Android in the final frontier: How NASA is using Google’s Project Tango up in space

Google’s Project Tango isn’t something you can buy yet, but it’s so much smarter and more advanced than the smartphone in your pocket that NASA is blasting it up into space.

The technology in Project Tango is designed to allow phones to map their environment in 3D, something that hasn’t yet been possible with a consumer-grade gadget up until recently.

This isn’t the first time NASA has used Android phones in space: back in 2011, NASA sent up the Nexus S to power its SmartSPHERES, which help the astronauts conduct various tests up in space. Google’s Project Tango is way more technologically advanced than the 4-year-old smartphone, and it’s time for NASA’s little helpers to consider an upgrade.

Google’s technologically advanced prototypes will help find a solution to automating all those “housekeeping” activities that take up the astronauts’ time.

SPHERES stands for “Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites,” but they’re not your typical idea of traditional satellites. They resemble large many-sided dice—like the kind that you’d use in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Once you attach a smartphone, it becomes a SmartSPHERES.

A SPHERE on its own, with no smartphone.

The SmartSPHERES are used to help the astronauts with many common tasks, like measuring the air flow, air quality, and noise levels up in the ISS. “[These are] perfect examples of what a small free-flying robot could take over that would allow the astronauts to go on and do more important things—like science,” said Provencher, though they’re not a permanent solution to this particular predicament.

By attaching a smartphone, which already comes standard with components like WiFi and a very capable processor, NASA can use existing technology to help it with testing up in the ISS.

Chris Provencher, SmartSPHERES Project Manager, demonstrates how Google’s Project Tango hooks up to the SPHERES.

Some of the SmartSPHERES are still using Nexus S handsets while being tested for this sort of work, but those were sent up back in 2011. They navigate using a beacon system that keeps them confined to a 2 x 2 x 2 meter cube. “SPHERES has to operate in that spot, which is great for tests, but the SPHERES cannot fly out of that volume or else it will stop knowing where it is,” said Provencher. “To do all the of the tasks that we’re doing—to really do them—you have to be able to take those air measurements or those noise level readings anywhere inside the space station."

“That’s what we think Project Tango can do,” he added. “The fact that you can build up a map of your environment and learn your way inside that environment is exactly what we need.”
Hacking a phone for space

The Project Tango smartphone NASA uses looks quite different from the ones being developed down here on Earth. Its hardware has been "butterflied" open and stuffed into its own rig that attaches on to the SPHERES. All the essential components that face the rear of the phone are turned around to face forward. 

The infrared camera, infrared projector, and wide-angle camera sensors are moved to the front. The wide-angle camera, in particular, helps the satellite see where it’s going. “As the phone moves…it sees that [a] point moved off to the left, so it can see how far it moved,” explained Provencher. The infrared projector, on the other hand, projects infrared patterns into the environment to be picked up by the infrared camera, which is how Project Tango gets it 3D mapping abilities. It's fundamentally quite similar to the Xbox's Kinect.

On the back, the rig features a bracket that binds the phone to the SPHERES, as well as a MicroUSB data cable. Provencher also mentioned that the phone uses an entirely different battery than what Google originally plopped in there; it’s actually a 4,900mAh battery pack that measures in at 11.5 cm by 6.9 cm by 2.8 cm. 

Project Tango hooked on to the SPHERES.

To work in space, the IRG took out the GSM chip in the Project Tango smartphone, but left all of the camera sensors, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios, and accelerometers inside. The latter, however, was deactivated, because, “this phone uses gravity to help its orientation,” began Provencher. “The handheld version for Planet Earth uses accelerometers, so when you’re moving around it can sense the motion and it can use those measurements to figure out how far it’s actually moved.”

Accelerometers don’t work the same in space, where there's only microgravity. “The SPHERES moves incredibly slowly—two centimeters to four centimeters per second,” continued Provencher. “Accelerometers in these phones are not sensitive enough to detect that, so we cannot use those…at all.”

It took several months to go through all the vision algorithms contained within the Android source code so that the device would no longer rely on gravity. The Project Tango smartphones in space rely on their wide-angle cameras; they measure angles to keep track of how far they’ve moved so that they know their trajectory. They also utilize the infrared sensors to do 3D mapping. “We’re relying more heavily on the infrared—or 3D sensors—than what the Tango typically uses,” he added. “It can measure angles. It keeps track of a feature and it can see how far it’s moved in terms of angles, so it knows it trajectory.”
Plenty of testing left to do

The SmartSPHERES will not be permanently instituted in space. “This is just a test to see that this technology works,” said Provencher. “We’re almost finished with our testing down here…we’re finalizing our software right now and we’ll uplink it as soon as the phones are up there and ready to receive.”

The tweaked Project Tango phones blasted up to space on July 13. Once they’re set up on the ISS and the software is uploaded, they’ll be attached to the SPHERES to begin the second phase of testing, which is to see if they can actually leave that narrow 8-cubic-meter volume they were previously limited to. “We tell it to fly where we want it to,” said Provencher. “We’re going to try flying it out of that little area, out of that module, take a 90-degree turn into another module and then come back.” It will be the crew’s job to ensure the SmartSPHERES don’t veer off and fly into a wall.

Testing with the SmartSPHERES should end this September, with the IRG team hoping to begin mapping out blueprints for a full-blown robot later this fall. “You need a robot,” said Provencher. “The SPHERES satellites itself is a great starting point as a testbed, but it doesn’t have everything we want.”

How to protect yourself from the 'Heartbleed' bug

A new security bug means that people all across the Web are vulnerable to having their passwords and other sensitive data stolen. Here's what consumers can do to protect themselves.

A major new security vulnerability dubbed Heartbleed was disclosed Monday night with severe implications for the entire Web. The bug can scrape a server's memory, where sensitive user data is stored, including private data such as usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers.

It's an extremely serious issue, affecting some 500,000 servers, according to Netcraft, an Internet research firm. Here's what you can do to make sure your information is protected.

Do not log into accounts from afflicted sites until you're sure the company has patched the problem. If the company hasn't been forthcoming -- confirming a fix or keeping you up to date with progress -- reach out to its customer service teams for information, said John Miller, security research manager for TrustWave, a security and compliance firm.

Some Web sites that appeared to have been affected included Yahoo and OKCupid, though the companies have said their sites are all or partly fixed (see below for details). You can check sites on an individual basis here, though caution is still advised even if the site gives you an "all clear" indication. If you're given a red flag, avoid the site for now.

The natural response might be to want to change passwords immediately, but security experts suggest waiting for confirmation of a fix because further activity on a vulnerable site could exacerbate the problem.

Once you've got confirmation of a security patch, change passwords of sensitive accounts like banks and email first. Even if you've implemented two-factor authentication -- which, in addition to a password asks for another piece of identifying information, like a code that's been texted to you -- changing that password is recommended.

Don't be shy about reaching out to small businesses that have your data to make sure they are secure. While the high-profile companies like Yahoo and Imgur certainly know about the problem, small businesses might not even be aware of it, said TrustWave's Miller. Be proactive about making sure your information is safe.

Keep a close eye on financial statements for the next few days. Because attackers can access a server's memory for credit card information, it wouldn't hurt to be on the lookout for unfamiliar charges on your bank statements.

Even after following these guidelines, there is still some riskiness in surfing the Web in the aftermath of the bug. Heartbleed is even said to affect browser cookies, which track users' activity on a site, so even visiting a vulnerable site without logging in could be risky. The Tor Project, which stresses anonymity and privacy, wrote in a blog post that users with those needs "might want to stay away from the Internet entirely for the next few days while things settle."

Yahoo seems to be the most major Web to site have been vulnerable to the bug (preliminary tests for Facebook, Google, and Twitter's Web sites said they appear to be safe). The company said that it has "successfully made appropriate corrections" to the main Yahoo properties: Yahoo Homepage, Search, Mail, Finance, Sports, Food, Tech, Flickr and Tumblr. Still, a Yahoo spokesperson said the company is still working to make the fix across the rest of the Yahoo sites.

"I encourage users to not log in into [Yahoo] and other services that are affected since the credentials could have been leaked if they used the service," said Jaime Blasco, director of AlienVault Labs, a security research firm. "As soon as Yahoo solves the issue, it will be helpful if users change their password just in case."

Yahoo has been stressing authentication of late, so that the company would be able to provide a more personalized experience to users, a drum CEO Marissa Mayer has been beating almost since she took over the company. Yahoo provides services like email and fantasy sports, requiring passwords to get access to the applications.

The company has already had some trouble in the security arena. In January, the company had to reset the passwords of some email users after an attempted attack on a third-party's database. In response to the Heartbleed bug, some users have already expressed their outrage on Twitter. Brandon Oxford, from Royal, Ark., wrote: "After this I'm officially done with Yahoo email. I've now set up a Gmail. They seem to be more on top of stuff than Yahoo."

Other companies that were said to be affected chimed in as well. Imgur, the photo-sharing site popular with Reddit users, said: "[We] invalidated sensitive data such as cookies and session IDs, just to be on the safe side. We're proceeding with caution, since the nature of the attack makes it hard to detect, but we have no reason to believe it has been used against Imgur." OKCupid said, "The fix is now fully live on OKCupid."

The question in the aftermath of something like this is whether Web companies will reform their security practices. There has been a move toward Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) by many of the major Web companies, but not all of them have implemented the practice. PFS means essentially that encryption keys get a very short shelf life, and are not used forever. "People should want their communications to be secure as possible. PFS is one thing they can push for in the future," said Miller.

Article by Richard Nieva

Samsung Gear Fit evolves with newest software

A new display mode, extra controls, and sleep tracking: Here's what's suddenly new and improved about the Gear Fit.

It's a common truth in new tech: a company releases a firmware update, and suddenly there are all-new features to discover.

The newest firmware update to Gear Fit, which will be what anyone buying one will have available to them, introduces a bunch of new features. Some of them really do change the Fit quite a bit.

SAMSUNG GEAR FIT, UP CLOSE (PHOTOS)

 

 

 

 

Portrait mode: Yes, finally, you can flip the Gear Fit's display to stretch out vertically, so you don't have to twist your wrist. It seems to work with every feature, even notifications. Some work better than others.

Sleep tracking: A new mode will track sleep data, much like other fitness bands such as the Jawbone Up and Misfit Shine do.

More watch faces: Additional watch faces have been added, including some cool ones that take better advantage of vertical-display mode.

Customize your Fit via Manager app: Now you can swap the layout of icons, and even change the home screen and add your own photo to the Gear Fit's background.

Extra coaching options: I found some new ways to control the coaching mode while running, setting the heart-rate coaching awareness to "auto," or setting the device to coach around your own maximum heart rate.

Better syncing with S Health: Samsung promises that a lot of the weirdness I found before has been fixed.

Credit goes to Samsung for making these changes so quickly. Sometimes it takes a while for wearables to get much-needed updates, or they never get them at all.

Article by by Scott Stein

Why the plastic body of the Samsung Galaxy S5 is its secret weapon

Some Samsung Galaxy fans were hoping the S5 would get a swanky aluminum body befitting its flagship status. It didn't happen -- but that's a good thing. Here's why.

The S5 retains the removable battery and memory expansion options -- key features for many users.

Around six months ago, long before the Samsung Galaxy S5 was officially unveiled, rumors started kicking around that it would have aluminum body. The thinking was

a) in order to differentiate the S5 from the S4, Samsung should make the new model swankier and

b) true flagship models like the iPhone 5S and HTC One -- and the now the HTC One M8 -- should feature sleek metal "unibody" designs, not "cheap" plastic bodies.

Thankfully, it didn't happen.

While Samsung switched from a smooth, glossy plastic back to a dimpled one, we didn't get aluminum, titanium, magnesium, or some other exotic metal. Nor did we get a curved display. In fact, the S5 isn't so different from the S4. Sure, the screen's a touch larger and the processor, battery life, and camera have been slightly upgraded while a fingerprint sensor and some water resistance have been added.

As bland as that sounds, it's not a bad thing, especially when you consider that the removable plastic back is one of the Galaxy line's important selling points and one of the biggest reasons to buy a Galaxy instead of an iPhone.

For starters, the removable back gives you access to the battery, so you can replace it when it stops holding its charge like it used to. Or you can carry around an extra battery to swap in case you run out of juice.

The HTC One M8's battery isn't removable, but HTC smartly added a memory expansion slot.

True, an embedded battery does have its benefits. It allows designers to slim devices down those extra few millimeters (see Dolcourt's "It's time to kiss the removable smartphone battery goodbye") and embedded batteries typically offer longer "useful life" over time.

For instance, according to the folks at batteriesinaflash.com, "Apple estimates that its sealed battery laptops only lose about 20 percent of their ability to hold a charge after 1,000 discharges of the battery." The same site says that many laptops see a large dip in battery life after less than two years of use. The same holds true for smartphones with removable batteries.

But if anything goes wrong with your iPhone's battery, you're supposed to take it into an Apple Store or an Apple-authorized repair shop to get it replaced (Apple charges $79 for iPhone battery replacement and $100 for an iPad battery replacement)

The other plus to the S5's removable back is the ability to access the memory expansion slot and add memory. As people use their phones to shoot more video -- and watch more of it -- your storage can dry up pretty quickly, especially if you have a bunch of games and photos on your device. There are plenty of cloud archiving options available, but I know plenty of frequent travelers who store dozens of movies on their phone's memory card (don't ask me where they get those movies).

The S5's plastic back has dimples.

Yes, HTC smartly added an "external" memory expansion slot to the One M8 (you could say it was really stupid not to have the slot in the original HTC One). In some ways, I prefer that easy-access design, but with the S5's waterproofing feature, keeping the expansion slot tucked behind the removable back is the way to go.

Doing the math again, Samsung's 64GB Pro Micro-SDXC card costs around $60 online. You can get a 16GB iPhone 5S for $199 with a contract -- the same price as the 16GB GS5. But bumping up to the 64GB iPhone 5S will run you $399 (with a contract) or $200 more. You could pick up three 64GB cards for the same price.

With previous Galaxy phones, the removable back also tied into other accessories. You could swap in backs with integrated front covers, backs that left room for extended batteries, and a back that allowed for wireless Qi charging -- to name a few. For most people, those options aren't much of a selling point, but I expect we'll see similar accessories for the S5.

In the end, the S5's upgrades, like iPhone 5S', may not seem terribly exciting. But at least Samsung didn't sacrifice functionality and flexibility for swankier looks. That flexibility -- the removable battery and expandable memory in particular -- is ultimately what differentiates Samsung's Android phones from Apple's iPhones. And that's why I'd never buy an Android phone that didn't offer those features.

Article by David Carnoy

Qualcomm's 2015 Snapdragon Chips Promise Lightning Fast Phone

Qualcomm has just revealed the specifications for its 2015 mobile chips-and if you thought this year's offering sounded good, you are in for a massive treat when you read about these newer slabs of silicon.

The two new Snapdragon chips, known as the 810 and 808, are both 64-bit, and billed as high performance hardware designed for flagship Android devices. They aren't joking.

Both chips, made using 20 nanometer production techniques, will be smaller, lighter and more power efficient than this year's offering. But the octa-core 810 is the one you really care about: it will sport four Cortex-A57 cores for power-intensive tasks, along with four lower-power Cortex-A53 cores for other times, to keep power consumption down. The chip will support 4K displays, LPDDR4 RAM-that's faster and more efficient than the current LPDDR3 standard- as well as packing voice activation and dual Image Signal Processors for better imaging. Phew.

In terms of the GPU, the on-board Adreno 430 is supposed to be 30 percent faster than the current 420, while Cat 6 LTE-Advanced is baked right into the chip. Finally, there's a 2-stream multi-user MIMO, which, in simple terms, means your Wi-Fi connection will be way faster, too. As for the 808, it will feature just six cores-two A57 and four A53-and support 2K displays. Its Adreno 418 GPU will be 20 percent faster than the current Adreno 330.

All told, that's a lot of features to squeeze into a pair of chips. If Qualcomm delivers on its promises, the phones of 2015 should melt our faces off. We can't wait.

Article by Jamie Condliffe,

Apple iWatch rumored for third quarter

Company is targeting shipments of 65 million smartwatches for 2014, claims a new report out of Taiwan.

This rough mockup shows what CNET thinks an Apple iWatch might look like. 

Will the much-rumored Apple iWatch finally debut later this year? Yes, at least according to one of the latest rumors.

Apple will reportedly unveil its long-awaited smartwatch in the third quarter of 2014, according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News. Based on an alleged bill of materials, supply chain sources told the news site that Apple is aiming to produce 65 million iWatches by year's end.

The watch itself will be manufactured by Quanta Computer, say the sources. Richtek Technology will make the chips, while TPK will create the watch's sapphire touch panels. Further, Apple is developing the watch's processor but will farm out chip production to Samsung, the sources added.

Samsung and other tech players have unveiled their own smartwatches, so Apple is already fashionably late to this party. But Apple could shake up the smartwatch market with a device that outshines rival products. Beyond pairing with your iPhone, an Apple iWatch reportedly would serve as a health and fitness tracker by tapping into an iOS 8 app called Healthbook.

This latest in a long line of iWatch rumors should certainly be taken with a grain of salt. Reports of an Apple smartwatch have been surfacing for quite a while now. But other recent reports have pegged a 2014 launch for the iWatch.

Apple shares were up nearly $3 to about $526.40 in pre-market trading on Tuesday.

Article by Lance Whitney

DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ makes it easier to grab smooth aerial video, photos

DJI's Phantom 2 Vision is pretty much the benchmark for ready-to-fly (RTF) quadcopters for aerial photos and video. Well, it was the benchmark until the new Phantom 2 Vision+ arrived.

The quadcopter itself seems unchanged from the Phantom 2 Vision. You'll find all the same convenience features like color-coded, self-tightening propellers for easy installation and replacement, and a slot-loading battery pack (no connectors to mess with here) that delivers up to 25 minutes of flight time. If you don't stop to charge up its batteries or read the manual, it can go from out of the box to up in the air in about 10 minutes.

The camera on the Vision+, though it looks different, also seems to be the same, at least in specs: an f2.8 lens paired with a 14-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor that can capture Adobe DNG raw or JPEG images and video at up to 1080p at 30fps. You can also control ISO, exposure compensation, and white balance, and choose from 140-, 120-, or 90-degree field of view.

 

 

The biggest change is what is supporting the camera. With the original Vision, the camera was on an antivibration platform stabilized only on the tilt axis and the tilting range during flight (remotely controlled through the mobile Vision app) had a range of 60 degrees. The Vision+, however, has a three-axis gimbal similar to the one available for use with a GoPro camera on the Phantom 2.

The gimbal actively stabilizes the camera in roll, pitch, and yaw directions keeping the video looking smooth even with sudden movements. Plus, the camera can now do a 90-degree tilt letting you shoot straight down.

DJI PHANTOM 2 VISION+

 

 

 

The quadcopter's integrated GPS autopilot system allows it to hover at a specific altitude and hold its position so you can get the exact shot you're after. The GPS also gives you a return-to-home fail-safe that will signal the Phantom to fly back to your takeoff spot and land in case you travel out of range or simply panic.

And if you're after more of a drone experience, the Phantom 2 Vision+ is fully compatible with DJI's Ground Station capabilities, which lets you plot a GPS path for the Phantom to navigate autonomously.

Also new for the Vision+ is increased range for the Wi-Fi extender. Sitting on a bar attached to the radio controller, the extender delivers the first-person view from the Vision+ camera to an Android or iOS device using the DJI Vision app (that can also be clamped on the controller). The Vision was capped at 300 meters, but the Vision+ can travel up to 700 meters (2,296 feet) away.

The app not only lets you pilot from a first-person perspective and control the camera, but it's also what delivers important telemetry and flight information such as altitude, direction, flight distance, and speed.

Lastly, DJI added a safety feature to prevent flights that are too close to large and small airports.

We'll have a full review in the near future, but if you know you want one, the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ is available for pre-order for $1,299.

Article by Joshua Goldman