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Apple’s looking into some very intriguing things in a couple of new patent applications spotted by AppleInsider today, including sonar-style echolocation for passive proximity detection, and a text-to-speech engine that takes contextual cues about what it’s reading and adds personality to the computer-generated voices it employs. Both of these could result in big changes in the daily use of mobile devices.

Speaking In A Voice You Know

The first patent, called “Voice assignment for text-t0-speech output,” can alter text-to-speech (TTS) profiles based on metadata gleaned from content found on a user’s phone or device. So, for instance, if it’s reading back an email from a contact it can identify as male, 25 and living in the U.K., then the voice it produces to read said email will represent those attributes in accent and tone.

The patent describes using actual recorded audio from an off-site database where possible to achieve as natural a reading as possible, and there’s even a provision whereby, with permission from those involved, an iPhone could record speech from contacts on phone calls and use that technique to produce a reasonable facsimile of their voice for TTS use. That way, if you were to have Siri read you an incoming iMessage, you’d hear it in the voice of the sender.

It’s an interesting play, and one that could encourage greater adoption of TTS services. Stilted, inhuman intonation and pronunciation is frequently cited as one of the major failings of computer-generated speech, and hardly helps promote a sense of identification between a user and their device. That kind of bond is important in driving further use of said services, which is in turn useful to Apple because it clearly seems to want to make Siri a go-to resource for iPhone and iPad users in all areas of discovery and potentially even search.

Guided By Voices

The other patent application found today details a sound-based echolocation system that lets a device determine its distance from other objects. So a mic could be used to take in ambient sound and determine its relative position, also noting when an object gets closer or farther away. This could be used in place of an ambient light sensor to determine an iPhone’s proximity to a user’s face, for instance, and the iPhone could even send out its own audio signal or ping, when ambient sound isn’t detectable, to determine where it is relative to another surface. As we’ve seen with inventions like the jaja pressure-sensitive stylus, this noise need not be audible to the human ear to be picked up by Apple’s mobile hardware.

There’s a clear benefit for Apple from this tech: it potentially allows the elimination of components like the ambient light sensor it removed from the fifth-generation iPod touch. Apple SVP Phil Schiller reportedly responded to a customer email saying the part was left out of the iPod touch because its chassis is “just too thin.” Further reductions in the iPhone’s thickness could necessitate a similar move, in which case the three microphones currently found in Apple’s smartphone could prove a suitable replacement, should the tech described in this new patent application actually function effectively.

Physical media has long been in a battle for its life, and this includes print publications. We’ve already seen other newspapers and magazine go the all-digital route, but today Newsweek announced that it’s ending its print edition and will be going on digital starting in 2013. The publication also said that they could be facing job cuts in the process.

December 31 will be the publication’s last issue, and they will move entirely to a new digital format using the name Newsweek Global, which will be a subscription-based online magazine optimized for tablets and browsers. The Daily Beast, Newsweek‘s sister site, will be posting some of the content. The site is said to have seen a 70% increase in traffic this year to 15 million unique monthly visitors.

Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown and CEO Baba Shetty say that the publication has “reached a tipping point at which [they] can most efficiently and effectively reach [their] readers in all-digital format.” Both Brown and Shetty clarified that Newsweek is simply “transitioning,” and aren’t saying goodbye to it.

However, it’s expected that the publication will be “streamlining” its editorial and business operations, which means it expects to lay off a number of its staff. Nothing is final, and the decision makers are still working things out, but Brown said that there will be “many options to choose from” in 2013.

[via The Daily Beast]

Newsweek to halt print edition, go all digital is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Scientists from the United States have learned that dolphins are able to stay alert and active for 15 days or more at a time by sleeping only one-half of their brain. The experts believe that this ability to stay alert by using only half of their brain is a key to the survival of sea mammals. The scientists believe that the ability helps the dolphin to surface to breathe and remain vigilant for predators such as sharks.

The scientists conducted the research in California by testing the ability of two bottlenose dolphins to echolocate accurately over a certain period. The scientists say that the dolphins could echolocate accurately over a period long enough to have left other animals sleep-deprived. During the tests, the two dolphins swam around their enclosure looking for Phantom sonar targets.

Each of the eight test devices used with the dolphins was made up of a device that could pick up the dolphins sound pulses and return a phantom target. The dolphins then responded to the phantom targets by pressing a paddle. The dolphins were rewarded with a special tone with success and a fish. A false alarm gave the dolphins no tone and no reward.

The researchers report that over three sessions of five continuous days the Dolphins had a success rate of up to 99%. The female dolphin outperformed her male partner during the test. The scientists tested the female dolphin with the same experiment over a period of 30 days.

The scientists wrote, “From an anthropomorphic viewpoint, the ability of the dolphin to continuously monitor its environment for days without interruption seems extreme. However, the biological, sensory and cognitive ecology of these animals is relatively unique and demanding.”

“If dolphins sleep like terrestrial animals, they might drown. If dolphins fail to maintain vigilance, they become susceptible to predation. As a result, the apparent ‘extreme’ capabilities these animals possess are likely to be quite normal, unspectacular, and necessary for survival from the dolphin’s perspective.”

[via Independent]

Dolphins can sleep one-half of their brain at a time say researchers is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There is nothing quite like having a nice, piping hot cup of coffee or tea at your desk whenever you are working. The thing is, most of us work in air conditioned offices these days, and our hot beverage cools down – really fast, unless one uses a thermos flask or something of the equivalent. Well, if you happen to have an extra USB port on your notebook or computer that has collected dust bunnies and cobwebs due to its inactiveness, here is the £8.99 Hot Cookie USB Cup Warmer which you might want to consider getting as a desktop companion.

The name of the Hot Cookie USB Cup Warmer says it all, you will be able to enjoy a reasonably hot cuppa at all times, where it will draw power from that once idle USB port to make sure you need not endure the taste of cold coffee, ever again. Do be advised that the surface could end up to be very hot, and make sure you do not use it with plastic or foam cups.

[ Hot Cookie USB Cup Warmer copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]