face.

Lijun Yin, leader of the Binghamton team, points out that to solve this aspect, the new framework that construe mouth gestures as a means of physical phenomenon within virtual reality in real time.

The device has been tested by graduate students, who played with it a game whose aim was to guide an avatar around a forest and eat as many cakes as possible. The players had to select their direction of movement using the head rotation, move with mouth gestures and could only eat a cake smiling.

The system was able to describe and classify the movements of the user’s mouth gestures, and achieved high recognition rates.

Yes, we know that it may seem like a technology without much innovative potential to change the gaming and immersive experience of virtual reality devices, but the truth is that these not only have applications in the world of video games. “The virtual world is not just for entertainment. For example, health care uses VR to help patients with disabilities,” said Yin. “Medical professionals or even military personnel can undergo training exercises that can not be experienced in real life. This technology allows the experience to be more realistic.”

Even communication tools such as Skype can make the experience more real with these advances: “Imagine feeling as if you were in the same geometric space, face to face with your Skype partner, and the computer program can effectively represent your facial expressions, mouth gestures and replicate them to make it look real.”

The Yin people tested the application on a group of third graders. Once a user put a viewer in the form of a viewer, presented them with a simplistic game; the goal of the game was to lead the player avatar around a forest and eat as many cakes as possible. The players had to select their direction of movement using the main rotation, move using mouth gestures and they could only eat cake smiling. The system could describe and classify movements of the user’s mouth, and achieved high types of correct recognition. The system has also been proven and validated with a real-time virtual reality application.

Although the (mouth gestures) technology remains at the prototype stage, Yin believes its technology is applicable to a plethora of fields.

Seurat is a tool originally developed by Google, to help us see the high-quality graphics or images in mobile VR systems, and is very well serving the purpose. This Seurat has been mainly developed so that it enables everybody to enjoy a view of a place of his choice in the most amazing manner that is HD manner, where you actually feel like you are standing there enjoying more of a real view than a virtual one.Its main aim is to enable the students to have a view of different places of a World Map so that it helps them know a place much better, thoroughly helpful towards the learning process and channeling it towards exploring purpose as well. We are constantly working so that this tool can be effectively utilized by schools, helping millions of students around the globe.

As this Seurat tool works only with Mobile VR Systems, so you also need to know some features about it. With Google Earth VR, you have the power to go anywhere, any place you always wanted to go to in a virtual  reality. We have enabled this sense of possibility to help People like you virtually enjoy the sightseeing of so many beautiful things that belong to the globe.

As this VR system can be easily used by any person who has a good knowledge of phones and its individual features, which is the reason why we have to use Occlusion Culling to make Google Earth VR formulate the frame rates often required on mobile VR. Because of which Seurat does the job of easing the view of already occluded scenes.

Seurat takes images that have depth in layers in an input method and delivers textured output optimizing the geometry and textures of the scene, that is it is basically a scene simplifying technology. It targets on the number of triangles and size of the texture, as having a control on the number of triangles is an important advantage for the Google Earth VR. And the reliability of the geometries a scene has a direct effect on the budget of the various other elements.

In the current time, a mobile VR only supports a 360-degree view which is usually technically referred to 3DoF as far as rotation is concerned, yet this feature has been keenly utilized by the people in the environment, giving so many better results.

Seurat is one powerful tool to help organize so many good features at one simple go, helping so many people with so many purposes at the same time. Seurat is also environmental-friendly and student friendly. The best thing remains that you will always enjoy high-end graphics with absolutely no quality issues. You can enjoy or utilize this Awesome tool by downloading it from Google Expeditions Application on android phones and also on iOS operating handsets, either in Cardboard view or a Day-dream one.

This Seurat tool was launched by Google Earth scenes in Expeditions to help so many students to experience and learn something new every time. This Seurat tool is still in progress, it is still developing. This tool is a solution for high-quality graphics as well as for a mobile VR. But for more updates, you need to keep the focus, so stay tuned.

With an SUV like appearance and the utility of a cargo van, Toyota is all set to unveil it’s new in the line cruiser at the Tokyo motor show 2017. The new TJ cruiser is like a toolbox as it has a number of uses as well as enjoying the ride and the places you do visit in the car. Hence the name TJ, where T stands for toolbox and J stands for joy. The Toyota TJ cruiser will be next in the Japanese automobile manufacturer’s cruisers lineup. Toyota’s TJ cruiser is the company’s attempt at a crossover for SUVs and the space of a cargo van.

As the name suggests, the Toyota TJ cruiser is meant for people with a busy lifestyle and inspite of their heavy workload don’t want to give up on their fun and entertainment. The automobile allows the seats to be reclined completely thereby allowing storage of some huge items such as bikes and even surf boards.

The Design of TJ cruiser– The exterior of the vehicle is nothing compared to the automobile manufacturers previous cruisers. Its bulky size and shape may mean that it would not be suited for all types of roads and places. The TJ cruiser has a box like appearance. The shape of the automobile is reminiscent of a cabin that affords the owner a lot of space. This automobile was intended for high use and durability as it’s roof, hood and fenders are all resistant to dirt and scratches and even objects that are accidentally collided with like the occasional loose pebbles on a gravel laden road.

Storage Available in TJ cruiser – The rear of the automobile can be opened completely to allow for storage of large items as well as loading and unloading of these items. The back of the seats behind and the side of the driver can be reclined completely to allow for storage of large as well as small items alike. The automobile also allows for the strapping down of the items stored, thereby ensuring security of the passengers as well as the items.

Toyota has gone all out in coming up with an automobile with a lot of space. The passenger seat directly behind the driver can be flipped in front, leaving room for storage of items such as grocery shopping. In addition to the rear door, the side passenger doors swing open completely, thereby leaving room again for transporting large items as well as easy entry and exit of passengers.

The Size of TJ cruiser- Getting technical, the automobile spans 4300mm in length, 1620mm tall and 1755mm wide. It has a seating capacity of four and a 2750mm wheel base. Each individual alloy wheel spans 20 inch in diameter covered with Bridgestone tires.

TJ cruiser Engine- This SUV is loaded with a 2.0 liter gasoline engine that is powered by a hybrid system. The automobile is said to run on a four cylinder electric motor and a battery pack. The standard model will come in a four wheel drive while AWD will depend on the model.

As of now the automobile giant is unsure of taking the TJ cruiser into production.

Over a period of years, scientists have been looking for a replacement for the lithium-ion battery.  They have concluded that the sodium-ion battery are safer and cost effective for large scale storage as compared to the lithium-ion batteries. The anode has been incorporated into the sodium-ion battery allowing  for 83 percent capacity over 900 cycles.

Lithium-ion battery technology has improved the standard of living conditions all over. A lot of our daily needs are based on storage technologies and energy production. The Lithium-ion batteries have come to the fore in its use in zero-emission electronic vehicles as well as in most of the cell phones. The drawback, however, is the sparsely available lithium and its consequent price rise. The increasing demand for energy storage applications and sustainability of lithium needs to be considered. To overcome this hurdle, scientists are considering alternative energy storage systems. The sodium-ion battery fit into the scheme of things. They are the best power sources, as sodium is widely available and shows similar chemistry as that of Lithium-ion batteries.  The sodium-ion battery is an addition to the list of renewable energy and clean technology.

The sodium-ion battery use sodium ions as charge carriers. They are rechargeable batteries. Sodium is cheap, non-toxic and found in plenty. A bit of a problem in the sodium-ion battery has been encountered and that is why we do not have sodium batteries today. The cathode in a typical battery consists of metal and oxygen ions that are placed in layers.  On exposure to air, the metals in the sodium battery’s cathode can get oxidized. Hence, the  performance of the battery decreases rendering it ineffective.

The Brookhaven National Laboratory has come out with an energy storage breakthrough with the sodium-ion battery.  Along with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, they are taking this technology one step closer to commercialization.

They  have come out with the sodium-ion battery breakthrough. They tweaked the cathode by introducing  various materials and placing them at various intervals. The National Synchroton Light Source II (NSLS-II) was used for a comparison of the latest and conventional sodium batteries. The NSLS-II provides various types of beamlines. The samples were analyzed using the Inner-Shell Spectroscopy beamline. This beamline helps to track the absorption of light and re-emission by hitting the materials with an ultra bright  x-ray beam. This beamline helps to see the change in oxidation states of the metals in the cathode material and its consequent efficiency and lifetime of the battery. To check the energy storage, it checks the changes in the battery regarding its charging and discharging. The results of the study by the Chinese research team showed a more stable battery.

In the new sodium-ion battery, there is an increase of 20 times its stability on the period of exposure to air and 9 times in capacity retention after 500 cycles. To top it all, they found that when the battery was put in water, there was no loss of capacity.

This sodium-ion battery, energy storage breakthrough, is good news for the US wind and solar industries. The energy planners like the idea of the sodium-ion battery as compared to the lithium-ion battery as sodium is cheap and plentiful. A sodium-ion battery can store the same amount of energy as a lithium-ion battery for less than 80 percent the cost.

Amazon Fashion, together with the Japanese-Italian fashion label Nicopanda, has developed its own exclusive streetwear collection for the first time with See Now Buy Now option. It consists of six parts and is to be launched during the London Fashion Week in September. Nicopanda will be there for the first time this year with their own catwalk show. Right after the show, all styles of the ” See Now Buy Now ” collection can be hopped at Amazon.com. As the official sponsor of the show, Amazon Fashion hosted the event in its European fashion photo studio in London’s Hoxton district.

The exclusive unisex see now, buy now collection consists of a hoodie, a long-sleeved shirt, a bomber jacket, an oversized scarf, a clutch and leggings and is available from the middle of September on the five European Amazon fashion pages.

“Nicopanda designs twist people on the streets proverbially, and are also particularly popular with stars like Rihanna or Lady Gaga,” said Susan Saideman, vice president of Amazon Fashion Europe. “We are very happy to be able to present such an exceptional brand of see now, buy now collections to our customers at London Fashion Week in our own European photo studio.”

The label Nicopanda was founded by the award-winning Italian-Japanese creative director Nicola Formichetti, who is known for his work with Diesel and Uniqlo as well as his collaborations with Lady Gaga.

Amazon advances with a slow pace but unstoppable in the fashion industry, a sector that until now was not among its main objectives, was in the spotlight of Jeff Bezos. However, for a few months, the news about this not so new niche market for the ecommerce giant succeed. After the revolution caused by the sale of Sarah Jessica Parker shoes, the company announced another action: the association with the firm Nicopanda.

It is a much more complete action that goes beyond selling see now, buy now collection online. To begin with, it is based on a concept that is taking more and more force in the industry and that can turn upside down the gateway as we had known it so far, that of See Now Buy Now. This means, basically, that when a company presents its new collection on the catwalk, it can be bought instantly without needing to wait six months.

Nicopanda, one of those companies whose designs will remain engraved in the memory and the taste of Rihanna or Lady Gaga, among others, parade for the first time on September 16 at London Fashion Week and will do it by the hand from Amazon. The Bezos ecommerce will become its sponsor and, once the show is finished, the see now, buy now collections can be purchased directly on their website. In this way, and at the marketing level, Amazon takes a step that already in its day advanced others like Mercedes Benz or Inditex itself. Although, everything is said, this is at European level, since in Asia, Amazon already has its own catwalk: Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo.

With this action, the signature launched in 2015 by Nicola Formichetti will be available to everyone. “I am delighted to have joined forces with Amazon Fashion, as it is synonymous with fast delivery and great selection: the perfect choice for this exclusive capsule collection.” True to Nicopanda’s DNA, the see now, buy now collection is unisex with an aesthetic that combines the ‘street- culture. “Each piece includes the graphic motifs characteristic of Nicopanda, accompanied by its color palette in bright tones,” explained Formichetti.

The Google Developers Certification Team is happy to publish the Mobile Web Specialist Certification for web developers who tend to desire enhancing their performance from the other web developers in portraying their skills in the creations of responsive together with flexible web applications. Centred on in-depth study of the market the latest certification stresses on the developers has a tendency of having in-demand skills as mobile web developers?

However the skills shown in the exam could also be utilised on the desktop and through all browsers.  You could utilise the Mobile Web Specialist Study Guide for any assistance.  When one is prepared to take up the exam they would have to write the code in a timed performance-based exam and the cost of the certification would be $00 USD while for Indian it would be Rs. 6500. Three attempts are permitted for the exam. By earning a Mobile Web Specialist Certification one has the advantage of displaying a digital badge on their resume as well as social media profiles.  Being a member of the Mobile Web Specialist Alumni Community, you stand a chance to access to program aids which are aimed on growing your prominence as a certified developer.

Assess Knowledge on Development of Mobile Website

The Mobile Web Specialist Certification is in partnership with Associate Android Developer Certification in the family of performance-based certifications of Google. The Mobile Sites certification exam has been intended to assess one’s knowledge on the development of mobile website and one would need to pass the Mobile Web Specialist exam in order to be qualified in Mobile Sites. At the start one is required to sign up and get registered for Google Partners in order to be eligible to access the Mobile Sites exam. The Mobile Sites certification exam presently is available only in English and comprises of a set of coding challenges together with an exit interview.   The exam has been designed to check your awareness of basic as well as advanced mobile websites perceptions as well as the following details:

• Value plan of mobile websites
• How to progress the speed of mobile website
• How to generate an effective user experience for mobile websites
• Introduction to advanced web technologies

Mobile Web Specialist: Designing & Developing Websites

It is suggested that you have an on-the-job experience designing and developing websites for mobile receptiveness as well as page speed, before appearing for the Mobile Web Specialist exam. One needs to also be familiar with the concepts of web developments together with the best practices.  Moreover he should also have the experience in creating as well as maintenance of the websites. A study guide for the exam is also made available in the Partners Help Centre which tends to cover the various subjects for the exams. In order to access the exam from one’s Partners account, the following steps can be taken:

• You  could sign into your Partners account
• Click Mobile Sites towards the left navigation in the `Certification’ section
• To start with the Mobile Web Specialistexam, you could click `Take exam’.  You can also review the exam study materials that are linked on that page.

On 12/09/2017, was a great day for Apple. The company co-founded by Steve Jobs and based in Cupertino premiered numerous gadgets. That whole arena resides all the employees and developers to one of the largest company event of the world.

But not only that, this 2017 Cupertino celebrated 10 years of launching its first Smartphone with the launch of a very different iPhone that we know, with the release of a new version of Apple Watch and even with an improvement for Apple TV.

A lot of information came from the Steve Jobs Theater at noon on this September 12 and so, here we crumble the most important thing you should know about each of the revelations that Apple released today:

APPLE PARK, a complex for community development

More than 260 thousand square meters is the new headquarters of the company. The great dream of Steve Jobs was finally materialized and although someparts are still under construction. Steve Jobs Theater inaugurated by Tim Cook is the place where the expected conference was held.

The current CEO of Apple talked about the benefits that the building represents for the developers and highlighted the technology that makes it, highlighting the long network of solar panels that will serve for the electrical supply of the plant.

APPLE WATCH SERIES 3, a new cell phone on the wrist

Of the Apple Watch Series 3 there is not much else to say. Apple wearables are the best selling on the market and with the arrival of this new edition of smart watches they will only solidify their leadership.

The design stays the same, what it does change is its processor that makes it able to connect to Bluetooth and LTE, which in its most expensive version integrates an eSIM to make mobile connectivity possible without having to load the iPhone. This way we can make calls directly from the it.

The battery will have a duration of 18 hours of autonomy and will have a water resistance of up to 50 meters, which is why it is ideal for swimmers and any type of athletes. And the new operating system (WatchOS 4) will have improvements in their applications performance and physical monitoring.

The new watches will have a base cost of $ 329 without LTE and $ 399 with the cell phone feature. Its pre-order will start on September 15 to have it in stores on the 22nd of the same month.

APPLE TV 4K, entertainment in the best quality

There is also not much to say here, just that it was an urgent improvement for the Apple TV, as it was not updated for two years. This fifth generation will broadcast content in 4K UHD thanks to its operating system tvOS 11 and a new processor more powerful.

What’s interesting about this update is that Apple announced an alliance with major Hollywood studios to have their content for sale or sale on the App Store available in 4K at a price just like HD.

In addition, and as expected, Netflix and Amazon Prime content can be fully enjoyed in Ultra HD.

Apple, iPhone 8, performance enhancements and cameras

The design remains almost intact. The important thing with this update is on the inside. Its Bionic A11 processor makes it 30 percent faster in graphics and 25 percent faster in processing than its predecessor.

The cameras were improved. They will feature 12 MP and with new sensors, deeper pixels, a new color filter and greater stability. In addition, in its Plus version, its dual camera will have openings of 1.8 for wide and 2.4 for telephoto.

In addition, its video capture improved and now we will have it in 4K to 60fps, Apple promises that it is the best video recording that any other Smartphone in the market. What really interesting with this camera is that it is calibrated for augmented reality. Experiences in AR can be exploited to the maximum with some video games.

Another novelty is the charge via Wireless, which will allow us to charge our cell phone without having to connect any cables.

Its base price in conventional size will be $ 699, while in Plus will cost $ 799. Your pre-order will start on September 15th.

Apple IPHONE X, a smartphone for history

But that was not all. And as always we have been accustomed to it came the moment of “One more thing …”. And that thing more was the iPhone X, the Smartphone that celebrates the tenth anniversary of the launch of the gadget that generates more revenue to the company.

Ten years ago Steve Jobs presented his first model and now Tim Cook does homage with a cell phone whose screen is spread over the entire front surface. The famous Start button and Touch ID disappear to give way to Face ID, a mode that allows the cell to be unlocked by recognizing the user’s face.

This caused the front camera to be greatly improved and now has many more sensors, better approach and an infrared camera not only to take better sefies (even in portrait mode) but to unlock the cell phone immediately and without fail.

Its sensors allow the phone to recognize our face even when we have changed the cut, removed the beard, put on glasses or even aged a little. In addition, the company ensures that its technology is so sensitive that the phone can not be unlocked with masks that simulate the user’s face. In the words of the executives the opportunities to unlock it with a false face go from one in a million.

In addition, just as the Touch ID worked, the Face ID will also allow you to make purchases with Apple Pay and within the App Store.

Along with this update comes Animoji, which are simply emoji that we can modify by the same expression of our face.

The Retina Display disappears to make way for the Super Retina Display that uses OLED technology with high contrast, higher resolution and allows the phone to be thinner.

Its price could be the big problem for many as it will have a base cost of $ 999. It will be in pre-sale from October 27th and in stores on November 3rd.

Newspapers have revealed that it seems that artificial intelligence – AI tends to be out to get us.  The Mirror had stated that `Robot intelligence is dangerous’ – experts have cautioned after Facebook artificial intelligence develop their own language. Facebook had shut off artificial intelligence experiment when two robots had begun speaking in their own language which only they could comprehend and experts have called the incident exhilarating though also creepy.

The chatbots had revised English in making it easier for them to communicate, creating sentences which sounded prattle to the watching scientists. Identical stories also seem to show up in the Sun, the Independent, and the Telegraph as well as in various other publications.  Facebook had published a blog post, sometime in June regarding an interesting research on chatbot programs that had short, text-based chats with humans or other bots.

The story had been covered by New Scientist together with the others at that point of time. Facebook had been investigating with bots which had negotiated with each other regarding the ownership of computer-generated items. It was a struggle to comprehend how linguistic tends to play a role with such discussions played for negotiating parties as well as crucially the bot had been programmed to try-out with language to see how that could affect their control in the discussion.

Bot Chatting in Imitative Shorthand

Some coverage had picked up on the fact that in a few cases the exchanges had been initially – absurd, a few days thereafter. Though some of the reports imply that the bots at this point of time had developed a new language for the purpose of evading their human masters, an improved explanation is that the neural networks were just attempting to modify human language for more successful interactions, whether their approach seemed to work or not was another issue.

As Gizmodo, the technology news site had mentioned that `in their attempt in learning from each other, the bot thus started chatting back and forth in a imitative shorthand though while it would seem creepy, that’s all it was’.  Artificial intelligence which tends to rework English as we are aware of, in order to compute a task better, are not new.  Google had informed that the translation software had been done at the time of development.

It had mentioned in a blog that the network needs to be encoding something about the semantics of the sentence.  Earlier in the year, Wired had had reported on a researcher at OpenAI who had been working on a system wherein AIs devise their own language, refining their ability in order to process information rapidly and thereby confront complex issues much more efficiently.

Cultural Uncertainties

The Artificial intelligence story gained more strength recently due to a verbal argument over the possible dangers of artificial intelligence between Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook and technology entrepreneur Elon Musk.

However, the Artificial intelligence story that has been reported tends to tell more regarding the cultural uncertainties as well as the representations of the machines that it does regarding the facts of this specific case. And the fact remains that robots tends to make for great villains on the big screen.

Though in the actual world that we tend to live in, artificial intelligence seems to be a big area of research at the moment and presently the systems that have been developed and verified seem to be gradually complex. One of the consequences of this is that it is frequently uncertain how neural networks tend to come to produce the output that they tend to do particularly when two are set up in order to interact with each other without the interference of human intervention as in the case of the Facebook experiment. Hence some have been debating that putting artificial intelligence in systems like the autonomous weapons seems to be risky.

Artificial Intelligence, Rapidly Progressing Field

It is also the reason why ethics for artificial intelligence seems to be a rapidly progressing field and the technology would be definitely touching our lives much more directly in the near future.  However the system of Facebook has been utilised for research and not for public-facing applications.

It had been shut down since it had been doing something the team did not seem to be interested in reviewing, not because they believed that they had stumbled on an existential threat to mankind. It is also essential to be recall that in general, chatbots seem to be very difficult to develop.

Facebook, in fact had recently intended to limit the rollout of its Messenger chatbot platform when it had discovered that several of the bots on it had been unable to address the queries of its 70% users.  Obviously, chatbots can be automated which can seem like humans and could even deceive us in some circumstances too. However, it is unlikely to think that they are also capable of plotting a rebellion and at least the one at Facebook would certainly not seem to be risky.