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Google is using machine learning to teach robots how to grasp random objects

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Using your hand to grasp a pen that’s lying on your desk doesn’t exactly feel like a chore, but for robots, that’s still a really hard thing to do. So to teach robots how to better grasp random objects, Google’s research team  dedicated 14 robots to the task . The standard way to solve this problem would be for the robot to survey the environment, create a plan for how to grasp the object, then execute on it. In the real world, though, lots of things can change between formulating that plan and executing on it. Google is now using these robots to train a deep  convolutional neural network  (a technique that’s all the rage in machine learning right now) to help its robots predict the outcome of their grasps based on the camera input and motor commands. It’s basically hand-eye coordination for robots. The team says that it took about 3,000 hours of practice (and 800,000 grasp attempts) before it saw “the beginnings of intelligent reacti...
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How ad-free subscriptions could solve Facebook

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At the core of Facebook’s “well-being” problem is that its business is directly coupled with total time spent on its apps. The more hours you pass on the social network, the more ads you see and click, the more money it earns. That puts its plan to make using Facebook healthier at odds with its finances, restricting how far it’s willing to go to protect us from the harms of over use. The advertising-supported model comes with some big benefits, though. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that “We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone.” Ads lets Facebook remain free for those who don’t want to pay, and more importantly, for those around the world who couldn’t afford to. Ads pay for Facebook to keep the lights on, research and develop new technologies, and profit handsomely in a way that attracts top talent and further investment. More affluent users with more buying power in markets like the US, UK, and Canada command higher ad prices, effectively...
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Sonatype Snares $30 Million Investment Led By Goldman Sachs

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Sonatype , a company that helps customers create automated, policy-driven software component security, announced a $30 million round today led by Goldman Sachs. The investment was a mix of debt and equity financing and was handled by Goldman’s Principal Strategic Investments Group, rather than Goldman’s venture capital arm, Sonatype CEO Wayne Jackson explained. Although this may seem a subtle distinction, he says that Strategic Investments only makes investments in products that are central to the company’s mission (as the name implies), whereas the venture arm makes lots of different kinds of investments. Sonatype works to ensure that open source components used in much of Goldman’s (and just about every company’s) software are safe and up-to-date in an automated fashion. “Today, open source components underpin a vast majority of our most mission-critical applications at the firm. As we work to build, maintain and update these applications, w...
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Here Are The First Connected Home Devices For Apple’s HomeKit

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Apple’s HomeKit is finally starting to roll out to actual consumers, via the first crop of HomeKit-enabled accessories from third-party manufacturers. This means you’ll soon be able to get your hands on a range of products for the connected home that work with Siri on your iOS device, and that you’ll be able to do so as soon as today, since some of the new HomeKit accessories start shipping now. The accessories in question range from sensors, to lights, to thermostats, to smart outlets, and come from a group of accessory-makers with a trusted reputation in the connected home industry. HomeKit may have taken a while to arrive, but it’s doing so in grand fashion, with a practical lineup to get your home connected to your iOS ecosystem in an essential way. Elgato Eve The  Elgato Eve  is a set of connected wireless sensors that monitor key factors like indoor air quality, temperature, humidity as well as conditions outside, like temperature, humidity and air pre...
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Android users can now say ‘Ok Google’ to send messages via WhatsApp, WeChat, NextPlus, Telegram, and Viber

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Above: Google Image Credit: Shutterstock In April, Google launched  custom voice actions on Android , allowing users to control select third-party apps simply by starting with the “Ok Google” command. Today, that functionality has  expanded  to messaging apps, including WhatsApp, WeChat, NextPlus, Telegram, and Viber. If you already use “Ok Google” and your voice to send emails, Hangouts, or text messages, this should be a natural progression. You can split the task into two, or just do it all in one go. If you say, “Ok Google, send a WhatsApp message to Joe,” you’ll get a prompt asking you to dictate your message. Alternatively, you can just say: “Ok Google, send a Viber message to Josh: let’s do dinner tomorrow night.” Here is an example using WhatsApp: To be able to take advantage of this new feature, you do need to update both the Google app for Android , as well as your individual messaging apps. If either is outdated, you’ll just get an erro...
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