کرکٹ امپائرنگ کے لئے روبوٹ کے استعمال پر غور شروع

سڈنی(آن لائن)کرکٹ کے کھیل میں امپائرنگ کیلئے روبوٹ کے استعمال پر غور شروع ہو گیا ہے ۔
غیرملکی میڈیاکے مطابق کھیل میں نئی اختراعات اور جدت لانے کیلئے ایسا کرنا ضروری ہو گیاہے کیونکہ جو مشکل فیصلے امپائرز کے ساتھ ساتھ ڈی آر ایس سے بھی دینا مشکل ہوتے ہیں ان کیلئے روبوٹ کا سہارا لینا کارگر ثابت ہوگا۔ ابھی تک روبوٹ کے ڈیزائن اور اس میں ٹیکنالوجی کو لوڈ کرنے کا تعین نہیں ہوسکا ہے لیکن کوشش کی جائیگی کہ یہ انسانی شکل سے ہی مطابقت رکھتا ہو،اس کی آنکھیں ڈبل بیرل کیمروں کا کام کریں گی اور وہ اوور کے اختتام پر وکٹ کے ایک جانب سے دوسری طرف جا سکے گا جبکہ اس میں کھلاڑیوں کے سوئیٹرز اور کیپ ٹانگنے کیلئے ہک بھی موجود ہوں گے،روبو ٹ امپائر کی آزمائش بگ بیش لیگ میں کی جا سکتی ہے۔

سائنس وٹیکنالوجی کی دوڑ میں دنیا ہم سے سو سال آگے چلی گئی

انسانی دما غ کا ئنا ت کی پیچید ہ ترین چیز وں میں سے ایک ہے ہم پور ی ز ند گی میں اپنی دما غی صلاحیت کو صرف چند فیصد ہی استعما ل میں لا تے ہیں اس چند فیصد کے استعما ل سے انسان نے ایجادات کر کے خود اس کو حیر انی میں مبتلا کر دیا ہے ۔دنیا میں انسان بڑھتے گئے ضروریات بڑھتی گئیں لیکن انسان کی کھوج کا عمل نہ روک سکا اور یہ سلسلہ صدیوں سے چلتا آیا ہے اور تا قیا مت چلتا رہے گا ۔ ہم زیادہ دور نہیں جا تے پچھلی صدی کی ایجا د ات کا جا ئز ہ لیا جا ئے تو ایک طر ف سابقہ نصف صدی اور مو جودہ کے چند سالوں کو دیکھیں لیں دنیا کتنی تر قی کر رگئیہے چیز یں تیز ی سے تبدیل ہو تی جا رہی ہیں آ ج کو ئی چیز انہو نی لگتی ہی نہیں ہے تو چند سال بعد اس کا وجود ہی نہیں تھا پہلے دور میں کو ئی چیز ایجا د ہوتی تواس کی ساخت اور ٹیکنالو جی تبدیل ہو نے میں وقت لگتا تھا پر اب دو تین سال میں کو ئی نا کو ئی نئی ٹیکنا لو جی متعارف ہو جا تی ہے۔ آنے والے دس سال کے اند ر دنیا یکسر تبدیل ہو جا ئے گی مو جو دہ دور کی آدھی سے زیادہ اشیاء ناکارہ اور بے کا ر ہو جا ئیں گی ان کی جگہ نئی ٹیکنالوجی اور نئی اشکال کی چیز یں آ جا ئیں گی -

دنیا کے تر قی یا فتہ ممالک پہلے بھی ٹیکنا لو جی کی دوڑاور ایجا دا ت میں ہمارے ملک سے بہت آگے تھے اور وہ پہلے بھی سانئس و ٹیکنا لو جی سے بھر معا شی فا ئد ہ حا صل کر رہے تھے اور آ ئند ہ چند سالوں میں وہ مز ید عروج پر چلیں جا ئیں گے آنے والے دور میں ایسے ممالک دنیا پر حکمر انی بر قرار رکھیں گے وہ اب بھی ہر مید ان میں خواہ وہ معیشت ہو ‘زراعت ‘تعلیم ‘ صحت ‘ صنعت‘ حتیٰ کہ زند گی کا کو ئی شعبہ ہی کیوں نا ہو ہمیں وہ بہت پیچھے چھوڑ چکے ہیں ۔ پاکستان اور پاکستا ن جیسے غریب ممالک ان کے قرض پر چلتے ہیں یا پھر ان کی استعما ل شدہ اشیاء اور ان کی ناکارہ ٹیکنا لو جی پر چلتے ہیں ۔ہماری سوچ کبھی خود سے ایجاد ات اور تحقیق کی طر ف جا تی نہیں کہ ہم نے بھی دنیا کا مقا بلہ کر نا ہے تو سائنس و ٹیکنا لو جی کے مید ان میں ترقی کرنی ہو گی ۔ لیکن ان سے قرض لے کر ان ہی کے قرض سے ان کی ٹیکنا لو جی خر ید لاتے ہیں کیا خو ب ہما ری سو چ ہے ۔ترقی یا فتہ ممالک تھنک ٹینک کے ذریعے سو سوسال کی پالیسی بناتے رہے دو عالمی جنگوں میں دنیا مختلف بلاکس میں تقسیم ہو گئی معاشی طور پر مضبوط ممالک ہتھیا روں کے ساتھ زند گی کے ہر شعبے کو جد ید طر ز میں ڈھالتے رہے لیکن کسی دوسرے مما لک کاترقیکا راستہ روکنے کے لئے ان کو جنگوں ‘ باہمی جھگڑوں ‘دھشت گردی ‘ انتشا ر‘ خانہ جنگی میں دھکیلتے رہے تا کہ یہ اپنے مسائل میں الجھے رہیں نہ ہی یہ معا شی طور پر مضبوط ہوں گے اور نہ ہی ان کے پاس امن ہو گا جس سے انہیں سوچنے کا مو قع ہی نہیں ملے گا ۔ اور یہ ممالک تمام تر ضروریات اسلحہ سے لے کر خوراک تک اور قرض سے لے کر امد اد تک ان کے محتا ج رہیں گے ۔ آج ہمارے ملک کی بھی یہی صورت حا ل ہے آج ہم ان کے قرض اور امد اد کے محتا ج ہیں وہ ہمیں قرض دے کر ہماری پالیسی بھی وہ بنا تے ہیں کہ آپ نے یہ کر نا یہ نہیں کر نا کس ملک سے تعلق رکھنا کس سے نہیں اب وقت ہمارے ہاتھ سے نکل چکا ہے دنیا ہم سے سو سال آگے چلی گئی ہے -

آج کے دور میں پاکستان کے اندر ہر شعبے اور نظام کو کمپیو ٹر کے ساتھ منسلک کیا جا رہا ہے تا کہ ہرچیز کا رریکارڈ بروقت اور آن لا ئین دستیا ب ہو سکے لیکن ترقی یا فتہ ممالک یہ کام سا بقہ صدی کے اختتا م سے پہلے مکمل کر چکے تھے آج کے دور میں ہم کمپیو ٹر ڈرائیو نگ لا ئسنس کے اجر ا ء کو بڑا کارنا مہ کہتے ہو ئے نہیں تھکتے کہ اس سے ہم حادثات میں کمی لاتے ہو ئے انسانی جانو ں کو محفو ظ بنا دیں گے ۔ دوسری طر ف ترقی یا فتہ مما لک بغیر درائیو ز کے خود کارگا ڑیاں سٹر کوں پر لانے کے آخری اور حتمی مر حلے میں داخل ہو چکے ہیں جہاں حادثات میں 70 سے 80 فیصد کمی واقع ہو گی اور سٹر کوں پر پبلک ٹر انسپورٹ سے لے کر ذاتی گاڑیاں بغیر ڈرائیور کے دوڑیں گی ۔ چین ‘ جا پان ‘بر طانیہ ‘ فر انس ‘اور امر یکہ میں آنے دو تین سالوں میں یہ ٹیکنا لو جی عا م ہو جا ئے گی اس مقصد کے لئے برطا نیہ نے ان گا ڑیوں کو کنٹر ول کر نے کے لئے اپنی ایک 4400 میل طو یل شاہر ا کو فاسٹ وائی فا ئی کی رینج میں لانے کے لئے فا ئبر آپٹک بچھانے پر کام شر وع کر دیا ہے لیکن آنے والے چند سالوں میں ہمارا کیا ہو گا ہمارے ہم وطن جو مختلف مما لک میں با طور ڈرائیور نو کری کر تے ہیں اور ٹیکسی چلاتے ہیں وہ بے کار ہو جا ئیں گے سعودی عر ب میں خواتین کو ڈر ائیو نگ کی اجا ز ت ملنے سے تو اس پیشے سے وابستہ افر اد میں پہلے ہی تشویش پا ئی جا تی تھی لیکن خود کار گاڑیو ں کے بعد بے روزگاری اور پر یشانی میں مز ید آضا فہ ہو گا -

اگر ہم پاکستان میں گاڑیو ں کی صنعت کی بات کر یں تو اپنی ضرورت کی تمام تر گاڑیا ں باہر ممالک سے امپو رٹ کر تے ہیں حتی ٰ کہ ان گاڑیوں کے پارٹس تک بھی۔ آج بھی ہماری سٹر کوں پر 1980 کے ماڈل کی گاڑیاں چل رہی ہیں ہم جا پان اور دیگر ممالک سے پر انی گاڑیاں خر ید کر بڑے فخر سے کہتے ہیں یہ جا پانی گاڑی ہے وہ ممالک اپنی پر انی گاڑیاں ہمیں دیتے جا رہے ہیں اور خود ایک نئی ٹیکنا لو جی پر شفٹ ہو رہے ہیں وہ ہا ئی برڈ گا ڑیوں سے خود کار اور بغیر ایند ھن کے الیکٹر ک گاڑیوں پر اپنا ٹر انسپورٹ کا نظام منتقل کر رہے ہیں دنیا کے ترقی یا فتہ ممالک 2030 تک تقریبا ً ایندھن کی مشکل سے آزاد ہو جا ئیں گے دنیا میں بڑی تیز ی سے الیکٹر ک گاڑیوں پر کا م ہو رہا ہے جن میں ایسی بیٹر ی استعما ل کی جا ئے گی جو صرف چند منٹ چار ج ہو نے کے بعد تین سو کلو میٹرسے بھی زیادہ سفر کر سکیں گی ۔ برطانیہ ‘فر انس ‘ چین تیل کی مشکل سے نکلنے کا اعلان کر چکے ہیں جبکہ بھارت تک نے بھی اس ٹیکنا لو جی پر کا م شروع کر دیا ہے ۔ لیکن اس وقت تک ساری دنیا کا کباڑ ہمارے پاس جمع ہو جا ئے گا جیسے ہمارے ہاں کمپیو ٹر ز کا بڑا کباڑ مو جو د ہے جو ہم نے خوشی سے ان کے استعمال شدہ کمپیو ٹر خر ید کر جمع کر تے رہے ہیں ۔ افسوس کا مقام تو یہ ہے کہ ہم اپنی زمین سے تیل کے ذخیر ے نہ نکال سکے ۔ اور دنیا انہیں ختم کر کے کسی اور طر ف جا رہی ہے

پوری دنیا میں خود کار نظام مشینوں اور ربوٹس سے کا م لیا جا رہا ہے جو انسا نوں سے بہتر اند از میں جلد کا م کو مکمل کر لیتے ہیں بڑی تیز ی سے مصنو عی ذہانت پر تحقیق ہو رہی ہے جس میں سائنس دان کا فی حد تک کا میا ب ہو چکے ہیں ۔انسان اپنے سارے کا م کا بوجھ آہستہ آہستہ ربوٹس پر ڈال دے گا کو ئی بھی انسان ایک مخصوص آلہ سر پر لگا ئے گا اور کو ئی بھی کا م کا حکم صرف ذہن میں دے گا ربورٹس اس پرعمل شروع کر دیں گے ۔ہالی وڈ کی فلمیں اب حقیقت میں تبدیل ہو نے والی ہیں دنیا میں بڑی تیز ی سے ربوٹیک اور مصنو عی ذہانت کی ٹیکنا لو جی پر کا م ہو رہا ہے دبئی میں تو مصنوعی ذہا نت کی وزارت قا ئم کر دی گئی ہے دبئی میں ربوٹس پو لیس اور اڑنے والی ٹیکساں بھی آچکی ہیں ہمارے دوست ملک چین نے ربوٹ جج بنا دیے ہیں جو عام نو عیت کے مقد مات کی سما عت کر کے فیصلہ سنا رہے ہیں لیکن ہمارا کیا ہو گا ہم تو بچوں کا کھیلو نا ربوٹ بھی نہیں بنا سکتے وہ بھی چا ئینہ سے لیناپڑتا ہے -

ہم کہنے کوکہے دیتے ہیں ہمار ا ملک ایک زرعی ملک ہے اور زراعت کے شعبہ معاشی نظام میں ریڑ کی ہڈی سمجھا جا تا ہے پر ہم اس ریڑکی ہڈ ی تو ڑ چکے ہیں ہم شرمند ہ کیسے نہ ہوں ٹماٹر ‘ پیاز ‘ ادرک‘ اور پھل چا ئنہ سے امپورٹ کر رہے ہیں اس کے ساتھ ہم یہ بھی دعوا کر تے ہیں کہ اپنی زراعت کو جد ید خطوط پر استو ار کر رہے ہیں ہم اپنے کسان کو لیز ر لیو ل مشین اور ڈریپ ایرگیشن سسٹم لگا کر دے رہے ہیں ۔ لیکن دوسری طر ف ترقی یا فتہ ممالک اس شعبہ میں بھی ہم سے بہت آگے چلے گئے ہیں ان مما لک میں ربوٹس کسان اور ڈر اؤن کو فصلوں کی بہتری کے لئے استعما ل کیا جا رہا ہے اس طر ح کے جد ید نظام سے فصل کی خوراک پانی اور بیماری سب کو پہلے سے بھانپ لیا جاتا ہے جس سے وقت کی بچت کے ساتھ پیداوار میں بھی آضا فہ ہو تا ہے ہمارے ہاں روایتی طریقہ کاشت ہے ہم ایک ایکڑ سے وہ پیداوار حاصل نہیں کر سکتے وہ اس کے کہیں زیادہ تھو ڑے سے زمین کے ٹکڑے سے حاصل کر لتیے ہیں ۔اب تو کسی بڑے حال میں گرین ہاوس اور جد ید قسم کے پنگ ہاوسز میں فصلیں کا شت کی جارہی ہیں ۔ اب تو مٹی کے بغیر خاص قسم کے محلو ل میں فصل کا شت کی جا تی ہے جو بکس بنا کر ان میں پو دے لگا ئے جاتے ہیں اور اس محلو ل میں مچھلیا ں پا لی جا تی ہیں جس سے پا نی کی 90 فیصد بچت ہو تی ہے اور مچھلیاں الگ سے پل جا تی ہیں ۔وہ ممالک خوراک میں خود کفیل ہو رہے ہیں اور ہمارے ہاں خوراک کی مسلسل کمی ہو رہی ہے وہ گوشت کو پیداوار میں کمی کی صورت میں مصنوعی گوشت تیار کر نے پر کا م کر رہے ہیں 2013 ء میں پو لینڈ کے سائنس دان اس میں کا فی حد تک کا میا ب ہو چکے ہیں -

اکیسویں صدی کی دوسری دہا ئی بھی ختم ہو نے والی ہے ہم کسی طور پر بھی دنیا کا مقا بلہ نہیں کر سکتے ہم اب بھی پچھلی صدی میں مو جو د ہیں ہم تو صرف اپنا جمہوری نظام اور نظام عدل کا ڈھانچہ ٹھیک نہ کر سکے جو کسی بھی ملک کے ابتداء سے ہی بہتر ہو جاتا ہے ۔ہم آنے والی نسلوں کو مسائل ہو پر یشانی دے کر جا ئیں گے جس میں مزید آضا فہ ہو تا جا ئے گا اور وہ اپنی پر یشانی اپنی آگے والی نسل میں بمعہ منافع منتقل کر دیں گے وقت ہاتھ سے نکلتا جا رہا ہے سو چنے اور غور کرنے کی بہت زیادہ ضرورت ہے -

FCC Clears Tech That Wirelessly Charges Your Phone in Midair

Modern day wireless charging is slightly better than plugging in with a cable. Sure, you get to ditch the wire, but you still have to plug in the charging pad and then keep your phone on that while it juices up. A better version might be on the way: The FCC has just approved wireless charging tech that can work at a distance of feet, so you don't even have to set your phone down. 

The tech to charge your phone in midair with no wires has existed for a while now, even making an appearance at CES two years ago, though with some big caveats like the need for bulky charging case to make the magic happen. FCC approval, recently granted to startup Energous, marks an important milestone on the path toward getting this tech in a phone you actually use. The company's "WattUp" system consists of a transmitter and receiver that the company says can charge multiple devices at a distance of up to 15 feet, and while there's no consumer version yet, one is assuredly in the works. 

The prospect of wireless charging that works like Wi-Fi is exciting, but still likely has a long way to go. While companies like Energous may be able to perfect their own systems, these are all but destined to require bulky phone cases to function as a receiver for the near future until phonemakers are enthused enough about the tech to build it into phones directly.

How long will that take? A while. The first pad-style wireless-charging Android phone launched in 2012, and it wasn't until this year that the tech finally made it to iPhones, reaching a peak of ubiquity that might eventually make wireless charging pads as common as USB ports. This only happened after years of sub-par wireless charging performance and multiple standards wars—we can expect the same from wireless charging tech. But it is out there, and someday it might just be in a phone you own.

World's First Solar Train Running in Australia

The world's first solar power train has gone on its inaugural run. It doesn't go very far but the Australian Byron Bay Railroad will begin making regular solar-powered journeys in January 2018.

Byron Bay, New South Wales, is located in eastern Australia and is known as a surfer and backpacker's paradise with a population of around 5,000. The new train service covers 1.8 miles (3 km) between the city's center and its North Beach district. It's part of a longer 82 mile (132 km) line connecting Australia's Northern Rivers region north of the capital Sydney.

What the solar powered lacks in distance it makes for in style. A 1949 refurbished ‘red rattler,’ the train uses custom-built curved solar panels on its roof and can carry 100 passengers.

“We searched the country and found a dilapidated vintage train, restored it, and are now powering it with a 4.6 billion-year-old power source,” says Jeremy Holmes, Byron Bay Railroad Company’s development director in a press statement. 

Towns in New South Wales get over 200 sunny days a year, but when the sun isn't out it can charge in a special shed.

On the chance of prolonged cloudy weather, the train has on-board batteries that it charges with local green energy sources. And in case of prolonged lousy weather and an electrical failure, the train also a diesel engine on board as a last-case scenario. "Due to the fact that the track is level with only one small curve, the train can run on a minimal amount of energy with the engine idle most of the time," the train's website states.

The world's cheapest energy source, solar energy is being used in vastly different ways around the globe. From refugees to vintage trains, expect to see a lot more of it in the near future.

Apple Issues an Apology (and a Discount) Over iPhone Battery Debacle

In a rare move, tight-lipped Apple has released an apology along with a technical explanation of how their batteries work, follows several recent stories (and lawsuits) concerning older iPhone battery degradation.

"First and foremost, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades," the unsigned letter reads.

The letter is the culmination of what started as a series of Reddit postsdiscussing how iPhone batteries seemingly get worse over time. Those posts led Geekbench blogger John Poole to map out iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 battery performance over time. Along with the slowdowns, the phones would unexpectedly shut down with increasing frequency.

As the phones degraded in service over time, Poole came to the conclusionthat Apple was manipulating users by making them think that "the slow down is due to CPU performance, instead of battery performance."

"This fix will also cause users to think, 'my phone is slow so I should replace it' not, 'my phone is slow so I should replace its battery'. This will likely feed into the 'planned obsolecense' narrative," Poole writes.

Apple's letter today includes a brief technical explanation of how and why rechargeable batteries degrade: the chemicals used to charge batteries, like everything else on the planet, age and degrade over time. Apple now believes that "continued chemical aging of the batteries in older iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s devices, many of which are still running on their original batteries," has contributed significantly to phone battery degradation.

The company also links to a series of tips that can be used to keep batteries more effective, like keeping them out of cold weather.

Apple is taking two steps to make amends to users who feel cheated by their iPhones. One is offering a price reduction for out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacements—from $79 to $29—for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replace for all of 2018.

There will also be an iOS update that will "give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery," though there were no further details on what this would look like.

In 2015, the iPhone was named the single most profitable product in the history of the free market. Since its debut in 2007, the company has become increasingly reliant on it selling well. Having a legion of angry would-be iPhone buyers isn't a great business plan.

Source: Apple

Wafer-Thin 'Metalens' Uses Nanotech to Blow Glass Out of the Water

Physics could soon make it possible to replace those bulky, heavy, glass lenses on cameras with wafer-thin "metalenses" — materials microscopically engineered to focus light at a fraction of the weight and size of traditional lensing.

A team from Harvard University's school of engineering has designed a metalens that can focus nearly the entire spectrum of visible light, the researchers reported Jan. 1 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Previous metalenses could focus only narrow color wavelengths, or wavelengths outside the visible spectrum. [Rainbow Album: The Many Colors of the Sun]

When light moves through glass, the different wavelengths (colors) that make up the light slow at different rates. This causes their paths through the glass to bend, or diffract, differently, so that they separate. Pass a beam of white light through a prism, and this effect will cause a rainbow to burst out the other end. This presents a challenge to lens makers; a single focusing element will project an image that has colors from red to violet hitting different spots on the film or sensor.

So, modern camera lenses use many different glass elements to correct and reverse that effect, pushing the different wavelengths of light back onto a single focal point — and even that doesn't work perfectly; many photographers know the pain of buying an expensive lens only to find a violet fringe of chromatic aberration around the subjects in their photographs. And all that glass, aberration-correcting bulk can get heavy.

A metalens takes a different approach to focusing light. Instead of exploiting the diffraction properties of glass, a metalens uses nanofins — tiny structures, typically made of titanium dioxide — to bend wavelengths toward the metalens focal point.

In the past, though, metalenses could bend just one wavelength at a time, or in more advanced cases, a narrow band of the visual spectrum. The newly created metalens bends nearly the full spectrum of light by combining nanofins tuned to different wavelengths on a single surface.

The Harvard material doesn't quite focus the full breadth of what the human eye can see, however. A healthy eyeball reacts to wavelengths ranging from about 380 nanometers, a shocking violet hue, to about 700 nanometers, a deep red, according to NASA. The Harvard metalens covers 470 nanometers (bold blue) to 680 nanometers (still a pretty deep red), and serves as proof of concept that metalenses of this type could soon cover the full visual range, according to the researchers.

Metalenses have other challenges to overcome before they can compete seriously with traditional glass. The most significant one: resolution, according to the journal article. None of the metalenses demonstrated so far are particularly sharp compared with their best glass competitors. But, again, as the technology progresses, it could address that limitation.

Metalenses might not land on store shelves anytime soon, but they are coming.soon.....

Smile, Your Car Is on Google Street View

When sedans outnumber pickup trucks, chances are the community votes Democrat. When pickup trucks rule, the community leans Republican.

What you drive matters, at least when it comes to revealing the nuts and bolts of American demographics. That’s the assertion by researchers in a paper published in November in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For thousands of years, authorities have conducted surveys to determine the demographic of regions and cities. In the United States, the data is gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau and other entities. The paper’s authors hope their method can one day supplement that data to create a clearer picture of U.S. demographics.

The information could be used by sociologists, social workers, policymakers and marketers. But there are also privacy issues about the data that need to be explored.

You Are Your Automobile

For the study, researchers used Google Street View and deep learning-based computer vision techniques. Deep learning involves feeding massive amounts of data into a computer system to create predictive models that draw inferences from all of that information.

Google Street View shows images of streets across the United States as part of Google Maps. Along the way it reveals the types of vehicles people drive on neighborhood streets. With the help of deep learning models, scientists say they can determine political affiliation, and potentially a host of other information about Americans.

Researchers examined 50 million images of street scenes in 200 cities from Google Street View. In the street scenes, the computer determined the make, model and year of vehicles, which added up to 22 million, or 8 percent of road-worthy rides in the U.S.

That’s where pickups and sedans come in.

“Vehicles are among the most personalized expressions of American culture,” the authors say. “Over 90 percent of American households own a motor vehicle. And their choice of automobile is influenced by disparate demographic factors, including household needs, personal preferences” and spending ability.

Some of the findings:

• People of Asian descent are more likely to drive vehicles made in Asian countries, like Honda and Toyota.
• Cars manufactured by Chrysler, Buick and Oldsmobile are associated with African-American neighborhoods.
• Pickup trucks, Volkswagens and Aston Martins are associated with white neighborhoods.
• Democratic neighborhoods have a lot of sedans on the streets.
• Republican neighborhoods have a lot pickup trucks on the streets.

Privacy Concerns

The computer model’s estimates were checked against known demographics and voting habits, with much success. For example, Seattle was correctly determined to be 69 percent white, with African-Americans living mostly in several southern Seattle zip codes.

But is the method infringing on privacy rights? The researchers are trying to be sensitive to this. “It is clear that public data should not be used to compromise reasonable expectations of individual citizens,” they say.

6 Technology Articles You Must Read Today

IBM announced last week it has moved its cognitive computing system into the cloud to form the Watson Discovery Advisor, allowing researchers, academics and anyone else trying to leverage big data the ability to test programs and hypotheses at speeds never before seen.

Since Watson is built to understand the nuance of natural language, this new service allows researchers to process millions of data points normally impossible for humans to handle. This can reduce project timelines from years to weeks or days.

The ability to understand natural language queries is a big deal. You can ask, for example: “I’m going to be in Boston. I like basketball. What do you suggest, Watson?” You might get several answers: Celtics tickets, Boston College tickets, Harvard tickets. Or in the offseason, Watson may suggest you drive to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield (MA). Companies are already using Watson this way. Fluid, Inc.’s Watson-based retail solutions deliver granular results to queries such as “I am taking my wife and three children camping in upstate New York in October and I need a tent.” Consider this: Watson has been taught to pass the medical boards. Would you trust it to diagnose you and prescribe medication? What if you claim to be in pain (e.g., back pain, migraines, depression) and Watson doesn’t believe your subjective input? Here’s more food for thought: What if Watson could learn to code? Why not? It’s hardly heretical to suggest that as Watson works with developers, it will one day be able to generate solutions based on a natural language query. That’s equally exciting and worrisome. Now if you want to poke a little fun at Watson, read this Steve Lohr piece in The New York Times (2013) about Watson in the kitchen. Just skim it -- the kicker is at the end.

Alongside tents and drinking water, RAF planes dropped more than 1,000 solar-powered lanterns attached to chargers for all types of mobile handsets to the stranded members of the Yazidi religious community below.

It is the first time the lanterns have been airdropped in such a relief effort, but humanitarian workers say it is part of growing efforts to develop technology designed to make a difference in disaster zones.

Imagine a solar-powered lantern that you might take camping with an umbilical cord to a power source with connections to myriad types of phones. The inability to communicate during crisis situations is debilitating, and becomes more so within days (see below).

In a separate project, Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen of Australia invented a “mesh network” that lets people in emergencies communicate via mobile even if they have no Internet connection. Users can send text messages, make calls and send files to other users nearby, creating a mobile network through a web of users. Why is this so important during times of crisis such as war zones or earthquakes? Gardner-Stephen states:

You typically have about three days to restore communications before the bad people realize the good people aren't in control any more.

He adds succinctly, throwing down a gauntlet:

There's plenty of technology for rich white men. It's the rest of the world that we need to help.

As he introduces us to the Sunlite solar-powered lantern, Lane provides a welcome reminder not only of the wonders of technology being used in developing countries, but the need for even more innovation and distribution of technology and knowledge worldwide.

Death by distance. Roy Smythe, a Forbes contributor, argues the merits of healthcare delivered from a distance.

Fellow Forbes contributor Roy Smythe jumps right into the question posed above. He begins by citing Hannah Arendt and referencing Stanley Milgram in support of his proposition that we can become desensitized to death. That’s not new, and Smythe makes clear that he’s not interested in that problem here. What’s interesting is Smythe’s corollary argument that the distance between healthcare providers and patients has become so great that healthcare delivery is at a “decisive turning point in history that separate[s] whole eras from each other,” to quote Arendt.

Myriad technologies create distance between patient and caregiver and all meant to make it more efficient to heal the sick. Smythe reminds us of telemedicine platforms and other forms of “virtual visits” or self-care tools. Such care will be the norm much more quickly than most would like. He cites Dr. Rushika Fernandapulle, the co-founder and CEO of Iora Health, for the position that medical care is still fundamentally human. Fernandapulle writes:

The thing that heals people is relationships – the problem is that technology has the ability to actually facilitate relationships, but it can also get in the way of them.

Above all, Smythe doesn’t want distant medicine to lead doctors to be desensitized by death. He draws an interesting parallel -- the use of drones in war. Without boots on the ground or vivid and live battlefield images, death can become abstract and sanitized. Navigating a drone to a drop site is relatively easy--and we should all emphasize relatively--in terms of seeing and feeling the results of war. By contrast, tossing a grenade over a wall, driving over an IED, engaging in close quarter combat, and other critical military missions cannot bring one any closer to both one’s enemy and the realities of death.

Climbing out of this analogy back into the world of medicine can be difficult. When we do, however, we find that “distance medicine” at first seems innocuous by comparison, and then every bit as dangerous.

Rick Delgado at Smart Data Collective contributed insights about potential hurdles for the Internet of Things.

Two ideas crossed my mind while reading this piece. First, Delgado makes the obvious-but-equally-important point that being able to take advantage of the wealth of the Internet of Things requires something we take for granted: access to the Internet. I’m not going to belabor a rural electrification analogy. Many do not have Internet connectivity, including in the developed world and the United States. It gets worse as ignorance abounds. Delgado writes:

While businesses may talk excitedly about the Internet of Things, consumers are largely unaware of it. In a recent survey of 2,000 people, 87% of consumers said they had never even heard of the IoT. While hearing about the Internet of Things doesn’t necessarily signify a consumer would not use an item connected to the IoT, the survey results show a lack of awareness and understanding about what can be gained from it. If this lack of knowledge about the IoT leads to lack of interest, a major driving force for widespread adoption will be missing.

In one of the worst tech predictions of all time, IBM President Thomas Watson stated in 1943: “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Talk about punching in the mouth the possibility of disruptive innovation at IBM. Watson was misguided and incorrect, but hardly dumb. Whether we wish to believe it, Mr. Watson, I suggest, knew far more about his industry at the time than today’s experts know about the Internet of Things, which is in its infancy but growing fast. According to Gartner, there will be approximately 25+ billion sensors in the world by 2020. It’s not surprising that a whopping 87% of consumers are unaware of the billions of sensors around the world. What would (I would hope) be surprising is if we don’t follow in Google’s footprints to widen Internet connection worldwide. That would be a Tragedy of the Commons with a mean twist. We’re not depleting a resource. On the contrary, it grows daily because we feed it. Our “just” not sharing precludes a global race to the top of technology, which I’ll restrict here for the sake of argument to non-military uses. Now that’s a race we should all want to enter.

Tracey Wallace over at the Umbel blog (Truth in Data) writes about data-driven cities and the Internet of Things .

Wallace describes how each city is turning itself into a data treasure trove and using new technologies. Let’s look at a few:

• Turning old phone booths into WiFi hot spots (NYC);
• All household waste is sucked directly from individual kitchens through a vast underground network of tunnels, to waste processing centers, where it is automatically sorted, deodorized and treated. (Songdo, South Korea);
• Wi-Fi provides city communities with hot spots that promote city services such as water meters, leak sensors, parking meter and other city services to operate on the same secure government network. (Dallas); and
• There are no light switches or water taps in the city; movement sensors control lighting and water to cut electricity and water consumption by 51 and 55% respectively. (Masdar, UAE).

These initiatives are amazing. Think about what Masdar is doing. It’s like an automatic, energy-saving Clapper (“clap on, clap off”). Consider their savings and what it would mean for energy consumption if such a program were implemented to the extent possible around the world. Wow. There's certain to be an enterprise wrapped around this as we speak.  So . . . which of you will be the first to sit on a bench at the edge of a park and use a nearby phone booth across the street as your hot spot? That’s pretty cool.

Richard Boire at the Smart Data Collective poses the following question: The Demise of the Data Scientist: Heresy or Fact? The CEO of Williams-Sonoma certainly has an opinion. 

Boire comments on an article by an “IT leader of a well-respected U.S. organization” whom he doesn’t name. Boire writes of this apparition:

[The author] hypothesized that data scientists will in the future become like switchboard operators: obsolete. The primary reason for this declining demand according to the author was that increased automation and operationalization of business processes will not require the technical skills of the data scientist.

Audi Launches the A5 Sportback in Pakistan for Rs 7.2 Million

Audi Launches the A5 Sportback in Pakistan for Rs 7.2 Million

The German automobile manufacturing giant, Audi, has announced that 2018 Audi A5 Sportback variant is going to be launched in Pakistan.

The A5 started as a compact executive car back in 2007 and has been maintaining its well-built standards. It has another variant called the A5 Coupé but its price and details are yet to be announced in Pakistan.

Let’s take a close look at what makes this car astonishing.

• The rear design has an aggressive, sporty look. The slim, three-dimensionally shaped taillights come with LED technology as standard. The brake light is below the luminaries paired with the unique dynamic turn signal which is also LED.  

The sporty front end has three-dimensionally modelled single-frame grille which is flatter and wider as compared to the previous generation. The finely contoured lights sitting right above the top edge of the grille hasn’t been seen before in the A5 series.

The lighting technology has always been impressive on Audis and the A5 Sportback is equipped with 18 LEDs in the front headlight which shine through two lenses to produce the delicate beam. It is promised to produce “daylight-like” illumination without blinding oncoming traffic.

The interior

The standard interior design of the A series offers great build quality and practical utility.

  

It is controlled by a rotatory pushbutton sitting on the wide and ergonomic console which is basically a touchpad. It allows typing in characters and doing shortcut gestures to control the DIS with ease.

Advanced Climate Control

A continuous vent strip runs through the center console. It has convenient automatic air conditioning with very efficient manual controls, only a few clicks and turns can set it up. The air-conditioning system has been completely redesigned for the A5 and it is meant to be more efficient and provide fresh and recirculating air.

An anti-carbon combination filter removes particulate matter.

Sound system

The optional Bang and Olufsen sound system is truly innovative. The 3D sound powered by 19 loudspeakers contains the “spatial dimension of height” according to the company.

Ambient lighting

Optional ambient lighting is also available which lights the interior with 30 adjustable hues.

Under the hood

• 1.4 litre TFSI engine: Inline 4-cylinder spark-ignition engine with gasoline direct injection, exhaust turbocharger and Audi valvelift system.
• Displacement(cc): 1395
• Max output (hp/rpm): 150/5000-6000
• Transmission: 7-speed S tronic
• Acceleration (0-100): 8.5 seconds

The price

The 2017 A5 Sportback has been priced at Rs. 7,200,000 excluding optional features, insurance and registration.

The optional features and their prices are detailed below.

• Matrix Beam – PKR 3,50,000
• S line package – PKR 3,00,000
• Milano leather – PKR 3,00,000
• Seat ventilation – PKR 2,50,000 (including sport seats front)
• Comfort suspension – PKR 2,50,000
• Convenience key – PKR 2,00,000
• Seat heating – PKR 2,00,000
• Anti-theft alarm – PKR 2,00,000
• Privacy glass – PKR 1,50,000
• Headlining black – PKR 1,00,000
• Alloy 18″ 10-Parallel – PKR 1,00,000
• Sports steering – PKR 1,00,000
• Anti-glare mirror – PKR 75,000
• Leather package – PKR 75,000

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