The Computer That Knows what you are Thinking

Emotion Reading Computers

We as humans have the advantage of masking our innermost feelings whenever the need arises. However, there could be a change now since the computers have been enhanced with not only at recognising faces but also in comprehending what could an individual be thinking in fact. Daniel McDuff has been working ona project where he has been creating emotion reading computers, at the Massachusetts Institute.

 This could ultimately lead to machines which may have emotional intelligence or even everyday objects that have the potential to empathise with our moods, like a mirror that knows how one may be feeling about the way you look, a fridge which could offer food that may match one’s state of mind or a car which may recognises when they are stressed.

The method adopted by Dr McDuff has been progressing through a basic webcam which tends to detect a range of different facial movement from frowning to smiling. It then translates into seven of the most normally recognised emotional states namely, sadness, amusement, surprise, fear, joy, disgust and contempt.

The computer learns from a large database of four million video from volunteers as well as paid-for market researchers, in different emotional states and the procedures are regularly updated as well as tested against real world situations

Integrate Voice Analysis& Other Means of Physical Well being

The next step is to integrate the voice analysis and other means of physical wellbeing like the heart rate and the hand gestures. So far the data has revealed that there are huge differences in emotional responses among men and women and in the various age groups and demographics.

Dr McDuff informed BBC that there are significant differences in various countries in the way people tend to express themselves. He further added that `in collectivist cultures where the family group seems more important, people are expressive in small groups while in more individualistic cultures namely Western Europe, the stress is on building relationships with strangers and people get more positive around people who they are less familiar with’.

Besides this, he also observed that when people tend to mask their real feelings, the computer is capable in recognizing subtle difference. He states that if they are frustrated, they will often smile, however, that smile would be different from the smile when one is genuinely amused.

For Online Education

Another field which the system could be utilised is for the purpose of online education where it could provide advice to tutors on how students seem to be managing and understanding the work. The system which Dr McDuff together with his team has been researching had been tested with the BBC’s audience measurement group offering perceptions to the response to different shows.

 He revealed that among those tested was a prime time comedy show which went down differently with the different demographics, ethnicities and ages. He now intends to use the technology for mental health in partnership with Affectiva, a MIT by-product for which he is the research director.

He states that it could be scary to imagine that someone could measure one’s emotions without the person realising it and hence it could be important to think about the social impact of such technology. It is essential that everyone actively decides to share their data.

 Affective computing seems to be a growing area and companies like Creative Virtual are creating tools for customer service technology which enables a computer to tell the difference between a customer who seems to be upset and the one who is not.

Study-Words can Deceive, But Tone of Voice Cannot

Computer System Can Predict – Improved/Worsened Relationship

New Computer system can now predict if you and your spouse would be having an improved or worsened relationship centred on the tone of voice which one may use while speaking to each other with an accuracy of almost 79%. The system, in fact had done a better job of predicting marital success of couples with serious matrimonial issues than description of the therapy sessions that were provided by relationship experts which were reported in a study on September 6, 2015, in Proceedings of Interspeech.

Hundreds of conversations from more than one hundred couples have been recorded by researchers that were taken at the time of marriage therapy session over two years and later tracked their marital status for five years.

Led by Shrikanth Narayanan and Panayiotis Georgiou of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, an interdisciplinary team, together with doctoral student Md Nasir and collaborator Brian Baucom of University of Utah, created a system which broke the recordings into acoustic features utilising speech-processing technique. These comprised of pitch, intensity, `jitter’ as well as shimmer besides several other things like tracking warbles in the voice which could specify moments of high emotion.

Voice Acoustic Features

Nasir mentioned that `what one says is not the only that tends to matter, it is very essential how it is said. The study confirms that it holds for a relationship of couple also’. The voice acoustic features takentogether provided the team’s program, a substitute for the subject’s communicative state and the changes to the state over the course of an individual therapy as well as across therapy sessions.

Significantly, the features were not scrutinized in isolation but the effect of one partner on the other and longitudinally over various therapy sessions was considered. Narayanan commented that it was not around studying the emotions but it was about studying the effect of what the partners says on one’s emotions.

Georgiou stated that looking at one instance on the behaviour of a couple limits their observational power. But observing at numerous points of time and looking at both individuals as well as the dynamics of dyad could be helpful in identifying courses of their relationship. At times it could for the best or at times they could be heading towards deterioration of relationship.

Behavioural Codes – Positive - Acceptance/Negative – Blame

Controlling of such method is to aid in identifying how domain experts could advise couples in a better manner in improving relationships, according to Georgiou. Baucom on his part commented that psychological practitioners as well as researchers have known for long that the way partners tend to talk and discuss issues has important implication with regards to the health of their relationships.

 But the absence of efficient and reliable tools for measuring important elements in those conversations seems to be a major impediment in their widespread clinical use. The findings signified a main step forward in making objective measurement of behaviour practical as well as feasible for couple therapists. Once it was modified, the program was later tested against behavioural analysis made by human experts who had studied the couples, behavioural codes namely, the positive qualities such as acceptance or negative qualities like blame.

Moreover the team also observed that studying voice directly instead of the expert created behavioural codes provided a much accurate sight on the future of the couple. Thereafter utilising behavioural signal procedure, a framework to understand human behavioural computationally, the team intends to use language, for instance spoken words and nonverbal information like body language in cultivating the prediction of how effective would the treatment be.

Yahoo Stops Some Users Accessing Emails in Ad-Blockers Row

Yahoo – Stopped Users from Accessing Emails, Using Ad-Blocking Software

Yahoo has confirmed that it has stopped some of it customers from accessing their email if they tend to be using ad-blocking software in their browser. Some of the users in the US had reported that Yahoo mail had been displaying message requesting them to disable their ad-blocker prior to accessing their inbox.

A Yahoo spokesperson has commented that `at Yahoo, they are constantly developing and testing new product experiences. Members from an ad-blocking forum had informed that they had managed to evade the limit already. It is said that ad-blocking has turned out to be controversial and the technology companies have responded in various ways.

Apple had updated its mobile operating system iOS, in September to enable third party ad-blocker to be installed though they did not remove Apple’s own ads that serve up in apps. On the other hand Google introduced a paid subscription version of YouTube enabling viewers to remove ads for a monthly fee, on the video streaming site.

Ad-blocking advocates state that disabling advertisements could increase the battery life of smartphone as well as reduce the usage of mobile data. It could also avert users from being tracked by advertisers online as well as protect devices from malware which could be served up when an advertising network tends to get compromised.

Test – A New Product Experience

Yahoo had acknowledged adverts on its homepage in 2014 that it had been infected with malware for four days. However, the company presently tends to rely on advertising to earn revenue from its Yahoo Mail service that is available for use, free of cost.

Yahoo has not disclosed how long the test would be running or if it would ultimately roll out the new feature to its Yahoo Mail users. It was observed that they were unable to access Yahoo Mail through Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox when the browser had installed the ad-blocking extension. As per BBC, Yahoo states that it is progressing the testing which is a new product experience focused for users in the U.S.

Though it is unknown how many users tend to get affected by this test, Yahoo has informed that this test will be running for a small number of Yahoo Mail users in the USA. Few users of USA had reported that a message in Yahoo Mail has asked them to turn off their ad blocker in order to access their inbox.

Users Barred from Viewing the Site

A member on an ad-blocking forum had informed that they have found a way of bypassing the restriction of Yahoo and in September, internet users trying to access the Washington Post’s website on using the software noticed that they were barred from viewing the site and were navigated to a subscription page and requested to enter their email address in order to unlock the content they intended to read.

This is about a significant discussion regarding customer choice; controls and the level of ads which customers tend to receive. This change was met with contempt by the users most of whom were keen to stop utilising the service and accepting its services however does not mean that users need to agree to the statement – Yahoo may include advertisements and these advertisements seems necessary for Yahoo to deliver the Yahoo Services.

You Can Now Use Android Apps without Downloading Them

Google – Use Apps without Download

Google is experimenting with tech that enables you to use apps without downloading them. It was Google’s plan of keeping its crown with regards to mobile search. Earlier searching for the Web would be sitting in front of a desktop computer and editing words in the search box at Google.com.

But now, with the enhancement in technology, individual open a smartphones app, instead of going to Google. However Google intends to change it and the Mountain View, California, company desires to extend its search dominance to smartphones by offering an option of using apps without the need of downloading them to your phone.

Should a user search for a product for instance hotel room by utilising Google’s app on a smartphone powered by the company’s Android software, it displays the search results from across the web as usual. However there would also be some details from apps like Hotel Tonight, the San Francisco-based app for booking last minute rooms. If the button is tapped, Google displays the app and the user could book a room, even though the same is not installed on their phone.

Streaming Video to Phone via Internet

For those who have been waiting for a long length of time between tapping `install’ and then able to open an app on the phone, it seems thrilling. The trick is that the company has been streaming a video to your phone via the Internet while the apps run in a computer several miles away.Presently Google is only capable of doing that with nine apps namely Hotel Tonight, Daily Horoscope, My Horoscope, New York Subway, Weather, Visual Anatomy Free, Useful Knots, restaurant finder Gormey and national parks guide Chimani. Lead engineer for Google’s mobile search and app indexing team, Rajan Patel commented that they feel like it is their role to ensure they have answers, in mobile often which are in apps.

This move for consumers would mean cutting out time and the trouble it involves in downloading an app and then installing it on the phone. One could utilise an app without the need of it occupying space on the device.For Google it could be revolution of making mobile app less applicable, keeping the search giant at the top for smartphone users. Though Google’s desktop search engine seems to be the most successful in the world, it is not as unattainable on Smartphones.

Deep Linking Technology

However, this is not the only option Google is making attempts in trying to enhance mobilesearch. Google, in April had altered the way of organizing all websites, ranking those which show better on smartphones and the company had been working in making information from within the apps much more searchable on Google. This technology is known as deep linking.

The company had also informed that it has now over 100 billion links to information from apps. Due to the technology which it had acquired last year from a start-up known as Agawi, Google also has the capability of streaming these apps. Google is not actually giving access to the app, technically.

According to a spokeswoman, it seems like one is in the program, though the company is in fact streaming you a high-resolution video which can be tapped and scrolled just as a normal app. The difference between an installed app and the Google version is that a banner runs through the bottom of the screen which says `App streamed by Google.

Google has mentioned that the new app feature would ultimately come to Apple’s iPhones though has refrained to say when it would come up.

The World's Most Powerful Supercomputer

Tianhe-2 Supercomputer of China – World’s Most Powerful System

According to a biannual Top500 list of supercomputers, Tianhe-2 supercomputer of China has maintained its place as the most powerful system in the world for the sixth consecutive time. The Top500 list is considered to be one of the most authoritative rankings of the world’s supercomputers and has been compiled on the basis of the performance of the machines on the Linpack benchmark by experts from Germany and the US.

Tiahne-2 also known as the Milky Way-2 having a performance of 33.86 petaflops per second –Pflop/s had been invented by China’s National University of Defence Technology and organized at the National Supercomputer Centre in Guangzhou. It has held the title since June 2013.

According to the official media report, the Chinese system is said to be around twice as fast as the next on the list, Titan of the US Department of Energy that has a performance of 17.59 Pflop/s. In the latest edition of the closely watched list, no changes have come up regarding the ranking of the world’s top 5 supercomputers since June 2013.

China – Great Leap to 109 Systems

As per professor of the University of Tennessee and editor of the report, Jack Dongarra stated in an email to state-run Xinhua news agency that the top five computers are very expensive and powerful and it would take another year before a new system tends to enter the top five.From July 2015’s list some of the substantial changes to this list is the sharp decline in the number of systems in the US now at 201. It has been reported that in July, this is down from 231 and seems to be the lowest number of systems that have been connected in the US since the list had begun in 1993.

 In comparison, China had made a great leap to 109 systems. Dongarra had stated that China received a big enhancement from Sugon, Lenovo and Inspur. The large number of submissions had come from Sugon. As per the Top500 statement, Sugon had outdone IBM in the system category with 49 systems and Lenovo that had acquired IBM’s x86 server business last year had 25 systems in the list, up from three systems on the list of July 2015. Besides this, some systems which were earlier listed as IBM have now been labelled as IBM/Lenovo and Lenovo/IBM.

China Carving Bigger Share as Manufacturer

The third vendor from China, Inspur, now has about 15 systems on the list. The statement mentioned that China is carving out a bigger share as a manufacturer of great performance computer together with manifold Chinese manufacturers being very active in this arena.

Overall HP tends to lead the list with 156 systems followed by Cray with 69 systems with China’s Sugan with 49 systems. However, US intend to ultimately lead the world in supercomputer. Last fall IBM, had indicated that it would develop two new supercomputers named Summit and Sierra, for the Energy Department which would be still more powerful than China’s Tianhe-2 supercomputer but the same would not be ready till 2017.

President Obama had signed an executive order calling for the U.S. in July to develop the world’s most powerful supercomputer under the National Strategic Computing Initiative. The Energy Department as well as the National Science Foundation would be leading the push. There seems to be no deadline for the supercomputer’s completion though initiative members are expected to give yearly updates on its progress for the next five years.