This Finger Puppet Can Move Like It Has A Mind Of Its Own

Puppets aren’t new and while it might be possible that one day that robots could take over the roles of puppets in theaters and plays (robot actresses are already a thing), we have to wonder if we could get robots that could move with the fluidity, grace, and subtlety that we can expect from puppets, like the one in the video above which shows an incredibly animated finger puppet in action.

Created by Barnaby Dixon, this young man seems to have a natural talent when it comes to creating puppets. His latest creation is the finger puppet in the video above, which from what we can tell in video relies on both his hands and all of his fingers in order to operate. However the end result is a puppet that can move and dance so fluidly that it looks like it has a mind of its own.

Give it a backdrop of its own, some clever lighting, and you would never guess that it is controlled by a human. It is so detailed that all of its limbs can move. It can even open and close its hand, pick up objects, throw objects, and its mouth can open too, thus giving it a wide range of animations that other puppets might not have, at least not when it comes to puppets of this size.

According to Dixon, he has spent the past 2 months designing and building the puppet. He claims that this isn’t necessarily the final design, but it is at the stage where he’s happy enough to show it off to the world, which we reckon you should probably watch if you have a couple of minutes to spare.

This Finger Puppet Can Move Like It Has A Mind Of Its Own , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Hackers Build Real-Life Mechanical Version Of Pong

There are many video games that are considered classics, like Pac-Man, Space Invader, Tetris, and of course good old Pong. Now Pong is said to have been based on the table tennis sport (also known a ping-pong) which means that a “real-life” version of Pong would basically be players playing table tennis, right?

Nope. Instead it seems that this group of hackers in Uruguay have created a real-life mechanical version of Pong, in which the table and paddles have been designed to replicate the actual game and it is also played the same way, where one person controls one paddle on one end, and tries to bounce a cube across the table, like the video game.

Its creators claim to have learnt everything needed to build this Pong table from scratch, either by watching YouTube videos, doing research on Google, or by joining internet forums and discussing it with forum members. Apparently the entire process took them two years to build, simply because they did it all in their own time, but as you can see, the end result was worth it.

We’re not sure if the group plans on selling off their creation, but if you ever wanted to try your hand at real-life Pong, maybe table hockey might be a close alternative. In the meantime check out the video above to see the table in action.

Hackers Build Real-Life Mechanical Version Of Pong , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Netflix’s Daredevil Season 3 Rumored To Have Been Delayed

daredevil netflixNetflix’s Daredevil 2 has been reviewed pretty favorably and unsurprisingly so given that the first season was just as good. So that begs the question, what can we expect from season 3? However it turns out that according to the rumors, it seems that season 3 of Daredevil could be delayed due to the filming of The Defenders.

Both of Daredevil season 2’s showrunners Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez have apparently left the show to work as showrunners on The Defenders, meaning that while it is possible that other showrunners could be found, it appears that Netflix and Marvel are looking to concentrate on The Defenders for now.

We already know that filming of The Defenders is expected to begin this year, although no word on when it will launch, especially since Iron Fist’s own series has yet to be released (presumably 2017), and it could be weird to launch the series without introducing non-Marvel fans to the Iron Fist character first.

Back in April, Daredevil’s actor Charlie Cox already stated that it was unsure if a season 3 would even come into existence and that The Defenders could wrap up the story that Netflix and Marvel have created so far. Hopefully that isn’t the case as many are hoping that we could see classic Daredevil villain Bullseye make an appearance in the third season.

Netflix’s Daredevil Season 3 Rumored To Have Been Delayed , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

German Lawmaker Assaulted With Cake Over Anti-Refugee Comments

A German member of parliament took a cake to the face Saturday in an apparent challenge to her support for limiting the number of refugees entering the county. 

During a party meeting in Magdeburg, an activist ran up to left-wing MP Sahra Wagenknecht and shoved a chocolate cake in her face, local outlets reported. A protest group going by the name “Anti-Fascist Initiative ‘Cake for Misanthropists'” claimed responsibility for the attack and passed out flyers highlighting her calls to cap the number of refugees entering Germany

Another German MP suffered a similar attack earlier this year. In February, two protesters smashed a cake in the face of right-wing MP Beatrix von Storch, a member of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party.

Germany has taken on a major role advocating for refugees from Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans. While other members of the European Union have pushed back against asylum seekers, Germany took in over a million refugees last year. 

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More Human Then Human: AI as a Competitive Advantage

“More Human than Human” is a slogan from the iconic novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K Dick, and memorialized in the film Blade Runner. If you want an honest vision of what the future of artificial intelligence could be–good, bad and ugly Blade Runner is a realistic start. Human and android love affairs, killer robots in space, Bladerunner detectives hunting down the rogue AI’s…well you get the picture even without seeing the directors cut of the film.

The reality of today, that every person, business and nation must deal with, is the emergence of AI as a competitive advantage. Those that have it will gain a vital global strategic advantage over others. Ai will realign power, influence, relationships and most of all change the competitive landscape. Those nations, companies and individuals that harness AI faster then their competitors will have almost an unfair advantage. If you think about similar strategic advantages from the use of steel to computers you can start to see the important nature of this shift. Welcome to the future shaped by AI.

No one is ready for the future of AI that is coming faster then anyone can imagine. Not in ten or twenty years, no its emerging NOW. And Ai will change not just everything but everyone. AI will be a culture shift of huge proportions. AI-as-a-Deliverable over the global mobile web cloud will be a game-changer as you will be able to to access massive yodabytes of intelligence anywhere or anytime.

What I mean by AI, is the entire suite of emerging smart technologies–from deep learning, neural networks, machine intelligence, computational intelligence, expert systems and evolutionary and computational intelligence. AI is the core tech behind drones, robotics, weapons, medical tech and self-serving cars. Smart supercomputers that have the capacity to learn, mine, connect and predict the future of anything–from stock trades, to energy prices, to become virtual docs or androids that go to space or go to the supermarket. They are all coming soon.

There will be many companies that don’t get the AI innovation thing. They will be late to the party. Still looking in the rear view mirror. If your still struggling with the digital enterprise and social media revolution. If you still think Twitter and Snapchat is for someone else then you will miss the AI revolution. Yes it’s a revolution. The automation of predictive analytics, big data and cloud computing are just the infrastructure of AI. AI will shape the future of how companies market, how health care is delivered, how energy is invented and even, though not popular, how wars will be won.

Predicting the future is the inevitable end game for AI. Predicting desire and translating that into products and services, into bots and androids, virtual to physical artificial intelligence as a deliverable will transform our world not in twenty years but now.

There are justifiable concerns about AI taking human jobs, but we will examine that later on. Yes it will happen. Jobs will be lost. And new jobs to control, program, teach and enable or protect humans from AI.

The future is now.

Today there are ten companies spending over $5 billion, ten more nations spending another $10 billon, working on designing the next generation of AI that will reshape health care, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, logistics, consumer marketing and financial services such as the trading of equities, insurance and real estate. Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Qualcomm, IBM, Sony and this is just the known players driving the AI revolution.

What might be? What could we imagine? Wars fought by fully autonomous Ai. Energy managed by only AI as humans cannot manage the complexity. DocBots that treat you anywhere on the planet. Virtual and robotic teachers that bring a first class Harvard education to everyone that wants it. Crime eliminated as RoboCops keep the peace.

How about a near future world where a Global Autonomous Economy, run by Ai’s enable people to work less and enjoy life more. Where incomes are auto-generated by massive Big Data Clouds of AI’s that pay out like sovereign wealth funds to citizens and stockholders. Where Ai’s lead geo-engineering to protect the environment and do good?

There is also the distinct probability that Ai will go rogue somewhere and at sometime. We could blame the human programmers but the risk factors that will create a battle between AI’s over markets, energy, commodities, territories or over knowledge and power–this too is in our near future. The Big Data tools that will become smarter will also threaten, harm and coerce. We want to be Future Ready for this future.

Though I think we will need Ai to help, it is inevitable that AI will commit harm, either by negligence, intent or via the manipulation of other AI’s or those pesky humans. More Human Then Human in the shadow of AI, perhaps we will meet our destiny.

Back to the now. Businesses that automate their work processes that are transforming their organizations by applying machine intelligence and AI today will be the winners. Those that see the future of data science is fundamentally about AI; next gen smarter technology to predict the future of what customers, competitors and even their employees will want, will have a signifiant edge as AI becomes a competitive advantage that no company can ignore.

Resistance is not Future Smart. Learn AI. Embrace the future.

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Harry Edwards Tells Graduates To Become The Next 'Greatest Generation'

Becoming the next “greatest generation” was the challenge sociologist and political activist Harry Edwards laid out for San Jose State University graduates during a commencement address Saturday.

Edwards encouraged students to have faith they can change the country for the better but reminded them the struggle to create a “more perfect union” will take effort.  

“Always remember, a struggle is not easy — that is why it is called a ‘struggle’ rather than a ‘picnic,'” Edwards said. 

A graduate of SJSU himself — 52 years earlier — Edwards reminded grads that some of the most meaningful social and political changes in American history, like the Voting Rights Act, marriage equality and the labor movement, were once considered too radical for reality. 

“Mass movements are part of the DNA of American political democracy,” he said. 

Edwards’ own views, once considered militant, are now seen as representative of the university’s own ideals, Interim President Susan Martin said in a statement

It was Edwards who inspired SJSU students Tommie Smith and John Carlos to make the Black Power salute on the podium at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico — an overtly political statement in what had traditionally been an apolitical event. Both men were members of an anti-segregation group, The Olympic Project for Human Rights, which Edwards founded. 

In order to change the status quo, Edwards said graduates must also shun the “culture of fear” that has gripped America. 

“The rule of thumb in America today seems to be, ‘Be whatever you want, but be afraid,'” he said. “Fear leads to dislike; dislike leads to disrespect and disrespect leads to disengagement and hostile relations.”

Edwards said the current moment represents “where we are, not who we are.” 

“A major obligation of your generation, by both action and example, will be to bring this nation back that distance from ‘where’ to ‘who’ we are,” he said. 

Be bold: Step up and step out; as the jazz artists say, don’t be afraid to stretch out.
Harry Edwards

Though he assured graduates they face no small amount of work ahead, Edwards advised faith, boldness and plenty of risk-taking. 

“It is easy to arrive at the conclusion that things are so bad, so complicated, confused and intractable that there is nothing that can be done to even influence, much less to change the status quo,” Edwards said. 

“Be bold: Step up and step out; as the jazz artists say, don’t be afraid to stretch out.”

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Iran orders messaging app makers to store data inside the country

Iran’s attempts to stifle dissenting views through online censorship don’t usually work all that well, so it’s trying a new strategy: bringing more of that data within its own borders. It’s ordering messaging app developers to move all their Iranian…

Toyota Close To Acquiring Google’s Boston Dynamics Division [Rumor]

boston dynamicsFor those unfamiliar with Boston Dynamics, they’re a robotics company who seems to specialize in creating four-legged animal-like robots. Google had acquired the company back in 2013 but earlier this year, word had it that Alphabet (Google’s parent company) was planning on selling off the division.

Turns out that we might have a buyer, or at least someone who is close to sealing the deal. A recent report from Tech Insider has revealed that Japanese carmaker Toyota is close to finalizing a deal that would take Boston Dynamics off Alphabet’s hands. Apparently the reason for the sale, at least back then when it was being considered, was that there was a lack of a marketable product.

We suppose in terms of the advancement of robotics, Boston Dynamics has certainly done a good job, but in terms of actual commercially-viable products that might be the result of their research, it’s hard to see what they might be able to come up with. From what we’ve seen, their creations seem to be more catered towards military or emergency personnel use, where their robots are capable of traversing terrain humans might have a hard time with.

The report claims that Toyota Research will be the one that will be acquiring the company, which makes more sense that the car making division. No word on when it is expected to be finalized, but we’ll keep you guys updated.

Toyota Close To Acquiring Google’s Boston Dynamics Division [Rumor] , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Philips To Launch Affordable 4K Google Cast TVs This Summer

philips google castIt used to be that if you wanted your TV to have Google’s Chromecast features, you would need to buy the dongle and plug it into your TV. The dongle itself is pretty small so it doesn’t really get in the way of anything, but just in case you’re the type that favors streamlined designs, Philips might have something for you.

The company has recently announced that they are planning on launching a series of televisions this summer that will come with Google Cast built into the TVs themselves. These TVs will be part of the company’s 6000 Series Google Cast Ultra HD TVs, meaning that they will sport 4K resolutions and Google Cast, plus they are also pretty affordable.

They will come in four different sizes – 43-inches, 49-inches, 55-inches, and 65-inches, with the cheapest model starting with a price tag of $650, which considering its resolution and features does make for a relatively affordable device. Note that Philips won’t be the only company offering up 4K TVs with Google Cast.

Just the other day Polaroid also launched several 4K Google Cast themselves, with their prices starting even lower at $499 for the 43-inch model, but either way it looks like for those of you shopping for a new TV, this coming summer you guys will be spoilt for choice.

Philips To Launch Affordable 4K Google Cast TVs This Summer , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Google Photos Unlimited Original Quality Backup For Nexus Devices

Nexus-6P-Black-01If you’ve ever need a reason to get a Nexus handset, it would be the fact that it comes with timely updates, meaning that when Google releases a new build of Android, you’re more or less guaranteed to get it before other brands do simply due to the speed and nature of updating Android phones (something that Google wants to change, apparently).

However it looks like you now have another reason to get a Nexus handset, and that is free unlimited backup of your photos to Google Photos, except that it will be in its original quality. Prior to this, Google offered free photos backup to all users of Google Photos, but photo quality was limited to 16MP, but now it seems that the recent APK teardown revealed that it will now be original sizes for Nexus owners.

According to the text discovered by Android Police, it reads, “With Nexus, back up all you want! Unlimited free storage for original quality photos & videos uploaded from your Nexus device”. That being said, 16MP is still a pretty huge size and still allows users to retain the details and resolution for a high quality image.

It should be noted that it says photos uploaded from your Nexus. Given that the Huawei 6P shoots at 12.3MP, either this is a sign that Google’s next Nexus will pack a higher-than 16MP sensor, or Google is assuming that photographers shooter from mirrorless/DSLRs will transfer their photos to their phones before uploading.

Google Photos Unlimited Original Quality Backup For Nexus Devices , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.