Bosch car technology can memorise your face and voice.

Bosch shows us how smarter cars help drivers stay focused on the road 

Best-case scenario, you’ll hear the phrase “please look at the camera” when getting passport photos taken. Worst-case scenario, it’s when you’re getting booked into jail – and we’re not talking about Monopoly. You don’t hear it when you start your car, though. That might change in the coming years. Bosch’s vision for the next-generation car interior relies on facial recognition and haptic technology to make driving more relaxing and, ultimately, safer.
The German firm installed a version of its cockpit in an otherwise stock Cadillac Escalade to show us how it works at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). It’s made up of five interconnected color displays. One replaces the analog instrument cluster, two live in the center console, and two more are attached to the front seatbacks for the enjoyment of the passengers riding in the second row. They’re all powered by a single hardware, though multiple operating systems run simultaneously to separate vehicle-specific controls from connected-car controls. Allen Sun, a mechanical engineer in Bosch’s multimedia division, told Digital Trends that’s done for safety reasons.
Step inside, turn on the ignition, and you’re kindly requested to “please look at the camera” by a GPS-like voice piped through the front speakers. Don’t look for an old-school Rolleiflex. The unit that scans your face is no bigger than the lens in a rear-view camera system. In this application, it’s positioned right above the digital instrument cluster, where it has an unobstructed view of who is in the driver’s seat. It identifies the user and automatically adjusts to his or her preferred settings for the seats and the mirrors. It even loads your favorite playlists, kind of like the world’s smartest jukebox.
The latest voice-recognition technology, which Bosch introduced separately, adds another dimension to the car interior of the near future. It recognizes each user’s voice. If Jack says “show me my calendar,” it will display his agenda for the day. If Jill says the exact same phrase, she’ll see hers. It’s possible to integrate apps into the system, too. For example, Jack can link his home camera to the infotainment system and display real-time footage on the car’s center console-mounted touch-screen.

You’ll like this technology if you regularly share a car with a family member. You’ll love it if you regularly share a car with the thousands of motorists that signed up for the same car-sharing program as you.
The screen positioned closest to the gear selector replaces all of the buttons, switches, and knobs normally found on the center console, even the ones used to adjust the front seats. Haptic feedback helps keep the driver’s eyes off the center console and on the road. The user can feel the “edge” of the button, which appreciably reduces the amount of poking and prodding required to execute an otherwise simple command.
“Our studies show this technology can reduce distractions by 15 to 20 percent,” Sun explained. But it’s still possible for people to ignore the law and common sense by texting while driving, right? Not really; Bosch has a way around that, too. It developed a smartphone lockout feature that allows the device to sense where it is in the vehicle. Virtual borders that split up the cabin lock the phone’s screen if it’s in the driver’s vicinity and unlock it as soon as it’s in one of the passengers’ hands.
It’s not smartphone diplomacy or cellular voodoo; it’s baked right into the sound system. The phone listens for signals emitted by the speakers on both sides of the car. They’re inaudible to humans, but the soundwaves that come out of the speaker in the driver’s door automatically lock the phone; the rest unlock it. Automakers could also use this technology to deliver personalized content to passengers.
While undeniably cool, QLED screens integrated into a car’s headliner are far, far away from mass production. Bosch’s next-generation cockpit, on the other hand, is realistic and ready for production. It could equip your 2019 and 2020 model. Though the company doesn’t make its own car, it’s currently talking with several large automakers about sending the aforementioned technology to the production line in a timely manner. Who, you ask? Watch this space.

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The Five Best Marijuana Jobs

Grow Master
The grow master is the person responsible for cultivating various strains of marijuana plants. Peterson likens it to being a master chef. Grow masters are in high demand and it's a seller's market. At minimum they can command a salary of $100,000 a year and a percentage of the profit. Peterson said that for the time being all the good cultivators come from California. They've had more time to develop their skills and reputation. They are used to working on their own and making great wages. “It's a pretty specific skill set and over time I expect the recreational marijuana will shape up with celebrity cultivators like celebrity chefs,” said Peterson. He also thinks that as more states legalize marijuana, California won't be the only place to find a master grower.
Store Managers
Like any retail operation, a medical dispensary or recreational outlet needs a manager. These employees can do very well, especially in profitable stores. At minimum, they can earn $75,000 a year and many get a bonus on top of that based on the store's sales. When you consider that some stores in California have sales of $3 million to $6 million a year, while some San Francsico Bay area stores do $7 million to $10 million a year, that bonus can be pretty good. Many get vacation pay and health insurance just like a traditional job. Managers can also climb the green ladder and end up overseeing several locations.
Extraction Technician
Most people only think of marijuana in the plant form, however marijuana extracts are a growing side of the business, amounting to 40% of sales at some stores. These “extract artists” have a unique set of skills. Peterson said many of the people he hires for this job have PhD’s. They can earn between $75,000 and $125,000 a year. Some states don't like the idea of people smoking pot for medical purposes and like the state of New York have only legalized medical marijuana in the extract form. While there are expensive machines that do the actual extraction, it requires a person with the knowledge and experience to make sure the product being delivered to a patient or customer is exactly what it is. Consistency and quality are the name of the game.
Bud Trimmers
This is the entry level job working with the plant. It tends to be the lowest paid job in the industry -- a bud trimmer in California may make $12-$13 an hour. In Vegas where service jobs are in high demand, $13 an hour is the general wage. Some get paid by the pound and that can run to $100-$200 a pound. In a medical dispensary, a trimmer takes the plant and with little scissors cuts the flower from the stem. It's critical to only get what is needed and not waste any of the plant. Everything is separated and weighed. A tedious job for sure, but it beats working at McDonald’s, and it's an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the business and work your way up.
The Owner
While owning a marijuana business sounds like the ultimate counterculture move, it brings a mountain of headaches. Many owners say they don't make the millions that many people think they do. There are legal and banking headaches, and the regulatory landscape is constantly shifting. The owners don't get to claim the same business deductions that other business owners get, so the expenses are sky high. Many owners front millions of dollars for years before they ever get to see any profits. Still, if you think this industry is in its early stages with years of growth ahead, being an owner can still be a sweet alternative to the grind of a normal job.

SpotMini robot now features a terrifying appendage.This robot could replace your dog in the future. (It can open the door for you)

If you found yourself trembling with fear at the sight of Boston Dynamics’ updated SpotMini dog-like robot when it bounded into view last November, then you’re going to suffer a full-on meltdown when you see the latest version.
The SpotMini now comes with a terrifying appendage, one so incredibly versatile that the feared robot apocalypse now seems more “when” not “if.”
In a video that’s as entertaining as it is unnerving, we first see November’s SpotMini approach a closed door. With no way to open it, the robot dog just stands there, waiting. The video’s title — Hey buddy, can you give me a hand? — hints heavily at what’s coming, with the latest SpotMini appearing in shot with that extendable appendage.
The four-legged robot extends its mechanical arm, turns the door handle and opens it, letting both robots through. But it’s not just the arm that impresses, it’s also the incredibly fluid and lifelike movement of the SpotMini.
Boston Dynamics posted the video on YouTube on February 12, and added no explanatory notes, which makes the whole thing that little bit more unsettling.
But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the SpotMini with a mechanical arm. The original design, unveiled by the SoftBank-owned company in June 2016, was also very impressive and featured an arm similar to the one attached to today’s SpotMini.
In the first SpotMini video from 2016, we’re shown the original robot performing various chores around the house, including loading up the dishwasher and throwing away trash. It also takes a tumble on a banana skin, suggesting at least one way us humans can defend ourselves against any upcoming robot rampage.
The most recent SpotMini design appears to incorporate sensors on the front and sides of its main body that help it understand its environment. Truth is, Boston Dynamics has so far revealed little about the SpotMini, choosing instead to modify it before filming skits and posting them on YouTube.
And no,  we don’t know what it has planned for SpotMini, or if it’s just a robot to showcase the team’s remarkable work.
Boston Dynamics has been developing a range of robots, each with their own skills. Atlas, for example, has the remarkable ability to perform a perfect backflip, though it’s not always so steady on its feet.
We await, a little nervously, to see what the Boston Dynamics crew comes up with next …




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Chinese police are using facial recognition sunglasses to track citizens

If you are a criminal it would be better to avoid China for a while.First of its kind in law enforcement tactics, Chinese police are experimenting with facial recognition glasses to identify criminals.

China’s police have a new weapon in their surveillance arsenal: sunglasses with built-in facial recognition. According to reports from local media, the glasses are being tested at train stations in the “emerging megacity” of Zhengzhou, where they’ll be used to scan travelers during the upcoming Lunar New Year migration. This is a period of extremely busy holiday travel, often described as the largest human migration event on Earth, and police say the sunglasses have already been used to capture seven suspects wanted in major cases, as well as 26 individuals traveling under false identities.

The sunglasses are the latest component in China’s burgeoning tech-surveillance state. In recent years, the country has poured resources into various advanced tracking technologies, developing artificial intelligence to identify individuals and digitally tail them around cities. One estimate suggests the country will have more than 600 million CCTV cameras by 2020, with Chinese tech startups outfitting them with advanced features like gait recognition.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the sunglasses being deployed in Zhengzhou are built by Beijing-based LLVision Technology Co. The company’s chief executive Wu Fei told the publication that LLVision worked with local police to develop the technology to suit their needs.

One challenge for facial recognition software is that it struggles when running on CCTV cameras, because the picture is blurry and by the time a target is identified they might already have moved on. The sunglasses, by comparison, given police “the ability to check anywhere,” says Wu. “By making wearable glasses, with AI on the front end, you get instant and accurate feedback. You can decide right away what the next interaction is going to be.”

The sunglasses are controlled by a connected mobile unit and sell for 3,999 yuan, or $636 (though the facial recognition support costs extra). LLVision says they’re able to recognize individuals from a pre-loaded database of 10,000 suspects in just 100 milliseconds, but cautions that accuracy levels in real-life usage may vary due “environmental noise.”

But the flexibility of a device like this is worrying for privacy advocates, who say that new surveillance technology is being deployed without adequate oversight, offering considerable new powers to governments. This is especially true in China, where law enforcement can track and surveil citizens with complete freedom. William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International, told WSJ: “The potential to give individual police officers facial-recognition technology in sunglasses could eventually make China’s surveillance state all the more ubiquitous.”

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‘Sea Hunter,’ a drone ship with no crew, just joined the U.S. Navy fleet

A Smart ship.

A prototype autonomous ship known as the Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MDUSV) has officially been transferred to the U.S. Navy from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) after a two-year testing and evaluation program. Named “Sea Hunter,” the Office of Naval Research will continue to develop the vessel from this point forward.
Although there’s no specific timetable for when the Sea Hunter would join active naval operations, the statement from DARPA indicated that it could happen as early as this year. The anti-submarine warfare vessel could be the first of an entirely new class of warship.
“[Sea Hunter] represents a new vision of naval surface warfare that trades small numbers of very capable, high-value assets for large numbers of commoditized, simpler platforms that are more capable in the aggregate,” said Fred Kennedy of DARPA. “The U.S. military has talked about the strategic importance of replacing ‘king’ and ‘queen’ pieces on the maritime chessboard with lots of ‘pawns.’”
The collaboration between the Navy and DARPA began in 2014, with the ship designed and developed by Virginia-based defense company Leidos, and christened in April 2016. A rigorous series of open-water tests followed, including surveillance and mine counter-measures.
According to Newsweek, the ship got its name from the mission the Navy envisions for it — stalking foreign submarines at sea. It’s relatively cheap to build at $20 million, and it’s far less expensive to run than a similar manned vessel.
“This is an inflection point,” former Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said in an interview with Reuters in 2016. “This is the first time we’ve ever had a totally robotic, trans-oceanic-capable ship.”
“I would like to see unmanned flotillas operating in the western Pacific and the Persian Gulf within five years,” he added.
The Navy hopes that ships of the future will be able to stay at sea for months at a time and travel thousands of miles without any crew. The Sea Hunter is currently a surveillance platform and has no weapons onboard. It’s 127 feet long and can reach speed of 27 knots, using cameras and radar to track its location and spot other ships.
Work went on to emphasize that if robot ships like Sea Hunter were outfitted with weapons in the future, there would always be a human at the controls. “There’s no reason to be afraid of a ship like this,” he said.

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