A new Microsoft app can supervise driving tests without teachers

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/10/30/smartphone-app-replaces-driving-test-instructors/

Although many current auto-related technologies are focusing on taking the steering wheel out of drivers’ hands, a new project could potentially help to get more hands on the wheel. Born from Microsoft Research India, the research program is titled Harnessing AutoMobiles for Safety, or HAMS for short. Microsoft recently released a video that focuses on one part of project: automated driving tests.

Microsoft’s research page, found by Gizmodo, lists three people leading the charge: principal research program manager Satish Sangameswaran, deputy managing director of Microsoft Research India Venkat Padmanabhan, and senior researcher Akshay Nambi. At the core of this project is the desire to make roads safer, but not strictly by eliminating drivers. Here’s the overview straight from the source: 

“In the HAMS project, we use low-cost sensing devices to construct a virtual harness for vehicles. The goal is to monitor the state of the driver and how the vehicle is being driven in the context of a road environment that the vehicle is in. We believe that effective monitoring leading to actionable feedback is key to promoting road safety.”

Those low-cost sensing devices they’re referring to are off-the-shelf smartphones that have all sorts of sensors, cameras, and other useful technologies already built in. The smartphone is mounted to the center of the windshield with the main camera facing the road, and the screen facing the interior fo the car. This allows the phone to read the environment ahead, while the screen-side camera reads the driver. All the while, the phone’s gyroscopes or accelerometers are collecting data based on driver’s reactions to the commute. HAMS would then interpret the data and provide feedback of how to drive safely.

In addition to a business-oriented fleet-management dashboard, the HAMS developers have worked with the Institute of Driving and Traffic Research (IDTR) and Maruti-Suzuki to launch a pilot program for driver training. Specifically, HAMS has the idea of automating driving tests, meaning the smartphone could run the test without an instructor in the vehicle. 

Check out the video demonstrations of the technology below, and read more about HAMS at Microsoft.com.

via Autoblog https://ift.tt/1afPJWx

October 30, 2019 at 02:47PM

Seagull Stomps Grass To Imitate Rainfall, Trick Worms Into Surfacing

https://geekologie.com/2019/10/seagull-stops-grass-to-imitate-rainfall.php


This is an entirely-too-long-for-anything-but-academic-study video (4+ minutes) of a seagull stomping around in the grass to trick worms to think it’s raining and come to the surface to be eaten. It gets a bunch too. Well, I suppose it was either this or the worms actually come out when it’s raining then dry out on the sidewalk so my dog can try to eat and/or roll in them. I prefer this. "Haha, no — you get out there and do God’s work,’ I imagine ordering the seagulls as I a shoo them away from my bag of Cape Cod Sea Salt and Vinegar chips.
Keep going for the full video.

Thanks to Camilla, who

via Geekologie – Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome https://geekologie.com/

October 30, 2019 at 08:32AM

Xbox-to-Android game streaming is available in preview

https://www.engadget.com/2019/10/29/xbox-to-phone-game-streaming-is-available-in-preview/

You can finally stream your Xbox One games to your phone, provided you meet some rather specific criteria. Microsoft has launched an Xbox Console Streaming preview that enables playing your installed Xbox One games (this isn’t the Project xCloud service, to be clear) on Android devices. You’ll need to be a US- or UK-based Xbox Insider on the Alpha or Alpha Skip-Ahead rings, and you’ll have to own a Bluetooth-capable Xbox One Wireless Controller. If everything aligns, though, you’re set — you can squeak in a round of Gears 5 on your lunch break.

The company plans to expand the preview to other Insider rings and regions sometime in the future. It’s also currently limited to native Xbox One games and not retro players hoping to relive Xbox and Xbox 360 classics. It’s going to be a while before you can simply assume that your game library will be available wherever you are. This beats retreating to the living room, though, and gives Microsoft an answer to the PS4’s Remote Play.

Source: Xbox Wire, Xbox

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

October 29, 2019 at 04:00PM

DC-X: The NASA Rocket That Inspired SpaceX and Blue Origin

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/?p=13659

The first flight of the second version of the Delta Clipper, the DC-XA, at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. (Credit: NASA)
The rocket looked like it was out of a science fiction movie. A gleaming white pyramid resting on four spindly legs, the experimental craft was NASA’s ticket into a new era of space exploration.
With a series of built-in rockets
on its underside, the ship could rise from the ground and touch back down again
vertically — the first of its kind.
The Delta

via Discover Main Feed https://ift.tt/1dqgCKa

October 29, 2019 at 06:16PM