Exciting Technology

As Google retools its Glass experiment, researchers at Stanford are using the device to help autistic children recognize and classify emotions. In a small office buried inside an administrative building at  Stanford , Catalin Voss and Nick Haber are pairing face-tracking technology with machine learning to build at-home treatments for autism. The  Autism Glass Project , a part of the  Wall Lab  in the Stanford School of Medicine, launches the second phase of its study Monday morning. The software uses machine learning for feature extraction, to detect what Voss calls ‘action units’ from faces. Video Player The project’s second phase is a 100-child study to investigate the system’s viability as an at-home autism treatment. The Autism Glass Project’s software classifies emotions in faces that the device is pointed at, and instantly gives users a read on the face’s expression. Using images to translate emotions for chil...

Primitive cultures like my family believe that 3D scanning steals the essence of a person which is why we do not allow binocular vision in my home. The Eora 3D scanner, however, is allowed because it takes 3D scans using a device that is surprisingly simple yet exceedingly complex and only uses one camera. Created by Rahul Koduri and Asfand Khan of Sydney, Australia the project came about when they were working on concentrating solar rays. They have just launched  their product on Kickstarter . “The eora 3D Scanner was born out of our own need for an affordable and highly-precise 3D scanner,” said Koduri. “We needed to capture the specifications of a reflective parabolic dish that was used to track the sun’s trajectory to improve solar power output. When we originally looked for what was available we were shocked that scanners that are precise to sub-100 microns cost atleast $5000.” The team began working on an early prototype and realized that they had a real product on t...

Hundreds of iOS applications have been pulled out of the App Store, following a report from analytics service  SourceDNA , which uncovered a group of applications that were extracting users’ personally identifiable information, including email addresses associated with their Apple IDs, devices and peripheral serial numbers, as well as a list of apps installed on their phone. The applications in question had been using an SDK from a Chinese advertising company called  Youmi  which was accessing this information by way of private APIs, the report found. Nearly all of the developers were located in China so, for now, this appears to be an isolated incident. However, the larger concern here has to do with how long this activity had been taking place – and what that means in terms of Apple’s App Store review process, given that it hadn’t caught this suspect activity until being alerted to it by a third party. According to SourceDNA, Yo...

It’s been three and a half months since Apple Music launched and, with the first wave of users’ free three-month trial periods coming to a close at the end of October, Apple has given a taste of how it is faring. Company CEO Tim Cook said the service currently has 6.5 million paying users. On top of that, Cook shared that there are 8.5 million people using the free trial right now. Back in August, Apple said that it had 11 million people on the trial, so it converted just over half of them into paid users. (More on that below.) Apple Music’s figures are some way short of Spotify’s 20 million paying customer base, but it’s not a bad effort for the new service — which isn’t yet available on Android and has no free listening option. That former is important in emerging markets, while the latter can help snare more conservative users and convert them to paying customers later. Huge caveat though: music streaming services are fairly notorio...

The Parrot Bebop can now fly by itself. After purchasing Flight Mode, Bebop owners can tap out waypoints and sit back while the drone flys autonomously. The ability is enabled by purchasing the in-app upgrade called Flight Plan. It costs $20. It takes just a few presses on the mobile app to set the trajectory and flight height. It’s a drag and drop affair. Users can even tell the drone which way to point its HD camera. This ability uses the MAVlink open source communication to transmit the flight path. Operators can take control of the drone at anytime during the flight or adjust the route during flight. Parrot says the drone’s location is accurate within 6 feet. This comes just a day after the FAA stated the drones will soon need to be registered with the US Government. Even with this autonomous mode, operators are wise to still abide by local rules and regulations. And not to ruin anyone’s droning plans, but in the US, that means the drone must alwa...

Over two years ago,  Misfit  launched an activity monitor called “Shine,” which was among the first breakout successes in the wearable space, offering an attractive alternative to competitors’ then more plastic-looking fitness trackers. In the years since, the company has expanded its product line to include a range of connected devices, including also sleep monitors and connected lightbulbs. Today, Misfit is announcing its newest device, an updated, more powerful version of its flagship wearable, the Shine 2. The new device, both a fitness and sleep monitor, features an updated design, a number of new sensors allowing for additional data collection, and improved touch responsiveness. However, despite the changes, the Shine 2 claims to still have a 6-month battery life like its predecessor, and will cost $99.99. SPECS: 12 LED lights, capable of displaying over 16 million potential colors Vibration motor 3-axis accelerometer 3-axis magnetometer Capac...

Fifty seven thousand Marvel movies later, you know the deal: Thor has a hammer (called the Mjolnir). Only he can pick it up. To  pretty much  anyone else, even those who are theoretically stronger than him, it’s impossibly heavy. Bringing the concept to life, someone has built a Mjolnir… that only its owner can lift. How? MAGNETS! Though not obvious at first glance, there’s a fingerprint reader in the hammer’s handle wired up to an Arduino Mini, a big ol’ battery pack, and a powerful electromagnet. Sit the faux-Mjolnir on something magnetic — like, say, a big metal plate in the ground — and it locks in place. When the aforementioned fingerprint sensor detects its creator’s prints, the magnet releases and the Mjolnir can be lifted. Otherwise, it won’t budge.

Google+ Brand Pages represent brands, organizations, bands, YouTube channels, online-only businesses, and even people who want to be able to manage their identity from multiple accounts. The recent update of the Google My Business dashboard has changed the Google+ Brand Page creation process. You can create a new Google+ Brand Page starting from several places on Google: 1.  Start from  Google My Business  ( business.google.com/manage/ ) 2.  Start from  Google+  (click the "Pages" option in the left menu  plus.google.com/dashboard ) 3.  Start from your  YouTube All my channels  page to create a channel and Page together   ( www.youtube.com/channel_switcher ) 4.  On mobile devices, use the  Google My Business app Or, you can jump right to  business.google.com/create/brand I've outlined the process below - if you would like more detailed instructions, read on! How to create a Google+ Brand Page at Google My Busine...