Twitter’s disclosed some specific numbers about how many of its users are bots. In fact, as of June, it was a fairly staggering 23 million—or about 8.5 percent of the entire user base.
It certainly isn’t the first robotic arm made out of Lego that we’ve seen, but this particular one can actually be worn and easily controlled by the user. According to its creator, Diavo Voltaggio, the arm was made using Lego Mindstorms EV3, which is…
Apple’s new iPads are already in production, according to the latest supply chain leaks, with a refreshed iPad Air said to use a new anti-reflection coating that should make it easier to read on. The 9.7-inch iPad could get its official reveal as soon as the end of Q3 2014 or sometime earlier in Q4, insiders told Bloomberg, as well … Continue reading
Yoga is one particular form of exercise that one will be able to indulge in, all the while gaining a peace of mind, as well as getting fit along the way. This is a new concept known as the Beacon LED Yoga Mat which will teach you yoga – which does away with any potential meet ups with a particularly gorgeous instructor, so do take into consideration the real reason for attending a yoga course.
Just how does the Beacon LED Yoga Mat work? For starters, it will be able to “talk” to your smartphone or compatible device over a Bluetooth connection, where it will then guide you through a variety of yoga poses. Sporting LED pressure sensors which are able to tell just where you are placing your feet, hands, and body, not to mention the overall weight distribution, or should you have applied way too much pressure in a particular location, the Beacon will then light up in red. Should you be balanced nice and proper, then the Beacon’s lights will be green, which means amber is the one missing from the crowd.
The Beacon will be made out of PVC foam and plastic, where it will boast of a rechargeable battery that helps to keep it going. Apart from that, the app will also be able to help guide you through a range of yoga poses, in addition to helping you perfect those positions as it tracks your progress. It remains in a development stage though, so it might be some time before it hits the market, if ever.
Beacon LED Yoga Mat Helps You Get All The Right Moves In
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Being a cyclist is certainly good for the environment, but there are moments when you would wish that the other motorists who share the very same road with you would be able to be more considerate of your presence, as they sometimes drive as though you were not there in the first place. To increase your visibility, PhD students from Electronics Laboratoryat EPFL have come up with the Intelligent Blinker, which happens to be a solar-powered wristband that will be able to glow whenever you extend your hand in order to show off that they are about to perform a turn.
How does the Intelligent Blinker work? It will feature a microcontroller within, alongside a magnetometer, an accelerometer, and a compass. Not only that, there is also a solar panel and a built-in battery within, and not only that, it can also be powered up by USB. Who knows? Such elements could very well help save a large number of lives as well as do away with unwanted accidents.
In fact, the Intelligent Blinker has been recognized in the Texas Instruments Analog Design Contest that concluded not too long ago. What other safety precautions have you taken if you are an avid cyclist who would want nothing better than to ride safely along the streets?
Intelligent Blinker Increases Your Visibility
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
When it comes to drones, much has been covered about this particular topic, ranging from a drone that crashed into the largest hot spring in the Yellowstone National Park, while another drone had an illegal prison delivery go awry. Having said that, most of these drones would probably be normal ones, and not tough as nails – definitely far from the Air Dog drone. The Air Dog drone was specially developed in order for it to cater for extreme sport fans, as it functions as a flying camera that captures all of your adrenaline pumping adventures without batting an eyelid.
Right now, there is a need for a drone on the market that is capable of flying around while shooting some stunts being performed, so taking the problem by the scruff of its neck, Latvian sports enthusiasts Janis Spogis and Edgars Rozentals decided to come up with one themselves. It so happens that both Janis and Edgars own Helico, which is a company which sells drones that carry tiny cameras, but they also love to let adrenaline course through their veins thanks to activities such as wakeboarding, surfing, BMX and kite-boarding.
Hence, the Air Dog drone was created, which ended up as a Kickstarter project that we talked about a couple of months ago. This tiny foldable drone will feature a quartet of propellers and tips the scales at approximately 1.6kg, and is capable of holding a small camera, as it moves around at a maximum speed of 70km/h (43mph) thereabouts.
The Air Dog managed to smash the $200,000 (£120,000) target, and it has so far raised over $1.3 million, with production set to kick off in October, and do expect the first few models to ship in time for Christmas.
Air Dog Drone Is One Tough Flying Camera
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It looks as though there is going to be a brand new phablet in the market, which is a niche that the folks over at HTC have not really gone into with their full effort. The rumored phablet is right now designated as the HTC One (M8) Max, where it supposedly arrives with the impressive Snapdragon 805 chipset, not to mention having carried the code name HTC One Prime in the past. If this were to be true, then the HTC One (M8) Max would certainly be a vast improvement over the older HTC One Max that came with just a Snapdragon 600 processor.
Since this would fall under the phablet category, one can expect it to come with a 5.5” display at the very least, and who knows? HTC might just go do something crazy and roll out a far larger display than expected. If the rumored HTC One (M8) Max were to arrive with a larger screen and a faster processor, it might just be a worthy competitor to the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 4, considering how there is a very high probability of the HTC One (M8) Max sporting the trademark aluminum casing that HTC’s recent flagship products carry.
Do take all that you have read above with a pinch of salt though, until something official comes about.
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
It seems that Microsoft wants to make up for lost time at this year’s edition of the SIGGRAPH conference, where it looks as though your mid-range or perhaps even entry level smartphone camera is capable of being transformed into a Kinect clone of sorts. Basically, the team of researchers from Microsoft Research has managed to discover a method that makes use of the ordinary 2D smartphone camera, or a webcam that sits prettily on top of your monitor, to be able to capture depth data, making it a Kinect-like device.
So far, the research team was successful in making actual working depth sensors from a modified Android smartphone as well as a regular Microsoft webcam, where both of these devices successfully tracked a user’s hands and face without missing a beat, which would prove to be a rather interesting and highly affordable hack for those who would want to come up with gesture-centric projects without having to put in too much effort.
Of course, there would be one particular area that will explore these new capabilities from an ordinary, every day device, and this would be the area of games. Can you imagine a new kind of gesture sensitive game as you gesticulate your hands in front of a smartphone?
Microsoft Transforms Smartphone Camera Into Kinect Wannabe
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If there is a possibility of “playing” or “gaming” the system, I am quite sure that there will be minds out there who would go for it, and take the corresponding risk along the way. Having said that, while Diablo 3’s Auction House has now been shut down for good since the end of June, here we are with an anecdote on how a Bulgarian gamer who prefers to be known as Cherokee Brook managed to make more than €100,000 last year.
Basically, Brook bares all in this rather lengthy read, as he shares with the world regarding his experience on being a player who enjoyed the game before realizing that there is every chance of being a botter, as he subsequently picked up the necessary programming skills as well as gaming the economic systems, all the while building on a free bot that was distributed by a friend.
Since most gamers would want rare items to be part of their arsenal, Brook’s bot will then go to work to purchase gear that has been deemed to be sold under value, before selling it off to the highest bidder afterwards so that he can earn a tidy profit. It was his intricate knowledge of the game and its workings, not to mention human psychology playing a part, that allowed him to use the bot so effectively, eventually expanding his “operations” by purchasing more powerful computers that will be able to run multiple searches quickly across many Diablo 3 accounts.
He also shared, “It turns out that in a game like Diablo 3 that has millions of players in each region (Europe, Americas and Asia) there are so many players that have no idea what they’re doing that good and expensive items are being put for sale on the Auction House for ridiculous prices all the time. In fact, even mind-bogglingly dumb trades are not uncommon when you have a sample size of millions. It seems that most players in Diablo 3 just had no idea what they were doing when it came to item trading and the Auction House.”
Right at the very top of his game, Brook pocketed a handsome €370 on average each day, now how about that? Eventually, making money this way became more challenging and the Diablo 3 economy was ruined, and Brook claims that the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of farmings botters who caused the steep inflation, and not botters like him. What do you think?
Diablo 3 Bots Net Gamer €100,000 Through Auction House
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A recent high level meeting at the headquarters of Chile’s Civil Aviation Department will likely be the envy of those Americans desiring open government participation in UFO investigations, rather than the familiar blanket dismissal.
The question of whether UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) pose any danger to civilian and military air operations was up for discussion. An official video about the event (the first 4 minutes), posted on Friday, is telling. You don’t need to understand a word of Spanish to take note of the serious expressions on the faces of the participants.
Chile’s agency investigating UFOs/UAP, known as the CEFAA (Committee for the Studies of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena) is located within the Ministerial Department of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC), the equivalent of our FAA, under the jurisdiction of the Chilean air force.
Gen. Ricardo Bermúdez, director of the CEFAA, invited nineteen highly qualified experts from a range of specialties to the July 31st meeting, to explore the safety question and attempt to achieve a conclusion. The resulting dialogue lasted three hours.
The new DGAC director, air force Gen. Rolando Mercado, former director of operations and strategic planning of the Joint Chiefs, welcomed the participants and attended the early part of the discussion. “I wish to thank all the members of this committee for their serious, scientific approach in the investigation of this phenomenon,” he said afterward, “which has rightly earned prestige for the CEFAA, not only in Chile, but also in foreign countries.”
Scientists in attendance included two well known astronomers (each with an asteroid named after him), a nuclear chemist from the Nuclear Energy Commission, a doctor of aerospace medicine who is also a UN representative, a physicist, an army psychologist and an air force psychologist.
Among the DGAC specialists were the director of the Meteorological Observatory, the chief of Radar Operations Metropolitan Center, the head of Accident Investigations, DGAC chief of operations, the director of Airport Security Operations, and an aerospace engineer.
Representatives from different branches of the armed forces and the police corps were also present. All of them, including a navy commander who is in charge of flight security for navy aviation, are also pilots, or have been in the past. Along with Mercado, Bermúdez was once a combat pilot.
The panel members were familiar with the subject matter due to their various affiliations with the CEFAA as advisors, committee members, and experts called upon to assist with case investigations.
photos courtesy DGAC
Each participant had already accepted the fact that UFOs are a real phenomenon which needs to investigated, without question. This, alone, is unusual, as we Americans see it.
“For Chileans, this is completely normal and we don’t consider it news at all,” says Jose Lay, international affairs director for the CEFAA.
Here are excerpts from some of the more interesting comments which helped influence the final conclusion:
Blanco is one of the highest officials actually on the front lines when UFO sightings are reported to ground control radar or picked up by radar, anywhere in the country. In 2012, I interviewed him at the radar center in Santiago, and he showed me the log book where UFO sightings are initially recorded before being sent to the CEFAA. Reports are written by hand to assure they are not tampered with or affected by computer transfer, and to provide a clear record of who actually wrote the entry. As an American, I was astonished by Blanco’s matter-of-fact attitude about UFOs. It’s hard to get used to the fact that UFOs are fully accepted as part of life in Chile.
Chief of Radar Operations Mauricio Blanco at work (photo © Leslie Kean)
A handwritten notebook at the radar center with an entry to be turned over to the CEFFA. The notation is in red in the left margin. (photo © Leslie Kean)
More comments from the meeting:
The air force psychologist advised more education for pilots — in order to raise awareness rather than alert them to any latent danger. Others recommended that instructions on pilot reporting be included within aviation training courses. The scientists suggested further multi-disciplined studies “to bring us as close to the real nature [of UAP] as possible,” stated by astronomer Luis Barrera.
The conclusion was clear. “Based on the evaluation at the meeting, the committee concluded that UAP do not present a threat or a danger to air operations, either civilian or military,” Bermúdez said. “Although there have been a small number of accidents attributed to UAP around the world, none have withstood an objective examination that presented unmistakable proof that UAP were the cause.”
Gen. Bermúdez in his office at CEFAA headquarters in Santiago (photo © Leslie Kean)
The CEFAA staff have their eyes opened for any effects on air operations that might arise. But this is not the reason they do the work. They want to learn the nature and origin of the phenomenon simply because it is a reality that science has not yet explained. “Around 85 percent of our public believe in the phenomenon, so we have an obligation to investigate and find out what it is,” says Lay. “This should be reason enough for governments to try and determine the origin. There is no need to fear panic from the public.”
The CEFAA works with its many counterparts in South America, and has relationships with about a dozen other countries around the world. Planning is underway for Bermúdez to meet with officials from the French UFO agency, at the Paris headquarters of the National Space Studies Center (CNES), the equivalent to our NASA. A formal meeting between representatives of the CEFAA and the French GEIPAN, the two leading UAP agencies in the world, has never occurred, and this marks an historic step toward unifying the effort internationally.
Momentum is building for more governments to address the UFO problem, and many eyes are on the United States. Through the smallest change in position, our government has the potential to play a crucial role in lifting the stigma against research, thereby paving the way to a possible resolution to the problem.
The Chilean meeting serves as an example of one country’s success in working with the UFO issue at high levels and its ability to integrate a serious approach throughout the country.
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