November 22, 2016 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Singularity Watch: This AI Taught Itself to Read Lips Better Than Humans

A team of researchers at Oxford University have coaxed an artificial intelligence program into an impressive leap forward and towards our own obsolescence. The program, known as LipNet, is showing particularly promising ability to read lips in video clips, thanks to machine learning and a novel way of approaching the data. The key difference is that rather than try to teach the AI the mouth shapes of single words and phonemes, the LipNet is asked to interpret whole sentences. Using GRID, a huge bank of 3 second videos featuring brightly lit forward facing speakers, LipNet has learned to translate speech to text with a 93.4% accuracy rate. Compare that to humans’ 52.3%. It doesn’t look good. To accomplish this, the team ran over 28, 000 videos of actors speaking syntactically similar sentences through a neural network. Each contained a command, color, letter, number, preposition, and adverb, in the same order. When tested using 300 of the same sentence types, human lip reading translators had an error rate of 47.7%, whereas LipNet netted just 6.6%. With this kind of accuracy, we might see better automation of closed captioning on news and entertainment videos, and some speculate it may be a feature in more personal communication as well. Imagine realtime translation of a Skype or FaceTime conversation with poor audio quality. I want that already. Detractors are quick to point out the structural limitations of the data set used, since apparently most movies, news and YouTube videos don’t only feature well lit actors speaking directly into a camera in short sentences. However, given incrementally useful data sets, the LipNet framework appears capable of learning enough to do good, even if it won’t be stealing jobs any time soon. Check out the testing data and paper here .

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Singularity Watch: This AI Taught Itself to Read Lips Better Than Humans

Tesla runs an entire island on solar power

Now that Tesla has officially acquired SolarCity , it’s not wasting any time showing what the combined entity can do. Tesla has revealed that it’s running the island of Ta’u (in American Samoa) on a solar energy microgrid that, at 1.4 megawatts, can cover “nearly 100 percent” of electrical needs. It’s not just the 5, 328 solar panels that are key — it’s the 60 Tesla Powerpacks that offer 6 megawatt-hours of energy storage. While Ta’u is normally very sunny, the packs can keep it running for three days without sunlight. They don’t have to worry about a cloudy day leading to blackouts. The solar switch, which took a year to complete, has both its long-term environmental and immediate practical benefits. Like many remote communities , Ta’u previously had to run on diesel generators. That burns 300 gallons of fuel per day, which is neither eco-friendly nor cheap. Solar eliminates the pollution, of course, but it also saves the cost of having to continuously buy and ship barrels of diesel. And crucially, it provides a more reliable source of electricity. Locals previously had to ration power (say, if a diesel shipment wasn’t on time) or accept periodic outages. Now, they can assume they’ll have power at all times. Ta’u is clearly an ideal test case. On top of its paradise-like weather, there are less than 600 residents with relatively modest power needs. It’d require much, much more power to accommodate a full-blown city, especially in climates where cloudy days are more commonplace. However, it could still serve as a good example. Tesla’s mission is to wean the world off of fossil fuels, and this shows that it’s a realistic goal in at least some corners of the globe. Via: The Verge Source: SolarCity Blog

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Tesla runs an entire island on solar power

Amazon Tickets could take on Ticketmaster in possible US expansion

Enlarge (credit: Amazon) If you live in the UK, you’ve had access to Amazon Tickets since 2015. The service is similar to Ticketmaster in that you can purchase tickets to UK-based shows including “The Lion King” and “Wicked” and concerts of artists like Blink-182 and Drake. Now Amazon appears to be looking into expanding the program: the company has a number of job listings for Amazon Tickets positions based in Seattle, Washington on its employment website. “Following our debut in London’s West End with every ticket to every show, we are rapidly expanding our selection across the UK,” one of the job listings states. “As with any growing Amazon business, we are always looking for opportunities to expand into more categories and geographies.” Another Tickets job posting states that Amazon isn’t just looking to offer a wide variety of tickets to shows and concerts but also to “disrupt the entire live entertainment experience, including what happens before, during and after the show.” Most of the job postings harp on the idea that ticket-buying can be a frustrating experience when the prices are too high or if you miss your favorite artist because you didn’t know they were performing in your town. While there are no details on how Amazon wants to fix those problems, it’s clear that the company wants to set itself apart from the Ticketmasters—and possibly the StubHubs and SeatGeeks—of the world by creating a better ticket-buying experience. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

New battery tech lasts for days, charges in seconds

Scientists from the University of Central Florida (UCF) have created a supercapacitor battery prototype that works like new even after being recharged 30, 000 times. The research could yield high-capacity, ultra-fast-charging batteries that last over 20 times longer than a conventional lithium-ion cell. “You could charge your mobile phone in a few seconds and you wouldn’t need to charge it again for over a week, ” says UCF postdoctoral associate Nitin Choudhary. Supercapacitors can be charged quickly because they store electricity statically on the surface of a material, rather than using chemical reactions like batteries. That requires “two-dimensional” material sheets with large surface areas that can hold lots of electrons. However, much of the research, including that by EV-maker Henrik Fisker and UCLA , uses graphene as the two-dimensional material. Yeonwoong “Eric” Jung from UCF says it’s a challenge to integrate graphene with other materials used in supercapacitors, though. That’s why his team wrapped 2D metal materials (TMDs) just a few atoms thick around highly-conductive 1D nanowires, letting electrons pass quickly from the core to the shell. That yielded a fast charging material with high energy and power density that’s relatively simple to produce. “We developed a simple chemical synthesis approach so we can very nicely integrate the existing materials with the two-dimensional materials, ” Jung says. The research is in early days and not ready for commercialization, but it looks promising. “”For small electronic devices, our materials are surpassing the conventional ones worldwide in terms of energy density, power density and cyclic stability, ” Choudhary said. Jung calls the research “proof-of-concept, ” and the team is now trying to patent its new process. While it could go nowhere like many other battery developments, it’s worth looking at new supercapacitor research closely. If commercialized, it could allow for longer-range EVs that can be charged in minutes rather than hours, long-lasting (non-explosive) smartphones that can be charged in seconds and grid or home energy storage solutions that drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Source: UCF

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New battery tech lasts for days, charges in seconds

The Disgustingly Awesome World of the ‘Double Dare’ Obstacle Course

Our friends at The A.V. Club just published an insanely awesome oral history of the obstacle course from Nickelodeon’s classic game show Double Dare, and it’s chock-full of icky, messy fun. This look behind-the-scenes comes is timed right: Nickelodeon is airing a one-night only Double Dare special on Wednesday to… Read more…

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The Disgustingly Awesome World of the ‘Double Dare’ Obstacle Course

No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Mart, CVS

From a Bloomberg report:The aloe vera gel many Americans buy to soothe damaged skin contains no evidence of aloe vera at all. Samples of store-brand aloe gel purchased at national retailers Wal-Mart, Target and CVS showed no indication of the plant in various lab tests. The products all listed aloe barbadensis leaf juice — another name for aloe vera — as either the No. 1 ingredient or No. 2 after water. There’s no watchdog assuring that aloe products are what they say they are. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t approve cosmetics before they’re sold and has never levied a fine for selling fake aloe. That means suppliers are on an honor system, even as the total U.S. market for aloe products, including drinks and vitamins, has grown 11 percent in the past year to $146 million, according to Chicago-based market researcher SPINS LLC. “You have to be very careful when you select and use aloe products, ” said Tod Cooperman, president of White Plains, New York-based ConsumerLab.com, which has done aloe testing. Aloe’s three chemical markers — acemannan, malic acid and glucose — were absent in the tests for Wal-Mart, Target and CVS products conducted by a lab hired by Bloomberg News. The three samples contained a cheaper element called maltodextrin, a sugar sometimes used to imitate aloe. The gel that’s sold at another retailer, Walgreens, contained one marker, malic acid, but not the other two. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Mart, CVS

Maliciously crafted video can freeze your iOS device

If you thought last year’s iOS text crash bug was a headache, you’d better brace yourself. EverythingApplePro and other users have confirmed that at least one maliciously crafted video is guaranteed to trigger a memory leak and freeze iOS devices, even if they’re running something as ancient as iOS 5. All you have to do is play the linked video file in Safari — your iPhone, iPad or iPod will lock up within a few seconds, forcing you to hard reboot to regain control of your gear. It’s so far useful only for cruel pranks (you should be fine afterward), but these kinds of quirks can occasionally be used as part of security breaches. The trick is limited to unaltered files, so you don’t have to worry about a YouTube link or other processed video bringing your device to a screeching halt. And of course, the immediate precaution is to avoid tapping direct video links (particularly from known hosts like vk.com and testtrial.site90.net) if you don’t know that you can trust them. The problem, as you might surmise, is that attackers may use link shorteners or otherwise try to hide the nature of the video. We’ve reached out to Apple about its plans for a fix, and we’ll let you know if can outline plans. It won’t be surprising if there’s already a patch in the works. Don’t be surprised if it’s focused strictly on iOS 10 users, though. The latest version already had 60 percent adoption as of late October, and many of those running iOS 9 can upgrade. An iOS 10-only fix would (eventually) cover the vast majority of users. Via: 9to5Mac , MacRumors Source: EverythingApplePro (YouTube) , Reddit

US Dementia Rates Drop 24%, New Study Finds

A new study involving more than 21, 000 people across the country finds that dementia rates in people over age 65 fell from 11.6 percent in 2000 to 8.8 percent in 2012 — a decline of 24 percent. CNN reports: The decline in dementia rates translates to about one million fewer Americans suffering from the condition, said John Haaga, director of behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the new study. Dementia is a general term for a loss of memory or other mental abilities that’s severe enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s disease, which is believed to be caused by a buildup of plaques and tangles in the brain, is the most common type of dementia. Vascular dementia is the second most common type of dementia and occurs after a stroke. The study, which began in 1992, focuses on people over age 50, collecting data every two years. Researchers conduct detailed interviews with participants about their health, income, cognitive ability and life circumstances. The interviews also include physical tests, body measurements and blood and saliva samples. Although researchers can’t definitively explain why dementia rates are decreasing, Langa said doctors may be doing a better job controlling high blood pressure and diabetes, which can both boost the risk of age-related memory problems. High blood pressure and diabetes both increase the risk of strokes, which kill brain cells, increasing the risk of vascular dementia. Authors of the study found that senior citizens today are better educated than even half a generation ago. The population studied in 2012 stayed in school 13 years, while the seniors studied in 2000 had about 12 years of education, according to the study. People who are better educated may have more intellectually stimulating jobs and hobbies that help exercise their brains, Langa said. The study has been published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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US Dementia Rates Drop 24%, New Study Finds

Office Depot caught claiming out-of-box PCs showed “symptoms of malware”

Enlarge (credit: Nicholas Eckhart ) Office Depot and its sister retailer OfficeMax have stopped using a technically dubious piece of malware-scanning software after two news services caught the stores recommending costly fixes for PC infections that didn’t exist. According to an investigation conducted by KIRO TV News , four out of six stores in Seattle and Portland, Oregon claimed that out-of-the-box PCs showed “symptoms of malware” that required as much as $180 for repairs and protection. The computers, according to the report, had never been connected to the Internet and were diagnosed as free of malware by security firm IOActive. A separate TV News team from WFXT in Boston reported on Friday that the same free scanning service OfficeMax offers similarly misdiagnosed two of three brand-new PCs as potentially infected. Officials at Office Depot, the parent company that operates both chains, said they are suspending use of software known as PC Health Check for scanning customers’ computers for malware. The officials went on to say they didn’t condone the conduct reported by the TV news organizations and have undertaken a review of the assertions. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Office Depot caught claiming out-of-box PCs showed “symptoms of malware”

4K Netflix is finally available on Windows 10 PCs

Netflix has been pushing out 4K content to its apps on streaming boxes and Smart TVs for awhile, but the entertainment industry’s anti-piracy crusade and some DRM limitations have meant PC users looking to stream ultra HD episodes of Bloodline have been out of luck until now. Starting today, Netflix’s 4K content is available to stream on Windows 10 PCs — but only if your machine is a fairly recent one. The catch: you’ll need a new or new-ish Windows 10 PC with a seventh-gen Intel Kaby Lake processor and 4K display to take advantage. So, your options are basically limited to the Lenovo Yoga 910 and a handful of gaming laptops and desktop machines at the moment. Assuming your hardware is good to go, you’ll also need to upgrade to the $12 monthly Premium subscription with Ultra HD streaming. Users with older Home Theater PCs are still out of luck, unfortunately. On the bright side, the new partnership with Netflix — which includes getting Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life in 4K a few days before everyone else — gives Redmond the opportunity to tout battery life improvements they’ve made to their very own Edge browser . According to Microsoft, you’ll be able to squeeze in one more episode before your battery dies if you’re streaming on Edge instead of Chrome. Of course, a Chromecast Ultra would also do the trick. Source: Windows Blog

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4K Netflix is finally available on Windows 10 PCs