NASA says the crew vehicles to come out of the partnership will “establish a core set of capabilities, stabilize the production process and demonstrate reusability of spacecraft components.” Under the contract, NASA will order three Orion spacecraft for Artemis missions III through V for $2.7 billion. (Lockheed Martin is already working on the first two capsules for Artemis missions I and II.) It will then order three more vehicles for Artemis missions VI through VIII for $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2022.
The second batch will cost less, because it will re-use components from the previous three. Artemis V, for instance, will use computers, crew seats and switch panels from Artemis II. Meanwhile, Artemis VI will use the whole crew module, or the habitable part of the spacecraft, from the third mission. Seeing as the program’s goal is to go to the Moon and stay there, NASA and Lockheed Martin have to find a way to make the vehicle as cheap as possible through reusability.
Mark Kirasich, Orion Program manager at the Johnson Space Center, said:
“No other spacecraft in the world can keep humans alive hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth for weeks at a time with the safety features, crew accommodations, technical innovations, and reliability that Orion provides. With the design and development phase of Orion largely behind us, this new contract will enable us to increase efficiencies, reuse the spacecraft, and bring down the cost of reliably transporting people between earth and the [Lunar] Gateway.”
The dispute kicked off in 2015, when France’s privacy regulator CNIL ordered Google to remove links allegedly containing misleading or damaging information about an individual. Google said it complied by geoblocking the results in Europe, but the CNIL insisted that the results needed to be removed around the world. It argued, among other things, that anyone in Europe can use a VPN to access information available in other countries.
Google challenged the $109,000 fine, saying ” the overwhelming majority of French internet users — currently around 97 percent — access a European version of Google’s search engine like Google.fr, rather than Google.com or any other version of Google.” It was backed by Microsoft, Wikipedia, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and other groups.
The EU’s decision in favor of Google wasn’t a big surprise, because EU court advocate general Maciej Szpunar had already recommended it. He wrote that the right to be forgotten should be “balanced” against the public’s “legitimate interest” in access to information.
Google said it has received over 845,000 right to be forgotten takedown requests, with about 45 percent of the 3.3 million web addresses ultimately getting delisted. News sites are exempt from the rule, but Google has been challenged in the EU over things like convictions in relatively minor cases.
The site is broken out by decade, starting with one of the biggest — and biggest sounding — synths of the ’70s, the Yamaha CS-80. (Vangelis put its analog, 8-voice polyphony to work when writing and recording the score to Blade Runner.) The Yamaha DX7 leads off the ’80s; it used FM synthesis rather than the typical approach of subtractive synthesis, resulting in bell-like tones and the snappy, percussive bass in songs like Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wings.” Other highlights include oddballs like the EX5 and VL1, as well as workstations like the MOTIF.
Yamaha has augmented the site with a video called The Yamaha Synth Story, which recaps each decade and culminates with the brand’s latest high-end offering, the MONTAGE White. Cultural nods are peppered throughout the video to correspond with each timeframe — the pirate ship picking up a faux iPod should be self-explanatory.
The site is a fun resource and illustrates the evolution of Yamaha’s instruments. Sample sounds from each synth would’ve been a nice touch, but gear addicts can certainly use the site as a starting point for a YouTube and Wikipedia binge.
“Obviously, castAR didn’t end the way we hoped,” she said to Engadget. “But we’re trying to put a lot of that behind us and focus on going forward.”
Ellsworth’s team has been touring the country the past few months giving demos of its Tilt Five hardware at events like PAX West and GenCon. I had a chance to try it out last week. It’s a huge improvement over the castAR hardware I tried in 2014. While the older model looked like tiny headlights strapped on top of a pair of sunglasses, the new Tilt Five headset look much more modern. It’s encased in a sleek polycarbonate shell, and looks more like futuristic eyewear.
The biggest difference is when I put it on. The previous castAR had straps and felt rather heavy. The Tilt Five glasses, on the other hand, are so lightweight (around 85 grams) that they felt like a regular pair of glasses. And there’s no strap this time — just slip them on and off like you would a pair of chunky shades. You can also wear them with your own glasses of course, but that might require swapping out the nose piece. Ellsworth’s team said they plan on bundling the hardware with customizable nose pieces to better fit different faces as well.
The core idea behind the Tilt Five remains relatively unchanged from castAR. The system consists of a pair of AR glasses made with polarized lenses, two cameras (previous versions only had one) and built-in HD micro projectors. They project 3D images from a wired computer (or phone) to a retroreflective surface embedded with infrared LEDs, which then bounce the image back to your eyes. One camera module scans the LEDs to track the location and movement of your head, while the other is a computer vision camera for your hands, playing cards, tokens or other objects. This is a system called far-eye projection, whereas other AR headsets like HoloLens and Magic Leap uses near-eye projection that utilizes waveguide displays.
That means that, with Tilt Five, the only area in which you’d see the augmented image is on that retroreflective surface, whereas HoloLens or Magic Leap aren’t limited by that. That said, both HoloLens and Magic Leap are also prohibitively expensive, priced at thousands of dollars each. Tilt Five’s proposition is a lot cheaper and, therefore, a lot more accessible. Plus, with Tilt Five, I can easily use and see my hands without any graphical overlay on them, which is not the same as the other systems. It also has a 110-degree field-of-view, which is certainly much wider than that of either HoloLens or Magic Leap.
Ellsworth showed me a few simple demos where I could manipulate blocks with my hands and drive a small marble through a maze with an accompanying wand controller. When I leaned in closer, the graphics were more detailed, and I could also look around objects if I wanted. There’s also an amazing feeling of three-dimensional depth that I don’t always feel in VR. At one point when the marble fell off its track, it looked as if it was falling forever into the abyss.
While these party games are a good proof-of-concept, Ellsworth is focusing Tilt Five on a new kind of tabletop gaming experience, at least to start. “We want to take the things you like about board games, and things you like about video games, and marry them together,” she said.
“The things that people like about board games are connecting with people, story telling, and working with physical objects,” continued Ellsworth. “The thing that people love about video games is that you can jump in really quick, you can save your games, and you can play with people over a long distance. We’re kind of somewhere in between.”
In one demonstration, Ellsworth brought up a tower-defense style game where I could place down QR-coded cards to launch cannons or make the ground shake. She said that this could be programmed for a Dungeons & Dragons style scenario, where your dragon figurine could be made to shoot out virtual flames at your crew. The dungeon master could also use the wand to wave over the virtual landscape and cause mists to appear, enriching the storytelling experience.
With Tilt Five, you can also play board games over long distances. What is happening on your board would be mirrored on another person’s, even if they’re somewhere across the globe. There are existing apps and websites that let you do this, but playing a board game on an actual board with physical objects is potentially more satisfying.
Ellsworth said that aside from saving games, an AR system like this can be used for game tutorials, streaming games on Twitch or YouTube, plus the ability to plan moves in secret, since you can enable a private view that only you can see.
A few game companies have already signed on as partners for Tilt Five. Fantasy Grounds, which makes a virtual tabletop app for a variety of titles such as Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu and Pathfinder, is one of them. Ellsworth said that when they were at GenCon, the largest tabletop gaming convention in the country, Tilt Five received a lot of positive attention from board game companies, so there’s a potential for more collaborations in the future.
The concept is an intriguing one, at least for me as an avid tabletop gamer. The board game industry has been on an upswing lately, and it’s also been trying to modernize with the release of apps, smartphone integration and even collaborations with assistants like Alexa. An AR platform for board games might not be as crazy as it sounds.
The basic Tilt Five package ($299) on Kickstarter will come with a pair of glasses in either black or white, a wand in either black or white, a selection of nose pieces, a USB cable, a square game board (made out of retroreflective surface) and an introductory games pack. It also comes with access to the SDK, in case you’re a game dev interested in developing for it. Higher-tier kits will include upgrades such as a bigger board, a deluxe carrying box or multiple hardware units. Estimated ship date for all units is in June 2020.
Fall has arrived, and with it there are a ton of shows premiering this week. That includes all-new ones like Stumptown and Emergence, as well as new seasons of favorites like The Good Place, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Bob’s Burgers. There are also some finales, including series-enders for Transparent, Suits and Preacher. For gamers, FIFA 20 and The Surge 2 are rolling out this week, while movie fans can check out Maleficent on Ultra HD Blu-ray. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Group members today met with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the United Nations General Assembly to discuss how social media giants are complying with the Christchurch Call to Action. The pledge — written after a mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand that killed 51 people was broadcast on Facebook Live — called on technology companies to help advert such incidents. Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Google and Microsoft back in May joined the pledge.
The independent GIFCT said they would be committed to carrying out the Christchurch Call’s nine-point plan, which included better protocols for users to report harmful content, collaborating on technology, instilling checks on livestreaming to avoid spreading extremist material and more. Facebook unveiled a “one-strike” policy for its Facebook Live feature shortly after the Christchurch mass shooting but has yet to deploy any additional safeguards.
Most recently, the group contributed to a shared database of “hashes” or digital fingerprints of known terrorist images and video propaganda. Since terrorists often upload the same piece of content on multiple social media platforms, it’s oftentimes useful for platforms to be on the lookout for such material before it spreads. The size of the database has grown in a period of two years to include more than 200,000 individual “hashes”.
The group’s new independence comes as governments around the world look for ways to take big tech companies to task for violent content. The Australian government earlier this year passed new laws that would penalize technology companies for allowing the streaming of videos containing serious offenses. The UK government is currently looking into fining social media giants for failing to protect their users from harmful content.
Facebook’s Andrew Bosworth, who serves as vice-president of the company’s augmented reality and virtual reality divisions, announced the acquisition in a post on the social network. The New York-based startup will become a part of Facebook Reality Labs, the social media company’s AR and VR division that was formerly known as Oculus Research. Bosworth said the goal was to “build this kind of technology at scale” and “get it into consumer products faster.”
CTRL-lab’s flagship product is a wrist-worn device that measures neuron activity in a subject and then imitates the same motion on a computer screen. The device made by CTRL-labs doesn’t read minds or detect neural impulses. Instead, it picks up on electrical impulses that come from muscle fibers as they move, similar to an EMG wristband. The computer then imitates the movement on the screen. The company claims it has advanced this capability to individual muscle cells. In other words, you won’t have to physically move your arm to move the arm on the screen. You’ll only have to think about physically moving your arm.
Bosworth wrote that the vision for the project was a wristband that let people control their devices as a natural extension of movement: “You have neurons in your spinal cord that send electrical signals to your hand muscles telling them to move in specific ways such as to click a mouse or press a button. The wristband will decode those signals and translate them into a digital signal your device can understand, empowering you with control over your digital life. It captures your intention so you can share a photo with a friend using an imperceptible movement or just by, well, intending to.”
Facebook has been working on brain computing projects for a while now. Back in 2017, it announced it was developing brain computer interfaces that will allow users to type using just their minds. While it may sound like another example of real life imitating events from Black Mirror, the technology is still very much in its early stages. The company itself admitted this summer at F8 that the technology was “bulky, slow and unreliable” and doesn’t expect it to be ready for consumers for several years.
This is also the update you want if you’re looking for tighter integration between your S10 and your computer. It adds DeX for PC support to bring a windowed mobile interface to your Mac or Windows system, and Link for Windows provides a fast track to connecting your phone to (you guessed it) Windows.
There’s no concrete schedule for when you can expect these features on your phone, but SamMobile has understands it’s available now for Exynos-based S10 units in at least Germany and Switzerland. It could be a while before your Snapdragon-based North American phone gets an upgrade. Still, this should help you feel that much better if you’ve wished for software parity ever since the Note 10 arrived.
The centerpiece would be an option for a 4K display if the default 1080p screen isn’t enough. While it would adopt a more conventional 16:9 aspect ratio instead of earlier models’ 3:2 displays, the added resolution could make it highly alluring for Chromebook fans whose only other 4K choice is the Yoga Chromebook C630. You could also expect “much more powerful” speakers than the Pixelbook and a lighter magnesium alloy chassis.
Other elements would be inherited from earlier devices, including the Pixel Slate’s dual front mics and Titan C security chip as well as two USB-C ports. You’d have processor choices ranging from a basic Core m3 through to a Core i7 as well as up to 16GB of RAM and 256GB of built-in storage. And if you’ve been waiting for Google’s colorful Pixel phone options to spread to its Chrome machines, you might be in luck — there’s talk of a “Not Pink” option in addition to basic black.
If the rumor is accurate, you could expect to hear about the Pixelbook Go at Google’s October 15th event. Between that, the Pixel 4, a revamped Nest WiFi and a Nest Mini speaker, the tech giant might have a lot to show.
Getting started with Google Assistant on Waze won’t require an app update — the change is done server-side, so it should be readily available to you right away. To enable it, open up the Waze app on your device of choice. You should be greeted with the Google Assistant right off the bat, but if you aren’t, tap the microphone or navigate to Settings, open Voice & Sound and Google Assistant. Tap “Enable now” and it should start working with the Waze app.
Once Google Assistant is enabled, you’ll be able to run a considerable number of commands through the voice assistant. Say “Hey Google” to activate it, then give it a command like “navigate home” or “navigate to the closest coffee shop.” The AI should do the rest for you. You can also do things like report traffic slow downs, pot holes, change to alternate routes and get an update on your estimated time of arrival, all by asking Google Assistant.
