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An exclusive look at Samsung Ballie

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Crafting a companion

Samsung is no stranger to trotting out robots at big trade shows — just last year, it revealed a trio of service-oriented Bots at CES designed to help manage people’s health care routines, guide customers through stores and, uh, purify air. Those were among Samsung’s first attempts at truly “personal” robots, and you can see how the company tried to give them personalities through human-like characteristics — they have big, blinking eyes rendered on round screens, and two of them had “heads” that swiveled around to look at people and objects. Think Eve from Wall-E, and you’re on the right track.

Ballie is different. It is no way human-like, and for Samsung, devising a way to make a robot ball look and feel like something you’d want to talk to was no small feat. As I mentioned, the original plan was to use a cloth-covered body; that idea was shelved at least partially because realized it might not hold up to certain members of the family.

“You should train your dog not to bite into it all the time,” Jun said. Still, the scalloped design TTT landed on should “withstand some of those scrapes and bumps.”

Since TTT couldn’t very well squeeze a face onto a ball running around at ground level, it also agonized over what Ballie should sound like. In Samsung’s CES keynote demo video, it can be heard making adorable chirpy sounds as it zips around a magnificently expensive-looking home and interacts with its inhabitants. Jun couldn’t confirm that those were the exact cutesy sounds a final Ballie would make, but the team landed on a philosophy it’s pleased with.

“We were very, very specific not to make it robot-y,” Jun said. “Even the sound UI we designed were from very acoustic, round instruments like a hang drum. We layered that with a little processing and included a little robot-y sound at the end to remind people this is a robot, but not the kind of robot you were expecting.”

It’s decisions like this, rather than practical ones about locomotion or power management, that could have the most impact on how this robot is received. And to some extent, Jun concedes that functionality in a product like this is less important than feel.

“It’s not about the physical object being there to trigger IoT devices. It doesn’t need to be there. It doesn’t even need to turn and make sounds and stuff, but it’s for the user. It’s a very natural interface in front of you, and there’s an important immediacy to that.”

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Verizon is delaying its home 5G internet rollout again

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The equipment for which Verizon’s biding its time will be able to receive 5G signals from transmitters that are much further away than current gear and routers can connect to, executive Ronan Dunne said (as reported by Light Reading). Once those devices are available, Verizon will be able to significantly expand the 5G Home coverage area. The current equipment uses a standard smartphone chipset, and “the footprint is significantly smaller,” Dunne said. Verizon aims to cover 30 million US households with 5G Home service in the next five to seven years, he noted.

It’s actually not the first time Verizon has delayed the expansion of the 5G Home network. It did so last January for similar reasons. Verizon’s 5G Home service debuted in parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento in October 2018. It flipped the switch on the network in Chicago late last year. The 5G Home network is different from the 5G mobile network.

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Nissan crams more safety tech into the base 2020 Leaf

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On top of that, every 2020 Leaf will have an eight-inch touchscreen. The Leaf Plus already had that, but the previous Leaf S and SV had five- and seven-inch touchscreens respectively. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto will also be available as standard.

But those additions (along with others such as knee-level and side-impact airbags) have contributed to a price increase this year. Including the $925 destination fee, the Leaf S starts at $32,525, up $1,640 from the base 2019 model. The Leaf Plus had a slightly bigger price increase. It starts at $39,125, $1,680 more than last year.

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The nicest shark in Eureka Park

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But if everything had worked out to this point, she would ask if the team was interested in Shark Tank.

“I was watching it last night on CNBC,” said a representative from Rocean, whose company filters, flavors and carbonates water from the tap. “We love it,” was another response, perhaps not surprising in a hall full of small business owners.

Another unsurprising reply would come when she’d ask if a team was looking for investment. In most cases, who wasn’t?

Then Zemrak would take a business card and explain that she’d set up a 30-minute call once she was back in LA. Every card, she said, would lead to a call.

This process happened nearly a dozen times in less than an hour. Still, because people knew Zemrak, sometimes events happened out of the blue.

“Mindy! How are you? Can I give you a quick demo?”

Zemrak was intercepted by a man who follows her on Facebook and was pitching Intelashelf, a tray with wireless charging, bluetooth speakers and a ceiling video projector.

“I’m glad you stopped me,” Zemrak said after their chat.

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India’s Supreme Court rules Kashmir internet shutdown is illegal

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After more than 150 days, the blackout is the longest in the history of any democracy, according to digital rights group Access Now. Approximately 7 million people have been affected by the crackdown, which has caused strains on both people’s day-to-day lives and the region’s economy.

“Freedom of Internet access is a fundamental right,” said justice N. V. Ramana. “We think it necessary to reiterate that complete broad suspension of telecom services, be it the Internet or otherwise, being a drastic measure, must be considered by the State only if ‘necessary’ and ‘unavoidable,'” the court said in another passage.

However, the Supreme Court did not order the government to restore Kashmir’s internet immediately, and it’s not clear if it will go about the process gradually or all at once.

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Alphabet’s David Drummond is leaving months after allegations surfaced

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Drummond’s departure comes not long after Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped down as CEO and President, respectively. “With Larry and Sergey now leaving their executive roles at Alphabet, the company is entering an exciting new phase, and I believe that it’s also the right time for me to make way for the next generation of leaders,” Drummond wrote in an internal memo to colleagues shared by Bloomberg.

Drummond joined Google in 2002 as chief legal officer and maintained that position when the company restructured into Alphabet. A few months ago, Drummond was named in a board investigation into how sexual misconduct claims were handled. Not long before that, Jennifer Blakely, a woman who worked in Google’s legal department and had a child with Drummond, claimed that he abused his power over her while engaging in affairs with other employees.

Drummond claims to be leaving the company on his own terms. Notably, an Alphabet spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company will not offer Drummond an exit package. In the past, Google has been criticized, and sued, for offering hefty payouts to executives accused of misconduct. Though, according to CNBC, in the past several months, Drummond has sold more than $200 million in stocks.

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Sonarworks brings a personal touch to headphone calibration

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The basic idea behind SoundID is “perfect is personal.” What you think is the perfect sound, I might suggest could be improved. This new app is built on the same basic premise as True-Fi, but it’s a lot more user friendly and the interface is simplified. Like True-Fi, you begin using SoundID by selecting the model of headphones you’re wearing. You then take a quick hearing test where you select between two tracks to determine which one you think sounds better. Based on those responses, SoundID creates an audio profile after analyzing the answers using machine learning.

Sonarworks

EQ curves and other audio interfaces that might be intimidating to some users are gone. Sonarworks has replaced them with a grid or pattern of squares. And each pattern is unique to the user. What’s more, the company’s application of the sound “improvement” isn’t as intense as I experienced with Dirac’s “digital audio solution” this week. Dirac’s software dramatically boosted the bass with some genres to the point it was almost unpleasant. Sonarworks takes a much more restrained approach. You can still tell the difference, and the sound is certainly improved. But the tweaks are more noticeable in things like clarity and presence instead of a huge difference in the overall EQ tuning — even though SoundID is adjusting that too. Songs that sound compressed and muted on cheap Sony headphones have a lot more depth when SoundID is activated.

The SoundID beta is available now for Android and iOS. The full launch is expected in Q2.

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Scientists confirm that plasma ‘sloshes’ around in galaxy clusters

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The researchers observed two nearby galaxy clusters, Perseus and Coma, and mapped the movement of their plasma. In Perseus, they believe the movement is caused by smaller sub-clusters of galaxies colliding with larger clusters. That produces enough energy to disrupt Perseus’ gravitational field and creates a sloshing motion that researchers predict will last for many millions of years.

The team, lead by researchers from the Max Plank Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, did not detect sloshing plasma in Coma. They believe that’s because Coma is made of two major sub-clusters that are slowly merging but have not yet formed a “blob” like they detected in Perseus.

These discoveries were made possible by a new calibration technique applied to XMM-Newton’s European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC). The researchers used two decades worth of EPIC data to make the camera’s velocity measurements more accurate. XMM-Newton, the largest scientific satellite ever built in Europe, has been observing the sky since its launch in 1999, and this new calibration technique gives its EPIC camera powerful new capabilities.

“By using past XMM-Newton observations to refine future ones, the new technique may open up inspiring opportunities for new research and discovery,” ESA XMM-Newton Project Scientist Norbert Schartel said in a press release.

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Ubtech’s updated Walker robot does ‘yoga’ and pours drinks

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Walker’s updated software is the result of continued AI training on its original hardware — including the same optical sensors across its body, along with 36 high-performance actuators in its limbs. The focus had been on the robot’s sense of gravity and naturalness of its walking motion, before the team could boost the walking pace. Truth be told, the boosted pace still didn’t quite match that of a normal human, but I did notice that Walker had less sideway sway while delivering a basket full of snacks to me.

I was more impressed by the robot’s newfound sturdiness. Last year, I was only allowed to gently push Walker while it was walking (and the engineers were noticeably worried by my enthusiasm), but this time, Ubtech allowed me to push the machine with great force while it was stationary. I didn’t go over the top, but I could definitely feel how Walker resisted with counteraction through its legs, so it would have been hard to topple it.

Based on the same principle, Walker’s arms could lift more weight than before, even if one side was heavier than the other. In a video demo, Walker was seen carrying a 10kg load on his left wrist, and a lighter 6kg load on the right with no problem. When the demonstrator removed each load individually, Walker barely moved.

Such improved steadiness also allowed Walker to pull off some basic “yoga” poses for me to follow. I say “yoga” because those were clearly not real yoga poses, as confirmed by a yoga instructor friend of mine. The closest one was the single-leg forward-reaching pose that somewhat resembled the beginning of a half moon pose. Technicalities aside, I was impressed by how far Walker has come in terms of dynamic self-balancing, and while I struggled to keep up with it, I did appreciate the taichi-like flow between poses.

UBTECH Walker

Another key upgrade this time is Walker’s enhanced environmental perception by way of visual servoing. In a nutshell, the robot was using visual data to track small objects and thus dynamically adjust hand movements and grip to interact properly.

During the demo, Walker showed off this particular skill by steadily pushing a cart out, picking up a basket and writing out the Engadget logo with a marker. Despite my earlier torturing, Walker was still willing to pour a bottle of Coke into a glass for me (a huge upgrade from passing me a can of Coke last year), and I was impressed by how it gripped onto the glass until it was sure that I was taking it off its hand.

UBTECH Walker

These new upgrades may seem like baby steps, but they’re vital to enabling service robots to actually service us in our homes. And of course, Walker has yet to demonstrate more potential skills, especially on the human interaction side as well as finer movements down to the level of digits. It’s no wonder why Ubtech said we’re still some way away from being able to bring a Walker home, but that could well happen in a few years. If you haven’t already, it’s about time you start saving up for your robot pal.

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Microsoft contractors reportedly reviewed Cortana clips on insecure PCs

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According to a former contractor who spoke with The Guardian, the firm allowed workers to review both Cortana and Skype recordings from homes across Beijing while using a personal laptop. The contractor says they listened to “thousands” of interactions this way. Moreover, the Chrome web app they used to do their work required only a username and password to access. Additional security measures such as two-factor authentication weren’t necessary when they worked from home.

“For ease of management,” every new employee the third-party firm hired over a given year was provided with the same password. What’s more, those passwords were emailed to new employees in plain text over email. The firm also reportedly did little to no vetting of potential hires to ensure they were fit to do the job.

“I heard all kinds of unusual conversations, including what could have been domestic violence,” the contractor told the publication. “It sounds a bit crazy now, after educating myself on computer security, that they gave me the URL, a username and password sent over email.”

Following the initial Vice report, Microsoft says it ended its Skype and Cortana for Xbox grading programs, as well as moved any remaining ones into “secure facilities.” None of those facilities, according to the company, are in China anymore.

“This past summer we carefully reviewed both the process we use and the communications with customers,” Microsoft told The Guardian. “As a result we updated our privacy statement to be even more clear about this work, and since then we’ve moved these reviews to secure facilities in a small number of countries. We will continue to take steps to give customers greater transparency and control over how we manage their data.”

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