New Virgin Galactic Space Plane Unveiled

Virgin Galactic `Back on Track’ to take Tourist in Space

Online News had been informed by Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire tycoon, that he was of the belief that Virgin Galactic is `back on track’ in the race to take the tourists in space. Branson had been speaking during the unveiling of Virgin’s latest SpaceShipTwo in Mojave Desert in California. It is said that the six-seater vehicle would be replacing the earlier SpaceShipTwo that had broken up high in October 2014, over the same desert.

On investigation, it was observed that the pilot Michael Alsbury had organized a braking mechanism earlier resulting in the failure of the vehicle. Mr Alsbury had died in the crash and his co-pilot PeteSiebold had been injured badly. Virgin Galactic states that it expects to `democratise space’ by taking fee-paying passengers on momentary trips to the edge of space.

However it tends to face competition from competitors in its efforts of developing a `commercial space line’. Sir Richard informed Sky New at the unveiling that `all of us have tears in our eyes today. Eighteen months back was a difficult day to say the least for everybody picked themselves up and got straight back to work the next day, creating this beautiful spaceship and now we are back on track again. There is so much that can be achieved to the benefit of earth by exploring space’.

New Vehicle Virgin Spaceship Christened `Unity’

The naming ceremony for the new vehicle Virgin Spaceship – VSS, was performed with his one year old granddaughter Eva-Deia with a bottle of milk and was christened Unity. The spaceship tends to feature an image of the eye of physicist Stephen Hawking.

Hawking in an audio message had stated that Sir Richard had offered him a seat aboard one of the first flights in orbit. He further added that since that day he had never changed his mind and that if he was able to go and Richard would still take him, he would be very proud to fly on this spaceship. He had been an enthusiastic supporter of human space flight for long, making this huge human achievement more accessible and the first private astronauts would be pioneers.

Branson had stated according to a company press release, that the beautiful new spaceship VSS Unity seems to be the embodiment of his goal and a great testament to what can be achieved when true teamwork, great skill with deep pride are mingled with a common purpose.

Ferry Passengers up to 50 Miles above Earth’s Surface

Recently the company had informed that due to the fatal crash, the new spaceship would not blast off and head straight to space, anytime soon and faces a wide testing period. When the craft has been totally checked, Virgin Galactic intends to utilise it in ferrying passengers up to 50 miles above Earth’s surface, a height which the company states would qualify them as bona fide space tourists.

To book a seat, hundreds of people have already paid $250,000 with Virgin Galactic including stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Lady Gaga and Brad Pitt who have joined the list. The first flights had been scheduled for 2009; however the end of 2017 seems to be the earliest probable date.

The testing of the SpaceShipTwo would now be stepped up though the company seems to be uncooperative in setting the deadlines. It has stated that the lessons have been learned from what had occurred to the earlier craft. Sir Richard had commented that they have been working on it for the last 10 years and that they would not give up till they have achieved their dream.

Thousands of Apps Running Baidu Code Collect, Leak Personal Data

Apps by Chinese Internet Giant, Baidu Leaks Personal data

According to researchers, apps running code that have been built by Chinese Internet giant Baidu, have collected as well as transmitted user’s personal details to the company most of which is easily captured. The apps seem to be downloaded hundreds of time. Researchers at Canada-based Citizen Lab have informed that they had discovered the issue in an android software development kit created by Baidu.

These tend to affect Baidu’s mobile browser and the apps developed by Baidu together with other firms utilising the same kit. They informed that Baidu’s Windows browser had also been affected. The researchers also highlighted identical problems with unsecured personal details in Alibaba’s UC Browser which is another browser that is extensively used in the world’s largest Internet market.

Alibaba had fixed those susceptibilities and Baidu had informed Reuter that it would fix the encryption holes in its kits, though would still collect data for commercial use and some of which it stated was shared with third parties. The Chinese Internet giant said that it only offers what data seems to be lawfully requested by duly constituted law enforcement agencies.

Interest in Data, only Commercial

Jeffrey Knockel, chief researcher at Citizen Lab had informed Reuters ahead of publication of the research recently that the unencrypted details which tend to be collected comprise of the user’s location, website visits, and search terms.

The issue emphasizes on how difficult it is for users to be aware of what data their phone collects and transmits and the risk that personal data could escape due to poor or no encryption. Moreover it also highlights how several different groups could be interested in retrieving such type of data. Ron Deibert director of Citizen Lab had commented that it is either shoddy design or its surveillance by design.

Citizen Lab has stated that Baidu which tends to report quarterly earnings in New York had recently fixed some of the issue since it brought them to the attention of the company in November. However, the Android browser still seems to send sensitive data like the device ID in an easy decryptable format. Baidu had informed Reuters that its interest in the data was only commercial though refrained to comment on who else would access.

Privacy Issues & Data Security – Underlined in US

Privacy issues and data security have been underlined in the United States wherein Apple is in a deadlock with the Federal Bureau of Investigation over requests to unlock an iPhone owned by one who had been on a shooting charge in San Bernardino, California in December.

Citizen Lab had mentioned that its research last year, in Alibaba’s UC Browsers had been prompted by documents from National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden portraying Western intelligence agencies had used holes in the browser to spy on the users. Alibaba had informed that there had been no evidence that the data of the user was taken though it had showed concern and had asked users to update their browsers.

They stated that there was no possibility of accessing how many users had been affected by the Baidu issue, in China and beyond. Some of the software developers in China state that lack of encryption is common and partly owing to quick growth together with poor security awareness. Andy Tian, CEO of Beijing-based app developer Asia Innovations had said `that it is really painful but it’s a growing pain’.

Watch Google’s Latest Robot Deftly Deal with Snowy Trail

Atlas – Upgraded Version of Humanoid – Designed to Operate Outdoor/Indoors

The robotics company, Boston Dynamics which Google had attained in its mad robotics spree about two years back seems to be good in making robots which can handle surprise or take a beating. Atlas, an upgraded version of its humanoid is designed to operate outdoors as well as indoors and is specialized for mobile manipulation. It is electrically powered and hydraulically activated.

It tends to use sensors in balancing its body and legs together with LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head in order to avoid obstacles, consider the territory, manipulate objects and help with the navigation. It is a five-foot-nine, 180-pound human which tends to walk upright, can pick things up and possibly produce some gasps of awe and concern.

Several of the robots are pretty good at repetitive task though tend to fail when something goes twisted. Atlas had been designed to deal with moderating conditions. One can watch it wander through the snow, maintaining its balance prior to falling. While indoors, a handler knocks a box out of its hands and Atlas tends to move over in order to pick it up. If another human throws it down with a stick, Atlas tends to push itself up.

Humanoid’s New Capability – Endure Abuse

However, what is most appealing is that the humanoid’s new capability is to endure abuse. For instance, when pushed from behind, the robot is capable in determining how to move back on its feet, which has been addressed as `impressive’ by MIT Technology review.

The capability of Atlas to recover swiftly from spills is owing to advances in its software as well as hardware with computer systems which tend to permit it to rapidly respond to unexpected situations as well as durable materials which permit swift movement.

One of the oldest firms among Google’s hodgepodge robotic groups, Boston Dynamics, mainly tends to work with the military though it has not reported of any important business deals from the time they joined Google. After a year of fairly rudderless track Google is said to have put the entire robotics group in Google X, in December, which is its hardware research incubator. The subsequent month X had revealed that it had hired Hans Peter Brondmo, to lead the unit, a tech veteran who had recently come from Nokia.

Atlas Can Function on Its Own

Though it may seem a bit odd, researchers have been putting their humanoid robot through some sequences of test which could aid it in dealing with moderating situations, something which robots do not seem to be good at. Founder and president of Boston Dynamics, Marc Raibert communicated to IEEE Spectrum that Atlas can function on its own with minimum input from its operators.

 He had mentioned that their long term goal was to make robots which have mobility, perception and dexterity together with intelligence similar to humans and animals or possibly beyond them and this robot is a step along the way. Robots seem too good at repetitive tasks though if the changes take place in even small variables within the analysis environment or in the task itself, the robot often seems to be incapable of figuring out what happened or how to handle it. This analysis seems to make Atlas better in dealing with problems when something tends to go awkward.

Facebook Can Map More of Earth In a Week Than We Have in History

Facebook Perform Better/Quicker Mapping the Earth in less than a Week

A blog post in the social network has announced that its AI system had taken two weeks in building a map which covers about 4% of our planet. It is 14% of the Earth’s land surface with 21.6 million square kilometres of photographs taken from space, processed and traced in a digital representation of buildings, settlements and the roads they tend to show. Facebook has said that it could perform better and much quicker possibly mapping the complete Earth in less than a week.

The goal of data-science team of Facebook is to create maps in helping the social network plan how to deliver internet to the users who are presently offline. It is an uncertain starting point though whatever one may think regarding Facebook’s internet colonialism, the drones of the company would be capable of beaming Wi-Fi to the disconnected till they know where they are. The model was competent in mapping 20 various countries after training on just 8000 human-labelled satellite photos from an individual nation. This overwhelming together with Facebook’s data science team had not even attempted to go fast.

Open Street Map Project

The company has stated that it has enhanced the process where it could do the same mapping within a few hours. Presuming that it had the photographs, it could map the Earth in around six days which is something that humanity has not managed to do yet. Facebook had mentioned in its blog post that they had processed 14.6 billion images with their convolutional neural nets, naturally running on thousands of servers at the same time. Utilising its AI, Facebook had imitated how humans tend to make maps in the 21st century.

It is now being made by a project known as Open Street Map that tends to use volunteer labour in tracing satellite photographs by hand, picking out the roads and houses. The subsequent maps have been utilised all across the world often for calamity response, with the system capable of building maps of a complete unmapped area within a few days. Facebook’s AI has the capability of doing the same within seconds. Mapping on the scale which its AI system had demonstrated would probably take decades for human team of extent. It is more data than people or their organisations that are built to manage.

All Neural Networks Scale Like Facebook’s Mapping AI

Map-making AI of Facebook is just one of the possibly thousands of narrow AIs, those which are trained to aim on individual task, tossing through human tasks around the planet presently, faster and on bigger scales. The CERN particle physics laboratory towards Geneva, Switzerland is utilising deep learning to discover patterns in the mass of its collision data and pharmaceutical companies are utilising it to discover new drug ideas in data sets which no human can align.

Alison Lowndes of Nvidia who tends to help organisation in building deep-learning systems has said that she now works with everyone, such as doctors, governments, researchers, parents, retailers as well as mysteriously meat packers. What is appealing is that all neural networks tend to scale like Facebook’s mapping AI. The actual power of narrow AI is not in what it could do since its act is almost not good as that of a human. Maps, which Facebook’s AI tends to produce is not as good as those which come from a company like custom map developer Mapbox.

Your Phone Isn't That Secure It Can Be Hacked With Play-Doh

Chinese Start-up Reveals how to Unlock Apple iPhone with Play-Doh

A Chinese start-up had revealed how it can unlock an Apple iPhone through the fingerprint sensor utilising Play-Doh. Jason Chaikin, President of mobile security firm Vkansee had developed a mould of his fingerprint and then took the modelling clay Play-Doh pressed it on to the mould and created a duplicate. He then touched the Play-Doh on the fingerprint scanner of the iPhone and the device seemed to get unlocked. Chaikin did the demonstration to emphasize the lack of sophistication in the present day biometric solution and not just on iPhones but on the other devices as well.

Apple had not provided any official comments but pointed to the security sections of its website. The website stated that every fingerprint is unique and so it is rare that even a small section of two separate fingerprints are alike enough to register as a match for Touch ID. The possibility of this taking place is 1 in 50,000 for one enrolled finger’.Touch ID only enables five unsuccessful fingerprint match attempts prior to which one must enter the passcode and one cannot progress unless it has been provided.

Patented Fingerprint Sensor beneath Glass of the Phone

Chaikin showed the firm’s patented fingerprint sensor which is placed beneath the glass of a phone. Presently, manufacturers have to cut a hole in the device in order to put the sensor. He informed CNBC at the time of the interview at the Mobile World Congress – MWC in Barcelona recently, that the demand for under glass scanning which is resistant to hacking is the first thing which is heard from the device manufacturers.

The solution of Vkansee picks up third level details on an individual’s finger like the thickness of the ridges on the person’s finger or the pores of the skin. The product also enables fingers to be read when they seem to be wet that is presently an issue with such sensors. According to Chaikin, the issue at the moment is that the biometric seems to be too simple and he had named an example of 2014 wherein a hacker had managed to take a high resolution picture of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen’s finger and engaged in reverse plot in unlocking her phone.

Eye Print another System of Authentication

Manufacturers are observing new biometric systems to validate users as consumers tend to use their mobile devices for various tasks comprising of banking and shopping and the eye print seems to be another system of authentication that can be done by utilising a smartphone’s front facing camera. The company, EyeVerify is one of the companies producing software which tends to recognize minute details in a person’s eye like the blood vessels.

The chief executive of the U.S Company, Toby Rush, had stated that the eyes’ features are stable. He had informed CNBC in a phone interview that they look at micro features just outside the eye and the strongest is the blood vessels in the eye. They tend to be stable and work really well. He added that fingerprints are great and not going anywhere, but fingers and eyes would win the day. Anyone in biometrics would agree that multiple options provide the best security in a strong manner and best user experience.