Monday, November 1, 2021

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Facebook is enabling a new generation of touchy-feely robots

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 05:00 AM PDT

Without a sense of touch, Frankenstein's monster would never have realized that "fire bad" and we would have had an unstoppable reanimated killing machine on our hands. So be thankful for the most underappreciated of your five senses, one that robots may soon themselves enjoy. Facebook announced on Monday that it has developed a suite of tactile technologies that will impart a sense of touch into robots that the mad doctor could never imagine.

But why is Facebook even bothering to look into robotics research at all? "Before I joined Facebook, I was chatting with Mark Zuckerberg, and I asked him, 'Is there any area related to AI that you think we shouldn't be working on?' Yann LeCun, Facebook's chief AI scientist recalled during a recent press call. "And he said, 'I can't find any good reason for us to work on robotics,' so that was the start of our FAIR [Facebook AI Research] research, that we're not going to work on robotics."

"Then, after a few years," he continued, "it became clear that a lot of interesting progress in AI work is happening in the context of robotics because this is the nexus of where people in AI research are trying to get to; the full loop of perception, reasoning, planning and action, and then getting feedback from the from the environment."

As such, FAIR has centered its tactile technology research on four main areas of study — hardware, simulation, processing and perception. We've already seen FAIR's hardware efforts: the DIGIT, a "low-cost, compact high-resolution tactile sensor" that Facebook first announced in 2020. Unlike conventional tactile sensors, which typically rely on capacitive or resistive methods, DIGIT is actually vision-based.

DIGIT world view
FAIR

"Inside the sensors there is a camera, there are RGB LEDs placed around the silicon, and then there is a silicon gel," Facebook AI Research Scientist, Roberto Calandra, explained. "Whenever we touch the silicone on an object, this is going to create shadows or changes in color cues that are then recorded by the collar. These allow [DIGIT] to have extremely high resolution and extremely high spectral sensitivity while having a device which is mechanically very robust, and very easy and cheap to produce."

Calandra noted that DIGIT costs about $15 to produce and, being open source hardware, its production schematics are available to universities and research institutions with fabrication capabilities. It's also available for sale, thanks to a partnership with GelSight, to researchers (and even members of the public) who can't build their own.

digit egg
FAIR

In terms of simulation, which allows ML systems to train in a virtual environment without the need to collect heaps of real-world hardware data (much the same way Waymo has refined its self-driving vehicle systems over the course of 10 billion computer generated miles), FAIR has developed TACTO. This system can generate hundreds of frames of realistic high-resolution touch readings per second as well as simulate vision-based tactile sensors like DIGIT so that researchers don't have to spend hours upon hours tapping on sensors to create a compendium of real-world training data.

"Today if you want to use reinforcement learning, for example, to train a car to drive itself," LeCun pointed out, "it would have to it would have to be done in your turn environment because it would have to drive for millions of hours, cause you know countless thousands of accidents and destroy itself multiple times before it burns its way around and even then it probably wouldn't be very reliable. So how is it that humans are capable of learning to drive a car with 10 to 20 hours of practice with hardly any supervision?"

"It's because, by the time we turn 16 or 17, we have a pretty good model of the world," he continued. We inherently understand the implications of what would happen if we drove a car off a cliff because we've had nearly two decades of experience with the concept of gravity as well as that of fucking around and finding out. "So 'how to get machines to learn that model of the world that allows them to predict events and plan what's going to happen as a consequence of their actions' is really the crux of the problem here."

Sensors and simulators are all well and good, assuming you've got an advanced Comp Sci degree and a deep understanding of ML training procedure. But many aspiring roboticists don't have those sorts of qualifications so, in order to broaden the availability of DIGIT and TACTO, FAIR has developed PyTouch — not to be confused with PyTorch. While Torch is a machine learning library focusing primarily on vision-based and NLP libraries, PyTouch centers on touch sensing applications.

"Researchers can simply connect their DIGIT, download a pretrained model and use this as a building block in their robotic application," Calandra and Facebook AI Hardware Engineer, Mike Lambeta, wrote in a blog published Monday. "For example, to build a controller that grasps objects, researchers could detect whether the controller's fingers are in contact by downloading a module from PyTouch."

Most recently, FAIR (in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University) has developed ReSkin, a touch-sensitive "skin" for robots and wearables alike. "This deformable elastomer has micro-magnetic particles in it," Facebook AI Research Manager, Abhinav Gupta, said. "And then we have electronics — a thin flexible PCB, which is essentially a grid of magnetometers. The sensing technology behind the skin is very simple: if you apply force into it, the elastomer will deform and, as it deforms, it changes the magnetic flux which is read [by] magnetometers."

"A generalized tactile sensing skin like ReSkin will provide a source of rich contact data that could be helpful in advancing AI in a wide range of touch-based tasks including object classification, proprioception, and robotic grasping," Gupta wrote in a recent FAIR blog. "AI models trained with learned tactile sensing skills will be capable of many types of tasks, including those that require higher sensitivity, such as working in health care settings, or greater dexterity, such as maneuvering small, soft, or sensitive objects."

Despite being relatively inexpensive to produce — 100 units cost about $6 to make — ReSkin is surprisingly durable. The 2-3mm thick material lasts for up to 50,000 touches while generating high-frequency, 3-axis tactile signals and while retaining a temporal resolution of up to 400Hz and a spatial resolution of 1mm with 90 percent accuracy. Once a swath of ReSkin reaches its usable limits, replacing "the skin is as easy as taking a bandaid off and putting a new bandaid on," Gupta quipped.

ReSkin Berry
FAIR

Given these properties, FAIR researchers foresee ReSkin being used in a number of applications including in-hand manipulation, ie making sure that robot gripper doesn't crush the egg it's picking up; measuring tactile forces in the field, measuring how much force the human hand exerts on objects it is manipulating, and contact localization, essentially teaching robots to recognize what they're reaching for and how much pressure to apply once they touch upon it.

As with virtually all of its earlier research, FAIR has open-sourced DIGIT, TACTO, PyTouch and ReSkin in an effort to advance the state of tactile art across the entire field.

The Morning After: So what is the metaverse?

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 04:15 AM PDT

So what is the metaverse? The big tech news last week was that Facebook — the company — is renaming itself Meta, which will apparently align it with its future goals and aims.

But what does it even mean? Judging from Mark Zuckerberg's keynote, it's definitely about "experiences." Meta's take on the metaverse is "a new phase of interconnected virtual experiences using technologies like virtual and augmented reality."

Other things that have been described as metaverse include: Snow Crash (where the term originates), Ready Player One, Second Life, The Matrix universe. Both Roblox and Fortnite even touch on a lot of the major points of the metaverse. Senior Editor Daniel Cooper tries to detangle Zuckerberg's view of his business' future, right here.

— Mat Smith

'Roblox' returns after three-day outage

The company didn't pinpoint the cause until just hours earlier.

The gaming platform's developer said it was "incrementally" bringing regions back to service after having pinpointed the cause roughly three hours earlier. Some had blamed the outage on a Chipotle promo that launched half an hour before the failure. Roblox has over 40 million daily users. Maybe they really like burritos? The company, while it didn't detail the cause, has ruled out particular "experiences or partnerships."

Continue reading.

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November Newsletter Image

NASA delays SpaceX Crew-3 launch to November 3rd

It'll be a late start.

NASA has delayed the launch of Crew-3 from early on Halloween to 1:10 AM ET on November 3rd. The agency pinned the setback on "unfavorable" weather. There probably won't be another delay, though. Officials say there's an 80 percent chance of good weather for the new date. Live coverage of the launch on NASA's channel will start November 2nd at 8:45 PM ET.

Continue reading.

Juno probe shows the first 3D view of Jupiter's atmosphere

Giant cyclones.

TMA
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Gerald Eichstädt and Sean Doran (CC BY-NC-SA)

​​Researchers have produced the first 3D view of Jupiter's atmospheric layers, showing in greater detail than before how its turbulent clouds and storms work. Most notably, it's clearer how its giant cyclones and anticyclones behave. They're much taller than expected, with the Great Red Spot (an anticyclone) running 200 miles deep.

Continue reading.

Apple's mixed reality headset might play 'high-quality' VR games

The headset could still launch as soon as 2022.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman claimed Apple is aiming for a headset with both fast chips and high-res displays that can handle "high-quality" VR games. While it's not certain just what chips would be involved, a previous leak mentioned a possible 8K resolution per eye.

The headset is still poised to arrive "as early as" 2022, Gurman said. He also suggested Apple would eventually follow up the mixed headset with an augmented-reality-only model, but that was "years down the road."

Apple has acquired companies and reportedly shuffled executives with mixed reality in mind. And you know what this means? Apple might dabble in the metaverse, too.

Continue reading.

Lenovo's rumored 17-inch ThinkBook Plus has a second screen for drawing

You could scribble without obscuring the main display.

TMA
Evan Blass

Well-known device leaker Evan Blass has shared what he said is an image of a 17-inch ThinkBook Plus model, and it includes a secondary screen that appears to work with a stylus. The 17-inch ThinkBook Plus seems to have an extra-wide main display and fit in a full keyboard along with a large trackpad.

Continue reading.

 

The biggest news stories you might have missed

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G20 deal raises the minimum tax rate for big tech companies

Lego adds 'Luigi's Mansion' sets to its Super Mario World collection

'5D' storage could fit 500TB on a CD-sized glass disc

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 02:50 AM PDT

Using high-speed lasers, researchers have created "5D" data storage technology that could allow 500 TB of data to be written to a CD-sized glass disc, according to the Optica society. The technique uses higher writing speeds that might finally make it feasible to use the technology for archival and other purposes. 

With 5D optical storage, each file is uses three layers of nanoscale dots. The dots' size, orientation and position within the three standard dimensions, make up the five "dimensions." The dots change the polarization of light travelling through the disc which is read using a microscope and polarizer.

We've seen 5D optical storage before, but there were a number of problems — particularly the slow writing speeds that made the technology impractical. It has huge upsides for (extremely) long-term storage, though. It's been estimated that the storage medium could withstand temperatures up to 1,000 degrees C and last 13.8 billion years at room temperature without degrading.  

To overcome the speed problem, researchers used a femtosecond laser with a high repetition rate. Rather than writing directly in the glass, they used the laser to produce a phenomenon called near-field enhancement, that creates tiny structures using a few weak light pulses. Those can be used to enhance the circular voids generated by a more powerful, single-pulse "micro-explosion." This technique "minimized the thermal damage that has been problematic for other approaches that use high-repetition-rate lasers," according to the paper.

Using the new technique, the team was able to write 5GB of text data ono a silica glass disc the size of a conventional CD with nearly 100 percent readout accuracy. "With the writing density available from the method, the disc would be able to hold 500 terabytes of data," the researchers said. They were also able to write at speeds or around a million voxels per second, or about 230 KB per second. 

That might sound slow, but by introducing parallel writing, you could feasibly fill a 500TB disc in about 60 days. That could provide a way to backup reams of valuable data, essentially forever. "With the current system, we have the ability to preserve terabytes of data, which could be used, for example, to preserve information from a person's DNA," said research team leader Peter G. Kazansky.

Google's Nest devices are on sale at Best Buy ahead of Black Friday

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 02:10 AM PDT

If you want to score Google's Nest devices at a discount before Black Friday arrives, check out Best Buy's sale — some of them are even available for the lowest price we've seen them sell for across retailers. The Google Nest Audio, for instance, is now listed for $60, which is $40 less than its standard price and is the lowest we've seen for the speaker. In case you missed the chance to purchase the device at that price from B&H Photo in October, here's another chance to do so. The second-gen Google Nest Hub is also on sale for $50, which is only $10 more than what the first-gen Nest Hub goes for these days.

Buy Google Nest Audio at Best Buy - $60Buy Google Nest Hub 2nd Gen at Best Buy - $50

We gave the Nest Audio a score of 87 in our review and called it a steal at $100. The smart speaker offers much better audio quality than Google's older speaker models, which can be improved further if you pair two of them in stereo. We also praised it for its attractive minimalist design: The device is fully covered in audio-transparent cloth that comes in five colors. Meanwhile, we gave the second-gen Nest Hub a score of 89, praising it for having a louder and clearer display than its predecessor. Assistant also responds faster on the smart display than on its first-gen counterpart, thanks to its onboard chip. 

Want a bigger screen? The Nest Hub Max, with its 10-inch display and camera, is on sale for $180, down $50 from its normal price of $230. We gave it a score of 86 in our review and praised it for its great screen, gesture control capability for media playback and ability to double as a Nest Cam. The Google Nest WiFi 2-pack, which comes with a mesh WiFi router and an access point, is also currently on sale for $179. That's $89 less than the two-pack's usual price. The router and the single access point can cover up to 3,800 square feet, and the point comes with a built-in smart speaker with access to Google Assistant.

Buy Google Nest WiFi Mesh Router 2-Pack at Best Buy - $179Buy Google Nest Hub Max at Best Buy - $180

If you want a Google's smaller smart speakers instead of the bigger Nest Audio to place around your home, the Nest Mini is also on sale for $25, down 50 percent from its original price of $50. It may not sound as good as the Nest Audio, but it has better audio quality than its predecessor. Meanwhile, the Nest Doorbell Battery is down $50 from its original price of $180. As its name implies, it's a battery-powered video doorbell that's easy to install and can send you alerts about important activity outside your door. Finally, the Nest Smart Programmable Wifi Thermostat is on sale for $100, down $30 from its original price. It was designed to be easy to install and has a touch bar on the side you can use to adjust the temperature. You can also control it from anywhere via the Google Home app or via Google Assistant.

Buy Google Nest Mini at Best Buy - $25Buy Google Nest Doorbell Battery at Best Buy - $130Buy Google Nest Smart Programmable Wifi Thermostat at Best Buy - $100

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Roblox comes back online after three-day outage

Posted: 31 Oct 2021 02:06 PM PDT

Roblox is finally returning to normal after a nearly three-day outage. The gaming platform's developer said it was "incrementally" bringing regions back to service after having pinpointed the cause roughly three hours earlier. The company had a possible candidate on October 30th, but didn't narrow it down until a day later.

The company didn't detail the cause, but had previously ruled out particular "experiences or partnerships." Some had blame the outage on a Chipotle promo that launched half an hour before the failure took place on the evening of October 28th.

Whatever the reason for the outage, it may have had a lasting effect. Roblox has over 40 million daily users, and has been home to major concerts in recent months. That could leave more than a few frustrated kids, not to mention parents and creators wondering about the long-term reliability of the platform.

Astronomers may have spotted a planet in another galaxy for the first time

Posted: 31 Oct 2021 01:53 PM PDT

The hunt for exoplanets is venturing beyond the Milky Way. Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have detected what might be the first signs of a planet in another galaxy. The team noticed dips in X-ray brightness that hint at a planet transiting in front of a star in the Messier 51 (aka M51) galaxy 28 million light-years away. For context, all the exoplanet candidates in the Milky Way are no more than 3,000 light-years from Earth — this planet would easily set a distance record if confirmed.

The very nature of stars made the feat possible. As the researchers had to focus on X-ray bright binary systems where the region of bright rays is relatively tiny, the transit was considerably easier to spot. Conventional detection of nearby stars requires much more sensitive light detection, as a planet might only block a small amount of light from a given star.

The planet itself is believed to be as large as Saturn, but would orbit its hosts (a star 20 times the mass of the Sun as well as a black hole or neutron star) at twice the distance.

Scientists didn't believe the dimming was due to gas clouds or dust, as those aren't consistent with the event they recorded in M51. A planet, however, would line up with the data.

The challenge, as you might guess, is verifying that data. The planet's large orbit could rule out another transit for roughly 70 years, and it wouldn't be clear exactly when astronomers would have to take a look. The three-hour transit of this planet candidate didn't provide a large window. That's also assuming the 'living' star doesn't explode and bathe the planet in radiation.

If there's ever a confirmation, though, the discovery would be very significant. While there aren't many doubts that planets exist in other galaxies, it would be useful to have evidence of their existence. This could also significantly widen the scope of future planetary searches to include the galactic neighborhood, not just close-by stars.

Lenovo's rumored 17-inch ThinkBook Plus has a second screen for drawing

Posted: 31 Oct 2021 12:55 PM PDT

Lenovo's next ThinkBook Plus might be more practical, at least if you'e a budding artist. Well-known leak purveyor Evan Blass has shared what he said is an image of a 17-inch ThinkBook Plus model. Unlike the current 13.3-inch system, though, you wouldn't have to flip your machine around to use an e-paper display on the back. Instead, you'd have a pen-capable color display next to the keyboard you could use to draw or take handwritten notes.

Blass didn't share other details, but the 17-inch ThinkBook Plus would seemingly have an extra-wide main display and fit in a full keyboard along with a large trackpad. We'd expect reasonably speedy internals to help drive the second display, much like the vaguely comparable ASUS ZenBook Duo.

It's not certain when this extra-large ThinkBook Plus would ship. Lenovo has historically reserved some of its largest laptop introductions for CES in January, but that doesn't preclude the company from a last-minute launch for the holidays. Either way, the image suggests Lenovo hasn't given up on the Plus concept — if anything, it's exploring new concepts that might prove appealing for creatives and others who shied away in the past.

G20 deal raises the minimum tax rate for big tech companies

Posted: 31 Oct 2021 11:06 AM PDT

Large tech companies may soon have to pay significant taxes no matter what tax loopholes they had before. BBC Newsreports G20 leaders have reached an agreement that would set a global minimum tax rate of 15 percent for large companies. The long-in-the-making deal should be official as of today (October 31st) and would be enforced starting in 2023.

The US originally pitched the concept to prevent companies from using creative accounting (such as the "Double Irish arrangement") to avoid paying most of their taxes in the country. Other countries embraced the idea, though, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) toldCBC News the move could rake in about $150 billion from corporations around the world.

The deal could discourage tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Netflix from relying on loopholes to maximize their profits. If the deal collects the promised money, governments could better fund public services and help tackle problems like climate change. 

There are numerous criticisms, however, and not just from those who generally oppose higher taxes. Oxfam, for instance, blasted "generous carve outs" that protected sone income and take 10 years to phase out. The pro-equality group also claimed the deal was "extremely limited" and would affect fewer than 100 companies while generating little money for poorer countries. The arrangement might beat the status quo for G20 nations, but it won't necessarily address some outstanding concerns.

Apple's mixed reality headset might play 'high-quality' VR games

Posted: 31 Oct 2021 09:07 AM PDT

Apple's rumored mixed reality headset may be a boon for VR gaming. In his most recent newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman claimed Apple is aiming for a headset that can handle "high-quality" VR games with both fast chips and high-res displays. While it's not certain just what chips would be involved, a previous leak mentioned a possible 8K resolution per eye — Apple might not expect games to run at that resolution, but it would hint at serious processing power.

The headset is still poised to arrive "as early as" 2022, Gurman said. He also suggested Apple would eventually follow up the mixed headset with an augmented-reality-only model, but that was "years down the road."

However accurate the claim might be, it's doubtful the mixed reality headset would be meant primarily for gaming The price (rumored to be as high as $3,000) might relegate it to developers and other pros. It wouldn't be a rival to the $299 Quest 2, then. Instead, the report suggests Apple might use this initial headset to pave the way for more affordable wearables where gaming is more realistic.

It's safe to presume Apple is committed to a headset, no matter the end result. Apple has acquired companies and reportedly shuffled executives with mixed reality in mind. This wouldn't just be a side project for the company, even if the mixed reality tech could take years to reach the mainstream. Gaming might play a pivotal role if Apple intends to reach a wider audience.

Amazon offers steep discounts on recent Echo devices

Posted: 31 Oct 2021 07:22 AM PDT

This may be one of your best chances of scoring a smart speaker or e-reader before the holiday rush. Amazon is selling multiple recent Echo devices (plus a Kindle reader) at very low prices. To start, the fourth-generation Echo speaker is on sale for just $60 (usually $100), or the same as its Prime Day pricing. You can also buy the new Echo Show 5 for an all-time low of $55 (normally $85), while its larger Echo Show 8 counterpart has dropped to $100 (typically $130).

Buy Echo (4th-Gen) on Amazon - $60Buy Echo Show 5 on Amazon - $55Buy Echo Show 8 on Amazon - $100

You might also appreciate the Kindle deal if you're a book lover. Amazon is selling the standard Kindle (with ads) for just $50 — that's $40 below its official sticker, and even better than the Prime Day price. You'll get a similar discount on the ad-free version, which sells for $70. Either price drop makes the Kindle an easy choice if you prefer to wind down with a digital book at the end of the day.

The Echo devices are safe choices. The fourth-gen Echo sounds great for the money and boasts a memorable design along with Alexa's healthy ecosystems for smart home devices and skills. The newer Echo Show 5 and 8, meanwhile, build on that Alexa know-how with visuals. The Show 5 fits best as a bedside clock, while the 8 works well for video calls or as a family hub in the kitchen or living room. The main hiccups are simply the interface and streaming app selections — Google has a slight edge in both departments, but that might not matter much if you're mainly using voice commands or checking the news and weather.

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by visiting our deals homepage and following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter.

iRobot's poop-detecting Roomba j7+ vacuum is cheaper than ever right now

Posted: 31 Oct 2021 05:30 AM PDT

iRobot's latest Roomba that can detect obstacles — including pet poop — along its cleaning journey is cheaper than ever right now. Both Amazon and Wellbots have the Roomba j7 and j7+ for $150 less, so you can grab them for $499 and $699, respectively. Both robots are the same, but you'll get the clean base with the j7+ model, allowing you to set and forget the robot and only empty the clean base about once every 60 days.

Buy Roomba j7 at Amazon - $499Buy Roomba j7+ at Amazon - $699Buy Roomba j7 at Wellbots - $499Buy Roomba j7+ at Wellbots - $699

The j7 series builds upon the Roomba i7 robots with more powerful cameras, better sensors and more power. The AI-driven computer vision technology allows the device to detect obstacles and move around them as it cleans, and you can label those obstacles as permanent (in the case of a chair or another piece of furniture) or temporary. Not only does this mean the j7 robots should better navigate around things like piles of clothes and charging cords, but they can also detect a robot vacuum's arch nemesis: pet poop. iRobot even has a Pet Owner Official Promise (yes, P.O.O.P.) which states that you'll get a new robot vacuum if your j7+ runs into poop in the first year of you owning it.

Aside from that, the j7 series takes advantage of iRobot's improved mobile app, which lets you schedule cleanings and set routine triggers. You can also label rooms in your home after the robot has created a map, so you can better direct it to a specific room when you only need a quick clean.

While the clean base included in the j7+ package isn't necessary, it takes the convenience level up a notch. Instead of emptying your robot's bin after every job, the j7+ will automatically empty its contents into the clean base when it's done. You then only have to worry about emptying the base once every two months.

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Lego adds 'Luigi's Mansion' sets to its Super Mario World collection

Posted: 31 Oct 2021 04:00 AM PDT

Now that Luigi is part of Lego Super Mario, the toymaker is ready to show the other heroic plumber a little more respect. Lego has introduced a trio of Luigi's Mansion expansion sets that give its namesake star more to do in a game designed with him in mind.

The $30 Lab and Poltergust set helps you get started with Luigi's ghost vacuum, while a $40 Entryway set introduces you to the mansion proper as well as Polterpup and the game series' Boo ghosts. Splurge on the $80 Haunt-and-Seek kit and you can create a full-fledged level, complete with hidden gems and rotating hallways. As you'd expect, you can combine the sets or mix them with other Lego Super Mario packs.

The timing is off. Lego may be announcing the Luigi's Mansion sets on Halloween, but they won't be available until January 1st, 2022. It's a missed opportunity, then, but you might not mind if you or or your kids enjoy the existing Super Mario collections and want more variety. If nothing else, this will provide fond memories for anyone who remembers collecting ghosts in Luigi's games.
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