A New Chip Brings Electrical-Field-Based 3-D Gesture Recognition to Smartphones

Posted on by

The low-power chip makes it possible to interact with mobile devices and a host of other consumer electronics using hand gesture recognition, which today is usually accomplished with camera-based sensors. A key limitation is that it only recognizes motions, such as a hand flick or circular movement, within a six-inch range.

via A New Chip Brings Electrical-Field-Based 3-D Gesture Recognition to Smartphones | MIT Technology Review.

The controller comes with the ability to recognize 10 predefined gestures, including wake-up on approach, position tracking, and various hand flicks, but it can also be programmed to respond to custom movements. Similar to the programming of voice recognition software, Microchip Technology built the gesture library using algorithms that learned from how different people make the same movements. These gestures can then be translated to functions on a device, such as on/off, open application, point, click, zoom, or scroll.

iFlyTek’s YuDian—the “Chinese Siri”—is available to anyone with a mobile phone in China.

Posted on by

iFlyTek has developed a series of text-to-speech (TTS) products and, more recently, speech recognition and the cloud-based speech tech platform, called Voice Cloud. Over the years, accuracy rates steadily improved and the technology found its way onto an ever-wider range of products.

Its Voice Cloud platform supports speech recognition, speech synthesis, and speech-input applications, and as of March of this year, speech understanding and “iFlyTek YuDian”—dubbed the Chinese Siri—to anyone with an Internet-enabled mobile phone.

via iFlyTek’s YuDian—the “Chinese Siri”—is available to anyone with a mobile phone in China. | MIT Technology Review.

Finally, its extensive network of 10,000 partners and developers has ensured the tech is available via a wide variety of devices, channels, and applications. The world’s largest network operator, China Mobile, recently took up a 15 percent share in the firm, further expanding its reach.

Now E-Textbooks Can Report Back on Students’ Reading Habits

Posted on by

Those details are what will make the new CourseSmart service tick. Say a student uses an introductory psychology e-textbook. The book will be integrated into the college’s course-management system. It will track students’ behavior: how much time they spend reading, how many pages they view, and how many notes and highlights they make. That data will get crunched into an engagement score for each student.

The idea is that faculty members can reach out to students showing low engagement, says Sean Devine, chief executive of CourseSmart. And colleges can evaluate the return they are getting on investments in digital materials.

via Now E-Textbooks Can Report Back on Students’ Reading Habits – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

We’ve passed peak Apple: it’s all downhill from here

Posted on by

Why do I think Apple has passed its peak? There are a number of signs. The most visible recent one is the Maps debacle. Replacing Google Maps with an obviously inferior experience shows how much Apple has changed. Apple’s success had been all about offering users the best possible experience; suddenly it is willing to give users a clearly worse experience to further its corporate interests – in this case its long-running dispute with Google. We might expect this sort of behaviour from Microsoft, but we don’t expect it from Apple.

via We’ve passed peak Apple: it’s all downhill from here | Technology | guardian.co.uk.

Skype Planning A Big Social Advertising Upgrade, Starting First With Windows 8

Posted on by

Today the company unveiled Skype Ads for Windows 8, a new initiative it plans to launch formally in 2013 that will see a number of new ad formats enter the service that play on social interactivity. They include promotions that will appear in conversation streams and ways for two people talking to each other to share sponsored content while communicating on the platform. (Yes, it sounds a lot like what Facebook is doing.)

via Skype Planning A Big Social Advertising Upgrade, Starting First With Windows 8 | TechCrunch.

Book Review: Presentation Patterns

Posted on by

Presentation Patterns aims to apply patterns to the task of creating and delivering presentations and for the most part it succeeds. The format of the book is slightly biased towards those in the software industry as the authors all have software backgrounds. However after reading the introduction which explains the rationale behind patterns in general, as well as the specifics of how they are covered, this book should be useful to anyone interested in improving their presentation skills.

via Book Review: Presentation Patterns – Slashdot.

Cisco Takes Location Indoors

Posted on by

Cisco is using its Mobility Services Advertisement Protocol (MSAP) client as the frontend to triangulate location data from small cells and Wi-Fi so that it can map out the locations of stores and more on different floors inside a building. Qualcomm will build this capability into the next generation of its Snapdragon chips for mobile devices, but Cisco is offering the software to enterprises now.

via Cisco Takes Location Indoors – IP & Convergence – Telecom News Analysis – Light Reading Mobile.

Feature phones dwindle as Android powers ahead in third quarter

Posted on by

But Samsung dominated that field as it does the rest of the market: Apple made up 13.9% of the smartphone market, slightly down in share even though its shipment numbers grew by 36%, giving Samsung 32.6% of the entire smartphone market.

via Feature phones dwindle as Android powers ahead in third quarter | Technology | guardian.co.uk.

Chicago options market goes nuclear, files $525 million patent suit

Posted on by

However, a few key financial institutions have embraced patents enthusiastically. This week, the Chicago Board Options Exchange has taken finance-patent wars to a new level. CBOE filed a lawsuit against a competing options exchange, International Securities Exchange (ISE), demanding $525 million for the infringement of three patents: US Patent Nos. 7,356,498, 7,980,457 and 8,266,044. The board asked for the first patent in 1999, at the height of the patent-everything craze, and the patents were issued between 2008 and 2011.

via Chicago options market goes nuclear, files $525 million patent suit | Ars Technica.