‘Apple plans to make screen a fingerprint sensor’

Apple's new TouchID fingerprint sensor is one of the key features of the new iPhone 5S, but its functionality is limited to unlocking the device and authenticating app purchases. However, it looks like Apple is planning to further build this biometric technology and may make the whole touchscreen a fingerprint sensor. 

As per a patent application filed with the World International Property Organization, Apple wants to patent a technology that enables it to use the Home button as a trackpad (similar to the one seen in BlackBerry Curve phones). This technology also transforms the touchscreen into a fingerprint scanner. 

Apple's technology will allow users to navigate the menu and apps using just the Home button. This patent filing has led to speculation that the trackpad technology would debut with a large-screen iPhone. Apple is said to be currently working on iPhones with 4.8-inch and 6-inch screens. 

With this technology, users will be able to move to the right or left directions by "twisting" or "revolving" their thumbs on the Home button. An upwards swipe on the Home button would open the multitasking menu. The patent filing also shows that it can be used as a joystick while playing games. 

Though the technology has provision for making the whole touchscreen into a fingerprint sensor, the patent filing says that only a select portion of the display will be used as a scanner. For example, apps like Mail and Banking, which require more security, will scan the fingerprint to confirm the identity of the device's owner. 

The technology will also allow users to create shortcuts via on-screen gestures. Thus, they will be able to launch and return to commonly used apps like Mail and Camera from any app they are using with specific gestures. The patent filing also shows that touch-typing will be improved in upcoming Apple gadgets as the technology will recognize users' typing patterns on the screen. 

Google funded-project to teach PCs 'common sense'

Researchers are trying to plant a digital seed for artificial intelligence by letting a massive computer system browse millions of pictures and decide for itself what they all mean.

The system at Carnegie Mellon University is called NEIL, short for Never Ending Image Learning. In mid-July, it began searching the internet for images 24/7 and, in tiny steps, is deciding for itself how those images relate to each other. The goal is to recreate what we call common sense - the ability to learn things without being specifically taught.

It's a new approach in the quest to solve computing's Holy Grail: getting a machine to think on its own using a form of common sense. The project is being funded by Google and the Department of Defense's Office of Naval Research.

"Any intelligent being needs to have common sense to make decisions," said Abhinav Gupta, a professor in the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute.

NEIL uses advances in computer vision to analyze and identify the shapes and colors in pictures, but it is also slowly discovering connections between objects on its own. For example, the computers have figured out that zebras tend to be found in savannahs and that tigers look somewhat like zebras.

In just over four months, the network of 200 processors has identified 1,500 objects and 1,200 scenes and has connected the dots to make 2,500 associations.

Some of NEIL's computer-generated associations are wrong, such as "rhino can be a kind of antelope," while some are odd, such as "actor can be found in jail cell" or "news anchor can look similar to Barack Obama."

But Gupta said having a computer make its own associations is an entirely different type of challenge than programing a supercomputer to do one thing very well, or fast. For example, in 1985, Carnegie Mellon researchers programed a computer to play chess; 12 years later, a computer beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a match.

Catherine Havasi, an artificial intelligence expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said humans constantly make decisions using "this huge body of unspoken assumptions," while computers don't. She said humans can also quickly respond to some questions that would take a computer longer to figure out.

"Could a giraffe fit in your car?" she asked. "We'd have an answer, even though we haven't thought about it" in the sense of calculating the giraffe's body mass.

Robert Sloan, an expert on artificial intelligence and head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Chicago, said the NEIL approach could yield interesting results because just using language to teach a computer "has all sorts of problems unto itself."

"What I would be especially impressed by is if they can consistently say `zebra, zebra, zebra' if they see the animal in different locations," Sloan said of the computers.

Gupta is pleased with the initial progress. In the future, NEIL will analyze vast numbers of YouTube videos to look for connections between objects.

"When we started the project, we would not sure it would work," he said. "This is just the start."

Neither Mountain View, California-based Google nor the Office of Naval Research responded to questions about why they're funding NEIL, but there are some hints. The Naval Research website notes that "today's battlespace environment is much more complex than in the past" and that "the rate at which data is arriving into the decision-making system is growing, while the number of humans available to convert the data to actionable intelligence is decreasing."

In other words, computers may make some of the decisions in future wars. The Navy's website notes: "In many operational scenarios, the human presence is not an option."

NEIL's motto is "I Crawl, I See, I Learn," and the researchers hope to keep NEIL running forever. That means the computer might get a lot smarter.

Cardinal sins of emailing revealed

With an estimation of people spending nearly a third of their time at work keeping up with their emails, there are reportedly 10 cardinal sins which are crucial to email etiquettes. 

To keep sanity in place, one must not be so reliant on the technology's lofty speed so as to forget that after sending a mail there would be an instantaneous reply, and if the waiting period is driving one impatient, a polite follow-up is always better. 

According to Huffington Post, one of the long list of annoying emailing habits include sending emails to employees on the weekend, which nearly two-thirds of workers admit receiving. 

Another crucial aspect of emailing is appropriate attention to the subject line, as leaving it blank or filling it merely for the sake of it with random phrases like 'Happy Monday' would determine the importance of the content and prompt the receiver hit the read or trash button accordingly. 

Expecting people to reply soon and reminding them in person of having sent the email is equally annoying and saying that one has received it but not looked at it is as meaningless as the verbal reminder. 

The report said that complete reliance on emails and not using any alternative form of communication is another awful habit which one should keep in check else complain about an overflowing inbox.

How to create new themes for your Android phone

Your Android phone can look just like a Scrabble board. The OS is endlessly customizable, down to the last pixel. 

But creating the most striking and novel Android interface is a baffling chore. Take a look at the many 'how to tutorials' on YouTube, where Android theme designers — or themers , as they are known — offer step-by-step instructions so you can replicate their handiwork. 

A new app, Themer, hopes to bring Android customization to the masses. Users download Themer, which is free, and immediately have a library of smartphone themes, any of which can be installed with a single click of a button. 

Hit "apply", and your phone could, for instance, have the 'In A Row' theme, which is a column of white lettering against a black background, with fonts in the style of a hip restaurant menu. 

There is a 'Grand Theft Auto' theme, a 'Game of Thrones' theme, and even one that uncannily recreates the look of iOS 7, in case for some reason, you want the iPhone look on your Android device. 

To anyone who's ever tried the long-way route to installing such labour-intensive designs, Themer feels like a magic trick.

New artificial intelligence can do everything on your PC

A new artificial intelligence robot that can navigate through almost any computer programme and across the internet has been developed. 

Mako, created by 18-year-old Michael Ghandour in Chino, California, has voice recognition and responds to even the slightest command with super speed. 

It can create powerpoint presentations from scratch, search anything on Google and give updates on the local weather. 

The robot can even read out long passages on a screen, 'The Mirror' reported. 

MAKO is multilingual; it can speak in five different languages soon to be 30, according to its Kickstarter page. 

The page lists Mako's numerous abilities - it can open any website/programme, define any word, type anything you say, retrieve any online image, Google search anything, switch windows to other programmes, empty recycle bin/delete any file/words, do math equations of all kinds and write a report on any subject, among other functions. 

Ghandour who spent seven years working on artificial intelligence programmes like this, believes Mako will "revolutionise how we interact with the technological world."