Facebook's DeepFace...and What Facebook Can Do to Soothe Criticism over Privacy Concern

Taken from:

http://mashable.com/2014/03/19/facebook-facial-recognition-deepface/

 

And from:

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2014/03/19/Facebooks-Deep-Face-facial-recognition-technology-to-have-near-human-accuracy/3151395247809/

 

Facebook has developed facial recognition software called the DeepFace. This software is as accurate as human brain in recognizing people’s face.

DeepFace can look at two photos, and irrespective of lighting or angle, can say with 97.25% accuracy whether the photos contain the same face. Humans can perform the same task with 97.53% accuracy.

The software is soon to be used on the Facebook website to help automatically recognize faces on pictures and tag matching names with the faces from their database.

 

To understand the software better, we need to know what a facial recognition system is and how it works. A facial recognition system identifies faces by using algorithms that contain the information of facial features. The information contains the shape of individuals’ eyes, nose, ears, cheekbones, and their position and size. Computers can find matching features by comparing the information with the images of customers filed on the database of companies. When an individual is identified, personal information to that individual can be seen. The system can automatically recognize employees’ face, allowing the employees to access the retrieved information without going through separate ID card or a fingerprint recognition process.

 

As you may have noticed, facial recognition technology can be criticized as an invasion of privacy. Facebook may have to require its users to agree to submit their faces and save them in a company-wide database along with the individual personal information.

To soothe the criticism, Facebook should politely inform its users what facial recognition technology is and how it can help Facebook provide its users high quality services, probably in forms of a contract. Facebook should inform that the system will be photographing and saving users’ faces and promise that the images and information will not be used for any other purpose different from its service.

 

Another way to reduce the criticism is giving users choices. Users may or may not choose their images to be saved in the database of the company. If a user chooses not to be saved, then his/her image would not be saved, but the user would not receive the enhanced services. If this concern can be managed, the DeepFace software will lead Facebook into a bigger success.

New MakerBot 3D Printers...and Competitors!

 

Taken from: http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/11/makerbot-starts-shipping-the-new-replicator-and-taking-pre-orders-for-their-biggest-3d-printer-ever/

 

And from: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/128016-hp-planning-3d-printer-unveil-for-june-will-be-faster-than-competitors

 

     New MakerBot’s 3D printers are now being shipped as the Replicator the Fifth Generation is now on sale. The MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer is in $2,899. This product is characterized as easy and fast printing. It has 3.5-inch full color LCD display with a user-friendly interface. The printer is accessible through desktops, mobile applications, USB stick, and USB Cable. Even connection through Wi-Fi is available. The product also has smart features such as cloud connection; that is, the printer can automatically take reference pictures of final prints and save them to the personal cloud storage. Moreover, even if the volume (456 cubic inches) increased by 11% from the last model, the speed of printing became quicker than ever. The company also introduced a miniature version of it, called the MakerBot Replicator Mini. The cost is cheaper ($1,375), but it contains most of the features that the regular version has. The mini version is, however, extremely small (length and width of 4-inch) and more for entertaining and educational purpose. On the other hand, MakerBot is also receiving preorders for the larger verson (2,592 cubic inches) called the MakerBot Replicator Z18, pricing $6,499.

 

To understand the products better, we should know about MakerBot. MakerBot Industries is a pioneer in desktop 3D printing. The company consists of engineers, entrepreneurs, and those who enjoy making things. Its products are earning the reputation as they were chosen as Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2012, Popular Mechanics “Overall Winner” for best 3D printer, and Fast Company 2012 Innovation by Design Awardee. This Brooklyn, New York-based company was founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach Hoeken Smith.

MakerBot has been improving its products in a unique way from its first kit of 3D printers, the Cupcake CNC to its present model, MakerBot Replicator. The Cupcake CNC was introduced in March 2009, and the company did not hide the source of this small 3D printer, allowing others to build their own version. This strategy successfully gained many suggestions from users; through this process, the company has produced MakerBot Replicator.

 

Despite MakerBot has hugely contributed to the 3D printing industries, it is now facing inevitable competitors. MakerBot Industries first introduced its 3D printers in CES 2010, and it was the only company that exhibited a 3D printer. The same happened in CES 2011. In CES 2014, many companies such as RepRap, Cube, Solidoodle, Bits from Bytes(BFB), Botmill, uPrint, and HP are the big competitors of MakerBot Industries. HP recently declared a pricing war in the 3D printing industry: "3D printers have had a reputation for being pricey, being a new technology that's been primarily aimed at the enterprise. According to Whitman in October, HP wants to bring the technology to people at a lower price point." As 3D printing industry will become more popular, even more companies will compete in the industry.

  However, MakerBot’s products have an innovative design in my opinion. Moreover, the specification of the recent printers shows the quick improvement. As a result, its printers are comparatively high-quality. Overall, I found the MakerBot Industries as a very potential company. The only problem that I see is too many competitors are jumping into 3D printing industry; that is, some competitors will soon close the gap of the quality of printers, as Samsung did for Apple. If only MakerBot can make a difference from other competitors such as in marketing, I believe MakerBot can soon become one of the biggest companies in the world.

Samsung Planning SIM-Equipped Smart Watch

Taken from: http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/19/samsung-said-to-be-planning-a-sim-equipped-gear-2-smartwatch/

 

Samsung said to be planning to release the Gear 2 Smartwatch with its own SIM. The negotiation is in progress with SK telecom. If this project is successful, users of the Gear 2 will be able to make calls without a smartphone connection. It seems that the products will be available in Korea for a while, but it wouldn’t be long before Samsung expands its sale to the international market.

 

Meanwhile, Samsung once tried to launch a standalone watchphone in 2003. However, the Gear 2 is the first exploration in incorporating smart features. As it newly incorporates the features, the battery length issue has been raised. Samsung worked on improving its battery life and successfully add the capability to make calls without impairing its battery life.

 

A few other companies are looking to improve their smartwatches. Samsung will have to compete with the companies such as Google; Google announced the Android Wears. The key for Samsung to remain competitive will be having the ability to differentiate competing platforms.

Tesla to Overcome Difficulties?

Taken from:

http://green.autoblog.com/2014/02/28/is-bmw-the-only-real-competition-to-tesla-motors/

And from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/business/tesla-fights-for-a-place-to-park.html?hpw&rref=business&_r=0

Tesla Motors was the first company that produced an electric car using lithium-ion technology. In 2009, Robert Lutz, General Motors’ then-Vice Chairman said, “All the geniuses here at General Motors kept saying lithium-ion technology is 10 years away, and Toyota agreed with us – and boom, along comes Tesla. That was the crowbar that helped break up the log jam.” As “the log jam” was broken, many companies started joining the competition in the electric car business. The companies included General Motors, Honda, Audi, BMW, and more. The excessive number of companies in an industry naturally causes intense rivalry. For example, the price competition became harsh; Honda recently joined this electric car pricing war by lowering the price of a model (Fit EV) to only $259 per month lease. Also, we should notice that a number of electric car companies are originally gasoline car companies; it is not difficult for gasoline car companies to expand their business into electric car industry. In short, a threat of new entrants onto the industry is high, thus intensifying the rivalry in the industry.

Moreover, one of Tesla’s most competitive advantages, the direct-sales approach is facing hardships:

New Jersey last week became the latest state, joining Texas and Arizona, to effectively shut down Tesla, when regulators said that it had until April 1 to comply with the state’s restrictive dealership laws. In Ohio, lawmakers are considering passing similar legislation. And Tesla now expects New York dealers to once more seek regulatory changes before the State Legislature. The company has faced court challenges in New York before and in Massachusetts, as well as attempts to restrict its direct-sales approach in Virginia, North Carolina and Minnesota.

This shows that many states are shutting down Tesla by restricting its direct sales.

  However, I think Tesla will remain competitive. First of all, a threat of substitutes is low. It is true that people can use bus or other public transportation, but most people desire to have their own vehicle. Furthermore, I believe gasoline cars should not be counted as a substitute. Instead, electric cars should be considered as a substitute to gasoline cars. The US government has been pushing to promote the use of electric cars by investing millions of dollars into the industry; in addition, people would purchase eco-friendly electric cars as they become cheaper. In other words, there is no strong substitute that can intensify the rivalry in the electric car industry. Another factor that will help Tesla is the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers. Buyers of cars want high-quality cars, and Tesla has them. The supplier, Tesla, even requires the high switching cost caused from super charge stations and swapping batteries. Overall, I think these advantages will be able to let Tesla overcome the difficulties.

The Project Morpheus v. The Oculus Rift. Can We Play Virtual Reality Game?

Taken from:

http://kotaku.com/sonys-working-hard-to-make-ps4-vr-thats-cool-and-won-1548912177

 

And from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/arts/video-games/oculus-rift-and-morpheus-take-games-to-a-new-dimension.html?rref=business

 

 

The Oculus Rift is now being called the future of virtual reality game. The biggest problem that has been suggested for the Oculus Rift was that it causes physical illness to many players when they play long.

One of the first discoveries that people make is that fast-paced games can make you physically ill. Oculus publishes a 42-page guide for developer with recommendations for avoiding eyestrain and preventing disorientation and nausea.

    Many gamers seemed disappointed. However, Sony was quick to identify and solve the problem. Sony realized that motion sickness is caused because of the latency between games and headsets. Sony is now planning to produce a headset for virtual reality game.

 

Sony's upcoming virtual reality headset is called the Project Morpheus. Sony's headset will have to go head to head with the already popular virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift which has already gained praise and has sold well. Sony has confidence in their headset, but said that the headset is only ready to be given to developers and is not ready for consumer market. One problem for some with the Oculus headset was motion sickness; Sony has been working on solving the problem of motion sickness by trying to decrease the latency with the headset. Sony has also said that they are targeting gamers for the headset because they know that the first people that will want to buy and use the headset is the hardcore gaming market. Although there are a few tech demos already for the headset, Sony does not think it will be ready by the end of 2014.

The Project Morpheus fueled the competition in the virtual reality game industry, and it seems the future of the industry is bright. Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games, said “I think there is a potential user base of billions,” and he is looking to change the world; he went on “We’re at Version 1 of a technology that’s going to completely change the world by Version 5.” I think Sony’s Project Morpheus will boost the competition, and expedite the development of the virtual reality game.

Growing Concerns over RFID Chip and its Future

 

Taken from :

 

http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20140302/BUSINESS/303020024/Experts-warn-RFID-chips-raise-growing-concerns

 

And from:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WTYipjVRI8

 

     As radio-frequency identification (RFID) has become common, many concerns have been raised. The privacy concern is one of them. Forbes writer Andy Greenberg, the author of the book “This Machine Kills Secrets,’ reported why:

IT and security expert Kristin Paget at a ShmooCon hacker conference showed on a demonstration just how easily an identity thief can grab data from unsuspecting passersby. For an investment of $50 for an RFID credit card reader purchased on eBay, and a $300 card magnetizing tool, she was able to write that information onto a blank card, which could be an old hotel key card or an old credit card.

     Should RFID chips include all information if it is helpful for us? If not, what information should be recorded and what should not?

 

     Before we further discuss the topic, we should understand what RFID is. RFID is an information system that uses radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to access, transfer, and trace data. This wireless technology is used to identify and track tags attached to products in a supply chain system. The tags electrically containing information can be powered and read through magnetic fields even from a few yards away, acting as a passive transponder that emits microwaves or radio waves. The tags also can be powered through battery, emitting radio waves as far as hundreds of yards. The information that RFID tags contain is transferred when they pass through the frequency field of a scanning antenna.

 

     So, should the chips keep all information, or not? The chips should not keep all information because it might invade privacy. It is important to classify what information should be kept and what should not be in order to protect privacy, even if the classification would differ from each individual. In my opinion, the chips should not keep the private information such as credit card information and personal identifications of buyers.

 

     Now, what information should the chips keep? The chips should contain price, shipping histories, product maintenances, expiration dates, and the place of origin of products. The information would provide transparency to the products and help buyers to trust them. It might also be helpful for a business if the chips contain information such as date of warehouse departure and arrival, and temperature of products.

 

     Despite the concerns, RFID tags are becoming more and more popular, because RFID tags possess many advantages over barcodes. First of all, RFID tags are readable from further distance. They can be read from a few yards, and when they are powered from batteries, the tags can be read from as far as hundreds of yards. Moreover, the tags are not required to be placed in a line of sight of the reader; this will hugely reduce time when used in retailers. The major advantage, however, is the capability of carrying large data such as shipping histories, expiration dates, and more; this capability will allow tracking products with detailed information. RFID tags are also more reusable when they are protected by a cover. These advantages will keep RFID popular in the future.