UK lays out plans to test robots in full view of the public

UK lays out plans to test robots in full view of the public

Matt Brian

Engadget

It turns out that Brits are actually ruddy marvellous at robotics, especially in automotive, aerospace, medical and military applications. Not wanting to be usurped by incumbents from overseas, the groups in charge of leading robot innovation in the UK have drawn up their first official robotics strategy.

 RAS 2020 (Robotics and Autonomous Systems) is its name, and it's designed to aid the development and testing of robots, not only in laboratories but also out in the wild. It envisages the creation of real-world test zones where machines of the future can be put through their paces in plain view of the public.

The document alludes to an increase in large corporations looking to conduct robotic testing in countries where regulations support public testing. The UK government has already said it intends to adapt road laws in order for domestic and foreign car makers (think Google) to test driverless cars on Britain's roads, but that's just one of the "defined and controlled spaces" where robots could be unleashed. Airports, hospitals, farms, production lines, refineries and nuclear plants are all mooted as other possible test spots.
If those sites were set up, the next step would involve "Grand Challenges." It wouldn't quite be Robot Wars but the idea is similar, and it's one that we've already seen employed in the US. Competitions would be set up to encourage collaboration and include the public, allowing you to familiarise yourself with futuristic technologies before they hit the market.

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Huawei Announces Internship Program for Fresh Grads

Huawei Technologies, as part of its educational development initiatives in Pakistan, yesterday announced to sponsor “Students Internship Programme” in Islamabad to develop technical and personality building skills of young and talented Pakistani students.

The internship program will allow students to interact with Huawei’s senior executives in the technology sphere and have a preview to the company’s way of doing business.

Huawei has plans to extend this internship program for two months and brightest students might be offered jobs at the end of internship period.

This program is expected to attract some of the best talented and deserving young men and women in the capital city as Islamabad has some of the country’s leading educational institutions.

Dingxingkuan, Deputy CEO Huawei, said, “Being a socially responsible organization and an organization that promotes educational development programs globally, Huawei is delighted to take a similar step here in Pakistan by offering internship program to students of the country’s leading universities.”

“I am happy to announce that Huawei will provide jobs to top students at the end of the two months internship campaign,” he added.

The CEO also reiterated that all internees of this program will get an opportunity to excel in their respective fields during this program and hence, add more value in their jobs in future. This is a unique opportunity for Pakistani students to work with the world’s leading telecom & ICT Company like Huawei

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ActiveShehri.com: Your Online Dropbox to Register Complains in Pakistan

Have you ever felt tired of vandals destroying your property, sick of sewerage system regulation which for that matter is not really regulated, threatened by drug addicts and criminals that just pass by unnoticed harming the citizens or may be the regular guys that appear oh-so-normal doing unethical and illegal acts which in someway traumatize you?

Guess what? We all are tired of it.

Being a victim of many other intimidating acts along with the mentioned ones who does not want to eradicate those evils from the society for the mutual ease of everybody.

A group of citizens,  just like us has taken the initiative to provide us with an online portal which we can use as a drop box for our complaints.

The fact is, at some point we need to stop blaming the government and rise as a responsible citizen. Feeling the need of it, Uzair Ahmed, the Founder of ActiveShehri.com with the collaboration of a group of  ‘Responsible Citizens’ has coined an online solution to our problems so that we don’t have to waste our time chasing the higher authorities to file our complaint against their respective business.

ActiveShehri.com is a platform which can be used to report our personal issues as well as community and development issues related to our areas.

Another great thing for which this very platform can be considered is that they are planning to create awareness among the citizens by acknowledging and educating on various subjects like ‘How to file an FIR’.

Another plus is, the site will offer a free directory of contact information of higher authorities and departments to provide people with a direct contact.

How will this portal work?

Now, just to give you a rough idea of what kind of problems you are supposed to report there; that could include a person having problems with the education affordability of his children for which he can seek donations from other people.

ActiveShehri will be helpful for those people too who want to donate but they face hard time trusting on other departments for if their money is really helping the cause for which they have donated.

Other issues that encompass health and sanitation problems will be catered too. Other than that, crime and forgery reports can also be sent to the concerned authorities via using this platform.

You can also send in applications based on appeal about the need of a development project in an area or the not-functioning project that is supposed to be completed and working.

One thing should be kept in mind, the people working for and behind the site are neither apparatchiks nor official members of some sort of departments and association that have a direct connection with the concerned higher authorities rather they are regular citizens trying to help people by providing them a medium which can be used as a drop-in box until the complaint is brought under consideration of the respective domain.

The team has been in talks with authorities like the Chief of Civil Services Academy and other influential bodies, a local news channel City42 for a while now.

They plan to form a network of people and the authorities by involving media bodies upon request to assist the citizens with their issues. They also have a detailed categorized procedure on their site to help you send in your complaint. And a public textual record of total reports including the reports that are on hold, in process and successfully resolved.

Up till now, the startup is only covering Lahore, its constituencies and sub areas but they sure will expand the network to invite, aware and empower more and more people to mutually help each other.

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Huawei announces Entry-level Ascend Y330 Dual-SIM smartphone in Pakistan

Huawei announces Entry-level Ascend Y330 Dual-SIM smartphone in Pakistan

Huawei recently announced yet another entry level smartphone, Ascend Y330 in Pakistan.

The new phone sits between Y300 and Y320 in terms of specifications and performance.

The Dual SIM Ascend Y330 features some minor changes in the design, which sets it apart from other smartphones in the Ascend series.

It has a 4-inch IPS LCD offering FWVGA (480 x 854 pixels) resolution. Above the screen you’ll find ear speaker, along with ambient light & proximity sensors and a notifications LED. Below the screen there are 3 regular touch keys for back, home and menu functions.

There is no front facing camera, which means you won’t be taking super cool selfies or the legendary video calls.

Power/unlock key along with 3.5mm headphones jack is located on the top. Interestingly microUSB port has been moved to the right side and volume rocker on the left.

A 3-megapixel camera without an LED flash is on the back. There is no loudspeaker on the back, so we’ve to assume that the ear speaker also doubles as the loudspeaker.

On the inside, Y330 is packed with a 1.3GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB internal storage (which you can expand up to 32GB). The battery capacity has been also increased to 1500mAh.

The phone runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.2 out of the box along with EMUI 2.0 on top of it. Chances are that this phone might get an upgrade to Android 4.3 in the coming months.

Ascend Y330 will be available all over Pakistan at an approximate price of Rs. 11,000 with a choice of back covers including Black, White, Blue, Coral Pink.

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Zong Offers Xperia C and Xperia L With Free Data Bundles

Zong is aggressively jumping into smartphone scene lately, that is beyond doubt a deliberate move of equipping their customers with smartphones and preparing them for 3G and 4G technologies.

Recently, the company has announced the availability of mid-range Sony Xperia C andSony Xperia L devices at its service centres. Both the handsets come with free internet of 3G for three months, that is, one GB of free data each month for three months in a row.

Xperia C

The Xperia C is one of those big Sony phones that come at surprisingly cheap price. It comes with a 5” display with average resolution, and a quad-core MediaTek processor underneath with 1 GB RAM and 4 GB internal storage.

At the back lies an 8 megapixel camera with Full HD video.

Zong is giving away Xperia C for Rs. 26,500

Xperia L

 This phone is decidedly old now but offers such a great value for money. With Xperia L, you would be getting a 4.3” display with acceptable resolution, a dual-core Qualcomm processor and 1 GB RAM.

At the back lies an 8 mp camera with HD video. The display, being made by Sony isn’t as good, however.

Zong is giving away Xperia L for Rs. 21,500

Both devices are 3G enabled and – if bought from Zong – will come with 3GB of free mobile internet.

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First Look at The Nike Flyknit Roshe Run NM!

First Look at The Nike Flyknit Roshe Run NM!

The Roshe Run family will grow next spring with an all new Flyknit-constructed version on the way from Nike.

Set to be released in a number of looks for both men and women, Nike updated the much loved Roshe Run with a full Flyknit upper over a natural motion Phylon sole. Among the colorways set to be released include a Knicks-inspired combination of Royal/Orange, Volt/Black and a multi-color option for the ladies.

The Nike Flyknit Roshe Run NM is expected to hit retailers Spring 2015.

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Is 5SOS Stealing One Direction's Style?

Is 5SOS Stealing One Direction's Style?

One Direction certainly loves the floral crown trend, but is another boy band totally swooping in and stealing their style? They just might be! 5 Seconds of Summer lead vocalist Luke Hemmings showed off a cute Instagram pic of himself rocking a summery floral crown.
The photo was captioned with the song lyrics, "I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair."

For those of you familiar with Harry Styles' entire Twitter feed, you'll remember that he tweeted the exact same line a few years back:

It looks like 5SOS has definitely been influenced by touring with 1D – and they guys are totally picking up on each other's fashion senses!

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Justin Bieber a super hero? !

Justin Bieber Helps Friend During Car Accident

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's Justin Bieber! Who needs a superhero like Superman or Spiderman when you have Bieber on speed dial?!

When Bieber caught wind that three of Mayweather's children were involved in a car accident it was natural for him to run to their side.

While Mayweather was on the red carpet at the BET Awards in Los Angeles Sunday (June 29) it was brought to his attention that his children were in a fender bender. He just happened to be chatting with Biebs on the phone at the time, according to TMZ. Biebs immediately went into action to be by the children's side because he was near the scene of the accident.

Reportedly, Biebs told the police that he was a family friend and they let him see the children, who were not injured. Avid Beliebers, the mini Mayweather’s were happy to see Justin.

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AP Using Robots For Journalism Starting In July:

AP Using Robots For Journalism Starting In July:

Brianna Valleskey

Benzinga

The Associated Press announced Monday that it will begin using automated technology to write company earnings reports next month.
A vast amount of reporters' time and resources is spent on producing approximately 300 earnings reports each quarter, AP Managing Editor Lou Ferrera said in a company blog post. Automated technology, on the other hand, could produce 4,400 short earnings stories (150-300 words) in the same time period.
“We believe technological automation will be a part of many businesses, including those in media,” Ferrara said.

Look and feel human

The AP will be teaming up with Automated Insights, a North Carolina-based tech company that uses algorithms to turn raw data into stories that look like human writing. Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and AOL (NYSE: AOL) founder Steve Case have also invested in the company.
Automated Insights will use data from Zacks Investment Research to generate the content.
Automated Insights Vice President of Sales & Marketing Adam Smith told Benzinga that the algorithm takes data sets and mines it for patterns, trends and correlations. It also looks at the user and the user's history.
The algorithm then pulls those insights out and organizes them based on what's most important for the user.
“What makes Automated Insights different from other code-deciphering services is that it has the ability to tell a story like a human, using narrative prose,” Smith said.

So robots are writing stories now? (http://t.co/kXFAzxDjMd) Whatever happened to robots cleaning our homes and doing our laundry? #rosie
— cb (@chrisbowerbank) June 30, 2014

Beyond baseball scores, know if you are reading a person or machine? RE:Associated Press Automates Earnings Stories http://t.co/EJMC6peT8Z
— Michael (@mstevensrev) June 30, 2014

This isn't the first time the AP will be using the automated technology from AI. Last football season, the media organization introduced an automated NFL player ranking that includes automated text descriptions of player performances.

Maintaining structure

This transition won't eliminate jobs, Ferrara said in the blog post, but rather free journalists from data processing and grant them more time to do in-depth reporting and analysis of the data.
“Instead, our journalists will focus on reporting and writing stories about what the numbers mean and what gets said in earnings calls on the day of the release, identifying trends and finding exclusive stories we can publish at the time of the earnings reports,” Ferrara said.
Smith said automated technology can augment traditional reporting of things like weather, travel, sports or finance by letting journalists focus on the investigative side of things.
“As humans, our expertise is to add color and context,” he said.

2014 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Vodafone Smart 4 review

Vodafone Smart 4 review:

PRICE £75

Vodafone's latest budget smartphone improves on its predecessor and adds a few extras to the recently released Smart 4 mini to create a decent workhorse of a smartphone for a sub-£100 price.

It's on sale now for £75 from the Vodafone online shop.

Chassis and screen

It's not quite as cheap as the £45 Smart 4 mini, but for your extra 30 quid you get a bigger screen and a better camera, plus the latest version of Android. The casing is all plastic of course, but it feels sturdy and robust. The rear doesn't flex easily but you can pop it off to reveal slots for micro-SIM and microSD cards along with the decent 1,880mAh battery.

The 4.5-inch screen is half an inch bigger than the one that can be found on the Smart 3, but the sub-HD resolution has barely improved, stretching from 800x400 to 854x480 pixels. It doesn't have the 'pop' (or anything like it) of an HD handset but it's reasonably bright and clear -- fine for comfortable web browsing and video viewing. Its size also makes it comfortable for typing, something that couldn't quite be said of its 4-inch predecessor.

Software and processor

It's a pleasant surprise to see that it's running the very latest 4.4.2 KitKat version of Android -- most budget handsets tend to come with an older version. Vodafone has given Google's interface a light, red-themed skin, but mostly it's left it alone, which is no bad thing.

The dual-core processor is clocked at 1.2GHz and backed by 512MB RAM. That's a small step up from the Smart 3's single-core innards, though it's similar to the Smart 4 mini. It performs its duties reasonably well, although you can expect a slight delay in opening apps. Displaying web pages also turned out to be an occasionally jerky experience. Our AnTuTu benchmark test gave it 10,434, which is pretty low and puts it behind the budget Moto E and ZTE Blade V -- not a great result.

Photography

The 5-megapixel camera comes with an LED flash, but not a lot else in the way of extras besides a few settings for night and action shots. It's fixed focus, so you'll need to be careful when you're setting up your shots, and you can expect a fair amount of blur and not a lot of detail. There's also a bog-standard VGA resolution camera on the front for video calls and selfies -- basic, but at least you get a front-facing camera. The same cannot be said for the Smart 4 mini.

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Hack Your Brain With A Machine That Reads Minds

Hack Your Brain With A Machine That Reads Minds

Sarah Buhr

TechCrunch

Star Wars first planted the idea over 35 years ago that we could move objects with our minds. That idea is
now a reality that has come a long way in the last few years. Emotiv is on the cutting edge of that technology with headgear that allows you to do things, such as make a toy car whiz by or help a quadriplegic mix music like a DJ using just their brain power.

It works by scanning your brain for signals using the Emotiv EEG device on your head. That device then relays your signals through a brain-computer interface to detect emotions, interest and a slew of other things. It takes some work but, as the video above shows, it also helps you use your Jedi training skills to move objects with just the power of thought.

There are numerous applications for this tech. Those with disabilities could become the best DJ you’ve ever heard or play video games or command robotic arms using just their minds. It could help those with epilepsy, ADHD, sleep disorders or the occasional panic attack to quiet the mind and focus.

 A project commissioned by the Royal Automotive Club of Australia is even using Emotiv to ensure safer driving. During the research phase, a signal sent from the brain of a distracted driver caused their car to slow down or stop on the road.
But it also steps into the world of market research. Emotiv can tell whether you really like something or not just by detecting the reaction of your brain signals to a certain product you see in a store. This would allow researchers to know whether something will be popular without even having to ask you questions. They’ll just see it on your brain.

A greater threat with this tech could be brain spyware, particularly in video gaming. This ability to capture neuro-cognitive feedback not only helps with more responsive gaming but could also make available a user’s private information or thought processes without them being aware someone had hacked in and was getting that information from them. A captured EEG signal can reveal your bank card number, determine whether you have a mental illness or are prone to addiction, according to this 2013 research paper.

Emotiv offers both the EPOC and EEG versions of its system. The EPOC headset (listed for $299) allows developers to create their own applications using the licensed SDK software. The EEG headset (listed for $750) adds to what the EPOC offers but also enables users to conduct research from collected raw EEG data.
The technology has a long way to go still, but what we have so far with quadriplegic DJs moving about in virtual worlds, ability to detect mental disorders and to conduct market research from brain waves, is pretty impressive so far.

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Boston Is Setting Up 'Smart Benches' In Parks Across The City

Boston Is Setting Up 'Smart Benches' In Parks Across The City

As the Internet of Things grows larger, we can now add benches to the list of things like watches, cars, phones, and everything else that comes in a "smart" variety.
Solar-powered benches, called Soofas, will pop up in Boston parks over the next week, the Boston Globe reports. In addition to offering you a place to sit, the benches will feature plugs to charge your smartphone, and will also wirelessly connect to the internet to provide location-based information, like air quality data.
“Your cell phone doesn’t just make phone calls," Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh said in a statement Friday, the Globe reports. "Why should our benches just be seats?”
The Soofa was built and designed by three female engineers working with the MIT Media Lab spinoff startup Changing Environments, according to Yahoo Tech.
“We want to make cities updated for our generation,” Sandra Richter, one of the three inventors of the Soofa, told Yahoo Tech. “One trait we have is we run around with our phones all the time, and they die every five minutes. So for us it’s really important to be charged up all the time and be connected to each other.” 
Though you could have spotted a prototype or two around Boston this past winter, a dozen smart benches are set to pop up throughout the city, covered by Cisco Systems at no cost to the city, the Globe says. And while the first wave will only occur in the Soofa's hometown, Changing Environments has plans for future installments in San Jose, California, and New York too, Yahoo Tech says.

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