Category Archives: Transhuman News

Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a follow-up patent from Apple relating to their possible future iMac encased in an all-glass housing. The design is shown to be one of Apple's most excitingly creative concepts for a future iMac to date.

This future iMac/desktop PC may include a display coupled to the glass housing member and configured to provide a visual output at the display area. The electronic device may include a keyboard coupled to the glass housing member and configured to detect an input at the input area. Alternative designs show the keyboard being separable.

Apple clarifies that the glass housing could be made with materials that are transparent, coated, painted, or otherwise treated to produce a non-transparent (e.g., opaque) component; in such cases the material may still be referred to as transparent, even though the material may be part of an opaque component. Translucent components may be formed by producing a textured or frosted surface on an otherwise transparent material (e.g., clear glass). Translucent materials may also be used, such as translucent polymers, translucent ceramics, or the like.

The housing member may have properties that enable the diverse input and output functions. For example, the housing member (e.g., the optically transmissive member) may be strong and may have a high resistance to scratching, and may provide a surface finish having a superior appearance and/or tactile feel as compared with other materials or components.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 below we see a continuous glass iMac/Desktop PC design that includes an OLED display,an integrated keyboard and left and right touch input zones like a seamless dual trackpad construction; FIG. 11E illustrates the back of the new device with ports and speaker. The device could double as a home automation system.

Apple's patent FIG. 4B below notes that the housing member #450, and in particular the portion of the input area #455 in the lower portion #454, may be shaped to define physically distinctive key regions.

There's more to Apple's patent that we covered back in January 2020 here. In today's published patent, Apple has added 20 new patent claims. Below are 14 of the key additions:

Added Claim #1: An electronic device comprising: a glass housing member comprising: an upper portion defining a display area; a lower portion defining an input area; and a transition portion extending between the upper portion and the lower portion and defining part of a continuous surface defined by the upper portion, the lower portion, and the transition portion; a display coupled to the glass housing member and configured to provide a graphical output at the display area; an input device coupled to the glass housing member and configured to detect an input at the input area; and a support structure coupled to the glass housing member and configured to support the glass housing member.

Added Claim #2: The electronic device of claim 1, wherein: the upper portion defines a first planar region of the continuous surface; the lower portion defines a second planar region of the continuous surface; and the transition portion defines a concave, curved region of the continuous surface.

Added Claim #3: The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the glass housing member is a single piece of glass.

Added Claim #4: The electronic device of claim 1, wherein: the glass housing member defines a rear surface opposite the continuous surface; and the display is coupled to the rear surface.

Added Claim #5: The electronic device of claim 1, wherein: the display area extends along the upper portion, the transition portion, and the lower portion; and the display has a curvature that corresponds to a curvature of the glass housing member.

Added Claim #6: The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the display area extends to an edge of the glass housing member.

Added Claim #7: The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the glass housing member is movable, relative to the support structure, from a first configuration resulting in a first display angle to a second configuration resulting in a second display angle different from the first display angle.

Added Claim #8: A desktop computer comprising: a display; an input device operably coupled to the display; a glass sheet comprising: a first portion defining a planar display area; a second portion defining a planar input area; and a curved portion between the planar display area and the planar input area; and a support structure coupled to the glass sheet and configured to support the glass sheet.

Added Claim #9: The desktop computer of claim 8, wherein: the glass sheet is configured to move relative to the support structure; in a first configuration, the first portion has a first display angle; and in a second configuration, the first portion has a second display angle different from the first display angle.

Added Claim #14: The desktop computer of claim 8, wherein the input device extends along at least a portion of the planar display area to form a touchscreen-style display.

Added Claim #15: An electronic device comprising: a slumped glass housing member defining: a continuous exterior surface of the electronic device; and an opening extending through the slumped glass housing member; a support structure coupled to the slumped glass housing member and configured to support the slumped glass housing member; a display coupled to an upper portion of the slumped glass housing member; and a keyboard having: a storage configuration in which the keyboard is positioned at least partially within the opening; and a use configuration in which the keyboard is extended from the opening.

Added Claim #16: The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the keyboard is: releasably coupled to the slumped glass housing member; and configured to detach from the slumped glass housing member in the use configuration.

Added Claim #17: The electronic device of claim 15, wherein: the slumped glass housing member further defines an input area; the electronic device further comprises an input device configured to detect inputs at the input area; and in the use configuration, an actuation of a key of the keyboard causes an input to be detected by the input device.

Added Claim #18: The electronic device of claim 15, wherein: the opening is a first opening; a second opening is defined in the upper portion of the slumped glass housing member; the electronic device further comprises: a camera positioned at least partially in the opening; and a processing unit positioned in the support structure; and the camera is operably coupled to the processing unit by a camera trace coupled to the slumped glass housing member.

To review the full patent and the rest of the new patent claims, see patent application 20210397220.

Renderings

The excitement for this new iMac concept had a number of renderers post images of what the design could translate to. Our cover graphic and those presented below are fromYanko Design. You could view a variety of additional rendering on their sitehere.

Originally posted here:
Apple continues to Work on their Exciting Futuristic All-Glass iMac - Patently Apple

BATON ROUGE - A high-tech law enforcement camera system is online, tracking people's movements in 19 locations and growing.

Baton Rouge Police discussed the project in a news conference Wednesday.

Police won't reveal all the locations where cameras are mounted, but said angles include shots from above city hall where 80 different views of downtown are fed back to police.

The camera system goes online amid record-setting homicides in East Baton Rouge.

"I had a gentleman that was killed on Thomas Delpit, East Boulevard; That's where I live," exclaimed Councilwoman Carolyn Coleman when discussing the cameras. "Let them know, that a lot of this killing, must stop."

City officials hope the camera system will help them track the evil-doers with ease and at rapid pace.

The cameras pick up motion and track movements.

"It gives us standard motion detection, it gives us person detection, meaning the cameras ability to look at movement and you know, based what [the camera is] programed to do, it looks like it might be a person. They're actually able to, depending on how well it's being received at that time, detect the difference between gender, age, hair color or clothing color," said Lt. Will Clarida of the Baton Rouge Police department.

"When something goes 'red' it'll pick up something. [A] car going the wrong way on a one-way street; A crowd [that suddenly] starts running... Even just 3 to 4 people running at once," will be alerted and tracked.

The system can send text or email alerts and, the police department hopes to communication to radios next.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said he is already identifying high-crime areas for cameras to be installed.

"People want these shootings to stop. So, this whole thing of 'people don't want any of them there, they don't want cameras,' that is just not the truth. The truth is, people want to feel safe, people want us to continue to arrest those bad actors, this is just another tool," the chief said Wednesday.

In a next phase of the project, cameras are expected to be installed in the Gus Young and Brookstown areas along with Dixie and Tigerland communities.

Raw footage is being saved for 45 days but certain pieces of video can be isolated and held for longer.

Read the rest here:
Candid camera: Futuristic police camera system will track people, pickup movement in parts of Baton Rouge - WBRZ

We have become accustomed to a precipitous pace of technological change, for better and for worse. Driven by scientific and then engineering breakthroughs, electronic devices and communications have progressed exponentially. Robots and AI perhaps will follow the same path.

So, whats to stop the world of tomorrow from becoming dystopian, like in the movie The Terminator? Batteries. The robots that want to kill us and eat our medicine wont last long before they need to recharge.

A modern supercomputer crushes the machines of the mid-20th century. Fugaku, 2021s fastest computer, is about 100 trillion times more powerful than ENIAC, the fastest computer of 1945. However, a Tesla lithium-ion battery stores only roughly six times as much charge, per pound, as a lead acid electric car battery of 1920. This ten-trillion-fold greater advancement of electronic circuits over batteries is staggering to consider.

Computer processors famously followed an exponential growth curve in capability, known as Moores law. The solid-state transistor was a physics breakthrough that won the Nobel Prize. Vast territory was opened up and then conquered by engineers burning circuits into silicon chips with visible and ultraviolet light. R&D fueled continuous advancements in computer circuitry for 40 years. Over the past decade or so, this pace has fallen off as hard physics limitations have stepped in. You might notice that your new laptop is no longer light-years faster than your old laptop.

Whereas integrated circuits are a mid-to-late-20th century invention, batteries have been a topic of scientific interest for more than 200 years. Early devices such as the Leyden jar were a curiosity for physicists who had not yet settled on the paradigm of electric charge. By 1910, battery technology was sufficient to produce practical electric cars, which were highly popular at the time. At one point, more than 30% of registered cars in America were electric vehicles. What happened? Internal combustion engines ate their lunch. It has taken a century, plus government intervention, for batteries to catch back up.

Progress in battery technology is glacial because there have been no breakthroughs in the fundamental science, and thus no open territory for subsequent optimization through engineering. While claims of battery breakthroughs have been common, in reality, the technology has evolved in baby steps. Scientists and engineers simply work to discover slightly better charge storage chemical formulations, tweak cathode and anode design, and hone operating cycles.

That is why batteries remain a limiting factor in many forms of modern electronic technology, such as cars, laptops, phones, and human-slaying robots. The lump of coal in this years futurism stocking is that batteries will keep dragging behind.

Having said all that, two modest advances in battery technology are worth mentioning. First, a paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society describes an advance for sodium-sulfur (Na-S) cells. These kinds of cells can, in theory, store about twice as much power per pound as a lithium-ion cell. In practice, Na-S batteries have been limited by several factors: They charge poorly, drain quickly when sitting idle, and fade quickly in capacity.

However, researchers from the University of Texas have developed a new version of the battery by tweaking the chemistry of the charge-storing electrolyte material to improve the lifetime of the batterys anode and cathode. If further research and engineering lead to economical manufacturing, this technology could yield cells with somewhat better charge storage than lithium-ion batteries.

Second, a paper published in the Journal of Power Sources proposes a very different idea, a sort of hybrid technology. The system uses battery-like chemistry to produce carbon from carbon dioxide. The carbon is then combusted to liberate energy. The researchers produce something close to a viable system, able to recharge multiple times and operate at high efficiency. Though it is far from commercial readiness, the technology may provide a means to harness the great energy advantage of combustion over storage of electrical charge. (This advantage is why gasoline vehicles left their electric counterparts in the dust 100 years ago.)

Unfortunately, the known laws of physics dictate that battery technology likely will continue to lag, and so researchers will continue to probe every creative avenue to find new possibilities for a breakthrough. On the bright side, this means the robot apocalypse is far less likely than some futurologists fear.

Read more here:
Batteries are the lump of coal in futurism's Christmas stocking - Big Think

To what lengths would you go to save your loved ones from the pain of losing you?

Thats the question Cameron Turner (played by two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali) must answer in Swan Song, the Apple original drama about a terminally ill man who yearns to spare his wife Poppy (Oscar nominee Naomie Harris) and son from the grief of watching him die. The solution presented to Cameron is the opportunity to replace himself with a duplicate named Jack who will slip into his familys lives without them knowing.

Swan Song is set in the very near future, approximately 2040, with writer-director Benjamin Cleary and his team of producers (including Ali) and artisans working to ensure that the sci-fi elements were as technologically sound as possible. But this movie spends less time weighing the ethical debate around these technological advances, focusing instead on Camerons existential questions about Jack taking his place. Sure, they share a genetic code, but can Jack really become Cameron? Will Jack be able to convince Poppy that hes her husband and will that mend their fractured marriage? Can love transfer from one being to another? And at what point will Cameron feel ready to take a step back and watch his family live on without him?

Beyond those big questions, another layer of nuance stands out. The Turner family is Black a detail necessitated by Ali joining the project as both its star and producer, and bolstered by his work behind the scenes to help Cleary present a fully realized and culturally specific portrayal.

We just wanted to spend real time talking about the things that were important, and thinking about fatherhood and family and what that means for anyone to leave their family behind, Ali tells Variety about his influence on the narrative. But especially a Black man leaving a young, 10-year-old boy without a father and also having a child on the way and how much anxiety that that brings up for any of my friends who are fathers or in myself.

Knowing what the stereotype is about us, about Black fathers, and knowing that that stereotype is not true for my friend circle, Ali explains. I wanted to honor that and play a father that I think would be an inspiration to all the brothers out there.

When Cleary (the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind the short film Stutterer) conceived this story a decade ago and began writing the script five years later, he drew from personal experiences, aiming to create a universal story about love, life and grief. But he too was struck by the opportunity that centering the narrative on Black people offered.

We havent seen Black leads in movies like this nearly enough, Cleary says simply.

Harris seconded that sentiment, noting that while Cleary didnt write the project (his feature directorial debut) with Black people in mind, the filmmaker ensured that the characters racial and cultural identities were weaved into the story.

Ultimately, this movie is an ode to love, and thats another reason why I wanted to be part of it, Harris explains. And its very rare that you see Black men being portrayed in this way. Its more often Black women with that level of sensitivity, vulnerability, deep connection, sacrificial love. [But] how often do you see that in a movie where Black people are involved? Its very, very rare.

Harris, who was recruited for the film by her Moonlight co-star when he reached out via email to see if shed be interested in the role of Poppy, Camerons wife a music teacher who works with children with disabilities. Harris was thrilled to get the invitation from Ali, with whom shed only shared a day of filming on Moonlight, bonding instead during the press tour on the way to that films best picture Oscar win.

His generosity, for me, is equal to his talent, Harris says of Ali, adding that shes hopeful theyll work together again, but instead of another weepy indie, maybe next time they can team up for a big blockbuster. I think we should just change things up now, she quips.

With Swan Song, Harris recalls being moved to the point of tears when she first read the script, but the actor initially found Poppy to be a challenging character to portray.

It really encouraged me to find this vulnerability, this openness and this giving nature, which I hadnt really explored. In my body of work, its really about strength characters who are fighting for the survival of the world or fighting for liberty, says the actor, whose recent resume includes reprising her role as Miss Moneypenny in the latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die, and playing the villainous Shriek in Venom 2.

So it was jarring for me initially, when I had to step into Poppys shoes and inhabit such vulnerabilities such openness, and it was really scary. I kept trying to toughen her up a bit, Harris explains. When youre that vulnerable, then you are open to the loss of someone in such a profound way that youre not if your heart is closed. But then you feel the joy and the connection of being with those you love in such a deep way that you cant if your heart is closed.

Alis work portraying both Cameron and Jack was equally tricky, but with the added challenge of the physical logistics of playing a man and his clone. To pull it off, Ali acted opposite actor Shane Dean, while also working to make each character truly distinct.

It first started, in the mind and the heart and being very clear about the differences in what they wanted, Ali shares. Being very clear about that made a certain element of [the portrayal] very easy, because I always knew Jack wanted something very different than what Cameron wanted.

The actor also leaned into the physical differences between the characters, like how they breathed or moved in comparison to one or the other. But the biggest key was understanding that power differential where Cameron, as the real person, is driving the train, until its time for Jack to assume his place.

Jack was always in a submissive position, and so that ended up influencing how every thought is processed and how every line, every scene played out is just being conscious of whos in power in that scene, Ali says.

The deep character work paid off for Cleary, who says he and editor Nathan Nugent were blown away watching the footage because of the subtlety and nuance with which Ali was able to play each character so that you knew immediately who you were looking at.

When youre dealing with characters that are totally [physically] identical like that, it really takes a master to go in and find the internal differences, the filmmaker notes, adding that watching the chemistry between Ali and Harris from the other side of the monitor often brought him to tears.

They were creating magic in the room, Cleary says. Im deeply honored and just feel so grateful for the cast I got to work with for my first feature.

Swan Song is now playing in select theaters and streaming globally on Apple TV Plus.

Ace Lever, Naomie Harris, director Benjamin Cleary and Mahershala Ali behind the scenes of Swan Song, now streaming on Apple TV Plus.Kimberley French / Apple TV+ / courtesy Everett Collection

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Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris Explain How the Sensitivity of Swan Song Sets the Futuristic Family Drama Apart - Variety

This New Year's Eve, the countdown to midnight could have all the makings of a rocket launch. Fashion is going retro-futuristic for the holidays, drawing inspiration from space exploration, all framed in a mood of extravagance. Rhinestones, sequins, feathers, fringes and shiny metallic colors are all the rage this year, in total contrast to last year's more understated holiday looks.

It's hard to find the perfect outfit for this year's end-of-year celebrations, with the Covid-19 pandemic making a resurgence. From the Christmas sweater to pajamas to glamorous get-ups, men and women seem to have made their choice, drawn towards something they haven't known for months and months -- chic styles laced with extravagance. The global fashion search platform Stylight * has seen a surge of interest in pieces that are both retro and space-inspired -- a trend it calls "Retro-Galactica." Buckle up, fashion fans!

Sparkle overdose

New Year's Eve festivities inevitably bring to mind glitter, gemstones and sequins -- a must for this time of year. But it seems that, after spending several months in sweatpants and slippers, men and women are ready to really go to town and turn heads. Lashings of sparkling details will be seen on pieces with both retro and futuristic inspirations, oscillating between the glamour of the 70s and 80s, and modern space exploration. All that may sound hard to follow but, rest assured, there's something for everyone. Really!

Those still wavering between comfort and glamour can cut to the chase with a shiny or sparkly jumpsuit, a piece that's going down a storm around the world. Stylight reports a 928% increase in clicks for the category this year-end, compared to the same period last year. Glittery details seem to be on the agenda, so why not go for a head-to-toe look? Pantyhose with glitter and gems are the center of attention online, with a 392% increase in clicks on the global platform. Space exploration also means metallic shades, which are proving very popular, with a 122% uptick in clicks for metallic items of all kinds.

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Feathers, fringes and face gems

Often associated with the Roaring Twenties, feathers -- symbols of lightness -- are looking popular for the party season (+146% for feather dresses), not to mention fringing (+223% for fringed dresses), which was all over the Fashion Week catwalks for spring-summer 2022.

As for accessories, we can forget sneakers -- too casual for seeing in the new year. If you want to turn heads, go for platform heels (+105%) that will take you a step back in time. The most daring will wear them with socks -- yes, honestly! -- a trend that has been on the rise for several weeks now. But the hottest trend of the moment is none other than face gems, a viral hit on TikTok, and something that's on the radar of many beauty forecasters for 2022. It simply involves finishing your make-up look by adding stick-on gems to your face. Search interest for face gems tripled in November 2021 on Google.

* This report is based on Stylight's internal data collected from its 120 million annual users across its global platforms. Clicks were analyzed across products for the period November 1-25, 2021, compared to the same period in 2020. Data is also based on Google Trends figures, beginning November 2021, compared to the same periods in 2020, unless otherwise stated.

Christelle Pellissier

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Retro and futurism collide as fashion maxes out on glam for the party season - Yahoo Singapore News