Day: November 12, 2017

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Security firm claims to thwart iPhone X’s Face ID with a mask

When Apple introduced Face ID security alongside the iPhone X, it boasted that even Hollywood-quality masks couldn’t fool the system. It might not be a question of movie-like authenticity, however — security researchers at Bkav claim to have thwarted Face ID by using a specially-built mask. Rather than strive for absolute realism, the team built its mask with the aim of tricking the depth-mapping technology. The creation uses hand-crafted "skin" made specifically to exploit Face ID, while 3D printing produced the face model. Other parts, such as the eyes, are 2D images. The proof of concept appears to work, as you can see in the clip below. The question is: do iPhone X owners actually have to worry about it?

The researchers maintain that they didn’t have to ‘cheat’ to make this work. The iPhone X was trained from a real person’s face, and it only required roughly $150 in supplies (not including the off-the-shelf 3D printer). The demo shows Face ID working in one try, too, although it’s not clear how many false starts Bkav had before producing a mask that worked smoothly. The company says it started working on the mask on November 5th, so the completed project took about 5 days.

When asked for comment, Apple pointed us to its security white paper outlining how Face ID detects faces and authenticates users.

Is this a practical security concern for most people? Not necessarily. Bkav is quick to acknowledge that the effort involved makes it difficult to compromise "normal users." As with fake fingers, this approach is more of a concern for politicians, celebrities and law enforcement agents whose value is so high that they’re worth days of effort. If someone is so determined to get into your phone that they build a custom mask and have the opportunity to use it, you have much larger security concerns than whether or not Face ID is working.

More than anything, the seeming achievement emphasizes that biometric sign-ins are usually about convenience, not completely foolproof security. They make reasonable security painless enough that you’re more likely to use it instead of leaving your device unprotected. If someone is really, truly determined to get into your phone, there’s a real chance they will — this is more to deter thieves and nosy acquaintances who are likely to give up if they don’t get in after a few attempts.

Source: Bkav

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Spatial audio is the most exciting thing to happen to pop music since stereo

Enlarge /

To get the Dolby Atmos version of

Automatic For The People

, you’ll have to buy this complete 3-CD, 1-Blu-ray edition.

R.E.M./Craft Recordings

As much as I love overpriced gizmos in my living room, I still tend to be reluctant about new standards. TVs are a great example. I’ve appreciated the bonuses offered by 3D, 4K, and HDR, but I concede they all lack content and are less amazing than salespeople would lead you to believe. They’re also generally not worth replacing TVs that are only a few years old.

The same goes for audio, which fortunately hasn’t strayed far from a “5.1” surround-sound profile since the dawn of DVD adoption. Really, I’ve been fine with two good speakers and a subwoofer for my entire adult life. I laugh at overblown, pre-film Dolby intros in a theater. I shrug at the surround effects in hectic action movies. I have failed A/B tests in picking out major differences between 5.1 and 7.1 systems.

Surround audio can be cool, sure. But if I were to ever change up my entire living room, I’d need something to blow my aural expectations away. This week, that might have finally happened.

I am not lying when I say that a “spatial audio” experience this week left me gasping, laughing, and crying in sonic bewilderment. The impact came in a way that I never expected: not from a monstrous demo of sci-fi blasts in a film or video game, but from the acoustic majesty of an R.E.M. album brought to life anew. What’s more, the engineers behind this “first-ever” Atmos release were happy to share how they pulled it off—and how the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper set everything into motion.

Sweetness follows

  • R.E.M. poses on a beach in Miami in 1992, near one of the recording studios used for Automatic For The People.


    Anton Corbijn

  • Michael Stipe crowdsurfs during the video shoot for the single “Drive.”


    Anton Corbijn

  • The ’90s, man. The ’90s.


    Anton Corbijn

  • Where’s Michael? THERE’s Michael!


    Anton Corbijn

Roughly a month ago, the PR team working for the Athens, Georgia, pop/rock band R.E.M. sent me an out-of-nowhere invite to listen to the band’s latest 25th-anniversary re-release: the 1992 album Automatic For The People. R.E.M. began packaging and selling special editions of albums well before the band split in 2011. As a lifelong fan, I’ve picked up each one, full of unearthed B-sides and demos. I didn’t have much access to counterculture art as a kid, but I savored whatever mainstream gateway stuff I could get my hands on. R.E.M. showed up in my pre-teen life as a soft-and-weird complement to the loud-and-weird stuff I loved in metal and grunge. Automatic For The People was equal parts acoustic and electric, not to mention both wholesome and subversive, and that changed me as an 11-year-old.

As much as I love Automatic, I had no Ars-specific reason to request a promotional copy. But my tech-critic attention was captured by one sentence: this would be the “first major commercial music release in Dolby Atmos.” From the announcement:

This technology delivers a leap forward from surround sound with expansive, flowing audio that immerses the listener far beyond what stereo can offer. It transports the listener inside the recording studio with multi-dimensional audio—evoking a time when listening to music was an active, transformative experience and reigniting the emotion you felt when you first heard the album in 1992. R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People is the first album to be commercially released in this expressive, breathtaking format.

I’d normally dismiss such a buzzword-filled promise. Worse, its attachment to the Dolby Atmos standard left me a little cold. Atmos is one of the latest entries in the burgeoning “spatial audio” landscape, right next to DTS-X and Windows Sonic. The sales pitch: if you plug headphones into the right hardware and listen to compatible content, sounds will be processed in such a way that their frequencies trick your brain. Sound effects and music will light up “around” you in a virtual-surround way. Unlike older virtual-surround trickery, this stuff should sound like a full, three-dimensional dome of sound, so that you can perceive the angle and height of sound. (Normal surround-sound systems operate with a flatter circle of sound.)

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The Dream Chaser spacecraft has completed a successful free flight

  • Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser successfully completed a free-flight test Saturday.


    NASA

  • During the test, the spacecraft was released to fly through the air and land on its own.


    NASA

  • Which it did.


    NASA

  • From way up high.


    NASA

  • Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser, as seen at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center.

  • A head-on view of the small, space shuttle-like spacecraft.


    NASA

  • In September, the vehicle is prepared for a captive carry test.


    Sierra Nevada

  • During this test, the Dream Chaser will remain attached to a helicopter during the entire flight.


    Sierra Nevada

  • Oh, there’s the helicopter.


    Sierra Nevada

  • One day, Dream Chaser aspires to join the stars.


    Sierra Nevada

  • Here is it shown ready for launch, inside the payload fairing of at Atlas V rocket.


    Sierra Nevada

  • For now, it will be a cargo-only vehicle, delivering supplies to the International Space Station.

On Saturday, the Dream Chaser space plane completed a milestone in its development. During an “approach and landing” test, the spacecraft was dropped from a helicopter to fly back to a landing strip at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The company behind the space plane confirmed the successful test in a tweet on Saturday night, saying, “The Dream Chaser had a beautiful flight and landing!”

The company released no immediate, additional details about the test. (It promised more information Monday). But Saturday’s flight clearly marks a significant milestone for Dream Chaser and its manufacturer, Sierra Nevada Corporation. During the last free-flight test in 2013, the spacecraft had a problem with the deployment of its left landing gear, causing the plane to skid off the runway and leading to minor damage.

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Instagram Crowds May Be Ruining Nature

You scroll through your friend’s Instagram feed and see the most beautiful setting, and think: “I want to go there.” And so you do.

According to travel photographer Brent Knepper, you are part of the problem.

In the online article “Instagram is Loving Nature to Death,” Knepper says that thanks to the photo sharing app, some of the best-kept secrets of the natural world are drawing big crowds and literally altering the landscape.

Knepper tells NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro about some of the idyllic locations that are seemingly being ruined because of exposure on Instagram.

Interview Highlights

On Horseshoe Bend in northern Arizona

Horseshoe Bend is this beautiful spot 7 miles up the Colorado River from the Grand Canyon. It’s in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and the bend is very unique as far as waterway travels down there. It makes a complete 180-degree turn in a canyon 1,000 feet deep.

From the viewing point at the top, you get this amazing view of this horseshoe shape, hence the name. It’s a rugged, remote spot, and it’s a very lovely place as long as you’re willing to share it with a crowd. …

I ran the numbers after doing a little bit of research, and the numbers do check out. On Instagram, Horseshoe Bend’s popularity, in its hashtag or in its geotag, is normally 10 times as popular as anything else in that area.

On why some visitors and construction are the problem

Well, popularity is very important. The outdoor world needs more visitors and more accessibility. The difficulty with managing that side of it is that construction effects can have averse conditions applied to the natural areas, if you start doing different buildings. It’s not that all visitors are a problem, of course; it’s just some places tend to have people who neglect responsibilities of their visitorship.

On other spaces that have changed

In my article that I wrote for The Outline, I illustrate two other places that have also changed as a result of overwhelming popularity, specifically on Instagram. A smaller one, in Colorado, is Conundrum Hot Springs. After it became a spot to easily find on social media, the amount of visitorship went up really high. And the problem, since this is a very remote location where people hang around for a long time in the hot springs, is that they ran out of places to go to the bathroom. As a result, Conundrum Hot Springs had to be shut down for a little bit, while park rangers were up there with shovels to relieve that issue.

Bathrooms were not built. They literally had to shovel up everyone’s waste and pack it out for them.

On Vance Creek Bridge

Vance Creek Bridge is probably the most famous spot within the Instagram niche. It is the second-tallest bridge in the U.S.; it’s privately owned and is about a two-hour drive outside Seattle.

Its location was revealed in 2012 on Instagram and since then, visitorship has just exploded. The railing company that owns the bridge has tried to slow down the amount of people visiting it by putting up a fence and then excavating the whole area around the bridge before it drops down over 300 feet towards the river. They haven’t been successful with that, and as a result of vandalism, graffiti and a couple of unresolved campfires that caught the bridge on fire — they’re just going to tear it down now.

On why people visit these places

There’s definitely a community aspect of it. There’s nothing wrong with seeing a cool space on the Internet and deciding to go there. It’s just, maybe, don’t start fires there, and clean up your poop.

NPR’s Digital News intern Jose Olivares produced this story for digital.

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