Daily Archives: February 3, 2022

The Apple AirPods Pro 2 are the likely next-generation of the companys popular noise-cancelling earbuds and if the rumors are to be believed, theyll be the most advanced true wireless earbuds weve ever seen.

The original AirPods Pro are among the best wireless earbuds you can buy, with immersive Spatial Audio support, active noise cancellation, and fantastic integration with the wider Apple ecosystem.

The next version of these buds are rumored to come with a range of significant upgrades: Weve heard about everything from codewords that can control the active noise cancellation to blood oxygen monitors embedded in the earbuds themselves. But how likely are such futuristic features?

Since the AirPods Pro 2 are expected to launch later this year (according to respected analysts like Ming-Chi Kuo), perhaps the more fanciful ideas are just too futuristic - so lets analyze the intriguing features weve heard about so far.

The most recent rumor circulating about the AirPods Pro 2 is that theyll allow specific codewords and voices to break through their active noise cancellation settings.

Spotted by Apple Insider, a new patent application called Interrupt for noise-cancelling audio devices describes a new feature thats designed to stop you from missing out on important conversations while active noise cancellation is switched on.

As explained in the patent, a user may desire to be interrupted by pre-designation contacts or by a person who speaks a designated keyword to the user.

So, if your partner is shouting your name to say that dinners ready, future AirPods could turn off the active noise cancellation, enter Transparency mode, or turn off your music to allow you to hear them.

To stop any person from interrupting your music, youd be able to pre-approve contacts known to you and your devices and to determine whether youre the one being addressed by these contacts, the AirPods could analyse the volume of their voice and how long it takes for their voice to reach you.

The patent also describes how this could work with codewords as well as voices, so you could train your AirPods to recognize when any person says your name, and turn off your noise cancellation accordingly.

How likely is this to happen? As with any patent, theres no guarantee that the technology described here will actually make an appearance, let alone in a new version of the AirPods Pro thats expected to launch in a few months.

This feature would be useful, and it certainly isnt outside the realms of possibility that your iPhone could identify different voices and switch off your AirPods noise cancellation.

After all, Siri can recognize up to six different voices on the Apple HomePod and HomePod mini, and tailor its responses accordingly.

The technology required to make this feature work is definitely present but whether it would be available at the time of the AirPods Pro 2 launch is another question. Apple has previously updated accessibility features on its AirPods range of products well after their launch dates, and we could see something similar happening here, perhaps to coincide with a new version of iOS.

The rumor that future AirPods will be able to monitor your blood oxygen levels is something weve been hearing about for some time now.

A 2020 leak from LeaksApplePro claimed that the AirPods Pro 2 will specifically come with ambient light sensors, backing up a previous report by DigiTimes that said future AirPods will use ambient light sensors to take biometric measurements potentially for monitoring blood oxygen levels, as seen in the Apple Watch 6.

This could work like the ear-based clip-on pulse oximeters used in hospitals, which shine light through the earlobe to detect the level of oxygen in a patients bloodstream.

This would allow the AirPods Pro 2 to collect fitness data and measure it over time useful, if youre using the earbuds as running headphones and perhaps even monitor conditions that cause shortness of breath and low oxygen levels.

How likely is this to happen? We dont think this one is very likely. The current AirPods Pro dont rest on the earlobe in a way that would work for a blood oximeter, and integrating an actual ear clip would bring a drastic design change to the AirPods Pro. Of all the earbuds that this feature could come to, the Powerbeats Pro are more likely, since they hook around the ear and have more contact with the skin.

Saying that, the technology to do this does exist. In 2019, FreeWavs completed a successful crowdfunding campaign for a pair of fitness earbuds that can measure your blood oxygen levels, as well as other biometric data. However, the product never came to market, with the company citing issues with accurately detecting blood oxygen levels, and even contemplating releasing a version of the earbuds without this feature to appease its backers.

Apple is a much larger company though, and if any brand could make this feature work, its Apple. Weve already seen Apple integrate a pulse oximeter into the Apple Watch 6, which offers the ability to measure blood oxygen levels. As Apple says, measurements taken with the Blood Oxygen app on the Apple Watch 6 are not intended for medical use and are only designed for general fitness and wellness purposes, which makes it ripe for fitness-focused headphones.

Like all of the futuristic AirPods Pro 2 features weve heard about, gesture controls is a rumor borne out of patents awarded to Apple.

The first was a 2020 patent that describes the ability to control a pair of true wireless earbuds with in-air gestures for example, hovering a hand over the AirPods to turn off the noise cancellation or pause your music. This feature would use capacitive sensors to detect the proximity of the user to the AirPods.

More recently, Apple filed a patent for even more out there gestures, describing earbuds that could be controlled by touching your face, shaking your head, and clicking your teeth together. These actions wouldnt even be limited to the users own body, with the ability to control the earbuds by touching another object for instance, tapping a table or squeezing the arm of another person.

How likely is this to happen? Cupping an ear over your earbuds to pause active noise cancellation or your music doesnt seem that far fetched, and we can see Apple implementing this with a next-gen pair of AirPods Pro.

However, we cant see people using the more flamboyant gestures in public, and it would be very difficult for Apple to ensure these gestures are accurately picked up by the earbuds. Weve seen gesture controls implemented in true wireless earbuds such as the TicPods 2 Pro, which allow you to accept calls by nodding your head, and reject them by shaking it. However, we have found that such controls rarely work well, if at all.

Its rare for Apple to take these kinds of risks with its products, preferring to let other companies experiment with new technologies before implementing them itself. Apple products are known for working well and for delivering ease of use, and the company is unlikely to take a gamble on gesture controls if it isnt confident that theyll work every time.

The rumored features that are most likely to come with the AirPods Pro 2 are less headline-grabbing than blood oxygen monitors and codewords, but theyre interesting all the same.

We can expect some improvements to the active noise cancellation technology; the AirPods Pro were released in 2019 and the technology has moved on since then, with models such as the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds offering near-silence with the ANC feature switched on. While Apples noise-cancelling earbuds do block out a good amount of ambient sound (especially if its a constant sound, like a rumbling train), youre still able to hear things like music playing in a shared office.

Were also hoping to see some improvements to the audio performance of the AirPods Pro, and wed love for Apple to include an adjustable EQ so users could tweak the sound to their liking. This would let you dig into the different frequency bands - perhaps boosting the bass when youre exercising to power you through your workout, or increasing the trebles and mids so voices sound clearer on podcasts.

Support for lossless audio and hi-res streaming is a possibility, too, as Becky Roberts, Hi-Fi and Audio Editor for What Hi-Fi? explains: The AirPods 2 will likely be the first Apple headphones to launch since Apple Music went lossless and hi-res, and Apple will no doubt be keen for its headphone hardware and music software to be on the same page for audio quality, as is the case with its spatial audio technology.

Its not as simple as including support for a hi-res audio codec though. The barrier to truly lossless support for headphones like the AirPods that rely solely on Bluetooth connection (i.e cannot be wired) lies in whether Apple can raise the ceiling of Bluetooth transmission quality, or find an alternative method to send high-quality music wirelessly to headphones.

We may be looking at an AirPods model further down the line for that, she says. In any case, its clearly an issue that Apple is looking into. In an interview with What Hi-Fi?, Apple's VP of Acoustics, Gary Geaves said that theres a number of tricks we can play to maximise or get around some of the limits of Bluetooth, but that its fair to say that we would like more bandwidth.

Truly lossless streaming, that doesnt heavily compress audio files and reduce the detail in your music could be made possible with Qualcomms aptX Lossless codec, which can deliver CD-quality streams over Bluetooth, and is expected to start coming to headphones later this year.

Without the need to squeeze all the detail out of your music so that the files can be transmitted wirelessly, this codec should deliver a sound that closely replicates the quality that the musicians and engineers were working with in the studio at the time of recording.

Whether this technology will come to the AirPods Pro 2 remains to be seen - and as Roberts said, we still might not get fully lossless AirPods in 2022.

Its also possible that the AirPods Pro will see a dramatic redesign in 2022, with Apple getting rid of the protruding ear stems that make its AirPods earbuds so instantly recognizable.

Of course, theres no guarantee that any of these rumors will be proven right, or that the AirPods Pro 2 will even be released in 2022. Apple hasnt confirmed that its working on the next generation of its noise-cancelling earbuds, and is very unlikely to do so before an official launch

Still, were pretty confident that the company will upgrade the AirPods Pro before the year is out. Three years after their release, the AirPods Pro are still a good pair of true wireless earbuds, but they certainly arent the best you can buy. Apple will want to change that by releasing a pair of earbuds that can compete with class-leading models from big competitors such as Sony, Bose and Sennheiser - and by focusing on more futuristic features, it could detract from areas its less adept in, like audio quality and noise cancellation.

Saying that, we daresay Apple will stay true to form and work on perfecting the less headline-grabbing features of the AirPods Pro before taking a risk on emerging technologies like biometric sensors, voice recognition, and gesture controls.

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Will the AirPods Pro 2 be as futuristic as the rumors suggest? - TechRadar

EDINBURGH, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A postgraduate student team from the National Robotarium has been selected to compete in Amazons new global AI competition. The team will create an embodied agent or robot butler to help people around the home.

Amazons Alexa Prize SimBot Challenge asks teams to create help for a futuristic world that can understand natural language, interact with humans, and accomplish tasks.

The National Robotarium team is the only non-US group to pass the selection process, demonstrating its world-leading expertise in embodied conversational AI research and teaching.

The National Robotarium is part of the Data-Driven Innovation initiative and is supported by 21 million from the UK Government and 1.4 million from the Scottish Government.

Stewart Miller, CEO, National Robotarium said: To be the only team from any country in the world outside the USA to be selected for the Alexa Prize SimBot Challenge demonstrates the global significance and capabilities of the teams within the National Robotarium. Backed by the combined robotic and AI experience of Heriot-Watt and the University of Edinburgh, were demonstrating our ability to lead global development in AI, pushing the boundaries of whats possible in a domestic setting.

Professor Verena Rieser, Professor of Conversational AI, National Robotarium, is advising the student team. She said: The objective of Amazons latest Alexa Prize challenge perfectly aligns with the aims of the National Robotarium which is to use robotics and artificial intelligence research to help people, solve global challenges and work in partnership with industry. With AI technology and machine learning offering exciting opportunities to complement our daily lives, exploring how these innovations can be further embedded in our homes is a fantastic learning opportunity for our students.

Alessandro Suglia, postdoctoral research fellow in Robotics and Autonomous Systems, National Robotarium said: Our team will create a next-generation assistant capable of learning continuously. We will focus on natural language generation and reasoning, machine perception, navigation, manipulation and dialogue creation to further push the boundaries of AI through our research.

The SimBot Challenge includes a public benchmark asking teams to design a machine-learning model with language-guided visual navigation and task completion. Phase 2 asks teams to test their bots to respond to customer commands and multimodal sensor inputs from within a virtual world.

ENDS

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National Robotarium Student Team to Create a Futuristic AI Butler - Business Wire

Tesla has agreed to update the software on almost 54,000 of its cars because a recent Full Self-Driving software update allowed them to break road rules and roll through stop signs without coming to a full stop.

Its the latest sign that regulators are becoming increasingly fed up of the Elon Musk-led companys efforts to automate but not fully automate, as the features name misleadingly suggests driving on public roads.

Tesla agreed to the recall after having two meetings with officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to the Associated Press.

Following discussions with NHTSA about our concerns, Tesla has informed the agency that it will conduct a recall of the Rolling Stop feature as one of the functionalities of the Driving Profile in its Full Self Driving software, reads an NHTSA statement to The Verge. In a new software update, a Rolling Stop will no longer be possible.

Theres a good deal ofevidence that the companys FSD beta, currently being tested by select customers on public roads, isnt quite ready for prime time. Several videos have shown vehicles with the feature turned on swerving towards pedestrians.

Tesla recently introduced an Assertive mode for its FSD software, an option that would perform more frequent lane changes, will not exit passing lanes, and may perform rolling stops, according to official documentation.

According to the NHTSAs documents, the feature allowed vehicles to travel past Stop signs at up to 5.6 mph, given a certain number of criteria including no other moving cars, pedestrians, or bicyclists, nearby are met.

Road safety advocates were appalled.

What happens when FSD decides a child crossing the street is not relevant and fails to stop? Philip Koopman, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, told the AP. This is an unsafe behavior and should never have been put in vehicles.

Regulators, including the NHTSA, are increasingly becoming wary of Tesla and its self-driving features and the recall may point towards future interferences.

They keep pushing the bounds of safety to see what they can get away with, and theyve really been pushing a lot, Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the governors safety association, told the AP. Each time its just a little bit more egregious. Its good to see NHTSA is pushing back.

READ MORE: Tesla recall: Full Self-Driving software runs stop signs [AP]

More on FSD: Watch Elon Musk Promise Self-Driving Cars Next Year Every Year Since 2014

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Tesla Says It's Updating Self-Driving Cars to No Longer Break the Law - Futurism

It feels like only yesterday we mourned the loss of our dearly departed planet Pluto. So it was hard to imagine losing another beautiful solar system buddy but the good news is we dont have to, because the goofballs who tried to prove Jupiter doesnt exist are 100 percent wrong.

A meme has been circulating since 2021 that shows a soda can exploding in a vacuum. The claim seems to be that if a soda can cant survive space, theres no way a planet made of gas could hold together.

This simple experiment, in which a soda can exposed to a vacuum environment explodes, demonstrates the impossibility of the existence of a pressurized environment within a vacuum without the presence of a suitable container, reads the hopefully meme, spotted by USA Today.

Gaseous planets as NASA tells us cannot exist, the conspiracy concludes at the bottom.

Its worth asking whether the meme is facetious. The account that shared it, Flat Earth Research, is so over the top that its difficult to ignore the possibility.

At the same time, though, many commenters seem to be taking the meme seriously, and there certainly are many people who, for reasons that defy comprehension, still think the Earth is flat. So lets go there.

First of all, its pretty clear that gas giants do, in fact, exist. You can see several of them with the naked eye, for instance. And beyond our solar system, NASA currently reports more than 1,400 gas giant discoveries on its websiteand defines a gas giant as a large planet mostly composed of helium, hydrogen, or both. Like Jupiter and Saturn, these planets dont have hard surfaces and instead feature swirling gas around a solid core.

Likening a gas giant to a soda can is more than a little reductive, and its also why the experiment doesnt debunk NASAs research. Elise Knittle, an Earth and planetary sciences professor at University of California, Santa Cruz, told USA Today that aluminum cans are pressurized to hold in the fizz from the carbon dioxide. The strength of the can and outside atmospheric pressure hold the soda in the can, but when dropped into a vacuum the pressure differential is great that the can ruptures.

It takes a BIG object to have enough self-gravity to hold together, which planets have, but soda cans dont.

The gravity is so great from the planet that it counteracts the pressure gradient between outer space and the planet, Knittle told the pub.

Its also worth mentioning that, you know, our very own Sun is a giant ball of burning gas and seems to hold its shape just fine. Every star does the same.

Nice try, Jupiter-deniers, but were not falling for your tricks. Tell the government we want Pluto back, too.

More on our love affair with Jupiter: NASA Scientists Predict Settlements on Moons of Saturn, Jupiter

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Nitwits Claim Wrongly to Have Disproved the Existence of Jupiter - Futurism

Business Wire IndiaRight to Protein, ahead of India's third annual Protein Day celebration on 27th February, declares Food Futurism as the theme for 2022 as it takes ahead its mission to drive food and especially protein sufficiency in the country through awareness, advocacy, and action. Food Futurism as a conversation will bring together nutrition experts, food scientists, biologists, among others to help Indians better understand the basic science behind healthy nutrition and its role in food security and protein sufficiency.The pandemic highlighted the need to build back better sustainably. The effects of global warming on agriculture, the inequality in access to food have further necessitated a paradigm shift in how onethink about food. Emerging scientific innovations present us with a growing range of opportunities to transformthe food and agriculture structures to fulfill the vision of a hunger-free India. Therefore, through this educative initiative, this year, Right to Protein will be initiating informed discussions and dialogues about the role of science and how methods such as genetically engineered foods can have in achieving food security. The discussions will address genuine concerns, misperceptions, and GMO anxiety among other topics.Supporting the effort,Varun Deshpande, Managing Director of Good Food Institute India (GFI India) says, In the face of challenges like climate change and pandemics, India needs a more secure, sustainable, and just food system. Reimagining our protein supply is key to that future. Plant-based foods and other smart protein sources are a generational opportunity to align planetary health stewardship, public health resilience, and economic growth.But tobring delicious, sustainable protein onto plates across the country, we need to invest in science, develop talent, and bridgeknowledge gaps. We are glad to support Food Futurism as the theme of Protein Day 2022 to achieve these goals in service of a better future."Dr. Suresh Itapu, Nutraceutical Expert, Director - NutriTech India, Human Nutrition Consultant USSEC and Supporter of the Right To Protein initiativesaid, As with any stream of science, weve often looked at different nuances of food science with skepticism mainly due to lack of knowledge leading to confusion, overblown fears, and myths. For instance, our concern about GMOs stems from a lack of awareness of how genes function it is simply a production technique. I believe that Food Futurism as the theme for Protein Day 2022 will help address some of these apprehensions while enhancing our scientific understanding as we collectively deliver on our larger food security and sufficiency goals.Since the inception of Indias first Protein Day in 2020, Right To Protein is all set to complete a treble, where like-minded citizens, nutritionists, food industry experts, chefs, and brands will come together to raise awareness and take a step towards making India a protein sufficient country through food science.

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Food Futurism Set as the Theme for Protein Day, February 2022 - IndianWeb2.com

Vehant Technologies was formed in 2005 as an outcome of incubation from IIT-Delhi. It is the leading company that develops state-of-the-art security screening solutions, smart and safe city solutions and enterprise analytics solutions with their central focus on artificial intelligence/machine learning. Vehant was cofounded by Anoop Prabhu and Kapil Bardeja with five Professors of Computer Science and Engineering from IIT-D as founding mentors, forming the companys backbone in the academia and industry research group. The main motivation of Vehant is to develop indigenous products and solutions out of India in the areas of computer vision and image processing, especially in security and surveillance.

It was a strategic necessity for the country to have these security products, made in India, so Vehant kick-started its journey by designing anunder-vehicle scanning system, which was till then imported in the country. Over the years since its inception, the company has supplied and installed around 1000 units in India and 14 other countries. Vehant also added an AI-based automated number plate reading system, which got morphed into Trafficmon: Traffic enforcement and management system that is now being deployed in almost 42 smart cities across India. In 2015, the firm developed the X-Ray baggage scanner that grabbed 25% of the market share in the last 2 years and got successfully sold to airports as well.

Anoop G Prabhu is the Co-Founder and CTO of Vehant Technologies. Since his college days, he has had a keen interest in imaging and computer vision technologies. During an internship at the IBM Research Labs, Anoop worked on R&D problems in the multimedia and image processing space. Subsequently, he also worked on another short stint at Mobileyes Research Centre, which is a pioneer in camera-based driver assistance systems in Israel, and this is when Anoop firmed up his interest in building solutions in imaging and AI technology circle.

Talking about how it all started, i.e., in the early 2000s, Anoop mentions that the future of the global vehicle surveillance market seemed promising with opportunities in the passenger car and commercial vehicle industries where security became more important due to terror attacks, security threats, etc. And so, he states that the demand for high-end technology solutions, growing R&D, changes in the pattern of buying, economic growth, and spreading awareness towards vehicle safety fuelled the markets growth.

In such a case, Vehant identified security as one area which was gaining huge prominence. In 2005, he Co-Founded the company along with Kapil Bardeja (Co-Founder and CEO) to build ZenScan, which is the under-vehicle scanning system.

According to Anoop, some of the difficulties that he and his teammates faced during the journey were more or less similar to what most of the entrepreneurs faced while starting a venue. Apart from these, he mentions that the UVSS was a product that was focussed on the security of the high-profile establishments to which there wasnt a practically established demand for India and Anoop considers this to be one of the initial challenges which he had to tackle. Establishing a market for the same was a painstaking process, but it allowed the company to become a market leader in that space, adds Anoop. Recruiting the key R&D talent in the initial days was another big challenge for Anoop and his team when the AI/ML boom was yet to take off.

Anoop states that businesses across the globe have adopted technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, the internet of things, big data, augmented reality, and more. Just about every industry and company will change because of these technologies and hence Anoop stresses the need of the leaders to understand and have conversations on taking technology-related decisions. The ability to understand what tech can do for an organization is essential, and leaders must continuously embrace new platforms and tech tools, claims Anoop.

According to him, every leader must consider to which disruptive innovation might influence their value chain and plan to respond to them or figure out whether they should use them in their business or not. Anoop pinpoints that they should understand their capabilities and limits to meet the outside dangers and opportunities of digitization.

He further articulates that business leaders must not only have to evolve quickly in this new and dynamic environment, but they also need to champion change throughout the organization to bridge the gap between old and new businesses and work realities.

Embarking on success and innovation, Anoop says, In my experience, one key aspect we always try to adhere to has been to choose techniques that lie somewhere in the middle of the wide AI/ML technology spectrum: they give us a good mix of accuracy, performance, and superlative value. We have seen this applicable in other areas as well including choice of imaging or computing hardware, UI/UX, etc. Another key advantage of this approach is that these are bound to be more robust than the most sophisticated ones or the latest kid on the block approach. Plus, its easier to find talent whove worked with these techniques or solutions.

Ultimately, Anoop opines that this approach provides more value to the customer and gives them more bang for the buck. He recounts how Vehant tries to use technology to stay one or two steps ahead of the competition so the company also has its flagship models, where it goes away from this philosophy and chooses more of the shinier, glittery building blocks.

Anoop always stands at the forefront of leveraging technologies. While talking about artificial intelligence, he clarifies that AI has offered Vehant many unprecedented opportunities to engage consumers in new and different ways. Today, the company has massive datasets at its fingertips as well as the extraordinary processing power to extract patterns, connections, and meaning from that data to get to the intent of consumers.

Anoop notes that AI is the buzzword of today and gets thrown around everywhere. He mentions that any serious solution or product offering today needs to have AI baked in to pass muster from customers, partners and technology experts alike. Having said that, Anoop expresses how experienced practitioners will understand that there are a wide variety of techniques ranging from the simplistic to the latest bleeding-edge deep neural networks that can be thrown at any given problem.

Disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence/ big data/ cloud computing, according to Anoop, are likely to play a major role in improving the quality of life of people, global economies, and business models of companies. As technology is evolving at a very fast pace, he says that the advancement is changing the way we work, live, and do business ushering us into the age of information.

Considering bigger developments, Anoop remarks that autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been in development for a while, however, they are expected to bring about several benefits including fewer road accidents, more efficient fuel consumption, and reduced traffic congestion. Lastly, he adds that healthcare is also seeing numerous possibilities of integrating AI into its existing systems.

Anoop remarks that Vehant intends to continue its position as a market leader in the UVSS range of products, to grow its market share to around 30% in the X-Ray business, and also to add new X-ray scanning use cases for people and vehicles. He adds that the company also wishes to expand to the South East Asian region for smart city business, add new use cases on smart city and private AI-based analytics space, and retain a 60% market share in the smart city portfolio. In the long term, Anoop says that Vehant aspires to be an 800-1000 crore Indian MNC with a diversified portfolio of India-made products in the Security, surveillance, and traffic management space across the world.

Every year, far more Millennials fail than succeed in entrepreneurship. But if you arent one of the lucky few, dont lose hope: Failure has transformed from a source of shame into a badge of honour, says Anoop He opines that they should create jobs of the future, not simply train for them as it will undoubtedly play a greater role in the years ahead. Anoop affirms that they should ask themselves the most important skills needed to succeed in the workforce of the future because what is trendy today may not be the same in the next few years since technology is evolving rapidly.

One should also keep the communication lines open, and you will set yourself up for more interesting work and a faster career progression in no time. Focus on end goals, and while everyone has favourites, do not be tied to only one technology tool or framework, concludes Anoop.

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Anoop G Prabhu: Spearheading Disruptive Technologies to Unravel Futuristic Solutions in the Security and Surveillance Sphere - Analytics Insight