Leap Motion AR

Gesture interface company Leap Motion is announcing

an ambitious, but still very early, plan for an augmented

reality platform based on its hand tracking system. The

system is called Project North Star, and it includes a design

for a headset that Leap Motion claims costs less than

$100 at large-scale production. The headset would be

equipped with a Leap Motion sensor, so users could

precisely manipulate objects with their hands — something

the company has previously offered for desktop and VR

Displays.

Project North Star isn’t a new consumer headset, nor will

Leap Motion be selling a version to developers at this point.

Instead, the company is releasing the necessary hardware

specifications and software under an open source license

next week. “We hope that these designs will inspire a new

generation of experimental AR systems that will shift the

conversation from what an AR system should look like, to

what an AR experience should feel like,” the company writes.

The headset design uses two fast-refreshing 3.5-inch LCD

displays with a resolution of 1600x1440 per eye. The displays

reflect their light onto a visor that the user perceives as a

transparent overlay. Leap Motion says this offers a field of

view that’s 95 degrees high and 70 degrees wide, larger than

most AR systems that exist today. The Leap Motion sensor

fits above the eyes and tracks hand motion across a far wider

field of view, around 180 degrees horizontal and vertical.

Amazon Key

A handful of Amazon Key's main features are being rolled

out across the US.

That means you can now use the service anywhere in

the country for keyless entry, remote lock and unlock,

and guest access, the company said Thursday. Plus, five

more locks now work with Amazon Key, for a total of eight

locks available for Amazon Key customers.

But if you were waiting for in-home delivery using Amazon

Key, that's not part of the expansion. In-home delivery will still

only be available to Prime customers in 37 US cities and

surrounding areas.

Amazon is hoping to use Amazon Key to make itself an

even bigger player in smart home technologies, with the

company already dominant in smart speakers through its

Echo brand. Amazon is focusing on the smart home so it

can sell its Prime members new security cameras and

smart doorbells, and hopefully convince them to use their

Echo speakers for more voice shopping.

The company, though, faces loads of competition in the

new market, particularly from Google, so it's moving

aggressive to keep expanding and introduce new features.

Amazon since December has acquired two smart doorbell

companies, Blink and Ring, and has rolled out new Echo

devices to stay one step ahead of rivals. It's also had spats

with Google over Nest, Google's own smart home business

that's also partnered with Amazon.

Amazon introduced Amazon Key in October as a system

that includes a smart door lock, its own Cloud Cam security

camera and the Amazon Key app. Using these elements,

people can open and close their doors without a key or give

a guest a code to enter their homes. But the most interesting

-- and controversial -- part of Amazon Key is its in-home

delivery capabilities, allowing delivery people to open your

door, slide packages inside and then lock the door.

Besides deliveries, Amazon said the service can eventually

be used for in-home visits from local businesses on Amazon

Home Services, including house cleaners and dog walkers.

New Foxconn Phone

Foxconn Technology Group grew into the world’s largest

electronics manufacturer for hire by churning out best-

selling products such as iPhones, Kindles and PlayStations.

Now, it’s deploying that power to bring cryptocurrencies to

the masses.

A subsidiary of Foxconn has agreed to help develop and

produce a blockchain phone from Sirin Labs, according to

the startup. The new device, called the Finney, is designed

to help owners securely store and use digital coins such as

Bitcoin, as well as related services.

While millions of people have bought Bitcoins, relatively few

bother to use them for daily transactions. To prevent theft,

owners have to keep the coins on special memory sticks

until needed, then remember user names and passwords

that can be dozens of characters long.

Amazon Music

Amazon has announced that people can now add music

or live radio to Alexa Routines, which are commands that

can accomplish multiple things with a single command.

Starting today, Routines made by Alexa users in the U.S.

can include music from a specific artist, playlist, album,

or station or from streaming services like Spotify, Pandora,

Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn.

Alexa Routines for Echo device users appears to be

part of Amazon’s plan to move human-AI assistant

interaction beyond a simple, single command. Custom

commands can be configured with any phrase to carry

out a combination of smart home device controls or

deliver traffic, news, or weather reports. There’s also

“Alexa Says,” a portion of Routines that was added after

the debut of Routines last fall; it can be added to a Routine

f you want Alexa to chime in to say “Let’s party” on your

birthday or “It’s nice to have you home” when you get

Home.

You can also use Routines to schedule an event so,

for example, you can program Alexa to play the weather

and your favorite news every morning at a certain time

or your favorite podcasts on weekends.

The news comes the same day as Spotify, a company

whose service helped aid in the rise of the smart speaker,

went public for the first time on the New York Stock

Exchange (NYSE). Spotify is said to be planning to create

its own smart speaker and is currently experimenting with

more voice control in its iOS and Android smartphone apps.

The ability to accomplish multiple tasks at once is intended

to get AI assistants to become a regular part of your daily

routine. Alexa chief rival Google Assistant rolled out its

Routines for the first time last month. In both instances,

Google and Amazon want you to utilize Routines when

you wake up in the morning, when you leave home for

work, when you arrive back home from work, and when

you go to bed at night.

Faster Intel Chip

Intel is unveiling its 8th Generation Intel Core i9 processor

for laptop computers, and it is targeting it at mobile

gamers, virtual reality fans, and content creators. The

new chip offers “enthusiast level” performance, and it is

the fastest laptop processor that Intel has ever built.

The chips are aimed at fueling the growth of the rapidly

expanding PC gaming industry with new laptops that

can provide desktop-like gaming performance and

virtual reality on the run. Overall, the 8th Gen Core

i9 is 29 percent better in performance compared to the

previous generation 7th Gen Core i7.

Intel also announced a new Intel Core platform extension

that brings together the benefits of its processors with Intel

Optane memory, a new kind of flash memory for caching.

It is also rounding out its family of high-performance

desktop CPUs and chipsets which deliver modern standby

and ambient computing capabilities, and shared new

details on the 8th Gen Intel Core vPro platform for

businesses.

New Facebook Safeguard

Facebook  is scrambling to add safeguards against

abuse of user data as it reels from backlash over the

Cambridge Analytica scandal. Now TechCrunch has

learned Facebook will launch a certification tool that

demands that marketers guarantee email addresses

used for ad targeting were rightfully attained. This new

Custom Audiences certification tool was described by

Facebook representatives to their marketing clients,

according to two sources. Facebook will also prevent

the sharing of Custom Audience data across Business

accounts.

This snippet of a message sent by a Facebook rep to a

client notes that “for any Custom Audiences data

imported into Facebook, Advertisers will be required to

represent and warrant that proper user content has been

Obtained.”

Once shown the message, Facebook spokesperson

Elisabeth Diana told TechCrunch “I can confirm there is a

permissions tool that we’re building.” It will require that

advertisers and the agencies representing them pledge

that “I certify that I have permission to use this data”, she

Said.

Diana noted that “We’ve always had terms in place to

ensure that advertisers have consent for data they use but

we’re going to make that much more prominent and

educate advertisers on the way they can use the data.”

The change isn’t in response to a specific incident, but

Facebook does plan to re-review the way it works with

third-party data measurement firms to ensure everything

is responsibly used. This is a way to safeguard data” Diana

concluded.The company declined to specify whether it’s ever

blocked usage of a Custom Audience because it suspected

the owner didn’t have user consent. ”

The social network is hoping to prevent further misuse of ill-

gotten data after Dr. Aleksandr Kogan’s app that pulled data

on 50 million Facebook users was passed to Cambridge

Analytica  in violation of Facebook policy. That sordid data is

suspected to have been used by Cambridge Analytica to

support the Trump and Brexit campaigns, which employed

Custom Audiences to reach voters.

Human Drivers

Autonomous vehicles get all the headlines, but

automakers are gradually adding advanced electronic

safety features to human-driven cars as they step toward

a world of self-driving vehicles.

Car and tech companies are rolling out laser sensors,

artificial intelligence, larger viewing screens that show

more of the road, cameras that can read speed limit

signs, and systems that slow cars ahead of curves and

construction zones.

Many of the new features repurpose cameras and radar

that already are in cars for automatic emergency braking,

pedestrian detection and other safety devices. The

companies also are keeping a closer watch on drivers to

make sure they’re paying attention.

n Monday, Arizona’s governor suspended Uber’s self-

driving vehicle testing privileges after one of its

autonomous vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian

last week. But auto engineers and industry analysts

still say roads will become safer as more vehicles get

automated features that either assist or replace human

drivers. The government says 94 percent of crashes

are caused by human error.

The cutting-edge devices usually come out first in

more expensive vehicles, but go to mainstream

vehicles as costs fall.