IBM patents Google Glass-like night vision eyewear

IBM patents night vision Google Glass tech for superhuman sight

The patent read: "The wearer of current glasses such as Google Glass is subject to the risk of a phenomena referred to as binocular rivalry and phoria - a latent deviation or misalignment of the eyes that appears when both eyes are no longer looking at the same object. "

NEW YORK: US tech giant IBM has patented an eye wear like Google Glass that will have red-eyed night vision capabilities, a media report said.

Although not promising a true night vision, the device is described in the patent to improve sight under low light by tricking the brain to focus on high-contrast imagery.

"IBM's Google Glass modifications include a sensor and 'a comparator device' designed to detect and contrast light intensity. When the light intensity drops below a set level, a pair of projectors -- one for each eye -- bathe the user's eyes in red light,"

While the high-tech eye-tech does not provide true night vision per se, the system described in the patent instead aims to trick the human brain into focusing on high-contrast imagery in low light.

Big Blue's Google Glass modifications include a sensor and "a comparator device" designed to detect and contrast light intensity. When the light intensity drops below a set level, a pair of projectors – one for each eye – bathe the user's eyes in red light. The patent claims the effect is similar to that of dark rooms used in photography or the red-tinted glasses worn by some airline pilots.

The science behind the technology centres on the way in which the human eye adapts to poorly-lit environments. When a person enters a dark room, a slow adjustment takes place where a type of photoreceptor in the eye –called rod cells – adapts to the low levels of light.

However, environments enveloped in darkness with a red-tinge cause the rod cells to send high-contrast images to the brain. Under these conditions, visibility is greatly improved and it is far easier to make out objects. IBM's red-overlay design uses this principle to mimic night-vision and improve the wearer's sight in dark environments.

Binocular rivalry and phoria

While it appears that IBM's patent could suit almost any kind of tech-powered eyewear with the appropriate adaptation, Google Glass is noted specifically due to the side-effects that night-vision technology of this kind could induce.

The Pros & Cons of Khan Academy

The Pros & Cons of Khan Academy

Khan Academy has taken the world by storm in the eight years since its inception. The online video library hosts a wealth of subjects with video tutorials allowing its users to learn at their own pace. The non-profit organization is backed by some of the largest and most influential foundations and businesses in the world, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Google. It’s completely free to use and has optimized learning for all at the click of a mouse. Thesis Contributor Bethany Qiang explores the the benefits and drawbacks of supplementing education in the digital age through Khan Academy. 

 

PROS of Khan Academy

• It is free and accessible. It costs absolutely nothing to watch videos and work on problems. It is available anywhere with internet.
• There are a wide variety of subjects available. There are videos about math, biology, chemistry, and physics. In addition, there are also videos on arts, humanities, economics, and finance. Khan Academy is continually growing, so new subjects and videos are added regularly.
•  You can learn and work at your own pace. You can fast forward, rewind, repeat videos, stop and work out a problem on your own, all without having to consider other students’ or the teacher’s pace. Those who naturally work slower or who are struggling with a particular topic can focus on that topic.  Others who may be naturally adept at a certain topic can speed through sections that are less challenging.
•  It provides an incredible amount of math problems for a variety of grade levels(from very basic elementary concepts through calculus). One of the best ways to learn is through repetition. The more you do a certain kind of problem, the more familiar you will be with it, and the more you can use the patterns you recognize as a template for solving future problems. Because each problem is randomly generated, you have an unlimited number of problems to practice with. Each problem also is accompanied by its own solution so you can break it down step-by-step.

CONS of Khan Academy

• It is less interactive than having a face-to-face teacher or tutor. With a physical teacher or a tutor, you receive immediate feedback and talk through your thought process. With the Khan Academy videos, you lose that interactivity. If you have a question about a certain concept or problem, you cannot talk to another person and have them elaborate. Its much more difficult for your to work through problem solving processes alone, in order to gauge your understanding.
•  You are only exposed to one teaching style. Some students are auditory learners, others are visual, some are kinetic, and many students are a mix. Some students learn best with examples, some students learn best by doing. With Khan Academy, you are restricted to learning how the video teaches you, and it may or may not be the best way for you to learn as an individual.
•  You lose the collaborative aspect of education. A perk of being in the classroom or one-on-one is that you can bounce ideas off of each other and work together. You might discover a new way of thinking about something or help one another build off of your mutual knowledge, skills, or strengths and weaknesses. That process cannot be replicated in the same way, when learning from videos.
•  It lessens spontaneous creativity. Khan Academy, by nature, takes away some of the creativity and innovation that develops as you learn. It can only instruct; it cannot inspire and guide you to come to a solution on your own. A fundamental part of education is not only learning the material—in conjunction with generating ideas and being able to execute them.

In summary, Khan Academy is an incredibly useful tool for individuals to use to supplement concepts learned in class or find extra problems to work. However, it cannot replace the traditional classroom and tutoring experience.

20 Tips for Generating Awareness for Startups

STARTUP TIPS    

 

Generating awareness for start-ups is essential and can be the critical factor that defines success or failure for a new business. The one thing I hear most often when consulting with startup clients is… “Our strategy is to go viral!” Unfortunately, “going viral", in all it’s grandest intentions, is not a strategy. It’s a wish, goal, an aspiration or a desired outcome, but it’s not a strategy.

There are infinite opportunities and ways to generate buzz awareness for a start-up or small business – and many don’t take a multi-million dollar budget to implement. What is critical though, is being committed, consistent and persistent in your marketing activities.

We’ve identified 20 smart marketing tips to generate awareness for your start-up here:

1. Start with a Strategy. Incorporate a marketing plan and strategy as you build your business…and know what your goals are before you begin marketing. Too often, the marketing strategy only comes into play AFTER a product/service has been developed. One of the most important elements of this is your brand strategy… defining your value proposition, your positioning statement and your key supporting messages – and ensuring that everyone in your startup is “speaking the same language”. Knowing who your target audience is, how/where to reach them, and most importantly how you can uniquely provide value to them is critical.
   
2. Tell Your Story. Be well versed in telling the story about your business, your product or your service in a compelling way. Too many startups talk about who they are in terms of features and specifications of the product or service they offer. It’s a laundry list of what their product or service is or does. The focus, rather, should be on why your product/service matters (and more importantly… why it matters to your target audience). Answering that will change the focus from features and specifications to benefits and value. When you build your story around the benefits your audience will gain from your offering, it becomes not only more compelling, but also highly relevant.
   
3. Listen. Look. Learn…Then Do It Better. Listen and take note of what your competitors are doing – what is working for them? What isn’t? What do their customers complain about? What are their unmet needs? Look for ways to incorporate this into your product or service (or a new product or service) as well as your messaging. Don’t forget to look at your own efforts with an unbiased view. Could you be doing things more effectively? Do testing and make tweaks to your strategy to best meet the needs of the audience you are catering to.
   
4. Leverage Social Media. Presence, in and of itself, is not a strategy. Utilizing social media to share your story along with other valuable content, to generate awareness, to build an audience and to engage with them is a strategy. While it’s widely understood that Social Media isn’t free – it is definitely a low cost way to reach a mass audience, engage with potential customers and learn more about your target segment. It takes time (and yes, time is money) and persistence – but the rewards can be significant in getting the word out about your business. Every business is different, and therefore, depending on the nature of the product or service you offer and the audience you serve, your social media strategy will also vary. Focus your social efforts where your market is (whether that be visually = Instagram/Pinterest or content-driven (Twitter, FB, G+). Work at building your following on social channels through targeted and creative content. Run promotions, contests and giveaways and think of other ways to incentivize and to get people talking about you.Encourage user-generated content(it relieves some of the pressure of content creation and gets people talking about you!).
   
5. Timing & Trends Matter. Take advantage of timely and trendingtopics where applicable. Getting in on the conversation can open your opportunities for awareness. You may not have the next Oreo tweet, but with some creative ideas and proper use (not misuse) of hashtags, you can increase your overall exposure.
   
6. Content Marketing is Crucial.Develop an achievable content marketing strategy – implement it and stick to it. The number one reason content marketing strategies fail is due to lack of execution! Be aggressive, but realistic in what you can do. Extend the life of your content across all channels and mediums to reach more people with less effort.
   
7. Be an Authoritative Thought Leader. Earn the respect of those in your industry by providing thought leadership regularly. Speak at industry conferences, author articles and white papers, and participate in online/offline discussions.
   
8. Embrace Video. Utilize video to help spread your story. Video is engaging… and more importantly, it is easily shareable. It’s brings your startup, your product or your service to life in a way that text and words alone can not. You don’t need a production studio or to hire a professional videographer (but it can help if you can afford it!). Quality is key, but so is being authentic.
   
9. Owned Media Must-Haves. Take advantage of your owned media assets – a website and blog aren’t up for debate… they are critical for people who may be looking for you (and even those who may not be looking for you). Your website should tell your story to your target audience. It should be clean and modern and inviting. And most importantly, it must be setup with SEO in mind. A blog is a key aspect for any startup content strategy. It forces you to become a better writer – and it helps you know what works and what doesn’t to get traction (headlines, content, etc). Be sure to establish an email marketing strategy (newsletter, gated content, etc.) or other way to capture your customer and prospect email addresses. Over time, your email list will be one of the most valuable assets you have.
   
10. Paid Media To Increase Reach. It’s well known that organic reach via social networks continues to decline. Social advertising is relatively inexpensive, simple to implement and effective in reaching your target audience (for most businesses). Be creative in your advertising (for example creating targeted ad on Facebook for a free sample of your product, and like-gating a form for getting the free sample gets you more bang for your buck – you get a like (with a higher likelihood that you will reach that individual with your content) and you capture information for your coveted email list. Paid advertising, if done right with a highly targeted approach and with some innovative marketing/advertising techniques, can help build an audience based on quality (not quantity) and drive the right type of customers to you.
    
11. Create a Realistic Influencer Outreach Strategy. Identify key Influencers in the market and do your homework to understand how you can best reach them and get them to listen to your story. Remember that the top influencers in your industry or niche are probably getting hit up by your competition as well. You may need to develop a primary, secondary and tertiary influencer strategy. Start with the low-hanging fruit and work your way up to the very popular influencers once you have established yourself and can back your story with relevant stats.
    
12. Build Media Relationships…Before You Need Them. Begin establishing relationships with key media outlets, writers, bloggers well in advance of when you actually need to utilize them! Follow them on social networks and engage with them when possible and relevant. Look for writers in your industry who are young and hungry and who aren’t aren’t bombarded with emails everyday. Craft your outreach carefully, concisely and with a bit of an edge. Think in terms of how you can benefit them and what you can bring to the table? Whether it’s making a connection, offering to answer a question or providing insight on a topic they are researching… put yourself in front of them and get your name on their radar. When you do need help from the Media – hopefully you already have some allies to reach out to.
    
13. Establish Complementary Partnerships. Partner with complementary businesses (preferably businesses that are well established with high brand recognition). Collaborating with others gives you scale to tell your story, brings awareness to similar industry issues or news, as well as opens up opportunities for cross-promotion to new audiences.
    
14. Crowdsource to Create New Audiences. Crowdsourcing is a great way to vet a new product idea, marketing campaign or other project. Not only will more people become aware of you, but you get amazing ideas and feedback. People feel more loyal when they are engaged. Crowdsourcing allows you to engage people who have an interest in your business and provides you the opportunity to turn them into brand loyalists.
    
15. Experiential Marketing Sparks Conversation. Experiential marketing takes marketing to the next level of engagement. It creates a sensory connection with your audience, and hopefully leaves a lasting and positive impression with them. The key to successful experiential marketing is to be creative. Know what goals you want to achieve and determine how you will measure the success of your efforts.
    
16. Win Over Brand Ambassadors Early. Work at developing trusting relationships with your current customers, and in exchange they will reward you with loyalty and recommendations. Word of Mouth Marketing is huge for small businesses… especially if your product/service is targeted to millennials (who by far trust personal recommendations over brand messages). Treat your customers right and make it known to them how much you appreciate their business. Leave a lasting impression with them that will make them want to tell your story for you.
    
17. Be a Community Leader. Build a presence in your community – join a co-working facility, join your local chamber of commerce or become a member of a related professional organization. Attend events, network, offer to speak at an event or present on a topic, or sponsor an event. Enter local or national contests and apply for awards. Share your newsworthy stories with media outlets and newspapers. Make connections and tell your story… rinse and repeat.
    
18. Public Relations Still Matter. Use self service press release distribution services to announce new products and services or work with a small PR firm to help you. Invite members of the press or news outlets to your events and partner with others in newsworthy activities (participate in a non-profit community activity or civic event), enter contests, apply for awards, etc. Even if you don’t win, you get press from being a nominee.
    
19. Be the Case Study. Offer to be a Case Study for a college or university marketing challenge. Many schools want their students to work on real life challenges. Offer up your business and let a really smart and motivated team of young marketers help you define your marketing strategy or a specific campaign. Many business school challenges get great media buzz and you get free marketing help. Win-Win.
    
20. Keep. Telling. Your. Story. It’s a common theme that runs through many of the marketing tips already mentioned… but never miss an opportunity to tell your story. You never know who may open new doors to getting you one step closer to success. Be prepared on every occasion and keep things fresh and new. Highlight big business wins, struggles you overcame, partnerships you established or customers you delighted.

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge

SPECIFICATIONS

NETWORK
Technology	GSM / HSPA / LTE
EDGE	Yes

LAUNCH
Announced	2016, February
Status	Available. Released 2016, March

BODY
Dimensions	150.9 x 72.6 x 7.7 mm (5.94 x 2.86 x 0.30 in)
Weight	157 g (5.54 oz)
Build	Corning Gorilla Glass 4 back panel
SIM	Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
	- Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified) - IP68 certified - dust proof and water resistant over 1.5 meter and 30 minutes

DISPLAY
Type	Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size	5.5 inches (~76.1% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution	1440 x 2560 pixels (~534 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch	Yes
Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 4
	- Always-on display - TouchWiz UI - Curved edge screen

PLATFORM
OS	Android OS, v6.0 (Marshmallow)
Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820 Exynos 8890 Octa
CPU	Dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo Quad-core 2.3 GHz Mongoose + quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU	Adreno 530 Mali-T880 MP12

MEMORY
Card slot	microSD, up to 256 GB (dedicated slot) - single-SIM model microSD, up to 256 GB (uses SIM 2 slot) - dual-SIM model
Internal	32/64 GB, 4 GB RAM

CAMERA
Primary	12 MP, f/1.7, 26mm, phase detection autofocus, OIS, LED flash, check quality
Features	1/2.6" sensor size, 1.4 µm pixel size, geo-tagging, simultaneous 4K video and 9MP image recording, touch focus, face/smile detection, Auto HDR, panorama
Video	2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@240fps, HDR, dual-video rec., check quality
Secondary	5 MP, f/1.7, 22mm, dual video call, Auto HDR

SOUND
Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker	Yes
3.5mm jack	Yes
	- 24-bit/192kHz audio - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

COMMS
WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth	v4.2, A2DP, LE, aptX
GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
NFC	Yes
Radio	No
USB	microUSB v2.0, USB Host

FEATURES
Sensors	Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, heart rate, SpO2
Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
Browser	HTML5
Java	No
	- Fast battery charging: 60% in 30 min (Quick Charge 2.0) - Qi/PMA wireless charging (market dependent) - ANT+ support - S-Voice natural language commands and dictation - OneDrive (115 GB cloud storage) - MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264 player - MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+/FLAC player - Photo/video editor - Document editor

BATTERY
	Non-removable Li-Ion 3600 mAh battery
Talk time	Up to 27 h (3G)
Music play	Up to 74 h

MISC
Colors	Black, White, Gold, Silver, Pink Gold
SAR US	1.17 W/kg (head)     1.59 W/kg (body)
SAR EU	0.26 W/kg (head)     0.51 W/kg (body)
Price group	9/10 (About 800 EUR)

TESTS
Performance	Basemark OS II: 2107 / Basemark OS II 2.0: 2050 Basemark X: 28480
Display	Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal), 4.439 (sunlight)
Camera	Photo / Video
Loudspeaker	Voice 70dB / Noise 69dB / Ring 71dB
Audio quality	Noise -92.5dB / Crosstalk -92.2dB
Battery life	Endurance rating 98h