The Pentagon’s UFO investigation unit wants anyone who has been employed by the United States to report first-hand knowledge of government projects related to alien activity on their new website, according to Vice Wednesday. A submission form on the unit’s website allows former government employees to report UFO…
If you ask Psync Labs, it’ll tell you the problem with smart security cameras is that they don’t know what they’re seeing. Those motion pings you get with other products? Defined by how light shifts in front of its sensor, treating an approaching figure or low-flying bird with equal alarm. So, Psync’s focus is to improve machine vision, but to also go one step further and pair this vision with GPT-enabled generative AI to help it, and you, understand what it can see. Its first product, the Genie S, is a security camera that’ll send you a written description of what (it thinks) is going on.
On paper, the Genie S has a similar feature set to plenty of other affordable home security units I could mention. There’s a powered pan-tilt base, five megapixel camera (outputting 2K Video), four LEDs, a microphone and speaker. But there are differences, like the fact it’s in the shape of a cube that, when it’s not activated, points the lens toward the base. Psync says it’s the most compact camera in its class, but probably not by as big a margin as the company hopes. Setup is easy enough – put it on a table, or use the screw mount to place it somewhere more esoteric, plug in the six foot long USB-C cable, and you’re on your way.
Psync says that a smarter camera will be better-equipped to capture what’s going on at home, but that’s not its best use case. VP of marketing Echo Wong says that the hardware is able to record those “memorable moments that fly by quicker than we can pull out our phones.” But I don’t think you would want to buy this on the off-chance it catches junior’s first word or steps. The more prosaic sales line, the one that probably wouldn’t fly as well, is that it’s a security camera with the added promise of not bugging you with needless pings because of the promise of AI smarts.
Buy one of these, and you’ll get the choice of a unit with 32GB built-in storage for $35 or 64GB for $40. I mention this up-front because we’re very much in “you get what you pay for” territory in terms of the picture and sound quality. It shoots vertically-oriented 2K video but the clips are pretty fuzzy, even if you can zoom in to get some halfway useful detail if required. It doesn’t like too much light, so if it’s pointed at a window (and/or anything reflective) then chunks of the image will get blown out. Similarly, the sound quality is something of a throwback to an earlier age of crunchy, over-compressed streams. You’ll get similarly crunchy audio using the talk feature, which has similarly “walkie-talkie” vibes that you won’t find on pricier hardware.
Of course, that’s not what anyone is here for, but to see what this new company — of which little is known —has cooked up with AI. ViewSay is Psync’s transcription tool which uses GPT, a form of generative AI, to essentially let the camera describe in text what it’s seeing. ViewSay, which currently costs 99 cents a month, promises to identify objects, sort events that triggered the recording in a visual timeline, let you search through the clips with text and, of course, the aforementioned written pings. Pay, your fee, set this up, and your phone will ping when it spots something interesting, and give you the best description of what is going on that it can manage. Users can also set specific categories, like “Person,” “Vehicle,” “Pet” and will eventually be able to craft tailored alerts, like “a dog jumps on the couch” for alerts.
Oh, but there is a catch — because that fairly reasonable 99 cents a month is just a limited-time trial, before leaping up to $7 a month. Which, we can all agree, is more than a little bit too much to spend on a product like this, especially in this economic climate.
ViewSay is currently in beta, and while the app splash to get you to sign up promises plenty, the company is keen to keep expectations low. My impression so far is that while Psync has the bones of a workable idea here in theory, the nitty-gritty of practice isn’t. I pointed the camera at a neutral corner in my office and play-acted in front of it to see what it would do. My fake phone-call, where I learned that my (fictional) wife had discovered the secret to perpetual motion, went unremarked upon and undocumented. Well, kinda – the camera pinged my phone to say that “A man is sitting in a chair in a room, looking at his reflection in a mirror.”
Actually, I’m being unfair – since the system can also make fairly accurate guesses at other times. Like, while I was setting the hardware up late one evening, I got a ping to tell me that “a man is sitting on the floor, holding a cell phone in his hand.” A few days later, I pointed the camera at a TV which was turned off, and the Echo Show that was in front of it. I then turned back to use my laptop – which I think was only really visible in the reflection on the TV’s screen. Not long after, the app pinged to say it could see a “A man is sitting in front of a laptop, looking at the screen, and possibly using it for work or entertainment purposes.” Now, this was either a massively-lucky guess, a false positive or a sign of how accurate this will be in future.
When it detects something going on in this manner, the system records a 12-second clip to its local storage. These clips are retained for at least 14 days, and when you’ve looked at them in the app, you’re also able to save them to your phone. I understand you’ll also be able to take longer clips when motion is detected but that feature doesn’t yet appear to be available. You’ll also be able to share a live feed of your camera, using WebRTC, to up to four viewers – through a browser – for up to 30 minutes at a time. You might be wondering about how secure all of this is, and what exactly is happening to your data. Psync told me that its AI model is based on an AWS instance, and the footage is protected using 256-bit AES encryption. The footage recorded will be stored on the device locally, but the initial frame of the video is sent to the cloud for further analysis.
As something of an AI skeptic, and someone who isn’t thrilled at wiring up every corner of my home with a camera, I’m by default hostile to Psync’s plan here. But I can at least see where Psync is looking to add value to the standard security camera proposition. If you’re out and about, and you get a ping saying there’s a person in your living room, when there shouldn’t be, then that’s pretty helpful. Especially if you can just tune into the live feed and see for yourself what’s going on and if you need to do something about it. As much as the macro story is scary, I can understand the logic someone would apply to buy one or two of these.
But it’s worth saying too that what I just described isn’t yet what Psync is selling, only what it is gesturing toward. The system will require more training, and plenty more data from a broader user base, until it can start offering you more concrete descriptions. Now, I’m sure that in a year or two that will be the case, but until then, you’re essentially buying into an ecosystem where you’re paying for the privilege of being a beta tester.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/psyncs-genie-s-security-camera-uses-gpt-to-describe-what-it-sees-130043520.html?src=rss
The White House has announced that President Joe Biden’s administration is developing a national strategy to combat Islamophobia.
It’s easy to assume that the best tech gifts are the most expensive things. But there are plenty of options out there for the techie in your life that don’t require you to empty your wallet. If you’re struggling to come up with a gift for a coworker, family member or friend who’s an early adopter or a tech obsessive, we’ve gathered some of our favorite things that are both small and affordable. The best part: All of these gift ideas come in at $50 or less.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-gifts-under-50-holiday-stocking-stuffers-130049028.html?src=rss
Google launched new features for Search and Lens in an update to help users solve difficult math, physics, and geometry problems, the company said in a blog post Monday. Simply type an equation into the search bar, or take a picture of your homework with Lens, and the update will provide you with a step-by-step…
“A pause means give time to get the prisoners out,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Minnesota.
Google launched new features for Search and Lens in an update to help users solve difficult math, physics, and geometry problems, the company said in a blog post Monday. Simply type an equation into the search bar, or take a picture of your homework with Lens, and the update will provide you with a step-by-step…
Nearly two years after its prototype debut and eight months after its public beta, Sony’s GT Sophy racing AI for Gran Turismo 7 is back, and going by Gran Turismo Sophy 2.0 now. It will be available to all PlayStation 5 users as part of the GT7 Spec II Update (Patch Update 1.40) being released on Wednesday, November 2 at 2 a.m. ET.
We got our first look at the Sophy system back in February 2022. At that point it was already handily beating professional Gran Turismo players. “Gran Turismo Sophy is a significant development in AI whose purpose is not simply to be better than human players, but to offer players a stimulating opponent that can accelerate and elevate the players’ techniques and creativity to the next level,” Sony AI CEO, Hiroaki Kitano, said at the time. “In addition to making contributions to the gaming community, we believe this breakthrough presents new opportunities in areas such as autonomous racing, autonomous driving, high-speed robotics and control.”
The system’s public beta this past February saw the AI competing against a small subset of the game’s user base in the “Gran Turismo Sophy Race Together” event. Players who had already progressed sufficiently through the game were granted access to the special race, where they faced off against four AI-controlled opponents in a limited number of tracks.
“The difference [between racers] is that, it’s essentially the power you have versus the other cars on the track,” Sony AI’s COO, Michael Spranger, told Engadget in February. “You have different levels of performance. In the beginning level, you have a much more powerful vehicle — still within the same class, but you’re much faster [than your competition].” That advantage shrank as players advanced through the race rounds and Sophy gained access to increasingly capable vehicles. In September, Sophy learned to drift.
“We have evolved GT Sophy from a research project tackling the grand challenge of creating an AI agent that could outperform top drivers in a top simulation racing game, to a functional game feature that provides all game players a formidable, human-like opponent that enhances the overall racing experience,” Spranger said in a press statement released Wednesday.
With Wednesday’s announcement, the number of vehicles Sophy can pilot rises from the meager four models available during the beta event, to 340 (yes, three hundred and forty) vehicles across nine unique tracks. Per Sony, that means Sophy can drive 95 percent of the playable in-game models and will select its car for the race based on what the player has available in their garage (that way they’re not randomly facing down a 918 in a Nissan Versa or are otherwise disadvantaged). The five percent of models it can’t drive are the handful of hyper-spec specialty cars like the karts or Dodge SRT Tomahawk VGT.
Players can match against Sophy in Quick Race mode (formerly “Arcade”) regardless of their advancement through the game or current skill level. As long as you have a PS5, a network connection and the latest update patch installed, you too can get Toretto’ed by a stack of algorithmic processes. Good luck.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-gt-sophy-racing-ai-gran-turismo-7-ps5-130057992.html?src=rss
The cohort of Silicon Valley tech titans who have been hoovering up Bay Area farmland in the hopes of converting it into a new city have been accused of deploying “strong-arm tactics” and a “divide-and-conquer” strategy to gobble up as much acreage as possible. A number of local farmers say Flannery Associates, the…
Muse Wearables, an Indian tech startup, founded by graduates of IIT Madras and NIT Warangal, has achieved a remarkable feat by raising $1 million USD within just four weeks for their groundbreaking smart ring, ‘Ring One This achievement, which set a world record for fundraising on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, marks a significant milestone in the wearable technology industry.
‘Ring One’ is said to revolutionize the wearable tech landscape as the world’s first smart ring to combine advanced health-tracking capabilities with seamless contactless payments. It distinguishes itself by utilizing NFC (Near Field Communication) for wireless charging and payments. Currently available at a special early backer price of $172, the ‘Ring One’ targets customers in nearly 30 countries through a “Direct to Consumer” business model.
Key features of the ‘Ring One’ include its advanced health tracking abilities, measuring six vital metrics with clinical-grade accuracy. These metrics include Heart Rate, Blood Oxygen, Temperature, Respiratory Rate, Heart Rate Variability, and Blood Pressure, with the notable addition of cuff-less blood pressure measurement. This innovation sets a new standard in health monitoring technology.
The ‘Ring One’ also stands out with its contactless payment feature, forging partnerships with major payment networks like Mastercard and VISA to ensure global accessibility for payments. Its sleek and stylish design, featuring a “Turn wheel” interface, is constructed from lightweight and durable materials such as Titanium grade 2 and Ceramic (Zirconia), offering water resistance up to 100 meters.
The Company highlights that one of the most impressive aspects of ‘Ring One’ is its impressive battery life, able to last up to seven days and extend to a month with the charging case. This ensures that users can track their health and make payments without disruptions.
The global reach of ‘Ring One’ is noteworthy, as it enables contactless payments in multiple countries, including India, the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, Singapore, and the UAE.
Muse Wearables’ CEO, Mr. K.L.N. Sai Prasanth, highlighted the unique features of ‘Ring One, such as the ‘Turn wheel’ interface and the innovative ‘Magic Glyph’ interface on the charging case, making it stand out in the smart ring market. Mrs. Prathyusha K, Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer, emphasized that their product addresses a critical need by offering an optimal way to retrieve health data, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information and to reserve ‘Ring One,’ you can visit their Indiegogo campaign.
Muse Wearables Raises $1 Million In 4 Weeks For Game-Changing Smart Ring ‘Ring One’
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