Microsoft Unveils its First Ever Laptop

Microsoft’s First Laptop Launch – The Microsoft Surface Book

Microsoft surprised the world recently with its first laptop launch– the Microsoft Surface Book. Microsoft, for the past few years had informed that its Surface tablets would replace the traditional laptops but the company now has a backup product.

 Ed Giaimo, senior lead on the Surface Book team informed CNNMoney at an event in New York that some people preferred this form factor. The Microsoft Surface Book can be utilised as a full powered laptop or a tablet and the display screen can also be snapped to the back of the keyboard to act like a clipboard, credits goes to the unique mechanical hinge. However, the Surface Book is not just another Surface table with a better keyboard.

The monitor comprises of the latest Intel Core i5 or i7 processor while the keyboard base has a graphic processing unit – GPU which tends to boost the performance of the laptop. Besides this, about three fourths of the battery life of the device is stored in the keyboard. Microsoft states that a fully charged battery could last for 12 hours. The Surface Book is said to be sturdy and the tablet portion of the laptop tends to weigh 1.6 pounds while the whole unit weighs around 3.5 pounds.

Sleek Detachable Device

The new laptop tends to target busy professions comprising of features which do not have the need of setting it up for utilisation. The Surface Book is a sleek detachable device which seeks to redefine the laptop. The 13.5 inch Surface Book would be going on sale on 26th October with pre-orders beginning soon and the base model would be priced at $1,499.

The Surface Book is said to be just one of the several Windows 10 products that was announced.Running on the latest Windows 10 with the combination of the latest processor technology, it gives a powerful engine for great workforce.

It also has a powerful memory with expandable internal storage which could be advantageous in file storage as well as speed browsing. Besides this, Microsoft also launched a new Surface Pro together with two Lumia smartphones.

The new Microsoft Surface Pro 4 seems to have a bigger display of 12.3 inches though it is the same size as the Surface Pro 3. The accompanying keyboard has been updated by Microsoft to include a fingerprint reader, bigger touchpad and an improved keyboard.

Stylus Upgraded/ Digital Eraser on the Other End

The stylus has also been upgraded. It has one year battery life, magnetically attaches to the Pro 4 and Surface Book and works with various pen tips. It also has a digital eraser on the other end. Lumia 950 and 950XL now are essentially like pocket sized Windows 10 computers.

Users can connect to a monitor, mouse and keyboard. Though Microsoft has made it clear that it seems to be serious in venturing into the hardware business, the PC market seems to be facing shipment failure. As per the International Data Corporation, worldwide PC, shipments amounted to around 71.0 million units in the third quarter of 2015.

The said volume signified a year on year failure of -10.8%, a little worse than predictions for a decline of -9.2%. Microsoft’s focus lies in `reinventing’ products and move people from needing Windows to choosing Windows to loving Windows according to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.

Composite Cement used to Frame Vonschloo Home Speakers

Loudspeakers of Composite Cement for Vonschloo

Estragon, Zurich based studio, had developed loudspeaker made of composite cement for vonschloo. The choice of using composite cement was initiated due to the material being one of the best available for acoustic cabinets. The team spend a lot of their time in exploring the possibility of this material before embarking on the precise design for the material involved.

The company had been influenced by the `folle’ an archaic sound object that has been utilised in the Swiss Alps for centuries to call the `alpsegen’. When compared to the several electronic products, the team desired a 360 degree design to be appealing from all side thus permitting these speakers to be placed in a variety of surroundings. With the combination of composite cement, wood, metal and fabric it created a sophisticated and minimal look.

Due to the warm, rough and irregular material of the casing when compared to the smooth and delicate stand provides the product with a unique visual character. There are two different configurations for the loudspeaker where the only difference between the two configurations seems to be the stands. These can be altered at any period of time. Floor standing loudspeaker along with its stand is motivated by the designs of the 50’s and 60’s and is precise for free placement in a living area.

Eternit – Amazing Acoustic Properties

The material Eternit, cement composite was decided for artistic reasons. Besides having amazing acoustic properties, it tends to combine form and operates in a harmonic way. Since Eternit does not seem to be the most common material, it was only on working on that it had enabled the team to actually design the speaker casing which was due to the support and patient of Eternit – Schweiz, AG. On successful development of the speaker, the team were offered the opportunity of designing the complete identity of Vonschloo.

 The look and feel of the brand should imitate the characteristic of the product. Moreover, the logo as well as the website estragon also directed the photography. The second version is a shelf loudspeaker which has a compact stand. Its simple design tends to adapt to its surrounding.

The L242 Loudspeaker for vonschloo enables a clear visual statement with its reduced and focused utilisation of material together with the finish. It comes with a price of 2880 CHF, around $2,995 USD.

Idyllic Speaker – High Quality Sound/Fashionable Design

The L242is the idyllic speaker for users with high quality of sound and fashionable design. The characteristic of the design of the loudspeakers is simple having all the essentials, the inspiration being the Folle, a traditional wooden funnel utilised for ages for the Alpsegen.

Its clear and unique design language gives the loudspeakers an iconic appearance and due to its 360° design, the speakers tend to speak to the viewers from all angles. Owing to this, it has the possibility of being placed as an object in a free living atmosphere.

With regards to the case, this high-quality component and the experienced technicians tend to guarantee a sound which is exclusive, together with its exterior appearance. Its point source enables a tranquil sound with high detailed sound image. The housing on the other hand are cut and fashioned manually in the Eternit Switzerland AG.

Engineer Builds 'Working' Thor's Hammer only He can lift

Thor’s Legendary Hammer - Imitated by Engineer Allen Pan

Thor’s legendary hammer Mjolnir, in marvel comics is popular for being used only by the worthy. Mjolnir cannot be lifted off the ground and it is this property which electrical engineer Allen Pan, decided to imitate on a `working’ Mjolnir.

To make the hammer immoveable he thought that strong magnets seemed to be the best option and inside the Mjolnir he filled a microwave oven transformer electromagnet that utilised electricity to produce a magnetic field. This produced a strong magnetic pull which was strong enough for the hammer that when placed on a metal surfacecannot be lifted like the locked manhole cover and felt too heavy to be lifted.

The handle is linked to a capacitive touch sensor which is in turn attached to an Arduino Pro Mini and a solid state relay that acts as a switching device. When someone tends to grasp the handle, the electromagnets get switched on attaching the hammer to the metal surface. But the hammer could be turned off through a fingerprint sensor keyed to Pan’s thumbprint and when he grasps the hammer, the magnets switches on. When he tends to move his thumb across the sensor, it switches off again enabling Pan to lift the hammer.

Challenged Unsuspecting Passer-By

Taking his invention to the streets of Venice Beach California, Pan challenged unsuspecting passer-by to lift it and it seems to be a brilliant prank like the ones in comics and in films. A video of Pan urging people to try and lift the hammer, in California, has been shared millions of times.

Pan seemed to come up with this idea after observing a trailer for the latest Avengers movie, the series which promoted the Norse god of thunder. In a certain scene there are all superheroes who seem to be hanging out and are trying to lift Thor’s hammer which traditionally can be lifted only by someone who is worthy – that being Thor.
Pan tells that `Tony Stark, who is sort of the engineer genius of the group, throws a theory that it’s printed and you need your thumbprint’. Hence he decided that there could be a technological solution to this magical object.

The Hoax - Thumbprint Sensor

Pan purchased a Halloween costume version of Thor’s hammer online and filled it with the electronic guts. Towards the bottom of the hammer, was a large electromagnet which gets activated when anyone tries a hand on the handle. For the hammer to operate, it needs to be on a metal surface.

The hoax is the thumbprint sensor which only recognizes Pan’s prints and when he puts his hand on the handle, the electromagnet tends to get deactivated. After developing it, he took the hammer to Venice Beach in order to test it and his innovative plan was to locate monstrous, gigantic mutant men at Muscle Beach, which was the infamous public workout space.

However being the middle of a weekday, he was unable to find anyone. He finally ended in employing people on the boardwalk to test it. Initially, there seemed to be some hesitation since people were apprehensive that the hammer would shock them.

He mentioned that when they were capable of getting few people to try the same, they were able to gather a small crowd with lot of great attempts. Ultimately, some people reckoned out how the hammer worked.

Trick That Doubles Wireless Data Capacity Stands Up in Cell Network Tests

Doubling Capacity of Wireless Data Connection

Start-up Kumu Networks, in 2012, rolled out of Stanford University to profit from a clever trick with the capabilities of doubling the capacity of any type of wireless data connection. Tests have been carried out recently by one of America’s biggest wireless carriers as well as by Deutsche Telekom, the German telecom colossal owning a major stake in U.S. carrier T-Mobile.

 It has been indicated that doubling is achievable in real cellular networks. The effects showed the products of Kumu Networks, for cellular operators could aid in expanding the capacity of mobile data networks. The company in the longer term anticipates in delivering further capacity boosts by developing its technology adequately compact to accommodate in mobile devices.

Kumu had invented in research which had disapproved the long held supposition that radios could not transmit and receive at the same time and that belief was established on the fact that if radios made attempts to do both at the same time, its outgoing signal tends to drown out incoming one. This is due to it being billions of times stronger and for this reason, the radios in our phone and computers tend to use separate channels to send as well as to received or switch in the midst of sending and receiving on a single channel.

Full Duplex Connection

The founders of Kumu had designed hardware and software which permits the receiver of a radio to filter out interference from outgoing signals. The device is said to then transmit and receive simultaneously what according to Kumu is known as `full duplex’ connection.

This tends to double the effective capacity of an individual radio channel. It could also make it possible to use one where two were needed initially. Kumu had worked with main wireless carriers this summer, on the first test of its technology in real cellular network situations.

An associate professor at Columbia University, Harish Krishnaswamy states that Kumu’s trialsrecommend the idea of full duplex wireless connection could bepractical though the company may have not made public, the detailed results. He mentioned that the work coming out of Kumu seems to be the first clue of realistic demonstration of the technology and there are still more challenges though they are seeing the possibility.

Wireless Carriers – Small Mobile Base Station

The first products of Kumu would be focused on wireless carriers which would be a version of the small mobile base station called small cells utilised to improve coverage in busy areas like stadium. Small cells tend to link back to carrier’s network utilising cable.

 Its version would be cable-free and would utilise the full duplex technology and at the same time serve the nearby devices making a high powered LTE link back to the central network.Creating small cells totally wireless could be helpful for carriers in deploying them in wider range of locations, improving on data coverage and capacity, according to Steven Hong, director of product and cofounder of Kumu.

He anticipates that next year, the carriers would test that product in the field attending live traffic. Kumu also seems to be working on a chip making it possible to reduce the package containing the company’s technology from the size of a hardback book to something similar to a credit card. Earlier in the year, Krishnaswamy’s group had demonstrated a full duplex chip smaller than a fingertip at Columbia and was confident that the technology would ultimately land in phones.

This Car Knows Your Next Misstep before You Make It

Experimental New Dashboard Computer – Keep Track of Behaviour Behind Wheel

With the increase in road accidents that are often occurring on the roads due to the driver’s negligence or failure on control of the vehicle, a new development has come up. This is in the form of experimental new dashboard computer which can keep track of the behaviour behind the wheel as well as predict what one is about to do next. Volvo, GM together with the others is on their way of testing systems which would be monitoring head and the eye position in order to identify signs of distraction.

Study by researchers at Cornell University and Stanford portray a more advanced method which could be educated in recognizing body language as well as behaviour which precedes a certain movement. This could activate early alerts like a blind spot vigilant, in advance thereby helping in avoiding serious accidents as per the academics involved.

Saxena Ashutosh, director of a project known as Robo Brain, at Cornell University and Stanford who oversaw the driving project, comments saying that `one could imagine yourself driving on a highway and you look to the right for a second since you intend making a right turn and as you are starting to make a right turn, some other driver pulls into the space which you probably thought was empty’.

Cutting Edge Machine Learning Algorithms

A car could in this instance issue an alert or prevent the driver form pulling into the lane. This method has been trained utilising cutting edge machine learning algorithms which predicts with over 90% precision whenever a driver is about to change lanes in the next few seconds. This lane change is generally signalled with a glance over the shoulder together with indicative head movement and changes in the steering, braking as well as acceleration.

 Ashutosh states that the accuracy achieved is quite excellent to be utilised in a production system. The researchers are exploring various ways for a vehicle to monitor and expect the driver’s behaviour through the project – Brain4Cars. The process involves utilising a machine learning approach known as deep learning in order to distinguish the actions that led the effort of lane changing.

 The systems were trained using data gathered as 10 different individuals drove around 1,180 miles around various locations of California. The researchers propose to make the ensuing data set easily available in order that the other academics and auto researchers could utilise the same.

Luxury Cars Equipped with Sensors

In recent years deep learning is said to be particularly beneficial in recognizing complex or elusive patterns like video and audio. The same has already been used allowing vehicle computers to identify various kinds of obstacles on the road. The team in their recent work had combined data from a video camera with GPS data and information from a computer system of a car.

Several luxury cars are now equipped with sensors which enable safety warnings and automatic breaking and steering. A student of Saxena’s and project lead on Brain4Cars, Ashesh Jain has commented that monitoring activity within a car and outside tends to make such safety systems intelligent.

He says that if the driver is distracted for a moment, if there is nothing in front, the car could be smart enough and not alert the drive. It is about how one utilises the info from all these sensors.

iPhone 6S Plus Review

iPhone 6S Plus offers better screen, robust performance, longer battery life and an awesome camera but it does have its own shortcomings.

No new improvements in looks and designs

It is very difficult for the users to spot the difference between the two models i.e. 2014 iPhone 6 Plus and latest iPhone 6S Plus. Apple has introduced a new color scheme for the iPhones this year which is ‘Rose Gold’ and it is not available for the last year’s model. If any user possesses this color then he will be able to make the difference otherwise both the phones are undistinguishable from each other. However latest iPhone 6S has a small ‘S’ stamped right at the back cover, happens to be just 0.2 mm thicker and 20 g heavier than last year’s variant.

iPhone 6S Plus is a phablet device which comes with 5.5 inch display at a resolution 1080p along with pressure sensitive touch feature. It has a pixel density of 401 pixels but seems almost similar to the last year’s model.

iPhone 6S Plus offers a splendid performance

iPhone 6S Plus is christened with new Apple’s dual core A9 processor which offers splendid performance. It is loaded with a GB RAM which makes it faster than other iPhone models as they run on A8 processor. Moving from one app to another, multitasking and playing or running system intensive apps is quite great but not as smooth as found on the Android devices with similar specifications.

One thing worth mentioning is that this iPhone remains throughout the software and hardware intensive usage which is a delight for the iPhone users. Battery life as expected is pathetic on this device which fails to offer a full day usage without the need of pluging in the charger. Phone’s battery happens to drain quite steeply when browsing the web but the stand by time has been improved considerably.

Apple’s new iOS 9

Apple has unveiled its new iOS 9 along with bundling with iPhone 6S Plus and updates has been released to bring it on the all the iPhones. This OS is more responsive on the iPhone 6S Plus and comes loaded with a number of iOS 9 features like ever on Siri and minor changes in the user interface. It is quite tricky to make Siri understand your voice pattern and it will require a really quite place to do so.

More features makes iPhone 6S Plus more adorable

3D touch will take a little time to get accustomed to and this feature offers an opportunity to perform various tasks without really opening a number of apps. Touch ID sensor will allow you to add another layer of security to the phone wherein you can lock and unlock your device by simply pressing your thumb on the home button.

Apple has just provided users with a 12 megapixel but it is as good as any other camera even better in some instance. iPhone 6S Plus boasts of the 4k video recording capability but it is extremely memory consuming as a one minute video can take up-to 300 mb of space.

Watch a Floating Green Ball of Water Effervesce in Space in Glorious 4K

NASA Astronauts aboard ISS Assessing 4 K Cameras

The astronauts of NASA, aboard the International Space Station- ISS, have been presently assessing a 4K camera for filming science experiments which means that the recording would be at higher frame rate, higher resolution than the usual HD camera and would be offering more information to researcher studying the recordings. Moreover, it would also add more fun together with interesting videos.

Most recent is the video starring astronaut Scott Kelly and the ball of changing colours is unique because of the first space videos which NASA shot in 4K ultra-high definitions HD. Kelly who is part of NASA’s crew, had spent a year in space instead of the standard six months, in order to scale the effects on the body of long term Mars mission, toying with water.

 Subsequent to the 8K UHD, 4K UHD is said to provide the highest resolution viewing experience one can get and is four times the definition which the standard 1080p HD television could offer. NASA has explained in a description of the video that astronaut Scott Kelly had taken on board the ISS, that the higher resolution images and higher frame rate videos seems to disclose more information when utilised on science investigations providing the researchers with valuable new tool aboard the space station.

Video Beautiful Highlighting Various Colours/Texture/Movements

His video is just not beautiful but tends to highlight various colours, textures as well as movements which show the high resolution camera’s tremendous potentials. Kelly has a globule of water in which is added things and is filming the effects.

Water floats in the air as quivering blobs, in microgravity, which tends to make for some experiments which the astronauts finds it fun, like the popping water balloons, or injecting air bubbles and watching how the water tends to move.

In July, Terry Virts, NASA astronaut had inserted an effervescent tablet in a ball of water to observe it dissolve and release gases in the water and in the air. In Kelly’s experiment, he tends to switch it a little wherein he creates the water globule first and then adds what seems like blue and yellow edible dye to colour the water into an algae green.

Camera – Huge Sensors/Potential of High Resolution Imaging

Thereafter he adds effervescent tablets that cause the green globule to bubble and distort as tablet tends to quickly break down producing carbon dioxide. One can observe individual pockets of water explode off the surface after the effervescent tablet has dissolved which is because as the tablet liquefies it generates bubbles of carbon dioxide gas in the water which would generally rise to the surface of a glass on Earth.

However in space it moves to the outer edge of the sphere increasing in size till the bubbles pop flinging bits of water everywhere.The camera – the Red Epic Dragon 4K has also been utilised in the production of films like Peter Jackson’s – the Hobbit, series. Rodney Grubbs, program manager for NASA’s Imagery Experts Program of the camera in July, informs that this is a big leap in camera technology for spaceflight.

These cameras tend to have huge sensors with the potential of very high resolution imaging at high frame rates. It seems like having a high speed 35MM motion picture film camera though it is compact and can use lenses which are already up there besides being digital.

How a 3 D Printer Changed a 4-Year Old's Heart and Life

Mia’s Malformation Treated With 3-D Printer

Mia Gonzalez who had been suffering from malformation in her aorta, the vessel that pumps blood from the heart, had to spend the first three and a half years of her life missing on most of the activities in life. She had to miss out on day care as well as dance classes due to the condition of colds and pneumonia.

When she was unable to go out and play, she was easily breathless and had to take multiple asthma medication to aid in the breathing. After around 10 hospital stay she had been diagnosed of this ailment. This four year old was in need of an operation to block off the part of her aorta which was putting pressure on her windpipe, making it hard to breathe, swallow and get rid of phlegm whenever she got a cold.

Mia’s mother, Katherine Gonzalez informed that they got out, thinking that she had asthma only to be told that she needed to undergo open heart surgery. However, her malformations seemed to be complicating. The surgeons at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, treating Mia would have been apprehensive regarding the process if it was not for the new technology, the 3-D printer

Printer Use Images From MRI/CT Scan Images as Templates

The hospital had obtained a 3-D printer, earlier in the year, which makes the exact models of organs which the doctors could use to plan surgery as well as practice operations. The printer then to use images from patients’ MRI or CT scan images as template and lays down layers of rubber or plastic.

The director of paediatric cardiovascular surgery at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Dr Redmond Burke, considered the model of Mia’s heart for couple of weeks and showed it to his colleagues for their contribution regarding the same. He even carried it in his gym bag for quick reference.

He finally had the right insight and instead of making an incision on the left side of this kind of heart defect, known as double aortic arch, he cut into Mia’s chest from the right. Burke informed that without the model he would have been less certain about Mia’s operation and that would have led him in making a larger incision which would cause more pain with longer recovery time. He added that using the model there was no room for doubt and surgeons dislike doubts.

Model Saved Team/Patient – 2 Hours in Operation Theatre

He points that the model saved the team as well as the patient about two hours in the operation theatre since he was capable of having a clearer plan in performing the surgery. Though 3-D printers had been clinically utilised for the last 20 or 25 years in making prototypes for surgical tools as well as other usages, it only began with simulated organs in the last few years, according to Rader.

 Surgeons had utilised the simulated organs for preparing all types of complicated surgeries like the surgery to remove a brain tumour or to correct a severe cleft palate, informs Rader. He further adds that, doctors could operate on them with regular surgical tools again and again till they found the optimal way of doing the surgery.

 For Mia, four months thereafter, her mother informed that the surgery seemed like ancient history to her and she had forgotten all about the surgical scar and had little pain. Though she had some minor colds, none had given her reason to be in the hospital and a month later she was also in a position to participate in her dance performance

Light Introduces Multi-Aperture Computational Camera

L16 Launch by Light – Interesting Camera to Test & Shoot

Light was established to make attractive photography more accessible than before and presently the first step towards this goal has been brought about, by the launch of the Light 16 Camera. This being the first product launch for Light and as start-up founder will tell that the experience is similar to that of a first born, a nerve wrecking experience.

 The latest version in camera, L16 is a small camera which permits professional quality photos. Lori Grunin who covers digital imaging for sources has revealed on Light. According to her, it seems to be one of the most interesting cameras to test and shoot.

 It is the first multi-aperture computational camera which takes quality images and is small as well as light to be carried around. The company has advertised that the camera delivers the highest quality from the smallest possible device. It is considered like having a camera body, zoom and three fast prime lenses inside your pocket. Dave Grannan, Light CEO had mentioned in MIT Technology Review that he does not think that on day one consumers would drop their DSLR to buy one of these, though they think that here is a huge population of users who would appreciate the size, cost as well as the weight reduction.

First Multi Aperture Computational Camera

Light, the company behind the L16, is the first multi aperture computational camera which has a technology using a blend of folded optics with computational imaging algorithms. Light has informed that `with 16 individual cameras, ten have been firing simultaneously; the L16 tends to capture details of the shot at multiple fixed focal lengths.

The images are computationally fused to create a final image with about 52 megapixel resolution. The term `folded optics’ has been explained by Rachel Metz in MIT Technology Review that each camera module is placed on its side and light tends to come in through an aperture, hitting a mirror and then travelling down the barrel of the lens to an image sensor.

Since the camera modules have different focal lengths, various ones will fire at once based on how close one would want to zoom in, on a subject and how the mirrors within the modules move to grab light’. The focus and depth of field can be adjusted even after the shot is taken.

The L16 would be having three different focal lengths, five 35 millimeter ones, five 70 millimeter ones and six 150 millimetre ones and each of the modules of the camera would have a 13 megapixel image sensor.

Comes with Wi-Fi Built-in

Pre-orders are being taken by the company which is $1299 till November 6. Thereafter it would be going up to $1699. The camera is said to be shipped by late summer of 2016.

The L16 is also said to be dust and water resistant. It has been mentioned by Rob Triggs in Android Authority about some other features regarding the L16 which tends to be appealing both to nonprofessional as well as professional photographers.

The L16 comes with Wi-Fi built-in where photographers could share their images straight from the camera or instantly transfer them over the air to a PC. As per MIT Technology Review, Light is said to be working on the L16 since 2013 and since then has had a deal with Foxconn in bringing the device to smartphones, which is expected somewhere next year.

Electronics that Better Mimic Natural Light Promise More Vivid, Healthy Illumination

Devices for Lighting – Similar to Natural Light

Inspite of technological leaps in up-to-date electronics, the excellence of lighting which they provide still tends to leave much scope for improvement. A joint team led by an associate professor Jian Li, of material sciences and engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, intends to change that.

According to Li, the team is expecting to produce devices for lighting which would be similar to natural light than the earlier technology, allowing user to view things in a healthier, brightly lighted atmosphere. One section of the research with possibility of solutions is aimed on creating advanced organic light emitting diodes known as OLEDs.

The updated OLEDS will not be emitting ultraviolet – UV which will not enable clearer vision but also help in preventing eyestrain which is often the outcome of constant exposure to the UV light that is emitted by the present devices according to Li.

These types of OLEDs would mainly be advantageous to museum, art galleries and other places since the UV lights hinders the human eye in discerning colour variations clearly as well as the texture of objects. Over a period of time, UV light also tends to dull colours of painting, causing gradual decomposition of the paints together with the other materials.

Provision of Grant of $875,000 – 2 Years

Li who is on the faculty of the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy has informed that the most important developments in the technology would extent to `a big milestone’ in the potential of effectively lighting our world. Operation on OLEDS headed by Li in the past decade had drawn continuous interest from government as well as industry and the most recent aid is a grant with provision of $875,000 over two years from the U.S.Department of Energy.

This would make provision for Li’s lab to enlarge its research with further development in collaboration with Universal Display Corporation, which is a leading developer of electronic display and lighting technologies on organic materials.

Li had informed that the Department of Energy contemplates the progress in OLEDs as a great priority which is the main part of its attempt in helping the world to become more energy efficient, expand into renewable energy resources as well as discover ways of offering more affordable energy.

More Control on Brightness of Lighting …

Next generation of OLED technology can be anticipated in improving the lighting presentation in the various solid state electronics from lighting for streets, parks, sports facilities to cell phones, digital watches, computer screen, television and flexible electronic displays together with home, industrial and commercial lighting.

The advanced OLEDs would permit more control on the brightness of lighting together with provision of more choices in moulding the shapes of the lighting devices, to determine the direction as well as the intensity of light and to regulate the colour of light.

Li’s research team have been working in the development of OLEDs which tend to utilise single emissive material in the creation of a white emission instead of the more difficult structures that depend on the utilisation of a mixture of blue, green and red emissive material which are designed to produce a working stable as well as pure white light than the other lighting technologies.

The Benefits of Outsourcing Your IT to Other Companies

The ability to outsource to other companies and freelancers is a great gift to small businesses, who can’t always keep everything in-house. Even large businesses like to do this, as it just makes financial sense. IT, in particular, is a great one to consider outsourcing – so what are the benefits of doing this? Let’s take a look…

Full Control of Costs

IT bills can explode out of control. With a monthly, reliable expenditure, you can take back control of your IT costs, and limit the money flying out of your bank account. Knowing how much you need to spend per month (or year) is another worry off your shoulders. You will probably need to keep some form of IT personnel around to fix minor problems, but this means that your IT representative is less stretched, and that you hopefully won’t have to hire an entire team to take care of the many IT concerns (especially if your company is very internet dependent).

Your Staff Can Focus On Other Things

Your employees are one of your greatest assets and resources, but they are also one of your most troubling expenditures. So that everyone can do their job without interference, ensuring that your workers are focused on delivering great service to customers and clients, outsourcing your IT is a fantastic way to let your employees do what they do best, without being spread too thin. It should also save time in trying to figure out the problem in-house – make it someone else’s issue!

You Won’t Have To Provide Extra IT Training

Training and improvements will all be down to the outsourced company? New software or legal changes? They will have to adjust their skills and educate their employees - nothing extra will come out of your pocket. You also don’t have to keep abreast of all of the new developments either, which will save your teams a lot of time in trying to stay cutting edge – someone else can make sure that the software is up-to-date and competitive.

Staying Competitive

Often – especially for small businesses – it just makes sense to outsource your work. You can’t keep absolutely everything in-house and remain competitive. However, if you DO outsource a few parts of your business, you are remaining agile and fighting fit. Yes, the bigger companies have more flout, but you are versatile, new, exciting, and you can roll with the punches.

Risk Reduction

If ever there is an issue, it doesn’t have to drastically impact your business’ productivity. An outsourced company will have the responsibility to rectify the problem. There are plenty of companies out there that offer a wide variety of packages for IT departments – Exponential E is one of the more obvious choices for this kind of service – but look for something that will get you the most service for your payments. In order to make outsourcing feasible, you should ideally entrust the majority of the responsibilities to a separate set of professionals.

These 7 Apps are among the Worst at Protecting Privacy

Free/Paid Apps Accompanied with Hidden Cost

While browsing through the various apps which are made available from Apple and Android app stores, one will observe that around 98% of them tend to be free for download. However, several of the various free apps together with the paid ones tend to be accompanied with hidden cost which is your privacy. When apps are installed on the gadget the user is prompted with permission to access certain information or phone features. At time they need this information and at other times it does not seem to be essential.

Messaging app for instance requires permission for accessing contacts and Wi-Fi connection to do its task. But a Flashlight app does not need to know the location or have total internet access. Often users tend to hit `accept’ to install apps without checking what they do.

Apple devices enables apps to approve or deny permission individually wherein one can go to Settings – Privacy and open a feature such as Camera to view and control which apps have permission to access it. Another option is to go to Settings and scroll towards the bottom and tap on a particular app to see and control its permission.

PrivacyGrade – Popular Android Apps

Carnegie Mellon University had a few years back, set up a site known as PrivacyGrade which analyses popular Android apps to check what permissions they ask and how they utilised the information with a grade from A to D for each of them. With the scoring system, the score of PrivacyGrade tends to change over a period of time. At times the app which used to be on the `D’ list would get a `B’ or even an `A’. That is because; at times the app pulled its permission though at other times it decided to be more open on what it tends to do with the information.

The following are the seven popular apps which PrivacyGrade a low score -

1. Draw Something Free – D

This app enables the user to play a version of remote Pictionary with their friends which is enjoyable. However, it comprises of several advertisers libraries and utilises the `Read phone status and identity status’ permission to allow advertisers your call log, phone number, signal information, carrier and much more.

2. Words with Friends - D

This well-known app is similar to a fast game of Scrabble and is good for brushing up on vocabulary. But it is from the same developer as `Draw Something’ and is not surprising that it has the same privacy, though it goes a little further with the `Precise location’ permission. Since it does not use the location for the game, it does tend to use it to indicate to you location based ads.

3. GO Locker – D

The app tends to act as a screen lock for the phone, promising to be more secure and smarter than the built-in screen lock on the device. It means that it needs to know a lot about the phone and needs all permission available right from location to reading the text messages. Though it does not have advertising libraries installed, it could send data to advertisers utilising its own first party codes. It does not link up to send information to app stores other than Google Play which could be dangerous since app stores besides Google have malicious app. These could get hold of information from your phone.

4. GO Weather Forecast & Widgets - D

This app from the same company which brought GO Locker, provides the weather and forecast, but like GO Locker, it tends to utilise plenty of its permission to direct data to app markets besides Google Play. After some bit of checking, it seems that each GO app inclusive of GO Battery as well as GO SMS Pro, seem to have the same design and should be avoided.

5. Camera360 Ultimate – D

The default camera app of Android is serviceable, but not fanciful. The Camera360 Ultimate has the potentials to add more camera modes, with filters, free cloud storage, real-time `touch-ups’ facial recognition and much more without ads.

6. Angry Birds - C

Angry Birds was the first modern `virus-related’ mobile game with over 2 billion downloads since 2009 and most of its sequels as well as by-products do not fare well with privacy. Several of them include targeted ad libraries which tend to grab the identify information of the phone including call logs, carrier, device ID and number, etc. Beyond the score of PrivacyGrade, Angry Birds also has the difference of being one of the apps which NSA and British GCHQ had targeted to get hold of user information from smartphones. The improved version of Angry Birds is not vulnerable and they have scored a higher `B’.

7. My Talking Tom - D

This app is a little game where one can adopt and take care of a kitten but its privacy settings are not so lovable. It comprises of an eight targeted ad libraries besides the phone’s identifying information which is sent to the advertisers audio from the microphone.

Can Making Seawater Drinkable Quench the World's Thirst?

Seawater Desalination Plants For Filtered Water

Generating fresh drinking water from sea through desalination has always been the best option to the water shortage faced during the year. Oceans tend to cover over 70% of the surface of the earth which contains 97% of its water. However the efforts essential in the achievement of this simple procedure seems to be costly. But now with enhancement in technologies, the cost has been reduced to half with huge desalination plants coming up all around the globe.

The biggest seawater desalination plant ever has just ramped up to full production in Israel’s Sorek plant near Tel Aviv which will make about 624 million litres of filtered water daily, selling around 1,000 litres equal to weekly consumption of Brit for 45p. The Ras al-Khair plant in Saudi Arabia tends to reach full production in December.

Created in the peninsula’s Eastern Province, it would be much bigger, speeding a billion litres a day to Riyadh where the population seems to be on the rise. A connected power plant would be yielding 2.4 million watts of electricity. The desalination plant in the US, San Diego’s Carlsbad, which is the country’s largest, would be in operation from November.

Reverse Osmosis – Utilises Less Energy – New Lease of Life

The old style of extracting drinking water from sea or saline water was to boil it then collect the evaporated water as a pure distillate which tends to utilise lot of energy but works well when combined with industrial plants which can produce heat as a by-product.

The new desalination plant at Saudi Arabia tends to pair with a power plant for this purpose. But in recent years, reverse osmosis, a technology which has been since 1960s utilises less energy has been given a new lease of life. It involves pushing salt water at high pressure via a polymer membrane comprising of holes around a fifth of a nanometre in size.

A nanometre is said to be a billionth of a metre, and the holes which are small enough to block the salt molecule are big enough to enable the water molecule through. Profession Nidal Hilal at Swansea University, editor-in-chief of the journal explains that this membrane tends to strip all the salts and minerals totally from the water and get clean water coming down as infiltrate and the distillation on the other side is saline with high content of salt.

However, these membranes may get clogged easily and lose its performance but with improved technology and pre-treatment techniques, there is a possibility of keeping them working efficiently for a longer period. Sorek’s designers in Israel tend to save energy by utilising double sized pressure vessels.

Dr Jack Gilron, head of Desalination and Water Treatment at Ben Gurion comments that one would need less pressure vessels to generate water which means fewer pipes and less connection. The researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT in US had experimented with semi-permeable membranes which were made from atom thick graphene that need less pressure to function and thus saves energy even though the technology is not yet prepared for mass production.

With regards to forward osmosis, Professor Nick Hankins, chemical engineer at the University of Oxford is of the opinion that it is an alternative option of removing the salt from seawater. A highly concentrated solution is utilised to draw it through instead of pushing the fresh water through the membrane, which efficiently sucks it from the sea water. Thereafter the diluted solutes are removed producing pure water.

Crippling Linux Botnet Strikes Gaming, Education Sites

Botnet Plundering Linux Computers – Attack Powerful

The IT world has recently revealed that a botnet has been plundering the Linux computers and the attacks seem to be quite powerful. Several of the targets seem to be in Asia and the security experts are making efforts in tracking them and the botnet appears to be of Asian origin.

A network of Linux computers seems to be flooding gaming as well as education sites with about 150 gigabits per second of malicious traffic, according to Dan Goodin of Ars Technica, which in some cases is adequate to knock the targets offline.

This is a DDoS – distributed denial-of-service network and the discoveries are from Akamai Technologies. The Security Intelligence Response Team – SIRT, at Akamai reflected the botnet XOR DDoS as `High Risk’ in an advisory posted recently.

 It is said that the XOR DDoS botnet had developed and now has the potential of mega DDoS attacks at 150 plus Gbps and are utilising a Trojan malware in hijacking the Linus system. The first access was obtained by brute force attacks in order to discover the password to Secure Shell services on a Linux machine. When the Login has been attained, the attackers used root privileges in order to run a Bash shell script, thereby downloading and executing the nasty binary

SIRT Tracking XOR DDoS – Trojan Malware

Akamai’s Security Intelligence Response Team has been tracking XOR DDoS, which is a Trojan malware that DDoS attackers seemed to have used in hijacking Linux machines in building a botnet for distributed denial of service attack campaigns with DNS and SYN floods.

Some of the key points observed by Akamai were that the gaming sector had been the main target, which was followed by educational institutions. The botnet seemed to attack around 20 targets each day, 90% of which were from Asia.

The malware tends to spread through Secure Shell – SSH services vulnerable to brute force attacks owing to weak passwords. This could turn from bad to worse. The team at Akamai expect the XOR DDoS activity would continue since attackers refine and improve their methods, inclusive of a more diverse selection of DDoS types of attack.

Advisory Describing DDoS Mitigation/Malware Removal Information Available

As per the Akamai team, the IP address of the bot seems at times hoaxed though not always. The botnet attacks noticed that in the DDoS campaigns against Akamai consumers were a mixture of hoaxed and non-hoaxed attack traffic. According to Lucian Constantin of IDC News Service recently stated that this power to generate crippling attacks at more than 150 Gbps represent several time greater than a usual company’s organization could endure.

 In the meanwhile an advisory describing this threat inclusive of DDoS mitigation payload analysis as well as malware removal information is made available for download from Akamai. Eliminating the XOR DDoS malware seems to have a four step procedure wherein most of the scripts are provided in the advisory.

Senior vice president and general manager of Akamai, Stuart Scholly has said that XOR DDoS is an example of attackers switching focus and developing botnets utilising compromised Linux systems to launch DDoS outbreaks. This occurs more frequently now than earlier, when Windows machines were the main targets for DDoS malware.

Researchers Use Augmented Reality to Turn Coloring Books into 3D Experience

Colouring App Developed – Disney Research

A colouring app developed by Disney Research could cause characters to spring from the page in a 3D wonderthrough augmented reality. A child tends to colour a character on the book page normally while a smartphone or tablet running the app tends to monitor the drawing.

Based on the colouring of the child, the app fills the colours in real time on a 3D animated version of the character which is visible on the screen of the device and integrates it into a video. The core focus on the traditional activity of the colouring is maintained by the app while providing the magical digital overlay which tends to improves the engagement.

User testing performed by adults rather than the children in the early study, researchers observed that most of the users informed that the app increased their enthusiasm to draw in colouring books while 80% stated that the app increased their feeling of linking with the character.

Disney researchers, ETH Zurich as well as the Swiss university EPFL presented the augmented reality app at the ISMAR 2015 – IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality in Fukuoka, Japan.

Disney Color & Play

Though the work of the research was presented to scientific audience, it had gone through the tech transfer process already, motivating the commercial product known as `Disney Color and Play’ which was launched earlier in the year by Disney Publishing Worldwide and Bendon.

The work tends to fit in a huge initiative known as Augmented Creativity at Disney Research that aims on utilising augmented reality in improving creative play. Robert W, Sumner, principal research scientist leading the group on animation and interactive graphics at Disney Research stated that `augmented reality holds unique and promising capabilities in bridging between real world activities and digital experiences enabling user in engaging their imagination and boost their creativity.

They are thrilled to have the opportunity in presenting the scientific advances behind this technology and are particularly happy that it is available to consumers, thanks to the cooperation with Disney Publishing’.

App Functions on Device With Camera

The researchers, inorder to create a new experience, at first created animated 3D virtual characters and then utilised custom software in generating 2D line art representations of the characters for colouring book.

 The app functioning on a device with a camera that viewed the user and the colouring book automatically detects the character the user tends to colour, displaying the 3D version. As the child progresses with the colour to the 2D drawing, the app tends to apply the same colour to the 3D characters in the areas visible in the 2D drawing as well as to the remainder of the 3D form which is not visible in the book.

 Owing to the colouring occurring in real time, the illusion is developed that the user is also colouring the blocked areas with the same texturing of the colour. Defining how to apply colour to the blocked areas seems one of the most difficult issue, according to Sumner.

By mirroring the user’s strokes on colours does not seem to work since the patter of colours used for a character’s face would not be the same for the back of the character’s head. The colour also needs to be continuous in order that no seams are seen between the visible areas and the blocked areas or where dissimilar portions of the textures tend to meet.

Google Patent Application is about Head Display with Holograms

Google’s Patent Application for Holograms

Google has filed a patent application regarding holograms and the heading in the application states `Lightguide with several in-coupling holograms for display inhead wearable’. The two inventors named are Evan Richards and John Perreault and the application had been first filed in March 2014. Observer state that this could be linked to hardware platform for Magic Leap’s augmented reality content.

 Josh Constine in TechCrunch commented that `the patent contextualizes Google Inc.chief $542 million funding round for improved reality start-up Magic Leap. In TechCrunch, Constine seems to be asking Google - `when asked about the patent and its significance, he received from Google, a boilerplate no-comment response:

We hold patents on a variety of ideas, some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, and some do not. Prospective product announcement should not necessarily be inferred from our patents’. Jon Mundy had stated in TrustedReviews that the technology discussed in the patent application would overlay computer-generated imagery over the real world, not entirely unlike to Microsoft’s HoloLens.

The patent application reads – Single eye displays are referred as monocular HMDs while double eye displays are considered as binocular HMDs. Some HMDs display only CGI -computer generated image and other types of HMDs are capable of covering CGI overreal world view.

Patent Describes Technology – Several CGI Holograms

The later type of HMD includes come kind of see-through eyepiece and could serve as hardware platform in comprehending augmented reality. With this the viewer’s image of the world is amplified with an overlapping CGI as well as referred to as heads-up display –HUD.

The patent tends to describe technology which would enable several CGI holograms to appear in real world while the user seems to be wearing a see-through smart eyepiece. It would focus on the problem of mapping real world light sources on AR digital substances.

It means holograms, an extremely complicated issue and one which oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe stated as a purpose in pursuing VR over AR. The only reference of the field of view is in the list of encounters for headgear though it is expected that Google would be looking into developments on Microsoft’s hard work.

With regards to the uses of AR, Google’s patent states that the `public safety applications comprise of tactical displays of maps and thermal imaging. Other application field consist of transportation, video games,and telecommunications.

Magic Leap – Content Provider for Google Glass

There are sure to be new found applied and leisure applications as the technology evolves, but several of these applications tend to be limited due to the cost, weight, size, field of view and the efficiency of conventional optical system utilised in implementing prevailing HMDsMagic Leap had been very discreet with regards to what hardware its amplified reality software would essentially run on.

Mikhail Avady, StartUp Legal’s founder who had monitored Magic Leap’s latest AR content trademark application, had informed TechCrunch that `they believe Google wants Magic Leap to be the content provider for Google Glass and if they look at the trademark application it shows story and content based trademarks.

 Magic Leap wants to turn the world into a movie theatre and Google want it to be through Glass’.Presently it seems to be all assumption though it could be based on research, patents and investments and hence could be the safest form on which to place your dreams and hopes for the impending of improved reality

IBM Breakthrough Improves Carbon Nanotube Scaling Below 10nm

IBM – Beneficial Scaling Abilities in Carbon Nanotubes

IBM has invested a great amount of time and effort in researching carbon nanotubes – CNTs in the past few years. The presence of single walled carbon nanotubes together with their marvellous semiconductor properties happened independently at NEC as well as at IBM with Big Blue being interested in capitalizing on the discovery for over a decade.

Researchers at IBM published a paper wherein they claimed to have demonstrated extremely beneficial scaling abilities in carbon nanotubes. Discussions were on, regarding the difficulties of scaling semiconductors since the distance between features tends to contract with each passing generation.

However the specific breakthrough which IBM tends to claim is in an area of chip design and not much has been discussed over it. In the case of conventional silicon, a known problem as semiconductors tends to shrink and the contact area from the metal and semiconductor has not been scaling.

Smaller contact area, generally lead to increased resistance which means higher heat. Manufacturers have battled against these developments with various methods. However the lack of contact scaling seems to be one of the main barriers in pushing silicon to ever smaller sizes.

Carbon Nanotube Technology – Solution to Problem

IBM is of the opinion that its carbon nanotube technology could solve that issue. EETimes has an amazing write-up of the technology, though it amusingly refers to EUV lithography as `already in place’, a declaration which would surprise Intel as well as TSMC. With the recent innovation,Shu-Jen Han, IBM Manager of nanoscale science and technology at its T.K. Watson Research Centre informed EE Times that `they know how to scale and it is no longer the limiting factor for carbon nanotube transistors.

 The new contacts are measured in angstroms and they have just 36 k-ohms of resistance inclusive of both ends’. The new method involves welding – nanowelding – nanotube with molybdenum prior to self-align as transistor channels. The last step is to heat the assembly to around 850C, melting the molybdenum off and developing carbide. Richard Doherty of Envision engineering is of the opinion that this solution gives IBM an exceptional advantage in scaling along the way to 1.8nm.

Group Evaluating Changes to Measuring Standards

IBM could be preparing the technology, in readiness at the 5nm node for the introduction at 3nm and below, according to EETimes. With the method which has already been proven in theory at 9nm, it seems to be a bit of a block to further scaling. However, there are some cautions pointed to these findings.

Firstly, the fact that IBM is presently capable of building p-type transistors utilising this method which does not mean that the technology seems useless. Several of the proposed near term solutions for enhanced silicon scaling depends on various materials for the p-channel and n-channel, though it positively presents additional complexity.

The International Technical Roadmap for Semiconductors had not been issued since 2013 and the group is presently evaluating changes to its measuring standards for formulating latest reports. However the 2013 data set is yet online and viewing it, the roadmap for near term introduction of carbon nanotubes is not very appealing.

How to Tackle the Network Intruders

Spotting intruders on Network

Spotting intruders on network could take a long time and according to Peter Woollacott, head of security firm Huntsman, he states that `the time between attacks and detection could stretch to 200 days. It tends to take so long since there is a shortage of capable security analysts but there seems to be huge amount of technology with provision for threat information’.

Analysis recommends one reason US retailer Target suffered one of the largest data breaks in American corporate history was due to the company’s threat detection systems overwhelmed its security staff with fake alarms and in the midst of all the noise they failed to recognize the real intruders.

There were some clues that infidelity site Ashley Madison had also been exposed by an insider who had taken data from its internal network. According to chief technology officer at Trend Micro, Raimund Genes, and thereason for so much data to siftthrough is due to the intruders changing their tactics.He added that they usually began with a social engineering attack and grab information from Facebook to sound believable, making it appear that they know you’.

Fake Familiarity to Trick People

This fake familiarity tends to trick the people in opening a booby-trapped email, enabling them to steal credential which are then utilised to get at a company network. Probably it could lead to a link which provides the attacker entry to a work computer.

Mr Genes states that for that reason, several firms tend to monitor what occurs on their internal network, a space which earlier they had presumed to be trustworthy. Several of the companies operate on a `castle and moat’ basis though this means that their defences being strong are largely outward facing.

 They could miss the attacks which could come from within, or perhaps by sappers channelling under the walls or vandals that have made their way in tricking them. Rotating their defences inward could resolve this issue. However, May Turner from security firm Solar Winds, states that watching all that internal traffic on an intranet is hard. The infrastructure has got very complex and there are a lot of moving parts.

Machine Power for Information Collection – Essential

On daily operations each device on the network tends to generate information on what it is doing. The image is more complicated by the way modern threat intelligence systems monitor as well report the activity on the intranet which could sum up to million if not billions, with each daily event in need of analysis.

Turner state that the importance lies in understanding what is happening on that network and whether the events seem to be normal. The patterns are probably unique to that network so more traditional approaches established around signatures of known attacks could be less useful.

Gradually companies as well as large organisations are revolving to tools which tend to watch traffic flows around their networks, alerting their staff to irregularities. Several modern attacks those which begin with emails hoaxed to look like they have come from some known person do not resemble an attack since they have used your login name and password.

 It seems like you are logging in. On the contrary, the cyber thieves utilise the stolen identifications to navigate the network and obtain valuable resources. Mr Woollacott is of the opinion that machine power to do some of the information collection is essential. Anomaly detection is great, it is very powerful though it needs to be utilised in combination with high speed procedures

Global Nuclear facilities 'At Risk' of Cyber-Attack

Cyber-Attacks on Nuclear Power Plants on the Rise

According to a report, the danger of serious cyber-attack on nuclear power plants across the globe is on the rise. It has stated that civil nuclear infrastructure in several nations are not well equipped to defend against such outbreak.

 The report had mentioned that most of the control systems for the organization were insecure by design due to their age. Circulated by the influential Chatham House committee, the report considered cyber defences in power plants across the world over an 18 month period. It stated that cyber criminals, state sponsored hackers as well as terrorists were increasing their online activity which would mean that the risk of a significant net based attack would prevail.

 This kind of attack on nuclear plant though on small scale or unlikely, should be taken seriously due to the harm which would follow if radiation was released. Besides, it is said that even a small scale cyber security instance at a nuclear facility would lead to a disproportionate effect on public opinion as well as the future of the civil nuclear industry.

Research, unfortunately carried out for the study indicated that the UK’s nuclear plants and the related organization did not seem to be adequately protected or prepared due to the industry being converted to digital systems recently.

Increase in Digitisation/Growing Reliance on Commercial Software

Increase in digitisation and growing reliance on commercial software is giving rise to the risk that the nuclear industry tends to face. There seems to be a `pervading myth’ that computer systems in power plants were isolated from the internet due to which, they were immune to the type of cyber-attacks which has evaded other industries.This air gap between the public Internets and nuclear system seems easy to breach with `nothing more than a flash drive’.

It observed that the destructive Stuxnet computer virus infected Iran’s nuclear facilities through this route. The researcher also came across virtual networks together with other links to the public internet on nuclear structure networks.

Some of these seemed to be unknown or forgotten, by those in charge of these organisations. Search engines which had hunted out critical structures had indexed these links making it easy for attackers to locate ways in to networks as well as control systems

Security with Cyber Security – Priority for Power Station Operators

According to chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, Keith Parker, he states that `security inclusive of cyber security is an absolute priority for power station operators. All of Britain’s power stations are designed with safety in mind and are stress tested to withstand a huge range of potential incidents. Power station operators tend to work closely with national agencies like the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure and other intelligence agencies, to be aware of emerging threats always’.

He added that the industry’s regulator continuously monitors plant safety to protect it from any outside threats.The first international conference with regards to cyber threats facing plants and manufacturing facilities was held in June this year by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

 Yukiya Amano, director of the IAEA had informed during the conference, that both random as well as targeted attacks were directed at nuclear plants. In a keynote address to the conference he commented that `staff responsible for nuclear security needs to know how to repel cyber-attacks and to limit the damage should the system be penetrated.

Google's Algorithm for Happiness

Mindfulness Skills Enhance Emotional Intelligence

Chade-Meng Tan, one of the company’s first engineering employees in Mountain View, a few years ago, noticed that several of his colleagues were stressed out and unhappy at work. Hence he decided to work on something in connection with it.

 He convinced his superiors to permit him in creating a course which would teach employees mindfulness skills enhance emotional intelligence and promote well-being and he transitioned to the HR department to run it.

With his employer’s approval he named it Search Inside Yourself, a corny name which also was the title of his book with regards to the course’s techniques. At the festival of 2015 SXSW in Austin Texas, Meng taught the scientifically proven secret of happiness in three easy steps.

Step One – Calm your mind

With the introduction of his first piece of advice, Meng led the SXSW audience through a small collective breathing exercise in order to calm the fluffy particles in the snow globes in our skulls. He believes of finding easy options of taking a pause during the course of the day and be aware of one’s breath.

On a lighter note, he states that if it tends to be too hard then just think about nothing for a little bit. His book provides more details, focusing on what mediation is and how to start practising on it, quoting a study of mindfulness training which reduces reported anxiety by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Meng does not seem to be the only one to recommend that meditation and mindfulness is good for mental health.

Matthieu Ricard, the monk, for instance whom the press has named as `the world’s happiest man’, had written a book about himself. There seems to be some evidence that mindfulness could help to fend off negative thoughts and according to a recent review of 209 studies it was found that the practice could help to treat depression, stress and anxiety. It is worth mentioning that handling depression as well as anxiety is not essentially the same as boosting happiness. Meng’s choice of happiness advice seems to have growing scientific acceptance.

Step Two – Log moments of joy

This means saying to oneself while sipping coffee or laugh at a friend’s joke or while purchasing a shirt that `I am having a moment of joy’. When negative things occur in our life throughout the day we simply hold on to them while the good things are more fleeting and momentary.

Meng states that by consciously accepting the good things, we increase our chances and when we reflect on the day’s happenings, we conclude that it was a happy one. The theory of observing positive experiences counterbalances or outweighs negatives, makes instinctive sense. We could relate to the power of single though short-lived event spoiling a whole day but seldom does the opposite seem to be true.

Step Three – Wish other People to be Happy

According to Meng, selfless thoughts are advantageous since we tend to obtain a lot of joy in giving more than in receiving. Meng makes powerful arguments for the - `I think’ self-evident need to pervade your life with compassion but quotes on study on people acting for others, backing his claim that `kindness is a source of happiness’.

Recent research had made attempts in exploring this effect including one by positive psychology researcher Barbara Fredrickson which ended that we require a 3:1 positive-to-negative ratio of thought in order to free our minds from the tar-paper effect of thinking negative. But this study has proved to be debated with some questioning the mathematical claims made in paper.

Snapchat will let Brands Advertise on Your Face

Snapchat – Sponsored Lenses

Snapchat will be launching a new advertising format which will enable brands to advertise on people’s selfies. This features is known as `Sponsored lenses’, a latest attempt in Snapchat in order to get revenue from its audience comprising of the youth.Snapchat has launched its first new lenses feature in September, permitting users to cover animations on their faces comprising of massive heart eyes, wrinkles as well as vomit rainbows.

The lenses feature seems active while taking a selfie. Tapping and holding on the reflected image of the face tends to instantly outline map of it and prompts to pick from eight various interactive filter which ranges from simple Photo Booth-style effects to the ones with animations and sound.

Each new ones tend to replace an old one each day and can be utilised on photos or videos. Snapchat has now signed a number of appealing parties which will be replacing vomit rainbows as well as old people’s faces with sponsored animations. As per The Financial Times, it is said that the first of these lenses would probably make its appearance on the platform in time for Halloween, though there has been no indication on which brands would be on board.

Developing New Sponsored Animation

According to a spokeswoman from Snapchat who informed FT states that `the sponsored lenses enable Snapchatters to express themselves and connect with a brand in a really creative and dynamic way’. Another source had apparently reported that Snapchat has been charging up to $750,000 for brands to reach its whole user-base during the course of a big holiday or $450,000 on any normal day.

Moreover, the addition of sponsored content would be added over the top of selfish with personal snaps that would leave some with a feeling of discomfort. Snapchat would probably be developing new sponsored animation and the FT claims Hollywood studios would probably be the first to sign up.

This does not seem to be the first move into in-app advertising of Snapchat. It had teamed up earlier in the year, with communication super group WPP and the Daily Mail to operate on a content marketing collaboration known as Truffle Pig. Besides this, it has also been trailing advertisements in Discover news services such as CNN and Cosmopolitan since January 2015.

Launched Around Halloween

The latest sponsored lenses would be launched on or around Halloween and the prices would be high according to Financial Times report. Taking into account that Snapchat tends to have hundreds of millions of active users every month, the money could ideally go a long way.

Though there is no information on how different or same it would be to the prevailing lenses, Snapchat would be developing them in-house and according to the report it says that the first would probably be from Hollywood studios. This is the fourth revenue stream for Snapchat, besides Discover and the ads placed in daily stories as well as paid replays.

 However, this seems to be unique from the others and rather than passively observing, sponsored lenses are about engaging with brands which will exactly be in your face. Probably as Snapchat has put it across the Financial Times as `sponsored lenses enable Snapchatters to express themselves and connect with a brand in a really creative and dynamic way’.

Face Analysis can Tell What You’ll Buy after Watching Ads

Image: Daniel Allan/Cultura/Alamy

System by Affective – Pick up Hidden Emotions

A software has been developed that can sense how much one tend to get swayed by marketing by analysing the face as one watches the advertisements. Ad companies seems interested in assessing the reactions of the consumers to their latest TV spots and this is done by bringing in few customers in the office and pose queries to them.

However, the system adopted by Affective, a start up in Waltham, Massachusetts, has the capabilities of picking up hidden emotions by monitoring face movements. The approach according to Daniel McDuff, Affectiva’s principal scientist enables you to find out what the consumer generally thinks from time to time as the ad tends to run and not what they say once it is ended.

He has commented that that `it provides a way of getting at those more genuine, spontaneous interactions and this is their instinctive response. It is not sent through a cognitive filter where they have to evaluate how they feel’.

The software of Affectiva tends to first identify important facial signs like the mouth eyebrows and the tip of the nose. The machine learning algorithms tends to watch how these areas move or how the skin texture and the colour alter in the course of the video. These alterations are then broken down into distinct expressions portraying shifting emotions.

Focus on Emotions – Surprise/Confusion/Happiness

McDuff together with his colleagues, in a study which had been published recently, has asked 1223 people to give his team access to their home webcams while they watched a series of ads for pet supplies, groceries and sweets.

Prior and after the running of the ads, the subject filled out on online surveys was on how likely they would purchase the products shown.As they watched, the software focused on the lookout for emotions like surprise, confusion and happiness.

The researchers then found that they could utilise the facial data to predict precisely, the survey results of someone indicating that they could depend on the analysis of the computer to know if an ad was successful.

McDuff is of the belief that in the future, the system could plug in TV services like Netflix. He states that one can imagine suggesting TV programmes or even movies which people could watch or ads which they would find enjoyable.

Subtle Disparities in Emotional Responses

The team at Affectiva had accumulated a database of more than three million videos of people of various ages, ethnicities and gender. McDuff is of the opinion that there could be subtle disparities in emotional responses.

For instance women seem to have more positive facial expressions than men. However on understanding the respond of various groups, companies could put together ads which could be fine-tuned for certain audiences. Similarly, the data could also be helpful to advertisers to pull their adverts to draw closely the emotions of the viewers.

Michel Wedel, studying consumer science at the University of Maryland in College Park states that automated emotion analysis systems seems to be promising enabling advertisers to cut down an ad, to find out what exactly works and what does not. He adds that it is particularly unobtrusive and does not depend on introspection or recollection.

To do the research through the viewer’s home webcams is an added advantage though it would not be fool-proof. People could be eating a sandwich or turning at the computer or turning their head and so unable to classify their emotions consistently.