National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers have developed a way to monitor breathing based on tiny changes in WiFi signals. They say their BreatheSmart deep-learning algorithm could help detect if someone in the household is having breathing issues.
WiFi signals are almost ubiquitous. They bounce off of and pass through surfaces as they try to link devices with routers. But any movement will alter the signal’s path, including how the body moves as we breathe, which can change if we have any issues. For instance, your chest will move differently if you’re coughing.
Other researchers have explored the use of WiFi signals to detect people and movements, but their approaches required dedicated sensing devices and their studies provided limited data. A few years ago, a company called Origin Wireless developed an algorithm that works with a WiFi mesh network. Similarly, NIST says BreatheSmart works with routers and devices that are already available on the market. It only requires a single router and connected device.
The scientists changed the firmware on a router so that it would check “channel state information,” or CSI, more frequently. CSI refers to the signals that are sent from a device, such as a phone or laptop, to the router. CSI signals are consistent and the router understands what they should look like, but deviations in the environment, such as the signal being affected by surfaces or movement, modify the signals. The researchers got the router to request these CSI signals up to 10 times per second to gain a better sense of how the signal was being modified.
The team simulated several breathing conditions with a manikin and monitored changes in CSI signals with an off-the-shelf router and receiving device. To make sense of the data they collected, NIST research associate Susanna Mosleh developed the algorithm. In a paper, the researchers noted that BreatheSmart correctly identified the simulated breathing conditions 99.54 percent of the time.
Mosleh and Jason Coder, who heads up NIST’s research in shared spectrum metrology, hope developers will be able to use their research to create software that can remotely monitor a person’s breathing with existing hardware. “All the ways we’re gathering the data is done on software on the access point (in this case, the router), which could be done by an app on a phone,” Coder said. “This work tries to lay out how somebody can develop and test their own algorithm. This is a framework to help them get relevant information.”
The United States Postal Service said it expects to buy more than 66,000 electric vehicles by the end of 2028 in a significant change from previous plans. In February, the USPS said it would purchase 5,000 fully electric versions of the Next Generation…
Amazon has agreed to change some business practices in the European Union as part of legally binding commitments with the bloc’s executive branch. The European Commission said the deal will put antitrust investigations over how Amazon treats third-party sellers to bed for the time being. Amazon will need to abide by the commitments for between five and seven years or it could face hefty fines.
“Today’s decision sets new rules for how Amazon operates its business in Europe. Amazon can no longer abuse its dual role [as both marketplace and seller] and will have to change several business practices,” Margrethe Vestager, the Commission’s executive vice-president in charge of competition policy, said in a statement. “They cover the use of data, the selection of sellers in the Buy Box and the conditions of access to the Amazon Prime Program. Competing independent retailers and carriers as well as consumers will benefit from these changes opening up new opportunities and choice.”
The deal includes several preliminary commitments Amazon made in July. Among other things, it will rank all sellers equally in the Buy Box, which displays an item from a specific seller so customers can quickly purchase it. Amazon said it will display a second Buy Box if another seller offers the product with a significantly different price and/or delivery time.
Third-party sellers in the EU will be able to offer their products through Prime without having to use Amazon’s delivery or logistics services. Additionally, Amazon will not use any non-public data relating to third-party sellers to benefit its own business, including logistics or creating copycat versions of popular products.
The final deal includes some additional commitments, such as making it easier for third-party sellers to directly contact their Amazon customers so they can provide similar delivery services to those offered by Amazon. The company will also need to create a way for sellers and carriers to file complaints if they suspect it isn’t complying with the commitments.
Amazon said it disagreed with some of the Commission’s preliminary conclusions. However, it told the Associated Press that, “We are pleased that we have addressed the European Commission’s concerns and resolved these matters.”
The settlement applies for five years in most cases. The Prime and second Buy Box commitments will last for seven years. The deal is legally enforceable in the European Economic Area save for Italy. That country’s competition authority has imposed its own penalties on Amazon.
If EU regulators determine that Amazon isn’t sticking to the terms of the deal, the Commission can fine the company up to 10 percent of its global annual revenue without having to find an infringement of antitrust rules. Based on Amazon’s 2021 revenue, that fine could be as much as $47 billion. Alternatively, the EC could fine Amazon five percent of its daily turnover for every day that it doesn’t comply with the terms of the deal.
EU regulators brought formal antitrust charges against Amazon in November 2020, accusing the company of abusing its dual position. The Commission opened an investigation over the use of non-public data the previous year. In a separate investigation, the EC found that Amazon “abused its dominance on the French, German and Spanish markets for the provision of online marketplace services to third-party sellers.” Amazon is still facing scrutiny on these issues in the US and the UK.
Fortnite maker Epic Games will pay $520 million to settle allegations that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and “tricked millions of players into making unintentional purchases,” using deceptive design strategies called dark patterns, the Federal Trade Commission said. The agency notes that there are two separate settlements, each of which broke FTC records.
Epic will pay $275 million for allegedly violating the COPPA rule as part of a proposed federal court order. The agency says that’s the largest penalty it has obtained to date over a rule violation. Epic will also refund customers $245 million over its billing practices and use of dark patterns. The FTC claims that’s the largest refund in a gaming-related case and its biggest administrative order to date. It will decide whether to finalize the consent order after a 30-day public comment period.
“As our complaints note, Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children,” FTC chair Lina M. Khan said in a statement. “Protecting the public, and especially children, from online privacy invasions and dark patterns is a top priority for the Commission, and these enforcement actions make clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices.”
Epic Games
Fortnite has been a colossal success for Epic. The game generated $9 billion in profit between 2018 and 2019, and $5.1 billion in gross revenue in 2020.
The FTC claimed that Epic violated the COPPA rule by collecting personal data from Fortnite players aged under 13 without notifying or seeking consent from their parents. In its complaint, the FTC said parents who wanted Epic to delete personal information on their kids had to “jump through extraordinary hoops” and even then the company sometimes didn’t honor those requests.
The agency also accused Epic of engaging in “unfair practices” and harming children and teens by enabling voice and text chat by default. “Children and teens have been bullied, threatened, harassed and exposed to dangerous and psychologically traumatizing issues such as suicide while on Fortnite,” the FTC claimed.
As part of the COPPA settlement, the FTC says there’s a first-of-its-kind provision that forces Epic to have more stringent default privacy settings for kids and teens, including making sure that voice and text chat are off by default. The company also needs to delete personal data it has collected on Fortnite players unless a player says they’re 13 or over or it gets parental consent to retain the information.
Earlier this month, Epic rolled out “cabined accounts” for young Fortnite, Fall Guys and Rocket League players. It said at the time these accounts provided a safe way for kids to play its games. Without parental consent, users with cabined accounts are locked out of features like using voice chat or buying items from in-game stores with real money.
Epic Games
The second complaint accused Epic of using “dark patterns to trick players into making unwanted purchases and [letting] children rack up unauthorized charges without any parental involvement.” The FTC claimed that players could be charged when resuming Fortnite from sleep mode, when it was on a loading screen or by accidentally clicking a button next to an item preview option. The agency said these design decisions led consumers to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges.”
The FTC said children were able to buy V-Bucks, Fortnite‘s in-game currency, without parental consent until 2018. “Some parents complained that their children had racked up hundreds of dollars in charges before they realized Epic had charged their credit card without their consent,” the agency noted. The FTC has targeted the likes of Amazon, Google and Apple for similar reasons in the past.
On top of that, Epic allegedly locked the accounts of users who disputed unauthorized payments with their credit card companies. The FTC said Epic ignored more than a million user complaints and employee concerns over wrongful charges.
Along with the $245 million Epic will pay to cover refunds, the proposed consent order seeks to block it from using dark patterns to charge users or otherwise charge them without obtaining explicit consent. Epic will also agree not to enact blanket bans for accounts that perform chargebacks, only disabling those it suspects of actual fraud. The FTC will send emails to those who made Fortnite in-game purchases when it has more details to share about the refund program.
Epic Games creator of the video game Fortnite, to pay a total of $520 million over FTC allegations Epic violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and deployed dark patterns to dupe millions of players into making unintentional purchases: https://t.co/yHaQx8VXlu
Epic said in a lengthy statement that, among other things, it has “restored thousands of accounts that were banned due to reported chargebacks under our previous policy.” Payment information will no longer be saved by default, with users offered the chance to opt out. This will add more friction to the checkout process and perhaps help to avoid unintended purchases. “We accepted this agreement because we want Epic to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for our players,” the company said.
This isn’t the end of Epic Games’ legal troubles when it comes to Fortnite, which the FTC notes has more than 400 million players. Earlier this month, a judge ruled that a Quebec class action suit claiming the game is addictive (leading one child to reportedly spend more than $6,000 CAD on skins) could move forward.
Instagram has been placing a bigger focus on Reels this year and that extends to how users will create their 2022 Recap. Select at least three photos or videos and Instagram will automatically stitch these together into a Reel with narration templates …
OnePlus has revealed when it will formally show off its flagship products for 2023. The Cloud 11 event will take place in New Delhi, India, on February 7th. The company will showcase the OnePlus 11 5G, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 and more.
Along with revealing the event date, OnePlus said it would bring a couple of fan-favorite features back for its next flagship smartphone. The OnePlus 11 will once again feature the company’s Alert Slider, which offers an easy way to shift between silent, vibrate and alert modes. You can expect Hasselblad tuning for the camera system as well. Both features were available on the OnePlus Pro 10, but neither were present on the more budget-friendly 10T.
As for the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, the company said they’ll offer “a full-bodied, stereo-quality audio experience with crystal clarity.” OnePlus said it will have more to reveal beyond the smartphone and earbuds.
OnePlus, which recently promised four years of major OS updates for some of its 2023 phones, will be looking to make a splash with its next batch of flagship devices. Although the company’s original ethos was to build competitive smartphones it could sell at a lower price than market leaders, it has edged further into the premium category since then. The OnePlus 10 Pro, for instance, cost $899.
The brand has scheduled the event during a relatively busy time of the year. While CES will be over and done with a few weeks beforehand, OnePlus will debut the flagship products right around the time Samsung is expected to show off the Galaxy S23 lineup. Despite major recent changes for the brand, OnePlus may once again get lost in the shuffle.
If it’s ever seemed like people are more crotchety on social media when there’s a heatwave or heavy rain, you’re probably not alone in having that perspective. Researchers analyzed more than 7.7 billion geotagged tweets from 190 countries that were posted between 2015 and 2021. They used a language analysis tool to measure the sentiment of tweets against daily weather data.
The researchers found that, compared with days of regular weather, “both local extreme heat and extreme precipitation events worsen online emotional states globally by elevating rates of posts with negative expressions and also reducing the rate of posts with positive words.” They also determined that people were more likely to tweet negatively during downpours and heatwaves than when daylight savings time kicks in and they forego an hour of sleep.
These outcomes might not seem incredibly surprising. However, the researchers suggested that because the findings were so consistent across tweets from more than 43,000 counties, they indicate that we’re finding it hard to adapt to climate change. They carried out the study in the first place to explore the links between climate change and mental health.
“As of right now, we see very little evidence of adaptation in the way that these new extreme events that are emerging globally are impacting human sentiment,” says Kelton Minor, a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University and co-author of the study, told The Verge. “Since climate change is shifting the extreme tails of most regional temperature and heavy precipitation distributions rightwards, the impact of more severe extremes on overt emotional states may far exceed those registered in the recent past, pending further adaptation,” the abstract of the study reads.
Minor and co-author Nick Obradovich, chief scientist at a nonprofit called Project Regeneration, found the biggest shift in sentiment during a record-breaking heatwave in the Pacific Northwest and southwest Canada in 2021. More than a thousand deaths were linked to that heatwave, while negative sentiment in tweets increased tenfold compared with the typical heatwave in the US, the researchers found. Minor and his colleagues plan to keep monitoring social media sentiment in the face of more extreme weather events, which studies suggest are likely to happen more often amid rising global temperatures.
HTC has big plans for CES, which include revealing an all-in-one headset with virtual reality and augmented reality support. The company will formally show off the seemingly small and light headset for the first time on January 5th, but it provided The Verge with a render that shows a goggles-style design. The device, for which HTC has yet to announce a name, appears to have front- and side-facing cameras.
Those cameras will be a key part of HTC’s plan to deliver a full-color passthrough video feed. As with the Meta Quest Pro and the Pico 4, you’ll be able to see a colorized version of the physical world around you without having to remove the headset. This should also enable HTC to offer more immersive mixed-reality experiences than you’d get with black-and-white passthrough video. What’s more, the headset may offer a more dynamic range than rival models, which could enable wearers to more easily read text on computer or phone screens (at least without taking the headset off).
HTC says you’ll get two hours of use on a single charge, while the controllers will feature six degrees of freedom and hand tracking. The headset can operate as a standalone device or you can hook it up to a PC for more demanding VR games. You can also use it for exercise, entertainment and productivity, if you’re so inclined.
It’s not yet clear whether there’ll be built-in eye tracking, but there is a depth sensor that may enable more in-depth mapping of a user’s surroundings. HTC also indicated to The Verge that the headset will protect user privacy by storing data on an encrypted local partition. Pricing and availability are as yet unclear. We’ll find out more about the headset — including the name and how it might measure up against the likes of Meta Quest — in a few short weeks.
A VR spinoff and Horizon Forbidden West expansion won’t be the last we see of Guerrilla Games’ Horizon universe. The studio has at least two more games in the works for the PlayStation franchise, including a multiplayer title.
Guerrilla made the announcement in a recruitment tweet. Along with working on more “epic solo adventures for Aloy,” the star of the first two games, the studio has set up a separate team to create an “online project set in Horizon’s universe.” It added that the latter will feature new characters and a “unique stylized look,” as well as the fact friends will be able to play together — which suggests there will be a focus on co-op.
Join Guerrilla in Amsterdam as we work to expand the world of Horizon
Georgia has become at least the 11th state to ban TikTok from state government-owned devices. Governor Brian Kemp has also prohibited state agencies from using WeChat and Telegram. Kemp cited concerns that the governments of China and Russia may access users’ personal information through the apps and use the data for spying purposes.
“The state of Georgia has a responsibility to prevent any attempt to access and infiltrate its secure data and sensitive information by foreign adversaries such as the [Chinese Communist Party],” Kemp wrote in a memo to state agency heads, as the Associated Press reports. “As such, it is our duty to take action to preserve the safety and security of our state against the CCP, entities it controls and other foreign cyberthreats.”
FBI Director Chris Wray said this month that China could use TikTok to collect data on users. Kemp cited those comments in his directive. A spokesperson for the governor told the AP that there would be exceptions to the rules for law enforcement and prosecutors to use the three apps after obtaining permission. Among those impacted by the ban are state colleges and universities.
Other states that have enacted similar bans include South Dakota, Maryland, Texas, Alabama, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. The US military has banned TikTok from devices it owns too. Meanwhile, Indiana sued the app this month over what it claims are security and child safety issues.
On Wednesday, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that seeks to ban TikTok from federal government devices. The legislation still requires House approval before it lands on President Joe Biden’s desk to sign it into law. Lawmakers also filed matching bipartisan bills in the House and Senate this week in the latest attempt to completely ban TikTok in the US.
TikTok has tried to assuage American politicians’ concerns over Chinese officials gaining access to data it holds on users in the country. As of June, TikTok has been routing all domestic traffic to Oracle’s servers so the data remains in the US. TikTok and parent company ByteDance have pledged to delete said information from their own data centers in the US and Singapore. In August, Oracle started reviewing TikTok’s algorithms and content moderation systems for signs of manipulation.
