Monthly Archives: February 2017

February 13, 2017 SIAT graduate student Azadeh Foirghani demonstrates the Flex N Feel glove. Credit: Simon Fraser University

Long-distance couples can share a walk, watch movies together, and even give each other a massage, using new technologies being developed in Carman Neustaedter's Simon Fraser University lab.

It's all about feeling connected, says Neustaedter, an associate professor in SFU's School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT). Student researchers in his Surrey campus-based Connections Lab are working on myriad solutions.

Among them, researchers have designed a pair of interconnected gloves called Flex-N-Feel. When fingers 'flex' in one glove, the actions are transmitted to a remote partner wearing the other. The glove's tactile sensors allow the wearer to 'feel' the movements.

To capture the flex actions, the sensors are attached to a microcontroller. The sensors provide a value for each bend, and are transmitted to the 'feel' glove using a WiFi module.

The sensors are also placed strategically on the palm side of the fingers in order to better feel the touch. A soft-switch on both gloves also allows either partner to initiate the touch.

"Users can make intimate gestures such as touching the face, holding hands, and giving a hug," says Neustaedter. "The act of bending or flexing one's finger is a gentle and subtle way to mimic touch."

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The gloves are currently a prototype and testing continues. While one set of gloves enables one-way remote touch between partners, Neustaedter says a second set could allow both to share touches at the same time.

Other projects also focus on shared experiences, including a virtual reality video conferencing system that lets one "see through the eyes" of a remote partner, and another that enables users to video-stream a remote partner's activities to a long-distance partner at home (called Be With Me).

Meanwhile the researchers are also studying how next-generation telepresence robots can help unite couples and participate in activities together.

They've embedded a robot, designed by Suitable Technologies, into several Vancouver homes. There, it connects to countries around the world, including India and Singapore. Researchers continue to monitor how the robot is used. One long-distance couple plans a Valentine's Day 'date' while one partner is in Vancouver, and the other, on Vancouver Island.

"The focus here is providing that connection, and in this case, a kind of physical body," says Neustaedter, who has designed and built eight next-generation telepresence systems for families, and is author of Connecting Families: The Impact of New Communication Technologies on Domestic Life (2012). He has also spent more than a decade studying workplace collaborations over distance, including telepresence attendance at international conferences.

"Long-distance relationships are more common today, but distance don't have to mean missing out on having a physical presence and sharing space," says Neustaedter. "If people can't physically be together, we're hoping to create the next best technological solutions."

Explore further: Review: High-tech gloves work as advertised

Connected wearables. It's a fancy term for gadgets built into clothing or accessories you wear like a smartwatch or fitness monitor or even a Bluetooth headset.

A 'smart glove' that translates sign language from hand gestures to visual text on a screen and audible dialogue has been developed by a Goldsmiths, University of London student. She's now working on an app to enable real-time ...

(Phys.org)Google has been granted a patent for devices and methods for getting information with one's hands. Their patent is titled "Seeing with your Hand."

Watching 'box-sets' and movies together can improve relationship quality and commitment, particularly in couples who don't share friends, according to research from the University of Aberdeen.

Rice University engineering students are working to make virtual reality a little more real with their invention of a glove that allows a user to feel what they're touching while gaming.

People improve their performance more when they practise with a partner rather than on their own, according to a new study.

Long-distance couples can share a walk, watch movies together, and even give each other a massage, using new technologies being developed in Carman Neustaedter's Simon Fraser University lab.

The Google Chromebook, a type of stripped-down laptop, isn't a practical mobile device for many peoplemostly because it basically turns into an expensive paperweight whenever it can't find a Wi-Fi connection.

Reliability measures of electrical grid has risen to a new norm as it involves physical security and cybersecurity. Threats to either can trigger instability, leading to blackouts and economic losses.

Researchers at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea will be working to develop a new battery, using abundant and readily available seawater.

Microsoft virtual assistant Cortana began holding people to their promises on Thursday.

If you've been dreaming for years about having your own R2-D2 or BB-8, get ready. Just don't expect your new robot companion to do too much, because you might be disappointed.

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Technology puts 'touch' into long-distance relationships - Phys.Org

Merry Christmas. Happy birthday. Happy Darwin Day?

In the long list of observed holidays, Darwin Day may seem like a weird one to celebrate. But as the father of evolutionary thought, our buddy Charlie has given us plenty to consider, and changed everything we understand about ourselves and our world.

Gary Vaynerchuk was so impressed with TNW Conference 2016 he paused mid-talk to applaud us.

While this is a great day to sit back, grab a copy of Origin of Species, and revel in all that humanity has done for science and reason, this post is written to do quite the opposite.

Instead of diving into Darwins discovery of natural selection, Id rathertouch upon how the advent of modern technology has made us dumber. Not in a blatant Darwin Awards aspect, but in a more subtle and possibly more disastrous way.

The internet has only been around some 20-odd years, yet its hard to imagine life without it. I live abroad, but am able to stay in touch with friends and family across theglobe. And in a world as vast as ours, the net has given us instant access to a myriad of information otherwise impossible.

Make no mistake, Im not demonizing the Web, but our dependence on it has asinister side turning our thoughts into a scattered and superficial mess with its constant distractions.

You cant go a minute without checking your textsor see whos favorited your most recent tweet. I, myself, have checked my social media accounts four times while writing this. Being always connected has become almost as habitual as breathing. And yetwe cant rememberhow we got to this point.

As Roman philosopher Seneca put it: To be everywhere is to be nowhere.

Its not the internet thats to blame, however, but our own craving for distraction.

When were constantly distracted and interrupted, our brains cant forge the neural connections that give distinctiveness and depth to our thinking.

In an experiment at Stanford University, it was determined that our thoughts become disjointed with increased distractions and multitasking. As such, were much less able to distinguish important information from the trivial stuff.

You can barely navigate the internet without coming across fake news. I cant recall when the flair for the dramatic became the norm, but when clickbait titles were no longer shiny and new, publishers had to resort to other creative tactics for traffic. Combine this with anyone and everyone having the ability to publish and post online andyou have this new obsession with100 percent misleading news.

While people are quick to blame the publishers, its the millions of people who cant be bothered to pick up a newspaper or find a decent online source. Not to mention those who cant tell the difference between Breitbart and The Associated Press.

If you cant name your two US senators, you are not all of a sudden an expert in governmental proceedings. Yet everyone believes they are. They believe their opinion is on par with facts. This is just one way lies and conspiracy theories routinely gain credibility. Add a bit of bias to the mix and youve got the perfect mathematical equation as to why false new stories are sopersuasive.

Thats exactly why fact-checking doesnt work anymore. As Susan Glasser, former editor of Politico, explains Even fact-checking perhaps the most untruthful candidate of our lifetime didnt work; the more news outlets did it, the less the facts resonated.

But fake news isnt solely damaging to the people its targeted towards. Pizzagate wasnt just a funny name to a fake conspiracy, it motivated a lone gunman to enter a restaurant with a loaded weapon.

Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel wrote that only when we pay close attention to information are we able to associate it meaningfully and systematically with knowledge already well established in memory. Such associations are essential to mastering complex concepts and critical thinking.

Unfortunately, we now live in a world where you dont need to think to do anything. Weve become dependent on the internet to collect information instead of looking to ourselves to problem-solve. Everything from news to opinions tolocations are just a Google-search away.

As technology advances and social media algorithms continue to only show things it perceives welike, wewill continue to live in an echo-chamber of ouropinion and those that think exactly like us.

Its up to us as a society to keep ourselves informed and educated, not be dependent upon technology to do it for us.

Read next: Review: Aerix's Vidius HD packs a lot of fun into a tiny drone

Read more:

How technology is encouraging society to be stupid - The Next Web

Forbes

A New Angel Investing Platform Connects Deep Technology And Science Startups With Capital Forbes There are two stories that have come across my radar in the past year that have reinforced many the things that frustrate me about tech startups and venture capital: the well-known story of Stanford-dropout Elizabeth Holmes and the implosion of life ...

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A New Angel Investing Platform Connects Deep Technology And Science Startups With Capital - Forbes

Kimball Perry The Columbus Dispatch @kimballperry

Governments across Franklin County are sharing technology to prepare for cellphone texts to 911.

"That's all part of the next generation of 911 going on across the country," said William Vedra Jr., Grove City's safety director.

Governments will continue to operate their communication centers that receive 911 calls and dispatch police officers and firefighters, but the technology sharing will help dispatchers across Franklin County receive texts from cellphones.

Instead of each government in the county spending $650,000 to buy and maintain the system to handle texts to 911, just three will do that. The others can get texts to 911, but those texts will be routed through Columbus, Dublin or Gahanna. The other governments will help pay for the text-to-911 systems.

Under the program:

Columbus will share text-to-911 technology with Franklin County and Grove City.

Dublin will share with Westerville and Delaware.

Gahanna will share with a group of agencies most of themfire departments in eastern Franklin County.

Other Franklin County communities such as Worthington don't have the wireless equipment and therefore aren't certified by the federal government to directly receive texts to 911. Instead, those communities will be "nodes" off the larger systems and have texts relayed to them.

Columbus, Dublin and Gahanna will own and maintain the computers, software and equipment that allows them to receive texts to 911. That equipment will, "within milliseconds," Vedra said, reroute texts to 911 to their partner governments' 911 centers.

For example, after implementation, when someone is in Grove City and uses a cellphone to text to 911 for help, the text will go to the system in Columbus and immediately be rerouted to Grove City, where authorities will respond.

The savings come because each government with a 911 communication center won't have to buy the new text-to-911 equipment and software or have to pay to maintain it.

"The technology is such that there's no reason" for each government to buy the same equipment, Grove City Mayor Richard "Ike" Stage said.

Although cellphones are ubiquitous, few 911 centersare capable of receiving texts to 911. In Ohio, three counties do that: Butler, Geauga and Hamilton.

"It could ensure saving a life," saidCecilia Weirick, Franklin County's regional 911 communications coordinator.

A voice call to 911 is preferred, but texts can be made when callers can't or shouldn't talk.Central Ohio's deaf community, domestic-violence victims or those hiding from potentially deadly situations will be better able to silently contact law enforcement.

"It's becoming, as it is in everyday life, a key communication tool," Stage said of texting. "The impact is it's a changing technology, a changing mode of communication."

The technology is being shared because governments expect an exponential increase in texts to 911 that soon also will include texting photos or videos seeking help.

"You as a citizen will not notice anything. You'll probably wind up getting better service," Weirick said.

The text-to-911 system is expected to be implemented by the summer.

kperry@dispatch.com

@kimballperry

Continued here:

Franklin County's 911 centers sharing technology to receive texts - Columbus Dispatch

While Apple is typically very cautious when discussing upcoming products and technologies, the companys interest in augmented reality is hardly a well-kept secret. In addition to some notable hires in the AR space, Tim Cook seems to wax poetic about the potential of AR every single time the topic comes up. While it remains to be seen if Apples interest in AR will ultimately manifest in a pair of AR-powered glasses or perhaps an iPhone with some intriguing built-in AR capabilities,its probably only a matter of time before we see what Apples engineers and researchers have been cooking up over at 1 Inifinte Loop.

Underscoring the degree to which Apple views AR as an incredibly important and powerful technology, Tim Cook, during a recent interview with The Independent, boldly claimed that AR is as big of an idea as the smartphone was way back when.

Im excited about Augmented Reality because unlike Virtual Reality which closes the world out, Cook explained, AR allows individuals to be present in the world but hopefully allows an improvement on whats happening presently. Most people dont want to lock themselves out from the world for a long period of time and today you cant do that because you get sick from it. With AR you can, not be engrossed in something, but have it be a part of your world, of your conversation. That has resonance.

Notably, this isnt the first time that Cook has championed AR at the expense of VR. This is particularly interesting given some calls for Apple to enter the VR space, especially now that other high-tech companies like Facebook, Samsung, Google and others have entered the space. Incidentally, weve seen a handful of reports claiming that Apple will release a pair of AR-powered glasses by 2018.

Articulating why he believes that AR is as big of an idea as the smartphone, Cooks enthusiasm was hard to miss:

The smartphone is for everyone, Cook added, we dont have to think the iPhone is about a certain demographic, or country or vertical market: its for everyone. I think AR is that big, its huge. I get excited because of the things that could be done that could improve a lot of lives. And be entertaining. I view AR like I view the silicon here in my iPhone, its not a product per se, its a core technology. But there are things to discover before that technology is good enough for the mainstream. I do think there can be a lot of things that really help people out in daily life, real-life things, thats why I get so excited about it.

All in all, its starting to look like the next two years may include a few watershed moments for Apple. Aside from Apples ongoing interest in AR, the upcoming 2017 iPhone 8 is starting to look like it will be worth every bit of the $1,000 that Apple will reportedly price it at.

Read the rest here:

Tim Cook: Augmented Reality is as big of a technology as the smartphone - BGR

A few years back, there was a lot of talk about Tesla potentially using a metal-air/li-ion hybrid powertrain to enable a longer range and faster charging in future vehicles. Theres no doubt that the company worked on such a system since they applied for several patents related to the tech, but that was mainly back in 2010 when they were still very much in the heavy development work for the Model S.

At this point, it looks like Tesla is very committed to li-ion batteries and metal-air doesnt seem to be on the map anymore, but the company was recently granted another patent related to emerging battery technology.

A metal-air battery uses a metal as an anode just like a li-ion battery, but oxygen drawn in from the environmentis used as the cathode.

It enables a much lighter cell and therefore, it offers apotentialto achieve a greater energy density. In EVs, it means a potentially greater range.

Tesla had previously filed patent applications for a hybrid system that could use both a li-ion battery pack and ametal-air battery pack, which would act as a zero-emission range extender.

Several companies are working on similar technologies, but it has nevermaterializedin a commercially available electric vehicle yet.

On January 31, Tesla was granted another patent for the technology. This one is about charging a metal-air battery. Heres the abstract from the patent application:

A method for charging a metal-air battery pack at the maximum possible rate while maintaining an ambient oxygen concentration below a preset concentration is provided, thereby minimizing the risks associated with generating oxygen during the charging cycle.

It was first filed in 2010 when Tesla first started applying for metal-air patents, but it was then modifiedin 2013 when Tesla started being granted patents for the technology. Now it was finally granted a few weeks ago:

Tesla co-founder and CTO JB Straubel is listed as one of the inventors of the new patented technology.

Of course, Tesla has open-sourced all its patents back in 2013 and therefore, any company can use this one like the others as long as it is with the goal of making electric vehicles.

The company still files for patents though not as often as it used to but with the goal of protecting itself from being blocked by some other corporation trying to patent to same technologies.

Also, its noteworthy that the fact that it was granted a new patent on metal-air doesnt mean that Tesla is any closer to incorporating the tech into its vehicle line-up.

There are problems with metal-air battery technology that need to be solved in order for it to be used in electric vehicles, especially life cycle and cost. In the patent (see in full below), Tesla asserts that the new charging method addresses some of the issues, like managing the supply of air during the charge cycle.

Maybe we will one day see a breakthrough and the patented tech will become useful or maybe the energy density of li-ion batteries is improving too quicklyfor metal-air to matter any longer.

Original post:

Tesla obtains patent for charging metal-air battery technology that could enable longer range - Electrek

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As we leave the relational-dominated world behind, consolidation and market transformation is clearly coming, says Neo Technologys Emil Eifrem. But who will emerge as the next Oracle or DB2?

Ten years ago, there was no story when it came to databases. SQL dominated.

Fast forward, and interest and innovation around new database approaches has increased. The result: the rapid development of a very diverse set of alternative, NoSQL database models. Overnight, we went from a handful of options to hundreds, as the industry weighed different ways of working with information in different shapes, sizes and forms.

Developers have since tested and introduced dozens of new data models, including key-value, column-family and where my company has made its stand, graph databases. Without a doubt, weve seen relational databases maintain a strong position in the market.

However, weve also seen the emergence of a variety of alternatives to the SQL Servers, Oracles and DB2s ranging from niche to mainstream, with countless options in between. Currently, DB-Engines counts more than 300 different options a huge array of choices that point to a creativity in the marketplace as customers solve increasingly complex problems.

However, in a competitive market that large number isnt going to last forever. Were at a crossroads for database technology. When we look to the future, even just five years out, the world of data looks very different, a natural result of competition in the market as we settle on which databases have the ability to dramatically change business.

So, thats where the market stands with databases. But what happens when we zoom in on graph technology? Obviously, as the creator of Neo4j, Im biased towards that model. However, the figures show that this has seen impressive growth. And despite all of the competition vying for mindshare in the NoSQL space, weve seen graph database technology take first place as the fastest growing category of database of the last three years, according to DB-Engines.

What propels this growth and graph technologys commercial success is the belief that with graph databases the relationships between data are cherished, treated like first-class entities, on a par with the data itself. Those relationships are critical, because as enterprises become more technologically savvy, the value placed on connected data has increased.

The worlds top businesses are looking to connect everything supply chain, CRM, marketing technology, logistics, customers data, payment history, social media posts, and other things we havent figured out are significant yet making the value of these connections rapidly increase.

Organisations around the world realise that, in terms of data, a connected enterprise is more effective, and far more profitable, than the disconnected one. Graph and NoSQLs first years have been marked by rapid growth, but I believe that in 2017 and the years beyond, graph technology will become an enterprise standard for every Fortune 500 company.

Things have changed. The question is, is your organisation grasping the opportunity that change offers or not?

Go here to read the rest:

Graph Technology A Data Standby By For Every Fortune 500 Company - Computer Business Review

From smartphones, computers, TV sets to car navigation systems, almost every devices display shape is rectangular.

But this stereotype is likely to change soon, as display-makers work to come up with unique designs, such as circular, curved, ultrathin and flexible.

Such displays, they say, are expected to be used more widely in auto interiors, for wearable devices and other internet-ready gadgets with the expansion of the internet of things.

The need for higher-quality designs for displays has been growing, Akio Takimoto, chief technology officer at Tokyo-based Japan Display Inc., said during a news conference last month.

Takimoto stressed that displays are not evolving merely in terms of their resolution and energy-saving functions, noting technologies are improving to change their shapes, such as making them edgeless, curved or flexible.

Japan Display, which was founded in 2012 by combining the display sections of Hitachi Ltd., Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp., unveiled at the news conference a 5.5-inch-thin plastic liquid-crystal display called Full Active Flex.

By using plastic, the display has become flexible, which means it can be bent or folded, said Takimoto.

Japan Display, which supplies LCD panels for Apple Inc.s iPhones, said the 0.19-mm display has the potential to be used for smartphones as well as laptops and in-vehicle monitors.

Using plastic also offers extra advantages compared with existing glass-based LCDs, Japan Display President Shuji Aruga said at the same news conference.

For example, many people have broken their smartphone screens after accidently dropping their device. Plastic thin-film displays, however, wont crack, Aruga pointed out.

Laptops can be considerably lighter with the plastic displays, making it easier for users to carry them around, he added.

Flexible LCDs can also be used to produce stylish wearable devices, such as those that can be wrapped around a wrist.

Japan Display said it aims to mass produce flexible displays in 2018.

Looking at global markets, overseas manufacturers have already launched products using unconventional displays.

South Koreas Samsung Electronics has been selling smartphones with a curved-screen edge, known as the Galaxy Edge series, while LG, also of South Korea, has produced TV sets with curved screens.

Some analysts said that uniquely shaped displays are likely to make their debuts in the coming years.

It has been a trend in the past several years for display makers to create bigger and thinner smartphone or TV panels, but I think that trend has kind of reached its limit, said Hiroshi Sakai, an analyst at SMBC Friend Research Center.

Sakai said as a result manufacturers are developing displays that can be attached to devices or imbedded in different home electronics or outdoor spaces, to cultivate new markets, Sakai said.

Sharp Corp. is also seeing business opportunities with the evolution of displays.

The Osaka-based LCD manufacturer came up with Free-Form Displays, which are literally LCDs that can be cut into any shape.

As smartphones increase in use, their display sizes and resolutions have been improving, becoming larger and clearer.

However, when we thought about smartphones in terms of design and portability, we were discussing if the displays shape should be fixed to a rectangular shape, said Koji Fujiwara, director of technology planning at Sharps display unit.

Sharp has developed rounded and curved displays, which the firm said can be used for various products.

Fujiwara said auto interiors can easily accommodate Free-Form Displays, as car designers have said rectangular displays are no longer fashionable.

They have been asking us whether we can somehow solve that issue, he said.

Fujiwara said by freely changing the shape of displays, it has become possible to come up with a display that matches a curved center console.

Allowing Sharp to produce displays with unique shapes is possible as a result of a technology that allows it to locate circuits more flexibly.

Normally circuits are located at the edge of LCDs, such as within a frame. But Sharp managed to spread the circuits inwardly under the screen, doing away with the need for a pronounced edge.

In the coming years, more home electronics, including refrigerators and audio devices, are expected to be connected to the internet.

Fujiwa said it will mean that the products will need to be equipped with displays, including Free-Form Displays, which can be made into a round shape of about 3 inches, for example, to give greater freedom in designing more fashionable products.

Sharp said it expects to see products with Free-Form Displays debut sometime this year.

This monthly feature, appearing on the second Monday or the second Tuesday when Monday is a press holiday, looks at technologies still under development or new to the market.

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New technology has display designers thinking outside the rectangle - The Japan Times