Weekly Recap: smart glasses, Lofree keyboard, Tinker Board, computer-assisted diagnosis, Love tonearm
Smart Specs
Do you need to wear bifocal or progressive lenses? Are you constantly swapping specs to see close and far? Then your future is looking brighter thanks to research out of the University of Utah. A team headed by Carlos Mastrangelo, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Nazmul Hasan, a doctoral student, has unveiled “smart glasses” that automatically adjust the focus depending on what you’re looking at. The glasses mimic the structure of our own eyes, with a layer of liquid glycerin sandwiched between two flexible membranes. Three mechanical actuators adjust the curve of the back membrane, which in turn adjusts the focal point of the lenses. An infrared-light rangefinder built into the bridge of the frame constantly measures the distance between the glasses and the objects in front of it to update focal point information in real-time. Refocusing takes just 14 milliseconds. A startup company, called Sharpeyes LLC, has been created to market the invention.
⇨ Mashable, “This pair of glasses can change focus based on what you look at.”
Old-school keyboards
The Lofree is a mechanical keyboard with round keycaps reminiscent of the classic typewriter. The keyboard is backlit, can be operated wired or wirelessly and is compatible with Mac, iOS, Windows and Android. No information has been released on the ease of cleaning of these crumb-and-dust traps. Nor is it known whether it “dings” at every carriage return (“enter” key for the young’uns). Though the Lofree is not yet available, you can leave your email address to receive updates. We are sorely tempted. (Once a hipster…)
⇨ Highsnobiety, “This Lofree keyboard turns your mac into a shiny, colorful typewriter.”
Tinker Board
No doubt inspired by the success of the Raspberry Pi, whose sales have hit 10 million, other builders are jumping into the single-board nanocomputer market for tinkerers. Taiwan’s Asus has just unveiled the Tinker Board, whose design is very similar to the Raspberry Pi. The 8.5 x 5.3 cm computer features a quad-core ARM Cortex A17 CPU (the excellent SoC Rockchip RK3288), an ARM Mali-T764 graphics processor and 2GB of DDR3 memory. Though more powerful than the Raspberry Pi 3 overall, the Tinker Board only supports 32-bit instructions due to its processor. Currently available at 65 euros, or CA$90, compared to 40 euros, or CA$55, for the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. Compatible with Android and Debian, and, eventually in the near future, Ubuntu and OpenSUSE. Also Kodi compatible.
⇨ Ars Technica, “Asus takes on Raspberry Pi with 4K-capable Tinker Board.”
CAD: Computer-assisted diagnosis
Computers are giving doctors a run for their money with the advent of deep neural networks, a computerized analysis process that mimics the way the brain works. Stanford researchers fed over one million images of skin diseases to the GoogleNet Inception v3 deep neural network, training it to diagnose malignant and benign skin cancer. The images were organized in a tree-like classification structure according to type of skin disease, from inflammatory problems to cancer types. With a diagnosis accuracy rate of 55 to 70%, computers outperformed doctors. But doctors are not about to go the way of elevator operators; for the time being, deep neural networks will be used for first line screening, as an aid to flesh-and-blood diagnostics.
⇨ Ars Technica, “Given enough training images, computers compete with medics on diagnosis.”
All you need is Love
The popularity of vinyl is enduring; turntables, on the other hand, are a necessary evil. Enter the Love tonearm, a revolutionary gadget that replaces your entire system. Love comes with two bases, on which you place your records. While they remain static, the Love tonearm rotates over them, reading the tunes and sending them to wi-fi connected speakers. Love is a sexier version of RokBlok, thanks to designer Yves Béhar. Coming to a Kickstarter near you in twenty days or so. No pricing information available.
⇨ The Verge, Circuit Breaker, “The Love is the latest weird turntable that wants to bring vinyl into the digital age.”
