Want to make sure your newborn baby’s jaundice-free? There’s an app for that! A team of researchers from the University of Washington have developed an app that can diagnose jaundice among infants just by taking their pictures. Since the condition’s typically diagnosed by the excessive yellowing of one’s skin, it’s not too odd to develop a tool that can detect it with just a snapshot, just like that app that can spot skin cancer through a smartphone. You simply place a color calibration card (which helps the software determine lighting and flash conditions, as well as account for the baby’s skintone) on the baby’s tummy, take a picture and then upload it to the cloud for analysis. The algorithm quickly does its job, and you get the results and the baby’s bilirubin levels almost instantly. Bilirubin’s the yellowish byproduct of red blood cell breakdown that’s usually processed by the liver. Since newborns’ livers don’t function like adults’, over 60 percent of infants experience elevated levels of bilirubin, or in other words, jaundice. While some babies can rid of the excess bilirubin themselves, others need treatment and medication, as jaundice left untreated for a long time could be lead to brain damage or to a serious disease called kernicterus . Although blood tests are still more accurate, the team’s goal it to replace other types of screening techniques with their diagnostic tool, and to make it work on babies of every ethnicity. Before that happens, though, they still have to test it on 1, 000 infants, especially those with darker skins — and hope that it gets FDA clearance in the future. Filed under: Science Comments Source: University of Washington

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Experimental app can detect jaundice in newborns with just a snapshot

Earlier this year, Amazon said that its 2014 original series lineup would be shot and eventually streamed in 4K to Samsung UltraHD TVs, and now we know when — sometime this October. It was Samsung that actually revealed the date, saying it would support Amazon’s Prime Instant Video UHD streaming on most Samsung 4K TVs . There’s no word if Amazon’s 4K service will hit other manufacturer’s UltraHD models, but Samsung noted it has also expanded 4K content in Europe to Netflix, Wuaki.tv, Chili and Maxdome. Like Sony , Samsung has other plans to make sure you’re not wasting all those pixels, as well. It recently did a live 4K stream of a Placido Domingo opera in Europe and released a 500GB drive with 40 recent 4K movies and documentaries. Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD , Samsung , Amazon Comments Source: Samsung

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Amazon’s original shows will stream in 4K starting this October

3D printing has taken root in a variety of disciplines, and medicine is no stranger to leveraging its tool kit . At Boston Children’s Hospital, surgeons are using printed models to prep for the operating room. “With 3D printing, we’re taking a step that allows experienced doctors to simulate the specific anatomy of their patients and allows the best of the best become even better, ” says Peter Weinstock, MD, PhD. Dr. Weinstock is working on an in-house service that’s capable of constructing the models in short order. Using scans from the hospital’s radiology department and a 3D printer capable of super high resolution output (16 microns, to be exact), the models allow doctors to examine details of a baby’s skull or brain. What’s more, the machine can use multiple materials to sculpt the final result, simulating the unique facets bone, skin and blood vessels individually. For surgeons-in-training, the custom-made prints can illustrate the details of a medical condition rather than an average look. Filed under: Misc Comments Via: ABC News Source: Boston Children’s Hospital

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Boston Children’s Hospital preps surgeons with custom 3D-printed models

Instagram has already revealed a bit about how Hyperlapse turns your shaky handheld footage into smooth time-lapses, but what if you really want to know what makes it tick? Don’t worry — the company will happily satisfy your curiosity with a deep dive into the app’s inner workings. Ultimately, you’re looking at a significant extension of the Cinema tech used in Instagram itself. It’s still using your phone’s gyroscope to determine the orientation of the camera and crop frames to counteract any shakiness. The biggest change is in how Hyperlapse adjusts to different time-lapse speeds. It only checks the positioning for the video frames you’ll actually see, and that crop-based smoothing effect will change as you step up the pace. Importantly, Instagram’s approach contrasts sharply with what we saw in Microsoft’s similarly-named technique . There, Microsoft is calculating a 3D path through the scene and stitching together frames to create a seamless whole. That approach is potentially nicer-looking, but it’s a lot more computationally intensive; Instagram is taking advantage of your phone’s built-in sensors to create a similar effect without as much hard work. You don’t need to know the nitty-gritty about Hyperlapse to appreciate the effect it has on your clips, but the post is definitely worth a read if you have unanswered questions. Filed under: Cellphones , Internet , Mobile , Facebook Comments Via: 9to5Mac Source: Instagram Engineering Blog

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Instagram shows how Hyperlapse stabilizes your jittery videos

Typically, we send rovers to our planetary neighbors one at a time — but what if we sent a small team of smaller, less impressive robots instead? That’s the idea NASA is exploring at Kennedy Space Center with Swarmies: a quartet of four autonomous robots designed to work together to complete a single mission. Working as a colony of insects might, the four machines use a combination of WiFi, GPS and webcams to survey an area, assess its value and contact the other robots if assistance is needed. The robots are less advanced than a typical rover might by, but working in tandem allows them to cover more ground. It also serves as a security measure: if one rover fails , there are three left to complete the mission. “For a while, people were interested in putting as much smarts and capacity as they could on their one robot, ” says Kurt Leucht, one of the engineers working on the project. “Now people are realizing you can have much smaller, much simpler robots that can work together and achieve a task” Right now the machines are just prototypes, but if all goes well they may one day be used in search and rescues missions, or even scaled up for use in space. “Assuming this pays off, ” Leucht says, ” we know somebody’s going to take this and extend it and go beyond the four or five rovers we have here.” [Image credit: NASA/Dmitri Gerondidakis] Filed under: Robots , Internet Comments Source: NASA

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NASA’s ‘Swarmies’ are a squad of smaller, less intelligent rovers

DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 satellite has only been in space for less than half a month, but it’s already proven itself capable of shooting high-res images just like the company promised. Just a few days after Lockheed Martin flew it to orbit, the satellite quickly went to work, snapping pictures of Madrid, Spain. As you can see in the gallery below, it’s pretty easy to spot vehicles, rooftops and landmarks in these images. DigitalGobe says its services can benefit companies and governments that want to assess vehicles and monitor a region’s development (housing, infrastructure and road networks), among other things. Conservationists can also use it to monitor natural resources. While these first set of images are already great, the company will start delivering even clearer, closer satellite snapshot to all its customers by February next year. Comments Source: DigitalGlobe

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High-res imaging satellite shows off with crystal clear pics of Madrid

Yes, cloud services like Dropbox make it easy to share folders through public directories and links, but you still have to put those folders in the cloud in the first place. Wouldn’t you rather share them straight from your PC? BitTorrent hopes to make things that direct with its big Sync 1.4 update . Now, you can share folders with others just by giving them web links; you don’t have to wait for the files to reach a remote server, or rely on Sync’s slightly more obtuse Key system. You don’t have to sign up for an account, either, and you can still limit access to prevent others from messing with precious documents. About the only headache is that your recipient needs Sync, although BitTorrent promises that it will walk first-timers through the process. The 1.4 release is also an excuse for BitTorrent to give Sync a much-needed interface makeover. While a lot of the basic concepts remain intact, the new front end is both prettier and easier to understand on Macs and Windows PCs — arguably very important when people are more likely to be trying Sync for the first time. You can grab the desktop upgrade (which includes Linux) right now, and matching updates for both Android and iOS should be ready later today. Filed under: Internet , Software , Mobile Comments Source: BitTorrent Blog

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BitTorrent Sync lets you share folders on your PC using web links

Like Uber but instead of needing to go somewhere, you want to eat lunch? UberFresh is perfect for you. Oh wait, do you also live in Santa Monica, CA? Because then it’s actually perfect for you. The service starts today, and, as advertised, you’ll swipe to the “UberFresh” section of your Uber app and a driver will bring you lunch. No, you don’t get in the car and go somewhere; think of it like app-based food delivery. For the service’s initial launch, your lunch options are limited to a single item per day (there’s a menu on Uber’s site right here ). Admittedly, the options for the first week look pretty delicious , and the Yelp rankings for each restaurant back up Uber’s choices as at least somewhat legit. There’s no update to download; you just have to live in Santa Monica and open up Uber. Head below the break for full instructions, care of Uber. HOW TO ORDER: 1. Toggle to the uberFRESH option on the far right of the slider between 11:30 am and 2:30 pm from August 26th – September 5th. (Closed on weekends and Labor Day) 2. Set your delivery location within the Santa Monica coverage area and request away 3. Upon arrival, meet your driver outside to grab your delicious lunch This is hardly Uber’s first foray into food. The company annually sponsors an ice cream truck day, wherein ice cream trucks are dispatched to a wide variety of locales ( 144 cities this year ), on-demand. Today’s addition of UberFresh is far more substantial, with a handful of restaurant collaborations and a test market in Santa Monica. Uber repeatedly calls it a test, and even has a definitive start and stop time for its run (“from Tuesday August 26th until Friday September 5th with the possibly of an extension; closed weekends and on Labor Day”). The aim isn’t just to move into food delivery, but to “disrupt” yet another industry; the legal battles Uber faces in “ridesharing” are likely less of a concern when it comes to food. As Uber puts it, this is UberFresh’s raison d’être : “Typical food delivery takes 45 minutes – 1 hour. uberFRESH delivers you healthy, fresh food in about 10 minutes. Rather than standing in long restaurant lines, trying to find parking at your favorite restaurant, or dealing with unpredictable delivery times, uberFRESH brings you a great lunch on-demand with none of the hassle.” The only rub is that drivers currently will not bring the food inside; it’s all “curbside” delivery. Here’s hoping there’s not a lot of rain in Santa Monica’s near future. For that tradeoff, though, there’s the standard no tipping policy and ease of use that comes with Uber. It’s an interesting experiment for sure, and one that’ll need to grow tremendously before reaching larger markets. Filed under: Cellphones , Handhelds , Tablets , Transportation , Internet , Software Comments Source: Uber

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Uber uses its fleet to deliver food with new ‘UberFresh’ service

Los Angeles’ grand dreams of putting iPads in schools came into question a month ago, and they’ve now come to a screeching halt. Superintendent John Deasy has suspended a contract with Apple to both “take advantage of an ever-changing marketplace” (read: diversify hardware) and, crucially, to investigate recently raised ethical concerns. Allegedly, both Deasy and a top deputy have close links to executives at both Apple and curriculum provider Pearson, calling the whole iPad program into question; it suggests that officials were doing personal favors rather than taking kids’ needs into account. Deasy is quick to claim that his team was only working closely with Apple and Pearson on the pilot, not the contract, and offered a deal to another major vendor. Whether or not that’s true, the suspension suggests that the vision of an iPad in every LA classroom may never come to pass — it’s more likely that the broader device selection is here to stay. [Image credit: Schooltechnology.org /Lexie Flickinger, Flickr ] Filed under: Tablets , Apple Comments Via: KTLA Source: LA Times

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LA freezes its iPad program for schools

Remember that rumored $1 billion deal Google worked out to purchase the internet’s most popular game-streaming service? Amazon may be taking it over. According to The Information , folks close to the deal say that Twitch and Amazon are in late stage talks for a $1 billion acquisition. Why the change in buyer? It’s not clear (or confirmed), though it might be a response to concerns that joining Google could stifle innovation or competition. Either way, neither company is talking about the rumor right now, though one person involved suggested that the deal could be formally announced soon. Update: Amazon and Twitch made the news official after this was published. Filed under: Gaming , Google , Amazon Comments Source: The Information

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Amazon reportedly ready to snatch Twitch away from Google (update: confirmed)