Wednesday 4 September 2013
Esta cámara funciona imitando al ojo humano
A diferencia de una cámara normal que captura el total de la escena, la cámara DVS está inspirada por el funcionamiento selectivo del ojo humano y sólo captura en cada instante las partes de la escena que cambian, por ejemplo si hay variaciones de brillo, aspecto o posición.
De este modo la cámara DVS reduce notablemente la cantidad de información que captura y procesa y lo hace además utilizando píxeles de gran tamaño y sensibilidad, cada uno de los cuales ajusta individualmente su exposición. Más o menos como si fuera una cámara formada por un conjunto de cámaras y cada una de ellas sólo se activase al detectar cambios en su parte de la escena, hasta 1 millón de cambios cada segundo.
La cámara transmite sólo la información relativa esos cambios y no el total de la escena, por lo que no existen fotogramas en secuencia como en una cámara convencional sino sucesos registrados a lo largo del tiempo, aunque duren sólo un microsegundo. Ésto es «un valor similar o mejor que las cámaras de alta velocidad que graban miles de fotogramas cada segundo» pero que generan cantidades enormes de información.
En cambio la cámara DVS puede guardar ocho horas de grabación en 100 MB y la película se puede pasar a cualquier velocidad. Esas mismas ocho horas de grabación se 'rebobinan' en menos de un minuto. Menos cantidad de información (pero sin perderse nada de lo que sucede en cada instante) significa un valocidad de proceso de la imagen mucho más rápida.
Una de sus posibilidades es «un nuevo tipo de visión artificial», sirviendo, entre otras cosas, para que las máquinas puedan ver de un modo muy efectivo.
En el vídeo se muestra un mecanismo que mantiene un lápiz en equilibrio a partir de lo que «ven» dos cámaras DVS: su capacidad para detectar el más leve movimiento del lápiz se utiliza para anticipar hacia dónde va a caerse y evitarlo moviendo el mecanismo.
Pero por ahora se trata de un juguete muy caro: cuesta unos 2000 euros aunque las imágenes resultantes tienen el tamaño de una foto de carnet y son en blanco y negro.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/tecnologia/camara-funciona-imitando-ojo-humano.html
ASUS shows off MeMO Pad 8 and 10, budget tablets arriving before year's end (hands-on)
ASUS refreshes its Fonepad 7 phone / tablet with dual speakers, we go ears-on (video)
Sony slims down its Action Cam, intros wearable Live-View Remote (eyes-on)
Sony's $4,500 FDR-AX1 Handycam puts 4K recording in the grasp of prosumers (eyes-on)
Sony's HDR-MV1 Music Video Recorder helps your band break out of the garage, into YouTube
Sony DSC-QX100 and QX10 lens cameras bring top-notch optics to any smartphone or tablet, we go hands-on (video)
Sony announces the Social Suite for the Xperia Z1 with Info-Eye AR app and Time Shift Burst
Mystery Nexus Phone Pops Up in Google KitKat Video
Sony Takes on GoPro With New 'Action Cam'
Sony Redefines 'Camera' With New 'Lens-Type' Cam
Watch 'Breaking Bad' in 4K With Sony's New Download Service
Sony Vaio Flip Is a No-Compromise Hybrid Laptop
Sony Vaio Tap 11 Hits Microsoft Surface Where It Hurts
Bugcrowd Raises $1.6 Million To Expand Bug Bounty Marketplace
Crowdsourced bug bounty marketplace Bugcrowd has raised $1.6 million from investors to grow its community of 3,000 vetted security penetration testers who can find vulnerabilities and weaknesses in a new feature or application. The Australian startup is hoping to democratise the models commercialised by Facebook and Google, who have paid out millions of dollars to ethical hackers who find and report bugs in their software — before those vulnerabilities are exposed publicly.
Investors ICON Venture Partners, Paladin Capital Group, and Square Peg Capital, as well as angels, committed the seed round investment to expand its sales and marketing operations and expand the firm’s development team to build out the marketplace.
Bugcrowd and similar marketplaces, such as Danish firm CrowdCurity, are democratising the crowdsourced penetration testing model which has previously been only available to the biggest software companies that can afford to pay out millions of dollars.
The crowdsourced model allows companies to expose their applications and software to a diverse range of testers, discovering small bugs and vulnerabilities for a fraction of the price compared with contracting a security consulting firm to do the work.
Bugcrowd tailors bug bounty competitions for individual projects, while CrowdCurity says that it only charges for bugs that are found in the application.
The startup, founded by security researchers Casey Ellis and Sergei Belakomen, graduated from the Sydney-based Startmate accelerator program in 2011 and has been used by customers such as Australian retail giant Coles Myer, Rabobank and e-commerce platform provider Big Commerce.
Google recently increased the minimum rate it will pay for bugs, from $1,000 to $5,000. It revealed it has paid out almost $2 million to security researchers in the past three years, for discovering 2,000 security holes in its Chromium and web apps. Facebook also announced it had paid out $1 million to 329 security researchers. Earlier this year, Microsoft also (reluctantly) launched its own bug bounty program.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/_pBVTteALVs/
WunWun, Because Everything Should Be Available On-Demand
On-demand television? You got it! On-demand radio? Sure! How about news on-demand? Or books? It’s all at your fingertips, dear readers. But what if I told you that you could have literally anything that you want on-demand through a few taps of an app?
Let me know when you’ve picked up the pieces to your blown mind, and I’ll introduce you to WunWun, a new app that lets you order anything on-demand and have it brought to you at the time and place of your choosing. The service is currently only available in Manhattan, with plans to expand to Brooklyn very soon.
Here’s how it works:
Once you sign up for the app, you simply enter in a credit card and a phone number. From there, you can type in anything that you want to have delivered from Degree men’s deodorant to a new TV from Best Buy. You can order food from a particular restaurant, maybe one that doesn’t deliver to you, or you can order a courier to drop off your keys with your Airbnb guest.
Anything you want… On demand.
Simply type in your request, enter in the date and time you want this task completed, and then choose the store you want to use. If you don’t care where your deodorant comes from, you can select the Pick For Me option. This allows WunWun to build partnerships with retail stores and brands, a part of the company’s revenue model going forward.
The other piece of the revenue puzzle is the type of delivery that’s made. Anything you buy from a store, like groceries, clothing, electronics, home office supplies, whatever… is free. Yes, aside from the cost of the purchase (which must be over $10) on-demand delivery is entirely free through WunWun.
However, if you’re placing a custom order that doesn’t involve a store — for example, if you’re ordering Chipotle, or having someone picked up from the airport for you, or having someone pick up your dry cleaning, there is a $20 fee attached to the purchase.
WunWun is already working with brands to offer interesting promotions and advertising opportunities.
“We are in the best possible position, because we know what you want to buy as you’re trying to buy it,” said founder Lee Hnetinka. “So when you ask for Degree deodorant, we can let Gillette offer you a deal if you try their brand instead.”
The company hasn’t taken any funding to date, and has been generating revenue from day one thanks to partnerships with retail stores as well as the $1 price tag on the app itself.
Today, the app launches out of beta and is available now on the App Store.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/yo7IX83HMks/
Hands-on with ASUS' Zenbook UX301, an Ultrabook with a Gorilla Glass lid and 2,560 x 1,440 touchscreen
ASUS refreshes the original Transformer Book with Haswell, but it's still heavy
Sony Xperia Z1: the new flagship with imaging at its heart (hands-on)
Sony announces the VAIO Tap 21 with a 1080p display and slimmed-down design (hands-on)
Sony takes on the Surface Pro with the VAIO Tap 11, its first Windows 8 tablet (hands-on)
Sony announces VAIO Flip PC, looks to steal the IdeaPad Yoga's thunder
Sony Xperia Z1 smartphone announced: 20.7 megapixel camera in a unibody aluminum shell
KitKat Parody Video Hilariously Mocks Apple
Now At 10M Users, Check Lands $24M From Menlo To Become Your Go-To Mobile Money Manager
Check, the makers of a cross-platform mobile finance app that allows users to track their cash, bills, investments and credit cards and pay bills while on the go, announced today that it has closed a $24 million round of series C financing, led by Menlo Ventures. The company’s existing investors, including Morgenthaler Ventures and Pitango Venture Capital, also participated in the round, bringing its total to $49 million. As a result of the new round, Menlo Ventures Managing Director Doug Carlisle will join the startup’s board, along with Avery More, the founder and former CEO of CompuCom.
Formerly known as Pageonce, the Palo Alto-based company launched in 2008 with a mission to become the mobile version of Mint.com, offering tools that enable consumers to manage their bills from their smartphone. The company has grown steadily over the years, amidst a crowded market, attracting 10 million users to its free Android and iOS apps.
In January, Check co-founder and CEO Guy Goldstein told us that bill pay volumes processed through its payment platform had reached $1 million per day and had seen 30 percent month-over-month growth in payment volume since hitting the App Store in January 2012. Fast forward to today, and Goldstein tells us that, in terms of payment volume, Check is now processing more than half a billion dollars annually, and has grown to 100 employees.
Though the mobile payments space has seen considerable activity over the last few years, Check has the advantage of being one of the veterans, differentiating from a growing list of apps like Concur, Doxo and Mint by giving its users the ability to collect and view all of their bills in a single, mobile dashboard.
Making money by charging 4 percent on each credit card transaction that takes place within the app, Check has more recently begun pursuing partnerships with enterprises to boost monetization. The company announced a partnership with Alltel Corp. in June, giving Check access to the wireless carrier’s 600K customers, allowing them to pay directly from their smartphone.
Goldstein tells us that, with its new funding in tow, the company plans to double down on its business, particularly through partnerships with wireless carriers and regional utilities companies. With the bill payment services industry now topping $20 billion, the Check CEO sees a big opportunity ahead. Most bill pay options remain offline or are limited to the Web (like biller direct or online banking). Thanks to the fact that the majority of the players in the space traditionally have offered point solutions for things like budgeting, presentment and account aggregation with limited bill pay, growth has been slow.
From the beginning, Goldstein says, Check has focused on simplifying the process by which we manage and pay our bills, while working to bring all of the features one would typically find spread out across a variety of point solutions together into one app. Over the years, Check has rounded out its mobile payment platform with push notification bill reminders, free phone support, bank-level security and the ability to pay bills from any account or credit card.
“Bill payment is a huge industry,” Menlo’s Doug Carlisle explains. “As more consumers migrate off of the traditional web-based platforms and onto mobile ones, Check is well-positioned to capitalize on its momentum and continue pushing forward with rapid expansion.” In particular, Goldstein believes that Check’s solution for billers will be a key area of growth for the company going forward.
Check is currently in advanced discussions with a number of major billers, and Goldstein says that the company is seeing a “tremendous need and demand” from billers in the U.S. These companies are eager to give their customers more options when it comes to bill pay, he says, not only by offering a mobile solution but through a variety of payment modalities.
With 10 million people now using Check to manage and pay their bills and, as it moves to secure partnerships with the country’s largest billers, Goldstein believes that the road ahead will likely one day end at the public markets.
For more, find Check at home here.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/1ri-RbZaV9s/
How to Watch the Samsung Galaxy Gear Event Online
Sony IFA 2013 press conference liveblog
Livestream launches on Roku, brings real-time broadcasts to the platform
5 Futuristic Nokia Patents Microsoft Should Make
Nintendo's new Pokemon XY edition 3DS XLs get Legendary on September 27th
Sony's QX10 and QX100 lens cameras pop up on Amazon, leave few surprises for IFA
Jawbone Mini Jambox: Skinny Speaker, Hefty Sound
Xbox One game console available on November 22nd
Jawbone intros Mini Jambox Bluetooth speaker and a music-streaming app (hands-on)
Flipboard arrives for BlackBerry 10, but you can't use it yet
Telus document: iPhone 5 models could be discontinued September 28th
VMware launches Fusion 6 virtual desktop for Mac with Mavericks support, Windows Store app integration
SolidRun's $45 CuBox-i mini PC runs both Linux and Android
Panasonic officially quits the consumer smartphone business, president says mobile performance was 'unacceptable'
Samsung enlists Lookout to make Knox security even more securely secure
Un documental sobre el mayor misterio del comportamiento humano (más o menos)
The Mystery of Flying Kicks de Closer Productions en Vimeo.
Desde Fast Co. llegué a The Mystery of Flying Kicks , un documental de 12 minutos de duración que trata de encontrar respuesta al porqué la gente tira zapatos atados a los cables de la luz y el teléfono.
Los autores del documental habilitaron un teléfono en el que recibieron llamadas de gente de todo el mundo expresando su creencia u opinión sobre el significado de esa costumbre.
Las explicaciones van desde asuntos de drogas y delincuencia hasta la expresión artística y todo lo contrario, pasando por ser un ritual asociado a la pérdida de la virginidad o al inicio de un trabajo «de verdad» y hasta a ser un mero gesto asociado a la expresión del yo y todo ese rollo de querer dejar una marca física en el mundo.
Así que el documental no ofrece ninguna respuesta definitiva porque al parecer nadie lo sabe en realidad. O, mejor dicho, su significado simplemente varía según quien sea el que lance las zapatillas contra los cables.
Si te decepciona la no respuesta el documental no te preocupes porque la respuesta definitiva es ésta: es algo que se ha hecho siempre.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/mundoreal/documental-sobre-lanzar-zapatillas-atadas-contra-los-cables.html