Introduction
Commonly we use technology in our daily life because it make our job easier and faster. Technology is not only computers, televisions, and other electronics devices.Technology is machines, techniques, crafts, systems, and methods of organization, in order to solve a problem, handle an applied input/output relation or perform a specific function. Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species’ ability to control and adapt to their natural environments.
Google Glass
Technical background
type of wearable technology with an optical head-mounted display (OHMD). It was developed by Google with the mission of producing a mass-market ubiquitous computer. Google Glass displays information in a smartphone-like hands-free format. Wearers communicate with the Internet via natural language voice commands. Google started selling Google Glass in the USA on April 15, 2014 for a limited period of time for $1500, before it later became officially available to the general public on May 15, 2014 for the same price. Before that users were required to receive invitations before they could try Google Glass.
Google provides four prescription frame choices for $225.00 U.S and free with the purchase of any new Glass unit. It is necessary to remove a small screw in order to move the Google Glass from one frame to another. Google entered in a partnership with the Italian eyewear company Luxottica, owners of the Ray-Ban, Oakley, and other brands, to offer additional frame designs.
Company Profile
Google is an American multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, and software. Most of its profits are derived from AdWords.
Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University. Together they own about 14 percent of its shares but control 56 of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock. They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. Its mission statement from the outset was “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” and its unofficial slogan was “Don’t be evil.”In 2004, Google moved to headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex.
Rapid growth since incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions and partnerships beyondGoogle’s core search engine. It offers online productivity software including email (Gmail), a cloud storage service (Google Drive), an office suite (Google Docs) and a social networking service (Google+). Desktopproducts include applications for web browsing, organizing and editing photos, and instant messaging. The company leads the development of the Android mobile operating system and the browser-only Chrome OS] for a netbook known as a Chromebook. Google has moved increasingly into communications hardware: it partners with major electronics manufacturers in production of its high-end Nexus devices and acquired Motorola Mobilityin May 2012.] In 2012, a fiber-optic infrastructure was installed in Kansas City to facilitate a Google Fiberbroadband service.
The corporation has been estimated to run more than one million servers in data centers around the world (as of 2007) and to process over one billion search requests and about 24 petabytes of user-generated data each day (as of 2009). In December 2013 Alexa listed google.com as the most visited website in the world. Numerous Google sites in other languages figure in the top one hundred, as do several other Google-owned sites such as YouTube and Blogger. Its market dominance has led to prominent media coverage, including criticism of the company over issues such as copyright, censorship, and privacy.
Significance and purpose
The Explorer version of Google Glass uses a Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS), field-sequential color, LED illuminated display. The display’s LED illumination is first P-polarized and then shines through the in-coupling polarizing beam splitter (PBS) to the LCoS panel. The panel reflects the light and alters it to S-polarization at active pixel sites. The in-coupling PBS then reflects the S-polarized areas of light at 45° through the out-coupling beam splitter to a collimating reflector at the other end. Finally, the out-coupling beam splitter (which is a partially reflecting mirror, not a polarizing beam splitter) reflects the collimated light another 45° and into the wearer’s eye
Conceptual development
Google Glass was developed by Google X, the facility within Google devoted to technological advancements such as driverless cars.
Google Glass is smaller and slimmer than previous head-mounted display designs.
The Google Glass prototype resembled standard eyeglasses with the lens replaced by a head-up display. In the summer of 2011, Google engineered a prototype that weighed 8 pounds (3,600 g); it is now lighter than the average pair of sunglasses.
In April 2013, the Explorer Edition was made available to Google I/Odevelopers in the United States for $1,500.
The product began testing in April 2012. Sergey Brin wore a prototype of the Glass to an April 5, 2012, Foundation Fighting Blindness event in San Francisco. In May 2012, Google demonstrated for the first time how Google Glass could be used to shoot video.
In June 2014, Nepal Government adopted Google Glass for tackling with the Poachers of wild animals and herbs of Chitwan International Park and other parks listed under World heritage sites. Gurkha Military currently uses Google Glass to track the animals and birds in the jungle. This operation lead to the latest development in Military operation. Google Glass was used in Military for the First time in the world by Nepal.
Quality Attributes
Reliability
Google Glass applications are free applications built by third-party developers. Glass also uses many existing Google applications, such as Google Now, Google Maps, Google+, and Gmail.
Third-party applications announced at South by Southwest (SXSW) include Evernote, Skitch, The New York Times, andPath.
On April 25, 2013, Google released the Mirror API, allowing developers to start making apps for Glass. In the terms of service, it is stated that developers may not put ads in their apps or charge fees; a Google representative told The Verge that this might change in the future.
Many developers and companies have built applications for Glass, including news apps, facial recognition, exercise, photo manipulation, translation, and sharing to social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.
On May 16, 2013, Google announced the release of seven new apps, including reminders from Evernote, fashion news fromElle, and news alerts from CNN. Following Google’s XE7 Glass Explorer Edition update in early July 2013, evidence of a “Glass Boutique”, a store that will allow synchronization to Glass of Glassware and APKs, was noted.
Version XE8 made a debut for Google Glass on August 12, 2013. It brings an integrated video player with playback controls, the ability to post an update to Path, and lets users save notes to Evernote. Several other minute improvements include volume controls, improved voice recognition, and several new Google Now cards.
On November 19, 2013, Google unveiled its Glass Development Kit, showcasing a translation app Word Lens, a cooking app AllTheCooks, and an exercise appStrava among others as successful examples.
On May 15, 2014, Google announced 3 news apps TripIt, FourSquare and OpenTable in order to entice travelers.
On June 25, 2014, Google announced that notifications from Android Wear will be sent to Glass.
Performance
in November 2012, Glass received recognition by Time Magazine as one of the “Best Inventions of the Year 2012”, alongside inventions such as the Curiosity Rover.
After a visit to the University of Cambridge by Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt in February 2013, Wolfson College professor John Naughton praised the Glass and compared it with the achievements of hardware and networking pioneer Douglas Engelbart. Naughton wrote that Engelbart believed that machines “should do what machines do best, thereby freeing up humans to do what they do best”.
In December 2013, David Datuna became the first artist to incorporate Google Glass into a contemporary work of art. The artwork debuted at a private event at The New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, US and was moved to the Miami Design District for the public debut. Over 1500 people used Google Glass to experience Datuna’s American flag from his “Viewpoint of Billions” series. Instances like this demonstrate that Glass can alter perspective, with the possibility of opening up new dimensions in the visual arts.
The eyewear’s functionality and minimalist appearance have been compared to Steve Mann’s EyeTap, also known as “Glass” or “Digital Eye Glass”. According to Mann, both devices affect both privacy and secrecy by introducing a two-sidedsurveillance and sousveillance.
Security
Several proofs of concept for Google Glass have been proposed in healthcare.
On June 20, 2013, Rafael J. Grossmann, MD, FACS, a Venezuelan surgeon practicing in the USA, was the first surgeon to ever demonstrate the use of Google Glass during a live surgical procedure.
In July 2013, Lucien Engelen commenced research on the usability and impact of Google Glass in the health care field. As of August 2013, Engelen, who is based atSingularity University and in Europe at Radboud University Medical Center, is the first healthcare professional in Europe to participate in the Glass Explorer program. His research on Google Glass (starting August 9, 2013) was conducted in operating rooms, ambulances, a trauma helicopter, general practice, and home care as well as the use in public transportation for visually or physically impaired. Research contained making pictures, videos streaming to other locations dictating operative log, having students watch the procedures and tele-consultation through Hangout. Engelen documented his findings in blogs, videos,pictures, on Twitter,] and on Google+. and is still ongoing.
Key findings of his research included:
The quality of pictures and video are usable for healthcare education, reference, and remote consultation. The camera needs to be tilted to different angle] for most of the operative procedures
Tele-consultation is possible—depending on the available bandwidth—during operative procedures.
A stabilizer should be added to the video function to prevent choppy transmission when a surgeon looks to screens or colleagues.
Battery life can be easily extended with the use of an external battery.
Controlling the device and/or programs from another device is needed for some features because of sterile environment.
Text-to-speech (“Take a Note” to Evernote) exhibited a correction rate of 60 percent, without the addition of a medical thesaurus.
A protocol or checklist displayed on the screen of Glass can be helpful during procedures.
Possible problems
7 Potential Problems With Google’s Glasses
Google reportedly will offer augmented reality glasses by the end of the year. But are you ready for the pitfalls?
The company won’t comment publicly on the project, which according to the New York Times, is being spearheaded by Google engineer Steve Lee and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
But reports published by 9-to-5 Mac and theNew York Times suggest that Google’s wearable augmented reality accessory will rely on Android software and cost between $250 and $600, about as much as a current smartphone.
Presumably, either a cellular data plan will be required or the glasses will communicate with the wearer’s Android phone via Bluetooth or over a Wi-Fi connection. Bluetooth, which operates at low power, seems to make the most sense.
[ Google has been criticized for bypassing browser privacy controls. Read Google’s Privacy Invasion: It’s Your Fault. ]
The glasses are said to include a low-resolution camera for capturing information about the wearer’s location. Relevant information derived from image processing and location data will then be overlaid on the wearer’s field of view.
Google’s glasses are likely to build upon existing Google image processing technology like Google Goggles, which can identify objects for identification and letters in various languages for translation. Just imagine the utility of gazing at a pair of golden arches and seeing the words “McDonald’s” come up on your glasses display screen.
The user interface is said to be driven by head gestures, which at least will avoid the annoyance of people muttering verbal commands to their glasses.
Google supposedly will begin selling the glasses before the end of year, initially as an experiment. In other words, there’s no business model at present, which means no ads.
As an experiment, Google’s glasses are bound to be great fun. But expect some problems before Google, or anyone else for that matter, figures out how to make augmented reality glasses that provide real value.
Here are a few potential pitfalls:
Privacy
The outcry over people beaming images back to Google’s data centers will be deafening, far worse than complaints about Google’s monitoring of Web browsing habits. Google engineers are said to be actively discussing the privacy implications of the glasses. But the company’s history of repeated privacy blunders suggests controversy is inevitable.
Google has the technology to enable facial recognition with its Google Goggles app, but has avoided doing so for fear of privacy problems. And that’s the real shame here, because augmented reality glasses should be able to do things like present the name of the person you’re looking at. That kind of technology will be available eventually, at least to police departments. But as a society, we’re not ready for it.
Redundancy
Augmented reality is cool. But putting the technology into a pair of glasses isn’t strictly necessary. Everything your Google glasses might be able to do, your Android phone will do better, particularly given the assumption that the glasses will be intended for periodic rather than constant use.
Cost
For several hundred dollars, you’ll get what? Services already available on your smartphone. Augmented reality makes a lot of sense if you’re, say, a NASA astronaut who needs to see Space Shuttle schematics in your visor while you’re on a space walk to make repairs. Augmented reality makes less sense for consumers. A more cost-effective solution might be a smartphone scaffold for mounting your phone on your baseball cap.
Health
There’s already enough FUD about mobile phones and brain cancer. But even the most scientifically-minded are likely to balk if Google’s glasses rely on anything more powerful than Bluetooth to transmit and receive data. And that’s to say nothing of the potential health effects of visual distraction and impairment. No one wants their last thought to be, “Hey, Google Maps says I’m walking across Highway 101… “
Liability
And if there are health risks, there will be liability problems. People will wear Google’s glasses while driving, despite explicit warnings not to do so. They will collide with elderly pedestrians and someone will get hurt. Someone will end up going cross-eyed. There will be lawsuits. And some politician will hold a hearing. Add the cost of an insurance policy to your Google Glasses bill.
Battery Life
Battery life continues to hinder the utility of smartphones, tablets, and notebook computers. And in these devices, you can generally feel the weight of the battery. Glasses need to be light to be comfortable, so the battery will necessarily be small. As a consequence, the glasses are unlikely to be useful for very long, unless they require a separate tethered battery … and that would ruin the experience. The ideal augmented reality glasses will be able to run perpetually on sunlight. We’re probably several decades away from that kind of photovoltaic and processor efficiency.
Control
Head-tiling will not be enough if the glasses are to offer services beyond navigation. The glasses will either have to convert hand gestures to commands or accept voice commands. So add a microphone, which adds another layer of privacy problems and engineering requirements.
The glasses will also have to be extraordinarily responsive–when you turn your head you won’t be happy with information related to where you were looking three seconds ago. That will mean either a very fast network connection–something many mobile carriers can’t manage consistently–or displaying as little data as possible for the sake of speed and to appease mobile carriers, which already consider you a data hog.
Of course, the glasses could run on Wi-Fi networks rather than cellular networks. But that would limit them to being novelty items for augmented museum tours.
Google’s glasses sound promising. But it’s probably safe to say that you can wait for version 2.0.
Design specification
References
http://www.informationweek.com/
Google Chromecast
Technical background
digital media player developed by Google. The device, a 2.83-inch (72 mm) HDMI dongle, plays audio/video content on a high-definition display by directly streaming it via Wi-Fi from the Internet or a local network. Users select the media to play using Chromecast-enabled mobile apps and web apps. Alternatively, content can be mirrored from the Google Chrome web browser running on a personal computer, as well as directly from the screen of some Android devices. Chromecast was announced on July 24, 2013, and made available for purchase on the same day in the United States for US$35, along with a limited-time promotion for three free months of Netflix. The Google Cast SDK was released on February 3, 2014, allowing third parties to modify their software to work with Chromecast.
Company Profile
Google is an American multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, and software. Most of its profits are derived from AdWords.
Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University. Together they own about 14 percent of its shares but control 56 of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock. They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. Its mission statement from the outset was “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” and its unofficial slogan was “Don’t be evil.”In 2004, Google moved to headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex.
Rapid growth since incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions and partnerships beyond Google’s core search engine. It offers online productivity software including email (Gmail), a cloud storage service (Google Drive), an office suite (Google Docs) and a social networking service (Google+). Desktopproducts include applications for web browsing, organizing and editing photos, and instant messaging. The company leads the development of the Android mobile operating system and the browser-only Chrome OS for a netbook known as a Chromebook. Google has moved increasingly into communications hardware: it partners with major electronics manufacturers in production of its high-end Nexus devices and acquired Motorola Mobilityin May 2012. In 2012, a fiber-optic infrastructure was installed in Kansas City to facilitate a Google Fiberbroadband service.
The corporation has been estimated to run more than one million servers in data centers around the world (as of 2007) and to process over one billion search requests and about 24 petabytes of user-generated data each day (as of 2009). In December 2013 Alexa listed google.com as the most visited website in the world. Numerous Google sites in other languages figure in the top one hundred, as do several other Google-owned sites such as YouTube and Blogger. Its market dominance has led to prominent media coverage, including criticism of the company over issues such as copyright, censorship, and privacy.
Significance and purpose
Measuring 2.83 inches (72 mm), Chromecast is a dongle that plugs into the HDMI port of a high-definition television or monitor, while the power is supplied by connecting the device’s micro-USB port to an external power supply or a USB port. The device connects to the Internet through a Wi-Fi connection to the user’s home network. Chromecast offers two methods to stream content to a television. The first employs Chromecast-enabledmobile apps and web apps. The second can mirror most content displayed by the web browser Google Chromerunning on a personal computer, as well as content displayed on some Android devices. In both cases, playback is initiated through the “cast” button on the controlling device. If the television’s HDMI ports support the Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) feature, pressing the cast button will also result in the Chromecast automatically switching the television’s active audio/video input using the CEC command “One Touch Playback”.
The primary method of playing media on the device is through Chromecast-enabled mobile apps and web apps, which control program selection, playback, and volume. The media is streamed by the Chromecast within a local version of the Chrome browser, thus freeing the controlling device for other tasks, such as answering a call or using another application, without disrupting playback. Both Android and iOS mobile apps are available, as are web apps running on computers using Google Chrome (on Windows, OS X, and Chrome OS) through an extension. Streamed content can be Internet-based, as provided by specific apps, as well as resident on the controlling device. Apps that provide access to the latter include AllCast, Avia, and Plex.
Content can also be mirrored from the Chrome browser tab on a personal computer or the screen of some Android devices. In the case of “tab casting”, the quality of the image depends on the processing power of the device and minimum system requirements apply to video streaming. Content that uses plug-ins, such as Silverlight and QuickTime, does not fully work, as the stream may lack sound or image. Google lists the feature as beta. Similarly, screen images mirrored from Android devices are typically degraded, reflecting the fact that video displayed on the smaller screens of tablets and smartphones is usually downscaled.
Several new features for Chromecast were announced at Google I/O 2014. Users’ controller devices will no longer need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the Chromecast to cast content. Instead, the controlling device can discover nearby Chromecasts by detecting ultrasonic sounds emitted by the television to which the Chromecast is connected; alternatively, the controlling device can be paired with the Chromecast over the web using a four-digit PIN code provided on screen. A new “Backdrop” feature will incorporate a user-personalized feed of content into the Chromecast’s home/standby screen
Conceptual development
Chromecast was made available in the US for purchase online on July 24, 2013. To entice consumers to purchase the device, Google initially offered buyers free access to the Netflix service for a three-month period. Chromecast quickly sold out onAmazon.com, BestBuy.com, and the Google Play Store, and within 24 hours, the Netflix promotion was ended because of high demand for the device. On October 19, 2013, the Chromecast mobile app was released outside of the US for the first time. On March 18, 2014, Google released the Chromecast to 11 new markets, including the UK, Germany, Canada and more.
Nilay Patel of The Verge gave the Chromecast an 8.5/10 score in his review, saying, “The Chromecast is basically an impulse purchase that just happens to be the simplest, cheapest, and best solution for getting a browser window on your TV.” Speaking of the adapter’s potential, he said, “it seems like the Chromecast might actually deliver on all that potential, but Google still has a lot of work to do.” In particular, Patel pointed to Apple’s AirPlay protocol as an example of an established competitor with many more features. TechCrunch’s review of the device said, “Even with a bug or two rearing its head, the Chromecast is easily worth its $35 pricetag.” Gizmodo gave the device a positive review, highlighting the ease of setup and sharing video. In comparing the device to competitors, the review said, “Chromecast isn’t Google’s version of Apple TV, and it’s not trying to be… But Chromecast also costs a third of what those devices do, and has plenty of potential given that its SDK is just a few days old.”
Michael Gorman of Engadget gave the Chromecast an 84/100 score, writing, “it’s a platform that’s likely to improve dramatically as more apps start to support the technology.” In his comparing the Chromecast to competing devices, Gorman illustrated that it initially had support from fewer multimedia services, but because of its low price and ease of use, he concluded “we can wholeheartedly recommend the Chromecast for anyone who’s been looking for an easy, unobtrusive way to put some brains into their dumb TV.” David Pogue of The New York Times praised the device for its $35 retail price, saying, “It’s already a fine price for what this gadget does, and it will seem better and better the more video apps are made to work with it.” Pogue noted the limitations of the device’s screen mirroring feature and said using only mobile devices as a remote control was not “especially graceful”, but he called Chromecast the “smallest, cheapest, simplest way yet to add Internet to your TV”.
Quality Attributes
Reliability
At the introductory press conference, Hugo Barra, then Google’s vice president of Android product management, said that Chromecast is “running a simplified version of Chrome OS.” Subsequently, a team of hackers reported that the device is “more Android than ChromeOS” and appears to be adapted from software embedded in Google TV.
Google lists Chromecast operating system updates on the Chrome Releases blog. As with Chrome OS devices, Chromecast operating system updates are downloaded automatically without notification
Performance
Chromecast contains the Marvell 88DE3005 (Armada 1500-mini) system on a chip, which includes codecs for hardware decoding of the VP8 and H.264 video compression formats. Radio communication is handled by AzureWave NH–387 Wi-Fi which implements 802.11b/g/n (2.4 GHz). The device has 512 MB of MicronDDR3L RAM and 2 GB of flash storage. The model number H2G2-42 is likely a reference to the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy abbreviation “H2G2″—in the novel, the number 42 is the “Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.” The bundled power adapter bears the model number MST3K-US, possibly shorthand for Mystery Science Theater 3000
Possible problem
For Chromecast to work, the device needs to be connected to an open HDMI port on the back of your television, a power source and your home’s Wi-Fi network. Easy enough.
For me, my first challenge arrived when it came to power. Chromecast comes with a microUSB cable, but the cable wasn’t quite long enough to reach from the back of the television to the power strip on the floor below. The cable is fairly standard length, but it has to make it all the way from the top of a 40-inch TV to the floor, a feat that none of our other connected devices have to accomplish, and one that the Chromecast fell a little short on.
I repurposed another power strip in our home to bring the power a little closer, but long-term I’m going to have to invest in a USB extender if we want to keep Chromecast connected all the time.
If your power source is behind your television, then you shouldn’t have an issue. Some newer TVs have USB connections on the back that could be used to power Chromecast as well. Unfortunately, my television just doesn’t happen to be one of them.
Beyond the power issue, getting the device connected to the television was pretty plug and play, and, without the power snafu, would have taken less than a minute
Security
The Google Chromecast is shaping up to be quite a popular device. Largely due to its price point, adoption of Google’s latest media streamer has been so high as to exhaust Google’s free Netflix promotion. As exciting as the new device is, it’s hard to disagree that the included feature set could be a bit better. However, as with all limited devices, it was only a matter of time before someone rooted it, and that’s exactly what the folks over at GTV Hacker have done.
So how does it work? You first must get your device into USB boot mode, which is accomplished by holding down the single button as the device powers on. Then you use a powered mini USB OTG cable to provide the device with a signed image at a specific address on the USB drive. This firmware is passed along to the device’s cryptography hardware to be verified. However, due to problems with the device’s image signature verification, return code is simply not checked. Thus, you are able to run your own code at will. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that this security hole could be closed with any update at any time, so it’s likely not to be available for too long.
So what can you do with this? Right now, not a whole lot. In fact, if you’re not thinking of developing for the device, we’d recommend not doing this due to the inherent risks. However, the groundwork has been laid for future developments that will build upon this and add more functionality to the admittedly spartan device. I mean after all, who wouldn’t want Miracast support on the Chromecast? Seems like a match made in heaven.
To learn more head over to the GTV Hacker Wiki and also read their coverage of the exploit. And when you’re ready to get in on the Chromecast fun yourself, be sure to head over to thenewly created Google Chromecast forum.
Design specification
References
http://www.xda-developers.com/
Oculus Rift
Technical background
The Rift is an upcoming virtual reality head-mounted display, being developed by Oculus VR. During its period as an independent company, Oculus VR raised US$91 million for the development of the Rift. The consumer version of the product is expected to become available in late 2014 or early 2015.
Company Profile
Oculus VR is a virtual reality technology company founded by Brendan Iribe and Palmer Luckey. Their first product, still in development, is the Oculus Rift, a head-mounted display for immersive virtual reality (VR). In March 2014, Facebookagreed to acquire Oculus VR for US$2 billion in cash and Facebook stock
Significance and purpose
The Oculus developer kit was an initial version financed by a Kickstarter campaign, which sought to get the initial Oculus Rift into the hands of developers to begin integration of the device into their games. In August 2012, Oculus announced that the “dev kit” version of the Oculus Rift would be given as a reward to backers who pledged $300 or more on Kickstarter. There was also a limited run of 100 unassembled Rift prototype kits for pledges over $275 that would ship a month earlier.
Developer kit preorders were made available for $300 on their website starting on September 26, 2012. These kits sold at a rate of 4–5 per minute for the first day, before slowing down throughout the week. As of March 12, 2014, the Rift DK1 kit was no longer available to order from Oculus. In March 2014 at GDC, Oculus announced the upcoming Devkit 2 (DK2) which they expected to begin shipping in July 2014. A few weeks later they stated on their website that new orders was expected to be shipped in a second batch in August of the same year.
On March 19, 2014, Oculus VR announced the much anticipated second iteration of their development kit (DK2) and started taking pre-orders. It features several improvements over the first development kit, such as having a higher-resolution low-persistence OLED display, higher refresh rate, head positional tracking, a detachable cable, and the omission of the need for the external control box.
Conceptual development
Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, earned a reputation for having the largest personal collection of head-mounted displays in the world, and is a longtime moderator in Meant to be Seen (MTBS) 3D’s discussion forums.[citation needed] Through MTBS’ forums, Palmer developed the idea of creating a new head-mounted display that was both more effective than what is currently on the market, and inexpensive for gamers.
Coincidentally, John Carmack had been doing his own research and happened upon Palmer’s developments. After sampling an early unit, Carmack favored Luckey’s prototype and just before the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Id Software announced that their future updated version of Doom , which would be known as BFG Edition, would be compatible with head-mounted display units. During the convention, Carmack introduced a duct taped head-mounted display based on Palmer’s Oculus Rift prototype, which ran Carmack’s own software. The unit featured a high speed IMU and a 5.6-inch (14 cm) LCD display, visible via dual lenses that were positioned over the eyes to provide a 90 degrees horizontal and 110 degrees vertical stereoscopic 3D perspective.
On March 25, 2014, Facebook announced that it had agreed to buy Oculus VR for $400 million in cash, $1.6 billion in Facebook stock, and an additional $300 million subject to Oculus VR’s meeting certain financial targets in a transaction expected to close in the second quarter of 2014
Quality Attributes
Reliability
The first prototype of the device used a 5.6-inch (14 cm) screen, but after the unexpectedly successful Kickstarter, Oculus determined that the panel was not available in sufficient quantities, so they changed their design to use a new 7-inch (18 cm) screen, which makes the Rift developer kit somewhat bulkier than the first prototypes.
The new panel’s pixel switching time is significantly lower, reducing latency and motion blur when turning one’s head quickly. The pixel fill is also better, reducing thescreen door effect and making individual pixels less noticeable. The LCD is brighter and the color depth is 24 bits per pixel. The 7-inch screen also makes the stereoscopic 3D no longer 100% overlapping, the left eye seeing extra area to the left and the right eye seeing extra area to the right. This mimics normal human vision, which does not overlap 100% either, although the overlap area is smaller on the Rift than in real life.
The field of view (FOV) is more than 90 degrees horizontal (110 degrees diagonal), which is more than double the FOV of most competing devices, and is the primary strength of the device. It is intended to almost fill the wearer’s entire field of view, and the real world is completely blocked out, to create a strong sense of immersion. The resolution is 1280×800 (16:10 aspect ratio), which leads to an effective of 640×800 per eye (4:5 aspect ratio). However, since the Rift does not feature a 100% overlap between the eyes, the combined horizontal resolution is effectively greater than 640. The image for each eye is shown in the panel as abarrel distorted image that is then corrected by pincushion effect created by lenses in the headset, generating a spherical-mapped image for each eye. The panel’s resolution is expected to be upgraded to at least 1920×1080 for the final consumer version.
Initial prototypes used a Hillcrest Labs 3DoF head tracker that is normally 125 Hz, with a special firmware that John Carmack requested which makes it run at 250 Hz, tracker latency being vital due to the dependency of virtual reality’s realism on response time. The latest version includes Oculus’ new 1000 Hz Adjacent Reality Tracker that will allow for much lower latency tracking than almost any other tracker. It uses a combination of 3-axis gyros, accelerometers, and magnetometers, which make it capable of absolute (relative to earth) head orientation tracking without drift.
The weight of the headset is approximately 379 g (13.4 oz), which is an increase of about 90 g (3.2 oz) in weight due to the increased screen size, and it does not include headphones.
The headset has a dial on each side that can be turned with a screwdriver which allows adjusting each display to be moved closer or further away from the eyes. The development kit also includes interchangeable lenses that will allow for simple dioptric correction. Adjustment for the interpupillary distance is done in software, although given its large exit pupil, this should not be a severe issue with the Rift.
The developer version of the Rift has DVI and HDMI input on the control box, and comes with one HDMI cable, and a DVI to HDMI adapter.
A USB interface is used for sending tracking data to the host machine. It also comes with a power adapter that must be used to connect the control box to a power outlet.
Games and game platforms must be specifically designed to work correctly with the Oculus Rift. Oculus is producing a software development kit (SDK) to assist developers with integrating the Oculus Rift with their games. The SDK will include code, samples and documentation. According to Oculus, game integration will begin with PCs and smartphones, and be followed by consoles at a later date. Since its introduction, many developers have been working on integration.
Several titles are playable on the Rift via the free and open source Vireio Perception VR drivers. Games currently with full or partial support include Left 4 Dead, Skyrim, Portal 2, Half Life 2, and Bioshock.
Several commercial options are also available, including Vireio Perception 2.0, the VorpX commercial driver, and Dynamic Digital Depth’s Oculus Rift “Add-On” VR for their TriDef Ignition stereoscopic 3D drivers.
In an effort to make sure claims of VR compatibility have an objective meaning, Meant to be Seen released GameGradeVR. The service is non-proprietary and works with DDD, Vireio Perception, VorpX, and native VR software that does not require a middleware add-on. Gamer driven, the service asks the user a series of questions about required game settings, visual flexibility, and any problems or anomalies that remain. The final score and entry tells users what they need to get the best results, and informs software developers what problems need solving without infringing on artistic choices.
Performance
I did a great deal of Google searching to find some information on this subject and I came up empty handed. So in this topic I would like to reach out to the Oculus Rift community and discuss, with evidence preferably, the affect the Oculus Rift has on CPU performance for gaming.
In games like Arma 3 and GTA 4, CPU performance is a bottleneck long before the GPU is, in most high end systems today. I believe this is due to the massive amount of data the CPU has to compile and send to the GPU to render. This is evidenced by increasing draw distance in these games, and thus putting a significantly higher load on the CPU and watching GPU usage fall off dramatically.
My concern is, what happens when we suddenly have to render a second perspective? How does this scale against CPU performance? If a single frame on a 2D monitor is causing a CPU to bottleneck around say, 70 fps, what happens when we now introduce the Oculus Rift and must render an additional screen with slightly off perspective? Does it cut the frame-rate clear in half down to 35? Does the game engine somehow know to “copy and paste” all the accumulated geometrical data and send it off to the GPU with a very slight hit?
If anyone out there with a Rift would be willing to do some testing, I think it would be a great contribution to the community and the world really, in determining what kind of performance users can expect to have on their computer when they pick up an Oculus Rift.
Testing for this is rather difficult as it requires a relatively controlled environment. This means no multiplayer games, and using the same scenario over and over again to get results. It also helps to narrow things down to specific games, games that are notorious for having CPU bottlenecks in particular as we are not concerned with the GPU usage in these tests. I will provide a simple setup using the two above mentioned games to show you how to test for CPU bottlenecks.
Possible problem
Developers of first-person shooters will need to address the motion sickness issues with the Oculus Rift, according to an Elite Dangerous developer.
Elite Dangerous is an open-world space game currently being developed with the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, and sees the gamer seated in the pilot’s cockpit for the majority of the game at present.
The first iteration of Oculus Rift had major issues with motion blur that was causing gamers to feel rather poorly, but this is being improved as the virtual reality system develops, especially with the new Oculus Rift Crystal Cove prototype.
However, despite these improvements, Elite Dangerous Designer Tom Kewell said FPS gamers will struggle with the motion sickness issues, unless developers specifically address them from the off.
“Unless the technology for Oculus changes, anyone developing a first person shooter game for the Oculus Rift is going to have to have a bit of a think about how they’re going to solve the [motion sickness] issue,” explained Kewell to TrustedReviews. “If you’re playing the game where the fiction is that you’re static in a cockpit, you’ve got a much easier task in that regard. It just doesn’t seem to affect people as much.”
“There’s an experience where if you’re sat down with a controller, and that’s the context of the game, it makes sense to your inner eye. The experience you’re getting from your eyes isn’t too dissimilar to the experience that you’re expecting via the context of the game.”
Even if you stayed seated whilst playing an FPS title with the virtual reality headset, users are struggling to adjust to the experience, especially with the Rift as it is at its current dev kit level
“We’re tried playing Half Life 2 with our Oculus Rift at work, and it is a stunning experience – I love being able to turn my head and shoot at things – but then when you take a step forwards with the control pad or WASD [keys] you have to brace yourself because your inner ear thinks it’s wrong.”
“It’s because the resolution is lower and the ever so slight delay, which is pretty hard to avoid in these dev kits, apparently that triggers an effect in your eyes that makes you believe “something’s wrong with my vision, I must have eaten something bad” and you vomit.”
Kewell added that in some scenarios, a little motion sickness could be a game enhancing feature.
“To be honest, if you’re pulling a rather stomach churning manoeuvre in a ship, then a little bit of motion sickness from that almost enhances the experience. Not entirely sure we want people throwing up on the cockpit or anything though.”
Security
As an ongoing commitment to security for our internal systems, we regularly run security audits to identify vulnerabilities. Over the weekend we discovered a vulnerability that potentially allowed for SQL injection within the Oculus Developer Center.
When we discovered the vulnerability, we took down our systems as a precautionary effort and applied the required fixes. As an added security measure, we’re requiring all Developer Center users to change their passwords upon next login.
Please know that no credit card or address information is stored in the Developer Center database, and we don’t have any reason to believe that any personal or confidential information was taken before we discovered the issue.
Design specification
References
https://developer.oculusvr.com
http://www.trustedreviews.com/
Pebble Smartwatch
Technical background
The Pebble is a smartwatch developed by Pebble Technology Corporation and released in 2013 that was funded via the crowd funding platform Kickstarter. It features a black and white e-paper display, a vibrating motor, a magnetometer, ambient light sensors and an accelerometer, enabling its use as an activity tracker. The Pebble is compatible with Android and iOS devices. When connected to a phone, it can receive a vibrating alert to text messages, emails, incoming calls, and notifications from social media accounts. It can also act as a remote controller for the phone, or for cameras such as the GoPro. As of February 2014, the Pebble app store had over 1,000 applications.
The Pebble raised $10.3 million for Kickstarter, making it the most successful product funded through that company up until then. Best Buy, an American consumer electronics corporation, began selling Pebble smartwatches in July 2013, and sold out within five days.
Company Profile
Pebble Technology, Corp
New company and their company profile is private
Significance and purpose
Pebble can send users notifications when they receive an email.
A Pebble attached to a bike, displaying bicycling speed and distance, as well as time
You can use this watch as an alternative cell phone and more convenient to use
Conceptual development
The Pebble Watch was designed based on a concept by Eric Migicovsky describing a watch that could display messages from a smartphone and select android devices. Migicovsky successfully took his idea through the Y Combinator business incubator program, and unusually for a startup company at Y Combinator, Migicovsky’s business actually generated revenue during the program. Migicovsky was able to raise US$375,000 from investors such as Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, but was unable to raise additional funds. Discussing his inability to raise further funds, Migicovsky told the Los Angeles Times, “I wasn’t extremely surprised… hardware is much harder to raise money for. We were hoping we could convince some people to our vision, but it didn’t work out.”
Funding
After raising venture capital for the product under their former name inPulse, the company failed to attract traditional investors under their new brand name, so the company requested crowd funding in April 2012.
Migicovsky’s company Pebble Technology launched a Kickstarter campaign on April 11, 2012 with an initial fundraising target of $100,000. Backers spending $115 would receive a Pebble when they became available ($99 for the first 200), effectively pre-ordering the $150 Pebble at a discounted price. Within two hours of going live, the project had met the $100,000 goal, and within six days, the project had become the most funded project in the history of Kickstarter to that point, raising over $4.7 million with 30 days left in the campaign.
On May 10, 2012, Pebble Technology announced they were limiting the number of pre-orders. On May 18, 2012, funding closed with $10,266,844 pledged by 68,928 people.
Production
Pebble entered mass production in January 2013 with a planned production of 15,000 watches per week. Shipping was first expected to begin September 2012, but later on Pebble Technology was expected to begin shipping units on January 23, 2013. As of March 20, 2014, Pebble has sold over 400,000 units.
Quality Attributes
Reliability
The watch has a 1.26-inch 144 × 168 pixel black and white e-paper display using an ultra low-power “transflective LCD” manufactured by Sharp with a backlight, a vibrating motor, a magnetometer, ambient light sensors and a three-axisaccelerometer. It can communicate with an Android or iOS device using both Bluetooth 2.1 and Bluetooth 4.0 (Bluetooth Low Energy) using Stonestreet One’s Bluetopia+MFi software stack. Bluetooth 4.0 with low energy (LE) support was not initially enabled, but a firmware update in November 2013 enabled it. The watch is charged using a modified USB-cable that attaches magnetically to the watch to maintain water resistance capability. The battery was reported in April 2012 to last seven days. Based on feedback from Kickstarter backers, the developers added water-resistance to the list of features. The Pebble has a waterproof rating of 5 atm, which means it can be submerged down to 40m and has been tested in both fresh and salt water, allowing one to shower, dive or swim while wearing the watch.
As of February 2014, the Pebble app store had over 1,000 applications. These include notifications for emails, calls, text messages, social media activity, stock prices; activity tracking (movement, sleep, estimates of calories burned); remote control of smartphones, cameras and home appliances; turn-by-turn directions using the GPS receiver in the smartphone.
The Pebble was slated to ship with apps pre-installed, including a cycling app to measure speed, distance and pace through GPS, and a golf rangefinder app that supports more than 25,000 courses. These apps use data received from a connected phone for distance, speed and range information. More apps will be downloadable from the phone, and an SDK will be freely available. Not all apps will be installed when the watch ships but CEO Eric Migicovsky announced on January 9, 2013 that there will be updates for the watch’s OS (which is based on FreeRTOS) every 2–3 weeks until all features are added.
Pebble will integrate with the web service IFTTT, which will allow users to create rules for event that will send notifications to the watch. The watch’s firmware operating system is based on FreeRTOS and uses Newlib, the STM32 Peripheral Lib, the Ragel state machine compiler, and an unnamed UTF-8 Decoder.
Performance
The PebbleWatch is a smartwatch which communicates via Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR or Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy with most iOS or Android-based devices. The Pebble features an E-Paper (electrophoretic) display made from E Ink imaging film to deliver ultra-low-power performance. Its brilliant backlit display is easy to read day or night and has a scratch-resistant, shatter-resistant lens with an anti-glare optical coating. The Pebble also has a 5 ATM waterproof rating for both fresh and salt water. By simply downloading the Pebble app to your Android-based or iOS-based device, you can customize the watch with apps from the Pebble watch app store and receive software updates wirelessly. The Pebble will also notify you of messages such as incoming caller ID, email, SMS (text messages), iMessage (iOS only), calendar alerts, Facebook/Twitter messages, and weather alerts, and has a silent vibrating alarm and timer. Sensors include a 3-axis MEMS accelerometer with gesture detection, 3-axis digital magnetometer, and ambient light sensor. The Pebble watch is powered by a rechargeable 3.7 V, 130 mAh Li-Polymer battery that supplies a listed 7 days of use time.
Possible problem
I recently started using my Pebble smartwatch again after a few months’ hiatus. With the recent launch of the Pebble Appstore for iOS (and Android, in beta), it seemed like a good time to give the watch another try.
So far, my experience hasn’t improved much. Smartwatches should be time-savers, cutting down the number of times we dig into our pockets for our smartphones, but using Pebble in its current state is still more of a hassle.
I was hoping that with version 2.0, Pebble would change the way you access your apps, but it’s still the same backwards system as before: To cycle through watchfaces, you just press the up or down buttons on the side of the watch. That’s simple. To launch an app, you must press the middle button, press the down button five times to cycle through various settings menus (one of which is a redundant watchfaces menu), then keep pressing until you find the app you want, then press the middle button again.
Why isn’t it the other way around? Once I’ve picked a style of clock I like, I’m going to stick with it for a while. I don’t need instant access to a bunch other watchfaces that all serve the same basic purpose. What I really need is faster access to apps like ESPN, so I can glance at the scores instantly. If I could cycle through these apps with the same ease that I could cycle through watchfaces, it’d save a lot of time. (I realize some apps make use of the up and down buttons, so how about letting you cycle through apps by pressing the back button first, or holding it while pressing up or down? There’s got to be a way to make it work.)
For some apps, I’d rather not have to manually open them at all. Being able to buy Starbucks coffee with PebbleBucks is nice, but it’d be better if the app popped up automatically so I could pay without having to press a bunch of buttons first. Same goes with Foursquare; instead of making me open the app to check in, it should just present that option automatically after I’ve been sitting in the restaurant for a few minutes.
Pressing some buttons isn’t a huge burden, but neither is taking my phone out of my pocket. And once I’ve done that, I have access to everything, not just the snippets of information that Pebble provides. The only way Pebble erases that advantage is by providing near-instant access to information or basic functions. Right now, it’s far too slow.
Despite my grumpiness about Pebble’s current state, I’m not entirely disappointed with the purchase. I enjoy using Pebble to control my phone’s music playback in the car without taking my eyes off the road. And if I could be more committed to exercising, I’d probably love having apps like GymSets and Runkeeper. Even as a geeky-looking timepiece with notifications, $150 isn’t a lot to pay, so I don’t feel like I’ve been duped.
But overall, the time I’ve spent fiddling with Pebble in search of ways to make it more useful far outweighs the time I’ve saved, which seems to defeat the purpose. Until Pebble removes the barriers between me and its apps, I can’t see myself feeling naked without it.
Security
My Pebble smartwatch, like many (most?) other smart watches, uses Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth Smart, BLE, BTLE, etc) to communicate with my smart phone.
There’s some security in the link, including authentication, data encryption, and signing, however last summer researchers suggested an attack that appears to compromise the encryption.
I have email sender names and subjects, phone numbers and names, and other data sent to my watch over this link, further this link allows me to query my smart phone and to some degree control it. Most worrying, I typically act on the information it provides, so if incorrect information was sent, such as an emergency text from a loved one, it can be a way to control me to some degree.
The impact of this particular attack isn’t immediately clear to me, can someone help break it down for me?
I’d like to know if there are any simple steps I can take that will prevent this attack. If not, I may need to discontinue use of it until security is improved.
Are there other attacks I should be aware of for Bluetooth Smart?
Design specification
References
http://security.stackexchange.com/
iPhone 5S
Technical background
The iPhone 5S (marketed with a stylized lowercase ‘s’ as iPhone 5s) is a smartphone developed by Apple Inc. It is part of the iPhone line, and was released on September 20, 2013. Apple held an event to formally introduce the high-range phone, and its mid-range counterpart, the iPhone 5C, on September 10, 2013.
As with the principle of the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5S is a revised version of its predecessor, iPhone 5. The phone maintains a very similar design to its predecessor, aside from the introduction of a new home button design using a laser-cut sapphire cover surrounded by a metallic ring, Touch ID, a fingerprint recognition system built directly into the home button which can be used to unlock the phone and authenticate App Store and iTunes Store purchases, and an updated camera with a larger aperture and a dual-LED flash optimized for different color temperatures. It also introduced the A7 dual-core processor, the first 64-bit processor to be used on a smartphone, accompanied by the M7″motion co-processor”, a dedicated processor for processing motion data from its accelerometer and gyroscopeswithout requiring the attention of the main processor. It was also the first Apple device to ship with the newest version of the iOS mobile operating system, iOS 7, which introduced a revamped visual appearance and other new features.
Reception towards the device was generally positive, with some outlets considering it to be the best smartphone available on the market due to its upgraded hardware, Touch ID, and other changes introduced by iOS 7. However, others criticized iPhone 5S for being too similar to its predecessors, while others showed security concerns about the Touch ID system. The iPhone 5S, along with iPhone 5C, sold nine million units on their weekend of release, breaking Apple’s sales record for iPhones. The iPhone 5S was the best selling phone on all major US carriers in September 2013.
Company Profile
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, online services, and personal computers. Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers, the iPod media player, the iPhone smartphone, and theiPad tablet computer. Its online services include iCloud, iTunes Store, and App Store. Its consumer software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the Safari web browser, and the iLifeand iWork creativity and productivity suites.
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976, to develop and sellpersonal computers. It was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. on January 3, 1977, and was renamed as Apple Inc. on January 9, 2007, to reflect its shifted focus towards consumer electronics.
Apple is the world’s second-largest information technology company by revenue after Samsung Electronics, and the world’s third-largest mobile phone maker after Samsung and Nokia. Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008, and in the world from 2008 to 2012. On September 30, 2013, Apple surpassed Coca-Cola to become the world’s most valuable brand in the Omnicom Group’s “Best Global Brands” report. However, the company has received criticism for its contractors’ labor practices, as well as for its own environmental and business practices.
As of June 2014, Apple maintains 425 retail stores in fourteen countries, as well as the online Apple Storeand iTunes Store, the latter of which is the world’s largest music retailer. Apple is the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization, with an estimated market capitalization of $446 billion by January, 2014. As of September 29, 2012, the company had 72,800 permanent full-time employees and 3,300 temporary full-time employees worldwide. Its worldwide annual revenue in 2013 totalled $170 billion. As of Q1 2014, Apple’s five-year growth average is 39% for top line growth and 45% for bottom line growth. In May 2013, Apple entered the top ten of the Fortune 500 list of companies for the first time, rising 11 places above its 2012 ranking to take the sixth position.
Significance and purpose
You have the power to create, shape, and share your life. The power to do everyday things in extraordinary ways, and to do extraordinary things every day. With iPhone 5s, you’re more powerful than you think.
Conceptual development
Before its official unveiling, media speculation primarily centered around reports that the next iPhone would include afingerprint scanner; including Apple’s July 2012 acquisition of AuthenTec, a developer of mobile security products,references to a fingerprint sensor on the home button in the beta release of iOS 7 and leaked packaging for an iPhone 5S showing that the traditional home button now had a metallic “ring” around it. Similar ring-based imagery was seen on the official invite to Apple’s iPhone press event in September 2013, where the new device was unveiled.Shortly before its official unveiling, The Wall Street Journal also reported the rumor.
Apple announced iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S during a media event at its Cupertino headquarters on September 10, 2013. While iPhone 5C became available for preorder on September 13, 2013, iPhone 5S was not available for preorder, however was released on the same day as the 5C, September 20, 2013. While most of the promotion focused on Touch ID, the 64-bit Apple A7 was also a highlight during the event:
This is the first-ever 64-bit processor in a phone of any kind. I don’t think the other guys are even talking about it yet. Why go through all this? The benefits are huge. The A7 is up to twice as fast as the previous-generation system at CPU tasks, and up to twice as fast at graphics tasks, too.
—Phil Schiller, Apple keynote at 4 Infinite Loop on September 10, 2013
Schiller then showed demos of Infinity Blade III to demonstrate the A7’s processing power and the device’s camera using untouched photographs. The release of iOS 7 on September 18, 2013, was also announced during the keynote.
On September 20, 2013, iPhone 5S was released in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, China, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It was released in 25 additional countries on October 25, 2013, and in 12 countries on November 1, 2013. Indonesia was the last country to receive the iPhone 5S with its release date being the 26 January 2014
Quality Attributes
Reliability
The iPhone 5S features iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system. The user interface of iOS is based on the concept ofdirect manipulation, using multi-touch gestures. Interface control elements consist of sliders, switches, and buttons.Interaction with the OS includes gestures such as swipe, tap, pinch and reverse pinch, all of which have specific definitions within the context of the iOS operating system and its multi-touch interface. Internal accelerometers are used by some applications to respond to shaking the device (one common result is the undo command) or rotating it vertically (one common result is switching from portrait to landscape mode).
iPhone 5S is supplied with iOS 7, released on September 20, 2013. Jonathan Ive, the designer of iOS 7’s new elements, described the update as “bringing order to complexity”, highlighting features such as refined typography, new icons, translucency, layering, physics, and gyroscope-driven parallaxing as some of the major changes to the design.The design of both iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks (version 10.9) noticeably depart from skeuomorphic elements such as green felt in Game Center, wood in Newsstand, and leather in Calendar, in favor of flat, colourful design.
The phone can act as a hotspot, sharing its Internet connection over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB, and also accesses theApp Store, an online application distribution platform for iOS developed and maintained by Apple. The service allows users to browse and download applications that were developed with Xcode and the iOS SDK and were published through Apple.
iOS 7 adds AirDrop, an ad-hoc Wi-Fi sharing platform. Users can share files with the iPhone 5 onwards, the iPod Touch (5th generation), iPad (4th generation) onwards, or iPad Mini (1st generation) onwards. The operating system also adds Control Center, which gives iOS users access to commonly used controls and apps. By swiping up from any screen–including the Lock screen–users can do such things as switch to Airplane mode, turn Wi-Fi on or off, adjust the display brightness and similar basic functions of the device. It also includes a new integrated flashlight function to operate the reverse camera’s flash LED as a flashlight. The iPhone 5S functions as a media player, and includesApple Maps and Passbook. The mapping application includes turn-by-turn navigation spoken directions, 3D views in some major cities and real-time traffic. Users can rotate their device horizontally to landscape mode to access a collage of album covers.
The 5S includes Siri, an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator. The application uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Web services. Apple claims that the software adapts to the user’s individual preferences over time and personalizes results. iOS 7 adds new male and female voices, new system setting functionalities, a redesign to match the rest of the operating system, and integration with Twitter, Wikipedia, Bing, and Photos. Facebook comes integrated through Apple’s native apps. Facebook features can be directly accessed from within native apps such as Calendar which can sync Facebook events, or use Facebook’s like button from within the App Store. iTunes Radio, an internet radio service, is also included on iPhone 5S. It is a free, ad-supported service available to all iTunes users, featuring Siri integration on iOS. Users are able to skip tracks, customize stations, and purchase the station’s songs from iTunes Store. Users can also search through their history of previous songs
Performance
iPhone 5S is powered by the new Apple A7 system-on-chip, which the company claimed was the first 64-bit processor ever used on a smartphone, with the pre-installed iOS 7 operating system and its pre-loaded apps being optimized for 64-bit mode, promising increased performance. Performance may be negligible at release without the developers updating their apps. The A7 processor is manufactured by Samsung, and is accompanied by a new M7 “motion co-processor”, a dedicated processor for processing motion data from its accelerometer and gyroscopes without requiring the attention of the main processor, which integrates with iOS 7’s new CoreMotion APIs. The M7 motion coprocessor will help to improve battery life of iPhone 5S by keeping away motion related task from the main CPU.
The phone includes a 1560 mAh battery, which provides 10 hours of talk time and 250 hours of standby time.The battery is not meant to be removed. As a consequence, in the event of a failure, customers are obliged to seek Apple support.
While the camera is still 8 megapixels in resolution with the image capture size of 3264 × 2448 (4:3), the lens has a larger aperture (f/2.2) and larger sized pixels in its image sensor than previous iPhone models, and has dual “True Tone” flashes—consisting of an amber LED and a white LED, which are variably used based on the color temperature of the photo to improve color balancing. The camera also includes automatic image stabilization, dynamic tone mapping, 10fps burst mode, “best shot” mode and slow motion video at 120 fps.
The home button on iPhone 5S incorporates a fingerprint recognition system known as Touch ID, based on technology from AuthenTec, a company which Apple had acquired in 2012. The sensor uses a capacitive CMOS-based sensor which can detect the “sub-epidermal layers” of fingers at 500 pixels per inch, and uses a 360-degree design that can read the print at any angle. The sensor itself is activated by a touch-sensitive metallic ring surrounding the button. Touch ID can be used for various authentication activities within the operating system, such as unlocking the device or authenticating App Store and iTunes purchases instead of an Apple ID password. The sensor can be trained to recognize the fingerprints of multiple fingers and multiple users. Fingerprint data is stored in an encrypted format within a “secure enclave” of the A7 chip itself, and is not accessible to any other apps or servers (including iCloud).
Several problems were experienced with iPhone 5S’s hardware after its release. The most widely reported issue is that the angle reported by the phone’s level sensor had drifted by several degrees, so that the gyroscope, compass, and accelerometer and reports suggested that this is a hardware-induced problem.Some encountered other problems like Blue Screen of Death, the power button making a rattling noise when the phone was shaken, overheating, the microphone not working, and Touch ID not working for iTunes purchases. However, some of these issues had been already fixed by software updates
Possible problem
iPhone 5S received a mostly positive reception from reviewers and commentators. Walt Mossberg of All Things Digital gave the phone a favorable review, saying that Touch ID “sounds like a gimmick, but it’s a real advance, the biggest step ever in biometric authentication for everyday devices,” and labeled it “the best smartphone on the market.” David Pogue of The New York Timespraised Touch ID, but said that the innovation of the smartphone market has been saturated, and “maybe the age of annual mega-leaps is over.” He focused much of his review on iOS 7, which he believed was the biggest change of the device over previous generations, eulogizing new Siri features, Control Center, and AirDrop. In an editorial, Pogue stated that iOS 7 was the biggest change in the iPhone series, citing utilitarian interface changes as the main contributor to this. Myriam Joire of Engadget found that the iPhone 5S could benefit significantly from the A7 if developers created applications optimized for the 64-bit processor and said that iOS 7 was the most notable update of the release.
Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch also thought that iPhone 5S was the best smartphone available. He said “looks may not be different from the iPhone 5, but the internal components have a dramatic impact on day-to-day activities normal for a smartphone user,” and went into detail explaining the impact of the improved camera and specifications on the phone and argues that the 64-bit A7 processor will not reach its full potential until developers create applications supporting it.Scott Stein of CNET said that although iPhone 5S “is not a required upgrade, but it’s easily the fastest and most advanced Apple smartphone to date”. He criticized the lack of design change over iPhone 5. Anand Lal Shimpi of AnandTech praised the phone’s A7 processor, describing it as “seriously impressive”, and stated that it was the most “futureproof of any iPhone ever launched. As much as it pains me to use the word futureproof, if you are one of those people who likes to hold onto their device for a while – the iPhone 5s is as good a starting point as any.”
Scott Lowe of IGN praised the 5S as being “one of the best looking, most well-constructed smartphones on the market,” also speaking highly of its 64-bit processor, “which has a substantial lead in processing power over the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, accounting for a graphics boost of up to 32% and 38% in CPU benchmarks.” Criticism was directed towards the fingerprint scanner as well as the battery life of the 5S. Another criticism was directed towards software bugs, but felt that they were owed to a lack of “patched support for the A7’s 64-bit architecture or lingering issues with iOS 7, but in either scenario, should be resolved easily with future updates.”
Apple’s share price fell 5.4% after the launch to close at a month low of $467.71 on the NASDAQ. Although reviewers praised the new iPhone for its camera, 64-bit A7 chip, M7 motion-chip, and fingerprint scanning capabilities, some investors thought that the iPhone 5S, although a notable improvement over the 5, was still relatively unchanged from its predecessor, and worried that the iPhone line had become a stagnant, dull product
Security
iOS is designed with advanced security technologies that offer enterprise-grade protection for corporate data while maintaining a great user experience. This comprehensive approach to security allows forend-to-end control of devices, data, and apps and keeps users focused on being productive.
iOS delivers a secure architecture throughout, covering everything from the startup process to third-party apps. It includes a “sandboxed” approach to application runtime protection and requires application signing to prevent tampering.
iOS devices provide hardware encryption for all data stored on the device, data in transmission, and additional encryption of email and application data with enhanced data protection.
iOS provides seamless access to corporate information networks, and also provides features to ensure users are authorized and data is protected in transmission.
Establishing strong policies for access is critical to protecting corporate information. iOS provides a comprehensive approach to both configuration and enforcement
Powerful technologies in the iOS 7 SDK and MDM frameworks enable robust app security,
a consistent set of tools for in-house and third-party iOS developers, and an integrated experience for users. With comprehensive security built into iOS, there’s no need to use third‑party SDKs or app wrappers to secure apps distributed within the enterprise.
Design specification
References
Microsoft Xbox One
Technical background
video game console developed and marketed by Microsoft. Announced on May 21, 2013, it is the successor to the Xbox 360 and is the third console in the Xbox family.It directly competes with Sony’s PlayStation 4and Nintendo’s Wii U as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles. Xbox One was released across North America, several European markets, Australia, and New Zealand on November 22, 2013, and is scheduled for release in 26 other markets, including Japan, the remaining European markets, and the Middle East, sometime in September 2014. It will also be the first Xbox game console to be released in China, specifically in the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone. Microsoft and various publications have classified the device as an “all-in-one entertainment system”, making it a competitor to other digital media players such as the Apple TV and the Google TVplatforms.
Moving away from the Xbox 360’s PowerPC-based architecture and back into the x86 architecture used in the first Xbox, the console features an AMD processor built around the x86-64 instruction set. Xbox One places an increased emphasis on entertainment integration, offering the ability to overlay live television programming from an existing set-top box, split-screen multitasking of applications, and improved second screen support. The console includes a newly upgraded Kinect motion sensing peripheral, previously an optional attachment for the Xbox 360. Microsoft is emphasizing the Kinect’s integration with Xbox One through features such as a built-in Skype client forvideoconferencing, user recognition and tracking, and the ability to use voice commands and gestures to navigate the console’s user interface. New gaming functionality includes an expanded Xbox Live service, improved Kinect functionality, cloud computing, the ability to automatically record and share video highlights from gameplay, and support for live streaming gameplay online.
Company Profile
Microsoft Corporation /ˈmaɪkrɵˌsɒft/ or /-ˌsɔːft/ is an American multinational corporation headquartered inRedmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windowsline of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer web browser. Its flagship hardware products are Xbox game console and the Microsoft Surface series of tablets. It is the world’s largest software maker measured by revenues. It is also one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters forAltair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows. The company’s 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created an estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date.
As of 2013, Microsoft is market dominant in both the IBM PC-compatible operating system and office software suite markets (the latter with Microsoft Office). The company also produces a wide range of other software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including Internet search (with Bing), the video game industry (with the Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles), the digital services market (through MSN), and mobile phones (via the Windows Phone OS). In June 2012, Microsoft entered the personal computer production market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface, a line of tablet computers.
With the acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services division to form Microsoft Mobile Oy, the company will re-enter the smartphone hardware market, after its previous attempt, Microsoft Kin, which resulted from their acquisition of Danger Inc
Significance and purpose
A gaming console which gives interactive playing which you can enjoy
Conceptual development
Xbox One is the successor to Xbox 360, Microsoft’s previous video game console, which was introduced in 2005 as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. As of June 2013, it remains in production by Microsoft, having received a number of small hardware revisions to reduce the unit’s size and improve its reliability. In 2010, Microsoft’s Chris Lewis stated that the 360 was about “halfway” through its lifecycle; this was aided by the introduction of the Kinect device that year which Lewis stated would extend the lifecycle by five years.
Initial hardware for the 360’s successor, commonly referred to by the industry as the “Xbox 720”, was reportedly in hands of developers as early as May 2011. The official developer kit was codenamed Durango, and appeared to be available to developers by mid-2012. Leaked documents suggested that the new console would include an improved Kinect device, cloud access to games and media, integration with phone and tablet devices, and technology to provide players heads-up displays on glasses worn by the player, codenamed “Fortaleza”; Microsoft did not comment on these reported features. Similar, leaked design documents also suggested that Microsoft was seeking to eliminate the ability to play used games, though Microsoft later clarified they were still reviewing the design and were “thinking about what is next and how we can push the boundaries of technology like we did with Kinect”, but did not comment on the validity of the information.
The console was publicly unveiled under the name Xbox One on May 21, 2013 in a press conference designed to cover the unit’s broad multimedia and social capabilities. A second press event for the console was held during E3 on June 10, 2013, focusing on its video game-oriented functionality. At that time, Microsoft announced that the console would be released in 21 different markets at launch, but this was later amended down to 13. The change, which pushed the release date for the other 8 markets to 2014, was attributed to unforeseen complexity in localizing the new Kinect periphera
Quality Attributes
Reliability
Xbox One’s exterior casing consists of a two-tone “liquid black” finish; with half finished in a matte grey, and the other in a glossier black. The design was intended to evoke a more entertainment-oriented and simplified look than previous iterations of the console; among other changes, the LED rings used by Xbox 360 are replaced by a glowing white Xbox logo used to communicate the system’s status to the user.
APU
It is powered by an AMD “Jaguar” Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) with two quad-core modules totaling eight x86-64 cores clocked at 1.75 GHz, and 8 GB of DDR3 RAM with a memory bandwidth of 68.3 GB/s. The memory subsystem also features an additional 32 MB of “embedded static” RAM, or ESRAM, with a memory bandwidth of 109 GB/s. Eurogamer has been told that for simultaneous read and write operations the ESRAM is capable of a theoretical memory bandwidth of 192 GB/s and that a memory bandwidth of 133 GB/s has been achieved with operations that involved alpha transparency blending. The system includes a 500 GB non-replaceable hard drive, and a Blu-ray Disc optical drive. About 362 GB of hard drive space is available for the storage of games; support for external drives was added in June 2014.
It was reported that 3 GB of RAM would be reserved for the operating system and utility software, leaving 5 GB for games. The graphics processing unit(GPU) is based on an AMD GCN architecture with 12 compute units, which have a total of 768 cores, running at 853 MHz providing an estimated peak theoretical power of 1.31 TFLOPS. For networking, Xbox One supports Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n wireless, and Wi-Fi Direct.
“We purposefully did not target the highest end graphics. We targeted it more as a broad entertainment play. And did it in an intelligent way.”
—Greg Williams, GM of Xbox silicon development
Xbox One supports 4K resolution (3840×2160) (2160p) video output and 7.1 surround sound. Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of marketing and strategy for Microsoft, has stated that there is no hardware restriction that would prevent games from running at 4K resolution. Unlike the Xbox 360, the Xbox One does not support 1080i and other interlaced resolutions. Xbox One supports HDMI 1.4 for both input and output, and does not support composite or component video.
The console can monitor its internal temperature and adjust accordingly to prevent overheating; alongside increasing fan speed, additional measures can be taken, including forcing the hardware to run in a lower power state—a feature that was not present on Xbox 360. Restricting power consumption lowers maximum performance, but the setting would be intended as a last resort to prevent permanent hardware damage.
Controller
Xbox One’s controller maintains the overall layout found in the Xbox 360’s design. The directional pad has been changed to a four-way design, and the battery compartment is slimmer. Menu and View buttons have replaced the Start and Back buttons. Each trigger features independent rumble motors called “Impulse Triggers”, which allows developers to program directional vibration. One trigger can be made to vibrate when firing a gun, or both can work together to create feedback that indicates the direction of an incoming hit. Consumers who Pre-ordered the Xbox One, “Day One Edition” included controllers that had the words “Day One 2013” engraved in the center of the controller. Microsoft invested over $100 million into refining the controller design for the Xbox One.
Kinect
Xbox One ships with an updated version of Kinect for motion tracking and voice recognition; the new Kinect uses a 1080pwide-angle time-of-flight camera (in comparison to the VGA resolution of the previous version), and processes 2 gigabits of data per second to read its environment. The new Kinect has greater accuracy over its predecessor, can track up to 6 skeletons at once, perform heart rate tracking, track gestures performed with an Xbox One controller, and scan QR codes to redeem Xbox Live gift cards. The Kinect microphone remains active at all times by default so it can receive voice commands from the user when needed, even when the console is in sleep mode (so it can be awakened with a command).
As was the case on the Xbox 360, Kinect usage is optional, and privacy settings are available for adjusting how the sensor operates.
A Windows-compatible version of the new Kinect is scheduled to be released in Summer 2014.
Microsoft introduced a retail version of the Xbox One without Kinect, available starting June 9, 2014 at $399. Microsoft stated the decision to remove Kinect was to “[offer] a choice to people that would allow people to buy an Xbox One and then ramp up to Kinect when they can afford to”. The company also stated that the additional processing power available without handling the features of Kinect could be put to use in games, and are in discussions with developers for how to take advantage of the additional processing power. Kareem Choudhry, Director of Development of Xbox Software Engineering later clarified that the performance improvement, representing about 10% of the GPU processing power, was reserved for Kinect skeletal tracking regardless if a Kinect unit was attached, and with the release of the June 2014 Xbox Development Kit, can be accessed by any developer that does not require this tracking.
Performance
Home sweet Home screen.
Everyone can have their own personalized Home screen, for instant access to their favorite games and entertainment. Plus, sign into Xbox Live on any Xbox One, and your Home screen, digital games, content, profile and saves come to you
Do two things at once.
Why choose between two things you love when you can do both at the same time? Xbox One lets you quickly jump from TV to a movie to a game. And then snap them side by side to do two things simultaneously. Music and games. Skype voice calls and live sports. Snap Upload next to the game you are playing to watch clips related to that game. Split your screen, not your time
The NFL on Xbox One.
Xbox One is changing the game and transforming the way fans experience the NFL from the living room. Stay connected to all the latest NFL news, video highlights, scores, and stats from the around the League, anytime you want. And with built-in NFL.com Fantasy Football, you can even follow your Fantasy updates in real-time while watching live TV broadcast games. Xbox One is proud to be the Official Game Console of the NFL
Be together even when you are apart.
Skype has been specially designed for Xbox One. Chat with friends on your TV in stunning HD. Use Skype in Snap mode to chat while you watch TV. Or participate in group video Skype calls with up to three people around the world, all from the comfort of your living room.
Possible problem
Xbox One Problems
The Xbox One is Microsoft’s next-gen console. However, it’s not without problems. Here are the main issues with Microsoft’s answer to the PS4.
It’s not backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games
One of the most annoying things about the Xbox One is that does not play Xbox 360 games. The Xbox 360 played a few original Xbox games, but the new console doesn’t play any of the games of its predecessor.
It’s a real shame, given how many of us have giant Xbox 360 game collections built up over years. You won’t be able to retire your old console yet.
Microsoft has also said it has no plans to offer a PS4-style game streaming service (due to launch for that console in 2014), as it would be extremely difficult to implement. What we’re likely to get over the coming years are re-released versions of old Xbox 360 games, given a spruce-up and individually ported to the Xbox One. However, you’ll obviously have to pay for those, so it’s no replacement for actual backwards compatibility.
The slight silver lining is that some publishers are offering low-cost next-gen upgrades for games that are going to be released on both Xbox 360 and Xbox One. However, this applied to a handful of titles only, and you do have to pay a small fee.
Should I care? Yes, it’s one of the most annoying parts of the Xbox One.
It’s sold out
The Xbox One is completely out of stock in online retailers. You can pre-order, but some places are already sold out until after Christmas.
The situation is likely to calm down a bit after Christmas, but it’s best to get your pre-order in soon, or prepare for a long wait on the high street – possibly followed by crushing disappointment.
Amazon has already announced that stock of both the PS4 and Xbox One is run out until after Christmas.
Should I care? Yes, if you want one soon.
It’s massive, its power brick is massive
The Xbox One is a very large console. It’s much bigger than the PS4, and bigger than the Xbox 360 too.
Apparently it’s to ensure that the console does not overheat, and it also helps to keep noise down as the fan doesn’t have to work too hard. Overheating was behind the ‘red ring’ issues of the Xbox 360, so it’s a pretty sensible move.
However, the power brick is a bit annoying. Not only is the console huge, so is the powerbrick. Yep, it has a separate power supply, while the much smaller PS4 fits this into its svelte body.
Should I care? If you have limited space, yes. Otherwise, just appreciate that it means your Xbox One will hopefully never die.
Several features won’t work in the UK
Lots of the more unusual features of the Xbox One won’t work in the UK – at least at launch. The most important are the media features that were shown off in the first few big Xbox One unveil events.
In the US, the Xbox One will be able to be used to control your TV, even offering its own electronic programme guide that’ll show you what’s on each channel. Microsoft has said this should make it to the UK in ‘2014’, but offered no more precise information on exactly when – it could be any time from January to December. And we’re guessing it won’t be January.
Without this functionality, the Xbox One will never really be the centre of your living room – which the Xbox One was basically sold as in the first place.
Should I care? Yes, it’s a real pity.
iPlayer isn’t supported at launch
Microsoft has announced the first wave of streaming services that’ll be available in the UK. We get Netflix and LoveFilm, but no BBC iPlayer.
We have a strong suspicion that this is down to the BBC rather than Microsoft, which would presumably love to have one of the most popular streaming services in the world on its console (it’s available on the Xbox 360 after all). The BBC is famously not all that quick to react to integration within new tech, needing to justify the development incurred thanks to the license fee. You have to love bureaucracy.
Should I care? Yes, but it’s probably the BBC’s fault.
External hard drives not supported at launch
Another feature missing at launch is external hard drive support. Microsoft says you will be to use hard drives in time – USB 3.0 ones too – but the console will need to get an update before they’ll work.
In time you’ll be able to install games to external hard drives, though, which is very good news. Game installs can take up to 40GB of space, which will quickly eat away at the 500GB internal hard drive.
Should I care? Not much, as hopefully it’ll be added before you fill the HDD up.
Not all games are played at 1080p
The Xbox One is a Full HD console, able to play 1080p games with – in theory – relative ease. However, not all games output in this resolution – some are ‘only’ 720p, like the majority of Xbox 360 games.
This does come across as a bit odd when it’s meant to be a ‘next gen’ console. However, there are obvious reasons for this. Developers generally have to cross-develop for Xbox 360-gen and Xbox One-gen consoles at the moment, and using lower-res textures will make development much easier.
It also helps to avoid most of the inevitable performance issues often seen in games made for new platforms.
Should I care? No, and most people probably wouldn’t notice if they weren’t told.
The PS4 is more powerful
For gamers, the Sony PS4 has a pretty strong draw over Microsoft’s console. It’s more powerful, with a beefier GPU, and faster RAM.
In previous generations, graphical fidelity has always been the top factor to show off at a console’s launch. And if the Xbox One seems fundamentally less impressive as a console, it will be in trouble.
For a more in-depth look at this issue, read our tech tear-down of the Xbox One hardware.
Should I care? It’s too early to tell what effect this may have on graphics, but it’s worth considering.
Security
Privacy in Xbox One and Kinect
Xbox One and Kinect offer easy and approachable ways to control your games and entertainment with your voice and gestures. By recognizing you, Xbox One can tailor personal experiences and customize content just for you.
At Microsoft, we prioritize your privacy and know that protecting your personal data is very important. That is why we created Kinect and Xbox One from the ground up with built-in privacy controls and safeguards that put you in charge of your entertainment experiences and allow you to customize how your personal information or data is, or is not shared.
When we launched the first Kinect for Xbox 360 we also made privacy a top priority for the first-of-its-kind technology and we provided you with information on how the technology works, how your data is used and how you can control it. With Kinect and Xbox One we want to again provide a guide to answer your privacy questions and share how you can customize your entertainment experiences.
Overview/General
Q: What privacy updates did you make for the new Kinect and Xbox One?
A: We built the new Kinect from the ground up with entirely new technology to increase its performance and capabilities. With Kinect and Xbox One you get a new world of games, music, live TV, movies and apps, all personalized to your interests and accessible with the sound of your voice. Our approach to privacy on Xbox One is very similar to Xbox 360. This means you will determine how responsive and personalized your Xbox One is to you and your family.
Q: When and where can I customize my privacy settings?
A: You can choose to update or customize your privacy and online safety settings at any time by going to Settings on your Xbox One console or on Xbox.com.
Q: How do I turn the Kinect sensor off?
A: You can choose to turn Kinect off within your Settings. You’ll need to turn Kinect back on manually in the system settings to use it again. You can also unplug your Kinect and your Xbox One will still function.
Q: What do the lights on my Kinect sensor mean?
A: We designed different areas of the Kinect front panel to illuminate to help indicate the sensor’s functionality.
When Xbox One is on and Kinect is ready to respond to voice and gesture commands, the Xbox symbol on the right of the sensor will illuminate.
If Kinect can capture video or an image, like when you’re engaged in a Skype call or using Upload Studio, a second white light on the left side of Kinect, near the camera lens, will illuminate.
Data Collection
Q: What data does Kinect and Xbox One collect and how is that information used by Microsoft?
A: Your privacy and your ability to control what you and your family share with others when using the Xbox Live service are of paramount importance to Microsoft. Please read the Xbox privacy statement to learn more about the types of data we collect, why and how we collect them, and what controls we provide so that you can protect you and your family’s privacy.
Kinect and Xbox One can collect several types of data including:
Operational Data. This information allows us to deliver basic services and helps us continuously improve Kinect and Xbox One performance. As you play, we collect information on how your Kinect device and platform software are functioning, usage patterns within the Xbox Dashboard applications, and other data that does not directly or personally identify you. This information also helps to keep your Xbox One operating optimally, including checking for updates, and maintains the ability for you to connect to Xbox Live.
Session Data. Kinect and Xbox One collect and use data to enable you to control and play games. We call this session data; it allows you to control games, either with Kinect or the controller, and is temporarily stored on your console’s memory only while you are playing a session of one or more games. This data, consisting of numeric values, can be used to enable gameplay or improve the gaming experience and can leave the console but is deleted at the end of the session.
Profile data. This data includes the information you choose to add to your Xbox Live profile, like what games you’re playing or your game clips. You determine who can see this information and can customize how much to share with your friends or followers.
Data used for Kinect enabled sign-in. You can allow Kinect to identify your face and enable automatic sign-in to your Xbox Live profile. This data, which consists of a long series of numbers, is stored on your console and is not returned to Microsoft.
Voice data. Voice data may be collected to enable search and to control the console. Voice data used for search is passed to the search engine on Xbox servers that provide you with results. Some voice commands, such as “Xbox On,” are processed on the console. Microsoft does not access or store peer-to-peer audio or video chat data including Skype calls.
Photos and videos. As part of the gameplay experience, some games and apps that use Kinect may photograph or take video of you while you are engaging in game play. You can view your photos and videos and decide whether to keep, transfer or discard them.
Game Clips. Game DVR is an Xbox One feature designed to let you share your fun gameplay experiences on Xbox Live. Game clips are brief recordings of the on-screen gameplay, which you can create by saying “Xbox record that” or games can create when they know something cool is about to happen. No audio chat is recorded in these game clips.
Q: What data does Kinect collect when my Xbox One is in “Instant-on” mode?
A: When you have “Instant-on” enabled and your console is powered off, the sensor will only be listening for you to say “Xbox On.” The “Xbox On” command is processed on your Xbox One and does not leave the console.
Q: What data does Kinect collect when my Xbox One is turned on, but I’m not engaged in a Kinect experience?
A: Kinect does not collect information about you or your environment if you are not engaged in a Kinect experience, such as playing a Kinect game, using a Kinect-enabled application or navigating using voice or gesture.
Q: How do third party partners use data collected while playing Kinect games or using apps on Xbox One?
A: Third party partners use data to deliver Kinect experiences (games or applications) to understand how customers use their Kinect experiences, and to improve performance or even to help plan new experiences. They are not permitted to use the information for marketing purposes, such as selling you games or services, or for personalizing advertising. Also, third party partners are not allowed to collect player personal information without review and approval by Microsoft.
Q: Does Microsoft share any of the data Kinect collects about me with third parties or advertisers?
A: Microsoft does not share any data collected by the Kinect sensor with third party partners, nor is it used for marketing or advertising purposes.
Identity
Q: What data does Kinect use to identify me?
A: You can allow Kinect to identify your face and enable automatic sign-in to your Xbox Live profile. To do this Kinect measures distances between key points on your face to create a numeric value that represents only you. This value is stored only on your console as a set of numbers, which can’t be transformed into a picture of a person. No one could look at the numbers and know they represent you or a family member.
Q: What data does the Kinect sensor collect about my body, and why? Can that information be used to personally identify me?
A: Kinect maps distances between your body’s joints to create a stick figure – a “skeleton” – that helps Kinect enable gameplay on your console or between you and another online player. The stick figure representation cannot be used to identify you and the associated numeric values are only temporarily stored in memory on your console during the gameplay session, then are destroyed when you end the session.
Q: What are expressions and what kind of data does the feature collect?
A: Some game titles may take advantage of a new Xbox capability that allows you to use your facial expressions to control or influence a game. This data does not identify you, stays on the console and is destroyed once your session ends.
Q: I’ve heard that Kinect can estimate my heart rate on Xbox One. How does this work and what does Xbox do with the data?
A: Estimating heart rate is a new Kinect feature that provides a more personalized experience. To do this, Kinect can detect gradual changes in your face and can estimate heart rate based on those changes. If you play Xbox Fitness on Xbox One, Xbox can use the Kinect sensor to estimate your exercise info, including estimates such as your heart rate during an activity or how many calories were burned in a workout. To improve the accuracy of your exercise info, you can enter attributes such as your height, weight, age and gender. On Xbox One, your exercise info is stored online and privately by default. You can delete exercise info through the apps or games you used to create it.
Photographs, Videos and Game Clips
Q: Who can see photos or videos captured by Kinect during game play?
A: The Kinect sensor can take photos or videos of you when you are playing games and, in some cases, make those photographs and videos available for you to download, copy or share. You can control who can see these on Xbox Live using the privacy settings.
Q: Who can see game clips or Game DVR footage captured by Kinect?
A: Game clips are brief recordings of the on-screen gameplay, which you can create by saying “Xbox record that” or games can create when they know something cool is about to happen. Users can go to Settings to control whether the Game DVR service is set to Allow or Block for game clip creation and upload. In Settings, users can also control whether their game clips are shared with Friends, Everyone or set to Block. You can also choose to delete your clips.
Design specification
References
http://www.trustedreviews.com/
Amazon Kindle Fire HDX
Technical background
third generation of Amazon’s Kindle Fire line of tablet computers. It was announced on September 25, 2013 and is available in two models, 7 inch and 8.9 inch. The 7 inch WiFi model was released on October 18, 2013 in the United States while the 8.9 inch WiFi model was released on November 7, 2013.
Company Profile
Amazon.com, Inc. /ˈæməzɒn/ is an American international electronic commerce company with headquarters inSeattle, Washington, United States. It is the world’s largest online retailer. Amazon.com started as an onlinebookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, VHSs, CDs, video and MP3 downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. The company also produces consumer electronics—notably the Fire Phone, Amazon Kindle e-book reader and the Kindle Fire tablet computer—and is a major provider ofcloud computing services.
Jeff Bezos incorporated the company (as Cadabra) on July 5, 1994 and the site went online as Amazon.com in 1995. Bezos changed the name cadabra.com to amazon.com because it sounded too much like cadaver. Additionally, a name beginning with “A” was preferential due to the probability it would occur at the top of any list that was alphabetized.
Amazon has separate retail websites for United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India and Mexico, with sites for Sri Lanka and other South East Asian countries coming soon. Amazon also offers international shipping to certain other countries for some of its products. In 2011, it had professed an intention to launch its websites in Poland, Netherlands, and Sweden, as well. An Austrian website operates as part of the German website.
Significance and purpose
I like to have a tablet on each mobile platform to keep up with what’s new. That leads me to buy too many gadgets, but I only buy those I find to be outstanding. That was the case with the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 from Amazon. This tablet is so good it has replaced two tablets in my stable
Amazon sent me a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 to test recently and my review made it clear I was impressed by it. I found it to be so good it didn’t take me long to buy one. Why I find it good enough to get my hard-earned cash can be detailed in several categories in which the Kindle Fire HDX shines.
Conceptual development
| Generation | 1st generation (2012) | 2nd generation (2013) | |||
| Model | Kindle Fire HD 7″ | Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ | Kindle Fire HD 7″ | ||
| Release date | September 14, 2012 | November 20, 2012 | October 2, 2013 | ||
| Status | Discontinued | Current | |||
| Screen size (diagonal) | 7 in (18 cm) | 8.9 in (23 cm) | 7 in (18 cm) | ||
| Resolution | 1280 × 800 (216 ppi) | 1920 × 1200 (254 ppi) | 1280 × 800 (216 ppi) | ||
| OS | Based on Android OS 4.0.3 | Fire OS 3.0 (fork of Android OS 4.2.2) | |||
| CPU | Dual-core 1.2 GHz TI OMAP4 4460 | Dual-core 1.5 GHz TI OMAP4 4470 | |||
| GPU | Imagination TechnologiesPowerVR SGX540 @307 MHz | Imagination TechnologiesPowerVR SGX544 @299 MHz | Imagination TechnologiesPowerVR SGX 544 | ||
| RAM | 1 GB | ||||
| Wireless | Wi-Fi | Dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n | |||
| Wi-Fi+Cellular | N/A | Dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n + 4G LTE | N/A | ||
| Bluetooth | BT 3.0 + EDR (HID and A2DP profiles only) | BT 4.0 + EDR (HID and A2DP profiles only) | |||
| Camera | Back | N/A | |||
| Front | HD still and video camera | N/A | |||
| Storage | Internal | 16 GB or 32 GB | 8 GB or 16 GB | ||
| External | N/A | 32 GB or 64 GB | N/A | ||
| Dimensions | 193 × 137 × 10.3 mm (7.60 × 5.39 × 0.41 in) | 240 × 160 × 8.8 mm (9.45 × 6.30 × 0.35 in) | 191 × 128 × 10.6 mm (7.52 × 5.04 × 0.42 in) | ||
| Weight | 395 g (13.9 oz) | 545 g (19.2 oz) | 345 g (12.2 oz) | ||
| Battery | 4400 mAh | 6000 mAh | 4400 mAh | ||
Quality Attributes
Reliability
The 7″ model contains a Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 processor, which is also available on the BlackBerry PlayBook 4G LTE, while the 8.9″ model uses an OMAP 4470 processor. All three models feature Dolby audio and stereo speakers. The 7″ model’s speakers are dual-driver, while the 8.9″ models’ are single-driver. The device has two wifi antennas on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands which utilize MIMO to improve reception. The Kindle Fire HD also addedBluetooth connectivity allowing users to connect an array of wireless accessories including keyboards. The first generation models have an HDMI port, but this is missing from the second generation.
The 2012 models use software that introduced user profiles for sharing among family members and the ability to place absolute limits on total usage or usage of individual features, called FreeTime, and tracks your reading speed to let you know when you will finish a chapter or book. The OS is based on a version of Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich). This does not allow use of Google Play or the apple app store, limiting the number of apps accessible for the Kindle Fire HD. Kindle Fire HD software updates can be received OTA or from the support websites.
The Fire HD 7″ second generation uses Fire OS 3. Note that although this version is called the Fire HD 7″, it is not the successor to the original Fire HD. This model is the successor to the Kindle Fire second generation.
Performance
The Kindle Fire HDX runs on a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.2GHZ with 2GB of RAM to help things run smooth when you are running multiple apps at once. The Adreno 330 GPU also aims to take care of more graphically demanding gaming. It’s a lot faster than the Nexus 7’s Snapdragon S4Pro CPU which runs at 1.5GHz, with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM.
It’s almost identical specs to the Sony Xperia Ultra and the Galaxy Note 10.1, but at a fraction of the cost. Overall, it’s a slick experience and a massive improvement on the last Kindle Fire. Jumping around the UI and opening apps is quick and smooth. It runs games like Real Racing 3 and Dead Trigger with ease and handles streaming apps like Netflix and YouTube consummately.
Something tablet manufacturers often overlook is speaker quality. If you use a tablet to watch videos or listen to music you don’t want tinny sound you can hardly make out. The Kindle Fire HDX features dual stereo speakers which perform brilliantly both in terms of richness and directional sound. Some clarity does get lost at the higher volumes, but these are the best sounding speakers on a tablet we’ve played with by a mile and are miles better than the speakers on the iPad mini 2 and Nexus 7.
In terms of storage it’s worth noting that if you go for the 16GB model you actually get around 11GB you can use, so you will need to rely on Amazon’s cloud storage if you are planning to consume a lot of your own content. There’s is a 1-Tap archive option to free up storage space by archiving items that have not been recently used which does help to manage onboard storage.
Possible problem
Amazon came to the rescue on Christmas, answering the Mayday calls of new Kindle Fire HDX owners who were having emergency meltdown situations, in an average of just 9 seconds. Amazon employees gave up their holiday so that the new owners of the Kindle Fire HDX would have a happier and less stress-filled Christmas.
There is a Mayday button on Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX devices that contacts the support center when it is pressed. Then, the face of an Amazon technician appears on the screen to guide whoever has pressed the button through his or her problem. The tech support person can take over the screen, and draw upon it. The tech support person can let users of the tablet know the steps needed to resolve the problem and let you go from there; or, take over the tablet, and fix the problem for you.
Amazon had a goal of responding within 15 seconds whenever anyone pushed the built-in Mayday button. The Mayday tech support service debuted when the Kindle HDX Fire did, in September.
The tech support beat that goal on Christmas, responding to problems consumers had in an average of just 9 seconds. The Mayday tech support team will be available around the clock, 24/7, every day of the year, to help anyone who might encounter a problem while using the Kindle Fire HDX, and at no cost to the consumer.
On at least one occasion on Christmas, the Mayday button was not pressed because a new owner was having a problem with his/her purchase. The button was, instead, pushed by carolers who appreciate the job that Amazon’s tech support was doing, and wanted to wish them a Merry Christmas.
Consumers can even press the Mayday button if they have questions about the Kindle Fire HDX, such as how it works, if it has any hidden features, or if they even would like suggestions about a great game to play on their new 7″ or 8.9″ tablets.
According to Amazon Kindle Vice President, David Limp, the company is glad and excited “that millions of customers opened a Kindle Fire tablet this holiday season,” and Amazon is also glad that “so many customers tried out the Mayday button.”
Amazon had what was possibly their best Christmas season yet. In the third week of December, alone, Amazon gained over a million new Prime members. On Cyber Monday, consumers ordered a whopping 36.8 million items from the company.
With the Mayday button on their Kindle Fire HDX tablets, Amazon has taken customer support to the next level. Being able to help their customers within 9 seconds after the Mayday button is pressed will likely earn Amazon lots satisfied customers and repeat business as they launch new products in the future.
If only someone who works at Amazon, or elsewhere, could come up with a Mayday button to solve some of life’s other problems, like umbrellas that turn inside-out in storms, or what to do about snack machines that take your last quarter but don’t cough up your snack in return.
Security
| Kindle Fire can keep corporate data secure, drives down costs, and improves employees’ productivity on-the-go. With Kindle Fire, you now have an enterprise-ready tablet, management solution options, rich productivity apps, and supporting accessories, for less. |
Mobile Device Management Compatibility
If your IT department has a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution for managing its mobile devices, Kindle Fire is supported by AirWatch, MaaS360, Citrix,GoodTechnology, and SOTI. IT administrators can manage Kindle tablet deployments in a business or a school easily and reliably with controls for:
Network configuration
Device security
App management
Device feature control
Device inventory
Device Encryption
Kindle Fire supports the rigorous requirements you need to maintain the security of your corporate data. Kindle Fire is now built with device encryption; you can encrypt your tablet to keep your data secure.
VPN
Kindle Fire now comes with a native VPN client to connect remotely to your corporate network using the IPSec, L2TP or PPTP protocols. You can also download other VPN apps from the Amazon Appstore. Browse the Appstore
Single Sign-On
Access your corporate intranet on your Kindle Fire with single sign-on support in the Silk browser that caches Kerberos tickets securely on the device.
Certificate Enrollment
Request a digital certificate on to your Kindle Fire tablet with a native Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) client on the device to obtain secure access to corporate resources.
Design Specification
References
http://www.trustedreviews.com/
Nest Protect
Technical background
Silicon Valley startup Nest Labs specializes in making the most mundane household devices a lot less mundane. In 2012, it introduced a Web-savvy touch-screen thermostat. And its new product is Nest Protect, a $130 smoke and carbon-monoxide detector. Rather than emitting an eardrum-shattering squeal, Protect alerts you to hazards in a calm female voice which says helpful things like “There’s carbon monoxide in the den.” If it mistakes your smokey cooking for a fire, you can set it wise with a wave of your arm.
Company Profile
Nest Labs is a home automation company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, that designs and manufactures sensor-driven, Wi-Fi-enabled, self-learning, programmable thermostats and smoke detectors. Co-founded by formerApple engineers Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers in 2010, the start-up company quickly grew to have more than 130 employees by the end of 2012.
The company introduced its first product, the Nest Learning Thermostat, in 2011. In October 2013, Nest Labs announced the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector.
On January 14, 2014, Google acquired Nest Labs for US$3.2 billion and left Nest Labs to use its own brand. Nest Labs continues to grow quickly with more than 460 employees in mid-2014
Significance and purpose
You can install a Nest Protect without the Nest app. It will function as a standalone smoke and CO alarm and sound the alert if it senses a problem. If you have more than one Nest Protect, you need the app to connect them together and get all the features. After everything’s set up, the app lets you check the sensors and batteries whenever you’d like and get a message on your smartphone if something goes wrong at home.
Conceptual development
On April 3rd, 2014, Nest announced a voluntary recall of all Nest Protect units after the company found that it was possible to accidentally activate the Nest Wave feature, and thereby cause the protector to report a fire later than it would otherwise. In light of this, we can no longer recommend this product. We have withdrawn our Engadget Score until the problems are resolved.
Quality Attributes
Reliability
Since the introduction of Nest Protect, it seems like everyone’s talking about smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms. While we were developing Nest Protect, we were only able to talk to industry experts, friends and family. So, we’re excited to finally talk to you and answer some of the questions we’ve been hearing. Fire and CO safety are complex topics and can be confusing. I thought this would be a good way to clear a few things up.
These answers are based on information that’s specific to the US. We’ll be adding UK and Canada information soon.
“I’ve heard carbon monoxide is heavier than air. Shouldn’t a carbon monoxide alarm be near the floor?”
It’s a common misconception that CO alarms have to be installed close to the floor. This is because some CO alarms need to be plugged in and typically outlets are near the floor. According to the National Fire Protection Association, the height of a CO alarm doesn’t affect detection. CO is actually lighter than air and will mix evenly. This means a CO alarm can do its job wherever it is in the room.
Because Nest Protect is a smoke and CO alarm, it’s required by law that it be on the ceiling or high on a wall. Smoke definitely rises.
Where to install Nest Protect >
“Is it okay to install a smoke and CO alarm in the attic? Or basement, kitchen, or garage?”
These areas are a little different than the bedrooms, hallways and common areas of your home. Each of these areas has its own unique rules for installing alarms because of temperature changes, cooking appliances, or other factors.
Attic: It’s true that unfinished attics are a bad place for smoke alarms. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) prohibits installing an alarm in an unfinished attic because the temperature can drop below 40ºF (4ºC) or get above 100ºF (37ºC) and the smoke alarm may not function properly. A finished attic, like a game room, is a different story. Here, you can install a Nest Protect.
Basement: It’s a myth that you shouldn’t install an alarm in the basement. The NFPA actually recommends installing a smoke and CO alarm because common sources of fire and CO leaks such as your furnace or hot water heater are often located in the basement. If all you have is an unheated crawl space, that’s not the right place for a smoke alarm.
Kitchen: Kitchens are not the best place for smoke alarms. Smoke alarms should be at least 10 feet (3 meters) from cooking appliances; and some building codes require 20 feet. This helps to cut down on false alarms. So if you have a smaller kitchen, it’s better to install Nest Protect in the hallway nearby.
Garage: Because of heat fluctuations and car exhaust, it’s not a good idea to have a smoke and CO alarm in your garage. The NFPA actually prohibits it.
This information is based on NFPA recommendations on placement (NFPA 72 for Smoke Alarms and NFPA 720 for CO Alarms). Always refer to your local codes before beginning any installation.
Which rooms need a Nest Protect? >
“Can I buy a Nest Protect and connect it to my existing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms?”
Unfortunately no, but this isn’t unusual. Each company’s smoke and CO alarms use proprietary detection algorithms and interfaces. And therefore there’s no industry standard. If alarms from different companies are connected together, they may not warn you properly in an emergency. The NFPA actually prohibits the connection of alarms from different manufacturers without special testing. To the best of our knowledge, no company sells a combination smoke and CO alarm that is meant to be connected with a different company’s smoke and CO alarm. Some companies even state in their documentation not to connect to a different company’s smoke and CO alarm.
“Why doesn’t Nest Protect use wired interconnect?”
Interconnect is the way that the Nest Protect in the hallway tells all of your other Nest Protects when there’s a problem. Both Nest Protect (Wired 120V) and Nest Protect (Battery) have interconnect.
We looked at many different ways to connect Nest Protects together and consulted with fire safety experts such as the NFPA along the way. In the end, wireless interconnect was the best option. You can add more alarms without adding expensive wiring. And wireless interconnect allows Nest Protect to convey more safety information in an emergency.
When the Nest Protect in the hallway says, “Emergency, there’s smoke in the hallway,” your other Nest Protects will say the same thing. With traditional hard-wired alarms, the other devices can’t tell you where the problem is.
Performance
As with just about every smoke/CO detector, the Protect is a snap to install. First, you have to download the app and create a Nest account. The app also controls the Nest Learning Thermostat and is available for iOS and Android devices. A Web browser app is available for PC and laptop users.
From the main menu choose Add Nest Protect and enter the six character Entry Key located on the back of the Protect. Next, pull out the paper tab that’s installed for shipping purposes and press the Nest button. At this point you can choose between English or Spanish language modes. Next, look for the Protect on your device’s list of available Wi-Fi signals, select it, and go back to the Nest app. Once the device is connected to the Protect (about 10-15 seconds) you are asked to name the alarm based on location (kitchen, hallway, bedroom, etc.) and choose whether to enable Pathlight or not. After another 10 seconds or so the Nest glows green and the voice informs you that it is connected to the Internet. You can now mount the Nest to your wall or ceiling using the mounting plate and screws, a job which shouldn’t take more than 3-5 minutes.
There’s no safe way to test a CO detector in the home, and I wasn’t about to run a hose from my car’s exhaust into the house, so I’ll have to take the Underwriters Labs at their word when they say that the Protect complies with the UL 2034 standard for Single and Multi Station Carbon Monoxide alarms. However, Nest sent along a SmokeSaber Smoke Detector Tester, which as the name implies, lets you test the smoke alarm using fake (invisible) smoke.
Following the directions, I pressed the SmokeSaber’s aerosol button for one second while it was positioned one foot from the alarm. Within a few seconds a melodic tone sounded and the Protect’s light ring pulsed yellow, then pulsed red (my First Alert alarm, positioned next to the Nest, also began beeping). Once the light turned red the Nest’s siren started beeping very loudly (three beeps per set). The voice alert, which was also quite loud, announced “Emergency, there’s smoke in the hallway” continuously until the fake smoke dissipated, at which time it advised me to wave to silence the alarm. Before I had a chance to do so, the light ring went dark and the alarm went quiet. I repeated this test on the kitchen alarm with the same results. Both times the secondary alarm chimed in to alert me of the emergency, and both times I received messages in the app telling me when each alarm went off, the severity (yellow or red), and when it was quieted. The only thing missing here is email and text message alerts, which would add another layer of event reporting for when you’re away from home. Right now you have to open the app to receive messages.
Possible problem
Expensive for a smoke detector
Security
Nest Labs, makers of the Nest thermostat, just announced the Nest Protect: Smoke + Carbon Monoxide alarm. The form factor has that “cool Apple style” you’d expect. Starting right with the fact it is a modern, square box instead of a circular shape. The Nest Protect: Smoke + Carbon Monoxide, initially priced at $129, will be available in wired (120V) and battery-powered versions, in both white and black, in November. By 2014 it is expected to be available in a version that will be compatible with wired security systems. Yes, that’s right, Nest is targeting the security industry.
When Tony Fadell, co-founder and CEO of The Nest, announced the Web application programming interface (API) for the Nest thermostat was being made to developers looking to integrate the Learning Thermostat within their ecosystem, it was big news – and drew closer to security; then when Control4 was announced as the company’s first development partner, it was big news that pulled security closer still. After all, Control4 functions as the operating system of the connected home, and its automation systems interface with more than 6400 third-party devices for comfort, convenience, lighting, entertainment and security.
Now, Nest is packing sensors in to the Nest Protect: Smoke + Carbon Monoxide alarm including a photoelectric smoke sensor, a CO sensor, a heat sensor, a light sensor, ultrasonic sensors and an activity sensor.
The product offers the same easy, experience-focused features we’ve come to expect from Nest’s Tony Fadell, who worked at Apple on the iPod and iPhone. Known as “the father of the iPod,” Fadell has created 300 patents for consumer technology.
It is safe to say he will bring a unique spin to security as he dives deeper. For now, the Nest Protect: Smoke + Carbon Monoxide alarm goes beyond triggering an alarm, and actually identifies the problem and can speak to home owners. Say good-bye to opening windows and waving towels when you burn toast as well. The device disarms with a wave of the hand. Nest Protect integrates with mobile devices to send out alarms, as well as reminders when batteries are running low. Other features include a built-in nightlight, vocal alarms, and support for multiple languages. If multiple Nest Protects are installed throughout a home they can connect so home owners can hear alarms from anywhere in the home—even if the danger is only in one room.
“We made a smoke and CO alarm you’ll love, because hating it is dangerous,” the company says on its website, citing stats from the NFPA that 24 percent of the deaths were caused by fires in properties in which smoke alarms were present but failed to operate.
Those smoke alarm failures usually result from missing, disconnected, or dead batteries.
“When smoke alarms should have operated but did not do so, it was usually because batteries were missing, disconnected or dead. People are most likely to remove or disconnect batteries because of nuisance activations,” the NFPA states.
The Nest Protect continuously monitors its sensors, software and battery level. Every night when the lights are turned off, Nest Protect glows green for a moment to report the self-monitoring checked out. It glows yellow if something’s wrong. Home owners can also see the results on the Nest app at any time.
“Your smoke alarm shouldn’t keep you up thinking all night or rattle your dreams with a low-battery chirp. It should give you peace of mind and let you sleep soundly,” according to the Nest website. Peace of mind is a message that rings loud and clear in the security industry. What will come next from Nest?
Design specification
References
http://www.trustedreviews.com/
Leap Motion Controller
Technical background
The Leap Motion Controller is a motion-sensor for your computer — think of it as a tiny Kinect that works with a Windows PC or Mac. The Controller tracks your hands — all 10 fingers, plus joints — in 3D space, with far more precision than you’d expect: up to 1/100th of a millimeter accuracy, according to Leap Motion.
Put it down in front of your computer, in front of the keyboard or your laptop, and the space above it becomes a zone where you can use your hands to control stuff on your computer. Its sensory field, however, is limited to a narrow dome that extends above and around the tiny unit — 2 feet above the controller, 2 feet wide, and 2 feet deep — 8 cubic feet. It effectively covers a good chunk of your desktop space between you and your computer screen.
Company Profile
Leap Motion, Inc. is an American company that manufactures and markets a computer hardware sensor device that supports hand and finger motions as input, analogous to a mouse, but requiring no hand contact or touching.
Significance and purpose
The Leap Motion Controller is designed and optimized to detect and track hands, fingers and finger-like tools. The device’s field of view extends from approximately 25 to 600 millimeters above the device. Plug in your Leap Motion Controller to experience this first-hand.
Conceptual development
The Leap hardware is actually quite unassuming, considering its capabilities. It’s just over three inches long, an inch wide and less than a half-inch thick (79 x 30 x 11mm), with a glossy black panel on top, behind which resides the infrared sensors. On the bottom, you’ll find a black rubber panel embossed with the Leap Motion logo. The edge, meanwhile, is ringed with a seamless aluminum band, save for a USB 3.0 Micro-B port on the left side (though the device runs at USB 2.0 speeds). There’s also a slim LED power / status indicator on the front edge. Alas, as of this writing, the company wasn’t able to reveal more specifics about the internals themselves, thanks to pending patent considerations. Along with the controller itself, users get a pair of USB 3.0 cables in the box — a 5-foot and a 2-foot cord.
Keep in mind, the Leap is different from a Kinect sensor bar in more than just its size and appearance. Leap works using infrared optics and cameras instead of depth sensors, and does not cover as large an area as Microsoft’s gestured controller. Leap does its motion sensing at a fidelity unmatched by any depth camera currently available: it can track all 10 of your fingers simultaneously to within a hundredth of a millimeter with a latency lower than the refresh rate on your monitor. Of course, that tracking ability isn’t just about the hardware, and the capabilities of the Leap are only realized by the software built to work with it.
Setting up the Leap is a straightforward affair. Simply plug one end into the laptop, the other into the controller and position it in a location where it can see your hands; in front of a laptop or between a desktop keyboard and screen generally works. Once you’re plugged in, you’ll see the green LED on the front of the device and the infrared LEDs beneath the top plate come to life. From there, it’s a matter of downloading the appropriate Windows or Mac Leap Motion software suite (consumers will be prompted automatically to do this upon connecting the device). That download includes both a diagnostic and status program (for reporting bugs and re-calibrating the device when necessary) and the software portal from whence most Leap-friendly apps will come.
Quality Attributes
Reliability
We’re waggling our toes in front of a virtual piano, and the virtual piano is playing along as we do so. But we’re not using Kinect on an Xbox One – in fact we’re sat in front of a bog-standard laptop. How did we get here? By testing the Leap Motion controller to its limb-based limits, that’s how.
The old guard of keyboard and mouse have kept pretty tight company in their decades of complete control over computer interactions, but this little box promised to usher in a brave new world of gesture control. It launched last year, nicely priced at £70 and with 75 apps ready to download, and we were impressed – stating that it just needed more time to develop.
Well now it’s had that time, so we’ve decided to revisit it.
The brave, new Leap Motion world consists of a portable device – smaller than expected, the size of a two-finger KitKat. It sits in front of your PC or Mac (or perches on your laptop) tracking every hand and finger movement you make. Connected via USB, it sucks up power from your computer and it takes so little that battery life is never a worry even when on the road.
Leap Motion’s kept schtum on what’s inside the little box but an online teardown revealed two CMOS sensors peeking up at all that hand wriggling and finger flailing. All you need to know is that the controller’s sensors are accurate up to 0.01mm, so unlike Microsoft’s Kinect every nudge, shake and pinch counts.
On the software side there’s the onscreen Leap Motion control panel and Airspace Home launcher, the hands-free app store, but that really is it.
Inside Airspace Home you’ll find an orientation app that displays digits on screen as glowing skeletal hands. Be patient with the intro animation because it’s an awesome app to show your mates.
It’s best to think of the Leap Motion controller’s eyeline as a dome around the device – your hands are generally safe behind it, but movement up to two feet above or two feet either side is detected. Thanks to ‘face rejection’ updates the controller manages to stick to ten digits on two hands rather than picking up on every single body part. Making sure not to lean forward too much helps here, but in use it doesn’t interfere with gameplay or controls.
First on most buyers’ to-do list is OS control. Leap Motion’s own free Touchless for Windows and Mac apps aren’t as fully worked out as we’d like, even one year after launch. BetterTouchTool for Mac (£free) is a more reliable choice, allowing you to program your own gestures to a list of commands: two finger swipe up to zoom in, clap to return to desktop, circle clockwise with one finger to mute. Quick and accurate, it’s a popular app that lets you delve as deep as you like for good, clean, futuristic fun.
When it works, the Leap controller really impresses, but this ultimately depends on the app. It’s a much more fluid experience when there’s no need to recreate specific gestures such as the annoying hand stretching needed to ‘play’ the piano in Fingertapps Piano. Instead your hands and fingers are able to move about more freely in apps and games such as the brilliant arcade-style Dropchord, ubiquitous Fruit Ninja, mesmerising Gravilux and Google Earth. Then again, the latter’s controls are too sensitive – the slightest flick sends you zooming skyward when the aim was to pan leisurely over South America.
While we’re grumbling, here’s another one: be prepared to suffer Leap Motion Fatigue, a distant relation of Photoshop Claw, after a long session. Don’t be ashamed to lean your elbow on the desk.
Swooping, hovering, circling and waggling soon become second nature. The one gesture we have issues with is the poke, or jab. Put simply, with that movement we want to make contact with something – anything – and instead we’re left prodding forwards into thoin air like a constipated E.T.
There’s nothing satisfying about it compared to a mouse click or a finely tuned bit of haptic feedback on a touchscreen. Happily, plenty of app developers have completely ignored this gesture (though not Leap Motion itself), choosing instead to make quick one-fingered hover do the equivalent of a click.
With its Airspace store, Leap Motion’s put together a very respectable selection of official apps and plug-ins. Admittedly at launch there were a mere 75 free and paid-for apps rather than 75,000, but in the past 10 months that number has increased to over 200. And while that’s still hardly a massive total, we’d swap half the apps on Google Play for a handful of awesome uses for the Leap controller.
It feels a reasonably mature platform now, too: in August 2013, it passed the one million downloads mark, a lively forum-based community now has its own tile in Airspace and geeky hacks show no signs of slowing down. Want to punch virtual sharks? Just strap a Leap Motion to an Oculus Rift.
But the really note-worthy apps aren’t new Kinect-style games but rather ones such as Leap Motion’s own Freeform, a gesture-controlled 3D sculpting app that can send designs to 3D printers. It takes a while to get the hang of modelling in thin air but Freeform’s a hit with professionals who can put the hours in to master it. A relatively niche application, sure, but Leap’s super-accurate motion detection really comes into its own here. Fruit Ninja, this is not.
We were fans of Unlock, for Windows (£free), which scans a biometric reading of your hand to use instead of a typed password at the log-in screen, but this is no longer supported. Still, there’s plenty of uses including air typing with the DexType Chrome plug-in, AirPoint – which lets you use your hand as a substitute laser pointer when giving presentations – and music apps such as Geko MIDI.
Hiccups abound though, and a bad experience with an Airspace app can be offputting. We especially wish Leap Motion would lay down the law on how to quit apps, as this currently varies wildly from a clickable cross to an Escape-plus-Q-key combo to a finger hover near the bottom of the screen.
Still, if you do find Airspace too limited (or frustrating), there are plenty of hacks to make the Leap Motion controller take charge of just about everything – from Surgeon Simulator on PC to an RC model boat.
Performance
The Leap Motion Controller senses your hands and fingers and follows their every move.
It lets them move in all that wide-open space between you and your computer. So you can do almost anything without touching anything
It’s the tiny device that just might change the way you use technology.
It’s a super-wide 150° field of view and a Z-axis for depth. That means you can move your hands in 3D, just like you do in the real world.
The Leap Motion Controller can track your movements at a rate of over 200 frames per second.
Possible problem
Hype surrounding Leap Motion, an $80 3-D gesture-control gadget touted for its exceptional finger-tracking accuracy, reached fever pitch in the weeks before its July launch. Hundreds of thousands of people ordered the device ahead of its release, and a flashy demo video on YouTube was viewed millions of times.
Yet after one month and a raft of “meh” product reviews citing problems like difficulty controlling apps and tired arms, the sardine-can-sized gadget—which connects to a computer’s USB port and tracks the movement of your hands and fingers as they move above its sensor—seems to have lost its steam.
What happened? Much like the computer mouse and touch screen before it, it may simply take some time for app makers to get comfortable making applications that make good use of a completely new form of interaction—at least, that’s what Leap Motion and its developer community hope.
“Things involving human-computer interfaces often move extremely slowly. It may take a while before the Leap reaches its full potential,” says Robert Jacob, a computer science professor at Tufts University who studies user interfaces and new modes of interaction.
Developers say they like the app-creation tools that Leap Motion provides, and that it’s not particularly hard to build apps for the platform. What complicates things is the need to think about building apps in three dimensions, and to invent motion controls that users will understand how to use.
This can be especially confusing because there is no standard set of Leap Motion gestures, so actions like selecting or grabbing an on-screen item can vary from app to app.
“It’s something really difficult to grasp—how to teach someone to use something completely new and use it well,” says Adam Gastineau, a 17-year-old high-school senior and app developer from Dayton, Ohio, who built a $1 gesture-control app for the Mac called Swish.
User expectations may have been too high. Product reviews were middling at best (see “Look Before You Leap Motion”), and Leap Motion’s forums are littered with complaints from customers such as “thus far, I’ve had nothing but headaches with it” and “control is spastic to say the least.”
“I use mine and have fun with the games available, but it hasn’t really revolutionized my use of the computer as I hope it will once the software gets to the right point,” one user wrote.
Microsoft’s Kinect quickly became popular after its launch in 2010, but it was touted solely as a gaming controller for the Xbox, and wasn’t initially open to developers. With Leap, many consumers were looking at it as a more multipurpose device that could replace a keyboard and mouse. And while Leap Motion believes this will eventually be possible, it will take a while, says Michael Zagorsek, Leap Motion’s vice president of product marketing.
There were buyers with outsize expectations, he says, but it wasn’t the buyers’ fault. Leap is not releasing sales figures, so it’s unclear how many people have purchased the device in the last several weeks.
“I think we hadn’t realized how many people were tired of their mouse,” he says.
The problems experienced by users don’t indicate that Leap Motion wasn’t ready to be released, he says. Rather, it shows the difficulty in launching any new interface technology.
“We felt we had something people would get really excited about, and they did. But at the same time, we knew there was a lot more to discover,” he says.
As such, Leap Motion is working on improving its developer tools, some of which software engineer Kevin Horowitz showed me this week during a trip to its San Francisco office.
Waving his hand in front of a Leap Motion device connected to his PC, Horowitz demonstrated upcoming developer features like an improved skeletal model of the hand that can better predict where fingers are even if it can’t see them—like when you curl your fingers into your palm—and defines individual fingers as specific finger types (like pinky and thumb, which can be helpful for, say, virtual keyboard apps). He says pinching and grabbing capabilities have also been improved. The changes will be coming this fall.
Horowitz understands the frustrations some users and developers may feel with the device, as all the options for controls may become overwhelming.
“You have 25 degrees of freedom per hand, and nobody knows what they’re supposed to be mapped to. What is ‘selecting’? Nobody knows what it’s supposed to be at all,” he says.
Leap Motion is trying to standardize some interactions, he adds, so they will become more consistent across applications.
Developers, too, think this could help. Geert Bevin, a Manage, Belgium-based developer who created Geco, a $10 music-making app, and GameWave a $4 game-controlling app, says there’s still a “vocabulary to figure out” as a development community. Additionally, he believes developers have the responsibility to figure out the best use of the bevy of data Leap Motion can capture, and restricting it in ways that are optimal to the app.
“Everything is being experimented and invented right here and now,” Bevin says. “You have to do a whole lot of research.”
Investor attention may also aid the Leap Motion platform. Highland Capital Partners announced the creation of a $25 million Leap Motion investment fund in June. The fund recently announced its first investment: $3 million for Syntellia, which built the Fleksy virtual keyboard.
Manish Patel, a partner at Highland Capital responsible for the Leap and Syntellia investments, says the fund will put on some events with Leap Motion to encourage startups to speak with the company’s development team, and is building a set of mentors and advisors that will help startups build their interactive apps.
That may help with part of the equation. While Leap Motion says users have downloaded more than a million apps so far, there are just over 90 apps total, Zagorsek says.
For Bevin, this has translated into some fast cash: he has made about $28,000 so far from downloads of his two apps, after Leap Motion took its 30 percent cut of revenue.
Others aren’t doing nearly as well, though. Around the July 22 launch day, Gastineau says, his app was getting about 200 to 300 downloads a day. Now this has cooled to about 10 per day.
“The market’s just stagnating, and it really needs something to pop out and say, ‘Here’s why you need to buy this device,’ ” he says.
If history is any indication, it may not be that easy. The mouse and touch screen were invented in the 1960s, but the mouse didn’t catch on commercially until the 1980s, and the touch screen took decades longer.
Security
Information We Collect
Information You Provide to Us
When you place a pre-order or order with us for our hardware products, the information we collect may include your name, phone number, e-mail address, mailing address, billing address, shipping address, credit card or other payment information and, if applicable, EU VAT number or other tax ID. We will also keep the details of your order and of its fulfillment.
If you create or update a Leap Motion Account, we may collect your username, e-mail address and e-mail preferences, and password for your account. If you wish to purchase applications from the Airspace Store, the Leap Motion app store service, we will also collect and retain your address, credit card or other payment information, and applicable tax ID so that we can receive payment. A Leap Motion Account is required to use the Airspace Store and may be required to use other Leap Motion services, including information and services we offer to developers.
If you experience a problem with your controller or module, you may have the ability to run diagnostic checks, which will save a report with a diagnostic image set on your computer. You may choose to send this report to us, and we may use it to improve our products and services, and if you contact our customer support team they may use it to help diagnose and fix your problem.
When you fill in other forms on our website, enter a contest or promotion sponsored by us, when you fill out a survey, when you provide feedback or submissions to our website, or when you contact us through our website, by sending us an email, phone or other communication, we collect the information you provide.
Information We Collect From our Products and Services
We collect information automatically when you use our products and software, applications from the Airspace Store, and our website.
Leap Motion Controller and Software. We collect information when you use the Leap Motion Controller (or a Leap Motion-authorized embedded optical module) and our software that works with it. When you use your device while your computer is connected to the internet, we collect the device ID of your controller or module, IP address, software version, operating system and hardware configuration. We also collect performance data such as frequency and duration of use, tracking performance, environmental conditions, distances of tracked objects from the device, and other performance data. We also collect technical error data such as the presence of smudges, calibration or synchronization errors or states, or other software or hardware errors or states. This information is tied to your device ID. In order to best provide products and services to you we associate your device IDs to your Leap Motion Account.
Airspace Applications. We collect information regarding applications you have downloaded or accessed from the Airspace Store or that you use with Airspace Home, the Airspace launcher on your computer. This information may include which apps you have and the frequency and duration of use.
Our Website and Services. We collect information about your use of our website, sub-sites and services. This information includes usage details, page visits, IP addresses, web browser, and information collected through cookies and other tracking technologies. We may combine this information with other personal information we collect from you. The technologies we use for automatic data collection through our website may include:
Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. Our system will issue cookies unless you have activated the appropriate setting on your browser to disable them. If you disable cookies you may be unable to access certain parts of our website.
Flash Cookies. Certain features of our website may use local stored objects (Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from and on our Website. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies. For more information about Flash cookies, see Choices about How We Use Your Information.
Pixel Tags and other Technologies. Pages of our website and e-mails we send you may contain small electronic files known as pixel tags (also referred to as clear GIFs, web bugs, web beacons, and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an e-mail, and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity). Pixel tags may also be used to track when you leave the site and to then allow a third-party to serve you an ad on third-party websites.
How We Use Your Information
We use information that we collect, including any personal information about you:
To provide and improve our hardware and software products and our website and services.
To respond to requests that you make, to personalize your online experience on our website, and to better tailor the features, performance, and support of our products and services to you.
To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection.
To contact you about our own goods and services that may be of interest to you, or in any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
Disclosure of Your Information
We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction. We will share information about you with our app developer partners only on an aggregate basis.
We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this policy:
To contractors, service providers and other third party service providers we use to support our business. However, these service providers do not have any independent right to share this information (except pursuant to a legal requirement such as a subpoena or warrant).
We may provide your credit card and related billing and payment information to third party service providers engaged on Leap Motion’s behalf, including payment processors and/or credit agencies, for the purposes of checking credit, effecting payment, and servicing your accounts. These providers may store your credit card information using PCI compliant security practices for the purposes of facilitating enhanced ordering of Leap Motion devices or applications.
To our subsidiaries or affiliates.
To fulfill the purpose for which you provide the information or for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of Leap Motion’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by Leap Motion about our users is among the assets transferred.
We may also disclose your personal information:
To comply with any law, court order, legal process, or government or regulatory request.
To enforce or apply our terms of use at http://www.leapmotion.com/URL or terms of sale http://www.leapmotion.com/URL and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of us, our customers or others. This may include exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Your Choices Regarding Your Personal Information
We offer you choices regarding the collection, use, and sharing of your personal information. When you receive promotional communications from us, you may indicate a preference to stop receiving further promotional communications from us and you will have the opportunity to “opt-out” by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the promotional e-mail you receive.
Despite your indicated e-mail preferences, from time to time we may use your personal information to send important notices, such as communications about purchases and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies. Because this information is important to your interaction with us, you may not opt out of receiving these communications.
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe’s website. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
Accessing and Correcting Your Personal Information
You may change your email address, password and other information for your Leap Motion Account by editing them in your account page. You may also contact us through https://leapmotion.com/contact to request access to, correct or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. Please note that we may be required (by law or otherwise) to keep this information and not delete it (or to keep this information for a certain time, in which case we will comply with your deletion request, only after we have fulfilled such requirements).
Data Security and Retention of Personal Information
We make reasonable efforts to protect your personal information, but no company, including us, can fully eliminate security risks connected to handling information on the internet. Where we have given you (or you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our website or your account, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to us. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the website or our products or services. We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in the policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
Third-Party Sites and Services
Our website, applications, and services may contain links to third-party websites, products, and services. Information collected by third parties, which may include such things as location data or contact details, is governed by their privacy practices. We are not responsible for that data collection or how it is used, and we encourage you to learn about the privacy practices of those third parties.
Children under the Age of 13
Our website, products and services are not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on our website, products or services. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child we will take steps to delete that information as soon as possible.
International Users
Leap Motion abides by the “safe harbor” frameworks set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information collected by organizations in the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Learn more about the U.S. Department of Commerce Safe Harbor Program.
For European Union and Swiss Residents, if your complaints cannot be resolved, we have agreed to participate in the dispute resolution procedures of the American Arbitration Association pursuant to the US-EU Safe Harbor and US-Swiss Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. We will post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page with a notice that the privacy policy has been updated on the Website home page, and/or by e-mail to the e-mail address specified in your account. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable e-mail address for you, and for periodically visiting our website and this privacy policy to check for any changes.
Design specification
References
https://developer.leapmotion.com
Nokia Lumia 1020
Technical background
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is a smartphone developed by Nokia, first unveiled on 11 July 2013 at a Nokia event at New York. It runs on Windows Phone 8. It contains Nokia’s PureView technology, a pixel oversampling (a data binningtechnique) that reduces an image taken at full resolution into a lower resolution picture, thus achieving higher definition and light sensitivity, and enables lossless zoom. It improves on Nokia’s previous versions of PureView by coupling a new 41-megapixel 2/3-inch BSI sensor with optical image stabilization (OIS), and a high resolution f/2.2 all-aspherical 1-groupCarl Zeiss lens. The Lumia 1020 became the most advanced camera phone when released in September 2013. It is the successor of the Nokia 808 PureView.
In January 2014, Nokia released the ‘Black’ firmware update for the Lumia 1020, adding various new features, including improved image processing in addition to capturing RAW (DNG) files
Company Profile
Nokia (Finnish: Nokia , Swedish: Nokia Abp; Finnish pronunciation: [ˈnokiɑ], English /ˈnɒkiə/) is a Finnishcommunications and information technology multinational corporation that is headquartered in Espoo, Uusimaa. The company provides Internet services, including applications, games, music, media and messaging services, including free-of-charge digital map information and navigation services delivered through its wholly owned subsidiary HERE.Its Nokia Networks subsidiary provides telecommunications network equipment and services.
As of 2013, Nokia employed 90,000 people across 120 countries, conducts sales in more than 150 countries and reported annual revenues of around €12.7 billion. Nokia is a public limited-liability company listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange. It is the world’s 274th-largest company measured by 2013 revenues according to the Fortune Global 500.
In September 2013, Nokia sold what was once the world’s largest vendor of mobile phones to Microsoft as part of an overall deal totaling €5.44 billion (US$7.17 billion). Stephen Elop, Nokia’s former CEO, and several other executives joined the new Microsoft Mobile subsidiary of Microsoft as part of the deal, which closed on 25 April 2014
Significance and purpose
PureView Pro is an imaging technology used in the Nokia 1020 device. It is the combination of a 1/1.5″ large, high resolution 41 mpx image sensor with high performance Carl Zeiss optics. The large sensor enables pixel oversampling, which means the combination of many sensor pixels into one image pixel. PureView imaging technology delivers high image quality, lossless zoom, and improved low light performance (see below). It dispenses with the usual scaling/interpolation model of digital zoom used in virtually all smartphones. In both video and stills, this technique provides greater zoom levels as the output picture size reduces, enabling 4× lossless zoom in full HD 1080p video, 6x lossless zoom for 720p HD. Optical image stabilization is also present to nullify shaking of hands when taking a photo and to allow significantly more light to enter the sensor for better low light photos. It also has a shutter speed of 1/16,000 s.
Some reviewers have noted the camera may exhibit lens flare and minor white balance issues under particular circumstances.
It has a camera startup of 6.1 seconds and a shot-to-shot time of 3.6 seconds for 5 mpx photos and 4.2 seconds for 38 mpx photos
Conceptual development
Kamalahasan from KnowYourGadget stated: “Nokia Lumia 1020 is a great improvement over the Nokia 808. The camera is just superb and one of the best we have seen on a mobile device. If you need a simple smartphone and your phone doubles as your point and shoot, this is the device for you.
Brian Klug from Anandtech stated: “I think it’s fair to say that once again Nokia has basically set the bar for the rest of the smartphone imaging world – in terms of both hardware and software features.”
Chris Finnamore from Expert Reviews wrote: “Simply stunning photos make the Lumia 1020 the ultimate cameraphone.” He gave it five stars and awarded it the Expert Reviews: Ultimate award, which places it among other high-end flagships such as theGalaxy S4 and the iPhone 5S, which also received the award.
Erin Lodi of Digital Photography Review wrote: “Despite the lower lighting level, the Nokia is able to out-perform its rivals by a healthy margin. Fine detail is better maintained and the image is generally “cleaner.” This benefit (that comes from a combination of a larger sensor and the noise-reducing effect of downscaling images), is one of the significant advantages of Nokia’s decision to use a large sensor in a smartphone. Whether you look at the resolution stripe on the left of the image or the etched portrait on the right, the 1020 is significantly out-performing its rivals.”
David Pierce from The Verge said that this is a remarkable phone, hampered by its operating system.
Dan Nosowitz from Popular Science wrote: “Nokia’s new Lumia smartphone has amazing hardware (especially its unprecedented 41-megapixel camera). And it doesn’t matter at all, because its software lags so far behind its hardware.”
Charles Arthur from The Guardian wrote: “The Finnish phone maker released its remarkable Lumia 1020 phone with a 41-megapixel camera – but it’s still missing native apps for low-quality Instagram, Vine and Snapchat”
Jim Fisher and Sascha Segan from PC Magazine wrote: “The Lumia 1020 is a big step forward for camera phones, but the step isn’t complete. Nokia’s sensor and lens advances must be paired with a CPU and image processor fast enough to make shooting effortless, and Windows Phone’s creative app gaps need to be filled in.”
G van Veldhoven from Gadgetmania wrote: “If you absolutely need the best camera on a smartphone and don’t mind Windows Phone 8 and spending a good chunk of money upfront, the Lumia 1020 is worth looking at, but I don’t expect it to be very popular.”
Sales are slower than the Lumia 920 and the previous Lumia 900; they are similar to the Lumia 928
Quality Attributes
Reliability
PureView Pro specifications
Sensor
The Nokia Lumia 1020 has a 41.3-megapixel BSI CMOS image sensor, 1/1.5-inch (2/3-inch) image sensor format with a total of 7712 × 5360 pixels. Maximum image size at a 4:3 aspect ratio is 7136 × 5360 pixels (38.2 Mpx); maximum image size at a 16:9 aspect ratio is 7712 × 4352 pixels (33.6 Mpx). Pixel size is 1.12 µm. Sensor size is 8.80×6.60 mm. Crop factor 3.93×. 35 mm equivalent focal length: 25 mm for 16:9, 27 mm for 4:3. f/2.2
Compare
The Nokia 808 has a 41.3-megapixel FSI CMOS image sensor, 1/1.2-inch image sensor format with an active area of 7728 × 5368 pixels, totalling over 41 Mpx. Depending on the aspect ratio chosen by the user, it will use 7728 × 4354 pixels (33.6 Mpx) for 16:9 images, or 7152 × 5368 pixels (38.2 Mpx) for 4:3 images with the default camera app. The commercial app CameraPro can use the whole sensor size for capturing full 7728 × 5368 pixels (41.48 megapixel) pictures with more than 30 megabytes each. Pixel size is 1.4 µm. Sensor size is 10.67×8.00 mm. Crop factor 3.2×. 35 mm equivalent focal length: 26 mm, 16:9 | 28 mm, 4:3. f/2.4
Lens
Carl Zeiss optics with f/2.2 focal ratio. Focal length: 7.2 mm: 35 mm equivalent focal length: 25 mm @ 16:9 aspect ratio, and 27 mm @ 4:3 aspect ratio. Construction: Six elements in one group. All lens surfaces are aspherical, partly extreme aspheric, one high refractive index, low-dispersion glass mould lens.
Optical image stabilisation — includes new type of barrel shift actuator, which enables moving a heavy and complex full-lens assembly.
Shutter
Mechanical shutter with short shutter lag.
Processing
On-chip image processor performing image scaling with oversampling, giving lossless zoom: 4× for full-HD 1080p video with on-chip video processor performing image resolution processing with over 1 billion pixels per second, enabling the use of all pixels for improved image noise and dynamic range.
Performance
The Lumia 1020 ships with Nokia’s new Pro Camera application, allowing a greater degree of control over the camera settings than the standard Windows Phone in-built camera and can be set as the default imaging application when launched with the camera button. Providing “swipe-able” dials in a concentric ring display, settings such as exposure level, white balance, shutter speed and film ISO can be adjusted “on the fly” to enable changes to be visualised before a shot is taken. Nokia hope to bring professional camera settings, once the preserve of experts, to the masses and encourage experimentation and learning using built-in tutorials.
Possible problem
Some Lumia 1020 users have reported instances of rapid battery drain and overheating, random reboots or freezes, poor voice call quality or Wi-Fi drop outs.
Security
The cell phone itself has a variety of security options to make sure no one else has access to the sensitive data you have stored on your phone. For example, you can set your phone to lock automatically, or you can even locate your phone if it gets lost (not available in all regions).
Design specification
References
Reflection
Why i choose Electronic and digital gadgets in my project? because aside from there are many of it, i prefer to know more about the gadgets i choose and the story behind. each of it have a unique beginnings, struggles and their mega hit in the world of technology, the developers itself conduct studies on how to improve their apps. even if it is done just to satisfied the customers they put new features to their works and most especially even the applications are different to each other, different features, use and their relevance to the world of technology but i think the common goal or purpose is to satisfy the needs of the users.
Khrysun Doydoy 