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Neuralink says the Food and Drug Administration has designated its experimental Blindsight implant as a “breakthrough device.” The company is developing the technology in an attempt to restore blind people’s sight.

Manufacturers who apply to the FDA’s voluntary breakthrough devices program and receive the designation from the agency are granted “an opportunity to interact with FDA experts through several different program options to efficiently address topics as they arise during the premarket review phase.” The FDA also prioritizes breakthrough devices for review. Ultimately, a breakthrough device designation can accelerate development of a technology. Last year, the FDA gave the designation to 145 medical devices.

Blindsight is separate from Telepathy, its implant that enables patients with spinal cord injuries to control computers using their thoughts, allowing them to play video games and design 3D objects. Neuralink owner and founder Elon Musk said in August that the company had implanted the chip into a second human patient

Musk claimed back in March that Blindsight “is already working in monkeys. Resolution will be low at first, like early Nintendo graphics, but ultimately may exceed normal human vision.” (Federal investigators have reportedly looked into Neuralink’s animal testing practices but Musk said in March that “no monkey has died or been seriously injured by a Neuralink device.”)

Blindsight “will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see,” Musk said following the FDA’s designation. “Provided the visual cortex is intact, it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time.” He added that while the resolution of Blindsight is low to begin with, “eventually it has the potential [to] be better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths.”

Those are lofty claims and Neuralink is some way off from being able to fully restore sight to someone who has lost it, if it’s ever actually able to do that. It’s not the first company or research team to work on vision-restoring implants either. Meanwhile, as TechCrunch points out, it’s unlikely that Blindsight or similar tech can help people who have been blind since birth, given that such people have not “developed the biological capacity for seeing through their eyes.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/neuralink-says-the-fda-designated-its-blindsight-implant-as-a-breakthrough-device-182343456.html?src=rss

Earlier this year, Behaviour Interactive teased a few Dead by Deadlight spinoff games. One has since been released to relative acclaim, The Casting of Frank Stone, and What the Fog kinda came and went. That leaves one game unaccounted for. Today, we can scratch that one out for good. The company just announced that the spinoff known only as Project T has been canceled.

Project T was advertised as a third-person co-op shooter, making it one of the rare times in the franchise players would be able to fight back against enemies using guns. The game has been around in beta form for a while, as part of Behavior Interactive’s insider program. It looks like those early playtests didn’t go so well. The company said that “a number of players expressed satisfaction” but that the “outcome of this deep analysis yielded unsatisfactory overall results.”

This doesn’t mean anything for the larger franchise. The developer has leaned into experimental projects lately and it looks like Project T just didn’t make the cut. It’s unfortunate, but there’s still the mainline game and it’s many, many crossovers.

There’s also the aforementioned The Casting of Frank Stone, which is a narrative driven title by Supermassive set in the same universe. Finally, What the Fog is something of a Jumanji-like spin on the OG game. Kids get sucked into a board game. You know the drill.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-dead-by-deadlight-co-op-shooter-spinoff-has-been-officially-canceled-154312867.html?src=rss

An attack in Lebanon reportedly killed eight people and injured over 2,700. Hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously on Tuesday, leading the Iran-backed militant organization to blame Israel. The New York Times reported that Israel was behind the attacks and conducted it by hiding explosive material inside the pagers. A second wave of attacks, these targeting handheld radios used by Hezbollah members, was reported on Wednesday by The Washington Post.

A day after Israeli leaders warned of escalating its military campaign against Hezbollah, pagers belonging to the Lebanese group’s members exploded at once. Witnesses reported seeing smoke emanating from the victims’ pockets, followed by sounds reminiscent of fireworks or gunshots.

Lebanon’s health minister said 200 of the injured were in critical condition. He added that many victims had facial injuries, especially to the eyes. Hand and stomach injuries were also common, according to the health minister. Among those wounded was Mojtaba Amini, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, according to Iranian state media.

A second wave of attacks across different areas of Lebanon on Wednesday reportedly killed one person and injured over 100 others. The latest attacks reportedly targeted “wireless devices.” One of the explosions, triggered by a handheld radio, was reported at a funeral for four victims of Tuesday’s blasts. “Anyone who has a device, take out the battery now!” The Washington Post reported that Hezbollah security members yelled at the mourners. “Turn off your phones, switch it to airplane mode!”

Israel hasn’t commented on the attacks. But NYT reports that officials (including American ones) briefed on the operation said Israel was behind them. They claim as little as one to two ounces of explosive material were planted next to each pager’s battery, along with a switch allowing for remote detonations. At 3PM in Lebanon on Tuesday, the pagers received a message (appearing to be from Hezbollah leadership) that triggered the coordinated explosions, according to officials. The devices allegedly beeped for several seconds before detonating.

The Washington Post reports that the logo of Taiwanese pager maker Gold Apollo was seen on the sabotaged pagers. However, Gold Apollo claimed the devices were “entirely handled” by a Hungarian company, BAC Consulting Kft, which was authorized to use Gold Apollo’s branding in some regions. “That product isn’t ours,” Gold Apollo’s founder and president, Hsu Ching-Kuang, told The New York Times. “They just stick on our company brand.”

Officials speaking with NYT claimed the devices were tampered with before reaching Lebanon. Most were Gold Apollo’s AR924 model, which the company displayed an image of on its website before removing them on Wednesday.

The attacks sparked a wave of fear of using mobile devices. NYT reports some in Lebanon were scared to use their phones after Tuesday’s attacks, with one resident crying out, “Please hang up, hang up!” to their caller.

The Times reports that Hezbollah, long suspicious of cellphone use near the Israeli border due to the devices’ geolocation capabilities, recently switched from mobile phones to pagers. In February, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah reportedly warned the group that their phones were dangerous and could be used by Israel as spy tools. He advised the group that they should “break or bury them.”

Experts reportedly don’t yet know precisely how the pagers were distributed to Hezbollah’s members. They say that Iran, given its history of supplying Hezbollah with arms, tech and other military aid, would have been pivotal to their adoption and delivery.

Update, September 18, 2024, 11:48AM ET: This story has been updated to add new details about Tuesday’s attacks and the second wave of reported blasts on Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/pagers-explode-simultaneously-in-hundreds-of-hezbollah-members-pockets-190304565.html?src=rss

HTC VIVE has launched its latest innovation: the VIVE Focus Vision. This new XR headset builds on the popular Vive Focus 3’s technology and is designed to enhance immersive experiences for gamers and enterprise users. According to the manufacturer, VIVE Focus 3 is the only XR headset proven to work in microgravity conditions and used by astronauts on the International Space Station.

The VIVE Focus Vision features upgrades in visuals, comfort, and operational efficiency, making it a versatile solution for standalone gaming, PC virtual reality (PCVR), location-based experiences (LBE), industrial training, and mixed reality applications. Priced at $999, it promises an immersive VR experience.

At the core of the VIVE Focus Vision’s appeal is its ability to deliver lossless PCVR visuals through DisplayPort mode, which connects directly to a PC’s graphics card. This feature is great for gamers with extensive SteamVR collections, as well as organizations needing high-fidelity content for training and collaboration. 

Its integrated eye-tracking and auto-IPD (interpupillary distance) adjustment feature is a key highlight. This allows users to share the headset seamlessly, as it automatically adjusts the lenses for sharp visuals. These features are ideal for environments with high user turnover, such as VR arcades, employee training centers, and collaborative mixed-reality spaces. 

The VIVE Focus Vision also boasts dual 16MP color cameras for stereoscopic passthrough, giving users a lifelike view of the world while enhancing mixed-reality applications. According to HTC, the device provides excellent image quality thanks to its 5K resolution across both eyes, a 120-degree field of view, and up to 90Hz refresh rate (with 120Hz support arriving in late 2024). Additionally, features like a depth sensor and infrared tracking in low-light environments further refine the user experience.

HTC VIVE Unveils New VIVE Focus Vision XR Headset For Gamers And Enterprises

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

The amount of fines Google has to pay in Europe may have become just a bit smaller. It has successfully convinced the European Union’s General Court to annul the €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) penalty levied against it back in 2019 for what the European Commission described as “abusive practices in online advertising.” According to the Financial Times, the General Court agreed with the commission’s assessment that Google did block rival advertisers from its platform. However, it argued that the commission failed to take into account “all the relevant circumstances” when it assessed how long the company had implemented anti-competitive practices. 

The commission, under competition chief Margrethe Vestager, found back in 2019 that Google had prohibited publishers from placing search adverts from competitors on its search results pages from 2006 until 2009. It changed its rules slightly in 2009, but it wasn’t until 2016 that it removed the clause pertaining to the restriction in its contracts. The fine for this particular case was larger than expected, because the commission said it took into account “the duration and gravity of the infringement.”

“This case is about a very narrow subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publishers’ websites,” Google said in a statement to the Financial Times. “We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the commission’s decision. We are pleased that the court has recognized errors in the original decision and annulled the fine. We will review the full decision closely.” Meanwhile, the commission told the publication that it “will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps.” It could still appeal the court’s decision.

This is just one of the multiple antitrust fines the European Commission has slapped against Google over the past years. Earlier this month, EU’s highest court upheld a different $2.7 billion penalty against the company. The commission imposed that fine on Google back in 2017, because it found that the company, as Vestager explained, “abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors.” 

Vestager is stepping down from her role as the European Union’s commissioner for competition within the next few weeks. She has been tough on big tech companies throughout her run, and the market abuse cases she has filed over the years led to the creation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a regulation meant to prevent the largest players in the industry from abusing their market power.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-wins-appeal-against-17-billion-eu-fine-for-abusive-advertising-practices-123006698.html?src=rss